What does it mean to live a taboo? This is a question that many do not know the answer too. Only a select few ever experience a taboo, and fewer actually live one. For two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, living a taboo was as normal as clouds in the sky
1.
Beautiful gold eyes shone back at his, he was amazed by those handsome good looks. Long soft yellow strands of hair, tangled and messy, tickled his nose. Smooth skin, littered with tiny peach hairs, is what his hand felt. Perfectly defined pink lips, slowly moving in the shape of a smile, is what he would dream of. The twenty year old was more gorgeous than he ever was, and the nineteen year old thought to himself, 'I'm so lucky that he loves me, and how could I ever not l-'
"Go make me some breakfast."
'…hate him…' "No brother, you go! I always have to make us breakfast!" the brunette complained as he stretched in bed.
"Come on Al, you know I don't know how! I'll burn the house down…again!"
The younger gave his love a rather sarcastic look, "We did that together remember. Now stop being so negative and give it a try, I'm sure you've gotten better with the lessons I've been giving you."
Edward moaned and angrily got out of bed. "Fine, I'll give it a try…but I can't promise anything!" he yelled as he walked down the hall.
Just before Ed had exited the room, Alphonse quickly looked him up and down, amazed by the perfection of those sculpted muscles. He loved the way they moved under that tan skin, the way they rippled in the sunlight, but most of all the way they felt when Ed was on top of him. 'Hmm, why do my pants feel tighter…'
X
As Alphonse emerged from his cold shower his sense of smell alerted him to trouble. Following said aroma he found its source coming from the kitchen.
"See I told you I couldn't cook." Ed said nonchalantly as he stood next to their stove reading the paper. Indeed the eggs, or bacon, or whatever the hell he had tried to fry was black as coal and a thin smoke was emanating from it. "I turned my back for one second and BOOM, it was on fire." Once again in a nonchalant tone, never taking his eyes from the paper. Alphonse approached the massacred food and inspected it carefully.
"Ed."
"Yeah Al?"
"This food looks burnt."
"…duh…"
"Funny," Al said touching the stove top with his bare hand. "from the temperature of this, I'd say the stove hasn't been turned on all morning." Al's face suddenly approached Ed's within inches, "Mind explaining this little miracle to me Ed?"
The blond was sweating profusely, "…well you see Al…I…I opened the window and the wind must of cooled it off."
Al's face retreated, "Oh, of course" he rubbed his neck "I'm such a fool Ed. That makes perfect sense." Ed eased a little. "Except…" The brunettes face nearly smashed into Ed's now, "the window is closed."
'Damn it, the jig is up!' "Okay, okay! I give up I used Alchemy!"
"I knew it! I thought I heard you clap while I was taking my shower!"
Suddenly a wrench appeared from thin air and landed with bone crushing force onto Edward's head. "OW! DAMN IT, I'M GONNA KILL WINRY FOR TEACHING YOU THAT TRICK!!" When the stars and bright lights faded from his vision, he could see Al standing over the pan starring awkwardly at the chard mystery substance. "Brother, what is this?"
"A dead cat."
Alphonse immediately felt the urge to both vomit and cry at the same time. "BROTHER HOW COULD YOU!!"
"Ha! That's for hitting me with that damn wrench! I didn't want to waste any real food, it's just some dirt from outside.
"Phew!" the brunette eased up, "I thought you were serious for a second."
"Come on Al, I wouldn't kill a cat and try to feed it to you…not again anyways…"
Edward received many more phantom wrench attacks that day
2.
In the years since Edward and Alphonse Elric were able to use alchemy to restore their bodies to their original forms, much had changed in the live of the two brothers. Since that fateful day both had moved back to their hometown of Resembool and lived together in their rebuilt house atop one of the small towns many rolling hills. Soon after the two settled into their new lives and began working for Pinako Rockbell, who later died and thus the Rockbell automail shop fell into
the hands of Winry Rockbell. Their quiet life was interrupted though by a startling revelation. Both brother were in fact gay, but even more startling, both brothers had incestuous feelings for one another. After much confusion and way to much angst, the two decided to do something they hadn't done since they tried to bring their mother back to life. They broke a taboo.
The Elrics no longer worked for their dear friend Winry, she had decided that the need for automail was far greater in Central and moved away. So to keep themselves occupied the Elric brothers decided to open up a small shop. What kind of shop did the Elrics open you say? Why, a book shop of course.
Even though it may seem as though the Elrics live a peaceful life, one without problems to the outside world, they still had to live with the decision they made to stay together. So you see, the Elrics were now living a taboo, so that now no matter how settled down they became there would always be danger lurking around the corner. What the brothers didn't know when they made their choice was that the danger waiting in the shadows wasn't just society. No, you see, Edward and Alphonse themselves also lived in those shadows, they just didn't know it.
