Maes, remember that keychain you got me for my birthday? It was a long time ago, I don't expect you to. It was one of those gifts that meant you cared, even when it was just something dumb like a keychain. I really appreciated it.

It wasn't anything fancy, just the ring and a short chain with a thin wooden flame painted orange attached. Remember what you said when you gave it to me? "I saw this and thought of you." You always were sappy about that sort of thing.

You cut it close to the line, coming straight into my office and dropping it on my desk like you did. You were lucky no one was around. You did that on purpose, didn't you? You knew how I didn't want people to know when my birthday was.

I'm just glad you fought back the urge to wrap it and put a giant bow on it.

Just think what, say, Breda would have thought, if he had seen that exchange. It's not often a man brings another man a present in person with no apparent reason. You really knew how to play it to get on my nerves like that. But I guess it would have been alright if anyone had seen. You had your wife and daughter to explain any misconceptions.

I had my meaningless womanizing.

Remember how I took that keychain with me everywhere? It was because it was an object that represented you. It wasn't just a birthday dinner that I had only memories of the next day. It was a solid thing that I could hold and think of you. When you saw that the bright orange paint had begun to chip, you said how you thought you should be jealous of it.

Well, what was I supposed to hold, Maes, when I couldn't hold you?

I'm sorry to say, but it broke a while ago. I broke it, really. I hadn't realized how delicate it was. I was gripping it so hard, wishing you were there instead of it, and the wood just snapped in my hand. I'd never put any keys on it, so it hadn't been used since I put it aside after I realized how foolish it was to keep it near me all the time. Then I stumbled across it, and all my memories of you came flooding back, and then it was broken.

I didn't want to fix it. If I couldn't use alchemy to bring you back, then I wouldn't use it on that keychain, either. I just put it back in the drawer.

I bring it up because I found it again today. I was hunting through my desk for some papers Hawkeye needed—don't say it; no, I haven't asked her out yet—and there it was. Pushed to the back of the drawer, that orange flame was waiting for me. I had to take out all the papers to find the other piece.

It was then I decided to come out here to see you, Maes. I've tried but I just can't let go of you. I know, I know. What would people think of me spending my birthday in a cemetery? It's alright, though. No one knows that it's today except for you.