Chapter 1

Once was on fire. His body seared with a white pain unlike any he had ever felt, and he hadn't even opened his eyes yet. When he did, he was greeted with a familiar sight: his and Greedler's empty room, filled with dark blacks, rich greens and (due to Once's input) a large window overlooking the lustrous forest. It was night-time, so the artificial light of the lamp to his left was the only illumination. It didn't reach very far and Once couldn't even see his own hand, so he just shut his eyes against the dimly room once more and attempted to block out the pain.

Oh, and what a pain it was. Once was almost grateful that he couldn't see his leg, because that seemed to be in shreds by the sensations of it. The left side of his stomach churned and bubbled in an uncomfortable way in response, making him feel ill. On top of this, his lips were dry, his throat was sore and his fingertips numb, but he still didn't think to make a vocal complaint. That just wasn't him.

His body screamed at him in protest when he swung his legs over the side of the large bed, feet drifting along the floor. Once ignored the harsh grousing and placed his whole body's weight onto his right foot, then the left. Padding gingerly towards the wardrobe took a lot of energy, surprisingly, but he granted himself a few seconds to rest his – for some reason – agonizing limb as he lent against the door. Breathe, Once. Just breathe.

After a few moments he lent in, blindly groped for a staff of Greedler's and closed the door shut again. It was a fancy thing, detested by both Once and his older self. It is expected of him to have one for his more formal meetings, but Once knew Greedler hated it. (He had scoffed when he'd first seen it, delivered by a partner of his. "I can walk perfectly well, thanks," he'd said, placing it to the back of the wardrobe.) Now, however, Once was grateful of it's extra support when hobbling about.

"And what exactly are you doing now?"

The voice from the doorway made the young Onceler jump almost out of his skin. He couldn't find his voice to reply to simply stood, looking into the blackness as he waited for Greed to show himself. As luck would have it, Once's body chose this moment to react to the swishing in his stomach as a sea of unpleasantness rose up his throat, causing his to clamp a hand over his mouth in case it were to spill over. Hunched over, Once felt a hand lightly press at the small of his back. When he was sure he wasn't going to 'spill' anything, the younger of the pair turned and near-collapsed into Greed's strong arms.

Greed scooped him up into a bridal hold and took him back over to the bed, slipping him back under the covers.

"I'll ask again: what were you doing?" Greed's face was now fully visible thanks to its closeness with the small lamp, and what Once saw concerned him. Drawn features (dutifully covered with some sort of concealer – business meeting, perhaps?), tired eyes and worst of all – a well-hidden worried expression. What happened to make Greed this way?

"Trying to find some water," Once replied, trying hard to shrug off the heaviness of the situation which he felt but didn't understand. He was surprised by his strained voice.

"Fine." Greed rose out of sight once more and returned a few moments later with a glass of water. Why was he being so kind? He sat Once up and helped him drink it, the pair both drowning in the silence. When he was done he placed the glass on the side-table and sat himself down on the bed.

"What's happened to me, Greed?" Once finally asked.

"You don't remember?" Once shook his head, no. "We were doing some inspections of the machinery this morning, but one of them had a screw which was too small. I asked you to go and get one from stores because I thought to myself, 'this surely isn't too difficult or taxing at all. Even Oncie will be able to do it. Just get the right-sized screw and replace the old with the new – easy.' But no. You never returned from stores. I had to go and get you and when I did, you were like this. So stupid."

"I remember," Once murmured, because he did remember. He'd been reaching for the tiny box of screws on the top shelf (having scaled some of the shelving in order to reach them), when someone had taken a few of the normal sized cardboard boxes from the other side. His weight had pulled the whole structure down with him, a box of somethings crashing into his leg and the tiny box of screws rolling off somewhere out of sight. The frame of the shelving never hit him due to a lucky collision with the wall, but that box of somethings administered enough pain to knock him out cold, regardless. "Yeah, guess that was pretty stupid."

Greed made a small snorting sound of concurrence and placed a hand to Once's forehead. His features softened slightly as he saw his younger self's broken expression, and Once watched as he made the decision to take off his hat, jacket, dress shirt and trousers in favor of his surprisingly loose-fitting pajamas and a t-shirt. Then he slipped under the covers and turned to face Once.

"You're staying here tonight?" Once questioned.

"Yup. Can't leave my broken little Oncie all alone, can I?" Once smiled, ignoring the sarcasm and patronizing tone.

"Well, thanks. It's not that bad though, I think I can manage if you have work to do."

"I always have work to do, and you're a liar – you forget I actually know what's wrong with your leg in medical terms."

"Huh? How?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, dear. Do you honestly think I wouldn't have thought to have you examined by a doctor at some point today?" Of course.

"And? What's wrong with it?"

"Broken. Shouldn't walk, really."

"Oh."

There's some silence until Once decides to strike up a conversation.

"What did you do today?"

"I worked. After I brought you back here I had to call in a doctor, then I had to wait while he sorted you out with that bandaging and prescribed all of your medicine and shit, then I had to see him out because he said he'd 'get lost' on his own. Then I had to finish inspecting, (by this point it was around three in the afternoon), then I had to go to a board meeting, then I had to go to a seminar in town, then I had to come back, debrief the mechanics, check on how stores were looking – because they were a mess when I'd left that morning, shout at the cleaning people for not sorting it out, go to the office and do a tonne of paperwork. And now I'm here, trying to sleep."

"You were looking after me until three in the afternoon?"

"That's what you took from that?" Sigh. "Yeah, I suppose. Oof!" Greed was cut off as Once ignored the searing pain in favor of leaning across and kissing him fully. Greed smirked and ran his right hand through Once's hair.

When they pulled apart Once felt his face contort slightly in response to the pain, but quickly tried to cover it up. Greedler noticed, though.

"Sleep, Oncie, is what will fix you up."

Once nodded slightly and shut his eyes against the other's face. It was surprising how quickly he fell asleep despite the pain. His final thought before falling asleep was not for himself, but for the man laying next to him. I'm glad he's taking a break, he thought, sleepily. He works himself too hard.