A/N: omg, I return with the second chapter:D (finally). I had it done earlier in the weekend, but was being a bitch about uploading stuff. but anyway, I think this is pretty much the longest chapter I've ever written... for anything XD. not as long as I'd like it to be, but still a bit longer than my average ones, and I hope you guys like it. OH! and thanks so much to all who reviewed, you guys are too awesome :D
Disclaimer: see chapter one.
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"Tell Me What It Means"
Chapter II - "Plausibility"
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Alphonse shouted a goodbye to his mother as he opened the front door, but barely heard her say goodbye back, though, as he turned around.
Edward stood there, clad in his school uniform, backpack slung over one shoulder, and long hair pulled back in a ponytail.
"Hey," he greeted with a wide grin, much like he had the night before. Alphonse blinked a couple of times, then shook his head and finally closed the door behind him.
He smiled back. "Hi," he greeted back, walking off his porch, but stopping suddenly once he was right in front of the other boy. He hadn't seen Edward up close yet…
He was actually shorter than him, only by an inch or two, and Alphonse couldn't help but notice that he smelled faintly of cinnamon and potpourri…
Silver eyes stared in unexplained wonder, his entire being frozen with an overwhelming sense of…
Comfort, warmth, familiarity, everything right…
Ed's eyes had gone wide as well, as if something had surprised him. Alphonse wondered if he was felling the same things, and was just as confused about it as he was.
"E-Ed?"
For a moment, the blonde didn't reply, but then shook his head slightly. "You ready, then?" he asked cheerily. Alphonse looked at him for a moment, and then smiled.
"Yeah."
And with that, the two of them walked down the cement path and onto the sidewalk, the brunette still feeling a little hot in the face.
"You know," Edward then began after a moment of silence. "I still don't know the name of my fair maiden at the window."
Alphonse's gaze snapped over to look at the shorter teen, eyes wide, and face flushing darkly. Ed simply smiled jokingly. Alphonse quickly looked back ahead of him, his honey-colored hair swishing in its ponytail behind him.
"It's Alphonse."
Edward made a small noise in response, looking upward a little, as if in thought. "Alphonse…" he repeated, the name rolling off of his tongue with such… 'perfection.'
Alphonse mentally shook his head, still confused as hell. What in the world was it with this guy? Edward… he met him less than twenty-four hours ago, and was now walking to school with him, talking and behaving as though they'd known each other for years.
He just decided to ignore it, though, as they continued their walk to the school building, talking all the way, mostly Alphonse telling Edward about the different classes and clubs there were. As it did last night, the conversation carried out smoothly, natural even. Alphonse wondered…
Maybe he should ask him? The whole thing wasn't exactly bothering, per se… it actually made him feel an odd sort of comfort… but he still wanted to know whether or not he was the only one seeing it as something a little out of the ordinary.
"Alphonse! Hey, Al-!"
The brunette turned to his left to see something blonde and bouncy running toward him, but then stop abruptly as her crystalline blue eyes landed on Edward, who had stopped mid-sentence in what he was saying to Alphonse.
Winry walked up to them, her plaid skirt ruffling softly around her legs. "Hey, Alphonse. Who's this?"
"Oh!" he said, and quickly gestured to the older teen. "Winry, this is Edward Elric. He moved into the house next door to mine."
She looked at Ed for a moment, confused, but then grinned cheerily. "Well, Edward," she said, offering him her hand. "I'm Winry Rockbell, it's nice to meet you!"
He smiled back, taking her hand and shaking it. "You too."
From there, the three of them walked the rest of the way together.
Alphonse sat at his usual table in the courtyard, sipping at his milk, but happily eating into his tuna sandwich, seeing as though he hadn't eaten in a whole day. Winry was in the school workshop with her robotics club for the lunch period, so he was alone. More than once, Alphonse wondered where Edward was, but he tried not to. He had just met him, it wasn't like he could expect him to accompany him all of the time.
