Fanfiction: The Dream of Those Who Wake (Fullmetal Alchemist)

[nebroadwe]

Title: The Dream of Those Who Wake
Fandom: FMA (manga version)
Character(s): Al and Ed.
Pairing(s): None.
Word Count: ~1500
Warnings: None (we all know Ed can get colorful when he's annoyed, right?). Takes place in an imagined future after the end of the series, but without spoilers.
A/N: I thought I had settled in my own mind how I expect the story to end, and then this piece pops up out of nowhere to contradict half of my assumptions. Concrit welcomed with jiaozi and chaofan. Crossposted from nebroadwe to Höllenbeck (i.e. hagaren_manga, fm_alchemist, fma_gen, fma_writers and fma_fiction).
Dedication(s): For fmanalyst and cornerofmadness as a joint belated birthday present, because they made me think.

---

      It had been such a long day at the clinic that when Al tried to unlock his apartment door and found the bolt already thrown back, his first thought was, Damn, I hope he's eaten. One box of pork-fried rice, even with a side of potstickers and a fortune tea cake, was nowhere near enough to feed two hungry Elrics.

      His next thought was simply Damn! as the keys slipped from his grasp and jingled to the floor. He bent, left elbow clamping a sheaf of advertisements and bills against his ribs, and hooked the ring with the tips of his fingers. The sack of food came perilously close to dumping its contents onto the hall carpet, but Al straightened with a muscle-straining twist that brought everything into momentary equilibrium. Quickly stepping across the threshold, he dropped the mail to take a firmer grip on his dinner.

      "That you, brother?" he called.

      Ed's voice grunted Uh-huh, or possibly just Ugh, in response. Al pushed the door shut, swept the envelopes and flyers aside with his foot, and hung the keyring on its hook above the umbrella stand. Then he shucked his coat and shoes and padded down the hall toward the lighted kitchen.

      Ed was seated at the table, breath whistling through clenched teeth as he attempted some kind of one-handed maintenance on his automail. The travel toolkit lay dismembered beside his forearm grille on the board, whose surface bore dark streaks Al hoped were only grease. Refraining from immediate comment, he set his sack on the counter and leaned against the sink. Ed's forehead twitched into a deeper frown; then his flesh arm jerked sideways as the zeta key in his left hand lost purchase on whatever he was trying to adjust in his right. "Shit! They can't all be stripped!"

      "What's the trouble?" Al asked, reflexively adopting the level, calming tone with which he addressed agitated patients.

      "Damned if I know!" his brother growled, unmoved, and flung the key with a muted clink into the jumble of screwdrivers, picks and wrenches at his elbow. "The knuckles are sticking again -- hell, you'd think this wouldn't be a problem by now!"

      Al thought he knew what Winry would have said to that: No, it wouldn't be, if you didn't keep transmuting parts of the mechanism and smashing it into things! No need to share her likely opinion with his brother, though; Ed had endured the exasperation of his mechanic frequently enough to quote her himself if he wanted. I can only make your arm so robust without sacrificing control, you idiot! The actuators that mimicked a human hand's flexors and extensors were especially finicky, requiring the kind of preventive maintenance Ed had never been all that inclined to provide; by the time they stuck sufficiently to annoy him, they were often beyond field repair. Often, but not always. "Have you tried -- " Al began.

      "Yeah, I've tried," Ed interrupted, his tone caustic enough to burn. "I've been trying since I got here!"

      Al bit back an automatic Sorry! and an equally unhelpful Yeah, you are! and attempted to stay focused on the problem. "Let me have a look, then," he offered, tilting his head to squint at the balky joints.

      "Are you deaf?" Ed retorted, folding both arms across his chest, left over right. "I said I'd already tried everything!"

      Al understood that he should just let it go -- walk away and give his brother a chance to cool down -- but damn it, Ed was a guest in his home and he wasn't going to be chased out of his own kitchen. "Don't be an ass," he said impatiently. "Let me give you a hand."

      He realized as his mouth formed the words how unwise they were. Ed yanked his chair around to put his back to his brother and snarled, "I've got a better idea -- go fuck yourself with it!"

