I'll Love You More, Ch. 3
Title: I’ll Love You More
Chapter: # 3, Conversations in the Dark
Previous: 1, I, 2
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: PG
Spoilers: for the entire series.
Summary: Some things are too difficult to deal with in the daylight
Chapter Three: Conversations in the Dark
Winry flicked off the light in her workshop, changing the air immediately to soft silvers and greys. She paused for a moment, looking out the clouded glass of the window at the snow-covered sleeping town. There was no movement outside, and the moon was high and chill, small and round in the sky, bouncing dusky silver off the snow and into the room. Sighing, she began to head up the dark staircase into the rest of the house, pausing on the landing before continuing up to the top floor and looking across the living room at the back of the couch. “Ed?” she called quietly. Ed often stayed up late into the night and ended up falling asleep with a book over his face, and she crossed the room, intending to switch off the reading lamp and tell him to go sleep upstairs. “Hey, why don’t you-“
But it wasn’t Ed on the couch at all, it was Al, curled up with a blanket and a book, awake and reading. He shut the volume carefully and sat up half-way, pulling the blanket closer around him. “Hm?” he murmured, raising his eyes to her.
Winry leaned over the back of the couch, letting her long hair fall over her shoulders. “Come to bed, Al, it’s two am,” she said tiredly.
Al shook his head. “I’m sleeping in here tonight.”
Winry raised her eyebrows. “Why?” she asked, startled.
Al looked off to the side, not meeting her eyes, suddenly uncomfortable. “Brother said he would sleep down here, since he falls asleep down here half the time anyway, but I felt bad since he’s been so sore recently. I said he could keep sleeping in my bed and I’d sleep down here, at least tonight,” he hedged, avoiding the real question.
She frowned. “So, all of a sudden you don’t want to share the bed or something?” she asked then, trying to make her voice light but unable to hide her puzzlement. Since the first night they had both been home together, the brothers had both slept intertwined, she had seen them when she passed Al’s room, and thought nothing of it. They had done the same thing when they were kids, in fact, all three of them had been known to fall asleep in a pile, when they were kids.
Al was still looking pointedly away at a picture frame on the far wall. “We just decided… that it might be better… to sleep… apart,” he stuttered out awkwardly.
“Okay,” she said finally, understanding at least that whatever had happened was not going to be shared with her. “Still,” she added, a bit hesitant, her heart fluttering nervously in her chest, why so nervous? “Why don’t you just sleep with me?” Her face flushed as soon as she spoke, her words sounding dirty, suddenly, and wrong.
Al just shook his head, pulling the blanket tighter around him and pressing himself into the corner of the couch. “No, I’m fine down here,” he said quietly.
“I didn’t mean-“ she stammered, feeling her flush growing, “-I meant, just sleep, you know, we don’t have to do anything-“ she stopped, mid-sentence, realizing as she spoke what felt so off about her suggestion. It’s not like we haven’t slept in each other’s beds before would have been the rest of her words. She opened her mouth to say- something, anything, some kind of excuse, but there was nothing.
“I don’t want to sleep near you.” His voice was cold.
“Ed told you,” she whispered, feeling her heart clench and sink like lead into the pit of her stomach.
“Did you think he wouldn’t have?” Al hissed. “We’re brothers, do you really think he would hide something like that from me?”
Winry shook her head numbly.
“Do you think I couldn’t tell there was something strange going on the minute we found you in the hospital?” he continued. “We’re-“ he stopped, pausing, teeth clenched. “What are we, Winry? Lovers? Siblings? Friends? Whatever we’re calling it, just how long were you going to wait before talking to me?”
“It just- it just happened one day,” she said softly, slowly. “He just showed up, and it happened so fast, we-“
Al shook his head in disgust, holding up his hand to halt her explanation. “I don’t care,” he said sharply. “I don’t want to hear about how it happened. I know you’ve been in love with him all along; you never denied it and I never asked you to.” His bronze eyes flashed with anger. “But I’m the one who’s been here for you all this time, I’m the one that never let my goals or my work or my job keep us apart for too long, and I’m the one who’s loved you back! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” he cried, his eyes bright and his face splotched with redness.
She wanted to wrap her arms around him, to pull him close to her and be his source of comfort like she had been so many times before, but she found herself drawing back in horror of herself. “Al,” she began, but he cut her off.
“Go away,” he said brokenly, his words trampling over her fallen heart. “Go upstairs, go wake Ed up and get yourself pregnant again in my bed, I don’t care, just leave me alone.”
She just stared at him, unmoving, unblinking, unspeaking, for several minutes before she forced herself to walk around the couch and sit down next to him. “That will never happen,” she said quietly. “It’s not something that will ever happen again.”
The look he gave her was full of such condescension and disgust that she felt as if he had physically struck her. “I don’t care,” he repeated. “You can do whatever you want, I’m not keeping you away from him,” he said, and his words stung. He waved his hand between them, gesturing to the invisible-and-fraying bond. “This was never- we were never anything, were we? Not to you.”
Tears began to spring up in her eyes, but his face did not soften. We were never anything? “That’s not true,” she whispered.
“What do you know,” he said, his voice cold, “about truth?”
She stood, opening her mouth to defend herself, then closed it without speaking. “I’m sorry,” she whispered instead. “I’m sorry, Al. I never meant to hurt you.”
“But you did.”
“I know.” What else could she say? She felt as if she was standing before God, not Al, not in her own house but in the great hereafter, receiving the final judgment and being found horribly, irreparably lacking.
Bronze eyes stared up at here. “Weren’t you going to bed?” he said pointedly, picking up the book again and opening it to the page he had marked. I’m the one who’s loved you back. The words echoed through her mind as she turned, wordless, and climbed the stairs to her bedroom.
When she awoke it was pitch black, the clouds having covered the moon, and her heart was pounding. An unfounded sense of fear seized her stomach, and she could not shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong. Her first thought was for Kaiya, and she flung herself out of bed, shoving the blankets aside before she was even completely awake and stumbling to the bassinet.
Which was empty.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she flew out of the room what was going on? only to come to a halt in her doorway.
Gold eyes, glinting like a cat’s in the darkness, met hers from the other end of the hall. Ed was pacing slowly up and down the hall, holding Kaiya tightly to his chest.
“Ed?” she whispered.
“I said I would try to wake up,” he whispered back, rocking the baby slightly back and forth as he moved closer to her. “Remember?” When he stopped in front of her doorway the baby’s closed eyes slit open and her tiny face screwed up, gearing up to cry. He looked down, rocking her gently and turning to pace slowly back down the hall. Winry followed after him, trailing only a foot or so behind, and when he turned at the other end she reached for her daughter, taking her into her own arms. She remained silent.
“Did you give her her bottle?” she asked softly in the dark.
Ed nodded. “She would only quiet down if I was moving, I couldn’t get her to go back to sleep. It must have been you she wanted,” he said, shrugging. “I can’t believe she didn’t wake you up,” he added.
She tried to push away the feeling of terror she had awakened with, but it would not subside. “Where’s Al?” she asked next.
Ed raised his eyebrows. “Downstairs,” he said. “On the couch.”
“Are you sure?” she pressed, leaning over the railing to peer down into the dark house.
“Shouldn’t I be?” he asked, puzzled.
She could make out his form, in the black and grey of the shadows, curled on the couch, and breathed a sigh of relief. “I had this terrible feeling that something was missing,” she explained hesitantly, feeling suddenly silly. “It must have been a bad dream.”
Ed touched his finger to Kaiya’s soft cheek, looking down at her for a moment. “Is she sleeping now?” he asked quietly.
Winry rocked her back and forth, nodding slightly. “Did you and Al fight?” she asked in the darkness, and could feel his surprise.
“No,” he said simply.
“I tried to talk to him earlier,” she said, the words tumbling from her and out into the air between them, continuing, “but I just didn’t know what to say, I thought he would be angry, and I was ready for that, but he’s not, he’s just sad, and I don’t know what to do, I feel terrible, and I don’t know what to say,” she repeated, a desperate tone creeping into her voice.
She felt a warm hand on her back, rubbing slowly up and down. “Say you’re sorry,” he said gently. “Say it was a mistake, and we’ll never do it again.”
“A mistake?” she repeated numbly.
He nodded behind her. “It was a mistake, and it didn’t mean anything,” he said firmly, careful to keep his own conflict out of his voice.
A mistake? she screamed inwardly. A mistake?
He’s always said it was a mistake. The very next morning he said he regretted it. He didn’t even spend the night with me, he left to sleep downstairs as soon as we were done. She held her child closer to her chest, watching her tiny form rise and fall with each breath. I knew that, and even then I wasn’t sorry it happened.
“I can’t say that,” she whispered, and she felt his hand leave her back, dropping to his side.
He’s been in love with someone else all along. Someone he’ll never see again. Minutes passed in silence as she started down at her daughter, her beautiful daughter, and listened to Ed breathing behind her. “Do you love him?” he asked finally, the words staying in the air even after he spoke.
“Yes.”
“Then tell him that.”
Al snatched the phone out of his brother’s hand as soon as he picked it up, glaring at him. “Hello?” he said, using his most official voice. “Yes, hold on one moment please,” he said as a response, setting the phone down and opening the downstairs door and calling, “Winry! Customer on the phone!”
They both heard her feet pounding on the stairs before they saw her, and she scooped up the phone, saying brightly, “Winry Rockbell, Rockbell Automail, how can I help you?” She plopped down in one of the kitchen chairs, propping her feet up on the table, chattering excitedly away about her newest services.
