Untitled Part 57
Chapter Fifty Seven: Searching for Relief
Keiji~
Keiji had driven to Miyo's house with Oikawa, Yachi, and Yamaguchi following the strange events at the park. Luckily, they had managed to keep Suga's identity a secret-- no police had arrived while they had been there. The first thing they did when they arrived at the professor's home was set up Suga inside a spare bedroom, shoving bath towels around the door to stifle the intense scent of his heat. While they were all Omegas, the overbearing fragrance was still irritating for them smell. After securing the silver boy in his solitude, they piled into her spacious living room to gather themselves after the chaotic afternoon.
Hajime had driven Kuroo to the hospital, behind Ukai's Alpha-packed car. He dropped the rooster off and, refusing medical care for his own wounds, drove to Miyo's place. Keiji figured that the man took no issue in prioritizing the needs of his mate over his own.
Keiji had seen Bokuto's damaged form with his own eyes before they had left the park. As Kuroo and Tsukishima gently packed the owl into Ukai's car, his Omega instincts set off-- maternal emotions that wanted nothing more than to care for his very injured Alpha. However, given the circumstances, he was forced to box them away for the time being. He and Bokuto weren't a mated pair, which meant that the owl had to be taken to an Alpha hospital.
Much like Omega hospitals, Alpha ones didn't allow their Omega counterparts to visit without special circumstances. It was too dangerous for everyone involved. Pheromones and emotions ran high in such places, so it was easier to keep them separate. For the first time in his life, Keiji found himself wishing that he was mated with an Alpha-- mated to Bokuto. If that had been the case, then he could have stayed by the owl's side, day and night, until the Alpha woke up, good as new. Unfortunately, his hands were tied by their reality.
As he sat cross legged on Miyo's living room floor, running his fingers through the soft fibers of her throw rug, he listened to the hushed conversations around him. Across from him, leaning against a bit of open wall space, Oikawa was tending to Hajime's wounds-- chastising the Alpha with cheeky comments each time he flinched away. Yachi was holding a bag of ice to Yamaguchi's bruised forehead on the leather couch, smiling sweetly at the freckled boy as she spoke quiet words to him.
Seeing the pleasant, caring interactions around him made Keiji long for the presence of his own Alpha. Again, he felt a new surge of intense need, embedded in the marrow of his bones, to tend to Bokuto's various wounds. With a heavy sigh, he shoved the feeling away before it had time to permanently set in. Hajime had promised him that Kuroo was going to keep an eye on the owl and that he would update them the second he had any important information. Keiji reiterated that fact over and over in his mind, forcing himself to rely on the Alphas in his pack to care for Bokuto in his place...and to have faith that the owl was going to make a full recovery.
He was tough...whiny...but tough. He was going to be fine.
Keiji couldn't stop a few waves of stray anxiety from festering inside his chest, but he did his best to clamp down on them before they could grow in strength. He focused all of his remaining mental energy on reigning in his scent. He really didn't want to talk about Bokuto and, if anyone happened to pick up on his strained fragrance, they would no doubt bring up the subject. He knew that feeling sorry for himself, and worrying about something that he had no control over, was unproductive. So, he decided, then and there, that he needed a welcome distraction. Across the open living space, Miyo furiously chatted into the device at her ear, pacing back and forth across the clean hardwood. Keiji knew that his professor had wasted no time before calling the Omega Outreach Line-- a non-profit, government-run organization that was the main support line for Omegas. The circumstances with Suga, while rare, were nearly impossible to find help for. It was impossible, not to mention illegal, to move an Omega that was in the throes of heat to a hospital-- regardless of whether or not the heat was abnormal in nature. In such worst case scenarios, Omegas were forced to call the Outreach Line to access a free medical house-call. If the organization chose to ignore their concerns, which was often the case, they would have to hire a doctor out of their own pocket-- a rather pricey endeavor that most Omegas could not afford. For a government funded organization, they really were stingy bastards.
