OK, so at first the promise at the end of Flashes of Gold was a lie. Ember had written no such happier companion at the time (although she had planned it out. She kind of forgot about it and the promise at the end of Flashes of Gold *sheepish grin*), the empty promise being nothing more than a ploy for reviews.
But then, as it were, it turns out that Ember is a total sucker for reviews and so much plaintive begging for the happier companion really got to her. So she sat down at her computer and started writing.
And so this is proof that reviews really do work. It is written for the following people who reviewed Flashes of Gold and made Ember's day, as well as anyone who reviewed but didn't make the list (sorry, there are only so many times we can check reviews immediately before posting. Please know we love you just as much as everyone else on the list.):
TheSlashBunny
HisokaYukiko
RissKey
Sheepisasin- You in particular made a lovely review, as not many people talk about grammatical errors in their reviews, Ember has found. It made her very happy to see that someone did.
And special thanks go out to the first reviewer, the one that made Ember promptly sit at her computer and start writing (yeah, she's such a sucker for reviews that just one changed her mind. Get over it.): Night-Childe25. This one's for you, O Love of Ember's Life. If it's not a happy enough ending for you, just let Rags to Riches know and she says she'll be quite happy to strangle Ember for you. Ember hopes it is happy enough. She likes life.
And thanks to all the people who favorited any of our stories. It makes us (especially Ember, the prolific authoress) smile inside to know that we are loved (or at least obsessed over. Either way.)
And now that the thanks are over, before this ubber-long author's note eats the story whole…
Beautiful Darkness
Edward Elric shoved his way through a crowd in the heart of Munich, Germany.
At first glance he was a good-looking young man not quite yet out of his teens, long blond hair a stunning counterpart to his rare golden eyes. But this day his face was carefully blank and distant, thoughts clearly a thousand miles away from this crowd.
With his mind's eye he saw the most beautiful darkness he had seen in his life.
This world told him it was a sin to find this darkness so beautiful. Personally he didn't see why, as the place he had come from had very different viewpoints.
Regrettably, he had left the darkness behind as surely as he had left his home, and he missed both sorely.
Vaguely he wondered if the darkness missed him too, if those dark eyes were as distant as his own golden ones.
Ed shook that thought out of his mind. There was no way that was possible, no matter what his dreams told him. Sure, he loved the dark one that was always on his mind, but he was reasonably certain the dark one had no such sentiments toward him. They had parted as friends, sure, but friends were just that.
Ed sighed and quickly made his way to the house he and his business partner Alfons were currently living in. He refrained from calling it home. There was only one place he would ever consider giving that name, and it was far away, across the border between worlds.
Ed dreamed.
He saw a face he had only seen in memories and in dreams for two long years. In the dream the face surrounded by dark hair was different from every other time he had seen it. One beautiful dark eye was covered by a patch, presumably lost somewhere.
It also bore one of the saddest expressions he had ever seen. If he hadn't known better he would have sworn its owner missed him terribly.
The face brightened when it saw him, and then the dream ended.
Ed sat up in bed, groaning softly. It was still dark. However, it was likely that he wouldn't sleep again.
Quietly he made his way downstairs, finding a robe and a pair of slippers. Sneaking outside, he gazed at the stars.
Ever since he had come to this world he had felt a strange affinity with the stars. Perhaps it was because the place he had come from was every bit as far away from here as the stars were.
More than anything he wanted to find his way home again. Maybe if he could find a way to go into the sky he would get there.
He snorted. That was foolish thinking.
But it had been the driving force behind his enthusiasm in the rocket studies he and Alfons were doing. He just couldn't suppress that kind of wishful thinking entirely.
The door opened. "More dreams?" Alfons asked.
Ed started. He hadn't thought he'd woken his partner up. Apparently he'd been wrong. "What makes you think that?"
"You only come out here late at night when you've had a dream about wherever it is you came from. Plus it's written all over your face that you were dreaming about someone you miss. Had a girlfriend back home or something?" he asked teasingly.
"No," Ed whispered. "So why are you up?"
"You kept muttering something in your sleep. I'm not sure what exactly, but you tend to do that on nights you come out here."
Ed had had enough of this. "Sorry I woke you up," he said as he walked inside.
Turning to a mirror, he was startled by the forlorn expression on his face. But there was something even more startling than that.
This was the first time in a long time he'd shed tears in his sleep. He'd thought he'd gotten past that a long time ago.
Hastily rubbing at his cheeks, Ed went back to bed even though he knew he wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon.
Ed's dreams followed the new pattern set forth by that first one. The most confusing thing about it all to him was the eye patch. What could it possibly mean?
Ed sighed. The latest in the series of dreams had felt so real it was uncanny. It was almost as if the darkness had seen him. The face he saw brightened in an instant and a voice he'd never thought he'd hear again had called his name.
He smiled to himself as he remembered the rest of his dream. That part hadn't been just his imagination, it was a memory.
It was a memory that caused him to rethink everything he had once believed.
He had been certain the dark one didn't think about him like he did the dark one. But if that was true, the memory replaying through his mind would never have happened.
It had been one of his last nights in Amestris. He wasn't exactly sure what had led up to it, but it didn't really matter. It had been the best night of his life.
Sure, he had been just a little young for what he and the darkness he loved had done. Or so convention said. He regretted nothing. He was glad he had had the opportunity to show his darkness how he felt.
The act, though, had been mutual. If it hadn't been then it wouldn't have happened.
Ed smiled. Maybe, then, he was missed.
It was an incentive to find a way home all the faster.
