Brothers Forever

Chapter 10

Tetsuya knew that he was overexerting himself too much but he knew he had to do it, not only for Seirin, but for himself, Seijūrō and Aomine. He knew he had promised his brother to tell him if anything was wrong, but this match could determine a lot. He would do anything to get his best friend back.

So when the fourth quarter came and he had been playing non-stop, he felt that he could collapsed soon. And he did. The world just suddenly blacked out.

"Tetsuya!" Seijūrō yelled as his brother's body hit the ground. "Tetsuya! Wake up!" The match was immediately stopped by the whistle of the referee. Aomine had also rushed over, worry marring his face. Tetsuya's situation had been stable ever since the training camp they had, so this happened as quite a shock. But it was not unpredictable.

"Oi, Seijūrō, did you bring the inhaler?" Aomine asked hurriedly

"Yeah, it's in my bag!" he replied, trying to make his brother up. The rest of the players had crowded around while Momoi rushed to the redhead's very obvious red bag to find it. Riko, recognising it as a health issue immediately, ordered the gathered players to give the younger twin some space, which they obliged immediately.

It was just coincidence and possibly good luck that the Generation of Miracles who were not on court were all in the spectator stands. After all, Midorima would have said later that Sagittariuses had the best of luck but overexerting would lead to something bad happening. Oha Asa was normally weirdly right. Thus, those aforementioned ran as fast as their basketball-trained legs could carry them down the long flight of stairs that seemed endless.

Midorima, who had been slightly trained as a doctor, immediately snatched the inhaler from Momoi and started to temporarily treat Tetsuya. The Tōō coach had already called an ambulance and it came whirling in. No one had the heart to stop Aomine and Seijūrō from abandoning their match so the whole group left in the ambulance. With the loss of most of their fire power, Seirin, who had been holding up quite strongly, lost to Tōō. No one could blame their loss of attention. Everyone was distracted too.

When the buzzer sounded, both teams shook hands briefly before rushing to the changing rooms and then to the hospital. It was fortunate that they were playing the last game that day. Upon reaching the hospital and cramming into the lift, they saw that all the other teams of the Generation of Miracles were there too. When both later teams came up to them, Kasamatsu immediately hushed them and brought all the rest down with them.

"They're very emotional now so we shouldn't disturb them. Can you believe Akashi Seijūrō was close to tears? And from the looks of things, this has happened before, so I think it won't be that serious," Kasamatsu explained when they reached the lobby by stairs (they were such a big bunch that even the stairs seemed too small for them).

It was an hour before someone walking into the lobby and came to greet them. He looked like a much grownup version of the young Teikō captain. "I believe you bunch are my sons' basketball team and friends? Thank you for taking care of them," the redhead said. "I am Akashi Hayato, Seijūrō and Tetsuya's father. By any chance would you happen to know where they are?" His face seemed emotionless but there was still a twinge of worry laced in his voice.

"Up on the fifth floor by lift, turn to the left until the end of the corridor," Ōtsubo answered. "But... If we may ask, sir, has this ever happened before?"

The man tilted his head to the side. "I guess none of them have told you yet, have they? I'll leave it up to them to tell you. As much as I would like to converse with you, I have to go see how my sons are doing." With that, he left the large group of boys, leaving them in an awkward silence as they did not want to disturb those left upstairs.

"Dammit! I knew I shouldn't have pushed you guys so hard..." Aomine cursed as he yanked on his own hair.

"No one knew this would happen. It's not your fault Aominecchi, right Seijūrōcchi?" Kise asked, wide-eyed like a little puppy. Seijūrō had his knees curled up to his face and did not answer the blond. He looked like he was sleeping, but the rest knew better. He was not going to respond to anything until his worries were dispelled.

"Seijūrō," a stern voice suddenly broke the tense silence. This time, the younger redhead immediately jerked his head up to look at the speaker, his father. This time, the man's voice softened, "Seijūrō, I know what you're thinking. This is no one's fault and neither is it yours. You know Tetsuya wouldn't like it if you keep blaming yourself like that."

The youngest of the group nodded slowly but remained quiet. The father went to sit with the few boys there until the door to the operation rooms opened. As usual, they rushed to see how Tetsuya was but was also met with the usual of him being unconscious from the morphine.

