(A/N- HERE WE GO!)

The train's wheels clattered beneath you as you gazed out the window at the blurred scenery rushing past. Suitcase in hand, head in the clouds, your mind wandered. Your fingers tapped the seat absentmindedly, attempting to kill time while you waited for your transport to arrive at the station in Central.

You could barely contain yourself. It hadn't been that long since you had last seen the brothers, but you were always excited to visit again. They were hard at work researching the philosopher's stone, but you knew deep down they missed their friends from Resembool. Alphonse was always more open about it, but you knew that was just how the two of them were.

Alphonse was the one who had captured your heart. Despite him not having a body, you knew you deeply, and truly, loved him. His kind voice made your heart race. And his laugh. His laugh could light up a whole room. You just wanted him to be happy.

I'm going to tell him this time, you told yourself. I'm going to tell him I love him if it's the last thing I do.

After much careful consideration, thinking over his actions around you, you reasoned he most likely felt the same way about you. Even so, there was no way to be sure unless you asked him. The worst he could do was say he only liked you as a friend.

You smiled at the thought of hugging him, him swinging you around him as he held onto you. Edward would be giving that stupid knowing grin, but you knew he was happy to see you too, and happy to see his little brother so excited.

"Now approaching central station," the voice of the train announcer said over the radio.

You looked up to see the light from the windows cut off as the train went through a tunnel. You stood from your seat and began approaching the exit. Quite a few people followed.

A little girl and her mother ended up next to you. The child was maybe two or three, at most. She looked up at you, a bit aloof, most likely from a nap she had taken on the train.

You smiled brightly at her, giving a small wave with your hand and mouthing a 'hi'.

She smiled at you and waved back. You chuckled at how cute she was.

There was a screeching noise. No warning whatsoever, just a sudden screeching under the car.

Everyone in the car was jostled.

The brakes had suddenly been applied.

Something felt wrong. The train didn't stop this quickly normally.

On pure instinct, you grabbed the little girl and wrapped your arms protectively around her. Her mother was too far away to do anything, she had been moved by the sudden braking.

Up ahead, you heard a sound of crunching metal. It was the loudest, most gut-wrenching sound you had ever heard. You looked up and saw that the train car ahead of you appeared to be caving in on itself. Everything moved slowly, sparks flying as the oncoming destruction approached.

When it reached you, you blacked out.

***

When you opened your eyes, it was dark.

You didn't remember where you were for a moment.

You heard a child crying nearby.

You sat up and looked around, putting your hand out in front of you to try to feel your way around. The sight of your hands caused a horrified gasp to escape your mouth.

Your skin was a pale translucent blue, emanating a soft spectral glow around it. Upon further inspection, you realized you hadn't sat up, not physically.

Your body partially held your spirit, the glowing blue of your incorporeal legs still obscured by those of your corporeal body.

"No," you said to yourself, unsure if anyone would be able to hear you.

You moved forward, spirit fully leaving your corpse. Your eyes now able to take in your surroundings, you saw the destruction around you. You weren't the only one killed by whatever had happened.

You saw a mutilated body sticking partially out of the train's broken window. Others, some too brutal for words, lay on the floor of the train. The mother of the child you had grabbed was nowhere in sight.

As you pondered where she had ended up, you became aware again of the sounds of the crying child. You turned back around to the place you had drifted away from. Your breath hitched, despite having no use for breathing anymore.

A large metal rod was impaled in your chest on the left side, where your heart, the most vital organ in your body, would be. The little girl, who was screaming now, was held tightly on the other side of your chest, cuts along her arms but otherwise appearing unscathed.

You noticed your transparent arms were clothed in the same outfit your dead body was wearing. You felt around your neck, discovering a ghostly version of a pendant Alphonse had bought for you when you last came to visit. He had told you he got it because it was appealing to look at, just like you. Oh, how you had blushed at his compliment.

That wasn't the only thing you discovered. Your fingers moved around your spectral form, checking to see what all had been altered. You found a large indent, a hole, where the metal beam had pierced your heart. Your ghost was just as you had appeared when you died.

"I can't be dead," you whispered aloud, "There's so much I haven't done. So much life I had left to live. I-"

You had a thought. Ghosts didn't usually apparate when a person died, not as far as you knew.

Why am I here?

Why am I a ghost? Don't ghosts usually only happen if the person has unfinished business?

