AN: A huge thank you to DarkForestWolf for motivating me to continue...I've had so many reviews on my other fanfiction that this one took the backseat while I finished that one. But now my focus is on finishing this one I promise! As always reviews are welcome and encouraged so please leave your feedback. Disclaimer: I don't own FMA boo.
"MAY! Please open your eyes and look at me! Please be alright!" Tears poured from his eyes, he couldn't watch her die! Not after everything they had been through together. He was in love with her, he was supposed to propose and her accept and them live happily practicing Alkahestry the rest of their lives! Taking her in his arms he cradled her close trying to impose his will for her to wake up upon her. What could he do to save her? He thought of the array that Ruo-Jian had tried to use and how it was supposed to be a way to usurp life force and increase the span of his life, so maybe it could be reversed to save May. But if it was wrong would the outcome be worse? After everything brother and him had been through the last thing Al wanted was for something to go wrong and May come out of it worse than she was already.
There wasn't any other available options, he wasn't nearly practiced enough in the healing properties of Alkahestry to try and apply it on her. But he knew arrays so this was his best bet. If he could give her just a little more time he was sure he could take her to safety and have her repaired by someone more knowledgeable than him. He clapped his hands together then placed them on her wound, concentrating on using his life force to resuscitate her he pictured his life as a Philosopher's Stone that had the capability to even save her. She began to stir and finally met Al's eyes with confusion as to what he was doing. Realization flooded her face and she started panicking.
"Alphonse! That is enough I am okay for right now please stop! I can feel what you are doing to yourself! You are taking away years from your life!" She yelled as she tried to break his focus.
"May...you are alright. I'm so glad it worked. I didn't know if...it would." Her eyes flashed with fear as the man she loved fell over and passed out.
-
When Alphonse awoke he was in a room he didn't recognize with a cool compress against his head. Looking around he was trying to get his bearings when Ling got out of a chair that was also in the room and walked over to him. Al's thoughts instantly went to worrying about May.
"Ling, where's May? Is she okay? What happened?" He sprang up, golden eyes searching for an answer.
"Woah, woah Alphonse, you need to take it easy. Princess Chang is resting in the room next to you." Al didn't even let him continue he got up and ran to the room next to his. May was sleeping in her bed peacefully, or at least she had been until he burst into the room. Her face lit up when she saw him. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her. Ling with catlike grace entered the room. "As I was saying, she is going to be perfectly fine thanks to your efforts, which we are indebted to you for. Saving my favored Princess is no small deal. Also May told us of the exchange of years from your life to do so, you are a hero and we will be having a banquet in your honor as soon as you are both feeling up to it."
"Thank you Ling, but you don't need to for my sake. My reward is sitting here with May alive and well." He turned to smile at her and the one he got in return was so blindingly beautiful he almost forgot that Ling was in the room with them.
"Well - it's mostly for you, but also because Lan Fan will have to dress up for the occasion, and that's a pretty good motivation for me. Also I love any excuse to eat myself into food induced comas so it's a win win." Al laughed at how true his statement was.
"Okay, just keep in mind that as much as I like you, I won't be trading anymore years from my life to revive you from your self indulgence." Ling and him laughed loudly until they saw May looking like she was going to cry. Apparently Ling took that as his cue to leave because when he looked back to him he had disappeared. Al took May's hands in his own and then the tears came rolling down her cheeks. "May, I don't regret losing a few years off of my life, so please don't be upset. I'm just glad that you are okay."
"Oh Alphonse! I can't bear the thought that I have shortened your life!" She tried to cover her tears by letting her hair fall in her face. Al tipped her face up to look at him.
"Well here is how I think of it, I wouldn't have even wanted those extra years because I wouldn't be able to share any more with you without trading them. There is no amount of time that I ever want to spend without you May." At this statement her crying intensified and physically rocked her whole small frame. Alphonse climbed onto the bed with her and put his arms around her until she stopped sobbing. "You know I wasn't trying to make you more upset." He said with a hint of humor in his words.
"I know, I was just thinking I don't know how I could be so lucky. I don't know if I can ever show enough gratitude for everything you have done for me." She looked up at him her eyes glistening with fresh tears. He had an idea and hoped it would work, he jumped up from the bed without an explanation and ran back to his room praying that whoever had been taking care of him hadn't taken his clothes from the other night. Thankfully they were draped over another chair in the room. Reaching into the pocket he slipped one her hair combs and the bit of metal from his old armor he carried around into his hand. Knowing full well he was going to fix the combs anyway he broke off one of the only complete teeth that was still on it and set both pieces to be combined on the table in his room. Clapping his hands together he fused them together to form a one of a kind ring for his princess. He could hear her yelling for him so he quickly fixed the set of combs and then ran back into her room.
"I have thought of the perfect way for you to show your gratitude to me." His heart was racing...what if she wasn't ready or worse didn't want him?
"Oh? And what's that?" She arched an eyebrow suspiciously at him as he bent to one knee on the floor.
"By spending the rest of our years together. May I love you and I would give any amount of time to be with you for the remainder of my life. Will you marry me?" He presented her with the ring and for a few moments time stood still.
"OH MY GOODNESS, YES! Of course I will! She crushed him against her and kissed him over and over until he was sure that he wasn't dreaming. This was real, she loved him and was going to be his wife. "Al this ring reminds me of something that I can't quite put my finger on."
"Well that's probably because I turned your broken hair comb from your grandmother into your wedding ring, along with a piece of my old armor. Now before you worry I also fixed your hair combs as well." She went back to fervently hugging and kissing him and he thought to himself that a man could get used to this.
AN: I am going to mark this complete though there is still going to be an afterword to tie up loose ends and also tie in with my other fanfiction The Communication of Souls. Thank you everyone for taking the time to read my very first fanfiction!