"When you are mad, mad like this, you don't know it. Reality is what you see. When what you see shifts, departing from anyone else's reality, it's still reality to you."
― Marya Hornbacher
Chapter Three
Over the loudspeaker, two bells rang, causing Lucy to gasp awake.
What an annoying way to wake up.
After they ended, Lucy relaxed against the single pillow beneath her head and groaned. Seven in the morning was way too damn early to be conscious. Even when she had school, she only had to wake up at eight to be ready by the time she needed to leave.
What the hell was she to do for an hour? Get dressed, and then what?
Lucy swung her slim legs over the side of her bed and held her hand to her lips as she yawned.
"Might as well get ready.." she mumbled groggily, eyes half-lidded, weighed down my drowsiness. The strap of her pale yellow nightgown hung loosely off her shoulder, but the blonde made no attempt to fix it.
"You don't need to get ready, Princess. You look beautiful the way you are."
"Ah, good morning Loki," she greeted tiredly, waving her hand in the male's direction. The ginger was standing near the door and he moved his black shades down his pointed nose.
"What do you say we get out of here and go have a little fun in the town?" he offered, a suave smirk adorning his lips.
Lucy retrieved a brush from her bag and began to disentangle her tresses, unfazed by his proposition.
"You know I can't leave," she sighed, to which the bespectacled man pursed his lips.
"Oh yeah.. that's right," he grumbled.
The blonde clothed herself in baggy grey sweatpants and a tight short-sleeve yellow t-shirt.
It was close to eight, Loki still hadn't left, and she needed to head to the bathroom.
Shit.
She'd have to pass all of those rooms to get to the restrooms. What if the other patients were out? What if they tried to interact with her?
She wasn't ready.
"Lucy," Loki called, snapping her away from her frantic thoughts.
"Y..eah..?" Pressure thudded against the walls of her veins and glued her tongue to the roof of her mouth.
"It'll be fine, I promise." The man pushed himself off the wall and nodded his head at the door. "C'mon, I'll walk with you the entire way."
"Really?" If he was there with her then she supposed she could do it. Her chocolaty eyes lit up.
"Of course," Loki reassured, and stepped aside so she could reach the door nob. "Let's go-"
There was a click and the door was swung open. Lucy was greeted by a woman on the other side.
"Oh, um, good morning," the opposite person greeted, hand retracting. "Sorry, were you not aware of confinement until seven forty-five?"
Lucy's smile faded and she stepped back one step, glancing to the left in hopes of seeing Loki. He wasn't there anymore.
"No? Well.. Anyways, I'm just here to give you your pills... um..."―she looked down at a clipboard―"Lucy Heartfilia, yes?"
Lucy nodded her head and swallowed around the desert known as her throat.
The woman before her had short white hair and large sea blue eyes; they almost looked teal.
"My name is Lisanna Strauss, by the way. I pass out the medication." She smiled, and the blonde averted her gaze. What was with the cheery attitude so early in the day?
"My pills?" Lucy questioned. No one told her anything about having to take pills.
"Ah, yes." The nurse turned around briefly and Lucy noticed there was a cart waiting behind her. Lisanna turned back around, holding a small white paper cup.
"You need to swallow this." She held it out towards Lucy, frowning sympathetically.
Lucy grabbed the cup from the nurse before her and looked into it. "What is it?"
"Invega, I think that's what I was told. It's required that you take them to start out until we can give you a proper diagnosis."
"Um..." Whatever. "Without water?" It couldn't be that bad.
Lucy arched her eyebrows at the tablet occupying the bottom. The nurse shook her head and turned around. She returned with another cup. It was filled halfway with water.
"This should be enough."
A nagging feeling had Lucy hiding the pill between her gum and cheek, pretending to swallow. Lisanna had her open her mouth and lift her tongue to check.
"Good. Thank you, Lucy."
The nurse turned and began to walk away down the hall, stopping at the next room over.
Lucy spit the pill out into her hand and folded her fist around it.
Damn, now she had to rush.
The bell to the first activity would be ringing soon, so she made a dash for the stairs. When Lucy rounded the corner to the staircase, she spotted Loki again.
"Loki, hey!" she scolded in a hushed tone. "Where were you?! Why did you just disappear?"
Loki crossed his arms over his black tuxedo and smirked. "Sorry hun. Duty calls, ya'know?"
Lucy scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she whispered. "Come on, I have to get to the bathroom before we need to be at breakfast."
She began travelling down the steps. Loki whistled an unfamiliar tune.
