That night, Natalie passed out early. Edward and Alphonse had worked her pretty hard after they had level set Alphonse on what had happened. They had taken a similar approach with her as Izumi had taken when training them; you had to work the body in order to work the mind. Natalie hadn’t minded much though; she could use the work outs. It had been awhile since she’d last gone to her martial arts training back home but that was why it just exhausted her now.
Edward and Alphonse were taking it easy downstairs in the living room.
“It’s been awhile since we had a workout like that hasn’t it Al.”
Alphonse nodded. “Yeah, it felt good. It was actually nice to finally be able to again. I’m still not completely back to normal yet though, I could feel it.”
“Yeah, but you’ll get there. Look how far you’ve come in the last two years. When I pulled you out of the gate you could barely even walk, now look at you.”
“Look at you Brother.”
Edward looked at him funny. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve been more yourself in the last two days than you have been in the last year. You needed this and don’t tell me you didn’t.”
Edward laughed. “Yeah, I admit I did. I thought I’d be alright without alchemy but once I didn’t have it, well, I guess it was like half of me was gone.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Alphonse looked at Edward with a knowing grin on his face. “You know it’s more than just the alchemy. You needed someone like her too.”
Edward blushed. “You’re reading too much into it Al. Yeah, it was because of her that all of this happened but…”
“She told you how she felt last night didn’t she? That’s why she didn’t want to say it again this morning just in case you didn’t get it. What exactly did she say anyway?”
Edward sat there looking rather obstinate, arms crossed and refusing to look at Alphonse. “It’s not important.”
“Yes it is Brother, what did she say?” He was prodding Edward and he would do it relentlessly if he had to. He was going to make Edward spill if for no other reason than to get him to admit it to himself that it had actually happened. Edward had a bad habit of overlooking variables in life like love. It was how he’d lost Winry after all. Alphonse didn’t want to see his big brother fall into that trap again. Edward was brilliant when it came to science and alchemy but in anything else, well he still had a lot to learn.
“You’re not going to let this go are you?” Edward said though a heavy sigh.
“Nope,” Alphonse replied, grinning.
“Fine, I guess I don’t have much of a choice. I swear Al; I don’t know who the more stubborn one really is.”
“Oh that’s you hands down Brother. Now come on, what did she say?”
Edward just shook his head in exasperation. “She said to think about how I felt about Winry and then I’d understand why she’d done all of that for me. I didn’t get it right away but I couldn’t get it out of my head after I went to bed last night. I turned everything all over in my head over and over again then it hit me.”
“She told you that she loved you without actually telling you that she loved you.”
Edward nodded. “Yeah, pretty much. I just don’t get why. I still don’t get it. How can you love someone you hardly know? I mean yeah she said she’d read all about us, but it still doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Alphonse laughed, a lot.
“What’s so funny?” Edward asked, sounding a bit upset.
“I’m sorry Brother, but sometimes you’re so naïve. You’re looking at this way too logically when there’s nothing logical about it.”
Edward just looked away from his brother again, his face getting warm with a combination of embarrassment and a hint of anger. It was mostly just embarrassment though. Here his little brother was trying to explain love to him. It should have been the other way around. Wasn’t the older brother supposed to be the well of knowledge when it came to this stuff? And what did Alphonse know anyway? He’d never been in love, at least not that Edward knew about.
“Come on Brother, don’t pout. I think it’s a good thing. You need something besides alchemy in your life, a purpose. Now that things have been set right, we really haven’t had a purpose.”
“And what was helping you get back on your feet, pretty much literally?”
“That was part of getting things set right again. But I’m fine now Brother, we both are.”
“Well aside from this,” Edward said as he knocked on his automail leg. “But it was my choice to keep this even though I’m pretty sure that, had I wanted to, I could have gotten my real leg back.”
“But then that brings us back to a new purpose. I’ve been thinking about going to Xing but I don’t want to go if I don’t think you’re going to be alright.”
“Xing huh? May made an impression on you didn’t she?” Edward said slyly, finally being able to turn the tables on his younger brother.
“No… I want to learn about alchehestry, that’s all,” Alphonse replied, blushing almost as much as Edward had when it came to Natalie.
“Alchehestry, right. And do you expect me to believe May has nothing at all to do with it?”
“Well, she would be the one that would teach me but… I just thought we could… Well we could find away to use our alchemy and their alchehestry.” Alphonse was a bright red at this point.
Edward laughed. “Isn’t so funny when it’s you getting needled is it?”
Alphonse huffed a bit. “Fine I get it Brother. But still, that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to leave you behind, especially if I think you’re going to self destruct again.”
“Who self destructed?” Edward asked, starting to get angry.
“Calm down. Even you can’t deny that you lost it after Winry left, I heard you at night. You have a bad habit of talking in your sleep when you’re upset about something. I know if you hadn’t had to take care of me you probably would have totally withdrawn. You do that whenever you don’t know how to handle your emotions. Remember what happened after Nina or after we found out that Brigadier General Hughs was killed? You completely lost it and then almost gave up on everything.”
“That was different,” Edward said as he got up to look out the window. The moon was still bright outside as it had been the night before. Who was he kidding? Edward knew his younger brother was right. No matter how much he’d grown up it still didn’t change the fact that he never did handle things well when they didn’t go his way, especially when his heart was involved. It really didn’t matter if it was because someone he cared about died or if they just left.
“Brother, I just want to know that if Natalie does leave and I’m not here that you’ll be alright. I know you care about her…”
“I don’t know how I feel about her Al.”
“But you’ve been so kind to her. I just thought…”
Edward sighed a bit. “Look, you know I couldn’t very well make her leave especially after what we found out about her.”
“You asked her to stay before you knew that Brother.”
“What are you implying Alphonse?” Edward said as he turned to look at his brother genuinely curious as to what crazy thing might come out of his mouth.
“You knew she was different, special, when she got here. She got to you right away, I saw it. If I had to guess it was love at first sight.”
Edward started laughing nearly hysterically. “Are you nuts Al? Love at first sight? That’s ridiculous! There’s no way that’s even possible.”
Alphonse chuckled. “You laugh Brother but you’ll see.”
Having finally regained his composure he just shook his head. “It’s just nonsense, nothing more. I’m heading to bed, it’s late.” He then walked out of the room, raising his hand to his brother waving good night to him.
“Ed, why do you have to be so stubborn?” Alphonse asked himself as he too got up and headed upstairs to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment