Fullmetal Body, Fullmetal Heart
That particular morning seemed quite normal in East City, which was bustling with life once again. However, it wasn’t so for an office in Eastern Headquarters, because Roy Mustang, pale and tired, was talking on the phone. And he wasn’t happy – not at all.
“Is Fawcette gone now?” he asked.
“Yes,” Havoc answered from the other end of the line. “And he wasn’t exactly pleased.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Roy said grimly. “What about Armstrong and Hughes?”
“They’re on their way to the hospital as we speak. They hope they’ll be able to locate Beregond and Alphonse on their way there.”
“Right.” Roy rubbed his forehead wearily. “You’ve done well. Thanks, Havoc.”
“Any time, Sir,” Havoc said.
And with that, both men hung up. Roy sighed; then knitted his fingers as he got lost in thought. His gaze drifted to the great clock by the wall.
Noon, he thought absentmindedly. Hughes usually called him right about this time, but now there were other matters at hand; matters about which Roy wanted to talk to Maes about. And he would, whether Maes was willing or not. It was with that thought in mind that Roy picked up the receiver and dialed Maes’s number in the office.
Just like he had expected, it wasn’t Maes’s voice he heard at the other end of the line. It was a woman’s voice.
“Hello, you’ve reached Lieutenant Colonel Hughes’ office, how can I help you?”
“This is Colonel Roy Mustang. I take it the Lieutenant Colonel himself isn’t there?” He knew perfectly well where Hughes was, true; but he didn’t need to tell the woman that.
“No, I’m afraid not, Colonel. Would you like to leave a message?”
“All right,” Roy said. After all, that was why he called. “The moment he gets back in his office, tell him, in these exact words, to give me a ring, or else I will come personally to Central to roast him alive!”
A small squeak of fright was enough of a hint that Roy had got his message across.
“Alphonse?”
“Oh, good, you found him.”
The relief with which both Ross and Bloch exclaimed those words upon seeing Al and Winry returning was quite evident. They even smiled as they welcomed back the suit of armour and the teen girl back.
Al bowed his head, clearly ashamed.
“Lieutenant Ross, Sergeant Bloch… I’m sorry for running off like that. I realise I caused a lot of trouble.”
“That’s good,” Ross said, nodding slightly. “However, it’s somebody else you should go see now.”
Al nodded his understanding. “Is he in his room?”
Bloch shook his head. “He asked me to take him back to the terrace. He’s just standing by the rail, looking at the horizon.”
Winry frowned. “But he isn’t going to do anything else, is he? Like jump off it?”
“No; from what I gathered, he was just waiting for his little brother to come back,” Bloch answered, casting a meaningful glance in Alphonse’s direction. “You had better go upstairs.”
“Okay,” Alphonse said, nodding again.
“Hurry up!” Winry cried, wielding her wrench threateningly.
“Okay!” the suit of armour replied in an almost panicky tone; then rushed up the stairs. Bloch, on the other hand, couldn’t help but swallow hard at the sight of the menacing girl.
Fifteen-year-old children really weren’t what they used to be.
It was only then, after Alphonse’s imposing stature was gone and Winry’s fiery temper had calmed down, that the two soldiers noticed the third member of the party.
“Can I help you?” Bloch asked, eyeing the tall, dark-haired man curiously.
The man smiled. “You’ve been helping the boys. That is enough for me.” He stood in attention and saluted. “Sergeant Beregond of the 5th Division in Eastern Headquarters, escort of Major Edward ‘Fullmetal’ Elric.”
“He’s the one who found Al, actually,” Winry completed with a smile.
Ross and Bloch stared in pleasant surprise as they saluted back.
“Well, it’s good to finally make your acquaintance, Sergeant Beregond. Major Elric and his brother have been talking about you quite often ever since they got here,” Bloch said.
“They didn’t say anything too bad, I trust?” Beregond asked jokingly.
“No,” Ross answered with a brief shake of her head; “but I’m afraid there is some bad news for you.”
Beregond sighed. “I feared as much when Major Armstrong and Lieutenant Havoc woke me up and made me leave from the back door of the house like some sort of thief,” he said grimly. “So what’s happened?”
