((This is my first story (Well, that I've posted, anyway), so I hope everyone likes it. Reviews are much appreciated. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now... Ever since I realized that Al can't blow bubbles, I've wanted to do something with it, but I never did until now. Since it's FMA, after all, there has to be a little depressing stuff, but for the most part it's a happy story, and I did try to give it an upbeat ending. It was originally intended to be a one-shot, but ended up taking 2 days and 4 pages... xD Anyway, enjoy the story!))
It was a dreary Monday in East HQ. Yes, that cursed day upon which everyone had to get out of bed at a reasonable hour and go to work. Everyone in Mustang's unit, and indeed everyone in their right mind, dreaded that day. But this Monday in particular was especially horrid and slow. The office was practically emanating a gloomy aura, and the clock seemed to tick slower and louder than usual.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
The nasty silence was occasionally interrupted by a sigh or groan from one of the room's occupants. Aside from that, the only sounds were rhythmic background noises: the aforementioned ominous clock, the dutiful scritch-scratch of pencils and fancy fountain pens, the clacking of typewriters, and the tapping of half-empty coffee mugs being replaced on the desks. Everyone, including the famous Fullmetal Alchemist, was doing some sort of paperwork, with the exception of Ed's younger brother, Alphonse. Al was sitting on the couch next to his grumpy big brother, being bored. Of course, he didn't mention that he was bored. He was actually quite content with it. He had a great deal of patience, a trait he had always had yet had grown even more so after years of spending every night having staring contests with inanimate objects (he always won) and seeing how high he could count (his record was 5,036). Still, it was impossible to ignore the fact that he was really a young boy, despite his appearance, and sitting around in an office all day didn't suit him. Of course he would never complain about it, not even a little, but the fact stood that he was bored. And so, in fact, was everyone else. Little did they know that their boredom was about to be cured.
The sound of the door was so loud and unexpected that Al was absolutely certain everyone in the room, including the dog, jumped an inch off their seats.
"Hey, everyone! Heard you're feeling a bit down!" shouted the familiar, overly enthusiastic voice of Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, resident cheerful nutjob. This interruption produced a synchronized groan from the room's occupants, all of whom knew what was coming and dreaded it. Or so they thought, anyway.
"Hughes, what the hell are you doing here?" asked Mustang, his voice quite clearly demonstrating how irritated he was.
"Cheering you up, of course! I heard you guys were down in the dumps, so I decided to come by and save you from your boredom," Hughes replied, grinning.
"And how did you know that?"
"I'm in the investigations department, Roy. I could tell you the color of your underwear if you wanted." He smirked. The colonel sighed and put a hand on his forehead.
"Anyway, I brought something I just KNOW will brighten everyone's day," Hughes announced.
"Lunch?" Ed asked hopefully.
"No such luck, Ed. I brought something even better!" he replied, in a high-pitched voice usually reserved only for talking about his daughter. And, speak of the devil, in walked that very girl.
Roy nearly fell out of his fancy boss chair.
"Have you lost your mind?! This is a military office, not a day-care!" he exclaimed.
"On the contrary, he lost it quite a while ago," Ed said calmly.
Ignoring his friends' comments, Hughes told his daughter, "Say hi to everyone, Elicia."
"Hi," Elicia obeyed, waving shyly.
"Isn't she the cutest?"
"Hughes," Roy said, giving him a serious look, "We have WORK to do. I can't have a little kid running around the office."
"Oh, come on. Just seeing her adorable face will spur everyone's productivity!" Hughes argued, grinning like an idiot. Then his expression turned more serious, and he lowered his voice. "Listen, I was planning on spending a day with Elicia, but I've got an unexpected assignment. Gracia's visiting some relatives in South City, so I'd really appreciate it if you could look after her for me. It's only for a few hours."
Roy sighed yet again. What could he do? Hughes was his best friend, and he couldn't bear to say no to him. Plus he probably owed him for various favors.
"Fine," he said reluctantly, as if he had just agreed to listen to a long lecture about automail.
"Great! Well anyway, I've gotta run. I'll come pick her up as soon as I can, ok?" Hughes said, his cheery demeanor returning. "Have fun!" And on that note, he left.
Everyone turned and glared at Mustang, who only sighed again and headdesked.
Elicia, who was only three years old yet still polite, awkwardly sat down on the couch for lack of better option.
"So now what are we supposed to do?" Havoc asked, regarding the little girl with a slight tilt of the head.
