In the End:
Prologue: The beginning of the End
*Reviews are more than welcome as I'm trying to improve my writing in general! enjoy! Also! Before I forget: the rating may change to a higher one… I've no clue when but it might. This fic takes place after the 2nd anime and manga so I would personally suggest finishing those because of spoilers!
Edward Elric was in a foul mood.
The roof wouldn't fix itself (or allow itself to be fixed). The porch's room was leaking and Granny had bitched at him to get it fixed, and on top of it all Al was inside, eating apple pie and trying to fix the new pipes in the kitchen which brought in heat with his alchemy. Edward huffed and stretched, allowing himself to glare momentarily at the skyline.
"Enough of this!" with a frown he brought his hands together in a clap and touched them gently to the roof. The only thing that happened was a small cloud of dust rose up. "Well," he straightened up and rolled his eyes with a small, almost bitter, smile, "Worth a try."
It was gone. Alchemy was gone. He'd given it up to save Alphonse. Not that he would ever change that, but by god, it felt like a part of him had been ripped away and he could never get it back.
"The roof not cooperating again?" his head turned to focus on Alphonse Elric. His brother had grown up finally. The metal skin of the armor was replaced by flesh and blood which was tan from the work that they did outside during the mild summers. Alphonse smiled at his brother and hopped onto the roof.
"Does it ever?" Ed rolled his eyes and sighed. "Sure is pretty out here." He looked and gestured at the midday skyline.
"Yeah…" Alphonse held up a hand to his forehead to block the sharp sunlight. "It's good to be home finally." Edward nodded.
We've been trying for so long, he thought, casting a sly glance at Al from the corner of his eye, we've given up so much and fought so hard only to come back here. He blinked the sun out of his eyes and felt a part of him (maybe his soul) shudder as he recalled the last transmutation he ever preformed. It had felt right, the familiar sensation of heat and combustion reactions flowed through him. It was natural, Edward Elric had never been without those feelings, without the constant trill of chemicals reacting in his body, which he could use alongside alchemy. Only now he couldn't.
"I-" he frowned and lowered his gaze as Alphonse glanced at him curiously. "Never mind." Ed smiled to himself, giving himself a little mental bitch slap. He just got home, he has his body. The last thing Al wants to do is go on some half baked adventure that could take another two years! We haven't even gone back to Central… he added as an afterthought.
Alphonse smiled at him and turned back to the skyline. "I've been thinking about going to Central." He felt Ed's eyes stare at him.
"But we just got back!" Ed's voice took on the familiar high pitch tone of exasperation. Alphonse laughed at his older brother. "You just now can move around normally and-"
"And you wanna come too?" Alphonse cocked his head and stared long and hard at his brother. I know you Ed, he thought tiredly, I know that this…. 'home life' is killing you, even though you fake it. You were born to travel…. And do alchemy… Al debated telling Ed about his reasoning for going, about how he knew Ed was taking the lack of alchemy and home life; but with all of his years traveling alongside Ed he knew one thing: when prompting Edward you had to be very delicate and let him find out your reasoning, otherwise he became stubborn and wouldn't budge. And that was a trait that Alphonse blamed the military for.
"I don't know about you Al but I just got home and I want a nice long relaxing rest!" Edward finished his rant and sat down heavily on the roof. "Damn leg," he muttered, stretching out the sore limb.
"C'mon Ed!" Alphonse chided, "We've never taken an actual vacation before! Y'know, gone and seen sights an stuff!" Edward looked at his beaming little brother and sighed.
"You're not gonna drop this, huh?" he smiled back, a genuine, true, not faked smile.
"Nope." Al grinned, Just a little more, one more push and he'll come along… "And I'm going with or without you." He could see the little stray hair on the top of Ed's head stand straight up at that thought.
"Well," Edward looked at Al with a smile, one hand gently rubbing his automail knee. "Good thing I'm coming then." Ed stretched out his hand to Al, fingers twitching.
"Need help up?" Al cocked and eyebrow and gently grasped Ed's cool hand. The hand that had once been automail was always cool now. They'd been told some medical term for it but neither had cared enough, or really wanted to remember.
"It's gonna rain tonight, I know it!" Ed groaned, pulling himself up with the help of Al's hand.
"You've been saying that for a couple of days now." Al laughed, walking over to the edge of the room and hopping off of it. He heard Ed land behind him and winced ever so slightly as he heard his brother curse in pain.
"Damnit!" Edward spat, leg on fire with pain and the automail emitting a groan and creak of metal.
"Maybe you should get that checked out brother." Al cast him a pleading glance. "Granny and Winry would be happy to look at it." Edward glared at him.
"It's fine, just the weather, that's all!" Al shrugged in response to the snap. Whenever Edward was in pain he tended to get moody and snappy, not that Al blamed him.
"Okay, okay," Alphonse walked into the house and held the door for his now limping brother, "Then we wont tell them." He purposefully made his voice louder so that Pinako and Winry would hear their conversation. Sorry Ed, it's for your own good. He thought, apologetically.
"What's wrong Ed?" Pinako asked, Winry's gaze traveling to the automail.
"Nothing!" he shakily replied, "Just aches and pains!"
"Edward." Both of the women's tones left no room for argument.
"My leg just hurts okay?" Ed straightened up (he loved his height) and strode towards his room upstairs. "It happens." He exited with a flourish and Alphonse looked up the stair case, willing his brother to come back down and act rational… well…. As rational as Ed could be.
"What's up Al?" Winry asked, turning her attention back to her coffee and sighed before taking a small sip.
"I told him I wanted to go on a trip." Al waited patiently for her to ask where or why.
"Oh." She offered another small sigh and kept her blue eyes focused on her cup.
"Where to Alphonse?" Pinako asked, her voice somewhat hesitant. "You two just got back your bodies and have recuperated." She turned and looked up at him, her eyes tired.
"I know, but I guess now it's in our blood." Alphonse smiled down at her, "And besides," his eyes took a more serious tone and he looked up where Ed had disappeared, his voice lowering, "you know how much it's killing him to just sit around and not do anything." Pinako nodded and slowly walked back to her seat next to her granddaughter.
"We all knew that you two are drifters." She smiled up at him and finished with a laugh, "Heaven forbid you two stay around long enough to settle down." Alphonse laughed in return. Then he continued up the stairs to Ed's room.