Author's note : After reading so many wonderful ficlets by you guys here, I am so inspired to write one. This was the fruit of my late night thoughts of trying to write without much dialogue. I will keep writing even if the series is going to be over very soon... I hope you guys won't stop writing too. This site has been my source of happiness for some time now.
Love you all. A/S fandom!
Shiraishi Megumi is not that dense. At least not as much as others believe her to be. And sometimes it makes her feel uncomfortable.
Of course she knows the meaning of the looks male staffs or even patients occasionally give her. She also could read between the lines of the seemingly innocent conversations men tries to come up with. She does talk to them, and without really trying, can be nice to them. It's in her nature anyway so it's not hard at all. One could say she is a quiet person who actually loves people a lot.
She, unlike how he had believed all along, is also aware of the strange bond they have been sharing. And he thought he was the only one who kept feeling it over and over. No, it's not like she was trying to play games, too. He found out about this secret when they were drinking at the bar she introduced to everyone a long time ago. She was slightly drunk and her eyes were looking like they were asking 'Aizawa, what is this thing between us anyway?'.
He was never expressive. He was the type to react minimally. His mind is at all time clear, sharp and calculating. But when those eyes of her revealed the owner's secret, they had also laughed at his foolishness way of thinking that she was so dense and inexperienced in love.
She is an 'honour student'. Why does that mean she'd be stupid in noticing other people's feeling anyway?
He gritted his teeth realizing he who had never miscalculate actually made a big mistake. He was not even sad, it was the happiest kind of being outsmarted someone as smart as him could ever experience.
After that night, she returned to being smiley yet distant. He did not worry too much. He knew her better than that.
He accidentally stumbled on her having breaks at the rail near the heliport a number of times until it wasn't an accident anymore. He realized she knew it was never an accident. She now knows he will come, will wait for her even.
He hears her bestfriend - his friend, scoffing at her denseness all the time. So one quiet evening in the elevator he couldn't kept it inside anymore.
"You know, you has always known."
She turned around to look at him with those quiet, calm eyes.
"About what?"
"Everything. But why wouldn't you tell me any of it?"
"Oh, it's not like I don't want to."
And she left it at that. He marveled at how good she was, being able to extract those embarrasing words from someone as cold as him.
He can be as mysterious. There were no more raw feelings being told face to face after that one in the elevator for a long time. A friendship that both sides know is not so friend-like. It goes on for weeks, for months.
He tried not to be jealous. He was never angry at her being so lovely to other men though he's aware of her being aware of the affection she was getting. It is the kindness that he likes about her. What is there to complain about?
It was just that sometimes, very rarely, it would feel like being pinched directly at the heart. That's what he concluded at first before it happened more and more regularly. He couldn't hold it in anymore, he did not think even the coldest man in the world could handle not defining 'this thing' for seven years straight. So one chilly morning, after her shift and just before his was starting. When he found her walking across the room to go home after a long night, he walked right up and just spoke evenly.
"I like you."
She just looked at him. She looked at him for the longest time she had ever looked at someone.
"I am so cruel, don't you think? Aizawa sensei?"
"You are."
"You know this all along, don't you?"
"About you being cruel, yes. About how you feel about me, 99% sure I know the answer."
"Why won't you ask me then?"
He shrugged.
"Does it matter? I have already show you all my cards a long time ago. You not showing yours, I can live with that."
She was not in her best condition to control her own actions, so she showed him the last card she had been holding - not because she wanted to win, but she was afraid about the what will happen after the game end.
Shiraishi Megumi stepped forward to face her biggest fear properly. The fear she had been trying to cover with the so called dense-acting. The only person in this whole world she had to purposely acting dense to. She walked right into his arms that were slightly opened like they knew she's doing this.
"You have always known it all along, huh? That 99%."
She said while trying to stop crying against his chest, burying her face of both happiness and frustration in the crease of his scrubs.
"No, I have been solving it all these time, rather."
His low voice was full of satisfaction, not because of the pride of his own ability to guess people, this time it was only, solely because of her.
Shiraishi Megumi is not that dense. At least not as much as others believe her to be.
Now that Aizawa Kousaku also knows this well, she is contented with that truth now.