Title: It Hasn't Failed Me Yet
Word count: Exactly 300, not counting AN.
Summary: Ed reflects on pessimistic people and the concept of equivalent exchange.
Author's Note: This drabble is nothing much really, just a character exercise and a little practice for me, limiting my word count to exactly 300. However, if I write drabbles and then never post 'em, there's no point in writing. So here's a little contribution to the FMA fandom; yet another Equivalent Exchange drabble.
Equivalent exchange has never failed me. It's everywhere I go.
In chemistry. The law of conservation of mass; the products must equal the reactants.
In alchemy. Equivalent exchange; to get what you want, something of equal value must be lost.
In life. The Golden Rule; you reap what you sow.
It comes up so often, you'd think it was deliberately inserted into the fabric of my life, but the truth is that it's merely a concept as omnipresent as the sky.
I might as well lasso the sky and yank it down by force. In the end, isn't that basically the same as seeking out the Stone? Proof that I'm an idiot and a dreamer, I pretend I'm exempt from the rules.
I can't help thinking that there might be some way that equivalent exchange could work in my favor. It's unrealistic, but I feel like if I work hard enough, try hard enough... If I give myself body and soul to the search for the Stone, equivalent exchange might return my effort.
Pessimists will tell you life doesn't work like that. They have a point—I'll give them that. To them, life is something you pour your energy into, your blood, sweat, and tears, then step back and cross your fingers. I can't say that's not sometimes the case, but at the same time...
Pessimism just doesn't do it for me. Whoever looks at life as an unorganized conglomerate of effort and failure and the occasional bittersweet success has never looked at an inanimate suit of armor and seen their little brother's face. I can't be pessimistic when it comes to Al. I can't give up and I can't fail, so I'll give it all I have, even if it takes a lifetime, because equivalent exchange hasn't failed me yet.