Character requested by: DarkMistLover12
Summary: He had been the only one to never leave you, to always stay by your side no matter what, no matter how often you told him it was too dangerous for him, or how you could fend for yourself now- he still stayed by your side. He still bled for you even after all this time.
Pairing:Scar/Reader
I'm bleeding out
So if the last thing that I do
Is to bring you down
I'll bleed out for you…
You remembered how the world had been before, back when you'd had a home to go to and the man you now called your protector had born a name not associated with how he looked and the crimes he had committed.
In snatches you recalled the way the sun had shone off glimmering sands and how the songs of your people had once filled the temples of your gods. You remembered how crimson eyes could soften at the sound of your voice and how arms could cradle you so gently to a firm and warm chest. You remembered your land in the glory of a past life, a life that had been stolen from you and your people by those murders in blue and white.
Years later, when you realized what had truly happened that day, you could look back and not feel the fury of all those that had been slain in the name of progress and a style of war that bore no resemblance to the name Civil that it carried.
You slowly began to lose your hatred to the decay of time, but you never truly forgot how it had felt to feel the ground beneath your feet turn from hard earth to sticky blood, how the screams had filled your ears, how the only one to whisper in your ear would be the one who bled more than the others simply to keep you safe.
He had been the only one to never leave you, to always stay by your side no matter what, no matter how often you told him it was too dangerous for him, or how you could fend for yourself now- he still stayed by your side.
He still bled for you even after all this time.
When the day has come
That I've lost my way around
And the seasons stop and hide beneath the ground
When the sky turns gray
And everything is screaming
I will reach inside
Just to find my heart is beating...
He always liked it when you curled up beside him on cold nights and pretended that it was just the change in season that warranted the sudden closeness. And yet, when winter had left its chill on the world and spring had come to thaw away the frosts, you never left his side. You stayed with him just as he stayed with you, because you needed to know that the blemishes on his skin that were the same as his name were only superficial. His scars needed to only be skin deep, and you needed to see that they stayed that way.
You had run with him from the blood-stained sands of your old home, and he wondered why you had never stopped running. Even when he had found you a home, found you somewhere you could hide and rest and slowly begin to live again, you had chosen to stay with him. You had chosen to lead a life on the run just to be with him, even after he had told you to stay where he put you.
You were stubborn like that, he knew even before he had saved you from the slaughter of the war, but he hadn't expected it to stick with you for so long. He had expected the war to scare it out of you or for his tone to warn you to not do anything rash (like you had), but in the end he had been powerless to stop you from tagging along by his side, wandering with him through life.
You were more to him than just a companion, of course, you were the hope he had that life might someday return to normal- that some day the gray sky would once again be blue, and the sands would no longer be tainted red.
You were the hope he saw in humanity, the hope he saw in himself, and you were the one thing he had managed to save from the ravages of war. You were his priceless treasure that he would do anything to save, because if he lost you, he lost his entire being. You were his heart, his soul, his everything.
And coming to that conclusion under the starless sky of a frigid winter night while you rested by his side had been the easiest thing he'd ever had to do.
When the hour is nigh
And hopelessness is sinking in
And the wolves all cry
To fill the night with hollering
When your eyes are red
And emptiness is all you know
With the darkness fed
I will be your scarecrow...
Some nights were easier than others when you were on the run, he'd known it would be like that ever since the beginning, but there had always been that fleeting hope that some nights you'd be able to rest in peace on the outskirts of a town and keep your heads down while the patrols passed and he told you not to worry because he was there.
You wanted to believe him more than anything, that he would keep you both safe- keep you both whole. You were all each other had now, the only sort of family you had been left with after all the fighting and fleeing and trying to pretend your skin wasn't so dark or your eyes so red. You were family, in a strange sense, and family helped one another, kept one another safe and always did what was best for each other.
It was an unspoken agreement that when it was cold, you'd slip closer to him, and when he was tired you'd say you were so he wouldn't feel guilty over asking to stop. He spent nights awake to be sure you were safe, and you did the same although he never knew it.
You refused to let the emptiness and hopelessness overtake you, refused to let him feel like any of this was ever his fault, because it wasn't. So you did your own fair bit of teasing the hounds that nipped at your heels and leading them away from where he had collapsed after so long running with you in his arms.
You refused to let him be the only one to bleed.
And when he found out what you did, he never responded with words, but his hands were gently when they rested on your shoulder, and his eyes were softer around the edges when he looked your way, and you decided that if that was all the thanks you ever got, it would be alright, because it meant more from him than anything else in the world from someone who didn't mean it.
You tell me to hold on
Oh you tell me to hold on
But innocence is gone
And what was right is wrong...
"Why do you do it?"
The question had been asked softly one night as you sat in front of your tiny little fire and fought off the fickle fingers of winter's chill as they tried to sink under your clothes and tug away your warmth. "Do what?" You asked instead, unsure of his meaning.
He looked at you, crimson eyes dancing in the firelight and saying more than his tongue ever could. There were so many questions there, so many things he wanted to know and yet knew he shouldn't ask. So many demands he wanted to have met and yet refused to even ask you for the simplest of favors. "Tell me it will be alright."
"Because it will be." You answered automatically, snapping your gaze back onto the fire and hoping he hadn't seen the look in your eyes that would betray you. "Obviously." He hummed somewhere in the back of his throat and you continued to study the fire, wondering who you were lying to more- him or yourself. You knew it would never turn out alright, not really, but you clung to that hope because it was better than having nothing at all to hold onto.
"Why do you believe that?" Again the question surprised you, but you didn't look up this time, despite feeling his gaze on you. "That we will survive all of this and come out on the other side. There is no proof that it will be that way."
"I need it to be that way." You mumbled back, shrugging and dragging your coat closer around your shoulders. "I need to know we bled for a good reason- not just because we happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I need some sort of justification for all of this." You hazarded a glance his way and found his gaze soft as it met yours. "Don't you?"
He didn't answer for a long moment, and you thought that perhaps he wouldn't reply at all, but then he moved, shifting closer around the edge of the fire and scooping you up into his arms, cradling you gently against his chest the way he had that first time so long ago when he'd carried you away from blood-soaked sand and dying screams of your people. "I need no other reason to live than the one I already have." A kiss was placed on the crown of your head, and his arms tightened about you fractionally. "That is a good reason, isn't it?"
You found your vocal chords in complete disrepair as you merely nodded, snuggling closer to him. "Y-yeah." You managed at last. "Sounds like a good reason to me."
He tipped your chin up with a free hand and placed a soft kiss to your forehead, eyes bright in the firelight as they looked over your face, taking their time in the examination of your features. "I thought you'd agree."
So I bare my skin
And I count my sins
And I close my eyes
And I take it in
And I'm bleeding out
I'm bleeding out for you...
This, legit, took me four tries to get right (Darn you Scar!), but it was totally worth it because I love this guy to bits.
Hope it's what you were wanting, DarkMist!
The song "Bleeding Out" belongs to: Imagine Dragons
Fullmetal Alchemist and its related characters belong to: Hiromu Arakawa