Ed narrowed his eyes at his brother. “Her customer might have recognized my voice and alerted the press that the Fullmetal Alchemist is back,” he said sarcastically.
“Brother!” Al said, exasperated. “Take this seriously! There’s already a ton of rumors, we don’t need to do anything else to feed them.”
“I am taking it seriously, but I can’t hide forever. Can I?” he added doubtfully. “I mean, you said there’s already rumors, and I’ve barely left the house since I’ve been back.”
“You were seen in East City. One reporter even claims to have photographed you.”
Ed just shrugged. “It was Roy’s idea to parade me around East City with him, he said it would be fine, and for all I know, it was. I saw that photo: it’s old. I must have been fourteen in the picture. You don’t want me to answer the phone, but you do want me to come to Central with you. Make up your mind, Al!”
His brother sighed elaborately. “That’s different,” he said patiently, having explained himself many times before. “We’re going to see people in Central who already know you’re back, or who we can trust not to tell anyone. Yeah, it’s true that around here you have a lot of fans, but believe me, the rest of the country isn’t like that. It’s better not to fan the flames, okay?”
Ed groaned. “Right, right, you’ve said that before. But Al, when we go to Central, who isn’t going to recognize me? If you’re traveling around with someone who looks like an older version of you, who else could it possibly be?”
“We’ll just be careful, Brother, that’s all,” Al assured him. “Don’t you want to come to Central with me?” he asked suddenly. He had just assumed Ed would want to go with him, he hadn’t thought to ask him.
“Of course,” Ed answered promptly. “Of course, I’d like to be able to see you perform at the examination, too, but I guess that would be too dangerous, right?” He sighed, resigned, and leaned back against the wall, smiling fondly. “My little brother’s so famous,” he said then. “I’d really like to see your alchemy in action. Alphonse Elric, Soul Alchemist.”
Al shrugged this off. “Eh, you’ve seen my alchemy,” he said off-handedly. “It’s nothing you can’t do, too, I’m sure.”
Ed raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think I ever had an occasion to transmute a part of my soul into an inanimate object,” he told his brother.
He looked grave suddenly. “Sometimes I wish I couldn’t,” he said quietly. “It’s a talent that the military likes to take advantage of.”
Winry hung up the phone, glanced at the brothers and went back downstairs, and Ed was glad to have at least one source of tension leave the room again. Things had been very strained between them for the past few days. He knew that Al did not, under any circumstances, want to discuss his involvement with the military, and for the most part Ed respected that. He knew the military and knew, even if Al did not come right out and say it, that he must have been involved with things he wasn’t proud of. But, he reasoned, he must have done a lot of good, too, to have earned the reputation he did.
He switched back to a safe topic of conversation, one that did not involve Winry or the military. “I can’t wait to see Mrs. Hughes,” he said. “Her pies are amazing. You’ve had them, I’m sure?”
Al nodded enthusiastically. His brother’s love of Mrs. Hughes’ pie had become nearly legendary. In fact, everything about Ed had become nearly legendary in his quest for information about his missing years with his brother. His methodical mind was still cataloguing all the differences between the man and the legend, fitting them in there with differences between the legend and the boy he grew up with. The biggest strain was the jump from boy to man, forget the legend he did not remember. “Elysia likes to tell people she remembers seeing you the day she was born. Of course, that’s impossible, but I guess it makes a good story,” he said then, thinking of the enthusiastic ten year old with the penchant for showing him her photo albums.
Both brothers jumped when the phone rang again, and both of them leaped for it, but Al, being the faster one, got his hand on it first, only to have a startled expression cross his face. “It’s for you,” he said, eyebrows drawn together in puzzlement. “It’s General Mustang.” He wondered at the immediate smile that flashed across his brother’s face, but shrugged and handed Ed the phone.
“Roy?” he heard his brother say as he stretched the chord to reach through the doorway into the next room. “Yeah, I’m doing all right. Well, things are a little tense around here, but we’re all doing okay. How are you?” Then Ed pulled the door shut around the chord, and the conversation was muffled.
Al stared at the door for a moment, part of him briefly wondering yet again exactly what kind of relationship his brother and the General had. He supposed, as two boys without parents, they had collected mother and father figures throughout their journeys together. He certainly had when he was on his own, otherwise he never would have been as successful as he was. In his own mind, he had always believed that the General (who had been a Colonel when he first entered Al’s own memory) had been a kind of father figure to both of them, if not a bit misguided here and there, but he of course knew the stories about the General and his brother having an affair. Was it possible? Given the way Al had seen them interact, he doubted it.
The other part of him dwelled on the words Ed had spoke, things are a little tense around here. That was the understatement of the century. He felt overwhelming guilt pressing in on him for the things he had said to Winry, and the way he had avoided speaking to her the past few days. He tried talking to his brother about it, but Ed had told him he of all people had no reason to feel guilty. Still, Brother, she said she was sorry, and I told her to go away. Ed had nearly exploded. Al, you’re not a saint, stop trying to be one! It’s all right to be upset with her, and it’s all right to be upset with me! Still, he felt he was responsible for the next move towards easing the tension in their household.
“Oh,” he heard behind him, and spun around. Lost in his thoughts as he was, Al had not heard her come back up the stairs. “I thought the phone was for me again.”
Her eyes darted from side to side, almost as if she was afraid of him. Well, let her be, he thought fiercely. Let her be afraid I’ll never speak to her again, let her be afraid I think she’s a horrible person. I’m a powerful alchemist, she wont be the first person to fear me. “It was General Mustang. Brother is talking to him in the other room,” he said, keeping his voice level.
She raised her eyebrows hesitantly.
“I guess they are planning to get together in Central, or something.”
“Kaiya wants to be a mechanic when she grows up,” Winry said suddenly.
Al looked at her blankly. “Huh?”
“She loves my wrench,” she said, her tone bright, false. “And when I’m hammering things, she waves it around with this big grin on her face-“
“Winry, I have to ask you something,” he said abruptly, cutting at once through her chatter, looking back over his shoulder at the phone chord trailing under the door.
She did that flick with her eyes again, side to side, but nodded. “Anything,” she said quietly, suddenly subdued.
“All this time that we’ve been together, was I only second best?” he asked, his voice thin, stretching out across the room, not caring if the question was fair.
“No,” she said, and she sounded honest. “No, Al, you weren’t second best. You were the only one.”
“The only one you loved, or the only one who was there?” he pressed painfully.
She tried to look away, but he moved everywhere her eyes wandered, finally grasping her by the shoulders. “Please, just answer me,” he implored her. “I have to know. I’m tired of you both hiding things from me!”
She put her hands up to her shoulders, taking his in her own, holding them in front of her. She pulled him over to the table, sitting down, and he followed, taking the chair across from her and not dropping her hands. “I don’t think it really matters how I feel about your brother,” she said finally, leaning across the table, searching his face for some kind of understanding. “You were right, what you said before. You are the one who loves me back. I do love Ed, we’re best friends, the three of us are, we always have been, of course we love each other.” They were Ed’s words, the same answer Ed had given when he asked. I love her. I’m not in love with her. Could he gauge her sincerity? Could he gauge the sincerity of anyone he loved, when all he wanted was to believe them? “Your brother…” she began, her voice trailing off. “Ed isn’t attracted to women.”
Al scoffed, pulling his hands out of hers. “Yes he is. He is attracted to you,” he said bitterly. “Even a fool can see that.”
“No, he’s not,” she said seriously. “He- in that other place, he had a lover. A man. He told me.”
Al looked away suddenly. “Yeah, I know about that,” he said stiffly. “I met him.”
“Really?” Winry asked, her curiosity momentarily blotting out her discomfort. “You did?””
He eyed her suspiciously. “Brother never told you?”
“Not really. I never asked,” she admitted. “Was he… was he good to him?”
Good to him? That’s what I am known for, right? Being good? “He was… like me,” Al said slowly.
“Like you?” Winry repeated, confused.
“Yeah.” She watched him swallow, look away, push his chair away from the table, hearing it scrape across the tile floor.
When it became apparent that Al was not going to share anything else with her, she took a deep breath, forcing herself to continue the conversation. “I just want things to go back to the way they were before,” she said quietly
He fixed his eyes on her own, grey as steel and full of emotion. “Things will never go back to the way they were before,” he said roughly. “That’s impossible, always has been, for everything. Why would you want to go back to a lie?”
“Because it wasn’t a lie. I do love you, Al, and I don’t want to lose you.”
He wanted to smile, and looked down. There. That was what he had wanted to hear. Why didn’t it feel the way he thought it would?
He turned away from her. “You’re not going to lose me,” he said, his tone unreadable. “I’m right here. I always will be. For Kaiya, because she’s my daughter, and if she isn’t, I love her as if she was. I’m not going anywhere. If nothing else, we’re still a family.” He pressed his hands on his knees, standing up with a heavy sigh. “I’m going upstairs,” he said, as if the conversation had never happened. “I’ve got some things to look over before we leave for Central. Everyone expects something really impressive for the exams, and I’m going to give it to them.”
“How’s the baby?” Roy asked into the phone, half just to make conversation and half out of genuine curiosity. He sat at his desk, mounds of paperwork that had been piling up around him for the past few weeks surrounding him, and he found himself looking forward to the Elric’s visit enough to make a phone call. When had he gotten this restless? He had only been back in the office a month, having joined General Hawkeye in secret operations just after returning from Ishbal with Edward.
