If the waiting for the ambulance wasn't bad enough, the waiting for the doctor to come out was killing Asahi. Hinata had told them what he already knew, that it was a really rare blood-disease. Even though he didn't knew how serious it was, he knew that Nishinoya had had it for years. Even since he was in his early teens. Hinata's guess was that Nishinoya had probably overworked himself or because of stress, both guesses seemed logical when it came to Nishinoya. Finally, the painful waiting was over.
"Well, well. That was a close call. Good that you called so quickly, another minute and he wouldn't have made it" The doctor, a tall middle-age man, said.
"How serious is it?" Daichi asked.
"Either way we would have to draw blood from him, but since he was unconscious it was a hard decision to make. Begin unconscious makes the blood run slower, and drawing blood makes it run even slower. He could have died if the wrong decision was made. But now he is fine, we're letting him rest now and drawing blood later. Hopefully, the medicines should only have positive results. But you never know with him..."
The waiting hall went silent, the whole team thinking the same thing. It was Kageyama who broke the silence.
"What kind of disease is that he has? Since he hasn t told us much in detail".
"Well his disease is really, REALLY rare. It is a change in the number of red blood cells. They are far too many, which makes the blood run slower than usual. This results in sight problems, unusually tiredness and easily getting dizzy. The fact he fainted was because of the lack of oxygen passing to the brain, which in turn is a result of a thrombus. The medicine is helping to loosen the thrombus and making the blood run a bit faster. Hopefully, we can remove blood by the end of the day..."
"My god..." Both Suga and Hinata looked on the verge of crying. Daichi, who sat beside Suga, tried to comfort his boyfriend by holding his hand. Kageyama, not sure how to handle the situation, tried his best to comfort Hinata by putting his hands on the smaller boy's shoulders and rubbing circles with his thumb.
"Can... Can something be done? I mean, he has lived with it for so many years. Is there really no cure for this?" Suga said with shaky breaths.
"The next step in the evolution is a new disease called Polycythemia Vera. When it gets that far, it cannot be cured". Hinata froze.
"Did you just say... Polycythemia Vera?"
"Hm? You know about it?"
"Is it... really that bad?"
"Is it bad? How bad is it, Hinata?!" Asahi said, almost yelling at Hinata. Said boy flinched but was quickly comforted by Kageyama.
"Azumane. I know that you are worried, we all are. But snapping at people won't help!" He said, almost hugging the smaller boy in front of him.
"You're right... Sorry Hinata" Asahi said, his head hanging.
"So you have some medical knowledge. Then what is the next step, young man? What is the next step in the evolution" The doctor said, surprised that someone at Hinata's age knew about such a disease.
"...Acute... leukemia" The answer almost came in a whisper. The hall went silent again.
"Leukemia?" Daichi asked, not sure if he heard it right.
"That's right. Acute myeloid leukemia, blood cancer. Nishinoya is lucky to be under 60 years old, but that doesn't mean that he is safe. If he develops Polycythemia Vera, the chance that he survives may be smaller. We're not 100% sure". By now neither Suga nor Hinata could hold it anymore, and tears started to fall down their cheeks.
"But all hope is not out yet. He may have been sick for a long time, but that has given us an insight in his condition. And we think we have a solution" The doctor said, a grin growing on his lips.
"Really?!"
"Yes. But the solution itself is a problem. To do it, we might need your help".
"Just do it" Daichi said. "Nishinoya is a member of our team and our friend. We don't leave anyone out". The doctor smiled.
"I'm thankful to hear that. Our solution is to try and remove as much of his blood as possible and replace it with healthy new blood. If the majority of his blood is healthy, then it will force the bone marrow to produce more healthy red blood cells, and hopefully create a balance between the amount of red and white blood cells. But for that we need lot of blood, and our hospital doesn't have that amount for the moment, so we need anyone of you to donate. Nishinoya's blood group is A".
"I have blood group 0, I'll do it" Hinata said.
"I also have A, I'm also in" Asahi said.
"That's great. His mother is also on the way, so we need a few more. Please find more as soon as possible" The doctor asked.
"When... When can we see him?" Asahi asked.
"He is resting now, so he won't wake up in a couple of hours. Come back tomorrow and we'll see". With that, everyone left with heavy steps and hearts.
Next day, Hinata and Asahi along with Tsukishima, Kenma and Ennoshita went to the hospital again. Tsukishima, Kenma and Ennoshita had agreed to come along since they had the same blood group as Nishinoya, and Nekoma wasn' t going to leave anytime soon. Most of them finished quickly and decided to head back to report any news about the situation. Asahi waited for Hinata to finish, to keep the poor boy company if needed, but mostly to see if he could meet Nishinoya.
He hadn't gotten any sleep last night, only worrying about the boy. He already knew since a year back that he was in love with Nishinoya, but he couldn 't help but to be scared whenever Nishinoya spoke to him or tried to lecture him. He wished he didn' t, since he wanted to have a normal conversation with him, to one day hopefully tell him how he feel. But if he fell any further like Hinata and the doctor said, then it would soon be too late.
Hinata came out of the room for the blood donating, a compress fixed to his forearm.
"How did it go?" Asahi asked.
