Hey there everyone! Heh-heh...I know I told some people this would be up sooner than it actually is but I kept forgetting! Anywho...it's here now!
Lemme just warn you...
WARNING: This is a Munich story meaning it takes place after the FMA movie. So if you haven't seen the whole series + the movie, it won't just make sense but you'll see spoilers galore!
...you have been warned. Another warning is that it's ROYED!! So if you DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ!!
Thanks for clicking this link, and I hope you enjoy this tale of love on the other side of the Gate!
Disclaimer: FMA belongs to Hiromu Arakawa. We'll just leave it at that.
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"Apples…check! Pears…check!" Brother looked up from his shopping list. "And Mr. Heinz was out of raspberries this week so…sorry Al."
"Aww!" I hung my head. "I guess I'll have to find a new favorite fruit this week."
"Oh come on!" Edward elbowed me. "It's not like it's the end of the world!"
I smiled at him. "What's next?"
"Oh, uh…potatoes."
It was a Sunday, farmer's market day. So Brother and I were picking up our weekly fruits and vegetables from the market set up in the center of Munich. We walked from cart to cart buying from everyone we usually did. Mrs. Volk, Mr. Haggen, the Igel family and Mr. Heinz, the man who grew the best raspberries in the world!
It had been three years since our reunion; Brother was now 21. We were living in an apartment together in Germany, but we had thought about moving to America a couple times. There were some bad things going on in Germany. People were talking about another war, and a new leader named Hitler who was the leader of the Nazis. Ed and I didn't like any of this talk. We'd heard horrible things about Hitler and the Nazi's plans. Things like they wanted to exterminate all of the Jews – even though very few really cared about this, Brother and I found it a shocking and horrific thought. It was Ishbal all over again! Well...not quite all over again seeing as this world hadn't had an Ishbalan War – and wanting to take over the world. It kind of scared me. But Brother told me nothing bad would happen to us. No, he promised. Ed was always talking about how this is our world now and we have to help out. After hearing about all the Nazi and war talk, I had asked him that if there were to be a war, would we fight for the Nazis? I must admit, I was a bit worried about his answer, but he said "No. We need to help our world for the better." So nobody worry; we're anti-Nazi. Well…enough history…
I gasped. "Oooh! Brother! Look! Kittens!" I bounced up and down, pointing at a circular fence with five kittens inside. I turned my bright, shining eyes towards him.
"Al, I already told you!" He wasn't looking at me. He had picked up a potato and was inspecting it. "We're not even considering the thought of getting a cat until I've finished school!"
Did I mention that Ed was in college? Yeah. He was attending the University of Munich. His major? Take a wild guess! …Yup, rocketry.
"I mean, we barely get along by ourselves!" He continued ranting about me not being able to get a cat. I stuck my lip out. "We just don't have the money for it right now. Maybe once I get a job…"
Now that's just an excuse. Edward had a job! He worked part-time at the library as a librarian. And he just happens to be a genius when it comes to the "Science History" section. You're probably wondering if I do anything here, right? Well…I'm still working on my German. So I can't do everything Ed can. I would go to school too, since a lot of Professors can speak English and a lot of students learn English there, but Dad only left enough money behind for Edward to go; which is fine by me. Edward's been here longer, plus he's the oldest. He's still got that whole "This is my burden" thing going on so I just say "Okay" and let him run off.
…Okay so I lied a bit. I do have a job. I just got it. It's not much but…I work in a flower shop. I don't really need to know much for that. I really only need to know the words "3 marks". Moving on…
"But it'll be a year until you're done with school…" I mumbled.
Edward whipped around; his pony tail following like it was in slow motion. "What'd you say?"
I jumped a bit from being startled. "Can't I just look at them?"
He sighed, sticking a couple potatoes in our basket and paying the seller. "Fine."
I clapped with glee.
"But I don't want any begging about keeping one! Got it?"
"Yes Brother!" I ran off towards the little kitten farm.
I knelt down on the ground and gazed at the adorable balls of fuzz. There was an orange one sleeping all by itself, a black one licking up some milk from a bowl, a gray and white one playing with each other by swiping their paws at one another, and a black one with patches of white, gray, and orange pawing at a ball of red yarn. I reached in and plucked the patched one out. He meowed in protest. "Hello cutie!" I said, scratching it's tummy with my index finger. He swatted at my hand and I giggled. "If I could keep you, I'd call you Patches." I scratched the top of his head, between his ears. He purred and rubbed his head into my hand. Still holding Patches, I turned to see where Ed had moved on to. I saw him over at Mrs. Volk's stand, looking at corn, probably the last of the season. I stood up and began walking over to him, planning on asking him if I could take home Patches even though he had just told me no. He grabbed a couple, dropped them in our basket and paid Mrs. Volk. She said "Thank you" and Edward nodded. He turned away from the stand. This was my chance! I started running, but stopped. Edward had frozen in place, like a statue. The basket fell from his hands.
