TOMORROW COMES TODAY
"There are no secrets about the world of nature. There are secrets about the thoughts and intentions of men."
-Robert Oppenheimer
In this part of the city, the river ran swift and dark and deep. The currents noisily crashed against the bridge supports, echoing loudly in the bank's clearing and drowning out little sounds like the rustling of a gun being withdrawn or the pattering of footsteps in the gravel.
A girl stood on the bank, her hair loose and swinging in the wind, and stared up at the bridge. Many people had gone over the edge of that bridge, willing and unwilling alike. She had never understood what would send someone over the railing willingly, but she thought she might be starting to now.
Despair. And, the finality of defeat. The suffocating knowledge that things are beyond fixing. She hated suicide. She hated it, but circumstances sure did a good job of making it look appealing.
"Natsu," the girl said. She couldn't hear him approach, the sound of the river was overwhelming, but she could sense him. It was the same kind of feeling that you get when someone is staring at you. Some primal instinct that warned you that you weren't alone. It was a sense that her lifestyle had honed.
The silencer on the barrel of her gun caught the light of a nearby streetlight and glinted as she turned to face him. It was Natsu. She was glad that she had guessed right and that it hadn't been Gray or Lisanna, because the exchange would have lost some of its flair.
Natsu's face was grim as he looked past the gun pointed at his chest to her face. This must have been the first time a comrade had seriously threatened to shoot him. This feeling, the burning of guilt and regret, must have been what he felt. She was understanding so much tonight. Too much. She felt lightheaded.
"Come back," he ordered.
"No," she replied without hesitation.
His eyebrows furrowed and he stepped forward. She shifted her grip on the gun and repeated louder, "No!"
She took a moment to breathe deeply and memorize the expression of hurt and confusion on his face before she pulled the trigger. The bullet didn't pack its usual force, slowed by the silencer, but it did its job well enough, piercing his chest and sending him to his knees and then to the ground.
"Idiot," she bit out angrily. Then, softer and more affectionate, she whispered, "idiot."
.o0o.
Lucy hummed to herself as she crossed the bridge. She was late on her rent and concerned by how her jeans felt a bit tighter, so she'd taken to walking home from work instead of taking a taxi.
The first night, she had been so afraid that she'd called Loke and made him promise that if her end of the line was silent for more than five minutes he would call the police. But, now she knew the way well and was pretty confident in her ability to get home safely.
Of the walk, crossing this bridge was her favorite part. When she looked down the river, she could see downtown Magnolia on the bend and the water reflected the flashing lights in this perfect, calendar-picture way that she just loved.
Preoccupied with admiring the view, she nearly didn't notice the man collapsed on the bank. Her eyes passed over him before she did a double take. There was a man lying face down in the gravel, a puddle of blood blossoming around his head and shoulders.
Instantly, her cell phone was brandished and she was dialing 911 as she stepped closer to the man. He wasn't dead. She discovered this when he turned his head at her approach and coughed.
"No cops," he rasped.
"What?"
He looked pointedly at the phone held to her ear and said again, "No cops."
"Oh," she realized at the same moment that the operator picked up.
"911, what is your emergency?"
She studied him for a moment. Why did he not want her to call the cops? Was he some sort of criminal? He stared back at her with surprisingly steady eyes, considering that he was bleeding all over the ground.
"Hello? Is anyone there? Are you injured?"
"Sorry," she said. "I thought I saw someone breaking into the house next door, but it's just their son sneaking back in from whichever party he went to. He's a rotten little brat, that one."
"Ma'am, this line is for emergencies," the operator said, sounding annoyed.
"I know, I'm sorry. It was an honest mistake," Lucy said.
"See to it that it doesn't happen again," the operator said, obviously not having any patience for someone who wasn't in dire trouble and hanging up.
"I will," Lucy said to the dial tone before hanging up herself. She put her phone away and turned her attention back to the injured man, "You better not be a serial killer."
The man let out a surprised chuckle, winced, and then promptly passed out. Lucy sighed and wondered what she was supposed to do. You're not supposed to move an injured person, because that might worsen the damage, but she didn't see any other options. She was close enough to home that it couldn't hurt too much.