Alfons sat down at the table Ed was eating at. "We need to talk. Something's not right."
Ed frowned. "What, with the rockets?"
"No. You haven't been sleeping lately, and I can tell you're not really concentrating on anything you're doing. It's as if you're… I don't know, fading away or something. What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Ed said evasively.
"Don't give me that crap, it's obvious something isn't right."
Ed sighed. "It's nothing you'd want to hear about."
"That's a different story. Let's hear it, then. Do you think I care if I want to hear it or not?" Alfons demanded.
Ed's eyes were distant, seeing another place and another person. "Your world would call it a sin. Personally, I call it love."
"Oh? Who is it, then?" Alfons asked, a sly grin on his face.
"No one from here. Someone I haven't seen in a very long time."
"The dreams?"
Alfons was more intuitive than Ed had originally given him credit for. "Same thing."
Alfons said nothing for a while. Then suddenly he stood, placing a hand on Ed's shoulder briefly before walking away.
That was the good thing about Alfons. He never pressed an issue if he could tell Ed really didn't want to talk about it. Most people would have asked him what he had meant by sin, and he didn't feel like explaining himself to someone who would never find darkness as beautiful as he did.
Walking off, though, he made a mental note to at least look like he cared about what was going on around him. It wouldn't do to have anyone but Alfons asking that kind of question.
When Ed woke up he was in a strange bed. "What?" he muttered. "Where the hell am I?"
"I think the more appropriate question would be where the hell were you?" retorted a very familiar voice.
Ed sat bolt upright, staring around the room.
Sure enough, a man with dark hair and a single dark eye walked through the door. "I found you collapsed in an alley near headquarters. I was convinced I was hallucinating. Where on earth have you been? You were gone for almost two years. I thought…" He trailed off, clearly unable to finish that thought.
Ed stared at the familiar face. "No. This isn't real. I'm dreaming, and then I'll wake up and you won't be there and I—" he broke off helplessly, tears in his eyes.
The dark one was by his side in a second, gently touching his face with a deft hand. "Hush. This isn't a dream, even though I thought it was at first. I don't know how long this will last, but you're definitely here, where you belong."
Ed felt a tremor run its course though his body at the word belong, but he wasn't convinced. "Say something. Anything you wouldn't say in a dream," he pleaded, refusing to believe that he was really home after all this time.
"Should I call you a selfish bastard for disappearing for all that time?" the dark one asked with a playful grin.
"You'll need to do a whole hell of a lot better than that."
"All right, let's see… Ah. I've got it. What on earth am I going to do with you, you miniscule mercurial mop-headed monster of a man?"
Ed bristled. "You're going to stop calling me short, dammit!"
The dark eye widened. "You're not trying to beat the hell out of me? Maybe I am dreaming after all."
"Or maybe I learned a little maturity in two years."
The dark one snorted. "You? Mature? Never."
Ed raised his eyebrows. "Oh, I'll show you mature, old man."
"Oh you will, will you—wait, who are you calling old?!"
Ed cackled gleefully. "Do I need to spell it out?"
"And I thought you were going to show me 'mature'."
"Oh, I will. Believe me, I will," Ed said seductively.
The dark one shivered agreeably. "You'd better get started then."
Ed quickly decided to stop wasting time by talking and start showing the dark one just how loved he was. Their lips locked and each began running his hands over the other's body.
As Ed fell back onto the bed pulling his love with him he decided in his last moments of coherent thought that if this was a dream it was the best dream he had ever had and he was going to make the most of it.
An hour later Ed was snuggling up next to his sleeping lover with a large smile on his face. This was even better than he had remembered, being with his darkness. And he would be nearby a lot longer if Ed had anything to say about it, having finally gotten over his initial denial. They had two years of lost time to make up for.
With a happy sigh he moved even closer to the dark one. He had barely gotten the chance to experience this feeling of being loved, but he had missed it so much it hurt. Being back like this felt right in so many ways.
Lovingly, so soft that his dark one couldn't feel it in his sleep, he traced his wounded eye with one finger. Vaguely he wondered how it had happened. Then he decided it didn't matter. Things had happened, but they were together again and loved each other still. That was what really mattered.
Gently kissing his lover's face he settled back into his arms to sleep, feeling more comfortable there than he ever had anywhere else.
In his last moments of consciousness he looked up at a perfect face and thought that darkness had never looked so beautiful.
Once again, thank you all for reading and reviewing. Since this is the product of reviews, be sure to let us know what you think about it, life in general, or Ember's cat in your REVIEW. Come on, it's this great ugly button at the bottom of your viewer now, you can't possibly miss it.
ALSO: If you have any requests for fluff, for a continuation, or pretty much for any plotline involving our two favorite characters, Ember is currently entertaining them because of the emptiness of her current writing life (she's just about done with her overly large baby chaptered fic (Ed/OC) that will be posted here as soon as it is cleaned up and given a name). So please, give an authoress something to do. Send your suggestions in via REVIEW. (Yes, that was an intentional rhyme. Don't like poetry? Cry Ember a river, build a bridge, and GET OVER IT.)
Well, Ember thinks that pretty much covers it for now. She's going to go hide in case Night-Childe25 decides to have her strangled, after all.
Ember and Rags to Riches—the mutant penguins strike once again! BWAHAHA…
Umm, sorry. Ember had a little too much sugar today. Yeah. She's currently fleeing the nice men in white coats.
Rags to Riches, signing off for the both of us before going to help Ember in her eternal quest to get rid of those nasty whitecoats whilst laughing maniacally