"Natsu, don't sit so close to the TV!"
A young pinkette didn't heed his mother's words as he bounced excitedly in front of the box TV set panning over a crowded stadium, heralding flashing lights and thousands of adoring fans.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer thrummed into the microphone. "Let's get ready to rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumble!"
With that, a bell rang and two fighters sprung forth from their corners in the ring, boxing gloves in hand and ready stances. Natsu's face lit up in excitement as he frantically tapped the image of his dad on the TV. His eyes gleamed over in pride as he watched the men start round one.
Behind him, Indira smiled fondly at her youngest son's excitement. Meanwhile, Zeref lounged on the bed beside her, lazily turning the pages of a book, while casting glances at what he could make out of his father behind Natsu's salmon mane.
For the Dragneel family, boxing was always more than a spectator sport.
Igneel, the head of the family was a champion boxer and rising star. He brought in a good income and made sure his family ate well. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Indira, and with her had two sons, Zeref and Natsu.
Now while Zeref was always more of a bookworm and an introvert, Natsu was always an extrovert and a bit of a trouble child. From a young age, he always got himself in trouble, from vandalizing school property to backtalking his teachers and his biggest problem: picking fights with other kids. Indira was always coming around the elementary school due to complaints from school faculty.
Training for his fights and participating in tournaments kept Igneel away from his family for months at a time. His boys barely saw their father for most of their childhood. For Natsu, watching his father's fights were some of the only times he got to see his father, so it was always a main event in the Dragneel home.
Natsu's golden eyes widened as the crowd went crazy, and Igneel sent a barrage of fists flying at his opponent in rapid fire, keeping him against the ropes until the referee had to come in between them to give the other guy a break. The camera zoomed in on Igneel's sweaty, concentrated face, not letting the excited screams from his fans get to him. Natsu started shadow-boxing in the bedroom, imitating his father's moves on the TV screen.
"Wow, and look at the champion just dominating in the ring right now," one of the TV commentators narrated over the action. "They don't call him the "Fire Dragon" Igneel for nothing."
As the fight raged on the TV screen, both fighters got a chance to exchange blows, as blood, spit and sweat splattered all over the ring mat. Right before the bell rang to start the final round, Igneel's trainer patted away the beads of sweat on his forehead and the blood pouring from a cut above his eyebrow with a cloth.
Zeref grimaced at the injury. Natsu's smile seemed a little less bright.
Igneel hardly sustained any injuries during his fights. He was fast, strong, and usually ended all of fights very quickly with his signature powerhouse punches. However whenever he did get injured, it was usually powerful blows from a fearsome opponent and it usually landed him in the hospital. If Igneel ever sustained injuries bad enough to land him in the hospital, it warranted a visit from his family, which meant it was one of the few times they got to see him a year.
Because of this, Natsu's always had a strained relationship with hospitals.
Whenever he went there, it was oftentimes to see his dad, and it meant his dad was at his weakest. Natsu hated to see his dad as weak. He wouldn't mind getting injured himself, as he often did picking fights at school, but his dad was too precious to him to be hurt. His dad was his biggest aspiration. A fixture. An idea.
Whenever he went to a hospital it was always to see his dad battered and mutilated. Especially on the day of that particular incident. It stayed with him for the rest of his life. That's why in his latter years, the pinkette made a concerted effort to stay away from hospitals, no matter what was happening to him. When Igneel later remarried Grandeeny, a certified nurse, the need to go to hospitals all but vanished for Natsu completely. His stepmom tended to any injuries or illnesses he had, and Natsu picked up enough knowledge from her over the years to stay away from hospitals for the rest of his life.
That is, until what happened to him that fateful day.
Chapter 14
It was a beautiful Saturday morning. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and it was a perfect day to go to the park. As such, the gang along with a few acquaintances, decided to head to the local park for a friendly game of touch football in sweatpants and various colored hoodies for the chillier day.
"Natsu, go out ten yards," Loke instructed as quartet huddled in a circle, "cut left. Gajeel, go long, post right. Luce, go down, out towards the parking lot. Get in the car. We'll meet you back at the loft."
Lucy lightly gasped.
"Oh, very funny Loke. You're a comedian."
"Hike!" Loke yelled, breaking the huddle.
The four roommates spread out across the field with the other four man team spreading out in a similar fashion. As everyone was running around, Loke had the football in hand, getting ready to throw it as he backed up. Natsu held his arms wide open to receive the ball, but when Loke tossed the ball, it went way over the pinkette's head.
"Loke! Come on!" Natsu yelled in frustration, watching the ball fly away. Without warning, Lucy came barreling into his side, tackling him to the ground with a painful crack of his bones. The other guys came sprinting over to the two of them as Natsu groaned in pain.
"Oh!"
"Damn."
"Did you guys see that?"
Lucy carefully got herself off of him, as her friend laid on his back wincing through the pain, his eyes scrunched up tight as he was seeing stars behind his eyelids.
"Are you okay?" she asked, tucking a stray lock of blonde hair behind her ears.
"Yes, I'm oka-" he cut himself off with another guttural groan when he tried to get up.
Loke and Gajeel gathered around, watching the man writhe in his pain with curiosity.
"Natsu...? Natsu, I'm so sorry," Lucy continued to apologize.
He tried to move again, before letting out another visceral groan. "Oh, my God! This is real!"
"Probably your lateral sizer," Loke said stroking his chin.
"Maybe a rotator cuff?" Gajeel offered, equally as calmly.
"Shut up," Natsu spat as he tried to rotate himself into a sitting upright position with much difficulty. "Can you two just... aaaaaaahhhhhh!"
"Can I...?" Lucy asked, gingerly reaching forward to touch his shoulder. She was afraid that any wrong move would only serve to inflict an entirely new world of pain. "What do you need?"
"Nothing from you," he barely managed in between grunts. "Please go far from me right now. I can taste my spine."
"Three or four down there..." Loke continued nonchalantly. "You know, vertebrae."
"Why is no one helping me?" He managed to ask after miraculously picking himself up off the ground. In response to his question, Lucy tried holding his hand to let her lean on her like a crutch but he shuddered away.
