"Gil, I'm going to school!" Birdie called from the kitchen door, backpack swung over one shoulder. "I'll see you when I get home." The ghost bounded up to him and stooped in to steal a kiss.

"All right, Birdie. Have a good day!" Gilbert said when he stepped back. Birdie blushed, but was smiling nonetheless.

This was a fairly typical day. Gilbert gave Birdie a goodbye kiss when he left for school, and when he got back, he would talk about how his day had gone. How Katy was doing, how his teachers were treating him, and what kind of grades he was getting. Then Birdie would do his homework like the good student he was, and that annoying brother of his would come back from sports practice, bringing their alone time to an end.

Today would be no different, and Gilbert was looking forward to that.

Birdie turned and took a step over the threshold, then stopped. Gilbert half expected him to turn around and mention that he forgot something, then run to get it, but he didn't. He just stood there, motionless. Curious, the ghost maneuvered himself around the blond to see what he was looking at. He didn't seem to be looking at anything, though. He was just staring out with this blank look on his face that was vaguely familiar... Gilbert waved a hand in front of the blond's face to get his attention, but he remained inattentive. Suddenly, a memory hit Gilbert. It was from a while ago, when he'd first met Birdie. That vacant look back there, in the snow. It was worrying. Hell, it was scary.

"Birdie, wake up! Time for school!" He didn't say anything. He didn't even respond. Gilbert grabbed his shoulders and shook him. "Matthew, that's not funny! Look at me!" Still nothing. Panicked, the ghost dug through Birdie's bag to find his cell phone and scrambled to press the right buttons to get to the contacts. He found the name he was looking for and immediately dialed it, putting the phone up to his ear.

One ring. Two. Three. Dammit, why wasn't he picking up-?

"Matthew, what are you doing calling me now, it's almost time for class-"

"Arthur, this is Gilbert. I think something's wrong with Birdie."

Arthur arrived in a matter of ten minutes. Gilbert didn't know how he got out of school so quickly, but he didn't care at the moment. He was probably the only one who could help them right now.

"Where is he?" the blond asked as he sped up the front steps.

"I took him to his room. He's on the bed." The ghost led Arthur through the house to Birdie's bedroom. "He hasn't moved. This isn't a medical problem, I know that. This wouldn't just... happen, would it?"

Arthur approached the bed and gave Birdie a once-over. He checked his pulse and temperature, and then felt around his head, his chest, and his hands.

"All right, calm down. I'm sure there's an explanation for this." He looked into those blank, violet eyes, searching for something. "There's something... missing, I know it…" Suddenly, he let out a little gasp. "Oh! That's it!"

"What's it?" Gilbert jumped to Birdie's side. "Do you know what's wrong?" Arthur nodded, but then looked solemn.

"Yes, but… I'm afraid this isn't good. Not at all."

Gilbert felt himself freeze. What did he mean, it wasn't good?

"It's been said," he continued, "that eyes are the windows to the soul. Normally those windows are closed, but…" he motioned for Gilbert to look. "Look. The color." Gilbert looked, expecting to see the same violet eyes he always did, but was met instead with a slightly more faded color. It was as if the life was slowly draining from them. But that wasn't an issue, right? Just because the color of his eyes was different didn't mean anything terrible, right?

"He's gonna be okay, right?" Arthur didn't answer him. "Arthur?" Gilbert grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hard. "Tell me what the hell this means!"

"All right, all right! Let go of me!" The ghost refused to let go and kept trying to shake the answer out of him. "It means that his soul is leaving him, okay!"

Gilbert abruptly stopped shaking the blond and didn't speak for all of five seconds out of shock.

"... What?"

Arthur tried to wriggle free, but the ghost's grip remained strong, so he gave up. "I was afraid this would happen..." Gilbert glared at him, prompting him to continue. "Ah, when a mortal is exposed to a single immortal for a long period of time, that is, he's able to see and hear him and remains in close contact, he slowly... uh... loses his soul, whether he knows it or not. I mentioned before, the eyes are the windows to the soul, and one can view its current state through the color. As you can see, the color in Matthew's eyes is... draining."

Gilbert released Arthur, arms dropping limp to his sides, and was silent for a long moment.

"So..." he finally said, "You're saying that Birdie is dying because of me?" His voice was kept under control, but you could tell the words were painful for him to say.

"Yes."

"Isn't there anything I can do?" Gilbert was frantically grasping at straws. "If I went away for a long time, would his soul go back to his body? I would leave forever! Tell him I did it for him or something, he just needs to live-!"

"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that, Gilbert. The soul can't just re-enter the body. Leaving now would just stop his soul's progress so far and leave him in this state. He would be alive, yes... but he wouldn't be able to live." Arthur explained in a regretful tone. Gilbert didn't know what to say. It hurt too much. "Staying nearby is the best thing you can do for him. At least that way his whole soul can leave and he won't be like this forever. You want him to have a proper death, don't you? It's what he would have wanted."

