118 - Perfect Imperfections
The view coming into Resembool station was something people put on postcards. Rolling green hills and dense pockets of lush greenery throughout the peaks and valleys, barns and houses scattered here and there, all of it capped by a picturesque blue sky streaked with a few thin, white clouds. It was the visual definition of the middle of nowhere.
Smack dab in the middle of that nowhere, Resembool station was easy to spot once the train had rounded the valley bend. The locomotive chugged through the hills, eager to drop off more passengers than ever before at this remote station.
All of the occupants lurched as the breaks began to slow the train for arrival.
Izumi steadied herself and got to her feet, "Grab your things, we don't want to hold anyone up, we're late enough."
Al climbed up on a booth seat to collect his bag from the overhead rack, but it was going to be a lot more cumbersome to get it down than it was to put it up with just one useful arm. Scanning the train car filled with no one other than the people in their party, Al hopped down and made his way over to the quiet, solitary booth his brother had sequestered himself away in.
Ed's chin was in his hand, his elbow propped up by the window's ledge, his forehead resting against the wooden wall, and his eyes were lost beyond the window.
No, Al corrected himself, his brother wasn't lost in the scenery, he was completely found.
"Brother?"
Ed brought himself back inside, "Hm?"
Al cleared his throat and gave him ample reason to get mobile, "Can you help me get our bag down, I have one arm and I'm too short."
By the time the squeal of the breaks had chased all the wildlife away, everyone was ready and waiting by the door. One final lurch brought motion to a halt and the piercing whistle gave them all the freedom to disembark.
Izumi's sandals clapped first on the wooden platform as she stretched under the afternoon sun. Winry hopped off next, her tool case slung over her shoulder precisely as she'd left with it. Rose followed and her son made a valiant attempt at escaping his mother's arms once the freedom of the outdoors was clearly theirs. Al hopped out after her, squatting down to entertain the fussy child. Ed was the last one to exit the train, carrying the bag containing the things he, Al, and Winry were returning with over his shoulder.
"That's the lot of ya?" the station's attendant called.
"That's everyone," Ed answered.
"Cheers, folks!"
Raising a hand bell high above his head, the chime rang in the air and the locomotive roared back to life – Resembool was only a small blip on the continuing adventure. Thick plumes of smoke billowed from the coal filled snout, and the gears, joints, and chains connecting each car rattled as the wheels rolled forwards. It rumbled out of the station with as much haste as it arrived, though not without a wave from the attendant in the caboose to the little one thoroughly excited to see it chug away.
Six people, a patchwork family, stood at Resembool station beneath the quiet mid-day sun as the soundtrack that defined country life resumed playing.
"Oh! I think we got it!"
Rose's squeal brought her little bundle of life to everyone's attention. Down on her knees, arms outstretched, Rose held her breath watching Al gingerly guided her son by his hands as he patted his feet off the noisy platform boards. His soft joints wiggled, his bundled backside swung back and forth, and Al directed him towards his mother as two pendulum legs struggled to get coordinated enough to move him forwards. Al pulled his hands away, Rose reached out, and her growing boy got one step closer on his own and promptly landed on his padded backside.
Everyone laughed along with the littlest one as Rose scooped him back up.
"Almost got it," she amended.
"So close," Al slipped his sore left arm back into the sling around his neck.
Izumi teased a foreboding warning, "Be careful with that. The moment he's up on two legs you'll never get him back down."
"So I've heard," Rose's laugh was playfully nervous while struggling with a little one desperately trying to wiggle away from her.
The station bell announced the arrival of three o'clock with a chipper chime.
Stepping to the edge of the platform, Al looked out into the Resembool hillsides, the train itself lost from sight, but the telltale smoke still visible above the treetops. The sun teetered on its highest perch overhead, a light wind blew through the greenery to make nature sound alive, and the birds had returned to the station's eavestroughs to fill out the regular ambience that settled in after the train's departure.
Alphonse's grin stretched his lips, tugging the corners over to his ears – it was a perfect day for a walk.
"Let's get going," Izumi ushered everyone into motion.
The procession took its first strides towards home, but as excited as he was for it, Al lingered behind. He remained on the wooden platform listening to the crowd put distance between them, hearing their footsteps lose their clarity.
Al looked at his brother.
Ed stood on the platform with him, his toes placed right at the edge of the wooden lip above the tracks, yet again staring off into the Resembool distance. The sun rained down on him like a hot shower at the end of an exhausting day. Studying the distant, wistful expression he wore, Al was fairly certain his brother's thoughts were using the scenery as the backdrop of whatever was playing in his head.
Al had noticed his brother had come down with this wistfulness during the train ride – after the giddy excitement of their initial boarding had subsided, Ed had settled into a content place while he let his thoughts wander out the window. It was probably the most unlike him behaviour that Al could say he'd witnessed from his brother since getting home, yet there wasn't anything about it that told him to worry. He seemed perfectly content doing it.
"Come on, slow poke. Everyone's leaving without you."
Ed blinked slowly, quietly putting a few pieces of himself together, "Sorry, Al."
"Did you want to hang out in the hills sometime?" Al flashed his free hand to the landscape beyond the tracks and threw the arm wide, "just soaking it all up?"
"That sounds great," a smile dug into Ed's face and quickly carved out a wide grin, "we're gonna get eaten alive out there."
A curious little thought tickled Al's mind, "You know, that doesn't sound like a fair deal for you or the bugs."
The statement completely stumped Ed, "Yeah, how's that?"
Al tipped his head one way, "Well, the bug bites you and you get an annoying, itchy bump for a few days," then tipped it the other, "the bug gets a belly full of blood for a few minutes but then dies of starvation sometime later," and finally nodded his conclusion, "you really end up itchy for no good reason."
Ed snorted his laugh, "I'm just here to upset the ecosystem."
Al tucked his index finger thoughtfully under his chin, "Maybe we should keep you indoors."
Ed made an attempt at swatting his brother over the back of his head, but Al had already spun away.
The platform boards creaked with every dancing step Al took, "Do you want to stay here for a bit and enjoy the atmosphere?"
Ed's aggressively aghast look questioned the sanity between Al's ears. "Hell no."
Like the sun had started recharging him, an old, familiar spark flared in both his eyes and Al watched his brother come alive. He'd missed this person. Until these little bits and pieces of him resurfaced, Al hadn't realized they had been so slow to follow Ed home. The vibrancy, the tenacity, the drive, the joy, the life flooded into his brother.
"We're going home together!"
For a moment, Al thought he could fly.
Spurring each other on without a single word, Ed and Al launched into runs. Without wings, legs were the next best thing to feeling the wind. The soft soles beneath Al's feet thumped off the wood and the distinct sound of Ed's polished shoes clapped with each racing stride they made. Coming around the station house, Al scrambled to stay ahead and reach the stairs before his brother, but the sound of Ed's pursuit vanished when he jumped off the station's front deck and landed in the untamed grass.
