Chapter 6

I kneel with my back against the wall, hastily unscrewing the rusty screw. Come on, come on, come on. I'm not sure if it's just my imagination, or if the area outside the door is getting hotter exponentially. The last screw comes loose, and the warming wood falls to the ground with a hollow clatter.

A broad-shouldered figure forms in the from within the smog, its hand muffling its face.

"Laxus?"

"Lucy?"

His stormy blue eyes meet mine despite the heavy, toxic smoke. It's like fuckin' high school all over again. Except he didn't really save me.

"Come on, let's go." Laxus grabs my arm roughly, and I almost trip over the fallen door.

"Shit," I mutter.

We move forward, and I notice that the doorway into the lobby of the office is collapsing. Well, la di fucking da. Shoving him forward, he lands awkwardly onto Mira's burning desk and lets out an uncharacteristic shriek. Did Laxus Dreyar just scream? Yes, yes, he did. And you know what? He's never going to live that one down.

Lost in my thoughts, I almost make it through, but the smoldering door frame careens sideways and time slows down as I realize there's a burning piece of metal attached to my left leg. My mind screams in pain, and I manage to bite my lip to hold in the beastly sound. FUUUUUUCK.

Laxus pushes himself off the table, looking around. Yooooo. Over heeeere. You know, underneath this chunk a' iron.

"Luce?"

"I told you not to call me that, Mr. Dreyar," I remark tartly, groaning in agony.

"That's really what you care about right now, Luce?" He emphasizes the last word.

"That's really what you say in response to me trapped underneath a piece of metal?" I say, straining my body to pull away from the fallen frame.

"Touche." He hooks his forearms under my arms, and easily lifts me up before throwing me over his shoulder.

"I can walk."

"I beg to fucking differ."

"Fuck you."

"No."

I have never been so glad to be wearing pants.

"Laxus? Lucy?"

"Here and accounted for."

"Or rather Laxus and a bag of flour," I mutter.

"I heard that, Miss Heartfilia."

"And you are going to do what about it?"

"I honestly have no idea but I'm sure I'll figure it out later."

I drop my head on his back again. It almost incites a nostalgic, familiar feeling, but I push it away. No. No feels.

"Why am I the one stuck in the fuckin' hospital?" I say without opening my tired, aching eyes.

"Because you were dumb and decided that you should push me forward instead of waiting for the door frame to fall before we tried to figure out what we could do together to solve the problem," a deep voice points out rather unhelpfully.

"Can you not?"

"Can I not what?"

"Please go away."

"So you don't want your Chipotle bowl, with just the right amount of sour cream, double steak, white rice with the green stuff and lemon juice, half a serving of guac with the tortilla on the side?" He remembers?

"You can drop the bag and leave?"

"Or I can leave and take the bag with me?"

"That is not an option, Laxus."

"Ah." Fuck. That means it's time for a-

"Compromise. I give you food, and we can have a civil, unrelated to work conversation."

"So you leaving the food and leaving this room is not on the table?"

"No."

I take my hands away from my eyes.

"Hi."

"Hey, Lucy. How're you feeling?"

"Have you ever had large, burning chunk of metal dropped on your leg?"

"No."

"That's what I thought. And you know what? It doesn't feel so good."

He ignores me, and sits at the food of my bed, holding my favorite paper bag just out of reach.

"Do you want it or not?"

I make a desperate, futile attempt to grab it, jerking my leg in the process.

"Fuuuck."

"What happened?" Laxus asks leaning forward, a concerned look etched onto his face. I see my opportunity. I grasp the bag. Hallelujah.

"I moved my leg."

"And grabbed your food," he finishes.

"Details." I wave my hand. He looks at me, scrutinizing every part of my face, my body language, before opening his mouth to speak.

"So what's new? For me at least. What were you doing before you got this job? How's your father? Jellal? Erza? Natsu? The others?"

"My father is dead," I deadpan, my voice a little quiet, "Erza and Jellal are engaged, I saw Ever and Elfman kissing the other day, Levy and Gajeel may as well be married-"

He stops listening after 'Ever'.

"But I'm dating Ever."

"Still? You've been together, what, six years?"

"You saw them kissing?"

"Did I stutter?"

"What the fuck is going on?"

"It was like a little high school reunion at first, none of us had seen each other since the end of high school, actually."

"So Elfman didn't know?"

"No."

"It was all Ever?"

"It could've been the alcohol, but odds are, yeah."

"But last week she said she was going to visit her mother which is why I didn't-"

"Didn't what?" I ask curiously. I look at his crestfallen expression. Oh.

"Didn't propose," I finish, nibbling daintily on a piece of lettuce.

Laxus nods, his face contorted into a hard, contemptful expression.

"Goddamn it." He slams his fist onto the metal bed frame.

"Fuck, that hurt." I look at him knowingly. Called it.

"Don't say it, Lucy," he warns, as I smirk to myself.

"So what are you going to do about Ever?"

"Break up with her." Laxus rakes his hand through his hair roughly, but a rogue lock still falls over his face.

"Damn, I can't believe she lied to me." I look at him again, the memory of our almost conversation, almost six years ago, lingering very clearly in my mind.

"What?"

"Nothing," I say, knowing full well the consequences if I were to tell him.

"What, Lucy?"

"Nothing," I reply through gritted teeth.

"Lucy, I know that expression. That's the this-is-going-to-piss-you-off-but-it's-actually-super-important-and-you'll-regret-it-if-you-don't-hear-it face." Wow. He remembers?

"I told you. Or I was going to tell you about what you should watch out for about Ever. You knew I didn't like her. But you never listened whenever I said anything bad about her, even though they were true, and now it's got you here and that's also probably why-" I stop myself. Probably why we stopped being best friends.

"Why what?"

"Nothing."

"There's that face again." Why am I telling you so much stuff, Laxus?

"Why we aren't best friends anymore." Why can you always eek stuff out of me?

"We aren't best friends anymore?" No, goddamnit.

"We haven't talked in years, Laxus, how could we best friends still? I don't know anything about you anymore. I don't know you anymore. I don't know if you've changed or if you're still the geeky guy I met in highschool."

"So? You know stuff about me I'd never trust with anyone else."

"So I'm a friend who used to know you really well. What exactly is your definition of best friend, Laxus? Just because you know a lot about someone doesn't make you best friends. If I hated you right now, I would still know all that stuff about you, but I'd be a well-informed enemy."

"Are you still friends?"

"We'd have to be something with positive feelings if I shoved you onto a desk to save you."

He holds out his hand.

"Friends?"

I shake his hand, his engulfing mine.

"Well-informed-close-colleagues."

As we let go, I sneer slightly.

"You scream like a girl, Sparky."

yay no cliffy.

so many feels okay.

thank you for reading everyone.

please read and review at your leisure.

zephy out.