The sky overhead is grey and gloomy with a light pressure in the air that smelled like possible rain. Natsu grumbles to himself because the weather report had said nothing about it raining today and he had left his umbrella at home. The last thing he needed today was to get home all drenched because of an incorrect weather report.
Laughter up ahead catches his attention as he makes his way out of the school yard to find his friends all huddled by the gate. He makes his way towards them as they continue to laugh with one another over something he must have missed for arriving late. He hadn't expected taking so long in the nurse's room or to be chewed out by Wakaba for scaring the living daylights out of him, only to be chewed out even more when Natsu refused to explain his little episode.
"Natsu!" Lisanna calls while waving her hand excitedly over her head towards the somber boy.
Natsu responds by quickening his pace so that he was now standing between Lisanna and Levy, who had her nose stuck in a new book that nearly swallowed her head.
"How are you feeling?" Lisanna asks while gently clutching the sleeve of his jacket and looking at him with that worried look again. It makes Natsu's stomach churn because he realizes that the others must have heard what had happened in the gymnasium today.
The last thing he wanted was to talk about what had happened and explain why it was that he had freaked out so much. Natsu also didn't want to get the same response Gray had given him in the infirmary from Lisanna.
"Better," Natsu says while giving Lisanna a strained smile, "Just really tired and ready to go home."
"Thankfully it's now the weekend!" Lisanna says cheerfully with an excited glint in her eyes.
The thought of it being the weekend actually sparked excitement in Natsu's chest. He'd be spending it at the hospital with his dad, surrounded by the peaceful sounds of his father's heart monitor that reminded Natsu that Igneel was still alive with each beep.
Natsu never got nightmares at the hospital.
Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail
rEAd oN if YoU sO dArE!
"Natsu… what's that on your cheek?" a commanding voice asks which causes Natsu to flinch. Dread already spreading throughout his body like a poison, "And why does Gray have a similar mark on his face?" Erza's booming voice then asks when said male shows up only to stop dead in his tracks.
"It was him!" Gray yells when Erza shoots an angry glare in his direction, which is then trained onto Natsu, "He punched me when he had an episode in the gym and then I punched him back to snap him out of his stupid," Gray explains desperately while looking fearfully at the red-haired female still glaring at Natsu.
"Thanks a lot ice princess," Natsu growls when Erza crosses her arms and taps her foot impatiently.
Natsu ducks his head and looks up at Erza who is shaking her head before asking, "What happened?" while the others from their group turn to look at him.
He hates the attention, and his temple starts to throb.
The sensation shoots a pang of fear through his chest, because the last time his head hurt was only a few hours ago. Just before he was sent into that nightmare that still had his heart racing a thousand miles a second. The memory of that horror only makes him gulp with fear as he tries to find a way to get out of this, but he knew that Erza wouldn't let this topic go. She was like a high-strung mother who always got after him for getting into fights, not doing his work, or goofing off when he was supposed to take things serious.
Most of the time Natsu could take it, but today he just wanted to be left alone.
"Go easy on him Erza," a smooth voice says just as someone wraps their arm around her tense shoulders, catching everyone off guard from their sudden appearance, "Can't I ever come home to you all just getting along and not snarling at each other's throats?"
"Jellal!" Erza gasps when she recognizes her boyfriend hugging her close, completely forgetting that she was about to lecture Natsu about fighting in class. Natsu mouths a grateful "thank you" to his cousin who only nods before leading his girlfriend away.
"Laxus didn't come to visit with you?" Mirajane asks while bounding up to the couple now leading everyone towards the neighborhood they all lived in.
"He's coming down tomorrow. He has a paper due tonight, so he stayed back in Omnibus," Jellal explains.
Mirajane pouts and nods in understanding looking a little deflated when hearing that her boyfriend was not yet in town. Their meetings and dates were so far apart due to Laxus working hard to graduate in the spring with a bachelor's in engineering. He had tried once to break up with Mirajane so that she would be able to find someone else who could give her the time and attention he could not give to her because of where he now lived, but Mirajane refused.