"What are you two doing?" Izumi barked as one Elric flew by her and another was tearing his own path through the grass towards stable footing.
"I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU," Al announced for the entire countryside to hear.
"MY LEGS ARE LONGER," Ed yelled like it guaranteed him victory.
"YOU BOTH SUCK," Winry screamed, "I CAN'T RUN."
"I can't either," Rose bounced her son on her hip.
"Those two…" Izumi shook her head.
Two brothers who'd taken different routes converged on a single path in the wide open spaces of the middle of nowhere, racing against only each other to see who would be the first to make it home.
Locking one hand on her hip, Pinako adjusted her glasses and looked up.
Ed shifted his weight.
Taking a long, slow drag from her pipe, Pinako stared at him.
Ed squared himself evenly over both feet.
Pinako took the pipe out of her mouth and exhaled the smoke in a thin, calculated stream.
Ed waited.
"No, send him back."
"What the hell, Granny," Ed drooped.
Pinako put the stem of her pipe to her lips, "No one around here has any use for a bean pole."
Ed squawked like a wounded bird and threw his head back in dismay as everyone around him laughed.
Unwilling to hold her poker face any longer, Pinako chuckled, "Welcome back, Ed."
"Thank you." Ed straightened himself out somewhat respectably.
Moving from one Elric brother to the next, Pinako's already wrinkled brow creased further, "I hear that arm's covered in stitches."
"Yeah," Al looked down at the limb resting in a fabric cradle, "Wrath chewed on it."
Pinako's lip curled in disgust, "Might as well have been gnawed on by a rabid dog. I'll have a look at it later tonight, see where we're at with it. I'll take out any stitches you don't need anymore."
Al bowed his head sheepishly, "Thanks, Granny."
Pinako's next turn brought her to Winry.
There had been a couple times over the last few days where Winry had tried to practice explaining what had happened to her. It was almost like she was preparing a speech to present to her grandmother and she still didn't like anything she'd composed. There hadn't been an opportunity to get into the details over the phone, since everyone had asked her to be as discreet as possible about events, so all Pinako knew was that her granddaughter was really, really sorry about something they'd talk about 'later'. And unless someone brought it up, the jeans she wore delayed having a conversation about the leg she was gingerly walking on until then too. Winry felt like every breath she took was part of some great big secret she was keeping and she couldn't wait to get it off her chest.
But it wasn't going to happen just yet, because Winry was going to turn into a blithering mess if she even tried to explain herself right now. Pinako would have to find out 'later' what all the motivation really was behind the tight hug Winry had dropped to her knees to give her.
Pinako hugged her tightly in return and rubbed her granddaughter's back, "You're grounded."
"What?"
"Indefinitely."
Winry blinked and leaned back, "I'm what?"
Pinako's brow flattened, delivering her sentence as Winry stood on her knees, "I don't know what kind of shenanigans you got up to in Central that sent military officers out here to scare the shit out of me, but I don't care. You're not crossing the property line again until I'm damn good and ready to let you."
What nightmares had her grandmother been sent to bed with this whole time? Winry was left to wonder. Dante knew what was going on and she let the chickens run around with their heads cut off anyways. They ran all the way out to Resembool. Winry felt awful. The truth was absolutely nothing like anyone could possibly imagine, but at least Winry would be the one delivering closure.
She washed her hands over her face and accepted her sentence without protest, "I'm so sorry Granny."
Pinako's brow eased, "We'll talk about it later."
The squawk of Rose's son as he wiggled his way free from his mother's arms diffused the unspoken tension.
"Uh oh," Pinako grinned with amusement, "do we have a walker, now?"
Rose laughed, letting him hold onto her fingers while his feet patted off the dirt, "He's trying. He really liked the noise on the station platform."
Pinako pointed her pipe to the second floor of her house, "He can play around on the balcony to his heart's content. It's been ages since there's been little ones stomping around on that."
"Well, everyone upstairs!" Izumi raised her voice to wrangle the herd, "Pinako's a busy woman! We'll get ourselves sorted so she can finish her day's work in peace."
Winry looked up to the second floor of her house where a long-lost bed encased in four familiar walls and a sunrise facing window awaited her. Excitement was on the verge of tearing her apart – she wanted to scream and dance on her floor and then curl up under her sheets to cry when she was done. Winry got to her feet and arrived at the bottom step of her porch to discover her triumphant return was stalled behind a clog of humanity in the doorway.
Waiting just ahead of her, Al glanced back to the front yard. Winry followed his gaze and found Ed lingering behind all of them, once again standing in silence and staring off into the landscape.
He'd been doing that since they'd boarded their first train. On most occasions a pensive, quiet Ed would give anyone a reason to worry, but it didn't strike fear into her heart today. It was doubtful that anyone could really understand what he was feeling right now and she was certain he didn't have the words to explain it.
"Good view?" she called.
He nodded, "Yup."
Winry smiled, "Miss it?"
Ed hooked his thumbs into the belt loops of his slacks and turned towards the house, "Yup."
Winry quickly glanced into the vacated entryway full of discarded shoes and returned to chirp at him, "You're going to have to start running through these fields more often so you can keep up with Al."
Ed scowled and sulked towards the door.
The childish sight made her laugh and Winry climbed the porch steps.
"Hold up."
Ed's shoes suddenly clapped off the wooden boards behind her.
Barely able to turn around in time, Winry was blindsided by Ed when he barged right into her. He secured his arms around her waist and hoisted her off her feet as she shrieked in surprise.
"What are you doing!?"
"Hang on!"
Ed carried Winry the final steps forwards and deposited her on two feet inside the threshold of the front door.
"Got you home."
The arms Winry had used to hang on to Ed's shoulders wrapped around his neck and she buried her face in the collar of his shirt. A space previously reserved for her tears now absorbed her laughter.
"You're an idiot."
Winry was so happy for him; the strength of her arms wasn't enough to convey that, but dammit she'd try. To simply say 'I'm happy for you' was completely inadequate. Winry knew what he looked like when he was at his lowest; she'd seen that person, she'd been there with him. The world around Ed had tried so hard to let him experience all kinds of lows, and then it created more just to see if his breaking point was within reach. Even if he had accepted it all, if he was okay with how things were at the end of the day, Winry would tear him down and put him back together again if it would convince him that he hadn't deserved any of it.
Edward Elric deserved this.
This brother he loved in flesh and blood. This entire family on the floor above. This home he longed for. This vibrant countryside all around him. He deserved the accolades of an alchemist he could no longer be and have the gaggle of golden-eyed children he could no longer conceive. He deserved to be forgiven for the past that altered him. He deserved to be released from the guilt that shaped him. He deserved to love and be loved by everything he fought to protect, free of guilt and shame, in the future still to come.