"Not you!" He said in fear for his safety. "Not you!"
14: Lean on Me
"Are you sure you're okay?" Lucy asked, watching Natsu limp to his car while holding his back. "You're walking like a Disney witch. Let me drive you to your doctor."
"I don't have a doctor," he said in between limps. "I don't have insurance."
"Natsu, you need to see a doctor," Loke chimed in. "If only to make sure that wretched junk of yours is clean."
"I don't do doctors," he insisted stubbornly, fingering the key to his car before finally getting inside.
"I can take you to my friend, Dimaria," Lucy offered. "She'll just look at you. She won't charge you."
"Look, I don't go to doctors! Okay?!" He snapped.
With that, he effectively silenced his friends, sending chills up their spines at his flash of anger and adamancy to rejecting their help.
"You sure you're okay driving?" Loke asked, in a last ditch effort of his concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Never been better," the pinkette said with an exhausted sigh. He turned the key and started the engine. "See you guys back at the loft."
Lucy, Gajeel and Loke watched as he reversed his old, rickety, red Nissan from the park's parking lot and drive off. He didn't get far before he crashed into another vehicle.
"Oh, my God!"
"OH!" Gajeel screamed holding his head. "WHAT DID YOU JUST...?!"
The three of them rushed over to his minor fender bender in the parking lot, Lucy opened up the door and helped him get out of the car while Loke and Gajeel went to assess the damages of the rear end of the other vehicle.
"What did you do?!" Gajeel groaned as he eyed the dent on the back bumper of the banged up, green jeep. "You hit my car!"
"Well I'm okay, thanks for asking."
As Gajeel continued to fret over the damages of his jeep, Lucy helped Natsu over to the sight of the two cars joined together.
"Oh, Gajeel, relax. Okay? Relax," he gestured to the small dent in the jeep made from his car. "That's all I did. I did this. The rest of that shit was already there. Actually, I think I undid a dent here."
"Natsu come on," Lucy chided gently. "I'm gonna take you to see my friend. Let's go," she gave his side the gentlest of squeezes, as he kept his arm draped over her shoulder for vertical support.
"Lucy please, I said no-"
"YOU NEED TO GET IN MY CAR DRAGNEEL, RIGHT NOW!"
XxXxX
What makes up a good waiting room?
It was hard to pinpoint a straightforward, universal response to that question. Half of the anxiety of ending up in a hospital, whether it be for others or for yourself, was having to sit in the waiting room. In any waiting room, there could be any number of sick people, bland daytime television playing on a tiny TV screen in the corner of the room, and an impersonal receptionist protected by tinted glass whose only job was to call out names and numbers.
Natsu really fucking hated waiting rooms.
Despite this fact, as he sat in the waiting room of Lucy's friend, Dimaria, he couldn't help but think that this would be an example of what a good one should look like. A good waiting room is one that's more... welcoming. One that was the opposite of sterile, with artwork that was comforting and lighting that's warm. And, most importantly, staff that are in good moods and go out of their way to make sure patients and families are as comfortable as they can be. All things that were found in Dimaria's clinic.
"So Mari's gonna try fitting us in between patients," Lucy said, flipping through a magazine on the coffee table between the two of them.
Now, Natsu noticed something strange about the types of clientele that was coming into the office, like the fact that there was predominantly only pregnant women sitting in the waiting room, or the fact that there were tons of baby pictures plastered all over the walls, or even the fact that there was a kids corner set up that looked more like a daycare, but Natsu wasn't able to put the pieces together until that very moment.
He let out a low groan as he sunk deeper into his sofa chair. "Luce?" He asked, peaking an eye out from behind his fingers. "Is your friend a gynecologist?"
"No," Lucy answered innocently. "She's an OB/GYN."
Natsu groaned loudly. "Oh my... Okay, I'm gonna go."
"Oh really? And how do you suppose you're going to do that? You were barely able to walk in here."
As if on cue, Natsu groaned some more in pain.
"Oh come on Natsu, its not all that bad. She's a wizard with a speculum."
"I don't have a vagina," he whispered to her.
"You can take mine," joked an older pregnant lady who was eavesdropping across from them.
"I heard that, sister," Lucy chuckled.
Natsu groaned some more holding onto his abdomen, both from the pain of his injury along with the pain from listening to vagina-room girl talk.
"Okay, you know what? I'm sorry that my only doctor friend is a gynecologist, but you're broke, so you're just going to have to shut your mouth, and tag the things that you want in this Lucky magazine."
The blonde smiled playfully at him, as she passed him the woman's magazine.
"My treat."
XxXxX
Meanwhile, Gajeel and Loke were at an auto mechanics shop, trying to get the older man's jeep repaired. The pair spent hours in the sun with a mechanic as he inspected under the hood as well as the jeep's various dents.
"Yeah... we're gonna have to put this baby to bed," the mechanic said to them.
"No. No, no, no, Sherman, look, uh... I don't think you understand, man." Gajeel clapped his hands together as his eyebrows scrunched up. "This car's been with me through everything, so... if you could just fix it."
"Well, this is not really officially a car anymore..."
"You didn't even buy the thing," Loke added. "It was given to you as an illegal recruitment gift from a college, that may I remind you, you didn't even go to."
"Look, things happened in this car."
"Like what? Desert Storm?"
"Oh, things happened."
Flashback
A college-aged Gajeel sat in the driver's seat of a brand new, blue, Ford jeep eating a McDonald's burger as rap music poured out of the windows. He was wearing an orange track-suit with his hair in a low braid and sporting a thin mustache. A beautiful blonde woman approached him at his window.
"Is this your car?" she asked.
"Uh... yeah?"
She quickly lifted up her shirt, flashing her bare chest and perky breasts for a few solid seconds. Gajeel's chewing of his burger slowed down before she covered up again.
"Cool," he said to her with a slow nod.
"Anytime."
"It's time for you to buy a new car, man," Loke said, patting his shoulder.
"Why don't you buy a new car?!"
