Collaboration between me and Icecreamkid for prompt library. It was great fun for my first collaboration ^_^

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The Trouble with Folklore and Fairytales

"So," he spoke to his son in a direct way, but lengthened the 'o' somewhat, so as to make his tone of voice more genial. "Remind me again what you're planning to read at the library, Selim?" he encouraged the small child seated next to him in the rear seat of the Bradley family's automobile. It was rare that they went on an-outing like this, so he was sitting in a way that was not conducive to family outings, holding his sheathed sword in front of his lap, one hand placed on top of the other, clasping the pommel like one would the top of a cane. He had no excuse for it except that his wife had been feeling ill and so he had offered to take Selim to the library, but he had been between appointments, and therefore had not entirely shifted out of a work mentality.

Selim sat in a much more appropriate way for an outing, his feet brushing against the red velvet covering, hands clasped together in his excitement, it had been so long since he'd been to the library; ever since the first branch of the state alchemist's library had been burned down by those awful people Mother had been afraid the national library would suffer the same fate, but that was a while ago, there was no harm in visiting for an hour or so. The black-haired child let a moment pass, and beamed up at his adoptive parent "I want to find a book about history; Amestris is such an interesting place, I want to learn all about the people who used to live here, it's amazing how we can learn about what it was like all those years ago, isn't it, Father?" The Fuhrer nodded, patting at his son's head.

The national library was bustling with patrons at the checkout desk. This area, as opposed to the reading area, was far noisier, and holding the boy's hand so he would not get lost in this streaming sea of people, Bradley walked his child up the staircase against the flood of people to the reading area. Here an avid reader could feel themselves amidst the sacred in the library, with the shelves looming up to the ceiling, boasting knowledge from the finest minds of the country in every field. Here—Selim could enjoy his book—here he could enjoy some anonymity as well. "Well, enjoy yourself, little one," the Fuhrer let the child's hand go and lose his curious and active mind in the sprawling bookshelves.

It was the rather thick book of deep blue leather that caught Selim's eye, with its gold-leaf pattern outlining the title: History of the Amestrian monarchy. His tutor has told him about that; Amestris never used to have Fuhrers, only a king and queen like the ones in Aerugo. Intrigued, he pulled the book from its shelf and padded off to a chair underneath the window. More curious about how an established monarchy could fall to ruin, Selim flicked over to the end, reading of how the eighth Amestrian king became mute after the untimely death of his parents, and killed himself in his despair. Something like a grin tugged at his mouth, but he frowned at how unfortunate it was, returning to the first page.

The Fuhrer took a cursory glance at the first paragraph. "History...quite an interesting subject," Bradley observed as he leaned a bit forward, catching Selim in his larger shadow. He wore an unassuming smile, fringed by his boisterous mustache. "It teaches us many things about the past. Some of them relevant—" he tapped a written fact on the page. "-some of them—no longer apply." He tapped another fact, and then drew out a very recent book from behind his back. "But fairytales— find some way to speak to people, no matter what age," Wrath discreetly slipped a certain book from the Special Collections in front of his son with a wink of his right eye. "I hope you find this one enjoyable, Selim."

Selim's purple gaze scanned over the cover, at the green leather, at the small golden figure of a boy holding some sort of flute, sitting atop the title-

Peter and Wendy

The book seemed interesting enough, and he started reading at once. It seemed to be about a funny little place where Ishbalans (nice Ishbalans? How absurd, Selim thought) and Aerugan pirates lived, and of a strange little one called Peter Pan, who couldn't grow up, who dogs were afraid of, who had a habit of losing his shadow- Pride's façade cracked a hair, eyes widening a fraction, he must have made a mistake…but he didn't make mistakes…

All children grew up…except one.

It was too much of a coincidence… but how could…this was…

At Pride's little betrayals of...annoyance, Wrath leaned in until his face was only inches away from the page. He held off on giving an obnoxious smirk until he was sure that only his dear 'son' would see it. Wrath was having great fun at Pride's expense-making the already-paranoid Homunculus second-guess himself- he who always thoroughly covered his tracks. And Wrath couldn't resist in showing Pride a version of himself that no doubt he considered a cheap imitation. 'Well, we'd best be getting home now.' He eyed him curiously, wondering if Selim would want to read more of this 'travesty'.

Pride blinked to himself, staring down at the contents page, no stamps, and why would anyone read it? He remembered now, there was that play called Peter Pan; everyone would rather watch than read, humans were lazy. Pride smiled, hugging the book to his chest, shuffling off his chair. "Wow, this book is really interesting, Father, I want to take it home!" Wrath only smiled, ushering his son towards the staircase, Pride had seen the Special Collections stamp inside, but he knew Pride would take it whether he was allowed to or not, because Selim always got what he wanted.