3...
Rollover
The rapid spread of flame over surfaces (also called flameover).
Natsu was dead.
He had to be dead.
That was the only explanation for pain he felt lancing up his side and throbbing on his shoulder. Groaning, he cracked his eyes open and immediately slammed them shut, his stomach clenching at the harsh white lights burning into his retinas. Funny, he didn't think he did enough good stuff in his life to warrant going to heaven.
So that meant he had to be alive. Somehow.
He groaned again, this time keeping his eyes open long enough to adjust to the sudden pounding in his skull.
The irritating sound of machines around him beeped and hummed. When he managed to raise a hand, he grunted at the wires and tubes keeping it in place. His heart seized in his chest as he realized precisely where he was. A hospital.
His eyes went wide with panic for a few moments, his leg tugging up hard to see if it had been shackled to the bed. Automatically he twitched his right hand to see if he was cuffed there either, and when he realized the only thing keeping him in bed were the tubes and wires, his heartrate began to slow.
Okay.
He was okay.
Natsu breathed out shakily through his nose and he shook his head. A steady throb that grew in pain with every frantic breath he took slowly began to press to the front of his attention.
"Ow, ow, ow, shit," Natsu hissed twisting his hospital gown shirt around his hands and rolling it up his chest. He had sustained a cross shaped scar from a jackass named Rogue in the Sabertooth gang several years back, but it looked as if it had been split open anew thanks to…
...what had happened again?
Slowly, he began to take stock of his injuries. Left side and right shoulder. Those seemed to be the parts that hurt the worse, although his lungs felt as if someone had scraped the inside lining of them out, balled it up, and set it on fire. Next he wiggled his fingers and toes, relieved to find they were all still there.
Everything else was still intact.
It was like smoke had fogged his memory, making it difficult for him to recall precisely what happened.
He had been in another fire.
Yeah, that was right.
It was a fire at Lucy's place.
And just like that his heart rate spiked again as the memories came rushing back. He ripped the clips off his hand that measured his blood pressure and heart, ignoring how it squealed in shrill tones. Natsu knew better than to rip out an IV, so instead yanked the tubes from the machine itself and coiled it around his bicep. Let them get pissy later. He would have to have someone take it out later. But he sure as hell wasn't staying where he was.
He had to find out how Lucy was.
And that bastard Gray.
But Lucy had been in that fire for so long. He thought at the tail end he had seen her move, but he couldn't be sure. It had been so dark inside her place, he didn't think he could trust anything he thought he saw.
Natsu quickly found his clothes and got dressed, sliding on his jacket despite the warmth inside the hospital. He didn't want anyone realizing he was a patient and stopping him before he could find his way to Lucy's room. Although he was surprised by how clean his clothes smelled. In fact, were these even the same clothes he had arrived in? Natsu didn't think he could ever get the scent of smoke and ash out of them, so he had all but decided to toss them.
These smelled daisy fresh.
Someone had visited and been to his house while he was out.
Reflexively, he patted his pockets down for his lighter, his heart nearly stopping in joy as he realized it was in his right pocket as he always kept it. No one had taken it. Reaching a hand in and scooping it out, his thumb brushed against a rolled up scrap of paper that was rubber banded around it.
Anxiety momentarily doused with curiosity, Natsu tugged the note free and spread it out, eyes skimming over familiar, elegant script. A style he had grown so accustomed to seeing over the years as a kid when Jellal and Erza tried very hard to teach him a proper understanding and respect for the written word. He couldn't say how successful they had been, but they tried together.
He grinned at the simple, straight forward note left behind by his friend. So she and Jellal were the culprits. It only made sense - who else would visit him? Certainly no one else mattered.
Natsu, Jellal and I have stepped out for a moment. If you wake up while we are gone, I would tell you to stay in your room, but I know you won't. Lucy is in the ICU, room 7. Try not to get in trouble.
Erza.
His smile melted off in a second, wild fear gripping in his chest as he crumpled up the note and threw it into the bin. Natsu made it to the door, an arm wrapping around his side to keep himself together, feeling weakened and exhausted already from the short trip it took him to walk from his bed to the door. But he pushed himself forward regardless of pain or injury.
Lucy was in the ICU while Natsu had been snoozing away in Recovery.
The Intensive Care Unit.
He knew it well.
Legs carried him through wide strides while his feet ate away long chunks of distance. He knew the lay out well as this was the same hospital he had gone to all those years ago. It was an uptown hospital, but it was one of the best around. Pricey too. Natsu's hand twisted towards his back, although he supposed he was grateful he had spent the extra cash on himself at the time even if it flattened him financially for the next seven years. Not that it mattered, whatever he had left was seized when he was arrested, leaving him with only a small nest egg he hid away.
