Username: 
Password:    
Remember Me

Search by :  Username E-mail Region Interest AOL IM ICQ Number Yahoo! ID MSN Username Jabber

Edward Elric is the Fullmetal Alchemist (fullmetal_chibi) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-06-10 17:29:00

Who:Ed and Neal
What:Ed worries about Neal's recent trip to the underworld and etc
When:recently!
Where:Neal's place
Warnings:none~
STATUS: complete~



The mention of Neal going to the underworld had shocked Ed. He’d been so out of participating in O.C.’s weird shenanigans that he felt a little guilty about not knowing. He’d been so bored of normal life too, he couldn’t help but worry. Maybe he needed to get back into things, but he was actually kind of happy now. Was it wrong to want that to continue? He was admittedly conflicted by wanting things. But for now he knew of one solid want that he could manage, a want to see Neal for his own eyes and make sure he was okay.

It didn’t take him long to show up at Neal’s place It would have been shorter with a car of is own, or maybe a motorcycle-but he had yet to talk to Riza about that one. Maybe soon...Ed rapped at his door a little more impatient than he ought to have probably.

It had been an interesting few weeks, and a whirlwind, what with Killian dying and everything that came with it - all the grief and sorrow and the triumph upon his return; Neal felt like they defied the odds, and got out of the Underworld by the skin of their teeth. Now they could just put that all behind them while moving on to the next bit of life’s weirdness. Not that it was easy, however - there were still some lingering traumas to cope with, on Killian’s end.

As of now, Neal was a domestic god while Emma suffered through the last few weeks of her pregnancy - he liked when she was resting, but sometimes she needed air, so Regina or whomever would take her out. It was just the men in the house when the knock came, and Neal was stirring a pot of sauce on the stove - it was spaghetti night, and he usually tried to sneak in vegetables and things into that sauce. Spinach was today’s choice, along with ground turkey for protein. Henry didn’t mind as long as he couldn’t taste the healthy stuff.

“I’ll get it!” Putting down his video game controller, he zoomed to the door as the dogs perked up (Hawkeye went to investigate, while Mystique decided she was too lazy for that). “Hey Ed! Daaaaaad, Ed’s here,” was the announcement once he saw who it was.

“Hey kid.” He nudged him with an arm as Henry came at him and smirked a little. He wasn’t much older than a kid either really, but the dreams sometimes made him feel older. Like he’d been through more years than he physically had. It was hard to explain. “Neal’s cooking then?” He didn’t see him but he could smell something coming from the stove. Ed wasn’t hard to please when it came to food. Anything that was put in front of him he’d basically eat, or at least try before he decided against it.

He wrapped his non metallic arm around Henry’s shoulder and wandered inside with him. “Video games huh? I was actually never good at those.” He gave the dog that bothered to come greet him a scritch behind the ars with the free hand and the other dog a sassy look that meant he got nothing since he wasn’t getting up. He let Henry go once they were further into the room and peered into the kitchen to see Neal was in fact in there and in one piece. For a moment he didn’t even say anything, he just watched like a deer caught in headlights. He couldn’t find words for the relief he felt at seeing him standing there like always.

“Hey, kiddo,” Neal turned from where he’d been tending to the sauce, flashing Ed one of those crooked, easygoing smiles. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost. I promise I’m fine. Still in one piece and everything.” Nope, he hadn’t died this time - that was long gone, buried in the past, an experience he would just as soon put behind him. And he had - safe to say, he’d found a way to move on and find better things, to really live again. Didn’t regret a second of it either.

Henry flopped on the sofa, picking up the video game controller again. “You should come play, Ed! I’ve got Call of Duty, and it’s multiplayer.”

The twelve-year-old was always happy to have a video game buddy, but either way, he liked the company. “Feel free,” Neal encouraged. “And you’re welcome to stay for dinner if you want. There’s gonna be plenty.”

Ed had attempted to play one recently but it didn’t keep his attention. He leaned on the backside of the couch for a moment to peer over Henry’s shoulder. “Hnn...military games? Maybe in a sec.” He had heard of that one, Call of Duty. One of his commanding officers played it in his free time. Ed liked to give him crap but that’s just because of who he was not because of the game itself. It actually sounded kind of interesting.

