The book of the past.
Everyone and everything was silent.
Nobody wanted to break the silence.
They all looked at the man smilling in the chair.
His smile was warm, content, relaxed, calm and had a hint of pride.
Alphonse turned away from his brother and looked at the title once again.
- Memories...Alphonse repeated before he turned to the first page.
And everyone gasped.
On the first page was an old photo that barely anyone except Winry and Al had
seen. Since the rest of the people who would have seen this photo before it was
lost to the flames of a burning house were in heaven now.
The first photo was on the opposite side of the cover.
And it was titled The Beginning.
And it was a picture of The First Trisha in a hospital bed, overjoyed, holding
a small newborn baby wrapped up in blankets in her arms.
A happy Honheim was besides her, holding the camera.
The date of the picture was Edward's birthday.
The first real page held another picture.
It was titled Brother.
And the picture was once again the first Trisha in a hospital bed, a baby in
her arms and a one year old Edward clinging to Hohenheim's chest as they all
looked at the tiny Alphonse in his tiny arms.
The children awwed while Alphonse went red with a faint and warm smile on his
lips.
And that was only the first two pages.
The next 10 or so pages were filled with about two to four pictures each of Ed
and Al as infants and children. All from playing in the backyard...Teasing
and playing with Winry to arguing about pointless stuff or even fighting. And apologizing.
A lot of them apologizing to each other's and a lot of the two of them
sleeping.
A picture called You know the answer already showed Ed and Al arguing about
something with Winry and it was two pictures in one.
The other one was Ed and Al fighting about something.
Al and Winry remembered just what it was the two were fighting about.
Winry lifted her hand and looked at her ring before looking at her children and
then her husband.
Below the picture is said Size really doesn't matter.
Then there was a picture that Ed had personally reprinted while he kept the original
close at hands. The picture sticking out of his right pocket.
The family photo that Hohenheim had held dear.
It had been on the second page and it was all alone on that page.
It was titled Love goes in the family.
Roy and sighted warmly at that.
Then all of a sudden, there was a large gap in time.
But instead, there were pictures of automail blueprints.
And Winry went silent.
- His first...His first automail...Winry had gasped both nostalgically
and sorrow filled.
She covered her eyes to hide them from the rain.
Edwin, Trisha, Nina and Maes were all puzzled.
Why did their father need an automail arm when he had a perfectly fine one now?
Al only said that it was a long story.
A story related to the bookshelf the book had been stored in.
Then, there was a picture taken two months after The Promised Day.
Winry crying happy tears over Ed and Al.
The picture on the next page was the three of them all happy and proud with the
clear sky and bright sun behind them.
The first had been called Tears of Joy and the second one had been called The
Golden Trio. Below the second one it said Without us, you wouldn't be standing
here.
The room went quiet.
The children did not understand what that statement meant and Winry only
repeated what Al had said.
Roy and Riza did the same.
Then on the next set of almost 15 pages were pictures of Edwards and Winry's
wedding and honey moon all over the country.
And of course, of some places were Edward had visited on his journeys before he
had married Winry.
Then came a picture well known to many.
A picture of Edward holding a young Edwin in his hands with Winry besides him
and Mei, Alphonse and Paniniya standing outside a workshop in Rush Valley.
Edward smiling his proudest and happiest smile.
The picture had no real title, because there were to many of them written down.
One of them was The end of a journey and the start of a new adventure.
On the next page was nine pictures of Winry's pregnancy with Edwin and then the
tenth was Ed besides Einry in a hospital bed with baby Edwin in her arms.
Then shortly after came the first months of father and motherhood of the both
Edward and Winry.
And then came ten pictures of the journey to Trisha Elric the second.
And soon came the the ten pictures that lead up to Nina Elric.
Then the ten pictures of Sara Elric. And there were very few pictures of her as
she had gone at only age 2.
Then came Maes Elric.
There were pictures mixed in-between with Ed being reunited with Al and Mei
after their time in Xing.
Al and Mei as doctors and Ed as a scholar and librarian and Winry working with
automail.
Then when Al turned to the next page, it was as the years had reset themselves.
Because on the next page was only a paper.
A paper from the fuhrer, King Bradley, giving Edward the title of the state
alchemist by the name of Fullmetal.
Roy and Riza came closer.
The next set of pages were filled with newspaper cut outs and photos taken by
civilians, a few of them signed by the Fullmetal Alchemist.
All of them was from different missions throughout the years.
Roy, Riza and Alphonse remembered almost every single event in the pictures
while all the children just looked at them in amazement.
