I've finished the Brotherhood series [having finished the original as well] and I'm all in the mood for FMA. XD Particularly related to Ed, Ling, and Greed. So this started out as a short flashback to start off an Ed and Greed snippet, but it got so long that it turned into it's own Trisha, Ed, and Al story. XD Enjoy!~

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"And that group of stars there is the Celestial Maiden."

"The what?"

"Well, you see, long ago an angel came down from Heaven and lost her celestial robes which gave her her powers. She was trapped here on Earth and resigned to her fate, and so fell in love with a human man. The angel had a family with him and was content, unaware that her husband had actually found and hidden her robes to keep her with him. One day, the angel found them and flew back to Heaven, but she couldn't be as an angel anymore because she'd left her heart with her human family. So she became those stars to watch over her family and await the day they'd join her."

"Well that's stupid."

Alphonse, who had remained quiet during the exchange between Edward and Trisha Elric up to that point, spoke up. "It is not! It's beautiful!"

Edward scoffed. "If she loved her family, why'd she leave, huh? Or why didn't she come back instead of being a'buncha stars?"

Trisha smiled as Alphonse huffed at his brother and Edward shrugged, before both brothers looked to their mother as she ruffled their hair. "The story doesn't say. But if I had to guess, she probably missed her family in Heaven too, and thought it was her duty to return. It was only later that realized that she'd left the most important part of herself on Earth, and couldn't really be an angel any more."

"Most important part?" Alphonse queried.

Trisha's smile widened as she ran her fingers through her sons' hair fondly. "Well, her heart for starters, but even more than that, she'd left her children. Your children are a part of you, and nothing in the world, or Heaven, compares to them. She must have realized that and missed them terribly."

"But she still didn't come back, so what'sit matter?" Edward muttered.

Trisha understood that the conversation was less about the story of a constellation's origin to her eldest son as it was about his own experience with an absent parent. "It's not always so easy, Edward. Sometimes, even if it breaks your heart, you'll have to make hard choices."

"I don't think it's hard. Family should come first."

Trisha considered that a moment before she replied. "What about a soldier?"

Edward blinked. "Huh?"

"Soldiers leave home to fight their country. To fight for what they believe in. It's a hard road for them, and for the families that they leave behind. But if they didn't fight just because they missed their families, then more people might be hurt. Is that wrong? Wanting to protect more than just themselves and their own families?"

Edward's eyes widened slightly before he mumbled begrudgingly. "The angel wasn't a soldier. It doesn't count."

"Everyone fights for something, Edward. We're only human, and we all make mistakes, but we try to be better. And you don't have to be a soldier to have something, or someone, that you want to protect. And even if you aren't by their side, it doesn't mean that you love them any less, or try any less."

Edward considered those words before he said firmly. "I want to protect you and Al. That's what I'll fight for. My family."

Trisha blinked in surprise before she chuckled and cupped her son's cheek. "My brave little soldier."

Al watched the exchange before he chimed in. "Me too! I'll fight too!"

Trisha chuckled again as she pulled both of her boys into her arms. "My brave, silly boys."

Edward was silent a moment before he asked. "So..the angel...did she ever get her family back?"

The story didn't say so, but Trisha wasn't about to tell her sons that, by now Alphonse seemed to have gotten in the vein of comparing the absent maiden's story to their own with their absent father. Instead, Trisha Elric smiled warmly and pointed to a cluster of stars beside the Celestial Maiden's constellation. "She did, her family joined her in the stars. They'll never be apart again."

Alphonse seemed awed and Edward thoughtful before he said softly. "Stories are always better than life, huh?"

Trisha was taken aback, the comment seemed too out of place to come out of a child's mouth, but Edward was Hohenheim's son after all. She shouldn't really have been surprised. "No, I don't think so." she announced.

Edward looked up at her in surprise, and Alphonse watched his mother curiously.

"Stories might seem better sometimes, but they're only stories. I'd rather live life, even when it's sad or hard, because when it is happy-it's real. It makes life that much more worth living for to work for it, then to just have everything go neatly like a story. Do you understand?"

"I think so." Edward said slowly and Alphonse nodded alongside his brother. "All the hard things in life make all the good things even better, is that it?"

Trisha smiled and ruffled Edward's hair. "Something like that."

Edward considered that before he finally smiled a little as he glanced to his brother and then back up at his mother. He had two proofs of his mother's theory right in front of him, two examples of good things that belied the bad in his life. A brother and a mother that he loved, and wanted to protect: they were his 'something to fight for'. "Yeah, that makes sense."

Edward wasn't sure about all that angel business, and he didn't think his father was in the right. But for his mother and Alphonse, he was pretty sure there was nothing he wouldn't do. Nothing he wouldn't try to keep them safe.

Anything for his family.

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Yeah, so this was supposed to be a flashback paragraph to lead into EdxGreeling star-gazing. But...it turned into this. So. ENJOY! XD~