      Al felt the rush of warmth to his face and became aware that he was gawping at Ed's pony-tail like a startled sheep. He grabbed the tea kettle from the stove to give his fingers something to do besides curl themselves into fists and ran water into it full-bore from the tap. Why can't you just grow up? Behind him, he heard the snap of the grille being fitted back into place; afterward the tools rattled en masse into their leather case. You're a fucking slob, brother. He slammed the kettle onto the burner and lit the gas, turning the flame up high. Then he opened the tea canister to measure out the loose leaves into a mug; the pungent, dusty smell tickled his nose and he sneezed. "Excuse me," he added stiffly.

      A pause, after which Ed mumbled something that might have been Your health, and then there was silence but for the whisper of the gas ring and the susurration of water coming on to boil. Al spooned loose tea into his mug and closed the canister.

      "Sorry," Ed remarked abruptly.

      Al said nothing.

      The toolkit hit the linoleum with a clank. "It's been fifteen years. Sometimes -- " Ed broke off as his brother turned to look at him, refusing to meet Al's glance.

      Al wished he weren't so tired. As the only Amestrian practitioner of Xingese healing alchemy in East City, he saw a lot of patients whose conditions were chronic or apparently intractable. Many came to him expecting miracles, and sometimes he was hard-pressed to find the right words to convince them that he had none to offer. He'd been screamed at, wept on, propositioned with money and sex, accused of quackery and reported to the authorities. That he understood their desperation and despair in his gut, in his soul, didn't help: he still shook with rage over the insults and ached with pity at the tears. Yet his brother's refusal to ask for anything -- help or forgiveness or license -- frustrated him more than all of his clients' pleas. "Why didn't you just go to Winry?" he asked.

      "She'd kill me," Ed responded glibly.

      Then your troubles would be over, Al thought. Fifteen years since their great failure -- ten since his own restoration -- and Ed was still combing the continent in search of a remedy, like a wandering monk pursuing enlightenment. In Xing, they achieve it by sitting. Go to Winry, Ed -- dammit, let her help you ... The kettle whistled and Al switched off the gas. "Tea?" he asked.

      "Yeah. Thanks."

      While Al transferred the tea leaves into the pale green porcelain pot he'd bought in Changnan, Ed attempted to wipe away the mess he'd left on the table. "Uh, I don't think this is coming up," he admitted. "Mind if I ... ?"

      "Go ahead," Al answered as he began pouring water into the teapot.

      Ed clapped, and the faintly discordant hum of western alchemy buzzed along Al's teeth. He shook his head, careful not to spill any of the hot liquid on himself, and heard Ed sweep something off the table and dump it into the garbage pail in the corner. "That's got it," he announced.

      "Good." Al left the tea to steep and tried not to imagine what his master would have said about brewing dragon pearls, even the stale, cheap ones exported to Amestris, in tap water. At least his brother didn't know any better -- not about that nor most things, he thought with familiar exasperation, and realized that the quarrel was over.

      Ed hadn't eaten, but his noble protestations that he wasn't hungry at all, honestly, lasted only as long as it took Al to open the container of fried dumplings. "Mm-mmf," he approved, forking up two at once. "Where'd you get these?"

      "The Lucky Salamander, on Eighteenth above Mulberry," Al replied as he poured tea for his brother. "It's new."

      Ed swallowed and burped. "I'll tell 'em you sent me," he promised, and took a swig from his mug. "Got any sugar for this?"

      "Here." Al pushed the bowl across. "Want the lucky cookie, too?"

      "Nah, you eat it," Ed replied magnanimously as he plopped three lumps into his drink. Al rolled his eyes: the entire Xingese nation would have something to say about the barbaric custom of sweetening the infusion itself, instead of enjoying the contrasting taste as an accompaniment. He sipped austerely at his own cup and then broke open the fortune cake. Of course, they don't have these in Xing, either. Extracting the narrow strip of paper from the shards of crisp dough, he peered down at the crooked red print.

Keep a green bough in your heart and singing birds will come.
      "Well, what's it say?" Ed asked.

      Al took another, larger sip of tea to scald the chill from his stomach. "It says," he answered, when he could trust his voice again, "'I'm trapped in No. 1 Fortune Factory, East City. Send help.'"

      Ed snorted. "That one just doesn't get old, does it?"

      "No," Al agreed.

      He crumpled the paper and pushed it deliberately down into the garbage pail.

---

Author's Note: In the early part of the twentieth century, fortune cookies were known as "fortune tea cakes." The fortune Al reads is a version of a purported Chinese proverb recommending optimism; the one he quotes is a joke of lesser antiquity but equal fame. The title of this piece is taken from a line in Matthew Prior's early eighteenth-century poem Solomon on the Vanity of the World.