Heck, Mirajane was the one who took charged and had asked Laxus to date her even when he was four years her senior.
Together, the group of friends make their way slowly down the street towards home while Natsu trudges near the back. He tries to focus on Lisanna's excited chatter while she recounts her day and gossip she picked up in class.
"Can you believe she'd say something like that?" Lisanna asks Natsu, but he's already lost most of the conversation, so he doesn't know what she's talking about. Natsu instead opts to shake his head and give his friend a feigned look of surprise as if he couldn't believe what she was saying. This seems to appease Lisanna as she continues with her story, her words fading into the background.
Soon enough the group reaches their street and each head towards their own home, ready to enjoy the long weekend. Long since Halloween landed on a Sunday and it was tradition within their collective group of friends that their parents allow their kids to skip the day after Halloween if the holiday landed on a school night.
"Hey Jellal," Natsu calls up to his cousin who looks engrossed with catching up their friends with his college outgoings. Said male turns back towards his cousin who quickly catches up with him and asks, "Can you feed Happy when you get home?" without an explanation.
"Umm… sure," Jellal says, earning a smile from the pinkette who turns to walk in a different direction than the rest of the group. "Where are you going?" Jellal then asks, a pang of worry filling his chest. Especially since it hadn't slipped his notice the way Natsu was being so quiet and a bit out of it. Usually by now Natsu would be picking a fight with either Grey or himself.
"To visit the old man," Natsu says while turning to face him and walking backwards towards the bus stop, "Don't wait up," Natsu then winks before turning around again and jogging to the bus stop just as the vehicle arrives to pick up and drop off passengers.
All eyes watch as Natsu disappears into the large bus and sits near the back, the only thing visible through the tinted windows being the top of his head.
No one mentions it, but every single person feels a sinking weight at the pit of their stomachs.
X
"Hey old man!" Natsu calls out while crashing through the door of his father's room.
On a normal day that Igneel had a visitor he would have been scolded and hit upside the head and called rude for being so noisy, but today the room is empty and silent. The only sound is that of the nearby curtains that rustle from the light breeze blowing in through the open window. There was also the steady beep of Igneel's heart monitor that always gave Natsu a sort of peace when hearing it. One that reminded him his father had not yet kicked the bucket and followed Natsu's mom into the other world.
Dropping his bag on the ground near the bed, Natsu kicks off his shoes and neatly places them beside his bag. He then shrugs off his sweater to dump it on the foot of his father's bed before plopping down in the armchair nearby while heaving a heavy sigh. The weight of the day slowly evaporating with the calming silence that engulfs the room other than the consistent beeping of the heart monitor and soft hiss of the ventilator helping Igneel breathe.
The sterile smell that comes with every hospital is also a calming scent. At first Natsu had hated the way the clean smell would make his nose itch, but regular visits and overnight stays had gotten Natsu's sensitive nose to get used to the smell. Now it no longer bothered him.
Stretching until his bones give a satisfying pop, Natsu finally settles down to look at his father's peacefully sleeping face. Because of the countless silent visits, Natsu had taken to staring at Igneel's face, memorizing every scar, every wrinkle, and every pore his dad had. He marveled at the scar running down Igneel's right eye and the other crisscrossed scar on his right cheek, both that Igneel claimed he had gotten when he was Natsu's age before he had met the love of his wife. Back in a time that Igneel was a rowdy gang member and always got into so much trouble.
When Natsu had found out about this he hadn't believed it. Not when Igneel was such an honorable man who lived life by the book, following every moral code and respected the law to a T. Natsu had always thought that it was because his dad was a firefighter who risked his life every single day to save the lives of others, but learned that it was because Igneel had lived on the other side of the law that he lived honorably. It was also why Igneel was so wise and always knew what to say when Natsu, or any of his friends, was having difficulty abiding by the rules society dictated that they follow.
