Adapting Alphonse
Al was just—trudging through the Shinra building's lobby on his way home after finding out his last class of the day had been canceled, wondering what he should do and hoping Ed would stop trying to call him soon. His depressed thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his shoulder, making him turn to look at an annoyed Rufus with Reno a few steps away.
"You haven't been answering Eden's calls or messages," the older blond said, and Reno blinked, looking between the two in confusion and curiosity. "Why?"
"He's not my brother anymore," Al replied sadly, clenching his fists and willing away tears. "You won—you should be happy about that."
Rufus made an annoyed sound and punched Al in the jaw, startling both Reno and Al enough for the younger blond to just stare at him in shock as he held a hand to his sore jaw. Several other people nearby had turned to look in surprise, but Rufus kept his voice low as he said to Al, "You little fool. You really have no grasp of the actual reality of the world or Eden, or even each of our relationships to him, do you? If all you were doing right now was hurting yourself, I may not particularly care, but you're hurting Eden, too, and that's not okay."
The President's son paused, then poked the Academy student in the chest, saying, "It doesn't have to be you or me. Maybe my having traveled with him for the last few weeks has made a difference because it made me aware that many of the things I was doing were similar to your interactions with him, but—you're his brother by blood and nothing can change that. You and he even had—would have if you would get your head out of your ass—a better familial relationship than most. I'm only—an honorary brother of a sort. I sincerely doubt he kept your sanity intact in the past just to lose you now."
He stopped, looking momentarily confused, then sighed and said, "I certainly digressed. The point is, we can both be his brothers. Even if you and he have different paths now, it doesn't mean you need to lose your friendship and caring for one another. Eden has a surprisingly large heart, and he certainly doesn't mind sharing it with many people. Stop hurting him and yourself because you think there's only room for one of us in his life—he's got room for both of us and some." Rufus then gave Al's shoulder a pat and walked past him out of the building followed by a curious Reno, even as Al's brain promptly shut down.
On auto-pilot, Al managed to turn back to the doors and wander absently out into the streets, heading to his apartment through little more than habit, his mind whirling.
He had felt threatened by everything that had changed, and guilty that no one was angry with him for ruining their lives—and devastated to realize nothing was ever going to be the same again. Ed had become a killer, the world had so many things he'd never seen or heard of before, he'd suddenly been expected to have the responsibility of an adult, he'd had to make his own way instead of following another's path. He had gotten used to being invincible only to have to face the reality of the fact that he could really feel pain now, and that he was much more vulnerable. It had felt like everything was working against him, and 'losing' Ed to Rufus had nearly pushed him over the edge, just like the time he'd thought he was just a fiction created by his brother.
But then Mustang had said that, if Al hadn't gotten his head on straight that time, he would have 'put him out of his misery.' Would he have wanted that? If he'd been left to deteriorate rather than Ed and Winry pulling him back, would he have been sane enough to know? Part of him realized for the first time that he'd probably not have wanted to live if he'd really gotten so bad he'd truly thought he'd never existed as a real person. It wasn't a far cry to go from that to whatever torture the people in Deepground had suffered to make them soulless dolls. Eden hadn't done anything wrong.
If Eden hadn't done anything wrong, then it was true the older blond had grown up and chosen a different path, one Al couldn't follow him on...But as much as that had left him feeling like he'd been left in the lurch, it had also shoved him into a very different life. People respected him (or didn't respect him) as an adult based on his behavior, the things he chose to do or not do. For all the things which were different and new, he'd been finding himself far less alienated from his current peers due to his intelligence than he ever had in Amestris. Not only did he have friends, but Eden was making an effort to maintain their bond, even if it was different now—it was Al who had tried to cut him off.
He really had been thinking that he was forcing Ed to choose if he tried to stay in his life, and so much more harm would come to the world if Ed chose him, so he'd made the choice for his brother. It had been painful and had made him feel like he was mourning, in a way, which was part of what had led to him not doing the things he should have been doing. That, and simply trying to hold onto the past. But he'd forgotten how both of them had made friends and tried to help others everywhere they went—he'd forgotten that Ed didn't have to choose if Al and Rufus didn't force him to by learning to 'share'. And Al hadn't had to share Ed with anyone but Winry, really, for a very long time.
It only hit him right then that there had never been something to 'force Ed to choose,' because it wasn't 'Gaia' or 'Amestris', it was all just Gaia now. The Planet was their home, all of theirs, so there really wasn't a choice—they were all there and Ed already cared, so he was going to help them. Even if he'd changed, he had never stopped caring. He would never stop caring, and if Al had truly tried to force a choice on his older brother—it wouldn't have gone over well, and would have practically torn Ed's heart out. Especially because it would have been pointless now that all their lives had changed so much.
