Hey y'all, back here with Day 2! This one is somehow even cornier than the first, but they get better as the days go on. Regardless,i reallylied writing it, and I'm gladwith the results! Enjoy!
Trisha Elric sat boredly atop her gravestone, absentmindedly poking her foot through a dandelion, when she noticed two figures walk through the gates of the small countryside cemetery. She immediately recognized the first person as her eldest son, Ed, but the other she didn't recognize.
"Sarah, Edward's here!" She called to her old friend, who had been talking up an elderly lady (who had died ages before the both of them) named Ramona.
"Took him long enough!" Sarah replied, "Who's that with him?"
Trisha shrugged, "Beats me." She inspected the second man better once the duo was closer to her grave. His dark hair almost obscured a dark eye-patch from the distance the two were still at, and he walked a respectful few steps behind Edward as they made their way closer to Trisha.
Ed was wearing a normal white button down and brown waistcoat (for once). Trisha thought the look was rather charming and much better than that ghastly red cloak he had worn throughout his entire adolescence (if she'd been alive, Trisha would have burnt the hideous garment along with those obscene leather pants long ago). Trisha also noted how much Ed's brown trench coat made him look like Hohenheim.
The two finally made it to the Elric mother's graveside. Ed laid down a bouquet he'd been carrying by the gravestone; it was full of pink and violet flowers that Trisha recognized as the local florist Martha's prized spring combination. The blonde turned when he noticed the other man straggling along.
"Roy, hurry the shit up, it'll be sunset soon!"
Roy, Trisha assumed, sighed through a small smile, "I'm barely two yards behind you, Ed." His voice was deeper than her son's, and she realized as he came to a stop beside Ed that he had to be a good bit older than her son as well. He held two smaller bouquets in one hand, the other rested lightly in his pocket.
Trisha hopped off of her grave, choosing to stand in front of the two as she noticed in her periphery Sarah coming towards her.
"He's familiar, don't you think?" Winry's mother asked.
Trisha frowned, shaking her head, "I've never seen him before. Edward called him Roy."
"Roy, huh? Maybe he's one of those Central city-men; that's where Edward lives, right?" Sarah asked. Trisha nodded.
Ed glanced sidelong at Roy, smirking, "Can't keep up walking half a mile? Your age is really starting to take its toll."
Roy rolled his eyes, "Maybe I enjoy taking in the scenery while I walk."
Ed snorted, "That's what old people do."
"It's what people who know how to appreciate days-off do, thank you."
Ed smiled fondly, "Sure, keep believing that." Trisha couldn't help but notice the warmth with which the taller man smiled as he shrugged in response to Ed's snarky remark.
Both Trisha and Sarah were caught off-guard when, having stood from placing his bouquet down, Ed tugged Roy's arm out of his pocket and entwined his fingers with the other man's, the newly-captured appendage quick to comply. It was also at this point, when Trisha actually paid attention to the duo's (couple's?) hands that she noticed the matching rings around their left ring-fingers.
Trisha was speechless, but she knew that Sarah had noticed as well, as she began to hit Trisha's arm excitedly with the back of her hand, "Oh my God, Trish, do you see it?!"
The brunette woman grabbed at the neck of her apron, eyes affixed to the metal bands, "My little boy's got a…"
A what? Fiancée? Husband? Friend with benefits? City people do those kinds of things, right?
"Hey Mom," Ed greeted awkwardly, which Trisha understood. It's hard to talk seriously to a rock, especially with another person in your midst. Ed gestured vaguely behind him, "That's Roy, he's a bastard but I'm marrying him in a quarter of a year. Yeah, I don't know why either."
Trisha would have been worried about Ed's words, had she not, firstly, known about Ed's snarky side and, secondly, seen the amused eye-roll Ed's fiancée directed towards him.
