Author's Note: I've said dozens of times before that I've had trouble coming up with stuff for various themes, but this one was easily the worst. I barely even understand what the theme means, so how am I supposed to figure out what to write? I nearly despaired of ever coming up with something – even something lame – to write, but I eventually decided to just write something about Ed's child. I wasn't satisfied with it at first, because it wasn't really about the brothers, but as I wrote it a connection started becoming clearer and clearer, so I ran with it. This is also the only chapter so far that doesn't include the words of the theme in the text somewhere.
Timeline: Postseries
Theme 54: O Child-sama
I can still remember it like it was yesterday, the day my brother came bursting into the room with a huge grin on his face, yelling, "Winry's pregnant!"
I winced, hoping none of the neighbors could hear that. I didn't think they needed to be informed of the news in such a way. But I smiled and said, "That's great, Brother!"
Then he started gabbling away about how he was going to be a father, how he wondered whether it would be a boy or a girl, how he couldn't wait to teach it about alchemy and the world.... Frankly, he sounded like Maes Hughes, and I smiled at the old memories. He calmed down after a while, but he was in high spirits for days afterward.
But once the initial euphoria had died down, my brother started to worry. "How am I going to do this? Do I have what it takes? How can I be a father when I barely knew my own? What does it even mean to be a father?" Sometimes he voiced these worries, but even when he didn't I could see them eating away at him. It hurt to watch that distracted, apprehensive look slide onto his face and know that he was saying to himself, "Everything I touch gets mangled. Will this child be any different?"
I tried to reassure him as best I could, but I don't think it helped much. Every time I would tell him not to worry, he'd look at me and remember how he made a terrible mistake that almost cost me my life. And that would just reinforce all of his fears. I felt bad about that; I hate being a living reminder of the things my brother's done wrong. I'd thought we got over that years ago, but memories are powerful things indeed.
But the day came, whether my brother worried or not. We took time off as the due date drew closer, so we were there when it happened. I sat with my brother as we listened to Winry's muffled cries of pain, and when the midwife finally said we could come in, I was right on my brother's heels.
The change on my brother's face when he saw his tiny daughter was astounding. All the tense lines of worry and guilt smoothed out. His whole body seemed to become soft and warm, radiant with barely suppressed joy. Winry handed their daughter over to him, and he cradled her in his arms, gazing at her with so much love it could take your breath away.
It was just like when he brought my body back. And, just like back then, as he sat with a person he loved lying in his arms, all his guilt just melted away.
