Comfort In Distress

7

"The games on"

It had taken both teenagers by surprise. Neither of the two boys knew if the game was going to continue or not due to the severity of the situation. Number 15 had literally snapped his wrist without a second thought or a reason. So they either kicked him out of the game/team or they had no proof that's how the injury happened. They both hoped it was the first option. Asahi stood up first, not letting go of Nishinoya's good hand as he too got off of the examination table.

They began to follow behind coach Ukai and Takeda. Nishinoya kept his eyes forward and his grip tight on Asahi's hand. While the gentle giant kept his gaze on Nishinoya. It was obvious his worried about the smaller male. Who wouldn't be? Though, Asahi was notorious for being worried and overthinking things. This time, however, he felt like he had a perfectly fine reason for being worried. He had never seen Nishinoya visibly show he was in pain. He was the libero, he had bruises littering his body but this was nothing compared any of those past injuries. Seeing Nishinoya be so emotionally distraught along with physical pain, it almost left the ace speechless. Now here they were, walking through the gymnasium doors, all eyes locked in the two as they entered.

Despite seeming to be anxious earlier about everyone seeing him, Nishinoya kept walking, his eyes glued forward, as if nothing could touch him. Ashai, was the opposite. He stayed close to him, hand in hand with the libero, but his anxiety spiked. He could feel everyone's eyes, from both teams and from the few spectators that had decided to show up. Rumors spreads quickly, it wasn't a surprise. Asahi hated it but he stood tall, trying to make it look like nothing was bothering him.

They eventually made their way to the team, who quickly surrounded the two, immediately began bombarding them with questions. Nishinoya blinked a few times, turning his head to the next person who opened their mouth, trying to process what was going on. Asahi just stood there, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Alright alright! That's enough let the kids breath!"Ukai interrupted, seeing that both, the libero and the ace, seemed to be getting overwhelmed. The team quickly hushed at their coach's warnings. Their loud questioning, turning into soft whispers and eventually silence.

"I'm fine guys! Don't worry about me so much, I'm alright!"Nishinoya started with a bright smile. It seemed to calm the team down for the most part but Asahi mentally sighed. He wouldn't call this fine. Nishinoya should've been on his way to the closest hospital by now. Instead, he was still here, waiting for the game to start, with a poorly wrapped wrist that was probably broken, maybe fractured at best.

"Are you sure your ok? Even with the news"Hinata asked, popping up in front of his larger teammates, eye level with the libero.

His smile faltered slightly, but his lips still curved upward in his face as he shook his head. A look of confusion overcoming his features as he looked at the orange haired boy. "What are you talking about? What news?"He asked confused.

The whole team suddenly seemed to shut up. No one saying a word which was odd for the normally loud group. They were normally so loud and upbeat but it was like a wave had crashes down on them and no one knew what to say in that moment. Eventually Kagayama broke the silence, delivering a harsh smack to the back of Hinata's head, creating a loud smacking noise that echoing throughout the gym. Hinata jumped and sucked in a sharp breath of pun as he felt the impact.

"Kagayama! What the heck-!"He questioned loudly, turning his head to look at the raven haired male.

"He didn't know idiot! You weren't supposed to tell him yet!"He growled, looking at the shorter male, who's face turned from anger to confusion and  finally realization.

"Guys. What's going on?"Nishinoya asked, his smile still not completely faded as he looked at his teammates. At his friends. Who weren't telling him anything. It clearly involved him, so what was the big deal? He didn't understand the situation. He was trying to keep positive but it was hard when they were clearly hiding something from him.

Eventually Tanaka stepped up. He felt like it was his duty to as Nishinoya's best and most trusted friend that it was only fair that he broke the news to him. He walked in front of the libero and took a deep breath. He was being serious and it sent a shiver up Nishinoya's spine. Tanaka never looked this serious in his entire life. Something was wrong and he knew it.

"Number 15 is playing Yuu"

Nishinoya froze at the words. His small smile finally breaking as it faded away. Everything seemed to freeze in time as he heard those five simple words come out of his best friends mouth. His eyes moved to the ground and they moved back up, locking with Tanaka's. He was being serious. They were letting this asshole play in the match. He wanted to scream, he wanted to go over to the refs and demand they force him out of the game but the words seems to be stuck in the back of his throat as his good hand clenched tighter around Asahi's hand.

"No...no! That's not right! Why the hell is he playing!?"Asahi shouted. Asahi's outburst broke Nishinoya out of his trance as he looked up at his friend. He was mad, he was furious. It was odd seeing the normally gentle giant act is aggressive, even if he was just shouting, that was normally out of his comfort zone.

"They're still going over footage"Suga huffed. "We were told that they couldn't get through all of the footage to prove that 15 actually hurt Nishinoya so they'd have to wait until after the match"The silver haired boy was obviously angry too. How dare anyone hurt one of his precious children? He wanted to go all Sugamama on number 15 but Daichi stopped him quickly. Though Daichi wasn't too far from starting something either. Everyone wasn't exactly thrilled with the situation.

"Listen, let's win this ok! We gotta win this for Nishinoya!"Daichi shouted, earning a louder response from the team as they agreed. They began to head onto the court and Asahi moved in front of Nishinoya, not letting go of his hand.

"I'm going to spike his head in alright? Just rest for now"Asahi has a waver in his voice but he wasn't joking about the spike. He was going to spike them into the ground. He needed to let out his anger anyways, he hated feeling so mad. Nishinoya nodded softly. "You better!"

Asahi smiled softly, his normal gentleness returning to his facial features. He was about to say something but he was quickly cut off by Daichi's voice, urging him to get onto the court. Asahi sighed and let go of his hand, moving onto the court.

Nishinoya watched as Asahi made his way onto the court and Suga gently put a pale hand on his shoulder, making Nishinoya to move his gaze away from Asahi and to his vice captain.

"Come on,  you should rest"He said softly, Nishinoya nodded and walked over to the bench, sitting down as he was accompanied by Suga. His sharp amber eyes stayed glued to the court as the whistle blew. The game was on.