ORPHIC SHADOWS
a Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction
by W. Morganstern

CHAPTER TWO

Many years ago, Alphonse Elric had refused to be separated from his older brother. One of his reasons for this was a highly justified fear that Edward would return to him changed into one of the battle-twisted, war-hardened jerk state alchemists that they both despised. Ed was good-hearted, even in his meaner moments, but he also possessed a lurid streak of the madness that can turn good men into monsters.

A year apart from his gentle-spirited brother had not corrupted Ed, though. He returned from his exile through the Gate looking older, for sure, but more at peace in his heart than he'd been in a long time. Except, he was somewhat overly agitated about the exhaustive mechanical studies and research he had been absorbed in over there. This he felt was now nothing but wasted space in his brain since it came to nothing and would have most likely come to nothing had he devoted his entire life to it. Which was humorous to Al, who remembered that as a child Ed had delighted in nothing more than gathering vast amounts of useless information. Had the eldest Elric become so much more practical? Al guessed not, considering the stack of poetry books next to Ed's bed. The one on top was titled The Passion of Orpheus.

"I leave you here for two weeks and already you're reading romance-tragedies," Al tsked.

Ed snorted. "It contains hidden references to Mycenaean alchemical practices," he claimed defensively. "There may even be a hidden code within one of the rhyme schemes."

"Right. Any luck with that so far?"

Even if Ed had analyzed every rhyme in the entire epic, he couldn't possibly take that sort of thing seriously. He couldn't be that bored. Anyhow, the Mycenaeans didn't use codes to disguise their alchemy. All their texts were very straightforward.

Ed only shook his head.

"Are you taking all these books with you to West City?" Al wondered aloud. Ed had accumulated quite a few books over the past couple of years. "You could be gone for quite a while, you know. The word was this morning that several buildings at West Headquarters, including the library, were severely damaged by a mysterious attack. No one was killed, but the buildings were ruined."

Nearly a year of complete, blissful boredom, then some stupid thing like that had to happen. Since he would be catching a train West in less than twenty-four hours, Ed was sure that he'd end up getting dragged into that debacle as well as the Creatan intrigue. He oscillated between excitement and disgust.

"Ruined how? By whom?"

"No one knows, or at least no one's telling. That's why it's officially a 'mysterious attack.' You'll find out all about it when you get to West HQ, no doubt."

"Yeah, I suppose."

It hit Ed really hard that he'd only have the rest of the day to spend with Al, and then who knew how long before they'd see one another again. The nature of Ed's mission guaranteed that he wouldn't have enough leave to travel and he doubted that Al would be able to venture very far from East City at the end of the little vacation he was taking in Central.

Since Al had also become a state alchemist, the two brothers had ceased to be a duo. The military still treated Al as if he needed training wheels—he was the new child prodigy, after all—though he had far more experience than his apparent age should have allowed. Even before he recovered his memories of the time he spent as a soul attached to a suit of armor, he was a formidable alchemist. Nonetheless, he would have to prove himself laboriously before he could get off the short leash that his superior officer in East City kept him on.

"Have you thought about requesting reassignment in the West?" asked Ed. That was kind of an obvious question, but Ed needed to find some way of assuring Al that he wanted them to stick together as much as possible. Even if it wasn't possible.

"Of course I thought about it, but… It wouldn't exactly be a good move for me to request anything of Colonel Sand right now. She's more by-the-book than Mustang."

A little demon voice chafed at Ed's brain too roughly for him to ignore it. "Spit it out. You just want to be close to Winry." Ed hadn't meant to put it so bluntly, but at least he said what he meant.

Al choked on that for a few seconds. "Er, that's part of it. I like being close to home for a lot of reasons."

"Are you two together now, then? I don't know why you always avoid talking about it."

"It isn't that simple, Ed. I won't deny my feelings for Winry, but I'm in no position to sweep her off her feet. You know very well that if you push it much farther I'll deck you in the face. We agreed already, no more fighting about girls, and since you were the one who insisted on that rule I expect you to be the first one to uphold it," said Al.

"I didn't mean it like that. Winry's still my best friend, but I'm over it. I'm over it, she's over it, we're all over it. We're just friends now. But maybe I am, you know, jealous that you're all close and I keep getting jettisoned further and further away for stupid reasons."

A shadow of his former driven frustration settled over him. He must be growing very lonely, Al thought.

"Ed, this thing in the West can't last too long. They aren't even giving you permanent quarters there. When it all blows over, you'll easily be able to request reassignment anywhere you want. Just don't forget that we made the decision together to help Mustang, knowing full well that that decision might separate us."

However reassuring Al's logic was, nothing could stop Ed from feeling lost. As he finished packing he was already feeling lonely. Even his powerful conviction to function on his own couldn't lessen his poignant emotions. He looked around his fairly spartan room filled mostly with books, tacked up notes and diagrams and a few Ishbalan curiosities that were lovingly gifted to him in recompense for his troubles. He hadn't had a room like that since childhood, a room lived in consistently for more than a year, collecting the paraphernalia of life. It was of little comfort to him. He had wanted this, but mostly he found himself wanting to cast it off. He couldn't make anything or anyone but Al seem permanent or even fully real.

When the Elric brothers said goodbye that night, they avoided confronting the fact that neither of them knew for how long they would be apart. Ed had a very bad feeling about this change he was making. Just a feeling, and he couldn't grasp any evidence to support it. Reason suggested that he was merely experiencing yet another barrage of lonely, juvenile emotions that would spoil his sleep. I have to get over it, he told himself. Over and over again.