Diamond in the Rough

"What a bastard," Edward commented, staring down at the unconscious body of Jafar.

He knew from the start the dodgery old coot had been up to something. The blatant murder attempt on his person as soon as Edward stepped out of the Cave of Wonders did not come as a big surprise.

Their original deal was that Ed would get to see if there was a Philosopher's Stone inside the Cave. After all, the legend stated that it held a hidden treasure of unmeasurable worth, and what else could be more invaluable than the Stone that made the impossible possible? The magical aspect of the Cave was... unexpected, true (it move and talked, for crying out loud, he was justified in feeling a bit shocked!), but Ed managed to swallow down his surprise and go in regardless. The test given by the talking head of the Cave (a talking tiger head, seriously, what the heck?!) of not touching anything but the lamp, in order to prove himself worthy and all that, admittedly turned out to be a little more difficult. Not because Ed was a grabby child who could not keep his hands to himself, but because there was a moment when he truly believed he spotted it - the Philosopher's Stone, that is.

It sat right there, in the hands of a golden gorilla statue, grinning at him mockingly as if asking: "See, here it is! Are you going to take it?" Edward almost gave in - almost. But just as he reached out, he was struck by how that grin reminded him of Truth, saying "It's the Law of Equivalent Exchange, right, Mr. Alchemist?" and immediately he retracted his hand.

This was too easy, too suspicious. The Cave of Wonders had only one rule - do not touch anything but the lamp. Whether compliance would pay off or not, Ed couldn't know for certain, but he'd learned his lesson. He knew what happened the last time he decided to break the rules to try to get what he wanted. So he turned around, ignoring the temptation of the one Stone he desired more than any treasure in the world, and went ahead without allowing himself to look back.

The placement of the lamp on the top of a ridiculously tall (subjectively, of course, because Ed was not short, dammit!) staircase made it obvious he'd made the right choice. Whatever this lamp truly was, a piece of garbage or a mystical artifact, it looked different than anything else in the Cave of Wonders. For one, it not have that strange ethereal glow around it, making it appear more real than any other object he'd seen so far - an illusion, perhaps? Was that Philosopher's Stone not real, placed there only to test his resolve? Another thing, as Ed went back, all the gold and treasures behind him gradually disappeared, leaving behind nothing but stones and sand. Yeah, those treasures were definitely fake. He stumbled upon something real, however - an animated carpet (he refused to be shocked by this point).

At first Ed thought that maybe it was a bonded soul, like Al in the armor. But the carpet had no blood seal on it, and it couldn't talk. It could nod and understand him, so it was certainly sentient and intelligent. Honestly it resembled a stray dog: friendly, lonely and starved for human contact. Resigned by the fact that his little brother would never forgive him if it left the carpet behind (he could already hear it in his head: "But Brother, it's a carpet, not a cat! And it can fly!"), he let it tag along to the exit.

It turned out to be a good choice as well, as he was attacked the moment he made one step out of the Cave. Fortunately the old coot did not expect a magic carpet with the protective instinct of a mother bear to charge at him, nor did he anticipate Edward knocking him out with a metal fist the moment he had his back turned. It all worked out in the end, after delivering the unconscious man and his nasty parrot (a TALKING parrot - why wasn't Ed surprised) to the local authorities, and sorting out the whole mess with the guy actually being the ruler's first advisor and a traitor to boot. Oh, well. It wasn't the first time the Fullmetal Alchemist accidentally unveiled a conspiracy.

He almost completely forgot about the lamp when he met up with Alphonse back in South City. Just like he'd predicted it, his little brother was delighted about the Carpet ("You're so adorable! I'm going to call you Wooly!"). When he brought it up in the conversation, Al chastised him:

"Brother! You mean you got a possibly magical artifact, and you haven't checked it out yet?!"

"Hey, I got busy! Proving a court member guilty of attempted murder and treason, remember?"

"Well, let's see it then!"

Ed got the lamp out of the suitcase.

"It's dusty," Al observed.

"Yeah, I didn't really have the time to take care of that..." Ed squinted. "Wait, I think there's something written on the bottom." He rubbed it with his gloveless finger.

The lamp suddenly came to life in his hands, swelling and floating and glowing and LAUGHING, and Ed immediately jumped back, standing protectively in front of Al to protect him from possible danger.

