"Kyaaaa!"

"He's sooooo COOL!"

"OhmyohmyohmyhelookedatME!"

"Please have my babies!"

"HE'S MINE!"

"NO, YOU BITCH, HE'S MINE!"

"Please take a picture with me!"

"Can I please sniff your underwear? I swear I won't get it dirty!"

"HE TOUCHED MEEEE!"

"He just wanted to get you out of the way!"

"No wayyyy!"

…

Hearing those squeals is nothing new for him, the magnificent Oikawa-san. After all, he's blessed with beauty, brains and brawn – not to mention unparalleled stylishness and unrivalled coolness. He's the face of the Student Council, he's the captain of their grade's award-winning volleyball club, he's the top student as per the latest exam results, he's dubbed as the second coming of the Arch Mage, plus he's the reigning number one Prince voted by the entire population for three years straight.

That said, he's used to hearing those sometimes-creepy and most-of-the-times-just-plain-scary declarations of obsessive devotion to be directed to his wonderful person.

Now though, no thanks to the unfortunate Potions incident involving a certain orange-haired-hyperactive-chibi and his adorably precious why-don't-you-just-disappear-kouhai, one big batch of an extremely potent, experimental, Love-Love Potion has been dumped all over one Iwaizumi Hajime.

(There are some rumors that Iwaizumi had plotted it to be that way – his apparent saving of Oikawa by pushing him roughly out of the way of the spilling potion is just a clever way of getting the potion dumped all over his person so he can become more popular. Of course, the rumor's nasty enough for people to suspect Oikawa himself to be the propagator of said gossip, but those gossipmongers have been taken care of with extra gentleness that would probably prevent them from being within ten meter radius of either Oikawa or Iwaizumi.)

In any case, it has been three days and the girls that surrounded Iwaizumi have increased in number and their persistent shrieks have grown more grating as well.

Just for the record, Oikawa is totally not jealous. Nope. Not at all.

After all, Iwa-chan is just a grumpy, meanie who hits him all the time without a care for his handsome face. Girls don't like that sort of thing and once the potion wears off, the world will return to normal. Iwa-chan will stop being surrounded by tons of people who are only attracted to him because of some foul potion (poor Iwa-chan!) and since he has no other friends aside from the lovely Oikawa, they'll be back to eating lunch together without getting interrupted (at least, not by people who throws themselves at Iwa-chan).

He just needs to bear with it for a little while longer, and the world will return to normal.

…Right?

•••magnetized;

"For some reason, they seem to stay away when I'm near you, so don't let go of my hand, shittykawa."

…Well, even if he, for some reason, didn't want to hold hands with Iwa-chan, it's not like had a choice. His spiker's grip is unyielding and Oikawa's reminded of the other's perfect winning streak on the arm-wrestling contests that had originally started in their volleyball club, then spread out to the other clubs, because they were losers with no originality.

Also, that line would have sounded totally cool if not for the ending.

"You sound so cool, Iwa-chan!" Oikawa sing-songs, because after three days of having his time with Iwa-chan interrupted, he'll gladly take this as a compensation. "Though I really have a problem with that nickname…"

They're on their way to the infirmary where Professor Takeda is waiting for them. It's rare for the school's staff to be so involved with accidents like this, but there's probably more to the potion than meets the eye. Oikawa frowns at the thought of them using Iwa-chan as a guinea pig.

"Don't do anything stupid," Iwa-chan warns him, squeezing his hand. Oikawa tries to stifle a laugh at that, because love potion or not, Iwa-chan still has his uncanny ability of reading Oikawa like an open book.

"Yes, sir~"

"Professor Takeda?" Iwa-chan is all proper and polite when he's dealing with basically everybody else but Oikawa and it's kind of disappointing but also kind of endearing, because that means that he's unique in Iwa-chan's eyes, so that's awesome. Of course, it would have been loads better if Iwa-chan didn't call him names every now and then, but then again, he can't really imagine Iwa-chan dealing with him with fewer insults than usual. "We're here."

"—We? Oh, right, yes, come in, Iwaizumi-kun, Oikawa-kun!" Professor Takeda looks like a giant teddybear (their classmates' words, not his) but he's harboring a genius mind underneath all that bubbly, harmless-seeming cuteness. "…You're holding hands?"

Oikawa feels a flush run up his neck at those words. It's probably just the strange weather—though it's approaching winter. Is he also getting affected by the potion?

He takes a look at Iwa-chan's stoic face.

Hmph!

It's Iwa-chan.

No amount of potions can change the way he looks at him.

"I've noticed that they seem to stay away when I'm in close proximity with Oikawa." Iwa-chan is always so smooth at times like these. He makes things sound so matter of fact; even Oikawa believes, for a moment, that their hands belong together. "That might help with research for the cure, sensei."

