A/N: First time I wrote anything FMA in first person. :D Was an interesting experience, somehow a little more challenging than writing first person for Digimon.
Written for the Monopoly Challenge and the Becoming the Tamer King, FMA Style, both on the Fullmetal Alchemist: a Bit of Everything forum (link's on my profile).
The Bird with Not-Quite Clipped Wings
Edward was like a bird with clipped wings, even if those wings were a shimmering gold and whole. He could have reached broken through the canopy of sky long before if he wanted to, if it weren't for those things that held him back. The moment I recognised that, I decided that I wouldn't allow myself to be chained the same way. I'd take the chance to fly, before I was grounded forever.
I couldn't be as selfless as him. I couldn't allow myself to die before I saw my dream fulfilled. I knew what it would cost: my life was only a small fraction of the price demanded. I knew it could cost an entire world, Edward's world – but it was so much easier to just pretend it didn't exist, that Edward's tales were just that: tales. And maybe they were; maybe there was no such thing as an alternate universe. But he believes in them, more than a child can believe in fairy tales. I just couldn't allow myself to accept it: to accept it meant to accept I was condemning an entire world to a destructive fate by openings its doors through my dream…but it's my dream, the dream I couldn't let go unrealised with my death.
I had to soar towards my dream. And I think, if Edward knew his death was sneaking up on him, he would be the same. He could afford to wait, be inactive, while the world ran its course, but if a door was shutting on him, well…even a bird with clipped wings could run pretty fast.
Maybe it was my way of apologising, giving him that little plane and sending him off. My way of apologising for helping bring war to his home by giving him a way there too.
And, I think, I really did see his wings as he disappeared into the sun, eyes set with determination. Because he was like a bird with clipped wings when I'd known him, but they weren't clipped, his wings. They'd just needed the chance to soar.