Guardian (Nishinoya x Reader) 🏐

Chapter 23: Despair

*Nishinoya's POV*

Kuroo carefully pulled his car into the spacious hospital parking lot. I was eager to be released from this metal box I was trapped in. Eager to see my dear Y/N again, see with my own two eyes that she'd be okay. I wanted to hold her in my arms, protect her from all evil this world possessed, but right now I'd give anything to just have her back in my line of sight.

My legs were shaking nervously, waiting not so patiently for Kuroo to finish maneuvering his car into a tight parking spot. However, I could see that I was not alone in this. Kageyama was fidgeting as well, looking just as, if not more, anxious as I was to rush into the hospital.

The car engine's humming died down. Kuroo pulled the jingling key out of the ignition and stuffed it in the pocket of his red gym shorts. "Alright guys, let's head inside," he said with an achy breath.

We all silently obeyed. With a gloomy haze over our eyes, we exited the car into the cool summer evening, met with the soft glow of the sun setting and headed straight for the vast hospital entrance.

Entering through the automatic sliding doors, we found ourselves in a half vacant waiting room. Akaashi stood up as soon as he spotted us walking through the door. Meeting him at his seat, he spoke, "They already took Y/N into the emergency room, but only one person could go with her. Sugawara is closer to her, so we decided he should be the one to stay with her."

At the same time, both Kageyama and I yelled, "Take us to her now!"

"Woah, woah. Okay guys. Calm down," Akaashi attempted to cool us off. "I'll go get the nurse and ask her what can be done. Just... Sit here and wait for now. Breathe please," Akaashi pleaded for our cooperation.

We reluctantly agreed and silently sat down in the cushy, navy blue chairs of the waiting room.

My eyes wandered around the room, examining the patients and the atmosphere. In the far most corner, there was a whimpering young boy, no older than five, with a tear stained face, huddled up in his mother's arms. To their left, a teenage boy sat holding his left arm against his chest and wincing in pain. His shorts showed off the scrapes on his knees, blood trickling down to his ankles, a battered up skateboard lying at his feet.

I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds emanating from the room. I heard the crisp flipping of pages from an elderly woman reading a magazine, sitting only a few seats down from me. There was soft crying emitting from an infant and it's mother quietly hushing the unhappy child. A key board vigorously clicked from the front desk as the nurse entered a new patient's information into the database. An ambulance wailed in the distance, hurrying to its next call of distraught.

I opened my eyes once more to stare down at my hands, knotting and twisting in my lap anxiously as if somehow doing so would hold back the agitation inside me. Despair prowled the room, feasting on worries like mine and those trying their best to bite down on the pain that brought them here.

"Kageyama," a nurse's voice rang throughout the waiting room.

Kageyama and I stood up abruptly, eyes pinned on the woman who spoke. She waved a hand, ushering us over. "I know it isn't ideal, but if you could just wait another 15-20 minutes or so, we are going to have Miss. Kageyama transferred to a room on the fifth floor. She will then be allowed as many visitors as she wants."

"But how is she?" Kageyama blurted out.

"She's just sleeping now, but a doctor will give you the full run down of the analysis when she wakes up," she responded calmly to Kageyama.

Dejected, we sat back in our seats, letting the time pass agonizingly slow.

My mind drifted off in a different direction. This situation was familiar. No, more like, similar to something I accidentally read in Y/N's journal

*Flashback to Nishinoya Reading Journal Entry*

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
She's the fairest of them all.
But she'd never tell you why.
It's not because she's too shy.
If someone ever hears her cry,
She'll just respond with a lie.

Wonder how her dress fits so nice,
Her stomach has to pay the price.
Pale with skin as white as snow,
She'd never let her hunger show.
With lips as red as a rose,
This is the sad life she chose.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
She stands in front and starts to bawl.
Poison apple in her hand,
One bite wasn't what she planned.
Before she could finish it all,
Feeling faint, she took a fall.

If only they saw the beauty within,
She wouldn't have to be so thin.
Comparing herself to others outside,
Maybe that's why she lost her pride.
But once she's woken by her prince,
She loved herself ever since.

*End of Flashback*

The words she wrote. They left me speechless. I didn't know how to feel.

The entry was dated to be just after her incident with her pathetic excuse of a crush, Yuki. What happened today reminded me so much of the poem she wrote. Did she foresee her own fate?

If you're wondering... the poem isn't what got me so out of sorts the past few days, it was when my eyes shifted to the next page. A wrinkled page with smudged purple ink, as if she had been crying onto the paper as she wrote. But what I could make out of the smudged words, they said-

"Visitor's for Miss. Kageyama," the same female nurse called out.

Akaashi, Bokuto, Kuroo, Kageyama, and I all stood up to follow the nurse to Y/N's room, all with one question on our minds: How is she?

We entered her room one by one. The orange painted room was eerily silent. The only sound that could be heard was the beeping of her heart monitor. My eyes wandered to the number it displayed. 34bpm. I could be wrong, but that seemed extremely low.

"Hey guys," Suga greeted us quietly from a chair next to the hospital bed, gently cradling Y/N's tiny hand between both of his.

I peered over at Y/N. Her dark hair messy and her blonde strands matted to her face. But her expression was peaceful, almost even at ease, her chest rising and falling as she breathed.

The first thing that caught my attention was the IV stuck in her arm. It was connected to a tube dangling down from a stand holding a packet with some sort of solution inside of it.

"Suga. What are they injecting her with?" I motioned to the now half empty packet hanging beside her bed.

"Oh, those are nutrients. The color flushed back into her face almost immediately once it started to drain into her body," Suga explained.

I nodded my head.

Suga moved out of the way to allow Kageyama and I to draw closer to her bedside. We sat down at the chairs. Bokuto and Kuroo stood behind us. Akaashi and Suga across from us.

I gently bent over her and combed the tangled hair in front of her face and pushed it away from her eyes. I reached for her hand lying next to her side. It was cold. Really cold. Her hand gripped tighter around mine, almost like she knew I was there.

I heard a light sniffle come from the right of me. I turned my head to see Kageyama quickly wiping away a stray tear that managed to reach his pink cheek. Bokuto placed a hand on his shoulder. "She's gonna be alright man."

I looked back to the sleeping girl.
So calm.
So peaceful.
So at ease.
Like all her worries have finally been washed away.

Despair wasn't feeding on worries.
Not in this room.
Hope flourished.

Hope. The only thing stronger than despair.

———

*A/N: So this chapter was super descriptive and in detail. (For me at least)

Regardless, I hope the deep emotions and metaphors reached you as well.

Sorry I didn't have a better drawing to insert. I haven't finished me and Nishinoya. So here is one of me and Kuroo. Hope this suffices.