So, no way to explain this. I'm just gonna blame it on the plot bunnies and Firefly264's lovely fic, 100 Faces of Roy Mustang. If you haven't checked it out, do it. It's great :) Anyway, this is going to be a series of 100 drabbles on the one and only Fullmetal, since he never seems to run out of different moods and masks.
Since each drabble will be...well, drabble sized, I'll try to update as often as I can (every couple of days or so).
Now, just to get the ball rolling:
The first person who can tell me why the title of this fic is what it is gets a virtual cookie and their name broadcasted in the next AN!
"There's no way this is going to work. You're both idiots." Winry stood, irritated and sweating under the hot Resembool sun, backed by about twenty other people from around town. They had somehow gotten the memo that the Elrics were attempting to build a "flying machine". However, Winry wasn't exactly buying the idea, because no matter how smart her boys were, something that big and mechanical could not and would not stay afloat in midair. Even if the idea of combining alchemy with her beloved mechanics was a bit interesting. Still. It was a ridiculous idea.
"Oh, come on, Win! Me and Al have been researching this for almost a year. There's no way it's not gonna work. Just wait, you'll see." Edward tried, in vain, to reassure Winry that he wasn't going to crash and burn in this new contraption. He put a flesh hand on the almost hot metal of the nose of his flying machine. Beside Ed, leaning on the contraption, Al grinned at him. Mei wouldn't let Al even attempt to try and fly the machine, simply frightened that he would crash and die. The only reason Ed's girlfriend was letting him get inside of the thing was because she was going to prove a point. And maybe knock Ed's ego back down to where it was supposed to be.
"Whatever, Ed. Just hurry and fly it so we can all go back inside. It's seriously boiling out here." Winry shifted her weight and clutched her wrench in her gloved hand on her hip, a warm breeze coming by her face and, instead of providing even small relief, made her feel even sweatier.
With a playful and excited grin, Ed bounded around to the other side where a leather and metal transmuted helmet sat in the pilot's seat, courtesy of Alphonse.
Quickly, he adjusted his golden hair to fit the snugly-fitting helmet and flopped into the pilot seat. In one smooth movement, he strapped himself in and flipped a few switches that caused the machine to churn to life. In his seat, Edward felt the whole thing lurch a couple of times and the engine rumble and sputter. Though the small crowd that had gathered gave some questioning, although very interested, looks, Ed liked the sound. The sound of progress being made and goals being reached. It massaged his soul.
Mei gave Winry, who was actually looking a little concerned now, though irritable, a worried look. Al set his proud, excited copper eyes on his brother, saluting promptly in a joke.
"All set, pilot!"
Ed grinned toothily and saluted back with the wrong hand.
The two girlfriends sighed. Children.
The crowd watched in awe as Ed flipped a few more switches and then put his hands on the steering wheel. Then, with a great sputter, the machine rolled forward, speeding up at a steady pace towards a transmuted ramp across the field. A collective gasp seemed to come from even Alphonse as Ed sped on, reaching maximum speed towards the ramp. The wheels of the machine were a blur as they reached the base of the ramp.
And then there was lift off.
It was like nothing Ed had ever felt before. His chest was pushed by gravity onto the small backrest and a rush of adrenline pumped through his veins. His grip tightened on the steering wheel, and for a moment, Ed thought he was going to be blown literally sky high out of his machine. For a few agonizing seconds, the plane was fighting the forces of physics as it struggled to find cruising altitude. But then, the plane leveled unsteadily, and Edward Elric was on top of the world.
He was about two hundred feet off the ground. His furiously blown hair was in his face. His hands almost hurt from the grip and fight for the steering wheel. And for the first time in a long time, he was in awe.
Anything could happen, now that I've escaped gravity, he thought. Anything at all.
Patches of green, yellow, and brown blurred on the ground, and gleam of Winry's wrench down below was a metal filing amongst a group of ants. The various ponds and streams glittered in the afternoon gleam of sun, the small waves making the water seem almost alive. Clumps of trees were miniature forests, blocking his view of the ground below. Before him stretched endless fields and farms, houses and barns were only blocks of brown and gray. In the distance, a train that looked like a worm glided lazily down sparkling tracks towards who knows where. And the sky, oh the sky. It was a beautiful cerulean, upside-down ocean that stretched on forever.
Then, Ed felt small, and the flow of the world seemed to drown him in it's current.
And then, Ed felt weightless.
In his stupor, the nose of the plane had dipped and he hadn't even noticed the unhealthy coughs of the engine. Golden eyes widened and cold hands pulled at the steering wheel in vain. Edward was going down, and he was going down fast.
"Shit!"
His face was getting wind-burnt and tears were welling up his eyes from the constant wind. Heart pounding and hands clammy, he prepared himself for landing, which, thankfully, seemed like a rather large pond that he knew was deep from many swims. Still, though.
Ed had almost never been more freaked out.
Against his will, his heart sped and his breathing turned shallow and quick. Cold sweat rolled down his back, and suddenly the pond was bigger. It was huge, and it was too close. Suddenly, the air was too thick and he couldn't breathe and his ears could only pick up a huge, rumbling splash.
Suddenly there were thousands of bits of metal swimming around him, difficult to see in the thick, sooty water. Ed felt one brush on his arm and he felt some more shrapnel cut his right leg, adding some blood to the water-soot mixture. Right. Leg. Ed couldn't swim.
With every passing moment, his remaining automail was dragging him to the bottom of one of the deepest ponds in Resembool, and there was nothing he could do about it. And Edward had though that his arm's automail had left with all of his automail problems. Wrong.
His lack of oxygen in the higher altitudes and the absence of it in the water was building up, and Ed was beginning to feel light headed. Muddled thoughts of escape and stupid plans were forming only to be demolished once more, and Ed couldn't think, see, or hear.
...
The next thing Edward knew, he was lying in short-cut grass on his back and all he could see was the sky.
"Brother, you're awake!"
Ed's throat felt raw, and his clothes felt gritty and wet. A breeze brushed over his right foot's toes, which made it known that his shoes were gone, or at least one of them. The same breeze hit his still soaked hair that was splayed out on the ground, out of it's casual up-do.
"Are you okay?!" It was Winry. She sounded that weird kind of angry that Ed never understood.
"Brother, you were in the air for a really long time! I was timing it and it was a full three minutes!"
In the air.
"Al, he just crash landed in a pond! This is not the time!"
Flying.
Suddenly, the image of the big world and little people and trains and upside-down ocean flooded Ed's mind, and he could only hope to see the endless flow in motion once more.
"Al?"
"Yea?"
"We need to make a better machine. I want to go to the moon."
Okay, one thing:
THAT WAS THE MOST FUN I HAVE EVER HAD WRITING SOMETHING XD
It wasn't a drabble obviously, but let's just let bygones be bygones because oneshots and drabbles are the same thing. Right? Right?! RIGHT?!
Don't forget to guess the title, because I'll be back soon :)