When faced with all those realities, Al suddenly realized the technology was a rather minor point, and had its own bizarre appeal which took a lot of the edge off everything he'd managed to screw up for others and in his own life.
Wait, hadn't Ed's group returned if Rufus was there?
Blinking, his eyes cleared and he realized he was standing in his living room, staring blankly at the wall beside the balcony doors. A sudden weight on his foot made him look down, to see one of his kittens pouncing on it while the other watched from nearby.
"I've really made a mess of things, haven't I?" he asked them.
Both meowed at him and attacked his feet, clearly saying, "Stop moping and play with us!"
He chuckled, then remembered all the calls and text messages he'd gotten from Eden over the weeks. Pulling out his PHS, he held it in front of his face for a moment, then sighed and opened it, typing in a message for Ed: I know you're going to come. I'm at home now. We...need to talk.
SH
Eden already felt exhausted by the time he was done with Winry, but it wasn't actually abnormal for him to feel that way after she had been at his leg. As such, he headed into town to go to his brother's apartment, where he planned to just wait for him if he wasn't already there. About halfway there, he suddenly hesitated as he thought maybe he shouldn't go, but then a text message came in—and when he checked the sender, it was from Al, so he quickly opened it to read: I know you're going to come. I'm at home now. We...need to talk.
With a startled blink, then a small, hopeful smile, he replied: I'll be there in a few, I was already on my way. He could only hope he'd now find out why Al hadn't been answering him, and that it wasn't going to cause a rift between them too large to be mended. Eden reached down to pick Libby up for comfort and kept walking, soon arriving at the building and going up to his brother's apartment.
When he knocked on the door, it was opened before he'd even finished knocking, and Al stood there, looking almost resigned and nervous, but more determined than he had the last time the two had met before Ed had left. "Hi..." the younger blond began tentatively, then sighed as he suddenly made a sweeping motion with his foot which shoved a small, black kitten away from the door as it gave a squeaky, little meow of protest. "No, you can't go out, Kuro. And if you try, you'll get hurt." The younger blond was still in his Academy uniform, other than the red suit jacket. "Get inside quickly, before they try to make a break for it," Al sighed then, eyes quickly scanning the entryway.
As Eden stepped inside, he saw there was a second kitten besides the black one, but it was a mostly white calico with black on one side of its face, brown-orange on the other, and only a few random spots of color on its body. It had just come careening around the corner and jumped on the black kitten, who yelped, took a swat at the calico and hopped backwards, right onto Eden's foot as he shut the door. When the calico bolted back into the other room, the black one followed.
"...And I had begun to wonder why I didn't want a pet..." Eden sighed, then patted the top of Libby's head. "Thank you for being so well-behaved, Libby."
"You're welcome!" she chirped happily. "I haven't seen a 'kitten' before. Can I go play with them?"
"Gently. They're only babies," he told her, then set her down on the ground. "But be careful of their claws. I don't think you'll like those in your fur much."
"Okay! Thanks!" Libby answered, then padded into the main room to look for the kittens.
Eden then looked up and met Al's gaze as he asked, "Why didn't you answer or return my calls or messages, Al? I only knew you weren't dead or kidnapped because Elena assured me you were fine."
Al looked stricken at the words, then he sighed and looked away as he said, "When Rufus and I first met...we had both basically taken one another as rivals over you. We couldn't both be your brothers, we both thought then. Sephiroth was the only one who knew that, but Reno...apparently wanted to go on a date more than do his job, so ended up ditching me with Rufus and somehow 'accidentally' locking us in one of the Turks' training rooms for hours."
"...How does someone do that 'accidentally'?" Eden asked, wondering where Al was going with the story.
"He bolted from the room so fast his sleeve caught on the outside locking mechanism," Al shrugged. "But then we—Rufus and I—let off some steam and talked for a bit...He told me Veld killed his mother, he watched it happen. He also told me...just how important you've actually become to him. It didn't take much for me to realize he'd rip apart the world if he went back to being cold and hateful, so I couldn't separate you. It took—him giving me shit earlier today for upsetting you so much for me to realize it wasn't a competition in the first place, something even he only really realized while you were traveling."
The younger blond paused and looked up to meet Ed's eyes as he said, "I thought I was doing you and the world a favor by cutting ties with you so you could focus on him. At the time, I didn't think anything was wrong with how I was thinking. Then again, a lot had been wrong with my thinking, and I only tangibly realized I'm not in the suit of armor anymore when I...realized I had attracted Hojo's attention by not listening to everyone else."
"What do you mean, you attracted his attention?" Eden asked tensely, lips pressing into a fine line and eyes wide with alarm.