The teen was so concentrated on not concentrating on Edward, he barely noticed someone's voice carrying out across the courtyard, calling for some 'Al' person. There was only a handful of people outside that way, so it wasn't very noisy, but whoever was yelling was still persistent to cut through all other sound.
All of a sudden, though, the voice was right next to him, a little less loud, and awfully familiar. Alphonse turned his head just as a heavy hand landed on his shoulder, causing him to jump.
Edward smiled down at him, panting slightly. "Al, hey," he said.
The brunette raised an eyebrow. "'Al'?"
"Yeah, you know, short for 'Alphonse'," he answered, a joking tone in his voice. But when Alphonse just continued to blink up at him, his expression turned confused. "You mean no one's ever call you that before?"
The younger shook his head. "No, never."
Ed looked at him for a moment more, then lifted his hand from Alphonse's shoulder to the top of his head and ruffled it affectionately.
"Well then, I guess I'm just the lucky one who gets to be the only one who calls you that," he stated with a grin.
Alphonse felt a light blush rising in his cheeks, eyes widening slightly. He looked back down at his lunch tray, hoping Ed wouldn't notice.
"So what'd you need?" Alphonse asked into his milk carton.
"Oh! Yeah, I need you to show me around the school," he said. "Principal Hawkeye asked if I had any friends here yet who could do me the honor, and I told her you, and… well yeah, I think you know the rest."
The younger teen turned to look up again. "Me?"
Edward slapped him on the shoulder again. "Well yeah, who else?"
Alphonse felt something well up inside of him at the thought, though unsure of what exactly it was. It… for some reason, just hadn't occurred to him to consider their relationship as friendship. Subconsciously, he had felt it was something a little different, though. Nothing more or less meaningful, but… different. Though still, it… felt nice.
"Well, okay then," he finally replied, standing up and grabbing his empty tray.
"And that building over there is the gym," Alphonse said, pointing out the hallway window to the brick building across the way. Edward took a step to join him at the window, looking out at it.
"That's pretty much it, I think," he then said after a moment, leaning out of the window a little bit. "This school is pretty big, but it isn't hard to remember what's where."
Edward didn't reply, but just turned and leaned his back against the windowsill, his elbows hanging out over the edge.
Alphonse took a moment to study him, his silver eyes slowly trailing up and down Ed's entire frame. He noticed a few things that he hadn't been able to see from his window the previous night. Now in short sleeves, Alphonse could see that Edward had a slight build to him, though small enough that he wouldn't be considered insanely muscular or anything. Also, he had the deepest pair of blue eyes, a color that reminded him strongly of the Hope Diamond. Though stunning as they were, there was something… just something about them that he couldn't name.
The brunette glanced away from the older boy beside him, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed that he was describing him in such a manner. But then out of the corner of his eye, his noticed something.
Something was… off about Ed's arm. Alphonse studied it for a moment out of the corner of his eye, but when he realized what it was, he turned his head all the way to look at it.
"Uh… Ed?"
The blonde looked over at him. "Hm?"
Alphonse hesitated for moment, unsure of how to go about asking. It was a little awkward. "This, uh… this is going to be strange, but…" he pointed at the right arm in question. "You have no hair on your arm."
For a moment, Edward just blinked at him, a surprised look on his face, but was soon replaced with a smile. "Oh, yeah. I'm surprised you noticed," he said, lifting the arm up to get a better view, then held his hand out to the boy beside him. "Touch it."
For a couple seconds, Alphonse did nothing, more than a little confused, but obliged all the same. He lifted a tentative hand to Ed's and let his fingertips brush the palm, and as he did so, he let out a soft gasp, silver eyes widening. He pressed his fingers a little harder into Ed's palm to feel it more, and eventually just took the hand in both of his, roaming and kneading the hand as though it were some kind of dough.
"It's… synthetic skin," Alphonse stated, his voice filled with astonishment. His hands made their way up Edward's forearm.
Ed nodded. "Yeah, my entire right arm is mechanical."
