A/N: Wow, its been 2years since I first started this...crazy how time flies.

Father & Son

Small whispers of insects flitted around making his head itch and driving him crazy. The forest was a new sort of frontier for him and it wasn't proving to be the awe inspiring trip he had been promised; though his expectations had never been that high. Resembool was known for its wide stretches of crops and orchards but not woods. He rubbed his nose vigorously as a bug came precariously close to invading his nasal cavities. Crossing his arms over his chest he glared, as he had been doing all day, at the man sitting across the fire from him. It was the end of his summer vacation and instead of hanging out with his friends he was stuck camping with his Dad for the weekend.

A talk was coming, but per usual his Dad was avoiding it like the plague. They had spent the morning finding a campsite and then the afternoon to set it all up and make dinner. A dinner which consisted of canned beans, some sort of jerky and two pieces of apple pie his Mom must have packed for them. If she was trying to present an olive branch with her baking skills she had miscalculated, it only seemed to make the distance between them grow. He knew it reminded them both of home and how badly they wanted to be there.

"You and I both know why your Mom kicked us out of the house; the sooner we deal with this, the sooner we get to go home."

Eddy laughed at the thought, "So what, you tell me I'm being a bratty teenager and then I tell you you're a shitty Dad and all is well?"

"Shitty Dad huh?" The man looked livid at the thought. "Please, enlighten me as to how your life has been so tough because I would love to hear it." His father remarked sarcastically.

Taking the bait he felt his own voice rise. "I've been looking out for this family, the one you started. I was the one taking care of everyone while you went gallivanting around the world. I saved Sara's life and I've been helping Mom keep up her business!"

His father stood up, a rage in his eyes that Eddie had never really seen before but it didn't scare him.

"I've seen things in my life boy that would make your skin crawl. You want to know what someone looks like when you try to bring them back from the dead? Do you want to know how it feels to trade your limbs to bring back your brothers soul?" He flexed his hand, "We burned down our house and left everyone we knew to fix our mistakes. I gave up alchemy to bring back my brother who was so weak the doctors said he might not make it. I've had to watch as a man used your mother as a hostage." He took a deep breath his rant slowing. "Be thankful you don't have images of a mutated girl in your head, people dying, your mother turned into a monster by your own hands and of a country of people lying dead because you failed."

He knew some of the details but his Dad had never spoken about his Grandma like this, about bringing her back. Looking down at his own automail he glanced up. "It's not my job to feel sorry for you, you're the adult, and you're supposed to take care of me not the other way around." Ignoring the lump that had started to form in his throat he got up and went into the tent making sure to zip the entrance shut behind him.

"Rise and shine kid."

'Fuck my life.' His exact thoughts as he woke up. He was sore from sleeping on the ground, grouchy from being woken up at the crack of dawn and irritated to have to spend another moment on this stupid trip with his Dad. His stomach protested weakly as the smell of breakfast caught his attention.

"Help yourself."

Pulling on a clean shirt and shorts he looked at the omelet still warm in the pan. It actually looked and smelled really good but he wasn't about to let his Dad know that. He also wasn't going to let him have the satisfaction of knowing that it took all his self-control to not wolf it down once he had a bite.

"Figured we'd take the boat out on the lake, maybe do some fishing."

Eddy didn't supply an answer because it wasn't a question. The last time he had gone fishing was when he was little. Back then it had just been him and his Mom, the two of them, well three if you counted her being pregnant with Sara.

What he had forgotten about fishing was the silence, the inevitable quiet that fell while waiting for something to take the bait. When he was little he had had so many questions that being quiet was never an option. Now that he was older and didn't want to know the answers anymore, they were just two guys floating around in a boat.

They had been carrying on with the mounting tension for about an hour when his Dad finally broke the silence. He cleared his throat as if he needed to announce his presence. "I noticed you stopped studying alchemy."

Eddy shrugged, "Don't really have any use for it."

Growing bored of the silence, tension and inability to catch one damn fish he petulantly reeled in his line and leaned back against the bow of the boat, fixing his hat over his eyes. Maybe if he feigned sleep his Dad would get the hint that he did not want to talk.

By the time he woke up they were already back at shore, his Dad gutting some of the fish he must have caught. He looked so lonely sitting there by himself, eyes cast down at his work. Eddy thought about what it must have been like to have your Dad walk out on you and then watch your Mom die. Swallowing hard he tried to push down the empathy that was building inside him but it lingered. It was the look on his Dad's face, a tired expression that made him seem so much older, wearier than before.

Making much more noise than necessary he climbed out of the boat and pretended he wasn't suddenly caught with wave after wave of sympathy for this broken man who used to be his hero.

He must have been hungrier than he thought because the fish tasted fan-freaking-tastic. And the fuller he was the more he felt something close to content. Maybe his dad did too because he started talking again.

"Did I ever tell you about the time my alchemy teacher deserted your Uncle and I on an island?"

His Dad had a never ending supply of stories but he hadn't heard this one before. It occurred to him as his Dad talked that at his age his father had already lost his Mom, attached his brothers soul to a suit of armor, lost both his arm and leg, left home and had become Amestris youngest State Alchemist. What had he done so far in this life that amounted to anything close to that? So he'd lost his hand saving Sara, could make automail with his Mom, and his grades in school were pretty good. What did that make him? If his father who had overcome so much could fall apart, what hope did he have of making it in this world?

As if reading his thoughts his Dad peered up at him, his tale long ended. "You're not me son, you aren't going to make the same mistakes I did."

Eddy felt like he was holding his breath. "You made your fathers mistakes, what makes me any different?"

Edward Elric sighed, "Well I can tell you don't want the same things out of life that I did at your age. You just have to ask yourself what do you want to do, who you want to be and then do it."

What a loaded statement, what did he want to spend the rest of his life doing? What kind of man did he want to become? At some point in his life he had felt sure he knew the answers. "I like working with Mom, but I don't want to work on just automail." As soon as the words left his mouth he realized how good it felt to admit it. "I want to create something new, something that will help people, but I want to do it with my own hands…not alchemy."

He was surprised by the amused smile on his Dad's face, "What? You think that's funny?"

"No." His Dad shook his head, "I was thinking about when you were little, that paper you wrote for Ms. Howard."

"What about it?" He asked feeling defensive even though he had no idea what paper his Dad was referring to.

His father cleared his throat again looking embarrassed, "You know I'm proud of you right?"

It was there, that underlying need to be important to someone like him. "What have I done to make you proud?" When he looked back up his Dad was staring right at him.

Pulling out his wallet from his pocket, the older Elric man opened it up so he could see its contents. The majority of space was taken up by letters, letters he had written to his Dad when he was away. They were personal, hand written confessions of a boy who had been on the cusp of being something more.

"You took care of this family while I was gone Eddy, I know that. Proud? Proud does not even begin to explain how I feel about what you've done for this family, for me. It's just hard to admit that I needed someone to do it. Thank you."

Eddy turned away from his father's penetrating gaze feeling wetness on his cheeks, but for the first time in a long time it wasn't because his world was falling apart. He had been waiting to hear those words for a long time.