note: I think this story will last two more chapters and then end~ this part was mostly inspired by something that actually happened to my floormate in college ;~; I also wanted to riff on the whole "Kuroo looks dark, twisty, and dangerous" trope that appears in a lot of fanfic
Day 274: 5:00am
"State your full name and occupation."
Sitting on the bench in the claustrophobic tiled hallway, Iwaizumi glances up. Unable to hide the look of complete and utter disdain written all over his face, he shifts his gaze from the officer standing in front of him to a random corner of the emergency room, where he finds someone getting their face stitched up. Anxiously, he fiddles with the paper cup in his hands, testing to see if he can get the remaining contents of his coffee to swirl around in a circle.
"Iwaizumi Hajime. I'm a student."
"From?" The officer asks, scribbling down a few notes in his clipboard.
"Seijoh."
"Date of birth?"
Iwaizumi wrinkles his nose, looking completely unimpressed, "Oi, Nobu-san. Let's cut the bullshit. You know who I am."
"It's standard protocol," the man replies with a soft sigh. "Sorry."
5:23am
Oikawa stares ahead at the clock mounted against the tile wall. The ticks are winding down, but it doesn't actually seem like time is moving.
The brunette manages to stifle a sigh, propping his elbow on his thigh, and pressing his chin into his palm. It's been nearly an hour since they've arrived at the hospital, and he has no clue when he'll actually be able to see Sawa. He's beginning to realize he probably won't be able to see her until the morning.
"Is she okay?" He asks.
Nobu flips through a few pages of his clipboard, "She's fine right now, but her blood work showed a date rape drug in her system. You have any way of contacting her family?"
Oikawa bites down on his lower lip, "No. Her dad's overseas right now…and her mom lives in Tokyo. Wait—what date rape drug?"
The officer relents a sigh, massaging the back of his neck with his free hand, "Ketamine. Combined with alcohol, it was the reason why she collapsed. Do you know if she has any other relatives? Uncles? Aunts? Grandparents? Anyone you know we can contact?"
"Her grandfather…" Oikawa trails off, shifting his gaze to his feet.
"Hm?"
"Never mind," the brunette brushes the thought off quickly. "Just put me down as her guardian. I'm her boyfriend."
"You know that's not how this works right?" Nobu stares disinterestedly at his clipboard. "They don't list minors as guardians."
5:45am
The dark-haired boy sitting on the floor stares ahead into blank space, wondering how the hell he deserved a fate like this at this time of night. What had started as a simple trip to Miyagi to scrim with Karasuno winded up turning into a complete and utter mess.
Meeting the police officer's gaze, he asks for what seems like the millionth time, "Is she okay?"
Nobu simply glances through his notes, "You could make this easier on yourself."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you need to be compliant and answer the questions," the officer states blandly, stifling a yawn. "Kuroo Tetsurou. Student from Tokyo. Captain of Nekoma's volleyball team. Is there any reason why you were out so late on a practice trip?"
"I take college classes in Tokyo," Kuroo replies tartly. "I took the bullet train from Tokyo to Miyagi after classes were over—arrived here around 12 o'clock at night."
"And what's your relationship with," Nobu flips over another page of his notes. "Sawari Setsuna?"
"She's an acquaintance," Kuroo answers.
"And you just happened to find her in the street?"
"Like I said before, I got off the train station and saw her just standing around nearby," Kuroo tells him stiffly. "I gave her my jacket because I thought she might be cold, and then she collapsed."
"Her blood test came back positive with ketamine," Nobu continues, using his pen to mark down something in his notes, "and the timing lines up with—"
"—am I being accused of something?" Kuroo interjects.
6 hours earlier…
Oikawa [11:01pm]: Sawa-chan, pick up your phone~
Oikawa [11:01pm]: Everyone is worried. You haven't been to school in a week. I'm starting to feel lonely.
Oikawa [11:02pm]: Even Iwa-chan has been asking about you.
Oikawa [11:02pm]: Sawa-chan?
Oikawa [11:05pm]: Hello?
Oikawa [11:05pm]: Hellooooooooo?
Oikawa [11:05pm]: Hellooooooooooooooo?