Having broken the initial awkward atmosphere, Ed settled down into his usual graveyard visit rambling about his work- a research job within the military- which Trisha didn't follow amazingly, but loved to hear anyways, just to listen to her son's happy voice. It hadn't been happy or relaxed for many years, so just to see Ed able to ramble without worries lifted years of anxiety off of Trisha's heart.
While Ed talked, Trisha took this time to examine her future son-in-law. Roy seemed quiet, or maybe just giving Ed his space to do his thing, and his adoring gaze almost never left Ed (so much, in fact, that Ed turned around and lightly slapped Roy's arm, calling him a 'sappy old man).
Compared to Ed, Trisha noted, Roy was rather old. He couldn't be older than Trisha, but if she had to guess, the dark-haired man was at least in his adolescence when Ed was born. 'It's no matter' Trisha reminded herself, 'Edward is an adult, and Hohenheim was a fair few hundred years old when you married him, so who are you to talk?'
Trisha kept observing the soon-to-be addition to her little family. As his eye slowly peeled from Ed to observe his surroundings, Trisha saw a near-nervousness overcome his mannerisms. He began to bounce his fingers against the bouquets in his one hand, whilst rubbing his fingers together in the other. His fond expression even dimmed a little as he scanned each gravestone around Trisha's. His eyes and fidgets seemed to stop abruptly at the Rockbells' graves, which sat directly behind Trisha's.
Sarah, from beside Trisha seemed to give Roy the same scrutinizing gaze as Trisha, whilst Urey, who sat atop his wife's stone, gazed elsewhere.
Sarah shook her head, "I just can't shake the feeling that I've seen him before."
Trisha hummed, noticing that Ed was finishing up his talking. She stepped forwards, patting her son lightly on the shoulder (even though he couldn't see her). He smiled wistfully and turned to Roy. Tiptoeing, Ed gave Roy a quick cheek-kiss, winning him a forehead kiss in return.
"Take your time- I'll see you back at Winry's, okay?" Ed said, squeezing Roy's forearm.
"Okay," Roy repeated, smiling down at his fiancée. He stood still until Ed passed the gates of the graveyard, watching his figure disappear amongst the rolling hills of Resembool.
Instead of taking his own turn talking to Trisha, as she'd expected, Roy moved past her grave (not without a sad smile) to the two directly behind hers- The Rockbells.
When Sarah first saw the black-haired man beside Edward, she was absolutely sure she'd seen him somewhere before. She definitely didn't recognize the eye patch, but she'd been dead a while- anything could happen. What she did recognize was his remaining eye that matched the darkness of his hair. If only she could place the face to the eye…
It clicked when, despite having come to the graveyard for Ed's sake, Roy took a detour from Trisha's grave towards her own, two small bouquets in hand. He knelt down at the foot of her and Urey's graves, setting the bouquets gently against either.
Urey, who had previously been zoned out atop Sarah's grave, stood confusedly, "Sarah, do you know him?" He pointed to Roy.
Trisha spoke, equally perplexed, "He's Edward's fiancée."
Urey looked surprised, "I didn't know Ed swung that way."
"No." Sarah interjected, eliciting silence from the other two. She knelt down in front of Roy, who had yet to rise from his knees. He looked distantly at the stones, previously peaceful face transformed with new lines of remorse and mild terror. It was the terror in his eye that she recognized most of all.
"Urey, your back was turned. You were folding bandages in our makeshift tent. You didn't get a chance to turn around when he came in. I looked at him- that's why he hesitated the second time."
"The second time?" Trisha asked. Urey had gone still.
"…The second time he fired his gun."
"Oh my God…" Trisha gasped.
"He's the kid? Are you sure?" Urey rested his hand atop Sarah's shoulder.
Her voice shook a bit, "I'm positive. Back then- his expression- you can't replicate utter horror so accurately unless you felt it."
It was true. The longer Roy sat crouched in front of the graves, the more distant and jarringly haunted his gaze became. He didn't seem to really process the growing darkness around them, although everything around them seemed to grow tired and fall asleep, stilling with the lessening light.
