Archive of Our Own ^beta

There was something off about the way he slumped over the desk, different than what she'd grown accustomed to throughout the last week. She chalked it up to all the exhaustion finally catching up to him. In a way, she was spot on.

The memory of his blood on her hand would haunt her forever.

A weak but steady pulse under her fingers would be her only solace.

"Yoshikawa, go call an ambulance." She was trying to keep the panic out of her voice, but she doubted in worked. The boy shot out of the classroom in an instant, his rushing footfalls echoing down the hallway.

Onizuka's face was very pale and scrunched in a pained grimace so unlike him, that it made her want to hyperventilate, but this was not the time for a panic attack.

"Kikuchi, bring the first aid kit. Does anyone have a clean P.E. shirt?" Her spirit lifted a little when a good portion of the class started rummaging through their belongings and coming up with bundles of clothing.

With a hand still under his jaw, she asked some of the boys to help sit him up. She stood behind the chair, tilting his head up to keep his airway open and ordered them to gather the P.E. clothes.

"Now," she adressed the nerby students, "try and pull his shirt up carefully. Use the water and peroxide to clean the blood and disinfect any wound you see, then press the cloth firmly to the wound. If there are any foreign objects stuck in the body, keep them where they are, but maintain the pressure."

She tried not to look down, but Kikuchi's horrified reaction told her all she needed to for now. Even Murai, holding the clothes, looked shaken.

"Gu-guys, I'm gonna need more hands here!" There was a note of sickness in his voice but the boy maintained his limited composure as he looked up at her. "Ms Fuyutsuki, you'll have to move a bit, so we can check his back. These are exit wounds."

Exit wounds.

It echoed in her head with a tragic sort of finality even as she stepped to the side and let Kusano lift the back of Onizuka's shirt repeat the cleaning process, then press more cloth to the bleeding areas.

The pulse under her fingers persisted and kept her hoping help would get there in time.

"The ambulance is four minutes out," Yoshikawa announced loudly as he came back into the classroom, panting slightly.

There was only tense silence for the remainder of the wait and she couldn't help being grateful for it. Her eyes burned and she feared if anyone talked to her, the dam would break, and she couldn't start shaking now, couldn't risk moving him more than she already had, had to keep him breathing, had to keep his heart beating, had to keep him alive, she couldn't lose h-

Paramedics rushed into the classroom and the students hurried to make way for the stretcher they wheeled in with them.

One of them looked into her eyes as she checked Onizuka's pulse and assessed the bleeding where the boys were still pressing down on the wounds.

"Good job," the woman smiled, and she had to keep down the instintual panic at the thought of someone wanting to take him away from her.

He needed help.

She relinquished her hold on his jaw with only slight reluctance and from then it took the paramedics no more than a minute to secure him to the stretcher and rush off, the siren of the leaving ambulance rang out soon after.

She heaved a sigh so deep that her head spun for just a second. She braced herself on the desk behind her as she looked over the 3-4 students. Many shared unsure and worried looks.

"Great work, everyone," she called their attention with as steady a smile as she could manage at the moment. "I'll go explain the situation to the other teachers." There was no airy or tired quality to her voice.

She straightened up and left for the teachers' lounge. Straight down the corridor and up the staircase.

Where a brand new bloody handprint graced the wall, smudged with the motion of somebody pushing off it to get up the last few steps.

She still felt the echo of his weak pulse under her fingertips.

With no one to judge her in the empty hallway, she took a moment to let her tears flow freely.