Far Away From You…
Chapter Two: I'm Sorry, I Should Have Written…Quick A/N: There's a little teensy bit of Elricest mentioned in this one. Nothing very explicit, though. 3
The hand slid into the drawer, clutching a folded piece of paper. "Oh, what do we have here?" asked a high pitched, childish girl's voice. The rustling of paper was heard throughout the small dark room as the owner of the voice hastily pulled open the letter. "…Hah, look at this cute, pretty girly handwriting!" she squealed.
Laughing, Anna rushed out of the guest room. Her pink nightgown almost covered her feet, and caused her to stumble, her curly - and obviously bleached - white hair fell over her shoulder as she landed hard on the carpet. The letter still clutched in her hand, she got up and giggled again, tearing off down the hall towards her older sister Elizibeth's room.
"Lizzie, Lizzie! Look what Alphonse had in his drawer!" she called cheerfully as she made a mad dash down the hall, her annoying voice ringing through the mostly still evening. "Look, look!"
Alphonse Elric sat up straighter on the floor. Her words repeated through his mind several times. He tried to think what she could possibly had stolen from him now… His letter from Ed! He jumped up from his place on the ground in front of the couch, and he hurried down the hall where the girl had just emerged from. He almost ran right past her, having to turn around quickly, almost running into a wall, and quickly grabbed at her.
She screamed like she was being kidnapped. The male laying sprawled on the couch peered over the arm of it. He blew his almost brick-red hair from his face, and stared at the mess in the hallway. Alphonse had the girl in his arm, and he was desperately trying to get the letter back from the girl. She was wriggling around, holding the letter in her right hand, holding it out of Alphonse's reach.
"Annabel!" he snapped after a moment, calling them both to attention.
"Yesss, Benjamin?" she asked, sounding not the least bit respectful of her nineteen year old brother. "What?"
"Give him his damned letter back. And his pens, and paper. Stamps, too."
"I didn't take those, Ben!" she cried defensively. Al snatched the paper from her, and she stuck her tongue out at him, kicking her feet wildly, but every time she missed the boy holding her from behind. She was dropped, and fell on her butt on the floor. She whined, but instantly shut up when she noticed no one cared but her. She got up and dusted herself off. "Fine! I'll just go play with Lizzie!" she declared, and stomped off.
The blonde brushed his short caramel colored bangs from his face, and stared over at the boy dressed in the oversized black sweater, filled with patches and safety pins, paperclips and tears. His pants were very much of the same: oversized, and basically covered in metal to the point where he'd never make it through an airport security unless he walked through in his underwear.
"…Thanks, Benny," he said softly, sticking the letter into the slightly baggy blue jeans he was wearing. He gave the other a quick smile, but it was returned with a shrug and a bored look before the other turned away from him. Sighing, Al turned away from the boy on the couch, and slowly headed back for his room.
These past two months had been hell. Every time he'd sit down to write Edward a letter saying that he couldn't wait to leave this loony place and go home, something always happened… First, Elizabith – the ideal emo child of their family – had 'borrowed' his ink. Then she decided she needed a stamp or three for a package she had to send to her friend.
Then there was Anna. The brat in the house. She always wanted to draw a picture for their mother, and thus needed all of his paper to do it. And his pens to draw with. …Always. She never could use the lined paper sheets or the colored pens that Ben tried to provide her with. No, she needed Al's things…
And, speaking of Ben. He was a problem, too. Sure, he wasn't that bad. And he didn't deliberately screw up Al's letters… It was just he was a very unorganized person. He always left the desk in a little mess. …Okay, a huge disaster after his homework. But he couldn't really help that his teachers all assigned so much, so thought Al. But of course that was probably just him trying to stand up for the one kid here who was nice to him.
The sixteen year old sighed softly, and stepped into his room. Just as he'd thought. Completely trashed. "…That little brat," he growled under his breath. He shut the door behind himself, and then slumped back against it. He'd just cleaned up this room this morning… After Ben and Anna, he couldn't even walk in here… Sighing, he cracked down on cleaning it – again.
