Chapter Text
It’s just sixteen days.
That’s what Iwaizumi Hajime thought to himself as he looked at himself in the mirror, the athletic material of his sweatpants making a screeching noise as he fiddled with the pockets, trying to make sure everything looked right. His shirt was bright red and had a white gradient beginning near the chest area and spreading out to the left shoulder, where the Japanese flag was printed.
He looked like an athlete, and he looked ready to go on a run. He could run through the city streets, see every sight, smell the glorious city air, and do whatever he wanted.
Except that was far from the truth.
He was stuck in the Olympic Village, which was full of other athletes and athletic staff. Thankfully Hajime had his own room and didn’t have to share with anyone due to his special role as an athletic trainer instead of an athlete like the rest of the team. It was a blessing, because 1), he could hole himself up in his room indefinitely, and 2), he didn’t need to worry about the whereabouts of anyone but himself. It was a peaceful solitude that he enjoyed, cardboard mattress aside.
He sighed to himself before leaving his small room, walking down the bright white hallway to the elevator. The team was planning on meeting in the lobby about two minutes from now, so he’d be there just in time. As he pressed the down button on the elevator, a tall figure came into view, and he could tell just by the movement that it was Japan’s Volleyball Association Promoter, Kuroo Tetsurou. The two of them had only really met in passing, but shared a few mutual friends along with the team they worked for.
“Iwaizumi Hajime, right?” He asked, and Hajime turned to look up at him. He was tall. Very tall. His hair probably added about an inch, but he had to have been six foot two.
“Kuroo Tetsurou?” He nodded, putting out his hand to greet him. Kuroo shook his hand sincerely, and the door to the elevator opened.
“Nice to meet you.” He smirked as they walked into the elevator, and Hajime couldn’t tell if he was trying not to laugh or if that’s just what his face looked like. “The first game is next Wednesday, right?” He asked, probably trying to make conversation.
“Yeah, not for a week. Volleyball seems to always be later in the schedule than the other sports.” He shook his head, because he honestly wished that they’d play first to get it over with, and not have to stress out for the rest of the games. He wasn’t actually playing, but it was still stressful for the team as a whole.
“Against who?” Kuroo asked, because he was obviously not informed on these things.
“Not sure. I should know, I just haven’t looked at the schedule too much.” He shrugged.
“I hear you. The schedule is pretty meticulous.” He agreed, and the elevator opened to a busy lobby. Hajime was immediately overwhelmed by how much it had crowded up since he had last seen it this morning. Kuroo pointed to their right. “I see them.” He started walking, and Hajime followed him blindly. He started to see their team come into view, and he wondered how the hell Kuroo could see through the walls to locate them here.
Almost everyone was there, and Coach Hibarida was pacing back and forth, obviously stressed. Hajime walked up with Kuroo to greet him, and he seemed to calm down a bit at the sight of them. Hajime waved, and took his usual place next to him as he got the attention of the players. Kuroo seemed to slip into the darkness and out of sight at this moment, and Hajime chose not to pay attention to that.
“Today we are going to the opening ceremony.” He started, detailing their plans for where they will sit, what will ensue, and how they will get to each destination in time. The opening ceremony was being held in a stadium, and there would be hundreds of people watching from all over the world.
Once the coach started going over their after-party plans, Hajime tuned his ramblings out and took an assessment of the whole team, taking mental notes of their state.
He knew that Sakusa Kiyoomi was recovering from a shoulder injury and was almost back at one hundred percent, having diligently trained himself back up to par as quickly as possible. He was injury-prone these days, always seemed to smell like pain-relief cream, refused to accept defeat, and Hajime had a feeling he was hiding something from him but he couldn’t tell what it was. Although, he could be completely off-course and Sakusa could just be being his normal, stoic, mysterious self. Hajime didn’t really know the guy.
He also knew that Bokuto Kotaro just had a sinus infection last week, so he should continue to take it easy for a couple of days.
As the coach finished his rant, Hajime had run an analysis of every member of the team, and pretty much everyone was just fine. Finally everyone stood up and started boarding their coach bus for a quick but slightly-too-long bus ride to the opening ceremony venue.