- Wooooow...The Elric children had said more than once and sometimes in
unison, sometimes only one of them had said it.
- Yeah...Your father was a great man...And great brother...And a great
friend. Roy and Al had answered at different times.
The 2nd to last picture in that set was a picture of Ed helping a malnourished
Al to stand in the ruins of the old Central HQ on The Promised Day.
The children looked at Al and then the picture.
Again and again before asking.
- What happened? The children from all three parts of the familiy had asked and
all the adults had just sighted.
- It's a long story. They had all answered.
The next segment was of pictures of Ed and Al in their adult years, taking care
of their children, doing their jobs and being themselves.
There was a picture of the military waving goodbye to them when they discharged
themselves from the military.
And then came pictures of the many reunions that they had throughout the years.
Roy and Riza had both smiled and laughed.
Then there were some rather embarrassing pictures of Ed and Al.
The most embarrassing was Ed and Al, standing completely naked with the picture
cut of right beneath their waist lines.
Ed smiling proudly and triumphant while Al looked down embarrassed and
defeated.
The title was about being tall and not short.
And no adult wanted to explain what that meant.
Then came a set of pictures that Al wished that his brother had not kept.
The two of them out on town on drinking nights.
There were first a few pictures of Ed and Al being calm, clinking glasses,
drinking and having a good time.
Then came a picture called Edward the angry drunk.
Next to it was a picture titled Alponse the sad drunk.
Then there were a few pictures of them when they were knocked out.
A partially funny and embracing one had been titled Elricrest and it featured
the two brothers sleeping in each other's arms, almost making out.
The next set of pictures were called Hangovers.
And many of them featured Edward in custody.
And below them it said that Edward stayed in that cell for every person he had
punched or hurt while he was drunk, even when he had completely sobered up and
the hangover was gone.
Winry even explained that whenever Ed and Al had gone out to drink that she was
not allow to call the police or anything until two days after their night out.
Quite a few of the pictures were just of Ed sitting alone in the cell.
Both Winry and Alphonse hurried past those pictures until they came to a
segment entitled Holidays.
And that was when the painful reality hit them all again and they all looked up
and saw the snow outside and Edward sitting in the chair.
Once again, time reset in the pictures and the first few holiday pictures were
of Ed and Al's different holidays with their family. Both with and without
Hohenheim.
Then there was a gap until Ed was around 18 or 19 were the pictures resumed.
And then of course, the holiday pictures began to fill out with people and family.
A few Christmas pictures proved that Edward really did light up whenever the
Mustang's arrived.
And then came the pain filled reality again.
The last holiday picture put into the book, just a few pages left in the book.
A mere 2 was the picture taken of the whole family just taken a few months ago.
On Halloween.
Their last Halloween with Edward.
Maes had been dressed up as Selim Bradley, thou they had called the suit Pride.
Alphonse had taken on his military uniform and put an eye patch over his left
eye and called himself Wrath even thou he looked like King Bradley.
Winry had been forced to wear some rather open clothes that made her look like
Lust.
Edwin had gotten to borrow his father's old clothes and looked like the state
alchemist seen earlier in the book.
Nina had made her own dog costume. Something that had made her father and uncle
very quiet and somber that day.
Trisha had dressed herself like a fairy.
And just because Edward could, he had dressed himself up as Father.
Mei had become a silly looking dragon with Clara and Mia as the body and tail.
Roy had dressed himself up like Scar and Riza had made herself look like an
Ishvalan.
Dan had become a chibi version of Kimblee and Maya had dressed herself like her
mother.
They were all smiling at the camera.
There wasn't a single sign of Edward having a bad heart in any single one of
the pictures in the entire book.
Alphonse turned to the last two pages and found that the second to last was the
whole family outside of the house during a day of summer.
They were all having fun.
And then they all looked at the last picture in the book.
The picture on the backside of the back of the book.
It was entitled The End and the title below it was...You make me smile.
There was no picture between those two titles, but the frames for putting a
picture there.
Then everyone looked up and saw Edward sitting in the chair.
At the end of his life, smiling.
The words of the second title hung in the air.
Al gently closed the book and looked at his brother.
All sadness and sorrow washed away from his face by all the memories and kind
words.
He sighted and fell back into the sofa.
Everyone sighted and breathed out a deep breath.
- I think I understand now...I think I understand why he is smiling.
Alphonse said and then looked at his brother.
A smile formed on his lips.
Everyone looked at him and his brother.
And their smiles.
They were the same.