“Yeah? Whats in it?” He gave Neal a suspicious glance as he wandered into the kitchen instead and just stared up at him. Suspicion melting off him and becoming something a little more subdued and less interested in the food. He reached out to touch Neal’s arm for a moment and fell quiet. Lina was right, it wasn’t just some illusion he’d talked himself into that he was seeing Neal shaped things.

He had debated for awhile with Henry, both his mom’s questioning the young one too, about letting the kid have Call of Duty - but eventually they relented, because with all the shit that went on in Orange County, that Henry knew about anyway? A battle video game seemed tame in comparison. And hey, maybe he’d even learn something about strategy - the good thing was that the multiplayer version tended to be a little more tame, and they could have some say over the amount of violence shown, so, overall Neal was fine with it.

Glancing at Ed, he chuckled quietly. “It’s just marinara meat sauce - the meat’s ground turkey,” he promised. Turkey tasted like beef, it was just a bit healthier but still provided lots of protein. Bread was also baking in the oven, and he was about to put the noodles into the boiling water. Overall, the kitchen smelled like garlic, oregano, and spice which certainly wasn’t a bad thing at all.

But he could see Ed needed a hug so he set the spoon on its holder and stepped closer to wrap his arms around the half-metal teenager. “This place is always kinda weird, huh? Don’t worry, I’m okay.” And he wasn’t going anywhere either.

He didn’t really care what was in the pasta in all honesty. He’d never had a problem with Neal’s cooking before, even when he snuck in the dreaded veggies. Ed wasn’t a terribly picky eater. So long as the food tasted good that was what mattered.

Well, he hadn’t expected that. He wasn’t the most touchy feely type person typically speaking-but when you learn your friend has gone to the underworld maybe it was time to make an exception. His brows furrowed as he clung onto him, a little more upset by the idea then he’d originally imagined he’d be upon seeing him alive and well in the aftermath. The idea of losing Neal wasn’t a thing Ed was prepared for, but had braced himself for when Lina had said where he’d been. People didn’t typically return from those trips, he gripped at him a little tighter than he probably needed to. “...If you’re lying, I’ll kick your ass.” Trying to maintain his usual rough exterior was hard just then. “People don’t usually come back from there. I thought…” He trailed off, he always wore a hard shell to protect Al but it was difficult on him at times.

“People usually don’t, but we went to bring back someone else’s soul - and we weren’t gonna leave until we got what we went after.” So it involved some wheeling and dealing with one version of the Lord of the Dead himself, but overall it worked out fine. Kind of touch and go for a minute there, but hey. You had to take big risks sometimes.

Neal gave Ed one of those patented stooooop, you’re messing up my hair ruffles, then stepped back to grab a pot holder. Slipping it over his hand, he opened the oven door, calling into the living room. “Hey, Henry - come set the table. Pause the game or whatever,” he rolled his eyes good-naturedly, not even sure if you could pause Call of Duty - but oh well, it was about to be dinner time. A sit-down thing with family, and all that.

“Every single word in that statement confuses everything I believe in you know.” He mused, Ed believed in science first and that didn’t often equal magic. But then...human transmutation wasn’t really either. What the hell was he supposed to believe in then? “Who’s soul?” He hadn’t really been following weird O.C. things lately. His own set of weirdness was going on, but it wasn’t exactly that.

Ed squirmed at that and made a face as he swatted the hands. “Oi, no touch.” And gave him a incredulous look.”Er, I don’t think you can.” From what Ed remembered about Call of Duty-which admittedly wasn’t much. “Should I do something?” He didn’t really do many sit-down dinners, even with Riza it was usually pretty hectic and grab what you can on the way out.

The response from the living room was Henry frantically smashing buttons like his life depended on it. “I’m almost done!” he called back, and ugh. He’d just have to do this part later - into the kitchen he went, automatically going for the cupboard to take down three plates. They’d also have to make sure to leave some spaghetti and garlic bread for Emma, when she came home - at nearly eight months pregnant, let’s just say she didn’t like being left out of the food decisions made.

