Hello! Look who's back! Heh, sorry. Remember this? I took it down a while ago, since I couldn't figure out where it was going and could not, for the life of me, keep up with a weekly upload schedule. You guys deserved better than that, after all. So I took way longer than I should have to re-write some stuff and ta-da! The new and improved Taboo fic! Enjoy!
I DO NOT OWN FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST OR ANYTHING RELATED
Much to his surprise, Edward Elric's mind was an even darker hell than it could be on a bad day. To someone who didn't know, the reason would seem obvious; he had just watched a poor, defenceless little girl painfully fused with her dog into a talking chimera, by her own damn father no less. That was more than enough to depress anyone, let alone a teenager with some preexisting daddy issues of his own. But oh no, Edward had a knack for depressing himself in many unique ways, when his mind thought he deserved it. Of course he was devastated about Nina, and worried about her, but the final nail in his sanity's coffin was the fact that even with all his power, he could do absolutely nothing to help her. He had stood in front of the poor girl while she watched him beat her bastard of a father senseless. Hell, she'd actually tried to stop Ed from hurting him further. He had looked straight at her and, even after being praised as a genius and a prodigy by many, the Fullmetal Alchemist was entirely powerless to help her. Now, depressed and grief-stricken, Ed sulked on the steps of Central Command, flanked by his brother Alphonse and weighed down by much more than just his automail. He could barely hear the thundering of rain on Al's hollow body over the mental beating he was currently inflicting on himself.
"We're only human, goddammit." Ed mumbled to his shoes as if they'd have an answer, continuing his former speech in a tone just loud enough for Al to hear.
"That's true, brother." Al said gently, like a parent coaxing a child to bed. Next to that, though, there was a definite sadness in his voice as it rang through his armour. "Which means if you don't get out of this rain soon, your flesh ports will hurt even more than they do now. I don't want you to get sick, so let's at least go sulk someplace warmer."
Ed gave no response to his brother's half-hearted efforts to lighten the mood, instead choosing to sit in silence, feeling overall shitty and wondering how Al knew that his ports were aching. Al had always been inquisitive like that, even back in Risembool when they were little kids. Back before they had tried to bring their mother back to life, and Ed had put him in that cold, unfeeling body-
Great, he thought, wiping his eye angrily with a sodden sleeve, now I'm dwelling on something else feel guilty about.
After another good few minutes, he stood and stretched, glad that the rain running down his face hid the newly formed tears brimming his eyes. He tried not to wince when his stumps protested rather loudly at the sudden movement, and focused instead on softening his expression from a scowl to something more 'optimistic'. "You're right, Al," he said in a gentler, albeit tired tone, patting his flesh hand on his brother's shoulder. "'Sides, we don't want you rusting." He rubbed the back of his neck, struggling slightly to muster up the courage to stand straight, so as not to worry Al, and focus on his footsteps.
Al stood as well, his seven foot frame towering over his brother. Ed shoved his hands in his pockets and they both turned up the steps, with nothing more to be said, and neither having the energy to say it. As they trudged into Central Command, they barely heard the footsteps of some stranger walking past, not over the four o'clock tolling of a huge clock nearby.
There you go! The teeny prologue! If you liked it, please feel free to drop a review! Could be a paragraph, could be one word, it all really means a lot to me. Hell, even follow or favourite the story if you think it was worthy. Until next week!
Oh, and whoever can tell me what that bell toll was gets eternal admiration.
-Phoenix