("Are you sure that's even related to the potion?", someone had coughed from the other end of the infirmary, and Oikawa wanted to stick his tongue out at Professor Ukai for his words that he doesn't even have the courage to say face-to-face to them.)

"Hmm, that's… interesting… I'll take that into consideration…"

Since this has been happening for three days, Iwa-chan knows the drill by now and easily sits down on the chair in front of Professor Takeda. His right forearm is resting against the table, ready for the blood-drawing that should monitor the status of his magic and the levels of the potion that has seeped into his body. Oikawa's still holding on to Iwa-chan's left hand though, even if he's standing a bit awkwardly beside Iwa-chan – which is good, because he hates the sight of needles, but Iwa-chan is amazing as always, because he squeezes his hand reassuringly again. It's kind of strange, because shouldn't he be the one to comfort Iwa-chan at moments like this? But then again, Iwa-chan's such a macho who is great with scary things like needles, so it shouldn't really be surprising.

"Help me with Potions after this," Iwa-chan's voice grounds him back to reality, words gruff and eyes fixed forward.

Oikawa laughs at that, because Iwa-chan's a really smooth guy.

"No problem, Iwa-chan!"

-

"Wow, you're really holding hands." Kuroo whistles as they pass each other by the hallway, cocky smirk on his face as usual, but it's around ten times more annoying right now. "I thought that noisy owl was just exaggerating as always, but…"

Oikawa stiffens as he sees Kuroo leer suggestively at Iwa-chan, who ignores the attention so effortlessly it's almost unfair. They're holding hands so that should lessen the effect of the potion (he doesn't understand the logic behind that, but Professor Takeda wasn't forthcoming with details), but then again, Kuroo was a notorious flirt who didn't really care about things like propriety, gender, relationship status or willingness when it comes to picking his targets.

"Kuroo… we need to get going…" Kuroo's side-kick mumbles from his spot beside Kuroo, tugging at the other's fire-engine-red jacket while his eyes are zeroed in on their clasped hands.

Kuroo grumbles, but backs off and heeds his side-kick's words. "Okay, okay… you just want to get going so you can play that new game of yours…"

Before leaving completely though, he still shouts an annoying, "Oikawa and Iwaizumi, sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S—"

Oikawa feels his face burn (it's been happening a lot recently, is he running a fever?) at those words, but he receives a comforting squeeze to his hand, as though Iwa-chan knows the discomfort that this is bringing him.

He really can't wait until things are back to normal.

-

Oikawa taps his pen impatiently against the blank page of his notebook, knowing that he should start on working on the essay due tomorrow, but not wanting to. It's not like him to stall on this type of assignment, but then it dawns on him that this is going to be the first time that he's going to actually do homework without Iwa-chan hovering nearby and glaring at him and resorting to bribing him with some bonding time that will be spent doing his suggestions, just so that he actually pays attention to his studies.

Iwa-chan has sent him a charmed paper message during his Advanced Rune Systems class, telling him to go ahead because he's apparently being escorted to the Center of Magical Research for further tests to be done on his body. Seven days and Iwa-chan's magnetism has grown stronger still – it really was disturbingly powerful magic, because even the stoic Akaashi, the silent Shimizu and the clueless Tobio-chan have all expressed their potion-controlled desires for Iwa-chan's body.

(It was kind of entertaining to see Bokuto be torn between tears of joy at hearing dirty words spill out of Akaashi's lips and tears of frustration that they're all directed to someone that they only know because of their tenuous acquaintanceship with Kuroo. It was also extremely satisfying to see that shrimp bodily stop Tobio-chan from outright jumping Iwa-chan in the middle of volleyball practice. It was shocking to see the silent Shimizu say something more than five words in one go, though it was probably more shocking for the student body to learn that the reason for her blatant disinterest in her suitors was because she already found a girlfriend in that tiny blonde that always shadowed her.)

"Are you okay, Oikawa-kun?"

Oikawa looks up from his glaring contest with his notebook and sees the smiling face of Mr. Refreshing. He tries to return the other's smile, but he thinks it just ends up looking like a grimace. He needs things to return to normal, or else, he'll become like Tobio with his creepy smiles.

"Iwaizumi-kun should be back by dinnertime," Mr. Refreshing's not-so-refreshing shadow chimes into their conversation, though Oikawa can see that the other's eyes are pinned to Mr. Refreshing's mole rather than Oikawa. He would normally throw a tantrum about not being the center of attention, but without Iwa-chan to listen to his complaints, what's the point? And also, why the heck do they know about that?

"I don't care," Oikawa says with a sullen pout, resuming his one-sided glaring contest, just in time to miss the look of understanding that pass between Mr. Refreshing and his companion.

