Hello again everyone! This is another random scenario I thought up while rewatching the 03 anime. I hope you enjoy and please leave a favorite or review if you feel so inclined!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of the characters!
It was almost summer, and the sun was beginning to set. Insects trilled on the other side of the glass as Al peered out, watching the sun as it began to descend behind the drab brutalist military buildings. Ed was sprawled on his bed in their shared dorm room, leafing through a few papers they had obtained during their latest lead.
The warmer months always reminded Al of something he himself couldn't even remember, a formative memory for his brother which he always so vehemently denied talking about. He thought distantly about their father and wondered if maybe Ed would tell him a little bit more, anything at all to quell his growing restlessness as the sun disappeared behind the courtyard.
"Brother?" Al asked somewhat bracingly, trying to prepare for the tumultuous argument that was sure to break out.
"Yeah, Al?" Ed asked offhandedly, completely absorbed in his reading.
Al took a breath before blurting out: "Can you tell me about Dad?"
The reaction was instantaneous. He watched his brother tense as his grip with his flesh hand tightened on the papers, and his shoulders stiffened, a good intimation that he was becoming irritated.
"Why do you want to talk about that bastard again, Al?" he asked flatly.
Al wrung his gauntlets nervously and looked at his brother, who still purposefully had his back turned and feigned normalcy as he continued to shuffle the papers, though Al knew he was unsettled and exasperated.
"Oh, um, I don't know," Al said eloquently, "it's just that I don't remember him, and I always think of him this time of year..." If it were possible, Al was sure he would be blushing, suddenly overtaken with embarrassment of asking something that seemed so silly.
"Consider yourself lucky you don't remember that good-for-nothing," Ed muttered darkly as he finally shifted to look at his younger brother.
"Brother…" Al sighed dolefully.
Ed sat up suddenly then, gaze smoldering as he stared hardly into Al's soulfire eyes.
"He let Mom die, Al. He's not worth your energy."
They were both silent for a moment, Al weighing whether it was worth it to keep pushing. Ed gave him a final glance before laying back down and studying the manuscripts again. The room was eerily still and deafeningly quiet.
There was a beat.
Ed began to relax, the harsh lines on his face fading as he perused the documents, but Al was still deep in thought as he turned back to the window. It was completely dark out now and he could hear the crickets chirping outside the window and the bright moon cast shadows on the empty courtyard.
"Brother-"
"Drop it, Al." Ed snapped, standing suddenly as the papers fluttered to the ground.
Al felt himself crumple bonelessly and tried to ignore the growing ineffable feeling in his chest. It was anger, he realized then – anger at his brother for being so damned belligerent about this, his father for leaving, and himself for being so intolerable that he felt he had to leave. Anger was not something he typically felt, not like his brother, and the uncertainty and swelling of the emotion startled him.
"Fine, brother! I'll just go find him and see for myself!"
Ignoring his brother's sudden panicked protests, he stomped down the hallway and out of the dorm building, finding himself in the darkness of the night as he tried to assuage his confusing and suddenly overwhelming emotions. Not daring to look behind him in case Ed was hot on his heels, he continued to run with no real direction or destination in mind.
Twisting and turning through the winding streets of the city, he eventually found himself at the riverfront. Though it hadn't been his intention tonight, he could remember sitting in the grass by the river whenever he had been upset in Resembool. He let out a tinny sigh and lowered himself into the lush grass, his body illuminated by the glow of the streetlight. Ed would almost certainly be here soon; he was rather hard to miss, being a seven-foot-tall suit of hulking armor.
Sure enough, mere minutes later he heard rapid, mismatched footsteps and labored breathing.
"Al?! Al!" his brother called, an unexpected and veritable alarm coloring his words as Al heard his footsteps coming closer, peering blankly into the glittering river.
"Al…" he breathed, and the armor shifted slightly when he realized he had finally been found out.
He didn't say anything. Instead, he listened as his brother hesitated for a long moment before slowly approaching him, his footsteps wet in the grass, before he sat down next to Alphonse.
