❛ I've been losing sleep. ❜

☤

MY HEAD THROBBED from my fall the previous night. It was my mistake, I should've been more careful with my body. Now I was left with a pretty nasty bruise that peaked out just above my ear. I tried to fix it with makeup and hide it with my hair, but it was just a little darker than the rest of my face.

Perfect for a day of hopping around class rooms and giving presentations. Not. I stood outside of the 1A classroom, a plastic bin filled with practice emergency equipment in hand. I was beyond nervous. All of those fifteen year olds? I tapped my foot in place as the door opened.

Aizawa stood there, bandages and all. "You can come in now."

I exhaled and started inside. A whole classroom of students stared intently at me. The only one I really knew was young Midoriya, because of his destructive quirk. The other ones, I had checked out in passing during the incident.

I heard murmurs and I sat down the plastic bin on the front desk, Aizawa pulling out his sleeping bag.

"This is Dr. Kataoka. You've all met her before. She is giving a presentation today. Pay attention, she knows what she's talking about."

One of the student's hands shot up. She had a brown bob and cute chubby cheeks. All of these kids are so cute!

"Direct your questions to Dr. Kataoka, Uraraka. I am not teaching."

The girl put her hand down. Aizawa rolled up into his sleeping bag and I was suddenly staring at a classroom full of students. Sure, I had gone to medical school. Didn't mean I liked public speaking.

I cleared my throat, scanning the room. Midoriya's bright smile urged me on.

"Hello, students!" I said, trying to brighten my voice and hide the nerves. "I'm Dr. Kataoka and I'm going to be demonstrating some basic emergency medicine maneuvers!"

There was silence, everyone seemed oddly interested. Was I being too peppy? I—I don't know how to act!

"As you witnessed a couple of days ago, you never know when you may be in a life or death situation. It's important to look out for yourself, as well as others."

I put my hands together, feeling really out of place in my white coat. I pushed up my glasses. How can I connect with them?!

"I know it can be scary. Even after everything I've seen, I still become afraid every so often."

Some of the students looked taken aback, others had an unchanging expression. I broke into another smile.

"But when you know what to do, everything is a lot easier! Today we will be going over wound care, basic spinal injuries, burns, resuscitation, and signs of shock."

A hand burst up. The same brunette girl was at the other hand.

"Dr. Kataoka?" She asked.

"Yes! What's your question?"

"What if we can't do anything? What do we do?" She asked. "Like, how badly Thirteen was injured. I— we didn't have anything to help."

"A good question, Uraraka," her face lit up a little bit. "In situations like the one you were in, there was nothing you could do except get the injured to safety. Sometimes, waiting for emergency personnel is the best option. You all did a wonderful job with your limited knowledge."

I slowly walked over to Aizawa in his sleeping bag and gently nudged him with my foot.

"Hm?"

"Can you play patient for me?" I asked quietly, the class murmuring a little bit. He didn't respond. "Please?"

"Haven't I done that enough?"

"I'll make it up to you somehow," I said and he unzipped his sleeping bag, moving toward a chair I had placed next to the plastic bin. I could hear a couple of student conversations.

"Oo— what's she going to do?"

"I don't know but this'll be good."

I took out some gauze and extra medical supplies. He sighed, looking extremely annoyed at my request.

"Who knows the difference between an arterial bleed and a venous bleed?"

A girl with black hair had her hand up. I nodded to her.

"Arterial is characterized by bright red, spurting blood. Venous is deeper in color and more of a steady flow."

"I think I'm going to be sick," a blonde haired boy looked rather pale and had a black stripe or two in his hair.

"Fantastic!" I said, then took a piece of gauze. "If you don't have anything like a piece of gauze, you can always use clothing or even your hand."

I grabbed Aizawa's arm and the class giggled a little bit. He looked so dead inside, I felt almost a little bad. "You take your material, or your hand, and press directly down on the wound. You should hold it firmly for at least sixty seconds."

I pressed gently on Aizawa's arm, keeping a light hold on his wrist. I could feel his pulse underneath my finger.

"If that doesn't stop it, you will have to move on to a tourniquet. It'll be rare that heroes have that in the field, but if you do, it will save a life."

I took out a bright orange tourniquet.

"This is kind of bad ass."

"Wouldn't you be covered in blood at that point?"

Their murmurs died down as I showed the class how one worked, all of the parts. I then slid it on to Aizawa's arm.

"High and tight is what you should always remember."

I wrapped up my presentation on wound care and jumped right into spinal injuries. Aizawa continued to look bored and didn't say a single word.

