The Burn of Beginning | E.N.D.

02: A Secret Untold

Take away everything I am.

Bring it to an end.

-Carnivore, Starset

~

Beep

Beep

Beep

Beep

Damn that noise was annoying. What exactly was it? Natsu's senses slowly returned, one by one. His eyes felt sewn shut and he instead relied on his nose. Not many people were in the room with him. Only Lucy, Erza, Gray, and Happy were there. Lucy and Happy's scents were strongest. He sensed the female's presence beside him. She was holding his hand in hers, her warmth comforting. Surprisingly enough, Natsu felt cold even though her hand was holding his. Why? His side started to ache and he wanted to sit up but he found he had no energy at all. He managed to open his eyes. First he saw Happy who was sitting on Lucy's shoulder.

"Natsu! You're finally awake!!"

Across the room, Erza and Gray bolted up appearing at Natsu's side. He avoided their gaze, instead searching where the beeping was coming from. Above him, to his right, he saw a monitor with a line on it that consistently went up and down. He realized it was his heart rate.

"Am I in a hospital?! Why!?" Natsu sat up quickly, yanking his hand out of Lucy's in order to hold himself up. 

"Don't worry! They only stitched your wounds and with help from Wendy it should heal fairly quickly." Erza patted him lightly on the shoulder, "The injury to your abdomen was worse than your shoulder."

"What the hell happened?"

"You tell us." Gray demanded quietly. 

Then he remembered. Zeref came and Gray had attacked the book of E.N.D. The book's damages had caused Natsu to be injured as well.

Lucy shifted in her seat, "What happened out there Natsu?"

Natsu flinched at the seriousness in her tone. There was no way out of this. He collapsed back down on the bed. The pure fear he felt was foreign to him.

"Happy?" he questioned as his eyes glazed over.

The blue cat hopped down beside him, "I think it's time."

Natsu reached over and held Happy's paw, "Why?"

Happy merely shook his head sadly. Erza fidgeted as she listened closely to their quiet conversation. This wasn't the Natsu she was used too. Sure, he'd been acting weird recently but whatever thing he had been keeping from them surely couldn't be that bad. Could it? Seeing him knocked down so quickly on the battlefield had left her appalled. Zeref and Gray hadn't even touched him. So how was he hurt this badly? None of it made sense. And he had cried. Natsu had cried.

That was a rare sight. His tears made her feel raw and vulnerable for some reason. It was as if everything she ever knew about Natsu had been wrong. Why did she feel that way?

"I need more time." 

Erza startled at the desperation in his voice and she glanced over at him, surprised to see a tear slip down his cheek. Gray tensed beside her as Lucy tentatively reached over and wiped it away. Natsu jerked away from her touch and closed his eyes. Drowsiness came over him, sleep tugging away at his soul, edging into the corners of his mind. Natsu welcomed it. The darkness provided an escape route. He released Happy's paw, allowing himself to go completely limp. Natsu knew his friends deserved an explanation. But he was scared. As he drifted away the last thing he heard was the constant, slow and annoying beep of the heart monitor machine.