Fandom: FMA
Title: True Love
Pairings: Elricest
Rating: R
Warnings: Implied Incest, implied yaoi

Author's Notes: General summerization of the incestuous love affair between Ed and Al through their childhood and beyond.

Word Count: 1,699

Status: Complete

Disclaimer: Not mine, too bad. Not mine, so sad.

True Love

The Elric brother's were a breed apart from most children. They had a nearly idyllic childhood, suffering the early abandonment of their father relatively well, all things considered. While the younger barely remembered him, and occasionally yearned for him, the elder felt a resentment that would grow over time. Living in a small community on the edge of the Eastern Frontier, there were few other children to play with, and their closest neighbor and childhood friend was a little girl as precocious in her way as they were. Alchemy ruled the Elrics' lives from the time they were barely toddlers. Their father had been brilliant at it, and they had inherited that talent. Edward, the oldest by a year, had it in abundance, and was considered a prodigy as soon as his skills came to the attention of the State. Alphonse, though quite proficient in it, was never quite the genius at it that his brother was. His skills lay in matters of the heart, and in that arena, he had no equal. But talent and genius and skill aside, they had an early childhood anyone could envy. They had a lovely home, an attentive and loving mother, they had their friend Winry Rockbell and her grandmother, automail mechanics, and they had the privilege of growing up in a small community that looked to their own, no matter their little foibles. The Elrics grew up playing in fields and rivers, fishing, gardening, and enjoying an ever-intensifying closeness. As in most families, they had their sibling rivalries, their squabbles, and the occasional fisticuff. But unlike most families, these events were not occasions to assign pecking orders or familial hierarchies… No, the only function they served was to force the other brother to look at them, see them, take note of them, and fix them in their hearts forever. Their mother was pleased and proud that her boys were so tightly knit, so clannish, but in the loneliness of the remote town, and the loss of her beloved husband and companion, she missed the little signs that her boys were growing too close, too attached to each other, and far too intimate.

Though his little brother, Alphonse was born only a year after him, Edward always remembered the first time he was permitted to touch him. He looked down at the tiny fragrant bundle of humanity, and was instantly charmed. Until the day he died, he would remember touching Al's velvety little cheek, and feeling tiny fingers curling around his larger one. In that moment, Ed knew that Al would be the most important person in his life, right alongside his mother, of course, and that he would protect him with his life. It was a trait that would remain all his life, and only grow stronger over the passing years. As Al grew, they became constant companions, playmates and fellow confidants. And his pride in his little brother never wavered, not even for a moment. On the few nights that Al would have a nightmare, it was Ed that comforted him first, never even giving their mother a chance to do so herself. He would take his little brother in his arms, kiss him softly, and snuggle him in his own bed with him. If Al was, for whatever reason, unable to accompany him through his day, he became sullen and cranky, the sun only coming out for him when Al was restored to his side. When Al was sick, the desire to run and play paled, and he felt compelled to sit beside him, read to him by the hour and make up stories and games to help pass the time; phenomenal for a child that was an endless bundle of energy. Only for Al could Ed put aside his need for action. Al, and books. Ed could read by the hour, silently or aloud for Al's edification and entertainment. But no matter what Ed was doing, playing or reading, he had to have Al beside him. Nothing else would do.

And for Alphonse, he too had to be with Edward, or life had no savor, no zing. Though he was by nature calmer and more introspective, he followed wherever his brother led. He admired his older brother, trusted him and believed in him with a strength that could not be broken. Whenever Ed was naughty or headstrong, and got them both in trouble, Al never blamed him. Ed was mistaken, or misled, or misinformed. Ed could do no wrong, not really. In the quiet serenity that was Al, Ed was the light the lit him from within. He basked in his brother's fire and was warmed by it, no matter the consequence. And he lavished all the love in his abundant heart upon him, as he did his mother. Whenever Ed would get high strung, Al was the one to touch his hand, nuzzle his neck, and calm his overwrought soul. Even their mother did not have such a calming and stabilizing effect on Ed. Al was a demonstrative boy, who loved to touch and hug and kiss and cuddle, whether it be kittens or puppies or butterflies, or his family, Al was always touching them, loving them, with all his might and main. And his tender curiosity extended to other things as well; the sensation of the wind in his hair, the textures and flavors of all things, the scent and feel of freshly tilled earth. The world was a cornucopia for the senses, and he reveled in them every moment, and took his brother with him where ever he went, sharing with him what the older boy would have missed if not for him.