The younger boy's gaze snapped up to meet his, eyes even wider. Then Ed lightly slapped his left leg, a bemused smile still playing upon his features. "My left leg too, from just above the knee, down."
Alphonse stood there, completely dumbstruck, his hands frozen on Ed's arm. "My God…" he breathed. He'd never seen anything like this in real life before, let alone actually know the person. There were a million and one questions buzzing around in his head, but one stuck out among the other ones.
"How?"
Ed's gaze averted to the floor, going silent, as if in thought. Alphonse looked at him, wondering if maybe the question bothered him, maybe it was a touchy subject for him. But the Ed looked up again, though still not looking at the brunette.
"It was… a result of me being stupid," he stated simply. "A train accident. I was walking home from school way back when I was in elementary, and took a shortcut across the train tracks, even though my mom always told me not to. But I decided to walk along them for a ways, and I guess I just had my headphones up too loud and didn't hear it coming."
Silver optics stared in horror as Ed fell silent again. "You were hit by a train?" he asked, his voice filled with shock. "Oh my God, Edward, that's-,"
Edward held is other hand up, silencing him. "It's fine, it was years ago now, and I don't even remember anything about it. All I do remember is waking up in the hospital a couple days later, all bandaged up and missing two limbs. They told me though that I had been insanely lucky. If the train hadn't been going as slow as it had, it would've killed me."
Alphonse was completely blown away. He'd never known anyone who'd been in that horrible of an accident before, and he had no clue what to say. It was just so unbelievable. Maybe it was just him being a wimp or something, but it just seemed too terrible to even imagine.
Silence rang in the empty hallway, the pair standing there, unmoving. Edward was looking at the wall opposite him, his eyes blank, while Alphonse just continued to stare at him, still a bit dumbfounded.
"Hey, Al?" Ed's voice then broke the silence, almost causing the other boy to jump. He remained silent though, waiting for the blonde to go on ahead with what he was going to say, but for a while nothing came from him.
But then Ed hung his head and muttered, "Never mind."
Alphonse looked at him questioningly. "What?"
"I really like it here," he then said, quite out of the blue. Alphonse blinked, Ed turning to look at him with a small smile on his face. "The school, the neighborhood, the people…"
He trailed off for a moment, his gaze drifting off past the brunette, as if in thought. A moment later, though, his blue eyes looked back at him and finished, "You."
Alphonse felt his heart skip a beat, almost causing him to let out a choking sound as a result. Once again, he could only stare at Ed, though now there was an entirely different type of emotion that made him do so. He was frozen still, eyes wide, speechless, wondering why it was that his heart was beating so fast…
Alphonse walked home by himself, Edward having to having had to stay after school to speak to some of the teachers in getting himself settled. Truth be told, though, he was glad to have some time to himself to think for a while.
He gripped the strap of his book bag tighter as he stared down at the cement, lost in thought.
Edward… the name came with such a spark now, like a small firework going off inside of him. Even when he'd heard it for the first time, it had caused the tiniest bit of some sort of… nostalgia or something. And he just met him the night before, so why was he… he didn't even know what it was. He had felt disappointed when Ed hadn't joined him at lunch, flustered at a simple nickname, and… the feeling that had gone through him when Edward said that Alphonse was one of the things that he liked about living there, and the way he had said it, and…
Alphonse shook his head, hair now free from its ponytail flailing around his shoulders. "I'm just taking it the wrong way," he spoke to himself. "It's all just me being weird, I'll bet Edward isn't stressing over any of this."
The brunette turned onto his walkway in front of his house, trying desperately not to think about any of it, but failing miserably. The look in Ed's eyes as he had said that one word… 'You'…
Alphonse sighed, walking into his house and up the stairs. Trisha, in the living room, turned to see her son making his way up the steps, looking like he was distracted by something. Her eyes turned concerned, but something held her back from saying anything, telling her not to ask him anything. Not yet, at least. It was only when she heard his bedroom door close did she look away from the empty flight of stairs.