You felt panic rise in you. Was this what being dead meant? Was this what was supposed to happen when you died? Forced to watch as the world moved on without you?

What could my unfinished business be? I don't have many important things in my life that would cause me to stay beyond the grave, right?

Suddenly, you heard something other than the child crying. Shouts, people trying to get down to the train to help any survivors.

You had been near the front, but from what you could tell the girl was the only one in your car who was still conscious.

You flew into the car in front of you for a few seconds, but that car, the first passenger car, was even more damaged than yours. You couldn't bring yourself to look at all the bloodied masses you saw in that car any longer.

You drifted back through the door to your car, the girl still crying. You waved your spectral hand in front of her to try to get her attention, but she didn't see you. You called out, trying to sing a soft calming lullaby to her, but it fell on deaf ears. You sighed and flew further back, looking through the rear cars.

The front two passenger cars had received the brunt of the accident. The third passenger car had some people unconscious or injured, but no one appeared to be dead. The front three cars were underground, the station collapsed where they had fallen through.

You knew Edward and Alphonse would have been waiting for you, you had called ahead to tell them you were coming, and you had heard the excitement in Al's voice.

You couldn't bring yourself to look outside the cars above the collapse. Not yet.

There would be swarms of people in a panic as the military attempted to keep order. They would be with them, working furiously to try to survey the damage and rescue the survivors. You still weren't sure where the girl's mother had ended up.

You returned back to the second passenger car and waited. The girl continued screaming, but you didn't mind it so much anymore. Her fear meant she was alive. She had air to breath and a cry to be heard.

Part of you envied her.

You heard rummaging and commotion from the car behind you. You floated down to the floor and didn't look over. This was your own private sanctum, minus the girl. If you closed your eyes it seemed pitch black.

Perhaps that's where I want to be right now. The dark around me doesn't feel so bad if it means I don't have to face the people I left behind just yet.

You heard shouts from the other car, and you opened your eyes. You looked over when you heard the sound of a transmutation from the rear.

Light flooded in and made your ghostly body appear even more translucent. In the door frame stood a familiar figure, golden hair casting a faint halo around his head. You saw Edward's eyes widen when he saw your body.

Quickly but carefully, he ran over to you. He looked you up and down, eyes landing on the metal piercing your chest. He drew in a shaky breath.

"(Y/n)?" He held back a sob, "What am I supposed to tell Alphonse?"

He removed the little girl from your limp arms. You could see him trembling. He may not have had romantic feelings for you, but you had been a close friend.

He stumbled with the little girl back to the rear. You followed him to the edge of the car and peered out through the door.

You saw the girl's mother. The side of her face was heavily bandaged, and one of her arms was missing, shoulder bandaged as well. Even with all the injuries, she hugged her daughter tightly with her good arm.

Badly injured and probably in terrible pain, but alive. She must have been thrown through the window. If I had been standing where she had been maybe I would have survived.

You stopped. You felt angry at yourself. That was another person, another life, that, for a brief moment, you had wanted to die instead of you.

What's done is done. I can be angry about being dead, but she deserves to live just as much as I did.

You heard a familiar clanking of metal, and your heart sank.

"Did you find them, brother? Did you find (Y/n)?"

Edward didn't answer. He was trying to keep his composure, but you could tell he was in so much emotional pain. He nodded his head.

For a second, Alphonse looked excited. Then he noticed his older brother's body language.

"No," he said softly, looking towards the entrance to the car you had been in. His armor clanked as he started walking, then running, towards it. "No no no no no no... Please don't be them..."

You rushed back to where your body was, beating him there by a few seconds.

He examined your face, confirming it was you. He scanned for signs of life, a twitching eye, a bit of color in your face, anything. He looked at your chest to try to see if you were breathing.

His armor was rattling as he shook.

Your heart broke watching him. He didn't deserve this pain. He had already been through so much.

You just wanted him to be happy.

You saw him reach for the pendant around your neck, holding it in his hands. You felt the pendant on your ghostly body pull slightly, a sense of warmth surrounding it, but nothing more than that.

With shaky hands, Alphonse unclipped the pendant from around your neck, putting it over his own helmet, around his armored neck. He clapped his hands, then placed them on the metal beam. The beam retracted from you, and you felt your spectral body shift a bit, the indent becoming less noticeable.

Gently, Alphonse lifted up your body, cradling it in his arms.

The trek back up to the rear cars was difficult for him. You drifted along, never leaving his side. This is how you would leave the train, by the side of the man you loved.

