And Just like that....

Chapter 7

"How are you feeling sweetie?" Juvia asked as she handed Nashi a cup of water.
"It's better thanks Juvie." Nashi smiled gently and sat down to eat her breakfast. Lucy patted her daughter on the back as she hugged her.
"Would it be inappropriate to ask what just happened?" Asked Metal facing them from the couch.
Storm sighed. "I..." before he could begin the doorbell rang and he ran to the door. "Mom, Lu there are some people for you."
As both of them exited the room, everyone's eyes turned right to Nashi. She sighed.
"Look I didn't wanna tell anything to anyone because I don't want any of you to give me the pity eyes." She said and turned on her stool to face most of the people.
She scratched the back of her neck before talking.
"I was born with a smaller throat tube than normal. That wouldn't have been such an issue, if it wasn't paired up with a minor lung hypoplasia. It's a small lung disease, meaning the alveoli in my lungs are underdeveloped and in much smaller number than they should be. Normally," Nashi quickly continued trying to ignore the worry and pity faces everyone started to give her. She was so sick of that.
"Normally a kid born with this disease doesn't last longer than a day. Thankfully, even though my lungs are smaller than normal, they are not as small as they are at a common cause of Lung Hypoplasia. So I am sick but I can breathe pretty much without problem. I'm kinda stuck in the middle."
"And that attack?" Asked Gale.
"That has to do with my thinner throat tube. Sometime the muscles in my throat contract too fast and get so to say clasped. Usually it's not an issue, you just cough and it goes away, but because my lungs can't generate enough air to cough my throat get almost totally closed and I cannot breathe. That's what's the injections are for."
"They just stab you with it?" Ron frowned.
"The injection goes into the point where my throat connects to my lungs. It's basically an adrenaline shot that contracts the muscles in my lungs forcing them to work and at the same time relaxes the muscles in my throat so I can inhale."
An awkward silence filled the room, as no one knew what to say. Nashi didn't want to hear their pity. She accepted her lungs as they were and grew really tired of people worrying about her and watching her every breath.
Storm returned and by the silence figured out that Nashi told everyone.
He didn't like the pity looks they gave her, the looks that he could almost see counting down her days until....
No. He couldn't afford to think like that. Knew he'd go crazy if he'd think like that.
So he just scratched the back of his neck and turned to Nashi. "It's those people again."
"So we have the house to ourselves for another week? Classic." She spun on her chair and went to her room, taking an apple in the process.
"Wait what?" Ron asked confused.
"Our moms both work hard to pay off this house and every medical exam Nashi went though as a kid. Their job requires them to travel sometimes, leaving us in charge of the house." Storm explained and left the room, he honestly didn't care about any of them in the moment.
All he could care about, think about when he laid on his bed, was the closed door on Nashi's room.
And it took all of his self control not to go back and open them.

Not this again.
Not now.
Not in the worst possible timing.
Nashi sighed as she grabbed her phone from the table.
She wrote a quick message with no more than two words.
Can't come.
Throwing the phone into a drawer, not wanting to see the answer, Nashi sighed and straightened her back.
This does not mean anything. Would not change a thing.
No matter what.
And so she repeated this over and over in her head.
The old fear crippling its way into her mind once again.

"Kids, please be careful. And remember all the rules." Juvia sighed as she hugged Storm for the last time.
"Don't worry Mum. I'll take care of everything." He promised and kissed her on the head, as even though he was her son, he towered over her.
All of the kids stood outside watching Nashi and Storm saying goodbyes to their moms.
Lucy held Nashi in a tight embrace whispering something in her ear that no one, not even the Dragon Slayers, could hear. Nashi only nodded and kissed her mom on the cheek. "Be safe, Ma."
As the two women left for their work the kids returned inside.
"So we are alone for the whole week?" Makarov asked sitting on Nova's lap.
Storm chuckled as he nodded. "Yep big guy. We are alone for the whole week. But don't worry everything will be exactly the same as if they were here."
"It's the same as if they went on a mission then." Macao smiled and Eileen hissed from across the room. "Macao! Remember, no magic talk."
"Oh. Sorry." The boy smiled with his cheeks flushed and ran off with Makarov into their room.
"Well someone wanna watch a movie?" Storm asked and everyone raised their hands.

Why?
Nashi stared at that text. A simple word. A casual text. Yet she couldn't answer. Couldn't bring herself to. Didn't want to lie. Didn't want to tell the truth.
Didn't want to face the truth.
So she shut her eyes tightly and exhaled rapidly.
Screw this.
Nothing. I'm coming. Give me 15 minutes.

The window slightly creaked as Nashi opened it from outside.
She quietly hopped onto her table and closed the window before jumping down and throwing the bag she held into the corner of her room, under a bookshelf where no one looked.
The clothes she threw on before where back on their place as if they weren't moved.
She didn't bother putting on pajamas as she fell into her bed just in a shirt and panties on.
God was she exhausted.
And lucky.
Would an attack occur again.....
She didn't dare think about it.
No.
If she really wanted to succeed. If she really wanted to pursue her dream. If she really meant everything she reminded herself of every single day......
No thoughts like this were allowed inside her head.
Menial as it was. Stupid as it may seem. She didn't care.
That was what kept her going. She didn't care about the odds she had.
If she would, the fear would consume her.
She didn't know what she was more afraid of.