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Chance 1: Sleeping beauty
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He didn't like rain.
Never did and never would. And today, just so happened to be one of his more unluckier days. As usual, it was the kind of night where it was not only raining, but it was cold and heavy with fog. The streets were silent, dead, and filled with the musical aroma of mayhem that often ran around during the deadly hours of magnolia.
There was a rumble across the sky.
He was late.
Again.
He groaned as he past through the narrow lane. His head was fuzzy with colours. Stupid humans. You see, Natsu Dragneel wasn't, per say, human. Although he may appear like one (and a very good looking one at that), he was not. He was more of a entity, a guardian or a spirit if you must. But he much rather prefer the label Death. Because he was Death. He would come and go, roam the streets to tend to his duty— taking away life. Humans couldn't see him, well, unless they were close to the end of their short, tortured lives and he couldn't see humans at all. All he saw, were swirls of colours and shapes that resembled them.
He was Death. Only blind and walking.
Today was more busier than usual. The number of humans dying had increased, mainly due to how street crime was escalating. However, the days that were the hardest, were the days where he had to carry the small, limp bodies out. And every time he did so, a part of him broke. Their little hands would curl around the tails of his white scarf and hug onto it, and whisper all their confessions like soft prayers, then they would look up at him with marble eyes and blink once, twice, then tell him: "I forgive you."
Every time he wished they would escape him, cheat him in his own business like how humanity had done so for the past few hundred, million decades. And no matter how long he had been in his line of work, he still didn't quite understand the pattern.
He sighed when he got to the alley way of a tall, pale yellowish building that reeked of the old and the sick. Wondering how he should get to his next client, he glanced upwards and happened to notice a ladder, followed by a set of stairs that led up to each room. He stretched his back before he started his journey to the 15th floor— if he was correct.
The journey up was anything but pleasant. Through each window he could see an uncomfortable swirl, a disgusting mix of green and blue, sometimes a touch of purple. There were times where he saw a crowd of blue and red mixed together. He presumed there were definitely more than 2 humans in one room, all experiencing a cacophony of emotions.
Then, that was when he saw a beautiful, bright swirl of pink, orange, yellow and a small tint of green and blue (that ruined the picture).
His eyes widened as he crept closer towards the window and through the mist, he saw the mixture of colours curled up in a layer of covers. The body shifted and squirmed, before it relaxed and melted back into the bed it laid on. And when it did so, its colours seemed to glow even brighter, more vibrant and stunning. The human was a young woman, around her early twenties and if he was correct, she had blonde hair and possibly big brown eyes.
It was then he realised, she was his client.
He would make her death quick with the snap of his fingers. Although she would struggle and grasp for a sense of Life (ugh, he hated that bastard Life), it wouldn't matter afterwards because she would succumb to his darkness.
They always did.
That was, if she was his everyday kind of client.
But she wasn't. She was different, he could tell. She was full of everything that he was not, even more than the little humans who would wrap themselves in his scarf, she was like gold. Like sunshine. She was… beauty? Was that the word Life would often use? He wouldn't know because he didn't see the world as how Life would see it. Though, at times, he wished he did.
Natsu shook his head. He had a job to do. One final job and then, he was done for the day. He just wanted to go home and play with his cat and sleep. Was that too much to ask for?
He entered the small room and took one step forward towards the bed where she slept. He held up his hand and there, revealed a fluorescent glow of fire that tickled his fingers and wrapped itself around the palm of his hand. The warmth radiated through the room and the colour kissed itself against the young woman's. It seemed to add a soft mixture into hers.
Now, he was standing beside her, prepared to do his job and ready to slam his hand against her chest and rip out what was left of her existence.
He wanted to.
And yet, he couldn't.
He furrowed his eyebrows. It was as though every part of him froze. He couldn't move. He couldn't speak he couldn't breathe. For the first time, Death could not bring himself to do his job.
"She's beautiful isn't she?"
He spun around and saw, standing by the window and radiated with icy blue and white, was Life, also known as Gray Fullbuster. His profession was looking after the healthy, living ones, the ones who still had a future. Unlike Natsu, he loved his job.
