InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Here's some ointment for that "

terribly sorry, officer (baelfiery) wrote in valarlogs,
@ 2015-09-19 18:08:00

Entry tags:

!complete, edward elric, neal cassidy (baelfire)

Who: Neal & Ed
What: Talks while Ed makes friends with the horses
When: While the kid was staying at the outreach center
Where: The Ranch
Rating/Warnings: Naaaaah
Status: Complete

After Lina’s visit, Ed seemed much more relaxed than he had at the beginning of his ranch stay. He was leaving his room finally and eating again. For a few days after he refused, but it was short lived. The ranch seemed to have a positive effect on him, he was no longer keeping to himself on purpose anyway. By nature he was a bit of a loner so he tended to end up that way, but he was outside in spite of all those things.

His hair had grown a bit long in the past few weeks of insanity, but instead of letting it hang in a mess of tangles it was being tied back in a braid.

Ed was a little wary of horses, but they intrigued him none the less. He found himself staring on down uncomfortably, not quite sure what else to do with it. Books and science he understood, but not so much animals.

Being around horses was calming, at least Neal believed that - that was a line of thinking he and Emma shared, it was why she’d taken so well to working with the animals and ranch life when she first moved here, and he also knew that there were programs in place to show veterans afflicted with PTSD how to care for horses as part of therapy. There was just something about that, something about having a purpose. So Neal wasn’t surprised to see Ed hanging around where the horses were grazing, munching on hay to get their daily roughage allowance. He wandered up to the fence, came around, toolbelt stocked with supplies and wearing gloves since it was about time to clean the troughs. Didn’t want bugs or nasty algae to get in there - the horses deserved to drink sparkling fresh water.

“Hey kiddo,” he greeted the visitor, casual and feeling rejuvenated by being outside. He just really loved his job - and all the better when being at the ranch seemed to help people, like it did with Ed. “That’s Cleopatra. She’s friendly. You want to brush her?”

The blonde hadn’t been expecting anyone, though he should have guessed Neal was going to be coming around at some point. Where horses were comforting to him, Neal being around had the same effect on Ed. "Hey." He responded with a small smile and glanced back at the horse who seemed unimpressed by the attention it had been receiving being pulled off elsewhere.

"I duno, animals don't tend to like me. " Ed was still worried about things, but it had improved drastically compared to his first few days there.

“Well, give it a try.” Neal unearthed a rubber brush, handing it over. Grooming the horse was a good way to not only keep the animal’s coat nice and shiny, but it was also beneficial for bonding and developing trust. “Opposite direction of hair growth, small and circular motions. Anywhere except her face and spine and her legs.” They were just more sensitive than the rest of the horse, and a special brush was required.

Then he got to work with the trough, dumping it out - he’d use his own tried and true combo to clean it, not really a fan of using bleach where horses drank. It smelled awful, for one thing. “How are things? You feeling better?” he asked Ed, as he unscrewed the top of a bottle of apple cider vinegar.

Ed was extremely awkward around animals of most kinds whereas Al was the animal tamer of the family. He took the brush and looked it over with a sigh “If you insist.” He wasn’t usually the timid sort but right then it showed and he was more uncomfortable than before. The animal was huge in comparison “Al was better at this stuff than me.” He made a face, but the horse seemed to get a little impatient with his lack of brushing. With an almost cat like move the creature gently weaseled his hand to it’s side where it wanted him to start.

“Okay I guess. I still can’t sleep much.” He admitted with a shrug, he was afraid to anymore. Ed idly brushed the horse, it wasn’t so bad. The animal grazed at whatever food was nearby and didn’t seem the least bit disturbed by the teen.

Neal was literally elbow deep in the trough, scrubbing it, but he was listening. “You’re your own worst enemy, kiddo,” he chuckled roughly. Of course he didn’t mean it in an accusatory way, but it was a fact - sometimes, we were all our own worst enemies, but it was just that Ed was too young to be that way. “There’s this saying, it’s basically the motto in Jamaica which, now that I consider a little more, seems like a great place to go for a vacation, but it’s also a reggae song...anyway, it’s ‘Better Must Come.’ Makes sense, when you think about it.”

And things were looking up. Fall was approaching, new season, new weather (sort of), new opportunities. The presence of the Dark One was gone completely, Lina was also back with them, and they’d learned that life was short and to not take anything for granted. Didn’t seem too bad to Neal.

Ed didn’t feel young, he wasn’t entirely sure how. He’d been forced to grow up pretty quick to take care of his family. “I’m afraid to think like that, but I’m trying.” He had a shrink for that reason, when it came to things getting better Ed was constantly afraid they weren’t going to last.

“Maybe hope isn’t a bad thing to believe in though.” Ed always believed in science and facts, he’d disregarded things like hope and faith but without it things were tiring. Brushing the horse was oddly calming, he didn’t feel like squirming away as he had moments ago.

