Chapter Text
“I think I finally found a place.”
Iwaizumi looks up from his bag where he was stuffing his textbook back into it. “Oh?” He slings the strap over one of his shoulders. “That’s good.” He rubs the back of his head absent-mindedly. “You know you can stay with us for however long you need to. You don’t have to rush and find something.”
I pick up my own bag as we head out of the classroom. “I know that. This place is in my price range and it’s close by.” We exit the building and head towards the station. “I’m going to see the place before I say yes. If it’s a total dump I’ll keep looking, but the guy on the phone said he cleans even if his roommate doesn’t.”
“You’re going to be rooming with guys?” Iwaizumi asks with a tense edge. I roll my eyes at his overprotectiveness.
“I’m kind of used to it by now.” I smirk at him. I’ve been living with him and my boyfriend, Tooru, for the better part of two months now. The place is small with only one bedroom, a kitchen and a small living space. It was originally just going to be Iwaizumi and Tooru, but circumstances had me moving to Tokyo with them. Tooru loves that we all live together, but both Iwaizumi and I can see the problems it’s causing. Three people in that small space is rough. There’s only one bathroom. Not to mention Tooru and I are still kind of in the honeymoon stage of our relationship. Iwaizumi has been good about not being home when we want time alone, but I can see how much it’s affecting him. If I had my own place, Iwaizumi could at least have some space for himself.
“Yeah, but these guys are strangers. You don’t know if they’re creepy pervs or something.” Iwaizumi frowns.
“That’s why I want to meet them first. I’m a pretty good judge of character.”
Iwaizumi snorts. “Then why are you dating Shittykawa?”
“Hey,” I smack him lightly on the shoulder. Has he gotten buffer? “You’re friends with him. What’s your excuse?”
“Fair point.” His face sobers. “You aren’t going alone are you?” I look at him confused. “Oikawa’s going with you, right? To meet these new roommates of yours.”
“I hadn’t asked him.” I look at his frown. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll ask when we get home.” I look at my watch. “He said he’d be home when we got back. His practice got cancelled today.”
Iwaizumi and I go to the same university, while Oikawa goes to a different one. The apartment is in between the two. Since Iwaizumi and I have the same major, we turned out to have some of the same classes this semester. I’m a year ahead of him, but it’s nice having a friend to study with.
“Where is this apartment anyway?” Iwaizumi asks.
“It’s a couple train stops away from our place now.” I try to pull up the map in my mind. “I think it’s actually closer to Tooru’s campus than ours, but I don’t mind the commute. And if I have to I can stay at your place if I have to be at school early or whatever. You wouldn’t mind that, right?” I turn and smile at him.
“No, I guess not…Hey! Watch out!” Iwaizumi’s arm wraps around my middle to pull me back onto the curb. A truck barrels past, honking its horn. “Watch where you’re going asshole!” he yells after it.
I turn and bury my face in his shoulder. His body freezes. His fingers flex where they are still wrapped around my waist. “That was kind of scary,” I mumble into his shirt. I realize I’ve gripped his shirt too. The truck came so close to hitting me.
“A-are you okay?”
I look up at him. My eyes widen a little when I realize how close our faces are. His do the same. “Y-yeah. Thanks, Hajime.”
I see him swallow a little when I say his first name.
“See! I told you they were together!” A loud whisper has us both whipping our heads to the side. Two girls from the class we just left are staring and giggling at us.
Iwaizumi’s face reddens and his usual frown fits into place. He releases me immediately. He clears his throat. “Then watch where you’re going next time, dumbass.” He pushes my shoulder a little.
I blink and a smile stutters in to existence. “Then don’t distract me while we’re walking, Iwa-chan!” He grits his teeth when I use the nickname. The weird moment passes and we’re back to normal. When we get on the train I can still make out a dusting of pink on Iwaizumi’s tan cheeks.
“What do you want for dinner?” I ask as we near our building.
“You cooked last time. I can do it.” We reach our door. “I think we may have some fish. We’ll need to go to the store soon.” Iwaizumi opens the door.
We both freeze when the distinct smell of something burning meets our noses. We stare at each other. We scramble to get our shoes off. “Tooru!?” I yell.
“Oy, Oikawa!” Iwaizumi beats me to the kitchen. “Crap,” I hear him mutter.
“Iwa-chan! Riza-chan! Don’t come in. It’s not ready yet!” Tooru’s voice comes out a bit frantically. I stand next to Iwaizumi and stare at the mess our small kitchen has become.
“He’s tried to cook something,” Iwaizumi mutters under his breath.
“How bad is it? Can we still save it?” I whisper back.
“Rude! Both of you! I can hear you, you know!” Tooru frowns at us with one hand on his hip and a spoon in the other. He’s wearing the pink apron I bought on a whim. I duck my head while Iwaizumi just frowns some more.
I walk up to Tooru and wrap my arms around his waist. He doesn’t relax his position and looks down his nose at me. I rest my chin on his chest. “I’m sorry. I meant what did you make us?” I blink up at him.