"Yes, I understand that," Miyo concurred into the speaker of her device, her teeth clenched to hold in her growing anger. "Yes...mhm...yes! Have you heard anything I've said in the last ten minutes? We've been talking in circles, you're asking me questions that I've already answered! "
Keiji felt a coy smirk spread across his face as his professor's tough attitude and dramatic performance on the phone. This, this was a good outlet for him to use as a distraction. He perked up his ears, listening to the raven woman chatter away, all the while imagining what the poor soul on the other end of the line was saying.
"Do you take me for an idiot, sir?! Of course we did that already! More than once, might I add!" Miyo said, her voice growing more shrill in her frustration.
Keiji closed his blue eyes, imagining a calm and detached, male voice on the other end of the line. In his mind's eye, he gave the man an infuriating, nasally voice and a stout body with a toad-like face. He liked that image, it was humorous for him to think about.
Ma'am, I need you to calm down, please. I'm just going through procedures-
"I am perfectly calm!"
I understand that, but everything I am asking you is our policy, I'm not trying to upset you.
"Oh for christ's sake, you're not upsetting me! Listen. To. What. I. Am. Telling. You. We've already stabbed him with a bazillion injectors and, like I said before, his heat is not subsiding! I need you to tell me if there's a doctor that can-"
Have you checked the expiration date on the injectors in question?
Miyo paused her rampant pacing, her emerald eyes narrowing with a surge of fury. "Are you...are you fucking kidding me right now? Do you think we're totally irresponsible?! That we're just...we're just waltzing around with expired heat injectors!? Of course they're not expired!" She screeched into the phone, running a shaky hand through her long hair. "Oh, here, let me save you a step! We've used injectors from DIFFERENT companies as well! It's not a goddamn faulty batch, you got that? Are you understanding what I'm saying or am I speaking in another language?"
Again, ma'am, its policy for me to ask. We need to ensure that, if it is a faulty batch, we can alert the proper authorities.
"IT'S NOT A GODDAMN FAULTY BATCH!"
Ma'am, I'm just going through the proper steps so that we can offer you the best help for your situation. Please bear with me and remain calm.
Keiji didn't see Miyo grind her teeth together, but he could damn well hear the gnarling sound of it. "Are my tax dollars funding this god forsaken organization? I'm sorry, but are you not a public service agency?! I'm the public! So authorize a goddamn doctor to-"
We will certainly send a professional to your residence, if and when we decide that is the proper course of action to take.
Miyo's threw her hands into the air, exasperated, and nearly tossed her phone up with them. She let out a series of curse words under her breath and renewed her angry pacing. "I'd like to speak to your manager," she seethed, her tone even, but intensely hostile. "Clearly, you're not understanding the situation that we are in as I have so carefully explained to you."
Keiji tilted his head to the side, taking in Miyo's pale face. Her soft features were illuminated by the evening sun that streamed through the far windows of the room. She hadn't even bothered to clean up her injured nose. The blood was now dry, caked onto her otherwise perfect skin in clumps of dark crimson. He thought about getting up and grabbing a warm cloth from the bathroom to clean some of it off, but the idea was cut short when he smelled Ukai's scent swirl in from the front entryway. He craned his neck to the side, looking over his shoulder at the hallway behind him. The other inhabitants in the room, save Miyo, paused their own activities to do the same.
"Hello," Ukai hotly growled, nodding at them as he walked through the living room with heavy steps-- not even bothering to kick off his shoes. "Miyo. Get off the phone. Your nose needs to be-"
Miyo clicked her tongue and silenced her mate with a flick of her hand. Keiji knew that she didn't mean any offense by it, she had merely focused all of her mental energy on the state of her nest-- on the state of Suga. Like a good Omega mother, she cared little about her own well-being, even if that personality trait was likely to drive her mate to the brink of sanity.
