Safe Haven | Yuzuru Hanyu

75.

Emma had to admit that she was very happy when he finally came back to her.

The initial leg of his first solo show had been a huge success. The arena was completely filled on both nights with tickets sold by lottery.

Yuzuru's demand was more than anyone on the team had anticipated.

As popular as he was, a career move as he had just done was always risky and no one could ever be certain that things would go as well as they ended up going.

It was a good sign, without a doubt, and after two successful shows, Yuzuru still had three more to go.

Selling tickets by lottery was something that took some time for Emma to understand but it was just yet another proof of how insanely popular her boyfriend's skating seemed to be.

Oh, she would definitely enjoy seeing the competitions with empty arenas very very soon.

He might have been over the mistreatment he suffered for so long but she wasn't.

Emma was petty enough to wish the Federation and the ISU to collapse now that he was gone.

The little shed of credibility they had was already long gone after all.

If not even the judges knew what they were supposed to be looking at and how to judge it, then how would the general public even think about watching a sport like this?

No one likes to watch something that they don't necessarily understand.

The big problem with skating, besides the obviously clear corruption that was present for years, the judging lines were so blurred that it was hard to understand how judges could have so many different perspectives of the same performance.

Now her boyfriend could do whatever he wanted, rules be damned, and without any corruption or favoritisms aside.

Emma couldn't wait to see his new programs on the ice and the reaction people would have.

They were still in early choreo days and she already loved them.

Yuzuru went with her to the second Chemo session and stayed with her through the hours-long process of slowly receiving the drugs intravenously.

He hadn't watched the first cycle and she could see his eyes drift to the other patients in the room.

Seeing just how weak a few of these patients looked brought a new perspective into things. He was very aware that his girlfriend's case was mild in comparison to a few of them but he also marveled at her strength.

Through the course of her first cycle, he saw the effects on her body, from the weight loss to her defined muscles slowly disappearing. Even through everything, he didn't see Emma complain a single time.

She had thrown up for hours in a row, had been completely exhausted and sick of everything and never once complained.

Initially, he thought it was to make sure he wouldn't be too concerned but Yuzuru was starting to think that this was just the way she was.

Emma didn't even blink as they placed the needle on her arm, and didn't complain when they failed to find a vein and had to try a second and third time.

She was the most patient person as the nurse tried to find a solution to find a good enough vein to insert the catheter.

Yuzuru had been completely dumbfounded when she offered to try and get it herself, arguing that she knew where it was and that it would be easier.

He was completely in shock as he watched her stick a needle in her own arm and get the vein on the first try, reacting merely with a shrug as the nurses and himself stared at her in awe.

"I used to draw blood on myself when I was in the army... Even had to do a direct transfusion to another soldier once" she tried to explain to her crowd.

"You're unbelievable" he told her a few minutes after when the nurses were gone once again.

"it's just a small needle." she told him with a weak smile and she laid back on the chair while the drug started running through her body.

"How does it feel?"

"Like any other infusion. It burns a bit sometimes. I think it is different for everyone but I start getting the nausea almost right away."

"Anything I can do?"

"You're doing more than enough."

Emma grabbed his hand and squeezed it with a small smile on her face. Having him there was already more than what she could have ever asked for.
It was more than a lot of these people around them had.

Most families would be too scared to see this with their eyes and most of the other patients were completely alone in the room.

Well, it took some fighting to get an accompanying person as well since the hospital was very strict on safety measures but they managed to get Yuzuru authorized to stay by her side this time.

She could see in his eyes how scared he was and it was only normal given the situation.

When she did her first treatment, it was easy to get overwhelmed when seeing how weak some people there looked, from younger to older no one was immune to looking absolutely terrible and in pain.

That was just the thing, there were very few treatments as aggressive as Chemo and sometimes people couldn't handle all the suffering it brought. Cancer by itself was often quite silent in terms of symptoms, the big problem was the treatment.

One of the nurses came by sometimes offering snacks or warm drinks, and even joking every once in a while to bring the mood up.

It worked, especially when she made the joke that it would be easier if they could place the catheter on Yuzuru instead since he had incredibly visible thick veins. Emma definitely envied him on that part.

By now, everyone in the center knew she was a doctor and didn't bother with the usual warnings and procedures. They would still check on her, but it was just useless to go over something that she knew probably better than them.

Bringing him was definitely the right call. The hours that the treatment took could be quite boring when she was all alone and having someone by her side made everything just a bit easier.

And well, she had to look a bit tougher if he was there.

As scary as it was, this was their new reality and hopefully it would be over sooner rather than later.