As I was writing the beginning of this chapter this song was on and it was so inspiring so y'all should listen to it its beautiful even if it doesn't exactly match the chapter's events

Oikawa's fingers were gently wrapped around my limp hand, which was beginning to sweat. I didn't know how hard to grip his hand or what angle to keep it at, so I let the man lead me with his loose grasp.

We walked along a concrete path, lined with blooming, flowered trees. The trunks stood confident and strong, and the branches reached out over us, gradually thinning until intertwining with the neighboring trees' limbs.

As we walked, similarly paced now, metal lamp posts flickered on one-by-one, obeying their timers. The warm glows spread across the path, signifying the way to our destination, which I was still unsure of.

Eventually, we reached a clearing of green grass, and the intertwining branches reached out into open air instead. Oikawa turned to me and took my hand for the second time tonight - I'd already thought one was enough.

"Finally made it," he said through an appearingly sincere smile. My steps fell onto the green grass, and as we stepped together toward a blanket centered in the field, water droplets coated the toes of our shoes, as dew had already began forming.

Something stood up on the blanket, and as we grew closer, it was apparent to me that the object was a long black telescope, a glimmering black color in the peeking of the moons light.

We sat down across from each other, and Oikawa began taking snacks out of a picnic basket that i didn't even notice until that moment. 

"I hope you like (favorite snack)," he said as he took the package out of the basket. I let out a chuckle as I reached for the snack and began helping myself, as Oikawa grabbed a bag of chips and opened it up, laying it on the blanket for both of us. He handed me a bottle of coke and held in his other hand another for himself.

"So, tell me about yourself," He finally said. Although it was nearly dark now, the park's surrounding lamps lit up enough of Oikawa's face for me to see his light smile perk upwards. 

"I mean there's not a lot to know," I said plainly. "I like volleyball, I go to Karasuno... I'm good at (school subject)," I stopped to think, then nodded, as I couldn't think of much else.

"Oh, come on," He laughed, "that's not it is it?" I nodded with a smile, stuffing more food into my mouth. He tilted his chin up slightly, then said with a chuckle, "What are your hopes and dreams (l/n)-san?" 

I stared at him blankly, "I don't know, I guess go to university and get a good job."

"That's so depressing (l/n)-san!" Oikawa suddenly yelled out, "Those aren't dreams (l/n)-san, that's some level one goals." 

I stared at him, honestly a little bit offended. "Oh yeah? Well what are your dreams Oikawa-San?" I added a sliver of attitude for personal pleasure. 

He took in a big sigh, as if collecting all his thoughts into his throat to put them into words. His shoulders relaxed, and his eyelids lowered. "I think it's be pretty cool to travel the world, or maybe go to space, maybe just go on an adventure. The future is pretty unknown but there's so much I could do now if I dropped all my responsibilities. Sometimes I wish I could but-" He stopped suddenly, I thought he may have ran out of the words in his throat. "I don't know," He breathed, turning to me. 

I smiled, sensing a change in our atmosphere, "Go to space, huh?" I lied down on the blanket, putting my arms behind my head, "that sure isn't a level one goal." I felt Oikawa's gaze on me, then without a word he lied down as well. "Do you like space, then?" 

"Yeah," he began slowly. "There's just so little we know about it, given the theory that it's infinite, ya know?" I nodded. "And like, it's so different from what we're used to on Earth. There's planets that are made out of gas!" I smiled at his childish tone. "The light up there could be four billion years old for all we know!" I let out a laugh, and Oikawa's head turned toward me, "What?" he said with a laugh in the back of his throat.

I turned to meet his eyes. "That's awesome." He smiled and sat up quickly. 

"Come here a second," He said as he reached for the telescope. I sat up and inched forward. Oikawa's face was shoved in front of the eyepiece, his face was half scrunched up as he peered through the lens. He quickly moved the scope in different directions, looking back and forth through the telescope and looking up at the sky. Finally, a smile appeared on his face and he motioned for me to come closer. Oikawa held the the body of the telescope as I looked through.

"See that?" He said from beside me. I nodded, it looked like a regular group of stars. "That's Tau Ceti. It's 12 light years away from us, the closest and most similar to our sun. It has 5 planets in its orbital system, and one that could be inhabitable." 

"That's freaking awesome," I said as I backed away from the telescope's eyepiece, and faced Oikawa.

"Isn't it?" His eyes were soft now, with an innocent sparkle in them. He looked down at his hands in what seemed like nerves. "It's crazy... in this whole infinite universe, we're the only known intelligent life, on the only known planet to have any sort of being. Here we are talking about it together. We're so small and so rare, we could be doing so much, but we're both here in this moment talking about space." 

Oikawa looked up again, and it was silent for a moment. For a few seconds, It felt like the universe had to stop and think about that, and all the crickets held their breath. There was nothing else in that moment but him and me. 

"Thank you," I said, as the crickets opened their lungs again. I smiled shyly. 

This wasn't the same person I'd met the other day. That was an intimidating jerk that everyone said was a snake, that made me reluctant to come here. The person sitting in front of me was a sweet person who was letting their guard down for me, a person who initially wanted nothing to do with him.

"It's no problem," Oikawa said as he lied back down. I followed his lead. 

Everything we talked about after that came so easily. For the first time in a long time, I let down every defense I'd put up prior to that moment, and trusted someone. 

WELL DANG ITS BEEN A MINUTE... so sorry abt that, I have absolutely no excuse for missing for what.. a year? idek. Hopefully put up chapter 11 soon bc this is the only story i have inspo for ayooo bye