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When Daichi was a kid, his father died. Just a year after his little siblings were born. He thinks that it was that moment in his life which led to his lifelong animosity of going to a hospital or doctor’s office. Even when he accidentally cut his arm on the playground in grade school pretty badly, he was able to take care of himself in the school bathroom.
His father had also been the breadwinner of the family, his mom ignoring her degree to raise Daichi and then his siblings. But once he died, she had to work again, leaving Daichi with the task of raising his siblings when she’s not at home. They had trouble with money and he had to grow up quickly from a young age. He would buy what he needs, rarely what he wants. He would give but rarely get. And going to a doctor’s, well, that’s a waste of money. All he has to do it take it easy, drink some tea, and cut his sugar intake.
This is probably the worst time for him to actually need to go to the doctor’s: training camp.
It started yesterday, the third day of training camp. They had become better already, almost being able to successfully carry out a synchronized attack after their horrible first day. Tsukishima was becoming more motivated. Daichi was getting along with the other captains (he didn’t even have to try with Kuroo and Bokuto, who seemed to almost stalk him). His appetite had decreased during dinner, his stomach area hurting when he needed to use the restroom. He woke up in the middle of the night feeling so hot . He couldn’t go back to sleep, taking a cold shower before anyone else could wake up, grimacing and rubbing his side, hissing at the pain. He must of pulled something. This is hat he gets for getting distracted form his stretches to handle Nishinoya and Tanaka.
But now, he could barely eat lunch. Every step sent pain through his body. There was always a moment of hesitation before diving at the ball, and the flying falls - don’t get him started on how much he hated it. Tears were fighting to get out of his eyes by then and he had to use the excuse of getting something in his eye to go to the bathroom and heave.
He hasn’t thrown up… ever.
He managed to flub his way through dinner. He could feel Bokuto’s eyes on him after he excused himself from staying up with them a little bit longer before they went for extra practice and he to handle his team.
“Sawamura” he suddenly feels a hand on his shoulder, turning him around. He instinctively looks up to meet Kuroo’s eyes, the other captain’s face sporting a slight frown. “Are you okay? You look pretty pale and your flying falls were even less pretty.” Daichi smiles. He’s already feeling a bit lightheaded and nauseous just standing here.
“Guess I didn’t sleep that well," he says, trying to force the pain from his body and the sweetness of a lie from entering his voice. “And I guess my flying falls aren’t doing too well because I’ve become so good at them, I need to put in the effort to not be good at them.” He pays for the time it takes for him to put in that snarky remark by a flash of pain, one that he conceals with a tightening of his lips, curving them into an accidental small smile. It seems like that was the only lie that worked because Kuroo lets out a cackling laugh, slapping Daichi on the shoulder.
“Well, you do you, Sawamura” he says. “I expect you at the meeting tomorrow morning.” Daichi nods. He had no idea what meeting he’s talking about.
“I’ll be there” he promises. Kuroo walks past him, whistling a tune to himself. Daichi closes his eyes after memorizing where the end of the hallway is, walking with his eyes closes. He opens his eyes for the turn, a bit disoriented, and walks to the room that hosts the Karasuno team. He does a quick count- everyone except Hinata, Tsukishima, and Sugawara- then quickly changes just his shirt before furrowing under his blanket and onto his futon, shivering at the sudden cold he feels. He curls into himself, wrapping his arms around himself in the darkness. He can hear Tanaka’s snored, Kinnoshita’s turning, and Narita’s occasional hiccups followed by Ennoshita’s singular “shut up”. He closes his eyes, biting his tongue to keep a moan from escaping when he presses against a spot on the lower right side of his abdomen. Holding back a whimper, he closes his eyes and wishes for sleep to come.
“What’s… “
“Get them out of here!”
“Hold him down- hey, wake up!”
“He’s burning up…”
“Off…”
Daichi gasps at the burning pain in his side, letting out a howl of a scream. A hand quickly covers his mouth to muffle the noise. He blinks back the tears that have already started to trail down his face. There’s something on his ankles and legs, on his arms. Something heavy and tight and he tugs, trying to tear himself loose from whatever is holding his down. The world is a blur of too bright and too dark, everything he hears a jumble of noise and a persistent buzz. Everything burns but it’s also so cold, so hot, as if the world around him changes from keeping him trapped inside of the sun and the heart of the arctic. Is this a nightmare? He’s never had one this lucid before. Pain rips through his body and he chokes on his own breath, back arching. One of the Things, they’re on his side, ice cold contrasting painfully with the flame.
“Oh gods this is bad this is bad” he recognizes that voice.
“K-k-kuro?” He chokes out.
“Kuroo, what’s going on?” Another familiar voice asks. Sugawara.
“I think, I’m not sure, but I think it’s appendicitis. His appendix could burst. He-he needs a hospital. He’s in so much pain.” Daichi feels something warm on his head, brushing his hair back just like his mom does. He leans into the touch, shivering and coughing, each cough drawing out another bolt of pain. He opens his eyes and the blurriness had disappeared but it’s still so hard to focus. Kuroo’s face hovers far above his, along with Asahi’s. He opens his mouth to say something but he doesn’t know what say.
“Hey, you’re going to be alright. How do you feel?” Kuroo tries the comforting path. The only thing Daichi can focus on is how his hair isn’t sticking straight up like it usually does, instead flopping unevenly over his face like he got a bad haircut and needs it to defy gravity to look even marginally good. It looks fluffy.
“Hurts” Daichi manages to rasp, closing his eyes.
