Welcome to the Family

Death

Two Years Later

__ __ __ 

Ed sits quietly beside the fresh grave. He has to remind himself that, yes, his warm, bright mother now lays in the cold, dark earth. It sounds unforgiving to put her in the ground when worded so. All he wanted was for her to forget about his absent father, but despite his attempts, she still spoke of him in the end.

"Why?" He whispers. "Why couldn't you move on?"

The breeze caresses his flesh in chill comfort. Ed shivers against it, but doesn't go back to Al. He's at home, covered in blankets and surrounded by Alchemy. Al will be fine a little while longer.

Dark clouds roll in. Yes, it's that time in the season for rain. If other thoughts didn't occupy Ed, he would've wondered where the rain was. To spite the weather, Ed refuses to move away.

This grave gives Ed an odd sense of comfort. That his mother is okay, and no longer suffering in her sick and heart ache. The end of her pain is the beginning to his. Her grave, whether cold or warm, made him who he is today.

"Ed?" Calls a familiar voice.

Ed stands to face the new comer. He dusts his shorts off to be a bit more presentable.

"Ed, what are you doing here? It's past midnight," he states.

"I know. What are you doing here, Greed?" Ed asks.

Francis walks over in his all black clothes. For once, he's wearing a real coat, unlike Ed. Ed is in his day clothes, which is just a tee and shorts.

"Looks like it's going to rain," Francis points out.

"You dodged the question," Ed claims.

"So did you."

The shorter one frowns in defeat. He takes a deep breath to calm himself of his earlier emotions.

"This is Mom's grave. I come and talk to her sometimes. Just needed to vent, I guess," Ed confesses.

"If you need to vent, you can always call me," Francis suggests.

"You really want to listen to my shit?" Ed quirks an eyebrow.

"You need family, not an asshole, okay?" Francis huffs. "Besides, Al called me."

"Of course he did," Ed grumbles.

"He's worried about you. Said you want to bring Mrs. Elric back from the dead," Francis presses.

Ed does a fast one eighty to avoid the glare of Francis and his amethyst eyes. Everytime Ed won't talk to his cousin, all Francis would have to do is stare at him in the eye. Francis knows his unnatural eye color makes Ed nervous, and he uses it to his advantage.

"Don't turn your back on me. Ed, tell me what's wrong," Francis prompts.

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong!" Ed denies.

"Ed."

Said blonde jumps when he noticed Francis moved in front of him. Damn, he's fast.

"I just miss her, okay!" Ed shouts.

Francis sighs loudly. He's such a brat, he's cute.

"Come on, buddy. Let's go back. In the morning, we'll go out for some food at the market, okay?" Francis asks rhetorically.

Ed nods silently. Francis reaches out to his favorite, and ruffles his hair up. Ed swats Francis away with a growl. He smooths his hair out in a futile attempt to fix what Francis messed up. Francis chuckles at his actions in mirth.