Draped in Wires
by. Poisoned Scarlet
Theme 022: Bittersweet
He heard the gravel crunch under shoes behind him and he stood from his kneel. He turned, knowing who stood a few feet away, no doubt with a scowl marring his face, and was not surprised when he saw Edward standing with his hands shoved into his overcoats pockets.
"You're late for dinner so Winry told me to come and get you," he grumbled. The younger sibling noticed he avoided looking at the grave behind him. "Hurry up or it'll get cold."
"Thanks," Al murmured, taking one last glance at the tombstone. "...You should say goodbye." He quietly suggested, not breaking his gaze off the stone but knowing his brother had just sent him a look of outrage. "I know he wasn't the best...but he really tried to be in the end."
"Yeah, well, he didn't try hard enough!" Ed spat, mood embittered. "Let's just go! I'm starving so—!"
Alphonse moved forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, stating: "You have to let it go. You can't harbor the hate forever, you know – it'll only hurt you in the end. Just a couple of minutes, Ed, that's all I'm asking." Al walked out of the cemetery, leaving his brother to deliberate his words with a furious scowl that melted into apathy after he was sure Al had left him alone.
Hate? Ed thought, with a clench of his hand. His eyes finally landed on the stone, where the words Van Hohenheim were carved in neatly. There was a bouquet of white lilies resting beside the stone and Ed had the minor muse to kick it because he didn't deserve the flowers. However, he didn't when his eyes landed on the stone beside his – his mother's grave.
Trisha Elric.
An old pain came back. It was a familiar ache that had only been washed out due to age and experience. It wasn't as bad as before, not as a painful or heartbreaking, but it was still an ache he knew he'd carry for all his life.
Van Hohenheim.
Another ache, stronger and fiercer, sprouted in his chest beside the ache for his mother. The pain of his fathers premature leave was always fresh, always as if it had happened days before, and he supposed that he did not hate his father in the end. There was some mild compassion for the old man that just couldn't be erased, he knew this. He had thought he hated his old man with a passion but it wasn't so when he explained his reasons and confessed to being a human Philosopher's Stone.
"I am a monster with a wish to become human" – he supposed those words were what brought the sludge of guilt to knock him down a few centimeters that night. He hadn't been what he was expecting – a rude, disrespecting, piece of shit with a bad attitude – and that only proved to further the flush of confusion and sudden vulnerability within him.
He left on a quest to return back to normal because he wanted to grow old with us. Edward thought, annoyed by his fathers flawed logic. Stupid bastard didn't have to go and leave us! He did it all wrong – he could have just taken us with him...then it wouldn't have hurt so bad and maybe mom would've lived longer!
He kneeled before her grave, absently tracing the small cracks that lined the weathered stone with a single finger. "I can't believe you fell in love with this bastard." He sighed in resignation, turning reluctantly to his father's grave. "But I guess you weren't so bad if mom liked you... stupid, but not bad." He muttered, kneeling and clonking his fist against the grave stone in silent forgiveness. "You were a shitty father... but I guess you pulled through in the end." He softly smiled, letting his hand slide down the stone with something close to affection.
"See you later... dad."
He stood up and dusted his knees and hands off, giving both their stones one last look before heading out of the cemetery – a weight he did not know he even carried lifted from his shoulders.
A/N: No homework today! I took advantage of this day to revise a few chapters and decided to post this one up. Ah, it's getting late again. I have to sleep now or forever make dumb mistakes in Physic's class... x.x
Review!
Scarlett.