Winry shifted her weight, leaning inside, "Come in."
Ed stepped over the lip of the door as she dragged him into the house.
Stepping back, feeling the embrace she'd been wrapped in fall away, Winry looked at what had finally arrived. Ed was a familiar mess that she knew her way around. The golden walls in his eyes were not the fortresses they used to be. A few warm lights had come on inside. The hair hanging in his face was just a ragged old curtain to a window that could be opened.
Winry popped up onto her toes, used her nose to move the curtain aside, and kissed Ed on the cheek. She held it for a breath neither of them took and then retreated to the flats of her feet.
"Welcome home."
A red-faced statue stood planted in the doorway, eyes opened wider than they had been in some time. There was something to be said for how much younger Ed looked when his face wasn't strained and tight. When all of his usual burdens were thoroughly distracted. The entertaining visual only lasted until Winry realized her own cheeks were a little too warm for her liking and she left Ed to mind those distractions on his own.
"The house is pretty full, so you'll get whatever room Al picks!"
Winry didn't hear if he responded as she climbed the stairs to the sanctuary of her bedroom, but she did listen for, and hear, the sound the front door made when Ed eventually closed it behind them.
A fresh morning sun peeked over the Resembool hills. It crawled through the grass like orange dye seeping through the seams, overpowering the blue hues the moon had awarded the fields. The fringes glowing on the bright side of the green blades tricked the eye into thinking the shadows had become darker.
Idle without wind, the leaves in the trees appeared to stretch towards the light.
Birds chirped merrily along, picking away at the free buffet in the dirt.
The smell of dew seeped into the air as the day began to warm.
Ed walked in this Resembool sunrise.
He walked a familiar path, one that he'd taken countless times in his daydreams over the years. Far more than he had in real life.
The morning stroll took him down a dirt path for thirty minutes or so, eventually setting him free in a field of ankle-high grass. Ed waded through it, listening to the crisp sound of the fresh earth beneath his feet, wondering if the sun would be warm enough to dry his slacks by the time he got back to the house.
Ed stopped in the field.
He listened to the birds around him unbothered by their human visitor. He felt the strength of the sun's rays powering over the horizon. He smelled the country morning take shape all around him. He tasted the freshness of the air. He saw the unchanging visual all around him in a field filled with headstones.
Ed stood at the foot of his mother's grave.
"I'm home."
The morning birds serenaded him.
At least one hundred different times before he could finally do it in person, Ed had arrived at his mother's grave and told her the story of what happened, or what was in the process of happening. He didn't feel the need to do it again.
A nervous glance at a place of rest he'd once defiled showed him that someone had smoothed away his crimes. The earth covering Trisha was as even as everything else around it.
Ed dipped his hand into his pocket, waded through the grass, and put the silver watch his father had given him on his mother's headstone.
"Dad's gone. This is the only thing left of him." He stared at the familiar emblem on the watch. "He got it for me on my second Christmas while I was moping around. To give me motivation." He picked his eyes up and put them in the leaves of the lone tree someone had planted in this field long before he was born. "To make sure I didn't forget who I was or where I came from."
Filling his lungs with the crisp air, Ed's fingers wrapped around a wooden handle sticking out of his pocket. He gripped the wood, felt it in his knowing hand, and decided to leave it be for the moment. He reached down and put his hand in the damp grass instead. Ed sat down, crossing his legs in front of Trisha's headstone.
"I guess he thought it was something I was proud of. He wasn't entirely wrong about that, at one point it was."
Ed put his forearms down on his knees and leaned into his shoulders. Something in the grass had caught the interest of the birds and they chattered excitedly about it. Ed listened to them, wondering what story it was they were telling.
"Dad passed away a few months back, something from his past caught up with him."
The tips of his fingers swept through the wet grass, a knot tightening in his chest.
"I had to organize his funeral. I had to talk at his funeral," Ed choked on a disparaging laugh, "I don't even remember half of what happened that week. I blocked it out somehow."
A flock of tiny sparrows hiding in the leaves decided it was time to exit the tree. Their exodus rustled the branches like a child gleefully crushing foil paper, their chirps adding to the rambunctious eruption of morning noise. Dozens upon dozens of tiny round bodies fled into the sky.
"I hate what I can remember about it."
Ed didn't pick his head up to watch the scene. His hands thoughtlessly raked through the grass.
"I can still remember the week you passed away. I remember your funeral."
The stillness that washed the land as the flock faded was far more potent in silence than the birds had achieved with noise.
"I didn't know what you had arranged for us before you passed away. All the complicated things that need to get done when someone dies. You knew it was coming, so you got everything together to make sure it wouldn't burden us."
Thick air struggled to get through twisted lungs.
"You had it all laid out. You took so much care. And you did it on your own. For yourself. For us. You planned your own funeral."
Ed tried to focus on the dew that coated his hands.
"Dad died all of a sudden and I had to figure it out on my own. I dealt with suits who talked about wills and assets and inheritance and costs and all kinds of shit I'd never heard of before. I signed papers for a deed to a house I didn't want."
He lost them in the water.
"You left us a house I did want and I burnt it down."
Trisha held up her eldest son, his golden crown pressed against the permanently etched record of the life she'd lived, offering an ear to the agony of lessons in life learned the hard way.
The morning sun slipped free of the hills and tree tops that grasped it. The redish-orange rays softened to a yellow light to blanket the fields and brighten the blue sky overhead. As low in the sky as it was, the sun ensured the land was reminded of its power. For a handful of minutes a thin, white fog developed in the valley as far as the eye could see. The squirrels chittered and the birds continued to flock, entirely unfazed by the daily process of dew evaporating as the sun cooked it away.
"When dad left, I guess I'd thought it had something to do with him not loving you anymore. It didn't make sense any other way. I mean, why would he leave someone like you, you were perfect."
The broken family name they all shared was carved in stone in front of him.
"And you didn't deserve to fall in love with someone who wouldn't be there to love you back. You didn't deserve to feel abandoned and alone. Screw him for all the shit he must have made you feel, how he left you to raise two kids on your own, and how he wasn't there when you needed him."
Ed picked his head up and peered over the headstone, escaping into the stretch of field beyond the grave.
"I still don't understand him or the kind of guilt he had, but dad loved you. Whatever the hell was going through his head that walked him out the door, he still loved you after he did it."
The ridges of the watch lid picked up the morning light, rims glowing just as silver should.
"I don't understand how that works, but I suppose I'm glad it does and I hope you knew that," he smoothed his hands over his knees, "you were always loved."
