"If I didn't know any better, I'd think the two of you were sisters."
xxx
An unmarried widow, they called her sometimes. A wraith dressed all in black- always in black- tarnished silver pocket watch clipped to her black silk sash.
She was pitied, spoken of in an almost reverent manner, yet avoided by many. The air around her was stale, sad, and overpowering; she was haunted still by the ghosts of all those gone before her.
So they said.
Some of the children, those too young to remember the military scandal of years ago, would tell their jokes- tease. Her kisses must taste like salt.
All she does is cry.
Their mothers would shush them; fathers scold and tell them that she had played her own minor part in uprooting the corruption from the government. The Elrics… they couldn't have done it without her.
Ignorance is bliss, some said.
It tore her to pieces.
She waits at the train station every so often. She stands a little too close to the tracks sometimes- sometimes the employees have to tug her away, because sometimes she's just a little too eager to see the coming train pull in.
Phantom- she wanders through the city sometimes, a woman possessed. If some of thekinder merchants offer her sympathetic smiles, she doesn't notice. If someone happens to press a small bouquet of daffodils in her hands, she doesn't pay them any mind.
If she happens to forget to put the flowers in water, it's routine by now.
Her little sister is used to it. Even if it breaks her heart little by little, she doesn't mind it so much anymore. The sting will go away eventually.
Sometimes, she forgets things.
On a good day, it's only the little things that slip her mind. Pick up some bread on the way home; don't leave the milk sitting out for too long.
Other days, it's much, much worse. Who are you? Where's my mother? I can't find my teddy, and do those Elric boys really have cooties? Nelly says they do.
During these times, it's hard for Elysia Hughes to keep sane.
She worries about her older sister a lot. After all, they might be twenty-seven and seventeen, they might not really be sisters, but if sister breaks, who will put her back together again?
She worries, and for the life of her she might not be able to tell a screwdriver apart from a wrench, but she will do her very best to make sure that her big sister stays whole. She brushes her hair, makes her meals for her, bathes her when she has to and dresses her when she forgets.
It's the way things are. It's their routine, and they're both used to it by now.
Put her together, love her while you can, watch her fall apart.
Day after day, week after week, month after month… and it's been twelve years now. No end in sight.
Both of their parents are gone. They only have each other now, and somehow Elysia doesn't think she would change that for much of anything.
Because she loves her big sister, even if they aren't really sisters- even if they are twenty-seven and seventeen, living together even when people don't think it's right.
Elysia finds she doesn't mind so much that her sister's kisses taste like salt.
It's their routine. They're used to it by now, and if the sting doesn't go away eventually then so what?
Sometimes, she wonders if she's a masochist.
Then she sees her lost-looking non-sister, standing at the very edge of the train tracks with a fist full of wilting daffodils, and suddenly she realizes she doesn't care because she doesn't know any better and nothing has ever felt so right before.
Winry smiles at her, leans forward, and whispers softly, "Ed, you taste like salt."
Elysia is used to it. Even if it breaks her heart little by little, she doesn't mind it so much anymore.
I don't own.
Inspired by the scene in 'Fullmetal Heart' where Maes makes the remark, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think the two of you were sisters."