Drowning - The Broken Key
Synopsis:-
In a rain-soaked apartment, Lucy's grief over Fairy Tail and Aquarius triggers an impossible summoning: Megumi Fushiguro. Both are drowning in loss and guilt. Bound by broken gold, they don't try to save one another; they simply sit together in the wreckage until they learn how to float.
***
The rain against Lucy's window sounded like static—constant, meaningless noise that filled the apartment without warming it. She sat on the floor, back against the bed, knees drawn up, staring at the broken key in her palm.
Aquarius's key.
Shattered. Lifeless. A promise she'd broken to summon the Celestial Spirit King, and now those friends she'd saved were scattered across Fiore like stars torn from a constellation. Fairy Tail was disbanded. The guild hall stood empty. Everyone had moved on to their own lives, their own purposes.
Everyone except her.
Lucy's fingers closed around the broken gold, the jagged edge biting into her skin. The pain was small. Irrelevant. It didn't compare to the weight in her chest—the sensation of sinking, slowly, into water too deep to touch bottom.
The apartment was silent except for the rain. No Natsu crashing through her window. No Happy's cheerful complaints. No guild to return to at dawn. Just emptiness, stretching in every direction like an ocean.
She brought the broken key to her lips, a habit from better days when she'd kiss each key before summoning. Her voice came out hoarse, barely a whisper.
"I know you can't hear me. I know you're gone. But I just... I need someone to understand what it feels like to lose everything."
The words fell into the silence. The rain continued. Nothing changed.
And then—
The key pulsed.
Not with celestial magic. This was different. Darker. Heavier. Like grief given form, like despair made tangible. The broken edges glowed with a light that wasn't gold but something close to shadow, and Lucy's apartment filled with a pressure that made her ears pop.
She scrambled back, heart racing, as the air in front of her tore.
Not a gate. Not a summoning circle. Just a rip in reality, raw and wrong, and through it stumbled a figure that collapsed onto her floor with a sound like breaking.
A young man. Dark hair. Hollow eyes. Blood on his clothes—some fresh, some dried to rust. He lay there for a moment, breathing like each inhale cost him, then slowly pushed himself up to his knees.
His gaze found hers. Empty. Exhausted. Recognizing nothing.
"Where..." His voice was rough, unused. "Where am I?"
Lucy's mouth opened. Closed. Her hand still clutched the broken key, which had stopped glowing but felt warm—almost feverish—against her palm.
"Magnolia," she managed. "My apartment. Who are you? How did you—"
"I don't know." He looked down at his hands like they belonged to someone else. "I was... there was a fight. We won. Sukuna is gone. But I..." He trailed off, expression fracturing. "I can't go back."
"Can't or won't?"
His eyes met hers again, and Lucy saw it—the same drowning she felt every day, reflected back at her. The same suffocating weight.
"Does it matter?" he asked quietly.
She didn't have an answer.
He stayed on his knees for a moment, then shifted to sit properly, back against her dresser. Mirroring her position across the small room. Neither spoke. The rain filled the silence.
Lucy studied him. He looked young—maybe her age, maybe younger—but carried himself like someone much older. Like someone who'd seen too much. The blood on his clothes wasn't decorative. The hollowness in his eyes wasn't temporary.
"My name is Lucy," she offered finally. "Lucy Heartfilia."
He nodded slowly. "Megumi. Fushiguro Megumi."
"You're not from here. Not from Fiore."
"No."
"Not from Earthland at all."
"Probably not." He leaned his head back against the dresser, eyes closing. "I don't know how I got here. One moment I was standing in the rubble, and the next..." His jaw tightened. "Does it matter? I'm here now. And I can't..."
"Can't what?"
"I can't go back." The words came out flat. Final. "There's nothing there for me anymore. Everyone I wanted to protect is gone. My sister. My mentor. The person I was supposed to be—" His voice cracked. "He died in that fight. I killed him. Or Sukuna did, using my body. It doesn't matter. He's dead because of me."
Lucy's throat tightened. She looked at the broken key in her hand.
"I sacrificed my friend," she heard herself say. "Aquarius. One of my celestial spirits. She was... difficult. Temperamental. But she was always there. And I broke her key to save my guild." She laughed, bitter and small. "And then the guild disbanded anyway. Everyone scattered. So she's gone, and everything I sacrificed her for is gone too."
Megumi opened his eyes, looking at her properly for the first time.
"Do they know?" he asked. "The people you saved. Do they know what it cost you?"
