Inside Your Mind

16 - Shinsou

Mama, I got your wild-eyed taste

Kaori Shinsou woke up when a rough hand was gently shaking her shoulder. It was such a careful touch that she didn't realise where she was and what was happening at first. Why would anyone even need to wake her?

She opened her eyes and realized she was in a car. A car that she didn't know. Her head was resting in someone's lap... she could smell coffee. After-shave. The smell of an old, comfortable sweater. She carefully turned her head and looked into the eyes of her professor. Just as she had expected. She was just about to go back to sleep again, when she realized. She fell asleep. She fell asleep with her head in her professor's lap. And it was the best fucking sleep she had in a long time.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed and sat up straight quickly. She gave Aizawa a horrified look, hoping she hadn't been weird or anything.

"I'm so sorry, professor, I didn't mean to..." she quickly said. Aizawa just gave her a tired smile.

"It's fine, Shinsou. You were tired. You deserved a good nap. But we're here." he told her in his emotionless voice. Well, it was emotionless when you didn't know what to listen for. When Aizawa showed any emotion in his voice, it was subtle.

"Okay, well... I guess I better get going then. How much is half the fare?" she wanted to know. Kaori would have tried to pay the whole thing, but she didn't have a whole lot left in her wallet. And her wallet and keys was the only thing she had had with her during that night shift. There was a whole lot of her stuff in her locker at the police station, but she never got a chance to go and get that.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. Are you really going to go out like that?" Aizawa replied. Kaori looked down on herself and realised that she looked pretty scary in her bloodied clothing. It also didn't feel great to still be covered in blood. She was absolutely dying for a shower right now.

"Yeah... I see what you mean. Not like I have anything to change into, though. Guess the kids will just have to get over it." she mumbled, feeling a lot more self-conscious about being covered in blood right now. The way it was such a mundane struggle almost made her laugh, if she hadn't been so tired.

Aizawa sat up and took off his long, black coat. He handed it over to Kaori. Kaori had seen Aizawa in this long, black coat only a handful of times, but it looked so elegant on him. And it would be terribly oversized on her.

"Wear this until you can find something else. I'll let Miss Chiyo know that she should let you use the showers when you get a chance, probably during lunch. I can imagine you're dying to get out of that." he said and gestured at her general appearance. Kaori huffed and grinned.

"Thanks, Mr. Aizawa. I'll get it back to you as soon as I can. Might be able to borrow my brother's shirt or something. He'll be in his P.E. uniform pretty much all day anyway, he can survive being in it for a bit longer." she replied and took the coat out of his hands. With that in her hands, she got out of the taxi, quickly putting on the coat and holding it closed so it would cover the blood stains on her blouse. It sort of worked. The coat was way too big for her, so there were still some visible blood stains, but it was better than nothing. And she wouldn't look so out of place in her police uniform.

Aizawa gave her a smile when he had gotten out of the taxi after paying and looked her up and down. Kaori felt a little self-conscious about it, because she probably looked really weird in his coat. She had a more petite frame than Aizawa and she was a good few inches smaller than him. On Aizawa that coat went down to above his knees. For her it stopped somewhere mid-calf.