"I already bought a new car! It's the one that you borrow every morning when this one makes the weird sound." Loke tried imitated the sound the car made for the mechanic, by making squealing and coughing sounds.
"Oh, that is not a good sound," the mechanic remarked.
"Just give me the keys," Gajeel demanded.
"You shouldn't call them keys..." Loke deadpanned in the background. He watched as the mechanic awkwardly passed Gajeel a mangled clip attached to a keyring. "That's just a paperclip that you start the car with."
Ignoring him, the man jumped inside his jeep and revved up the engine summoning forth a thick smog of exhaust, and tried to pull out of the mechanic yard, as the jeep kept starting and stopping. As the engine ran, it made the most outlandish squealing and coughing sounds.
"See, that was the noise I was telling you about," the honey blonde said as he walked over to the stuttering car.
"Shut up Celeste."
XxXxX
"Natsu, you don't have to sit like that you know."
"It's the only way that any of this feels okay Luce."
The blonde watched him sit in Dimaria's patient chair with his face down and his back completely turned away from the front. Like he mentioned, it was the only thing that could help preserve what was left of his manhood after the receptionist called for he and Lucy to head into the inner chambers. The door opened, and a familiar honey blonde woman with blue eyes in a white lab coat walked in.
"Hey Lucy," the doctor said flirtatiously.
"Dimaria! Hey! How are you?" she rushed over to her friend to give her a hug. Natsu strained to turn his head sideways and greet the woman.
"H-hey," he strained.
"Good to see you again, Natsu," Dimaria responded before turning back to her friend for an explanation.
"So we were playing touch football, and I accidentally tackled him."
"Oh, really?" She could hardly contain her surprise and the fact that she found it really funny.
"Well, that's not exactly how I saw it..." Natsu trailed off
"I'm surprised you got hurt. You're such a... big boy," she rolled up her coat sleeves with a smirk. "You know, Lucy tackled a girl I was dating once."
"Oh, yeah!" she cried in remembrance. "The bitch tried to steal my overalls..."
"Okay, so... does that hurt?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes!" Natsu yelled as Dimaria started poking up and down his spine.
"All right. Does that hurt?" She asked applying slight pressure to his lower back. His groaned response was all the answer she needed before she retreated over to her medical cabinets.
"Okay, you can flip over now."
Hearing that, Lucy immediately offered herself as support as she and Natsu did their best to flip him over. Natsu felt a strange sense of déjà vu at the way Lucy was so at the ready to help him through his medical crisis. He was reminded all of the times when his dad was in the hospital injured, and Grandeeny would tend to him, going above and beyond the call of duty of a regular nurse. Of course, she and Igneel were also long, lost, childhood friends, but still, Grandeeny was always by his side.
"So... listen," Dimaria said seriously, as she walked back over with an orange tube of pills and passed it to him. "This is not an official examination, so I am not officially telling you that you bruised your spine, and I am not officially giving you these pills to manage the pain. Okay? So... please don't take those pills."
Natsu took the pills, but looked at her straight face in confusion. Lucy, immediately catching on to what Dimaria was doing, clarified it for him, while the gynecologist didn't break her poker face at all.
"Take the pills," Lucy said to him.
"Don't take those pills," Dimaria repeated.
"Take the pills."
"But nobody prescribed them. Why would you take them?"
"Take them. Take them."
"Why would you take them? No. That's bad."
"Natsu that's a code. Take them."
"No, don't do that."
"That means do it."
"No..." Dimaria protested weakly as the pinkette downed the pills uneasily with a gulp of water. "Okay so those are designed for severe menstrual cramps..."
Natsu nearly tried to throw them back up when she said that.
"They should be able cure your baby back ache."
Lucy chuckled. "Baby backache..."
"Wait. Stop," Dimaria said to Natsu, stopping him as he drank. "Hey, take another sip of water."
"Yeah, um..." he did as he was told.
"What?" Lucy asked, beginning to panic. "What's wrong?"
"No, it's your thyroid. I noticed something while you were swallowing."
The atmosphere of the entire room changed.
"Do you mind if I...?" The woman leaned forward and gently pressed her middle and index fingers to the enlargement in Natsu's throat to confirm her suspicions.
"Yeah..." Dimaria said grimly, stepping back once she was sure. "He has a growth."
Lucy nearly blacked out at her friend's words. "Oh my God. A... a growth?"
"No way," he said shaking his head. "Everything works. I can swallow."
"Natsu..."
"I'm fine," he said to Lucy, before turning back to Dimaria. "And I know what you're talking about."
"Wait you knew about this?!" The blonde wasn't happy.
"Well yeah... kinda."
Natsu's had issues with his throat and swallowing for a while now. He always figured it was him coming down with a cold or a throat infection and some good old vitamin C would fix him right on up. He couldn't deny that it was concerning that he would sometimes cough up blood randomly, or whenever something became too hard to swallow, but he would chalk it up to injuries from his many bar fights.
"So you've had it checked out already?" Dimaria asked, breaking up their would-be argument.
"Uh, no, no, I didn't... I don't really have that stuff checked out." He looked at Lucy. "Everything's fine."
"I can set up an ultrasound tomorrow morning, first thing," Dimaria offered. "I've got a friend."
"I can't really afford an ultrasound..." Natsu said awkwardly.
"Well you're going to have to, so... Yeah." Dimaria replied. "So I'll set that up?"
"Absolutely," Lucy responded.
"Alright, just make sure he goes, Lucy."
"Oh," she scoffed. "I will."
With that, Dimaria left the pair in her patient room to set up the appointment, leaving Lucy frowning deeply at Natsu with her arms folded.
"Luce, come on, don't look at me like that," he pleaded. "And please don't freak out. It's probably nothing."
Lucy said nothing for a minute. She didn't want him to see her completely freak out but it was hard to hide how upset she was. Upset... and... scared.
Natsu could read her like an open book.
"Yeah, sure, sure," she said, arbitrarily messing with a life size model of a pregnant woman's stomach on Dimaria's counter. "It's probably nothing."
