Breathing - Aragorn x reader (modern!AU)
hi! could you do prompt #53 with a female reader and aragorn? thank you!
@elvish-sky oh joy, another sad aragorn fic (jk jk). i wanted to write this one as a modern!AU because of some research i was doing before school ended for science and ... i just thought of the concept and liked it, okay hush
53. “You said you were okay!”
Type: Imagine
Pairing: Aragorn x reader (modern!AU)
Summary: Y/N hasn’t been entirely honest with her boyfriend, Aragorn.
Warnings: angst, sadness, death,
Word Count: 1,704 words
Y/N laughed loudly as the black Newfoundland puppy chased its fluffy tail, the dark fur sticking up as though it had been struck by lightning.
Aragorn grinned at her, taking yet another long moment to watch her - to savour everything about his beautiful girlfriend. Just like every time she giggled, he wanted the seconds to last forever. He wanted every day he got to be with Y/N to last forever, because one day, they would be unable to make new memories.
One day sooner than he would like.
He tugged the sleeves of his RSPCA volunteer jacket down as he sat by her side, whistling for the dog to come and sit by his side. It obliged, just as all the animals in the shelter, or anywhere, always did.
Animal whisperer, Y/N would tease him. Like Doctor Dolittle!
Aragorn looked to her again, the smile still on Y/N’s face. Flushed s/c cheeks. Hooded e/c eyes with heavy bags under them, yet she still looked beauty. H/l messy h/c hair, kept out of her face by a f/c ribbon.
Then, the things people tended to stare at. The bag by her side, much like the wheeled kind some people used to shop. The nose cannula hooked behind her ears, a long tube carrying oxygen from the bag. A surgery scar protruding from her f/c shirt’s neckline.
Those things didn’t bother him. He loved her.
Aragorn blinked at Y/N’s question. Normally he was the one asking her that question, or supposed to be. “I-I’m perfect.”
She smiled again. “That’s good.”
He stood, pulling her to her feet as well. “Come on. My shift’s up.”
Y/N jokingly pouted. “But the puppies!”
This time, it was Aragorn who laughed. “We’ll come back next week, I promise.”
“Next week,” she echoed, a sadness in her voice that her boyfriend didn’t detect.
Y/N coughed, making a face as the last of her pills went down her throat. She took dozens every day - it was part of her necessary, pre-determined hospital routine.
Her nurse, Legolas, (A/N - stan male nurses) passed her some water, which she gladly swallowed, hacking again.
“Good job,” he grinned. “Everything’s doing okay. Lung function is at 54 percent, a little lower than last week, but it will get higher again.”
She’d definitely expected that, though her heart still sunk.
“I’ll let your boyfriend in now.” Legolas laughed at the annoyed look on his charge’s face. The sound faded as he took on a more serious tone. “But, you remember that it could get even worse anytime, especially-”
“I know,” Y/N interrupted, her voice scratched and broken. “I know.”
“Be careful,” the nurse reminded her again, as he left the room, Aragorn passing through the door before it could even swing shut.
Y/N grimaced. “As well as can be expected. I hate my lungs.”
He took her hand, squeezing it tightly, like he would never, could never, let go. “I know you’re strong, Y/N/N. You can’t let CF beat you.”
Ah, yes. There it was - the casual reminder Y/N couldn’t go a day without hearing. Stressing how she was holding her life in an hourglass, which was rapidly running out of time.
Cystic Fibrosis. An often terminal lung condition, meaning Y/N’s lungs functioned at low percentages, causing difficulty in her breathing and weakened immune system. She was often lucky to spend more than a month out of the hospital, thought that hadn’t been the case recently.
She’d been continually relapsing, her lung function decreasing with every checkup.
To put it simply, it sucked. Royally.
“Here,” Aragorn offered her her nose cannula. “Hook up, and I’ll distract you.”
Y/N slipped it on, taking his hand and dragging her portable oxygen in The Granny Shopping Bag™️ with the other. smiling.
Well, at least, her mask was smiling. Inside, she didn’t know if she had the energy or will to anymore.
Y/N knew it was a risk, and she was exactly aware of the million and one ways this could go wrong.
But she didn’t care. She was going to live whilst she still could. She was done with giving up her life, letting down her boyfriend, because of some stupid mucus.
Besides, he didn’t know. He didn’t know it all, and she wasn’t going to stop them from being unable to make happy memories together by burdening him with more bad news. Being the protective guy he was, Aragorn probably wouldn’t even let her leave the hospital if her found out.
“Ready?” said-boyfriend-in-question asked.
“Hell yeah,” Y/N grinned, straightening the edges of her denim jacket.
They stood at the archway entrance to the Rivendell National Park - a beautiful wonderland of pale trees and swirling leaves, in the deep of autumn.