Ukai's throat rumbled and Keiji could smell fresh droves of Alpha frustration, seeping off his tanned skin. The coach raked a large hand through his dyed hair, shoulders bristling in agitation. "You know..." He started, looking first to Keiji, then to Oikawa and Hajime. "I've been through a lot in the last three hours. I've been riddled with anxiety because of my mate," he paused, emphasizing the words in Miyo's direction. "I've been beat up by a goddamn feral Alpha. I've burned my nose on a shit load of Alpha spray. I had to pull over on the side of the goddamn freeway to put Jacky in the front seat so Tsukishima wouldn't claw his damn eyes out. I am not in the mood for any of this anymore. I'm on my last nerve..." He stopped again, taking a large step towards Miyo's distracted figure. "So...put down the goddamn phone. I'm taking you to the hospital."
Keiji couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for the bristling coach. Not only had he become the unwitting father Alpha to their yellow house members, but he had also mated with a very independent and wily Omega. That can't be good for his instinctual head space, Keiji mused as he watched the two professors exchange hot words, especially right now, after everything the poor guy's been through. This is definitely a test of patience for him.
Miyo flashed Ukai with a set of emerald daggers and continued to ream out the person on the other end of her telephone. "Yes, I'll hold for a stupid manager if that's what I need to do to get a damn doctor. You hear me? I. Want. A. Doctor. Sent. To. My. House."
Across from Keiji, Oikawa gave Ukai an empathetic look. Then, the he called over his shoulder to the pacing raven Omega. "Miyo, you should go and check your nose out at the hospital. It probably needs to be-"
"Oikawa," Miyo warned, holding up a painted finger in his direction. "Don't you dare start with me. You would put Suga first, too. I don't want to hear it."
Oikawa sighed deeply, but Keiji saw a small playful smirk dance across his face-- twisting his old scar upwards. "Hey, you're not making any progress with that fucker on the phone," he started, hitting Ukai with a raised eyebrow that said-- watch and learn Alpha-boy. "If you go the hospital, you can talk to Momo. Maybe she'll be able to get a doctor out here faster than those idiots can. Or maybe she can even come herself."
Miyo pursed her lips, debating the idea. "Fine," she said at last. "Fine. You win. I don't think I can spend another second talking with that idiot anyways!" She continued, yelling her final words so that the poor man on the other end of the line could hear them.
Oikawa granted Ukai with another cheeky grin-- see, that's how it's done. Ukai rolled his eyes, but Keiji could smell his satisfaction. He was openly relieved that he could, at long last, bring his injured mate to the hospital.
"Your car?" Miyo asked her mate, crossing the room in long strides. Her tone had completely shifted away from its previous anger. Now, it was light-- an indication that her previous irritation with Ukai was merely a side-effect of her apprehension for Suga.
Ukai pulled the smaller woman into an embrace, smelling into her raven locks. "My car. Yeah."
"Wait," Miyo mumbled into his yellow shirt. "Let me wash up my face first...before we go. I look like a beat up vagabond."
"No." Ukai growled out at once, his yellow eyes closing with renewed frustration as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're not wasting any more time. If you get side tracked again and I'll lose my fucking mind. I swear to god, Miyo, I'll lose it."
The raven Omega pulled out of his hearty embrace and raised a challenging eyebrow. "I look like I'm-"
"You look like you're injured, which you are," Ukai interrupted, his large hands on her slender shoulders. "And..." He continued, his gaze flicking from his mate, to Oikawa, then back again. "And...if you leave your face how it is, then I'll put money down that we'll get in to see a doctor faster. Which means...seeing Momo faster...which means helping Suga faster."
Keiji heard Oikawa choke on his stifled laugh and he smelled Yachi's humorous scent swirl around the air of the room. The coach was a fast learner, Keiji had to give him that much.
"Mmm," Miyo hummed in thought before turning on her heels to walk towards the entryway. "Alright, smart thinking. I knew there was I reason I mated with you!"
Ukai rolled his eyes again and looked to Oikawa a final time-- thanks for the advice . Then, he turned on his heels and followed his mate down the hallway.
