Lucky Break

Drawing back explosively from her position, Lucina started to cough loudly. Once her partner Robin could rise from his stupor-like state of pleasure, he discovered that her eyes had gone wider, and she was grasping at her throat in a recognizable way.

“L-Lucina…?” asked Robin apprehensively, confused. His heart still drumming unevenly from the incredible sensation he’d just experienced, and it blurred his thoughts. “A-are you alright?”

“N-No!” Lucina cried feebly, her coughing altering into frantic wheezing. Knowing what was happening immediately, Robin at once took hold of Lucina and slapped her back to drive out the blockage, but to no avail- she continued to splutter even more weakly, drool seeping out of her open mouth. Her chest was not expanding despite her wild attempts at getting air.

Resorting to desperate measures, Robin grabbed Lucina’s face and did his best to suction out what material remained in her mouth, tilting her head downwards to let it drain. He couldn’t remove whatever had been swallowed due to Lucina’s convulsing body, and her desperate- but completely silent- coughing.

“Gods… Lucina, try to cough it out!” Robin moaned, laying the choking girl on her stomach and striking her upper back again harshly. Lucina gasped without drawing any air, mouthing to Robin that she couldn’t cough at all. She shuddered for a few seconds, and suddenly fell almost completely limp, her mouth open and her eyes closed. Robin was running out of time faster than he could grip the gravity of the situation.

Frantic with fear and shock, he flipped Lucina onto her side and turned her head fully back. Holding her nose closed, he blew a full breath into her mouth, using his hand to gauge how much her chest expanded. But Lucina’s torso wouldn’t dilate at all, even when Robin pushed down hard on both her back and her throat to get the obstruction out of her airway. When he opened his eyes again he saw the dusky shade of blue that was filling Lucina’s lips and fingernails, amplifying his terror.

“Lucina… I won’t be able to live if you die…!” Robin half-shrieked, his voice cracking as he pressed again and again on Lucina’s chest. He tried to transfer yet another deep breath into her body, but her lungs stubbornly refused to take it. Despair initiated in Robin’s fingers and moved up to his brain very quickly, and hot tears grew in his warm brown eyes. Softly, Robin kissed Lucina on the lips, silently begging the gods to listen to him just once and spare her life.

Trying again to get some air into the dying royal, Robin lifted Lucina’s head and tried to ventilate through her nose instead. It was even less effective than his earlier method, and Lucina’s head slipped limply out of his grasp the moment his support waned. At once, Robin began to sob, kissing his wife’s forehead once in a gesture of farewell. For half a minute he cried frantically, not saying any words and not daring to look at the catastrophe he had created.

Finally, Robin could muster the strength to give a last-ditch effort to save his love. With all of his strength he pushed on her chest at the base of her lungs, so hard and so forcefully that he was about to shatter a pair of ribs. Out loud he prayed, “I’ll do anything to save her! Please, gods…!”

Lucina’s chest convulsed and airy white foam collected at her mouth. Robin rubbed it away with his shaking finger and lifted her head onto his knee, tilting her face to the floor so the liquid could drip out. He was so wracked by desperation that his body as a whole shook like he was freezing. Once half of the fluid had oozed from Lucina’s throat she coughed violently, and tried in vain to gulp back in enough air to lift her chest.

“I’ll do anything!” Robin shouted to the gods, slapping at Lucina’s back and crying between his words. “Just let her live!! I’ll die myself; I’ll become Grima again if I have too!! Just let her live..!!”

A massive eruption seemed to take place in Lucina’s throat. She violently coughed up a huge dribble of thick white fluid immersed in her own saliva, her first breaths so ragged that Robin could feel his hair blown about by them. Ceremoniously he lowered her to the wet floor, using his hands to feel her chest and control how much air she was taking in. Like everyone who has just suffered a near-choking, Lucina was gasping in air with all she was able.

Still sobbing profusely, Robin pressed his forehead to Lucina’s as her eyes fluttered open, thanking Naga for her merciful intervention. Lucina’s own squeezed eyes were stained with water and tears as she woke up slowly, having been in severe terror in the seconds before her collapse.

“Th-Thank the gods…” rasped Robin faintly, holding Lucina in his arms like she was an ill infant. “How do you feel…?”

Lucina couldn’t speak; her head shaking was enough of an answer. Not caring, Robin cradled her elegant body to him lovingly, mumbling her name tearfully. He was unable to believe that he had nearly caused her death. Shouldn’t he have assumed that Lucina didn’t know the procedure or outcome of the activity they’d just attempted before recklessly heading along? This revelation burned shamefully within him. Never again would he attempt to do something of this nature without warning Lucina of any possible harm it could cause.

“…Thank… you…”

The words were next to impossible for Lucina to wrestle from her sore throat. Still grateful for them, Robin stroked her damp hair gently and kissed her on the lips, brushing both her tears and his own away. This was a lucky break for them. He would have to be much more careful in the future, but Lucina was safe now. He watched as his wife sank gradually into a deep sleep, the warm water drizzling over his body without a sound.

Grizzly Bear