Oikawa [11:06pm]: Sawa-chan
Oikawa [11:06pm]: Am I being ignored? T_T
The vibration from her phone proves to be a momentary distraction, but Sawa only spares it a brief glance before returning her attention to the empty streets of Miyagi. Wisps of white escape her parted lips as she exhales and she hugs shut the lapels of her black fur coat, covering her exposed abdomen with her arms.
Taking another swig from her nearly empty bottle filled with cheap vodka, she continues down the main street, completely disregarding the oncoming traffic. The blare of the sirens manage to awaken her only momentarily, but she breezes past them, taking dainty steps, and skipping across the crosswalk without a care.
When she arrives on the other side, she manages to bump roughly against the base of the cross light. Muttering an apology to the inanimate metal object, she continues forward, staring at the nearby hole in the wall restaurants with disdain.
"Sawa-chan~!"
Glancing up, she catches sight of three very familiar faces.
Daisuke, Jun, and Keiko. Old friends from Shiratorizawa.
The latter is the first to run up, tugging at the hem of Sawa's fur coat, and hugging her until she can't breathe. Daisuke and Jun follow up afterwards, the former giving her a curt nod of acknowledgment, and the latter ruffling her hair.
A single cigarette dangles from the corner of Daisuke's lips, and he exhales smoke circles with his lips formed in an O.
"You smell drunk," Jun states, wrinkling his nose. "Start without us?"
Sawa just smiles, lifting up the nearly empty water bottle she'd brought along, "I got bored on the way here."
"Nice outfit," Daisuke glances at her over the rim of his sunglasses. "You trying to catch flies or what?"
"Who cares? She's got some nice kittens," Keiko admonishes thoughtfully, tugging at the hem of Sawa's black lace bralette underneath the fur coat. "It's good to experiment with fashion. We're not judging, Sawa-chan."
"Thanks," the redhead says with a smile.
"Let's get going," Keiko chides, pulling a small metal canister from the breast pocket of her pink peacoat. "Take some of this, Sawa-chan~ you look like you're running on empty."
Day 100
"You really don't have to do this."
"I want to," Oikawa says, and actually means it.
Sawa sighs, pulling open the glass door of the nursing home.
Oikawa saunters through, while Sawa follows up in quick strides, signing in at the front entrance. Meanwhile, the brunette bends down to remove his shoes, placing them on the rack by the front desk before walking towards the main living space.
"It's a good day for him," the receiving nurse tells Sawa at the front entrance. "He's lucid."
The redhead exhales a sigh of relief, "That's good to hear."
There's a cooking program playing in one corner and a small recreation area available in another corner. Sawa is the first to walk ahead, turning into a nearby corridor. Oikawa does a light jog to keep up with her, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
There are several rooms that line up the hallway, and Oikawa glances only briefly through some of the open doors until he returns his gaze back on the redhead walking in front of him. Pausing suddenly at the end of the hallway, she knocks on the open door at the end.
Glancing in, Oikawa sees an old man with a head full of white hair reading a book in bed.
Peering over the edge of his glasses, the old man smiles when he catches sight of Sawa.
"Jii-chan," the redhead skips through the entrance, leaving her briefcase by the doorway.
"Setsuna," her grandfather pushes himself up. "You look like you've grown taller."
She gives him a hug, and mentions something about the book he's reading that Oikawa can't quite make out.
Glancing around the room, he notices a line of paintings and sketches by the old man's bedside table. Oikawa automatically assumes it's by Sawa's father, but upon closer inspection, he notices that the name in the corner of each work is no doubt hers.
There's a portrait of children playing in a rye field, a painting of the sky in acid tones, and an abstract sketch of a naked woman wearing a crowd of thorns. Oikawa is no expert on art, but it seems like her work isn't quite cohesive yet. There's no consistency, and yet, he can't deny her talent.
'Guess Sawa's a lot like her father,' Oikawa thinks to himself, 'If she has the art gene.'
"This is Oikawa-san," Sawa motions to the entrance, where the brunette is still standing with a rather dumb look on his face. "He's a classmate from school."
Oikawa puts on a polite smile and bows, "Jii-chan~ nice to meet you."
"He's not my boyfriend," Sawa tacks on.
"I didn't say he was," her grandfather eyes the brunette with relative indifference. "Though he seems like your usual type."