Ross sighed, motioning her hand to a chair by the wall. “Sit down, Sergeant. I’ll tell you all about it.”
Beregond didn’t have to be told twice. He sat down and listened carefully.
When Al opened the door to the terrace, he found Ed exactly where Bloch told him he would be. His older brother was standing by the rail, elbows resting against it and his back to him. He was awfully quiet, and he didn’t make any sign that he had heard the creak of either the door or Alphonse’s armour.
“Hey…”
Only when Al let out that soft, timid word did Edward turn around. For a moment, the suit of armour thought he detected a gleam of relief within the amber-coloured eyes. But, if there ever was such a gleam, it vanished almost at once to be replaced by an unreadable expression.
“You came back.”
Al merely nodded this time.
“Why?”
“Because I owe it to you.”
That answer seemed to satisfy Ed, because his gaze softened. At the next moment, he had turned his back to Al once again and locked his gaze on the street below.
“Thank you.”
Alphonse didn’t say anything to that. He stood in the same place, shuffling his legs, the uncomfortable silence growing heavier on both of them.
Until, finally…
“You also owe me,” Al said.
Ed stiffened; Alphonse could see that only too clearly.
“I’m here now, and I’m willing to listen to you,” Al insisted. “Maybe you’re afraid; I can understand that. But your silence hurt me also. So why don’t you stare your fear in the eye? That’s what you’ve always done, and I don’t understand why things should be different now.”
There was again silence for a while. Al sighed and was ready to leave in disappointment, when Ed’s voice stopped him.
“You’re right, Al.”
Al watched Ed turning around, his expression now sorrowful and full of guilt. “I should have told you long ago, I understand that now. And, because of my cowardice, the one thing I feared most happened right before my eyes.” His hands, both flesh and automail, clenched into fists. “So I can’t expect anything worse now.”
And with that, Ed took a couple of steps forward, his head bowed and averting his gaze.
“Al, do you hate me for putting you in this body?”
Alphonse had thought that there was nothing that could have possibly stunned him. And now he found out just how wrong he was.
“Brother… how could I hate you?” he asked, quite shocked.
But Edward didn’t answer. He still kept his head bowed and his blond bangs hid his face, much to Al’s regret.
“Brother… about what I said--”
“That reminds me,” Ed suddenly said, cutting off Al mid-sentence. He instantly turned on his heel and kicked away his slippers. “I haven’t sparred for a while so my body’s gotten weak.”
Alphonse caught himself stunned yet again.
“What are you talking about, Brother?!” he exclaimed. “Your wounds haven’t healed—Whoa!”
He was cut short, because it was then that Ed swung around, aiming at Al with his flesh leg. The only reason that he didn’t hit his target was Alphonse’s quick reflexes; the suit of armour dodged him in the nick of time.
That wasn’t something that deterred Edward, though. At the next moment, he was in fighting position again, eyes seeming ablaze.
“Brother, wait!”
Edward did nothing of the sort. Using his automail arm this time, he started pummelling Alphonse relentlessly, and all Alphonse could do was keep parrying his brother’s attacks.
“Brother! You’ll open your wounds!” he cried in one last attempt to reason with Ed, even in the berserk state his brother was in.
Edward only grabbed a blanket that was hanging from a piece of cord nearby to dry and threw it directly at Al’s face. Temporarily blinded, Al was distracted long enough for Ed to manage a kick on his head.
The sound Al made as he fell down was quite deafening indeed.
“I won,” Ed declared, finally stopping. He plopped himself down right beside Al, chuckling. “This is the first time I beat you, Al.”
Al sighed and pulled the blanket off his face. “That wasn’t fair, Brother.”
“Shut up! A win’s a win,” Ed replied. He didn’t speak again for some time as he tried to catch his breath; but then his face grew quite serious. “We fought a lot when we were kids.”
Al’s eyes flashed momentarily. “Yeah.”
But Ed was far from finished. “Come to think of it, we fought over a bunch of stupid things.”
“Like who would get the bottom or top bed of a bunk,” Al said.
“I lost that time,” Ed said.
“We fought over snacks.”