"His condition is currently stable but it seems that his condition may deteriorate. Just make sure that there are no loud sounds and give him space," the doctor said. "We will transfer him to the Tokyo Municipal Hospital as he was originally referred there." Tetsuya was then wheeled into the ICU.

Tetsuya cracked open an eyelid slowly. Everywhere was dark, which was good, since he had deduced from his tensed and feelingless body that he had been out for quite a while. He dared not move too much for the fear of opening any wounds. It was night time so he wondered if anyone was awake.

"Sei...? Are you awake?" he croaked out softly through the oxygen mask, slightly frowning at his raw throat.

There was a sharp inhale of breath before anyone talked. "Tetsuya? You're awake! And shh, you shouldn't be speaking. Just rest and sleep for today," he heard his brother whisper. He tried to reach for his brother and through the moonlight, Seijūrō grabbed his hand and lowered it, holding it until Tetsuya felt sleep overcoming his senses.

The next thing he knew, sunlight was filtering through the window that was not originally there the night before. He immediately shut his eyes to adjust to the blinding light. Was he in a different place now?

"You're finally awake, huh?" he heard a gruff voice say.

He opened his eyes once again to be met with gray. He coughed a few times before taking the oxygen mask and saying, "Haizaki-kun? Where *cought* am I? What about Se-"

"Oi, Tetsu, stop talking or one day I bet you you'll become mute. Anyway, you were brought to the Tokyo Municipal Hospital this morning. It's late afternoon now and everyone had to drag your stubborn hell of a brother back to your house to rest. Your father had to convince him for an hour too before he budged. He didn't sleep the whole time last night. Anyway, we're gonna be taking care of you while he's gone. The rest went to get drinks," Haizaki explained.

He walked over closer to the bed and sat down on the chair beside it. "So, how are you feeling?"

Tetsuya was about to answer before he was interrupted once again. "Wait, no, I told you not to talk. Bad right? I bet Seijūrō could see how bad it was with that eye of his." Just then, the rest of the Generation of Miracles including Seirin walked in. Aomine, Momoi and Kise were missing from the group as their teams had a match today.

"TETSUYA!" everyone shouted. Tetsuya cringed visibly while Haizaki yelled at them to shut up. He smiled weakly at them though he felt awfully drugged and tried to converse with them as much as he could.

It was evening when Seijūrō finally arrived at the hospital after a restless nap. By then, everyone had gone home, leaving the twins alone with their father who would be coming up to the room soon.

Seijūrō just sat beside the bed and there was a content silence between them. "Tetsuya..." Seijūrō started. "I saw it. It's getting worse. I don't want to say this, but it's so bad I thought you would have died there and then."

"I won't die. Not that easily. I promise you I will live through this, Sei-nii," Tetsuya smiled and said, his throat not as raw as before with so many of them fussing him to drink up previously.

Seijūrō frowned slightly but smoothed out his features immediately. It was going to be hard for Tetsuya to keep his promise. He and his father had just payed Doctor Midorima a visit to ask about Tetsuya's condition and was met with grave news.

Since the training camp in middle school, Tetsuya's condition had been worsening slowly, day by day, until his body had finally collapsed during the match yesterday. It was inevitable that Tetsuya's life would be shortened by a lot once again, with a very veeeery small chance that he may live through this. Seijūrō could see it too, with his Emperor Eye. Tetsuya had a hard time breathing or even talking and moving about. But it would do no good to give Tetsuya such grave news.

"I'll hold you to that then," Seijūrō replied, smiling as best as he could. "If you left the world, I don't think I can continue living on my own, you know that?"

"I've told you, I'll live through this. After all, I still have to take care of you and Father and help Seirin win the Winter Cup. We lost in the Interhigh, didn't we? And then Nigō would miss me so much. Our friends and especially Ogiwara-kun won't be able to bear this too right? I promised Mother that I would fight against this. But most importantly, don't you remember that promise we made on that birthday? So don't worry, I'll have recovered before you know it," Tetsuya tried to reassure his brother.

Seijūrō was utterly not convinced, though he did put up a front. He silently thought, "Tetsuya, don't you know that I can tell that you're lying? You've always been such a bad liar in my eyes. Nothing can fool me. You know that you won't live through this."

Before the talk could continue any further, their father came in and they ceased their chat.