Work Text:
Asa had already gone to the stars when the ambulance arrived.
The door was unlocked, had been since the panicked husbands first called for emergency services, so the medics came, they walked into this dim room to see a shattered man draped over a body. It was too late, and now the only thing to see was Anthony Crowley-Fell, body wracked with sobs and shivering madly, madly whispering “I promise I promise I promise” into a tightly-held pajama top.
He didn’t seem to notice or even care that the medics had even entered his home, there was to be nothing between Asa and Anthony Crowley-Fell— there were only tears mingling with sweat, and a room that had been so cozy mere hours ago that seemed to close in on itself. Every trinket, every stack of books, every thick blanket: it was all too much, there was no space, it was just Asa, surrounding a broken Anthony in every way but the imporant one.
Asa should be here, smoothing Anthony’s hair back and rubbing the tension from his back, but he was gone, lost to the stars until Anthony could find him again.
Muriel, a sweeter, reassuring thing, gently guided Anthony from the bed while the medics tended to the limp body left there. Muriel slipped Asa’s ring from his finger, pressed it into Anthony’s trembling hand, and, with the elderly man still sobbing, they sat together on the front porch.
Muriel and Anthony sat there under a starless sky until Asa’s body was carried to the ambulance.
Anthony remained there as they drove away with his love and the stars disappeared behind clouds and the sky broke open.
Anthony stayed, unmoving and numb to the downpour, holding tight to that golden ring Asa had worn, entirely alone on the Earth.