Aru Shah One-Shots

Field Trip

"ARU! Get up!" 

Aru just buried her face into her pillow and tried to go back to sleep. She'd just had this awesome dream she turned into a cat and everyone was giving her free food and hugging her. But no, her mom had to wake her up so rudely. Wait- something special was today. What was it again? OH. The aquarium field trip! 

Aru sat up, flinging her legs off the bed, and stood. She dashed to her closet, flinging the door of it open. 

"What do you wear to an aquarium?" She asked herself.

"ARU! THE BUS GETS HERE IN TEN MINUTES!"

Aru settled on jeans and a t-shirt with a character from a tv show she liked, Entrapta (anyone here watch She-ra?). Looking in her mirror, Aru ran a hand through her shoulder-length, tangled hair. A hairbrush lay abandoned on the floor nearby, which Aru grabbed, yanking it through her tangled hair.

"AAAAAAAARU! COME EAT!"

Aru quickly changed from her Iron Man pajamas into the clothes she'd picked out, awkwardly jogging to the kitchen while yanking her t-shirt over her head. Sitting on the counter was a plate with two pieces of buttered toast. She plopped down, practically shoving one of the slices into her mouth. 

Her mother rushed past her, pressed a kiss to her cheek and bolted for the door. She was going on another work trip. Ten days without her mom. Not like she wasn't used to Dr. Shah leaving all the time. 

"Bye, Aru!" Slam.

Aru grabbed her backpack, which she'd packed last night in anticipation for the field trip. She had a sweater, her phone, a book, and whatever snacks she'd found and shoved in there, and a bottle of Sprite.

She dashed out of the apartment, through the museum, and out onto the street. Now the five-minute walk to the bus stop. Ugh. Aru was tired already, and now more walking. She walked down the sidewalk, completely zoned out, until she spotted Aiden standing at the bus stop, earbuds in. As she got closer, she almost snorted- Aiden was singing along to whatever the heck he was listening to.

"What'd I miss? Virginia, my home sweet home, I wanna give you a kis-" Aiden cut off suddenly, spotting Aru. "Were you listening to me sing?" He said accusingly.

"You were being loud, it was impossible not to." 

Aiden just grumbled something and went back to staring at his shoes.

One minute of awkward silence later, the bus pulled up, and they both climbed up, Aru sitting down in the front next to some girl with cool frog earrings, while Aiden stomped to the back of the bus and sat down alone, murmuring along to whatever he was listening to.

Five minutes later, they drove through an intersection- and that's when chaos struck. A  taxi ran the red light, slamming into the middle of the bus. Aru and basically everyone else shrieked.

She was flung out of her seat, landing hard on the metal floor. Everyone was screaming and someone was on the ground next to her screaming too and frog earrings girl was yelling into her phone about the bus crashing and she didn't know where they were- probably calling 911. 

The first thing that went through Aru's head was; Was Aiden okay? She stood, head buzzing, and glanced around. The bus was absolute carnage- part of the middle had been shoved in, crushing the seats but thankfully not the kids, and people were hurt everywhere and crying and there was blood on the ground where she had been was that her blood wow Aru's head hurt and everything was blurry and her head was buzzing and-

Everything went black.

(Timeskip brought to you by Frog Earrings Girl.)

Gods, Aru's head hurt.

She cracked her eyes open to be met with bright, blinding white. There was beeping and it smelled like that cleaning alcohol stuff. She glanced around. It looked like she was in.. a hospital room? "Hello?" Aru called, her words met by silence.

"Hello?" This time Aru dragged out the 'o'. Nothing. So, she just closed her eyes and almost immediately fell asleep.

She was woken right up by someone whispering. Aru opened her eyes. There was a doctor standing at the foot of her bed, whispering to another doctor. The first doctor looked at her. "She's awake!" He whisper-yelled to the other doctor. "I can see that." Whisper-hissed the second one.

"What happened?" She asked.

The first doctor looked a little nervous. The second one answered; "The bus you were in was hit by a taxi. You hit your head in this incident, but you'll be fine."

Aru nodded slowly. "Did anyone die?"

"Luckily, everyone involved in the incident survived."

"Is Aiden okay?" She blurted out. 

"Which one was Aiden?" Whispered the second doctor to the first one.

The first doctor shrugged.

"I dunno. All the kids are in decent condition though."

Aru nodded. Gods, she was tired. She closed her eyes, swept into unconciousness.

AIDEN'S POV

I sang quietly along as Satisfied played through my earbuds. Hamilton is basically the only musical I know, and the music is good, so I listen to it alot. Like-- a lot.

I was on the bus. Today was a field trip to some aquarium. I didn't really want to go but I had no choice, so here I was.

And then, suddenly..

CRASH!

A taxi slammed into the bus, flinging me out of my seat on impact. I slammed against the seat across the row, slumping to the ground. I curled up on the cold metal floor, starting to cry. It might seem weird, but I have a really bad relationship with pain. My pain tolerance level is, like, super low, so it's already bad. Plus- I get scared kinda easy. Wait, why do you fight monsters and stuff with the other Potatoes then?  You must be asking. Well, I can kinda ignore the pain if I get hurt. But not for too long. It's kinda annoying, to be honest. But back to the car crash situation.

So so so so this is what it feels like to match wits with someone at your level!

Everything hurts so much.

What the hell is the catch? It's the feeling of freedom, of seeing the light,

I shuffle backwards, into the space on the floor below my seat.

It's Ben Franklin with a key and a kite- you see it, right?

I stay there. It's been maybe five minutes. People are screaming and crying. 

The conversation lasted two minutes, maybe three minutes

I dont like this.

Everything we said in total agreement

Someone opens the back of the bus.

People climb in.

Someone carefully pulls me out from where i'm hiding, whispering something reasurring to me.

I dont remember much.

Next thing I knew I was in a hospital bed.

A doctor tells me i'm gonna be let out of the hospital tomorrow.

(Timeskip brought to you by my guinea pig Tyson.)

It's been a week. Brynne told me that Aru's coming back today. I hope she's okay.

"Hey, Wifey!" I hear someone yell. Before I know it, Aru's barreling through the crowd and wrapping me in a rib-cracking hug.

"Hi- please let go of me"

"Sorry!" Aru hops back.

"uh- how are you?" I say awkwardly. 

"Great!"

// this was supposed to be Aru x Aiden but I didnt know what to do lol -TheNoodleGoddess \\