The sunlight piercing through the rear cars made it difficult to see Al's eyes. You weren't sure, but it almost seemed like he was only looking down at you as he walked along. When he reached Edward at the top of the train, you heard Ed's voice break.

"Alphonse, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Al's voice cracked. The sound of his breaths were pained. If he had his body, you knew he would be sobbing.

Edward was already crying.

Alphonse carried your body out of the train bridal style. Military personnel offered to take it for him, but he shook his head at them. He never let go of you.

When the little girl you had saved saw your body, she started crying louder than she had been. Her mother looked over and ran forward, getting as close to the brothers as she could.

"Excuse me, my daughter says that person you're carrying saved her. Are they going to be alright?"

Edward was the one who answered. Alphonse would have broken down if he spoke anymore.

"No, they're dead."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Wh-what was their name?"

This time Alphonse was the one to answer.

"(Y/n). Their name was (Y/n)."

***

The funeral was quiet, nothing too big. The Rockbells were there, and the Hughes, and Mustang's squad, and of course the Elric brothers and your family.

Silent grief was a common feeling. It had been so quick. So unexpected.

You were so young.

And you were still there, just, not alive.

Your parents and Alphonse seemed to be the most upset, as far as you could tell. Your parents were crying the most. They let Ed and Al stay next to them.

You had told your parents how you felt, they had approved, said Alphonse was a nice boy. They knew you wanted to tell him.

Alphonse offered them the necklace he had gotten for you at some point in the funeral, you don't remember when. Everything was a bit of a blur for you.

Your mother shook her head at him, tears in her eyes.

"Keep it," she took his large gloved hand and folded his fingers over the piece of jewelry, pushing it back to him. "It's what they would have wanted."

You watched the ceremony from a spot between your parents and Alphonse. Al was mostly silent as the procession continued on. You kept your gaze on him.

His fists were clenched, his hands shaking.

Everyone said kind things about you. Their words were bittersweet. Lots of stuff about how much of a great person you were, how you would always speak your mind and stand up for the people you cared about, but be too shy to stand up for yourself. How much they were going to miss you.

Edward read a speech that he and Al wrote together. He spoke because you knew his younger brother wouldn't be able to.

At the grave, Alphonse remained by your parents' side, until even they had to go home. He stayed there even after the sun had begun to set.

"Alphonse, we should go soon. I know you miss them, I miss them too, but we have to go," Edward spoke quietly, placing a gentle hand on his brother's armored shoulder.

Alphonse didn't move at first, but gave in with a heavy sigh and stood up.

"Okay."

You followed the pair out of the cemetery. Still conscious, you had no need to hang around the burial grounds.

***

You continued to follow the pair around for a long time. You stuck by Al's side through his long nights, though you knew there was nothing you could do to help him through it.

He stayed quiet. More quiet than usual. He seemed distant in public settings. His brother tried to help as best he could, but there wasn't much he could think of doing. Edward had never been good with words.

You had thought to speak to Al to try to comfort him, but always backed down at the last second. If you somehow managed to talk to him, what then?

You had figured out your unfinished business. Once you sorted it out, you reasoned you would disappear.

You had been on your way to meet the brothers and you promised yourself you would tell Alphonse you loved him.

And then you died.

It was him. He was your unfinished business.

And that's why you were so hesitant to try to talk to him. You would wait. You weren't quite ready to say goodbye to him yet.

On one of the many nights you spent sitting silently next to Alphonse, something happened.

It was in Central, in the room the brothers always stayed in when they were in the city. Edward was asleep in the bedroom, while Alphonse sat himself in the middle of the living room, leaning against the back of the couch. He was fidgeting with the pendant you had owned, flipping and turning it in his hand. You sat across from him, the bottoms of your feet on the ground, arms folded on your knees with your head resting on top of them. You watched him flip it in his hands, until he stopped abruptly.

"What's even the point? I don't know if I even want my body back now. I can't bring them back. I want to feel again but, it would be so easy to just," he speaks softly, not loud enough to wake up Edward in the other room. "I'm tired of losing the people I love."

You felt a chill run through you, if that was possible. Something felt wrong, very very wrong.

Alphonse set your necklace down on the floor carefully. He lifted his hands and carefully removed his helmet, setting it in his lap.

"No," you whispered.

"I could see them again if I just, it would be so easy to," he started moving his hand towards his blood seal.