"Nii-san…?" I took a step forward. Edward wasn't moving. "Nii-san!" I ran over to him. His face was frozen in shock. "Brother! What's wrong?! What happened?!" I gripped his shoulders.
"I…" He began, his voice a whisper. "I think I….I just saw…"
I waited for a name, but after a moment of silence and staring into my brother's eyes, I knew who he had seen. I picked up our food basket.
"C…Colonel…" Edward tried to say the name. His name. Brother bit his lip and blinked back a few tears.
"Oh! Oh, Nii-san!" I grabbed him and held him close. He buried his face into my shoulder. "Come on…let's go home." I said quietly.
Once back at our apartment, I sat brother down on the couch and began putting away our food. Ed hadn't said anything since the incident back at the market.
"Do you want to tell me what happened?" I asked Ed, cautiously sitting down beside him.
He buried his face in his hands. "I just happened to look beyond Mrs. Volk's stand and I saw him; standing and talking with another merchant. He was laughing, and his hair shined in the sun along with those dark eyes…" I placed a hand on his back and he sighed into his gloves. "I thought the hurting had finally stopped. But I guess those wounds had just been hiding."
The first year or so after the final closing of the gate had been hard for both of us. But especially Ed. I still missed our home. When I dwelled on the thought of Resembool and Mother, of Winry and Granny Pinako, Me and Brother's journey to find the Philosopher's Stone, it hurt. Sometimes it felt like the hurt would never go away and like something had been ripped from my heart. But then I saw Brother's smiling face next to me…and the hurt lessened.
But sometimes, Ed's face wasn't always smiling. There had been many nights when Brother had silently cried himself to sleep. He missed home as much as I did, he just didn't show it or talk about it. But there was one other thing that made him hurt more than me. I may have had something missing in my heart, but his heart had been shattered. There wasn't a single day that passed when he didn't think about him. Not a single night a tear hadn't been shed for him. There was a certain Colonel back home; a certain Colonel that made Brother clutch his pillows at night; a certain Colonel that caused the tears to streak down Brother's face; a certain Colonel that Brother would never see again.
And sometimes that pain was just too much for Edward.
Brother had told me that the two years we'd been separated were hard. That every night, he would stare up at the stars and think about me and Winry and all of our friends. And he'd think about the Colonel. He'd think about their good-bye and how he would give anything to see his smile, to feel his warmth, to kiss his lips one more time. He wished he could take that good-bye back and make a true good-bye; something that he could hold onto the rest of his life. All that their real good-bye had given Ed was worry. Ed didn't know how the Colonel's confrontation with Fuhrer Bradley had ended. He told me that he liked to think that Mustang had succeeded, and everything turned out okay. But there were times he thought "What if he didn't?" Brother was alone in this strange world. No one was there to comfort him.
As time carried on, it stopped hurting so much. He was able to sleep peacefully at night without the pain of a missing love one stabbing at his heart. But when he came back to Ametris and saw everyone, saw all those familiar faces, all those missed people, and then left, the bandage time had covered his wounds with was ripped off giving them a new sting.
"I thought that maybe I'd at least get my dream good-bye with him." Brother told me one night, "But I'll just have to settle for seeing his face one last time."
After that, Brother was right back to where he was before; back when he had first started living on this side of the Gate. The only difference this time was that he wasn't alone. We would hold each other through the tears and snuggle close to each other under the covers at night like we would when we were young. We were a reminder to each other of what we were leaving behind. And when I hugged Brother, I felt like I was hugging everyone back in our world. I'm sure Brother felt the same when holding me. And it made me feel better.
After a while we were able to deal with all our memories better. There weren't anymore tears. We had fully accepted our lives in this world. But when Ed saw Mustang's double, all those defenses that he had built up came crashing down and the flood of memories overwhelmed him.
"Maybe I just imagined him." Ed whispered.
I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. Yes, maybe you did. But would that be implying that he was going insane? Maybe you didn't imagine him. Maybe he was really there and you'll see him again. But what if he didn't see him again? Maybe he really was there. But what are the chances of seeing him again? No. That might be the worst reply. It's already impossible for him to see the Colonel again and telling him he probably wouldn't see his doppelganger ever again….
Edward looked up at me and forced a smile. "You hungry?"
I stared at him for a moment. Typical Ed. I nodded with a smile.
He stood from the couch and walked into the kitchen. I followed him.
"…Nii-san…" I began slowly.
He looked over at me in mid-reach for something in the cupboard. "Yeah Alphonse?"
"…are you gonna be okay?"
He turned away from me. "Yeah. I'll be fine."
Well that was depressing...
YES! I KNOW! A RoyEd story told in ALPHONSE VEIW!! haha, I thought it'd be interesting...
Ah-heh...sorry for the little history lesson there...I'm a history nut when it comes to WW1 and WW2.
Reviews plz! I love them more than life itself! and don't forget to come back for chap 2!!
