Chapter 8
Lucy did not want to open her eyes. The stark light of the Florissant fixture overhead was blinding even through her closed eyelids. To say nothing of the massive headache at the base of her skull, which was only growing larger as she lay there.
Not this again. Not on the first freaking day at a new school. She remembered all too well how it went last time she had an episode. She sighed to herself, thinking there was nothing left for her to do but prepare. Prepare for the questioning glances and pitying looks. For the teasing and jokes and sarcasm. For the mockery and ostracization.
It had all happened before, so why would her luck decide to change now?
Through the pain, garbled words drifted into her ears.
She could tell from the tones of voices that the words were argumentative, though everything was too muffled to tell if they were arguing about what to do with her, or what toppings are the best on pizza.
Okay, they probably weren't talking about pizza.
Deciding that enough was enough, Lucy opened her eyes, sat up, and stretched as she took in the world around her.
First thing she noticed, was the size of the room. It was simply massive, for a nurse's office, there was enough room for ten cots, with ample space to walk in between them. She should know, she counted them.
Ten cots were neatly set up in rows, with more than two feet between them, with more, as of yet uncounted, of the small beds folded up in a corner. This made it
seem to the blonde that the administration was preparing for an outbreak of the plague.
The sound of voices dragged her attention to her left, where she saw a curtain had been drawn, presumably for her privacy. From behind which came the arguing she had heard earlier.
"… Have a duty to fulfill." Said a voice that sounded like it belonged to an older, and somewhat surly woman.
"Yeah? Well I also have a duty to… my friends." said a second voice. Natsu, Lucy realized.
Friends. Lucy's cheeks flushed at the thought that she counted as one of them already.
"yes, friends…" said the woman.
A very short moment later, the curtain separating the blonde from the conversation was pulled slightly aside and the woman peered in. It was easy to see she was old, wrinkles adorned her face with her mouth set in a thin line, (indicative of many years of being a high school nurse, and many more years of hating it,) set beneath two hardened red eyes, all framed by pink locks falling from a slightly frazzled bun.
Her face, which already looked cross, took on an exasperated expression as she threw open the curtain, revealing Natsu, who was rolling his eyes in resignation.
Before Lucy could speak, weather to ask Natsu what was wrong or what exactly was going on she wasn't sure, the pink haired woman beat her to it.
"It's about time you woke up." she said coming to stand by Lucy's bed, "Now, I have a few questions for you, and the faster you answer them, the faster I can get you two out of my hair. Understood?"
Lucy barely had a chance to nod before the woman began her interrogation. They were standard questions. she'd heard them many times before, and knew the answers even before they were asked.
Do you know where you are?
Yes, Fairy Tail High.
Do you remember what happened?
I was in chemistry class when I… fainted.
When did this happen? For how long?
Admittedly, Lucy didn't have an answer for that one. She looked to Natsu for a bit of help, but the nurse regained her attention with a stern look.
"if you don't know, you can just say so."
"I'm not su-"
"about 10 to 12 minutes, Porlyusica." Natsu answered for her. The woman, Porlyusica Lucy noted, turned to him sharply. "Stop being a bother. Don't speak again until you finish this." She shoved a water bottle into his hands roughly. (Where she got said water bottle, Lucy had no idea. Things seemed to have a habit of popping up out of nowhere around here.) Then she turned back to the blonde as if the boy's interjection had not even occurred.
Has this happened to you before?
Lucy sighed, glad to be back in familiar territory, before answering "yes".
Four questions later, and the elderly nurse was scribbling on her clipboard. Furiously. As if she wanted it to die, and the only way to accomplish that was by writing so fast that it caught fire.
Lucy shuddered from the mental image, and almost missed the woman's muttering.
"I told Macao not to do the full demonstration at all this year, but would he listen? Of course he wouldn't. 'Oh, quit your worrying Porlyusica. Just tell me which class they're in, I'll remember.' Well Macao, it seems your memory isn't as good as you think, either that or you thought it would be quite the spectacle to light the trashcan on fire in front of a pyrophobic."
