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Roy knew this day would come. Ed was only human after all.
They first met when Ed was twenty and Roy was a number of years that he cares not to think about. It was love at first sight, and honestly, Roy had never believed in such a juvenile concept until he met Ed.
He remembers the cold, rainy night that they first met. Normally, Roy would loathe going out on such a night, but his supplier at the blood bank wasn’t available for a home drop off on that particular evening. On his way home, he literally runs into Ed, who was a student at the time, rushing to his night class that he was forty minutes late for. Roy swears on his life that as soon as their eyes met time stopped and everything seemed to shift into place.
Roy fell in love—hard and fast—and once Ed reciprocated his feelings, they began a whirlwind romance.
*
Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for Ed to figure out that Roy is a vampire. It was probably more of a careless calculation on Roy’s part, trying to feed on a blood pack in the middle of the night after already turning in with Ed, but alas, it was the perfect point for it to happen, seeing as they had only began their relationship not long before.
It’s funny, looking back on it, exactly how many nights Roy had spent mulling over Ed’s reaction (and even after centuries of being alive, he still has a vivid imagination) when in reality, Ed simply shrugged, declared that he knew it, and told Roy to hurry back to bed.
Needless to say that Roy sat in a stunned silence for so long that Ed actually had to come back to make sure he was okay.
*
They were together for a total of eighty-one years and forced to move periodically so that the neighbors didn’t become suspicious as to why Ed was aging and Roy was eternally young.
That’s the one of the downsides to being in a relationship with a human. Someone always ages and someone always dies.
Roy offered to make Ed into an immortal—a vampire, just like him. They could live for an eternity with each other.
Ed refused every time and even though Roy was heartbroken as he was riddled with thoughts of Ed’s mortality, he respected his lover’s wishes and thus Ed remained a human.
*
October Third is a day that haunted Ed for his entire life. One year, his father left and never returned. Then, his mother died the next year. Followed by his brother, his surrogate mother, and his best friend.
It was only fitting that October Third was the date of Ed’s death as well.
*
Ed was one hundred and one years old when he died. He lived a lifespan that most people could only dream of having. His life with Roy was full and happy—Ed always made a point of saying so.
“Roy, you are my everything,” he used to say. And Roy would smile and respond, “Just as you are to me.”
*
Standing in front of Ed’s grave, seeing his name carved into stone fills Roy with absolute sadness.
He’ll never again hear Ed’s laugh, or see him smile, or curl up with him every night as they fall asleep, listening to each other’s heartbeats and quiet breathing.
Roy blows out a shaky breath and he closes his eyes, trying to fight back the tears that try to escape from his eyes. He won’t cry, he can’t cry. If Ed was alive and he knew that Roy was crying, he would be teasing Roy until he was blue in the face. He won’t cry. He can’t.
At that same moment, the wind blows, unsettling the Earth and returning the chill to the air with a ferocity Roy has not experienced yet this season. He shivers and pulls his coat tighter around his body, a formality more than anything seeing as there are a few families in the cemetery on this chilly October day. Before the wind dies down, Roy swears he can hear something—a voice and a familiar one at that. The same one that he fell in love with eighty-one years ago, ringing out:
“Roy, you are my everything.”
Roy chokes on a sob, covering his mouth with his hand in an attempt to muffle the sound, and is unable to stop the tears from falling down his face. He squeezes his eyes shut and allows himself a moment to grieve before coming back to himself, wiping away his tears and steadying himself. Roy looks down at Ed’s grave and gives the gray stone a sad, teary smile as he responds,
“Just as you are to me.”
*
Roy is lingering, he’s well aware of it, but he can’t bring himself to leave Ed’s side.
*
It takes more willpower than Roy will ever be willing to admit before he manages to leave the cemetery with his head bowed and chest aching.
Ed—his love, his life, his everything—is dead, and for the first time in eighty-one years, Roy continues on alone.