"Not too bad. Had a bit of a bleeding afterwards, though. But that's pretty much it, I'm used to see blood so it's no problem at all" The boy said with his signature smile shining on his face. "The doctor said that Noya had woken up during our absence, so let's go and see him!" He said and took a surprisingly strong grip on his arm, and basically dragged him along the way. They soon arrived outside the door to Nishinoya's room. The door itself had a really small window on the upper half of it, and there was a big window right beside the door. That window covered most of the wall, so visitors and doctors easily could see who was inside. Inside was Nishinoya laying in his bed, looking quite lonely because he was the only one in there. No roommates or other doctors was in sight.
"Come on, let's see him" Asahi didn't have any time before Hinata opened the door and stepped inside. Nishinoya looked a bit paler than usual, but not as pale as yesterday. His hair was down as well, he had probably washed it when he woke up or it was like that this morning. He was staring out the window beside the bed, the sun shined through and coloured the room in a warm and soft yellow colour. When Hinata closed the door, a bit harder than necessary, he noticed them.
"Hinata, Asahi? Hey, guys! Sorry about yesterday…" He said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it! How are you feeling?" Hinata said.
"A bit better. I'm going to remove a bit blood this afternoon. It was supposed to be done yesterday, but the medicine made me sleep through the entire day" Nishinoya said.
"By the way, I got your bag with me. It was left in the gymnasium when the ambulance came. Thought you might need it at some point" Hinata said and dropped the bag by the bed.
"Oh, thank you Hinata. Had completely forgotten about it..."
"Don't sweat it" Then the room went silent.
"Uhmm... I'm sorry" Nishinoya suddenly said.
"What?"
"I told Hinata, but I didn't told anyone else. I knew that if I made it sound like it wasn't a big deal, then he wouldn't mention it anymore… I just didn't want it to get out to you guys" Nishinoya said, burying his face in his knees, which was covered by the white blanket. He hugged his knees, making him look much smaller than usual. Hinata took the uncomfortable hint and silently left the room. Asahi was left in the room with Nishinoya, obviously not knowing what to do next. Sure he was sad that he hadn't told him anything, but he must have a good reason not to.
"Hey, Nishinoya. Can I ask why you didn't say anything?" He finally said, the silence was breaking him.
"…"
"Please?"
"… I didn't want that to happen again" Nishinoya said.
"What happened?"
"I was 11 when I was first diagnosed. When I told my teachers and friends about it, they started to make everything easier for me. Ridiculously easy, like I wouldn't be able to do it otherwise, probably to make fun of me. And it was simple things that was a piece of cake before, and still were. They started to see me as 'weak', even though I told them it was nothing, I could still do things" He explained. His face was still in his knees, but his shoulder had started to shake slightly.
"I needed something to do, something that no one could complain about that I was weak. My doctor suggested that I'd try any sport, it would help me tackle the disease as well. I tried everything, but it wasn't until Junior High that I found it. We had volleyball one day, and I received a ball on my first try. My teacher was stunned and suggested the volleyball-club for me. I joined, and ended up as a libero. It was perfect for me, not to challenging so I couldn't overwork myself so easily, but still an important role in the match" He looked up and smiled slightly. It wasn't his usual grin, it was an honest, sad smile.
"I was so happy when I came to Karasuno, were no one knew about all of this. I could have a fresh start and be a part of you all. I was so afraid that if I told you, it would end up the same all over again. I tried my best to hide it away from you, coming up with excuses whenever it was time for a hospital visit, or when my disease started to affect me, like it would mostly once every month. But then we postponed my visit this month, to see if it made any difference and I felt no different. And I probably started to train more than usual since I was affected so greatly this time. Usually I just get really dizzy and have sometimes trouble seeing. So, sorry for lying to you for all this time and sorry for begin a burden to you…"
Asahi didn't said anything. He sat on a chair right by the bed, his face serious but otherwise emotionless. Nishinoya flinched at the sight, trying to figure out what the other was possibly thinking.
'I messed up. Oh my god, I messed up so badly! He's probably furious right now!' He thought. 'Please forgive me! Please forgive me, please forgive me...' Nishinoya had been too distracted with hyperventilating, that he hadn't noticed Asahi standing up and walking closer to the bed. The next second, he felt strong warm arms wrapping around him and pulling him close to another body. Asahi let his forehead rest against Nishioya's head, while making circles with his thumbs to calm the other down. Nishinoya flinched at the contact, but soon relaxed as it didn't feel threatening. In fact, it felt really comforting and inviting.
"Schhh… It's okay, Nishinoya. I'm not angry at you" Asahi said.
"Why aren't you?"
"Because I would have done the same. I understand if the thought of being neglected is scary, I know how that feels. And for such a reason as you have, there's no way that I can ever hate you. I believe the other will think the same thing. It's only logical..."
Nishinoya just nodded into his chest, feeling tears threatening to spill over. Asahi noticed the others attempt to wipe them away and pulled back a bit. The sight of Nishinoya with his hair down, eyes red and filled with tears was more than enough to almost break him. He gently stroke his thumbs over Nishinoya's eyes, carefully removing all of it. Then they heard the sound of high-heels quickly walking the corridors. The person in question soon came just outside the door.