Chapter Text
Kaminari seems out-of-it this morning.
That’s not unusual, of course, but something about this seems different. This isn’t like when he overuses his quirk, and while Kaminari sometimes has off-days, something about today has Aizawa on edge. Jirou seems to have noticed this too, casting the occasional worried glance toward her classmate. Aizawa makes a mental note to check in with him after class, and begins as usual.
Three minutes before the end of class, Kaminari abruptly stands up and rushes out of the room. Everyone looks up, surprised, and a second later Jirou follows him out.
“Stay in your seats, everyone,” Aizawa says to the class, before following them both.
“Denki, wait -”
“I just need a second, Kyouka, I’m -”
And then Kaminari falls. Jirou half-catches him before he hits the ground, slowly lowering him to the hallway floor.
Then he starts seizing. Jirou moves back, sitting on her knees, obviously panicked. Aizawa kneels next to her, putting what he hopes is a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Start a stopwatch for me, Jirou.”
Wordlessly, she takes her phone out of her pocket and starts timing.
“Can I borrow your blazer to cushion his head?”
Jirou takes off her blazer and hands it to Aizawa. He folds it in some approximation of a cushion and places it carefully under Kaminari’s head.
“Did he tell you he was feeling unwell this morning?” Aizawa asks.
Jirou nods, still very obviously panicked by the whole situation.
“Have you seen someone have a seizure before?”
She shakes her head.
“Okay. There’s nothing we can do right now, unfortunately Kaminari just has to wait it out.”
This doesn’t do much to calm Jirou, but she takes a few deep breaths and seems to gather herself a little. Still not great, but at least somewhat an improvement.
“I’m going to stay with Kaminari. Keep that stopwatch going. Can you ask for Iida to come here, please.”
She gets up, leaving her phone on the floor with the stopwatch open, and heads back to the classroom. Aizawa reaches for his own phone and calls Yamada.
“Couldn’t wait to see me?” Yamada jokes as he answers the phone.
Aizawa rolls his eyes. “Where are you?”
“Just around the corner, your class has English in -”
Aizawa looks up to see Yamada at the end of the corridor, stopped in his tracks.
At that exact instant Iida appears next to Aizawa. “What can I do to assist, Mr Aizawa?”
“Iida, stand at the end of the corridor and direct students to take the long way around instead of this hallway.”
“Of course, Sir,” he says, stationing himself at the end of the hallway. Luckily, Aizawa thinks, there’s not usually much foot traffic through this hallway.
Kaminari stops seizing.
Yamada places a hand on Aizawa’s shoulder. “I’ll go see to the rest of the class.”
Aizawa nods, pressing the ‘stop’ button on the stopwatch. “Don’t mention exactly what happened, just let them know I’m dealing with something and it’s all under control.”
“Sure thing.”
Aizawa checks the stopwatch. Four and a half minutes. He gently moves Kaminari into the recovery position, checking his breathing and heart rate as he does so.
There is a sniffle from behind him. He turns to see Jirou, hovering cautiously a few feet away, trying to hide the fact she’s wiping tears from her face with the sleeve of her shirt. He motions for her to come forward. She kneels down next to him again. Kaminari hasn’t regained consciousness yet.
“You did the right thing, Jirou,” he says.
“I didn’t know what to do, he wouldn’t tell me what was wrong this morning, and he wouldn’t let me take him to Recovery Girl.”
“You were looking out for him, that’s the important thing.”
Jirou nods.
“I’m going to call Recovery Girl now. If Kaminari wants you to, you can accompany him to the infirmary.”
At that point, Kaminari tries to open his eyes. Aizawa turns his attention back to him.
“Can you hear me, Kaminari?” he asks.
Kaminari nods, then closes his eyes again. He’s obviously exhausted.
“You had a seizure. You’re okay.”
Kaminari mumbles something Aizawa doesn’t quite hear.
“What was that?” he asks, leaning closer.
