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Ling bolted upright in a cold sweat for the fourth night in a row. The nightmares were plaguing him still, but he had no idea why. He looked at the other bed, to see if Ed was awake. Sure enough, the golden eyes of the other were looking straight at him.
"That's the fourth time." Ed said, looking into Ling's dark eyes.
Ling sighed. “I know, and it gets worse every night.”
Ed crawled into the bed Ling was in, and leaned against him. He decided now was the time to ask. “What are they about?”
“Generally? There’s no food.” Ling joked. Ed punched him in the arm. “Fine. It normally goes back to the Promised Day, everyone’s dying, the homunculi are winning. Right before I wake up, Father…” He didn’t want to finish, he wasn’t sure he could.
Ed automatically understood. He ran his fingers-from his right arm, the arm that was still shocked by touch- through Ling’s hair, gently. He lightly brushed away the tears that were beginning to form in the prince’s eyes. Ling held onto the ex-alchemist, tightly enough to comfort himself.
“You don’t have to worry, I’m not dying anytime soon.” The blond said, turning to look at his boyfriend.
“With your stubbornness? I don’t doubt it.”
“C’mon, let’s go back to bed.”
“You’re not going to leave, are you, Edward?”
“Of course not, Ling.” Ling loved to hear Ed say his name. He rarely did address the prince by name, and only said it when things were serious. When he said the name, his voice was full of love, and it warmed up the future emperor on the inside.
So the two moved to lay back down, in a spooning position, when Ling noticed something on his lover.
“Edward, what’s on your shoulder?”
“Huh..? Oh. Those are just my freckles. Are you really just noticing them? I get them in the sun, it’s no big deal.”
This amused Ling for no good reason.
“There are so many. Are they only on your shoulders?”
“No, they’re on my face too.”
Ling had no idea how he had never noticed.
“Really? Turn around, I wanna see, please.”
Ed sighed, caving because of the fright from earlier. So, he turned to face the prince, and said prince giggled slightly.
“They’re like stars, so many of them.”
Ed rolled his eyes. “They’re just dots, you know. They’re nothing special, Al gets them too.”
“But these are yours, so they are special.”
Before Ed could say anything, Ling began to count them.
“One, two, three, four…”
“Are you really counting my freckles?”
Ling nodded, not stopping his counting.
Deciding he was, at this point, a little too tired to worry about the odd shenanigans of the prince, the scientist decided it’d be better to sleep.
Somewhere around “fifty-three”, Ed noted Ling’s voice had stopped. Opening his eyes, he saw that the taller one was asleep. A small smile came from the shorter boy, as he saw the peaceful smile on his lover.
“Night, Ling. Love you.” He murmured, placing a light kiss to the other’s cheek.
“Night, love ya, Edward.” Ling mumbled, still sleeping.
Hearing this and seeing Ling’s peaceful sleep, Ed slipped into a comfortable slumber.