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Dear Ed,
I'm really sorry I haven't written as of late. …Things have been really busy here, I guess you could say. Annabel has decided that my stuff is the only stuff good enough for her little pictures to Helen and Ken. Elizabeth is too good herself to go and buy her own ink or stamps… And Benny is just a little unorganized and he tends to lose all the other letters I've written… On top of that, Helen's mother has fallen ill again, and since Helen and Ken both work, I usually pick up the slack and bring her the medicines she needs, bring her breakfast and lunch… Occasionally I have to go and turn the TV on for her and change the stupid channels… I knew taking care of a sick person was hard, and time consuming – I remember from when you were sick, Niii-san – but I honestly didn't know that the elderly here could take such advantage of a little offered help…I really can't wait to come home and see you again, Nii-san. Sure, America is pretty cool and things, but … I miss home. I don't want to be here anymore…
I really hope things are going better over there in Germany… I think Malki misses sleeping next to you at night… I'll probably be bringing her and myself home in about a month… Love from us.
With Love,
Alphonse.
P.S.: I'm sorry I haven't written, Ed… I'll try and make it up to you when I come home…+/.x.\+/.x.\+/.x.\+/.x.\+/.x.\+/.x.\+/.x.\+/.x.\+/.x.\+/.x.\+
Alphonse turned off the flashlight he was using as a light to write by, and laid the pen down. He glanced to the wall, taking a look at the clock. Almost one AM. He sighed. That means by now, everyone was asleep. That means it would be safe to run out to the mailbox real fast, just to make sure Ed got this letter, and it wasn't written in vain…
He got up from the chair, and stepped over to his bed, grabbing the envelope. He folded his parchment, then gently placed the paper into it, and sealed it with a piece of tape. He never liked licking these things… He already had a stamp on it from even before he'd written it, so he didn't have to worry about that.
Taking it back to the desk, Alphonse picked up his pen, then in the top left hand corner of the envelope scrawled down the return address, writing Ed's in the middle. Dropping it again, he carefully tucked the letter into his pocket – in case Annabel was awake. He didn't need the letter taken again. He didn't want to use any more ink if he didn't have to...
He slowly stepped out of his room, being sure to gently shut the door behind him, and started off down the hall. He heard the TV, and sighed. Always leaving their TV on, he thought, shaking his head. He continued down the hall, and froze in his tracks when he heard a giggle. He turned around and looked back, seeing Annabel standing beside Elizabeth.
The older girl had her purple eyes trained on him. Her fishnet covered arms were crossed over her chest, which was also covered by fishnets, a tight black tank top, and yet more fishnets. Ruby streaked silver hair cascaded down to her lower back and fell over her face, yet Al could still feel her cold gaze. Her hands dropped to her side, fingering the skirt she wore, that just – thankfully – covered everything.
"…What're you doing up so early, Alphonse?" she asked, her voice low, calm, collected…
"Um, I was just going outside for a minute," he replied meekly, shrinking away from them towards the couch. Those two could be pretty intimidating… Especially when Elizabeth seemed to be fascinated with chains whenever she could wear them or play with them, and that she couldn't care less about what Annabel did.
"Can I come, too, Alphonse?!" Anna asked shrilly, seeming excited to get out of the house at three in the morning.
He looked from Anna to her older sister and swallowed. He didn't want to say yes – that would just be very annoying to have her for a tag along – but if he said no, Lizzie would make sure to make the rest of his time here a living hell…
"…Fine. But we have to be quick, then. It's really dark out there," he muttered, and watched as the older sister gave an awkward smirk.
"yeah, dark, whatever. Let's go!" the girl chided. She rushed up to the youngest Elric brother and tugged at his pant leg. "…Hehehe, your pants are soooo loose!" she giggled.
"Aiee! Quit that!" he cried, grabbing at his pants to keep them on. "Come on, stop trying to pull my pants off and go outside already, okay?" He pulled away from her and started for the door.
"Don't forget about the dog, Alphonsey!" Lizzie called from behind with a howl of laughter, while Al cringed. He'' forgotten completely...
"C-Come on, Anna," he stuttered, shifting slightly on his feet. He started walking again, and pulled open the oak wood door, the cold air from the outside of the chill night brushed up against him, making a shiver run down his spine. What a time this was going to be; heading out to mail a damned letter…
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He yawned, stretching tiredly, and almost instantly regretted it. "Nnh!" He shrunk back into the curled up little ball he had been before he's awoken, and wrapped his arms tighter around himself. He seemed to forget about the details a lot – he was tucked into the ball like that because of that forsaken rott-weiler. It had jumped on him as he'd reached the mailbox earlier on, and though it had a friendly approach this time… Well, having almost two hundred pounds of almost pure muscle and fat jumping on you and pinning you on the sidewalk, it sort of hurt … a lot…
The boy nuzzled into his pillow. At least he'd sent the damned thing, and that was all he figured really mattered right now. Of course, it could also be worse. One of his gray-hazel eyes blinked open, and he saw the room was much brighter than he'd thought. What time was it? Obviously some time near noon – if not past it already…
He forced himself to sit up, though it took him a good fifteen minutes because of his constant falling back to his side on the bed to ignore the throbbing pain. By the time he was on his feet and near the door, Lizzie had pushed it open first, almost whacking the boy.