"Oikawa, you're in-" Miyo's voice rang out from the other room, but quickly cut short for a brief moment. "Keiji, you're in charge while we're gone! Don't break anything! And check on Suga in an hour or so, okaaaaaaaaaaaay?"
"Yup," Keiji called back his understanding, running his small hands through the carpet again. Without Miyo's dramatic and bubbly personality around, his distractions were going to be limited. He was going to have to find a new source of avoidance-- he still didn't want to spend a single second thinking about Bokuto. He didn't have the mental fortitude to deal with the intense feelings that came with it.
"Excuse me~~" Oikawa remarked after they heard the front door slam shut. " Why is Keiji in charge?! Did you hear her? She was going to choose me first!"
Hajime snorted, then flinched when Oikawa pinched at his bruised arm. "Why would she put you in charge? You're the most irresponsible one here."
Oikawa's mouth parted, feigning shock. "Mates are supposed to support each other, Hajime~~"
"Oh, of course!" Hajime sarcastically replied. "How could I forget something so obvious~~"
As the two boys continued to chirp each other, Keiji ran his gaze over Yachi and Yamaguchi on the couch. By scent, he could tell that the former was in a heavy state of anxiety-- thinking about her own injured Alpha. Keiji was impressed that she was keeping a handle on her emotions. The old Yachi would have been a quivering bundle of stress, maybe even dissociated. With the help of their newest housemates, and Yuji himself, the small girl had become a mindful adult in a matter of months. She had burst out of her shell like a daisy in the early spring and he was thrilled by it.
Yamaguchi, on the other hand, was exuding waves of various emotions that Keiji had trouble pinning down. Some were chalk full of worry for Tsukishima, then they would flip to confusion-- as if he was trying to decide if he even had a right to be concerned about the Alpha in the first place. Finally, the scent would shift to frustration over his flip-flopping emotions before starting the cycle all over again.
Perhaps, the kid couldn't see it yet, but Keiji knew that Tsukishima wouldn't have shown up at the park on Suga's account-- or for any other housemate. Aside from the freckled Omega, Tsukishima had been very good at keeping himself emotionally detached from their hybrid pack. One day, Keiji mused with a subtle shake of his head, one day, the two of them will figure their shit out and end up together. From his perspective, that was inevitable.
A ding from Hajime's phone tugged him away from his musings. He glanced up, watching as the surly Alpha scrolled down on his device with bandaged fingers. "It's Kuroo," the Alpha affirmed, more to Keiji than to anyone else in the room. "I'm going to give him a call," he continued, kissing Oikawa on the temple before rising to his feet with a groan. "I'll be back in a bit."
Keiji watched the Alpha slide open the back door to the porch and step outside. In front of him, Oikawa shifted uncomfortably on crossed legs.
"Keiji..." The chestnut boy said in almost a whisper, fiddling with the ends of his dirty shirt. "I'm...I'm sorry."
Keiji's dark brows furrowed, confused. Oikawa's scent wasn't just apologetic over Bokuto's injured state, it was self-chastising and anxious as well. He wasn't sure as to why. "He'll be fine," he confirmed, as much to himself as to Oikawa. "He's tough. He'll shake it off. Don't worry so much. You'll get wrinkles on your pretty face."
Despite Keiji's lighthearted quip, the room went silent. He still hadn't asked about the details of Bokuto's injuries-- a conscious decision on his part. He didn't want to know just how bad they were or what exactly had happened. He knew that it would fuck with his analytical mind. If he had that information, his stupid brain would automatically break down Bokuto's recovery process, the likelihood of death or permanent injuries, into neat percentages. He would rather just assume the the owl was going to alright. That was a lot easier for him to emotionally handle at this point.
Oikawa broke the silence of the room with a heavy sigh and his dejected scent poured into the air around them. "It's my fault...what happened...it's all my fault. I'm...I'm so fucking sorry, Keiji."
