9. [PM] + [Action] (forward-dated to the 24th)

[rewritethis]

[PM to everyone who so much as spoke to his AU, if he knows their name] [ooc: this can be handwaved or backtagged!]

If you remember the guy asking after me a couple of weeks back: I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.

- Edward Elric

[Action]

[After those slightly cryptic PMs go out, Ed is absent from his usual hangouts for the rest of the morning. It's pretty difficult to miss him if you venture into the training centre, though - he's standing around a small clearing fairly close to the entrance, although after a little while a more accurate description would be miniature wasteland. Fallen grats lie here and there in the torn-up earth surrounding him; a couple are wounded in a way that suggests he impaled them somehow, but most just look like they've been rather viscerally beaten.

Presently, he settles down at the base of a nearby tree, on top of his untidily folded coat. He pulls at the hem so he can start polishing his right arm, but then stops and hangs his head. There's clearly something on his mind.

Not too far in the distance, a large animal roars.]

Comments

[elementofloyalty]

[She rears back on her hind legs -- to grab him in another hug.]

Thanks for being so patient with the other me.

You know. Patient for you. I'd have been a lot worse off if I just remembered you yelling a lot.

[rewritethis]

Uh - [He's a little too surprised to put up a token amount of resistance, and barely catches himself in time to avoid just falling forward onto her shoulder.] ...sure. [He manages to smile a bit.] But I should be the one saying that, if anything.

[elementofloyalty]

[That startles her into jumping backwards, and up, a little bit.]

Wait -- that copy-you -- you remember all of that!?

[rewritethis]

[Wait, she thought he didn't -

- goddamnit.

It takes him a few seconds to decide whether he should lie about this or not, but the suddenly blank look on his face probably already said it all.

Without moving much, he seems to deflate.] ...Yeah.

[elementofloyalty]

Oooooh.

Soorrrry I kind of beat you up a lot.

[rewritethis]

[He looks down at his feet.] Tell it to him, not me.

[elementofloyalty]

I wouldn't be apologizing to him. Anyway, Mr. Memories Can Be Tricked, let's forget the whole thing, okay? That wasn't you, and now you're back.

[rewritethis]

...I wonder.

[He lifts one hand to rub the side of his neck, unsmiling.]

I'm sorry you had to deal with him, anyway.

[elementofloyalty]

Well, I'm sorry you had to deal with evil alternate ME.

[Rainbow, Brushie isn't evil just because she likes to paint.]

Well, now that we're both back, how about we celebrate a little?

[rewritethis]

[That's one way to temporarily distract him from his brooding. He blinks.]

I'm gonna regret asking, but celebrate how?

[elementofloyalty]

Weeeell, in Equestria, around this time of year, we have a celebration called Hearth's Warming. It's all about how Equestria was founded, and the spirit of unity, and all that sentimental jazz, but I'm sure you don't care about that. The important part --

Hey, wait here a minute, would ya?

[Rainbow takes off like a shot without any more warning than that.]

[rewritethis]

[Yeah, that's not ominous in the slightest.] What're you -

[- and off she goes. Apparently he's going to find out.

He wonders vaguely if getting back to training would be slightly more productive than just moping around down here while he's waiting. Then he decides that it would be and begins to get up, brushing the dust off his clothes.]

[elementofloyalty]

[Rainbow doesn't, surprisingly, zip back immediately -- in fact, it takes a minute, because she's flying slow (for her) thanks to the obvious weight of the gaily-wrapped package she's carrying.]

[rewritethis]

[By the time she's back, most of the clearing is, if not quite back to the way it was before, at least a lot flatter. The noise and sparks given off as he works on the last part mean he doesn't see her approach until she's pretty close.

When he does notice, the look he immediately shoots her is... well, apprehensive would be a gentle way of putting it.]

Really?

[elementofloyalty]

Sure! I don't know when Hearth's Warming Eve is supposed to be exactly compared to here, but, this is close enough, and this is a good time for it!

[She drops down the package with a grunt, then takes up an eager position over it.]

So, happy Hearth's Warming, blah blah blah, sentiment done, open your present!

[rewritethis]

[He kneels down, eyeing the package as if it's about to explode.] If you think telling me this now means you'll get something out of it too, you're gonna be disappointed... [His tone is only mock accusatory, though. Mostly.

Then he grins widely and starts tearing into the wrapping paper with abandon, almost exactly like a kid with a new toy. Shreds of it fly in all directions.]

[elementofloyalty]

Don't be an idiot, Ed.

[Just a hint of chastising in the otherwise-light tone, which vanishes when she sees his enthusiasm. Underneath the wrapping paper -- is a box, held together with a lot of tape. It clearly was never meant for its current purpose.]

[rewritethis]

[As if tape is going to slow him down! Actually, he's too intent on attacking the packaging to pay attention to whatever's inside at first...]

[elementofloyalty]

[Oh, he'll notices in time, because what she got him -- are books.]

[Seven of them, all in a row. Six are thick encyclopedia-style volumes, leather-bound and reeking of delicious new-book smell. Perhaps more surprisingly, the books are actually on science-y topics! There's one on paramagic, one on Guardian Forces. One covers Time Compression, the fourth is about mechanized warfare and mechanical augmentation of soldiers. The fifth is about monsters. The six is about advanced aeronautics.]

[The seventh book is in the same mold, but it doesn't have a title or anything. Its pages are blank. That one's for Ed to write in, of course.]

[rewritethis]

[The books gently tip over onto their sides like dominoes once freed from what's left of their box. Coincidentally, this is an accurate metaphor for Ed's reaction to seeing them.

When he's over the initial shock, he practically lunges with both hands for the book on aeronautics - and stops, belatedly remembering that she's not only still there but hovering right over his head. He looks up at her, then back down at the textbook he still seems to be clutching, then up at her again. He's at a loss for what expression he should be making, never mind words.

But he eventually manages to summon one of each.]

...Really?

[elementofloyalty]

Yeah... [She rubs a hoof through her mane with a nervous smile.] I tried to get stuff I didn't think you knew as well. I figured stuff we covered here like physics and chemistry would be really boring for you. I mean you already know all that, right? I hope the stuff about magic and whatnot is still all right, I mean, I know it's magic, but they're at least scientific about it and all. I looked through that book and it was talking stuff about 'frequencies' and 'harmonics' and... well, I didn't understand a word of it...

[Yes, she's pretty much babbling.]

[rewritethis]

[Rather than try to get a word in edgeways - he's still not totally sure what the best way to say it would be, anyway - he sets the book down next to the others and starts to carefully sweep the remains of the box and wrapping paper into an approximate ring around them.]

[elementofloyalty]

Although I might ask you to explain the aeronautics stuff. I mean, I'd kinda like to know how the Ragnarok works...

[She trails off, wondering what on earth he's doing, then --]

...Ed, are you about to transmute that whole thing back to its wrapped state?

[rewritethis]

[Now he doesn't look up.] You don't expect me to carry all of these back in a pile, do you? [...because he wouldn't be able to see over the top of them.] And like hell I'm gonna just leave them lying around in here.

[If he beams any wider, he's probably going to break a jaw. It's unreserved even by his normal standards.]

[elementofloyalty]

It's not like I can't HELP you! Besides, why the wrapping paper too?!

[It's not like she can see his smile! She's starting to worry he's about go off on some CRAZY tangent like how he doesn't deserve it or something!]