one-shot; (some sort of) knight in shining armour
pairing: aizawa kosaku/shiraishi megumi
word count: 2302 words
note: having a crack at a prompt given to me by a reviewer – Shiraishi is disrespected by a new intern, and Aizawa steps in. I don't think I wrote this particularly well, unfortunately. More notes at the end.

"You're going to do a rotation in Lifesaving?"

"Yes, Saijo-sensei suggested it. He thinks it's a good idea that us fellows learn about emergency procedures in brain surgeries. However, Lifesaving can only accommodate one neurosurgery fellow at a time, so we're all taking turns. I'm the first one to go," the young female doctor dressed in neurosurgery scrubs says with an obvious note of pride.

Shiraishi casts a glance towards the direction of the voices, and then turns back to her own lunch. "It looks like we may have a new addition soon," she says conversationally in a low voice.

"Another intern, vying to learn from me and my expertise," Fujikawa says happily.

Hiyama snorts. "You wish. She's from neurosurgery. She'll probably stick to Aizawa like glue – I know he's still pretty famous in neurosurgery despite having transferred to Lifesaving." Aizawa, unusually sitting at the same table with them, ignores them as usual.

"I'll be able to see Aizawa-sensei in action, and to learn from him," the voice holds a note of excitement, and Hiyama smirks.

"Hey, Aizawa. Sounds like you have a fangirl coming in!"

He stands up abruptly, grabbing his lunch tray. "I'm heading back to Emergency." Without another glance, he left the cafeteria.

"Tch," Fujikawa makes a face as Shiraishi smiles.

Yoneda Yuna bows politely as Saijo introduces her to Lifesaving team. "Shiraishi-sensei, I will leave Yoneda in your capable hands," Saijo says confidently, as Shiraishi nods.

Leading her to the centre of the room, Shiraishi makes the basic introductions. "Yoneda-sensei, you'll be working alongside your fellow interns, Natori-sensei, Yokomine-sensei and Haitani-sensei. I understand that your training will only be confined to Emergency; therefore, there's no need for you to perform Heli duties," Shiraishi explains. "The senior doctors – myself, Aizawa-sensei, Hiyama-sensei and Fujikawa-sensei – are here to guide you and be your mentors. You'll meet Tachibana-sensei later, who heads the Lifesaving and Emergency department. And if you have any questions about nursing procedures, please talk to Saejima-san. She's very experienced."

Yoneda barely acknowledges Shiraishi's welcome speech as her eyes land on Aizawa. "Aizawa-sensei!" Yoneda takes two steps towards the neurosurgeon. "I'm honored to meet you, and I'm looking forward to learning from you."

He looks at her critically, arms folded, saying nothing, whilst Hiyama and Fujikawa both raise their eyebrows almost simultaneously at the young female neurosurgeon. Saejima gives her a sideways glance, and the interns exchange looks amongst themselves; neither of them misses the snub – unintentional or otherwise, no one knows for sure – towards Shiraishi. However, their staff leader's face remains mildly impassive.

Aizawa turns to Shiraishi, effectively brushing off Yoneda. "Shiraishi, I'm going to Cardiology for a consult regarding the patient who was brought in earlier this morning. Call me if you need me." With that, he turns and walks out of the room.

"Aizawa-sensei! Wait for me!" Yoneda hurries after him, as everyone stares at her retreating back. A silence descends upon the team, the new addition to Lifesaving is surely…perplexingly different.

"Huh," Fujikawa breaks the silence. "Something tells me she's not going to last long in here…Aizawa's going to effectively kick her back to Neurosurgery."

"Well," Shiraishi says, gathering some patient files. "That's not really going to be his decision."

"But Shiraishi," Fujikawa grins, waggling his eyebrows, "she's looking like competition, don't you…ouch!" He rubs his head as Saejima whacks him lightly with a file. "Haruka!"

"Fujikawa-sensei, it's time for your clinic duty," Saejima says firmly, propelling him out towards the emergency department's clinic.

The fellows scatter themselves, heading towards the staff station, and no doubt for a good gossip session, as Hiyama shrugs at Shiraishi. "Looks like you might have your hands full with this one."

Shiraishi laughs lightly. "I'm sure it'll be fine, Hiyama."

Yoneda's first few days at Lifesaving is not a success.

Aizawa is on Heli duty for the week, much to Yoneda's disappointment, and he's barely in the emergency room for long. The few hours he's there, she's instead tasked by Shiraishi to assist with other surgical procedures, which she does so with obvious reluctance.

