Title: Four Seasons - Of The Playground and Shawl

Pairing: Aizawa/Shiraishi

Summary: In which the perfectionist 8-year old Shiraishi Megumi berated herself for mostly insignificant things and unintentionally monopolized the playground's swings.

Notes: child!AU Code Blue. I somehow managed to portray Shiraishi as too much of a drama queen here I don't know why but I think her goody-two shoes personality somehow justified this LOL I'm sorry if it's too out of character, just..enjoy reading!


Autumn

Megumi was supposed to enjoy the breeze of the autumn air as it was supposedly very soothing, after the dry, hot, summer weather. But instead, all she could feel was the coldness seeping through her bones and the fatigue all over her body. She forget her shawl but that was not all, she didn't knew school could take up so much of her energy -she actually excelled in every lesson, she never had the chance to fail, hence the current predicament- but it was indeed, yes, tough if you failed to complete every task needed for it. She uncharacteristically left her homework behind at home, when it was completed four days ahead of the deadline and that tarnished her good reputation. It hurt her feelings so much because it made her felt incompetent, as if she didn't do enough and give her utmost effort for the work. She failed herself. Most importantly, she failed her father and mother. She thought they would not be too happy if he knew what happened, she thought to herself. She didn't want her parents to think she's clumsy, because she's not, and she contemplated on what to do after this.

The way home felt so long to her as she berated herself for her mistake. Her absent-minded thoughts unexpectedly led her towards the neighborhood's playground, one she would frequent on weekends when she's younger, but not usually on weekdays like today. When she realized where she was, she halted her steps, and she thought it would be alright to stop by for a while, to let go of all the ominous feelings inside her. The sight of all kinds of childplay tempted her inner-child personality.

A feeling of familiarity hit her as soon as she took the steps towards the swings. All the laughter she let out, the scrape she got from falling from the bars and the tears followed, the smell of sweat running down on her shirt, all in all, the bliss of her blessed childhood, the beautiful memories etched in her brain emerged and that made her smile bitterly to herself.

Settling down on the swing, Megumi could not help but notice that the playground was actually empty. Probably due to the fact that the sky was beginning to show signs of the upcoming rain, but she stood still, backpack still on her shoulders, holding on to the steel chain of the swing, and began to sway back and forth in a slow manner. The feeling of the wind caressing her face was finally starting to be a little pleasing, one that she actually longed for.

She decided to fasten the pace of her swinging as she moved her feet in a way to made her fly higher. If someone from school would see what she was doing, she probably was going to be teased so much, as she was usually a calm and composed person. This side of her playfulness was never shown to anyone other than her family, because she was mostly all about work in school, even when she have really good friends, she tend to be the mature one amongst all her comrades and she's happy with that, really. This reminded her of how lovely her carefree childhood, one she didn't knew she outgrown from and now had come to this state.

Time passed unbeknownst to Megumi and as she busied herself on the swing, the sky cleared up a little bit and the playground welcomed a few other kids. Some younger than her accompanied with their mothers, playing tag running all around the playground with all their energies. Some probably was her age, playing with the dirt on the ground with some wooden stick they found somewhere, writing words of playfulness and what they longed for. Some tried to defeat the bar as they jumped and reach out for the highest beam to hold on. A boy her age succeeded, and he went to sit comfortably at the highest steel bar on the playground without so much of an effort.

It was very mesmerizing to say the least. Megumi could not help but stare at his fluid movements and as her gaze completely focused on the boy, she slow down her swing considerably. When the boy caught her staring at him, she hurriedly averted her gaze and fasten yet again her swing. She was usually kind and friendly as she would offer her smile to strangers but this time, she felt so inadequate and decided she just didn't want to be bothered.

Distracting herself from the image of the boy on the bars, she decided to observe the surrounding rather seriously. She noticed that the spot next to her on the other swing was taken by a girl probably too was the same age of her. She seemed to be preoccupied with her own thoughts so that was not a problem at all, as Megumi also didn't want her peace to be disturbed.

What startled her was when she looked in front, she came eye to eye with yet another girl with an annoyed expression etched to her face. The other girl has her arms crossed in front of her chest and her foot stomped in an impatient way, and she said "Oi, don't hog the swing all to yourself, it's not yours."

What said unnerved Megumi too much and all the heavy feeling on her chest seemed to overflow her emotions resulting to her letting out a not-so-pretty cry. Her shoulders moved up and down uncontrollably and that flustered the girl in front of her. She resorted to escape from the scene as she didn't want to be blamed for what happened, because seriously, who would cry that hard from being told to take turns on the swings?

As the other girl tried to walk inconspicuously from the playground, she tried locating her mother and when she met her she hurriedly grabbed her hands as to quickly leave the place.

"Mihoko, why are you so rushed? Weren't you the one who insisted on dropping by the playground?" her mother asked confusedly as she noticed the change in her daughter's behaviour.

"I changed my mind, there's this weird girl who cried from being told to take turn on the swings and I'm not having more of that, mother." And she left without so much of a look back.

Apparently, the predicament didn't escape the eye of the boy sitting on the bars. Looking at the girl still crying on the swing, he felt like he had to do something, but he didn't know what. He decided to jump from his place and he landed gracefully on the ground before he took steps towards the girl. The sight in front of him as he stood straight a few inches before the girl bothered him. He opened his mouth, about to say something, when he failed miserably as he didn't know what good things to say to ease her burden. He didn't even know her, and a lecture from a stranger was not one to be enjoyed, he understood. He noticed she didn't wear a scarf -in the middle of the fall like this he was weirded out, really- so he did what he could only do that time. He untangled his scarf from his neck and encircled it on her.

The presence of something on her neck surprised her and she stopped her crying as she looked up and find a boy putting on a scarf for her. His features were familiar, but she couldn't pin-point where she must have met him before. Her brain seemed like it stopped working as she couldn't react accordingly towards what was happening. She could only stare at the boy in shock as he settled the scarf around her neck and covered half her face with it. When he finished, he decided to give her one of his cents, hoping it wouldn't offend her, "Don't cry, the sight's not pretty." staring sharply at her. And with that he left her, dumbfounded, completely frozen upon the swing.

Not long after, Megumi calmed down, stopped her cry, decided to call it a day and head home in a trance. Realization dawned upon her when she step into her home and took off her shoes that she needed to thank the boy and give the scarf back as it helped to warm her very much. He must've been freezing on the way back! Sadly, she didn't know how to as the boy didn't seem to be on the same school as her and her only clue to who he is was only the embroidered name on the back of the scarf that said 'Kosaku'.


More notes: So that was chapter two! I hope you enjoyed it, with cameos from Hiyama and the other girl on the swing was Saejima (I failed at describing her, I know). Two more chapters to go! (Or more?) Thanks for the support, guys.