FIC: Keep Breathing
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Title: Keep Breathing
Author: drummerdancer
Verse: A Little of Both
Characters: Al/Mei, baby
Word Count: 332
Prompt 270: It's The Little Things
Rating: K
Summary: Mei's off in Xing, leaving Al to take care of the baby.
The baby was crying again.
Al got up and stumbled half-asleep to the crib not six feet away from his bed. Alicia, born in the middle of a blizzard same as her namesake, had yet to learn or master any kind of regular sleep cycle; she cried at random, slept at random, wanted fed at random, and even fussed at random, no common pattern with her actions whatsoever.
Or, at least, none that Al could figure out.
There was one thing that he could count on, though; she always cried in the middle of night, just at different times each occasion.
Al felt like he was dead on his feet from all the times he’d been woken up; it was all he could do now to pick her up and rock her, her shrill screams just a dull roar in his head. Winry’d said to stop responding to Alicia’s cries for attention, that she’d grow out of it eventually, but he’d vehemently refused. He wasn’t going to abandon his daughter in her time of need, no matter how drained or weak he was from exhaustion. He could do this; just another week or two at the most and then Mei'd be back from Xing and he could finally get some much needed shut-eye.
He closed his eyes as Alicia wailed in his arms; her little head was wet on his chest. He pulled his sleeve back to wipe at her face, glad he’d remembered the cotton shirt instead of the nylon. It was one of the many little things he’d picked up on since becoming a parent; your child could be entirely indifferent to you performing some of the world’s finest alchemy in front of their very eyes, but wipe their face with anything other than cotton…Al gave a weak grin. Or perhaps it was just his child.
He rocked her slowly and counted silently in his head. Fourteen days at the most. Keep breathing Alphonse Elric. Keep breathing.
Double posted @ fma_fic_contest