Welcome to Edensphere, Fullme- wait, what did you say?

[child_proteus]

Characters: Throne/Teddy (child_proteus), Fullmetal/Al (rustyarmor)
Date/Time: Wednesday, September 17th. Evening.
Location: The Wilderness as a Shoe Outlet.
Rating: PG.
Summary: Fullmetal returns to the Sphere and Throne is there to greet them. Only, they don't recognize one another anymore.

Comments

[rustyarmor]

Fullmetal took a step back as the other young man went from smiling to... something. He couldn't tell exactly what the expression meant, but something in his bearing had changed radically in those few seconds. If Fullmetal had been confused about what was going on before, he was ten times more confused now.

The stranger's sudden move to grab him put him a little on his guard, although it seemed like the other guy had no intention to hurt him. The subsequent stream of questions was more frightening than the guy's physical presence to Fullmetal, considering he hadn't mentioned anything about the armour in his dream. He didn't know if they were thinking of the same thing, but the mere fact that it was mentioned surprised him.

"Um, I don't... have any armour..." He looked around himself, as if to indicate to the other guy that no such thing was anywhere to be found. "But, I did see one, in my dream. Somehow it seemed kind of lonely..." His eyes fell to the floor as he thought about the armour, sitting entirely by itself, on the other bank of the stream. "Sorry." He said in a small voice.

[child_proteus]

Throne shook his head when the guy -- Fullmetal, he repeated to himself -- said 'sorry'. Immediately both of his hands squeezed reflexively, giving him the gentlest of shakes as he blurted out, without even thinking, "No, don't say sorry, no." A flurry of emotions passed over his face: first concern and then relief and then something deeper, not entirely like sadness or maybe regret as Throne realized that this Fullmetal wasn't really his Fullmetal -- even if there was the certain possibility of overlap. And that misalignment meant that something would be lost in the process -- perhaps something so much more than what he had lost when he had died.

"You don't," Throne said quietly, his hands now slipping from the guy's arms only to hang limply at his sides, "you don't remember me, do you?" His eyebrows slowly arched up questioningly as he looked at Fullmetal's face, just trying to memorize very quickly every small detail as he noticed them, trying to take the emotions that he felt associated with the boy in the suit of armor and try to pour them into this Fullmetal. "Throne. My name is Throne. We...we used to be..."

He frowned, even though his eyes did something closer to smile. "You said I was your nii-san."

[rustyarmor]

"Nii... san?" The word come out as nothing more than a whisper. He heard, in his mind, the voice of the girl again, asking if he remembered his brother. He couldn't tell if he remembered anything like that now, although there was a very vague feeling attached to Throne's words. Even his name sounded almost familiar, although foreign at the same time.

Slowly Fullmetal's hands went from hanging loosely at his sides to balling up into tight fists. He was angry, confused, sad, happy, tired, and many other things all at the same time. What he felt most, however, was frustrated. Frustrated because he couldn't put his mind on any of the information-- any of the memories-- that he really wanted at the moment. "I... I..."

He let all of his pent up breath slowly out of his lungs. Somehow, doing this seemed to release all of the emotions at the same time, each one slipping through his lips along with the hot air. When his breath was finally through, he breathed in again slowly, letting only one thing enter his body along with the oxygen. He wouldn't have described it as outright hope, but it was something in a similar vein, something that made him feel that the things he wanted to know, and the things he wanted to get back, were within his grasp.

He now looked across at Throne, the blue eyes showing too many different things for him to read. They were both around the same age, although Throne was a little taller. Height didn't necessarily indicate age, but Fullmetal was willing to ignore that fact for now.

"Throne... no, nii-san! I'd be lying if I said I remembered anything, but... if there's any way of getting those memories back, I'll definitely do it, no matter what!" He smiled warmly, determined that he'd take back everything he'd lost before. He couldn't remember Throne at all, that was true, but he didn't care. He wanted to be friends again, or brothers if that's what they'd been. "What do you say?" He put out his right hand tentatively, hoping beyond hope that Throne would feel the same way.