The brothers were going to face their greatest enemy yet…themselves.
3.
The small bell above the door jingled, alerting the cashier to a customer's presence. "Good evening, how may we help you today?"
The old man hobbled his way toward the counter looking at the various books on shelves all around him. As he reached the cashier he gathered his thoughts and said, "Hello Alphonse, how are you today?"
"I'm doing just fine Mr. Northwood, how are you?"
"Oh, you know." Mr. Northwood tapped his metal leg with his cane, "Gettin' around as best I can. Ever since that Rockbell girl left town I've had to go to the next town over just to get repairs."
"Really? Well my brother knows a bit about Rockbell automail maybe he can take a look at it next time it malfunctions."
"Yeah, maybe." The old man answered uninterested. "Say, Alphonse, did you happen to get those new 'magazines' I was talking about the other day?"
Al sighed, he had hoped Mr. Northwood would have forgotten about those. "No Mr. Northwood."
"Oh…well…are you sure."
"Yes Mr. Northwood."
"Positive? I'm talking about the ones with…well you know…" Al starred blankly "…with pictures of ladies…" blank stare "…you know…na-"
"Mr Northwood we don't sell pornography!"
"Ah, some bookstore this is!" The old man then quickly hobbled out and down the hill.
Al sighed loudly, 'What are we gonna do? We haven't sold a book in weeks! Maybe I should try asking brother again, but this time I won't chicken out!' he thought, determined.
As he exited the store through the door connected to their house he began to search for where his brother had gone off to. "Hmm, he said he was going to put those new books on the shelves, but he never came back?" His search didn't take long, actually it only took about two minutes because he knew exactly where to look. The bedroom. "Idiot brother!" Al said as he lunged into bed next to his beloved, waking him.
Edward turned his head around on the pillow to face his brother. "G'mornin' Al." he mumbled.
"It's not morning time, it's three in the after noon brother."
"Oh, well, good afternoon. What's with the grumpy face?"
"…old man Northwood came up to the shop again.."
Ed laughed, "…oh did he…"
"It's not funny Ed, I'm tired of telling him we don't have porn. I'm gonna make you do it next time."
The blond smiled fondly, half of it covered by long gold locks. "Oh no you're not." He whispered.
"Oh yes I am." Al whispered back, playing with one of said golden locks.
The two, lying on their bellies, scuttled close until their shoulders touched letting their arms rest underneath each other. For a while they just lay there, in the quiet looking into each other's eyes. After a while Ed closed his eyes.
"Don't go to sleep." Al pleaded softly.
Opening his eyes again Ed asked, "Why?"
"Well…I wanted to talk to you about something…"
"What?"
"…"
"Come on Al, spit it out."
"…why don't you braid your hair anymore?"
Ed didn't answer immediately; he just looked into Al's eyes. "Well, since I'm not a risk of getting into a fight anymore, the need to have my hair out of my eyes is gone. But that's not what you wanted to talk about was it."
'Damn brother and his mind reading abilities!'
"…no…"
"Come on Al, talk to me."
Al chose his words carefully. "Ed, how would you feel if we had to move to Central?"
"What?!"
Not carefully enough. "Ed we haven't sold a book in weeks."
"So." The older brother pouted.
"Come on Ed, if we want to run this book store we need to go to a big city, so why not Central?"
Edward growled softly in frustration, "I thought you wanted to live a peaceful life here, at home in Resembool?"
"I did, but I've been thinking, we're still young Ed. We can plan our future now, before we didn't even know if we had a future with the homunculus trying to kill us. But now we have one so why not live it! Let's go to Central, not as dogs of the military but as normal people. I want to live like a true city slicker, in a place where there's always something to do and people to meet. Somewhere exciting, this place is getting kind of boring and-"
"But this is our home." Ed interrupted softly
Al paused, he hadn't even noticed the sad expression on Ed's face. 'Oh great I got carried away, now I feel bad.'
Al waited for a moment, letting his excitement fade away. "I know brother, but there's so much opportunity out there for us. You're right, this is our home, it always will be but for now lets try someplace else. And one day when we're tired of Central, we'll come back here and live the rest of our lives together in good old Resembool. What do you say? Are you with me?"
Ed smiled slowly, "…okay, let's do it Al."
Al returned the smile, his excitement returned. "Alright! I'm gonna start packing right now!" just as Al made to get up and out of bed, he was pulled back down. "What is it brother?"
"…I…I love you Al…"
"…I love you too Ed…" and with that the two softly locked lips, savoring each other's taste.
Alphonse never got to packing that afternoon.
