Soul Mark

Chapter 8

Levy heard the scream from down the hallway, with a shocked look at her parents she took off following behind as several nurses and the doctor ran into Lucy's room.

Levy let out an audible gasp, clasping her hands over her mouth in shock. Her best friend, the person she cared about most in the world, stared up at the ceiling as if she had seen a ghost.

As Levy stepped closer, dodging the doctors and nurses in the room as if in a near daze, she noticed that Lucy's hands shook uncontrollably, and a single tear was slipping down the side of her face.

"Natsu..." came a very soft whisper from the brunette as she stared up at the ceiling.

Levy's eyes began to flood with unshed tears and her mother laid a hand on her arm. A glance back at the woman gave Levy all the information she needed to let the tears flow. She had heard the doctors talking and whispering between each other enough to know that Lucy was still asleep, and they weren't sure when or even if she would wake up.

With a sob escaping the blunettes throat she fell to her knees and her body shook. She couldn't think straight, and she didn't understand why this was happening. Surely this wasn't just because Lucy fell into the fountain. There had to be something else going on, but what? Natsu was pretty sick, too right? In a different way though, but he was still sick, and it had started the same time Lucy got sick. So, what was going on?

Levy was still crying into her hands as she thought about the situation. Finally standing up she dried her eyes and looked at Lucy. With a soft sad smile, she bent down and kissed her best friend's cheeks.

"I'll figure it out Lu. I promise," she whispered as her tears dripped down onto Lucy's cheeks. With a glance back at her friend she walked out, following her parents back to the waiting room.

Levy was too focused on the floor, thinking about all the things that could be wrong with Lucy that she hadn't realized she had passed the waiting room until she bumped into a tall, muscular person in front of her. A gasp escaped her lips and she looked up to apologize to the person, "Oh crap!" she squeaked out, "I'm so sor-Gajeel?" The little blunettes features morphed from sadness to confusion.

"Hey Shrimp!" Gajeel said loudly, leaning over to look at her face.

"W-What are you doing here?" Levy stuttered out, blushing at the proximity of his face to hers.

"Had to bring Pinky to the hospital. He shot up out of bed screaming something about needing to go to Lucy and then tried to get up out of bed, but he collapsed and wouldn't wake up. His sister called me and Gray in panic and well... here we are." Gajeel rambled standing back up and looking slightly embarrassed at talking so much.

Levy's eyes grew even wider and she gasped loudly causing Gajeel to raise an eyebrow at the little woman in front of him. Levy grabbed his jacket pulling him down forcefully, making the large man sputter.

"Natsu is here?" she practically shouted, causing Gajeel to mutely nod in shock. The small nod was all Levy needed as she ran down the hall away from him and out of sight,

'Damn, she's a little spitfire, isn't she?' Gajeel thought with a smirk. 'Wait, she doesn't know where she's going,' as the smirk fell off his face and his signature frown returned.

Walking down the hall he followed the way Levy went and found that she had already gone into Natsu's room and was leaning over the bed to stare at the pinkette. Gajeel's eye twitched with jealousy as he watched Levy gaze at Natsu with such intensity. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he walked to stand beside Levy.

"What's up, Shrimp?" he asked, placing his arm on her head, noticing that she was the perfect height for him.

Levy glared up at the brute but ignored his arm on her head as she answered him, "he doesn't look all that sick to me."