“She’s beautiful, Roy, she’s amazing, you have no idea,” Ed gushed, “and she looks like a baby Winry, you know, just like her baby pictures, and of course we’ll have to bring all the pictures we took so you can see them when we come to Central-“
“Ed,” Roy interrupted, breaking off the flow of praise for the tiny child, “you’re bringing the baby. I don’t need to see pictures of her if I get to see her in real life, too.”
“Oh,” came the subdued response, followed by a soft laugh at his own enthusiasm, but Roy didn’t really hear it.
Oh, but how can you not want to see as many Elysias as possible? Seeing the pictures will only make you realize how much more beautiful she is in real life! Wait until you have one of your own, Roy, you’ll understand then!
“Hey,” the voice on the phone crackled. “Hey, Roy, you still there? Hey!”
“I’m here,” he said softly into the receiver, staring down at the green blotter on his desk.
“Listen, Al’s real concerned about people recognizing me, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but I trust his judgment, of course. So, you really think it’s all right for us all to meet at a restaurant? I mean, you’re pretty high profile yourself, and between you and Al-“
Roy leaned his forehead onto his hand. “I’ll think of something,” he said, suddenly weary. “General Hawkeye really wants to be able to see you all, especially- well, especially with the state of things, right now,” he finished delicately. “And she’s going to be in town-“
“Ah ha!” Ed cried accusingly. “You don’t want to see us at all, bastard, you just wanted to get together with her! I knew it was something like that, I knew you aren’t really that nice!” The words were suspicious but the tone was fond, and Roy chuckled.
“I’ve seen plenty of her, Ed, more than I care to, actually,” he told the phone, glancing toward the darkening office window. It got dark earlier in the fall, he knew, but really, when had he gotten around to wasting so much time? There was still so many orders to sign, so many forms to review, he would definitely be working late that evening.
“Yeah, yeah, the top secret thing, I know. But that’s just work. You’re just looking for a way to get her to have dinner with you.”
“Okay, that’s enough, Fullmetal,” he said firmly, using his military name, trying to gain some kind of control of the conversation. “I have a lot of work to do, I don’t have time to waste arguing with you about my love life.”
“Hey!” Ed protested from Winry’s living room in Altenburg. “You called me, bastard! I’m not trying to waste your time!”
“I’m a very busy man,” he said coolly. “Just because I took some time out of my busy schedule to see how you were doing doesn’t mean I have time to be subjected to your relentless-“
“Fine! Fine, forget it, you’re not trying to scheme a way to take her to dinner, whatever, Roy,” Ed said good-naturedly. “Listen, I’ll see you next week, all right? Bye.”
There was a click and the line went dead. Roy raised his eye to the window again. The sun had already set, but there was still a bit of light left in the sky, turning everything an eerie blue. What’s it feel like to be a father, Ed? he asked in his head. Maes, what’s it like to be a father? Is it really the best feeling in the world?
Just wait until you have kids of your own, Roy, then you’ll understand.
“Yo, General,” said a voice from the doorway.
Roy turned his gaze forward again, nodding to Havoc in greeting.
“You got those forms for intelligence yet? I was thinking about cutting out early today, but I gotta go over them before I can leave,” the man said, slouching against the doorframe, cigarette, as always, dangling from the corner of his mouth.
“I haven’t quite gotten to them,” the General hedged, “but they’re in the pile with everything else I have to finish today.” He frowned. “And don’t smoke in my office, Lieutenant,” he added. “I don’t want ash on my carpet.”
Havoc smirked. “I’m not in your office,” he said wryly. “See?” He gestured to his feet, which, sure enough, were clearly on the other side of the doorway. “I’m merely next to your office, and can smoke as much as I want.” That said, he waltzed into the room, flopping down in one of the leather chairs in front of Roy’s desk, propping his feet up right next to the fancy row of fountain pens in their hand-made holder and blowing out a stream of smoke at the ceiling, watching Roy’s eyebrow twitch and all but daring him to object. “You seen the papers recently?” he asked innocently.
“Hm? The papers? Of course, why?”
Havoc tossed a folded paper, several days old, onto the center of the desk and snatched up a bowl of paperclips to flick the end of his cigarette into.
“Oh, that,” Roy said neutrally, choosing to ignore the conversion of office supply to ashtray.
“Yeah, that,” Havoc echoed. FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST SPOTTED IN EAST CITY, read the headline. Still bean sized after six years read the subline. Roy groaned. God, has Ed read this? Has he blown the roof off yet?
“This one,” he said, pointing to the picture on the left, “is more than eight years old. He can’t be more than fourteen in that picture; in fact, I remember when it was taken. You and I were standing just to the left there, out of the frame.”
Havoc was nodding. “Yeah, I remember that, but what about this one, eh?”
Roy barely glanced at it. “That’s Alphonse,” he lied, his voice polished. A little too polished.
It was a grainy photo, at best, but Roy could tell it had been taken in East City. Probably the same day he had talked Ed into allowing him to buy him some new clothes.
The other man nodded again. “Right,” he confirmed. “Clearly. That’s definitely Alphonse. Thanks, General, now I’ve got my story straight.” He leaned back in the chair, folding his arms casually behind his head. “So, about those forms, you know, they just need your signature, you could sign them right now so I can get out of here-“
Roy frowned. “What’s the big rush?” he asked, his voice thick with false irritation. “Can’t you see I have a lot to do? What makes you think your forms are my top priority?”
“Oh come on,” the man pushed. “I’ve got a big date tonight.”
The General raised an eyebrow. “With who?”
Havoc smirked, staring hard at the other man’s face, wanting to remember his expression forever. “General Hawkeye,” he said nonchalantly, giving a light shrug.
FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST SPOTTED IN EAST CITY
Still bean sized after six years
The press has just received a file from an anonymous photographer, clearly showing the Fullmetal Alchemist, alias Edward Elric, was recently in East City with one General Roy Mustang. Pursued by the military for his involvement in the Lior situation and later suspected by the government of performing a Human Transmutation, Fullmetal disappeared over six years ago without a trace.
Known as the original Elric prodigy, he began his military career when he passed the State Alchemist exam at the young age of twelve. At that time, he was the youngest ever to receive the certification. Over the four years he spent with the military, he earned the title “The People’s Alchemist,” and became something of a celebrity, especially in the north, from where he originated. However, his wide range of alchemical talents were quickly surpassed by his younger brother, Alphonse Elric, who passed the State Alchemist Exam at eleven and was given the title of Soul Alchemist.
Pronounced dead by the military but still believed to be in hiding by the government, the existence of the Fullmetal Alchemist has remained a mystery to the people of Amestris. There were frequent “Fullmetal sightings” up to two years after his disappearance, but recently there has been a new rash of rumors that, after extensive investigation, turned out to be more credible than previous sightings.
Did Edward Elric go into hiding when parliament took control of the government, realizing that he would be made to pay for his crimes against the people of Lior, or had he been a fugitive even before the new government was put into place? Did he intend to escape the corruption of the old military and stay true to his reputation as the “People’s Alchemist,” helping people quietly all this time, out of the government’s sight? Is it possible that despite the investigation bureau’s conclusions, his brother was in fact a product of a Human Transmutation, and the Fullmetal Alchemist fears punishment for that crime more than anything else?
Whatever the truth is, the fact remains that although proof now exists that Fullmetal is indeed alive, our sources inform us that due to the recent civil unrest, the government lacks the necessary resources to fully investigate the situation. For now, the country will be left to wonder if the Fullmetal Alchemist was really a friend or a foe.
click.
Golden eyes narrowed. “Hey!”
Winry was already shaking out the stiff card, staring at the moment she had captured as she continued through the room. The bright mid-morning sun glared off the snow, drenching the room in whitish light, and Ed sat in the corner of the couch, a blanket around his shoulders and Kaiya curled in one arm. The baby was still clutching her ring of wooden keys, but she lay against his chest, awake and silent, eyes wide and enraptured at the sound of his voice. A book was propped on his knees, kept open by his free hand, and he was reading quietly out loud, for the most part ignoring the photographic interruption.
One empty cereal bowl, one plate of unidentifiable crumbs, one orange peel, one candy wrapper, one empty coffee mug and one empty bottle sat piled on the table, forgotten. “…the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses-“
“Ed!” Winry interrupted. “What on earth are you reading her, an alchemy book? She can’t even understand you!”
“She likes it!” he protested, looking down at Kaiya’s contented expression.
The font door opened a second time and a second blast of cold air blew into the room. Al pulled his hat off his head, running his hand over his flattened hair, and stomped the snow off his boots.
“Look what I got,” Winry said smugly, handing him the picture, and he laughed.
“Aw,” he said, smiling at the now-clear photo of his brother and the baby.
“He’s reading her an alchemy book, can you believe it?” she continued, trying to tease Ed some more, although he was pointedly still reading quietly as though he had never been interrupted.
Al just shrugged. “So? At least he’s not reading her the periodic table of elements or something,” he said defensively.
“Hey!” Ed said from the couch, finally closing the book. “I wouldn’t do that. I don’t want her first words to be hydrogen and helium!”
Kaiya stirred in his arm, squirming a bit and wrinkling her forehead now that the steady sound of his reading voice had switched to ordinary conversation.
Winry plucked the book out of his lap and stared at the cover. “The Philosopher’s Stone?” she read, raising an eyebrow.
Al snatched it out of her hands, looking at the cover. “Uh, brother, that’s not an alchemy book…” he said, and Ed laughed.
“Yeah, I managed to figure that out by about, I don’t know, the first sentence?” He shrugged. “It’s a good story, though, if you like reading about magic and all that stuff.”
“Is this what you’ve been doing all morning?” Winry said, eying the mess on the coffee table.
