Chapter 10: room mate

As their coach, and the oldest among Emi's supporters, Ukai couldn't, in good conscience, deprive her of proper medical care. He had agreed to help keep Emi's secret for a little longer, which meant letting her crash in his crappy little apartment. If she stayed with anyone from school, their parents would have a lot of questions, the answers to which she wasn't ready to give. That said, it only took Ukai a couple days with his new room mate before he realized she needed more.

Ukai was in the sitting area, looking over a few old games on his iPad, while Emi cleaned up a little in the kitchen. The space being so cramped, it was impossible not to hear her short gasp of pain.

Ukai jumped. "Emi?"

A second later — a second too long for comfort — Emi responded. "I'm good."

Her voice was clearly strained. Something was wrong. Ukai stood up.

"Hey." He approached her in the kitchen. Her back was to him, but he could just see a fist clenched up against her chest. Ukai frowned. "What's going on?"

Emi tried to clear her throat, only to wince. "N-nothing."

Ukai sighed. He turned the sink off, forcing Emi's attention. "Out with it, kid."

Emi opened her mouth to argue, but stopped with another short gasp of pain. He leaned over the sink, fist clenched harder against her chest.

"Woah." Ukai's face dropped. Not sure what to do, he reached for Emi's shoulders and turned her to him, trying to see what was wrong. "Hey. Kid. Where's it hurt?"

Emi couldn't speak yet. She even closed her eyes, but whether it was out of pain or embarrassment, Ukai couldn't tell.

Ukai looked at her fist, clearly indicating the source of her discomfort. He felt himself go cold.

"Your chest?" He said. "You got chest pain?"

Begrudgingly, still unable to talk, Emi nodded.

Ukai could only nod back, desperately thinking things over. Only then did he remember Daichi's warning — he'd mentioned Emi suffered from pretty severe heart palpitations now and again. What did he say to do about it? Something about….opening up her chest, and taking to her the hospital if they went on too long. How long was too long?

He didn't have time to panic. Emi's last palpitation was finally over, this was their chance to talk it out.

"I'm sorry," Emi said, seeming out of breath. "Just a little palpitation."

"You call that 'little'?"

Emi tried to smile. "The worst of it's probably over. Didn't mean to freak you out."

"Oh, no." Ukai's new coach instincts perked up, his tone strong and authoritative. "Those little reassurances might've worked on the boys, but I won't fold so easy. Come on." He started to lead her to the sitting room. "Off your feet. Now."

"Coach," Emi protested, "I —"

She gasped, curling over slightly. This time, Ukai could practically feel her tremble as the palpitation wracked through her. Oh, God, he thought, what do I do?

Clueless, he could only rely on his instincts, promptly sweeping Emi up and off her feet and carrying her to the nearest mattress. She was so light, so frail, he almost felt sick to his stomach. He lay her down as carefully as he could before sinking to his knees beside her. Something about her pinched expression made his heart ache, and before he knew it, he was taking her free hand and holding it tight.

"Take it easy, kid," he said, hoping she couldn't hear his voice falter slightly. "I got you."

"Sorry…" she said through gritted teeth, but he shushed her.

"None of that. No talking. Just breathe. Screw everything else, and just breathe."

Emi did her best, sucking breath between her teeth, and letting it wobble back out, until the palpitation simmered down. Ukai nodded, giving a tentative smile.

"There you go."

Maybe it should've been the fact that she hardly touched her meals, or kept trying to sneak in some exercise, or looked a little too long at sharp objects, that clued Ukai in. But it wasn't. It was those palpitations, reducing her to a shaking little girl, so frail and light in his arms, that finally scared the crap out of him. And it was only then that he realized he could not look after her the way she needed. Emi needed to be in hospital.

She resisted, of course, but Ukai promised she'd have a place to come back to in his tiny apartment. While she was being taken care of in a proper medical facility, he and the team would sort things out with her dad so that she could finally be safe and free from him.

It started with telling the school. As high up as the issue went, a police chief allegedly abusing his young, ill daughter, it almost fell out of Ukai's hands too many times. But, with the team's support, he was able to keep vouching for her, and pressing on, until matters were appropriately resolved. Thankfully there was plenty of evidence in Emi's favour, not to mention the entire boys volleyball team bearing witness to her struggle, and she ended up exactly where they promised. Free.

The day it happened, the court case finally resolved, the entire team came to see Emi in hospital. She tried not to cry, determined never to let the first years see her cry, but it was hard to keep it all in.

"Emiiiiiii!" Hinata cheered, barging into the room and wrapping her in a big hug. She was still in bed, but he did his best, reaching over the mattress to squeeze her shoulders tight.

"There's our gorgeous girl!" Noya said, grinning ear to ear.

"That's our Emi," Tanaka added, "sexy as ever!"

Naturally, their comments earned them a swift smack over the back of the head from their third-years, but no one stopped smiling.

Suga and Daichi approached the bed. They tapped Hinata to get him off Emi, and when that didn't work, they yanked him off. Suga dropped a kiss on the top of Emi's head.

"Hey, you," he said.

"Feeling alright?" From Daichi.

Emi nodded, so overcome with joy and gratitude she could hardly get a word out. "I feel perfect."

"Well, not quite perfect," Ukai piped up from the back fo the room, grumpily (worriedly) watching on as the boys fawned over Emi. "She's still got some recovery time to go."

"But…" Yamaguchi couldn't help but worry. "You are getting better, right?"

Emi smiled. "Yeah. A lot better."

"Well then," Tsukishima grumbled, trying to hide his blush. "Get better fast. These morons are even more insufferable when you're not around."

Tanaka grinned and reached up to ruffle Tsukishima's hair. "You want 'insufferable'? This grumpy little bastard hasn't stopped pouting since you left!"

Everyone laughed, and Tsukki only blushed harder. "Hey!"

"He's got a point," Kageyama said.

"Like you can talk!" Tsukishima snapped.

Hinata snorted. "Oh, yeah. The King's perfect tosses have been crazy off ever since —"

"What did you call me?!"

Fondly rolling his eyes, Daichi took Emi's hand. "Needless to say, our team manager has been missed."

Noya scoffed. "Talk about understatement!"

Asahi nodded. "We really miss you, Emi."

"And we're proud of you," Daichi said. "The stuff you've been through is enough to make most people give up, but here you are. Smiling. Getting back on your feet."

At that, Emi had to keep smiling, but her jaw hardened as she struggled to hold back her tears. "I could never have done it without you guys."

Tanaka smirked, but he couldn't help but blush when he said, "We promised to protect you, remember?"

"And that hasn't changed, by the way!" Noya added. "No one messes with our team manager!"

And finally, a single tear spilt from Emi's eye. She sniffed once. "Thank you, all of you…so much."

Hinata's face dropped. "You guys! She's crying!"

Kageyama was next to panic. "W-what? Crying?"

"Emi, we're sorry!" Yamaguchi gushed. "Please don't cry!"

Asahi, Nishinoya and Tanaka had already started to cry with her, while Tsukishima rolled his eyes.

"Pretty sure those are happy tears, you guys."

But before long, pretty much everyone was crying, discreetly or otherwise, and smiling like lunatics. Coach Ukai watched from the door, his own eyes glassy. Soon, he'd be ready to take Emi home.