Chapter Seven

This time when I woke up, it was dark. I'm not sure how long I slept, but I was in noticeably less pain, and I also didn't feel as many bandages. I tried to sit up and fell back to the bed, I was sore and apparently hadn't recovered my strength yet.

"Ow." Was that my voice? It sounded awful and gravelly.

I tried sitting up again, and this time managed to do so, "Where's the bathroom?" Definitely my voice. Damn, that sucks.

"Infirmary bathroom is on the left, guild bathrooms are downstairs."

I would have screamed if my voice allowed it. My body shouldn't have allowed me to jump though, now I'm on the floor and I hurt like hell.

"Who?" I gasped out from my place on the floor.

"Sorry, guess you didn't see me?" I felt the guy hold my elbow and the lower part of my back. I hissed in pain as he pulled me up to my feet. Once I was on my feet and balanced, he turned me towards the direction of the bathroom.

I wobbled my way, and on the inside I felt for the light. I turned it on and immediately regretted it. The light left an excruciating burning feeling in my eyes. I left it on because I needed to see what I looked like and where I was going. But, first things first, I need to pee.

After I was done going to the washroom I made my way to the mirror, my eyes had almost adjusted so I could open them a bit more now. I took off the gown I was put into. I took a good, long look at myself. I didn't like what I saw. The places where I still had bandages, my neck, elbows, knees and chest, were covered in blood splotches, and everywhere that wasn't was either red, white, or peely. I still had dried blood on myself as well. I looked to my face and it wasn't much better, I noticed something odd though. My eyes, they were... different. The didn't look their usual brown, instead they looked paler, and with bits of orange in them. Wendy's spell, maybe? My hair was a complete other story, it was dirty, bloody, matted, and seemed to be singed.

I sighed and looked around the bathroom in hopes of finding a shower or bathtub. I almost jumped for joy when I saw a shower in the far corner. Can I shower with bandages on? I thought about going and asking the guy if I was able to, but then I thought it would be too strange. I walked over to the shower and turned it on slowly to test if my skin was sensitive to the pressure or heat. I found the perfect temperature after a minute or so of fiddling. The pressure hurt, but not badly enough to change my mind. I stood until the water ran clear, then started scrubbing and ripping at the mats in my hair, unfortunately taking out chunks. Soon my hair was smooth. Another ten minutes in the comfort of the water and I got out.

I look in the mirror and realised how uneven and choppy my hair really is, one part barely reaching my shoulder. I went to reach for my keys to call out Cancer, but then remember what Wendy said. As they are, you wouldn't be able to summon them.I can't summon Virgo either, I didn't look to see if there was anything for me to change into. All I see is the gown that's covered in my blood and some towels.

"Dammit. This is going to be embarrassing."

I leave the light on as I open the door to the infirmary and I immediately search for the sounds of snoring. I hear nothing and I really hope that means he's gone. I creep out of the bathroom and look around the room for something, anything, to wear.

Nothing.

No coats, no more gowns, absolutely nothing.

"What the hell kind of infirmary is this? I need something not covered in blood to wear."

And recalling the little scaring incident from earlier, I braced myself for an answer. In fact, I kind of hoped for one. But nothing came. Damn.

Since when do I say 'damn' and 'hell'? I paused at the thought, weird. I shrugged and continued looking for some article of clothing.

I sighed and left the infirmary in hopes of something being in the guild.

"What are you doing out of the infirmary... In nothing but a towel?" Came a sudden boom of a voice. The infirmary door closed cutting off all light now.

I squealed, then coughed because of the pain it caused my throat. After the person disappeared then reappeared with a glass of water, and my coughing stopped, I gave him an answer.

"I took a shower and I couldn't find anything to wear so I came out here to search."

"And if you didn't find anything?" He asked.

"I guess I would have to try and call out Loke, but I don't think I can without his key."

"Well hurry up and look, then get back into the infirmary. Wendy'll kill me if she finds out you're out of bed."

"Wendy? Kill? As if!" I laugh, and hate the sound of my voice and the feeling my throat gets.

"She will."

"But, another little flaw."

"What's that?"

"I can't see." I state simply.

I hear a sigh, and see sparks, then see a little glowing pillar in his hand and hear the crackling of lightning. Lightning? I look up to see Laxus. I said the only thing I could think of.

"So, Wendy's going to kill you, huh?" I giggled.

"Shut up and go look for clothes." It was at that moment I realised that if I could see, he could see, and I was wearing only a really short towel and looked like death came for a visit. I blushed, turned and sped to the stairs to get away.

I was downstairs rummaging through boxes in all the storage rooms, painfully aware that he was following and standing in the doorway of every room, and after a while I felt like I needed to talk to just take away the awkwardness.

"Why are you here so late anyways, Laxus?" Closing one useless box.

"I had stuff the old man wanted me to do." Opening another.

"Like what?" Moving everything around in the box.

"Paperwork mostly." Decidedly useless and close, yet another, box.

"And making sure I stay in bed by Wendy." Opening another, probably useless, box.

"That too, it was the only way to get her to go home." Move around objects.

"I didn't know anyone was allowed to be here after hours." Useless.

"Only S-class, Wendy, and the old man." Opening a hopefully useful box.

"Oo, lost and found, gross, but I need clothes," I started, mumbling to myself, then spoke up to him, "Why Wendy when she's not S-class or anything?"

"Ya, it's mostly full of Gray's clothes. Wendy is only allowed under special conditions." Gray's shirt, Gray's pants, another of Gray's shirts...

"What conditions would those be?" Gray's jacket, one of Gray's socks, who's hat is this? Gray's shoes.

"Well, since she's the only person with healing magic, there has to be someone in the infirmary. She also can't bring anyone else, and that includes Charle. She also can't be low on magic, there would be no point for her being here if she can't heal anyone." Another of Gray's socks, Gray's shorts, Gray's boxers, ew, just throw those out.

"That makes sense, I guess... Oh, screw it! I'll just wear something of Gray's! He's got an entire wardrobe in here anyways." I hear Laxus laugh. The first time I'd ever heard him laugh. It's a truly wonderful sound, and I would just love to hear it again. I grab Gray's pants, shirt, and jacket. I turn and walked past Laxus, smiling at him as I did so, and made my way back to the infirmary.

I kept my promise of making it at least 1200 words! Yay! 1300 and a bit! I don't know if any of what's written here counts as LaLu/LaxLu, whatever you want to call it.

Hello, my muses. Not weird? It's been a few weeks, but luckily for you I decided to start bringing my laptop to my one workplace, and since it's a desk job, I can work on it when it's quiet. You know, when I'm not totally stuck. Seriously, I was on a major writing kick, so I've started the next chapter, but then I just got stuck. I been staring at it for a while now.

Nothing's come to me.

Well, anywho, I hope you all enjoyed it. Keep that inspiration coming, that's the job of a muse.