Disclaimer: I do NOT own "Fullmetal Alchemist" etc.
"Peppermint Tea"
The shoes are dirty when I take them off and put them in the hallway, and the coat could have been soaked if I had stayed out for much longer. Yup, it's raining now. I grab the door handle and shut the door a little harder than I intended to, and the little window shakes and makes a terrible noise. I need to fix that soon, I say to my self, and turn around. I stare into the darkness of the house. It's so quiet. My left hand reaches out to turn on the switch, and when the light is on my eyes gets blinded, and I quickly decide to turn it back off. I can still see though, it's not all dark outside yet. I step over my shoes and further into the hallway, where there is more space, and I drag the hooded sweatshirt off over my head. All my hair clasps to my face and covers my eyes. I let go of the shirt, and I notice that the wife beater also wanted to come off to. It is curled up on my chest, and I look down while I wonder if I should just leave it there, or take it off like the shirt. sigh it's a hard choice. But I don't take it off, I only put it back on it's place on my torso again, and turn to look at myself in the mirror.
Two years ago we returned from the gate, my brother and I. there were nothing more to do for us on the other side of the Gate. Ironically enough we longed for this world. To go back to those we loved, and those which we had lost. For it is different to be in a world where your loved ones are neither on top or under the ground. And besides, Alphonse wanted to learn more about alchemy. My pacifistic brother wanted to go back and study at Central Library and he wanted me to be his teacher. I remember I asked him, why he wanted to know more about alchemy, when we in this world have learned to live without it, and accept that our alchemic powers were only limited. He had no answer for that, but I could see that he was sad. He missed our old world, and in a way, so did I, so we came back, two years ago. I was nineteen, he was eighteen.
Almost three weeks ago I found out that I was pregnant.
Two days ago, I took a leave from the military, with the words "it's none of your bloody business".
And yesterday, I told the father of my child, that our night four months ago had resulted in something I had never in a lifetime thought was even possible.
Today I returned to the Rockbell Residence. An empty house, a lifeless shell of haunted memories, which still appears each time I put my eyes on the tiniest little whole in the wall, to the picture of out dear grandmother who died half a year ago, and the chalk on the floor from when Al and I tried to create a new doll for Winry.
We were all devastated when she left us, and had it not been for Al, Winry would have gone down with the flag. His support and comfort formed to more than friendship for those two in the end. And now, I stand here, alone, abandoned and pregnant, in an empty house with long lost memories, and a fear so utterly great, that my calm outside is showing the complete opposite of what is going on inside of me.
I go to the kitchen to brew myself some tea. I feel so alone. I no longer need to make two cups of tea and a cup of coffee, for my brother and my sister are away on what they in the other world, call a 'honeymoon'.
I envy Al a little, he already know what he wants to do with his life. I look at the teabag in the cup, and I begin to take it up and down, up and down, up and down. He has found one more reason for why he's come back here to this world. And oh yeah, alchemy I have taught him, like ou teacher did us when we were little, and when Al comes back, I have one last and final exam for him.
For a moment I forget all. Even my own situation when I think of what Al has to go through when he come back. HA! I look so much forward to see how he will handle the last exam. I smile to my self, and throw out the tea bag. I can smell the peppermint rise from the warm water, and I inhale the calming smell. So fresh. In that moment there's a knock on the door.
I freeze. Who the heck is that in this awful weather? I wonder, and walk to the door. I stand on my toes to take a look through the little window. My eyes grow big.
It's him! DAMN! I don't know what to do now, my stomach turns, and suddenly the peppermint smells awful, I feel nauseous. He then knocks again.
"Yes, yes, one minute, you bastard!" I yell, and open the door right away. The door needs oil I hear, I need to fix that too. When I looks up, I see his one eye starring back at me.
"We need to talk, Ed." He says.
I nod one time, and step aside so he can step inside. Already then, I hear his wet boots sink down in the carpet, as it seems he himself hears it.
"Oh, shit, I'm sorry, Ed, I-"He begins to go out again, but I take him by the wet jacket and pulls him inside the hallway again.
"Leave it, Roy," I say.
"Okay." He begins to take the boots off. I take his jacket, and go to the bathroom with it where I put in on a hanger and hang it over the bathtub, I can just barely reach.
When I come back, I see him still standing by the door. He's looking at me with his one eye. I'm walking over to him.
"Would you like to come inside for a cup of tea?"