Ed began to rock the baby back and forth, trying to sooth her back into contentment, and said, “Well, we had some breakfast, and we listened to the radio, and then we decided to read a book, right, Kaiya?”
Al laughed again. “So, in other words, you’re teaching her how to slack off.”
Ed nodded. “Right. Valuable skill, slacking. You can never start too early. Why, where did you go?”
They exchanged glances. “We shoveled the snow off the font porch and the sidewalk,” Al said.
Ed raised an eyebrow. “All morning?”
Winry snickered. “Al got in a snowball fight with the neighbor kids,” she told him.
“Hey,” Al protested. “What do you mean, I got in a fight with them? You terrorized them! They’re never going to play near our yard again!”
“I didn’t terrorize them! At least I was using good old-fashioned snowballs, not some kind of alchemical snow cannon!”
“They thought my cannon was cool!”
Ed was nodding approvingly. “Nice, Al,” he said.
His younger brother handed him back the book, and began to walk towards the kitchen. “I’m going to make hot chocolate, Winry, you want some?” he called over his shoulder.
“Yes please!” she called back.
“Me too!” Ed added.
She plopped down in the other corner of the couch. “You don’t get any, you didn’t help with the snow,” she retorted.
Ed sniffed. “I would have if you asked,” he told her. Hey, I’m glad you and Al seem to be getting along again, he said in his mind.
“Oh shit,” came Al’s voice from the kitchen.
“What happened?” they both called in unison.
“Don’t say ‘shit’ in front of the baby!” Ed added.
Al appeared again in the doorway, tossing a bundle of newsprint their way. “You read this,” he said flatly, “and then tell me what to say.”
Jean Havoc could not believe his luck. It was the perfect evening for a date, chill enough for him to offer to throw his jacket around her shoulders, but not too bitter to walk around looking at the stars. She had agreed to meet him by the fountain in the center of the city, and then join him at one of the finer restaurants in the area. He chortled to himself, recalling again the General’s startled expression.
When they met they hugged briefly, and he was reminded that it was not a real date as he took the thick envelope she tucked inside his jacket. Still, one could hope. “You look lovely this evening, General,” he said, smiling a charming smile.
She nodded in thanks. “You look very well yourself, Lieutenant,” she said crisply.
“Shame about that rule about fraternizing with subordinates, isn’t it, General?” he said, still charming, offering his arm.
“Shame that you aren’t technically my subordinate, you’re Roy’s,” she replied, equally charming, placing a hand on the offered arm and walking in step with him towards the restaurant. Suddenly she stiffened. “What was that?” she hissed.
Immediately he snapped out of date-mode, his senses alert. “What was what?” he said quietly, even as he heard an odd sputtering sound. “Get down!” he yelled, the restaurant they had been heading for suddenly exploding in flames, the glass shattering outward onto the street and people screaming all around. Riza grabbed him by the arm, jerking to the side as two bullets whizzed by him, the sound of the shots lost in the explosion. In a split second she shot twice in the direction of the bullets he didn’t even see her draw her gun and began issuing instructions to the police officers that had come running.
Edward awoke slowly, as if working through layer upon layer of fog, painstakingly sorting dreams from reality. His brother’s ability to wake instantly must be a learned talent; he was working on learning it too. If Winry says a good parent wakes up when the baby cries at night, then damn it all, he was going to wake up. Sitting up, he realized he still slept on the very edge of the bed, even though he had been sleeping alone for the past week. In the mornings he woke up grasping at empty sheets, but at least, he told himself daily, that was better than waking up kissing his younger brother.
It wasn’t the sound of Kaiya waking, it was a thrashing about, a muttering, something unlike anything he had woken up to before. Quietly, he made his way down the hall, pausing at Winry’s door but hearing only silence. “Al!” he hissed in the darkness, hurrying down the stairs and cursing when he stumbled over a pair of shoes that had been left out on the living room floor. “Al?” he said, his voice a trace louder, leaning over the back of the couch, concerned.
His brother had one arm thrown over his eyes, and was whacking at the cushions with the other. “No,” he whimpered. “No, you can’t, don’t hurt him, don’t do this!”
“Hey, Al!” Ed said sharply, coming around to the front of the couch and taking the younger man by the shoulders. “Hey, wake up, it’s a nightmare. Al?”
“I hate you!” Al said fiercely, swinging his fist blindly, striking his older brother in the arm. “I hate you,” he repeated.
Ed grabbed his brother’s fist, pinning it to the couch, and shook him with his metal hand. “Al, wake up!” he said again.
“Blood,” Al muttered. “So much blood, brother, you have so much blood in you.” He lifted his arm from over his eyes and Ed could see that his face was streaked with tears. Swallowing hard, he crouched next to the couch, scooping his brother awkwardly in his arms, pulling him into a sitting position.
“Al,” he said soothingly, hesitantly, rubbing one hand up and down the side of his head. “Al, come on, wake up, it was just a dream.”
Grey eyes, black in the darkness, opened and darted around the room. “Are we dead?” he whispered, sending shivers up Ed’s spine. “Are we both dead now?”
“Shhh,” Ed murmured, closing his arms around him. “No one’s dead, Al. It was a dream. No one’s hurt; no one’s dead,” he said, wondering wildly what his brother had been dreaming. His eyes widened as Al began to sob, his body shaking in his arms. “Brother, he killed you!” he said, his voice muffled from pressing his face into his brother’s flesh shoulder.
He felt his breath catch; a coldness seized him by the chest and spread outward. “Who did?” he asked, his voice a mere whisper in the darkness.
“I don’t know,” Al said into his shoulder. “That thing.”
“What thing?” Ed pressed, his chest aching with every pound of his heart.
“I don’t know. I don’t know!” he repeated, panic rising in his voice. He picked his head up, staring Ed in the face, the whites of his eyes glaring in the half-light from the windows. “Brother, I saw you die!” He clutched his hands to his own chest. “At night, when I dream, I see you die. It stabs you, here, and I feel it.” Another sob wracked his trembling body, and Ed tightened his arms around him. “What is it, brother? What is that thing?”
“What does it look like?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t know!” his brother cried. “I’m looking at it, but I don’t see it, I only know it’s evil, and it wants to kill you-“
“Shhhh,” Ed interrupted, shuddering at the memory pressing at the edges of his own mind. “Al, it’s all right now. We won. We’re both alive; we’re both okay. You saved me, don’t you remember that part?”
Al stilled in his arms, and was silent for a moment. Then he pulled away, turning to face his brother. His eyes had lost that wild look, and his face was serious, intent, and shadowed in the dark. “What are you talking about? Do you have this dream too?”
“I- yeah,” he said softly. “I dream about it too. I guess I always will. I didn’t know you remembered it.”
The younger brother frowned. “What do you mean? You didn’t really die, you can’t have. You were alive on the other side of the Gate all that time. You’re alive now, I’m awake, and I know that. It’s just this nightmare I have where you die…” but Ed was shaking his head slowly. “Brother?”
“Oh Al,” he said slowly, his voice heavy. “You didn’t know?”
“Know what?” his brother whispered.
“I’m sorry,” Ed said quietly. “I thought- I figured someone would have told you- but there wasn’t anyone, was there?”
“Tell me what?” he hissed. “You can’t have- that’s impossible- what are you talking about?”
He put his hand gently on the back of his brother’s head. “You do have those memories, somewhere,” he said. “You have enough of them to give you nightmares.”
“What am I remembering?” Al whispered, his eyes locked on his brother’s. “Tell me, Ed, please tell me?”
Another shudder went up his spine, and Ed felt his breath catch again. When he spoke his voice was measured, even, and eerie in the dark. “The homunculus, Envy, the one that Dad and Dante created, stabbed me with a spear and I died. You brought me back, Al, and I was whole and complete. When I stood up, it was on two flesh legs; I had two arms, two hands. But I was alone. You were gone.”
“How? How did I do that?”
“You had the Stone.”
“But I don’t know how to do a… Human Transmutation,” he protested.
“Yes you do,” Ed said evenly, his words weighing heavily on the air. “We both do.”
“All this time,” Al said slowly, “I thought you gave your life to get my body back.”
“I did.”
“But I didn’t know- I didn’t know that’s how it happened- Brother!” he said, worried. “You’re shaking!” Al wrapped his arms around his brother, pulling him in tight and feeling the tremors lessen. “I’m sorry!” he cried. “I’m sorry I made you talk about this.”
Ed took a deep breath, trying to calm his body, which seemed to be reacting independently of his mind. “I’m okay, Al. It’s okay. You should know what happened.” He shifted on the couch, pushing himself back into the corner and pulling Al with him. Although he was the bigger of the two, always had been since they were very young, Al found himself crawling onto his older brother’s lap and burying his face in his chest. Ed tightened his arms around him.
“I woke you up,” Al said into his shoulder.
“Yeah,” Ed said to the top of his head.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right.”
After a moment, Al said, “Brother?”
“Hm?”
“Stay with me?”
Ed sighed, shifting again. “Let’s both go sleep upstairs, Al.”
“Mmm,” was the only response as Al snuggled into his shoulder. Ed leaned his head back on the couch, staring up into the darkness, forcing the thoughts out of his mind.
Zwischenzeit II: The Little Joys
Note: Since this chapter was split into two, what is now chapter four will be posted shortly. Thanks for waiting.
Note2: Three guesses as to what Ed is reading. And no, it’s not just a random insertion, it is an actual plot point. (albeit in a very, very roundabout way)
Note3: I know I said Al was going to get mad. This wasnt the chapter in which that happens.
