A/N: Theme number nine - Fever. Spoiler~ish if you don't know what happened to Lan Fan's arm, although I'm pretty sure most people have been caught up to that. This one takes place when Lan Fan gets her automail.

I wrote in present tense this time. Writing in present tense feels cool for me. But then I usually screw up more easily when writing in present tense which is why I don't do it that often x.x

It is the fever, and she knows it.

The automail surgery. Even as it is finished, the fever remains. Her forehead has already burst out in sweat, and her breathing is hot and labored. The freshly added metal and screws only add to the fire, making her entire body blaze. The pain is excruciating, and she can taste blood in the back of her throat, waiting to be vomited up.

The engineer next to her is sticking syringes into her arm, pouring liquids and medicines into her bloodstream. For a moment as the painkillers enter her body the searing hot feeling disappears, before returning as strong as ever. But the pain gradually dulls, and the sedatives blurs out her mind. The world wavers. Her eyes close, shutting out the staggeringly bright light.

But even through the cloud of drugs Lan Fan is able to feel the fever raging through her. It burns her, scorches her dry. She can no longer feel the cooling sweat on her forehead. She thinks that she will die, that her body cannot hold up and stand this—

Lan Fan.

It is his voice that enters her ears, and she is sure of it. Her lids open (or do her eyes open in her mind and imagination?) and he is standing there, his familiar face looking at hers. He is there, he definitely is—

No, he is not. Lan Fan reminds herself that he is not here, that he is not quite her young master anymore. That he is now the homunculus Greed. But she cannot help it. She sees him there, and he is next to her, well and alive.

Lan Fan, he says. You can do it. I will always be patiently waiting for you, for eternity. So get well and come back to me. You can't die. I can't become the emperor without you next to me. Promise me.

And she promises, swearing that she won't leave him. She makes a promise to a ghost born from fevered dreams. And she knows that he is not real, that he is not actually next to her. But Lan Fan decides that even for just a moment, it feels nice to have someone who is willing to wait forever for her.

Words: 376

Additional Notes: None

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