The sun's march into the sky continued to banish what remained of the night's influence. The long shadows hundreds of headstones cast on the grass continued to be whittled away by warm light. Morning was weaving its influence in, preparing the land for the mid-day later to come.
"Al hasn't had a chance to come by yet, huh?"
Ed slowly wrung his hands, testing the grip of the one he couldn't feel with the help of the other.
"He's different all over again. But this is it, we're not screwing around anymore, I promise."
Lacing his fingers together, Ed re-settled his forearms over his knees and eased back into his shoulders.
"Al's bubbling with all kinds of energy, I think he's tapped into an endless supply of it. I don't know if he'll survive the fall cooped up out here. He's going to be vibrating by the middle of winter," Ed chuckled, "Al's got himself all put together, mom. He's thoughtful, imaginative, adventurous, ambitious, determined, and the good kind of stubborn."
One of the sparrows harvesting worms popped up on Trisha's headstone.
"He's gotten a lot more assertive than he used to be. Forthright, I guess. He's got this voice that he's been using, and he's using it on me," Ed sounded playfully offended, "I kinda deserved it, though."
He waved the bird away when it picked at one of the links of the watch's chain.
"My little brother's not so little anymore," his smile curled, chuckling to himself, "I'm taller than him, though - a lot taller. I like it, it's great. I hope his growth spurt shows up as late as mine did."
Reaching out for the chain, Ed tugged the watch off the headstone and let it land in his hands.
"Al's brilliant, mom," he set the watch down in the grass at his side, "you'd be proud of him."
Ed wrapped his hand around the wooden handle poking out of his pocket and a small garden trowel was taken out. He turned it around in his fingers a few times, before securing a firm grip. In the grass at the base of his mother's headstone, Ed sunk the blade into the earth. Embedding it carefully again and again, eventually a circle was carved. The blade was driven beneath the circle and a layer of grass and dirt was carefully lifted away. Ed set it down with the trowel and he reached into the earth to claw out a single handful of dirt.
He picked up the silver watch with his clean hand.
Like it was a habit he couldn't break, his thumb popped the lid open, flashing the sunrise in Ed's eyes. Inside the silver case, the broken glass shards that once protected the hands of time had been thrown away. The watch face looked at him, framed by the jagged glass ridges glowing in the morning light.
Edward stared at it.
The hands of time had stopped.
More than a month had passed since he last wound it.
Ed shut the lid and put the watch into the earth. Dirt fell from his other hand, sprinkling atop the silver case until it could no longer be seen. He threw the rest of it away, scattering it in the field. The grassy cap was pressed neatly back into place.
Uncoiling his limbs, Ed climbed back to his feet and peeled the damp fabric off his backside. He shook out his slacks, adjusted his ponytail, and straightened himself out.
"Al and I still have the land you left us, we'll put it to good use. A new house or something," Ed brushed a few bits of dirt from the corners of her headstone, "Miss you. Love you."
Departing the Resembool graveyard, Ed traversed the ankle-high grass of a field alive with bird song, heading through the countryside on a path that would lead him back home.
Al climbed the hill that marked the farthest reaches of the Rockbell's property like it was a hike, walking stick in one hand and his shoes and socks tucked into the sling around his neck. His arm wasn't using it right now anyways.
Today, he wanted to feel the grass between his toes. Today, Al wanted to sense the earth beneath him. Today he wanted to soak up his connection to the world through his feet.
The sensation of touch was far louder to him than the constant clatter of the suit of armour had ever been in anyone's ears. It wasn't a measurable sound, but no matter how quietly he could move now, Al was acutely aware of the earth beneath his feet like the volume had been cranked up. He'd been starved of this connection to everything and now he constantly craved it. Clothes felt good. Sheets felt good. The sun felt good. And the grass felt good. He'd roll around naked in the grass if he didn't think anyone would catch him doing it.
… unless he snuck out after midnight.
For now, he would have to be content with his naked feet and walking around long enough that he'd burn off yesterday's dinner.
The Rockbell's hill was low compared to some of the others the neighbours had, but it stretched out far enough to swoop down into the Resembool valley behind it.
Near the apex of the hill's curving peak, Al leaned over his brother, casting a shadow over his face. Ed lay on his back, his eyes closed, hair untied, spread out like a starfish in the late-season grass. This was exactly what Al wanted to do and he was ridiculously jealous his brother beat him to it.
"Are you asleep?" Al lay the walking stick down in the grass.
"Mrph."
He sat down at his brother's side, "Is it as good as you remember it?"
"Mmm."
Al looked out at the scenery around them, the busy world that had once captured them seemingly at a complete stop, "Have you damaged the ecosystem yet?"
"Shut up," Ed mumbled.
It wasn't a hard request to oblige.
Al flopped down on his stomach and put his face in the grass. Right, this was what grass smelled like – he'd forgotten. Al smiled against the earth. A lot of the forgotten sensations that he had been craving weren't things that the lost version of himself had known to seek out. Answers lay in that boy's memories, but not sensations; he'd never had a reason to put his face to the earth and take note about what it smelled like. He'd never gone to lie in a field and seriously thought about what it felt like to have the sun beat down on his back. He never appreciated the crispness of his clothes or the softness of his pajamas. Taking some time to unwind at home was a wise choice for the both of them. It was so much harder to appreciate these smaller things when they'd been so busy.
Last night and this morning felt surreal. Al actually didn't realize how strange it felt to not have 'something' hanging over their heads. They had a rambunctious dinner outback as a family. They sat around the fire pit well past sundown. They went to bed without anything to do 'tomorrow' and instead of using that freedom to sleep, Ed and Al chatted the night away in their room, talking about absolutely nothing. Al had a feeling his brother was having the same reservations about going to sleep as he did – would this all be here when they wake up again?
It was! And it came with breakfast Izumi had cooked for everyone! Now there was this lovely day. It didn't quite seem real. Yet throughout the morning and into this midday Al couldn't shake the anxious feeling nagging him, like there was something he was forgetting to do, or that he should go out and do. He wondered how long it would take for his mind to calm down after all the endless activity they'd endured.
Craning his head back and digging his chin into the ground, Al looked down the slope and spied the house in the distance.
"You wanna roll down the hill?" it was the first thought that came to mind.
"'Kay."
Ed came alive in a swift motion, propelling his body around lengthwise across the hill's slope, and he was on his way like a rolling pin through the grass.
"I DIDN'T SAY GO!" Al screamed from his hands and knees.
Unhooking the sling from around his neck, Al pitched his bundle of shoes down the hill at his rolling brother. Throwing his body over his shoulder for momentum, Al tumbled head over heels a few times before managing to straighten himself out. He rolled down the hill and collided with Ed where the slope flattened out. Both brothers lay in the field, covered in grass and earthly stains, and laughed.