A feeling of relief washed over the brunette as his entered his room as though he had stepped into some kind of sanctuary. He dropped his bag to the floor and walked a painful five steps to his bed, clumsily falling onto it, not even bothering to take his shoes off. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, the warm breeze that smelled of rain coming in through his window and caressing his face in small butterfly kisses.
Cold.
Wind, cold air, loud but distant crashes, trembling…
A name, anameanameaname, a name of someone he knew, someone… It kept coming into his mind, repeating itself over and over. What did it want? To remind him of something? But what? How much he wanted the person who that name belonged to, right? How cruel…
But then the named morphed slowly… from one name into another. At first, and for a while, it was a jumble of the two names, impossible to understand. But soon…
"Alphonse," it whispered.
And then it was warm. The cold went away in an instant, completely replaced by comfortable and safe warmth. The voice said something else, but it was too far away to hear by then.
"Alphonse." A different voice. Still warm and pleasant, but not in the same way. It repeated his name again.
Edward…His eyes slowly fluttered open, instantly landing on the person causing the shift in weight on his mattress. Long blonde hair fell in front of sapphire eyes as they leaned in a little bit closer, their face still a bit of a blur.
"Hey, Alphonse?"
He recognized the voice immediately. He slowly sat himself up and rubbed at his eyes, her face slowly coming into focus.
"Oh, hi Winry," he greeted drowsily. She smiled at him, but instantly he felt something uneasy about it.
Suddenly, a loud crash from above made him jump. Looking wildly around, he also noticed a pattering sound at the window. He glanced over at it, and was surprised to see that it was storming outside.
He turned to Winry. "When did it start raining?" he inquired.
"About an hour ago," she answered simply.
He nodded, but then something flicked on in his head. "I don't remember closing the window… did you close it?"
The blonde remained silent for a moment, but then a small smile appeared on her features. Alphonse raised an eyebrow at her.
"So, Alphonse," she began, seemingly ignoring his question. "What's with that Edward guy?"
The boy's eyes widened. "What do you mean?" he asked, trying hard to sound like he really didn't know. In truth, he really didn't, but he had an idea…
"Oh come on," she whined playfully. "Like I didn't see how buddy-buddy you were with him on the way to school this morning. Aaaand, he was just in here with you!"
Silver eyes widened again, but with confusion more than anything else. "In here?" he asked incredulously. "What are you talking about?"
Winry looked at him. "What do you mean, 'what are you talking about'? He was just here, I heard him!"
Alphonse remained silent, his head spinning. What in the world was she going on about? Edward wasn't in here, he was just asleep! Winry sighed in a frustrated manner.
"When I got here, your mom just sent me up here, but when I was right outside the door, I heard someone talking, and I recognized it as Edward's voice."
Alphonse's eyes were the size of dinner plates now. Just the thought… "I… don't know," he managed out, completely shaken over the thought of Edward in his room without him knowing. "I was asleep, so… I guess it's possible. He could easily climb across the tree in between our houses, and in through my window."
'Maybe that's how the window closed…?'
Winry looked confused now. "You mean you didn't know he was here? He just came in, and left?" she asked. "I figured he was here for a while, and you had just lied down after he left."
Alphonse shook his head, feeling himself tremble slightly. Then he looked up at his friend and asked, "What was he saying?"
Winry looked at him for a moment, silent, but then out of nowhere, let out a small giggle. "Well, the first thing I heard was him saying your name. And then, a lot quieter – I could barely hear it – he said, 'what is it that you're doing to me?'"
The brunette felt his heart pick up speed instantaneously, a blush rising to his cheeks. His shaking intensified, still trying to figure out what was going on.
"Sooo?" the girl cooed. "Back to my first question: what is it with him and you?"
Alphonse stared down at his lap, feeling hopelessly lost, her previous words of what he'd supposedly said still running fresh in his mind. "I… have no clue," he spoke, running a hand through his tangled hair. 'I mean… what could it be? This all just happening way too fast, I don't know what to do about any of it…'
Winry furrowed her brows at him, telling him she wouldn't take that as an answer.
