Due to the overwhelmingly positive response I received to my last story, I decided that instead of waiting another week to post this story I would just post it now. Thank you all for the reads and reviews on my last story It's All In The Eyes! Enjoy my next story, Cold.
Modern AU: Dying
The white walls and white floors of Fiore's most exclusive hospital's emergency waiting room were meant to emulate cleanness, but the only feeling they gave Lucy Heartfilia as she waited for news on her boyfriend's condition was complete and utter coldness. It was as if they had never experienced the warmth from a human's touch, but judging by the marks left by the Fairy Tail crew that wasn't true. The whole family was there, crammed into the small waiting room, waiting for some news about Natsu.
"Why won't they let us in there?" Gray yelled in frustration for the fifth time in the last hour as he slammed his hands into the wall. The dark haired boy's hands were perpetually frozen in a stiff fist at his sides while he continued to pace around the waiting room. Twelve hours had made him antsy.
"Gray would you sit down already?" Gajeel roared from the other side of the room, much to Gray's extreme frustration. "You're not going to help anyone if you get us all kicked out of the hospital."
"Be quiet Brats! We're all worried about Natsu, but this is still a hospital!" Master Makarov yelled, but Lucy barely registered the sound. She was barely noticing anything at the moment. Even having the whole Fairy Tail family there with her, couldn't bring Lucy back from her catatonic state. She merely sat in the plastic chair and allowed the rest of the world to move on without her.
She couldn't stop seeing the whole thing play over and over again in her head. It was like the world was a vcr stuck on rewind, making her relive Natsu's pain. The whole thing had been an accident, a sheer convergence of many coincidences occurring throughout the universe at one moment that all lead to the event itself.
Like most days at Fairy Tail, there had been an all out brawl and somehow this one had ended up on the roof, though how Lucy had absolutely no idea. They had done crazier and more dangerous things after all. She had just walked outside to seek the source of commotion when she saw all of her friends and family battling it out on the roof. At the sight Lucy smiled, and then she didn't.
It all happened so fast. Somehow Natsu had broken free of the fighting. He had looked down at her, a loving smile over his face as always, and waved. Then he fell off the roof. It wasn't a long fall, the hall was only four floors off the ground. He probably would have been okay if it was just the fall.
No, Natsu fell off the roof and then onto a car that had been pulling up into the driveway. Inside was Gray and Juvia coming back from the doctor's appointment. They were on their way home to tell everyone that they were going to have a baby.
They were as surprised as anyone when Natsu fell on top of the hood of the car and bounced off like a rubber ball covered in glass. In seconds Lucy was there, pulling his already bleeding body as someone, probably Mirajane, called 911. By the time help came, Natsu was unconscious and Lucy was already covered in the bright red crimson of his blood. Lucy was glad someone had made her change before going to the hospital. Reliving the whole thing was bad enough, but being covered in Natsu's blood would have pushed her over the edge she was just barely hanging onto.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for the family of Mr. Natsu Dragneel?" A voice interrupted Lucy's internal torture. Lucy looked up to see Natsu's doctor standing before them. All of Fairy Tail converged on the man.
"We're his family." Erza stated calmly. The doctor swallowed in response. He obviously wasn't used to a group like Fairy Tail in his waiting room.
"Well Mr. Dragneel suffered extensive injuries from his fall. He ruptured his spleen, broke five ribs, suffered some intense bruising and fracturing all over his body, then there's the cuts and of course there's the blood loss..." The doctor began to trail off.
"Just tell us if he's going to be okay." Lisanna begged. The doctor looked away from her uncomfortably.
"I'm not going to sugar coat it. Mr. Dragneel is in a very critical condition right now. He's awake, but we plan on inducing a coma to allow his body some time to heal. If he makes it through the night, then he'll be though the worst of it. However you may go in one at a time to see him, just be very calm. We don't want to get him too excited." The doctor said. Lucy felt a sigh of relief pass through her lips. It wasn't great news, but it left her with hope. Fairy Tail was all about hope.
"Now could someone please come with me to discuss his insurance?" The doctor asked, but no one looked eager to go. Everyone wanted to go in to see Natsu. Erza stepped forward.
"You go see him first Lucy. I'll take care of this." Erza said to Lucy with a soft look. Lucy flashed her a grateful smile and went to see Natsu.
When he saw her, his dark eyes lit up, but they were clouded by a heavy dose of medication obviously flowing through his system.
"Hey Luce." he attempted to say with his normal cheeriness, but it was lost in the medicated daze.
"Hey Natsu." Lucy said as she sat next to him and took his hand carefully. That was the first thing she had said all night. "How are you feeling?"
"I feel fine. I just wish they'd stop poking me with needles." He answered softly. He was exhausted. She could tell by his voice and the way his eyelids drooped low over his dark beautiful eyes.
"I'm tired, Lucy." he whispered.
"I know Natsu. You can go to sleep. You don't have to stay awake." She assured him, stroking his hand as she did. She was careful to avoid all the wires and the Iv drip.
