Kageyama Tobio was awake, in pain, and had no idea where he was. His eyes were closed, but he was awake. He felt like maybe he'd been in pain for a while, like maybe this wasn't as bad as it could be. He listened for a minute. There was a steady, rhythmic beeping coming from somewhere behind him. There was the sound of raindrops on the window panes.
He opened his eyes a bit and looked around. He was in a mostly white room, with a bed, which he was in, and a few chairs, one of which held his sister, and one of which held a stranger. His sister seemed to be asleep, and the stranger was writing in a notebook.
He looked down at his body. He was wearing an unfamiliar blue grey gown, and had a bracelet on his wrist with his name and birthday on it, but focusing on it too hard hurt his head. His right arm was elevated on a pillow, and some kind of cold pack was on his shoulder. That... was somewhat familiar. He felt like he might have told someone his shoulder was hurting a while ago. His left arm had an IV going into it.
So, he was in the hospital. That much was clear. How he got there, he had no idea. Miwa was there, so it must have been fairly serious. His mom was not, which didn't really surprise him, but told him that he must not be dying. He couldnt remember much, other than flashes of hospital machinery and being in pain.
"You're awake." A familiar voice spoke. His gaze returned to his sister, who was now looking at him, tears in her eyes. The lady in the chair also had her eyes on him, but he decided to ignore her for now.
"Yeah." He said, finding his voice a bit scratchy. Miwa stood from her chair and went to his side, taking his hand into hers.
"I'm so glad you're okay." She dropped to a squat and put her forehead on his hand. Tobio didn't know what to do or say, so he stayed quiet and still. After a moment, she stood back up and wiped the tears from her eyes on her sleeve. "How are you feeling?" she asked, trying very hard to force a brave voice.
"My head hurts." He admitted softly. Miwa laughed a bit through her tears. He gave her a confused look.
"I would say so," she wiped her eyes again and smiled. "Five stitches, a skull fracture, and a major concussion would concur with your head pain."
"Skull fracture? Concussion??" he asked, his own facial expression causing him pain.
"Yep, that's what the doc told me," Miwa replied, gently massaging the back of Tobio's hand with her thumbs. "Do you remember anything that happened?"
The younger Kageyama thought for a minute. Everything was very fuzzy. The last thing he could really remember was finishing his exam the morning before. or at least, he thought that was the morning before. To save time, and not worry his sister, he shook his head.
"Apparently, you had some kind of accident playing volleyball and fell on your face and shoulder."
That didn't sound familiar to Tobio at all. He tried hard to remember, but all it did was hurt his head. "Are..." he asked, "are you sure?"
"Yeah, your faculty advisor guy called me at work to tell me. I left right in the middle of a haircut to drive down here." Miwa seemed proud of this, but Tobio could only imagine the poor person she left with half a haircut.
"Oh! Your whole volleyball team was here yesterday, but the doctor said he didn't want any extra stress on your body, so they weren't allowed in to see you. But they left you a card." She reached over to the bedside table and handed him the card. It was completely full with signatures and notes from all of his teammates, but trying to read the different styles of handwriting made him dizzy and nauseated. He handed it back to her.
"I'll read it in a little while," he croaked, laying his head back into his pillow and closing his eyes.
Miwa moved back to her chair and Tobio heard her chuckle. He peeked an eye at her.
"What's so funny?" he grumbled, mostly joking.
"You just look like a panda bear. It's cute," She commented. When he looked confused, she continued. "Oh, you haven't seen yourself. You've got two black eyes. Do they hurt?"
"Black eyes?" he asked, touching the space under his eyes with his left hand. They didn't seem to hurt.
"Yeah, apparently it's something that happens with a skull fracture. You also have this brutal looking bruises behind your right ear." Kageyama touched it too, wincing a bit at the pain in his right shoulder. The bruise itself didn't hurt.
"I must've fallen hard or something," He rested his arm back into the pillow and readjusted his cold pack with his left hand.
"It seems like it," Miwa crossed her legs and pulled her jacket over her lap. "I didn't ask for a whole lot of information from your teacher because I was so worried, so I'm not sure exactly what happened. But I'm sure your teammates will be by after school today. They can probably fill you in."
"Yeah." Tobio sighed a little. He wasn't sure if he believed that they'd be back. They were probably shaken up when it happened and felt like they needed to see with their own eyes that he was okay, but surely they'd all calmed down now. He felt pretty dizzy, but he didn't feel sleepy enough to lay around with his eyes closed. He was just extremely uncomfortable, all around.
"Do you need anything at all?" The woman by the door spoke. Oh. He'd forgotten she was here. He looked over at her. She was dressed in hospital scrubs, and smiled pleasantly. He figured she must be some kind of a nurse. He didn't have time to ask, as she continued, "Oh, sorry! My name is Hikari, I'm a nurse. The doctor ordered that someone needed to be with you at all times for the first 24 hours, to make sure you can be awakened properly." Kageyama kind of nodded at her.
"Uh," he thought for a minute. "Actually, I kinda feel like I need the bathroom," he replied, uncomfortable, but also unsure of what he'd need to do, considering he was attached to a tube and metal pole.
"Oh! okay, hold on just a moment!" She stood and turned to the window to the hallway behind her. She knocked on the window. Another nurse sitting in a chair on her computer in the hall turned around, nodded, and came in.