Lucy paused over him, preparing herself mentally for what was going to be a very difficult and strenuous task. She turned him to his side, trying to find a way to somehow get him off the ground, and froze when the movement revealed a gun that had been trapped under his body. She recoiled as if the thing were a snake, before laughing at her irrational fear and forcing herself to pick the thing up.
It was heavier than she expected. And, maybe, loaded. She hefted it in her hand. How did you tell? She looked for a safety button that she could push so it wouldn't accidentally go off, but she couldn't find it. After wasting a few minutes turning the gun over and searching, she gave up and carefully tucked the gun into her boot.
The man was a little more difficult than the gun. Okay, a lot more difficult. He was heavy. His clothed body appeared lean, so she had no idea why he was so excessively heavy. Maybe it was because he was passed out and was all dead weight.
Well, whatever the reason, Lucy dropped him four times before she managed to maneuver him onto her back. It didn't get easier after that. It felt like he was trying to crush her into the ground and her legs were burning after the first four steps.
To be honest, she had no idea how she made it home. And, to be even more honest, she wasn't exactly the nicest when she put him on the bed. But, at least she had put him on the bed. Which meant she had been nice enough to walk up those agonizing five steps into the hall and to her room on the end.
She just wanted to go to bed now. She was exhausted and his blood had seeped through his shirt and stained the back of hers. Gross.
But, she couldn't just leave him like that. What if he bled to death over night? And, the bullet had to be removed, right? She had no idea how to do any of what she suspected he needed. She pulled her phone out again, "Crux, I have a question."
An image of a cross appeared on her phone with a light blue background, "Yes, Lucy?"
"Crux, if a person is shot, do you need to remove the bullet?"
Little z's came from the cross while it searched its database. The first time it had happened, she'd been worried that the program had gone into sleep mode, but it was just the unorthodox method the creators had developed to indicate searching.
"Lucy, if a person is shot you do not need to remove the bullet. It is safer to leave the bullet in. James Garfield, a president of the United States, was shot but died from the doctors trying to remove the bullet. Okay, Lucy?"
"But, they pull the bullet out in all the movies."
"Lucy, they remove the bullet in movies for dramatic effect. Okay, Lucy?"
"What should I do to help him, then?"
Crux answered almost immediately, "Lucy, if a person is shot, the best thing to do to help them is to take them to the hospital first thing. Okay, Lucy?"
"What if I can't take him to the hospital?"
The z's again.
Lucy plopped down on the bed while she waited, wondering if there was anything at all that she could do. Maybe she should just call the police. It would be better for them to take him and care for him than for him to die in her bed. How would she explain that?
"Oh, officer, I didn't call the police right away because he asked me not to. Oh, no, I wasn't involved in anything. I don't even know him. I just did what he asked because he looked so sad and hurt."
Pfft. Yeah. She could see that going over real well.
"Lucy, if a person is shot and you cannot take them to the hospital, the best thing to do is to cauterize, or burn shut, the wound. Okay, Lucy?"
She leaned back on her arms and looked at the man sprawled out on her bed. The options so far were to take him immediately to the hospital or to burn the wound shut. She couldn't do the first one and she couldn't do the second one.
"What else can I do?"
Crux searched the database much longer this time – vague questions like that always took longer – before answering with the infuriatingly lacking, "Lucy, if a person is shot and you cannot take them to the hospital or cauterize the wound, then the best thing to do is clean and dress the wound. Okay, Lucy?"
"Okay, Crux. Thank you."
Well, it looked like dressing the wound was the only viable option. She scoured her house for bandages, but didn't have anything bigger than a package of Hello Kitty band aids. Sighing, she turned to the fabrics of her house. There were definitely enough curtains to help, but she didn't feel confident that they were clean enough to use. Sighing again, she moved to her closet and found what she thought was a suitable shirt to ruin forever. This man better appreciate her hard work and sacrifice.
When she peeled away his blood-soaked shirt, she saw why the man had been so heavy. He was freaking ripped! Not in that gross, carried-away body builder way. But, in a lean Hermes way. He was also wearing a thick bullet proof vest. She unzipped the vest only to reveal a sculpted chest. Seriously? Damn.