There was a long pause, filled only by the crickets chirping and Al wracked his mind for what he could possibly say. He had brought up their father when he knew how sore of a subject it was for Ed, but he was still angry and unsatisfied. All he wanted was to know what their father had been like since his own memory had betrayed him. He felt a little disturbed by how rapidly his emotions had come on and how he had run off, again. It wasn't like him to behave this way, he was used to being the level-headed one, the one who was rational and respectful, not whoever this veneer of disdain and frustration was.
He picked at the grass with his gauntlet, suddenly immensely uncomfortable with the prolonged silence.
"Brother, I-"
"I'm sorry, Al."
They spoke at the same time and Ed's face flushed as he looked down at his hands. He wasn't one to apologize often, and it felt uncomfortable, his chest felt heavy with guilt as he thought about how he had upset his little brother, again. When Al remained silent, Ed continued.
"I know you're curious it's just…" he took in a breath, "that bastard left without a second thought."
Al thought for a moment.
"Maybe it's not that simple," he murmured, almost so quietly that Ed didn't hear him.
"Not that-? Al, he abandoned us, don't you get it? I don't care what bullshit reason he had; he was supposed to take care of us." The and mom was left unsaid, but Al received that message clearly.
This was all what Al already knew. Their father had left, abandoned them with their sick mother to fend for themselves, and had never written or visited once. While it still hurt, he couldn't help but feel there was more too it then that.
"Did he love us?" he asked, a sudden crushing need to know pushing to the forefront of his mind.
"I…I think he did, once." Now he sounded unsure, the tiniest hint of uncertainty creeping into his voice, and Al felt his heart sink.
There was silence again. Al tilted his faceplate towards the glowing moon and listened to the crickets, an overwhelming elegiac feeling consuming his soul. His armor rattled a bit as he tried to regain control of his emotions, uncertain if he was concealing his emotions properly so Ed wouldn't worry.
"Al?" his brother asked curiously and not without concern, and Al tilted his head down to look at his face. His expression was unguarded, and his usual anger was absent.
"I'm okay." He responded, perhaps too quickly.
Ed studied him for a moment, as if unsure if he should accept such an obvious lie.
"He wasn't always a bastard." He said instead.
Al startled at the admission, looking oddly at his brother's face, now partially obscured by his bangs as he bowed his head.
"He used to bring home these sweet rolls from town when he came back from traveling, and he would transmute mom flowers to give her, too."
Al didn't breathe, afraid that if he did the spell would be broken and Ed would stop talking.
"When one of the chairs in the kitchen broke, he asked me to help him make a new one. I didn't have any idea what to do, but he transmuted the pieces and helped me put it together. Mom was so happy."
A weak, slightly pained smile graced his face, a stark antithesis to his typically ostentatious attitude and prideful nature. As quickly as it came, however, it was gone, replaced with his usual scowl that he wore when thinking about their father.
"But then, he just…left." He spat the final word out like acid. Al still refused to speak, or he couldn't think of the right words to say. He sat stone still in the grass and didn't dare look at his brother in case his curiosity triggered Ed's combativeness.
"He left us, Al. And that's why it doesn't matter what he did before. Nothing can make up for him abandoning us- abandoning mom. He didn't say a word, didn't leave a note, he just up and left us like the bastard he is. I can't let you dwell on him when he doesn't even think about us." I can't let you become bitter like me.
The previous venom had been leeched out of his voice, replaced by a tamer disappointment. It was then that Al finally shifted, looking at his brother with his piercing glowing eyes.
"Thank you, brother." Thank you for being honest with me.
The two sat there for a little longer listening to the insects chirping and the grass rustling in the warm breeze. The night was pastoral even for the city, and the silence between the two was amiable, not tense and irresolute as it had been earlier. There was a certain verisimilitude in their company, and when Ed finally pushed himself to his feet his brother felt an odd sense of pride that he was his brother.
He might not have gotten all the answers, but his brother had been honest with him – vulnerable - and he thought that would do for now.