---

[Acknowledgments: Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) was created by Arakawa Hiromu and is serialized monthly in Shonen Gangan (Square Enix); two anime of the same title were produced by Studio Bones. Copyright for these properties is held, inter alia, by Arakawa Hiromu, Square Enix, and Studio Bones.]

Comments

[malka2009.livejournal.com]

Please excuse my failure to provide real commentary, as I'm a) ill and b) haven't yet had my morning coffee (neither scenario being conducive to that whole "thinking" thing), but I must say that I quite like this. Here's hoping that your writing vacation proves fruitful. :)

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Hope you're better soon (and that you found some coffee). Thanks for the thumb's-up! I'm having a pretty productive writing vacation so far: three pieces completed and two more working themselves out, plus one completed back a bit that's due for revision. Time -- inspiration -- life is good.

[alchemyotaku75.livejournal.com]

"It says," he answered, when he could trust his voice again, "'I'm trapped in No. 1 Fortune Factory, East City. Send help.'"

XD I'm going to remember that one next time I'm with my friends at a Chinese restaurant !

Quintessential Ed and Al, especially Al's deadpan sense of humor! Loved this!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I'm going to remember that one next time I'm with my friends at a Chinese restaurant!

It's right up there with "between the sheets" as a fortune-cookie trope. :-)

Quintessential Ed and Al, especially Al's deadpan sense of humor! Loved this!

Thanks! (Though I admit I'm a bit surprised to have Al's sense of humor lauded here -- I was aiming for light character angst. I did snort to myself over Al's "Yeah, you are!" in response to Ed going on about how he'd been trying; it just wasn't at the top of my thoughts about this piece by the time I reached the end.)

[000-hester-000.livejournal.com]

I like this-- the way it's just sort of a character sketch, but feels very probable and IC.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Great! That's what I was going for. [buffs nails] This story arrived all of a piece over two evenings of drafting; I hardly had much revision to do at all to get it to this point. I love it when things are that easy. It's so rare.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

"Why didn't you just go to Winry?" he asked.

"She'd kill me," Ed responded glibly.

Then your troubles would be over, Al thought.

Hahahahahaha!

Ed's a barbarian in pretty much any country, I'm afraid.

There's a nice bit of mannered tension throughout this (for a few minutes, I wondered if you'd taken them past the ending of CoS, but felt relief you had not).

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Ed's a barbarian in pretty much any country, I'm afraid.

Yep. That's one of the things I really loved about metisket's UFO entry -- Ed could be one of the most important people in the country, but he'd still be loud and obnoxious and a terror to the neighbors.

There's a nice bit of mannered tension throughout this (for a few minutes, I wondered if you'd taken them past the ending of CoS, but felt relief you had not).

Nope, this is one of my mangaverse imagined futures -- it shares a few ideas with my main set of post-manga plot ideas (some of which will be revealed in "An Inconvenient Season," if I can ever get the dang thing finished), but took a left turn away from them by imagining that Ed was still hoboing around Amestris and environs ten years on, and hadn't settled down to anything (or with anyone, which I suspect Winry is even less happy than Al about). "Mannered tension" was precisely what I wanted out of this piece -- the last set of revisions were directed at making sure it wasn't too underwritten to imply the backstory.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Ed could be one of the most important people in the country, but he'd still be loud and obnoxious and a terror to the neighbors.

Oh, yes. Definitely. Even the scary old men who shake their canes at kids and steal their balls when the balls wind up in their yards would Think Twice about crossing Edward Elric. *grin*

but took a left turn away from them by imagining that Ed was still hoboing around Amestris and environs ten years on, and hadn't settled down to anything (or with anyone, which I suspect Winry is even less happy than Al about

Funny, I had that thought, too; Winry told me a snippet about getting married to someone other than an Elric because she was tired of waiting on Ed to decide he could settle down....

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Those sorts of stories always make me sad -- it's the repressed 'shipper in me. Although infinitesimi got some useful melodramatic mileage out of it in I'll Love You More (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2615811/1/Ill_Love_You_More), which seems to have joined the great mountain of unfinished novel-length fanfiction, alas.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I liked some of the chapters in that story very much.