Gray walked over to his side and looked at the young woman, who was quietly tucked in and sleeping soundly. He also had another thing Natsu so desperately wanted, he could see how humans looked, not just a palette of colorus clashing into one another, he saw them in their own flesh and blood.
"Why are you here?" Natsu mumbled without sparing him a glance.
"Don't be such a sore ass." He laughed and nudged his side, "Well I'm bored. I'm just here to check up on my pal."
Natsu snorted, "Right."
"So, this is your next client?" Gray had noticed the sleeping girl.
"Yeah." Natsu answered back bluntly, "Yeah, she is."
There was a moment of silence. A moment filled with a twinge of regret.
"Look." Gray sighed and touched the wrist of his burning hand, "I know this isn't your… thing, but why don't you give this one a break? You and I both know, this one doesn't want to go, not just yet."
"Correction, no one does." Natsu jerked his wrist from his hold and glared at him, "No one wants me. Not now, not ever. There's this great game around me in case you haven't noticed, the great escape. You should try it one day. It's fun." He said sarcastically, "As you can see, unlike you, they hate me. But do they get a choice?" He paused, "Do I get a choice?"
Gray stayed silent as the two continued to watch the vibrant array of colours before them twist and turn as she dreamt what humans dream.
"If you could only see what I see," Gray said quietly, "You wouldn't give her up even if it meant jeopardising your job."
There was a stillness that ensued.
"I know." Natsu said back with the same amount of tone in his voice.
Suddenly an idea popped up inside Life's head. "You have one chance. You and I both have one chance. You can use this chance to save her." Gray said quickly and pointed towards Natsu's sleeve. There was a small bump that shaped a bottle, around the size of his palm, Death's eyes widened and Gray continued, "But you know the consequence-"
In fact, Natsu didn't know the consequence— at all. But when it finally struck to him, his eyes darkened.
"She dies anyways." He concluded.
"She doesn't deserve it this time Natsu." Gray said, "I would know. I see the potential in her. Leave her be and come back next time."
"I-"
"He-hello?"
In a flash, Life vanished in thin air and left a puff of cold air to breeze by Natsu. He made a mental note to give him a good punch the next time he saw him again.
She had woken up and her eyes were half lidded and she was still heavy with sleep— he could sense. Her breathing was raspy, slightly forced as though each breath was a nightmare to breathe out. The colour green began to spread all the way up to her throat, like venom. Then she started to cough and choke on them, her breathing became more erratic and they soon turned into harsh pants. It was a full blown minute of coughing, wheezing, gasping and struggling before she managed to compose herself. Natsu froze as he watched her, he felt a strange urge to help the poor woman with whatever she was dealing with. It was strange because he wanted to help. He was Death. Helping wasn't his thing.
"Nurse I-I need," She mumbled out as she rubbed her eyes. Then, she stared at him for a moment, her eyes winced, and her vision was hazy. She couldn't make out what was in front of her, it was a man— for sure— with a tint of pink? It was pink. Definitely. A man with… pink hair.
Natsu tried to imagine her appearance the best he could by the shapes. One thing he knew was that, she was wearing a loose hospital gown that looked far too big on her and a necklace that hung around her neck was held together by merely a small piece of tape.
Suddenly, her whole body went rigid. Stiff. Her breathing went quiet and her eyes as big as plates. Natsu realised she had probably noticed his presence since he was literally right in front of her— and his hand was still burning.
"I-" Her breathing hitched when she felt the warm glow of the fire tickle her skin, like nails. "Wh-who are you?" She breathed out and then she began coughing again, but this time it was slightly better.
He looked at her with sheer curiosity. It was his first time communicating with an actual human who was still alive and well. It was his first time with an actual human where there was no tears shed against his clothes or blood dripping down his feet. He was face to face, with a breathing soul.