She shook her head, feeling her face go red, and refocused on inspecting his injury. Whoever had shot him knew he was wearing the bulletproof vest…it couldn't be just a coincidence that the bullet had caught him a mere inch above the collar.
The good news was: the vest covered all his vital organs.
The bad news was: he had gotten shot and was still in danger of bleeding to death.
She ripped her shirt into strips and bandaged him up the best she could, applying what she hoped was adequate pressure. When she finished, she stood back and studied her handiwork. She was considering consulting Crux to ensure that she'd done it right, when a knock at the door startled her.
Could it be that Loke was already here to investigate? She had been sure that it was too late for them to be at the office to see the questions come in. Her visitor knocked again, more insistent this time.
She was going to have a hard time explaining this to Loke. He would probably call the police no matter what she said. Hurrying to the front room to avoid getting him anymore worked up than he already was, she flung the door open.
"Loke, listen, before you start yelling at me let me exp…you're not Loke," she said.
Standing on the doorstep was a man with black hair. He was taller than her and his face looked grim, as if he had to do something he didn't quite want to do. The stranger had just opened his mouth to say something back to her stupid observation, when she slammed the door shut.
"Hey!" the man called to her. She locked the deadbolt and fell back against the door.
"Who are you!?" she demanded. When the man didn't answer, she added, "If you don't tell me your name, I will refuse to talk to you."
"Gray Chang," the man said.
Lucy slid down the door until she was sitting at the base and pulled out her phone. She turned the volume down on the program before whispering, "Crux, do a search on Gray Changs that have black hair and dark eyes."
Hundreds of results popped up – Chang was a common enough name – so she narrowed it down to those who lived in a 400 mile radius. There were about twenty one results this time, but none of them looked like the man who was standing outside her door.
"You're lying," she said. "I won't talk to liars. Actually, yes, I will talk to you; tell me what you want."
"I'm here to get Salamander."
"Salamander?"
"The man you took. He's my friend and I need to get him back home," he responded.
"Well, I definitely will not believe that you are his friend. You lied about your name, so you are probably lying about being on his side. You're here to harm him some more, right? Don't think even for a second that I'll let you into my house," Lucy said. She crossed her arms for effect, even though he couldn't see it through the door. It was habit.
"I'll force my way inside," he threatened.
"I have the police dialed," she threatened back. "And, for that, I'm definitely not ever letting you in. I will ask him about you when he wakes up. If he vouches that you are his friend, then I will let you in. You can wait on my doorstep, or you can come back in the morning. It might be a while. He needs his rest."
"He needs more than rest," the man said. "Please, he needs the attention of people who know how to handle gun wounds."
Lucy stubbornly set her chin, "Nope. I took care of him, he will be fine. His state is infinitely better now than it might be if you're the filthy liar I suspect you are and I let you in here. Like I said, come back later. I'm not talking to you any longer."
The man hit her door angrily.
"I also have his gun…so don't try anything funny," she said.
There was silence on the other side of the door. A little nervous that he would try to come in a different way, Lucy streaked around her house to lock all of the windows. The house was completely silent, so if he tried to break the window, she would hear it.
She returned back to her bedroom. He was still in the same exact position, though his expression had smoothed some. The bandages weren't even that soaked, so she had hope that things were okay.
Pulling the gun out of her boot, she clutched it as she slipped onto the bed beside the wounded man. The dark haired one had frightened her a lot more than she wanted to admit and she suspected that he wasn't the type to just give up.
She had to guard him. She would have to stay up all night, it seemed.
.o0o.
Natsu woke up the next morning with a groan. His chest ached and he could feel the familiar tightness of bandages. The previous night's event came back to him slowly. Chasing after Erza. Her pointing her gun at him and actually shooting him. A girl coming off the bridge and gaping at him. Telling her not to call the police. Her warning him that he had better not kill her.
He shifted and noticed for the first time that there was something heavier than a blanket draped across his waist. Opening his eyes, he leaned painfully forward a bit to see that the heavy thing was a very feminine leg. It belonged to the girl from the night before.
She was sound asleep next to him and hugging his gun to her chest. What kind of weirdo had saved him? Who would fall asleep cradling a loaded gun? Carefully, so as not to alarm her, he pried the gun from her grasp and tucked it back into his pants.