The Brothers stared with their mouths open as fireworks shoot out of the lamp, sparking smoke blasting out in a huge cloud. Then a something absolutely HUGE materialized out of it with a shout:

"-AAAAAGH...!" It flexed, vaguely human-resembling, then exclaimed: "OI!"

Ed and Al jumped, staring.

"Ten thouuuusand years, will give you such a crick in the neck!" the strange being told them. "Hang on a second, will ya?"

Then it literally took its head off, twisted it in the air, and put it back on his neck with a satisfied sound. "Woooo-ah! It's so good to be outta there, you wouldn't believe it!" It grinned widely. Now that they could see it, it looked and sounded male, and it had a beard. So it was probably a he, whatever he was, because he clearly wasn't human. He was so large he filled the entire room - which was rather big for a hotel, really, with two beds and a table and a tall ceiling. His skin was blue like the summer sky, and he had no hair except for the black eyebrows and the hank of hair on the top of his head. Another noticeable thing was that he didn't have LEGS, a puff of mist coming from below his navel instead of usual human appendages. He wore nothing except a silk belt, an earring in one of his pointy ears and a couple of smooth golden bracelets. They immediately struck Ed as odd, for some reason.

"Um..." Al stuttered out.

"Yo, Rugman! Haven't seen you in a few millennia!" it said, giving the carpet a... high five? Can you even call it that, with carpet having no hands and the other having only four fingers? "It's so good to be back, ladies and gentlemen! Now, which one of you rubbed the lamp, again?"

"Ah..." He wordlessly pointed at Ed.

"Hey!" The older Elric exclaimed, offended at being outed by his own brother.

"Great! Now, where'ya from, what's your name?"

"Why do you want to know?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, I gotta know the name of my new Master, of course! ...Say, you're a lot smaller than my previous one," the being observed.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SMALLER THAN A SPECK OF DUST UNDER A DRAWER! ...Wait a second," Edward interrupted himself. "What do you mean by 'master'?"

"That's right! He can be taught!" Why was Ed wearing a graduation hat and a diploma all of a sudden? "What would you wish of me? The ever impressive, the loooong contaaaaained, often imitated, but never dupli-dupli-dupli-dupli-duplicateeeed..." the being said, breaking several laws of physics as he grandly introduced himself: "GENIE OF THE LAMP~!" There was another burst of fireworks, as invisible crowds clapped and cheered. "Right here from the lamp, for your wish fulfillment, thank you!"

Ed blinked, processing this. As soon as it clicked, he gaped. "Wait, WHAT?! Wish fulfillment? Are you actually serious?"

"Of course!" the Genie told him cheerfully. "Three wishes to be exact. But X-nay on the wishing for more wishes! Three, that's it - no substitutions, exchanges or refunds!"

"No exchanges?" Alphonse spoke in shock. "Whatever we want?"

"Yup! Except, ya know, one wisher at a time." Genie shrugs. "Since there are two of you, you get three wishes each, when he hands over the lamp."

"So..." Ed gingerly picks up the lamp from the floor. "Whoever holds the lamp is your... Master?"

"You got it! Now what's your name, Master?"

"I'm Edward Elric. But..." He frowns, uncertain. "There are limits, right? There have to be." After the encounter with Truth, he knew it better than anyone.

"Ah! A smart one!" Ginnie snaps his fingers and suddenly there is a board on the wall that wasn't there before. The Genie shrunk until he's no bigger than Armstrong, and points at it with a pointer. "Rule number one: I can't kill anybody! So don't ask."

They didn't. That was a rule they definitely understood.

"Rule number two: I can't make anyone fall in love with anyone else." Suddenly he had a curtain of hair, he winked from behind it with unnaturally long eyelashes and theatrically blew a kiss. "You lil' punim, there!"

Al giggled as Ed rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.

"Aaand rule number three: I can't bring people back from the dead. It's not a pretty picture, I don't like doing it." He cast them a look. "Though I get a feeling I you guys already know that."

The brothers shrunk on themselves. Yeah, they knew that. Too well.

"But other than that?" The Genie bowed in the air. "You got it!"

"No take-backs?" Ed asked with wild hope in his eyes. "No side-effects? No back-lashes?"

"Nope, nope, and nooope!" Genie said, adjusting a tie that appeared out of nowhere. "Professional wish fulfillment, one hundred percent satisfaction, guaranteed!"

"Right." Ed clutched the lamp desperately. "What do I need to do?"