Chapter: # 3, Conversations in the Dark
Previous: 1, I, 2
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: PG
Spoilers: for the entire series.
Summary: Some things are too difficult to deal with in the daylight
Chapter Three: Conversations in the Dark
Winry flicked off the light in her workshop, changing the air immediately to soft silvers and greys. She paused for a moment, looking out the clouded glass of the window at the snow-covered sleeping town. There was no movement outside, and the moon was high and chill, small and round in the sky, bouncing dusky silver off the snow and into the room. Sighing, she began to head up the dark staircase into the rest of the house, pausing on the landing before continuing up to the top floor and looking across the living room at the back of the couch. “Ed?” she called quietly. Ed often stayed up late into the night and ended up falling asleep with a book over his face, and she crossed the room, intending to switch off the reading lamp and tell him to go sleep upstairs. “Hey, why don’t you-“
But it wasn’t Ed on the couch at all, it was Al, curled up with a blanket and a book, awake and reading. He shut the volume carefully and sat up half-way, pulling the blanket closer around him. “Hm?” he murmured, raising his eyes to her.
Winry leaned over the back of the couch, letting her long hair fall over her shoulders. “Come to bed, Al, it’s two am,” she said tiredly.
Al shook his head. “I’m sleeping in here tonight.”
Winry raised her eyebrows. “Why?” she asked, startled.
Al looked off to the side, not meeting her eyes, suddenly uncomfortable. “Brother said he would sleep down here, since he falls asleep down here half the time anyway, but I felt bad since he’s been so sore recently. I said he could keep sleeping in my bed and I’d sleep down here, at least tonight,” he hedged, avoiding the real question.
She frowned. “So, all of a sudden you don’t want to share the bed or something?” she asked then, trying to make her voice light but unable to hide her puzzlement. Since the first night they had both been home together, the brothers had both slept intertwined, she had seen them when she passed Al’s room, and thought nothing of it. They had done the same thing when they were kids, in fact, all three of them had been known to fall asleep in a pile, when they were kids.
Al was still looking pointedly away at a picture frame on the far wall. “We just decided… that it might be better… to sleep… apart,” he stuttered out awkwardly.
“Okay,” she said finally, understanding at least that whatever had happened was not going to be shared with her. “Still,” she added, a bit hesitant, her heart fluttering nervously in her chest, why so nervous? “Why don’t you just sleep with me?” Her face flushed as soon as she spoke, her words sounding dirty, suddenly, and wrong.
Al just shook his head, pulling the blanket tighter around him and pressing himself into the corner of the couch. “No, I’m fine down here,” he said quietly.
“I didn’t mean-“ she stammered, feeling her flush growing, “-I meant, just sleep, you know, we don’t have to do anything-“ she stopped, mid-sentence, realizing as she spoke what felt so off about her suggestion. It’s not like we haven’t slept in each other’s beds before would have been the rest of her words. She opened her mouth to say- something, anything, some kind of excuse, but there was nothing.
“I don’t want to sleep near you.” His voice was cold.
“Ed told you,” she whispered, feeling her heart clench and sink like lead into the pit of her stomach.
“Did you think he wouldn’t have?” Al hissed. “We’re brothers, do you really think he would hide something like that from me?”
Winry shook her head numbly.
“Do you think I couldn’t tell there was something strange going on the minute we found you in the hospital?” he continued. “We’re-“ he stopped, pausing, teeth clenched. “What are we, Winry? Lovers? Siblings? Friends? Whatever we’re calling it, just how long were you going to wait before talking to me?”
“It just- it just happened one day,” she said softly, slowly. “He just showed up, and it happened so fast, we-“
Al shook his head in disgust, holding up his hand to halt her explanation. “I don’t care,” he said sharply. “I don’t want to hear about how it happened. I know you’ve been in love with him all along; you never denied it and I never asked you to.” His bronze eyes flashed with anger. “But I’m the one who’s been here for you all this time, I’m the one that never let my goals or my work or my job keep us apart for too long, and I’m the one who’s loved you back! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” he cried, his eyes bright and his face splotched with redness.
She wanted to wrap her arms around him, to pull him close to her and be his source of comfort like she had been so many times before, but she found herself drawing back in horror of herself. “Al,” she began, but he cut her off.
“Go away,” he said brokenly, his words trampling over her fallen heart. “Go upstairs, go wake Ed up and get yourself pregnant again in my bed, I don’t care, just leave me alone.”
She just stared at him, unmoving, unblinking, unspeaking, for several minutes before she forced herself to walk around the couch and sit down next to him. “That will never happen,” she said quietly. “It’s not something that will ever happen again.”
The look he gave her was full of such condescension and disgust that she felt as if he had physically struck her. “I don’t care,” he repeated. “You can do whatever you want, I’m not keeping you away from him,” he said, and his words stung. He waved his hand between them, gesturing to the invisible-and-fraying bond. “This was never- we were never anything, were we? Not to you.”
Tears began to spring up in her eyes, but his face did not soften. We were never anything? “That’s not true,” she whispered.
“What do you know,” he said, his voice cold, “about truth?”
She stood, opening her mouth to defend herself, then closed it without speaking. “I’m sorry,” she whispered instead. “I’m sorry, Al. I never meant to hurt you.”
“But you did.”
“I know.” What else could she say? She felt as if she was standing before God, not Al, not in her own house but in the great hereafter, receiving the final judgment and being found horribly, irreparably lacking.
Bronze eyes stared up at here. “Weren’t you going to bed?” he said pointedly, picking up the book again and opening it to the page he had marked. I’m the one who’s loved you back. The words echoed through her mind as she turned, wordless, and climbed the stairs to her bedroom.
When she awoke it was pitch black, the clouds having covered the moon, and her heart was pounding. An unfounded sense of fear seized her stomach, and she could not shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong. Her first thought was for Kaiya, and she flung herself out of bed, shoving the blankets aside before she was even completely awake and stumbling to the bassinet.
Which was empty.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she flew out of the room what was going on? only to come to a halt in her doorway.
Gold eyes, glinting like a cat’s in the darkness, met hers from the other end of the hall. Ed was pacing slowly up and down the hall, holding Kaiya tightly to his chest.
“Ed?” she whispered.
“I said I would try to wake up,” he whispered back, rocking the baby slightly back and forth as he moved closer to her. “Remember?” When he stopped in front of her doorway the baby’s closed eyes slit open and her tiny face screwed up, gearing up to cry. He looked down, rocking her gently and turning to pace slowly back down the hall. Winry followed after him, trailing only a foot or so behind, and when he turned at the other end she reached for her daughter, taking her into her own arms. She remained silent.
“Did you give her her bottle?” she asked softly in the dark.
Ed nodded. “She would only quiet down if I was moving, I couldn’t get her to go back to sleep. It must have been you she wanted,” he said, shrugging. “I can’t believe she didn’t wake you up,” he added.
She tried to push away the feeling of terror she had awakened with, but it would not subside. “Where’s Al?” she asked next.
Ed raised his eyebrows. “Downstairs,” he said. “On the couch.”
“Are you sure?” she pressed, leaning over the railing to peer down into the dark house.
“Shouldn’t I be?” he asked, puzzled.
She could make out his form, in the black and grey of the shadows, curled on the couch, and breathed a sigh of relief. “I had this terrible feeling that something was missing,” she explained hesitantly, feeling suddenly silly. “It must have been a bad dream.”
Ed touched his finger to Kaiya’s soft cheek, looking down at her for a moment. “Is she sleeping now?” he asked quietly.
Winry rocked her back and forth, nodding slightly. “Did you and Al fight?” she asked in the darkness, and could feel his surprise.
“No,” he said simply.
“I tried to talk to him earlier,” she said, the words tumbling from her and out into the air between them, continuing, “but I just didn’t know what to say, I thought he would be angry, and I was ready for that, but he’s not, he’s just sad, and I don’t know what to do, I feel terrible, and I don’t know what to say,” she repeated, a desperate tone creeping into her voice.
She felt a warm hand on her back, rubbing slowly up and down. “Say you’re sorry,” he said gently. “Say it was a mistake, and we’ll never do it again.”
“A mistake?” she repeated numbly.
He nodded behind her. “It was a mistake, and it didn’t mean anything,” he said firmly, careful to keep his own conflict out of his voice.
A mistake? she screamed inwardly. A mistake?
He’s always said it was a mistake. The very next morning he said he regretted it. He didn’t even spend the night with me, he left to sleep downstairs as soon as we were done. She held her child closer to her chest, watching her tiny form rise and fall with each breath. I knew that, and even then I wasn’t sorry it happened.
“I can’t say that,” she whispered, and she felt his hand leave her back, dropping to his side.
He’s been in love with someone else all along. Someone he’ll never see again. Minutes passed in silence as she started down at her daughter, her beautiful daughter, and listened to Ed breathing behind her. “Do you love him?” he asked finally, the words staying in the air even after he spoke.
“Yes.”
“Then tell him that.”
Al snatched the phone out of his brother’s hand as soon as he picked it up, glaring at him. “Hello?” he said, using his most official voice. “Yes, hold on one moment please,” he said as a response, setting the phone down and opening the downstairs door and calling, “Winry! Customer on the phone!”
They both heard her feet pounding on the stairs before they saw her, and she scooped up the phone, saying brightly, “Winry Rockbell, Rockbell Automail, how can I help you?” She plopped down in one of the kitchen chairs, propping her feet up on the table, chattering excitedly away about her newest services.