Lucy's eyes widened, she knew. No, Porlyusica not only knew, but she had known for some time, a long enough time to try to warn the chemistry teacher off doing that demonstration, and then she just blurted it out like it was no big deal!
Although Lucy figured that she would have to tell her friends soon, she wanted to do that on her own terms as much as possible, not just have the school nurse mutter about it like it was some gossip she couldn't believe.
Her reaction, however, was nothing compared to Natsu's.
The pink haired boy was still standing nearby, trying to finish that water bottle that the older woman had given him, when she had muttered her thoughts on Macao's mental abilities.
As soon as the word 'pyrophobic' had come out of her mouth, so did the water in Natsu's.
It was kind of impressive really. He'd had been standing straight, his head tilted back drinking the last drop from the bottle when it happened, so when he suddenly doubled over, water shooting out of his mouth like he was a fire hydrant, he managed to clear five cots before the water started arcing down. Hitting the far wall instead.
Porlyusica was not at all pleased with this turn of events and she made her feelings well known immediately. She dropped the clipboard and turned to the younger pinkette, who was still doubled over and apparently trying to hack up a lung, placing her hands on her hips as she spoke.
"Now what did you go and do that for!?" Lucy was surprised, yet again, that the woman could adopt an even more cross expression than she had seen already, "do you think I enjoy cleaning up all the time? I can assure you that I do NOT! I keep this place clean because I have to! Because I need this job and if any kind of health inspector were to come in here…!"
"Um, I think he was just surprised Miss Porlyusica."
Evidently, the school nurse didn't like to be interrupted either. She jerked her head to face Lucy, fixing her with a stern look.
"surprised by what? Pray tell."
"p…pyr…pyro..phobic?"
They both turned to look at Natsu, who was now sitting on one of the cots, still coughing.
Porlyusica raised an eyebrow at his question.
"yes, you didn't know that?" the eyebrow lowered as she scowled, "how long exactly have you two known each other?" she asked looking to Lucy.
The young girl blushed under her scrutiny, and opened her mouth to answer when Natsu broke in, still coughing.
"ne... never really… came up."
The nurse just scowled at him a moment longer before she sighed, allowing her features to relax somewhat, and spoke in a somewhat gentler, or perhaps just tired, tone.
"well, regardless," she pulled the sheets off of an unoccupied cot and gave them to Natsu, "use that to mop up your mess, I'll simply have to disinfect it later."
She picked back up the clipboard, consulting her notes, as Natsu set about the task she had given him. Leaving Lucy to sit and watch them in an awkward silence, waiting for some sort of cue.
She grew impatient rather quickly, but held her tongue in fear of irking the nurse any more. Shifting uncomfortably as she waited.
She wanted to get back to class, kind of. She didn't want to face the questions that she knew would come, but she did want to get past them and get back to some form of normalcy.
"stop your squirming, it's irritating." Porlyusica's surly voice cut in, "If you have a question then ask it, and get it over with."
So much for trying not to bother her.
"Can… May I go back to class?" she said out loud.
"No."
Lucy's eyes grew wide, her expression morphing into surprised confusion as the pink haired woman walked over to her desk on the far side of the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Natsu pause in his task and look over his shoulder, one eyebrow cocked in curiosity. She opened her mouth to ask why she could not return to class, but the nurse spoke again before she could.
"Is there anyone you need to call to pick you up? Or did you drive yourself?" she asked, picking up a small slip of paper from her desk.
Lucy's eyebrows rose further towards her hairline as her surprise increased and she tried to believe what was happening.
There is no way….
"I walked from home." She explained briefly.
Porlyusica furrowed her brow as she considered this. "I don't want you walking back alone… Natsu, you escort her."
Evidently there was, in fact, a way.
For the first time since fifth grade, the first time since they understood what had happened, Lucy was being sent home for her panic attack.
She barely noticed Natsu's eyes widen in surprise as she spoke again.
"is… is that really necessary? I feel fine, and I don't mind going back to…"
"back to what? Your remaining 'classes'?" the old nurse asked, before snorting as she continued, "please, it's the first day of the school year. All that you're going over is the books that you'll be using and who your teachers are. You have your books in your bag, and Natsu can inform you on what to expect from your teachers as you walk back home."