Good thing Neal made a gigantic pot’s worth of his edible creation. “Killian’s,” he answered Ed’s first question. “He’s the baby’s godfather, and he died kind of...tragically. His family was really missing him. But no, have a seat, just tell Henry what you want to drink.”

“I got to go to the Underworld in the dream thing,” Henry said - apparently he knew what his dad was talking about. “But they wouldn’t let me go this time.”

That name was only vaguely familiar but not because Ed had ever met him, but likely because he’d heard the name at some function or another. “He’s alive now though?” Ed was still debating whether even going to his mother's grave was worthwhile, but maybe with this new information he might make a decision.

He sank down in one of the chairs and waited for Henry to his thing. “Water?” When he came around, Ed leaned an arm on the table and glanced up at him. “You go? What for?” He couldn’t imagine Henry going in there either, and didn’t want to. It was an unnerving thought. He liked him alive and talking and stuff. Ed used his free hand to smooth the hair that Neal had messed up with a bit of a scoff “Tch, that’ll never go back down.” One of the blond hairs he was commenting on was sticking up right and mocking him now. He had to do a weird thing to tuck it under his other bound hair to make it stay down officially.

The idea of a twelve-year-old going to the Underworld was definitely a worrying one - Neal, in his spirit form there, didn’t exactly approve either. “See? It’s not a good idea, Henry,” he said as he plated the spaghetti - the rest of it was just put into a big ceramic bowl and brought to the table, in case anyone wanted seconds (or thirds, in some cases - Neal knew how these two boys ate).

“I don’t know, but Emma brought everyone down there,” the kid explained. He pulled the pitcher of water from the fridge and poured them all glasses. No sense in asking if he could have a beer or not, the answer was always no. Besides, it kinda tasted gross anyway. “To get Killian, just like it was here. Only I don’t think it went as well. He’s alive now though.”

“Yep, alive and kicking - anything’s possible in the OC, right? One day I’ll introduce you.” That was directed to Ed, since Henry was already familiar with the pirate. Being that he was essentially part of the family and dating Regina. “Alright, bon appetit, kiddos.”

Boom! Hearty, homecooked meal right there on the table. Just call him ‘Super Dad.’

“That’s not even a place I wanna go if I can avoid it.” He said to Henry with a small frown, but he’d made up his mind. The conversation had helped a little, sometime during the summer he wa finally going to visit his mom. He hadn’t since it happened. “..I definitely want to see him sometime.” He commented as the plate was set in front of him “I talked to Al about you joining us for Alchemy stuff if you want..I mean.” That statement directed toward Henry. “Heh, it’s kind of a trip really...teaching someone, but he asked. So if you wanna learn it...maybe this summer?” Slightly different topic, but the idea of death and underworlds was a little depressing over dinner.

“You done with school yet Henry?” He shoved probably too large of a mouthful of pasta in his mouth. For a moment he paused as he finished off his food and cast a side glance over at Neal. “...I have some news, I mean it’s not that big of a deal but..I might have kinda gotten a girlfriend recently.”

The idea of learning alchemy was like Christmas come early for Henry. “Yeah, can I??” His eyes, so much like Neal’s, lit up happily. “I wanna learn this summer! And get archery lessons too, ‘cause we met Hawkeye in a pizza place once and he said he’d maybe teach me.” There were so many things Henry wanted to learn, why not learn them all?

Neal laughed a little. “It’s fine with me,” he assured Ed. “Let me just talk to Em and Regina about it, but I’m sure they’ll agree.” No reason why not - they were good with Henry expanding his horizons. If he ever began to dream, then it’d be troublesome - collectively, they all hoped it didn’t happen.

“I’m almost done with school,” the kid was also shoveling spaghetti in like he hadn’t seen food in days. Boys. “Just a few more...oh, hey, you have a girlfriend?? That’s awesome! What’s she like?”

Yes, Ed. Do tell.