Technically, Y/N wasn’t meant to engage in ‘prolonged physical activity’. But technically, she wasn’t even meant to be alive right now.
No one, least of all her, knew how much time she had left. Y/N wasn’t one to waste it.
Together, she and Aragorn stepped through the archway, and explored the ‘whole new realm’.
After ten minutes, her lungs were burning, but she didn’t say anything.
Aragorn was looking so happy - a goofy smily affixed upon his face, his dark eyes lighting up as he swished his head from side to side to admire everything with childish wonder.
The National Park was beautiful, but the air was thin, and Y/N was struggling not to audibly struggle. She hated being dependent on people, and she would. Not. Worry. Him.
Something felt different this time - her breathing was quickening even though she was walking extraordinarily slowly, and she was in more pain than she should’ve been
Y/N signalled for Aragorn to stop, doubling over and coughing until her throat was raw. She couldn’t breathe whilst the mucus was crawling up her airways, and she’d rather clear it than suffer.
“Get it out, Y/N,” Aragorn encouraged her as she straightened, worry sketched all over his face.
Her coughing was done, and she went to take a nice big inhale, but ....
Breathing should’ve been something natural, easy, if she had been just a normal young woman with her normal boyfriend.
She wished that lying didn’t come to her easier than breathing.
Y/N collapsed, choking, almost about to pass out as Aragorn immediately fell to her side, pulling his phone from his pocket and dialling an emergency number.
“Oh my God,” he gasped, his breaths coming shortly as well as he scooped her up into his arms. “Oh, God. Y-You’re going to be okay, Y/N.”
Funny how good they’d both become at lying.
With that thought, Y/N’s eyes fluttered shut, without the energy to keep themselves open.
Aragorn sat in the waiting room with a feeling like acid being poured down his throat and then regurgitated.
She shouldn’t have collapsed like that - it was highly medically improbable given what he knew about Y/N and her Cystic Fibrosis. Unless ... there was something he didn’t know.
He shook his head as soon as that thought came to him. He trusted Y/N. She trusted him. He had to have faith in her.
The sound of footsteps encouraged him to look sideways, where he saw Y/N’s nurse, Legolas, with four cups of coffee in his arms.
“Expecting someone else?” Aragorn laughed as he was handed one of the cups.
“Oh, no,” Legolas replied, with an unbelievably straight face. “I intend to drink all the coffee.”
The nurse winced. “I will be honest with you - she isn’t going so well right now. The fact that she was still walking with you ... that’s pretty amazing given her lung function and diagnosis.”
“What do you mean?” Aragorn furrowed his eyebrows. “She-she’s fine, isn’t she?”
Legolas stared. “Y/N didn’t tell you, did she? Oh, that stubborn little-”
He averted Aragorn’s eyes. “Tell you that she was diagnosed with Burkholderia Cepacia and she was given another six months to live with her current lung function.”
“What?” All the air rushed out of his lungs, and suddenly, he knew how Y/N felt when it was hard for her to breathe. “H-How long has it been?”
Again, the blond looked awkwardly to the floor.
“How long?!” It was a shout this time, and Aragorn could feel himself on the brink of tears. His beautiful girlfriend, lost to the void ... he could not cope with it.
He fell back in his chair, coffee discarded, his shaking hands covering his face as his cheeks dripped with tears. This couldn’t be happening. This could not be happening.
A doctor rushed out from the ER, making a beeline for Legolas. Her nametag read ‘Tauriel’, her long red hair flying behind her as she ran towards them.
“He-he should come. Now.” She motioned towards Aragorn who stood immediately.
Dr. Tauriel did not answer his question, just motioning for him to follow her.
Y/N wasn’t moving. For such a joyful young woman, she was lying unbelievably still.
There was a crowd of doctors around her, but they all moved back at the sight of Aragorn.
He didn’t know who said it ... all he could think about was how much paler Y/N looked than her normal s/c.
“She-she’s just a-asleep, r-right?” Aragorn stuttered on the words as more tears fell down his face. “Y/N’s o-okay?”
Dr. Tauriel shook her head. “I’m so sorry. We-we couldn’t do anything.”
“You said you were okay!” Aragorn cried, talking to Y/N even though she couldn’t hear him - would never hear him again. Jut like he would never hear her. “You told me you were okay ...”
“Get him out of here,” someone said quietly, and Aragorn was pulled to the door.
He threw one final look over his shoulder.
Y/N’s hair was spread out over the pillow. Her hands had been folded over her chest. She still had her nose cannula in, but that had never made her less beautiful.
Even in death, she still looked like an angel.
She was still the most beautiful person Aragorn had ever known.
A/N - guys this is my new favourite fic so please spread it! @elvish-sky thank you so much for this request, and everyone, thank you for reading!