"Look at you."
Natsu turned his head at the quiet voice. Gray smiled and nodded to the sleeping girl.
"I never took you for one to bed girls you've just met," Gray said.
"Shut up," Natsu said, his lip curling up in annoyance. Of course Gray would provoke him when he was unable to do anything about it.
"Should I take a picture?" he asked. Natsu's lip curled even more and Gray – with his typical, annoying smirk – snapped a picture with his phone.
"Knock it off," Natsu said with a warning growl. They both froze when the girl shifted in her sleep. When it was clear that she was still sleeping, Natsu continued, "What took you so long anyway? Shouldn't I already be back by now? And, you let a Civ find me? Some backup you are."
"Don't point fingers at me, you're the one who ran off like an idiot. We weren't even prepared."
"I didn't want to lose her."
"Well, you did. And, you got shot."
"Yeah, I didn't expect her to actually shoot me," Natsu said, touching his throbbing chest gingerly.
The girl shifted again. This time, she woke up. She sat up, stretching and yawning like a cat, before she noticed Gray standing in the room. Jumping up so that she was kneeling next to Natsu in the bed – moving him around and making him wince – she pointed her finger at him.
"What the hell!? You broke into my house?! I warned you, I told you I had…where's the gun? Shit. Shit!" she said, searching around the blankets for the gun.
Gray crossed his arms, appearing to be amused, and said, "You told me to come back in the morning."
"I meant knock on the door, not break in!" she shrieked, still searching desperately for the gun. "You know what, screw the gun, I'm calling the police!"
Genuinely worried by her threat, Gray turned to Natsu and said hurriedly, "Tell her I'm your friend so she'll get off my case."
"He's my friend," Natsu said. "Or, something like that."
Gray scowled at this, but didn't say anything to amend this statement. They were more like rivals than anything. Lisanna would call them something stupid like frenemies. Only Lisanna would say something so cute-sy to describe a relationship that was anything but cute.
The girl's tense shoulders relaxed, but she didn't seem to be any less wary of Gray, "But, if he's on your side, why the heck would he lie about his name?"
"What do you mean?" Natsu asked, wishing that they could get past the talk and get to where Wendy could feed him pain pills.
"He said his name was Gray Chang, but he isn't Gray Chang," the girl answered, frowning deeply at Gray.
"He's Gray alright. But, we're a bit cautious about giving out our last names. The situations we tend to get into…it's generally safer for us to have fake last names."
The girl digested this for a minute before concluding, "So, you guys are criminals."
"No!" Gray hastened to correct. "No, we're not criminals."
"Who besides criminals require fake last names?" the girl challenged.
"Well…I don't know what you'd call us. Vigilantes?" Gray said. He looked to Natsu for help, but he only shrugged.
"Vigilantes are still criminals. They go against the law."
Gray was getting frustrated. Putting his hand on his concealed weapon, he said, "Look, just let me take Natsu and we'll get out of your hair."
She hesitated, looking over at Natsu. Surprisingly, she looked worried. Touching his cheek just barely with her fingertips, she said, "Are you sure you'll be okay going with him? I'm really curious about what happened, but I also don't want to get involved in something dangerous."
Natsu smiled to assure her, "I'll be fine. I will actually be better when I get back, because then I'll have pain pills."
Her eyes widened, "Oh my God, I didn't even think of pain pills! Does it hurt really bad?"
"I'm not going to lie, it hurts like hell," Natsu answered. "Thank you, though, for bandaging me up."
Gray moved to the bedside to help him up. The girl helped, too, hooking her hand under his armpit. Once he was steady against Gray's shoulder, she stepped back.
"I think I, uh, might have lost your gun," she admitted sheepishly.
"Nah," he said, patting his gun, "I already returned it to its rightful place."
Annoyed, the girl huffed, "I didn't take your gun. It was under your body."
"I didn't accuse," Natsu said, wondering again at the weirdness of his rescuer.
She continued to hover over him and Gray as they left her bedroom, though she crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at him, "It was implied."
Natsu had no response for that, so he just ignored it. He was so ready to get home that, instead of being worried or moving into action when he saw the woman standing in the girl's living room, he sighed in irritation.
