swordage: Edward Elric looking badass. (x ed)
[personal profile] swordage
Title: Swallowing Glass
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Rating: PG-13
Ramifications: Post-series, assuming Ed makes his way back. Angst warning.
Summary: The mission in East City had more long-term effects than expected.


Ed hid the blood away in handkerchiefs and tissues carefully folded and crinkled so only pristine white showed to other eyes. It took Al a whole week to notice, which was quite a long time for Al to not notice something about his brother. He didn’t know the full extent of it for another two weeks, when he mentioned his brother’s fascination with red water to Lieutenant Hawkeye, who mentioned it to Colonel Mustang, who remembered East City and the effects of the vapor from red water.

Ed tried to claim it was from the smog of Berlin and London, from the dead air beyond the Gate, even from losing some bit of his insides to the Gate. He refused to be examined by a doctor until Al burst into tears during one of his coughing fits, and then he roughly explained to the doctor that there was nothing to be done, it was a terminal disease, and yes his will and personal effects were in order - he wasn’t going to leave his brother with nothing.

Ed put up with Al’s mothering, and it even seemed to help a little when he had sweetened tea and drops of crystallized honey. Roy visited once, and then limited his interaction to the post, much to Ed’s relief. Riza and Jean visited quite often, though, usually bringing some kind of edible gift. It was only gradually that the packages stopped disappearing instantly, and only slowly that they began to build up on the counter. One day Riza stopped, looked at the piles of uneaten gifts, clenched her jaw, and started bringing only cards instead. Al kept them all, keeping five at a time on the mantel, packing the rest in shoeboxes in chronological order.

Havoc shot off the lock on the front door a month later, and they found Al curled up in a trembling ball on the floor next to Ed’s bed. It was summer. Roy remembered that smell from the war, and when they called him in he refused to enter the room. Al refused to attend the funeral, and Roy made sure there was always someone with him, and that he wasn’t to touch any of the brothers’ alchemy notes.

In the end Al didn’t need the notes, and Fury did recover from the concussion, and no one said anything about the stain of gore and blood on the basement floor. Winry cried when they told her Al had disappeared, and Roy developed lines under his eyes shortly after inspecting the array in the basement.

He was understandably upset a few years later when a violet-eyed man deposited Al’s body on Roy’s doorstep and then killed himself.

(no subject)

Date: 2005-02-27 03:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forgottenlover.livejournal.com
Sorry, I'm just dwelling... I have the entire Humunculus!Al running around in my head trying to coordinate his offensive on every front but the story he started in ::dry voice::

My stories are sentient too... It's how I have so many.

::nod nod:: I love commas... But you see the ellipses??? You see them? They're all over! I use at LEAST one a story.

(no subject)

Date: 2005-02-27 03:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forgottenlover.livejournal.com
I savagely never use ellipses' in reports, EVER and I'm trying to learn to smack them down. I'm getting better~!

YES! He went and made alternates of himself to drop into my roleplay and insisted I write a HoS arc with him in it! If you don't know what HoS is, it's an AU of the Alter!Series by hime1999... but I have an AU of HoS on there called Doubles... ::sheepish laugh::

Oh! Kimbley/Roy? I think I'm following that one. And you stuck Armstrong in there ANYWAY if you are the author of the story I'm thinking of... He just didn't get in on their porn

(no subject)

Date: 2005-02-28 06:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forgottenlover.livejournal.com
Hi, the creator of Doubles, right here ::waves:: Aru is my contribution to the HoS! Therefore, do you now know who I am? I adore Masuta myself...

Then it was some OTHER insane author who's writing that. Armstong... plus that... NOOOOOOO

(no subject)

Date: 2005-02-28 09:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forgottenlover.livejournal.com
::laughs evilly:: YES, I have corrupted!!

Ohhh... My stuff is rather new, but I wrote the first smut on the comm...

(no subject)

Date: 2005-02-28 10:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forgottenlover.livejournal.com
::snickers:: You are such a dolt... It's okay, my smut involves Masuta!!

(no subject)

Date: 2005-02-28 10:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forgottenlover.livejournal.com
::laughs:: Well, it is *done*!!

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