ficlet; 002: sleep
pairing: aizawa kosaku/shiraishi megumi
word count: 752 words
note: this is something I was working on as a one-shot, but it was going literally everywhere, so I scrapped it, and turned a certain part into a ficlet.

It was late at night – or rather, very early in the morning, and all was thankfully quiet in the emergency room. Shiraishi yawned, and stretched, raising her arms above her head, but she kept her eyes trained on her laptop. Heaving a little sigh, she reread what she had typed, and then she frowned, pressing the delete button. She had just typed a row of gibberish that made no sense; clearly, she wasn't concentrating all that well. Another yawn escaped her, and she quickly covered her mouth, hiding it with her hand.

Across from her, a pair of eyebrows were raised, as its owner scruntinised her. "Shiraishi," Aizawa said. "Go get some sleep in the on-call room."

"I'm fine," she answered automatically. "I'm just a little tired, nothing that coffee can't take care of."

He stifled a sigh. That was typical of her. Shiraishi was probably the only Emergency doctor who never took a shut-eye in the on-call room. As usual, with her, it was duty over everything else. Even he had occasionally taken naps when he was on-call; after all, he was only human. He didn't insist, because it wouldn't be of any use, so he turned his attention back to his work.

Shiraishi walked out from the office, and came back with two cans of coffee, placing one on Aizawa's table. She returned to her own table, and resumed her report writing, taking constant sips of coffee to increase her concentration. Still, she found herself making typing mistakes, so she stood up, piling papers on top of the keyboard before cradling her laptop with one arm. "Aizawa-sensei, I'm moving to the couch to work. I'm not focusing very well, a change of environment might help."

You're not focusing because you're tired, and what you should be doing is to get some sleep while we're not busy, he wanted to say to her, but he didn't, because it wasn't as if she would listen to him. So he nodded, and watched out the corner of his eye as she shifted herself to the lumpy couch, yawning as she did so.

A silence settled between them as they continued working. Shiraishi leaned back into the couch – this was definitely more comfortable than the swivel chair – as she studied an MRI report and a brain scan. She read it, and reread it, and somehow, she couldn't really understand it. "Aizawa-sensei, I need your assessment on an MRI and a scan," she said, getting up, and then he looked up, motioning for her to sit down, as he got up and walked towards her.

"What is it?" He asked, as he sat down beside her. She handed him the papers, and he took them, eyes scanning the report and the scan, taking in all the information. "What do you need to know?"

"I'm not sure that I understand the omission of this particular shadow in the report…" she points at the scan as she voiced out her concerns.

He studied the scan again, his brow furrowed. "Can I have the patient's case file?" He asked, and she nodded, handing it to him. He flipped it open, turning to the last few pages for the latest update, reading her notes carefully.

Aizawa was nearly at the end of his reading when he felt a weight on his shoulder. He turned, and saw Shiraishi slumping against his side, her head on his shoulder. She had fallen asleep. His first instinct was to nudge her awake, and make her go to the on-call room, but the drawn and exhausted look on her face stopped him.

Granted, this wasn't the most comfortable way for her to sleep, but if he was to wake her up now, she'd jumped straight back into work; she wouldn't go to the on-call room. He knew she wouldn't. Carefully, he shifted his arm, taking care not to wake her, and slid it around her shoulders, so that she would be more comfortable. Spotting a blanket that someone had left draping over one arm of the couch, he stretched out to grab it with one hand, shaking it out and draping it gently over her, making sure that she was well covered.

He surprised himself by brushing back her fringe, his fingers lingering, brushing against her forehead, and he stopped, drawing back.

Perhaps that wasn't the most appropriate thing to do.

But for now, he would let her sleep, even if it meant that he was tethered to the couch until she woke up.

A/N: And yes, this is how most ficlets in this collection will go, just snippets of interaction and moments between Aizawa/Shiraishi.

Do hit me with some word or plot prompts if you have any in your mind! Miranda and Ellie, thanks soooo much for the prompts (and for reviewing!) and I'll work on them once I have the inspiration.

Reviews/comments are love x inifinity! Thanks for reading 😉