Prize fic for 0123Hawkpath3210 on Deviant Art. She won second place in the AlMei Valentine's day competition and won a 1000 word plus fic from me... it ended up being more like 3000, but I don't think that's a problem, haha. She asked for something with Trisha and little Ed and Al, and I was happy to deliver :D
"Will you dance with me now?"
If he hadn't already drunken far more than he should have, Hohenheim might have jumped at the sudden voice. As it was all he did was blink to force his eyes to focus on the girl standing in front of him. She looked like she was fifteen or sixteen, with soft looking brown hair and soft grey eyes to match.
He had seen the girl earlier with Urey, which meant that she had to be…
"No thank you Trisha."
"Are you ever going to dance with me?" she asked, instead of stomping her foot and storming off like she had the last time she had asked him to dance. "All you ever do when we have parties is sit on the side and watch. Haven't you ever wanted to know what it's like to join in?"
"… No, I'm afraid I've never really wanted to join in."
"So you're too good for us?" she asked, her previously soft eyes now flashing like a canon exploding. Hohenheim felt his jaw falling open. That had been the last comment he had expected.
"I… No, I don't think I'm too good for you." He pushed his glasses up his nose again, rather sloppily because of the alcohol in his system. He was just glad he wasn't slurring. "Quite the opposite in fact. I wouldn't want to ruin anything."
All of a sudden her eyes reverted back to their previous form as she shook her head and then smiled.
"Well that's just silly. You can't be that bad of a dancer!"
"That's not what I—"
"Come on, I can show you how to do the steps," she said, grabbing his hands and dragging him away from the log he was sitting on.
"Trisha—" he said in alarm, but found she was stronger than she looked. He was helpless to stop her from dragging him into the inner circle of dancers, where his other hand was quickly grabbed so that he was a part of the circle around the fire. She smiled widely at him as she wrapped his hand in her smaller one and then dragged him in her direction.
"Just go with the flow!" she shouted over the crackling fire and people's squeals of delight. "And don't let go of my hand."
He clung to that advice as fiercely he did her hand as other people broke in and left the circle of dancers. His left hand grew both cold and warm as people would grab onto it, then let go to either leave or let someone else in. But throughout the entire hour that she kept him there, her hand was around his the whole time.
When the log tower finally toppled to the ground, letting out a shower of sparks that made the dancers squeal with glee, the circle seemed to break up and Trisha led him away from the individual couples who were beginning to dance in pairs instead of a group.
"No was that really so bad, Mr. Hohenheim?" she asked with a smile.
Intoxicated by both the alcohol and the dancing, he smiled back at her. "No, it wasn't."
"That's my favorite part of the dance," she confessed after a few moments of silence. Hohenheim belatedly realized that they were still holding hands, but oddly enough he didn't feel the need to remove his hand.
"Which part?"
"When the logs fall."
"Why is that?"
"I like the sparks."
He raised an eyebrow. "A pyromaniac are we?" She laughed, shaking her head.
"No. Hardly. It makes me feel like I'm close to the stars. Little sparks of light in the darkness… and one of them might even reach out and touch you."
"I think it would hurt quite a bit if they did."
Trisha shrugged. "But it'd be worth it to get that glimpse of divinity, don't you think?"
Hohenheim froze, then he directed his gaze away from her face towards the sky so she couldn't see his face. I am God, the World or the Universe. "I suppose that would depend on how much the pain was."
"I suppose." She apparently didn't understand that he was gazing at the sky to avoid looking at her though because she looked up the same direction. "They're beautiful, aren't they?"
All the same, her words had brought the pinpricks of light in the sky to his attention. It had been several years since he had actually looked at them. Seen them, yes, but really looked at them…
They were beautiful.
How had he gone so long without noticing?
"I love looking at the stars," she said quietly, almost reverently.
He glanced back down at her and felt his heart thump oddly in his chest at the pure rapture on her face as she stared at the heavens.
"Did you know that the ancient Xerxians used to have a myth about every one of the constellations and stars?"
"Really?"
"Perhaps not all of them. But most of them." He remembered the other slaves talking about them, sometimes giving warnings. "I overheard the Master saying that the injunction of the stars with Mars means that we're going to have to be careful around hot things! Who's going to be doing the cooking? 12? Be careful!" There had been a warning for every day, always one star or another planet the culprit.
"Do you know any of them?"
He stared at her, mouth going slightly dry. Could he remember that far back?
The lovers, Hohenheim! The lovers!
Tell her about Ida and Nikomos!
Brutis slays the Lykos Dragons!
Hohenheim swallowed as the souls continued to give him suggestions of old half remembered stories from their childhoods.
"Do you see those two stars right there?" He pointed. "They're next to the really bright one."
"I think so."
"Well, they used to be a pair of lovers."
She turned her eyes to him, almost sparkling with anticipation before sitting down on the grass. He joined her, then cleared his throat, and began to tell her the story he had heard as a child himself.
"Edward Elric!"
Ed flinched.
"Alphonse Elric!"
Next to him his little brother did the same.
"What do you think you're doing!"