"I'm serious, Winry, I don't… I can't even…"
"Well he must have some kind of thing for you," she stated. If possible, Alphonse's blush darkened even more, eyes flying wide open at his friend. He opened his mouth to say something, but was too shocked to speak. He closed it.
Winry shrugged. "What? What else could-," she put on a deep, mock-dramatic voice, "'what is it that you're doing to me?' mean?"
Al was at a loss. It could have meant a lot of different things, but… he hadn't even known the guy for twenty-four hours, and all of a sudden there's this talk of… he couldn't even think about it. It was just insane! How in the world could something like… like that come up so soon? It was just unheard of! There was no way that Edward…
"But… he couldn't," he looked back up at Winry. "We just met yesterday!"
Winry shrugged again. "So?"
He gaped at her.
"Well according to what you told me in second period, you two aren't exactly strangers. You gave each other your whole life stories last night, didn't you?"
Again, he was defeated. "That's true, but-,"
"No 'but's, Alphonse," she interjected. "He just must've seen something in you that made him really take to you."
Alphonse didn't think his face could get any hotter at this point. "But… he's a gu-,"
"Don't even give me that, Alphonse," she interrupted him again, but glaring at him this time. "If you like someone, it for who they are."
The boy was completely at a loss for words. All of it was happening way too fast for him… he didn't even know how to respond to anything. As far as he knew, no one had ever liked him in that way, but now this person he'd met not even a day before supposedly did? And not just any person, but… Edward.
Alphonse felt his chest tighten for the second time that way, but somehow, it felt a bit less tense, though only succeeded in confusing him more. He wasn't appalled, or angry at the thought of Edward maybe having feelings for him. At least that would be somewhat normal, but… he didn't feel that at all. What confused him more than anything else was the little spark of… happiness, God, happiness, that had gone through him when he thought about it.
"And what about you?"
Al looked up, a serious look now upon Winry's face.
"What about me?" he asked.
She didn't reprimand him. "How do you feel about him?"
He looked back down, knowing in his gut that that question was bound to surface. He didn't even feel embarrassed anymore, just tired and confused beyond words. "Do I really have to answer?"
Winry sighed. "Well, no… but it would probably be good for you to think about it."
She paused, and then put a hand on his shoulder. He raised his head to meet her gaze.
"I guess this is all a little crazy for you," she said to him in an uncharacteristically kind voice. "But… just incase he really does like you… just incase he tells you-,"
Alphonse's heart gave a particularly loud 'thump' in his chest.
"-You're going to want an answer for him."
He remained silent, staring down at his hands. He knew Winry was only trying to help him, and he really did appreciate it.
"Thanks, Winry," he said with a smile. "I'll… I'll do that."
She smiled back and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, then got up from the bed. She voiced a goodbye, and he did the same, and then she left the room, closing the door behind her.
He didn't go down to dinner that night, complaining to his parents of a sour stomach. It wasn't entirely untrue, he still could've eaten, but he just didn't feel like being around anyone. He wouldn't be able to hide the fact that something heavy was on his mind, and they'd just asked questions that he himself wasn't able to answer.
So he remained on his bed, having barely moved since Winry left over an hour ago. He had homework to do, but doubted he was going to school tomorrow, deciding that even if he didn't feel any worse by the next morning, he would just take a 'mental health' day (as his mother liked to call it). It wasn't good to do, he knew this, but…
In all truth, he just… didn't want to see Edward.
He felt horrible for it, running away from him because he didn't know how to deal with his own emotions.
Alphonse shook his head, trying to push the guilt from his mind. He yawned, eyes welling as he did so. He let himself fall backward onto his pillows, not even bothering changing into his pj's. His eyelids drifted shut, but sleep was far from him, his nap from earlier giving him more energy than he'd like to have. So he thought… something he knew was a bad idea, seeing as though he wanted to keep his mind of current events, but as his mind kept traveling over them, over the boy that lived next door to him now…
He found he didn't mind so much.