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A ‘tsk’ left Sakura’s mouth as Suo dried the last dish and Nirei laid out their futons.
“You two sure made yourselves at home,” he grumbled, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the wall. Nirei let out a small giggle as he fluffed his pillow, laying it down gently.
Suo stepped in from the kitchen with a fiendish grin. “If I’m not mistaken Sakura-kun, your exact words earlier today were ‘wanna come home with me?’”
A deep crimson spread across Sakura’s cheeks. He turned away from the two, fighting the pout off his face, “only cause Nirei got hurt! I didn’t want him going back to an empty house…”
Nirei smiled sheepishly, “I’m used to being home alone. Besides, I only scraped my knee-”
“I’m with Sakura-kun on this one.” Suo cut in, running a gentle hand through Nirei’s hair as he sat next to him, “I think we’d both prefer to keep an eye on you after that skirmish. You should have seen how worried Sakura-kun was!” He began teasing once more.
With a loud huff, Sakura turned away from the two, curling up on his futon and facing the wall, “I’ll kick you out if you’re not careful! Only Nirei got hurt” his voice trailed off quietly.
Suo raised a hand to his chest, slumping his shoulders and feigning hurt, “Sakura-kun~ to think that you’d care so little about me.”
Nirei began giggling at the display, his smile growing wider when he caught sight of Sakura’s trembling shoulders. He looked over at Suo while pointing at the shaking boy, “you even got Sakura-san to laugh!” He whisper-yelled.
Suo, however, looked at their friend with a small frown. He unfolded his legs, standing up and rounding the futon, only to freeze at the sight before him. “Nire-kun, he’s not laughing…” Suo spoke quietly, in a tone the blonde had yet to hear from him.
Nirei was about to ask what that meant, when Sakura’s body began jerking, limbs going stiff as he unwillingly rolled onto his back. He had to suppress a yelp when he caught sight of Sakura’s rolled back eyes and pale face.
“S-Suo san?! What do we do?”
Suo grimaced, taking off his jacket to quickly place it under Sakura’s head, “Nire-kun, note the time” he spoke hastily, single eye scanning the room to make sure Sakura couldn’t hurt himself on anything.
Nirei clutched his phone tight, eyes flicking between the time and his friends convulsing form, “it’s been about thirty seconds” he managed to stutter, blinking away the tears in his eyes. “D-Do we call for an ambulance?”
Suo’s eyebrows furrowed, hands resting uselessly at his side. “We’ll wait another minute,” was his quiet response. The sight before him made something in his chest feel tight, his composure slipping away from him like sand between his fingers.
Sakura was having a seizure.
Nirei was seconds away from a panic attack.
Sakura was having a seizure!
“One minute.” Nirei spoke. Suo barely heard him, thoughts running a mile a minute.
Did he have a pre-existing condition? Surely he would have said something. Or Umemiya and Hiiragi would have brought it up, it should be on his school record after all. But was this his first seizure? Then maybe they should have called an ambulance right away?
Suo felt a hitch in his breath and quickly swallowed it down. If he started panicking, everything would fall to pieces.
Just as Nirei uttered out “one minute and fifteen seconds,” Sakura let out a groan. His eyes squeezed shut, teeth clenching as he tried to move his locked limbs.
“Sakura-kun?”
“Sakura-san!”
The two boys spoke at one, each resisting the urge to crowd the boy on the floor as he came back to them. A small whine escaped Sakura at their volume, causing the two boys to snap their mouths shut and lean back.
“One minute fifteen,” Nirei repeated to himself quietly, locking the number away in his head. He wasn’t sure how Sakura would react to being seen like that. Considering a mere cold made him shut himself away from all his friends. To be seen in such a vulnerable state…
Nirei shook his head, swallowing down his fear and stealing his conviction. Even if Sakura tried to kick him out, he’d sit outside his door all night or climb up onto his balcony. There was no way he was leaving his captain, his best friend, alone after something like that.
