Popped into my head while reading Mint Pizza Queen's sixty-eighth part of Crack Avenue, entitled 'Plushies.' Don't let that fool you.
Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist, its characters and settings belong to Arakawa Hiromu and various television and publishing companies. I'm just a bastard that likes making little girls cry.
Episode twenty-five spoilers. Am slowly reworking my way through the manga, but I haven't gotten back to that part yet. So whichever chapter corresponds to episode twenty-five.
Two hundred twenty-eight words: Commoneo
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Sometimes she would whimper in her sleep.
Gracia could hear it all the way in the next room, her daughter tossing and turning and crying out. Whenever this happened, she would bite her comforter and turn over in the too-large bed, waiting for the inevitable and fighting back the tears.
Elysia would sit up in her bed with a shout not long after, and Gracia would hear her sobbing, albeit quietly, like she didn't want to wake her mother.
There would be the sound of blankets rustling, and the one of small, socked feet padding down the carpeted hallway. Gracia's door would creak open slowly, and a voice that sounded much younger than it was would whisper, "Mommy?"
She would wipe her tears away and try to smile as she sat up to look at her daughter. She would feign ignorance. "Are you still awake, Elysia? You have school tomorrow."
"I know." And the girl, twelve years old now, would climb into the bed and snuggle up close to her mother. They wouldn't talk about what had woken Elysia, or what made Gracia wait up for this exact moment every night.
Gracia would hum an old lullaby and cry softly, rocking her baby girl.
And Elysia would try to sleep, dwelling on the fact that she could still see her daddy in her dreams.
Laughing.
Loving.
Living.
...Dieing.