“Aw… I don’t remember ever winning.”
“Who’d get the toys.”
“I didn’t win that time either.”
“We fought when we played by the river, too.”
“I got knocked into it.”
“We also fought over who’d get to marry Winry.”
“What?! I don’t remember that!” Ed exclaimed.
“I won, but I got rejected,” Al explained.
“Oh… I see…”
“And back when I doodled in your book.”
“I wanted to clobber you so badly I could taste it!”
“We fought when we were training with Teacher, too.”
“She told us to shut up and half-killed us, so that one was a draw,” Ed said. He sighed and looked up at the sky. “And you’re saying that all those are fake memories.”
Alphonse bowed his head. “I’m sorry.”
But Ed meant to get his point across and he would. “Weren’t you the one who told Beregond: ‘I want my body back’? Was that artificial?”
Al’s hands instantly curled into fists. “No.”
Only then did Ed turn to look at Al. “We’ll definitely restore ourselves, Al; and we’ll help those that need our help,” he declared. “But to do that, we have to become stronger, both emotionally and physically.”
Al chuckled at that moment. “Even if it means you have to drink milk?” he asked teasingly.
The hue Ed’s face got at that moment was picture-worthy, to say the least.
Al couldn’t help it. He laughed, loud and clear, and then brought forward a fist.
“We’ll get stronger.”
“Yeah.” And with that, Ed brought forward his own automail fist to playfully punch Alphonse’s.
If Al could smile, he would be sporting one of the broadest smiles ever to grace the face of the earth.
“Come on, let’s go downstairs. There’s a surprise waiting for us there,” he said, standing up and heading for the door.
“Um… Al?”
Al turned around. “Yeah, Brother?”
“A little help, please?” Ed asked, almost pitifully.
Al didn’t understand at first. But when he did, he sighed, and barely refrained himself from saying to his brother: Told you so, before offering his hand to help Ed get up.
“They’ve been gone for quite some time,” Bloch said then, almost out of the blue it seemed. After all, Ross had already told Beregond everything, whereas Hughes and Armstrong had also arrived in the meantime. Both officers were certainly relieved to see that the crisis was, more or less, settled and under control.
“That’s good. It means they’re talking,” Winry said.
Beregond didn’t speak. He had become unusually quiet, resting his back against the chair and keeping his head bowed.
Maes looked at the Gondorian for several moments, unsure what was wrong with him. But upon closer inspection, the bespectacled man smiled a bit and shook Beregond slightly.
Beregond snapped his head up with a flinch. But, once he realised where he was, he sighed and rubbed the slumber off his eyes. “Sorry,” he murmured.
“No problem,” Maes assured Beregond. “You okay?”
Beregond smiled, if only just a bit. “I will be,” he answered. It was then that he made a small “oh” sound, as he clearly remembered something. “By the way, there’s something I wanted you to have.” His hand reached for his trouser-pocket and took out the music box. “This is for Elysia. I meant to give it to her myself on her birthday, but…” he sighed and didn’t continue his sentence.
Maes’s smile broadened. “So you remembered,” he said, taking the box and looking at it.
“It would be hard not to,” Beregond said, letting out a small chuckle. “I had something for Edward, too; but, unfortunately, that went down the drain too.”
At that moment, Alphonse and Ed appeared. The latter was letting out a few exclamations of pain now and then, while limping and using Al’s arm as support. That is, until he saw the others looking at him curiously, because he immediately straightened himself and gave the air that nothing was wrong whatsoever. In fact, he sounded scolding when his gaze was locked on the Gondorian and said: “Heh… So you decided to show up after all.”
Still, Maes and Beregond exchanged a knowing glance and even smiled a bit.
After all, they both noticed Ed’s expression of relief on his features.
TBC…
“Is Fawcette gone now?” he asked.
“Yes,” Havoc answered from the other end of the line. “And he wasn’t exactly pleased.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Roy said grimly. “What about Armstrong and Hughes?”
“They’re on their way to the hospital as we speak. They hope they’ll be able to locate Beregond and Alphonse on their way there.”
“Right.” Roy rubbed his forehead wearily. “You’ve done well. Thanks, Havoc.”