Ed narrowed his eyes at his brother. “Her customer might have recognized my voice and alerted the press that the Fullmetal Alchemist is back,” he said sarcastically.
“Brother!” Al said, exasperated. “Take this seriously! There’s already a ton of rumors, we don’t need to do anything else to feed them.”
“I am taking it seriously, but I can’t hide forever. Can I?” he added doubtfully. “I mean, you said there’s already rumors, and I’ve barely left the house since I’ve been back.”
“You were seen in East City. One reporter even claims to have photographed you.”
Ed just shrugged. “It was Roy’s idea to parade me around East City with him, he said it would be fine, and for all I know, it was. I saw that photo: it’s old. I must have been fourteen in the picture. You don’t want me to answer the phone, but you do want me to come to Central with you. Make up your mind, Al!”
His brother sighed elaborately. “That’s different,” he said patiently, having explained himself many times before. “We’re going to see people in Central who already know you’re back, or who we can trust not to tell anyone. Yeah, it’s true that around here you have a lot of fans, but believe me, the rest of the country isn’t like that. It’s better not to fan the flames, okay?”
Ed groaned. “Right, right, you’ve said that before. But Al, when we go to Central, who isn’t going to recognize me? If you’re traveling around with someone who looks like an older version of you, who else could it possibly be?”
“We’ll just be careful, Brother, that’s all,” Al assured him. “Don’t you want to come to Central with me?” he asked suddenly. He had just assumed Ed would want to go with him, he hadn’t thought to ask him.
“Of course,” Ed answered promptly. “Of course, I’d like to be able to see you perform at the examination, too, but I guess that would be too dangerous, right?” He sighed, resigned, and leaned back against the wall, smiling fondly. “My little brother’s so famous,” he said then. “I’d really like to see your alchemy in action. Alphonse Elric, Soul Alchemist.”
Al shrugged this off. “Eh, you’ve seen my alchemy,” he said off-handedly. “It’s nothing you can’t do, too, I’m sure.”
Ed raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think I ever had an occasion to transmute a part of my soul into an inanimate object,” he told his brother.
He looked grave suddenly. “Sometimes I wish I couldn’t,” he said quietly. “It’s a talent that the military likes to take advantage of.”
Winry hung up the phone, glanced at the brothers and went back downstairs, and Ed was glad to have at least one source of tension leave the room again. Things had been very strained between them for the past few days. He knew that Al did not, under any circumstances, want to discuss his involvement with the military, and for the most part Ed respected that. He knew the military and knew, even if Al did not come right out and say it, that he must have been involved with things he wasn’t proud of. But, he reasoned, he must have done a lot of good, too, to have earned the reputation he did.
He switched back to a safe topic of conversation, one that did not involve Winry or the military. “I can’t wait to see Mrs. Hughes,” he said. “Her pies are amazing. You’ve had them, I’m sure?”
Al nodded enthusiastically. His brother’s love of Mrs. Hughes’ pie had become nearly legendary. In fact, everything about Ed had become nearly legendary in his quest for information about his missing years with his brother. His methodical mind was still cataloguing all the differences between the man and the legend, fitting them in there with differences between the legend and the boy he grew up with. The biggest strain was the jump from boy to man, forget the legend he did not remember. “Elysia likes to tell people she remembers seeing you the day she was born. Of course, that’s impossible, but I guess it makes a good story,” he said then, thinking of the enthusiastic ten year old with the penchant for showing him her photo albums.
Both brothers jumped when the phone rang again, and both of them leaped for it, but Al, being the faster one, got his hand on it first, only to have a startled expression cross his face. “It’s for you,” he said, eyebrows drawn together in puzzlement. “It’s General Mustang.” He wondered at the immediate smile that flashed across his brother’s face, but shrugged and handed Ed the phone.
“Roy?” he heard his brother say as he stretched the chord to reach through the doorway into the next room. “Yeah, I’m doing all right. Well, things are a little tense around here, but we’re all doing okay. How are you?” Then Ed pulled the door shut around the chord, and the conversation was muffled.
Al stared at the door for a moment, part of him briefly wondering yet again exactly what kind of relationship his brother and the General had. He supposed, as two boys without parents, they had collected mother and father figures throughout their journeys together. He certainly had when he was on his own, otherwise he never would have been as successful as he was. In his own mind, he had always believed that the General (who had been a Colonel when he first entered Al’s own memory) had been a kind of father figure to both of them, if not a bit misguided here and there, but he of course knew the stories about the General and his brother having an affair. Was it possible? Given the way Al had seen them interact, he doubted it.
The other part of him dwelled on the words Ed had spoke, things are a little tense around here. That was the understatement of the century. He felt overwhelming guilt pressing in on him for the things he had said to Winry, and the way he had avoided speaking to her the past few days. He tried talking to his brother about it, but Ed had told him he of all people had no reason to feel guilty. Still, Brother, she said she was sorry, and I told her to go away. Ed had nearly exploded. Al, you’re not a saint, stop trying to be one! It’s all right to be upset with her, and it’s all right to be upset with me! Still, he felt he was responsible for the next move towards easing the tension in their household.
“Oh,” he heard behind him, and spun around. Lost in his thoughts as he was, Al had not heard her come back up the stairs. “I thought the phone was for me again.”
Her eyes darted from side to side, almost as if she was afraid of him. Well, let her be, he thought fiercely. Let her be afraid I’ll never speak to her again, let her be afraid I think she’s a horrible person. I’m a powerful alchemist, she wont be the first person to fear me. “It was General Mustang. Brother is talking to him in the other room,” he said, keeping his voice level.
She raised her eyebrows hesitantly.
“I guess they are planning to get together in Central, or something.”
“Kaiya wants to be a mechanic when she grows up,” Winry said suddenly.
Al looked at her blankly. “Huh?”
“She loves my wrench,” she said, her tone bright, false. “And when I’m hammering things, she waves it around with this big grin on her face-“
“Winry, I have to ask you something,” he said abruptly, cutting at once through her chatter, looking back over his shoulder at the phone chord trailing under the door.
She did that flick with her eyes again, side to side, but nodded. “Anything,” she said quietly, suddenly subdued.
“All this time that we’ve been together, was I only second best?” he asked, his voice thin, stretching out across the room, not caring if the question was fair.
“No,” she said, and she sounded honest. “No, Al, you weren’t second best. You were the only one.”
“The only one you loved, or the only one who was there?” he pressed painfully.
She tried to look away, but he moved everywhere her eyes wandered, finally grasping her by the shoulders. “Please, just answer me,” he implored her. “I have to know. I’m tired of you both hiding things from me!”
She put her hands up to her shoulders, taking his in her own, holding them in front of her. She pulled him over to the table, sitting down, and he followed, taking the chair across from her and not dropping her hands. “I don’t think it really matters how I feel about your brother,” she said finally, leaning across the table, searching his face for some kind of understanding. “You were right, what you said before. You are the one who loves me back. I do love Ed, we’re best friends, the three of us are, we always have been, of course we love each other.” They were Ed’s words, the same answer Ed had given when he asked. I love her. I’m not in love with her. Could he gauge her sincerity? Could he gauge the sincerity of anyone he loved, when all he wanted was to believe them? “Your brother…” she began, her voice trailing off. “Ed isn’t attracted to women.”
Al scoffed, pulling his hands out of hers. “Yes he is. He is attracted to you,” he said bitterly. “Even a fool can see that.”
“No, he’s not,” she said seriously. “He- in that other place, he had a lover. A man. He told me.”
Al looked away suddenly. “Yeah, I know about that,” he said stiffly. “I met him.”
“Really?” Winry asked, her curiosity momentarily blotting out her discomfort. “You did?””
He eyed her suspiciously. “Brother never told you?”
“Not really. I never asked,” she admitted. “Was he… was he good to him?”
Good to him? That’s what I am known for, right? Being good? “He was… like me,” Al said slowly.
“Like you?” Winry repeated, confused.
“Yeah.” She watched him swallow, look away, push his chair away from the table, hearing it scrape across the tile floor.
When it became apparent that Al was not going to share anything else with her, she took a deep breath, forcing herself to continue the conversation. “I just want things to go back to the way they were before,” she said quietly
He fixed his eyes on her own, grey as steel and full of emotion. “Things will never go back to the way they were before,” he said roughly. “That’s impossible, always has been, for everything. Why would you want to go back to a lie?”
“Because it wasn’t a lie. I do love you, Al, and I don’t want to lose you.”
He wanted to smile, and looked down. There. That was what he had wanted to hear. Why didn’t it feel the way he thought it would?
He turned away from her. “You’re not going to lose me,” he said, his tone unreadable. “I’m right here. I always will be. For Kaiya, because she’s my daughter, and if she isn’t, I love her as if she was. I’m not going anywhere. If nothing else, we’re still a family.” He pressed his hands on his knees, standing up with a heavy sigh. “I’m going upstairs,” he said, as if the conversation had never happened. “I’ve got some things to look over before we leave for Central. Everyone expects something really impressive for the exams, and I’m going to give it to them.”
“How’s the baby?” Roy asked into the phone, half just to make conversation and half out of genuine curiosity. He sat at his desk, mounds of paperwork that had been piling up around him for the past few weeks surrounding him, and he found himself looking forward to the Elric’s visit enough to make a phone call. When had he gotten this restless? He had only been back in the office a month, having joined General Hawkeye in secret operations just after returning from Ishbal with Edward.