"I don't know. I don't care," Roy said, his head in his hands. He was obviously quite tired.
"I've got an idea," Fuery said hesitantly. "Al, why don't you and Elicia go outside?" he suggested.
"Why, what'd he do?" Ed asked, as if this was some sort of punishment.
"Sure," Al said, giving Ed a quick but unmistakeable dirty look. He turned to Elicia. "Come on, Elicia. We're going to go play outside for a little while, ok?" Elicia nodded and hopped off the couch.
Al stood up and led Elicia to the front steps of the building, earning several strange looks from soldiers along the way. He sat down on the steps, and Elicia did the same, copying his movements exactly as small children often did with people they looked up to. She looked down the stairs in awe.
"The stairs are reeeeeally big," she observed, spreading her little arms wide to show it. Al laughed a little.
"Yes they are. Do you know what this building is called?" he asked, hoping to keep her entertained somehow. Elicia paused to think about it, and then shook her head.
"This is East Headquarters."
"Like where daddy works?" Elicia asked, recalling hearing a similar name before.
"Not quite. Your daddy works in Central. This is East City," Al explained.
"Oh." Elicia pondered this fact, not sure what that meant but determined to understand anyway. She swung her little legs back and forth, watching the steps. "What can we do?" she asked, not wanting to outright say that she was bored.
"...Um..." Al looked around, not really sure how to answer her question. Suddenly Elicia remembered something. She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a bottle of bubbles (Which should have been too big to fit in her pocket, but for the sake of this story we'll chalk it up to anime physics and leave it at that). "You blow bubbles for me?" she asked, looking up at Al with a cute, pleading look in her eyes that he couldn't possibly say no to.
"Oh... um... ok..." It suddenly occurred to Al that, given the fact that he didn't actually breath, blowing bubbles might prove to be a bit... difficult. Even so, there was no way he could refuse without feeling like a horrible person, so he reluctantly took the bottle of bubbles from Elicia and opened them. She watched expectantly as Al picked up the bubble wand and held it in front of him, trying to figure out how to do it.
He tried making little metallic blowing noises at it, hoping that would somehow be enough to miraculously form bubbles. Not surprisingly, nothing happened. He concentrated on the bubbles, willing the solution to create bubbles. Needless to say, that didn't work either. Elicia frowned.
"You too little to make bubbles, too..?" she asked quietly, disappointed and a little concerned.
"Uh, yeah," Al lied. He obviously couldn't tell her the truth. Even if he could, she was too little to understand. "Don't worry, Elicia. I'll find a way to make bubbles for you."
Elicia smiled, apparently not noticing the hint of sadness in his voice. "I know you do good," she said, patting his armor gently. Determined not to disappoint her, Al tried to think of any other ways he could get the bubbles to work. He tried waving the bubble wand around in front of him. This managed to produce a few bubbles, much to Elicia's delight, but they were small in both size and number. Al sighed and tried to think of a different method.
"What wrong?" Elicia asked, having popped the few bubbles that Al managed to create.
"Nothing," he lied, trying to think of another way he could make bubbles. He looked around and found a piece of wire hanging on the ground, which gave him an idea. He picked it up and began bending it into loops.
"Whatcha doin'?" Elicia asked, ever curious.
"You'll see," Al answered mysteriously, still bending the wire. Finally he stopped, satisfied, having bent it into a series of complicated loops. He dipped it into the bubble solution and waved it around like before. This managed to produce a few more bubbles than last time. Elicia giggled and popped them enthusiastically, but Al wasn't as happy.
"No, no, that's not right either," he mumbled to himself, unbending the wire. He began bending it into a different shape this time, a stick with a square on the end. How a square instead of a circle would make it any better, he didn't know, but it was worth a try. Once again, he dipped it in the bubble solution and waved it around. This yielded even poorer results. For a moment Al thought he really would lose his patience, a rare occurrence for him, overwhelmed with the pointless and silly desire to blow bubbles. Then he remembered a fact that had been drilled into his mind by countless books:
Science is a process of trial and error. It's ok if you fail at first. Even failed experiments can teach you something. You should always keep trying no matter what.
"That's it!" Al shouted suddenly, having a "eureka" moment.
"What?" Elicia asked, confused.
"I thought the problem was the shape of the wand, but it's not! It's the waving it in the air that's the problem!" Al exclaimed, mostly talking to himself in his excitement.
