It was the end of everything. And it appeared that everyone in Central was celebrating. There was one group though that wasn't down in the streets getting as drunk as humanly possible. They were standing in front of Central's headquarters watching two boys and their father roughhouse.
"Ed finally forgave him?" asked one of the men.
"He needed to hear his father's side of it. Why he wasn't there for both boys," said another man. "I tried time and again to get him to listen to his father's side. Apparently the Gate finally knocked some sense into both of them."
"Hoenheim explained to both boys why he had to leave. And the boys understand that he may leave again," said one of the women standing in the group.
"What will happen if he has to leave again?" asked another one of the women.
"He has already arranged a type of guardianship for wherever the boys wind up. Different people in different towns must keep their house open to both boys until both are of 'legal age'. He arranged this 'guardianship' with people the boys trust," explained another man.
Down in front of the group, the two brothers and their father continued to roughhouse. So far it was all three for themselves but Hoenheim hadn't watched his sons spar before. He had a firm grip on Ed and was managing to keep his hands apart. He was also attempting to fight off Alphonse at the same time. Hoenheim tried to use Ed as a shield as Al came running at both of them but suddenly Al was sliding underneath both of them and Ed had his legs in the air. Hoenheim fell back with an "oomph." He looked up to see his elder son sitting firmly on his stomach and holding his arms down. Hoenheim twisted his head to see Al hanging onto his legs.
With a roar, Hoenheim tossed both boys off and gathered them under his arms. He started spinning as he did so which got both boys to laugh. As he spun he realized that Ed's entire unit along with Gracia and Elycia Hughes were staring at them. And he could tell that Ed didn't care. He was going to be in his boys' lives as long as possible and continue to give them the lift they hadn't had from him.
Raccoon: This is the end of Lift, my dear readers. The first one to talk was Havoc. Mustang was next followed by Riza. Then Gracia and Falman. This has been bouncing around my head for a while and I finally wrote it. There shall be no more chapters of Lift.