“She’s beautiful, Roy, she’s amazing, you have no idea,” Ed gushed, “and she looks like a baby Winry, you know, just like her baby pictures, and of course we’ll have to bring all the pictures we took so you can see them when we come to Central-“
“Ed,” Roy interrupted, breaking off the flow of praise for the tiny child, “you’re bringing the baby. I don’t need to see pictures of her if I get to see her in real life, too.”
“Oh,” came the subdued response, followed by a soft laugh at his own enthusiasm, but Roy didn’t really hear it.
Oh, but how can you not want to see as many Elysias as possible? Seeing the pictures will only make you realize how much more beautiful she is in real life! Wait until you have one of your own, Roy, you’ll understand then!
“Hey,” the voice on the phone crackled. “Hey, Roy, you still there? Hey!”
“I’m here,” he said softly into the receiver, staring down at the green blotter on his desk.
“Listen, Al’s real concerned about people recognizing me, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but I trust his judgment, of course. So, you really think it’s all right for us all to meet at a restaurant? I mean, you’re pretty high profile yourself, and between you and Al-“
Roy leaned his forehead onto his hand. “I’ll think of something,” he said, suddenly weary. “General Hawkeye really wants to be able to see you all, especially- well, especially with the state of things, right now,” he finished delicately. “And she’s going to be in town-“
“Ah ha!” Ed cried accusingly. “You don’t want to see us at all, bastard, you just wanted to get together with her! I knew it was something like that, I knew you aren’t really that nice!” The words were suspicious but the tone was fond, and Roy chuckled.
“I’ve seen plenty of her, Ed, more than I care to, actually,” he told the phone, glancing toward the darkening office window. It got dark earlier in the fall, he knew, but really, when had he gotten around to wasting so much time? There was still so many orders to sign, so many forms to review, he would definitely be working late that evening.
“Yeah, yeah, the top secret thing, I know. But that’s just work. You’re just looking for a way to get her to have dinner with you.”
“Okay, that’s enough, Fullmetal,” he said firmly, using his military name, trying to gain some kind of control of the conversation. “I have a lot of work to do, I don’t have time to waste arguing with you about my love life.”
“Hey!” Ed protested from Winry’s living room in Altenburg. “You called me, bastard! I’m not trying to waste your time!”
“I’m a very busy man,” he said coolly. “Just because I took some time out of my busy schedule to see how you were doing doesn’t mean I have time to be subjected to your relentless-“
“Fine! Fine, forget it, you’re not trying to scheme a way to take her to dinner, whatever, Roy,” Ed said good-naturedly. “Listen, I’ll see you next week, all right? Bye.”
There was a click and the line went dead. Roy raised his eye to the window again. The sun had already set, but there was still a bit of light left in the sky, turning everything an eerie blue. What’s it feel like to be a father, Ed? he asked in his head. Maes, what’s it like to be a father? Is it really the best feeling in the world?
Just wait until you have kids of your own, Roy, then you’ll understand.
“Yo, General,” said a voice from the doorway.
Roy turned his gaze forward again, nodding to Havoc in greeting.
“You got those forms for intelligence yet? I was thinking about cutting out early today, but I gotta go over them before I can leave,” the man said, slouching against the doorframe, cigarette, as always, dangling from the corner of his mouth.
“I haven’t quite gotten to them,” the General hedged, “but they’re in the pile with everything else I have to finish today.” He frowned. “And don’t smoke in my office, Lieutenant,” he added. “I don’t want ash on my carpet.”
Havoc smirked. “I’m not in your office,” he said wryly. “See?” He gestured to his feet, which, sure enough, were clearly on the other side of the doorway. “I’m merely next to your office, and can smoke as much as I want.” That said, he waltzed into the room, flopping down in one of the leather chairs in front of Roy’s desk, propping his feet up right next to the fancy row of fountain pens in their hand-made holder and blowing out a stream of smoke at the ceiling, watching Roy’s eyebrow twitch and all but daring him to object. “You seen the papers recently?” he asked innocently.
“Hm? The papers? Of course, why?”
Havoc tossed a folded paper, several days old, onto the center of the desk and snatched up a bowl of paperclips to flick the end of his cigarette into.
“Oh, that,” Roy said neutrally, choosing to ignore the conversion of office supply to ashtray.
“Yeah, that,” Havoc echoed. FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST SPOTTED IN EAST CITY, read the headline. Still bean sized after six years read the subline. Roy groaned. God, has Ed read this? Has he blown the roof off yet?
“This one,” he said, pointing to the picture on the left, “is more than eight years old. He can’t be more than fourteen in that picture; in fact, I remember when it was taken. You and I were standing just to the left there, out of the frame.”
Havoc was nodding. “Yeah, I remember that, but what about this one, eh?”
Roy barely glanced at it. “That’s Alphonse,” he lied, his voice polished. A little too polished.
It was a grainy photo, at best, but Roy could tell it had been taken in East City. Probably the same day he had talked Ed into allowing him to buy him some new clothes.
The other man nodded again. “Right,” he confirmed. “Clearly. That’s definitely Alphonse. Thanks, General, now I’ve got my story straight.” He leaned back in the chair, folding his arms casually behind his head. “So, about those forms, you know, they just need your signature, you could sign them right now so I can get out of here-“
Roy frowned. “What’s the big rush?” he asked, his voice thick with false irritation. “Can’t you see I have a lot to do? What makes you think your forms are my top priority?”
“Oh come on,” the man pushed. “I’ve got a big date tonight.”
The General raised an eyebrow. “With who?”
Havoc smirked, staring hard at the other man’s face, wanting to remember his expression forever. “General Hawkeye,” he said nonchalantly, giving a light shrug.
FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST SPOTTED IN EAST CITY
Still bean sized after six years
The press has just received a file from an anonymous photographer, clearly showing the Fullmetal Alchemist, alias Edward Elric, was recently in East City with one General Roy Mustang. Pursued by the military for his involvement in the Lior situation and later suspected by the government of performing a Human Transmutation, Fullmetal disappeared over six years ago without a trace.
Known as the original Elric prodigy, he began his military career when he passed the State Alchemist exam at the young age of twelve. At that time, he was the youngest ever to receive the certification. Over the four years he spent with the military, he earned the title “The People’s Alchemist,” and became something of a celebrity, especially in the north, from where he originated. However, his wide range of alchemical talents were quickly surpassed by his younger brother, Alphonse Elric, who passed the State Alchemist Exam at eleven and was given the title of Soul Alchemist.
Pronounced dead by the military but still believed to be in hiding by the government, the existence of the Fullmetal Alchemist has remained a mystery to the people of Amestris. There were frequent “Fullmetal sightings” up to two years after his disappearance, but recently there has been a new rash of rumors that, after extensive investigation, turned out to be more credible than previous sightings.
Did Edward Elric go into hiding when parliament took control of the government, realizing that he would be made to pay for his crimes against the people of Lior, or had he been a fugitive even before the new government was put into place? Did he intend to escape the corruption of the old military and stay true to his reputation as the “People’s Alchemist,” helping people quietly all this time, out of the government’s sight? Is it possible that despite the investigation bureau’s conclusions, his brother was in fact a product of a Human Transmutation, and the Fullmetal Alchemist fears punishment for that crime more than anything else?
Whatever the truth is, the fact remains that although proof now exists that Fullmetal is indeed alive, our sources inform us that due to the recent civil unrest, the government lacks the necessary resources to fully investigate the situation. For now, the country will be left to wonder if the Fullmetal Alchemist was really a friend or a foe.
click.
Golden eyes narrowed. “Hey!”
Winry was already shaking out the stiff card, staring at the moment she had captured as she continued through the room. The bright mid-morning sun glared off the snow, drenching the room in whitish light, and Ed sat in the corner of the couch, a blanket around his shoulders and Kaiya curled in one arm. The baby was still clutching her ring of wooden keys, but she lay against his chest, awake and silent, eyes wide and enraptured at the sound of his voice. A book was propped on his knees, kept open by his free hand, and he was reading quietly out loud, for the most part ignoring the photographic interruption.
One empty cereal bowl, one plate of unidentifiable crumbs, one orange peel, one candy wrapper, one empty coffee mug and one empty bottle sat piled on the table, forgotten. “…the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses-“
“Ed!” Winry interrupted. “What on earth are you reading her, an alchemy book? She can’t even understand you!”
“She likes it!” he protested, looking down at Kaiya’s contented expression.
The font door opened a second time and a second blast of cold air blew into the room. Al pulled his hat off his head, running his hand over his flattened hair, and stomped the snow off his boots.
“Look what I got,” Winry said smugly, handing him the picture, and he laughed.
“Aw,” he said, smiling at the now-clear photo of his brother and the baby.
“He’s reading her an alchemy book, can you believe it?” she continued, trying to tease Ed some more, although he was pointedly still reading quietly as though he had never been interrupted.
Al just shrugged. “So? At least he’s not reading her the periodic table of elements or something,” he said defensively.
“Hey!” Ed said from the couch, finally closing the book. “I wouldn’t do that. I don’t want her first words to be hydrogen and helium!”
Kaiya stirred in his arm, squirming a bit and wrinkling her forehead now that the steady sound of his reading voice had switched to ordinary conversation.
Winry plucked the book out of his lap and stared at the cover. “The Philosopher’s Stone?” she read, raising an eyebrow.
Al snatched it out of her hands, looking at the cover. “Uh, brother, that’s not an alchemy book…” he said, and Ed laughed.
“Yeah, I managed to figure that out by about, I don’t know, the first sentence?” He shrugged. “It’s a good story, though, if you like reading about magic and all that stuff.”
“Is this what you’ve been doing all morning?” Winry said, eying the mess on the coffee table.
