Disclaimer: I don't own Hagane no Renkinjutsushi. Period. And besides, if you sued me, you wouldn't get very much...maybe a cat...o.x;
Flames will be thrown back at you by Roy, constructive criticism appreciated! n.n
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Title: Falling Stars (for flameraven)
Rating: PG-13 (For graphics, mostly)
Genre: Dark/Angst
Word Count: 1,218
Challenge: EoS Ed angst, Al-centric (NO ELRICEST)
Warnings: Character death, end of series spoilers.
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A young boy looked up at the night sky wistfully. The smell of apple pie wafted past his nose and he turned to see the backlit figure of a girl standing in a warmly lit doorway. A smile spread across his face and he took one last look at the stars as one fell shining across the heavens. His inner child 'ooh'ed and 'aah'ed, and he made a wish, clamoring to his feet to run back to the house that welcomed him so brightly on the hilltop. Inside, however, he remembered something his mother used to tell him when he was little.
When you see a falling star, it means an angel is crying…
--
Across eternity, another boy shed a single tear in his sleep, the bead of water glistening momentarily until its arced path ended on the boy's pillow.
--
Izumi Curtis looked up from the book she'd been giving lessons from to see that her sandy-blonde haired student was zoning out again. "Alphonse…are you listening to me!"
The blonde in question snapped his head up again at the fearsome tone in his sensei's voice. "H-hai, sensei! Sorry…" He'd been thinking about Ed again.
Izumi sighed exasperatedly, snapping the book shut. The sharp clap of pages made the boy jump, and she couldn't help but grin. "That's all for today, Al, you've got too much on your mind right now for me to teach. It's like talking to a wall, do I have to send you back out to the island so you can put your thoughts in order?"
Alphonse cringed, shaking his head vigorously. "N-no, of course not, I'll be fine!" He briskly gathered his notes and ran back up to his room, most definitely not wanting to relive the month he'd had to spend in that wilderness.
--
"Damn! Nothing works!!" The enraged blonde swept his left arm across the table, books and notes scattering loudly across the floor of the small room he occupied. "Why…the energy outputs should be equal to the inputs, why doesn't it balance out!" The boy dropped his head onto the desk, eyes cradled against the dusty brown sleeve that covered his left arm.
Choked and muffled sobs resounded dully in the long-unused study, softened by the dust that settled thickly over everything in sight. "A-Aru…I can't do this alone…I can't…" Edward wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve, knowing it only managed to smear dirt and dust with the salty sting of his tears across his face. He knew he must look like hell, but he didn't care.
"Nothing's working…it's like none of the old laws apply here…none of my skills are worth anything in a place where alchemy is just a dead science…"
Just a dead science, nothing worked here. The legendary Fullmetal Alchemist was just as useless here as he was without his automail there. Only here he was even more useless, because not even a piece of chalk in his left hand and a complicated circle could open the path back home from this place.
--
"Sensei...what was Nii-san like before he disappeared?" The question caught Izumi off-guard, and she faltered at the look in those gray-brown eyes.
"Have a seat, Alphonse, and I'll tell you..."
--
It was a crystal clear night with a beautifully waxing crescent moon illuminating the streets. Edward scoffed, this place didn't have the right to be that beautiful. This night didn't have the right to be so blissfully serene and perfect.
Not when this night was the last time he'd lay eyes on it.
--
Alphonse awoke suddenly in a cool sweat, the same dream again… Why was it always the same, and why did Edward look so peaceful there like that? Why was he there at all? What did it mean?
He couldn't help but feel a horribly strong ominous of foreboding each time, but tonight it was even stronger. Tonight it made him feel sick with dread and he could almost feel the cobblestones under his bare feet, could almost smell the putrid perfume wafting in that dark street. The street in a place he'd never seen before, with the Edward he'd never seen before, and that crookedly peaceful smile. Alphonse couldn't sleep again that night.
--
He'd given up on this world's sciences, by all practicality alone it would be impossible to reach across the gate without alchemy. Ed had come to this conclusion after years of studying, years of failure, and years of despair.
Tonight he would end it all. There was one other way to transcend the gate. There are two conditions in which the gate will open without the use of alchemy. The creation of life, and the finality of death.
It had worked once before, and Edward supposed that if it didn't work, at least he wouldn't have to suffer through this anymore. And if it did…he could finally go home again…
The sound of a clap rang through the empty street, then a single gunshot. He slid down the wall into a sitting position with his head tilted back, dull amber eyes reflecting the moon as the tears rolled down his cheeks.
--
Al had been sitting in the breakfast nook when the meteor shower started. He'd felt the pain in his chest not long after, and he couldn't shake the image from his dream.
Edward. Shot. The gun in his own hand that was already starting to go cold. The smell of blood was heavy in the cool night air, the source of it being the bullet hole through his brother's chest. Edward looked so serene there, at peace, as if he had been freed of all his burdens at last. It was eerily quiet, the empty street on that clear night. Empty save Edward Elric in a slowly congealing puddle of his own blood.
--
He waited, head spinning with pain and dizzy from bloodloss. He could feel the warmth of his very life spilling steadily from the wound, feel the seconds tick by like a small eternity. He waited, for as long as he could he clung to life in order to fight his way back home again.
Finally he felt the cold, greedy fingers of death envelop him, falsely loving arms pulling him from this world. A relieved smile barely curved the corners of his lips as he let himself relax and be taken away.
But Edward never made it back home.
--
As the meteor shower ended, Alphonse felt the ache greaten, and the mug in his hands slowly slipped free, crashing to the ground to spill its warm contents over his bare feet.
Izumi, being a light sleeper, awoke with a start, slipping out of bed to investigate the noise. When she saw Al standing there next to the window, the tears streaming down his cheeks set her motherly instinct alarms off instantly. "Alphonse…what happened? What's wrong?"
The boy vaguely realized how much the slightly hotter than lukewarm cocoa felt almost like blood. The image presented itself again. Yes, it was like Edward's blood, like he was standing in that street staring at his brother's corpse.
Al didn't bother to look up or move, none of that mattered right now. He knew, in that way that close siblings just knew.
"Nii-san is dead…"