This won first place in the recent fma_fic_contest for the prompt 'flush'.

Prompt #66: Flush

Title: The Sand and the Sieve

Summary: The longer he lived, the more fell away.

Rating: K+

Word Count: 249

Mangaverse

A/N: Title is inspired by the book 'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury. FMA belongs to Hiromu Arakawa. Minor spoilers for chapter 108.

Beta'd by please-knock, as always. Kudos to her, and all of you for reading! Please comment and enjoy.


Before, the sun burned his skin during the hours the masters told him to work outside, until he worked past the pain and it fell away.

People were like that too.

The longer he lived, the more fell away.

No matter how much he had, it always slipped through his fingers; slipped past his palms, falling away on the wind, going places he could never find, no matter how long he looked.

Who would have thought that it would be so hard to fade with them?

Her eyes smiled even when her mouth didn't. Her kisses sent a flush all over his body.

He held her, wishing with all of his heart, and all of the souls he contained-wrong as it may have been to use them for something so selfish- that she and his sons wouldn't slip away.

He left her and his bright eyed boys so that when it was time, he could fall away too.

But years passed and his boys grew, and his wife slipped from his fingers anyway, and he wasn't even there to see her go.

In the end, his boys risked it all, lost everything, but managed to catch most of it before it fell.

And he had both of his boys again before he left and finally slipped away, with her grave by his side.

In the end, he didn't really want to die.

But she was waiting. She'd promised.

her hand reached out to brush his face, and he smiled.