“How are you feeling?” Suo asked gently, a steady hand on Sakura’s back as he helped the boy turn on his side.
“M’fine. Get’ff” Sakura grumbled, weakly swatting at Suo’s hands.
“No. I’m putting you in the recovery position. And you’ll stay like that for at least five minutes,” Suo said sternly, beginning to shift Sakura’s arms and legs into the appropriate places.
“D’need it!”
“Sakura-san, please.” Nirei knew using his puppy dog eyes was a cruel move, but he also knew Sakura was weak to them. He planted both hands on the floor, leaning down to better reach his friends face, “something really serious just happened. Let us help.”
“What’s serious? I’m fine that jus’ happens sometimes,” Sakura continued to grumble, unaware of the panic his words caused.
“You mean that wasn’t your first seizure?” Suo asked calmly.
“Seizure?”
A look was shared between Suo and Nirei as the weight of Sakura’s words began sinking in, making the air in their lungs sit heavy. Suo came to sit beside Nirei so that they were both within Sakura’s line of sight.
“A seizure is what just happened to your body. The locking up and shaking. It could have been caused by a neurological disease called epilepsy or…” Suo trailed off at the bewildered look on Sakura’s face.
“Those don’t happen to you?” The youngest asks slowly, a spark of realisation shining in his eyes.
Nirei shook his head, fists squeezed tight into his pyjama pants, “no. Sakura-san whatever is causing your seizures must be a serious condition. How long have you had them?”
Sakura stayed silent for a long moment, lips sealed tight as he looked anywhere but his friends. He was still laying on the ground and having to look up at them only made him feel more insecure. His fingers gripped the thin material of his futon as the pervasive silence filled the room.
“Sakura-kun,” Suo spoke suddenly, a whisper so quiet it was almost swallowed by the quiet, “you know you can talk to us about these things, right?”
“Y-Yeah!” Nirei jumped in, controlling his volume despite his enthusiasm, “you can trust us with these things. We’ll always be in your corner.”
‘Trust’ Nirei had said. ‘Trust’ was something Sakura had little experience with. One should be able to ‘trust’ adults to take care of children, to ‘trust’ their teachers to deal with bullying, to ‘trust’ that the other kids would be open minded.
Sakura had given up on ‘trust’ a long time ago, but as he pushed himself up, crossing his legs as he looked his two friends - the closest people in his life - in their eyes, he thought that maybe ‘trust’ isn’t just a mythical concept. A whisper on the wind that everyone except him understood, an inside joke he’d never be part of.
It’s a real thing and it’s flooding his room, soaking into his skin and fighting away the bone deep chill that has clung to him for fifteen years.
“My whole life,” he finally answered. Sheer horror crossed Suo and Nirei’s expressions, and Sakura tried to wrap his head around it. The concern they held for him.
“And you’ve never seen a doctor?” Nirei asked, a tremor present in the question.
“Nah. Nobody took me to the doctor for anything. I’d usually just wake up on the floor, and if I wasn’t bleeding I’d brush it off.” Sakura paused, “is it serious?”
“I don’t know much,” Suo began. Nirei raised a doubtful eyebrow but stayed silent. “However, if undiagnosed, I imagine it could cause you issues down the line.”
Sakura stuttered, a slight flush to his cheeks, “how do I do that?”
“We’ll help you,” Nirei beamed, reaching for Sakura’s hand and clasping it between his own. Suo mirrored the gesture, only exacerbating the heat scorching across his face. The two older boys began to giggle, pulling Sakura closer until they were sprawled across the three futons with Sakura pinned beneath them. He initially grouched, but his attempts to push them off were weak as their warmth soaked into his body, calming the last dredges of anxiety that swirled in his mind. He couldn’t fight against the fluttering of his eyelids and Suo and Nirei spoke quietly, whispering about everything and nothing at once.
‘Trust us,’ they said. Sakura thinks that's a leap he’s willing to take.