“Did anyone see?”
Aizawa sighs. “Just Jirou and Iida.”
The look of shame on his face doesn’t escape Aizawa’s notice. They’re going to have to have a talk about this later.
“Why didn’t you let me help you?” Jirou asks. Kaminari tries to look up at her, confused.
“Give him a minute,” Aizawa says, “he may not remember this morning, depending on when this started.”
“ ‘m sorry,” he mumbles, letting his eyes close again.
Aizawa steps back and calls Recovery Girl.
When Aizawa enters the infirmary, Recovery Girl greets him with her usual sweet smile, followed by a manila folder full of paperwork.
“You’re behind on filling out these incident reports,” she says.
Aizawa takes the folder, glancing through the paperwork quickly before tucking the file under his arm. “I’ll get these done tonight,” he says. “How’s Kaminari?”
“He’s fine,” Recovery Girl says. “He’s tired, which is to be expected, but in my professional opinion he’s having a greater issue dealing with the idea of his friends knowing about his condition than the aftermath of the seizure itself.”
Aizawa sighs. “I was kind of expecting that.”
Recovery Girl offers a sympathetic smile. “He’s awake now if you want to see him.”
“Thank you,” Aizawa says, heading for the curtained-off bed near the infirmary window.
Kaminari is sitting up in bed, staring blankly at the corner of the ceiling. Aizawa grabs a nearby chair and places it at the foot of the bed, sitting down.
“Hi Sensei,” Kaminari says, not making eye contact with his teacher.
“How are you, Kaminari?” Aizawa asks.
“Fine.”
“You’re lying.”
Kaminari shrugs.
“Jirou said she noticed you were unwell this morning, do you remember that?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you know you were likely to have a seizure today?”
Kaminari sighs. “Yeah, kinda.”
“Why did you come to class?”
Kaminari puts his head in his hands. “I don’t know.”
Aizawa sighs. “Look, kid. I’m not going to lecture you about taking care of yourself, I know I’m not the best role model for that kind of thing, but you are allowed to take days off.”
Kaminari rubs absently at his eyes, obviously still tired from today’s events. “We had a test in English today.”
“You had a very legitimate reason for taking the day off, it’s in your disability management plan that you are allowed to make up tests at a later date and get extra time for homework if you need it.”
“Just because it’s in your paperwork doesn’t mean you actually get it,” Kaminari mumbles.
“Who told you that?” Aizawa asks.
Kaminari looks up at Aizawa. “What d’you mean?”
“Who told you that you couldn’t use the accommodations given to you to help manage your disabilities?”
Kaminari thinks for a moment, then shrugs. “Most of my previous teachers, I guess.”
“That’s not how it works here. If you need a day off from classes, you let me know and you get it, no questions asked. Whatever you miss can be caught up on later.”
“Oh.”
Aizawa waits for a moment, letting the information sink in, before moving on to the other thing they have to deal with.
“Recovery Girl and I had a talk with Jirou. She was quite worried about you so we explained the basics of seizures and assured her that you’d be okay after a day’s rest.”
Kaminari looks away again.
“I apologise for not asking your permission before disclosing some of your medical information. I tried to keep it as vague as possible.”
Kaminari nods, eyes a little glassy.
“Iida didn’t ask any questions, and I’m sure he understands not to discuss this with the rest of the class.”
Kaminari sniffles, trying to subtly wipe the tears from his eyes with the cuff of his sleeve.
“However, I do want you to consider letting your friends know that you have epilepsy. They’re going to have questions about what happened today, and if you don’t want to tell them then that’s fine, that’s your choice to make. But, in my opinion, telling them on your own terms is better in the long run than having them find out the way Jirou did today.”
Kaminari grimaces. “I’ll think about it.”
Aizawa nods. “Let me know tomorrow morning whether you’ll be coming to classes. If you don’t feel up to it, feel free to take the day off.”