If it weren't for Igneel's teachings, Natsu probably would have ended up with the wrong crowd a long time ago… Not that that has saved Natsu from rebelling against his dad from time to time.
"You'll get over this rebellious phase. For now we just need to let it burn out," had been one of the last things Igneel had told him when Natsu had talked back to him over something he couldn't even remember anymore.
They had gotten in a fight and Natsu had said some things that now twisted his stomach into painful knots, but Igneel had simply chuckled and looked at him as if he were a small brat. He had ruffled his hair tenderly and said those words before going back to make lunch for the two of them. Hours later after hanging out with friends for a late birthday get-together, Natsu would watch a car ram into the side of Igneel's Jeep causing the man to now be in a deep coma.
Now in the silence of the room and the sight of Igneel's sleeping face, Natsu can only wonder what life would be like if Igneel really had been taken away from him by that crash.
"It's been a while since I've come to visit you dad… I'm sorry," Natsu apologizes. Feeling guilty that he had waited a whole week to come and visit his dad.
Usually when he visited he tended to stay the night, but because of this he has gotten in trouble a few times with Porlyusica who always demanded he go home and get a good night's sleep. She didn't know that the only time Natsu did get a good night's sleep was when he stayed in the hospital by his father's side. Igneel had always been the one to keep the nightmares at bay since Natsu was a kid, and it was no different now. The only difference was that Igneel wasn't awake to give Natsu advice on what to do with the current dreams he kept having, or how they were somehow bleeding into his waking world.
"I've been doing pretty good," Natsu says while leaning back on the armchair to stare up at the plain ivory ceiling, "School's great and everyone has been really supportive. Aunt Grandine sends her regards and apologizes that she can't quite leave work just yet to come down from Peace Village. However, she says she should be down by Thanksgiving, but Jellal comes to visit all the time when he gets a break from homework in uni. Still, I know he only visits because he wants to see his girlfriend even though he's technically supposed to be keeping an eye on me for Grandine," Natsu grumbles jokingly.
After Igneel's accident, there had been debate as to who Natsu would be staying with between his father's two siblings – Natsu had never met his mother's side of the family before. Grandine had immediately been crossed off the list because she lived in a different town a two-day train ride away, while Metallicana lived just up the street. Natsu had opted to stay with his uncle to remain close to Igneel and Grandine had not been too keen on that idea since Metallicana was hardly every home. He tended to jump from his work as a mechanic to his job as a bar keep - which he owned downtown called the "Iron Claw" – to then go home to sleep for a few hours and repeat the cycle the next day. This left his two kids to be left to their own devices and Natsu was known to always pick fights with his cousin Gajeel who had skipped class… again.
How Levy, the smartest girl in the whole school, could stand to date a brute like that, Natsu would never understand.
Giving up on trying to get Natsu to go up and live with her, Grandine had settled to leave the Dragneel boy alone when Jellal had offered to come down from Omnibus to check up on his cousins whenever he could. However, what Grandine didn't know, and what Metallicana had not yet realized or was ignoring, that instead of staying over at the Redfox house, Natsu tended to just stay at his own home or sleep at the hospital whenever he got the chance. No one actually knew that Natsu remained at home all by himself and those that did were his closest friends and Jellal.
Natsu was basically on his own.
"When are you going to wake up old man?" Natsu asks while folding his arms on his dad's bed and leaning his head into them to stare up at the sleeping male's face. Wishing that Igneel would move his hand to ruffle his hair in that reassuring way he had since Natsu's mother passed away eleven years ago.
What Natsu wouldn't give to hear his dad's laugh again…
X
Warm orange light glows behind Natsu's closed eyelids, slowly rousing him from a deep sleep he had not even realized he had fallen into.
Taking in a deep breath, Natsu sighs with a soft groan before peeking an eye open and feeling a bit disoriented as to where he currently was. There was just so much white when he opened his eyes, compared to the light beige walls in his room surrounded with red décor.
