Temper, Temper
S J Smith
Rating: K+
Characters: Edward-centric
Summary: Surely he's growing out of this stage.
Disclaimer: *bows to the rising sun and Arakawa*
Warning: Manga!verse; spoilers up to chapter 56, "Lions of the Round Table".
He'd always been too clever for his own good. Yeah, sure, they could label him 'genius' but Edward Elric didn't see it that way – he was smart, he knew that; and had inherited from his father (the bastard) natural talents in alchemy which were simply furthered by his time spent in Truth's presence. What he lacked was a cool head and the ability, sometimes, to think things through. He'd let someone goad him, let words get under his skin when he should've been thinking about the next move. His Master's teachings about fighting words and the way they could be used against him never quite made it through his thick skull.
Look at the way he reacted when anyone called him...challenged him…said anything about how…dammit, short he was. On that train from New Optain, Edward hadn't reacted at all to being taken a hostage; he'd slept through that. It took one of the assholes calling him runt to wake him up. And even then, Edward hadn't really known what was going on until Alphonse explained it all to him. It had not been one of the brightest moments in his stellar career as a State Alchemist. That had worked out okay, except having to deal with that bastard colonel, Mustang, afterward.
And that had led to Tucker, and Nina. Edward still had nightmares about Nina. And the fight with Scar, in the streets of East City. Edward hated that he'd given up then, thinking only of saving Alphonse's life by using his own as a bargaining chip. How stupid was that? As if anyone could've reconstructed Al's body after Scar got done with it. As if there'd been any way Al would've wanted to go on and find his own body, without his big brother beside him.
But he was learning, right? He'd learned from that encounter with Scar and, in his fight with Number 48, in Lab Five, Edward managed to keep from getting himself killed by using Scar's deconstructive alchemy against the two brothers with their souls welded to a suit of armor. He'd been scared then that he might die, that he'd leave Al trapped in his own armor until the soul rejected its makeshift body, but he'd managed to survive that battle.
When he and Ling had been trapped in Gluttony's stomach and they'd wound up fighting with Envy, they'd lost, but Edward had managed to turn it around in the end. Even though Envy had the upper hand – even though Envy was eating him alive – Edward had managed to work through his despair at the sight of the Philosopher's Stone that made up the core of the homunculus. That stroke of genius had led them under Central City, and to that thing with the bastard's face. At least he and Alphonse had found each other again – Edward hated how much he'd worried his little brother; he thought he'd be forever haunted by the horror echoing out of that metal shell that housed Al's soul when Al had thought Edward was gone for good.
Edward could think on the fly, could reason past his own emotions, even when someone was goading him to just react. Look what happened when Envy was insulting him – he'd ignored Envy to go after 'Father'. Okay, so it hadn't worked out too well, but Edward thought he'd proven he could ignore the taunts and threats so he could do what he'd promised – get his brother's body back.
He did, too, at least until the Fuhrer King Bradley mentioned Winry, and then the façade came tumbling down.