The Brotherhood OSTs are now officially my 'writing music', because that's all that seems to inspire me lately. Like this little oneshot (not so little, actually- three pages on MS Word!), inspired by the OST Far East Suite. Seriously, I had it on loop while writing this and was almost crying at the end. Akira Senju, you are a GOD!
On another note, I'm thinking that I'm going to start exploring life after Brotherhood a bit more, mostly because I can totally see both Ed and Mustang turning into Maes Hughes when it comes to their kids. Fun fun fun!
The journey is long… The road is hard… But there, at the top of that last hill, he can finally stop, rest his weary legs for a moment, and look out on the grassy fields and the river cutting through the land like a silver ribbon.
A house sits perched on a hill, a splash of cheery yellow against the azure sky. He sets off again, new energy buzzing through his veins and a wide grin settling familiarly into place.
"I'm home!" he hollers, and almost immediately the door is flung open and two small bodies are thrown at him. Landing on the soft grass with a faint *oomph*, he laughs at the giggling masses as they wrap their arms around his neck.
"Dad!" his little girl, Nina, starts talking a mile a minute at him, going on about how Uncle Al had shown her how to transmute metal into different shapes. She really is advanced, for a ten-year-old.
"And then he said that if I get real good, I can be a State Alchemist when I'm bigger, just like you!"
"That's great." he smiles, but it holds a ghost of something else; he dreads the day his little girl becomes so much like him that she joins the military. That's the life he never wanted, for any of his family.
Turning to his oldest, his twelve-year-old son Roy (that bastard Mustang had named his son Maes Edward, what else was he supposed to call his son? Equivalent Exchange and all that. Or, that's what he told himself when Mustang's 'bastard-ness' was infuriating to the point of madness), he ruffles Roy's pale gold hair- lighter than Edward's own, but darker than his mother's.
"And what has your mother been teaching you, huh?"
"I got to help make an arm for a customer!" he grins proudly, showing off his chipped front teeth. "Mom says I can start some small projects of my own for my next birthday!" he starts on a rambling speech of his own, going on about all the different ideas for automail upgrades he had started designing in the sketchbook he had gotten for his last birthday. It was a bit disappointing to Ed, to find out that his eldest son didn't like alchemy, but Nina was every bit the obsessed idiot that he ever was.
"Roy, Nina! Leave your poor father alone!" a light voice laughs from the porch, and Edward's heart soars. After a month away- his first trip in over a year, but the thought of leaving home behind makes him cringe; he will not be like his father, never home, a stranger to his own children- he thinks the only thing he had missed more than his kids was his wife's voice.
Standing, he brushes himself off and jogs towards the house, sweeping his beautiful wife up in his arms and planting a kiss on her cheeks.
"Ew!" both kids exclaim in disgust. The couple just laugh and look at each other- Edward still laughs internally every time Winry has to look up at him- silently exchanging words of love that they knew would probably scar their children for life.
"Brother!" Edward steps away from his wife just in time to be bowled over by another child- this time in the form of his thirty-year-old younger brother. He laughs exuberantly and returns he massive bear hug. Even sixteen years after regaining his brother's body, each time they embraced held a bit of the same thrill as the first, when they both lay injured and exhausted in the remains of the Central Command parade grounds, with their friends surrounding them and the people of Amestris cheering and celebrating. "How are you? How was Central- did you see Roy and Riza? And what about the others- has Havoc proposed to Rebecca yet? Oh! Did you visit the Hughes'? They were doing well, last I saw them, but you should really have checked in yourself-"Ed cuts off his brother before he has his ear talked off again.
"Yes, I'm fine, Central was good, no, I did not see the team except for a quick hello to Havoc, but I met with the Mustangs for lunch one day, Havoc has yet to propose to Lieutenant Catalina, but she's started bringing it up 'casually' in conversation- you should see him squirm, it's hilarious! - and yes, I did see Gracia and Elysia, they're doing well." He grins happily, before a sly look crosses his face. "And how are you and May doing?" Alphonse goes beet red, earning a laugh from his brother and best friend. But it isn't the kind of embarrassment they're expecting, because Al suddenly blurts:
"I asked her to marry me!" Ed goes silent for a moment, and Al looks anxiously at his brother. What is he thinking?
"Al…" he says softly, before wrapping his brother in another fierce hug. "That's great! Congratulations!" his baby brother is getting married! In that moment, he feels prouder than ever of his brother. He knows just how much guts it takes to propose to a woman with good aim and several weapons on hand, and he can tell by the look on Al's face that the Xingese princess accepted, probably immediately.
Winry, beside him, is ecstatic, crying a bit as she hugs Al, already talking about all the planning that she's going to have to do, because 'Elric men are simply useless when it comes to stuff like this!', and then she wants to know when May will be crossing the desert so they could have a party- "We should go to Central, have a big party with everyone like we did for Ed and I!"- And wondering what the girl's thoughts are on an autumn wedding.
Edward takes in his family as if from a distance, with Alphonse telling the kids and them jumping up and down enthusiastically, already asking when 'Aunty May' would be coming for a visit, and could Nina please be a flower girl, and Roy was more than happy to make the wedding rings if they wanted. He looks on in awe at this life that he has created, and feels Winry wrap her arms around him and watch beside him, resting her head on his shoulder.
"This… this is what was supposed to be, from the very beginning, wasn't it?" she asks quietly. "This is what comes from our struggles."
"Yeah." He remarks. "Equivalent Exchange, and all that. We paid, and we gained this in return." He can feel her laugh beside him, wordlessly making fun of his constant alchemy references. Years after losing his abilities, and his mind is still crammed full of knowledge, and it has only grown over time.
The journey is long… The road is hard… But in the end, all debts are paid, and all pain gives way to joy. Joy that comes in the shape of a little yellow house on a hill, filled with party goers and well-wishers for the newlywed Elric and his Xingese princess; with fourteen-year-old Maes Mustang teaching Nina how to make a toy out of a block of wood while their fathers gleefully battle the way they haven't since Ed's last visit in April and their wives start going for their respective weapons. Havoc went down on one knee at the end of dinner for his own beautiful Lieutenant (money traded hands and for the seemingly hundredth time Falman raked in the cash), and Breda met one of May Chang's attendants, a pretty woman named Xiangyin (they spent the rest of the evening talking, and Breda had dates with her set up for the next three weekends). Even Ling came out (secretly glad to escape the boring pile of paperwork that he knew was piling up every minute he was gone), and Lan Fan has her hands full keeping him away from the buffet table set up outside on the lawn.
Edward Elric stands, as if at the top of that same hill, and looks at his large, crazy, extended family. He stands, he watches (groaning as Ling recounted the story of him in Gluttony's stomach- he's never going to live that down, is he?), and he thinks.
Maybe Equivalent Exchange is wrong, because how the hell has he managed to deserve this?
Review, if you would be so kind!