“Any time, Sir,” Havoc said.
And with that, both men hung up. Roy sighed; then knitted his fingers as he got lost in thought. His gaze drifted to the great clock by the wall.
Noon, he thought absentmindedly. Hughes usually called him right about this time, but now there were other matters at hand; matters about which Roy wanted to talk to Maes about. And he would, whether Maes was willing or not. It was with that thought in mind that Roy picked up the receiver and dialed Maes’s number in the office.
Just like he had expected, it wasn’t Maes’s voice he heard at the other end of the line. It was a woman’s voice.
“Hello, you’ve reached Lieutenant Colonel Hughes’ office, how can I help you?”
“This is Colonel Roy Mustang. I take it the Lieutenant Colonel himself isn’t there?” He knew perfectly well where Hughes was, true; but he didn’t need to tell the woman that.
“No, I’m afraid not, Colonel. Would you like to leave a message?”
“All right,” Roy said. After all, that was why he called. “The moment he gets back in his office, tell him, in these exact words, to give me a ring, or else I will come personally to Central to roast him alive!”
A small squeak of fright was enough of a hint that Roy had got his message across.
“Alphonse?”
“Oh, good, you found him.”
The relief with which both Ross and Bloch exclaimed those words upon seeing Al and Winry returning was quite evident. They even smiled as they welcomed back the suit of armour and the teen girl back.
Al bowed his head, clearly ashamed.
“Lieutenant Ross, Sergeant Bloch… I’m sorry for running off like that. I realise I caused a lot of trouble.”
“That’s good,” Ross said, nodding slightly. “However, it’s somebody else you should go see now.”
Al nodded his understanding. “Is he in his room?”
Bloch shook his head. “He asked me to take him back to the terrace. He’s just standing by the rail, looking at the horizon.”
Winry frowned. “But he isn’t going to do anything else, is he? Like jump off it?”
“No; from what I gathered, he was just waiting for his little brother to come back,” Bloch answered, casting a meaningful glance in Alphonse’s direction. “You had better go upstairs.”
“Okay,” Alphonse said, nodding again.
“Hurry up!” Winry cried, wielding her wrench threateningly.
“Okay!” the suit of armour replied in an almost panicky tone; then rushed up the stairs. Bloch, on the other hand, couldn’t help but swallow hard at the sight of the menacing girl.
Fifteen-year-old children really weren’t what they used to be.
It was only then, after Alphonse’s imposing stature was gone and Winry’s fiery temper had calmed down, that the two soldiers noticed the third member of the party.
“Can I help you?” Bloch asked, eyeing the tall, dark-haired man curiously.
The man smiled. “You’ve been helping the boys. That is enough for me.” He stood in attention and saluted. “Sergeant Beregond of the 5th Division in Eastern Headquarters, escort of Major Edward ‘Fullmetal’ Elric.”
“He’s the one who found Al, actually,” Winry completed with a smile.
Ross and Bloch stared in pleasant surprise as they saluted back.
“Well, it’s good to finally make your acquaintance, Sergeant Beregond. Major Elric and his brother have been talking about you quite often ever since they got here,” Bloch said.
“They didn’t say anything too bad, I trust?” Beregond asked jokingly.
“No,” Ross answered with a brief shake of her head; “but I’m afraid there is some bad news for you.”
Beregond sighed. “I feared as much when Major Armstrong and Lieutenant Havoc woke me up and made me leave from the back door of the house like some sort of thief,” he said grimly. “So what’s happened?”
Ross sighed, motioning her hand to a chair by the wall. “Sit down, Sergeant. I’ll tell you all about it.”
Beregond didn’t have to be told twice. He sat down and listened carefully.
When Al opened the door to the terrace, he found Ed exactly where Bloch told him he would be. His older brother was standing by the rail, elbows resting against it and his back to him. He was awfully quiet, and he didn’t make any sign that he had heard the creak of either the door or Alphonse’s armour.
“Hey…”
Only when Al let out that soft, timid word did Edward turn around. For a moment, the suit of armour thought he detected a gleam of relief within the amber-coloured eyes. But, if there ever was such a gleam, it vanished almost at once to be replaced by an unreadable expression.
