The nurse wheeling Hinata down the corridor stayed silent as to give him time to think. Hinata appreciated that. He still hadn't come to terms with his illness and he took every second of silence to try and grasp reality. He was usually a rather bubbly and loud person but things were different now. Hinata knew for a fact that 90% of people who entered the hospital with his specific branch of SN never left, either having never recovered enough to leave or the illness took and killed them. But there were no other options at this point, if he didn't go to the hospital he'd be dead within two months. Here he had a chance of either living a bit longer or maybe being part of the 10% who fully recovered. He had been shocked to hear he had the dreaded illness and horrified when they had told him there was no reliable cure. The best they could offer was to keep you in a bacteria-free room, prevent you from using your infected limb/s and make you take in constant fresh air. That was it. They were developing a cure but the process was still in its early stages. Hinata's left leg had been infected which was why he had been placed in a wheelchair.
They passed another creepily clean corridor and Hinata realised if he ever attempted to manuverd the pristine building alone he'd get lost seconds from his departure. Hinata decided to take in his surroundings, he might be there for the remaining part of his life so he had to get used to it soon. The walls were a bland white with grey door appearing every twenty meters or so. Hinata assumed these doors lead to different wards. Above the stony doors were bland metal slabs with a letter followed by a number branded on it. The one Hinata had just passed was C3.
When Hinata had been outside he had judged the building to be big. Hinata had been right. The building was cube shaped and had off-white plaster wrapped around it. Thousands of open windows littered the side and inside was a large inner courtyard (by 'large inner courtyard' he meant it was bigger than any park he'd been to). The courtyard had a few wooden gazebos littered around. The inner part of the building was mainly made of pillars in a mint green shade. He was currently going down a corridor in the buildings side (the one facing the courtyard). On one side were the doors to surgery rooms, dorms and wards and on the other a lengthy line of pillars giving a clear view onto the colossal courtyard. Hinata decided he disliked that particular corridor.
He shivered as a small breeze passed by. He had known that they took the idea of 'getting some fresh air' to extremes but the sheer amount of air passing through every room was not fun during early spring. He could tell winter was going to be hellish.
He was about to ask the nurse if getting a jumper was a possibility, because damn was his hospital gown thin, when she stopped in front of C9. The nurse brandished some papers from her pocket and checked the document.
"Yep, we're here. Welcome to your new home kiddo!"
She opened the door of C9 and all of a sudden, a part of Hinata screamed that he did not want this to happen, He wanted to go home and play some volleyball. Who cared if he died, at least he'd be happy.
But the moment passed as they do and he was pushed into the room.
The first thing he noticed was that even though one of the main policies here was to rest, the occupants of C9 were DEFINITLY not resting. A small boy (by small Hinata meant shorter than himself) was waving his arms in the air and yelling "ROLLING THUNDER!" on loop like a broken toy. A bald guy was chucking a shirt into the corner of the room. Some weird guy with sticky-up charcoal hair and a guy who resembled a Great Horned Owl kept on exchanging 'Oya Oya Oya' s while a pudding haired nurse repeatedly asked them to be quiet. The noise visibly lessened a bit when the door opened, saying that there was still a lot of noise.
The nurse behind Hinata cleared her throat and the room finally was silenced. With a winning smile, she said "I'd like to introduce Hinata Shouyou, Our new patient! He's 16 and comes from North Karasuno."
Hinata shuddered at the mention of his home country. As much as he adored his home , he knew it had a reputation of being less advanced as the country he was in at the present time, that country being the ever-admired Xanadu. But that was why he'd come; his own country didn't have any facilities for victims of SN. That did not mean he technically wanted to be in Xanadu, when his parents had found out about his SN they decided he could only go to the place with the highest survival rates. Which was why he was there. He might as well try to make the best of a bad situation.
Hinata plastered on his usual blinding smile and waved slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you!" He cheerfully half-screamed. The nurse grinned and started introducing his new wardmates. The owl one was called 'Bokuto', The messy haired one was 'Kuroo', The bald guy was 'Tanaka', the little one was 'Nishinoya' (He mentioned that he was usually called Noya, so Hinata decided he'd do the same) and the last person, sat on the right to what Hinata assumed was his bed, was 'Kageyama'. The nurse turned to Hinata satisfied by the introductions and in turn introduced herself as Nurse Darkin. He heard Kuroo call the pudding haired nurse 'Kenma'.
Nurse Darkin pushed Hinata to the bed next to Kageyama and called for Nurse Kenma to help place Hinata on the bed. They ordered Hinata to not get out of it no matter what. If he needed anything he just had to ask. Then they left declaring they were on break. A really pretty nurse (he had a label which said 'Akaashi' on it) and a really tall bearded one took their place.
