Alphonse Elric is (not_fullmetal) wrote in knowhereic, @ 2017-09-13 13:17:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | fullmetal alchemist: au: alphonse elric, fullmetal alchemist: canon: edward elric, supernatural: canon: castiel |
Who: Edward & Alphonse Elric and Cas
What: Ed misses his brother, so does Al.
When: During the passport linked plot.
Where: Outside the Master’s TARDIS
Rating: PG
Status: Log - Complete
It had been a little over 48 hours since Alphonse and Edward Elric had seen one another. Apparently, it was 47 hours too long, because neither could stand to be away any longer, and after letting Roy know he was going, the youngest of the two brothers was eagerly shooting a message to Ed even as he practically ran out of Mustang’s apartment and bounced down the stairs. He needed to know where his brother was. Because he had every intention of running across the entire head and slamming into his brother like a freight train. And that was exactly what he’d do. He made it all the way to where the TARDIS was parked, seeing both Cas (the angel) and Ed (his brother, of course) standing not far outside the door (the third guy must have been inside that little blue box), he didn’t even slow down. He ran right at Ed. And the youngest Elric ran directly into him, throwing his arms around him and making no attempt to slow himself down. They would hit the ground hard. Castiel wisely stepped out of the way. Brothers. --- Ed had been idly drawing alchemy circles in the dirt with a stick outside the TARDIS just to pass the time with Cas. He didn’t necessarily need to anymore, but it was good to remember them just in case anything weird happened. Apparently in space everything weird happened. He’d been reunited with his brother, only to have him taken away again and he wasn’t happy. Cas was quiet company, which was good but he was neither Al nor York. Ed wasn’t quite as comfortable with him as he was the other two. He hadn’t spiraled completely out of control, but it was plainly obvious the alchemist was upset even if he didn’t word it. He’d been focusing on the details of the circle to keep himself occupied when something small and familiar came flying at him. Ed didn’t even really have the time to react and catch him. All he did was fall into the dust. “When did you get so heavy? I was only gone two days.” Ed smirked as he looked up at him. Finally seeming to relax a bit. The Master guy made him severely uncomfortable, he was glad Cas was okay with standing outside. --- “Hey!” Al scolded with a laugh, lying atop Ed for a moment to give him a proper hug, before he finally climbed off of him and offered both hands to pull him up to his feet. “Are you alright, Brother?” He was asking both about the fall they’d both just taken (though Al was cushioned by Ed’s form) and his brother’s well-being in the care of the angel and the man in the phone booth. With Ed pulled up to his feet, Alphonse wrapped him in a proper hug again, he just stood there, arms wrapped around the other young man, and held. He didn’t want to let go yet. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with that at all. It was perfectly normal for him to want to keep hold of his brother. He hadn’t seen him in two days! This didn’t stem from co-dependence. Nope. “I missed you.” Al confessed without hesitation. A whole 48 hours. How had he gone two years? He didn’t know anymore. --- Ed wasn’t normally one for hugs, but just then he could actually use one if he was honest. He actually returned the hug, kind of glad York wasn’t to make some ridiculous comment about how clingy he could actually be. It wasn’t often Edward got clingy, but being away from Al brought it out in him. Hell, sometimes York did too. What was it with those two? “I’m fine, well less fine since you probably gave me a concussion just now..but fine.” He said with a faint smile, not really sure what the appropriate amount of hugging was. His Al really wasn’t able to hug him at all. Well, not like this anyway. Not with warm arms. The blonde alchemist honestly never thought he’d get to touch Alphonse like this again. So for just a little while, he was okay with this amount of touch. Even though it was more than he’d had in years in less than one month. Had Al been this clingy with his Ed? Or was it because he’d died..? Either way, Ed wasn’t about to open up that can of worms conversation. Ed made a bit of a face at that comment. “Yeah I guess I missed you too….maybe.” He teased as he nudged him. “You’re standing on it.” He pointed down at the little half destroyed circle from their fall but he didn’t care that much. Sometimes he just enjoyed teasing him. Just a little. --- Slowly, reluctantly, Alphonse finally released his brother and stepped