“Daichi, no! Don’t close your eyes!” Asahi cries out. The pure fear in his friend’s voice is what gives Daichi the will power to open his eyes again, sluggishly blinking them. Sleep pulls at him, an incomparable exhaustion weighing down on his eyelids. He doesn’t know how long it takes, with Kuroo gently brushing his hair back (if he had been more lucid, he could of felt the not-so subtle tremble in his hand) and Asahi rambling about something . Before he knows it, they’re gone and he’s loaded onto a stretcher. He glimpses Hinata peeking at him and whoever is taking him from the edge of the doorway and keeps from screaming. It’s worse now, it’s so much more worse. It’s like he’s being stabbed, over and over and over again, except from the inside out, like all the knives are inside of him and they’re fighting to escape.
And he can’t hold out anymore. He gives in to the weight on his eyes, to the siren’s song growing louder in his head. His arm relaxes, falling over the edge of the stretcher.
“You’re an idiot” is the first thing Daichi hears when he isn’t passing in and out of a strange haze with the drugs he’s on. Being high is a strange experience, one that’s intriguing and otherworldly, but it also makes him confused and a bit scared when he’s more lucid.
Now he’s not hopped on morphine or vicodin or whatever mystery drug he was on (oh gods, he’s in a hospital ) and he’s very aware of the pain in his abdomen. He remembers the burning, the fire, of Asahi and Kuroo hovering over him and then the darkness.
“What do you mean?” Daichi groggily asks. Even though he’s not in that weird state anymore, he’s still tired, as if his whole body had been held down by weights and he doesn’t know how to function without them. Sugawara tutts. He looks tired.
“You scared the shit out of everyone.” Daichi winces at the harsh word. “Hinata was here the first time you “woke up”, and he was scared when all you did was stare before passing out again. Anyway, that’s not the point” his friend leans against the railing of the bed. Daichi looks at him warily. “You must of been in pain for over a day , Daichi. They had to remove your appendix.”
One blink.
Two blink.
He hopes for a wink.
He doesn’t get one.
“Oh.”
Sugawara raises an eyebrow. “Oh? Only an oh? What were you thinking!?” His voice crescendos to a yell. “Daichi, you almost died ! Your appendix burst on the ride here!” Daichi looks at his blanket covered feet. His heart pangs. He doesn’t feel fear now that he knows he was in a fatal situation, but he feels sad and a tad bit disappointed in himself. He almost let his friends and team down- scratch that, he did let them down.
“I’m sorry” Daichi says, fingers curling into a loose fist. He expects something else, anything else, for Sugawara to say. The silence is much worse.
“Your mom came two days ago. I sent her back to Miyagi because that’s what you would of forced her to do.” Daichi snorts.That’s right. He does miss his mom but...they do need the money. And he wants to go to college, and so do his siblings, and his mom refuses to give him permission to get a part-time job. He knows the selfishness...it’s there. Because if it means his siblings and his mom can be a little more relaxed with their money? Then he won’t go to college. But he knows in the long run, it beats the decision he wants to make.
“Kuroo’s also been stalking the halls. It’s Kenma who’s trying to get him to stop being so active for once.”
“Oh.” He repeats.
“Is that all you have to say?” Sugawara cries out and hands are suddenly on his shoulders, turning him to face him. It makes pain flash up his side but, well, he’s used to hiding it. “You do know that you look like hell right now? You’re still so pale and they could barely give you any pain killers at first because there was dirty blood inside of your body so you bleed and you woke up and we could hear the screams from the waiting room and you can’t just stop acting to selfless !” Sugawara shakes his head, grip tightening. “And I know, oh I know, that you’re in much more pain that you’re letting on, that you’ve been in more pain than any of us have been in. So can’t you just” Sugawara’s voice breaks “Can’t you just be selfish? Chose yourself for once.” His voice drops down to just above a whisper. “Or is that too much to ask? Is that too much for you to do…” his hands loosen from Daichi’s shoulders, dropping to envelop him in a loose hug. Daichi lets himself be pulled, resting his head an Sugawara’s shoulder.
“It hurt” he admits. “I-I thought it was a fever. I thought it’d pass, but it kept on getting worse.”
“Does it still hurt?” Sugawara asks. “The doctor said they couldn’t pump you up too much because it’s kept your immune system low and it was a miracle that you came down from your fever.”
“Yeah” Daichi rasps. “Not as much but...it’s more constant.” Sugawara pats his back.
“You’ll be fine, you’ll get better. Two to four weeks is their estimation.” Daichi internally winces. He lets himself relax even more against his friend. He’s going to miss so much in two weeks...a week of school, of practice, of seeing his family and friends- “But that means you’ll stay in Tokyo until you’re well enough to be transferred, and that means seeing Bokuto and Kuroo everyday.”
No should of been Daichi’s immediate thought. It wasn’t.
“Happy?” Sugawara asks for him.
“Yes.”
“Well then” Sugawara snorts. “They’ll be glad to know that. But...take it easy, okay? And try not to lie- I can’t believe you’re a good liar, Daichi.” His voice turns sympathetic. “You must of hurt so much-”
“I’m fine now," Daichi say “You’re being too much of a mother.”
“That’s what happens when you’re the young one, Daichi. Accept it.” He pats his head. “No rest, okay? I’ll call your mom and ask her to call the doctor and see if he can give you some more of the good stuff. Should I let the demons in?”
“Go ahead” Daichi waves his hand. They probably have similar things to say, since it’s been two days. That’s a lot of discussion time, even if they’ve continued on with training camp and practice. That’s a lot of time for Sugawara to discuss whatever he’s discussed about Daichi’s mentality and to share it with the world.
He hears Sugawara call for his miniature army and he relaxes in the bed, closing his eyes. He’ll need the energy.