A/N - for this fic, the events of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars are set in the same year.

The first thing Gus saw when his eyes snapped open was the ceiling – that is, the ceiling of his hospital room, something he'd become quite accustomed to over the last week. Ever since his physical state began to rapidly deteriorate over a week ago, the staff at the hospital had demanded he be admitted immediately. At first he had resisted, but after days of tireless fighting, he had finally caved. Personally he didn't see the point in attempting to prolong his life, but after seeing the look on his mother's face, he had relented.

Almost without thinking, his right hand drifted down the side of his hospital bed, groping for the button that hailed the nurses. However, as his fingers finally found it, he paused – something was wrong. Pressing the button for pain meds had been instinctive, because the pain was always constant – except it wasn't. His head, his torso, his leg – nothing hurt. For the first time it what felt like forever…Gus felt normal. Good. Great.

He bolted upright and looked around. Second thing that wasn't right: no one was in the room with him. Not to sound egotistical or anything, but there was always someone with him, hovering over him the moment his eyes cracked open.

But not today, the very day that he felt a million times better. It was typical, really. Rolling his eyes, Gus lifted his prosthetic leg over the side of the bed and slid off, adjusting his weight as he went. Dragging the IV stand behind him, he pushed open the door to his private room and headed down the corridor towards the nurses office. As he knocked he grinned, just imagining the look on Nurse Mallory's face when she saw him up and walking – "Mr Waters you really should be in bed, I don't know how you got up but I swear I will tie you down the next time you attempt to escape!"

However, after three attempts at knocking, no one had answered. Mallory was probably asleep which was, again, typical. Why wasn't anything going right? Although, he supposed the world was not a wish granting factory.

A sharp pang, the first pain he'd felt since waking up – Hazel. Jeez, he should have texted her first thing. Abandoning the nurses, he began limping back to his room, grabbing his phone off of the bedside table. He switched it on – no texts. Three odd things. He couldn't remember the last time Hazel hadn't texted him in the morning.

Okay? Guess who is up and walking?

Dropping the mobile back onto the table, he limped over to the window and thrust it open. A sweet, cool breeze drifted across his face and into the room, infiltrating the heavy musk of days-old air. He'd never been so glad to feel alive.

"Alive." The word felt strange in his mouth, foreign. Something was off and he couldn't quite place his finger on it. Shaking his head, Gus gazed out at the view around Memorial Hospital. Everything seemed as it should be – cars in the car park, row upon row of generic-looking houses spanning for miles, a sparse collection of withered trees…but something. Something wasn't right.

"I'm going to the roof," he announced, even though no one was in the room to hear him. The first time he'd been at Memorial – the time when he had possession of both of his legs – the roof had become his solace. The bit that was accessible wasn't anything special, simply a fifteen by fifteen foot square slab of grey concrete. But there was something so simple about the place, something so secluded and unprejudiced that he couldn't help but be drawn to it. The roof didn't care whether you were dying from cancer. The roof was impartial.

The moment the door opened, the same breeze from his room hit him, lifting his hair away from his face and his hospital gown away from his body. It was so good to be out.

However, he was not alone. Perched on the edge of the roof, a cigarette dangling from between her fingertips, was a girl. As the wind blew the door shut behind him, she turned around, blonde hair flying. Laying her eyes upon him, a small smirk played at the corners of her lips. She raised an eyebrow.

"Got a light, lover boy?"