He nods. But then grabs my arm as I turn around. I turn my head to look at him.
"Ed, we should… –" he says, until I place a hand on his, and say to him.
"Let's start with the tea, shall we?"
He silently agrees and walks with me to the kitchen.
"Peppermint, camomile, earl grey or yellow label tea?" I ask him as I go through the cupboard.
"Peppermint." He says after coughing shortly.
I take down the little package of peppermint tea-bags, and put over the water once more. I turn on the gas and see as the blue flame surrounds the tea kettle, and then I slowly turn it down. It's beautiful as it embraces the cold metal kettle, and does not melt it, but just keeps it warm. I stare on the kettle for a long time with my back to the Fürer. There is a sound of silence in this kitchen tonight which I have never known before, not even when I am alone here. The water is boiling now, and I take the kettle off and kill the gas. The hot water splashes down on the teabag in the cup, making the water light green.
"I haven't been with anyone since that night…" Roy says. His arms rest on his knees and he's looking down on his hands.
"Really?" I take the cup of tea to take a sip. It's still a little too hot so I put it down again. "Neither have I."
His head rises and he looks at me. His mouth opens slightly, and then it looks as if he's going to say something, but he hesitates and it is slowly closed again, instead he turns his head and looks at the rain outside in the dark. It looks like a small waterfall on the window now I notice.
"I don't think it is going to stop soon." Now I take a sip of my tea. " They say it is going to last all week."
In the moment Roy looks at me again, I catch his eye for a short moment, and then I look down on the table as I put my tea down. I take my legs up in the couch and wrap my arms around them. Roy sees this, and I sense a little smile on his lips.
"It probably wont be long before you can't sit like that anymore." He says.
I nod. " It's already getting difficult."
His smile is getting wider while he studies the light heat arising from the tea in his cup.
"Why are you smiling like that, bastard?" I asked in my own cocky way, as I myself have a hard smile hiding the smile on my own lips that is beginning to take form.
"I would just like to see that." He then says.
What? I think. He must me joking.
I raise one of my eye-brows. "I do not intend to be here for you amusement, so you can have a fun time watching me grow and get big, while you stay on the side-line and laugh, you bastard." I say. I made it sound harder that I wanted to, and Roy stops smiling. He still doesn't look at me. I sigh and take my legs down. I've finished drinking my tea, and his has become cold. To kill the awful silence, I take both his and my cup and go to the kitchen. I don't feel like turning the lights on and so I put the cups in the sink. Once again I have my back to him, as he comes into the kitchen. The light from door is disappearing, that's why I know he's there looking at me.
My hands are placed on each side of the sink, and I take a deep breath.
"I'm afraid…" I say without turning around.
His silence is enough for me. I can hear him scream, just like me. His silent appearance is just as telling as if he was giving me a lecture in his office blowing my ears of. This is just a different kind of blowing.
"…more than terrified." I then say. " How am I suppose to go through with this? I found out far too late! The doctor told me she could not remove it because it was no longer a featus, but an actual child, a living human being, a little girl! I am a man, Roy! This is not supposed to happen. A man cannot be capable of going through with thi,s and then keep him so called honour intact? It is just not normal."
The tears are hastily warming my cheeks. It is the first time I cry after I've got the horrifying news of the pregnancy. How could it even happen? I ask my self over and over again. I have my one arm on my abdomen, just over the little bulge, and the other one is covering me face. It is getting wet from all the tears that are coming in streams now. I am so afraid.
I feel the hands coming from behind me, turning into arms, embracing me lovingly, and I feels a cheek on my shoulder. He is crying too, I can feel the silent tears falling on my bare shoulder.
For how long we stand there, I do not know. The rain is still falling heavy outside, when I hear him speak again.
"I am no longer Fürer." He says.
I stop crying. My eyes get wide. I look up into the kitchen window, I am stunned. Frozen at the moment.
"I resigned," He says and lifts his head to kiss my shoulder.
"W-why?" I ask, my voice is a bit shaken.
"I had a choice to make," he says taking my hair aside and leans his chin on my shoulder. "The choice between being the Fürer or watching my daughter grow up, seemed pretty easy to me."
I lift my head backwards and cannot help forcing the small smile that's coming into a big huge warm grin. Suddenly I no longer feel so afraid.
A/N:
A one-shot, yes. ;) And if anyone out there would like to hear more, then don't hesitate to review. No reviews, no more chapters. But so far, just enjoy. D