Free! Oneshots

I'll Help You-Sousuke

You sat down in an awkward chair in the corner of a waiting room. The air smelt of hand sanitizer and bleach, a combination that was making you sick. The fabric of the deep red chair was itchy, the wooden armrests providing no comfort either. They were the kind that you shared with the person in the chair next to you, or rather, avoided if taken and take if empty. It was all yours.

The television opposite you blared old episodes of soaps that you didn't like, or watch, for that matter. You would turn it off but the remote seemed to be miles away despite just being on the coffee table in front of you. That and the fact that there probably wouldn't be any good channels to choose from. This may have been a hospital but the hospitality wasn't for the well. Instead you hazed into your own thoughts, the clear sound now just like static.

It had been three hours since you received a call from Sousuke's friend Rin that he was in the hospital. You hadn't thought much of it at first; Rin being your boyfriend's best friend it was a slightly pleasant routine for him to call you. This thought soon disappeared when you heard Rin's voice on the other end of the line. He sounded nervous, something the bold swimmer hardly is, he was breathing faster than usual, words coming out in gasps and sharp inhalations separating his sentences. The hard clacking of shoes against tile told you that he was pacing, another thing you hardly knew him to do. Through the course of this Rin had explained to you that because he had been overworking his already injured shoulder, Sousuke wasn't able to keep up with the extra training sessions they were undergoing for their next swimming championship. After practice, he could barely lift himself out if the pool, what with only using one arm, but being as stubborn as he was he refused to be helped, even by Rin himself.

He lost him balance while climbing out, hit the side of the pool and became concussed.

He nearly drowned.

After the call you thanked Rin quickly and then shut off the phone. School was finished and so as all the students went their separate ways. Those at the top of the class packed their bags frantically before returning home quickly to study hard into the night. Others went over to their friend houses' eager to spend time together and catch up. You were usually one of the students who just got home and went on social media, convinced that a certain amount of procrastinating scrolling would make you homework disappear.

You ran from the classroom, not even bothering to stop at your locker and take the necessary books for tonight's homework. Sousuke was more important than that. After pushing your way past the throngs of social groups and slow walkers you finally made it to the bus stop where, because this was a busy week day, a bus was already there. You touched your Oyster against the touch in point, the shrill acceptance beep not even registering in your mind, and to a seat at an empty row, willing no one to sit next to you as your thoughts wandered to your boyfriend.

And now you did the same. It wasn't like you wanted to focus on the fact that your boyfriend was lying in a bed, probably motionless save for faint breathing, somewhere on this god forsaken building and you weren't with him. In a way you blamed yourself. This shoulder thing had been going on for ages and you knew, you just skirted around the subject because you thought that Sousuke may not want to discuss something so personal with you. That and there was hardly ever a time to bring it up.

Still, that all seemed to be the opposite of your original intent now. You had noticed all the little winces when he picked things up, flinches when you leaned your head against him or rested your arms on his shoulders during hugs or kisses. You sure as hell noticed the sores when you went to watch him swim, but you never said anything.

How selfish. How pathetic.

It must have been hard enough to go though this for so long, and you knew Sousuke (and how proud he was) so you doubted that he would have told anyone about this, not even Rin knew at first. To then have his own girlfriend just ignore the entire matter; it may have seemed right at the time but your intervention could have helped. If you had sat down and talked then perhaps you could have convinced him to take it easy on his body for a while. He might have stopped swimming for this season, or at least sat out on the championship. What might have been didn't matter now though, it wasn't like you could go back in time and make it clear that you cared.

You get up and went to Sousuke's room. It was a few corridors away from the waiting room you were in; the nurse at the front desk had advised you to stay in there for a few hours while checks and procedures were being carried out on Sousuke. No one had come to tell you that you could visit but on the other hand, how long you had to wait was never specified and it had been three hours.

Left, right, right and you were there.

"Excuse me," you asked the nurse standing outside the door,"Can I go in and visit?"

She turned to you with a sympathetic smile,"You must be the young lady who was asking after this at the front desk. Of course, the doctor will be back in a few minutes." She shuffled back to let you swing open the door and you thanked her before stepping inside.

You stopped. The air caught in your throat, your grip on the door knob tightened and you nearly lost your balance from how out of touch you felt. Warm, wet tears gathered at the base of your eyes, threatening to spill as you gazed at the broken boy before you.

You could see all the scratches up and down his body, and the blood, thick patches of red oozing up from the skin and staining the several bandages and plasters that littered his skin. His hair was atrocious. Splayed out across his forehead and partially covering his right eye in a messy disarray of black. It clumped together slightly and there were streaks of red through it, not to mention the overwhelming smell of chlorine. Unbeknownst to you there was a patch missing at the back to make way for yet another gruesome bandage. Sousuke lay there,unmoving and fragile, and you stood there rooted to the spot and not quite sure why you had rushed here so fast. Did you not expect what was in front of you?

Rin had given you a pretty good idea if how bad the situation was so why were you so eager to see? Not even your boyfriend's family were here-surely they would have come of the trauma of seeing him like this were manageable.

You finally regained control over your body and walked forward, avoiding not looking at the body on the bed. You took a seat on a chair beside the bed, just like in the waiting room only a few minutes prior to this. You tilted your head forwards letting the hair fall in front of your face and obscure you vision, not that there was anything you wanted to see. Just like you hair your tears ran free, covering your face and ruining your eyesight. The nurse outside would have come in to comfort you, but years of experience told her that it was best to spare herself the trouble. Without any sort of divine power there wasn't much she could do for you anyway.

The doctor did come and so did Sousuke's family, but you didn't listen to what they had to say. None of it was particularly good and besides, there wasn't much they could do for you anyway. You were, internally, about as broken as Sousuke was.

----------------------------------------------------
Author's Note
I don't know what this is but it's bad. Hope you somehow enjoyed it anyway and requests are still open.