Hey y'all. It's me again. This is a first time character writing for me, but I'm actually not too disappointed. I haven't read the Land Of Sands book, I think it's called, since eighth grade, but I have seen the other brothers Elric episodes. I did draw a bit from the books though, at least from my memory, Russell was even more distant and kinda cold hearted then in the ep.
I wanted to do a manga one next, but the inspiration for this struck instead. Either way, I hope you like it.
Summery: The people of this town were dying, and he was too scared to actually do anything about it.
Character: Fletcher Tringham
Verse: Anime
Warnings: none
Word count: 538
Sickness
Fletcher halfheartedly inspected the orange tinged plant in front of him. The only part of the experiment his brother let him handle, seeing as he was the one who thought of it. It was the only part he wanted to work with anyway.
Glancing over towards Russell, the blonde boy sighed quietly into his facemask. He was once again completely engulfed in their father's research. Their whole reason for being here, to make sure he got the credit he deserved.
"B-brother?" the younger boy started, hoping that maybe, just this once, he'd be able to speak aloud just how wrong all of this felt.
"Yes, Alphonse?" Russell responded without turning around, causing his brother to flinch. He hardly ever called him Fletcher anymore, only when he was absolutely sure they were alone. Instead he went by the name of the full metal alchemist's little brother, Alphonse. For some reason, the name managed to knock any of the confidence he'd tricked himself into believing he had completely out.
"Nothing, it's just… don't you think you should take a break soon? You've been working almost nonstop… brother?" despite his quiet pleas, the older boy continued to ignore him, just peering into the microscope. Turning away, Fletcher stared out the window, down the mountainside to the town below. The town they were suppose to be helping by creating these red stones. In reality, it was obvious to anyone who knew what they were really doing to see how it was the exact opposite. They were killing those people.
The sickening feeling that always came whenever he thought about the side effects of their work began to rise inside of the blonde boy. Russell didn't know about that though, Russell didn't know about anything.
People were going to die all because he couldn't stand up to his brother just once. Digging his fingers into the tabletop, he tried to keep his balance, starting to feel lightheaded.
"Brother?" he called softly, trying to keep his balance.
"Yes?" the older brother answered again, a slight agitation to his voice at being disturber for a second time. Fletcher ignored it as he started walking to the exit of the lab.
"I think I'm going to go lay down, I feel tired," He explained quietly, hoping Russell wouldn't mind, It wasn't exactly a lie, he did feel tired. The older boy simply nodded, not taking his eyes off his work.
"Alright Al, feel better," he mumbled, probably having caught the slight wobbly tone in his younger brother's voice. Fletcher didn't look back at his brother as he opened the door to head to the room Mr. Mugiar was providing for him.
"Thanks Ed," he said before shutting the door behind him. Maybe it was better with these fake names. If he just pretended it really was the famous Elric brothers doing all this, instead of themselves. Another dizzy spell, and the young boy had to hold into the wall. No, he couldn't do that. No matter what they called themselves, it was them and them alone who was responsible for the toxicity that seeped into the town.
No matter what the reason or how unintentional it was, they were killers, and it made him absolutely sick.