Authors Note: I am Australian so therefor I have I spelt 'Mom' as 'Mum'.
Tonight is the eve of a new year, and my family and I were already heading for a an unfortunate start. It's about ten minutes to eleven p.m and I'm sitting in the hospital waiting room while my mother was being taken care of by the hospital nurses.
My mother has been ill for the passed few days, and she kept getting worse, so I took her here hoping for a solution. However, as it turns out, they can't even tell me what's wrong with her.
I was alone, my Father seemed to be too busy right now to wait with me, but he promised to come see her later. I shouldn't have been surprised at that really -work generally came first.
I thought of ringing Natsu and asking to wait with me, but I didn't want him to miss out on the New Years party that a friend of ours were hosting. After all, the guy had been excited for it all week. I hoped he got my text message to inform him of what has happened, otherwise he'd worry too much.
I sighed as I flipped through an old celebrity magazine that was published more than a year ago. My patience was growing thin and the hospital couldn't even provide me with updated reading materials to distract myself. I really wanted Natsu here too distract me. He was good at doing just that, but by thinking that, I couldn't help but feel just a little bit selfish.
"Yo." A voice called from the hall of the waiting room. There was Natsu, walking towards me. I just stood up from my chair stunned and watched as he approached me. When he got close enough his arms went around me and before I knew it he was hugging me. The worry about my mother eased. We stayed like that for only a few seconds before I moved back a little to look at his face. His hands stayed at my hips.
"Natsu, what are doing here? You should be at the party." Natsu just smiled down at me with his usual goofy grin and I just rolled my eyes at him in reply before pressing my cheek against his chest. I felt as If the whole hospital was staring, but right now I couldn't care less. I needed his comfort.
"Like I'd leave you alone at time like this." He moved one of his hands from my waist and started to stroke my hair. "Besides I haven't gone to parties without you by my side since before high school, to do it now, that'd be too weird." He added.
We were best friends in High School, we even went to our prom together. We went together as friends and came home lovers. I couldn't be more surprised of how unsurprised both my family and friends were. Apparently they saw it coming before we did.
I gently tore my arms off of him to sit down again and Natsu sat as closely as he could get to me.
"How's your mum doing?" He asked after a moment of silence.
"She's not well Natsu… they don't even know what's wrong with her." Natsu's hand found mine. Could he hear the worry from my voice? Or did he see it on my face? Either way, he always knew when something was wrong.
"Don't worry about it too much, she's tough." He paused and held my hand tighter, then he looked at me, right into my eyes, "just like you." He added and I almost cried. But I didn't, not this time anyway. I looked up at Natsu and smiled in return. Then he let go of my hand and put his arm around my shoulders. I leaned against him. We stayed like that in silence for a while after that.
****
Much later, still with no word on how my mother was doing, I was starting to feel agitated and I started to fiddle. To distract myself, I looked up towards the hospital clock, it was only a few minutes until the new year. I thought of our friends partying away, I hoped they were having fun. I then glanced at Natsu who seemed to be staring up at the clock too.
Natsu began to dig into the pocket of his jacket and brought his arm back to his side. In his hand he held something that was pink I couldn't quite make out what it was though.
"Hey Luce, Happy New Year." He said and pulled onto the string that was attached to the pink plastic and I realized it was a party popper. I flinched from the sudden noise and seconds later, its contents landed on my head. Natsu laughed at me, which caused me too laugh too.
Then as it struck midnight, the noise of fire works hit our ears. Natsu took my wrist and pulled me towards the nearest window, the night sky was filled with the beautiful lights, celebrating another new year.
As I watched the night sky light up, Natsu leaned towards me and kissed my cheek, "Everything will be just fine." He told me. I wasn't sure if he was right, he didn't truly know if my mother was going to be okay, but for now, I'd believe him. Just like always, he always knew how to make me feel better.