~
They had been on a boat ride on the Seine and Hajime had hated every second of it. He hadn’t really ever been on a boat like that, and learned that he got seasick very easily. The ceremony had begun three hours ago, and Hajime didn’t know when it was going to end. He had a headache, and knew that he should probably be taking this all in but was having a hard time because it had already been three hours of this.
Now, raindrops dripped down Hajime’s face and onto his rainproof jacket, the chorus of the French national anthem ringing loudly through the entire stadium despite the sound of the rain hitting every jacket and umbrella in the vicinity. It wasn’t pouring, but drizzling just enough to be irritating. He looked around, noticing a few of the volleyball players for their team looked either pained or bored, and Hajime couldn’t exactly argue, the song had been going on for about three minutes already and didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
Hajime concerned himself with watching the beautiful olympic rings being lit up on the eiffel tower, a sight that he knew he’d only see this one time and would never see something quite like it again. It was stunning, the lights sparkling and shining onto the city below.
Now it seemed to be time for a speech, and a man walked up to the podium that looked like the size of an ant from where Hajime was standing. He started saying something in French, and Hajime did not speak any French, so he had no idea what this man was speaking about. He assumed it was something pertaining to unity, culture, and sportsmanship, some of the main things their coaches and representatives had talked about before they had even gotten here.
Now a smaller, older man came to the podium, beginning to speak in straight French as well, and Hajime decided that maybe he ought to just look around into the parisian sky instead of pretending to listen.
As the man continued to speak in French, saying something about Paris and France, Hajime fiddled with the ends of his sleeves, a habit that he’d seemed to pick up when he started college. He wasn’t sure where he got it from or when it started, but it was a nervous tick. He really wished he could teleport. If he could teleport, he could slip out when nobody was watching and go back to his cardboard bed and white, sterile room.
When he tuned back into the speech, the man was speaking English, and Hajime could understand bits and pieces. He was talking about friendship and unity, just as Hajime had assumed earlier when he was speaking French.
Now a third man took to the podium, and based on how he was projected onto the screen, Hajime assumed this was the President of France, so he paid a bit more attention to the man’s words, even though he still couldn’t understand them. He was so bored.
Hajime looked up at the sky and tried to make pictures out of the constellations like a little kid. He found a smiley face, potentially the Big Dipper, and a butterfly. Once he found the butterfly one time, he couldn’t quite picture it the same when he looked away even for a second, like the image had slipped away from him.
He found three dogs, two circles, and three pentagons before he decided that he was probably hallucinating the shapes in the sky and that it was probably better that he listened to the amplified Frenchmen speak.
He was tired, parched, hungry, and obviously in a bad mood. His mind was a drought of ideas, each thought had already been turned over at least ten times in an effort to pass time by solving big world problems in his head. He felt like he was wasting his time being here, and was starting to lose his mind with how stir-crazy he was. The President was still talking, and he wished he had a fast-forward button. He wished he had a lot of things.
The President paused his speech for a second, gesturing to something happening on the lowest level of the stadium, which Hajme couldn’t see. He was too exhausted to strain his eyes to try to see it. Kuroo, who was standing next to him, seemed to have finally had enough of Hajime’s fidgeting, and nudged his shoulder. “Man, are you good?” He asked, sounding more concerned than Hajime cared for.
Hajime nodded, and started counting stars again.
Kuroo didn’t relent. “You’ve been like, rocking back and forth for the past ten minutes.” He put a hand on Hajime’s shoulder, and he sighed.
“Yeah, I’m just really tired and honestly feel kinda sick.” He said truthfully, because he really did feel sick with all of the lights and echoey microphones. He was beginning to have a headache and his eyes were starting to feel itchy and dry with how long he’d been spacing out at stuff. “I’ll be fine. As long as this wraps up soon.” He responded.
“Okay. Just making sure you weren’t dying or something.” Kuroo nodded, going back to minding his own business like he was before. Hajime also went back to minding his own business, and decided to take a look around the seats by him. Japan was seated in this section, but to their right was the United States, and to their left was Argentina.
Curious, Hajime scrutinized the Argentinian teams, his morbid curiosity wondering if he was there. Most of the people in the section were looking out at the ceremony, but one person wasn’t. Someone’s head was turned away from Hajime, but he could tell from the head of hair who it was, and when he turned his head to face Hajime, his whole world stopped.