back, though he remained within Ed’s personal space, unwilling to go too far away. “Oh, you’re fine and you missed me just as much--” But then he was looking down and a soft blush raced across his face. “Oh! I’m so sorry, Brother!” That had Al jumping back as he looked down at the ruined array, his hands coming together in front of him to grasp onto one another and rub nervously. “I’m sure it can be fixed.” Castiel offered from a few feet away, where he was watching from his spot next to the TARDIS. Blue eyes ran from one brother to the other, then he gave a bare nod. They were from separate universes, it was easy for the angel to see it, their souls looked.. Different. It was odd, something he’d never really experienced before. “I can help.” The bronze boy assured his brother with a smile. He wanted to help with everything. Anything. “Then you’re an Alchemist, too.” Tilting his head some, the angel again took stock of them both. They were so young. “Yeah, I just specialize in something different, that’s all.” And Al looked just so very proud of himself for it. --- Ed chewed at his lip at the comment about missing him and gave him an irritated side glance. “Oh shut up.” he mumbled with his own slightly embarrassed fidget. He didn’t blush as much as squirm uncomfortably when something awkward happened. Usually regarding feelings. He was harder around the edges when it came to expressing himself, sometimes it flustered him that Al was so open with his. Ed didn’t know how to be. He’d spent the last few years being guarded and protecting himself to take care of Al whom he thought needed it more. It was Al who was stuck in that metal suit. Who was he to have any sort of emotion involving it when it was his fault his brother was stuck like that? Glancing over at Cas, he shrugged and handed the stick over to Al. “It can be.” He had no doubt his brother was a good alchemist at this point. He could finish the circle without Ed explaining what it was, it wasn’t anything taboo for once. It was part of a reconstruction array. Fix things that broke. Simple enough. “Fix it.” He was fairly confident Al would catch on. Like a sort of game. Drawing circles was something Ed hadn’t done since they were kids. “What is that specialty?” Ed asked with a raised eyebrow. His own was construction and decomposition with a touch of practical combat alchemy. Plus a few other things he’d picked up along the way. --- With a beaming smile, the youngest Elric took that stick and bent to start fixing that array, redrawing lines, closing up the circle, and when he was done, it was just as if Ed himself had done it. Look at that, Ed, your little brother had grown up and become a real Alchemist. There was no doubt in his eyes, it was all confidence. Maybe having Mustang around was a good thing in some regards. Alphonse was confident in his craft. “Wind.” He said with pride, his chest puffing up a little. “Air, really.” It was unusual because it was surprisingly gentle. It wasn’t meant to kill, it was for pushing, for shielding, for protecting. Air was not for combat. But there were times Al used it that way, he had to. He was a soldier, after all. “I’ve been trying to get Roy to teach me Flame Alchemy for a long time, but the closest he’s ever come was teaching me how to use his flame once he’s made it. He sustains it and I manipulate it.” And he was even unsure about allowing that, but had inevitably broken down and agreed. And Mustang had been so very glad that he’d brought Al in that way-- the boy had turned into the now-Lt.General’s very best tool. He was rarely without the boy at his side. “You were always so good with Earth and rock, and combat Alchemy.. I knew there was no way I’d be able to match your talent with it, so I didn’t try. You encouraged me to go with something that fit my personality. You told me that I was more like a gentle breeze than an earthquake and I guess it stuck.” His eyes dropped for a second, considering his next words for a second before he spoke them. “My brother never wanted me to join the military. He didn’t want me to become a dog, like them. But I wasn’t going to let him leave me behind.” Bronze eyes shifted back up to the golden ones of his brother and he smiled again. “I told him he couldn’t leave me.” But he had. --- Ed was quiet while he watched Al fix the circle and talk about his air thing. “Hn.” He had a confidence that somehow annoyed Ed a little, reminded him a bit too much of Mustang at times but he was also a little proud. Of all the things Roy taught him, that attitude was his least favorite but maybe it was necessary. Al was from a different world. A world where he was left alone, Ed didn’t really want to imagine a world where his own brother was alone. He needed