It was a level four trauma center.
It was good.
Even with that knowledge, it took everything in Natsu not to sprint down the halls into the ICU. He slipped through the sealed doors by walking in with a tech, twisting his head around and tugging his jacket around himself tighter. No one stopped him, but he was almost afraid someone would.
The ICU was small. It only had ten beds, which meant Natsu was forced to walk almost the entire length of the wing. His side throbbed painfully, distracting him from the sting of his right shoulder. He must not have been out for long if it was still giving him pain like this. He had no idea what time it was, or even how long he had been out for. So Lucy being here made him both wary and afraid.
He slipped into Room 7 with a sigh of relief, knowing there was no point in closing a door for privacy. There was no such thing in ICU.
Spotting a chair, he dragged it around to straddle it. His chin dropped onto the backrest, even as he shuffled it towards Lucy's bed.
She looked exhausted and frail, swallowed up by pillows and sheets. Blond hair fanned out around her head, casting a sort of halo around her that made his stomach clench with sickness. His gaze was shadowed when he watched her, strapped to tubes and machines that made his skin itch.
An oxygen tank was set up next to her, a strange looking respirator pressing into her nose and mouth to help clean out her lungs. It looked so wrong on her face. Like someone was playing a cruel joke on him.
ClickClickClickClick.
Startled, he glanced down at his hand, his fingers having instinctively made their way to the soothing metal of his lighter. They curled around it, comfortable and easy, his heart hammering with anxiety over how pale Lucy was. Natsu had never seen her so ashen before, and he hated it.
Click Click Click went his lighter, his thumb rolling over the flint wheel, sparking it but not igniting the fuel within.
He was so stupid. How could he have not seen this happening. Not known what Jackal would do? Now because of a blunder, Lucy was strapped down to a gurney and Natsu was sitting by her bedside hating himself.
Anger rolled through him, unfettered by whatever management classes they forced him to take while in prison. Not that it ever worked, since the only person he was angry with was himself.
He reached out with his free hand, curling his fingers around her smaller one.
Natsu swallowed hard around the lump in his throat. His hand was naturally much tanner in comparison to Lucy, but now with as pale as she was, the contrast was almost staggering. His hand pulled away from hers, accidentally dislodging the heart rate monitor from where it was clipped to one of her fingers.
Immediately a shrill beeping filled the room, startling Natsu, but not disturbing Lucy. She didn't even twitch when a nurse rushed in at the sound of the frantic noises. She quickly began to repair the work, tugging the wires back into place until the machine finally fell silent.
"S-Sorry," Natsu apologized, his stomach twisting into knots over being discovered so soon.
"Just be careful next time," The nurse gave him a quick smile, but her gaze fell down to his hand. A frown creased between her brows and her gaze weighed on him. Natsu swallowed hard, wondering if she had already sleuthed out that he was a patient.
"Sir, you can't have that in here. There are strict rules about what can be allowed into the ICU. You're going to have to give that to me. You can get it back when you check out."
At first he didn't know what she was talking about, until he followed her gaze to his hand. His hand gripped hard onto the small metal casing as if it were a lifeline.
"My lighter?" He asked through stiff lips, hoping she wasn't serious. Hopes which died not a moment later.
"Yes, sir, otherwise you will have to leave."
Despite how badly he needed the comfort of the lighter in his palm, the rhythmic clicking and coolness of the metal digging into his fingers - he couldn't hang onto it if it meant not being able to see Lucy. Who knew how long he had before they realized he was gone and they searched the hospital for him. He wasn't inclined to waste his time arguing with a nurse that was just trying to do her job.
Natsu swallowed hard, nausea rising in his stomach like a wave when he passed over the lighter. Losing that small piece of Igneel, Natsu couldn't help but wonder if his father would be proud he made a step like that.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Carbon Monoxide poisoning. It's not as bad as it could have been and we got to her very quickly," The nurse pocketed his precious treasure and glanced at her watch, "She should be waking up soon."
"I see."
The expression the nurse was giving him was one of careful study. Natsu knew from personal experience that anyone in the medical field was not only sharp, but unyielding as well. This woman had a kind face, and soft pink hair that was held into two crazed pigtails. However he already knew she was a tough one.
"Does she have any family?" She asked, clearly trying to gauge what Natsu's relationship was with her patient.
"Ah, I'm a… friend?" Was that appropriate?"
"She has… a cat?" Natsu responded. Speaking of Happy, he wondered where his little buddy was. Last he could remember, the cat was with him.