But also 'ow'; Al had momentarily forgotten he had a damaged left arm and it angrily reminded him of its wounded state.
"Alphonse!"
The distant sound of Al's name being called filtered in.
" E!"
"Winry?" climbing up onto his knees, Al brought both hands over his eyes and squinted at the house, "W H A T!?"
" E!"
"Telephone!?" Al's hands dropped away.
"Who'd you give the house number out to?" Ed shook his head, trying to get the grass out of his hair.
Al could only shrug and he rose to his feet, "The brigadier general has the number. And maybe Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong? Russell and Fletcher too, I think."
Intrigue brought Ed up as well and he followed Al on his trek back to the house, "You know, Mustang's not a brigadier general anymore, he's just Mustang."
"Special Agent Mustang," Al corrected.
Ed adjusted the title, "Consultant Mustang."
"I'm pretty sure he said it was Special Agent."
"In his dreams, maybe. He's a consultant."
The debate over how to address Mustang persisted all the way to the house where Winry waited to provide a change in topics.
"Who's calling for me?" Al asked.
She popped a hip out, "A girl."
Ed's brow shot up high, "You got a girl calling you?"
"She sounds super cute," Winry sang.
"Al…" Ed leaned a lecherous grin in on his brother.
Al started to blush and scampered up the front steps, "I don't remember giving the house number to any girls."
"Well, don't tell her that," was Winry's advice as she let Al pass, "where are your shoes? And your sling thing?"
"In the field."
Winry sighed as Al made a quick attempt at wiping his feet on the mat before continuing to track dirt inside like he was Den.
Picking up the telephone receiver sitting on the table, Al watched Winry swoop in and pretend to make herself look busy, but sighed when Ed merrily sat down at the table and put his chin in his hand to listen in.
Al rolled his eyes at the both of them and put the receiver to his ear, "Hello?"
"Al!"
A light went on in Al's eyes, "Elysia!"
Ed's hand slapped the table and he cackled.
"Winry said you were rolling down a grassy hill! Was it fun?" the tiny, chipper voice on the other end asked.
Al stuck his tongue out at Winry giggling behind his brother, "Yes, it was fun."
"Were you careful of the thistle bushes? I rolled down a hill at our country home and got prickles."
"Well, that's no good," Al put his shoulder against the wall, "did your mom help you get them out?"
"Yes, she did."
"Are you back in your city home, now?" Al asked.
"Yes, I am!" excitement flooded Elysia's voice, "I missed my toys and my bed a whole lot."
"I'm sure they missed you too," Al couldn't help but marvel at the blissful relief the phone call came with. The last few pieces were falling back in place, "Is your mom with you?"
"Yes!"
"May I talk to her?"
Elysia's voice drifted away from the receiver, "Mummy, Al wants to talk to you."
The lost little boy who'd lived an alternate adventure, who'd been sleeping in Al's heart, unexpectedly woke up. There was no reason for him to feel nervous about talking to Mrs. Hughes, yet that was the predominant emotion he felt. The old anxieties butted heads with his bubbling excitement over getting to talk to her again.
"Hello?"
"Mrs. Hughes!" Al pitched his voice so sharply that it cracked.
"Al!" Gracia's voice was soft and smooth, "it's so good to hear you again."
Again.
It felt kind of like the first time in some ways. Only incomplete versions had ever been through the Hughes' household and now Al felt like an entirely new person compared to when the journey started. His old nerves were easily put to bed, because this was the Alphonse Elric who should be talking to Gracia Hughes. This was who he was and Al wanted to show off this completed version of himself to absolutely everyone who'd met him along the way.
Well, as 'complete' as he could claim to be before mother nature had her say.
A simple conversation unfolded with a wonderful woman that touched on everyone's wellbeing and the relief that brought them. Some of the things Al wanted to get off his chest, some of the story Gracia already knew parts of, were saved for another day. It didn't seem fair to go into too much detail over the phone. Some conversations were just better to have in person. Al preferred to have them in person. Al wanted the personal touch of interacting with the people he was talking to.
The phone was passed off to his brother for a bit, then transferred to Winry, and the call ended with a chorus of goodbyes that Ed, Winry, and Elysia joined in on. As the chime of the receiver settling on the cradle faded, Al folded his arms and pressed his back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling in thought.
"What?" Winry asked the obviously thinking Elric.
Al's thoughts put a frown on his face and a hum in his voice, "I need to get that back to her."
"Get what back to who?" Ed asked.
Al shifted his eyes in the direction of his bedroom, "That photo I showed you from your birthday."
"Granny's got some document envelopes in her office," Winry tapped her finger off her chin, "I'm sure she won't mind if you used one to mail it back."
Sucking his lower lip into his teeth, the frown creasing his brow tightened. Al wrung his hands together uncomfortably, feeling his own anxious tension rise as parts of his family watched him squirm. Nervous excitement and untamed energy distorted his posture and Al looked at his brother, prying his grit teeth apart to voice what he really wanted to do.
One Week Later
"Are you two sure?" Al asked for the hundredth time.
"Yes!" Ed and Rose cried yet again.
Rubbing the back of his head, Al pulled his hand around and washed it over his mouth. He looked at the crowd staring at him, "I don't need an escort, though."
Izumi scowled, "Tough."
Al withered, "We just got back…"
Ed threw his hands in the air, "This was your idea, Al!"
"I know I know I know, but I'm thinking about you!" he protested with a kind of a half plea half whine that his young voice amplified.
"Don't worry about me!" Ed growled, "don't hold yourself back on my account. I'll be fine. I got nothing else to do. I can play uncle for a few weeks, it's not a problem."
"We won't be gone a few weeks," Al flashed his hands around, "I'm sure we can get this done in two weeks, tops!"
Ed rolled his eyes, unconvinced of the claim.
Rose put a hand on Al's shoulder, "Don't stress yourself out too much about the time frame, Al. We don't know what kind of hurdles we'll run into with transport."
Widening his eyes, dressing himself in the most emphatic puppy dog ones he could muster, Al looked pleadingly at Rose, "You really don't need to escort me to Central."
"Yes, she does!" the crowd on the train platform overruled the young Elric.
Rose smiled, "Yes, I do. Your arm's still healing and honestly I don't mind. It's an equivalent exchange, right? I escort you through Central, you escort me through Lior on the way back, and we both come home here together. Everything's fine, and besides…"
Al eyed the playful tease that entered Rose's smile.
"We have a dinner date to keep."
"You're gonna need one of those index card holders for all these girls in your life, Al," Ed quipped.
Al nearly melted through the platform boards, "Brother…"
Rose giggled and Izumi swatted Ed over the back of the head on behalf of his brother.
