run, i'm a natural disaster
04: Circle
Ed's life is made of circles. As an alchemist, it's unavoidable. They denote the flow of power and dictate its flow and purpose.
A circle was the thing that made his-her mother smile, books full of circles were all his-her, dammit, father left behind. Circles taught them, whispered secrets of the universe to him-fuck, her, bent them to her will, and ended up ruining her life, and destroying her brother. She doesn't need them now, and secretly she is grateful, because drawing circles makes her feel guilty and breaks her heart. But she can't stop seeing them, can't stop drawing them, because there is always something that a clap won't solve, and moving forward has never been so hard.
Yet another circle has turned her life around now. They were at a warehouse, looking for a place to stay, and she'd spotted chalk on the floor, underneath the dust. Truth be told, she'd wondered why she couldn't just transmute them a place, but apparently places appearing and disappearing out of nowhere with a crackle of transmutation lightning wasn't very subtle. (Fuck subtle, she thinks, and wishes she'd gone against Greed anyway). She'd been standing, one leg in and one leg out, ready to clap and remove the dust without activating the array, when Darius and Heinkel had bent to touch one edge.
And then Edward Elric was suddenly "Edwarda "Elric, with breasts and vagina and uterus and womb and everything else that made a female female. She had immediately started scanning through all she could recall of medical texts that Winry had leant them (Al and him, back when she was he) and how the female body functioned.
Late at night, he screams and swears and curses, glares at how the universe has fucked him over again. In daylight, or around the others, she smiles and jokes, getting used to her femininity and how their group dynamic has changed. (She pretends not to notice that Darius is being automatically protective of her around other men, how Heinkel will comfort her and how Greed and Ling are nicer to her).
She can't fix this, not even with her clap alchemy or circle drawing, because that would be human transmutation and she won't risk not being able to save Al. So she'll get up and walk, because it's getting to the point where she's not even uncomfortable with it anymore.
AN: Ed x Angst, because that ship is pretty damn canon.
Most of you wanted Roy, and some of you wanted Al, so they're coming up. (Please remember that I am ten drabbles ahead so they could be anywhere from eleven-fourteen at this point.)
Any requests for characters, mini-plot lines; as well as any requests for AUs, fusions and cross-overs are taken and much appreciated.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
-Tom
{Thanks to Fluehatraya, Hyper V and Mini Hayden for reviewing - they all make my day.}