Chapter Text
Tooru’s eyes had been held open for so long that they’d developed needles; his writing had become sluggish and the ink was blurring on the parchment. A yawn was teasing the seam of his closed lips.
This was far from the first all-nighter he’d pulled, but it was just as unsavory as all the others before it.
The changes occurring within the kingdom were far overdue and necessary, but the amount of responsibility it donned Tooru with was somewhat overwhelming; Sawamura had trusted him enough to handle the records, and Tooru knew he was capable of doing so, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t crave a break every now and then.
“Isagi Hoshio, aged fourteen…” Tooru mumbled the words as he painted them with soft strokes. “Rescued from a ring on the eastern edge of the kingdom… broken bones and superficial cuts, signs of prolonged abuse…”
Tooru had written these same words over and over again, had mumbled them aloud so many times that their shape had been permanently branded against his tongue, yet it never failed to cinch his chest painfully. So many young omegas — young humans — tortured and scarred in ways they never should have been.
A harsh knock resounded from the door, and before Tooru could utter permission to the person on the other side, it swung open unceremoniously. Tooru placed his quill down gingerly and leaned back in his chair, leveling the intruder with a half-heated glare.
“You know, Iwa-chan, it’s simple common courtesy to wait for consent before you enter someone’s quarters.”
As usual, the only response he received was in the form of a half-baked insult, “you look like shit.”
Tooru chuckled dryly and ran a tired hand through his locks; it wasn’t as if Iwaizumi was in a much better state, what with the sweat gluing stray hairs to his forehead and the faint spatter of dust across his cheeks. Tooru could only assume he’d just left the sparring pit — the body armor glittering in the dying light of the sun proved the theory stronger.
“You don’t look much better yourself, you know.” Tooru quipped back, lips pulling up into a small, relaxed smile.
Iwaizumi rolled his eyes with a huff, but gave Tooru no verbal response. Instead, the armored man stalked further into the room, closing the door softly behind him and crossing the distance between himself and Tooru’s desk with heavy clunks. The scent of sweat, dirt, and musky pine teased at Tooru’s nose, and he barely managed to withhold the grimace that threatened to blossom across his face.
“You need a scrub down,” Tooru muttered, but despite the stench, he still leaned up to nudge the jut of Iwaizumi’s chin with the top of his head when the man came to a stop beside him. Iwaizumi returned the gesture with a soft hum, one hand sliding around Tooru’s shoulders and giving his bicep a gentle squeeze. Tooru nearly purred at the pleasant pressure.
“I’ll bathe later. You could join me, if you’d like.” Iwaizumi’s statement ended in a smooth, subtly suggestive roll. The thought of sinking his tense muscles into scalding water was near mouthwatering — but, there was one small problem…
“I would, love, but I’ve got a literal mountain here — and Sawamura-sama asked me to complete it all before the week’s end.”
Iwaizumi hummed in acknowledgment, but Tooru could detect the undertone of disappointment within it. How long had it been since they’d been able to simply relax together? Or share the same quarters, for that matter?
Far too long, Tooru’s aching chest told him.
“It’s only to be expected; Sawamura-sama is attempting to change laws that haven’t even been touched since their very inception.” Iwaizumi noted gruffly, prompting an exaggerated sigh from Tooru’s lips.
“You’d think that since he’s the one changing them he’d at least help with all the records!”
Tooru’s antics pulled a small, warm chuckle from the base of Iwaizumi’s throat — the sound wrapped around his heart and squeezed tightly, filling him with the same sense of giddiness that it had the first time he’d ever heard it.
“Well, maybe if you ask him to nicely, he will. But, truthfully, I didn’t come in here to ask you to join me in a bath or listen to you gripe — there’s something else.”
At that, Tooru perked up; it was rare that Iwaizumi uttered those words, and the few instances in which he had always struck a chord of trepidation within Tooru’s chest.
Iwaizumi took Tooru’s silence as a sign to continue, and he sighed deeply before reaching his hand — the one that wasn’t currently full of Tooru’s shoulder — beneath the breastplate of his armor. From within it he pulled out a rolled up piece of parchment and extended it to Tooru.
“Earlier today, Kuroo-san’s squadron returned to the kingdom without him or Bokuto-san — and they gave me this.”
A lump formed in Tooru’s throat as he gripped the parchment with a gentle hand. Part of him was rather hesitant to open it; it wasn’t as though Kuroo never sent updates through the form of letters, but the expression on Iwaizumi’s face coupled with the tone of voice told Tooru that this particular letter may not hold the best of news.
“What’s it about?” Tooru asked softly, fiddling gently with the slightly frayed parchment, but Iwaizumi simply shook his head.
“Just read it.”
Tooru sucked in a sharp breath and tugged loose the string holding the parchment compact — it unfurled with a soft whoosh, and Tooru’s eyes immediately flitted around the script scrawled within; there were words and phrases that captured his attention and flung his heart into his stomach.
An unexpected development… omegas have fled… self defense… a body to the kingdom… will have to apprehend on suspected murder charges…
Tooru’s eyes widened and his jaw went slack; there was the boil of anger beneath his skin, but mostly, all Tooru could feel was a hopeless sort of disbelief.
When would the world start to make sense? he wondered resentfully.
“You okay, Tooru?” Iwaizumi murmured softly after a few moments of silence, and Tooru could only barely swallow the scream of frustration that bubbled at the base of his throat. Maybe it was the lack of sleep catching up with him, or maybe it was the lack of intimacy he’d been granted with Iwaizumi — maybe it was everything — but Tooru needed to be alone at the moment to digest the new information he’d just retained.
“Iwa-chan, you should go clean up. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Tooru hoped his tone wasn’t laced with bitterness, but given the sour turn to Iwaizumi’s scent, he knew he’d failed — but Iwaizumi wasn’t one to force Tooru to talk, or to stay where he clearly wasn’t welcome in all capacities, and so the Alpha merely nodded and and retreated from Tooru’s office, taking with him the comforting scent of pine sap.
Tooru sighed and rubbed his eyes until bright stars pricked his vision, then tried his best to set aside all thoughts of the ominous information within the parchment and return to his previous paperwork.
It was much easier said than done.