As a surgeon and a doctor, she's fairly intelligent, and quite capable. But as a person, she's frankly terrible. She takes instructions from the senior doctors (apart from Aizawa) with an almost flippant manner, although she is able to carry out instructions adeptly. She treats the rest of the fellows with a certain kind of derisiveness. Not one of the fellows likes her; in fact, Natori was all ready to accidentally-on-purpose stab her with a scalpel at one point. Hiyama and Fujikawa mentored her as little as possible, choosing instead putting all their energy into the Lifesaving interns, who would actually give them one-hundred percent of their attention.

Shiraishi is the only one who gives her time and patience, carefully explaining the operation of Lifesaving and the emergency room, and giving her guidance on all the surgical procedures, especially the non-brain related procedures. After all, it's logical for the fellow to learn about procedures she is not familiar with, that's how a surgeon hone their skills. Yoneda, unfortunately, does not seem appreciative of these gestures, in contrast, she seems almost dismissive of Shiraishi's guidance, although she performs with reasonable competence.

Aizawa notices, and his blood boils, but he holds his tongue and says nothing. Shiraishi is the staff leader, and he trusts her to handle Yoneda in her own way. Although that certainly doesn't mean he has to like it, or like the neurosurgery intern. He tolerates her, for Shiraishi's sake and for Saijo's sake, but frankly, if the decision is up to him, he would choose to send her back to Neurosurgery in a heartbeat.

"I'm assigning Yoneda-sensei to you for the next week, since Fujikawa will take over the Heli duties then," Shiraishi makes a mark on the staff sheet on her clipboard. She hears Aizawa sighing, and she shakes her head slightly. "I can almost hear you rolling your eyes."

Aizawa stops in mid eye-roll. "If you absolutely have to," he says, his tone disgruntled.

"Aizawa, she is a neurosurgery intern. It just makes sense, that's all," she points out, and he knows she's right.

He's quiet for a while, as he watches her scribbling away on the staff sheet, making notations as she plans everyone's tasks and assignments. Swiveling his chair towards her, he reaches out, and puts his hand on hers, stopping her from writing. She looks up at him questioningly.

"Why do you put up with her attitude?" He asks.

"Everyone has a different way of expressing themselves," she answers. "It doesn't mean that she's not learning. And my responsibility is to ensure she learns." After all, Shiraishi has always been the kind, benevolent leader and mentor, for that's just the way she is. She squeezes his hand lightly. "It doesn't bother me. Don't let it bother you."

Aizawa says nothing but it does bother him. It bothers him a lot.

Yoneda spins around on her chair idly, pursuing the brain scan of a patient brought in earlier by the Heli, letting out a satisfied sigh. "It's such a breath of fresh air learning from Aizawa-sensei today."

The Lifesaving interns look at each other, and then look at her. "Are you talking to us?" Yokomine asks.

"Well, yes, you're the only ones around, aren't you?" She says in a bored tone. The senior doctors had all stepped out momentarily for a quick briefing with Tachibana-sensei, and the interns are all catching up on their reports in the office, whilst keeping an eye on the phone and the emergency room.

Natori scoffs, and turns his back on her. Yokomine and Haitani follow suit; neither of them is interested in entertaining the arrogant young neurosurgeon.

Yoneda continues talking, barely noticing the others are choosing to ignore her. "Aizawa-sensei is so smart, and so skilled…I really don't understand why he transferred to Lifesaving. I think he belongs to Neurosurgery, the more superior department."

"Excuse me?" Natori looks up now. "What exactly do you mean by that? In what way is Lifesaving any lesser than Neurosugery?"

She gives a little laugh. "Well, Neurosurgery is specialised. Lifesaving is…" she gives a little wave of her hand. "It's everywhere. None of you are specialised."

"And you arrive at this conclusion after a week with us? You're bold," Yokomine's voice is heavy with sarcasm and annoyance. Even Haitani, who usually opts to stay out of conflicts and say nothing, is looking at Yoneda with an air of contempt.

"It's true, though," Yoneda twirls her pencil in her hand. "Emergency brain surgeries are what I want to learn about, and Aizawa-sensei is the only one in this team who can give me that. I learned nothing from Shiraishi-sensei all of last week, she just went on and on about this and that, and I was interested in none of that."

Natori whistles. "Wow, I can't believe what I'm hearing. You really are a first-class idiot."

Yoneda shrugs. "Truth hurts? You can't deny that Shiraishi-sensei is really not a specialised doctor. She's a non-specialist."

A cold voice, with an obvious note of anger, cuts in. "Yoneda."

All four of them looks up, to see Aizawa and Shiraishi standing there. They were all so engrossed in talking that they failed to realise that the two senior doctors had slipped into the office, and had heard every word.

