Sunlight on your face (Shuri x reader)

Chapter 24: breathe

"Please, don't let go, I need you."

There was someone else's voice mixed with her screams. I recognized Okoye, begging me to hold on.

I wanted to scream and open my eyes, but my body didn't react.

"Noo, help me, please someone help." Shuri's sobs broke my heart and I used all the strength left in my body to get a sound out of my mouth.

"I'm here," the words came out as a weak whisper.

I felt myself fall back, and the light disappeared.

"Breathe."

****

The next time I opened my eyes, I was laying on a stretcher, and blurry lights were shining down on me. There were people yelling around me but I couldn't understand what they were saying. An irregular beeping noise rang through the voices. My mouth was covered by an oxygen mask, and I felt someone holding my hand.
I turned my head slightly and saw Shuri standing next to me.
Tears were streaming down her face, and I was confused by what was happening. I tried to talk, but my voice failed.

"Please don't give up, I need you" Shuri whispered in a shaky voice.

She was pulled away by someone, and I reached for her but my body was too weak.
The beeping noise turned into one long sound as my eyes fell shut and I lost consciousness again.

****

I woke up in a bright room, completely disoriented.
I was lying in a hospital bed, and there was an IV attached to my arm. My mouth was covered by an oxygen mask, and the only noise was the steady beeping of the heart rate monitor standing next to my bed.

I looked around the room, removing the mask from my face.
Shuri was sitting in a chair at the end of my bed, her eyes were closed, and her chin was resting on her chest.
My head was still foggy, but I felt a stinging pain in my chest as I breathed in, and my back hurt when I tried to move.

Shuri opened her eyes, woken up by the ruffling sound of the sheets.

"You're awake," she mumbled, jumping up from her chair to come to my side.

She took my hand, and I could see the worry in her expression. Exhaustion was written all over her face, there were dark shadows under her eyes, her lips were swollen, and her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

"What happened?" I managed to ask, my voice barely over a whisper.

"There was an attack, and you were hypnotized by the sirens... I'm so sorry, I should've warned you about them, but I completely forgot they even existed." A tear slipped out of her eyes, which she quickly wiped away with her hand.

"I thought I had lost you... you fell so far, and you were unconscious when I pulled you out of the water. Okoye shocked you multiple times but you didn't react," she sniffled, trying to hold back tears.

The images of what happened slowly came back to me.
The force with which I crashed through the surface, how I was unable to move and how my mother appeared in front of me.
I felt tears well up when I remembered Shuri's broken sobs. That must've been after she pulled me out.
After that my memory was blank.

"I'm so sorry y/N," Shuri sobbed, crouching down and covering her face with her hands.

I lifted my shaky hand to her head, making her look at me.

"It's not your fault," I whispered, wiping the tears off her cheek.

She sniffled, leaning into my touch, and I patted on the mattress, trying to move to the side to make space for her. A sharp stab shot through my chest, making me groan in pain.

"Don't move, you have three broken ribs," she said, helping me to scoot over.

She laid down next to me, making sure to not touch my body, afraid of hurting me.
I leaned my head against her shoulder and squeezed her hand. Exhaustion took over my mind, and I felt myself drifting away.

I was almost asleep when a doctor entered the room. She introduced herself and informed me of all the injuries I had sustained.
Besides the three broken ribs, I also had a brain concussion, a lung contusion, and my back was severely bruised.

"You were extremely lucky, a fall from that height ends deadly in most cases, but you got away with minor injuries..." She said with a warm smile.

After checking my vitals, and changing my IV, she left us alone again.
Shuri stayed with me for the rest of the day, holding my hand while I drifted in and out of sleep.

I had to stay in the hospital for three days before I was allowed to go home.
My dad had arrived in Wakanda a day after the incident, storming into my room with a worried look on his face.
He stayed for two days until he was sure that I was doing better.

****

Shuri helped me into the wheelchair and packed all my stuff. A car was already waiting outside to take us back to the palace.
When we arrived, Okoye and Nakia were already expecting us.
Nakia and Shuri helped me climb up the stairs, and Okoye insisted on carrying my bag.

I laid down in my bed, where Shuri had prepared everything, I could possibly need.

Everyone treated me like I could break at any given moment, and at the beginning, I almost enjoyed it, but after a few days, I started to get restless. My body was slowly recovering, but I couldn't take the constant whisper in front of my door, and the worried look in everyone's eyes.
I wanted to get up and go outside but the doctor had ordered bed rest for at least two weeks.

Shuri had promised to try and figure something out, but my injuries were too severe to heal with her technology. The only thing she was able to do was to speed up the healing process of my broken ribs.

Shuri spent as much time with me as she could, preparing snacks and telling me about what was going on in the outside world.
The attacks had stopped after Namor appeared in Wakanda the day of the attack, and announced that the people responsible for the attack would face severe consequences.

Everyone was helping to rebuild the destroyed houses and the city was slowly starting to go back to normal.
I couldn't wait for the day I was finally able to go outside again.