The Genie put glasses on his nose, brings out a book (Ed stops questioning the sanity and physics of it by now) and reads out in a teacher's voice: "When the master of the lamp wants to make a wish, he usually starts with 'Genie, I wish...'" Then he throws the book out of the window. "Other than that, however you want, Master!"

Ed was still bothered by the 'master' part, the Genie hadn't really explained it, but in the light of what the Genie could do the issue was put to the back of his mind. He could wish for anything he wanted. There was no question about what his first wish would be.

"Genie," Ed said carefully, weighing each word. He could not afford to mess this up - the Genie seemed friendly enough, he didn't trust the being entirely, there was a chance he would purposely misunderstand something and get him to waste a wish. He got two more chances after that, but being careful never hurt anyone. (Al would probably call it paranoia, though.) "I wish... for my brother, Alphonse, who is standing right next to me, to have his human body back, exactly the way it was before... the human transmutation, except for being aged the exact amount of time since he lost it."

"Stickler to details, are we?" the Genie laughed, seemingly unoffended, skillfully hiding his hurt. It wasn't like it was the first time he got a distrustful Master... "Alright, LET'S.. DO... THIS!" he exclaimed, flying above the armored Elric. "You ready?"

Alphonse's hands shook a little, then clenched into fists with determination. "Y-yeah. I'm ready."

"Let's go visit a certain someone, eh? It's gotta be a bright reunion~!"

A flash of light, and the brothers were suddenly standing in a white void.

"Wait..." Al slowly took in their surroundings. "This seems... familiar?"

Ed swallowed, grabbing his little brother's gauntlet. His heart was pounding loudly in his chest. "It's nothing, Al. Don't worry about it. "

"But-"

"Why HELLO there, Truth my Pal!" Genie interrupted them, undaunted even in such un unnerving place. "Haven't seen ya in a million years or so! How are you doing, still keeping balance and whatnot?"

Suddenly they realized there was a familiar featureless shape sitting in front of them.

"You..." the being groaned, much to their surprise, sounding incredibly annoyed. "What do you want, Genie?"

"Ah, here's the thing..." The Genie rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "You know how there's this kid who might have just a tiiiinsy bit messed with the 'no resurrecting the dead' thing, aaaand..."

Truth facepalmed, sighing. "Of course. Why do I even bother?" It turned to the brothers, pointing accusingly: "And of course it'd have to be you two that'd bring him into things again. Let me guess, your next wish you'll be taking your limbs back too, won't you?"

"Ah..." Ed hadn't even thought of that yet, to be honest.

"Of course he will!" Alphonse said loudly. "It can be my wish. Brother, give me the lamp." Before Ed could protest, the object was snatched from him. "Genie, I wish for my brother to get his arm and leg back. And, if you can, could you take the scars from automail from them as you do, please? They hurt him a lot."

Genie smiled widely at him. Not every day his masters said 'please' when they made their wishes. "Sure thing, Alphonse! Hey, you wanna me to call you Al or Phonse?"

"Oh, um, Al is fine, Mr. Genie."

"And polite, too! You're too adorable. Now, where's his body? Can't dress up a guy for the occasion without one!"

Al actually laughed. Ed was suddenly filled with gratitude at the Genie's easy-going attitude; this place was beyond creepy, Al didn't even remember being here yet, and in normal circumstances it was terrifying. But with a rules-and-physics-defying being as the Genie with them? Even Edward was starting to relax.

"Once again, you spoiled everything," Truth complained (complained!). "They would have figured it out eventually. You robbed them of valuable life lessons they could have passed on to others!"

"I think they've learned their lesson already," the Genie pointed out. "Come on, Truth my Pal!"

"Ugh. Fine, there he is." Truth moved aside. "Please do not come back. Ever."

"We won't," Ed said with certainty, walking past Truth but keeping his distance.

"We promise," Al added.

"I make no promises! Alright, so where's th-aaaah!" Genie stopped, looking at Al's skeleton of a body in front of them. "Right, this won't do. We're getting you back in shape!" A clap, a puff of smoke, and suddenly Al's body - Alphonse's flesh and blood body - was looking at them with wide eyes in a healthy face. "Aaand, to get the soul back into the body..." He touched a finger to the armor's helmet, the soul-fire in his eyes disappearing instantly. Then the touched the same finger to Al's forehead, and the boy gasped loudly. "And, to finish this off...!" The Genie spinned him in place and then there was a full outfit on him, complete with shoes, tie and even a hat for some reason. "There! Whaddya think, Ed? I can call you Ed, right?"