When they were ten and eleven respectively, disaster struck, and their idyllic existence ended forever. Their mother died, suddenly, unexpectedly, and her loss shattered the foundation of their world. As much as they loved and lived for each other, Tricia Elric was the hub around which their lives revolved. They were devastated. Even though the grandmother of their friend Winry took them in, there was a hole in their world that could not be filled. It was a loss they thought they could not bear. It takes a special kind of genius to try to play god, and Edward fit the bill perfectly. In his years of reading and love of alchemy, he'd stumbled across his father's papers and tantalizing hints of forbidden arts teased his fevered mind. They would bring her back. They would restore their mother to the life of the living, and their world could be restored. The hubris of reclaiming their mother from the capricious and heartless hands of fate, or god or whatever decided who should live and who should die was irresistible to Ed. Al, always the voice of reason, had his misgivings. Forbidden arts were forbidden for a reason, he said, but of course, where Edward led, Al would follow.

It did not end well. Despite the effort and training of body, mind and heart from a frighteningly stern and competent teacher, Ed's defiance of the divine completely destroyed their lives in a way they could not have known possible. Their willfulness brought them to alchemy's Gate, a terrifying place of chaos knowledge and infinity. Equivalent Exchange was the currency there, and the unpredictable malevolence that resided there made them pay with their heart's blood. It claimed Al, body and soul, and ate away Ed's right leg up to the thigh. Despite the pain and bewilderment and terror of what was simply too enormous to comprehend, Ed resisted a higher power once more. He could not, would not lose his beloved little brother. In an act of supreme sacrifice, only his first sadly, he offered up himself in exchange for his brother. The Gate considered Ed's offering, and rendered its decision. Taking Ed's left arm up to the shoulder, it allowed him to bind Al's soul to a nearby suit of armor, and then left the boys to their devastation, abandoning them to their own world, where they would live or die accordingly. And it was all for nothing. Their mother was not restored to them, only a monster that would later plague their existence and scar their souls further.

The Gate gives and the Gate takes, and there is no rhyme or reason to it. Ed lost an arm and a leg and was forced to don automail, an agonizing mechanical enhancement that would give him pain for the rest of his life. And in return he was given an alchemic power that few could match, much less surpass. And Al, tender, loving and kind, was condemned to live life as an intimidating and frightening suit of armor, unable to touch or taste and smell, a living hell for someone like him. And in return he was given limitless endurance, phenomenal strength, and near immortality. Equivalent exchange at its most quixotic.

Ed looked at what he had wrought in his arrogance and willfulness and was left with a guilt that would stunt his heart as the automail would stunt his body. It was his idea to play god, his drive that brought them to the Gate, his actions that left Al in a living nightmare from which he could not awake. His little brother, whom he loved above all others, whom he had promised to protect, whose life he had destroyed. He did this terrible thing. It was a blow from which he would never really recover. But now he had a new drive, a new goal. He would mend what he had broken. He would give Al his body back, no matter what the cost. It would be a quest that would take them years, and bring them more sorrow and pain. But life, like the Gate, like the very foundation of alchemy itself, had its own version of equivalent exchange. It would teach them the true meaning of suffering, pain, loss, and deprivation. But it would also give them knowledge, strength, gain and glory. And most of all, it would give them each other, and the kind of enduring and passionate love that knows no equal and suffers no boundaries.