Whatever chill was left in Al's cold feet was forced to find a way to get warm on its own when Izumi put an end to his fuss by handing the boy his train ticket, "It's been paid for."
If Al had puppy ears to go along with his eyes, they would have drooped. "Fine," he begrudgingly took the paper slip and peeked over his shoulder at the open door to the train car waiting behind him, "as long as everyone's okay with it."
"Stop worrying about us and start thinking about what you want a little more," Ed folded his arms, "you want to see Mrs. Hughes and there's a lot you want to talk to her about, so go do that!"
It was a relief to hear that coming from his brother, but how many times was Ed going to have to repeat himself before Al stopped feeling like he needed to be fussy about everything? No one wanted to keep him grounded. Everyone was pushing him to take off. Maybe he was trying to find a reason, or someone would give him a reason, to play down how high and how far he really wanted to soar.
"Give yourself some leeway, but don't dawdle too much," Izumi outlined her only limitations for his trip, "I want you all out in Dublith at the end of September for the autumn festival."
Ed's arms untangled, "Oh shit, we've never done that."
"No, we haven't," Izumi put a hand on Ed's shoulder, "this might be the best year to make up for that."
Ed and Al nodded.
Izumi's brow promptly furrowed with a new concern, "I have a husband I haven't seen in months... what is the hold up with this train?"
The searching eyes of the Resembool party on the platform had the mystery quickly solved by the ornery station attendant marching towards them.
"Can one of you get the girl out of the engine!? We have a schedule to keep!"
Throwing his head towards the front of the train, Ed stormed down the platform, "WINRY! GET OUT OF THE BLOODY ENGINE!"
While his brother dealt with the clog in the motor, Al returned his attention to his teacher, "If you all are okay with us loosening up our travel time, would you like us to come down to Dublith with you for a few days?"
The offer softened Izumi's posture, "That's up to you," she looked at Rose, "and you."
"I don't mind," Rose's brow rose thoughtfully, "I've never seen Dublith before. But, I don't want to trouble Ed, Winry, and Pinako by staying away for too long."
"That's understandable." Izumi had opened her mouth to continue her sentiments, but was interrupted by the sound of the train roaring back to life.
The travellers on the platform looked at the two who would remain behind: Ed with a scowl on his face and hands drilled into his pockets, stomping along next to Winry in her overalls, mucked up with black soot and grease everywhere, but grinning ear to ear.
"Sorry!"
"No you're not," Al laughed at an apology too cheerful to be honest, "did you have fun?"
Winry dusted her hands off as she re-joined the crowd, "It was very educational! Best grounding reprieve ever, thanks Al."
Al skittered back when Winry reached out to hug him, "No, you're filthy! Don't get me dirty before I go."
Wrinkling her nose, Winry folded her arms instead, "Fine, Mr. Fussypants."
Ed's wicked sneer stretched from ear to ear, "Now who's the gross one."
The heel of Winry's boot crushed down on Ed's good toes and she sent him withering away.
The train whistle pierced the air, punching shoulders up to ears as listeners flinched. A deep, booming voice commanded 'all aboard!' to usher their passengers into their seats. Rose and Al headed in, but Izumi hesitated and turned back. She walked up to Ed.
Ed hooked his thumbs into the corners of his pockets, "Have a safe trip, Sensei."
Izumi sighed, shook her head, and stepped forwards to hug him, "Take care of yourself."
Caught off guard by the unprompted gesture, it took Ed a moment before he eased and hugged her back, "Same to you."
Izumi stepped back from Ed as Rose lifted a window and popped her head out into the sunshine.
"Thank you two so much for doing this."
"You're welcome!" Winry scampered up to her, "it's absolutely no problem."
"I hope he doesn't give you too much trouble," Rose apologized for the burden she was asking of them, "he's just figured out how to walk."
"Yeah and we'll have him running by the time you're back!" Ed grinned proudly.
The nerves in Rose's laugh were loud and clear, "Please don't."
Ed waved his hands to try and quell her worries, "Don't worry about anything, Rose. It's been a while since you've been home. Focus on that and enjoy it."
The tension in Rose's expression was eased by a sentiment Ed was most familiar with, "Same to you."
Al slumped out of the window next to her like a wet rag, "Brother."
"Don't you dare start bitching," Ed's brow flattened, "shut up, have a damn good time, and say 'hi' to Gracia for me."
Al stuck out his lower lip, "I will, I will, I will."
Ed folded his arms tightly, "And I'll be here for you when you get back."
The proclamation put an end to Al's bellyaching. They were safe, they were home, and they would be there for each other when they needed it – Al really didn't have to worry about him so much, did he?
Once again the train whistle sounded, not to be out done by the roaming station attendant ringing his own bell above his head, and the abrasive mess of noise put the train into motion. Izumi's return to Dublith commenced and Al and Rose's jaunt to Central and back again was launched.
Al hung out the window waving to his brother and Winry on the platform, masking his laugh when Izumi hooked her finger into the belt loop of his trousers, like she was afraid he'd fall out the window. Gaining speed in the countryside, the breeze lifted the hair from Alphonse's head. Al watched his brother and Winry fade in the distance, going from clear figures to familiar silhouettes to little blips in the distance.
From a misguided act of love, through a struggle to reclaim the physical parts of themselves they'd lost, to bridging an insurmountable gap in order to simply exist in one world together again, the goals the Elric brothers' had for each other changed with every new hurdle. In the end, what they had obtained was perfect imperfection.
All of these trees flying by were happy and healthy, but none of them could claim to be a perfect tree. Branches grew as the tree aged. Storms ripped them off. Time healed the wounds and allowed for new branches to sprout. Trees were resilient that way.
Ed dutifully carried around the baggage that dogged him, at peace with the imperfect state of his existence simply because he was able to have it. Al's immature body would forever remain out of sync with his mind, but he knew eventually he would reach an age where that wouldn't matter any longer. Ed had gifted Al his life, and in turn Al had salvaged Ed's, so if this was what 'regaining their bodies' had come to be, then these imperfections were fine. They were perfect. Both brothers recognized and understood what worse looked like, and they knew what it felt like to have their branches ripped off in a storm, so Al wouldn't change this for anything. Time would sort out the rest and new branches would begin to grow. The Elric brothers were resilient that way.
Reasons no longer existed to avoid the future; Al turned and looked in the direction they were headed. The immediate future consisted of two or three weeks of travelling without fear. Without the dread. Al had never experienced that before. He'd never gone anywhere for leisure. And Alphonse Elric had never, ever gotten on a train and gone anywhere knowing that his brother, of all people, would be at home waiting to hear all about it. Everything he would experience from here on out would be a new first.
Al leaned out the window a little farther, feeling Izumi's hold on his belt loop strengthen. He stuck his face in the wind, felt how it pulled the hair off his head, ran up his nose, and blew by his ears. Al closed his eyes and imagined flying felt something like this.