"Jii-chan," Sawa snaps with warning, narrowing her eyes.
"Her type?" Oikawa's interest seems to be piqued. "So she has a type. Do tell, jii-chan."
"Addressing me so informally. You the local idiot around here or something?" The old man snaps, grabbing the glass of water sitting on his night stand, glancing over at Sawa. "He anything like the rest of your old friends?"
Oikawa blanches.
Although her grandfather's reaction is not visceral, it's enough to make Oikawa scowl. His charm is usually a surefire means to win over anyone, and the fact that he's managed to fail the first time around is rather alarming to him.
"No, jii-chan," a sad smile forms on Sawa's face. "He's one of the good ones."
"I'll know it when I see it."
"Besides," the redhead brushes a lock of hair behind her ear, trying to turn the subject, "you and I both know I don't actually have a type. So please don't give him the wrong idea."
"Oh please. You do have a type," her grandfather stares at her with half-lidded eyes. "And it's the stupid type."
Oikawa attempts to stifle his laughter, but a grunt manages to make its way through his pursed lips.
Sawa shoots him a glare that could probably kill a man, and he shifts his gaze inauspiciously to the ceiling, where he manages to find a rather interesting stain in the corner to latch his attention to.
"And what're you laughing at?" The old man places the glass of water back onto the table. "You're in that category, dimwit."
"I'll be back tomorrow, Jii-chan," Sawa smiles, plopping a kiss onto the old man's forehead. "Rest up."
"That's all they have me do in this place," he replies sullenly, grabbing his book from the nightstand, and glancing quickly over some of the watercolor paintings. "When you get a chance, bring me another sketch, Setsuna. It's been a while since you've drawn something."
"Sure," Sawa replies noncommittally, fiddling with the buttons of her coat.
"I'll be back tomorrow too, jii-chan~" Oikawa interjects in a singsong voice.
The old man's smile fades into a frown almost immediately, "Ah, of course. Bring the dunce."
Oikawa's smile fades into a sullen scowl.
Sawa lets her gaze linger on the brunette a brief moment before turning her attention back to her grandfather, "Be nice, jii-chan."
"Yeah, yeah," the old man seems undeterred.
"I'll sign us out first," the redhead states, glancing at her watch. "Grab my briefcase for me, would you, Oikawa-san?"
With that, Sawa steps out of the room, while Oikawa is left to retrieve her carelessly discarded briefcase by the entrance of the door. The old man clears his throat, which catches the teen's attention as he manages to link his fingers through the handle.
"Oi. Dunce, come here."
Oikawa regards the old man with slight suspicion, but obeys nonetheless, and walks over to his bedside.
"I don't know what your intentions are," he states, "but I can tell you right now, Setsuna's in a good place, and she didn't move out here just to be bogged down. Getting out of Shiratorizawa was good for her."
The brunette regards the statement with contempt, but masks his irritation with another smile, "I can assure you my intentions are only pure, jii-chan. Sawa-chan and I are just friends."
The old man's gaze is unrelenting. Persistent, almost.
He clears his throat before continuing, "That girl is way too good for you."
A frown forms on Oikawa's face, and he lowers his gaze to the floor. Although it's not the kind of warning he wants to hear, there's something about it that resonates with him.
So Oikawa nods, his knuckles fading white as his grip tightens on the handle of Sawa's briefcase. With a low bow and a halfhearted goodbye for good measure, he intends to depart immediately.
But he pauses by the doorway.
"I know that," Oikawa says quickly before heading into the corridor.
"You're being really quiet. It's weird."
Tugging on the strap of his satchel, Oikawa regards the comment with apathy.
He puts on a smile, brushes his hair back slightly, and meets Sawa's gaze, "It's really cute when you worry about me, Sawa-chan."
The redhead purses her lips and kicks up some dust from the road, "You're not taking me seriously."
Oikawa stares ahead, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He's unable to take his mind off the words that are still resonating inside him.
That girl is way too good for you.
"I just have some things on my mind," he says. "It's nothing serious."
Sawa frowns, "You weren't like this before we visited jii-chan."
He hates how intuitive she is. Sometimes, he wishes Sawa didn't work so hard to pry past the pretense he's made for himself.
"Oi. Tooru."