Aizawa's face is carefully blank, but the Lifesaving interns immediately notice his clenched right fist, a certain sign that he is pissed. All of them are internally smirking to themselves, Yoneda is not going to come out of this unscathed, and she deserves it. Shiraishi, on the other hand, does not look angry at all. Instead, she's eyeing the young surgeon with a slight air of sadness.

Aizawa takes two steps closer to Yoneda, and stares down at her, his arms crossed. "I will not have you disparaging the work of Lifesaving, and neither will I have you belittling Shiraishi." His tone is ice-cold, and his words stinging and lashing, and Yoneda visibly pales.

"Aizawa," Shiraishi says calmly, resting her hand on his arm, and giving it a reassuring squeeze, and gently guides him aside, to stand behind her. He relents, but his expression is still unforgiving, and everyone in the room notices the way his hand is resting protectively on Shiraishi's back.

Natori signals his fellow interns, and they quietly dart out of the room, heading into the emergency room.

"Yoneda-sensei," Shiraishi addresses the younger surgeon, who is looking shaken. "Do you really feel that the work that Lifesaving does is insignificant?"

"I don't, but I don't feel that it is as important as the work of Neurosurgery," she answers, with a certain air of defiance.

Shirashi nods. "Then, perhaps it is my failing as Lifesaving's staff leader, that I fail to communicate the role of Lifesaving and Emergency to you in your first week."

Aizawa bristles at that – he will not have her taking an iota of responsibility for Yoneda's behaviour - but Shiraishi silences him with a brief look. She continues, her tone calm and serene. "Yoneda-sensei, let me explain something to you. Doctors in Lifesaving and Emergency are the patients' first point of contact in all cases of emergency. We are trained to respond, to react, to perform the initial lifesaving procedures, to stabilise the patients, so they are able to receive further treatment from the specialists if needed."

Yoneda remains quiet, not saying anything.

Shiraishi goes on. "On the contrary, we're not 'non-specialists', as you put it. We are specialised, in all procedures and surgeries needed to save a life. A neurosurgeon would not be able to perform a lifesaving surgery if emergency doctors are unable to stabilise the patient before that. A cardiologist will not be able to operate if the emergency doctors did not manage to restart a patient's failing heart."

Colour flooded into Yoneda's cheeks, as she looked downwards.

"This department, and Doctor Heli, is essential. Our work is essential. And I hope, for the rest of your time with us, you will come to realise that."

Yoneda nods slowly, and then she looks up, meeting Shiraishi's gaze. "Shiraishi-sensei, I apologise."

"Apology accepted," Shiraishi gives her a small smile. "I think Fujikawa-sensei needs some assistance in the emergency outpatient clinic. Please see to him."

The young neurosurgeon nods again, and scuttles out, cheeks still flaming.

Shiraishi watches her go, and then sighs, grabbing a chair and sitting down, rubbing her temples with her fingers. Aizawa sits down beside her, and rests his hand on her thigh. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," she says. "I hope she understands what I'm telling her."

He looks at her, eyebrow raised. "You shouldn't have stopped me. I'm pretty sure I can make her understand." His tone clearly indicates that if it had been up to him, he would not have held his sharp tongue back.

She hits his shoulder lightly. "You're too harsh. You'll just scare her, but you won't necessarily make her understand."

Aizawa frowns. "I won't tolerate any form of disrespect towards you. Or towards Lifesaving." After all, he himself started off at Lifesaving.

"My hero," Shiraishi says teasingly, tapping him on the nose.

He gives her look, picking up her hand and rubbing her knuckles. "Hardly. I seem to recall you not letting me fight your battle."

"I can fight my own battles, and you know it," she says, smiling.

Aizawa knows she can. Shiraishi's kindness and compassion does not equal to weakness, in fact, it's quite the opposite. She's never going to be a damsel in distress, which means he never needs to be her knight in shining armour.

"But thank you for your protectiveness." She places her hand on the nape of his neck, and gives him a quick peck on the lips.

A/N: Initially it was going to be ficlet thing of about 1000 words, then it got longer, and then I didn't know how to end it, and then it just went everywhere, haha. I don't think I completely fulfilled the prompt – I think the Guest reviewer wanted over-protective mama bear Aizawa, but I just don't think Shiraishi is the type to step back and need protection when she's being disrespected. I honestly think she will fight it herself, hence protective!Aizawa only made a short appearance.

Anyway, this turned out to be some sort of slice-of-life fic with some minor fluff and…stuff. Hopefully this will still entertain some of you, and to the guest reviewer who left me the prompt, hope this somewhat lives up to your expectations!

Reviews and comments are loved x a zillion!