The pair decided to head to a nearby diner after the gynecologist visit to stock up on grub and process everything. Lucy was hoping that by pampering him with as much food as she could pay for, and offering words of encouragement he wouldn't freak out over the scary news. Little did she know, he was mostly fine and she was freaking out more than he was, and her love-bombing him only made him nauseous.
"You know I'm always here for you right?" Lucy asked softly with an empathetic smile.
Natsu recoiled in disgust, finishing up the chewed turkey leg in his mouth, and ending it with an unceremonious burp.
"Oh my God, who are you talking to? What the fuck?"
"You, you asshole!" Lucy snapped back.
Natsu started squirming, like he was in the sixth grade, and she was spreading cooties with a teasing smile on his face. "Gross. Like I can't believe I just had to hear that Luce. Ew, like what the fuck-"
"You're not funny, jackass," she reached across the table and smacked him in his chest (which he tried to squirm away from, by the way).
"I don't know what I was thinking..." she pouted. Still, she was fighting hard against the smile that was forming on her face from held in laughter. "Being nice to you.
"Affection is disgusting," Natsu scoffed. "Not on my watch."
She chuckled, finally giving in to his teasing. "God, I hate you."
"This is why you'll never be a sigma male," he smiled slyly, enjoying being able to tease her like this. "You care too much."
"A what? What's a sigma male?"
"Why, only the best kind of male there is," he pontificated.
"But I thought that was an alpha male?"
"Ah, typical female with her typical, terrible, female takes," Natsu barely held back a laugh, shaking his head. "The alpha male is the worst kind my friend. Sigma male is where its at. And the fact that you even said that is very beta male of you Luce. Very beta male indeed, not gonna lie."
Lucy groaned in annoyance.
"God, shut the fuck up!"
And that was it. Natsu burst out laughing in the middle of the diner, having the most fun he'd felt he had in a long time. Lucy was always so fun to him. The blonde couldn't help but laugh a little too, although she was trying her best not to show it, lest it be total admittance that Natsu had won their little pissing contest. Still, she really liked seeing him so happy, and it warmed her chest to know that she was responsible that big, goofy grin on his face. As his laughter died down, all that was left between them was intense eye contact which made Lucy's cheeks warm.
She started sipping on her milkshake through a straw to break eye contact and cut through the tension.
Lucy couldn't help but admitting to herself...
From the smile... to those golden eyes...
Natsu was... kinda cute.
The pinkette was glad to finally take her mind off of worrying about him, and pump a little liveliness into the dreary atmosphere that followed them since Dimaria.
Also, did he mention how much fun he had teasing her?
"So..." he played with the red straw sticking from his glass of sugary, carbonated drink. "I don't think I'm going to the doctor's appointment tomorrow."
"What?" She shot up from her phone immediately. "Why not?"
"I mean, I just don't have the time. I've got some pictures to take. I have a polaroid camera, I do photography on the side. Did you know that about me? The truth is too, with working out, I've got some people to see, so I just can't make it. I also just lost a stamp. It sounds worse than it is, but it's a somewhat expensive stamp and I had planned on looking for it tomorrow. One of the reasons I moved to Los Angeles was to get closer to whales, so I can record them. I haven't gotten around to it because where we live is actually east. It's way farther from the ocean than I expected. Look, Lucy," he stopped his own ramblings and replaced it with a brevity in his voice. "I appreciate your concern. It is really sweet. It is... but this machine's still kicking, just like it has been for the past 28 years."
"You're going." Her voice left no room up for rebuttal. "And I know your scared, but you've got no reason to be, okay?" Her eyes softened. A gentle smile formed on her face. "Cause I'll be right there with you, supporting you."
"I am not scared," he said defensively.
"Then what's with all the lame excuses?"
"Those aren't lame excuses... those are legitimate tasks."
Lucy smiled and snorted. She viewed his free hand resting on the table by his tray, and contemplated taking it in her own. She decided against it.
"Nat, do you know what my mother used to do for me whenever I was scared?" She closed one of her eyes and hooked her index finger. "A pirate impression."
"Please don't do what I think you're about to-"
"Ahoy there matey!" she said imitating a pirate. "I'm sorry you've got aaaaaaaargh lump in your throat. That's just despicable...! Sorry. Is that too much?" she asked, breaking character.
"Okay," he said standing. "I've gotta go to work."
"I'll come with you!" She offered quickly.
"Oh, absolutely not."
"I'll just sit by the bar and be quiet. I promise."
XxXxX
That evening at Fairy Tail was lively with patrons, mostly men, filling the place with conversation and laughter, and leaving all the bartenders working that night extremely busy. All except for Natsu, who had to tend to Lucy, Loke and Gajeel sitting upright and quietly at the bar counter, looking up at him with calming smiles and doe eyes.
"You told them, Luce? Really?"
"It's not a big deal."
"Then why would you tell them?"
"Oh we're just hanging out," Loke interjected. "With my best friend."
"Come on, Loke don't-"
Natsu's words were cut short as Loke jumped over the bar counter, grabbed his friend's face and placed a big, fat smooch on Natsu's lips.
"What are you do...?" He sputtered as he struggled to find his balance again. "Did you just Fredo-kiss me? What's your problem? Go sit down."
"You're going to beat this, man," Gajeel said sliding closer, while Loke walked to a booth with a satisfied smirk.
"I don't have anything to beat. What is going on with you guys? What did Lucy say?"
He couldn't receive an answer to his question when more paying customers beckoned him over to refill their glasses. As he was refilling the white wine for the trio of women another fluctuation of pain hit his lower side. He pulled out the orange tube of pills from his pocket, getting himself a glass for water.
"I take those, too," one of the women said. "When I got a heavy flow."
"Yeah... good to know."
As he was taking his pills, Cana, whom Lucy had called when she told the guys the news, approached him at the bar counter. She was late to the gathering because of work, but she came as soon as she could.
"Hey Cana."
"Hey," she greeted. "So I heard."
He threw his hands up in the air. "Of course you did."
"Can I get a vodka soda?" She smirked at him. Natsu was taken aback by her nonchalance.
