When Viktor's face went pale, Yuuri knew something was wrong. He sprinted as fast as he could, watching the confusion on Viktor's face morph into absolutely nothing at all. His eyes rolled up into his head, and he collapsed onto the stage.
"VIKTOR!" Yuuri ran up the stairs, pushing through Viktor's clustered band mates. He fell to his knees, pulling Viktor up onto his lap. Checking his pulse, he felt a faint beat, and he sighed with relief.
But Viktor still wasn't breathing.
"Somebody call the hospital! He's dying!" Chris sprang into action, pulling out his phone and dialing the police. Once the call was made, he crouched down next to Yuuri. Yuuri could tell he was surprised by the tears on his face.
"What happened to him?!" He pressed his forehead against Viktor's, crying loudly.
"I don't know, Yuuri. I don't know." Chris lightly held Yuuri's wrist, tugging him away from Viktor. Yuuri glared at him, holding onto Viktor for dear life.
"We have to give him space!" yelled Chris. Yuuri wasn't taking any of it. He leaned down.
"Viktor, please, if you love me, wake up!" He kissed him lightly on the mouth, hugging him. Chris stepped back; Yuuri knew his gestures of affection were surprising to him and the rest of Viktor's band mates, but he wouldn't stop because of that.
The ambulance arrived in minutes, but it felt like forever. One of the medical personnel asked the band what happened, listening to each of them in turn.
"Okay, only one person can come in the ambulance with us. Do you know if Mr. Nikiforov has a girlfriend and such?" Yuuri stepped forward.
"I'll go. Please. He doesn't have a girlfriend. I'm the closest he's got." The man looked fine with this, and he pulled Yuuri up into the van. Yuuri sat on the farthest end of the ambulance, the tears in his eyes impeding his vision. He stared at Viktor as the three other doctors took his blood pressure, monitored his heart, etc. He looked terrified.
When the doctor closed the doors, Yuuri asked the man what had happened to Viktor, the tears in his eyes threatening to spill over. The man looked at Yuuri.
"We don't have any definitive causes of illness at the moment, and it wouldn't be fair to claim anything either. It could be as severe as a severe Flu or worse, but it could also be as mild as a cold. He doesn't seem to have had much liquids in the past few days, so it could be that as well. We truly don't know yet." Yuuri felt his head slink downwards, his tears running freely against his cheeks.
"The only thing we CAN say definitively is that it is very unlikely that he will die at this point." Yuuri nodded, still not entirely convinced.
The hospital was a tall 27 story brick building seated right on the beach. Yuuri barely noticed the impressive building before they were inside the garage. He was too busy focusing on Viktor, whose face was set in a look of serenity, but Yuuri knew that this didn't mean anything about what was going on inside. The mask over his face blocked much of his face from Yuuri's view, but his hand lay open, an IV sticking out of his arm near the elbow. Yuuri reached out, grabbing his hand. He gripped it tightly, crying freely at this point. The doctor put his arm on Yuuri's shoulder, reminding him of Viktor's touch earlier that day. Yuuri pulled away, crying harder.
He hadn't even had one day with Viktor before he got sick.
The doctors rushed Viktor from the van, Yuuri running behind. The doors peeled open, and the medics wheeled Viktor into one of the emergency rooms. They got to work, checking him for various illnesses and such.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Katsuki, but you can't stay here. Only family can come in here with him," said the doctor he'd spoken to in the van. He was reluctantly pulled away from Viktor into another room adjacent to Viktor's room.
Yuuri sat in the room for nearly four hours. The doctors continued working on Viktor. Yuuri was reunited with Viktor's band mates nearly an hour into his stay. They'd taken a car, but there had been traffic, and it had taken them a while to get to the hospital. When the doctor finally came in, hour later, they'd released the information that Viktor was in a coma.
Yuuri, Chris, JJ, Otabek, and Yuri Plisetzky, who they'd started to call Yurio, all sat there unmoving, shocked into silence. They asked what had happened to him.
"ARDS." A look of confusion.
"Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. It means that he has fluid in his lungs, similar to a pneumonia. It's reducing the amount of oxygen that's able to be transported throughout the body in the blood. It was triggered by the Flu, but his sickness wasn't that bad before ARDS set in. ARDS can be a deadly illness, but we expect that he'll recover. We won't know if he'll suffered any long-term problems until after he wakes up from his coma, however." The doctor looked sad, leaving the room quietly as it was filled with sobbing.
3 days later. 4:32 AM.
"Guys…" Yuuri shook their shoulders, his relief barely visible beneath his tears of happiness.
"He's awake! Guys, he's awake!" Yuuri yelled. Chris woke up, sitting up in his chair and running into the room. Otabek and Yurio were next. JJ was the hardest to wake up, but was up and in with the others in moments, Yuuri running close behind.
Viktor sat up in the bed, talking to Chris as he laughed. Yuuri felt his heart swell, happiness filling him to the brim.
"Otabek, JJ! Yurio!" He called. Viktor embraced each of them. Yuuri ran up to him, hugging him tightly. Viktor didn't hug him back very much though. When he pulled back, the tears on his face still flowing, Viktor looked confused.
"And who, may I ask are you?" He looked at Yuuri, not an air of recognition in his eyes. Yuuri stood back, staring at Viktor as he backed up. Then he turned and sprinted from the room, tears flowing from his eyes and hitting the tile floor as he ran.
