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nebroadweTitle: Drabble: All Who Joy Would Win
Fandom: FMA (anime version)
Character(s): Ed, Al, OCs
Pairing(s): Al/OC (but nothing onstage)
Rating: G
Word Count: 300 (I needed a treble-length drabble; sue me)
Warnings: Implicit spoilage for the end of the series and the film.
A/N: I know exactly what happens to the Elric brothers for the next twenty-five years after the end of the film, but I never expected to write any of it besides "Tick-Tock". I just can't see myself doing the enormous amounts of research I'd need to make the "what did you do in the war, daddy?" part of the story credible. But this snapshot developed all on its own as I contemplated a friend's recent milestone -- and who am I to scorn inspiration? Crossposted from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nebroadwe to Höllenbeck (i.e. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fm_alchemist, fullservicefma, fma_gen, fma_writers and fma_fiction).
Dedication: Forlyricnonsense in honor of her graduation. Excelsior!
Zürich, 1936
By the time they reach the hall it's standing room only, so Ed props up a wall while Herr Brunner negotiates seats for his wife and daughter in the last row. Bargain struck, he bustles back to Ed, who takes a step away under the guise of making room. He has no desire to share this day with anyone -- particularly not a Swiss petit-bourgeois whose wife can't conceal her relief that her bluestocking daughter is about to reel in a husband. He's not sure what Al sees in the girl, either, but he's learned to stifle his doubts. Rubbing at a fading reminder of one such lesson on his left biceps, he hopes she appreciates what a formidable champion she's gained.
Once the ceremony begins, Ed taps his foot through the invocation and the addresses, counting the minutes until the only speech that matters: the announcement of his brother's name among the graduates, now and for all time Alphonse Elric, Ph.D. He picks his brother's black-gowned form out immediately when he rises with his fellows to receive his diploma, but finds it hard to keep him in focus once he steps onto the brightly-lit stage. He squints fiercely, conscious of watching not just for himself but for Granny Pinako and Winry and his mother and even the old bastard whose canny investments paid Al's tuition. See? There he is.
The bluestocking applauds so enthusiastically that her bobbed hair bounces above her shoulders and her mother feels compelled to pass some inhibiting remark. The girl folds her hands and leans away, frowning, but smiles again when her gaze crosses that of her fiancé's brother. See?
Meeting her apple-green eyes, proud and damp as his own, Ed finds unexpectedly that he doesn't mind sharing the moment after all.
Author's Note: In case anyone was wondering, Al is receiving his degree (in physics) from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH), which began granting doctorates in 1909 and has numbered Wolfgang Pauli among its faculty and Albert Einstein among its graduates.
[Acknowledgments: Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) was created by Arakawa Hiromu and is serialized monthly in Shonen Gangan (Square Enix); the anime of the same title was directed by Mizushima Seiji and story-edited by Aikawa Sho. Copyright for these properties is held by Arakawa Hiromu, Square Enix, Mainichi Broadcasting System, Aniplex, Bones, and dentsu.]
Fandom: FMA (anime version)
Character(s): Ed, Al, OCs
Pairing(s): Al/OC (but nothing onstage)
Rating: G
Word Count: 300 (I needed a treble-length drabble; sue me)
Warnings: Implicit spoilage for the end of the series and the film.
A/N: I know exactly what happens to the Elric brothers for the next twenty-five years after the end of the film, but I never expected to write any of it besides "Tick-Tock". I just can't see myself doing the enormous amounts of research I'd need to make the "what did you do in the war, daddy?" part of the story credible. But this snapshot developed all on its own as I contemplated a friend's recent milestone -- and who am I to scorn inspiration? Crossposted from
nebroadwe to Höllenbeck (i.e. fm_alchemist, fullservicefma, fma_gen, fma_writers and fma_fiction).Dedication: For
lyricnonsense in honor of her graduation. Excelsior!By the time they reach the hall it's standing room only, so Ed props up a wall while Herr Brunner negotiates seats for his wife and daughter in the last row. Bargain struck, he bustles back to Ed, who takes a step away under the guise of making room. He has no desire to share this day with anyone -- particularly not a Swiss petit-bourgeois whose wife can't conceal her relief that her bluestocking daughter is about to reel in a husband. He's not sure what Al sees in the girl, either, but he's learned to stifle his doubts. Rubbing at a fading reminder of one such lesson on his left biceps, he hopes she appreciates what a formidable champion she's gained.
Once the ceremony begins, Ed taps his foot through the invocation and the addresses, counting the minutes until the only speech that matters: the announcement of his brother's name among the graduates, now and for all time Alphonse Elric, Ph.D. He picks his brother's black-gowned form out immediately when he rises with his fellows to receive his diploma, but finds it hard to keep him in focus once he steps onto the brightly-lit stage. He squints fiercely, conscious of watching not just for himself but for Granny Pinako and Winry and his mother and even the old bastard whose canny investments paid Al's tuition. See? There he is.
The bluestocking applauds so enthusiastically that her bobbed hair bounces above her shoulders and her mother feels compelled to pass some inhibiting remark. The girl folds her hands and leans away, frowning, but smiles again when her gaze crosses that of her fiancé's brother. See?
Meeting her apple-green eyes, proud and damp as his own, Ed finds unexpectedly that he doesn't mind sharing the moment after all.
Author's Note: In case anyone was wondering, Al is receiving his degree (in physics) from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH), which began granting doctorates in 1909 and has numbered Wolfgang Pauli among its faculty and Albert Einstein among its graduates.
[Acknowledgments: Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) was created by Arakawa Hiromu and is serialized monthly in Shonen Gangan (Square Enix); the anime of the same title was directed by Mizushima Seiji and story-edited by Aikawa Sho. Copyright for these properties is held by Arakawa Hiromu, Square Enix, Mainichi Broadcasting System, Aniplex, Bones, and dentsu.]
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Date: 2007-05-21 02:13 am (UTC)It doesn't? Dang, and I thought I was being all subtle ... wanna hear about Al's children? His wife's name is Emmy, by the way. :-)
I love your post-movie fics... But they're so bittersweet at the same time.
Thanks. A dash of happy, a dash of angst, mix well ... I think my take on Ed's young adulthood is that's when he learns (of necessity) that love is not a zero-sum game; Al's relationships with others don't diminish their own bond. And Ed does get his own happy (romantic) ending in my timeline, with our world's Winry-analogue, although of course when he first meets her (in the early 1940s while helping to smuggle Jews and other undesirables out of Germany) she's got a fiancé in an Allied prison camp in North Africa somewhere and no sympathy for the resistance. This permits conflict, suspense and character development ... and more angst.
It's a personal thing though... I want Ed and Al back on their own side of the Gate and I don't want them to get older!
I know, I know... and I want Hughes to be alive, too. I'm so pathetic!
I am so worried about the Hughes of Sit Vis Tecum. It suddenly dawned on me that if the plot's going where I think it's going, he could finish up dead and I got all unnerved. I mean, it would work and be all kinds of effective, but still ... dagnabit, I want him alive, too! And, like everyone in the world except Mizushima Seiji, I think Ed and Winry did have a future together. Thank heavens for the manga.