Fanfic

Title: Zuqnovk

Author: Shy Apocalypse

Rated: M

Characters Ed and Al

Genre: Tragedy, drama, one-shot - 1715 words of drabble. X3

Warnings: Implied elricest, surprise ending, hints for that ending throughout, general tiny spoilers for the end of the anime.

Disclaimer: Arakawa, that mighty giant, doth own this great masterpiece called FMA. I own the crappy fanfic. Also don’t own Scrabble? Blinks owlishly

Summary: Al scratched his head as he stared at the tiles on the board, peering curiously this way and that. “Are you sure that it’s an alloy?”

- - - - + - - - -

Z U Q N O V K

- - - - + - - - -

“And then he had the gall to talk about ‘special circumstances’! I can get the special bit, because Mustang sure is speeeeeecial, but he had no right to speak to me like he did.” Edward huffed, rolling over onto his belly. “Right, Al?”

“Are you sure you’re being fair about this? I mean…” and Al trailed off at the raised golden eyebrow, shrugging a little as he rolled his own eyes. “Alright, you win. The General’s an asshole.”

“Damn straight” Ed muttered, but couldn’t hold his own smile back as Al dissolved into shivery laughs.

- - + - -

“What do you want for breakfast, Al?”

“Hmmm? Oh, nothing thanks, I’ve already eaten.” Al glared suddenly as his eyes tracked the second hand on the clock, tapping his feet against the wooden floor. “You’d have eaten already too, if you didn’t get up so damn late. It’s after lunch!”

Ed shrugged, tossing a greasy empty packet over his shoulder, shifting some of the dirty dishes to the side as he hunted for a clean bowl. “Talk to me about it when I wake up some more.”

Al groaned. “Honestly, brother…”

- - + - -

“Did you finish that paperwork Miss Hawkeye sent over?” Al’s bronze eyes narrowed as Ed boldly shifted himself over to the other side of the room, avoiding his piercing stare. “Brother, you’ll have to do it sometime, why not do it now?”

“Because I don’t want to,” his older brother said reasonably, and Al sighed as he stared out the window, the nearly closed blind only giving him a narrow sliver of view. “Really, Ed, you’re going to have to be more responsible.”

Ed snorted. “And why should I be?”

Al gaped, but then realised he really didn’t have an answer, and turned back to watching the small splinter of the outside world.

- - + - -

“Brother, go and have a shower.”

“No.”

And that was that.

- - + - -

“You eaten today, Ed?” Al looked cheerful as he putted around the kitchen, opening and closing the fridge door, stacking things high on the counter and then unstacking them with scary motivation. “Anything I can make for you today?”

“Can you make a magic potion that makes hangovers go away?”

And Al just shook his head and sighed, pointing to the medicine cabinet.

- - + - -

“Al, you wanna go and call the office for me, tell them I’m not coming in today?”

“Do it yourself. And make your bed while you’re at it!”

But he didn’t, and still ended up having to take the mattress and bedding outside to dry when the roof leaked all over his pillow. Ed would have to have a talk with the tenant upstairs, because this was getting ridiculous.

“Stupid asshole,” he snapped, but had to smile when Al tangled long fingers in his rough ponytail, instantly soothing away the thorn of anger that had pierced him so easily. “Don’t worry about it, Ed, I’ll talk to him.”

But that night Ed’s pillow got wet again.

He was in a terrible mood for the rest of that day.

- - + - -

Ed stopped talking for a week.

- - + - -

He stared dumbly at the phone, wondering how the creator had ever though that ringing bells would be a pleasant sound. They were loud. They were obnoxious.

Stupid bells.

“You wanna answer that? Al yelled from the kitchen, and then yelped loudly as the sound of breaking glass exploded in the small apartment. “Fucking unbreakable, my ass!”

Ed couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing.

- - + - -

Ed stood in front of the fridge without a shirt, letting the cool air wash over his heated chest, permitting the chill soak through the dampness from the shower he had taken just minutes earlier.

“Al, there’s no food!”

But long fingers just tangled in his hair again, a round chin lowered onto his shoulder without a word, and he stared at the light in the door until his eyes started to water from the brightness.

- - + - -

Ed sighed as he plunged his hands into the soapy black water again, thoroughly exasperated as his bangs stuck to his sweaty forehead. “Tell me again why I can’t chuck these out and buy new ones?” Another dish clanked onto the mountain that still had to be rinsed.

“Because doing it this way is the right thing to do,” Al chirped, and he went around the kitchen chasing bugs out from under the mountains of empty food containers. He frowned.

“And buy some garbage bags when you go shopping today!”

“Clean freak.”

