Ling's POV

I look at the highly polished stone set in the ground before me, still in shock. Still unable to believe that it really happened. It had all been so fast, and there was hardly any evidence to show where it occurred. We had been sitting on the roof of the Central HQ building in Amestris when an assailant appeared with a bomb taped to his chest. The timer was only a few seconds long, so she acted instinctively, performing her duty as a bodyguard. She tackled the man to the ground, but we had been sitting on the wall that kept people from falling off by accident. The man was on the corner of the wall, and she leapt at him. They fell so quickly, and before I could react, the bomb went off.

~Flashback~

I ran to the corner and looked down, but I already knew what I would see. Nothing. My bodyguard was nowhere to be seen, nor was the assassin. The only sign that anything had happened was a black and red splatter on the pavement. I had called her name repeatedly, but even then knew exactly what had happened. She had given her life to save mine. Exactly as she had always said she would.

~End Flashback~

Now I stand alone in front of a rock that marks an empty grave. Pulling out my sword, I look at its gleaming blade, sharp as a razor. Tomorrow I'll be assigned a new bodyguard or two, but nobody can possibly replace her. I pull a box from my jacket, and lay it on the freshly turned earth. "Here, I know it's a bit late, but I wanted this to be yours." I lay the small box at the head of the grave, not opening it. "It's not that much, but… Oh RanFan, why? Why couldn't you have saved yourself for me?"

The silent soil relinquishes no answers, and I sheathe my sword, pulling out a dagger and laying its blade on my wrist. "RanFan, I know you'd disapprove, but I don't want to have to wait another sixty, seventy, eighty years to see you again." The dagger cuts into the vein that's visible just beneath the skin of my wrist, and the pain is actually a small relief from my grieving. The dagger seems to move on its own, travelling up my arm. Several long gashes later, her grave is soaked with my blood and I'm losing consciousness. In a state of slight delirium, I grab the box. The world is fading fast, and I'm not sure how clear my words are as I try to get out the one thing I never had the chance to tell her. "RanFan. You're my bodyguard, and I've known you for almost my whole life. It's taken me a while, but I've realized something. I love you. I love you, and I need you to give me an answer to this question." Down on one knee, I open the box and hold it out to the blood soaked grave, showing her the shining ring inside. "RanFan, I love you. Will you marry me?"

Had anyone been there, they would have seen the grief stricken prince confess his love to the empty grave of his dead bodyguard. And had anyone been there, they would have seen that very same prince smile as he collapsed to the ground. He was found a few hours later by an old woman visiting the graves of her family, and she was too distraught to notice that there were three letters written in the dirt, as if by the wind. As she hurried away to tell the proper authorities, a breeze began to blow, and the soft wind shifted the earth to erase those three small letters. So nobody but the dying prince ever saw the word written in the dirt, and nobody but the prince ever saw the ring. Police assumed it was taken by an animal, and the prince was buried in the empty plot next to the spot of his death.

Looking down from the heavens, Ling smiled and held his bodyguard close, his eyes bright and his actions sure. Because there on her finger was the ring, and folded at their backs were large, graceful white wings.


Got inspired by a fic I read on here, not sure which, but I found it under the character select Ling Y. and RanFan. It's a bit cheesy, but I like it.