InsaneJournal

The Knight in Slightly Tarnished Armor (yuuo) wrote in chaotic_library, @ 2007-06-11 18:08:00

[Edward Elric; Alphonse Elric; G] Smile, You're Home
Theme: #22; The Laughter of Women
Characters/Series: Edward and Alphonse Elric; Fullmetal Alchemist
Rating: G
Notes: All standard disclaimers apply; MOVIE SPOILERS HI THERE. :D
Title: Smile, You're Home
Author: yuuo
Word Count: 561
Summary: Edward Elric had become accustomed to waking to the sound of women laughing, his little brother's weight half rested on him as the younger Elric used him for a pillow.
Original LJ Post Date: Jan 11, 2006 @ 52_Flavours

"A smile on the face is a sign the heart is at home."
-Unknown

Home


Edward Elric had become accustomed to waking to the sound of women laughing, his little brother's weight half rested on him as the younger Elric used him for a pillow. The truck would bump and jolt them around a bit, somehow managing to hit every single pothole along the way (he entirely blamed Miriam for that; her brother-in-law was too cranky to put up with that many potholes just to pick on the girls and the two boys riding in the truckbed).

He'd wake up, and feel his brother laying against him, and Noa's hand on his forehead lightly. When he'd glance up at her, she'd smile and pull her hand back. "I'm happy," she'd whisper so the other girls couldn't hear her over their laughter and songs, "your dreams. They don't haunt you anymore, do they?"

And everytime he'd blink at her, and then grin and shake his head, then glance at his sleeping brother pointedly. Noa's smile would widen at that and she'd sit back, watching them, and then join in the singing, her voice adding a quiet harmony to the others, singing with words that only the gypsies really fully understood. He knew the language a bit though, just enough to make out bits and pieces of the story she added to the interwoven threads of song that the group was weaving with their collective voices.

She sang of a home, long ago and far away, of a beautiful woman and her children, of loss and pain and lessons and sacrifice. It was all familiar to Edward; she was singing his story, putting into words and sounds what his mind could only put into images, feelings, flashes of color that meant something to him, but couldn't be vocalized by just his own thoughts except through complex alchemical equations, array lines that stretched across his mind through to eternity.

He closed his eyes as he listen to them this morning, refusing to stir and wake his brother and lose the warmth of his brother's body heat against the cold North Romanian winter air. The truck continued along its path steadily, the deeper voice of Miriam's brother-in-law occasionally punctuating the melody with directions or grumbled curses at one thing or another.

Something jabbed him in the side and he opened his eyes, glancing around against the bright winter daylight. His brother grinned at him; when he'd woken up, Edward didn't know, but he smiled sleepily at him in response, curling his back in a stretch as he did.

"Hey, Brother?"

Edward shifted on his side a bit to look at Alphonse better. "Yeah?"

Alphonse's voice was hushed, audible only to Edward over the sounds of the others. "Kinda sounds like being home again, huh?"

Edward blinked, and then a smile slowly creeped onto his face, starting deep in his heart and working its way across his lips, and somewhere at the back of his mind, he could hear his mother's voice, singing lullabys while she worked, join the chorus of their travelling companions. Silently, he reached over and ruffled his brother's hair, then let his hand linger a moment before dropping it.

Alphonse smiled at him, then laid his head back down against Edward and closed his eyes.

Edward watched him, then closed his eyes and fell back to sleep to the sounds he'd awoken to.