The woman nodded once more and headed to the door. She seemed satisfied that Natsu did at least known her and wasn't there to do anything creepy to Lucy while she was unconscious. Her hand rested on the doorframe and she tried to give Natsu a reassuring look.
"She's going to be fine sir, try not to worry too much."
But it was impossible not to. Natsu flashed the nurse a wane smile over his shoulder and merely resumed his vigil at Lucy's bedside. Even as his own stitches pulled and his painkillers long since faded away, he remained stubbornly seated where he was.
He didn't know how long he had sat there in silence for. It was probably the longest period of time he had ever stood still. Even in prison he never could keep quiet. But now, with a somber air of failure filling the space, Natsu couldn't bring himself to make a noise.
Not until Lucy was awake again.
Every now and then his hand would cut through the air, as if reaching for his lighter. When he became really anxious, his thumb would roll against his skin like an imaginary strike. He did this with increasing frequency, reaching for a lighter which was no longer there.
He could almost imagine the sound.
It would click to the beat of his heart, frantic and worried. The sound of which would either float him away, or ground him back to reality. No matter the outcome, he at least had to know how this whole thing ended.
Natsu didn't know how long he sat there for, but the sky was darkening by the time he became aware of the passage of time.
"N'tsu?"
The voice was so soft, so muffled, he didn't catch it at first.
"Natsu," The voice repeated again, followed by a gentle touch across his forearm that had him jolting up in such surprise, he almost tore the stitches in his side.
"Lucy," He breathed.
The sight of her smile dragged his heart into his chest and elation soared through him.
Her hand made its way into his, feeling both frail and so very breakable. But the squeeze she tugged at his fingers made it all worthwhile. He could finally rest, knowing she was going to be okay. Even looking as exhausted as she was, dark circles bruised under her eyes and an odd waxy sheen to her skin -
She had never looked more beautiful.
Because she was alive.
Before they could speak any more to one another though, a call came over the nurses station, loud enough for both of them to hear. Natsu went shrinking down next to Lucy's bed to hide from sight.
"We have a missing patient, room 66 in General. Tall male with pink hair and green eyes."
Lucy looked at Natsu, trying to hide in a room surrounded by glass walls. His hands were flattening over his hair, as if to hide its unusual color from the world.
"Aw, did you break out of your room to see me?" Lucy coughed weakly. Her hand fumbled with the mask covering her face, but Natsu's hand shot out, covering it with his own to stop her from removing it.
"Maybe a little bit. But it took them a long time to notice I was missing," Natsu mumbled. He leaned over her, the sharpness in his eyes intense. His expression schooled into something serious. Tan fingers caught in blond hair.
The quiet moment they shared in the hospital room that evening, just the two of them, made things very clear to both of them. Natsu hadn't budged from her side the entire time he was able to, abandoning all pretense of hiding when it became clear that disappearing in a room where no such thing as privacy existed was impossible.
Still, he stayed there as long as he was able to. Until the pink haired nurse from before gently approached him with a warning there were some scary looking orderlies heading their way, and if he wanted a head start he had to hurry.
Squeezing Lucy's hand one last time, he got up and turned around.
"Damn I can't believe that strip club said no to you," Her dazed voice mumbled out.
He whipped around and stared at her, his jaw growing slack. Her cheeks were dusted pink, and she had clearly been staring very intently at his backside. She was also drugged out. That much was painfully obvious.
"What?" He gaped.
"Wut?" Lucy slurred, trying, and failing to look innocent. She lifted her hand tiredly and wiggled her fingers goodbye at Natsu, who just shook his head and chuckled.
He marvelled at her strength to sit there and simply breathe, to be at peace despite the fact that all her worldly possessions were now gone. And the respect he felt for her when Lucy changed the subject quietly from herself to ask him how he was doing. Furthermore, he was awed when she gave him a shaky finger and orders to return back to his room because he had been neglecting his own health to watch over her.
So as he slipped from her room, dodging the orderlies with the assistance of the strange nurse, a thought rose to his mind. One that almost made him run into a cart wheeling by him filled with files of X-rays.
He loved Lucy.
Alright guys! Just three more chapters left? Oh man! This story is coming to a beautiful close. I'm gonna get all misty eyed!
SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! - Trollala.X (muah, cliffhangers is what we do boo) - FairyAsia - SlightlyOff7 - casserole42 - Mo0nyMoon - the-clumsy-one - Yuyui Hime - seeking-out-sunshine (We live off your hatred) - Snavej - Naluluva23 - savageleader24 - fanficlove2014 - BlessYourStar21 - BookAlchemist2 - Undershock - Princessatj - thewritersheart - Fazuu (Ultear was the other Fullbuster in a fire.)