I realized my A/N sounded super strict and uptight on the last chapter. I'm not strict or uptight. The reason for my unusual uptight-ness was because it was midnight and I was being forced off the computer. I'm sorry. Thanks to the 11 people who read the first chapter. I would like some opinions, though. If you could spare me a few words, I'd really appreciate it. Love and Muffins, Amii~
Prince Roy and Riza stayed at the festival grounds to oversee the preparations while Ed an Al returned to the palace to get ready. Alphonse kept checking his hair every few minutes to make sure every bit was still in place. Edward admired his reflection and tried imagining himself with long legs.
Roy wouldn't dare make fun of me if I had long legs. Ed thought cheerfully. And I could walk about on the surface and make human friends. Maybe I could fall in love! Edward began spinning around.
Al giggled when he noticed Edward looking happy and spinning across the room. "What put you in such a good mood, Brother?" he questioned happily.
Edward stopped spinning and looked at Alphonse. He had honestly forgotten that his younger brother was in the room with him. Ed blushed. How embarrassing!
Al noticed Ed's blush and giggled again. "You're so silly, Brother!" Al cheered. It was nice to see Ed being happy for a change. Seeing Ed with a real smile on his face was a rare occurrence.
Ed swam over to his younger brother and poked his cheek. "You better not tell anyone about this, Al." he remarked and poked Al's cheek a few more times. Edward's good mood made Al all bubbly.
Soon the music from the festival could be heard. That was the brothers' cue that it had started. The jousting tournament always went first. After was the grand feast, followed by more festivities. It was pretty similar to a carnival, of sorts.
The boys left the palace and made their way down to the courtyard where the festival was set up. As they approached the mass of tents and mer-folk, the music grew louder. The boys made their way to the center court. They were only a few minutes late. Al highly doubted their father would get too worked up over it.
When the brothers arrived at the court where the jousting was, they sought out their father and went to join him. Edward grumbled when he saw that King Hohenheim and Prince Roy were talking happily to each other. Al noticed Edward's discomfort towards the situation. Was Ed jealous of Roy's relationship with their father?
Edward took his seat quietly and pretended to be interested in the jousting. He silently pleaded for the sun to set soon so he could go to the surface. If he could, Ed would sneak away right now. He knew he had to stick around long enough so that if anyone went looking for him, people would say that they had seen him not too long ago. Then his father would just assume he was around somewhere.
The festival grounds were bigger than the last few years' grounds. This just made it easier for Ed to evade his father and Roy.
After the feast was over, the sun began to set. Edward liked the way the colors of the sky reflected in the water. He decided that now would be the best time to make his escape. Al had gone to talk to some of his friends, Roy and his father were still talking, and Riza was standing off to the side. He swam off to the merchant area of the festival grounds.
Ed bought some snacks from the merchants and lingered in the area for a while. He left and headed towards his favorite trench when he felt he had socialize enough. The sun had set further by the time Ed reached the trench. He could tell because the vibrant colors of the sky above the water's surface were now much darker. Edward glanced behind him for a good minute before swimming upwards. He didn't want to risk being caught.
It was quite a long swim, but Edward was just below the water's surface now. He cautiously popped his head out of the water and looked around. In the distance, Edward could see a large ship.
Edward beamed upon seeing the ship. He started swimming towards it, but was careful to be quiet and not get caught while doing so.
Envy was bored out of his mind. He tried his best to stay out of everyone's way. His mother had insisted on traveling by ship to visit an old friend. Envy didn't see why she couldn't have gone alone. He was feeling particularly seasick at the moment. He hated boats and he hated the ocean and he hated his family. He wanted to just escape it all. Being nobility was harder than it looked! He leaned over the safety rails of the ship and stared off into the distance.
Just an hour more and we'll be there. Envy reminded himself. "Hey, little brother. Why don't you make yourself useful and do something?" Greed said from behind Envy.
Envy ground his teeth and scoffed. "Why don't you stop being an asshole, Greed." he replied, mocking his older brother's tone.
Greed chuckled sarcastically. "At least I'm not ugly~." Greed stated, just to annoy his younger brother even more.
Envy growled and turned to face his older brother. "You wanna fight, asshole? Fine! Let's go!" He tried to punch Greed.
Greed grabbed his younger brother's hand and was about to flip him, but their mother interrupted. "You will NOT fight on my ship! If you damage anything you will regret being born!" She scolded. How typical of her to care about the boat's wellbeing rather than her sons.