Astra didn't know how long she'd been out. She remembered the explosion, the excruciating pain in her side, and she remembered feeling triumph. She'd achieved her goal; she'd gotten Luna's bandanna back! That had to have been worth whatever happened next.
And then she'd felt dizzy; she'd fallen. She didn't remember hitting the ground, only that the last of her sense to go had been her hearing. She'd heard someone call her name, and the scramble of panic as they crowded around her. In the last moments, before she'd completely lost consciousness, she remembered knowing that she would likely die; not being happy about it, but not being especially terrified either. It had been a weird mix of feelings; an odd sense of calm, and slight satisfaction that she'd done what she'd set out to do. But she'd never see her friends again, or her mother. Or Luna. That was sad. And then she'd woken up again.
Her senses came back in the reverse of when she'd blacked out. The first thing she was aware of was a soft buzzing, a steady beeping noise, and maybe someone writing? She wasn't quite sure, but it was confusing. She was definitely not still in the forest, that much was certain. The smells were odd too; sharp and unnatural, vaguely familiar, but her mind was too fuzzy to put a name to them. When she finally managed to open her eyes, she was greeted with a light so bright that she was sure she'd wound up in the afterlife, and she had to shut them again.
She opened her eyes again, more cautiously this time, letting them adjust. After a few moments, her surroundings became clearer. She was in a bed with white sheets, in a room with pale blue walls, and window to one side, and a door on the other. Across from Astra, someone in a white coat stood with their back to her, bent over a bench and writing something down- that explained that noise, then. Glancing to her side, Astra also noticed that she was hooked up to a drip, and that the beeping was coming from a heart rate monitor. She was in a hospital, she realized, and she was pretty sure that there wouldn't have been any hospitals in the afterlife- which meant she was alive.
She tried to sit up, but the moment she moved, pain shot through her torso strong enough for her to involuntarily gasp out loud. Yes, she was definitely still alive, and still very injured.
"Don't try to sit up just yet," The voice came from the person on the other side of the room, who was now walking towards Astra, notebook in hand. "You could tear the stitches."
It took Astra a minute to find her voice as she slowly lay back down. "How…how long has it been?"
"A week," the doctor replied, checking her notebook. "We were starting to worry that we'd lose you. Looks like you fought your way through, though."
Astra stared for a moment. A week? It felt as if she'd only just woken up after having slept a night. A week was a long time for her teammates to be without her.
Wait- her teammates. Were they okay? Had the explosion hurt them at all? Had they made it back to Beacon?
"Um, do you know anything about my teammates? Are they okay?" Concerned hammered in Astra's chest. If something had happened to her team while she wasn't around, she'd never forgive herself.
The doctor looked up at her. "The ones from Beacon? Yes, they're alright. They were very shaken up about your accident though, especially the Xiao Long kid."
As much of a relief as it was to hear that they were physically okay, the doctor's words didn't do much to ease Astra's concern. She didn't know how well the three of them had coped during her absence, but knowing Luna, she must have been out of her mind with worry-she probably still was.
"Can I see her?" She asked the doctor, "Luna, I mean? And the others?"
"Hmm," the doctor checked her notes again. "I'll have to run some tests first, make sure there isn't anything that needs to be urgently attended to. But yes, we should be able to call your friends in to see you."
While the doctor ran her tests, she helpfully filled Astra in on the details of her injury. The shard of dust she'd been hit with had speared her in the left of her torso, apparently missing vital organ by mere millimetres, but still causing significant damage. It had been carefully removed and stitched up, but the wound had been wide and gaping enough that too much movement could risk reopening it- meaning that Astra would have to stay bedridden for another few weeks, even after returning to Beacon. This annoying fact was only helped when the doctor confirmed that she was in stable enough condition to have visitors.
Astra's eyes were glued to the door, and when it opened, it was hard not to leap out of her bed. Luna walked in, and Astra had never seen such a mix of emotions on her face; concern, relief, excitement, and her eyes were already filled with tears. When she spotted Astra, she practically ran over, and gave her a hug that was fierce and gentle at the same time.
Astra couldn't help but grin. "Happy to see me, huh?"
Luna was already full-on sobbing. "I-I can't believe you're okay. I missed you so much." She pulled back as she settled on the bed, and her face was a mess of tears. "Are you okay? Does…does it hurt?"
Astra chuckled. "Hey, I'm fine. This is me we're talking about, remember? Don't worry so much."
Luna leaned back slightly, her expression changing. "I…Astra, you were impaled by a dust crystal and didn't wake up for a week. I'm not just going to stop worrying."
"I know that," Astra assured her, "But I'm awake now, and I'm all stitched up, and everything's going to be okay."
Luna's eyes narrowed. "That's not…it's not okay though. How can you talk as if this was just a harmless event with no real consequences?"
Astra stared at her, confused by her apparent and sudden anger. "I am okay though. What are you still worried about?" She couldn't help but feel bothered; this wasn't the warm reunion she'd been excited for.
"Astra, don't you get it?" Luna's tone was almost a snap, tears welling up in her eyes again. "You almost died."
An uncomfortable feeling wormed its way into Astra's gut. She'd been trying to avoid thinking about that. She was also glad that the doctor had left the two of them alone; this was not a conversation she would have liked people overhearing.