Even though it was midday Hinata was exhausted. He'd woken up at 3AM to get on a train since the hospital was in the middle of nowhere and he wanted to get there as early as possible. He watched as Akaashi toured the room; changing sheets, fetching glasses of water and listing to Bokuto's rambling. He knew he was definitely going to fall asleep when his eyes started fluttering close. He twisted to find a comfier position on his side. As his eyes closed he caught sight of another pair of eyes. The eyes were a spectacular colour. Beautiful iron-blue met caramel brown until the brown pair were sealed shut.
When Hinata woke up it was dark. He panicked at first because at home there was always a window with moonlight streaming through, here it was all black. He calmed down when he remembered his location. He breathed in deep to calm his racing heart and let his eyes adjust. He scanned the room to
find the open space cut off. Curtains had been pulled around his area and he probably wasn't an exception as the others probably all also had closed curtains. They all had to be in the same room due to it being easier for the nurses to move around and look after them. That did not change the fact that a small part was considered a certain person's personal space. They all personalized their spaces with photos, posters, old possessions and the occasional stuffed toy. Hinata had brought some stuff too but it was being cleaned first as to not bring any bacteria inside. One of the doctors had mentioned he'd get it back in a couple of days.
Hinata became aware of the sharp pain in his lower half. He needed the toilet and he needed it bad. He distinctly rememberd that getting out of bed was illegal here but damn did he need to relieve himself. At the same time, he had literally no idea where anything was and knew he'd get lost instantly. He lay stiff until a memory passed giving him the resolution he needed. He reached over to the cord by his bed and tugged it, He had been instructed on similar scenarios at the front desk. He waited.
A minute or so later somebody (he assumed another nurse because who else) could be heard opening the door and walking to where Hinata was. Hinata felt oddly embarrassed that he'd had to call for assistance so he could take a piss but he did really need it. His curtain opened a fraction and a person peeked in. The person was holding an oil lamp and smiling ever-so-slightly. "um… Hey, did you call for help?" he asked his angelic features and ash grey hair lit up by the small lamp.
Hinata cringed a tad at what he was preparing to say. He gathered the little amount of courage he had and blurted: "Yes, uh… I need to go to the…" (He temporarily paused here) "I need to go to the toilet." He finished, doubting the silver haired person had heard (he had said it in the softest voice he had ever used) he started to say it again when the ashen boy left and came back with a weird pan thing.
"I'm Suga by the way. I do nightshifts here." He meandered closer and looked at Hinata expectantly. Hinata blushed understanding what needed to be done. He lifted up his sheet and then, hesitantly, his hospital gown.
Suga slid the pan thing under Hinata. Hinata noted it was cold and despite being used to collect such an unpleasant liquid it was relatively clean. Suga turned to give him some much-wanted privacy. Hinata began to release his fluid and was ashamed to discover that it made a very audible tinkle sound but luckily Suga had experience and began talking to make things less awkward. "So how long have you been here?" he said. Hinata instantly lightened and answered, happy he had someone to talk with, "I arrived today actually!" Suga turned back and collected the now full pan from a blushing Hinata.
"Really? Well that explains why you don't have any straps yet."
He continued the conversation mainly as to distract Hinata from the fact that he is draining the pee and washing the pan. It does it's intended job and Hinata forgets about the event which just unfolded in favour of focusing on the mention of straps. He didn't know what the straps were.
Sensing Hinata's confusion Suga explains. "Right well you have SN, and you have it in your muscles. Since we don't have a cure the best shot at survival is if your muscles deteriorate to almost non-existence. Then there is a chance you'll get rid of it. This can be achieved if you don't use your muscles at all. Ever. This ward is especially for people with SN in their leg muscles, so they strap down your legs so you don't use them. Got it?"
Hinata nods in reply and vaguely remembers getting a similar-ish lecture from one of the doctors, he had largely ignored it which was why he probably didn't know about the straps.
Suga gave a small farewell and left leaving a very uneasy Hinata to his own devices. Hinata had been told by his mother that he wouldn't be able to get out of his bed while there, but having his legs strapped down?! That was very much over the line according to him. As horrified as Hinata was he was still fairly tired and after an hour of stopping threatening tears, he fell asleep.
Hinata was awoken by a very irritated Kenma. "Please get up." The nurse grumbled as Hinata groaned into a pillow and ignored the command until Kenma forcefully yanked the sheets off. That was what truly woke him up. The frozen air burst into the warm bubble he had created in his sheets. He whined at the sudden loss and when his pillow was also snatched away, and when sunlight met his eyes he started hissing like a vampire. When he finally did sit up Kenma handed him back his pillow, which he used to prop his back up. A sizzling plate of fried eggs and bacon was handed to him.