Once the girl stepped down onto the first floor, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
The male placed a reassuring hand onto her shoulder and said, "Quit stressin' out, Lucy. It'll be fine."
She nodded her head. "You could be right."
She stepped down into the hallway and it was completely empty. Where was everyone?
"Huh.. Guess no one's home," Loki said, a chuckle following afterwards.
Lucy continued down the silent hallway; the soft clack of her shoes filled the empty air.
"Seems so," she murmured.
The girl mentally cheered for making it to the restrooms without contacting anyone. It was.. strange for no one to be walking around even though the day would be starting soon. But, Lucy did mind much. At least there was no one that would speak to her.
"You can't come in, Loki," Lucy warned, pushing open the bathroom door, pill in palm.
"But why not?" he whined, pouting his bottom lip.
The blonde rolled her eyes and nodded towards the female on the sign.
"Women's bathroom!"
She pushed through the door, leaving behind the sulking man. Did he really feel the need to follow her everywhere?
"Who were you talking to?"
Lucy jumped."Holy shit," she breathed, taken off guard, the person before her eyeing her.
"There's no one by the name of.. Loki in this hospital," she stated, drying her hands with a paper towel. "Unless we got another new patient besides you?"
The girl had long scarlet hair and it was pulled back in a high pony. It was so... stunning.
Snapping out of her roaming thoughts, Lucy looked to the tiled floor and moved past the female. Out of her peripheral vision, she noticed red and pink marks across the person's wrist. Her view was cut short due to the girl pulling down her long navy blue sleeves.
"He's my friend," Lucy said quietly, walking towards the stalls of toilets. She tried to hide her fist.
"You really shouldn't flush your pulls," she said softly, throwing away the used towel.
How'd she know?
Lucy exhaled shakily. Before closing the stall door, she warned, "It really isn't any of your business."
There were so many people.
Lucy felt like she was going to throw up.
Despite her seclusion in a corner of the dining hall, everyone's eyes seemed to be on her. Even the lunch ladies―er, lunch men seemed to hand over strange gazes.
Her trembling palm cradled her chin as she lazily poked into the rubber sausage on her tray. This breakfast sucked. It was like she was eating shitty school food, but, she was hungry, so it'd have to do.
Lucy hopelessly coveted for her father's maid's cooking.
She was about to take a bite out of the maple sausage when she noticed someone walking in her direction.
He had pink hair. Pink hair... Pink hair! This was the guy she saw the day before! But oh shit, the guy she saw the day before was pulling out a chair at her table!
"Hey," he greeted. Lucy put down her fork after allowing the meat to linger on her bottom lip for a moment. Her pulse was battering against her skin.
"Uh, hi," she responded. She fixed a piece of shiny blonde hair behind her ear and licking the sweetness off her lip.
When he said, "Are you a new patient? I haven't seen you around before," Lucy's attention was drawn to his face. He held a confident smile and sincere eyes. Why? Wasn't he supposed to be psychotic? Wasn't that why he was in this place?
"Yeah," the blonde said simply, adjusting herself uncomfortably in her seat.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't even introduce myself!" He chuckled heartily and ran a hand through his pink locks, brushing his long bangs from his face. "My name's Natsu Dragneel," he gave, placing his elbows on the table, leaning forward. He was grinning.
What was the need to be so excited? She wasn't much.
"Lucy.. Lucy Heartfilia." She forced a smile that wasn't convincing in the least.
"Look, I can tell how anxious you are." He paused. "It's radiating off of you like, uh"―he coughed― "heat, or something. But you really shouldn't worry all that much.. This facility isn't as bad as you think."
The large-chested girl nodded, though skeptical. She looked to her plate, mentally pleading for him to go away.
"How old are you?"
Lucy fought every urge to roll her eyes and tell him to leave her alone. "I'm seventeen," she answered, and his face lit up even more.
"Oh, really! Me too! Looks like we'll be in the same activities together, huh?"
"I.. guess we will be, then."
Natsu stood abruptly and pointed to a large group of people at another table. "You see those guys over there?" He glanced from Lucy to the group to her again and continued. "We're all gonna be in Arts and Crafts together in a few hours."
Lucy raised her brows at the teen in front of her.
"I'll introduce you then, sound alright? They're really great, you'll love 'em, I promise. See you around, Lucy."
He didn't give the blonde a chance to reply before he was running off back to his seat. Lucy watched as a few of them glanced in her direction.
Lucy sighed. This was going to be one hell of a day.
A/N: Hi everyone! I didn't want to cram Lucy's entire day into one chapter because then it would have probably been around 5,000 words, and I wanted to get out the next chapter as soon as possible for you guys.