"What the hell! Are you having a damned orgy or something?!" she snapped irritably.
He gave her a slightly curious look before noticing she was making reference to his whimpering when he'd been trying to get himself up and on his feet… His face flushed in a slight annoyance, but mostly in embarrassment, and he shifted slightly with a wince, looking away. "…Obviously not," he mumbled.
"Hmph. 'Ed! Oh, Ed! Harder, Ed!'" she moaned before bursting out in a hysterical fit of laughter.
Alphonse's eyes widened slightly, and he blushed deeper, not daring to meet her gaze. "That's not funny," he muttered.
Anna happened to peek in after hearing her sister, and then giggled. "Alphonse's blushing!" she declared. "Ewww, he likes his brother!"
"I – I do not!" he whined. "He's just my brother!"
"Sure, sure…" Anna stepped out of the doorway, and started running down towards the living room. "Ben! Ben! Guess who Al likes!"
"I do not like my brother like that!" Alphonse cried, stumbling painfully to the door, pushing past a hysterical Elizibeth to catch the youngest girl before she could declare to her parents that their guest liked Edward – they, of course, would brush her off and say it was childish and rude to do that, but he knew full well they'd be giving him odd glances either way…
It took a good twenty minutes for everything to be settled. Anna was sitting on the couch by Ben's feet, staring at some weird American cartoon, Elizibeth was sitting upside down in the recliner, her hands on her stomach, and Al was standing in the shower, his eyes closed against the steam and the warm water.
His mind was focused one what had gone on. Anna had yelled several times that he wanted to screw Ed, and Lizzie had done added two it saying he was probably dreaming of it. Ben had finally got irritated when he couldn't hear the TV, and told Anna to sit down before he didn't give her the usual cookie after lunch. Lizzie remarked she could simply give it to her, until the boy flashed her one of her CDs.
That had shut her up instantly. After that, the two of them settled down and sat down to watch whatever it was Ben was watching.
Now, Al was here in the shower, trying to calm his senses, which were seeming a little out of it. He took in a shaky breath, tilting his head down to get the rest of his hair wet, and stared at the drain as the water ran down it. His mind faded from the water, and he thought about Ed again. His thoughts traced back to the soft blonde hair that he would occasionally brush his fingers through or over, and sometimes he'd braid it – much to the other's irritation. Those wandering golden eyes that never seemed to lose their glint of curiosity. The soft pale skin of his cheek that was so tender to the touch…
He mindlessly leaned his back against the cooler tile walls of the bathtub, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. This actually helped the pain quite immensely to his surprise. His thoughts continued as he remembered the several times he'd caught Edward as he was heading into the room after a shower or something to get his clothes. All those scars that tainted that well-built chest, yet he could still just imagine how tender his skin had felt on the occasional brushing against each other's shoulder or hand. "…Mhh, Nii-san," he whimpered quietly, swallowing back a moan roughly as his hand slithered its way to a pause above his manhood.
He opened his eyes again, and swore silently under his breath. Now they were definitely right. He wanted Ed, and this was complete proof right here. How the hell had it turned to this? His legs were shaky beneath him now, but he forced himself to turn his head back up towards the ceiling and focus on the warm water, but somehow it just made him think more of Ed up against him, pressing him to the wall while allowing his auto mail hand to wander freely over the younger boy's body.
His breath caught in his throat when his own hand brushed over his length. He gave a light whimper. "…Nii-san, I miss you so much," he mumbled quietly, his voice drown out by the drumming water. "…Mnn…" Swallowing again, he took a light hold, gingerly running his fingers along himself. "…E-…Edward…"
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Hah hah. Finally got page two up! Finally!!
I'm sorry it took me so long. I got caught up in school and ended up losing the part I wrote with Al actually going to the mailbox, and ehm. I suppose it was stupid of me to do so, but when I did I lost heart to write it again and skipped it.
Finally got around to adding the last bit, and well. Here's the update!
I'll be working on chapter three real soon. Reviews and suggestions equal love!