Empathy Chapter 3

I hope this isn't too angsty or melodramatic. Man, I'm so messed up. I'm sorry. Next chapter, we'll get to see a bit of Alphonse's dynamic with William and maybe a tiny bit more of Solaris. Also, question: What's a good human name for Greed? I don't think he had one.

"Brother, don't you William has been acting weird lately?" Alphonse asked Edward, with a downcast glance. He had noticed how William had been more reclusive anymore. Come to think of it, so had Edward, though not to the degree of the William.

"A little, I guess." Edward muttered, secretly trying to avoid admitting he had started to talk to him. He was lying on the couch on his side with his arm draped over his face and his back faced towards Alphonse. "What about it? It's not like we can do anything about it."

In truth, Edward had thought about confronting William since he last talked to him, but he couldn't come up with a sentence that wouldn't be interpreted as annoying by the eldest brother. He had already been growled at once, no sense in getting growled at another time.

Besides, Edward understood part of what William was feeling, as much as he didn't want to admit it. Unlike Alphonse, who tried to remain neutral, as to not take sides(at least on most things), Edward felt resentment for different reasons than William.

Edward couldn't forgive Hohenheim for making his mother suffer. Even if she tried to hide it, he could tell that she was still lonely, and struggling. Even if she tried to smile and act like things were okay, Edward wasn't blind and he knew that both Alphonse and even William had noticed them before. The side glances she gave when nobody thought she noticed or would care to notice. And he could tell that her smile was forced. And those reasons alone were reason enough to not like their father, but there was more to it than that.

Edward could also see the pain that Hohenheim had caused William. Even if it was only his half brother, Edward still cared, and still felt his pain even though he didn't know how to go about it. Edward wanted William to know he wasn't alone, but he knew that in his own experience, there wasn't much he could say to console him, just like nobody could say anything to truly console Edward himself. It would only cause him to feel more empty he was sure.

So Edward had decided to just leave his older brother be. Maybe it wasn't particularly ethical, but it was all he could do as far as he was concerned. Alphonse seemed to know that Edward was not going to speak further, and decided to not press him anymore. Edward, after all, could be just as scary as William at times when he was angry enough. So he sighed, looking away.

"Fine..." He stood up. "If you won't talk to him, then I will."

"Break a leg." Edward said sarcastically.

"Well, you should at least clean up while I'm out, Brother." Alphonse mumbled, scrutinizing the food wrappers and bowls lying around.

"Shut up... It's not that messy and if you don't like it, you should just go to your own ro-!" Edward snapped, surprised by his own hostile tone of voice.

"OKAY! You don't have to be so mean about it!" Alphonse shouted back. Edward flinched, his stomach turning, upon hearing Al raise his voice, something he rarely ever did, since he was the least expressive and most humble of all three of the brothers. Edward almost felt guilty, but wouldn't allow himself to apologize. "I wouldn't if you would stop nagging at me about talking to that jerk of a brother."

"As far as I can tell, you're the only one being a jerk...!" Alphonse retorted and with that he left, before Edward could say anything else.

Edward felt extremely bitter at the last comment, but didn't say anything. How the hell was he less of a jerk than William? William is the one that didn't let anybody in and sat around hating the world because he was wronged by their father.

"At least we have a loving biological mother... He doesn't have that."

A voice from the past interjected his other thoughts. It was Alphonse.

Now that he thought of it, Trisha wasn't William's biological mother, though she had accepted him as one of her own, but nobody had questioned how he felt about it. From what Edward had heard, Dante was extremely controlling and manipulative. At least Edward had the luxury of being born from a kind mother.

William had been pushed and pulled between his parents and then came to their house and never had a truly consistent family. He probably felt like he didn't belong.

Still, that didn't give him a right to fuss at everybody. And nothing would change his feelings on that. William was too temperamental, and aggressive. He was always irritated and never smiled. Why couldn't he just see that people cared about him? Hell, he was ungrateful and probably didn't deserve what he had. Sure, Edward had his own problems with some of that, but it surely wasn't as bad as William's. Alphonse had mentioned he could be as scary as William at times, if not more, but Edward disagreed.

Of course, Edward was being prideful at the moment, and didn't want to admit that he was more in the wrong than William at the moment. It was Alphonse's own fault for bugging him.

He got up, about to confront Alphonse further, the make his point, but upon entering the living room, he saw that Alphonse had already left. Trisha, who was standing in the kitchen looked back at him. "Oh, Edward, your brother seemed upset. Did you say something mean again?"

"No..." He said, looking down. Dammit, he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes.

"Edward..."

"Well, maybe I did go a little overboard, but it's his own fault for fussing at me over stupid things..."

"It can't be stupid if you're both worked up and are worrying over it, now can it...?"

"I'm not worried about William." Edward stubbornly insisted, despite himself, just to keep up his appearance. He had already said he wasn't worried, so he refused to back down while he was as irritated as he was at the moment.

"Say..., why don't you and I go shopping do some shopping to get your mind off of this, hmm?" Trisha smiled softly, rubbing his head. When Edward was like this, there wasn't much she could do, except to destract him. He always calmed down a bit after participating in some kind of activity.

"Mom..." Edward mumbled, looked down, as if he was feeling guilty over something.

"What is it, Ed?"

"I..."

Trisha didn't know what could be upsetting him, but didn't press him for an answer, and instead waited patiently.

"Do you... miss dad when he's not around...?" Edward choked out, forcing himself to ask the question that nobody had ever dared to ask her.

Trisha's eyes widened at the question. She had always been afraid her children would notice and question their father's inconsistent presence.

"How can you just act like everything is okay...? He's never around when he should be and... I can't stand seeing you hurting all the time! I try my best to make you happy, but I don't know what to do, and it becomes overwhelming... I just want you to smile like you used to... Why do you smile if you're hurting?" Edward's eyes filled with tears. He was afraid that Trisha would be mad at him, and though he wanted to say so much more, he didn't want to say anything bad about the person she loved in front of her. He couldn't bring himself to do such a thing, especially since she had better memories of him than Edward did.

Trisha didn't know what to say at first, but after a moment, she suddenly pulled Edward into an embrace, tears feeling up in her eyes. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but your Father loved me and you boys very much."

It would be a lie to say that Trisha didn't get lonely without Hohenhiem around. It would be a lie to say that she didn't find it hard to take care of Edward and Alphonse at times, and even William, but that would never take away her love for her sons, and to hear Edward even implying that it might be his own fault that he couldn't make his mother happy, hurt Trisha more than anything, because her love for her sons was so deep.

"Then why is he never around, mom?" Edward wrapped his small arms around her, the tears refusing to fall.

Why did he abandon us? The words got caught on his tongue and wouldn't come out.

"He just doesn't have any faith in himself to be a good father. And I may miss him, but there hasn't ever been a single time that having you and your brothers in my life hasn't make me happy. I love you, Edward... and I always will."

And with those words, Trisha broke down. Upon hearing her crying, Edward felt his own resolve dropping. He didn't know what to do. He had never seen his mother crying, and had rarely ever been put in the position of comforting. So he couldn't bring himself to say anything. He just let her hug him and cry over her shoulder.
"It's not your fault, Edward. None of this is."

Edward then broke down himself.

A/N: What do you guys think? Review if you can.