"How can you know?" the ghost exclaimed. "How can you be so sure that's what he wanted? You never took the time to get to know him! You never really cared! You're just like every other fucker out there who doesn't give a damn about him, you probably didn't even know he existed until a few weeks ago!"

"Gilbert please calm down, everything will be fine-"

"Don't tell me it's gonna be fine! How can you say that when Birdie's lying there... he's lying there..." Dying, but Gilbert couldn't bring himself to say it. A heavy weight of dread and hopelessness had settled over his shoulders, and a hard lump formed in his throat. "Don't tell me he's fine... when I know he's never waking up..."

He sat down on the bed with a lowered head, hands rising up to cover his face. And for the first time in a very, very long time, he cried. He cried for the inevitable loss of his love, he cried for the crushing guilt that weighed on his heart, and he cried even harder knowing that Arthur was watching him. The blond quietly apologized, and left, presumably to go back to school. Gilbert didn't care.

"G-Goddammit... Why?" he whispered to Birdie through choked sobs. "Why is everything always my fault? Birdie, I never told you how I died." He was talking to himself, mostly, and it was probably crazy, but he didn't mind. Nobody was listening. "I killed three others when I died, did you know? I was driving my friends and my little brother home from school one day. I was so stupid, and I ran a red light. That semi didn't even slow down. Nobody would have survived. That was a little over five years ago. Now we're all dead, and it's all my fault. And now I've gone and screwed up your life, too." The ghost wasn't sobbing any more, but hot tears still ran down his cheeks. "I'm such a terrible person."

Gilbert swept some hair off of Matthew's forehead, giving it a gentle kiss. He stoked the staring boy's cheek with his thumb, and watched as his soul gradually leaked away.

"I love you, Birdie. Remember that."

Matthew didn't answer him.

Six hours later, Alfred returned from school.

Two hours after that, Matthew was lying in a hospital bed.

Five minutes after that, Gilbert found out that his brother wasn't dead. He had somehow survived the car wreck, and was working as a nurse in the hospital. Gilbert saw him every day, but his brother never noticed.

A day after that, Matthew's father remembered he had another son, and learned that he was dying.

Three weeks after that, his father still hadn't visited him in the hospital.

A week after that, Alfred had stopped visiting his brother.

Two days after that, Matthew's eyes, which used to be a vibrant purple, were now pools of dull gray. The beeps from the doctors had hooked up to him, which monitored his vitals, were becoming slower with each passing minute. The jagged ups and downs from the line on the heart monitor got smaller and smaller, until finally it ran flat across the screen. A long, resounding beep came from the machine and filled the otherwise heavily silent room. Gilbert held onto Matthew's hand the whole time.

The time was 1:12 in the morning. Nobody had been around to see him die, but as soon as the monitor went off, Gilbert's brother, Ludwig, ran into the room to try and restart his heart. It didn't work, of course, but the ghost still appreciated the effort. Ludwig wasn't the type to throw away a life just like that. Gilbert didn't know why the hell he was at the hospital at one in the morning anyway, but he was somewhat glad he was.

For a moment, Ludwig didn't do anything but stare at the lifeless boy with pity in his hard blue eyes. Then, he spoke:

"I'm sorry that you died in this place alone. Nobody deserves such a thing."

Gilbert's hold on Matthew's hand tightened for a moment, but then he let go. He picked up a notepad and a pencil from the bedside table, and wrote a message. The movement of the objects didn't go unnoticed by Ludwig, who gaped in shock and curiosity. When the ghost was finished writing, he handed the note to the nurse. His face changed from a look of confusion to one mixed with sadness and understanding, and... well, more confusion.

"But… That's not possible…" he said in awe. Gilbert stood over Matthew and closed his unseeing eyes for him, then kissed his lips, which were slowly turning cold, one last time before whispering a final goodbye.

"I love you, Birdie."

He left the two in the room, wandered out of the hospital, and began his trek back to Matthew's house.

The note had said:

He didn't die alone, bruder.

I watched over him the whole time.

-Gilbert

AN: And now we have plot! *evil laughter* Did anyone cry? I hope so. That's what I was aiming for. You didn't really expect this to be all fluff, did you? I also warned you it might get sad, so...

Anyway, this story is nearing its end. I'm thinking another two chapters, and maybe an epilogue. Thanks for all the support so far, guys, it's been awesome ^-^ Two more faves and six more reviews until this story is as popular as Vocaloid! I really didn't expect anyone to read this thing XD

Another thing: What do you think of a sequel? No real plot, more like a little collection of fluff and sexy-time oneshots? You guys request what you want them to do, like that Livejournal kink meme de-anon thingy that I never really understood XD

Okay, love you guys~!

~Jel