At the sound of his name, his head perks up.
Glancing down, he sees that concern is clouding Sawa's pretty green eyes. There's this undeniable determination in her gaze that makes it hard for him to throw out another cheesy line to turn the conversation. (In the end, she just doesn't seem like that kind of girl)
"He said I wasn't good enough for you," Oikawa says.
"Jii-chan doesn't think anyone is good enough for me," Sawa tells him, looking unsurprised.
A pause.
"He told me to keep away from you."
Tension fills the air as they continue walking down the main road together in silence.
Sawa's staring at the ground, and Oikawa is trying to gauge some kind of reaction because, after all, this is the kind of girl who usually wears her heart on her sleeve. He only wishes she were easier to read, and less inclined to close herself off when she hears something she doesn't want to hear.
"You know why I left Shiratorizawa?" Sawa says suddenly, breaking the silence.
"Family stuff. Your grandfather," Oikawa replies.
They continue walking in silence while Sawa stares off into the distance with a scowl on her face.
"I was kicked out."
'Kicked out?'
The thought never even crossed Oikawa's mind—well, because she'd always seemed unbearably uptight and in control of her own decisions. In an attempt to gauge some kind of reaction from her expression, Oikawa stares at her intently, causing her to shift her gaze elsewhere away from his gaze.
"I fell in with the wrong crowd, got in trouble, and I was kicked out," Sawa admits. "Bonus point? I confessed to Ushijima-kun and got rejected the same day. Said I wasn't serious enough, which was probably true at the time."
Oikawa continues walking, noting the story with a bit of disdain. It seems like the kind of reaction Ushijima would give, but the fact that she's trying to turn the subject, or relate in her own way makes his blood boil.
He tries to avoid letting his attention linger on the fact that she's still addressing him as Ushijima-kun, when all he gets is "Oikawa-san" in the presence of friends and family, or "Tooru" when they're alone. No cutesy honorifics, no romantic gestures of good faith. It makes it difficult for him to evaluate their relationship.
Maybe it's the fact that he's human, and selfish, and he's unable to come to terms with the fact that he doesn't represent the ideal he initially thought he was.
In the end, he just needs to know what Sawa's thinking.
Suddenly, he feels a pair of warm warms wrap around him from behind. Even though he's rather built, Sawa manages to snake her arms around his torso and link her fingers together. Pressing her cheek against his back, they halt in the middle of the empty road.
"I don't care what other people say," Sawa says stiffly. "I've already made up my mind about you, okay?"
A soft sigh of relief escapes his lips. Oikawa loses himself in the moment only for only a second. He thinks, and it might be the paranoia talking, that if he blinks too fast, he might just forget this altogether. And it might just be another figment of his imagination.
"You're really cute when you worry about me, Sawa-chan," he tells her airily.
She just tightens her grip around his waist and closes her eyes.
Day 274: 12:03am
Pressing her forehead against the cool surface the building by the train station, Sawa smiles. She wipes away the drool stuck to the corner of her lips, walking underneath blinking street light by the train station. Using her fingernails, she tugs at the hem of her lace bralette, letting the sleeve of her black fur coat hang precariously over her shoulder.
Exhaling white, she shivers, letting the cold breeze kiss her skin while she takes another swig of cheap alcohol from the canister Keiko lent her earlier on.
It tastes like whiskey, but she can't really tell the difference between the burns in her throats anymore.
"Oi, you okay?"
Quickly glancing over her shoulder, she meets the gaze of a tall, dark-haired boy who couldn't have been more than eighteen. Judging from the uniform underneath the long black peacoat, he was probably still in high school. A look of concern crosses his face when Sawa doesn't respond immediately.
"Hi there," Sawa says, or slurs. "Are you in high school?"
Slightly miffed by the compliment, the dark-haired boy cocks his head to the side, "You look familiar."
"Do I?" Sawa shoots back.
The boy scratches the back of his head, disregarding the random bit of flirtation, "Have we met before?" Realization suddenly dawns on his face, and he snaps his fingers. "Ah, you were the one with Oikawa-san last time. Sawari-san, right?"
Sawa's smile just fades into a grimace as she leans against the wall. Due to her current incapacitation, she's unable to actually put a name to a face, even though she wants to admit he looks pretty familiar too.