"Next, it's important that if someone has a head injury or a spinal injury that you don't move them around," I said.

"If you have the chance to help emergency crews, they may ask you to hold cervical spine."

"We are holding someone's spine?!" The same blonde haired boy sounded terrified. I laughed, shaking my head.

"No, no! You just hold their head so they don't move, which emergency services work on securing them."

"It'd be so manly to hold a spine," a red haired boy said to himself.

"Quiet," Aizawa said as I walked behind him. I stood behind his head.

"So you're just going to hold their head in an in line position."

I kept my fingers spread out, placing them around his ears. The tips of my fingers were barely touching past his ears as I made sure not to press too hard on his current injuries. My pinky rested on his chin, holding up his head. His teeth were grit pretty hard.

I hope I'm not hurting him.

"This is it!"

Some of the girls were whispering slightly to each other, lightly giggling. Were they making fun of me? A pink girl began doodling something.

I let go and then continued with the rest of my presentation. After presenting everything, I asked them to practice with a partner some of the things I showed them.

I even had a practice epinephrine pen, which I showed them how to use. It was a little awkward, seeing as I had to "inject it" into his upper thigh.

"The last thing I will show you before you get to practice is how to check a pulse!" I said and I stood to the side of Aizawa. "I'm sorry if my hands are cold."

He didn't respond to that. I placed two fingers on his neck. Then I moved to his wrist. Then, I let go.

"A normal heart rate! It should be anywhere from 60-100 beats per minute." His was a little fast, maybe medical things made him nervous?

I then let them loose to practice on each other with a checklist I had printed out. I walked around, listening to them speak with each other. Aizawa had retreated to his sleeping bag.

"Dr. Kataoka!" Midoriya called out, sitting with the boy that had ran and gotten us days ago.

"Hello, Midoriya. Everything going alright?" I asked and he nodded.

"I just w-wanted to say hello! This is my friend, Iida!"

Oh goodness, my heart. I beamed and said hello to his friend.

"It's not every day we get to have instruction from a doctor! I am honored!" Iida said, robotically moving his hands at his side.

I moved along then, checking in with each group of students. A spikey blonde haired boy was having trouble.

"Woah, Bakugou! You're killing my arm!" The red haired boy tried to pull his hand away.

"I'm just trying to hold pressure like the doctor lady said! Why're you being such a baby?! I'm not even pressing that hard?! Do you want to die?!" He was extremely aggressive and I stepped in swiftly.

"Woah, woah, Bakugou, is it?" I asked, resting a hand on his shoulder and he released the arm he was holding on tightly to.

"And Kirishima!" The red haired boy said proudly, pointing to himself.

"Alright, you don't have to press extremely hard. You may risk damaging surrounding tissues. Do you mind if I take your hand?" I asked and he made no indication of yes or no.

Kirishima laid his arm on the desk and I guided Bakugou's hand. The gauze was already on Kirishima's forearm and I pressed with Bakugou's hand. He refused to look at me while I helped him.

"See? Hard enough to stop bleeding, while soft enough to reduce damage," I said, lifting my hand off of his. "There we go!"

I walked away towards another group of students next to them, overbearing the latter part of their conversation.

"Hey, Bakugou— I've never seen you so quiet before! Your face kinda looks like my hair," Kirishima teased. There was an explosion of angry yelling from Bakugou.

"Hey, Doctor! I'm pressing too hard too!" A purple haired kid sniveled and I went over to help him, but he wouldn't stop staring at me the whole time through my instruction. He's so creepy.

The rest of the students did very well and asked excellent questions. As Aizawa led me out of the room, I faced him with the plastic bin in hand.

"I didn't hurt your face at all, did I? Or take up too much class time?" I asked, the students chattering away within the classroom.

"No, you didn't hurt me. But, it did take longer than I expected. Shortening the instruction time would be more logical," he said. I nodded and then remembered one last thing before he entered his classroom again.

"Aizawa, I have one more favor to ask," I said, some distance between us. "Will you come by my office later?"

He didn't respond and continued inside. I took it as a no and continued with my presentation in class 1B, taking his advice. It went a lot smoother and Vlad King was a much more cooperative patient.

Later in my office, Nezu entered and sat on one of the beds. He swung his feet off the side of the bed. "Are you sure about this, Dr. Kataoka? You said you don't have a firm handle on what your quirk is. Erasing it may not be the best course of action as of now."

"It's the only way I'll learn more about it."

Nezu's phone buzzed and a little smile was on his face. "Aizawa agreed! He'll be here soon."