"They know I broke the key. They don't know..." She swallowed. "They don't know it feels like I'm disappearing. Every day. Waking up and remembering she's gone and the guild is gone and I'm just... here. Existing. Waiting for something that won't come."
"Yeah." His voice was rough. "That's... yeah."
They sat in silence again. But this time, it felt less empty. Less suffocating.
"Why did you come here?" Lucy asked. "To my apartment specifically."
Megumi shook his head. "I don't know. I didn't choose this. I was just... pulled. Like something hooked into my chest and dragged me through."
Lucy looked at the broken key, still warm in her palm. "I was holding this when you arrived. Aquarius's key. I was... wishing someone understood."
"And the key answered."
"It's broken. It shouldn't be able to answer anything."
"Maybe that's why it worked." Megumi's expression was unreadable. "Broken calling to broken."
The truth of it settled between them, heavy and undeniable. Lucy set the key down carefully.
"You said you can't go back," she said. "But don't you have people there? Friends? Someone looking for you?"
His face shuttered. "They're better off without me."
"You don't know that."
"I do." His voice went hard. "Yuji—my friend—he spent the whole fight trying to save me. Trying to pull me back from Sukuna's control. And I just... I gave up. I let myself sink because I didn't see the point anymore. My sister was gone. Gojo-sensei was dead because of me. Everything I fought for was already lost."
"But you're here now. You survived."
"Surviving isn't the same as living." He looked at her directly. "You know that. You're surviving too. In this apartment. With that broken key. But you're not living either."
The words hit like a physical blow. Lucy wanted to argue, but the protest died in her throat because he was right. She was existing, breathing, going through motions. But living? Actually living?
She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt alive.
"So what do we do?" she whispered.
Megumi was quiet for a long time. "I don't know."
The honesty of it was almost comforting.
***
They didn't talk much after that.
Megumi stayed where he was, back against the dresser, while Lucy remained against her bed. The rain continued its meaningless pattern against the window. The broken key sat between them like a bridge.
Eventually, Lucy spoke. "Do you want to tell me about them? The people you lost."
Megumi's expression flickered. "Do you want to tell me about yours?"
"I asked first."
A ghost of something—maybe humor, maybe pain—crossed his face. "My sister Tsumiki. She was in a coma for years because of a cursed technique. I became a jujutsu sorcerer to protect her. To find a way to wake her up." His hands curled into fists. "She did wake up. But it wasn't her anymore. An ancient sorcerer named Yorozu possessed her body during the Culling Game. Used her to fight. And I couldn't..." His voice fractured. "I couldn't save her. I couldn't even recognize that she was already gone."
Lucy's chest ached. "I'm sorry."
"And Gojo. Satoru Gojo. He was my teacher. The strongest sorcerer alive. He took me in when I was a kid, gave me purpose, made me believe I could be something more than my cursed bloodline." Megumi's jaw tightened. "Sukuna killed him. Using my body as a vessel. My technique. My face. Gojo died looking at me, and I couldn't even—"
He stopped. Breathed. Started again.
"I killed him. Not Sukuna. Me. Because I was too weak to fight back."
"That's not fair," Lucy said quietly. "You were possessed. That wasn't you."
"Then who was it?" His eyes were bright with unshed tears. "Because it felt like me. It felt like every dark thought I'd ever had, every moment of weakness, every time I wanted to give up—Sukuna just made it real. He didn't create those feelings. He just... amplified them."
Lucy understood that. The way grief could take every small fear and make it enormous. Every quiet doubt and turn it into certainty.
"Aquarius," she said, because fair was fair. "She was my first spirit. The first key I ever received from my mother. She was harsh and temperamental and constantly complained about me interrupting her dates with Scorpio." Lucy smiled despite the tears on her cheeks. "But she was always there. Always. Even when she was angry, even when she threatened to drown me herself, she protected me."
"What happened?"
"There was an enemy. Jackal, one of Tartaros's demons. Too strong. The only way to summon the Celestial Spirit King was to sacrifice a gold key—to break the contract." Lucy's voice went hollow. "She made the choice herself. Told me to break her key. Told me it was okay. But I still did it. I still shattered the bond."
"To save your friends."
"And then they all left anyway." The bitterness surprised her. "The guild disbanded. Master Makarov dissolved Fairy Tail to protect us from future threats. Everyone went their separate ways. So she's gone, and the family I saved is scattered, and I'm just... here."
Megumi looked at the broken key. "Do you regret it? Breaking the key?"
Lucy opened her mouth to say no, that she'd do it again, that her friends' lives mattered more. But the words wouldn't come.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Some days I think it was worth it. Other days I think it was the biggest mistake I ever made. Most days I just... I don't think anything. I just exist."