His frown stays in place for a little bit longer. I see his eyes flick to Iwaizumi over my head. He sighs. “I wanted to make you both something special since we’re all home tonight.” I feel his shoulders slump. “It’ll probably poison us all though.” I pull back and look at him. He looks down at his feet.
I turn and look at Iwaizumi. I raise my eyebrows at him. He rolls his teal eyes and shoves off the wall where he was leaning. “Nah, you probably didn’t mess up as bad as you think.” He walks over to the stove and lifts the lid of the pot. I see his nose wrinkle slightly before he smooths out his face. “Easy fix.” Tooru looks up with a hopeful expression. Iwaizumi nods his head at us. “Go be gross and coupley for a little bit while I sort this out.”
“Thanks Iwa-chan!” Tooru’s mood shifts and he’s happy again. I’ve notice only Iwaizumi can bring him out of the periodic slumps he seems to go into. He doesn’t really do anything special. I still don’t know how he does it.
I start pulling Tooru out of the kitchen. “We are not gross,” I whine. When we’re almost out of the kitchen I turn and mouth, “thank you,” at Iwaizumi. He waves it off and turns his attention to saving our dinner. I pull Tooru towards the living room. “I need to talk to you anyway.”
Tooru jerks us to a stop. “Before that…” He yanks my arm and I practically fall against him. He tilts my chin up and smirks down at me. “Welcome home, Riza-chan.” His lips press against mine. My eyes roll into the back of my head. My mouth opens willingly. Tooru’s tongue traces the inside. I run my hands up his chest and tangle them in his hair. His fingers dig into my hips trying to pull me closer, even though we are pressed firmly against each other.
When it’s getting hard to breathe I pull away. Tooru’s eyes smolder at me. I have to blink a couple times to clear the fog in my brain. “Iwaizumi’s in the other room,” I breathe out. We try to be good when he’s home, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.
Tooru smiles at me in what he thinks is an innocent way. “I was only saying hi to my girlfriend. Iwa-chan’s okay with that.”
“As long as you keep it PG, I don’t care what you do!” Iwaizumi yells from the other room.
“See?” Tooru smiles at me.
I roll my eyes, but end up returning his smile. “Come on, I really do have something to tell you.” We sit down on the couch. I look at Tooru. “I found a place.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Oh.” I see him thinking. “Okay.” He’s not giving much away. I can’t tell if he’s happy or upset.
“We said this was only going to be until I found my own place. The three of us can’t keep living together like this.” I motion around the small apartment. “There’s only one bedroom, hell there’s only one bathroom.”
“I thought we were fine.” Tooru pouts a little. I sigh.
“You have to see that we’re all basically on top of each other.”
“I like being on top of you.” A sultry smile is shot at me.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. I was always going to find my own apartment.”
Tooru sighs, knowing I’m right. “Well, where is it?”
“A couple stops away. It’s actually closer to your school. The guy said I’d get my own bedroom and bathroom.” I shrug.
“Wait, guy?”
I can’t hide my wince. I knew it. Just like with Iwaizumi, Tooru narrows his eyes at me. “I get along better with guys. Besides the guy on the phone seemed nice enough. And I’ll meet them before I say yes to the apartment.” Tooru is still frowning at me. “That’s another thing I wanted to ask you. Iwaizumi says I shouldn’t go alone to see the place.”
“Iwa-chan can be smart sometimes,” Tooru grumbles.
“Well then, will you go with me?” I grab his hand and start playing with his fingers. “You can meet my new roommates and see for yourself that you have nothing to worry about.”
“When are you going?” Tooru is watching me play with his hand.
“Wednesday before class. They’ll both be home and will be able to show me the place.”
“I have a study group on Wednesday.” Tooru grabs my hand. “Can you do it some other time?”
“Not really. They have class and clubs and stuff apparently. They’re only free on Wednesday around noon.”
“Hmph.” I see Tooru’s mind trying to figure out how to be there. His eyes suddenly shift to me. “What about Iwa-chan?”
I frown a little. “What about him?”
“He can go with you. He can tell if those guys are bad news or not.”
I blink a couple times. “Sure, okay. I’m fine with him coming along, if he doesn’t mind.”
Tooru pulls me to him. “He won’t mind if I ask him nicely.” His nose runs along my jaw making my breath hitch. He pulls back abruptly. “And if all goes well, we can celebrate your new place this weekend. Mattsun and Makki are coming into town and we can all go out!” His 180 mood shift leaves me a little dizzy.
“S-sure. I sort of remember them. It’ll be nice to officially meet them.”
“If you two are done making out, dinner’s almost ready!” Iwaizumi calls from the kitchen.
“We weren’t making out!” I yell back. I look at Tooru. “I’m gonna change.” I stand up. Tooru follows.
“I’ll persuade Iwa-chan to escort you on Wednesday.” He bounds off towards the kitchen. “Iii-waaa-chaaan.” I hear him yell.
“Oy, don’t just grab me when I’m holding something hot.” I hear a small scuffle and smile to myself as I head to the bedroom to change. I think I’m gonna miss living with these two dorks.