“You came back.”
Al merely nodded this time.
“Why?”
“Because I owe it to you.”
That answer seemed to satisfy Ed, because his gaze softened. At the next moment, he had turned his back to Al once again and locked his gaze on the street below.
“Thank you.”
Alphonse didn’t say anything to that. He stood in the same place, shuffling his legs, the uncomfortable silence growing heavier on both of them.
Until, finally…
“You also owe me,” Al said.
Ed stiffened; Alphonse could see that only too clearly.
“I’m here now, and I’m willing to listen to you,” Al insisted. “Maybe you’re afraid; I can understand that. But your silence hurt me also. So why don’t you stare your fear in the eye? That’s what you’ve always done, and I don’t understand why things should be different now.”
There was again silence for a while. Al sighed and was ready to leave in disappointment, when Ed’s voice stopped him.
“You’re right, Al.”
Al watched Ed turning around, his expression now sorrowful and full of guilt. “I should have told you long ago, I understand that now. And, because of my cowardice, the one thing I feared most happened right before my eyes.” His hands, both flesh and automail, clenched into fists. “So I can’t expect anything worse now.”
And with that, Ed took a couple of steps forward, his head bowed and averting his gaze.
“Al, do you hate me for putting you in this body?”
Alphonse had thought that there was nothing that could have possibly stunned him. And now he found out just how wrong he was.
“Brother… how could I hate you?” he asked, quite shocked.
But Edward didn’t answer. He still kept his head bowed and his blond bangs hid his face, much to Al’s regret.
“Brother… about what I said--”
“That reminds me,” Ed suddenly said, cutting off Al mid-sentence. He instantly turned on his heel and kicked away his slippers. “I haven’t sparred for a while so my body’s gotten weak.”
Alphonse caught himself stunned yet again.
“What are you talking about, Brother?!” he exclaimed. “Your wounds haven’t healed—Whoa!”
He was cut short, because it was then that Ed swung around, aiming at Al with his flesh leg. The only reason that he didn’t hit his target was Alphonse’s quick reflexes; the suit of armour dodged him in the nick of time.
That wasn’t something that deterred Edward, though. At the next moment, he was in fighting position again, eyes seeming ablaze.
“Brother, wait!”
Edward did nothing of the sort. Using his automail arm this time, he started pummelling Alphonse relentlessly, and all Alphonse could do was keep parrying his brother’s attacks.
“Brother! You’ll open your wounds!” he cried in one last attempt to reason with Ed, even in the berserk state his brother was in.
Edward only grabbed a blanket that was hanging from a piece of cord nearby to dry and threw it directly at Al’s face. Temporarily blinded, Al was distracted long enough for Ed to manage a kick on his head.
The sound Al made as he fell down was quite deafening indeed.
“I won,” Ed declared, finally stopping. He plopped himself down right beside Al, chuckling. “This is the first time I beat you, Al.”
Al sighed and pulled the blanket off his face. “That wasn’t fair, Brother.”
“Shut up! A win’s a win,” Ed replied. He didn’t speak again for some time as he tried to catch his breath; but then his face grew quite serious. “We fought a lot when we were kids.”
Al’s eyes flashed momentarily. “Yeah.”
But Ed was far from finished. “Come to think of it, we fought over a bunch of stupid things.”
“Like who would get the bottom or top bed of a bunk,” Al said.
“I lost that time,” Ed said.
“We fought over snacks.”
“Aw… I don’t remember ever winning.”
“Who’d get the toys.”
“I didn’t win that time either.”
“We fought when we played by the river, too.”
“I got knocked into it.”
“We also fought over who’d get to marry Winry.”
“What?! I don’t remember that!” Ed exclaimed.
“I won, but I got rejected,” Al explained.
“Oh… I see…”
“And back when I doodled in your book.”
“I wanted to clobber you so badly I could taste it!”
“We fought when we were training with Teacher, too.”
“She told us to shut up and half-killed us, so that one was a draw,” Ed said. He sighed and looked up at the sky. “And you’re saying that all those are fake memories.”
