This was done for the LJ group FMA_Fic_Contest. As usual, I didn't win, but it is still fun to write.
Prompt 30: Candle: "Oxygen Kills"
Title- Oxygen Kills
Author- Seaweed
Disclaimer- Very much not mine.
Characters- Roy, no pairing
Rating- G, but dark and depressing
Warning- Mentions of death.
Series- Either, set in a non specific time in the future.
Summary- Flames can save. Oxygen can kill.
Word Count- 250 exactly! (Whew, that was tough to pare it down to 250)
The flame of life is like a candle. Small changes in the wind can make it blaze, or it can snuff it out entirely. A life- like a flame- is reliant on oxygen to keep it alive.
The irony of that statement was something that he thought about every day. Oxygen can kill a person, or save them. Fire and can kill a person, or save them.
He had seen flames save.
He had seen oxygen kill.
He knew that his own candle was dimming- dancing low at the end of the wick. He had lived so much longer than he thought he was going to, and he had seen so many other candles flicker and die.
He had caused so many candles to flicker and die.
It was such a cruel irony, that the man who could conjure flames at will- the man had been shot at, stabbed, and had lived through so many assassination attempts that he couldn’t remember them all- had outlived all of his subordinates.
He watched them pass away over the years- some died in service of their country, some let their bad habits drive them to an early grave, and some were lost to The Gate, their fate unknown.
His candle gave a shudder, its last gasp before the blaze finally extinguished. A single tear ran down his wrinkled cheek, and he closed his eyes. “I’m sorry.” were the last words that Roy Mustang spoke before the candle that was his life was expunged.