Red
To some it means love. To others it means war, but for Amestris' National Military, it's a trademark feature that makes one particular state alchemist stand out amidst the sea of blue uniforms and whatnot. Also known by his long, blond braided hair, young age, and stature, that person goes by the name of Edward Elric.
Why red, some people may ask. When one curious soul, a homunculus named Greed, had managed to ask him that, he simply replied, "It's a badass tough guy color…gets the blood boiling."
To Edward, that was enough reason for him to love the color. However, several months after "The Promised Day", particularly on December, he found a whole new reason to favor red.
It was Christmas Eve. After months of restoring and adjusting Central to the new military command, Edward and his brother, Alphonse, now in his flesh body, were finally allowed to take a vacation and go back to their hometown, Risembool. Both rarely came home for Christmas ever since Edward became a state alchemist. But now they had the chance to visit and celebrate the season with the only people they still considered family after their father's departure and their mother's death – the Rockbells.
Upon arriving at the village, the brothers quietly yet excitedly trekked from the train station all the way to the familiar yellow house atop a small hill where they used to play around in their childhood years. Snow was already falling as they made their way towards the house.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" the younger Elric took the chance to break the silence, upon observing the snow cascading from the heavens towards the earth. One snowflake landed on his nose, sending a small tingling sensation on his skin. It was times like these that Alphonse appreciated the fact that he was able to get his body back from the gate. He smiled.
"Yeah…" the older brother, Edward, responded with a heavy breath and grinned as well, slowly removing the glove from his right hand and letting his flesh palm face skywards to catch a snowflake himself. He felt the chilliness of the snow on his hand, sending mild shivers all over his body. His grin widened.
"Look!" Alphonse suddenly called out, pulling Edward from his thoughts. "We're almost home, brother," he pointed to the yellow house on top of a hill and beamed at his sibling. Ed returned the gesture, placed his glove back on his hand, and started to pick up the pace before running towards the house. Al soon followed after and both stopped upon reaching the staircase, momentarily catching their breaths and stalling a bit to think how to surprise the occupants of the house. Just then, the door opened, revealing a young woman trying to chastise her barking dog into silence.
"Keep it down Den; if you don't, you're going outside to sleep for the–", she was cut short after noticing two newcomers standing near the bottom steps of the staircase. Her azure eyes caught two pairs of golden ones staring back at her, both parties sharing the same shocked looks on their faces. A little soon after Edward turned a bit to Alphonse, whispering something to him.
"Forget about the snow being beautiful. I spot something – or someone – else who deserves that praise even more."
Alphonse chuckled.
The brothers' discreet action caught Winry's attention and shook her out of her daze.
"Well are you two coming inside or not?" She turned slightly heading for the door, making her cute red Mrs. Santa Claus dress sway a bit, flowing from her curves.
"We're coming," Al responded when he noticed his brother was still stunned by the sight of their childhood friend and mechanic.
Winry already walked inside the house and Al was also about to follow when he heard his older brother calling him.
"Al…?" Ed started.
"Yes?" Al replied.
Ed's eyes travelled back to their childhood friend and smiled warmly at the sight of her.
"Red is definitely my color."
-End-
Author's Notes: There goes my first chapter for "Colors". To be honest, "Red" was first intended to be a one-shot story for Christmas. But then later on the idea of using a theme, "Colors" I called it, came to me and so I decided to put up a collection of one-shots revolving around the theme. And this is the result. Hopefully you would enjoy reading this one-shot collection set.
I do believe that the theme isn't too new but the concepts for the stories are original.
It took a while to post this because I had this edited by my beta-reader, Auto-Alchemechanicist. My sincerest thanks are dedicated to her.
Disclaimer: Hiromu Arakawa is the owner of Fullmetal Alchemist and its characters.
Written on: December 24, 2009 (Christmas Eve)
Finished on: December 25, 2009
Setting: Manga-verse; slight AU; post-series