Ed and Al cast each other identical cringes.
"Uh…" Ed said. As the older brother it was his responsibility to speak up and protect Al after all. And it had been his idea.
"You two are supposed to be in bed."
"But Mom, we're not sleepy!" Ed protested, crossing his arms. Al glanced over at his brother and mimicked his actions.
"Yeah, we're not!"
"And you always make us go to bed when it's not dark enough to see the stars yet. We want to see them."
Trisha blinked, then lowered the broom she was holding. She usually tried to do the chores after the boys were in bed so that they wouldn't be interfering with her ability to clean. And it always made her smile when Al would come downstairs and proclaim that the cleaning magic had come through again during the night. Even if it probably wasn't the best thing to be letting the boys believe, that magic came through and cleaned the house every night instead of the hours she spent before going to bed herself… she wasn't ready to let her boys lose that innocence yet.
"Boys, you shouldn't disobey me even if you want to see the stars. You should have asked me."
"Sorry, Mom" Alphonse said, lowering his head. He was always the first one to apologize of the two. He would be such a perfect gentlemen when he grew up. "We'll go back to bed now."
Both he and Ed turned back towards the stairs, heads hung low, looking for all the world like puppies that he just been kicked.
"Well, I never said that either."
The stopped and turned around. Trisha couldn't help but smile at the hopeful looks on their faces.
"You said you wanted to see the stars, didn't you? As long as you're already up…"
The excited looks on their faces was well worth the extra hour or two she'd be up with them.
"Al, go grab a blanket for us to sit on. Ed, I want you pick out a nice spot for us where we can see lots of stars."
"What are you going to do, Mom?" Ed asked as Al took off running.
"I'm going to get us a little something special to drink."
"It's not milk is it?" he asked, automatically on the defensive when it came to the hated liquid.
"No, it's not," she said, smiling again. She would never understand why the boy was so adverse to milk. He had never had any problem nursing, but ever since being weaned, he wouldn't drink it if his very life depended on it. She used to wonder if it had something to do with being jealous of Al, since she weaned Ed about the same time she got pregnant with Al, but the boys had become so close after Ed's initial jealousy of the his baby brother.
"Now go on, we want a good spot." Ed nodded and ran off, out the front door. Trisha spared another moment to smile at her boys before heading for the kitchen where she opened their icebox.
Pianko, the wonderful woman that she was, had sent over some orange juice the other day. Almost everything in Resembool revolved around sheep, so there wasn't much local produce. Anything special like the oranges needed to make orange juice had to be ordered from elsewhere in the country, usually the West. That got expensive, and seeing as she was trying to raise two boys on the money Van had left behind and the small odds and ends jobs she could pick up around town — usually laundry, expensive was not something she could afford.
She had wanted to save it for a special occasion, and this seemed to be it.
She grabbed three of their nicer glasses, all her parents could afford to give as a dowry when Van proposed (he insisted that he didn't need a dowry, that just being able to marry her was far more of a gift than he ever deserved, but traditions were traditions and her mother wouldn't be caught dead marrying away a daughter without anything to add to the marriage). The last time they had used these, it had just been her and him. Urey and Sara had graciously offered to led Ed stay at their place with their little girl Winry so that Trisha and Van could have a night off on their anniversary.
That had also been the night that Al had been conceived, but no need to mention that to the boys.
She collected the glasses in one towel and wrapped the glass bottle of orange juice in another towel, only she wetted the second to keep the orange juice cooler a bit longer.
Then she hurried out the door (left ajar when Al ran out it no doubt) to find the boys already laying out the blanket far enough away from the tree next to their house that they would have a mostly unobstructed view in every direction.
"This is a very nice place," she told Ed, who grinned, looking very pleased with himself.
"What's that?" Al asked, pointing at what she had in her hands.
"This is a little bit of a treat that Granny Pianko got for us. I wanted to save it for a special occasion, so I saved it for right now."
"What is it?" Ed asked, probably still checking to make sure it wasn't milk.
"It's orange juice. I'm only going to give you a little bit because it's late and we don't want you to have problems going to bed later, but…" She poured the boys an equal measure of the orange liquid, then gave herself the same amount so they wouldn't think she was being unfair.
Al was the first to try it, taking a sip and then staring at her with wide eyes.
"That's really good!" he said, then continued to drink. "I really like it!"
His brother's words must have emboldened Ed, because he took a swig from his glass too. Ed didn't bother proclaiming that he liked it though, just let his eyes go wide and then proceed to drink the rest of the glass in one smooth chug.
"Can we have some more?" Al asked.
"No, you've had enough for one night. But we can have some more for breakfast tomorrow. Instead of milk, even."
That certainly made Ed happy.
After they all finished their drinks and Trisha had stashed their glasses far enough away from the blanket that they wouldn't accidently break them, they all lied down on the blanket and stared up at the stars.
The view was amazing in Resembool. There was virtually no pollution, so the skies were completely clear except for a cloud or two that were too far off in the distance to bother them. Lying there, it seemed as if they could see every star in the heavens.
