FMA fic: Swallowing Glass
Feb. 27th, 2005 02:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swordageTitle: 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.
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: 2005-02-28 10:43 pm (UTC)