Star Crossed Lovers
Summary: Elricest based on Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Sequel to "Kiss Me"
Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist (c) Hiromu Arakawa, Romeo & Juliet (c) William Shakespeare
Rate: PG 15
Warnings: Elricest. Medieval Ages. Sexual references and language. One-sided RosexEd. Traces of RoyEd, RoyxHughes. Others: TrishaxHavoc, CatherinexHohenheim, HughesxEnvy
Author's comments: I was so inspired and awed by Myterious-Rulerose's flash on her version of Romeo & Juliet Elricest style that it just brought me right back to this fic. Damn, I hate myself for not doing this sooner But I managed to type this up over the break and I was going to make it like a surprise Christmas gift but I totally forgot about it when I went to France so…sorry for the delay o.o
I've got some bad news (for me) because my school hates me so it wants me to suffer. See, I first wrote this fic last year and my teacher didn't show us that there are certain rules to writing Shakespearan tragedies and it's NOW that he tells us how to differentiate them TELL ME EARLIER, DAMMIT! NOW MY STUBBORNNESS ON KEEPING ORIGINALITY AND ITS RULES HAVE MADE ME CHANGE THE WHOLE FREAKING OUTLINE OF THE STORY!!! bawls I hate this world! TT[TT
So I'm thinking of deleting the story from the net and re-writing and posting all the chapters at once when I'm finished with the story. I'm posting this chapter so that I can get a response from y'all (btw, sorry that Roy and Ed seems to have gone sudden character changes in this chapter but I went back to the first one and realized how poorly I wrote Roy and now it's hard to write him -- and I even made a reference to a greek goddess that shouldn't be an existent figure in Amestris ..' yeah, a lot of things don't make sense in this fic). And about this chapter…the beginning's so embarrassing I'm so sorry O///////O'''
I'd like to hear your comments…I'm pro-deleting because it'll be really advantageous since it will keep character sync, be a bit shorter, relieve readers and I alike from waiting and stressing, etc. I'm sorry, but unless one of you are smarter than me and have an idea for an alternative ending that I could be satisfied with, I'll do it.
Please post a reply! D:
Act II - Scene 5
"Brother…"
His little voice ends with a slow sigh; a sigh slightly covering a small moan that makes itself audible after its passing. Edward captures it, sinking his moist crimson lips onto his, kissing his previously breathless lips with enough tenderness to nearly send Alphonse into tears again. He is so happy, so light and so full of love. Edward breaks the contact as he frees himself from between his legs. He looks back down at his little lover and his half-lidded silver eyes. His Alphonse, so beautiful and so loving and so simply everything, all his.
"Alphonse…Little one…" He gulps, breathing a few more ragged breaths. "Is everything all right? Did I hurt you? Did I…" His voice fades away, letting his worrying eyes speak for him. He eyes the flushed cheeks, the soft but heavy breathes from his lips, his heaving chest glistening with sweat, his…
"I'm…I feel…" Alphonse breathes, fingers groping and smoothing Edward's jawline. He pulls in closer, nearly nose to nose with his sweet little one. "C-complete," and he smiles, a little weakly but his eyes sparkling with the truth. Yes, complete.
Edward kisses him, gliding his hands over a spot on the pillow so that a constant balance can let him keep his position for a longer period of time. Arms encircle, knees and ankles wrap around his lowered hips. They melt into each other like ceramic clay. Two equal objects becoming one, just like their most pure act of love demonstrated only a few moments ago.
Alphonse lets his closed eyes relax first, sighing as he equally loosens his hold on Edward. He lets him, and moves over so that he lies by Alphonse's side while one half of his body drapes over Alphonse's like a blanket. The younger one turns over on his side and presses his cheek up close to Edward's bare chest. They close into each other, Edward's arm like a mother bird's wing protecting its young.
"I love you, Alphonse," he whispers, kissing his brow.
"I love you too," his reply whispers back.
"Are you happy, Alphonse? That we've…we've become one?" He asks, his arms encircling over his back, worry coating his words.
"I couldn't ask for more, my Brother. We've sworn in as blood brothers, declared our love to each other, and now this." Alphonse chuckles in the dark, closing the space between them even more. "I couldn't ask for more."
Edward smiles, and closes his eyes to the world. "You're my everything. My one and all, Alphonse."
"And you, my all and one."
Edward smiles. "One is all…"
"And all is one."
--
"And so now we have this little secret code between us." He happily chirps. "So whenever we see each other we say just that and suddenly, we both feel the meaning of those words go right into our souls and oh, Elizabeth, to have such a warm unphysical contact at the same exact time…" He sighs, propping his chin on his knuckles and looking up almost adoringly at the opaque colored glass that depicts a scene from the Book of God. "It's absolutely fantastic."