"Uh... Yeah!" Elicia nodded, smiling. She had no idea what he was talking about, but the older boy definitely seemed happy about something, so she should be happy about it to. The simple, innocent logic of a child was an amazing thing. Al laughed a little and patted Elicia's head affectionately, slightly amused by her enthusiastic trust in him. He was glad she wasn't scared of him, like other kids sometimes were. Although it was usually older kids, closer to his own age, who were scared of him. Little kids like Elicia were usually just sort of amazed. They were too young and innocent to think there was anything wrong with it.
Still determined to make Elicia happy, Al tried to think of some other way to do it. Suddenly he got an idea. He reached into the small pocket strapped to his leg and pulled out a stick of white chalk, slightly worn but not broken. He began to draw a circle on one of the steps, his smooth, straight lines the kind that come from years of practice.
"You gonna draw a piccher?" Elicia asked curiously, watching him draw.
"Not quite. You'll see." He continued adding to the array, a simple transmutation circle that he used quite often. He took the bottle of bubble solution and placed it in the middle of the circle, then activated it. Elicia let out a small gasp, mystified by the bright light of the reaction.
"What that?" she asked, her voice full of wonder and amazement.
"It's alchemy," Al explained, unable to hide the hint of pride in his voice. Even now, he couldn't help but feel proud of himself whenever someone complimented his alchemy, especially because Ed was so well known for being a prodigy. In reality, Al was as good as Ed, although hardly anyone knew that. He didn't mind, though; he didn't really want to be famous. Still, it was nice when people acknowledged his skill.
Sure enough, the bubbles began to form at the top of the bottle. Slowly at first, but then they got faster, and Elicia giggled as they swirled around her. She danced around happily, popping bubbles and shrieking as one popped on her nose, then erupting into more giggles. Al watched her quietly, happy yet also a bit sad. He missed those moments, the happy days before mom had died. He had precious few of those happy memories, and most of them were a bit fuzzy. And even the ones that weren't, there were certain things he just couldn't remember. It scared him a little.
Before he could get too deeply absorbed in his worries, though, he was interrupted by Elicia, who had climbed on top of him to try to reach a bubble that was too high.
"It getted away," she sighed, sliding off of him.
"That's true, but look," Al said, pointing up at the bubble, which was slowly floating off into the sky. "It's going up." Elicia tilted her head up to look, looking so far up that she nearly fell over backwards.
"Where it going?"
"I don't know. Probably space, I guess," Al replied thoughtfully, watching the bubble. "I bet you could see the whole country from up there..."
"Can the bubble see daddy?"
Al laughed a little. "Maybe it can, Elicia. Maybe it can."
"Hey Al. Have you gone insane yet?" called a familiar voice, interrupting Al's thoughts once more.
"Brother!"
"Little Big Brother!" Elicia unexpectedly ran up to Ed and hugged his legs, nearly knocking him over. "We play bubbles!" she announced excitedly.
"Is it lunch time already?" Al asked, looking up at his big brother.
"Yeah. About freaking time, too. I thought for sure we'd all die of melancholy in there," Ed said, half-joking, half-serious. He sat down next to Al. "Anyway, what are you doing?" he asked, glancing at the strange bubble-blowing device in front of him.
"Elicia wanted me to blow bubbles for her," Al explained, watching Elicia return to popping bubbles.
"Why would you use alchemy to-" Ed began, and then it hit him. Of course. How had he not seen it sooner? He felt a pang of guilt, that all-too-familiar emotion that left him with a horrible sinking feeling inside. He couldn't help but feel terrible every time he thought of all the things Al couldn't do, even if it was something as trivial as blowing bubbles (which Al was far too old for anyway). He stared at the ground sadly.
"Sorry," he mumbled, barely above a whisper.
"It's ok," Al said quietly, still watching Elicia. He wasn't really sad or angry at that moment; just thoughtful, quiet. Ed stared at his automail hand, like he often did when thinking about the way they had ended up after That Day. Shaking his head to clear it of such depressing thoughts, he looked up again.
"Let's go get some lunch," he said, smiling reassuringly.
"Sure," Al replied. "Come on, Elicia, it's time for lunch."
"Yay!"
And so they went, leaving the still-blowing bottle of bubbles behind them. Something happened to lift the spirits of all the members of East Headquarters that day; whether it was the mysterious bubbles, beckoning playfully with their gravity-defying magic, or the bright blue summer sky, or perhaps something else all together, nobody could say. One thing was for certain, however... Even adults need a little time to play sometimes.