Keiji kept his gaze fixed on his small hands, neatly folded on his lap. "I have a hard time believing that it was your fault," he murmured, firmly meaning the words. He knew that Oikawa often took on burdens that were not his own. There was no doubt in his mind that his chestnut friend was doing it here, as well.
"Really...I...I..." Oikawa whispered, trailing off, and Keiji let out his own sigh.
He didn't want to know the details, but he also didn't want Oikawa to stew in this undeserved self-hatred. He was going to have to take one for his Omega team-- even if if fucked up his own state of mind to do so. "Okay, so what happened?" He asked quietly, lifting his icy eyes to meet Oikawa's worried ones. "Tell me, and I'll tell you if it was your fault. Which, I would bet you a week's worth of coffee, that it wasn't."
Oikawa's mouth set in a hard line and his scar pulled downwards as the muscles in his cheeks stiffened. He reiterated the events, in great detail. Throughout the recollection, his scent was overbearing for Keiji to inhale-- completely shameful, almost to a nauseating degree. He hated that his nestmate, one of his best friends, was feeling so upset over something so obviously stupid.
"So..." He began after Oikawa had finished his arduous retelling. "Let me get this straight. You sprayed the Alpha spray after Bokuto told you to do it. And then you got tackled by a feral Alpha, which caused you to lose a grip on the bottle..."
Oikawa nodded, grimacing as Keiji spoke.
"And then Bokuto got attacked by some crazy chick and they landed on the can...which caused the stupid thing to explode," he continued, drawing out the words with hidden sarcasm. "Am I getting all this right?"
"Yeah..."
"Okay..." He said with a slow nod, flashing Oikawa with a skeptical look. "So, what in allllllll of that, is actually your fault? Because I fail to see how any of it is."
Oikawa's face contorted and for a moment, he thought that the boy was going to cry. Thankfully, he didn't, which Keiji was extremely grateful for. He had never seen his nestmate shed a single tear, he would have no idea how to handle it.
"Yachi, do you see how any of that is his fault?" He called towards the couch without breaking his lingering eye contact with Oikawa.
Yachi perked up on the cushions and flashed Oikawa with a beaming smile. "Nope!"
"Sounds to me like it was just a bunch of unfortunate events," Yamaguchi quietly added, patting Yachi on the knee with a soft hand.
"Exactly. You got that Shittykawa? Stop taking the blame for shit," Keiji drawled, eyeing down Oikawa until he was absolutely certain that the boy had taken the words to heart. "If anyone is to blame, it's fucking Suga. But how are we supposed to blame him after we've stabbed him full of holes with heat injectors? This whole thing, it isn't anybody's fault. We had each others backs, and we were all willing to get injured for it. It's as simple as that." He paused, rising up from the rug to reach his arms towards the ceiling in a stretch. He didn't want to think about any of this anymore-- he needed to put all thoughts of Bokuto on the back burner before he went mad. "Now, where does Miyo keep her damn board games? I need a fucking distraction from this goddamn mess."
"Ohhhhhhh, Monopoly!" Yachi chimed in, gracefully bouncing up from the leather couch. "Also, Oikawa..." She trailed off, patting the chestnut boy on the back with a delicate hand. "Don't you think there are more interesting things for us to talk about? Bokuto is going to be fine. But Suga...we still have no idea what's going on with his heat, right?"
"Or how about that crazy shit that went down with Daichi?" Keiji agreed as he unapologetically searched through Miyo's cabinets, lining the far wall of the room.
"Mmm," Oikawa murmured, absentmindedly nodding his head. "Yeah, what exactly was that, anyways?"
"I don't know," Keiji replied, poking his head inside of a large cubby hole. "But this craziness isn't anything new for us anymore. I mean, how many times in the last month have we seen shit that we thought was impossible?"
Yachi furrowed her manicured brows, then popped on another award winning smile. "You know who's going to figure out the answers to all of these mysteries? Suga."
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