Theme: Crazy
Title: Beyond My Reach
Pairings: perhaps some slight Roy x Maes, if you want to see it that way
Rating: T
Warnings: character death, mentions of self mutilation
Summary: Is there really a difference between obsession and insanity?
Beyond My Reach
A small droplet of water hit the floor with a barely audible plop, soon followed by another. Small beads of sweat ran down Roy Mustang's face, the man not bothering to wipe them away even as they continued to drip off his chin and onto the floor he was drawing on in a feverish manner.
The man even felt and looked like he had a high fever; his cheeks and neck were flushed and he was panting heavily, his entire body feeling too hot. He felt like he was burning inside, burning like the fire in the fireplace that was giving him the light he needed to finish his work.
He had not put on any electric lights. He felt more comfortable in the orange-tinted light of the flames. His middle and forefinger ran across the floorboards, leaving behind a dark trail that appeared to glisten a shade that was a mix of brown and red. Every now and then he would dip his fingers into a bowl that rested on the floor next to him and then proceed drawing the array he had been working on for some time now. He had lost grasp of time in the darkness that shadowed both his face and the world outside.
The flames in the fireplace crackled and burned brighter for a brief moment, chasing the shadows in the room away for a short while. The flames lit up the arrays drawn all over the room. The walls were decorated with transmutation circles painted in brown. The array on the floor was still mostly wet and it, along with the tips of Roy's fingers, got lit in their dark shade of crimson that was almost black.
Then the flames quieted down into the gentle ember from before and the shadows in the room grew back to cover most of the walls and floor, appearing darker than before after the light from only moments ago.
A small sigh came from Roy's moist lips as he sat up to inspect his handiwork. It was finally complete, he thought as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, the palms stained with the slick paint he had been using on all the arrays in the room. His pantlegs had also been dirtied while he had been almost crawling on the floor to create the perfect transmutation circle. Only his shirt was completely stainless, his feet and face also having smudges on them. He had rolled his sleeves up before starting on his circles, revealing his pale arms outside of bathroom for the first time in months. The reason for such secrecy were the bandages and the thin, straight scars covering his wrists and forearms. Such perfectly neat scars could not have been gained through battle or from an enemy hand.
Roy smiled then. He had not been able to find a single flaw in the array. Finally he would be able to use it, finally he would gat back the one person that made it all worthwhile. He knelt down next to the array and positioned his hands abowe the outer circle. Even if it would not work Roy knew his suffering would be over. Live or die, he would finally be able to see that person again.
Carefully Roy brought his hands down on the line he had finished drawing only moments ago. When the whole room seemed to crackle with red lightning Roy finally allowed his tears to fall. His efforts for another's body, his blood for another's life, his flesh for another's soul. And his tears were for the sin he had committed.
Suddenly it was cold. Roy's whole body had gone freezing cold. He did not even have a chance to realize he had failed when his body fell on the floor, on the array of blood. There was no movement of his body as he lied with his eyes still open. There were no wounds on his body but still his lungs refused to breath, his eyes refused to see and his heart refused to beat.
I'm sorry...Maes.
Owari
