Oh my SQUEE, guys! I totally can't believe I wrote this one morning! I think it's WONDERFUL! Now, you need to hit the 'review' button, 'kay?
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FMA OR ITS CHARACTERS. I ONLY OWN MY OC, Maddison. SOME ACCOUNTS IN THIS MIGHT BE TOTALLY OFF!
Traveling Soldier
(A 'Thank God For...' One-Shot/FullMetal Alchemist One-Shot)
Two days past eighteen,
He was waiting for the bus in his army green.
Sat down in a booth in a café there,
Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair.
Jean Havoc bit his lip as he slid into the booth of a local diner. His Military-blue clothes were warm due to the fact they were freshly steamed and new. He was nervous about going to the war in Bennett, a small country on the other side of Xing. He was alone in the world, and this was his last stop.
"Can I help you, sir?" He looked up to a pretty face not much younger than his own. Her green-hazel eyes smiled with her in a tone that showed she was happy.
"I think I will just have black coffee today, miss." The girl nodded and wrote the order down on her small pad.
"Coming right up!"
He's a little shy, so she gives him a smile,
And he said, "Would you mind sitting down for a while,
And talking to me,
I'm feeling a little low."
She said, "I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go."
The young woman brought him a warm ceramic mug filled with the dark drink. She smiled at him with a sort of kindness in her heart that she didn't muster from absolutely anywhere.
"Would you mind sitting with me for a minute," he asked just as she was about to leave. She shook her head, like she couldn't.
"If I do, the boss will kill me," she explained, but smiled. "I know where we can go, though. I'll be off in fifteen minutes." The woman then turned on her heel and headed back to the kitchen. He watched her go.
So they went and dawn and they sat on the pier.
He said, "I bet you got a boyfriend, but I don't care,
I got no one to send a letter to,
Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?"
The young girl dipped her feet into the warm water of the lake. She had came here as a kid, apparently, and it was perfect since no one ever came here.
"My name is Maddison, by the way," she said. He smiled at her, but then thought of the war.
"Hey, I've got a question for you..." She listened intently.
I cried,
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy,
Too young for him they told her,
Waiting for the love of a travellin' soldier.
Our love will never end,
Waiting for the soldier to come back again,
Nevermore to be alone when the letter said,
A soldier's coming home.
The young girl waved as that man left on the bus. His face held an expression of immense sadness, like he didn't want to leave.
She still could feel his lips on hers. She loved the spark it threw at her heart, the perk of when he had kissed her.
She only smiled.
So the letters came from an army camp,
In California then Vietnam,
And he told her of his heart,
It might be love and all of the things he was so scared of.
Maddison watched as the return address changed from that large camp in Eastern Amestris to Northern Bennett. She felt her heart give a pang each time her own letters received a response.
"She seems to brighten only then," whispered one diner worker to another when Jean had sent a long letter.
"I think she's in love...What'd they do at the pier?"
He said, "when it's getting kind of rough over here,
I think of that day sitting down by the pier,
And I close my eyes and see your pretty smile,
Don't worry, but I won't be able to write for a while."
Maddison was kind of down when she received her monthly letter one time and it said he wouldn't be able to get to a postal office for a bit. She was happy that he thought her smile pretty, as the latter had said.
He had included a drawing one of his friends in the camp made of their counselor, Roy Mustang, in a small miniskirt. It made her laugh so hard, she couldn't look at it. Down at the bottom corner of the drawing (at Roy's toe), Jean had included a tiny note:
'I think I do love you.'
I cried,
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy,
Too young for him they told her,
Waiting for the love of a travelin' soldier.
Our love will never end,
Waiting for the soldier to come back again,
Nevermore to be alone when the letter said,
A soldier's coming home.
Jean had a hard time in Bennett, actually. He had made one friend in all, but the Military wasn't for making friends. His counselor was an asshole. His friend was just odd.
It was not a good time for him.
But, he brightened when mail-call came and Maddison's latest letter was thrown at him. He opened it quickly and laughed the whole time he read it.
One Friday night at a football game,
The Lord's prayer said and the Anthem sang,
A man said, "Folks, would you bow your heads,
For a list of local Vietnam dead."
Maddison had just finished her solo of the Amestris Anthem on her violin when a tall man stepped up in her place. His face was grim, and as she headed back to her seat, she could hear him say some things about how we should all be thankful.
What was the point?
Then he told them all to bow their heads for the list of the dead at Bennett.
Crying all alone under the stands,
Was a piccolo player in the marching band,
And one name read and no one really cared,
But a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair.
She hated that man as he said 'Jean Havoc'. She despised him all too much. He couldn't be dead! He had promised that he would come home! Why did he have to tell her such a thing? She hated everything at that moment.
Broken bits of her wooden violin were scattered around her, because she hated herself. She was such an idiot.
She wanted to die.
I cried,
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy,
Too young for him they told her,
Waiting for the love of a travellin' soldier.
Our love will never end,
Waiting for the soldier to come back again,
Nevermore to be alone when the letter said,
A soldier's coming home.
Jean Havoc slowly made his way through the crowd, his leg amputated and nearly blind. Some people looked at him as if he was a zombie, but most didn't care. The football was thrown around on the field and the fans cheered. He could see the place in the band where a violin player was supposed to be was vacant.
The man frowned and made his way under the stands, where he saw Maddison all alone with many pieces of her violin scattered around her.
"Now why are you crying?" He asked. She looked up, her eyes puffy and swollen.
She looked beautiful to him, even as she tackled him to the ground in happiness.
He was okay.