"Well, I am happy for you but really, is there a need to tell me this? I would love to have as much to do with this whole affair as an ant would to the doings of a fish." She shakes her head, wishing for the hundredth time that she hadn't bonded those two stone-headed boys. I thank thee, my Lord for not punishing me even more. The price that I must pay is already coming in with the ranting of this absurd little child!
"Oh but what you've done is more than I can do for you! I do not know how to repay you, let alone describe my gratitude for your actions! I am saved from what cruelties life befell on me before I met him and now that we have become one and complete, life could not have been a most happy creation." He jerks his chin back and clasps his hands together loudly and begins to pray to the God he had believed hated him. "I thank you, God of all creations on this Earth, for the happiness that thee has brought down to bless all those who bid to your sayings. 'Love your enemies and cherish your Brothers'. Yes, yes, I always shall!" He kisses his fists and squeezes them together in joy, Elizabeth sighing once more at his content state.
"To think that only a week ago he was crying his soul out in hopes of leaking it out 'til he dies." She mutters, crossing her body before the grand alter. "Forgive his naïve and youthful mind, he still hasn't been shown what the world still has to offer…"
"Sister, Sister," Edward calls, getting up from the prayer bench and striding over to where she stands. "Love is such a splendid thing. An emotion that goes beyond any price in the world! What do you say if I repay your deep kindness with love? Maybe I can help. Maybe I can call on Roy and-"
Elizabeth whips around, her eyes sharp with an angry glint. "Edward! Enough with the mentions of his name! There is nothing coming between us two, and I am fully determined to only keep my heart pure and whole to the Lord of the Lands, the Holy Father of all Life. I am not to waste my time and my efforts towards someone who barely knows of my existence and-"
But Edward laughs, skipping backwards and giving her a wink. "I was only joking, Sister Elizabeth. Your devotion to God is that of an engraved love in your heart that you've had since you were born. Just like my whole world revolves around Alphonse, yours is with God. Do not fret, dear Sister," he says, one foot already stepping out of the doors. "I completely understand your feelings." With that, he disappears into the sunlight and lets the door creak shut.
To add to my price, I am forced to be an equal to that short-minded boy, she thinks, sighing once more. She looks back up and smiles, and with a small chuckle goes back to reciting her prayers with her God.
--
Hughessio is surprised to see Edward walking gaily towards him, beaming as radiantly as the sun. "Well, well, well!" Hughessio laughs, scooting over so that his friend can plop down on the stone beside him. "I thought you were dead!"
"Ah? But I do not die that easily, not with a heart full of life," Edward laughs, his golden eyes giving off glints of happiness.
Roy eyes him incredulously, trying to understand his sudden change in his mood. Hughessio is bewildered as well. "The past few days or so you've been prancing off to the meadows like a happy horse and on other days you skipped right into the church and not even seeing my presence in the square," he says, suggesting a hidden question in his words.
"I'm sorry that I haven't spent much time with you and Roy, Hughes." The blonde boy apologizes, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "But now that I have everything that I only need, I can now go and enjoy what I have."
"So you finally learnt your lesson eh, Ed?" Roy smiles, propping his elbow on an elevated knee. "As long as you have us men, you won't need much of anything else!"
"Too true, too true," Edward happily replies, secretly laughing inside. "All living forms would only need a single other man and that would only suffice. Land needs a man to continue its vegetation, rivers need a man to kill off its vast population of sea creatures, animals need man to eat and protect from the predators of the land."
"And the women! Women need men 'else they're helpless and incomplete!" Hughessio chortles, slapping Roy's shoulder with a smirk. "Without men, all humanity is one hopeless heap! No one can live without the authority and power of men!"
"Hughessio, please do not become excited." Roy shakes his head, raising his eyebrows at his closest friend. "It would be vice versa as well since us men cannot be born without mothers and nurses…"
"Again with mothers, Roy. If you really want to have a son or have support or whatever it is you wish for, then find a young maiden and marry her already." Hughessio mocks, glancing over at Edward. "Right, Ed? Roy should just swear his verses in some church and get a life already."
Edward smiles and nods. "Marrying. An act of unification with one that you love; the one and only thing that seals eternal happiness." His cheeks slightly turn into rose as he continues his talk. "You know, Roy, I think it would give you a great satisfaction if you bonded with another. It'd spread such a wonderful feeling through you…"
"Oh, what do you know!" Roy slightly blushes, reaching over to throw a small punch at him. "You being younger than the either of us and telling me what it's like to unite with another. Honestly, it's as though you've actually did get married." He stops, fortunately focusing his view on Hughessio instead of Edward's nervous smile. "Say, Hughessio, that reminds me. What happened to that girl who wanted to share a bed with you the other day? You haven't told me anything."