- - + - -

The phone rang for three hours.

Ed was too tired to get out of bed, so Al helped him tip the receiver off the hook. Both cheered when the ceaseless annoyance finally stopped.

But then Al got Ed to put it to rights again, so it was a hollow victory.

- - + - -

“I think we’ve got rats.”

The thumps sounded all the way round the exterior of the house, and Edward glared as plaster dust started to drift down from the ceiling above the front door. “You think they might be in the crawlspace up there?”

“Could be?” Al answered doubtfully, cocking his head to the side as he watched long shadows move in front of the still drawn blind. “Oh, did you remember the garbage bags? We really have to clean up the kitchen.”

Ed sighed mournfully. “I’ll get right on it, my King.”

- - + - -

“It’s nice when the apartment’s clean, isn’t it.” Al sounded surprised.

Ed was surprised that the place actually didn’t look too bad when it wasn’t covered with absolute shit.

- - + - -

“What are you doing, brother?”

There was a large splash as Ed floundered under the water, and he surfaced spluttering and glaring molten gold as Al perched on the edge of the bathtub, watching him with remarkably sad eyes. “I’m taking a bath, Al, what’s it bloody look like!?”

“Then what’s with the knife, brother?”

Curiously, Ed didn’t have an answer for that.

- - + - -

“Are you going to get out of bed today, Ed?”

“No…no, I don’t think so.”

“Then do you mind if I join you?’

And the two brothers curled under the sheets, and went back to sleep.

- - + - -

“You feel like pancakes?”

“No.”

Al threw the frying pan across the room, and then sobbed in the corner while Ed stared at the wooden floor.

- - + - -

“Zuqnovk isn’t a word. At least…I don’t think it is.” Al scratched his head as he stared at the tiles on the board, peering curiously this way and that. “Are you sure that it’s an alloy?”

“Zinc and marshmallows, Al.”

“Than I should be able to add ‘cal’ to it, make it just long enough to reach that triple letter score, shouldn’t I.”

Ed swore.

- - + - -

Al pointed to Edward’s desk, and when the taller alchemist sat down, opened a drawer and tapped a blank white envelope with his index finger. “Brother, I swear, if you don’t do this now I’ll stop talking to you.”

Ed scrubbed furiously at his cheeks, and then reached out and tugged on Al’s black sleeve, his heart falling when Al’s face became, if it was even possible, more resolved. “No…no, Al, I can’t…”

“Yes you can. See? Here’s a pen. Here’s the form. Just fill out the little boxes, and put it in the mailbox, and then you can shower, and then we’ll go and have a sleep, alright?”

Ed sniffed. “And you’ll…you’ll keep talking to me? You won’t leave me?”

Al smiled, tangling fingers in his matted hair. “Yes, brother, I’ll keep talking to you. And I won’t ever leave you.”

So Ed filled out the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages form for Al, and tried not to feel that little twinge that told him his heart was breaking.

- - + - -

“So what now?”

They were nose to nose in the narrow bed, and Al’s eyes watched him carefully as Ed buried his head a little deeper into the pillow, eyes red and raw from crying. “You know what happens now, Ed.”

Ed blinked at the empty pill bottles, rolling his shoulder a little when it started to cramp. “S’pose I do.”

“I only wish…I wish you would have let me help you, brother.”

Ed laughed, and when Al scowled at him, he struggled to wrap his arms around the little ten year old body his ancient brother resided in.

His hands passed right through that aching beautiful form, touched wrinkled sheets, and paused for a moment at the emptiness that reflected so many things. But that didn’t matter. So he pulled his hands back to his sides.

“You did, Al. I… s’pose I just couldn’t be helped,” Ed grinned sleepily, and watched the sun go down, brilliant apricot and lavender painted like brushstrokes against an indigo sky.

- - + - -

Ed’s eyes finally closed, and then they didn’t open anymore.

And Al didn’t want to know.

But he gasped when strong, calloused hands ruffled his hair several minutes later, bronze eyes widening with shock and joy as Ed pushed himself up onto his elbow, smiling down at him. “Brother! Brother, you can - !?”

“Yeah, Al, I can.”

They stared at each other across the distance. Eyes the colour of sunlight and wheat, fingers long and perfect for winding together…and suddenly maybe the gap wasn’t so big, wasn’t so far gone as to be unattainable.

Al laughed when his brother hugged him tight, smoothed his hair, rubbed noses with him and kissed his cheek, and didn’t even complain when Ed decided that tickling could be so much more fun than all that sappy cuddling.

They had plenty of time for that later.

- - + - -

The ringing phone in the hall finally decided to stop.