It started with his vision, a sudden and slight inability to see with his right eye. A blind spot. He cocked his head to the side and cupped a hand over his left eye just to be certain. He threw his right arm out to the side and wiggled his fingers just in case. He couldn't see anything from the corner of his eye.
"Fuck."
He stood abruptly, forcing Kuroo's legs out of his lap. Kuroo whined, but Bokuto wasn't paying him a bit of attention. He took the stairs two at a time and wrenched open his door.
He was greeted by the sight of boxes scattered all over his floor. He hadn't done very much unpacking, had sort of planned to do it as he went. He cursed his laziness and tugged the first box near, rifling through it's contents. Of course, he hadn't packed with any sort of system. Each box was full of miscellaneous items that had nothing to do with each other. He shoved the box away and started digging through the next one and still didn't find what he was looking for.
"Are you shitting me right now?" He gripped his hair in a fist as he spun around the room trying to remember where he put them.
He was rubbing his jaw before he realized it and only after staring at his hand in confusion did he feel the tell-tale ache in his teeth. He cursed again and kicked over a box in irritation, spewing the contents across the floor.
"Kou?" A sleepy Kenma called from the doorway. "What's wrong?"
Bokuto opened his mouth to respond, but felt himself stumbling towards the wall instead. He braced a hand against it, fighting off a wave of dizziness.
"My head! I mean, I have meds for it, but I can't find them! It's gonna be bad."
When Kenma didn't respond for after a few moments, Bokuto looked up for him, only to watch him walk back into the room with a bottle of Ibuprofen in hand.
"I'm sure it's not going to work as well as whatever you're looking for, but it's better than nothing, right?" Kenma was twisting off the cap and Bokuto offered his hand.
He tossed back the pills and swallowed them down, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of taking them without water.
The pain was crawling up his face on the right side and Bokuto groaned, flopping onto his bed. He wasn't at a full blown migraine yet, but it was coming and if the medicine didn't kick in soon, he was gonna be in for a rough afternoon.
Kenma sat down beside him and Bokuto didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around him and tug him onto his chest. Kenma glared, but didn't move.
"Just…stay with me for a little while. Please?"
"I wasn't planning on going anywhere."
Bokuto pulled his blanket up and over their bodies and hoped that the pain would pass quickly.
It came in a flood that had him clenching his teeth and wincing against the tick of his clock in the corner. Talking was no longer an option, but when he dug his fingers into his head and pointed at the offending device, Kenma seemed to understand.
He carried the clock away and flicked off the light when he came back in and Bokuto could have cried in relief. He pulled Kenma close and neither said anything when
Kenma pressed his lips to Bokuto's temple, lingering longer than necessary.
It was an hour before either of them spoke.
"My fingers are numb." He wiggled them and tried to rub feeling back into them to no avail. The tingling crept across his palm and up his wrist before finally seizing his entire left forearm in no less than ten minutes.
Twenty minutes after that, he spoke again.
"It's in my face." He used a finger to trace the line of pinpricks across his lips and over his nose on the left side.
He didn't know if Kenma knew what he meant, but he didn't elaborate.
Akaashi and Kuroo came to check on him after that. Kenma quietly guided them out of the room and closed the door. Their hushed voices in the hallway were like knives in his temples.
It was Kuroo who came back to lay with him, who let Bokuto lay on his chest and threaded his fingers in Bokuto's hair. He stayed even when the numbness left his body, leaving his arm weak and hard to use, like he had laid on it for far too long.
He wasn't sure how much later it was when the sensitivity to light and sound receded and he was left with a headache that wasn't anywhere near as debilitating.
He was ushered to take a cold shower and Akaashi had food waiting when he got out. He only got through half of it before his stomach protested and the nausea hit him. Even still, he was able to keep it all down.
Kenma offered more Ibuprofen and Bokuto swallowed it down with water this time.
He went to bed shortly afterwards all around exhausted and no one said anything when Kenma followed behind him. They curled around each other and Bokuto fell asleep almost instantaneously. He woke in the middle of the night to Kuroo at his back with his forehead pressed into Bokuto's shoulder. Akaashi had his arms thrown across Kenma, index finger hooked around one of Bokuto's.
His bed really wasn't big enough for all of them and their legs were a tangled mess, but as he listened to them breathe Bokuto knew he could spend his entire life wrapped up just like this. He could spend his entire life taking care of the people who cared for him when he needed it most.
He slept easily and when morning came, his pain was gone.