With another sigh, Al said, "Apparently, I'm a Cetra Healer, and I was warned to keep seeds on hand just in case. I chose not to believe them enough to even humor them, so...I ended up passing out in class at about the same time some orange seeds grew into trees in the cafeteria. Tseng told me even with their information control, it was only a matter of time before Hojo would find out and come after me, but so far, he hasn't tried, and we don't know if he's figured it out yet or not. Still...It suddenly hit me that I'd actually feel him torture me. I guess...when Rufus told me we could both be your brothers, a whole lot came together for me all at once, and I suddenly realized I've really been an ass. To everyone. I'm not sure how Elena, Shalua, and Shelke put up with me so much of the time."
Ed looked faintly amused by the comment, but then he reached forward and gripped Al's shoulder tightly. "Al, you're my brother, you've been with me since I was—like, a little over a year old. That kind of bond doesn't just go away, even if I make some new bonds—and you didn't feel nearly so threatened by the Turks who declared themselves my siblings...What made Rufus different?"
The younger boy was silent for a minute before he sighed and said, "I think they fit more in the category Mr. Hughes had with the way you dealt with them, so I didn't really feel they were trying to take you away from me. But Rufus isn't one of them, and clearly demands your time, and hates it when he doesn't get it—so, more in my category, and with the way I'd been thinking, that also meant he was a threat. Anyway, we should sit down. Will the kitchen table do for now?"
"Yeah," Ed agreed, but as Al started to turn away from him, he pulled him back and drew him into a tight hug. "I'm glad you weren't attacked or anything. We'll figure the rest out."
Slowly, Al lifted his own arms to hug Ed back, remembering what it had once meant to be close with his brother, feeling tears gathering in his eyes as he recalled what he had been missing. They just stood there for a minute before releasing one another.
After giving his eyes a quick rub, Al looked up at the other blond—and both noted they were actually fairly close in height right then, but Al was still a little taller—to give him a small smile. He then led the way to the table and sat, followed by Ed, who sat across from him and quickly scanned the room—he could see the whole living room from there, too. Frankly, what he saw amazed him, because while Al had a few vines growing, most of the plants were flowers, small trees, or bushes.
In the middle of the living room was a clear space for the furniture, but other than a path to the balcony doors, the quarter of the room nearest said doors had become a jungle of plant pots. One bush was growing berries, one tree looked like it was growing mini bananas, and the rest were varying shades of green with some white or dark purple-red offsets. There were a couple ferns near the pool, some water lilies and reeds in it, and two different pitcher plants, one on each side of the pool. Further from the pool were broad-leafed plants of varying types, the bush plants, and the trees, with a cactus next to the balcony door as far from the pool as it could get. There were also a few plants in other places around the room. He'd thought Winry's vines were impressive, but if Al had done all this from seeds in all of five days or less—it was mind-boggling.
Giving a low whistle, he commented, "I'd heard about your plants from Winry, but hearing about it and seeing it are two very different things—her vines are low-key compared to this. How long ago did you put all this together? Did you do it yourself?" He motioned at the plants as he spoke.
"I—well, Felicia dragged me to a flower shop to get some seeds the same day I fainted and those trees grew in the cafeteria. As much as flowers are 'okay', I didn't actually want a lot of them growing all the time, so when I found the base for the pond, I thought trees, bushes, and ferns might be better. I got some plant pots and soil, and Felicia handed me a few packets of random seeds, but I found some really unique ones myself. Then, I thought—it would be interesting to test what would grow at what sort of rate," Al explained. "I put the pond in the corner—we already had the kittens by then, and Kuro almost got caught under it when I was trying to put it down—then started filling pots with seeds, and this ended up being the result. It all grew to this in three days."
"Wow," the older blond smiled, gaze wryly amused before he turned serious again. "How did you end up thinking you had lost me, that I was effectively better off with Rufus?"
Shaking his head, the younger answered, "You were so different. I mean, some things were the same, but...it was already a thought in my mind that I'd lost my brother. The...thing with Rufus just made that worse. It wasn't actually a new thought—that just pushed me the rest of the way over an edge I was already dangling over. In a way, I guess I was looking for an excuse to..."
"Throw a pity party?" Eden asked, expression a mix between amused and sad.
Al blinked at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, then flushed red. "Pity party...Really?"
"Isn't that what you did? Tried to make yourself into a victim when you weren't one?" the older blond asked dryly.
After a short silence, Al sighed and admitted, "Yeah, I guess there's truth to that, too. All this time, I had just wanted the brother I'd always known back, and I didn't take it well...to see how much you'd changed. I kept wanting the old you back and kept denying all the things clearly showing that person was gone." He paused, then looked up at his brother again to say, "I finally got over that. I think I can really start moving forward now...but I also think I sort of needed Rufus to give me that push."