him. Maybe even more so, Edward needed to be needed. “Mustang won’t teach anyone. Least of all us.” Ed still couldn’t call the colonel by his name 90% of the time. If Roy initiated it the only way Ed went along with it was because Roy started and he just followed. Still calling him Roy felt wrong somehow. A faint smile at that completed circle. “Start the next one. I’ll finish it.” Like a sort of alchemy guessing game. Like brothers that created their own language. He and his Alphonse had. He wondered if this one would be able to pick up on his own coded alchemy. “..I won’t allow Al to join. The one where I’m from..it’s bad enough I took away his body. ” Ed commented softly, watching Al’s fleshy arms draw circles so proudly. --- It might be surprising that this Al could read Ed’s coded Alchemy. The code was the same, the two of them both could read and use it, but they each had a different code in Al’s world, because he’d become an Alchemist, too. He was required to have his own. But they’d both been able to read them, they hadn’t kept secrets from one another, though Mustang constantly yelled at them about it. That they couldn’t share, that it needed to be private. Neither Elric boy had listened. They shared everything. Until one day, Ed was just gone. So with that stick, he’d be able to easily continue on with the next array, his mind following along Ed’s same track of thought without issue. He really was Alphonse. Just.. well. He’d spent the last two years of his life without his big brother. So he was a little different. Influenced more by the Colonel and Lieutenant. “If I hadn’t been a State Alchemist..” He paused in his writing. “I’d be dead, too.” Well, if he was honest, neither of them would be dead, but their mother would be. What he’d meant, though, was that after Edward had died, the military was what had kept him from losing his mind and taking his own life-- or just simply going crazy. The military had become his family. He needed them now. A true dog of the military. --- Much like wizards and their custom ingredients, alchemy was also custom. Almost every alchemist he knew had a specialty of sorts. A code. Ed and Al had worked so closely together as kids to come up with one they could both understand unintentionally. Ed had known back then about the secret codes of an alchemist, but didn’t care with his brother. He had nothing to hide from Al and vice versa. He was curious to see if that carried over worlds or not. Would this Al know as much as his? He’d seen the differences between this Al and his. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew they were different, but he wanted to believe they were similar in some regard. He needed to. Without Al he’d been miserable. When Al said those words If I hadn’t been a state alchemist...I’d be dead too it brought a sense of dread to him. A rush of sadness. “If something happens to me, you move on. Do you understand me? You move on or I’ll come back and haunt your ass and you’ll wish you had.” Ed said without a hint of humor. He was serious. If he died (why that damn subject kept coming up lately he didn’t know)..he would hate for his brother to suffer that much because of him. “You keep moving forward. You have two perfectly good legs you said, use them.” Maybe it was harsh, but it was a harsh subject. He took the stick from Al for a moment and hugged him. Initiating a hug was rare for Ed, but maybe this time it was okay. --- Those large, round eyes blinked. Then they blinked again. Move on? Ed wasn’t serious, was he? But then those arms were around him (one automail, it felt so strange, he’d never known his brother to have automail before) and Alphonse returned the hug eagerly, his eyes closing down as he just held on. “I didn’t want to move on.” He insisted against his brother’s neck, face partly buried in those long, golden bangs. “I don’t want to move on. I just want my brother. And he didn’t do anything-- he just stood there.” Tears sprung to his eyes, but they were hidden by the way he kept his face tucked in so close against Ed. “My life for his, equivalent exchange-- that’s what he said!” It was very nearly a shout, but he was mindful enough that he was close to the other State Alchemist’s ear, so he kept his voice down enough, but he was clearly distressed. He didn’t elaborate further, though, he just tightened his arms. His brother had left him. But Ed, this Ed, wouldn’t leave him. Al wouldn’t let him. He couldn’t. - That comment made Ed irrationally angry. “What he said was bullshit, what he did..was out of love. So you could live, I don’t mean move on. I mean carry on. Like you’re doing. Continue being Alphonse Elric. Don’t ever give that up. You’re doing good Al.” Ed said into his hair as he tried