"Thank you. You know, you being normal-"
"Vodka soda man."
"Okay."
"It's because he refuses to wear a Bluetooth," Loke said to Lucy and Gajeel in the booth. "You know that. I gave him one for his birthday, too, but he just laughed in my face... Gave it back to me for Hanukkah."
"Well, according to this Web site, it could be a colloid nodule," Gajeel said looking at his phone. "But that's most common in golden retrievers..."
"I thought my lifestyle choices would rub off on him..." Loke continued solemnly. "I tried to set a good example. Treat your body like a temple. Treat your body like a temple. He treats his like a dump. Like a dump!"
"Let me see this," Lucy said taking Loke's phone from his hands and read what he had searched up on the screen. Lucy lost her breath.
'Thyroid Tumor: Symptoms, diagnosis, treatment.'
"Hey, hey, hey, my friends," Natsu said merrily, carrying a tray of glasses. "Can I just say that these pills are amazing? I feel, like, really warm in my, like, uterus. What's with the long faces? Celeste?"
"Just looking at you and your... beautiful soul," Loke choked out.
"Big, strong Natsu..." Gajeel said supportively. "He's a champ!"
"I wish I could trade places with you," Loke continued. "'Cause you know what, Natsu? I would do it in a second... but I'm also glad that I can't."
"Okay, what is going on with you three?"
Finally Lucy broke down, her face crumbled up in agony and tears welled in her eyes. "Oh God..."
"Luce?"
She couldn't control the tears currently rolling down her cheeks which made Natsu's heart sink like a boulder.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"You're gonna freak him out, you're gonna freak him out," Loke said in a high-pitched voice as he too, was about to start crying. "You're freaking everybody out."
"Why are you crying?" Lucy questioned.
"Loke, are you crying?!" Natsu asked.
"Because you're not helping," Loke answered the other blonde. "'Cause you're making me cry with your emotion."
Just like a domino effect, Gajeel started wiping tears from his eyes, as he too was crying, but he wanted to be more discreet about it. "Really, Gajeel? You too?"
"It's just... that I love you so much, man."
"Stop it. Enough guys. I'm fine. Just stop it."
"How do you know that you're fine Natsu?" Lucy tearfully slid the phone to showing details of everyone's suspected diagnosis of his condition. Thyroid cancer. He read the symptoms of it, including the one that stuck out the most to him.
Death.
Natsu subconsciously touched his throat, now feeling more anxious than ever before.
Natsu stayed and worked for the remaining five hours in his shift until it was finally closing time and he had to close up shop at the bar. His friends stayed with him the whole time, drinking, lamenting and Gajeel even decided to start playing the grand piano that was in the corner of the room.
"I'm not gonna lie," the bartender said woozily. He too, had been partaking in a glass of whiskey or two. "I think the pills are on top of me a little bit."
"I think you're right," Lucy said plainly. She'd been drinking too, but in all honesty nobody had been drowning in his sorrows more than Natsu. And for good reason.
A safe distance away back at the bar counter, Loke hung around to talk with Cana unrestricted. He scooted even closer next to her.
"This is so sad," Loke said softly. Cana turned to glare at him.
"Yeah, it's really sad your friend's getting an ultrasound tomorrow."
He scooted even closer to his hook-up partner, gently resting his head on her chest at a neck breaking angle, although he considered it to be worth it to be able to experience the softness of her mounds exuding from her tank top.
"It's just... so hard."
Cana raised a brow at him. "Are you seriously using your best friend's medical crisis to feel my boobs with your face?"
"Why isn't the whole world making love all at the same time?"
The brunette rolled her eyes.
"How many... ears does Daniel Boone have?" Lucy chirped to Natsu. "He's got a... a right ear, a left ear and a... front ear. Frontier! Get it?"
They both started chuckling after she delivered the punchline of the joke. Lucy, because she thought the joke was funny, but Natsu, because he was drunk off his ass. "You don't get to speak at my funeral..."
"What?"
"Oh for sure. 100%."
"What? Why?" Lucy didn't mask the hurt evident in her voice.
"Because of that joke."
"Yeah, but... but-"
"Lucy, you don't want to be talking at a funeral," Gajeel interjected. "I've tried that once..."
Flashback
Gajeel stood at the front of a funeral going crowd in a tuxedo with a mic in hand. There was a closed casket before him with lilac flowers rested on it. With his mic in hand, he started his stand-up routine.
"What kind of dummy fixes a washing machine using a knife?"
Nobody in the audience said anything.
"This kind of dummy!" He laughed, pointing at the casket.
Gajeel cleared his throat.
"It did not go well..."
"I just don't want you talking at my funeral, okay?" Natsu continued. "You can go to my funeral, but you can't talk. My funeral is my time to shine. I want the girls from my past to think I wish I brought Natsu Dragneel to orgasm. And I want the guys to think, I wish I bought that guy more stuff. And I don't want you... sobbing with your 'pirate voices' or 'feeling sticks. You just... I don't know, I don't think you can be... real. I can't have you trying to cheer everybody up."
"I know how to be real..." Lucy said softly. Something about the gentleness in her voice made Natsu feel like a giant piece of shit.
"Question: Am I wearing a hat?" he asked as an attempt to make a joke.
XxXxX
"Natsu Dragneel," Loke said, swiveling a glass of liquor around. "Almost a lawyer."
Gajeel drunkenly tapped on the keys of the piano, singing unsteadily.
"This is a saaaaaaaaaaaaaaad song... Oh. Mm. This is the saddest song in the wooooooooooooooooorld."
"Yes, it is brother. Mm." Loke said nodding along. While Gajeel wasn't exactly on pitch, they were all so drunk that it felt like they were floating on clouds and Gajeel's song was a rainbow that was hugging their ears.
"This is the saddest song..."
"You... you just keep singing, man," Natsu said raising his glass.
"It is so weird being sober right now..." Cana deadpanned.
"Can I get some weird rapping?"
"Natsu Dragneel, Natsu Dragneel from the streets of Magnolia, 'cause players play like they do, like they did," Loke rapped.