Tears were still streaming down Luna's face. "You just…you went and ran into that cave without even thinking, like you didn't even care about what happened to you!" She cried, "We almost lost you; I almost lost you!"
Guilt and horror dropped into Astra with every word that came out of Luna's mouth. She'd known she'd almost died, she'd known that she might have never seen Luna again, but she hadn't let herself truly think about it until now, and the realization was settling in. She could have left her teammates alone. She could have left Luna alone, probably blaming herself and forever feeling as though there was something she could have done.
Luna was still worked up, staring at Astra with a crumbled face of fear and anger. "You keep acting as if your own life doesn't matter, and taking stupid risks without thinking about the consequences, and now you're really hurt, and I just…I don't know what you were thinking, I-"
Astra moved before she could stop herself. Cutting Luna off, she sat up, ignoring the pain that soared through her body, and pulling herself towards Luna, she kissed her.
For a brief moment, the pain vanished, leaving only a weird feeling that Luna couldn't describe, like something had been uncaged inside her, and this emotion was spilling out. Her heart soared, wrapped only in Luna's scent, able to feel nothing but her warmth. She realized suddenly, that despite not feeling as if it had been very long since she'd seen her last, she'd missed Luna dearly. She'd been so close to never seeing her again, and now she didn't ever want to let her go. For what must have been only a second or so, everything was perfect, until the agony of her wound became noticeable again, and Astra had to lean back with a gasp of pain. After that, she only knew one thing that she could possibly say.
"I love you."
Luna looked lost and dazed, like she was still processing what had just happened, and what Astra had just said. "I…huh?"
"That bandanna was important to you," Astra told her earnestly, "And you're important to me. I love you, and I didn't want you to be upset by losing something that meant so much to you."
Luna stared for a moment more, before she shook her head, half of a smile on her face. "Astra…" She wrapped a gentle hand around Astra's, affection clear in her eyes, though her face was stern. "Astra, you mean so much more to me than any accessory. Please tell me you understand that."
"I mean, I do now…" At this point, Astra was admittedly starting to feel dumb.
Luna gave a small chuckle, squeezing her hand tighter. "Yes, the bandanna is important to me," her voice was soft, a sob still in her throat, "But in the end, I think my girlfriend is worth a lot more than that. I can afford to lose a family heirloom. I can't afford to lose you."
"Heh," Astra still couldn't help but try to keep things light, "I guess I wasn't really thinking very hard."
Luna gave her a teasing look. "That seems to be a common occurrence with you, Miss 'sits up to kiss someone with a gaping hole in her torso'."
Astra grinned. "Hey, that was worth it."
The teasing look faded from Luna's face. "Still…Astra, you can't keep rushing forward without thinking like that, not for something so small. I don't know what I- what any of us would do without you."
The guilt was still heavy in Astra's belly. "I know," she replied softly. What exactly had Luna been through in that past week, she wondered? She doubted she would ever tell her, but Astra could imagine. She didn't want to be responsible for that again.
"I need you to promise me," Luna told her, her voice almost a whisper. "Promise me you won't do anything like that again."
"I…" Astra wasn't sure she could promise. In the end, Luna and her friends were still more important to her than anything else, and she would still do anything for them. Maybe not something quite as careless as throwing herself into an unstable dust mine for the sake of a bandanna, but if putting herself in danger was what it would take to save the people important to her, she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop herself.
"I'll try."
Luna smiled slightly, leaning down close enough for her forehead to touch Astra's. "I really have missed you so much," she murmured. For a moment, the two of them stayed that way, a moment of peace amidst strong emotions. It felt like forever.
Eventually, Luna pulled back, wiping her eyes. "Um, Cobalt and Lily are in the waiting room, by the way. Did you want to see them?"
"That would be nice. I guess they missed me a lot too, huh?" At least they would have all been there for each other, Astra hoped.
Luna gave her a wry smile. "You really put all of us through hell. I don't think they'll mind when they see that you're okay, though. I let your mother know you were awake, too. She should be here soon." Sliding off the bed, she leaned forward to give Astra a gentle kiss on the head. "I'll be right back."
She left, and Astra felt even more guilt at the mention of her mother, mostly because she hadn't even thought about her until just now. She probably should have been the first person Astra asked to see, but Luna and her other teammates had been the first and only thing on her mind since waking up - maybe because they were the last thing she'd thought about before losing consciousness.
After a few moments, Luna reappeared with Lily and Cobalt in tow. Both were crying, and wore the same expression that Luna had as they rushed forward to wrap Astra in a gentle embrace that warmed her heart. Gods, she was lucky that she'd lived to see them again.
"Why would you do that to us?" Cobalt's voice was thick with tears, but thankfully lighthearted and teasing.
"Really," Lily was slightly more serious, but still with a teasing note in her voice. "Don't ever scare us like that again."
"We won't forgive you," Cobalt added.
Astra chuckled, still just happy to be there with her team. "I'll keep that in mind." She expected both of them to pull away from the hug, but both remained, as if they never wanted to let Astra go again. Luna was quick to join them. Astra couldn't complain. Perhaps aside from her mother, these were the dearest people in the world to her. Knowing that she'd been so close to losing them was suddenly terrifying, but she pushed away the thought of what could have been. What mattered right now was what was, and that was the fact that she was alive now, here with her team, safe and loved.