He has the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going on. With a face like that, she should've been able to recall him with ease.
"I'm sorry," she says sheepishly. "Who are you?"
"Kuroo Tetsurou. We met once while we were visiting for a scrim set," he answers her patiently. "Well, sort of."
"Oh," she says dumbly, still unable to recall the encounter.
Glancing over his uniform, a crisp white shirt underneath a black sweater, put together with a red tie, Sawa vaguely remembers a visiting school from Tokyo once upon a time, but again, is unable to put a name to the image.
"You must be freezing," Kuroo points out, unzipping the bag he has slung over his shoulder. "Here."
"Wait—"
Pulling out his athletic jacket from his satchel, he throws it to her. Sawa barely manages to catch it in time. Pausing a moment, she takes off her black fur coat, letting it fall to the ground. Sticking her hands through the proper holes, she puts on the red athletic jacket that has the word Nekoma printed on the back.
"It fits me pretty well," she admonishes, even though the sleeves overextend way past her hands. "Don't you think?"
Realizing that she's not going to pick up her own fur coat, Kuroo kneels down and picks it up for her from the ground, "You should put this on too."
"But I look good in red," Sawa whines, putting her hands on her hips.
Sighing, Kuroo tosses the fur coat over her shoulders, clasping the lapels together, "Are you drunk? Where's Oikawa-san?"
Day 34
Kaede-chan [23:04]: I don't think this is working out.
Kaede-chan [23:04]: I think we should break up.
"And then she broke up with me!" Oikawa whines, shoving the screen of his cell phone in front of Takeru's face. "I don't even know what I did wrong."
Removing his lips from the straw of his juice box, Takeru stares at his dim-witted uncle with half-lidded eyes. Oikawa sighs and kicks a nearby volleyball with his left foot, unable to play down his irritation, even in front of a kid.
"Why don't you just date Sawari-san?" Takeru points out indifferently.
It takes Oikawa a moment to actually digest the question.
Stuffing his phone back into his pocket, he replies, "It's not that simple."
"Well, what's so complicated about it?"
"We don't have that kind of relationship," Oikawa states stiffly.
"What kind of relationship do you have?" Takeru asks, placing his juice box on the ground.
The brunette recalls the conversation they had the other day, but brushes it off, knowing that there were plenty of other fish in the sea. Sawa would never be the end goal, and what he was feeling was a result of spending time with her. He knows the drill, and he knows how fickle emotions can be.
Glancing quickly at the clock mounted on the wall, Oikawa blanches, "Crap. I'm late."
"The captain who organized the meeting with Nekoma turns up twenty minutes late for the same meeting," Iwaizumi states irritatedly, slapping Oikawa in the side of the head. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Sorry, Iwa-chan," the brunette replies with a grin, walking into the gymnasium hall. "I got caught up."
From the distance, Oikawa sees that there's only one player standing by the doorway, dressed in red and black. He has scruffy, dark hair, and is probably standing an inch or two taller than the brunette. Oikawa instantly recognizes him.
Nekomata-sensei and Irihata-sensei are in the middle of discussing something when he makes his grand entrance.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," he announces. "Oikawa-san is here now~"
"Oikawa," Irihata-sensei smiles, motioning to the dark-haired captain wearing the number one on his red jersey. "This is Kuroo, the captain of Nekoma."
"Pleased to meet you," Oikawa states with a smile, reaching a hand out. 'Nice hair.'
"The pleasure is mine," Kuroo replies, reciprocating the same gesture with a wry smile.
Day 274: 12:10am
"Is there a problem here?"
A man dressed in navy blue cop uniform walks up from the corner. Instinctively, Kuroo recoils at the sight, knowing that the situation between him and Sawa probably didn't seem so innocent.
"Nothing's wrong, officer," Kuroo states quickly, glancing over at Sawa, who happens to be staring intently at the glass window of the restaurant behind them. "Just talking to a friend."
"Is this boy bothering you?" The officer asks, eyeing the redhead carefully.
"I—"
"Oi!"
From the distance, Iwaizumi emerges from the corner of the street, "She's over here!"
Behind him, Oikawa follows up, completely out of breath as he runs towards her. "We've been looking all over town for you!"