[lilacfield.livejournal.com]

I like how Al is so...forbearing, and yet still manages to have a little fun at Ed's expense.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Forbearing by the skin of his teeth -- I think if he'd been a little more (or a little less) tired, he'd've clonged Ed with that teakettle. As I remarked upcomment, I'm a little surprised that people keep mentioning the humor; Al's chuckling in lieu of other emotions, after all. (I'm getting a little worried that the ending is too underwritten to carry the emotion I was trying to get across, which would be ironic given the amount of time I spent worrying about potentially making it too obvious. Sigh.)

[naive-wanderer.livejournal.com]

You know, I read this earlier in the day, and came back to it because I realized I've been thinking about it on and off all day. It's quite a likely scenario for these two, especially for Ed, who I can certainly see remaining restless with his desire for answers (though I tend to think the manga will end with Ed a little more settled, or at least I hope so!). I feel bad for the both of them, and can certainly sympathize with Al -- it's difficult to have a family member or friend who is clearly searching for some kind of happiness and whom you want to be happy, but who is also immensely frustrating by their staunch refusal of any help. You've portrayed that frustration very well in an understated way.

(Actually, from what I've read of yours you seem to be the master of understatement, and I love it. :) )

I loved the tense return to friendliness and Al's realization that the argument was over. The last few lines, from the fortune cookie proverb on, really broke my heart. Wonderful 'fic!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

You know, I read this earlier in the day, and came back to it because I realized I've been thinking about it on and off all day. It's quite a likely scenario for these two, especially for Ed, who I can certainly see remaining restless with his desire for answers (though I tend to think the manga will end with Ed a little more settled, or at least I hope so!).

Me, too. I can see it taking some time, though -- "being settled" would require adapting to an entirely new lifestyle, after all, and Ed's still young enough to find it difficult to take direction on how to do so. Not to mention hard-headed enough.

I feel bad for the both of them, and can certainly sympathize with Al -- it's difficult to have a family member or friend who is clearly searching for some kind of happiness and whom you want to be happy, but who is also immensely frustrating by their staunch refusal of any help. You've portrayed that frustration very well in an understated way.

Oh, good. I wanted Al to be cranky enough to be a touch unhelpful in his helpfulness, but not enough so as to lose the reader's sympathy. He's still adjusting to his state in life, too, if not as maladaptively as his brother.

I loved the tense return to friendliness and Al's realization that the argument was over. The last few lines, from the fortune cookie proverb on, really broke my heart. Wonderful 'fic!

Thank you very much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[masa-reforged.livejournal.com]

really fun read. i love sibling arguments, and this one was done realistically, without making the emotions wild. pace was steady, humor was biting. you added a couple nice new touches to some fandom staples (Al becoming a doctor, but of Xingese medicine). was particularly glad you had Al have the thought about the problems Ed transmuting his arm might cause. this almost makes me miss US Chinese food... well, actually, i take that back. but the cultural infusion worked well here. good stuff.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the concrit! I always try to keep an eye out for useful details when I write; I did a very small amount of research on the anatomy of the hand and the current state of prosthetic limbs while I was putting this one together (I already had some research on tea going for another 'fic entirely, which was a bonus). It seemed logical that transmutation would just be another sort of wear-and-tear on the mechanism, since there's no way to escape the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Fortunately this piece was brief enough that I didn't have to figure out exactly what kind of wear-and-tear it was. I'm a writer, not a biomechanical engineer ...

[masa-reforged.livejournal.com]

research!!!! man, that drives me nuts when i have this idea but i get all upset that i might approach it wrong. so i research and, wham, derails me totally... i thought you did a really subtle job getting those details in to the story, so i guess it can pay off!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

My ideas fall into two categories: the ones where the research issues intimidate me right out of the story (e.g. the Avatar/Star Trek:TOS crossover kanja177 wants me to write, but I'm not gonna because a) I'd never be able to make the orbital mechanics sound even remotely plausible; and b) there's too much Trek canon to take into account) or the ones where doing the research gives me all kinds of neat little hooks on which to hang the narrative. Fortunately, this one fell into the latter camp.

[ishte.livejournal.com]

How did I miss this story? Very nice, but Al seriously needs to just kick Ed's ass until he goes to see Winry. Or better yet call Winry himself and tell Ed to shut up and deal! hahaha

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

How did I miss this story?

Well, I just got it up the other day, so you haven't missed it to speak of ...

Very nice, but Al seriously needs to just kick Ed's ass until he goes to see Winry. Or better yet call Winry himself and tell Ed to shut up and deal! hahaha

I think that's what he does when Ed starts hogging the bathroom. :-)