ficlet; 015: his, not hers
pairing: aizawa kosaku/shiraishi megumi
word count: 997 words
note: inspired by a real life event, haha. More notes at the end.
Shiraishi was late for work, and it was all Aizawa's fault. There was a variety of reasons that led her to this conclusion, which she felt like elaborating none of them, but it was definitely his fault. She skidded into the staffroom, out of breath and disorientated, much to the amusement of Hiyama and Fujikawa.
"This has to be a record," Hiyama said conversationally to Fujikawa. "Shiraishi is actually five minutes late for her shift."
Fujikawa immediately drew a big circle around the day's date on the calendar in the staffroom. "This is a historical day indeed," he said dramatically.
Shiraishi rolled her eyes at their antics. She didn't have time for them; her shift had technically started. She changed in less than five minutes, tying up her hair, clipping her pen and her name tag to her pocket. As she stood front of Fujikawa, gathering her files, the orthopaedic surgeon stared at her, frowning slightly.
"Hey, Shiraishi," he started, gesturing, and then he stopped, as a smirk formed on his face. Beside him, Hiyama's gaze followed his, landing on the staff tag clipped to Shiraishi's pocket, and her eyes widened, before a smirk similar to Fujikawa's appeared on her face.
"What is it?" Shiraishi asked distractedly, looking up, and seeing two grinning faces. "Fujikawa-sensei? Hiyama-sensei?" She prompted, feeling disturbed by the inexplicably gleeful expressions on their faces.
"Oh, nothing," Fujikawa coughed, standing up. "I forgot what I wanted to say. Let's get going, we need to be in the emergency room."
"That we do," Shiraishi agreed, hurrying out.
As she disappeared from the office, Fujikawa turned to Hiyama. "I'm starting to think, should we have told her?"
She shook her head. "Hell, no. This will be payback towards those two for not telling us."
"Yeah, I'm having the exact same thoughts." Raising his hand, he high-fived Hiyama as they both grinned slyly.
It had been a rather strange morning for Shiraishi. It started off well, they had managed to save and stabilise all the patients that came into the emergency room. As they were removing their bloodied scrubs, catching a moment of rest, she saw Natori and Yokomine giving her weird looks, but yet they said nothing when she queried them. She caught them smiling at each other as she left for the staff station, which was definitely strange.
As she was categorising the patients' notes, Haitani had approached her, asking for guidance. After explaining the scan results to him, as he was taking his notes from her, he glanced sideways, and then his eyes widened, notes nearly falling out of his hands. Retrieving his notes, he muttered something under his breath and scurried off, leaving behind a rather confused Shiraishi.
After that, she had gone to Neurosurgery for a short consult, as Aizawa would not start his shift until later that day. Her discussion with Shinkai was going very well, until he made the strangest comment when handing the patient's file back to her. "Shiraishi-sensei, so you are really very close to Aizawa," he said, with emphasis.
"Wha…What?" Shiraishi stammered, confused. "Shinkai-sensei, why the suddenness of this comment?"
"Oh, nothing," Shinkai said, grinning. "Do let me know if you need another consult, although you should probably check with Aizawa beforehand."
As he walked off whistling, Shiraishi was starting to think everyone was just a little bit crazy that day.
Shiraishi walked into the staff station, removing her stethoscope from around her neck, frowning. She just had the oddest encounters with a couple of new patients, who had looked at her with confused expressions when she introduced herself to them. One had even asked her to doubly confirm her name, which was just bizarre.
As she took a seat across from Hiyama, flipping open the lid of her laptop, Tachibana appeared beside her. "Ah, Shiraishi. I need to speak to you about the performance reports of the fellows. Can you come and see me before you leave?"
She turned around to face her superior, nodding. "Of course, Tachibana-sensei."
"Thank you," he said, turning to leave, and then he paused. "Shiraishi, why are you wearing Aizawa's staff tag?"
Shiraishi stared down at her staff tag, and saw Aizawa's stoic face staring back at her. She let out a small squeak of horror, taking off the tag in a hurry as a deep flush rose in her cheeks. Tachibana gave her an amused look before leaving, but Hiyama and Fujikawa were in hysterics.
"You knew?" she hissed at them, her face red, as she glared at them. "And you didn't tell me?"
"We all knew," Hiyama chirped. "But we thought we'd have some fun. After all, there's only one way you could've gotten Aizawa's staff tag. You must have taken it from his place, which means…"
Shiraishi hid her face in her hands, groaning softly, as she turned away, intending to find a place to hide, preferably forever, when she collided into a broad chest. She looked up to see Aizawa standing in front of her.
"They knew," she whispered, as he gazed at her flushed face, an eyebrow raised.
"Shiraishi," he said, his tone normal, his voice clear. "You left your staff tag at my place, and took mine by mistake." He looked around the room as he spoke, coolly challenging the rest to say something, or make wisecracks about this development. No one said a word, not even Hiyama, as everyone hurriedly turned their attention back to their work, pretending or otherwise.
Aizawa took his staff tag from Shiraishi, and then hung hers around her neck, his hands lingering for precisely one second before he released the lanyard. "It's okay," he murmured, as he turned and headed towards his station.
She stared after him, feeling reassured and a lot less disconcerted, until her eyes landed on Hiyama. You're telling me everything, and I mean everything, she mouthed, gesturing, as Shiraishi sighed to herself.
If only she had looked properly, before grabbing the wrong tag.
A/N: My brother-in-law took my sister's staff tag by mistake yesterday, and actually had a patient asking him whether was he born a man or a woman, LOOOOL.
I think this ficlet is a bit random, haha, but hope y'all enjoy the bit of Aizawa/Shiraishi-ness regardless. Reviews/comments are love, goes without saying. Thanks for reading!