"Sure," Ed replied absent-mindedly, staring at his little brother in the flesh like hypnotized. Slowly, he reached out. "Al...?"

"Brother!"

The brothers crashed, grabbing onto each other in a desperate embrace.

"You're really-?"

"Brother, Brother, I can feel-!"

"You're alright? Everything's-?"

"I'm fine, Brother, I can't believe-"

"Oh thank God, Alphonse..."

Genie wiped away a tear, waiting before intruding at the tender scene. Eventually they pulled away from each other, and Al turned to the Genie.

"Mr. Genie... We can't thank you enough," he said, sounding choked. His body was in perfect condition, like he'd never left it, but he was still unused to having physical responses back. Al couldn't wait for learning them all over again. "This is... everything we've been hoping for in the past four years."

"Oh, you precious sugar-bun!" the Genie said, pulling him into an embrace. Al squeaked with surprise, but quickly returned it, grinning. "You're welcome!"

"Thank you..." Ed spoke up as well. "You didn't have to give him clothes, too. I forgot to include them in the wish," he said, embarrassed.

"My pleasure! I did say satisfaction guaranteed, didn't I? Now, Al, let's pick your brother's things and get outta here, whaddya say?"

"Yeah!" Al grinned fully, showing all of his teeth, and Ed was speechless. He hadn't realized just how much he missed this expression. He felt prickling in the corners of his eyes.

Ed was shocked just how painless getting his arm and leg back was. He remembered how it felt losing them, how much it hurt, and since that they he subconsciously assumed that getting them back would be just as agonizing. But Genie? He had his limbs back on in a blink of an eye, healed and whole and even the skin was tanned as if he had them out in the sun. He flexed his fingers in awed disbelief.

A hand carefully reached out to his and their fingers intertwined. Ed looked up from his right hand to see his brother smiling at him.

He felt drops of liquid fall from his eyes.

Before they knew it, they were back in the hotel room as if they never left. The automail laid on the floor, connected to the ports no longer in Ed's flesh, and the armor was there too, empty of the soul it'd been hosting. The brothers set them carefully aside - especially the armor, not certain what they would do with it yet, as it held both painful memories and sentimental value to both of them. Al examined the undisturbed blood seal inside and carefully touched it, never having a chance to seeing it so up close before.

"Brother..." he said, tears in his eyes, and he cried for the first time in four years. If he saw his big brother shedding some tears too, he did not comment on it.

The Genie did not interrupt them, slipping away into his lamp. He could wait to hang out with them again later after all, no rush. He glowed happily at the reminder of the brothers saying 'thank you'. It's been a while since he heard those words. They never got old to him.

The Elrics went to the restaurant, ordering the whole menu without hesitation. The waiter gave them a bizarre look, but took the order without questions. As they celebrated, they tried as many dishes as they could, especially those listed in Al's journal as 'what he wanted to eat once he got his body back'. They talked, and laughed, and choked on food (Al did at least, three times), and generally had the best dinner of their lives.

When they finished, Al packed as many leftovers as he could, asking: "What do you think the Genie would like?"

Ed frowned thoughtfully. "Does he even eat?"

"I don't know. Maybe? It wouldn't hurt to ask, right?"

"He spent... I don't know how long in the lamp without eating. He mentioned being at least a million years old... I suppose that makes him immortal. So maybe he can, but doesn't need to? But then, perhaps he can make his own food with hiss powers. Honestly," Ed crossed his arms. "We know nothing about him."

Al looked at him, understanding dawning on him. "Each of us still has two wishes, right?"

"Yeah. And I'm going to find a way to repay him, even if I have to make a wish just to find out how."

"Mhm!" Al nodded resolutely, smiling.

Author's note:

Ever since re-watching some of my favorite Disney movies, this idea stuck with me. I know it makes no sense. But let's be honest - out of all fictional characters, who do you think deserves to have free wishes more than Ed and Al? Like, seriously. The next thing they'll be wishing for are probably world peace and cat shelters for all stray cats in the universe ;D

I'll probably finish this soon when I have time. It's just a two-shot, not a huge story. Tell me, do you think I should write Genie a backstory? 'Cause I have thought of several, but I'm not sure people would be interested or not. Either way, there's going to be another chapter, defnitely.

Thank you very much for reading, please review if you can, but most importantly - read on and enjoy! ;)