Authour's Note: This story was made at a track meet I was at between the events that I was running. It was quite difficult with everyone (cough specifically one person) looking over my shoulder while I wrote. I can't write when people are eyeing me down for errors. Well, it is just a simple oneshot, short and all, but I hope you enjoy it.

Patience

It was as if part of him was missing, as he stared down at his pathetic, leather bound hands. He knew something definitely was missing. It had been missing for a full fifty two years but that wasn't quite it. He was used to not feeling, not tasting, not sleeping, or even eating. That was just a lonely part of him now, a daily routine of not doing. His body wasn't what was missing though he definitely did yearn for it. It was something else.

The door to the waiting room swung open for a moment and Alphonse's helmet jolted up in alert, but after seeing that it was just another random elderly man, he called it a false alarm. He clasped his hands together, letting them grip each other as hard as they could, imagining that he could actually feel it if he tried enough. His metal foot began tapping rather loudly on the tile floors as he waited.

It felt like he was always waiting. He waited for night to end every single evening, he waited for the day everything went back to normal, he waited for the rain to finally be able to come out of his own eyes, he waited for the sunshine to come out of his mouth again. Yet, for all of those things, he was still waiting. At least he was patient, yet Alphonse feared he had waited too long, fifty two years too long. There were many other people waiting for the day he accomplished all of these things and they were a great deal less patient than he was. Some of them never would see the day that he got his body back. They were all leaving too fast.

"Mr. Elric?"

"Yes!?" Alphonse exclaimed at the sound of his name. His voice was still as childish as ever, never changing in an environment that was forever the same. He was sixty one years old and no one could tell. He would have forgotten his age long ago if it weren't for his brother constantly reminding him. Without him, the years would have slipped pointlessly by like soap on a slippery surface. It was a sad existence not really remembering the hours he wasted staying up at night, but it was meaningful as long as he was patient and waited for the day he could stop waiting. The woman clad in scrubs looked a little surprised at the sight of him but he could tell she was trying to hold herself together for the sake of professionalism, and he was glad. Alphonse found his hands weaving and unweaving from each other in anticipation but the woman seemed to be taking her time in giving him the news as she flipped through her clipboard a few times.

"You're the brother?" she asked curiously and Alphonse quickly nodded his head. She clicked her tongue once and folded the papers down, tucking them under her arm. "Follow me," she ordered. His giant suit of armour quickly stumbled to stand and it creaked as the poorly oiled joints were forced to move. Without Winry to remind them to take care of themselves, he and his brother's metal parts were deteriorating quite quickly. Both of them never remembered to oil since the funeral. He was lead through a pair of swinging floors and past a few empty rooms with beds abandoned by those who healed, or those who didn't. Alphonse didn't have a breath to hold, but he felt like he needed one at that moment. The tension was pressing in on him as he creaked down the hall after the doctor.

"He's in there, you have on hour before we need to give him the medicine," she said completely void of any emotion. Alphonse stared at the closed wooden door in front of him and he felt his entire body stiffen, more than the metal already was. The woman turned to leave but Alphonse couldn't stop his hand from reaching out halting her.

"H-how is he?" his shaky voice rang out. The nurse let out a heavy breath, but he could hear the concern underlining her voice. She pressed her glasses against the bridge of her nose and slowly pushed his arm down to let herself pass.

"He is under light anesthetic but still is in a bit of pain. You know what will follow. You have one hour," she told him compassionately. Alphonse nodded again and the nurse left him outside of the closed room. He needed to open it. He had one hour. Why was it when he had all the time in the world that now he was wishing for more? Alphonse shuddered as he remembered the recent evenings spent just sitting in his brother's dark bedroom wishing for the light of day. He shouldn't have wanted all of those evenings to pass. Every minute he lost just thinking about the next morning. He was patient, but now he wished that everyone was. Alphonse struggled but he soon found his hand pushing down the door handle and opening it a fraction of the way.

"A-Alphonse?" he heard a weak voice come through. He froze a second but quickly forced himself into the room, closing the door behind him. It clicked shut and he was left staring at the one bed that was occupied in his long series through the Eastern City Hospital. The person was pale, all colour from his skin having long since passed from him with the age of the growing sickness. Yet, the golden vibrancy in his eyes never failed to attract all attention to him. A breathing aid was gently wrapped over his ears and into his nose pushing amounts of fresh air into him. Alphonse took a step closer to the bed nervously. He never saw his brother like this before and he didn't want to, but he knew that sometimes appearances couldn't be helped. Edward smirked slightly as he lifted his left arm, his automail gone being taken off by the nurses for putting too much strain on him.

"I think they got me," he chuckled lightly motioning to the I.V. strapped into his forearm. Lines wracked his smile as the years had taken their toll but it was still as cocky as ever. Everyone knew that he hated needles, though even Alphonse didn't know why. Like many other things, along with his hatred for milk and being called short, he never grew out of it. Alphonse pretended to feel himself smile as he took one of the overly large chairs next to the bed. Edward tried to sit up but even he could tell that he wasn't going to make it. He collapsed back down in his bed and coughed hoarsely in retort to his efforts in vain.

"Brother, please take it easy don't-" Alphonse panicked as he saw a few spots of red come up and stain his brother's hand.

"Hurt myself?" Edward choked out as he tried to clear his throat of the irony substance. Alphonse mumbled an affirmative under his breath and his brother let out a tiny smile. "I think it is already too late for that, like many other things," he noted sadly. Alphonse folded his leather hands in his lap and his fingers stiffly weaved through each other as if trying to comfort him, but it wasn't working. His armour began to clank slightly as his body started to tremble. The noise filled the whole room for a few moments until a gentle hand was placed on top of his forearm. Alphonse focused solely on Edward's thin and leathery hand that was trying to calm him down. It held a weight and for once Alphonse could feel it.