"There are so many…" Al said in quiet wonder.
"Did you know that the ancient Xerxians used to have a myth about every one of the constellations and stars?" Ed and Al both turned their head to look at her.
"Really?"
"Perhaps not all of them. But most of them."
"Do you know any of them?"
"Your father told me a few of them. And I'm sure we could come up with some if I can't remember them."
"Tell us!" Ed demanded, and Trisha reached out to rub his head.
"Hmm. Perhaps I should tell you the story about the Lykos Dragon, huh?"
"Dragon!" Al shouted. Ed nodded furiously.
"Well. Let's see if I can remember it right. So, there was a pair of identical twins. Do you know what they are?"
"Of course!"
"I should have known my two smart little boys would know. Well, they were identical twins. But when the boys were very young, about your age, they found a bird sent by the gods. They didn't know that the bird was special though, so they killed it and ate it."
"That wasn't very nice."
"They were very poor and very hungry. And when their father realized what his sons had done, he was very sad because he believed that the gods would be angry with his children and want to kill them. So he sent his boys to live with a huntsmen in the forest, where he hoped the gods wouldn't be able to find them and he pretended he never had any sons at all."
"Do they ever see him again?"
"Wait till the end of the story," she admonished gently.
"Well the twins grew up to be very strong, and very good hunters. So the huntsmen that they lived with told them that they were good enough to become hunters on their own. He sent them off to make their own way in life and gave them a knife."
"They only got one knife?" Ed asked, wrinkling his nose.
"This was a very special knife. If they were going to split up, they would only need to stick the knife in a tree and if either of them ever came back to the tree and the knife was rusted, one of them had died. If it was still shiny, then they were both okay. If only one side of the knife was rusty, that meant that the other brother was in danger."
"Did it do that with alchemy?"
"Hmm. I don't know. I guess it might have. As the boys were walking through the forest, they realized that they were hungry and needed something to eat. When they saw a rabbit though, the rabbit begged them not to kill him, and offered them two of his children if he wouldn't kill him. The hunters agreed, and kept looking. Then they found a fox, but the fox begged them not to kill him and offered them two of his children if he wouldn't kill him. The same thing happened with a wolf, then a bear, then a lion. So the two hunters were walking around in the forest being followed by two rabbits, two foxes, two wolves, two bears, and two lions."
"Wow," Ed breathed.
"Eventually the boys found something to eat and then decided to split up. So they stuck the knife in a tree, split up the animals, so each brother had one of each animal with them."
"When does the dragon come in?"
"I'm getting there. So the first brother came to a town called Lykos and saw that there were black banners everywhere. So he asked what they were for and they told him that the Princess was going to get fed to a dragon so the dragon wouldn't kill everyone. And the brother knew that he couldn't let this happen, so he snuck up on the dragon right before they were about to offer the Princess to him and killed him."
"Whoa."
"He cut off its head and his animals tore the body apart so it couldn't regrow it's head. Then he cut out the dragon's tongue as proof that he had killed the dragon. When the Princess and her family came over the mountain to offer the Princess to the dragon, he was waiting there with the head. The King was so happy that he wouldn't have to let his daughter die that he let the brother marry his daughter the Princess and become King when he died."
"Why would he want to be king when he was dead," Al asked frowning.
"No! He could be King when the King died," Ed corrected, shaking his head.
"Oh."
"But one of the men that was helping the King was so mad that he got to marry the Princess that he cut off the brother's head."
Al gasped while Ed sat straight up and yelled "WHAT!"
"The Princess and the King were very sad, and so were the animals. The man who did was punished very harshly. The animals were so sad though, that they ran into the forest together until they found the brother. The brother didn't understand what the animals were trying to tell him, so they led him to the knife that was all rusted because the brother had died. His twin was very upset, but his animals told him about a special plant that could heal any injury, no matter how bad it was."
"Is that possible?"
"It's just a story, Ed. So all of the animal raced off to find this special plant, while the brother when to go find his brother's body. He found his body next to the dragon's layer, with his head still very near. Then the animals came back, so they put his head back on and put the plant in his mouth. Then both brothers were able to return to the palace where he was married to the Princess, and his brother got to live with them forever."
The boys didn't make any response for a while, so Trisha was almost afraid that they had fallen asleep.
Then Ed pointed to another star in the sky. "What about that one, Mom, what's the story behind that one?"
"Or that one," Al said, pointing in another direction. "What about that one! Ed always gets to pick first!"
Trisha smiled at the two boys.
"Why don't one of you try to tell me a story?"
"Oh can I go first!"
"Of course, Al."
"So, so, those ones right there are really close to each other. So they're actually two brothers and a mom who loved each other very much."
Trisha pulled the two boys as close to her as she could.
She wouldn't trade these two boys for anything in the world. They were more precious to her than oxygen, better than all the orange juice in the world, and the light of her life.
They were her stars.
The myth told here is actually a Grimm's Fairytale, adapted a bit so that I could write it fast enough XD The story is called "The Two Brothers" if you're interested in reading the actual story. It's a good one.
I hope you enjoyed it!