Ed crossed his arms over his chest for a minute as he thought about what Al was saying, but then he gave the younger blond a small smile and asked, "So, does that mean you and Rufus have decided it's okay to be 'brothers', too?"
The words produced a startled blink, then Al huffed a small chuckle and said, "I guess so, in a way. But why are you asking that?"
"Rufus is—selfish and possessive," the Turk replied. "He's getting better, but he still gets easily jealous over things and people he sees as 'his'. If he really encouraged you to mend our relationship, he's accepted that it's okay to have you in his life—which means you're 'his', too, now."
The younger blond blinked in surprise, then gave a faint smile. "I guess our afternoon of sparring and talking helped him decide that was okay."
"Probably," Eden agreed. "So if you're here, where's everyone else?"
"Still in class. My teacher canceled class, though, and it was my last one of the day, so I got to head home early," Al explained.
"I see," the older blond nodded.
"So...is Libby's data storage useful?" Al asked curiously, getting up to open the fridge and pull out a container of something which looked like a kind of fruit juice.
As Al was pouring it into glasses, Eden answered, "I think so. It's been pretty useful so far, anyway, even though I've only had one chance to retrieve the data, not just have her make a record of it. I'm a little surprised your kittens are taking her scent well, though, because she smells like Blood Taste and large cat."
"Large cat?" Al asked in mild confusion, pushing one glass over to Ed. "Give that a try and tell me if you like it."
With one hand, Eden pulled out his phone and began looking through it, and with the other, he—carefully—picked up the glass to take a sip. It was good, so he said, "This is fine, thanks." Al grinned and put the jug away, and when he turned back to the older blond, Eden held up his PHS with a photo of the two Motos on it. "Those two are Nanaki and Deneh, apparently the only two left of their race. They have perpetually burning tail tips, sentience, and much longer life spans than ours, so even though they're only technically thirteen now, they've been alive for over forty of our years. Libby's been riding on them and on Dark Nation in the last week and a half or so."
"Oh. They look really cool, like a mountain lion that got crossed just a bit with a wolf. Will I get to meet them sometime?" Al asked, gazing at them with real interest.
"Maybe. I hope so," Eden nodded. "So, what—"
A sudden, strange mix of yowls, yelps, splashes, and squeaky meows made them both look over at the pond in surprise—then Al sighed and shook his head. "Sooner or later, they'll learn not to try landing on that one," he muttered.
On the ledge of the pond, a soaked, black kitten dragged itself out of the water as it tried to shake itself off, and not far above it hung a pitcher plant. In the mouth of the pitcher plant, the calico was dangling half in and half out of it, the tail and hind legs on the outside and thrashing as it tried to figure out how to get free. Libby hopped up onto the end table beside the pitcher plant, and as the boys watched, she reached out and carefully lifted the kitten out of the pitcher plant and set it on the table beside her. It meowed at her, then shook itself and jumped to the floor, stumbled, and caught itself before climbing onto the ledge of the pond to get a drink. Libby then watched in fascination as the pitcher plant's 'lid' closed.
"...Libby is really smart, isn't she?" Al asked with a blink.
"She is," Eden agreed dryly. "She was made for me. Could she have been anything but and still been something I could happily spend a great deal of time with?"
The younger blond chuckled, then looked at the black kitten with a sigh—it was still trying to dry off, alternating shaking itself and licking its fur. "I'm really glad I put plastic down under the towels, though, or those two would have caused the floor to rot by now with how many times they've tried to land on the pitcher's lid and ended up in the pool instead."
"How long have they had to get used to those pitcher plants?"
"...About a day and a half? Around that, I think. I know, that's not much time for Kuro and Esper to get used to not jumping on what looks like a stable surface to them, but until they learn, the floor is..."
Both eyed the soaked towels around the pond as the two kittens sprinted out of the room and down the hall, Kuro apparently satisfied with how dry—or not—he was.
"Esper?" Eden asked with a raised brow.
"I was thinking of Esprit because she actually has more energy than Kuro and nothing keeps her down for even two seconds, but when Shelke tried saying it and it came out sounding like 'Esper', she responded to it, so—we called her Esper. Anthony named Kuro—apparently, 'Kuro' is Wutain for 'black'?"
"It is," Eden agreed, even as both kittens bolted around the corner, ran into Al's legs, fell on their asses, and sat there looking up at him as they meowed questioningly.
"See, they know their names," Al snickered, reaching down to scoop them both up with a hand around their middles. He pulled them up to his chest and cuddled them for a few moments, causing both to purr quite happily, then set them back down. They quickly ran off to play some more.