At some point Ed had stopped watching the train roll off into the countryside and began just admiring the view. There had been a few times where he had stood at a train station somewhere on continental Europe and could claim it had an aesthetically pleasing view. Technically the view was nice, except it looked like someone had washed a bucket of dirty water over the canvas. Nature was starved of its vibrancy and the world looked like it was on the verge of becoming a corpse. Ed didn't know when that sickly-grey visual had begun to look normal. He wanted to believe he could always see the difference no matter how much time had passed, that he could remember the warmth of home, that he hadn't become clouded too, but in reality that wasn't the case.
Time had dulled the memory and he could see that now. Every single window showed it to him. Every single day he could see it. He was looking at it right now. The countryside made it undeniably apparent and it was hard to take his eyes off of.
It was one of the many small, everyday things Ed had tried to delude himself about over there. He'd been thinking about that more and more lately. Maybe that's why he wasn't keen about taking time to reflect when Winry had told him to – he had a hunch about what he'd find. Maybe that's why it was so hard to stomach the changes that Al had unmasked – he hadn't wanted to believe it.
Maybe that's why he should be extra thankful for both of them.
"Let's get going," Winry tugged on his arm, "we have babysitting duty this afternoon and I want to get back to the house before Granny chains me to it."
Winry's shoes clapped off the platform, one after another like an audible guide, and Ed followed it. Letting his eyes take one last snapshot of the sights as they left the station, his lens caught the payphone.
Ed stopped. He stared at the ancient thing tucked under an overhang that wouldn't protect it from rain most of the time. Glancing out into the radiant Resembool fields, an idea started to form in Ed's mind. The idea sent his hand fishing around in his pockets to see what he could find – he had a single thousand cens bill and a bunch of loose coins. He could make a call from the payphone…
"Ed!"
Winry nearly made him jump. You know what? It was probably a bad idea. Ed talked himself out of it.
Ed got his legs in gear and caught up with Winry as she playfully bobbled down the station steps. Hopping off the last one, she scuffed the dirt path with soles of her shoes and spun around with her hands on her hips to tease her impatience. Ed watched the long ponytail on the back of her head sail as she moved, dancing behind her while the strands that framed her face softly settled. Winry swept her loose bangs away, smudging coal soot across her forehead. Ed slowed atop of the stairs, his eyes catching the highest bit of silver mounted on her ear flickering in the daylight. He stopped and looked at her on the walk way.
Winry's brow tightened enough to put a few creases in the skin and the frown she gave him picked up a hint of confusion. "What?"
Ed redirected his gaze down the dirt path towards town and buried his hands deep inside the pockets of his slacks. He felt the thousand cens bill and fished around in the coins like he was sifting through his thoughts. A five cens coin found its way into his fingers.
Just because it might be a bad idea didn't mean it couldn't be a good idea. He didn't know if it was a bad idea until he tried and found out for sure. Ed talked himself back into it.
"Hang on."
Ed turned completely around and he marched back onto the train platform. The station payphone was approached like he was walking into battle and Ed plucked the earpiece out of the cradle. Five cens was fed into the slot and his fingers whipped the rotary dial around. The phone started to ring.
"Good morning, Rockbell AutoMail."
"Hey Granny, it's Ed," he glanced out to see if anything of the train was left to be seen, but even the smoke had drifted away, "calling to let you know that the train's departed."
"Alright, thank you."
Ed stared at the telephone dial, "I was thinking about popping into town for a bit before heading back."
Pinako's tone perked at the idea, "Good, head into the post office and see what job postings are up."
"Yeah, I will," Ed's free hand scratched through his bangs and he braved her wrath, "is it okay if Winry comes?"
"Winry's grounded."
Ed cringed, "I know, but I'm wondering if you can lift that for another hour or so?"
"This isn't supposed to be how grounding works, Ed," Pinako's tone told him she'd probably have flattened him if he'd asked in person, "what does Winry want in town?"
"Nothing," Ed's eyes dipped in and out of each numbered finger well on the dial, "I'm just asking."
"What for?" she insisted on an explanation.
He clawed his bangs up onto the top of his head, "Lunch."
Pinako didn't respond.
Swallowing hard and running his free hand anxiously over the back of his neck, Ed strained into the earpiece, trying to pick up if Pinako was actually stewing in silence or if the line had mercifully gone dead.
"It's nice out," Ed tested for some kind of response and finally heard breathing on the other end of the line… the kind of breathing someone heard when air was being forced in and out of nostrils in frustration. Shit. Oh shit. Well, if he'd signed his death certificate before walking in the door, he may as well make it worth his while. Ed pressed his point, "We're halfway there. I'll check in at the post office, we'll have lunch, come home, and wear out the kid in the afternoon."
The sound of Winry's footsteps on the station platform distracted Ed from Pinako's wordlessness. Crap, he had one angry Rockbell on the phone and the other walking straight towards him.
Pinako was the first to reach him, "Be home by two."
The crass sound of the receiver being dropped on the cradle caused Ed to yank the phone away from his ear. The empty dial tone cried out steadily in the air afterwards.
Ed blinked, put the earpiece down, and stepped back to look up at the station clock. It was 11:35. Huh. Okay. Well, shit, that actually worked! Ed straightened up triumphantly.
"Who were you calling?"
"Granny," Ed answered.
Winry gawked at him, "What for?"
"Parole," putting his smirk on display, Ed retreated from the platform, "I got you two and a half hours of parole."
Looking between the telephone and the Elric walking away from her, Winry didn't budge, "Bullshit."
"Call her back if you don't believe me!"
Winry patted her pockets of her overalls, nothing but tools in any of them, and she chased after Ed hastily making his get-away, "I'll kill you if you got me in trouble with my grandmother! Why do I need more parole?"
"You're not in trouble!" hopping off the station steps and onto the dirt pathway of the countryside, Ed turned around to see Winry stop at the exit of the station platform and fold her arms in protest of not receiving a decent answer. He gave her one, "I thought we could have lunch in town."
"Lunch?" Winry's expression blanked, "Like this!? I look like I've been crawling around in a dirty pipe!"
Ed shrugged, "We're only going into town, everyone knows you, you're fine."
"I didn't bring my bag," she patted her pockets, "I don't have any money."
"My treat, Win."
Winry quickly bobbled her way down the stairs, "It's been your treat for months. I don't want to be a leech at home, too."
"You're not a leech," Ed tried to dismiss her concerns, "I got you covered, don't worry about it."
"You're unemployed, I'm not," Winry was having none of this offer, "what did you say we had? Two hours?"
Ed saw her look in the direction of the house, "No."
"And a half?"
"No."
She turned, "That's more than enough time."