"Alphonse, there were many things I wanted to see and you on the verge of crying wasn't one of them," he said softly.

"But brother, I-I can't," Alphonse muttered.

"Al, you cry every day and I know it. I don't care if anyone else can't see it, but I can, and it's real. Don't let yourself say otherwise," Edward scolded him lightly the words cutting straight through his metal plating. The shudders in his creaky body picked back up again and Alphonse found himself unable to stop. He trembled as he tried to distract himself but he couldn't. He turned his head down as he slowly reached up and took Edward's hand off of his armour and held it in his leather glove. For heaven's sake he wished that he could feel it. He wished that he could cry and laugh and live and die with his brother, but he was still waiting. He didn't know how long it would be before his armour fully rejected him or before he eventually imagined it to be time to go, but he couldn't stand waiting any longer for himself to give brother all that he wanted, a smile. He was patient, but life wasn't and it was ever draining like an hour glass. Edward sighed and Alphonse looked back to him.

"We never did find the stone did we?" he mumbled almost inaudibly, his voice getting the better of him and threatening to overcome him. His eyes were turned up to the speckled ceiling panels, looking blankly into nothing. Alphonse noticed that they were slightly wet but like always his brother didn't let it show. "Both led by false hopes weren't we? Mustang and Hueghs didn't even get to see what you looked like."

"No," Alphonse replied sadly. Neither did Hawkeye, Havoc, Fuery, Breda, or Falman. Alphonse could have listed a bunch more but he decided to leave the obituary be. May didn't even get to last that long, and her being his wife, he had promised to show her one day. However, accidents did happen, sickness, war, time took everyone away because they weren't patient enough. There was a long silenced and Alphonse found himself staring even deeper into his brother's only hand unable to look him in the eye.

"Brother, could you please forgive me for what I have done?" Edward asked so quietly that Alphonse almost missed it. He slowly lifted his helmet and saw the golden eyes shining back at him, only a speckle of light left. "I have gone and put you in an unkindly body, and taken you on this wild goose chase of a life to never fulfill my promise I made. Could you ever-" Edward started but he cut himself off as his voice cracked and started to fail him. His breaths were being drawn in with effort and Alphonse could tell that it physically hurt him to even cry. Alphonse rested one of his leather gloves lightly on Edward's shoulder in an attempt to calm him, the other still holding the IV attached limb. Edward slowly focused on his breathing and tried his hardest to resist hurting himself even more, however his eyes still showed out in pain. Alphonse wished he could cry more than ever as he glanced at the clock and read half past twelve. His time was halfway gone. It was like losing their mother all over again, same disease, same conditions. Alphonse truly didn't want to be left alone.

"I will brother, however you need to forgive me for never showing you the smile you wanted," Alphonse retorted. Edward grinned slightly and gripped his hand a little harder.

"You smiled enough for me," he whispered. The clock ticked on the wall and the two of them just sat there and absorbed the reality. Alphonse listened to his brother and even though he didn't say a word he knew everything that his brother wanted to tell him. The breaths were raspy and cut short but they kept struggling on for him just like Edward did his entire life. Alphonse accepted this moment as being the inevitable but it was impossible to ever be ready for it. Time was not patient with the two brothers and soon Alphonse found the doctor coming back into the room with a few bottles of medicine and a syringe. He found his armour starting to clank gain as she drew near and Alphonse gripped Edward's hand a little tighter in fear of having to let him go. There was a light chuckle and Edward's old eyes and wrinkly smile beamed back at him lightly as the doctor prepped the needle.

"Alphonse, I promised not to leave you alone ever again, but I guess I am failing at that too. Could you just… let me keep you company a little longer?" Edward asked, almost pleaded him.

"We usually don't have family in the room while we are-" the doctor started but Edward coughed once as he tried to retort, a few drops of scarlet coming up again. Alphonse reached over and wiped a few drops off of his chin gently.

"C-call it my never made last request," Edward choked out as he tried to clear his throat. The doctor gave Alphonse a look as if worried that he would do something but Alphonse just stared at his brother. He couldn't take his eyes off of him for one second.

"I won't interfere, m'am," Alphonse whispered his voice cracking a bit. Edward smiled shyly at him as the doctor carefully picked up Edward's I.V. tube and pressed the needle of the syringe down into the vacuum. Alphonse gripped Edward's hand tighter as he returned the action. The Plunger was pressed down and the medicine was emptied into the stream. She nodded her head, seeing as it was all done and took a few steps back to begin putting away everything. Alphonse stared at his brother's golden eyes as they locked with his empty helmet, each wanting to catch one last light in eachother's eyes. Alphonse's armour began to clack ever so slightly as Edward's eyes slowly began to fade and close, cutting off the sunshine.

"Brother, you got two good legs, please find them for me and keep walking, alright?" Edward hummed out as his breath slowed down. Alphonse choked as he heard the heart monitor start to flatten and the once strong grip start to loosen. He grasped his brother's hand with both of his leather gloves. Oh God, why couldn't he just feel his brother's hand just once more? His armour was clacking rambunctiously loud and he couldn't contain himself.

"Brother- Brother!" he cried as best as he could in his soul bound suit. Edward's arm went completely slack and Alphonse shook it slightly. He knew it was going to happen eventually, but he wanted the world to be more patient with him. Alphonse wanted to look away but he couldn't. Edward was probably the most patient person he knew besides himself but the world wasn't. He was still waiting for the day he got everything back, the smile on his face told him so.