❝𝗳𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗲❞ 𝗎𝗌𝗁𝗂𝗍𝖾𝗇

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 8

That day Satori and Wakatoshi didn't talk much.
They spent the afternoon lying on Tendou's bed and he was in Ushijima's arms.

A few more days passed and Wakatoshi's worries grew more and more.
Tendou was still taking a lot of antibiotics and following treatment, but his healt continued to deteriorate.

It was morning and Ushijima had slept in the hospital the previous night.
The boy was sitting in the small chair next to Tendou's bed, waiting for the red-haired boy to wake up.

By now Wakatoshi had practically moved into that room: except for volleyball training, he spent all of his time there.

The brown-haired boy was leafing through some of his friend's books, that were particularly interesting.
He also found a book on volleyball, where on the edge of the pages there were some notes written in pencil by Tendou: some of those were about roles, others about formation and in still others there were personal opinions on volleyball.
The boy noticed how much Satori would have loved to be able to play, and felt a lump in his throat when he realized why he had told him to keep playing volleyball.

"I hope Wakatoshi-kun can play volleyball for me too."

It was written on the edge of the page, and considering that it was faded, he probably tried to erase it.

Ushijima put the book down when a doctor entered the room.
He asked Wakatoshi to wake Satori, since at that moment he would have to take antibiotics as every day.

Ushijima approached the red-haired boy and shook his shoulder lightly, calling him.

"Hey Tendou, you have to take antibiotics." he then added, since the boy didn't want to wake up.

At this point Satori opened his eyes and after a few seconds he gave a small smile.
"What's up?" Ushijima asked, smiling too.

The red-haired boy shrugged and hugged the pillow to him.
"Nothing, I had a good dream." he replied in a faint voice.

"And what did you dream about?"

Tendou didn't answer, he just sat up.

A few minutes passed and Satori had started taking the inhaled antibiotic, so the two boys were silent, like every morning.
Sometimes in those moments it was Ushijima who spoke, or the two boys in the meantime just watched a TV series.

Tendou was still sitting, and after another couple of minutes he looked at Ushijima next to him, who wasn't looking at him.
When the brown-haired boy also looked up, he frowned, as if to ask him he had and why he was staring at him.

Tendou lowered the small mask surrounding his nose and mouth, which gave him the antibiotic.
"This thing won't help."

"Keep taking it." Wakatoshi said bringing the hand that held the mask back to Tendou's face.

After a few minutes the red-haired boy had finished that morning's treatment and was adjusting his nasal cannula.
He smiled wryly.

"What's up?" Ushijima said taking the other boy's hand.

Tendou looked up and when he began to speak his smile became sincere.

"I know what it would make me feel good." he said looking at Ushijima.

"And what?" laughed the other boy, realizing that the red-haired boy was joking.

"Wakatoshi-kun, have you ever heard of the fact that breathing the sea breeze is good for your health? - he said jokingly - Check on Google, I didn't make it up." he concluded by pointing to Ushijima's phone with a serious expression, even though it was actually quite ironic.

The brown raised his eyebrows and after a few seconds shook his head, making him understand that at that moment they couldn't go out.
At this point Tendou, who was always sitting, lay back on the bed and snorted.

"Come closer then, let's watch a movie." he then said.

Ushijima took his small laptop and put it on Tendou's bed.
As he turned it on, however, he spoke.
"I'll be right here, I'm going to get something for breakfast at the food distributors. Do you want something to eat?"

Satori shook his head.
"I'm not hungry."

"Are you sure? You didn't even have dinner last night, Tendou." Ushijima insisted.

"Don't worry, I'll try to eat something for lunch. I don't want to now." he said with a smile, seeing that the other boy was getting worried.

Ushijima left the room telling Tendou to choose a movie while he waited.
Ushijima felt guilty for always saying no to his friend when asked to bring him back to that beach, but he couldn't do otherwise.

If Tendou felt sick, or worse, if he had a respiratory crisis while they were out of the hospital, what would he do?
Now that Tendou had a lung infection his condition was getting worse every day, and such things happened more and more frequently.

Ushijima soon returned to Satori's room and the red-haired boy had already chosen the film.
The first one insisted all morning in asking Tendou if he wanted something to eat, but he didn't want to.
Finally Tendou reluctantly ate something for lunch, even if a little.

Even that day ended, and Ushijima from that day began to worry more and more.