A/N: W-Well. Here we are. Rehabilitation is...complete. *shot* Please, enjoy. I'm sorry if it disappoints...

And for the part about God, don't be offended. (Is a Christian, lol.)

Everything had happened all so fast.

I watched as they placed the covers over his face. His eyes were closed, and a dreamy smile graced his lips. He looked so peaceful. More than he had been these past few days.

He was happy. Yet, I couldn't stop myself from crying. I would never see those blue eyes again. I would never hear his voice again. I would never see his smile again.

My brother was taken away from me. And I had no say in the matter.

I tried to stand. I tried to scream, to yell, to do anything. But, nothing happened. I didn't want them to take him away. They couldn't. He was all I had. They couldn't just do this to me. God couldn't just do this to me.

I never did anything wrong.

"Please don't take him away," I whispered.

My voice was so quiet. I don't think even Francis could have heard me. I wanted to get up and drag his body back. I wanted to throw the sheet to the floor and find Alfred's smiling face. I wanted him to wake up.

I couldn't move. I almost stopped breathing.

If God was supposed to be the one to answer my prayers, then, why didn't he do anything?

Why did he have to take the only piece of family I had left?

Even though time through my eyes had completely screeched to a halt, everyone else moved so quickly. They took his body away, shook my hand, then Francis', before mumbling a humble, "we did the best we could."

It wasn't their fault. I had known for a long while that he wasn't going to make it through. But I still kept that slight hope. I held onto that sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, he would pull through his loneliness and he d be stronger than he ever was before.

And apparently, it wasn't God's will for my brother to pull through.

The last thing I remember that night was falling asleep at Francis' house, in his arms while I cried myself to sleep.

I didn't know how to feel anymore.

---

The service was beautiful. Well, as beautiful as a funeral service could possibly be. I never left Uncle Francis' side and desperately clutched onto his hand the entire time as strangers, classmates and faces I could barely remember shook my free hand.

They were nice to me, even the ones who didn t know me. Some would even hug me and whisper," I'm sorry for your loss," in the sincerest tone they could muster. I could only nod as they walked back to their seats.

I cried, naturally. Uncle Francis said it was alright for me to cry, so he held me close for awhile. I don't remember the tears ever stopping.

But, I wasn t particularly sad.

Alfred was the only family I had. He raised me, taught me, and cared for me more than my parent's ever could have. He protected me. He was my hero. I had the right to be sad. Tears streamed down my face, but my heart felt light instead of the heavy weight I had been carrying around for the past week.

For a bit, I felt guilty that I wasn't all that sad.

As the preacher began to say a few words I let my eyes trace over the crowd of people around the freshly dug grave.

People were crying hysterically, most, I had never seen before. I had never noticed how many people my brother knew. And even though he knew how much these people cared about him, he gave his life away to be with someone whose time on Earth was already over.

Even some of my classmates were crying. My classmates some who I had never even spoken a word to me had come, and were crying over my brother's death.

It was just so odd.

As we all stood under the green canopy, Alfred's casket was lowered into the grave slowly.

I could feel almost all eyes on my reaction. But all I did was stare.

"Mathieu, are you alright?"

That voice had become so familiar to me now. I glanced up to meet a pair of worried eyes.

And I smiled.

"I'm fine," I said.

Francis nodded, and gave my hand a gentle squeeze as they began to cover the casket with dirt.

It felt like my heart was ripping in half. A part of me wanted to push everyone away and uncover the casket with my brother inside. I wanted to believe he was still alive, and it was all a huge misunderstanding.

But the other--sane--part of me, knew that it wasn't true. So, swept up into a hurricane of mixed emotions, I watched solemnly as Alfred was buried into the Earth.

After the ceremony was over, I shook hands with everyone once more, assuring classmates that I would be at school the next week with a smile. I waved goodbye to complete strangers and thanked the preacher for a job well done.

While Francis wasn't paying attention I had slipped out of his grasp and walked back to the fresh grave.

At first, I had no clue why I was even standing there, without tears in my eyes.

But then, the wind blew gently at my back.

"I love you, Alfred. I'm glad you're happy now." I whispered, hoping that the wind would carry my words up to my brother and Arthur. "I'll miss you both. Please don't forget about me."

I smiled.

And at the moment, I could've sworn I felt the sky smiling at me too.