“I never thought it was. Even when it seemed like I had nothing left to hope for, and all sources were saying that I should just go on and give up. But you always keep that little spark alive,” Neal said, putting some elbow grease into using the scrubber to knock off any gunk from the trough. They were cleaned regularly, but it was a constant job to keep up with it. Hence why more hands were always appreciated ‘round here. “Otherwise, then what do you have? Not much.”

He glanced up, watching Ed brush the mare - who seemed to be enjoying it - she didn’t seem to be wanting to get away, but was content. “See, not so bad,” he grinned. ‘You have a natural talent for it.” Some really didn’t, and ended up just spooking the poor horse or irritating the coat.

“I thought it was. I thought I could just rely on science, but maybe there is a little more to living than facts.” That realization seemed to scare him a little, and he stopped brushing for a moment. He gripped at the rubber brush a little harder than he needed to before forcing his hand to move again, to get some places he had to stand on his toes. The horse was tall and he was entirely the opposite

“Not bad at all actually.” He found his nerves were untangling the more he brushed the animal. He stopped for a moment and dared to reach an arm up to pet her instead. He backed up a little startled when she snorted at him. Animals made odd noises, he was just glad Neal wasn’t much closer to embarrass himself by clinging to him. He certainly felt like it at the moment. Instead he just stepped back and folded his arms uncomfortably.

“That means she likes you,” Neal confirmed, since when he looked over he noticed that poor Ed had backed off. It was a snort followed by kind of a purring sound, which was good - sometimes the noises horses made didn’t mean anything good. But he had come sort of adept at interpreting them. “Probably wants a treat. Here...”

Once he dropped the brush he rummaged in his supplies and pulled out a box of sugar cubes, handing it to the kid - the horses didn’t get them often (sugar was bad for teeth for them just like it was for humans) but one or two occasionally didn’t hurt anything. “She’ll love you now.” Then he gave Ed a pat on the shoulder, a reassuring gesture. “You know there’s more to life than facts. There’s everything that lives in that squishy heart of yours, that can’t be explained by science.” A chemical reaction or something, maybe, if you wanted to get technical - but love and feelings weren’t always rational. Or logical.

Ed looked up as Neal came over with the box of treats and he raised a blonde eyebrow peering inside. Horses had a sweet tooth, it amused him a bit. "There really shouldn't be. It's just a complex series of organs tied together. " Ed understood many things about science. "There are ingredients that can be brought together to make a human, but it doesn’t work." He knew those ingredients, but they didn’t explain feeling.

Ed picked up one of the sugar cubes and tried to figure out exactly how to feed it to the giant creature. He held it up only to earn himself a frustrated sound as the horse couldn’t get to it in a closed hand, and he backed up running into Neal.

“No, it doesn’t work. A stitch job doesn’t work. Because what makes us human are our experiences. Our own thoughts and feelings - our flaws and our good points too.” Neal laughed a little, fondly, giving Ed a pat on the shoulder when the youngin’ backed up into him.

Feeding a horse was tricky, because with their long faces it was kind of a practiced sort of thing. “Here, like this...” He showed Ed how to hold the sugar cube for Cleopatra, so that the mare would be able to snatch it up. At least he was more willing to be around the animals now. Neal remembered when he first came to the ranch, he’d been cautious. Baby steps were a good thing.

Ed made a thoughtful sound to that, maybe there was something to that. It hadn’t worked with his mother and probably wouldn’t have worked with Lina even if he’d tried but he never understood why.

He held out the treat like he was shown and made a face as wet horse lips touched his hand. It made him laugh though. “I forget to use this hand because of that feeling, ew.” He grinned as he wiggled his flesh hand away to dry it off on his coat and looked back at Neal. “I miss home.” And that was the first time Ed had called it that, Riza’s was home now. “I like it here, but I miss them too.”

“‘Course you do.” Neal understood that - home meant different things, for different people. And for Ed, he had a place with his aunt and now his brother and that’s where he fit in. The ranch too, but it was more like a sanctuary - somewhere he could come to, to help him get his head back on straight when times were tough. “I’m sure they’d be glad to have you with them again.”

Then he brushed his hands off on his jeans (something he did frequently), and canted his chin back toward the main ranch house. “Ready to go back in?”

“Think so?” They’d all forgiven him sure, but that didn’t mean there weren’t still nerves attached to the idea of calling them up. A few of them had even been out there to see him, but home had always been a place of anxiety before his recent acceptance of it. The way things had been going he worried that maybe they wouldn’t want him back after all. It would suck to come back to that.

Neal didn’t change just because he was staying there a bit, and that was comforting to Edward. He needed that sort of stability, it wasn’t a thing he had a lot of. “Yeah, I think I saw ice cream earlier in the kitchen.” Things were improving, he was starting to feel hungry again. It was always the first sign things were evening out again.