Where had all the color gone?
Panicking that this might be another realistic dream, Natsu sits up and whips his head around in a frenzy, only to realize that he wasn't in another nightmare. Instead he had woken up in his father's room at the hospital surrounded by warmth and the calming sound of the nearby heart monitor and ventilator that helped keep Igneel alive.
"What am I, a pansy?" Natsu mutters to himself while scratching his head in frustration, dropping the blanket that must have been placed on him by one of the nurses.
Sighing heavily, Natsu sits back in the armchair and stretches his arms up above his head until his bones pop before relaxing. Natsu then opts to lean back in the armchair and stare up at the ceiling while wrapped up in the scratchy hospital blanket, feeling the most rested he has all week. He's even thankful that there hadn't been a single nightmare that plagued him all night. If only he could stay here at the hospital every night by his dad's side, then maybe the nightmares would go away for good.
"Porlyusica would never let me stay," Natsu grumbles to himself.
Porlyusica was like a nagging grandmother who never left him alone and got after him more than Natsu's own teachers. However, Natsu had learned not to challenge the temperamental doctor. The first time he had tried, he was barred from stepping into the hospital for a whole week before Porlyusica took away the punishment. Natsu never once defied the woman again for fear of being kept from his father again, especially since the pink-haired doctor had warned to be lock him out for an entire month the next time he tried to sass her.
"When are you going to wake up old man?" Natsu asks, and like the many times before he receives no answer except that of the constant beeping of the heart monitor.
Instead of sitting in the silence waiting for an answer that would never come, Natsu grabs his bag and starts to work on his homework for the following week while he had the chance. If Igneel, or anyone else would see him doing his homework, they'd drop dead where they stood since Natsu had never been a studious student. He was smart enough to pass with average grades, but no one had noticed the A's he'd been receiving as of late. Natsu was thankful his teachers never mentioned anything about his improvement. They were probably scared that if they did say something, Natsu would go back to half-assing his work… they weren't wrong.
After finishing all of his homework, Natsu then goes about the room to dust the grey film slowly collecting on the furniture that the nurses didn't get a chance to clean. He also grabs his father's razor and shaving cream to wash and shave Igneel's face since he was starting to grow a beard.
Natsu never understood why Igneel liked to shave since, according to him, Igneel looked great in a beard.
"Your mother always said I looked like a dirty trucker with a beard," was always his reply, "Besides, I look better without it."
For the rest of the morning, Natsu helps the nurses clean up his dad and brush Igneel's growing red hair until there was nothing left to do except wait. Wait for onyx eyes to open and a hearty laugh drown out the sounds of the heart monitor and ventilator.
Happy Valentine's day my lovelies! Hope your February is going better than mine.
If you were wondering why I didn't update last week, well that's because I don't update on the first Friday of every month, so expect a chapter next Friday! I've got a few buffer chapters that I made last week so we're set for updates for this month. If I get enough reviews I might even sprinkle in some bonus chapters in the middle of the week next week before Friday... we'll see lol.
Anywho, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Shout Outs
Great thanks to my Fantastic Favorite...
- shootingstarssel
And to my Fantabulous Reviewers...
- Amanny = Thank you! I'm really happy you're enjoying it so far.
- shootingstarssel = It's never too early to come up with theories! Who knows, you might even guess correctly, but either way I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.
- stranger1999 = I'm glad you're enjoying it! Reading back on it, I'm also getting Stranger Things vibes as well. This story is actually inspired by a bunch of different moves and television shows I watched over the years and even more inspired now after taking a Supernatural in Literature course! I hope I do you all proud with a great creepy story!
Well that's all the shout outs for today.
If you're enjoying my spine-chilling story give me the honor by Following, Favoriting, and Reviewing - remember, reviews are the reminders I need in order to update faster - and if you have any questions or haunting ideas you can also PM me and I'll gladly add it into the story.
Until next time my ghoulies!