[child_proteus]

It is you, Throne thought, the moment the word left the young man's lips, and it was proof -- all the absolute proof that he needed, to know that yes this was Fullmetal and yes he was alive again. He would never forget the sound of that word, the first time he'd heard Fullmetal say it; and even though the glee and brightness was gone, the meaning was still there, the feeling behind it -- Throne knew.

It was unsettling, though, to see Fullmetal upset; he understood first hand what it was like -- they all did really. But even so, although Throne could see his frustration, could feel it in every little bit of his body language and in the stammer of his voice, he couldn't help but feel a warmth flood through him in that moment of realization and relief as he took a small step towards the guy -- not quite little brother territory anymore, but the emotional reaction still the same. A sense of cover him, protect him, make sure he's okay, that he's happy. And the looking of uncertainty on Throne's face fell away to reveal something confident and reassuring.

He smiled back at Fullmetal and took his hand with his own, shaking it once, feeling before breaking into a thankful grin and tugging him -- this familiar soul in such an unfamiliar body -- towards him into a huge, tight hug. The boy's body felt warm and alive and it breathed, and Throne whispered once very quietly, "Thank you."

"It's okay," he then said, squeezing hard, "you don't have to remember, not right away. And even if you don't, FM, that's still okay too. You're here. And that's what's important."

[rustyarmor]

Fullmetal was, admittedly, a little surprised when Throne wrapped his arms around him. Despite having just met him, however, the hug was reassuring and warm; nothing about it seemed awkward or unusual to Fullmetal. He began to laugh a little, out of happiness and relief, and something else, something he couldn't name.

He took a step back from Throne, his laugh fading a little, though his smile was still bright. "I'm glad to be back!" He nodded his head once, firmly, to show that he really meant it. Then again, compared to the gate he'd been at before, nearly anything would have been preferential.

With a bit of a start, he remembered the suit of armour that had been in his dream, and quite possibly been the same thing Throne had asked him about.

"Nii-san, that armour you mentioned before... what exactly did it look like? Is it something I had with me before?" He knew there was a connection of some kind between himself and that armour, and he wanted to know what exactly it had been.

[child_proteus]

Throne grinned, grinned so hard his face began to ache, for a moment he seemed to forget most of the week's misery, the tiredness in his body and in his heart faded into the background until all that was left of it was nothing more than a suggestion. He nodded once, and then again twice, eagerly when Fullmetal mentioned the armor. Throne and Bastet had made a point to take it with them when they'd found it abandoned in the middle of a path, and although Want had found the gesture slightly unnerving, Throne didn't know what else he could do, let along just leave it there to be tossed and scattered by the winds of the hurricane. "Yeah, your armor, it was..." and Throne paused, not entirely sure how to explain the fact that the armor wasn't something that Fullmetal had as much as something that Fullmetal was -- essentially his hollow, metal body. "It was something you had the last time, yeah. You were in it. Like all of the time." He considered explaining more than that, but Throne knew sometimes there were things that were better left unrememebered and so he skirted the issue, adding instead: "It's was a big suit with these sort of spikey shoulder strap thingies." Throne pantomimed their shape as he spoke. "And a unicorn type spike right straight out of the center of the forehead. And...and this kind of jiggety jaggety mouthpiece and...this kind of white ponytail plumey thing?"

Throne scrunched up his face for a moment, not entirely sure he'd been clear or even made a vague bit of sense. "I...I have it, you know. I like kept it. Just in case. Just in case you'd come back." He smiled.

asjdk ><!!! Sorry, I completely forgot about this ;o;

[rustyarmor]

Fullmetal nodded at each of the points that Throne described, matching them to the armour he'd seen in his dream. After hearing him out, there was no doubt in his mind that it was the same thing. After all, what were the chances that there'd be two such armours?

Throne's offer to let him see the armour, however, put him off a little. Somehow he didn't want to see it right after having dreamt about it. "That's okay, I'm certain it's the same one, so I don't need to go see it. If you don't mind though, could you... could you keep it for a while? I promise I'll come and get if from you eventually."