Guardian (Nishinoya x Reader) 🏐

Chapter 22: Guardian

*Tobio's POV*

I can't believe I let this happen.
I promised to protect her.

The drive to the emergency room felt agonizingly long, despite only being twelve minutes away from the school. Kuroo just finished filling us in about my sister's unexpected incident. He explained that he didn't understand why she had suddenly passed out, as not even a minute before she was playing at full capacity. Yet, Nishinoya and I both shared a knowing look from the back seat when he mentioned her sudden collapse, followed by blacking out. Although she's never experienced an effect this bad from malnourishing herself, we knew that was the only possible explanation for the shocking incident.

Should we tell him?
Can we trust him?

Before I had anymore time to think it over, Nishinoya spoke up for us, "I wonder when she last ate anything..." his voice trailed off.

Picking my brain, I thought back to the last few days. Usually, I chucked some sort of food at her face in the mornings, whether that be fruit or a granola bar or something, but thinking about it now, I don't remember actually seeing her eat what I tossed at her.  And because of my recent late training sessions, she either went home with Nishinoya or stayed late with me. By the time we arrived at home, she would complain that it was too late to eat dinner and refused any food I offered to her. On top of that, she joined us in ALL our penalty jogs up the hill, meaning she was burning energy that wasn't there.

I'm such an idiot.
How did I not notice?

Nishinoya and I shared a glance once more. I shook my head indicating that I couldn't recall her last meal. Our faces paled. We quickly turned our heads and stared down at our laps, clenching our fists in frustration as extreme guilt overwhelmed us.

A voice boomed from the front of the car, "It's cute and all that you two are giving each other looks, but I would kind of like some insight as to what's going on." Kuroo peered at us through the review mirror.

"Right. Sorry," was all my monotone voice could spit out.

Thankfully, Nishinoya covered for me instead. "She has an eating disorder. We, uh, we can't recall when her last meal was. And she... and she has been overexerting herself all day, using energy she didn't have."

"Actually, come to think of it... I don't think she drank much water either. She was so focused on keeping us hydrated, she forgot about her own health," I chimed in.

I can't believe I was so selfish yet again.

I was so focused on my fight with Hinata and perfecting my set, that I didn't even notice my own twin sister struggling. All on her own. By herself. How can I even call myself her brother?

Kuroo and Bokuto were left speechless in the front seats. But to our surprise, Bokuto was the first to speak up, "I'm so sorry guys. I wish we knew. When she asked to join us, we should've recognized that she wasn't well." He sounded sincerely upset. Unusual for the goofy ace.

"Well that's just the thing. She's so good at hiding it. She puts on a brave smile and continues to stay happy and energetic until she is just physically incapable of continuing," Nishinoya explained. "So you really shouldn't feel bad about it."

Wow. He really pays attention to the small details. I knew he cared about my sister, but after observing how my parents treated her, I didn't think anyone else would ever care about her as much as I did. Apparently I was wrong. And this time, I am glad I was wrong.

Now it was Kuroo's turn to speak up, "It kind of all makes sense now." Everyone stayed silent, listening intently. "At the last training camp, I took away Kenma's game to get him to eat, but even though I removed all of Y/N's distractions, she still wouldn't." He paused momentarily, recalling the memory. "I remember she looked nervous, breathing heavily over the mention of eating dinner. Especially with a large group of people around." Kuroo let out a heavy sigh. "At the time I didn't know why, but I could tell there were other issues underlying her words that she wasn't yet ready to tell me."

Interesting. Maybe I was wrong altogether. Since my parents never seemed to look out for her, for so long I believed it was my job and my job alone to protect my sister. But now, there were two boys in the front seat of the car, genuinely worried about her health and safety as well. Not only that, but there were two reliable boys, in another car further ahead of us, who also dropped everything to get Y/N to safety. Sugawara especially shared this same deep care for her. He picked up on her eating disorder almost immediately and most importantly, he didn't shy down from acting as another support system for her.

Then there was Oikawa, my sworn enemy. But regardless of how he felt towards me, he has protected my sister. Once, when he saved her from Yuki back in middle school. And then again when she trusted him enough to confide in him about her eating disorder. He didn't judge her. He accepted it and offered his support too. I knew he checked up on her occasionally. When I passed by Y/N's room, she would sometimes be on the phone with him, just reviewing her day, a light smile resting on her face. A genuine smile that told me everything would be okay.

Honestly... you know... if the whole Karasuno team knew... they'd probably react the same way, provide her the same level of care that everyone has shown over the past few months. It was such a foreign feeling to not feel like I was alone. Just me and her in this battle against anorexia. No. Not anymore. We had an entire army now. An army with an extremely powerful warrior. I glanced over at the worried looking libero sitting next to me.

They call him Karasuno's guardian...
But he was also Y/N's guardian.

———

*A/N: I originally planned to write Y/N's POV next while at the ER, but I've pushed that back two chapters to add in Kageyama and Nishnoya's insight during the time frame.

Not sure if was a good idea or not, but maybe it adds a bit of suspense?

So next up is Nishinoya's chapter!

Also also, had to add the BokuAka drawing with masks as a sign of the times. *Big sigh*

Well that's all folks! Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Next chapter will be out tomorrow!
It's gonna be an interesting one I believe. A lot more in detail and descriptive.