"I'm here to—" His voice came out hoarse and abrupt. Here to what? Here to kill you? Here to take your soul away? He looked at her with pure horror, unsure as to how to answer her question. But when he saw her inch closer towards him, his expression suddenly died and his heart— if he had one—struggled against his chest like a caged creature. Her colour blinded his eyes until he could see nothing but white and yellow despite the fact that it was still night.
"You don't need to explain." She said softly and touched the arm of his burning hand and held it closer towards her, he almost flinched at her touch, "You're here to kill me aren't you?"
She didn't say that out of confidence, because she had to know. Whether she was going to live another day and wait until death was right by her doorstep again— literally— or die tonight, in a small room with nothing but flowers from her friends and family settled beside her.
Natsu sucked in a deep breath and regarded her for a moment— not that he visually could. He looked at the swirls around her chest, they intertwined with one another like knots and vines. She was scared, he realised, but not quite that scared. She was accepting her fear.
She was accepting him.
"No."
His final reply not only shocked her, but himself. He took one step back and let the fire in his hand subside. Then out from his sleeve he pulled out one small blue bottle with the words: CHANCE #1 printed on it. He motioned it towards her and knelt down beside her bed, she watched silently as he unscrewed the cap exposing an unpleasant liquid.
"I'm not going to hurt you." He said cautiously, "Drink this. It'll help."
She nodded slowly and took the bottle out from his hand. When her delicate fingers brushed against his his, every nerve in his body went on fire and his face flushed with red, he quickly looked away and coughed uncomfortably. As she drank from the bottle, he noticed the green smudge had become a bit fainter, and perhaps less.
When she was done, she handed the bottle back to him in a gentle movement. She flashed him a smile— the first smile a human had ever shown to him.
"Thank you."
His heart clenched at those words. And he said the only words he thought were the most appropriate as a reply.
"You're welcome."
He studied her movements as she crawled to the edge of her bed and seated herself up, the blankets had been thrown off and she held a pillow close to her chest. She shifted in her spot, finding it was getting rather hot in the room despite the weather outside. She just couldn't pin-point where the heat was coming from.
But Natsu, knowing his body heat compared to humans was rather high, silently smirked when he had noticed her action.
"What's your name?" She asked.
He blinked. It took him a moment to answer, as he was still finding all of it hard to believe. Her face, was bright, pure light and it was bursting with life. He could tell, Gray was right.
"Natsu." He finally replied and decided to add a small grin to that, "Natsu Dragneel."
"Like summer." She noted out-loud and nodded. "My name is Lucy," She said and stuck out her hand, "Lucy Heartfilla."
He didn't… want to shake her hand— and yet he wanted to. What if he had hurt her? Like how he had hurt everyone else? But the thing was, she didn't know who he was. She didn't need to know who he was because in the long run, he figured, it wouldn't matter.
He shook her hand and felt his stomach begin to coil and flutter with butterflies. Pathetic, he thought bitterly to himself and felt a lost of manliness. Yet, he wouldn't say they weren't pleasant feelings.
"I like your hair." She said, with a touch of shyness. He could tell she wasn't completely comfortable with him yet and he couldn't blame her. He was a man that just barged into her room with a burning hand who was tasked to kill her— and yet he didn't.
"My hair?"
"I like the colour of it." She smiled and reached out her long fingers and played with the ends of his spikes, giggling as she felt the softness of each strand, "It feels… nice."
He wanted to say something about her hair too. He would if he could see how it looked like.
"I like your hair too." He said slowly and tried to cook up something to say about her hair that must've been… beautiful. The colours told him about that much. "I think it's very bright. It's like the sun." And it was.
"The sun?" She laughed, "It isn't that bright." But it was. "I think I like yours even more, though. It's my favourite colour after all." So she liked pink.
"Pink?" He raised his eyebrow in amusement. She was a romantic, judging by how the colours mixed inside her, she liked soap dramas and romance novels, pink lemonade and strawberry milkshake— a sucker for flowers. Who could've known.
"Like cherry blossoms." She added, "Don't you like cherry blossoms?"
"I don't know." He was being honest because he had never seen cherry blossoms. That was the season where he was on holiday, taking a break, sleeping in and watch tv. There were other guys to take his shift during that season, but most of them did a pretty shitty job at it.