"Mm-hmm Sad song..." Gajeel continued to wail in the background.
"'Cause the ballers ball and the... in the... in the hood... 'Cause he's Chi-town hustle..." Loke was struggling to come up with lyrics on the fly, but he tried his best.
"...In the world."
"That's sounds great."
"'Cause the people love the... of Magnolia Represent him, 'cause the players Don't play and the players in the city..."
"Natsu Dragneel, Natsu Dragneel..." Cana started.
"Hey! Cana's rapping!"
"He pours 100 drinks, and none of them have ever spilled. Plus he's super-high on a bunch of pain pills, his favorite movie is The Big Chill, He's got a hairy chest 'Cause he eats a balanced meal!"
"Hey, hey kicking mad flavor in his ear." Loke proclaimed impressed.
"Sad song, hey, hey..."
"The ice in my glass represents the tears from my eyes, I love you, dawg," Loke rapped raising his glass in the air. With that, everybody raised their glasses in the air with cheers and laughter.
"Natsu Dragneel, Natsu Dragneel," Lucy rapped unenthusiastically. "Never does anything..."
Gajeel pounded the keys on the piano. "What?"
"You want me to be real and stop being cutesy or whatever, then fine. Let's ball," Lucy approached him by the piano next to Gajeel. She was seemingly unaffected at how she ruined the mood. "Natsu what is one thing in your life that you wanted to do, that you've actually started and finished? Can't say law school, cause we all know how that ended. Can't say boxing, because you quit that too. Seriously, what have you actually done with your life?"
Everyone winced at how seemingly harsh Lucy was being. Everyone, except Natsu.
"Tell me Nat, isn't there something you wanted to accomplish?"
"Hey... I've done things. I once wrote an entire fanfiction about zombies."
"Anything else?"
He couldn't come up with an answer.
"Okay, just tell me. If you could do anything else with your life right now, what would you do?"
He shrugged. "I don't know."
Lucy shook her head. "I don't believe that. I believe you can do whatever you set your heart to, you just won't put yourself out there."
Natsu shook his head.
"Luce, I'm the guy who... I can't just jump into something if I don't know what's gonna happen. I've never have been that guy. Like, if everybody would go into the ocean and jumped in the water, well, I'm the guy on the beach guarding the wallets. Because I can't do anything if I think there's even a chance of failure."
"Then don't fail," she said plainly.
Natsu sputtered. "W-what?"
Lucy folded her arms. "If you don't try things because you're afraid to fail, then just don't fail. I know you can."
Natsu felt something stir inside of him at Lucy's plain declaration of faith in him. He didn't understand how she could say that so adamantly, without a hint of humor or irony in her voice or demeanor. He couldn't tell if this was just plain arrogance, overestimation or benevolence. Regardless, she basically sounded like a mad woman.
She picked up her car keys from the bar counter. "All right, you know what?"
XxXxX
"You see that Natsu?" Lucy said. "That's all you. Get out there." She gestured to the ocean waves that spread out before them on the beach that night. Gajeel, Loke and Cana all got out of Gajeel's jeep into the chilly night air. Natsu said that if everybody went to the ocean and jumped in the water, he'd be on the beach guarding the wallets, so Lucy took it upon herself to bring him to the ocean and make him jump.
"Yeah. I'll hold your wallet," Gajeel offered.
"I don't have a wallet."
"All right, well, that's fine too."
"I have a sandwich bag with my license and money in it."
"Okay, I'll hold your sandwich bag. Just get out there, go."
"It's a little cold. Just in terms of running into the water, it's a tad on the cold side..."
"Come on Natsu," Lucy nudged. "Just one little dip in the water and you would've conquered this thing."
Natsu slowly bent over and made a move to start taking off his shoes. Natsu took off running into the ocean without another word. As he ran, he further disrobed, unbuttoning his flannel top and even drunkenly fiddling with his pants. Loke started tapping Gajeel as he watched him.
"We-we taking our shoes off? What's going on?"
"I'm a little drunk, so I can't be too sure..." Gajeel said to him. "But I think you're finally about to see your best friend's penis."
"Natsu... he's gonna sh... he's gonna show his penis to the ocean and not me?!" Loke frantically tried taking off his shoes as he took off after him. "Natsu, WAIT!"
"I'm alive!" Natsu chuckled as he started playing in the sprays of the ocean "I... am... alive! I'm alive!" After a few seconds, his demeanor quickly changed. "Oh my God! Oh my God! This is stupid! My testicles are in my abdomen! What was I thinking!? Oh, my God! That is so cold! Words cannot describe how cold that is!"
Lucy sprinted to him with his shirt while he jogged toward them, out of the waves. "Natsu, are you okay?"
"NO I'M NOT OKAY LUCY!" He yelled as he grabbed his shirt out of her hands. "I'm not okay! I woke up today and I wanted to play a friendly game of touch football, then I hurt my back, and I went to your stupid gynecologist, and now I might have cancer! So, NO LUCY! I'M NOT OKAY!"
After Natsu's blowup at Lucy, he stormed away to an isolated part of the shore to sit alone and think. They all watched him worriedly, but decided it was best to give him his space. Although, for Lucy it was particularly hard not to run after him since she started to feel guilty. Loke broke through the awkward silence with a sigh.
"So I know this isn't the best time to bring this up, but... does anyone else think Natsu could stand to lose five to seven pounds?"
Everyone groaned collectively as they all split apart to different areas on the beach. Cana and Loke took respite pretty far inland on the beach sitting side to side.
"You know what I'm thinking about, Cana?"
"What is it?"
"That when you stand up, there's gonna be, like, a perfect imprint of your butt in the sand."
Cana gave him a nasty look.
"That is what you're thinking about right now with your best friend down the beach going through what he's going through?"
"I know, I know."
"Then why would you say that?"
"I don't know why I would say that."
"Why would anyone say that?"
"I've never gone through anything like this before..." Loke relented in a moment of honesty.
"Yeah, well, I have... and Lucy too.