Time seemed to slow as Hajime locked eyes with Tooru Oikawa for the first time in nine years. Although they were twenty seats apart, he could make out every detail of his face, something he had memorized those years ago.
Except now that face had aged beautifully, and he was even better looking than before. His jaw more chiseled, his teeth perfect. His hair was almost the same, perfectly-styled brown hair parted on the side. The thing about him that changed the most was that although the last time Hajime had seen him was a decade ago when he was just a lanky teenage boy, now he was a professional athlete, with the muscular build of one.
Hajime couldn’t tear his eyes away from Oikawa, and it seemed to be mutual. So many emotions were flowing through him, hate, guilt, want. He knew time would unfreeze again but he didn’t want it to. But did he even want to talk to Oikawa?
No. He didn’t. He didn’t want to talk about anything that happened, didn’t happen, and everything in between. He wanted to stay away so he didn’t get caught in the crossroads of what happened in the past.
If Oikawa was going to be at the Olympics at the same time as Hajime, Hajime was going to make sure Oikawa knew he was over the past. He didn’t know how just yet, but he was sure of himself enough to know that he had to show him he had moved on.
He just needed to get out of this stadium first.
So he finally tore his eyes away, urging time to keep turning and for this damn ceremony to be over. He fiddled with his sleeve again, suddenly feeling like he had no escape, and even if he did try to escape the ceremony he’d probably be hunted down by someone else instead. There was no way out of this.
“Oh my god. You need to chill out.” Kuroo’s voice sliced through his thoughts again, and he snapped his head up to meet Kuroo’s dark, concerned eyes. “Why are you so freaked out? I know we basically just met, but if you need something I’m supposed to support the team, and you basically count.”
“I told you, I just feel a little sick. I’ll sleep it off.” He did feel sick. In fact, he felt even sicker than before. There was a pit of dread in his stomach that only began minutes ago, and the sounds of the opening ceremony had just faded to muffled background noise. He really wanted to take a shower, sleep, and forget about this whole ordeal.
Kuroo scoffed. “We can leave early if you need to. I’m also bored as hell and tired. We aren’t athletes so this is less important for us.” He shrugged, and Hajime couldn’t exactly argue.
“Sure, let’s go.” Hajime nodded, and the two of them squeezed through the section of seats(walking towards the United States side, thankfully). When they got to Coach Hibarida, he asked,
“Leaving?” With a look of almost disappointment if he was capable of that.
Kuroo nodded, “He’s feeling a bit sick so I’m going to get him back to the hotel.” He answered, and it wasn’t exactly a lie. Hajime did feel sick. But he knew it wasn’t because of a virus or a stomach bug.
They weaved through the rest of the stands until they finally made it out onto the main road. Kuroo pulled out his phone and navigated to the Olympic Village and the hotel they were staying at, which was a five minute walk.
As they started walking, Kuroo started talking again. “Glad we got out of there, I was about to lose it with how long the speeches were.” He groaned, and Hajime couldn’t argue with that.
“Yeah, and I know we’re in France, but I don’t speak a lick of French so those speeches were pretty incoherent.” He shook his head, and tried to focus on this conversation instead of the dread boiling inside of him.
“True. The only person I know who speaks any French is my husband, but he only speaks it because he learned some in college.” He said offhandedly, and Hajime was thrown off by how Kuroo had a husband?!
“I didn’t know you had a husband.” Hajime looked over at Kuroo, who shrugged with a smile.
“He’s pretty famous. Has like three million subscribers on youtube or something like that.” He nodded, and Hajime smiled, glad that someone was in a happy relationship around here.
“Wow, I had no idea.” He shrugged, not knowing what else to say. He was happy for him.
A few moments of silence went on before Kuroo asked, “So what’s up with you?” Rather directly.
Hajime was taken aback by the comment. “What do you mean?”
“Well the first time I asked if you were okay, It was because you were staring at the sky like you were anticipating an alien invasion. That was relatively normal.” He snorted, “But then you suddenly just froze up and got even more antsy so I assumed something else was wrong.” He reasoned, sounding less condescending than Hajime was anticipating.
“It’s a lot to explain.” Hajime sighed, digging through his memories to find the easiest way to explain this.
“I have time.”