And like falling starlight, her eyes opened to the bleak, grey world. She saw nothing, remembered nothing, loved nothing.
Knew nothing.
Hated nothing.
The small room had plain white walls, decorated with nothing save for a small lamp that hung by the window and the said window that was leaking silvery moonlight.
"Natsu," she whispered, and then she was gone.
Again.
—
Jolted awake by the sound of his name, Natsu Dragneel cautiously looked around the small infirmary will tired, half-awake eyes. There was no one else there, save for the unconscious beauty who laid still and motionless beside him.
So who had whispered his name, so gently, and with a voice that carried such love and affection?
He sighed. The lack of sleep, lack of food, lack of everything must be getting to him.
He looked towards the lacrima screen attached to the heart rate monitor to which Lucy was hooked up to, amongst many other machines and IV drips. The thin, green line harshly contrasted against the black backdrop, which seemed to highlight the stillness of it. It'd remained a lonely, flat line, ever since the day she'd closed her eyes and never opened them again.
The doctors insisted she was dead.
He believed she was still alive.
He'd begged, they'd all begged, for a slim shot at a hope that they knew would most likely never see the light of day.
Like those golden eyes beneath closed eyelids and honey lashes, never see the sun rise or the blue sky, never witness flowers blooming and everyone growing, never feel the sea breeze or taste the salt spray of the white, flaming waves.
Never again.
They be given the chance, so lucky they were. They'd be given the chance, not one, not two, but so many chances, and they'd destroyed them all, one by one. It wasn't fate, it wasn't luck, because that all had been on their side. No, it was greed, it was hatred, it was fear, it was the measly human feelings they thought they'd so long ago discarded. It'd hinged them to a painful past and dragged them before the door to their future, bloody and crying, never letting them pass. Taunting them, mocking them, saying "never again."
Because it was never again.
Not just those golden eyes, but the heart that belonged to them beat no more. The heart that loved so much and lost so much moved no more, loved no more, lost no more. The heart that was tied to the first too, died along with it.
Because hopes and dreams are meant to be shared, and mates cannot live without the other.
Like a thin thread that binds them in the darkness, it teaches them to live, to love, to thrive. It brings them up, up, up, to the skies above and the stars beyond, but dreams are after all, only dreams. All can come crashing down so, so easily.
They learnt that the hard way.
To love was to lose, to give was to take, to believe was to lie.
Nothing came free, not even love.
The price had been heavy, and she'd paid.
All those times, she'd paid for everything he did. Every mistake he made, every mishap he suffered, every little hitch in the path on which he tread. He'd known, but never realized. He'd taken her love as boundless and for granted, not realizing just how much he had before he'd lost it all.
And now, again, she'd paid.
For his insolence, his foolishness, his recklessness, his heart of ice and stone.
And again, he'd never realized it until it was far too late.
Because now, those golden eyes would never see the world again.
Never, ever again.