The three ghosts stood in silence. Trisha looked very consternated, like her mind was waging a battle against its other half. Urey stood behind his wife, a spark of anger somewhere deep down unable to rise fully to the surface, as the man, hunched in front of them all, simply looked so pitiful it was hard for Winry's father to feel much more than exhausted wariness. Had Roy shown up years previously, then he maybe could have let that spark of anger fester into a flame, but he'd been dead for upwards of two decades.
Sarah gazed into Roy's distantly staring face, although the deepening dusk made it hard to discern sharp details on him.
She had also been angry, earlier on. She had been angry with Roy for taking them her away from her daughter, at the military for giving orders to execute neutrals, and with Urey and herself for leaving Winry and Pinako behind for that stupid war.
Sarah had seethed behind her phantasmal tears during her own funeral, unable to hold Winry as she cried her heart out, and for years afterward. Her anger had tempered slightly when Trisha joined them, and her heart's anger was drowned out by sympathy.
She watched when Trisha, panicked, had screamed wildly at her sons when Ed suggested they bring her back to life, and when she merely dropped to her knees in disbelief a few years later as a two-limbed Ed returned to her graveside, carried by a suit of armor whose voice resembled Al's.
Now, as Sarah sat directly in front of the man that killed her, she was surprised to find herself not feeling as angry as she had imagined she would. By this time, the sun had pretty much completely set, so only the large moon and speckles of stars made out any indication of the man's features.
It had to have been at least an hour since Ed had left. Roy was in the same position as he had been at the start, but Sarah and Urey were sitting atop their respective graves now. Trisha sat in between them. Ironically, the Elrics' mother seemed the most uncomfortable about Roy.
"Edward has to have known that his fiancée is your executioner. I'm just saying, how much of a kindred spirit could he really be? He could have refused to kill you, but he didn't!" Trisha vented.
"He was young back then, Trish. They probably threatened him with his own death. I saw soldiers on both sides, nobody really expects war to be just as horrifying as it really is. You can't really use a decade-old war to define the life of someone who survived it." Urey said back.
"I can be concerned for my son's marital choices, though." Trisha stood back up when a lantern's light appeared over the crest of the hill that opened up into the graveyard. As the light grew closer, Sarah could see Ed's features illuminated by the glow.
Ed reached Roy and crouched quietly beside him, setting down the lantern in front of them both. The sudden light seemed to shake Roy from his stupor a bit, as he turned his head, blinking, towards his fiancée.
"Dinner's just about ready, and you've been here a while. I was getting worried." Ed stated.
"I'm sorry," Roy said back.
Ed shook his head, "Don't be, I get it."
It was Roy's turn to shake his head, "You haven't had to experience a battlefront like Ishbal. There wasn't any reason for all the death- it just was. To keep living with yourself you had to strip off any kind of empathy or relativity. I had killed before the Rockbells, but they were both the first people not decidedly against us I was ordered to shoot. I argued with General Grand, because they weren't just helping Ishballan soldiers, but our men as well. None of it was right, but their deaths were the least right- least justified."
"Well, Mr. Fürher, sir," Ed said whilst he stood up, Roy soon to follow, "Now you can make sure we don't have another war like Ishbal."
Before Ed could crouch back down to pick up the lantern, Roy pulled him into a tight hug, "Thanks."
Ed smiled, wrapping his arms over Roy's, "Whatever."
After a second, Roy pulled himself away from his fiancée, picking up the discarded lantern and grabbing onto one of the blonde's hands instead, "I guess we should go back before the food gets too cold. What is the food, anyways?"
Ed shrugged as they began to walk away from the graves, "I don't know, but it smelled really good."
Their voices grew incomprehensibly fainter they further from the graves they became. The land stood quiet and still behind them; not even an owl hooted its presence. Trisha, Sarah, and Urey remained how they had been, non-contributive to the stillness around them. Mildly wary and filled with new questions, they watched the lantern light bob around the hills and fade away into night.
[END]