"Really?" She gasped, "That's— that's a pity." She stopped midway before wandering further into a territory where he would surely find her insane. She was about to ask him to go with her to visit the cherry blossom festival in the coming spring. That was something you wouldn't do when you meet a stranger— a total stranger.
"How do, uh, cherry blossoms look like?" He asked in an awkward stammer. He was curious to know and he had only heard rumours from other spirits, mostly Gray.
"Oh! where do I even begin?" She grinned and scooted closer towards him. She was full of enthusiasm and it was overflowing out of her in rays of bright light. "They're pink flowers that flow from cherry trees that blossom usually in the spring, at least, that's what a lot of people think they are. I think they're more than that."
"Is that so?" He mused out, "Then how do you see it?"
"I think, each flower, each petal, holds a memory." She said softly, "A lost. A distant past. We all have one, but some of us, aren't quite ready yet."
"Aren't quite ready?"
She laughed again (for some reason. She never stops being happy. He wondered why) "Meaning some of us haven't blossomed yet. There are some flowers that still stay on the trees no matter how many seasons have passed." She said and darted her eyes to the window and tried to recall the last spring she had, it was beautiful. "And I don't see it as anything bad. In fact, I think the way it works is pretty wonderful."
He was intrigued. It was a different way of putting things, of putting life, a way that he rarely saw. For a moment, he was seriously thinking of changing his shift just so he could witness the blossom of each cherry blossom. He wanted to know, he needed to know, were they really memories? Not just some pretty pink trees that bloomed every once in a while and withered the next.
"And?" He chanted on and leaned in closer. He felt some kind of lost, something was missing.
She tilted her head, confused, "And?"
"What happens next?"
"I— can't really describe it." She smiled and hugged her pillow closer and tighter to her chest, "There's always this moment where you don't know what you're doing. You're just trapped in a daze and you don't think about anything else. You just want to live in the moment."
He didn't quite understand what she meant by that and he probably never would, he guessed. He didn't have the capabilities to experience such vivid and confusing feelings as humans did. However, that didn't stop the corners of his mouth to tug into a nostalgic smile.
Wait.
What was he doing?
No, no, no. Everything was wrong. This… was wrong. This wasn't meant to be. This was crazy. He wasn't supposed to be interacting with humans much less talk with them. He decided to use his one chance to save her, and that was it. Then he would go and take another life, and another, and another until her time arrived again.
That was the plan.
"Where are you going?"
Her voice had stopped him.
Stopping midway across the room, he looked at her and found her eyes boring into his, all pure and confused. She was something that he wasn't supposed touch, he would be the one to destroy her purity— literally.
"I'm sorry." Natsu whispered, "I— I have to go." For some reason, he found it hard to say that.
"O-oh." She muttered and quickly scrambled to pick up her blanket off the floor, then she went to soothe her dress and followed him to the window. He was surprised at first as to why would she do that, but soon decided to push away the thought and made sleep his top most priority.
"Will you come back?" Lucy asked, sounding almost too hopeful and placed a hand on his shoulder, preventing him to leave without answering her question.
He thought about her words carefully and never broke eye contact for not even a single second. He furrowed his eyebrows and wondered how Life would react.
"Yes."
Her face suddenly lit up and a relieved smile graced her features. She released a content sigh and wrapped her hands around her arms, feeling the coldness from the air outside starting to fill in the room.
"Then I'll wait for you."
"That might be an awfully long time then." He chuckled.
"I guess it is." She laughed and her laughter was like music to his ears.
He climbed on top of the window sill and slowly dragged the curtains close, he bowed and grinned.
"Until next time."
And when Lucy opened the curtains, he was gone.
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Author's note: I hope you all liked this! Natsu's a little ooc, but that'll be explained soon (in a few chapters or so). Sorry if there are errors here and there, I'm not exactly the most fluent in english .n. Though a beta should be coming soon!
Please drop a review, a follow or a fave if you have the time! They make me happy and you get cookies. :3