Ed nodded to that. A grin creeping across his face a Henry’s reaction. “It’ll just be basic stuff...nothing like….how we met.” He shifted his gaze to Neal with a sheepish grin.”I’ve been told if I do that again anyway Lina will punch me in the face. So I’d like to avoid that. This is mostly gonna be the construction of simple objects, like that canon I made once in your yard.” Having people to talk about alchemy who understood alchemy was awesome. “And...don’t be discouraged if it’s hard for you, for me alchemy is like breathing. I’d be lost if I couldn’t do it.” There was much more too it, but without alchemy Ed didn’t even know who he was honestly. That was what had scared him the most in the last O.C. adventure where the weird ass fog had come to bring their fears into reality.

“When you finish up we’ll start.” He directed his attention back to Neal for a moment as he shoved an impressive probably inhuman amount of spaghetti into his mouth and swallowed it down in one bite. “..I have something else I should tell you, but...maybe later?” It was a bit dark for table talk, Ed knew that much about interacting with people.

He grinned at the question. “A half demon with a short temper for bullshit, so how she puts up with me is probably through pure strength.” He laughed. “Raven, I think you’ve met?”

“Never heard of her,” Henry responded, but Neal knew who she was. From awhile ago, during the whole ‘possessed by a form of the Dark One’ fiasco. He hadn’t really talked to her much since then - she seemed to like to keep to herself, and he could respect boundaries - but if Ed was happy, and Raven was happy, then why the hell not.

The babies - they just grow up so fast, don’t they? Pretty soon Henry would be dating. Probably having girlfriends. It kind of blew Neal’s mind a little. “Well, hey, good for you two,” he congratulated the alchemist stud muffin over here. “Enjoy it, you deserve something nice.”

But he also caught the comment about later, so, Neal would oblige. While shuffling Henry off to play video games - not like that’d be difficult. “You get out of doing the dishes, kiddo,” Neal told him. “Let us clean up here and then we can talk dessert.”

Sweet. That was all Henry needed, to go zooming back into the living room.

“I’ll bring her around sometime.” Neal and Henry were like family to him, he wanted Raven to know them too. He hoped she’d like them, hell he hoped they’d like her. Their opinions mattered to him. Neal wa the closest thing Ed had to a father type figure in his life that didn’t suck. “She can do some cool power stuff too.” He said giving a finger wiggle and grin to Henry. “But don’t piss her off, otherwise you’ll get time out in a portal. It’s not fun in there.” All full of nightmares and blackness. Not exactly good times. “..I’m not really sure what to do with it now that it’s a thing, but thanks.” He grinned awkwardly, admitting he had zero clue where to go from there. They’d done some stuff but were both awkward at romantic things.

Ed waited until Henry slid off to go back to his game, and the door to the kitchen swung shut. “Good news and bad news really...I think I told you about what happened after being forced to create the philosopher's stone?....I didn’t do it. I was interrupted.” That was the good part. Even if the ‘good’ was still gray to him in it. “....But I’ve learned a few things.” Ed wasn’t really sure what to do with his new information, he picked up his and Henry’s plate and brought it over to the sink to help with either washing or drying. “None of them good.” He glanced down at the counter top where he placed the clean plate in his attempt to be helpful.

“In the dreams, you mean? Why, what have you learned?” Neal asked, turning the water on to give things a rinse before they’d be placed into the dishwasher. He started with the plates, then stacked them, moving onto the saucepot - there weren’t a ton of dishes used for cooking and mealtime, but he wanted to have everything neat and tidy for when Emma came home. The last thing she would want to deal with would be a sink full of dirty dishes with crusty and congealed stuff on them.

And since Ed wished to be helpful also. “You can pack up the leftovers if you want,” he added. “Tupperware’s in the cupboard.”

He nodded to that question. “Yeah...in them.” It was sort of hard for him to separate the two sometimes. He even caught himself calling them ‘home’ on occasion “Kay.” He had a general idea where most of the stuff was at Neal’s place now, but tupperware was one of the things he didn’t quite know where it was yet by heart. “I can create and bind memories to people. I..haven’t had to try it here, but I’m sure if I needed to..” For some reason, Ed didn’t really want to know what reason though. The idea of being able to do that much sort of worried him.