"Sorry, but since we aren't sure how well you're gonna be walking, I'd rather be safe than sorry." Tobio scowled a little at the idea of having two women have to stand with him while he went to pee. "You wouldn't want it to just be me if you started to faint, would you?" He didn't need any more time to consider that. He shook his head. "Okay then, let's go!" They helped him to the side of the bed, have him a moment to gather his strength, and helped him to his feet.
Instantly, his head started pounding even more than it had been. He stood still for a second, waiting for it to pass, but it didn't.
"You okay?" one of the nurses asked. He nodded a bit, and started walking.
The nurses were actually surprised at how well he was able to stand and balance, all things considered. But he felt incredibly dizzy. Miwa took one look at him, and her expression turned serious.
"Hey, you two better watch out," she interjected, "He's got that 'i'm gonna barf' look on his face."
She wasn't wrong. The teen's whole world was spinning, and his head was throbbing. He was suddenly very nauseated, and tried to stop for a minute to catch his breath, but the nurses urged him on.
"Bathroom's this way dear," The other nurse crooned, practically dragging the miserable boy along.
"I'm telling you guys-" Miwa urged, but it was too late.
Tobio's stomach hit the eject button, and a stream of hot liquid shot out of his mouth and onto the floor, his gown, and one of the nurse's shoes. The nurses gasped a bit, but kept ahold of him. Hikari switched her hold on him, putting his left arm around her shoulders, and rubbed his back with her hand. Tobio's pallid face flushed a rosy red. "S-(hiccup!) sorry..." His voice sounded choked.
"No need to be sorry, darling," the nurse whose shoes he ruined said in a calming voice. "Your sister tried to warn us! Do you think you can make it the rest of the way to the bathroom?" Kageyama cleared his throat a little bit, nodding.
He swung a foot out, around the mess he'd made in the floor, and powered quickly through to the bathroom.
Miwa stifled the urge to giggle. She'd tried to warn them. Tobio hadn't changed much since he was a kid, she supposed to herself. He still made the exact same "feeling sick" face as he did when she helped care for him as a child. She remembered one time, when Tobio was in the third grade, they'd been preparing to go on a day trip to the beach. The car had been entirely packed, the swimsuits were on, and right as soon as they were about to get Tobio in the car, She'd noticed that familiar look on her brother's face. She'd alerted their Grandpa just in time that "Tobio doesn't look so good," before her brother had vomited all over his shoes, his legs, and the sidewalk below him. His grandpa had ended up scolding him for not being honest about his health, but they still went to the beach the next day.
From inside the bathroom, she could hear a few more episodes of vomiting from her poor concussed brother. It was mostly the sound of liquid rushing, occasionally a few coughs. He had never been very loud. This was something he'd picked up early on, as their mother didn't tolerate being woken up late at night very well, and for a while, especially after their dad died, he was sick to his stomach often.
After a few moments of silence, there was the more rhythmic sound of his bladder voiding, then the toilet flushing, and then the three returned to the bedroom, sidestepping the puddle of vomit in the floor, and quickly returned the unsteady teen back to his bed. He was now quite sweaty, and he relaxed heavily into his pillows, closing his eyes and trying hard to regain composure.
The nurses fussed about, cleaning the floor, replacing the cool pack on his shoulder with a fresh one, and helping him change into a clean gown. They left a yellow plastic basin at the bedside, ("in case you feel nauseated anymore," Hikari teased) and the nurse whose shoes had been assaulted left to clean herself up. After a moment, Tobio spoke.
"You..." he swallowed hard, stifling a hiccup, "You weren't kidding... about the panda bear thing," There was the barest hint of a smile on his face. Miwa couldn't help but smile in return. "That sucked," he whispered under his breath, pulling his blankets up to his chin as a chill wracked his thin frame.
Miwa took another long look at her brother. He was so pale. He'd always been fairly pale, but so had she, with the stark difference between skin color and hair color. But this was different. He almost seemed a little grey in color. Now, with the two blackened eyes and tousled damp black hair, he looked almost like a totally different person.
"What are you staring at?" Her brother asked in a fake angry voice, smirking a bit despite his discomfort.
"You, dumbass," She snarked back, in the same fake angry voice. She chuckled, then sighed. She could tell this brief time of being awake had really worn him out. "You look really tired," She commented.
"Yeah. I feel really tired." He was having trouble focusing on anything again, his eyes fighting to stay open. "You said I have a concussion, right?"
"Yeah," a concerned tone in Miwa's voice. "Why?"
"I just..." he rubbed his eyes with the back of his left hand. "I feel like I'm not thinking super straight. I... can't think. Is that normal?"
"That's probably not unusual, with all your head's been though." She watched as he yawned, stretching as much as he could in the bed without hurting himself. "Do you need me to shut up for a while so you can sleep?"
He shook his head a bit, but his eyes were drifting. "I think that even if you don't shut up, it's gonna happen, whether I like it or not."
"Okay, well, let me know if you need anything, okay?" Miwa dropped her voice low. Her brother was already mostly asleep, his breathing becoming long and heavy.
"Mmhmm..." he moaned, and was lost to his fatigue.
Miwa was lost in thought for a few moments. Other than being a little confused and in a lot of pain, he seemed mostly okay.
She watched as he slept, grateful for the people who took such good care of him while she was away. She hoped they would come back, so she could thank them.