"But Luce didn't really remember all that much," Cana said, as she watched the blonde timidly take a seat next to Natsu. "And she still had her dad. I never had a dad. It was always just me and my mom. She was my soulmate first before anything else... and then she got taken away from me before she could see me grow up..."
Cana stopped talking because she was getting misty eyed.
"I'm uh..."
"It's okay," Cana stopped Loke. "The only way to get through it is to get through it."
"You know... I once had a cat that died..."
"Don't compare my mother to your cat."
"It was a... big cat. I mean, human size-"
"Loke!"
"Hey..." Lucy approached her distraught friend. "Is this seat taken?"
"All yours."
"Sorry for getting mad at you earlier," he said as soon as she sat. "You were right."
"You don't have to apologize... I get it."
Natsu sighed putting his head in his arms. "I don't know if I should tell my dad or not..."
"Let's get through this ultrasound first," she said solemnly. "You don't want to worry him unnecessarily."
"I don't know if I ever told you this before... but my dad has dementia."
Natsu wasn't sure what got over him to make him so open, be it Lucy's unwavering support, the scenery of the beach, or even the taste of beer still on his tongue, but he started spilling about his life.
Lucy's eyes widened as she looked at him. "Natsu I... I'm so sorry..."
"It's been some years now since he was diagnosed..." the words were just spilling out of his mouth with seemingly no reason to stop. "Doctor's seem to think all his years in boxing served to expedite it."
"Is... that why you quit?"
He sighed.
"Yeah." As he spoke, he could visualize the scene he was describing. The bright lights, the blaring marquee, the cheering bloodthirsty crowd and the announcer holding the 1960's microphone announcing the fighters. "A few days before my first, pro-circuit fight in Tenroujima, I got a call that he was in the hospital because he accidentally hurt himself. He was fine from the accident, thankfully, but the doctor's wanted to keep him for a few more days for testing. The day of my fight, Grandeeny told me the doctors diagnosed him with stage 3 Dementia. After that, I rushed straight to the hospital and blew off my fight, forfeiting my chance to go pro. When I got to the hospital... seeing my dad... not... recognize me..." Natsu's voice started to become choked up, but he put his fingers over his eyes and took a few moments to breathe and calm down. Feeling for him, Lucy rubbed his arm to comfort him and waited for him to continue patiently.
"I couldn't step foot into a ring again. Not after what happened to him."
"Is that the reason why your mom stressed that it was so important you didn't miss your flight last Christmas?"
"My stepmom, and yeah," Natsu couldn't help the half smile that formed on his face at the mention of Christmas. "Seeing my dad was crazy. He's been doing really great these days. And Grandeeny says so too. Apparently he keeps mentioning me and my brother by name - which is crazier because he hasn't seen Zeref longer than he hasn't seen me - which has been years."
Lucy could relate to the genuine warmth that radiated off of Natsu as he gushed over his dad. Lucy reflected on her own relationship with her dad, remembering how cold and distant he was from her when her mother died. Now, their relationship was amazing. He was an incredibly loving and supportive father to her and she couldn't be happier.
As the cold, night air caused the hairs on her neck stand up, Lucy held onto herself tighter and rubbed her arms to generate more heat. Sensing that she was struggling with the cold, Natsu roped his arm around the blonde's shoulders, pulling her into his higher than normal body heat. He relaxed into her soft form, resting his head on top of hers and closing his eyes. As he swaddled her in his arms, her face being pressed against his near bare chest, blood started rushing to her cheeks. Natsu was still too drunk to think about asking before basically cuddling with her, but hey, she was cold, and he thought he was helping.
"How are you so dry already?" Lucy mumbled softly, her heart racing. "You just jumped into the ocean..."
"I dunno. I've always had a higher than average body temperature. My dad does too, so I guess it's genetic."
Comforted by his embrace, Lucy tried to imagine the rest of her life, enjoying a long, happy life, fulfilling her dreams, while Natsu's own was cut short. A boulder felt like it was being rested on her chest at the very thought. To imagine a future where she couldn't share moments like this with him anymore made her so sad to the point where she was blinking back tears. Even with all their fights and arguments she wouldn't want to go the rest of her life without him.
The air between them was silent, save for the sounds of gentle waves crashing and the distant screams from the amusement park a little ways off. The moon was full, with it's reflection bright on the rippling waves of the ocean and the air wafted with the scent of salty sea water.
"Hey..." Lucy said shyly.
"Hmm?"
"You know... you're my best friend right?"
It was the first time she'd ever voiced the thought out loud. She was scared to admit this in previous relationships because whenever she thought she'd grown close with someone, it always turned out the other person didn't care about her as much as she did them. Cana, of course, being the exception.
No matter what though, that's what she felt in her heart. She couldn't imagine living her life without the sweet, snarky, sarcastic, yet incredibly caring and thoughtful pinkette in this world too.
"Luce..."
No matter what happened from this point forward, she just had to let him know at least once. She would have no regrets about this.
He paused for a moment, making her heart pound in fear as she braced for the inevitable rejection. He closed his eyes, enjoying the scent of the peach shampoo in her hair, which was making him drowsy. He enjoyed the feeling of her smaller frame being enveloped in his, with his arms holding her like a hand in a glove. Natsu was extremely grateful she was allowing him to be so touchy-feely after their fight, especially since her very presence was a sense of comfort for him as he tried to cope with this possible new reality.
"Well I don't know why you're making a big deal outta this. But you're my best friend too," he planted a chaste kiss in her hair. "A-and uh, thanks... for everything today."
Lucy smiled unabashedly, especially without fear of Natsu seeing how hard his small act of affection made her blush.
"Hey Luce?" Natsu continued to speak in drunken ramblings. "I think I like you."
He whispered into her hair and the words lit a fire in her belly and spread a different heat across her cheeks. She froze. "Natsu do you... realize what you're saying?"
"I like you a lot actually..." he continued. "I'm really glad I met you."
Lucy forced her heart to relax, remembering that he was still drunk off his ass, and speaking to her platonically.
Still, he wasn't acting like himself and the blonde was struggling to keep her emotions in check with this more sappy side of him. Part of her contemplated throwing his words back at him from earlier about affection being disgusting, but she just... couldn't. In fact she couldn't say anything. For both of their sake's, she just didn't respond.