-

Oikawa's not crying.

Not at all.

Iwa-chan walks into the hall, just as everyone's in the middle of dinner and nobody (…aside from Oikawa, that is) runs to him with arms outstretched and there are no shrieks (…aside from Oikawa, again) that welcomed his arrival.

"You're finally back to your normal, no-fangirl self, Iwa-chan!"

"You're such a pain-in-the-ass crybaby," Iwa-chan says fondly as he brings a tissue up to Oikawa's eyes to wipe the tears away.

Bokuto and Kuroo yell some catcalls from a few tables away.

Oikawa ignores them and drags Iwa-chan to his table so he can chat about this awful week.

-

-

"I'm so happy that you're finally back to normal, Iwa-chan."

"You can have your fangirls back," Iwa-chan agrees, slapping Oikawa's hands that sneak in to grab the milk bread packet placed on the middle of the library table. There's more pain with studying this way, with Iwa-chan supervising his every move, but this is loads better compared to the lonely time without the other's presence all to himself.

"Ahaha, do you think they were traumatized, Iwa-chan?"

"What are you talking about now?"

"I mean~" Oikawa writes down a couple more lines as he responds, "they might be beating themselves up for fangirling over you, ne~?"

"Go die."

"How harsh!"

"And stop stalling—you just need a few more lines to complete the assignment."

"Aw, if Iwa-chan wanted to watch some movies with me, you should have just said so~"

"I'm seriously going to kill you."

"But then, who else would Iwa-chan watch movies with?"

"I can watch them fine alone, thanks."

"But that's lonely!"

"…Finish your damn homework."

"Meanie!" Oikawa's hands work double time to complete his scribbles. "If you don't like this movie, we can change it?"

"Do you even have anything that's not a chick flick?"

"Excuse you, I have volleyball match recordings too!"

"Can't forget the alien movies…"

"Hey! Don't you go bringing up the past, Iwa-chan… That's unfair!"

Anyone listening in to their conversation will probably get confused if they were a pair of people who enjoyed spending time together or the exact opposite. But that's more than fine, because Iwa-chan's now free of that stupid potion, so there's nobody here who will stalk him anymore.

…

…Hmm.

"…Now that I remember, Iwa-chan… did they ever find out what that potion did?"

!

Iwa-chan's blushing.

He's actually blushing!

Oikawa squeals and clings to Iwa-chan's arm, confident that nobody has seen the motion because it's past ten and only a choice set of people is granted passes to stay outside of their dorm rooms after curfew.

"You're blushing! It's soooo adorable, Iwa-chan! Is it that embarrassing?"

Life doesn't get any better than this.

This should be like, one of the miracles of the world. Oikawa's hands are poised to take a close-up of Iwa-chan's blushing face, when it hits him.

Oh.

So that's how it is.

Iwa-chan looks stoically back at him, despite the adorable blush high on his cheeks.

Oh no. Iwa-chan's going to seize his heart—and Oikawa can only wait breathlessly for that to happen.

"It was supposed to make my beloved notice my feelings." Iwa-chan's voice trembles slightly, but it's still a smooth delivery. Oikawa's glad that he's seated and he's hanging on to Iwa-chan's arms, or else, he would have melted to the floor. "…Did it work?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

Iwa-chan chuckles in relief. He leans in closer, resting their foreheads together. Oikawa can feel his heart hammering against his chest. "I think we need to make sure this works… so I won't let go of you, shittykawa."

"Ahaha, such a romantic, Iwa-chan!" Oikawa does his part in bridging the gap between them and brushes his lips against the other's nose, cheek and mouth. "I should really file a complaint about that nickname."

Iwa-chan kisses him again, effectively distracting him.

So this is how it feels to have his world turned back to normal.

It really doesn't get any better than this.

-

They walk to the dining hall the following day holding hands.

Students and staff pause in their breakfast as they take in the new couple – there's only a few seconds until someone emits a squeal that sounds like a beached whale's.

(There's someone who yells "GIVE ME MY 20 BUCKS!". Oikawa thinks it's actually Professor Ukai.)

Hearing squeals is nothing new for him, the magnificent Oikawa-san.

After all, he's blessed with beauty, brains and brawn – not to mention unparalleled stylishness and unrivalled coolness. He's the face of the Student Council, he's the captain of their grade's award-winning volleyball club, he's the top student as per the latest exam results, he's dubbed as the second coming of the Arch Mage, plus he's the reigning number one Prince voted by the entire population for three years straight.

He also has the best boyfriend ever.

"Stop grinning like that, you look creepy, trashykawa."

Oikawa laughs and leans down to peck Iwa-chan on the lips and doesn't get a punch for his efforts.

Life really doesn't get any better than this.

• end