Energy Transfer

One shot

One was standing tall, but the other shattered.

I watch him slip away as a familiar smell fills the air. I stand there stock-still. I want him. I want him more than anything. I need him. More than he knows. I want more than he has to give. I drop down to support him in my lap. As I feel the life flowing out of him through my open palms I also feel him shudder.

And then a breath.

Another .

Another.

Silence.

The silence between his breathing is almost too much to bare. And then he takes one more shuddering breath and decides to speak to me.

"Ruby?"

The cuts and scrapes kneed and churn on his skin as he squirms in my arms. Trying to face me, to look into my eyes. I let him position himself. he looks at me. He smiles. His graceful curving lips are the most beautiful things i've ever seen. His formerly white teeth now stained pink gleam up at me when he smiles and I feel my heart and the dams behind my eyes break. Thick wet tears fall down my face. I barely notice them my whole world, my entire mind is focused on him. Clancy, Clancy, Clancy.

"Are you scared?" I ask out of the blue.

"Of what?" He asked quizzically

"Of death." I say as one of my own tears drip onto clancy, his face slightly dampened from the impact.

"Oh no, please, please don't cry." He shifts again so his head is in my lap and my hand is over his heart.

"How can I not?" I say simply.

And if it is even possible, I see his smile grow. "Don't cry for me Ruby. You are strong enough, you don't need me."

My face reals with horror "How could you say that? I can't even remember a time without you. How do you think I could ever live without you, buster?"

She practically screams at the dying boy.

But he just chuckles. He chuckles.

And Ruby finally snaps. "I can't believe you aren't even taking this seriously. You-you-y... do you even care? About death? About your family? Our friends? About me?" I whisper the last part but he hears it all the same.

Now it's his turn to look horrified. "Ruby, goddamn it please stop crying. You know I love you so damn much. But your strong, Ruby. You don't need me. You don't need anyone." He paused and I just stared. Despite his pleas my eyes still dripped with salty liquid.

"You know as well as anyone that energy never ceases to exist Ruby, it only changes forms. I will always be with you. Ruby, you will never be alone."

He slowly but surely lifts his arm and brushes the tears from my still wet face his thumb left a thin pink film on my cheek but I relished in the touch anyway. As quickly as the light thumb pressure was there it was gone. And he brought his arm back to his own body with a flinch. " I love you. D-did I tell you that? Oh well. Just know, I really, really love you."

I can't choke back my violent sobs anymore.

"You asked me earlier if I was afraid of death." He spoke in hushed tones. But I recognised the tone all the same. He spoke like a dead man.

"No, at least, not anymore. I do not fear t-t-that. I fear leaving you beh-h-ind." He pauses a beat and I wait patiently for the response. "And not because I worry for you. You will do so many great things that I will never be a part of. I am afraid to miss that." The pool of blood below the boy seemed to double in length. "I-i-i'm so-o sorry R-ruby. I love you-u-u." Despite his earlier impediment he spoke his last words to me in perfect tongue.

"You look so beautiful."

And then the boy, or shell of one, goes limp in my tired arms. I fight the bile coming up my throat as I finally look to see the extent of his injuries. One leg twisted in an unnatural angle the other completely gone from the knee down. He was missing at least half the digits in both of his hands and he had shrapnel piercing his stomach. Large chunks of flesh were missing from the remaining leg and both if his arms. It was a miracle he was alive as long as he was.

He was my miracle.

And he was gone.

I stood. I clenched my fists. I stopped as I realized something, something very important. I couldn't breath my head throbbed and I dropped back to my knees. My heart pounded and again I swallowed the bile as it rose in my throat once more. "I-i never told him." I whispered as I folded into myself.

But " I love you" were the words i'd never get to say. Instead I made a different, new promise. Clancy will be avenged. Clancy will be remembered. I noticed something shiny and stringy. I snached up the item like someone else would take it. I stood clenching both fists. In one fist was something new. The chameleon's bleach blonde wig stained with blood. I look at the wig and I start to laugh.

"I'm coming Lorelai. You see, my love is not like energy, it does not change forms it stays constant and full and it won't stop until you're dead." I speak as if Lorelai is in the room herself. Because I know...

She

is.