The girl grabbed his arm, telling him that this was not someone she knew. Gray recognized the woman, too, which made her a problem.
"What are you doing here?" Gray asked.
The girl stepped forward a little, putting herself between Natsu and the intruder. This made him want to laugh. As if he was the one who needed protecting in this situation. He was always the protector.
"Don't be that way, Gray," the woman said, leaning nonchalantly against the back of the couch. This provoked Gray. Natsu could feel him tense up beside him, his fists clenching.
The woman noticed the tension in the dark haired man and smirked, "I don't know how you two knew that we were after her. Congratulations at beating us to the punch for once."
Both of them turned to look at the blonde girl. She looked back at them, her expression frightened and confused. It had been a complete accident that they had bumped into her, but none of them would say so.
"However, I'm going to have to ask you to give her up," the woman continued. "It would be better for everyone if you hand Lucy over. Safer for all involved."
"No," the girl – Lucy – said. She moved back and latched herself onto Natsu's arm again. "I'm not going with you. I…they won't let you take me."
On the last part, she looked at them. Her words sounded sure, but her eyes held the question. She had big, brown eyes. Combined with her hopeful expression, Natsu knew that he couldn't let them take her. Not that he would, anyway. It would never do to have an enemy's plan work out in their favor and he wasn't the type to let someone, even a stranger, get hurt when he could prevent it.
Natsu didn't even have to look at Gray. They might be rivals or, ick, frenemies, but they had perfect teamwork. Gray pulled his gun and didn't even pause before he was shooting at the enemy woman. She expected this and dodged, but Natsu stopped paying attention to her. Gray was providing the perfect cover for him and Lucy to escape.
She didn't understand at first, frozen and staring with her mouth hanging open. He'd forgotten that most Civs hadn't ever seen anyone fire a gun. They almost always froze up in shock and fear when it happened.
He yanked once on her arm and gave her a meaningful look towards the door. She finally comprehended and stumbled with him to the door. Natsu was injured and she was afraid, but they managed to escape the room before the woman could do anything about it.
Outside, they were met with the woman's minions. He'd expected them and already had his gun leveled at them. One was smart, eyeing the gun and recognizing the shape of it, and held his hands up in surrender immediately.
The other one was not as smart. He scowled and started shooting, peppering the front of Lucy's house with bullets. He took out a ceramic vase, a window, and left holes in the siding, but didn't manage to land a hit on either of them. Natsu had grown up dodging bullets after all, so he knew just when to duck and jump to the side, pulling the blonde girl along with him.
A dog started barking and one of her neighbors ran out onto the porch. Annoyingly, this distracted Lucy, making it harder for him to maneuver her around. She stumbled and shouted, "Get back inside!"
The neighbor hesitated, her eyes wide and horrified at the scene playing out before her. A bullet whistled by Lucy's ear. This caught both of their attention; sending the woman racing back into her house and making Lucy squeal and lurch towards Gray's car.
Lucy opened the back door and helped him into the back seat. He shot one last time over her shoulder, catching the stupid minion in the leg. He slid across the seat, already starting to feel the motion sickness in anticipation.
"Drive," he told her.
"But, Gray…."
"He'll make it," Natsu said. He prodded her with his foot, "Now, go. Hurry."
Lucy nodded and slipped into the drivers' seat.
"There is a set of keys in the console," Natsu said. For situations like this. It'd happened before, unfortunately. Many times before, actually.
She nodded again and retrieved them. The smarter minion was nervous about their escape and jumped behind the car to block the road. Lucy gritted her teeth and started backing up anyway. The man stood his ground for an impressive amount of time, but caved first in this game of chicken, backing out of the way just in time to avoid getting run over.
"Sorry!" she called, directing the car past her house. Gray ran from the house. Straining against his motion sickness, Natsu groaned as he leaned over the seat and flung the door open for him. The dark haired man leapt skillfully into the passenger seat, this had happened several times before as well, and shut the door in one clean motion.
"Go!" he urged and Lucy sped off. The tires squealed and left black lines on the road outside of her home. Natsu saw her watch it get smaller in the rear view mirror and knew she was probably wondering if she would be seeing it again anytime soon.
"I didn't want to get involved in something dangerous," she said quietly.