Chapter Text
Sakura's heart was pounding. Not like post-fight adrenaline, or active, more like… he actually didn’t know, but it hurt. It was like someone was punching the inside of his chest hard. His vision was filled with black moving sparkles, like someone was dumping sand into his eyes, and every grain jumbled and moved. He had only stood up, so why was this happening to him? He was used to the sparkles that would hit his vision when he stood and how his heart would speed up, but it was never like this. This was scary, and new, and he should probably tell someone what was happening.
“Suo…” is all he could say before the sparkles in his vision popped and he was out, tipping backwards and falling into deep oblivion.
Suo spun around when he heard Sakura utter his name. It wasn’t like how he would usually say it, much more whispery and light, less the usual grunt that he found so endearing and cute. This sounded nothing like him, more like he was about too… he saw sakura tip backward and suddenly realized what it sounded like. It sounded like he would faint, and he had, plummeting straight toward the desk he had previously occupied. Suo kicked the desk out of the way and prayed he would get to Sakura in time to protect his head from hitting the ground, because that would be less than optimal with the sudden bout of unconsciousness. He dropped his usual decorum and dove to get under Sakura, resting his head in his lap.
“Nirei!” he called across the room, “what time is it?’’ Nirei whipped out his phone, grasping the gravity of the situation “it’s um, 1:23” Nirei called back to Suo, who went onto the next order of business. “Kiryu, Tsugeru, go find someone in charge!” The two took off, and suo let out a small sigh. He was doing his best not to panic, but that is hard to do when your best friend inexplicably passes out. He turned to Sugishita. “Can you go grab some water and snacks?” He asked Sugishita, who nodded and walked off with more urgency than normal in his lumbering gait. Nirei walked over and sat beside Suo.
“We should put his legs up,” Nirei said. That thought hadn’t yet graced his mind, so he nodded.
“Yeah, good idea.” Nirei ran to grab a chair, and Suo attempted to find Sakura's pulse. He took 3 tries to find it, and when he did, it was weak and fast. He checked Sakura's Fitbit after and saw his heart rate was… holy crap that was high. It was 120, but it looked like it was going down. Before Suo could contemplate it, Nirei was back with a chair, and lifted Sakura's legs up, causing him to stir.
“Nirei, time?” “1:25” was what Sakura awoke to, and he was dreadfully confused. He was lying on something soft, but firm. He looked up, seeing Suos worried gaze looking down at him.
“You passed out, Sakura,” he said, “and you gave us quite the scare.”
“Sorry” he mumbled, looking to his left, where he saw Nirei sitting at his wrist.
“His heart rate is going down!” Nirei exclaimed to Suo, relief evident in his eyes and voice. Sakura heard hurried pounding footsteps coming from down the hall and briefly wondered if they were because of him as the door flew open, almost flying off the hinges. In the doorway stood Sugishita whose hands were inexplicably filled with snacks, Kiryu, Tsugeru, Umemiya and Hiragi. They all looked worried as they filed down and stood around the room pretending not to stare. Umemiya kneeled down beside Sakura and started questioning him.
“Have you eaten?”
“Yes”
“Drank water?”
“Yes”
“Did you get enough sleep?”
“Yes”
“On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst, what would you say you feel right now”
“7”
Umemiya paused. 7 was awfully high and even though he had passed out, it left him with a bad feeling.
“7?”
Sakura nodded, and his eyes started to roll back again as he leaned back into suo.
“Ok maybe don’t nod like that, can you tell me what you felt before you passed out, and what you feel now?”
Umemiya was very glad that first aid training was a mandatory class at Bofurin.
“Umm well my chest really hurt, and my vision was all sparkly,” Sakura started, his eyes still sparkling and his stomach rolled “and right now, my vision is all sparkly and my head and stomach hurt.” He hated how small his voice sounded. “And I'm really thirsty.”
Umemiya's heart clenched for the kid as he mentally ran through the symptoms he had said. This was way out of his depth, and he felt awful that he couldn’t help Sakura more.
“Sugishita, can you bring me some water and a Gatorade? And Sakura has this happened before?” Sugishita dutifully trotted over, and Sakura attempted to put together an answer.
“Um I've had the sparklies before, but never passed out before,” he leaned in closer to Umemiya, “can you ask the others to leave?” He asked nervously, glancing around.
“Of course,” Umemiya whispered, handing him a water bottle and standing up. Sakura became laser focused on opening the water, his clumsy hands fumbling with the lid. Nirei grabbed it from his hand. “I got this Sakura, just relax.” Nirei's voice didn’t hold its usual boisterousness, Sakura thought, or maybe that was the thrumming in his ears. He was suddenly struck by the fact that he couldn’t see, and then promptly passed out once more.
Suo felt Sakura's weight in his lap shift, and glanced down to see his head lolled, jaw slack and eyes closed. He had passed out again, this time while lying down at least, but he was still unconscious. Which was bad.
“Umemiya!” Suo called out and he whipped around, seeing Sakura limp in his arms.
“Everyone, out!” He yelled, panic and urgency lacing his voice. Hearing him everyone filed out, except Suo, Nirei and Hiragi. Sugishita awkwardly dropped his bundle on a desk and lumbered out. Nirei patted Sakura's wrist, trying to wake him up, and Hiragi ate stomach medicine. How he was still alive, no one knew, with how much of it was coursing through his veins at any given moment, but there he stood, looking at his unconscious lower classmen. He did not want to deal with this today, but it was his responsibility to look out for his lower classmen. He strode over and cracked open a Gatorade for when Sakura woke up.
Sakura’s eyes fluttered open a moment later to a flurry of activity around him. He saw Nirei first, whose eyes were glued to the Fitbit on his wrist. A bottle of Gatorade was suddenly being shoved into his hands, and he was propped up higher on Suo’s midsection, making his head spin. He blinked dazedly at the people crowded around him, gulping down the Gatorade like it was the first liquid he’d seen in years. He didn’t remember being this parched, but the artificially blue drink was life-giving, and a convenient way to ignore the staring faces of his peers. Umemiya finally spoke after he finished the entire bottle.
“You back with us?” He asked, and Sakura nodded, because he had gotten his hands on a water bottle and was now gulping that back. He put the water down a moment later once his thirst was properly satiated and grunted out a small “sorry” before looking down at his lap. Why did this happen? Was something wrong with him? Would people view him differently? As weak? What ifs and whys flooded his slow-moving brain, rooting themselves into the folds and making his head ache more than it already did.
Umemiya intercepted the flood of thoughts once again, his voice masking any hint of nerves it had shown earlier. “Don’t apologize, Sakura, it isn’t your fault. We just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Yeah!” Nirei agreed, nodding rapidly. “We worry because we care about you Sakura, you scared us!”
Sakura’s face burned at the words. Why did they care so much? He had completely inconvenienced them and made them worry about him; no one had worried about him before. He bit his tongue to keep from apologizing once more and instead contented himself with asking, “can I stay down here a little longer?” of which everyone agreed that he indeed should stay right where he was.