“There aren’t many alchemist that can do that. Not even where the dreams happen..” Ed knew he wasn’t exactly an ordinary alchemist, but this was over his head. He stole a noodle to eat as he packed away the rest of the food and leaned against the counter. “Al hates me for it. He ran off and accused me of creating false memories. I didn’t though..not on him I wouldn’t...”

“Of course you wouldn’t.” Neal knew that, there was no question about it - Ed adored his little brother, in both realities, and besides. The kid wasn’t exactly the evil mastermind type who liked messing with people for the hell of it. His alchemical abilities were amazing, sure, but Neal believed that he used them for good whenever possible.

The leftovers were put into the fridge for Emma (with a sticky note reminding Henry not to touch them, in case he decided he needed a midnight snack - it wouldn’t be worth the pregnant lady ‘who ate my food’ meltdown) and grabbed a damp sponge to give the table and countertop a quick wipedown. “It could be a good thing though, maybe you’d get to use it to help people - you always try to help people, Ed, I wouldn’t worry too much,” he assured, and he knew how the kid’s heart worked. That he had a sweet and caring nature to him despite any tough-person outer shell.

“He still thinks I did.” Ed frowned in memory of that conversation on the roof and rubbed his jaw as if to sooth the ghost wound Al had left there in it’s wake. “I don’t even know what to do with that ability.” Ed stopped putting things together and stared moodily at the table for a moment. “I don’t think this is an ability to help anyone.” Maybe it was better forgotten, but Ed really wasn’t the forgetful type when it came to knowledge and alchemy.

The thing that bothered him the most about this whole situation was that Al thought that poorly of him. “He was holding back saying it for so long it all just came to a middle. I just..wonder if he’ll feel that way here too.” Al’s birthday was coming up, the last thing he wanted was for that to happen then of all times and to lose him again. He glanced up at Neal with a faint smile. “I try...A lot of the people where I’m from try to use alchemy to swindle people and hurt them, there was even one that tried to act like God-creating ‘miracles’” He added finger quotations and everything on the word miracles. “Alchemists aren’t gods. It’s supposed to make life easier for others. At least it should.”

The fact that Ed thought that way, knowing the limits of what he could do (and maybe he’d made mistakes in the dreamworld, but the point of this second shot was to not repeat those mistakes) was just testament to the fact that he had a good head on his shoulders. “You never know when who will need what around here,” Neal pointed out. Maybe he could keep something like that tucked away for a rainy day - they were his abilities to learn and control, anyway.

“Al also seems to be able to separate dream stuff from waking stuff pretty well. No reason to assume he’ll automatically resent you for something that happened on another plane of existence.”

“Yeah...I suppose so.” He hoped he’d never have to use that ability, it worried him having that much power. He finished wrapping the last of the tupperware boxes he chewed at his lower lip as he leaned back against the counter and peered over at Neal. “Heh, guess I need to figure out how to do that too eventually. I will say I’m glad not everything transferred over. I was worried he’d end up in a suit of armor, and that really isn’t an easy way to live.” At least in this world there were glamors to fix that most of the time, but he wouldn’t wish that on anyone even if a glamor could be put in place or not.

“..You said something about dessert?” It really didn’t take long for Ed’s brain to go back to the mention of sweet stuff. No pause, no nothing, just dessert on the brain.

Orange County seemed to have cut them a break in some regards - like not turning anyone completely into metal, for one thing. And things would go wrong but then they’d right themselves - such was the way of this wacky world they all seemed to have found themselves in.

“Yeah, I think we can spare some ice cream,” Neal decided, opening the freezer - then again, maybe not. It was dipping into Emma’s supply, and one of the things she craved hard was ice cream.

On second thought. “Let’s go out. However many toppings you want, my treat.” Once he grabbed Henry from the mesmerizing pull of video games, that is - but fresh air would probably do everyone involved more than a bit of good.