But before Sawa can even acknowledge them, the corners of her eyes fill with darkness, and she collapses onto the ground with a thump.
Day 35
After the formal introductions and setting up the schedule and line-up for their upcoming scrim set, Oikawa steps outside to take a deep breath and go for a run before practice actually starts. It's early in the morning, and no one has awaken yet, but there's something about the isolation that keeps him on edge.
"You're here on a weekend? Don't have you have a social life to keep up with?"
Flinching at the sound of the voice, Oikawa turns around to find Sawa standing with her arms crossed over her chest. Her hair is pulled up in a neat bun, and she's wearing a pastel pink dress underneath a denim jacket. Something casual, something unlike her, and something rather refreshing, given the circumstances of their school uniforms.
"Sawa-chan! You gave me a fright," Oikawa says dramatically.
"You gave me a fright?" She echoes his words, staring at him in disbelief. "You talk like an old person. It's seriously weird."
"I do not talk like an old person," he shoots back rather defensively.
"Do too," Sawa replies, sticking her tongue out as she spares a quick glance around the vicinity. "Anyway, are you here for practice?"
"Yep. We have a scrim set with Nekoma," Oikawa tells her with a smile. "You should stop by and watch. I'll even say hi if I catch you in the stands."
"How kind of you," Sawa states, unable to mask her sarcasm, "but I'm just here to pick up a textbook. I'm not interested—"
"Oi! Captain!"
From the distance, Kuroo manifests from the entrance of the second gymnasium. Wearing nothing but a black t-shirt and a pair of red shorts, he calls out again, "Where do you guys keep your extra kneepads?" And pause, when he notices the redhead standing next to Oikawa. "Oh? Am I interrupting something?"
"Nope!" Sawa interjects almost too quickly, a blush forming on her cheeks. "You're interrupting nothing. Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing! Nothing."
"That's a lot of nothings, Sawa-chan," Oikawa says blandly, staring at her with half-lidded eyes.
A dumb smile forms on her lips as she quickly brushes a lock of hair behind her ear. Nudging Oikawa in the rib, she brings her voice down to a whisper, "Oi, introduce me."
Wearing a look of complete and utter apathy, the brunette turns around and waves for Kuroo to pay attention. Clearing his throat, he calls out, "This is Sawari Setsuna. She wants you to call her Sawa-chan!"
Shooting Oikawa a glare, Sawa shifts her gaze to the dark-haired captain and bows in his direction, "Sawari is fine! Nice to meet you!"
"Oh, nice to meet you too," from a distance, he reciprocates the gesture and bows in return. "Sawari-san."
"Kuroo Tetsurou," Oikawa motions to the boy still standing in the frame of the doorway. "Captain of Nekoma."
"Yeah, I think I'll stop by your scrim set later to cheer you guys on," Sawa smiles at Oikawa.
Oikawa stares at her with half-lidded eyes, "I thought you said you weren't interested—"
"See you!" Sawa waves her hand enthusiastically at Kuroo, running towards the school building.
'Why do I feel like I'm being ignored…' Oikawa frowns.
Day 276
Peering into the paper bag that's holding a red athletic jacket, Sawa sighs.
Occasionally, she looks up to spare an anxious glance at the entrance of Nekoma High School, searching for a familiar face she can't quite make out. Her trip from Miyagi to Tokyo had been somewhat unexpected, but she knew this was something she had to do to clear her conscience.
Dozens of students walk past her and she suddenly becomes very aware of her position outside the sea of black and red uniforms.
Naturally, her gaze continues to linger on the front entrance until a very familiar looking boy with scruffy dark hair emerges from the open doors, alongside another boy with faded blonde hair that looks like the remains of an outdated dye job.
Quickly, she runs up to the pair, holding out the paper bag, "I'm really, really sorry!"
Slightly miffed, Kuroo cocks his head to the side, "Sawari-san?"
"I'm really sorry about what happened," Sawa states quickly, bowing low. "Like, super, super sorry."
Staring at the ground, she continues, "I shouldn't have gotten so drunk, and I shouldn't have let things get out of line. It was irresponsible of me, and you ended up getting into big trouble because of it. It was my fault. I was stupid. And I'm sorry."