Alphonse bowed his head. “I’m sorry.”
But Ed meant to get his point across and he would. “Weren’t you the one who told Beregond: ‘I want my body back’? Was that artificial?”
Al’s hands instantly curled into fists. “No.”
Only then did Ed turn to look at Al. “We’ll definitely restore ourselves, Al; and we’ll help those that need our help,” he declared. “But to do that, we have to become stronger, both emotionally and physically.”
Al chuckled at that moment. “Even if it means you have to drink milk?” he asked teasingly.
The hue Ed’s face got at that moment was picture-worthy, to say the least.
Al couldn’t help it. He laughed, loud and clear, and then brought forward a fist.
“We’ll get stronger.”
“Yeah.” And with that, Ed brought forward his own automail fist to playfully punch Alphonse’s.
If Al could smile, he would be sporting one of the broadest smiles ever to grace the face of the earth.
“Come on, let’s go downstairs. There’s a surprise waiting for us there,” he said, standing up and heading for the door.
“Um… Al?”
Al turned around. “Yeah, Brother?”
“A little help, please?” Ed asked, almost pitifully.
Al didn’t understand at first. But when he did, he sighed, and barely refrained himself from saying to his brother: Told you so, before offering his hand to help Ed get up.
“They’ve been gone for quite some time,” Bloch said then, almost out of the blue it seemed. After all, Ross had already told Beregond everything, whereas Hughes and Armstrong had also arrived in the meantime. Both officers were certainly relieved to see that the crisis was, more or less, settled and under control.
“That’s good. It means they’re talking,” Winry said.
Beregond didn’t speak. He had become unusually quiet, resting his back against the chair and keeping his head bowed.
Maes looked at the Gondorian for several moments, unsure what was wrong with him. But upon closer inspection, the bespectacled man smiled a bit and shook Beregond slightly.
Beregond snapped his head up with a flinch. But, once he realised where he was, he sighed and rubbed the slumber off his eyes. “Sorry,” he murmured.
“No problem,” Maes assured Beregond. “You okay?”
Beregond smiled, if only just a bit. “I will be,” he answered. It was then that he made a small “oh” sound, as he clearly remembered something. “By the way, there’s something I wanted you to have.” His hand reached for his trouser-pocket and took out the music box. “This is for Elysia. I meant to give it to her myself on her birthday, but…” he sighed and didn’t continue his sentence.
Maes’s smile broadened. “So you remembered,” he said, taking the box and looking at it.
“It would be hard not to,” Beregond said, letting out a small chuckle. “I had something for Edward, too; but, unfortunately, that went down the drain too.”
At that moment, Alphonse and Ed appeared. The latter was letting out a few exclamations of pain now and then, while limping and using Al’s arm as support. That is, until he saw the others looking at him curiously, because he immediately straightened himself and gave the air that nothing was wrong whatsoever. In fact, he sounded scolding when his gaze was locked on the Gondorian and said: “Heh… So you decided to show up after all.”
Still, Maes and Beregond exchanged a knowing glance and even smiled a bit.
After all, they both noticed Ed’s expression of relief on his features.
TBC…
Subtitles
- Brother's Debt
- Fullmetal Body, Fullmetal Heart
- A Quiet Day
- In The Night
- Two Men's Faces
- Transfer
- Making Plans
- Shadows Of The Past
- Underworld
- The Price Of Immortality
- Departure
- The Key
- Enemy Revealed
- A Step Back
- A Step Closer To The Truth
- A Race
- Rush Valley
- Responsibility
- Izumi
- Time To Stand Still
- Wild Child
- Encounter
- Riddles In The Dark
- In Search For Answers
- A Teacher's Mistakes
- Complications
- Visits
- The Nature Of A Homunculus
- Dante Of The Deep Forest
- Kidnapped
- Fight At The Devil's Nest
- Innocence Lost
- Blood Spilt
- Recovering
- Bearers Of Ill News
- The Flame Alchemist
- True Colours
- Markings On The Ground
- The Mission
- Heading To Liore
- Change Of Plans
- The Scar
- Holy Mother
- A Mother's Face
- Final Moments