As Hinata shovelled down his breakfast like he hadn't eaten in weeks, he surveyed the room again. Bokuto was cheering something about 'Bacon and eggs Sunday', Tanaka and Noya were just eating (Now with overly expressive expressions!) and Kuroo kept pleading Kenma to fetch a piece of bacon he'd accidently flung across the room.
"Kuroo, it's on the floor. You can't eat it now."
Kuroo promptly demanded for the right to arrange a funeral for the piece of bacon he had fondly named 'Jerry'. Bokuto seconded this with the statement 'Jerry would have wanted a nice departure!'. During this time Kenma did his utmost to depose of the strip of bacon AKA 'Jerry'.
"Akaaashiiiiiiii! Tell Kenma he can't throw away Jerry!" Bokuto demanded of the nurse who then pleaded Kenma to at least say a couple of words in memory while throwing away 'Jerry'.
Hinata stole his attention away from the scene and instead placed it upon Kageyama.
Kageyama was scowling at his orange juice as if it would become something else if he scowled hard enough. Unfortunately for him, science did not work that way and magic didn't want to deal with his shit so nothing happened. Hinata found it a little hard to believe the eyes that had lulled him to sleep yesterday could look so scary, that didn't mean they weren't pretty though. Wait… did I just call his eyes pretty? Hinata questioned. He decided that maybe it would be best to ignore the grouchy wardmate for a while. He did just that until his resolve was as crushed as the weird crumbs at the bottom of a cereal box.
He hadn't heard Kageyama's voice up till that point since Nurse Darkin had introduced him and he himself hadn't uttered a single word. So, when the moody boy asked for milk from Akaashi he was shell-shocked that it was so amazing.
"Hey Akaashi, I want milk."
His voice rolled over Hinata in pleasant waves, who cared if he was kind-of a self-entitled brat, his voice was heavenly.
"Kageyama, its Sunday. Its orange juice on Sundays and you know that."
Kageyama growled at Akaashi's blunt tone and began muttering something under his breath. That was the moment Kenma decided it would be appropriate to snap Hinata out of his trance. Judging from the crying in the background he'd mercilessly tossed away 'Jerry'.
"Can I have your plate?" Kenma deadpanned. A very flustered ginger handed over his plate which was now void of a single morsel.
"Oh, Nurse Darkin told me you had an appointment with Doctor Daichi in an hour."
Hinata paled at this, he had not come to terms with the straps just yet. His terrified expression earned him some pity from Noya who decided the best cheering up would be to tell Hinata you got meatbuns after every session. It worked miracles. Hinata almost wanted to go. Kenma started to wheel Hinata's bed with him on it. They exited the room and after a few identical corridors came to a bathroom where Kenma undressed Hinata like it was the normalness thing in the world. After the hospital gown was removed he was rolled onto a metal platform where Kenma took the liberty of washing him with a bucket of warm water and soap. Needless to say, Hinata uncomfortable with this but fortunately Kenma handed him the soap to deal with his more private areas alone.
When he'd been thoroughly washed, he was handed a towel and Kenma went to retrieve the hairdryer. While waiting Hinata noticed a mirror. A full length one at that, reaching to the top of the gravel grey room to its tiled floor. Catching sight of his reflection he studied it. His hair looked a little longer (Maybe because it was wet?) and the small amount of muscle he'd built had become less defined. If he was honest with himself, he hadn't looked in a mirror in ages because he was scared he'd see something different now that he knew about his SN.
So Hinata kept on starring at his reflection trying to decide whether there really was something obviously different on the outside. There didn't seem to be but somehow, he felt like he was missing something everybody else could see. He assured himself he wasn't and instead focused on something else. The first thing that came to mind apart from the dreaded straps was Kenma. Kenma… That didn't sound like a surname. Was it really ok to call him Kenma?
Kenma re-entered (perfect timing) and was instantly bombarded with worried questions from the ginger. "Is it alright if I call you Kenma?! Should I call you something else?! Are you just really close friends with Kuroo-!"
Part of Kenma shrivelled at the sheer loudness but he steadied himself and answered what he viewed as the main question: "Kenma is fine… In return can I call you Shouyou?" Kenma mumbled all this as he was not used to having such a one-on-one with an unfamiliar person. Hinata grinned and nodded feverishly. They headed back to C9 after drying and dressing Hinata and the ginger was happy to say he could almost consider himself to be friends with the pudding haired nurse.