A she spoke, she picked up a second slip of paper from her desk, presumably her note to excuse Natsu, and began to fill it out.
"ahh…" Natsu's voice was much closer than Lucy had expected it to be, and caused her to flinch a little in surprise. It seemed that he had finished his task and had walked up (silently for some reason) to stand beside her cot. "are you sure abou…."
The school nurse looked up from her clipboard, cutting him off with a hard look.
"Are you, of all people, going to choose now, of all times, to look a gift horse in the mouth? after I have given you an excuse to skip the rest of your classes?" she paused for a moment, giving the young man just enough time to look uncertain before continuing, "if you feel so strongly about this, I could easily arrange for someone else to escort her. I'm sure there's someone that I could convince to…"
"okay," he interrupted, putting his hands up in mock surrender, "I get it."
Porlyusica nodded sharply as she continued filling out the permission slips.
"really," Lucy said, "I feel fine, there's no need to make a…"
"Now don't you start!" the elder pinkette snapped. She looked up from her notepad again, clearly not enjoying the constant interruptions if her expression was anything to go by, as she spoke to Lucy again. "you have been put under enough stress today, as evidenced by your fainting spell, and there is no need for you endure anymore today and end up having to come back here and bother me again!" She turned back to her clipboard and angrily scribbled out a few final lines, before dropping her pen onto the desk, walking over to the two students, and shooing them out of the room.
Lucy had no memory of standing up, and was honestly curious how she ended up in the hallway, but quickly put those questions aside for now when she realized the nurse still had something to say to her.
"now go home, lay down, and rest for goodness sakes. You'll have plenty of work to do, and time to do it, later. Now I must have a talk with Macao and Makarov, don't be here when I get back." And with that, she set off down the hall.
"goodbye," Natsu called waving at her retreating form, "and thanks, Aunt Porly."
He got a grunt in response, but Lucy didn't really hear it.
Aunt Porly.
Natsu's aunt.
Natsu's. Aunt. Porly.
"…cy. Lucy. Lucy!"
Natsu's voice dragged Lucy's attention away from her sudden revelation, and back to reality. She realized that her eyes were trying to focus on the hand that was being waved rapidly in front of them, Natsu's hand to be specific. He was standing in front of her, waving his hand back and forth so close to her face that his fingers would brush against her nose every few repetitions.
She lifted her hand from her side, catching his to stop the motion, and shot him a glare. "What?"
If he was bothered by the look she was giving him, he didn't show it. Instead, he grinned and shifted his grip so that he was holding her hand, before turning to lead her down the hallway towards the front exit, only to pause after two steps.
"You don't need anything from your locker, do you?" he asked glancing over his shoulder.
She shook her head mutely, ignoring the heat she felt in her cheeks.
"good, let's go then, before she comes back. If she finds us here she'll make us take some of her homemade 'herbal remedies'."
Lucy raised an eyebrow at that, "Is that even allowed?
"No clue. And even if it wasn't, I don't think anyone would try and stop her." He snorted before muttering "I'd bet she would force whoever tried to have some too." Under his breath.
"is it really that bad?"
He cast a glance at her over his shoulder, a playful smirk on his lips and a gleam in his eyes that made her cheeks burn even more, before he answered.
"Her herb stuff is probably so healthy that if you ate it, you'd live forever. If you didn't choke on it first."
That last part had been said in a snicker that had her wondering. How could someone so cheery possibly be related to someone so surly?
Well, this chapter was originally going to be a bit longer, but when I remembered that I hadn't updated in over a year, I figured I should throw my loyal followers a bone before they came to eat me.
I have no excuses, and can only say that I am SSSOOOO sorry about that unintended hiatus, there was really plan for it, I just… lost my muse I suppose.
I will make no promises for faster updates, because that is what I did last chapter, and we can see what happened after that. I will just say that this story is one I'm excited to tell, and I can't wait to hear what you think
Thanks to everyone for their patience, we really appreciate it.
Baadaye- Duma and Mwali.
