For Blue Skies

It's Okay To Not Be Okay

Well, here's part of the confrontation you have all been waiting for!!!😬😬

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She had sworn that she would never take him there, but she really had no choice. She needed someone to drive her home after the procedure.

It was the following Saturday and Lucy nervously tugged at the sleeves of her hoodie. It was one she had pilfered from Natsu, dark gray and worn in all the right spots, giving her comfort that she hadn't really anticipated on. She had just liked it because it smelled like him.

"This is certainly a weird way to spend my Saturday," Laxus told her quietly as they sat in the waiting room at Magnolia Fertility. "No idea how I'd explain this to Mira if she caught me here."

As nervous as she was, Laxus' company was appreciated. He offered her levity and even though they would sometimes talk of the most dire things, he always ended the conversation with her smiling. That was how he knew it was okay to walk away from her, to leave her with her thoughts. If she wasn't smiling, he wouldn't leave. His own personal rule.

"The press would have a field day if Mira or Natsu were here."

"You tell him yet?" In the past week or so, he hadn't even bothered to hide his consternation with her remaining mum about her condition. He used to at least attempt subtlety when it came to her choices, but he was now foregoing subterfuge in favor of bold questions.

"No, I have not told Natsu." She sighed. This was a fairly typical conversation between the two of them.

"What is he gonna do when you just don't show up for work due to a major surgery?"

"I'll tell him before that! Besides, I have his entire schedule micromanaged for the next four weeks. He will be fine."

"Pah."

"What?"

"You think the man is going to be going on mission while you're getting operated on?" She shrugged. She had assumed yes. "You are too smart to be that dumb."

"He can't just not do his job, Laxus. He has to go to work."

"Have you met the kid? He pretty much does whatever the hell he pleases. Ten to nothing, he is camping out in the waiting room with me."

She ducked her face as a smile and blush spread. She didn't really like her dad. She had no memories of him tucking her in at night, or reading her stories, or helping her put together a computer. She didn't have any of those memories with Laxus, either, but somehow the man next to her had become more of a father to her in the past month than her own had been in years. She didn't bother to tell him not to meet her for coffee anymore, or even try to dissuade him from coming that day to the clinic, so she knew there was no way she was going to get him to not come to the hospital for her surgery.

It hadn't been scheduled yet, but she knew it was approaching quickly. She would have this procedure today, and then on Tuesday she was going to have a PET scan, to determine all the cancer hot spots in her body. Judging from that, they'd make plans for her surgery. The idea of it happening as early as the end of the week made Lucy feel lightheaded, so she tried to not think about it.

"And what about the other guys, our friends? When are you gonna tell them?"

"It's complicated."

"No, this thing where they're - when they're gonna be scooping out your insides and freezing them. That's complicated. You telling people in your life that you're seriously sick is the opposite of complicated. Simple."