Stay || An FMA Oneshot

Stay

Edward found it difficult- painful even- to watch Alfons try desperately to draw in a proper breath, his chest struggling as if it were trying to lift a million-pound weight off of it.

His skin had long since lost all of its color, now a blank slate of white, his cheeks flushed with red only due to the lack of proper oxygen to his pained lungs.

He had given up, really, finding it simply too difficult to even so much as drag his exhausted frame out of bed the past two weeks.

Work was out of the question, he hadn't even considered it, his breathing- or lack thereof- his only focus at this moment in time.

And it absolutely killed Edward to see him in a state so frail and horrid as this.

Gold eyes scanned over the other boy, resting on the pools of cerulean that now held only pain.

The blood was still coming as he coughed more and more, the past few hours having been nothing but ridden with those same cursed specks of crimson that slowly grew into mouthfuls of metallic liquid, staining everything they touched.

Edward turned away, his back now facing the boy as he could not stand to sit there and watch this go on.

"Wait," the ill male croaked, his voice hardly as strong as it used to be and his tone raspy.

Edward hesitated, turning only after deciding that leaving him alone like this to die was a horrible idea, especially after everything Heiderich had done for him.

His feet found their way to the bedside, and soon after his legs were pulling Edward right into bed beside Alfons, and he laid his head on the pillows, watching him cough again and then groan in what Ed knew was agony as blood splattered over his aching chest, adding to the rest of the substance.

He had never been a touchy person, never once sought out a hug or a comforting pat on the back like Ed's brother had.

But now, he was curled up into Ed's side, wrapped in a strong embrace and not willing to move, his coughing only becoming a struggle to just breathe, but he was calmer now, and it was better to know he wasn't alone anyways as he inhaled the strong scent of metal and grease that Edward offered him, his eyes slipping shut.

A metal hand rubbed circles into his upper back, and the other held him close, making him feel as if, for once, Edward actually did care for him and didn't simply think of him as just a copy of his brother.

Or, maybe, it was pity for him why Edward was laying there with him in the first place.

Whatever it was, he could pretend he was cherished, pretend just for the little time he had left that Edward would actually grieve over him, pretend he was loved despite the fact he knew that Edward would have left him right there should he have gotten the chance to go home.

He could hardly make it work, but he tried as best as he could manage as he lay there in Edward's arms, his head resting on the other's chest and his coughs only seeming to get worse, pulling out more blood each time and causing him to whine in absolute and total agony every time one of the spells allowed him one breath, the fresh air always cutting in too sharp and burning his damaged lungs with its icy blades.

As the night fell, moonlight became the only light in the room, causing his slick, sweat-covered skin to shine dully.

His eyes opened halfway, his eyelids as heavy as a block of lead as he stared up at Edward, his breaths now coming out in shaky pants, his exhausted body unable to even produce a cough now, letting blood fill the back of his throat until he choked it up in large amounts that alarmed Ed greatly, that same awful process repeating again and again, more weak every time.

Hei's eyes, now minus their fire and light, stared up into Ed's, searching his face for any sign he did care at all.

Like always, he found no emotions, deciding instead to close his eyes and keep pretending.

Blood was sticking in his throat now, bubbling into his mouth more by the second, soon erupting in a spray of red that splattered the rest of the area that he had not already stained.

He shook violently, gasping for just one more breath, just one more second to stay alive.

Just one more second to dream.

Edward took him into a tight embrace, knowing now that his time was up, hoping he had managed to comfort the German in his last hours.

It was the tears Alfons felt on his skin, and the sobs that had begun to rise from Edward along with them, that made him relax, knowing he had cared after all.

"Hei... I love you... know that I love you..."

Edward could feel how still he was now, and somewhere, he knew that Alfons was gone before he could say it.

A single hand lifted up and managed to close Alfons's eyes so that he could finally just sleep.

And, for the rest of the night, Edward stayed right there with him, lingering only as closure.