Chapter Text
“You fell from quite a height, Mr. Aizawa. Honestly, it’s a miracle you didn’t do more than just dislocate your shoulder.”
Shouta Aizawa stared unseeing at the foot of the hospital bed as the Urgent Care doctor went over his x-rays. His shoulder was packed with ice, supported by one of those flimsy slings they give you in emergency rooms, right before they tell you where to buy a better one.
“You were swinging, you said? Like, from a rope?”
“No, uh… I was on an aerial strap,” Shouta said softly. He was tired, and the intravenous painkillers they’d given him were making his brain foggy. “I’m an aerialist.”
“An aerialist?”
“Yeah, you know… Aerial acrobatics?”
“Oh, I see.”
“They teach you how to fall,” Shouta said. “And there are safety pads in the studio.” He reached up and scratched his stubbled jaw with the back of his thumb. “But I didn’t actually hit the floor. I came out of a difficult maneuver and lost control.” He gestured sluggishly with his uninjured hand. “Came down with all that velocity, and the strap just ripped my shoulder out.” He winced at the excruciating memory and delicately palmed his injury. Honestly, he couldn’t remember a time where he’d been in worse pain.
Putting the joint back together had been hell, apparently. His highly defined shoulder muscles had tightened brutally in response to the trauma. The doctor had to be assisted by two additional nurses and the leverage of a bedsheet to reset the shoulder.
Shouta remembered none of it. They’d used conscious sedation. Strictly speaking, it left him awake, but his awareness was disengaged; his short term memory temporarily wiped. Which was okay with him. Some things were worth forgetting.
The doctor sighed. “Well… I don’t know enough about your profession to say if this will have any long term impact on your career, but it was a pretty significant dislocation. I’m not an orthopedic surgeon, but you’re probably looking at surgery to address the labrum tear here,” he pointed to the area with his pen, “and the glenoid rim fracture here. Not to mention the other soft tissue trauma. Regardless, you’re going to need a lot of physical therapy once it heals. But you definitely need to see an orthopedist as soon as possible.”
Shouta nodded, blinking several times. His eyes felt gluey, and the lights were too bright, exacerbating his chronic dry eye and threatening to trigger a headache. He bowed his head, letting his long black bangs shelter his eyes against the fluorescent glow.
“Do you want me to refer you to a surgeon, or would you rather your own doctor handle that? If they specialize in athletics, they’d probably have someone specific in mind.”
“She can do it. I’m seeing her tomorrow morning.”
“Right. Well, in the meantime, you need to keep your shoulder immobilized, and ice it regularly to stop the swelling. I’ll prescribe some pain pills to get you through the week.”
“Thanks.”