Oikawa Tooru [及川徹]

n. Person. Setter. Student. Third year. Captain. Senior. Grand King. Trashykawa. Uncle. Brother. Teammate.

1. A disgusting personality, Iwaizumi mutters, irate as a glare, watching Oikawa flirt outrageously, leaving a ripple of giggles and whispers and blushes in his wake. Boys and girls alike are treated extravagantly to his twinkling eyes, his casual peace signs, and his flippant tone. To Iwaizumi: condescending ‘Iwa-chan~’s, blithe and patronizing ‘are you my mom?’s, and endless needling and mocking and teasing.

2. A reckless overworker, obsessive and fixated. The sole player who wears a supporter for his poor, abused, often-strained knee, the sole player who stays late late late, practicing to exhaustion and rewatching plays till sleeplessness. Perhaps pushing his body to its extremes will finally prove something: that he will bloom, that he will build a bridge across the chasm between ‘skilled’ and ‘genius’, that he will grasp and touch the ever-turned back of Ushijima Wakatoshi, that he will at last be enough.

3. A heart that is missing and a mouth that lies, glib and silvertongued and adept at deceiving everyone and himself. He is always restless, wandering, and ambitious. His clever and agile mind works and works and works without rest, body and mind aspiring and conspiring to grab and hold and keep all that his pride desires. But where is Oikawa Tooru’s heart?

3.1 Found near Iwaizumi. Perhaps for Oikawa the wanderer and sailor, Iwaizumi is his unshakeable lighthouse, his immovable Polaris, and his deep and immeasurable roots. Perhaps for Oikawa the confident and untouchable, his heart appears in the startled and vulnerable moments when Iwaizumi is cursing, damn it, Oikawa! Don’t say he is better than you! because Oikawa should never be doubting and defeated. Perhaps for Oikawa the narrator who spins falsehood upon falsehood, his heart lies in the years-old storied history of Oikawa-and-Iwaizumi.

3.2 One half of a pair. Perhaps Oikawa Tooru’s heart is the heart that Iwaizumi carries within his own. Perhaps his heart is the heart that finds a home in the gruff ‘don’t stay up too late’ and the exasperated ‘your personality is really the worst’. Perhaps his heart is the heart that delights in Iwaizumi’s care-taking of him. Perhaps his heart is the heart that knows Iwaizumi is home and spur and rest and ache and shield all at once. Perhaps his heart is found not quite within, but without. For Oikawa, chronically dissatisfied, flippant, vulnerable, and obsessive, Iwaizumi is the one with whom he is forever dauntless and indomitable, restful and known, and, at last, enough.

Coming home.

The curve of his body is a home.

When he pulls you close into a hug
you hide there,
you rest there,
you seek solace there.

He is hard muscle and soft skin.
Your hands cross and clutch a back that is broad and solid,
the arms around you are steady and firm,
and warmth radiates from his body like steam.
His shirt is soft and worn as any beloved blanket,
the scent of him is familiar and comforting,
and his breath is soft against your temple.

You close your eyes
and you rest
and you are finally home.

Indomitable.

一徹 [ いってつ] 。 
Adjectival noun. 
Tenacious, undaunted, indomitable.

When your mask is ripped away,
when your threatened heart is exposed,
when your arm is raised to punish–
he shakes you into sense,
and he pushes you forward.

When he stumbles and falls into doubt,
when he cannot lift his head,
when he is standing still,
your hand is at his back,
and you drive him into motion.

You strive with him,
you strive against him,
to be first, to be best.
Together, you are indomitable;
together, you can conquer the world.