Title: Hope

Rating: T (Shounen ai, don't like it, don't read. EdxAlphons H)

Disclaimer: I don't not own Fullmetal Alchemist

"Edward?" Alphons looked at the older boy, a small blush on his cheeks as he called out to the other blond. He sat on the small bed that Alphons would always call his, though he knew Edward would never call this house his home. Neither was the bed really his. It made Alphons sad to think that even though Edward had been here for quite a few months now, he still did not call this place home. He had no intention of staying, Alphons could see it in his golden eyes if he ever asked him on what he was planning to do. This was just a stopping point, he would meet his 'brother' again. The first time he heard Edward talk of his brother and the other world he had lived in, he had thought that he was mad.

"I have a brother." The boy's eyes were blazing with a hidden flame; there was so much behind those eyes, such raw emotion, such determination. Such passion.

Alphons couldn't help but blush as the small long haired male stared him down. Never had anyone looked at him with such eyes, he thought he was going to burn in the heated golden pools.

"And I have come from another dimension." His voice was so sure, the laughter that had been passing Alphons's lips was soon cut short, looking at the certainty in the blonds eyes he couldn't help feeling embarrassed. There was such a ferocity in his whole posture, his one hand clenched tight into a fist, and if he had two legs Alphons was sure he would have stood up in that one second to punch him.

"Edward, calm down." A large hand rested on the boy's shoulder before giving it a small squeeze.

"I will not fucking calm down!" The hand was instantly shrugged off of his shoulder, and Alphons couldn't help but flinch at the swearwordshe screamed. Alphonselooked down at him in the chair with his pitying blue eyes. Anger was the only emotion that scorched in Edward's orbs.

"Why won't you tell them!? You know the truth!" His clenched fist slammed down hard on the arm of the chair. Hohenheim made no attempt to calm him once again.

His head was bowed low as he sat in the chair, there was almost complete silence in the room, accept for the heavy breathing of Edward, his plaited hair was messy and covered his burning eyes in a curtain of darkness.

"Please, pops, please." There was no anger in his voice anymore, it was a completely different emotion, his voice was now full of strained pleading. Alphons suddenly saw him in a different light. He looked broken; he wasn't the angry boy that he seemed to be. He was broken, and brittle, he needed protecting. It didn't matter to Alphons anymore that he didn't believe him, he just wanted to protect him. He wanted to bring him happiness. Whatever he had to do, he would try to keep him happy.

Even if that meant searching for a way to make it to a brother that he didn't believe existed.


"Yeah Alphons?" Edward's voice was distracted, his form hunched over on his bed. a prosthetic arm on his lap as he held it with one hand. It was his second arm since he had been here and Hohenheim Elric had created them for him so both arm and leg so he could become mobile. In the other dimension Alphons knew that Edward had had no difficulty about his mobility even though had lost two limbs. The other world was more advanced in some ways, yet much less so in others. He knew that Edward found it frustrating that his limbs weren't of such high quality as they had been. But something that frustrated the Elric brother even more was that, he was no longer able perform Alchemy, and even now after months of living on Earth he couldn't get use to it.

"Do you like me?"

"Huh?" Edward stopped concentrating on the arm to look up and meet the blue pools that were Alphons's eyes. Ed's face was littered with lines of confusion. A strand of hair was on his handsome face, Alphons almost reached out to move it away from his enchanting golden gaze. Then just as quickly as the confusion had come it was swept away in a warm and toothy grin.

"Course I do, you're like a brother to me." Alphons's stomach plummeted and his heart seemed to miss a beat as Edward continued to smile, thinking he had put the blonde's thoughts at rest. Alphons forced a smile, and it fooled Ed. He let his face fall into a mask, one that wouldn't convey emotion, a mask that he could force to do his bidding. All he had to do was smile. It had taken him weeks to ask the question that always prayed on his mind. Though somehow he always knew the answer.

He was just like a brother, and that's all he could ever be. He was a substitute for someone else, Edward would never love him as long as he had the face of the other Elric brother.

Just how he had decided to do anything to keep Edward happy, he would continue to be just a brother. He would make him happy, no matter how much it hurt.

He would do anything.