Akira jerked away from Hakuba’s touch, though to her vision it was not her best friend who was reaching out sympathetically, but a gray blur of fear and death and grief sent to take her, to take her back to the nothingness, to when she was everything and nothing at once, unable to speak and yet able to see all.
Tears streamed down her face, and she felt bile in the back of her throat and so help her God if whatever jammed in her throat didn’t get out in two seconds- but of course, no nurse appeared in the split second it took for Akira to vomit into her breathing tube and that was a bad fucking idea Akira because now you can’t breathe hardly at all and you’re breathing vomit and you might die because of this after surviving a car crash that put you in a fucking coma.
[HELP. HELP!]
The teenager steeled himself, making the split second decision to go full on detective mode. He’d had limited field medical training, he could handle this. He chased down and fought criminals for God’s sakes; he could do this. With one second to take a deep breath, Hakuba put himself to work, reaching down to pry the breathing tube from her. Thank god he’d read about it before and had seen other nurses complete the procedure, so he had a general idea of how it was done.
It was messy work, though, and while Hakuba cared very much more for Akira’s life, he couldn’t help but worry that there would be more trouble from the resultant liquids. Still, he got it out, tossed it aside, reached for her arm and her back and rolled her onto her side so that it wouldn’t all end up back in her lungs. “Cough, Akira-kun… go ahead, cough it out, get it all out on the mattress, it’s fine, you’re fine."
Arms trembling, he thumped her back, trying to ignore all of the warning sounds from the various machinery in the room. Surely, a nurse was on her way. Surely, someone would come and help. He prayed as he desperately tried to help her that he was doing what he should have done. Urging her, staying close, ready to find something to suction out her lungs if he had to and god knows he would.