:Travel:
Disclaimers: Don't own FMA.
A/N: I have experience.
-
I travel.
"Brother?"
I grunted, my eyes widening some as I glanced towards my brother. Breaking into a wide smile, I laughed sheepishly, my lashes dropping to half-mast. "Eh?" I replied, hugging my satchel to my chest and hunching forward absently.
Alphonse frowned at me. He seems to be doing that often now, but it didn't daunt me. I pointed off into the distance, my shoulder smacking into his as we were both jostled around in the back of the truck.
"Look, Al," I beamed, "there's the city we're headed to."
I travel a lot.
Alphonse smiled in return to my wide, toothy grin and enticed bouncing, an act of childishness and innocence that I played for fun, but I knew he was about to pop the question that always reared its stupid head.
"Brother, what's wrong?"
I stopped bouncing and whipped my face around, staring at my younger brother darkly. My lips twisted into a frown, and I muttered, "What makes you think anything is wrong?"
Al and I, we travel a lot.
-
I stood belligerently in the light from the open doorway. Mom was crying in her bedroom. That bastard with the glasses was leaving again. The door clicked shut.
I lost my father to traveling.
-
"Ah! We're finally here," I mumbled, not at all sounding joyous. Sliding off the back of the truck, I stretched, popping my sore back. Sighing, I slumped, and Alphonse took my satchel and held it with his. He was always doing stupid nice things like that.
"Damn," I groaned, hobbling a few steps. "That road can really kill your spine."
Alphonse smiled at me. I glared back.
"We should sit and rest," he offered, laughing. "After all, it's what you do anyway. Sit and rest, you lazy bum."
"What was that?" I growled, and, despite my previous complaining, I took off after my running little brother with a shout and a snarl, his mirth drifting back towards me with a bubbling rasp.
I miss people a lot when I travel.
-
Winry was crying again. Alphonse and Grandma didn't know what we were doing in the hallway. Grandma, the old hag, was bantering to my brother about keeping me in line; I could hear her from behind the closed door.
I had her up against a wall, and I was holding her as tight as I could. She was gripping onto my red jacket, her tears soaking my neck and tank top. I couldn't take it. I was whispering in her ear, telling her, "Please don't cry, I'll be back soon, I promise."
She believed me.
Alphonse and I left soon after. Winry waved, accompanied with a rather insulting good bye, and I stuck my tongue out at her as I ran off.
Childish.
"Why are you so mean to her?" Alphonse had chided me playfully as we waited at the train station.
"Because," I answered harshly, flashing him a pearly grin. "I'm a mean person."
I lost my love to traveling.
-
"Ack," I murmured, frowning at the prices at the small shop we had stopped at. My brother was beside me, brushing hair out of his eyes. I glanced to him, and back to the items of food behind the glass counter.
"Things have really gotten expensive," I announced. Alphonse nodded in agreement, pointing to a meat pie I had been eyeing quite hungrily.
"That's usually cheaper. It's because of the new laws, Brother…inflation is just a natural fallback of economical and political change."
"Yeah, whatever." I handed the man at the cash register the marks, and in turn, I received two meat pies. "I like pie," I informed Alphonse with a glance. He laughed. I like it when he laughs.
"Either you're extremely out of it today, Brother, or something is really bothering you."
"Now what the hell makes you say that?" I grinned, and then opened up my mouth and shoved a poor forkful of creamy meat and crust into the black hole.
We've been traveling forever.
-
He was holding his hand out. I don't know if he wanted me to shake it or what, but I simply smirked at him, and smacked it away. He smiled, with that sharp gaze of his, and I knew he understood.
I then turned and walked away.
I lost one of my best friends, and my "father figure" to traveling.
-
"That was so good," I sighed, leaning back in the shop's chair. We were seated at a little booth outside on the cobblestones, the crisp autumn air a nice touch to the day. I glanced up and immediately my smile was gone as I eyed a little girl flouncing past us. Alphonse turned, and followed my gaze, and I could tell he saw it too, by the sudden look of desolation on his innocent face.
The yellow star on the little girl's blue coat made her a criminal. And yet, my brother and I were, in some ways, more a criminal than she could ever be.
Our stars…are somewhere else.
-
I travel.
I travel a lot.
Al and I, we travel a lot.
I lost my father to traveling.
I miss people a lot when I travel.
I lost my love to traveling.
We've been traveling forever.
I lost one of my best friends, and my "father figure" to traveling.
Are we vagabonds? Wanderers? Street performers? We have a "home"…we have shelter every night, and we have food in our stomachs, and we do random jobs for our income. It's not a lot, but I am traveling with the only family I have left on the streets of Germany.
We are both well aware that it is going to get dangerous. Hitler's army and his laws are proceeding to overcome the entire world with fear and hunger. Hunger for war, hunger for peace…
Nevertheless, Alphonse and I, we'll keep traveling. It is what we were, obviously, born to do. Besides, we're happy. We're together, after years apart, and nothing will separate us now.
We've been traveling for a few months now.
I've left behind some "sweethearts", some friends, and some father figures. There was Adalbert, who helped us in the winter; Margurite, who thought that I was her true love; Hans, who wanted us to stay in his inn and help keep the bar.
We left Adalbert the day it was officially spring. We left without saying good-bye.
We left Margurite's tenement on the night of Christ. I left her a note, saying, "I'm a traveler. I'm sorry for any trouble my brother and I have caused you. But I only have one true love. And I suppose it is travel." That was a lie, but it worked. No one would believe me if I tried to explain Winry.
We left Hans the day before the ships came in. He would have really needed help then. He wanted us to stay; we were like brothers to him, he told us.
I suppose…that I leave many people. I am always leaving someone behind. Perhaps I don't even deserve to be alive over here in Germany; I'm always hurting one person or another – physically or emotionally. I'm arrogant, stubborn, malicious, and poignant, and many people seem to be attracted to me because of that; and therefore, when Al and I pick up our bags and leave, we shatter lives.
Equivalency will most likely kick our asses.
I doubt that I can lose anything else to traveling. Al will never understand how much of me I lost the last day that I saw Winry; the last day that I saw the Colonel; the last day that I saw the country of Amestris. Maybe the fact that he is still remembering crucial parts of our childhood eases him some of the pain. I hope it does.
I don't want anyone else to feel this way.
Still we travel. My motivation is a way to get back to the other side. I am definitely aware of the prices…and over the years, I've found that I could care less, as long as I am home. Home, with Alphonse and Winry and that stupid dog Den chasing us in the yard; home, where I can relax in the grass with my love, and play around with my brother like we used to, before I really messed things up.
Home, where I can get all this off my shoulders and apologize to everyone for things that I've done wrong. So I can apologize for leaving them.
I was born a traveler.
And I will stay a traveler, until the day that I am back Home.
-
OWARI.