"No I can't. I have to stay up because you're here." He argued. His voice picked up some strength, but it was obviously borrowed.
"You have to get some rest Natsu." Was all she said. She knew there was no point in arguing.
"This bed is too hard. It's not as nice as yours." He complained, knowing it would bring a smile to her face. It did.
"Well the sooner you get better, the sooner you can come back home." She assured him. If only she knew how comforting her voice was to him. It like a voice from a good dream. It was that familiar and that soothing. He didn't say anything for a long time and they sat in the silence. Lucy could stand any silence as long as it was with him.
"I love you Lucy." Natsu spoke. It was so quiet she almost hadn't heard him at first.
"I love you too Natsu." Lucy relied. She lifted his hand to her lips and pressed a long kiss to it. Tears began to well up in her eyes.
"And that's why you have to get better. For me." She continued. Her voice was tainted with her overflowing tears.
"Don't cry Luce. I'm gonna be okay…" he started, bringing his hand to wipe her tears away. "But if I'm not…"
"Don't even say that Natsu." Lucy cut him off immediately, but he was persistent. He sat up and made her listen to what he had to say.
"Listen to me Lucy. In case I don't pull out of this, I just want you to know how much I love you. I want you to know how happy I am that I bumped into you that day and brought you to Fairy Tail. I want you to know that I have loved it all. Every stupid adventure, every ridiculous fist fight, every time you yelled at me for being an idiot. All of it and if I do end up dying… I want you to take care of everyone for me,especially Happy. Make sure they all know how much they meant to me and how much I loved them." He pulled her face towards his and kissed her with all the strength he could muster.
"Promise me Lucy." he begged her. Her only response was a nod of her head and a sputter of tears.
"I love you Lucy and out of every adventure I've ever been on, our adventures have always been my favorite." He said breathlessly and Lucy cried. She looked back and remarked at how much he had grown, and how much she had loved him all along the way. He was no longer just the immature hyperactive pink headed boy, he was a strong pink headed man. How she loved him then was no comparison to how she loved him now.
Lucy knew what he was doing. He didn't want to come right out and say what he was thinking, that he thought he was going to die, but she knew. She had always known him that well. She always knew what he was thinking.
She watched blurrily, through tears as he laid back down and squeezed her hand. She didn't have to see clearly to know what was about to happen. Natsu wasn't one to give up, he had a fighter's heart, but Lucy saw the light leave his eyes as he tried to hold on for her. He fought with everything he had and Lucy only wished she could give him more. She would give anything to see him jump out of that hospital bed, to laugh at her, and say how stupid she was for falling for his prank, but that's not what happened.
As strong as his heart was, even Natsu's dragon heart couldn't beat on forever. With a shallow breath and a tear of his own, his heart simply gave out. A long shrill note rang through the air, alerting the staff of the event that had just taken place. People in dark blue ran in and ushered Lucy outside so as to clear the room in an attempt to save his life, but Lucy already knew in her own heart that he was gone. She had felt his soul brush by her on it's way out of this world, and hers willingly went with it.
Her heart turned to stone and shattered in her chest. Half of her oh so big heart was now missing, and she knew it would never come back. She could feel the hollow emptiness inside her that had begun to occupy the space where Natsu's love had once been. Sorrow crept over her like a shadow and consumed her. She embraced it gladly, as the old friend it was.
She had known sorrow before, when her mother had died, but this was a whole new level of despair. That was the despair of a child who had not yet experienced the world and merely lost a mother. While still painful, it was nowhere near the extent of misery Lucy felt now. This was the despair of a woman who had known the world, Natsu was her world, and had just lost it. She no longer wished to experience anything, for what would her world be without him. What would the world sound like without the sound of his laughter? Absolute, unbearable silence. There could be no sound. How would the world look without the sight of his pink spiky hair or warm smile? Overwhelming darkness. There could be no color. She was a person without eyes or eyes or a heart. She was barely a person at all.
As she made her way through the waiting room, Lucy heard the sound of a hundred hearts simultaneously breaking as the doctor told everyone the horrible news. A woman's shriek pierced the air and went by Lucy unnoticed. The room erupted in chaos as tears were spilled, walls were punched, and lives were irrevocably destroyed. Someone tried to wrap their arms around Lucy, but she shook them off and walked through the lobby. Goosebumps patterned her skin like polkadots. The interior of the hospital was cold. The exterior was much the same. Lucy stood outside, staring at nothing, and waited for something, anything to happen to her to prove she was still alive somewhere in the shallowness of her empty body.
She tried to find hope in the situation, that's what he would have wanted, but there was none to be found. She simply stood in her hopelessness, drowning in it.
After an indiscernible amount of time, Lucy felt something cold and wet on her cheek. She touched it and when she looked at it, she saw it was not a tear. It was a snowflake. White powder began to fall from the sky around her, but Lucy didn't care. She would have to get used to the feeling eventually. This was how her world would feel without him, without her Natsu; cold. Without Natsu, her world would feel blank and white and cold.