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"I need a special name for you," Tooru announced one day. They were out in the park, in the more woodsy area, and Hajime was crouched down, poised and ready to catch a ladybug. Tooru knew he would've preferred to find a beetle but he hadn't been too lucky today.
"Why?" His friend muttered quietly, trying not to disturb the bug. It was one of the better ones, Tooru had long since decided. It certainly wasn't as bad as the wasp Hajime had once put in his hair for breaking his favourite dinosaur figurine and it was preferable to the massive beetles his friend was always showing him with pride. Ladybugs were sort of cute and their shade of red was pretty nice, too.
"Because you're my best friend," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He proceeded to fall silent, as per Hajime's request, as he watched his best friend lunge forwards and capture the bug successfully with practised ease. It was kind of impressive, but Tooru would never tell him that as he was supposed to be the cool one, Hajime was the scary one. Not that his best friend was actually scary, not at all, he just could glare really well and be good at getting other kids to stop picking on Tooru.
Lots of other kids didn't really like him, which confused Tooru. He was plenty nice and he had the best ideas for games (Hajime had admitted it once and Tooru was never going to let him forget it). Though, he supposed, that didn't really matter anymore because he had Hajime and Hajime had already pinkie promised that he stays his best friend no matter what. What would be the point of having more friends when Tooru was content with just the one and they'd all end up being second best to Hajime?
"So?" Hajime turned back to look at him now that he gently held the bug in his clasped hands, taking obvious care to not squish it. The goal was to catch it, not harm it.
"So what I call you needs to be different to make it obvious that you're my best friend, not theirs. Because everyone will call you Hajime or Iwaizumi and I need to stand out."
"Suppose that makes sense." Hajime shrugs. "Want to see the ladybug?"
Tooru hesitates and, like the excellent best friend Hajime is, he notices.
"It's not going to hurt you, Oikawa. It's not poisonous, it can't sting you and it's not even creepy."
Tooru nods now, those are very good points his friend made. If he can be brave then so can Tooru. "Okay. Show me it."
And he does. He opens his hands right up close to Tooru's face, close enough for him to see all the little cuts on his fingers from climbing trees and digging around in the dirt for worms or something, and has the nerve to laugh when the bug flies directly into his face, causing Tooru to splutter and screech and shake his head wildly.
"That's so mean, Iwa!" Tooru groans. He'd landed on his butt and it did kind of hurt pretty bad.
"Sorry," Hajime shrugs, not looking the least bit sorry since he's still grinning (though he does look better when he smiles so maybe it's not too bad) as he offers Tooru a hand to help him up. "And don't call me Iwa," Hajime adds, actually pulling Tooru up to his feet with strength unbecoming of a six-year-old.
"Why not, Iwa-chan~?" He sings.
Iwa-chan scrunches up his nose. "That's even worse."
"Hm, I disagree. I think it's pretty cute," Tooru beams. "Oh! That's going to be what I call you! Iwa-chan!"
His best friend's scowl deepens and he crosses his arms over his chest, trying to intimidate Tooru into stopping it. "No, it's not."
Too bad that Tooru had seen him crying over accidentally killing an ant, of all things. There's no chance of him letting himself be intimidated by such a softie, even if he looked like he'd feel more remorse for killing that ant than Tooru.
"Iwa-chan~, don't be such a grump," Tooru scolds even though he's grinning like a madman. This is perfect. He gets to annoy his best friend whilst also letting everyone know that Hajime likes him best, not them, and they had no chance of being his best friend because Tooru already had that spot. And he will never give up such an important position willingly.
"I will put beetles in your bed," threatens Iwa but Tooru just laughs it off.
"You'll be putting beetles in your bed as well then because we always share when we have sleepovers," he reminds him. "We both basically have two beds."
"I'll just do it when we're not having a sleepover."
"Mean, Iwa-chan!" Tooru gasps because he likes how the new name sounds. It's addictive with how easily it rolls off his tongue and he hopes he gets to say it forever and ever.
"If you're going to call me that then I'll have to come up with a shit nickname for you as well." A month ago, Tooru would've gasped at the use of such naughty language but he's quickly gotten used to the extensive vocabulary his friend possessed.
"I doubt you could think of one. Your mind is only filled with bugs." As if to prove his point, Tooru got up and knocked on the other boy's head. His hand was batted away from the dark spikes quickly with Iwa-chan glaring at him.
"Cut it out... Loserkawa!" He exclaimed the last word, clearly very proud of his genius.
'Loserkawa' was much less pleased. "No, that's not fair. I gave you a cute one and you're just being mean!" Tooru pouted and allowed his voice to take a more whiny edge.
"If you expect me to put up with 'Iwa-chan' then you need to put up with that, Shittykawa."
Tooru knew that Iwa thought he'd won, that Tooru would do as he wished and would stop calling him Iwa-chan. Well, fat chance! It was unique and cute and that was the moment Tooru decided that his nickname for his best friend could be pried out of his cold, dead hands.
"Fine. I'll put up with your gross, vulgar names, Iwa-chan."
Hajime rolled his eyes but didn't say anything else on the matter. "Whatever. Let's go home. I made my mom buy you milk bread from the store yesterday 'cause you said that you'd come over and show me how to draw aliens today."
Immediately Tooru grabbed Iwa-chan's hand. "What're we waiting for? Let's go!"
The two boys took off at a borderline sprint towards the Iwaizumi house. It was a good thing that that park was close by, otherwise, Tooru would've surely died from the effort of running at such speeds much further. But, as it stood, he was alive and about to spend a great evening drawing aliens with the best friend a person could ask for (because even if Iwa-chan was mean a lot he also made Tooru feel a billion times better when he was upset about something) and eating all the milk bread that Hajime's mom would give him. It was going to be a great evening.