Trailing off, she continues pushing the paper bag towards him, "You lent me this. Your jacket. Thank you for that. I sent it to the cleaners, so it should be...clean now. I just..."
A blush crosses her cheeks, and she glances up to find Kuroo smiling sheepishly. Kenma, reading the situation carefully, pulls out his phone and ducks on ahead towards the gated entrance.
"Oi, you can save the apologies. Really, I was more worried that you might've died or something," Kuroo's smile only widens as he takes the paper bag from her hand. "Thanks for bringing this back, by the way."
'He's not...mad at me?' Sawa thinks anxiously to herself. Unprepared for this kind of reaction, her blush only deepens, "I...there must be something I can do to make it up."
Kuroo laughs, "Hm...You could buy me lunch."
"Buy you lunch?" Sawa echoes, knitting her brows in agitation.
"Well, if that's too much to ask for, you don't have to," Kuroo says, shrugging his shoulders.
"No, wait. Please let me buy you lunch," the redhead interjects.
"Excuse me?" The dark-haired boy cups his ear with his hand, pretending he can't hear.
Still adamant, Sawa leans on her tippy-toes, "I said please let me buy you lunch."
"Still can't hear—"
"Please let me buy you lunch!" She yells.
He grins deviously, "Don't do me any favors, Sawari-san—"
"I WANT TO BUY YOU LUNCH!"
"Okay, okay," he tries to stifle his laughter. "I'll let you buy me lunch."
Day 274: 11:03am
Cracking her eyes open, Sawa stares up to find an unfamiliar seafoam green tiled ceiling. In an attempt to sit up, her entire view shakes, and she suddenly feels searing pain in her left arm, where she finds an IV needle.
The lights seem brighter than usual, and the nearby rattling of a cart makes her head split.
'The hospital?'
"Sawa-chan,"
She tries not to flinch from the sheer surprise. Glancing over, she finds Oikawa standing up from his seat, walking towards her bedside at an alarmingly quick rate.
Without warning, he wraps his arms around her, and pulls her in for a tight hug.
Still unable to get over the searing headache, Sawa tries to blink away the pain, "What...happened last night?"
"You ran away and got drunk in Torono Town. The doctors found some kind of drug in your system. They said it was a date rape drug," Oikawa states. "Iwa-chan, Kuroo-chan, and I were all questioned by Nobu-san—"
The rest of his explanation trails off into obscurity as Sawa tries to recall the events from the night before. 'I was drugged?'
Suddenly, she remembers her arrival, and the moment Keiko gave her a tin canister filled with some kind of whiskey. Tears fill Sawa's glossy eyes, and she tries desperately not to think about the fact that she'd fallen for the same trap once again.
"Sawa-chan."
Sandwiching her face with his hands, Oikawa (quite literally) pulls her attention back towards him. Eyes filled with concern, he stares intently at her, squishing her cheeks together, "Oi. Why did you run away? Why didn't you talk to me about this? Why didn't you answer my calls?"
Pulling back, Sawa rubs her cheeks, "I didn't want to bother you."
That girl is way too good for you.
Before she can finish, Oikawa wraps his arms around her, "I'm sorry."
No flirtatious smile; no games this time, "I'm sorry I wasn't around, and I'm sorry I made you feel alone. I'm sorry I didn't come visit you after what happened with jii-chan. I'm sorry. I'm..."
Sawa watches as tears stream down the side of Oikawa's cheeks.
"I'll try harder," he says. "So please don't shut me out."
For the first time in a long time, Sawa lets herself completely relax in his arms. It's one of those moments where she breathes his name in all her exhalations, one of those moments where she can finally unfold and let go; despite what happened, and despite the streak of repeat mistakes she's made in the past 24 hours, Oikawa hasn't left. She's a basket-case of raw emotion and fucked up priorities, but he's still waiting here in the seat of her hospital room.
"I love you," she tells him.
The words make him shift his gaze. It's not the first time those three words are exchanged between them, but it's the first time Sawa's ever said it on her own accord. No 'don't you have something to say back, Sawa-chan?' or 'aren't you missing something, Sawa-chan' to pry it out of her.
"Oi, don't just leave me hanging," Sawa purses her lips, staring anxiously at the brunette.
Grabbing her by the shoulders, Oikawa pulls her in and kisses her.