"Yeah." Megumi's voice was soft. "That's the worst part. Not the pain. The nothing."
They sat with that truth for a while.
Then Megumi said, "You called for someone who understood. That's why I'm here."
"The key pulled you because we're both broken."
"Maybe." He leaned his head back, eyes closing. "Or maybe because we both needed to stop carrying it alone."
Lucy looked at him—really looked. At the exhaustion carved into his features, the blood he hadn't bothered to clean off, the way he held himself like gravity was a burden. He looked exactly how she felt.
"How long will you stay?" she asked.
"I don't know. The pull is still there. Like an anchor." He opened his eyes. "It's tied to you. To your grief. As long as you're here, I think I'm stuck."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." His expression softened. "Where else would I go? Back to a world where everyone I loved is dead or traumatized? Where I have to face Yuji and pretend I'm okay when we both know I'm shattered?" He shook his head. "At least here, I don't have to pretend."
"You don't have to pretend with me."
"I know." He met her eyes. "That's why I'm still here."
The rain slowed. Not stopping, but easing. The pressure in the room shifted—still heavy, but breathable.
Lucy picked up the broken key, turning it over in her palm. "I don't know how to stop sinking."
"Me neither." Megumi's honesty was stark. "But maybe we don't have to figure it out right now. Maybe we can just... be here. In this moment. Without trying to fix anything."
"Just existing."
"Just existing," he agreed. "Together."
***
The hours passed unmarked.
At some point, Lucy stood and fetched a blanket, draping it over Megumi's shoulders without comment. He accepted it with a nod, too tired to protest. She made tea—something to do with her hands—and they drank in silence.
The broken key sat between them, no longer glowing but still warm. A reminder of what pulled them together.
"What was your guild like?" Megumi asked eventually. "Before."
Lucy smiled, small and sad. "Chaotic. Destructive. Someone was always fighting or drinking or accidentally demolishing something." She wrapped her hands around her teacup. "But it was home. They were family."
"Sounds loud."
"It was. Overwhelmingly so, sometimes." She stared into her tea. "I miss the noise. The silence is worse."
Megumi understood that. He'd spent weeks in isolation after Shibuya, trapped in his own head while Sukuna used his body. The quiet had been suffocating.
"Do you think they'll come back?" he asked. "Your guild."
"I don't know. Maybe. Probably." Lucy's voice was hollow. "But I don't know if I can face them. Knowing what I sacrificed. Knowing they all moved on while I stayed stuck."
"You don't know they moved on."
"They're out there living. I'm here with a broken key, talking to a stranger from another world." She laughed without humor. "That sounds pretty stuck to me."
Megumi was quiet for a moment. "After Shibuya, after everything went wrong, I thought the same thing. That everyone else was moving forward while I was trapped. But Yuji kept coming back. Kept checking on me, even when I pushed him away. Even when I told him I was fine."
"What changed?"
"Nothing. He just... stayed. Refused to let me disappear." Megumi's expression was complicated. "I still ran, eventually. Still gave up. But for a while, having someone who refused to let go... it mattered."
Lucy looked at him, something fragile in her chest. "You think my friends would do that? Come back?"
"I don't know your friends." He met her eyes. "But if they're worth the sacrifice you made, then yeah. I think they would."
She wanted to believe that. Wanted to believe Natsu would crash through her window one day, grinning and oblivious. That Erza would show up with a mission request and a lecture about self-care. That the guild would reform and she'd have a place to belong again.
But belief required hope, and hope felt like a luxury she couldn't afford.
"Maybe," she said quietly.
They fell silent again. Not uncomfortable, just... present. Two people sitting in the wreckage of their own lives, not fixing anything, not moving forward, just existing in the same space.
Outside, the rain finally stopped. The apartment filled with the strange quiet that follows a storm—anticipatory, waiting.
Lucy set down her empty teacup. "You can stay. As long as you need to."
Megumi looked at her, something grateful and broken in his expression. "Thank you."
"I called for someone who understood. The key answered." She picked up the broken gold, turning it over. "Maybe it knew I needed someone who wouldn't try to fix me. Just someone who'd sit in the mess with me."
"I'm good at sitting in messes." A ghost of dark humor touched his face. "It's standing up I struggle with."
"Me too."
They sat in the after-storm quiet, two drowning people who'd found each other across impossible distances. Not saved. Not rescued.
Just no longer alone.
And maybe, just maybe, that was enough to learn how to float.
End