Despite how loose and free Natsu felt, he realized that something still felt weird and he couldn't quite put his fingers on it. The pinkette was sitting on the beach, but he felt like he was floating on the clouds. It was only then that it vaguely registered to him that he might've still been drunk.
"Hey Luce... I'm not gonna remember any of this in the morning, am I?"
Lucy laughed out loud, causing him to laugh out loud too.
"Aaaaarrrrrgghhh matey," she said closing one eye and curving her finger to imitate a hook. "You're probably not."
The night waned on and the morning eventually came. The dawn came, plastering the ocean horizon in beautiful oranges and pinks. The air smelt of salty sea water and ravaging seagulls cawed in the distance. Natsu sat upright watching sunrise as Lucy slept beside him on the sand. He hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep the night before since his mind was racing. He thought of Lucy's questions last night at the bar.
What was to become off his life? What did his life amount out of all of his years on Earth?
He dropped out of college, quit law school, disappeared from fighting and retreated into the recluses of LA with his childhood best friend and college roommate, working at a bar as a bartender with no concrete plans for his future.
If he were to die today or tomorrow, what could he say was his contribution to the world? That's what he spent all night thinking about.
"Hey," he gently nudged his friend next to him gently. "We gotta wake up. Morning."
"What?" she asked groggily.
As Natsu stood up and rallied his friends, he resolved within himself that whatever happened from this ultrasound visit at the clinic, that he was going to spend the rest of his days trying to figure it out.
"Hey, Celeste!" He whistled as he made his way inland. "Wake up, wake up! Everybody, up! I got that ultrasound thing. We're late."
"What?"
"Hey, Gajeel," Natsu knocked the jeep door where Gajeel slept for the night. "We're late, man."
The gang all trudged their way back to Gajeel's truck, the man turning the paperclip to start the engine with it making the coughing and squealing noise that Loke had made fun of earlier. Smog started filling the air both outside and inside the jeep, making everyone cough.
"Ah, fresh air," Loke snarked
"Back to the fume chamber."
"Couldn't even sell it for metal?" Natsu asked going in the passenger seat.
"Hope you idiots didn't get sand in my car."
Loke couldn't believe his ears for a second. "Yeah, cause that's this car's problem: too much sand."
Gajeel finally drove off, causing all sorts of dust and debris to kick up behind the jeep and fly inside the jeep through the windows.
"Oh, my God, there's SOOT coming in from the floor!" Loke coughed.
"Hi. Uh, my name is Natsu Dragneel. I have a 9:00 a.m. today," he said to the woman at the counter.
"Fill these out," she said passing him some papers. "I'm gonna need a copy of your health insurance."
"Oh. I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be paying with cash, actually. It's a mixture of, uh, paper money and change. I do have a check that's postdated. There's a 60/40 shot that's gonna clear. I hope that's good."
After his awkward exchange at the counter, he went to the back, leaving his friends to wait anxiously in the waiting room.
"How long does it take to tell if someone has cancer?" Loke cried tapping his foot on the ground.
Natsu emerged from the inner chambers shortly after. "Guys! I'm okay! I'm fine. Turns out, it's nothing."
"Really? What was it? What did they say it was?"
"I didn't hear anything after they said, "You don't have cancer." he said with a huge smile. "I kinda blanked out. I think it's, like, a cyst or something."
Loke jumped up from his seat and grabbed Natsu by the face, planting a big, wet kiss on his mouth, which Natsu pushed away frantically.
"Stop Fredo-kissing me, Celeste."
With that, he walked back over to the receptionist.
"All right, so what do I owe you? Let's figure this out. I've got, uh..."
"It's already been taken care of," she said plainly.
"What do you mean it's already taken care of?"
Lucy tapped his shoulder, and he turned around to see the four of his friends smiling, standing behind him.
"Oh, we split it."
Natsu was at a loss for words for a moment.
"All right, well... I'll pay you guys back. I just..."
"And can you please get a wallet?" Loke insisted.
"I do have a wallet."
"A wallet Natsu. I have tons of wallet chains that you can borrow. Deep inside the ever-spinning..."
"Hey, Luce?" Natsu asked quietly. The five of them were walking together out the clinic, with Natsu tuning out Loke as he went on a monologue about wallets and he fell in step with Lucy.
"Hmm?"
"Did something happen last night?"
He honestly couldn't remember much of what happened between them last night, but something in his subconscious was telling him that it might've been important. Lucy shook her head and smiled at him as they both got into the backseat of the jeep.
"No. Nothing."
Gajeel tried starting the jeep again with engine sputtering but never roaring to life. Loke chuckled softly.
"Come on, come on, come on, come on," Gajeel whispered before the sputtering stopped completely.
"Let it go, bud," Natsu patted his cousin on the shoulder as they all got out of the car.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Just got to give it a second."
"Bye."
"It's cruel at this point," Loke said. "The car's dead, bud."
With that being said, he along with the rest of the gang got out of the jeep while Gajeel tried to start up a dead engine. As they all started the long walk back to the loft, Cana pulled out her phone and tuned into a radio station for some road trip music while they travelled. Cana and Loke walked side by side and Natsu and Lucy walked together, trailing behind. Gajeel was still with his jeep.
I'll take care of you,
If you ask me to
In a year or two...
Oh...
I'll take care of you,
"Don't walk so fast!" Gajeel yelled. "I'm coming. Damn, can't a man say good-bye to his car?"
So like I warned, this chapter was a little heavier than usual (but hopefully still entertaining)! I want to try something new for all the chapters going forward by including a flashback/character blurb at the start of every chapter. What did you think about this one? I realize that if I want to make this a consistent thing, I'll have to go back and add the flashback/blurbs for all the previous chapters, but I'll do that once I'm done with season one (about 22 chapters). Look forward to it!
Anyway, thanks for all the continuous feedback! Particularly from rao hyuga, AJ (lol sharing a braincell), Fluffy-Experiment and Copperreign!
Until next time!