Oh, the last day of AlMei Week 2013 *sniff sniff*
Oh well. I've got more of them to write tomorrow! :D Whoooo!
This one kinda changed half way through writing it, so I hope you like the direction it went cause I really had no control over it. One of those situations where you try to write something and the story goes "NO. I WILL GO THIS WAY."
There's something about the way they move with each other.
It took a long time for either of them to recognize it. The way that they seemed to move together as if in the same beat of their hearts and the same breath of their lungs. Perhaps it was their training that allowed them to be able to not have to think about what the other might be doing. They had trained together for years before reaching this point of completely synchrony. That would be a good explanation for the almost artistic way in which they managed to dance through their combatants. They used each other almost as much as they used their own bodies. There was no denying that both Al and Mei were fearsome fighters on their own, but together… they were terrifying.
Mei first recognized it the first time she had to survive an assassination attempt without her partner. As she fought, though her opponents all fell, there was something missing. She was sure that some of the moves she made could have been much more effective if only there had been an Amestrian there to launch her at the men who were attempting to kill either her or her family.
Al first recognized it the first time he sparred with Ed after their wedding. While it was fun to spar with his brother once again, there was something off about it. He had Ed used to be so in synch that this unsettled him at first, but he had finally accepted it when he was brushing Mei's hair at night and he recognized that his breathing had slowed to match hers.
"Mei…" She turned around to look at him and he grabbed her hand and lifted it to his chest. He could feel the warmth of her hand through the thin fabric of his shirt and the warmth of his hand on top of hers. He likewise put his own hand over her heart. "Can you feel that?"
"… our heart beats… they're beating at the same time."
Al smiled a smile full of wonder.
There were times when they were not together. Times full of discord and anger and yelling at each other. Times when others tried to get in the way and there was panic and heartbreak. Times when they both felt like surely there was nothing to believe in in this world.
Then they held their child in their arms and gently stroked her black hair and felt her tiny heartbeat.
"She's perfect…" The child's soft cries prompted Mei to begin to feed her.
Those times did come. And they came again. The hardships of parenthood, their own children's problems and the problems with their children threatened to interrupt the flow, their in-time breathing and heartbeats. But just when it would come close to a breaking point, Al and Mei would find themselves waking up with extra bodies in their bed.
Sometimes they would be awake and grin at their parents with innocent looks that immediately tipped them off that they had done something. It was only terribly unfortunate that the smiles really were just too cute to resist. Sometimes they would all be sleeping soundly, and all of their gentle breathing would mix together as it filled the room.
Those were the moments that kept the flow. The moments that kept harmony with the bad times and allowed them to keep the synchrony and balance of their lives.
Cuddling after the kids went to bed didn't hurt either.
