Tearcatcher
Featured in the program book for the Dallas, TX AnimeFest 2007.
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA.
Tear-Catcher
Little Edward Elric slowly opened his eyes, only to meet darkness. He stretched and rubbed his eyes, giving a small yawn. He was just turning over, pulling his dearest possession-a small stuffed cat he had had since he could remember-a little closer, readying for another try at sleep-
Then he heard it.
Quiet sobs that reached through a crack in the door that separated the room he shared with his baby brother from the rest of the house. Occasionally there would be pauses of hiccupping between the tears, but he knew they continued to flow…
He clutched the furry cat a little closer, snuggling his face into its comforting softness. More tears… always more tears… it had been like this since he had left…
Edward curled up a little tighter, clinging to the kitty like a lifeline, his mom’s tears echoing in his ears.
He felt so torn… how could the man he had looked up to (quite literally), the man he had thought loved them, who had loved his mom, do this to them? Do this to her?
Why…?
It started with a little wetness in the eye, but soon he too was shedding warm tears.
What had they done wrong? Why had he left?
The tears continued to fall, soaking into the furry companion he held in a child’s vice-grip.
She always cried at night… he knew she didn’t want to worry them. But he knew… he heard her often.
Why? Why did he leave? Why would he hurt them like this?
For a while he had prayed that his daddy would come back. He had begged and begged the god that everyone said was so good to bring him home, to make his mommy happy again, so she wouldn’t have to fake another smile…
But it never happened.
“I’m sorry daddy, I’ll be good, I promise I’ll be good, please come back…” Edward sobbed burying his face fully into the kitten. “Please daddy, mommy needs you…
Please, I’ll never cry again, just come back…”
The door creaked open. His mom stood silhouetted in the frame of light. She was no longer crying, but there were still tear trails on the fair skin of her face.
“Edward honey, what are you doing awake?”
Edward trembled. He had upset her more with his crying…
“I’m sorry! I won’t cry any more! I promise! Will he come back if I don’t cry? Did I do something wrong? You loved him and Alphonse was too small to be bad, so it had to be me… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
“Oh, Edward…” said Trisha, going over to embrace her eldest son. He continued to lay curled up so she pulled him into her lap, holding his head to her chest. In his hands he clasped his toy cat.
“Edward, you didn’t do anything wrong…”
“But…”
“No, your father just had some things he had to take care of. He’s a very important man you know…”
“But he never even writes! Other kids’ dads leave for the war, but even they write! Why?”
“Shh…” she said, looking over to the other side of the room. Fortunately, her youngest continued to sleep deeply.
“Why…” Edward sobbed… “I’ll do anything… I don’t want you to cry anymore…”
Pain surged through her. She had done her best to hide her own pain. But her eldest son, perceptive as ever…
“He’ll come back some day… when he’s finished…
Until then, we’ll just have to keep going forward. He’ll catch up.”
She reached down and ran her hand over her son’s plushy companion.
“Till then we’ll just have to keep our tear-catchers close.”
0-0-0
“Brother, are you ready?”
“Give me a second Al…”
“Alright, I’ll be outside.”
Edward listened to the heavy footsteps of the hollow suit of armor his little brother’s soul was now forced to inhabit as Al left. They served as a constant reminder of the consequences of Ed’s mistake… his sin…
Hearing the door close softly behind him, Ed sighed, giving their bedroom one last look. This would be the last time he set foot in this room, in this house, before they burned it all to the ground. They would not leave a single board standing, nothing for them to return to, for they could not go back.
Something caught his eye. He walked over and slowly reached out, picking up a small furry cat doll…
“Till then we’ll just have to keep our tear-catchers close.”
Edward clenched the doll. Till the day she died, their mother had believed he would return. But she had been wrong; he had never come back.
“We have to go forward… and that means no more tears for the past.”
He held the cat close one last time, running his fingers over it’s soft furry texture, then finally he set it back down on the bed, turning away from the past…
There would be no more need for tear-catchers… not until his brother could shed them as well.