Ed began to rock the baby back and forth, trying to sooth her back into contentment, and said, “Well, we had some breakfast, and we listened to the radio, and then we decided to read a book, right, Kaiya?”
Al laughed again. “So, in other words, you’re teaching her how to slack off.”
Ed nodded. “Right. Valuable skill, slacking. You can never start too early. Why, where did you go?”
They exchanged glances. “We shoveled the snow off the font porch and the sidewalk,” Al said.
Ed raised an eyebrow. “All morning?”
Winry snickered. “Al got in a snowball fight with the neighbor kids,” she told him.
“Hey,” Al protested. “What do you mean, I got in a fight with them? You terrorized them! They’re never going to play near our yard again!”
“I didn’t terrorize them! At least I was using good old-fashioned snowballs, not some kind of alchemical snow cannon!”
“They thought my cannon was cool!”
Ed was nodding approvingly. “Nice, Al,” he said.
His younger brother handed him back the book, and began to walk towards the kitchen. “I’m going to make hot chocolate, Winry, you want some?” he called over his shoulder.
“Yes please!” she called back.
“Me too!” Ed added.
She plopped down in the other corner of the couch. “You don’t get any, you didn’t help with the snow,” she retorted.
Ed sniffed. “I would have if you asked,” he told her. Hey, I’m glad you and Al seem to be getting along again, he said in his mind.
“Oh shit,” came Al’s voice from the kitchen.
“What happened?” they both called in unison.
“Don’t say ‘shit’ in front of the baby!” Ed added.
Al appeared again in the doorway, tossing a bundle of newsprint their way. “You read this,” he said flatly, “and then tell me what to say.”
Jean Havoc could not believe his luck. It was the perfect evening for a date, chill enough for him to offer to throw his jacket around her shoulders, but not too bitter to walk around looking at the stars. She had agreed to meet him by the fountain in the center of the city, and then join him at one of the finer restaurants in the area. He chortled to himself, recalling again the General’s startled expression.
When they met they hugged briefly, and he was reminded that it was not a real date as he took the thick envelope she tucked inside his jacket. Still, one could hope. “You look lovely this evening, General,” he said, smiling a charming smile.
She nodded in thanks. “You look very well yourself, Lieutenant,” she said crisply.
“Shame about that rule about fraternizing with subordinates, isn’t it, General?” he said, still charming, offering his arm.
“Shame that you aren’t technically my subordinate, you’re Roy’s,” she replied, equally charming, placing a hand on the offered arm and walking in step with him towards the restaurant. Suddenly she stiffened. “What was that?” she hissed.
Immediately he snapped out of date-mode, his senses alert. “What was what?” he said quietly, even as he heard an odd sputtering sound. “Get down!” he yelled, the restaurant they had been heading for suddenly exploding in flames, the glass shattering outward onto the street and people screaming all around. Riza grabbed him by the arm, jerking to the side as two bullets whizzed by him, the sound of the shots lost in the explosion. In a split second she shot twice in the direction of the bullets he didn’t even see her draw her gun and began issuing instructions to the police officers that had come running.
Edward awoke slowly, as if working through layer upon layer of fog, painstakingly sorting dreams from reality. His brother’s ability to wake instantly must be a learned talent; he was working on learning it too. If Winry says a good parent wakes up when the baby cries at night, then damn it all, he was going to wake up. Sitting up, he realized he still slept on the very edge of the bed, even though he had been sleeping alone for the past week. In the mornings he woke up grasping at empty sheets, but at least, he told himself daily, that was better than waking up kissing his younger brother.
It wasn’t the sound of Kaiya waking, it was a thrashing about, a muttering, something unlike anything he had woken up to before. Quietly, he made his way down the hall, pausing at Winry’s door but hearing only silence. “Al!” he hissed in the darkness, hurrying down the stairs and cursing when he stumbled over a pair of shoes that had been left out on the living room floor. “Al?” he said, his voice a trace louder, leaning over the back of the couch, concerned.
His brother had one arm thrown over his eyes, and was whacking at the cushions with the other. “No,” he whimpered. “No, you can’t, don’t hurt him, don’t do this!”
“Hey, Al!” Ed said sharply, coming around to the front of the couch and taking the younger man by the shoulders. “Hey, wake up, it’s a nightmare. Al?”
“I hate you!” Al said fiercely, swinging his fist blindly, striking his older brother in the arm. “I hate you,” he repeated.
Ed grabbed his brother’s fist, pinning it to the couch, and shook him with his metal hand. “Al, wake up!” he said again.
“Blood,” Al muttered. “So much blood, brother, you have so much blood in you.” He lifted his arm from over his eyes and Ed could see that his face was streaked with tears. Swallowing hard, he crouched next to the couch, scooping his brother awkwardly in his arms, pulling him into a sitting position.
“Al,” he said soothingly, hesitantly, rubbing one hand up and down the side of his head. “Al, come on, wake up, it was just a dream.”
Grey eyes, black in the darkness, opened and darted around the room. “Are we dead?” he whispered, sending shivers up Ed’s spine. “Are we both dead now?”
“Shhh,” Ed murmured, closing his arms around him. “No one’s dead, Al. It was a dream. No one’s hurt; no one’s dead,” he said, wondering wildly what his brother had been dreaming. His eyes widened as Al began to sob, his body shaking in his arms. “Brother, he killed you!” he said, his voice muffled from pressing his face into his brother’s flesh shoulder.
He felt his breath catch; a coldness seized him by the chest and spread outward. “Who did?” he asked, his voice a mere whisper in the darkness.
“I don’t know,” Al said into his shoulder. “That thing.”
“What thing?” Ed pressed, his chest aching with every pound of his heart.
“I don’t know. I don’t know!” he repeated, panic rising in his voice. He picked his head up, staring Ed in the face, the whites of his eyes glaring in the half-light from the windows. “Brother, I saw you die!” He clutched his hands to his own chest. “At night, when I dream, I see you die. It stabs you, here, and I feel it.” Another sob wracked his trembling body, and Ed tightened his arms around him. “What is it, brother? What is that thing?”
“What does it look like?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t know!” his brother cried. “I’m looking at it, but I don’t see it, I only know it’s evil, and it wants to kill you-“
“Shhhh,” Ed interrupted, shuddering at the memory pressing at the edges of his own mind. “Al, it’s all right now. We won. We’re both alive; we’re both okay. You saved me, don’t you remember that part?”
Al stilled in his arms, and was silent for a moment. Then he pulled away, turning to face his brother. His eyes had lost that wild look, and his face was serious, intent, and shadowed in the dark. “What are you talking about? Do you have this dream too?”
“I- yeah,” he said softly. “I dream about it too. I guess I always will. I didn’t know you remembered it.”
The younger brother frowned. “What do you mean? You didn’t really die, you can’t have. You were alive on the other side of the Gate all that time. You’re alive now, I’m awake, and I know that. It’s just this nightmare I have where you die…” but Ed was shaking his head slowly. “Brother?”
“Oh Al,” he said slowly, his voice heavy. “You didn’t know?”
“Know what?” his brother whispered.
“I’m sorry,” Ed said quietly. “I thought- I figured someone would have told you- but there wasn’t anyone, was there?”
“Tell me what?” he hissed. “You can’t have- that’s impossible- what are you talking about?”
He put his hand gently on the back of his brother’s head. “You do have those memories, somewhere,” he said. “You have enough of them to give you nightmares.”
“What am I remembering?” Al whispered, his eyes locked on his brother’s. “Tell me, Ed, please tell me?”
Another shudder went up his spine, and Ed felt his breath catch again. When he spoke his voice was measured, even, and eerie in the dark. “The homunculus, Envy, the one that Dad and Dante created, stabbed me with a spear and I died. You brought me back, Al, and I was whole and complete. When I stood up, it was on two flesh legs; I had two arms, two hands. But I was alone. You were gone.”
“How? How did I do that?”
“You had the Stone.”
“But I don’t know how to do a… Human Transmutation,” he protested.
“Yes you do,” Ed said evenly, his words weighing heavily on the air. “We both do.”
“All this time,” Al said slowly, “I thought you gave your life to get my body back.”
“I did.”
“But I didn’t know- I didn’t know that’s how it happened- Brother!” he said, worried. “You’re shaking!” Al wrapped his arms around his brother, pulling him in tight and feeling the tremors lessen. “I’m sorry!” he cried. “I’m sorry I made you talk about this.”
Ed took a deep breath, trying to calm his body, which seemed to be reacting independently of his mind. “I’m okay, Al. It’s okay. You should know what happened.” He shifted on the couch, pushing himself back into the corner and pulling Al with him. Although he was the bigger of the two, always had been since they were very young, Al found himself crawling onto his older brother’s lap and burying his face in his chest. Ed tightened his arms around him.
“I woke you up,” Al said into his shoulder.
“Yeah,” Ed said to the top of his head.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right.”
After a moment, Al said, “Brother?”
“Hm?”
“Stay with me?”
Ed sighed, shifting again. “Let’s both go sleep upstairs, Al.”
“Mmm,” was the only response as Al snuggled into his shoulder. Ed leaned his head back on the couch, staring up into the darkness, forcing the thoughts out of his mind.
Zwischenzeit II: The Little Joys
Note: Since this chapter was split into two, what is now chapter four will be posted shortly. Thanks for waiting.
Note2: Three guesses as to what Ed is reading. And no, it’s not just a random insertion, it is an actual plot point. (albeit in a very, very roundabout way)
Note3: I know I said Al was going to get mad. This wasnt the chapter in which that happens.