"No," you said it a bit louder.

"I could," his hand was hovering over the seal.

"No!" You shouted this time, and suddenly the translucent blue of your skin was less opaque as you reached out to stop him. You realized he had stopped himself. He had said no at the same time you had, but more quietly. He had stopped, but now the opening of his armor was pointing directly at you.

"(Y/n)?" He scrambled to put his helmet back on. When his helm was back in its place, his glowing red eyes stared directly at you. He froze.

You kept eye contact, equally frozen. When he didn't stop staring, you shuffled in your seat.

"(Y/n)!" He rushed forward to throw his arms around you.

You see his strong, protective metal arms phase right through you, as you feared they would. He looks surprised, falling forward a bit before he catches himself. He looks up at you to meet your sorrowful gaze.

"S-sorry, I guess neither of us can physically feel anything now," you lament.

"(Y/n), what are you doing here? You died, I saw your body. I-I missed you so much. I-I wanted to scream your name to the heavens and-"

"I know Alphonse," you cut him off. "I was watching the whole time. I did die, and got stuck as a ghost, and unfortunately I think I know why."

Alphonse tries to reach out and take your hand, but his glove phases through you again.

"Sorry, h-had to try," his voice breaks.

Your voice is full of remorse as you continue.

"I think, I have unfinished business, and that's why I didn't immediately disappear. I-I haven't tried, t-talking with you since I died, because I think the unfinished business concerns you."

"That's a good thing though, right? It means you can stay beside me and I can see you, right?"

You can hear the rising panic in his tone.

"When I complete my unfinished business, I'm almost certain that I'm going to disappear, move on from this world into whatever's next. I don't want to go, I want to stay here beside you, but I know I can't stay here forever. I'm not supposed to be here anymore, and I can't risk anyone trying to bring me back, we already saw what happened with your mother."

"B-but, there must be something we can do," his voice broke again.

"I'll live on in your memories at least," you plead, "and you'll have my pendant to remind you of me."

"But I don't want you in my memories," you hear a sniffle, "I want you here."

You hush him.

"I know."

The two of you sit quietly for a few minutes.

You have to tell him eventually.

"Alphonse?"

He looks up at you.

"I know it's rough, but you have to promise me you'll fight through this. I would never forgive myself if you ended your life because I wasn't here anymore. I saw everyone that came to my funeral, I saw all the people that would miss me, all the people I loved and wanted to keep safe. I saw how much you were shaking. If you think that I didn't want to bust out of the grave and go, 'Surprise! I'm totally alive! What a funny prank, right guys?', then you don't know how much pain I was in. I couldn't do anything to help them. My life was taken from me way before I wanted it to be," glowing blue tears were forming in your eyes, "and there's so much I wanted to say, not just to you but to everyone. I only know just how precious life is now because I'm already dead, and there's no way to reverse it. Please, please don't throw away your life because I'm not here. I want you to be happy, but that can't always be how it is, but it'll get better. Talk to Ed, talk to my parents, I'm sure they're just as upset about this. You could heal together, but not if you're dead, too."

You wiped some of the tears from your eyes with your sleeve.

"(Y-Y/n), I-I..."

"Please stay strong for me."

Alphonse looks down at the floor, at his hands resting in his lap.

"Alright. I promise," he clenches his fists determinedly. "I'll live my life for you, I'll remember you and think about you, and that you would want me to be as happy as I can be."

You sniffle.

"Thank you, Alphonse."

He pauses for a few seconds, still looking down. He glances up to see a sad smile on your face, then looks back down at his hands.

"I love you, (Y/n)," he says it quietly, keeping his eyes down as he awaits your answer.

You gasp, even though you already suspected it when you were still alive. You take a deep breath before giving your answer.

"I love you too, Al."

Alphonse looks up to meet your gaze again, but all he finds is an empty room. He looks around frantically, his eyes landing on your pendant, before he notices a drop of water on the ground below where you had been crying. He reaches out to the air you had been occupying, panicked. His armor clatters as he shakes, starting to curl up into a fetal position.

"No," he speaks softly at first, "no no no no no."

From the other room, Edward is awoken by an ear splitting cry. He jumps from his bed and rushes to see his brother collapsed on the floor next to (Y/n)'s pendant.

But (Y/n) is gone.

(A/N- I'm gonna come clean.

The Fluff Bomb has been planned to be this since I first announced it.

It's been planned since last September.

I feel... so evil.)