somehow to soothe him. Not really sure if what he was doing was helping or hurting but sometimes to make things better harsh things needed to be said. Pave the bad to make way for the good. They couldn’t just carry on like this. Ed knew they were a little broken. If he’d been in Al’s place he would be too. “Listen to me. No ones life for the others. I won’t let it happen and if it does happen, you help me get out of it. You don’t do this sacrificial bullshit. Understand? I...don’t want to go there again.” Ed breathed out. He’d nearly gone there for this prisoners in turn for Als body. Hundreds of lives for the other. “I nearly sacrificed hundreds to restore what we’d lost and it’s bullshit.” --- The elder boy was doing surprisingly well, good on him. Al was calming as he was told he’d done good, as Ed reassured him. The words were nice to hear, Ed’s voice was nice to hear. His brother’s warmth against him was perfect. He listened as he was told no sacrificial bullshit. He agreed, it was bullshit, his brother should have let him die. Things would have been better if it’d been him who died. But it’d been Ed. It wasn’t fair. Life wasn’t fair. “I would do anything to get him back.” Alphonse admitted quietly, his arms tightening again. He didn’t want to let go. Not ever. --- Ed frowned at that. He was uncomfortable that the conversation had gotten to this point, especially in front of Cas...but the angel didn’t seem to mind or interrupt, so Ed was grateful for it. He held onto Al with quiet resign. “I understand wanting to, but do you know what I’d want?...I’d want you to live. I’d want you to keep going forward. Don’t forget, but don’t waste your life Al. Your life is worth so much more than you know to me.” If Ed had been in Al’s brother’s position h’d probably have done all the same things, but he wouldn’t have stood there...he’d have done something “You’re not going to lose me, so can you do something for me?” It was all he wanted from him was to be Alphonse Elric, he needed him to be. His flesh hand gripped a little at him too. “Stay with me. “ He didn’t elaborate, but his brother wasn’t stupid. He could read between the lines. “....I need you.” He admitted quietly. Disliking the fact that he sounded so damn vulnerable just then. If Al rejected his proposition he didn’t know what he’d do. He supposed for now he could only silently hoped he wouldn’t. ---- Alphonse had been unfair about what his brother had done-- Ed had done everything he could, he’d fought hard, and when it came down to it and he knew he couldn’t beat Envy, he’d bargained. Envy had taken the deal and killed Ed first. Ed was who he’d really wanted, Al had just been a fun way of torturing the elder brother for a time. But, stay with him? Of course Alphonse would stay with his brother. Forever. And even after. For eternity. Al couldn’t imagine ever loving anyone more than he loved Ed. Ed was his entire world. He was everything to Al. Beside them, Castiel lifted his eyebrow slowly at Ed, but a small smile crossed his lips, then blue eyes slipped out over the landscape again, focusing on the library for the most part. “I need you too. Of course I’ll stay with you.” He wouldn’t leave. Not if Ed was still here. He’d never go without Ed. --- There was a distinct glance that met Cas’s momentarily that read tell anyone about this and I’ll deny it. Sometimes he acted tough, like he didn’t need anyone, but when it came down to it he needed Al for his sanity. Al was his rock just as much as Ed was his. He didn’t necessarily need to sleep ontop of Al, not that kind of closeness, but this. This was good. This was comfortable, and being able to touch him like this brought a level of calm to the Fullmetal Alchemist that he hadn’t had in ages since he arrived in space. A certain sense of purpose. He didn’t stay in his room as long these days even when the bad days hit. York and Al were helping, and the thought of going back to that bad place he’d been in before terrified him. He hadn’t admitted what happened to Al yet, and probably wouldn’t unless it came up somehow (he sure as hell wasn’t bringing it up.) He finally let go of him after a moment and just decided to sit down in the dirt. It was more comfortable to him. Ed wasn’t all that picky about clean surfaces. He was quiet, unsure how to change the subject now or more forward. He just looked out over said dirt and poked at it again with the stick. --- Castiel gave a small tilt of his head but said nothing more of it. Or, anything of it, really. He just looked the other way as Alphonse sunk down in the dirt next to his brother and leaned in against him, happy to be there, regardless of how unclean it was. As long as he was with Ed, it was all that mattered to the youngest Elric. |