"Ah, yes, about that." Hughessio grins maliciously, shifting his position to a straight sitting posture. "Well, she is really innocent and all so I had to go slow on her, you know? And-"
"Since when were you a patient one? You always tell me you just get on with the whole ordeal and you finish in less than five minutes." Roy scoffs, earning a laugh from Edward.
"Oh? Five minutes? I've once finished in three." Edward says smugly, smiling rather devilishly at Roy's dropped jaw. Hughessio ignores the lie and waves his arms about to keep the subject on about his relationship.
"No, she's different from the rest of them I assure you! She's really beautiful and oh, if I could have a painted image of her I would engrave it to the memory until every fine detail becomes as knowledgeable to me as the ability to breathe! So anyway, she was actually the one who suggested it and…"
Edward watches his old friends talk and bicker of this new maiden and relaxes into the familiar atmosphere. Everything is all right, nothing can ever go wrong, he thinks.
--
"Hello, Alphonse." She smiles.
"…" Alphonse hesitates at her reproach but stops in his steps all the same. He slightly bows and smiles politely. "Good afternoon, Miss Winris."
She smiles nervously and shifts her feet. Alphonse finds that he cannot move for it seems that she wants to say something. What could it be? What is she here for again? She's come all the way from the borders, but for what? He doesn't remember.
"I was hoping, Young Alphonse, if we could have small talk with one another someday," she speaks, almost hesitatingly. "I know you have classes with your tutor everyday apart from on the days of rest and on special occasions." She meets his eyes and rounds her shoulders up to her cheeks. "Your birthday is this Sunday, is it not?"
Alphonse lifts his head in realization. "O-Oh, why it is," he answers, an embarrassed stutter falling from his lips. "It has slipped off my mind!" Winris beams in amusement.
He laughs at himself for the sake of covering-up his forgetfulness and his guest laughs along with him. "Well, I am glad I have reminded you as a pleasant surprise, and even more so when you hear what I have to say," she says.
Alphonse stops laughing.
…My son, what do you say to a proposal of a marriage?
"I am sure that your fathers have explained to you of my region's situation," she says, her words sounding strangely far and blurred. "Our parents have agreed to this long before we've met."
Just give me a short answer, my son…
No…
"They agreed that on the day you are to become of an age to marry, it will become your wedding day."
No, no…
"Master Alphonse," she looks up, hope and anxiety colored in her sapphire eyes. "Since…we do not know each other very well, I was hoping to pass a few moments with you before we wed. On the day after tomorrow, we will officially become husband and wife. I would like us to…enjoy the day we will marry."
Will you accept her hand and be her husband?.
--
Elizabeth stares at the book lying on the table before the altar. She reads it once again. Then twice more. Then again. This…This can't be! she cries in her thoughts. She looks over her shoulder then back at the bounded collection of paper but it is there, existent and solid between her hands. "Alphonse Adric and Winris de la Frontiére to be wedded on the Regata Storica on the dawn of noon. They shall swear by the Holy Book of God and…"
She shuts the book, wanting very much to burn it, to throw it out. A flash of Edward's happy face crosses her mind and she nearly drops the book as she falls to her knees. "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."
Edward.
She jumps to her feet and takes hurried steps over to the doors. But alas, the guards stand firm beyond those gates; the church's treasures and secrets locked away and protected from prying bandits. She turns away, rushing back to the grand altar where she falls to her knees and ignoring the pain, crosses herself and prays so hard that she whispers them out loud.
"Oh, dear Lord if thee have mercy bestow your pity over the two ill-fated lovers that thy bonded as Brothers; two of the same blood, two of the same Sons of thy Lord, two of the same heart and spirit! Have mercy on their love, have mercy on their blind devotion to the other. Love must go unpunished, for it is the most purest creation thee hath created. Oh, I beg with my life permit the happiness of your Sons, spare them the pain. Oh please, oh please, my Love, my God, spare them death!" she cries.
She continues praying into the night, at the meanwhile Edward is climbing his familiar path into Alphonse's arms; humming softly as he jumps down the manor wall. He crosses the brambles, the familiar leaves, the scratches of the thorns and the wind whipping the branches. But no God stops him for his own feet are taken by the wings of Love. He looks up at the gnarled old tree that allows passage into his beloved's room, and steadily climbs upwards to where he will find his betrothed little one.