Ed's hand flew out, "Winry, no!"
Grabbing Winry by the elbow, Ed pulled her back around. Winry returned to face him with an ornery expression and fire in her eyes.
Dammit, Ed didn't want a fight or a hole in his skull. It was so much easier to go out for food with Winry in Germany – it was simple, they just went. This felt like a blasted obstacle course and Ed wanted lunch with her without all this fuss.
He didn't think she realized it, but Winry had been right. On a miserable new year's night Ed wished he could forget, Winry had been right; when they'd finally get home, they wouldn't be able to 'leave this behind'. Those months they'd endured together would never be completely behind them.
But, that night Winry had also been wrong; she had already figured out everything Ed needed her to be to help him stay strong. She'd been doing it for some time and continued to do it even if all she did was just be there. Winry didn't realize it and Ed wasn't looking for it, but that didn't mean he couldn't see it when he looked back. See that he'd valued it, that he'd needed it, that he'd wanted it: the companionship. Her company. Winry was the only good thing in the baggage he came back with. The fear of nearly losing her to something that could see her importance still haunted him at night, but there was nothing and no one trying to control his waking hours anymore. For the first time in far, far too long, Ed was in control of his life.
Taking a deep breath, Ed washed his hands over his face and drove his fingers up into his bangs, dragging them over the top of his head. He walked himself around in a circle scratching his hands through his hair. Linking his fingers and resting them behind his neck, Ed caught Winry glance from side to side, puzzled over why he was shuffling about.
Crap. Just because he was in control didn't mean he had a damn clue how to drive. He staggered up to Winry.
Ed let his hands slide from his neck and he wiped the sweat off on his slacks. Disarming Winry by collecting her fists from her hips, he tucked his hands into hers as they fell open. Ed inhaled a deep breath and tried to find that clear, unobstructed way Winry would look at him when there was something she had to say. He attempted to use it.
"I want to take you out for lunch."
Winry's eyes rounded, they grew wide, and her mouth popped open like a spring had sprung, "Okay."
Ed thought his entire body was going to deflate like an untied balloon, "Good."
Her eyes became even rounder, "Yes."
"Good."
"Yes."
"Good. So, don't worry about it."
"Yes. No. No, no I'm not worrying."
"Good," Ed tightened the corners of his lips and firmed his jaw, "good."
Winry cleared her throat and swung their arms lightly, tossing her head in the direction of town, "I guess you can pick where we eat."
Ed felt his arms sway and he tried to stop his eyes from buggering off into the scenery, "Yeah. My budget's a little tight though."
"Well, whatever we eat, at least it'll taste good," Winry rocked from her heels to her toes and back again, "do you remember that huge parfait you bought me after I got to Germany?"
"Yeah," a smirk started crawling into Ed's face, "You didn't believe me."
"Of all the things I ate there, that was the most disappointing."
"I warned you," Ed took great pleasure in his next words, "I told you so."
"It was so decorative and tasted like wrapping paper," Winry sighed.
Ed narrowed an eye, "Why do you know what wrapping paper tastes like?"
She shrugged, "Kids are stupid."
He barked his laugh, "You still ate the whole thing!"
"I didn't want to be rude!"
"So many pointless calories."
"This temple destroys pointless calories," her hands still locked with his, Winry stretched Ed's arms out to his sides, "you need more pointless calories. I mean, look at you! What makes you think you can just hop into field work like this? You need all the calories you can get to build up more muscle or the bales will crush you."
Ed's initial ornery reaction was dismissed by devilish intent that entered his eyes, "You know, last I checked," the flex in his arms was repurposed as strength; Ed tightened his grip on her hands, locked his arms, and yanked Winry towards him, "I can throw you over my shoulder just fine."
Winry dug her heels into the dirt path to no avail. Every squirrel in the countryside heard her shriek, "Edward Elric, don't you dare!"
Releasing his steeled grip when Winry collided with his chest, Ed made a half-assed attempt at grabbing her, but let her worm away in a squealing fit. Standing on the dusty walkway and laughing as she scrambled back, Ed watched Winry's hands frantically fish around for weaponry in her pockets, but she'd come down with the contagious laughter by the time the wrench ended up in her hand.
Antics quietted on a decades old dirt path that guided people from a basic rural train station into an unremarkable little township in the middle of nowhere, southeast Amestris. Ed tried to brush the soot he'd picked up off his shirt, but only ended up creating larger, grey streaks he could do nothing about. Walking up to a playfully angry, rosy face, he didn't flinch when Winry brandished the wrench like she was pointing a sword. Ed grabbed the blunt blade and took it from her, filling her emptied hand with his.
"Come on, let's go for lunch."
As much of a stranger on this path as any wayward traveller, Ed walked through the Resembool countryside as a shell of the person he'd been before. The Fullmetal Alchemist was no more. Equivalent exchange had lost its meaning. The sins of his youth had been put to bed.
The voids those losses created within Ed hollowed him out and what he would allow in to fill his life would redefine him.
The new definition started with his brother in his life; finally living the life he'd deserved, Al had embarked on his next journey and began to establish his new future. It was a story Ed was excited to see unfold, anticipated the magnitude of, and eagerly imagined what tales they'd get to tell when the time came for them to do it together.
It continued with Winry at his side; free of the shackles and wounds that tried to damage her, she had a future she was setting herself up to conquer. In the safety of their own world Ed walked hand in hand with her, enjoying the ease of good company, and a little curious about what they would do together now that they were home.
It moved forwards to a future Ed had never allowed himself to think about until recently. He didn't have a damn clue what life had in store for him – what kind of career he'd embark on, or what sort of family he'd make, or even what tomorrow would bring. Yet, he clearly understood who he was starting out as today.
Today he was Edward Elric.
After confidently seeing his brother off, he would walk into his home town with Winry in hand. He would pluck a few wanted ads from the corkboard in the Resembool post office and debate which ones interested him. He would sit down to a simple lunch and enjoy the company. After that he would walk back home through the bountiful country fields ready to put the pen down on a new chapter of his life, free to choose whatever he would do next.
- FIN -
Author's Notes:
18 years, 1 month, and 7 days later, this fanfic is finally finished. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has ever dropped by to read this over the years.
HOLY SHIT I FINISHED IT. HOLY SHIT.
IT'S FINISHED. HEY 2004 ME, WE DID IT.
This is a weird feeling. This story's been with me for so long and now it's… done. I got this monster finished. Wow. I am emotions.
I finally put FIN ;A;
Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has ever dropped by to read this over the years. Thank you to everyone who dropped a review on FFN between 2012 and 2020 reminding me that this story was still out there waiting for me... I did want to get here. I'm so floored that I finally got here. Wow.
There's an epilogue, so make sure to head to that! And the very last chapter is story notes.
