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

[rewritethis]

Which explains why you needed that much tape just to stop the whole thing falling apart, right?

[The teasing note in his voice there might be a little lost in the eruption of blue light that accompanies it. But sure enough, when the reaction dies down, the box it leaves behind isn't quite as battered-looking as before.]

[elementofloyalty]

Hey, it still worked! I don't get the problem!

[Well, of course it looks better. He used ALCHEMY.]

[rewritethis]

[Satisfied, he picks the box up, hoists it up onto his shoulder with little visible effort, and only then turns to look at her properly.]

It's not a problem. Just worth keeping in mind next time you want to give someone books.

[elementofloyalty]

They're just --

[Her tone changes as she finally gets a full look at his smile. She visibly relaxes as her own grin blossoms up to match his.]

They're just going on your self anyway, silly. The only reason I wrapped 'em all together was 'cuz I thought it'd work better than wrapping them separately.

[rewritethis]

Well, coming from someone with no fingers, I guess I can't complain.

[Good thing she noticed eventually, or he might have had to thank her out loud. How messed up would that have been?

He takes a couple of steady steps back towards the entrance, but then pauses.] Hey - weird question, but do you guys have birthdays? I know the calendar's probably different...

[elementofloyalty]

[You could still do it, ya know. Politeness and all.]

Yeah, I couldn't tell you when it is by THIS calendar, but mine's in the spring.

[rewritethis]

Spring, huh?

[He looks momentarily thoughtful. Maybe it's a vestige of the mood he's been in all day, but he actually might.]

Well... I can't really say I understand why, but thanks for this.

[Though only with his back to her, while walking away.

As he passes by where he left his coat earlier, he crouches a little unsteadily to pick it up without setting the box down and drapes it over the same shoulder.]

[elementofloyalty]

Happy Hearth's Warming, Ed!

[She grins, swooping down and past him in celebratory delight, then up towards the ceiling in a quick loop.]

[rewritethis]

Hey, you can stop that. This still doesn't mean I got you anything.

[elementofloyalty]

[She drops down to look at him upside-down, still grinning.]

You don't need to! You already did plenty.

[Seriously, he gave her a smile and thanks. That's alarmingly generous for him!]

[rewritethis]

[He cheerfully ignores her.] Maybe some other time.

[Tacit in that is the admission that he probably isn't going to find a way home before another opportunity comes along... which might be why his grin from before has settled into a comparatively low-key smile.]

Just think - if the other me had stuck around, you could've saved all of this money.

[elementofloyalty]

Oh please. I got these a long time ago! Way before that other you showed up.

[rewritethis]

Taken them back, then, or kept them for yourself. You can't say it'd hurt for you to read up on these kinds of things once in a while.

[He gives the box a little heave as he walks to stop it slipping down from his shoulder.]

But, you know... to be honest, if he was still around, I'd almost feel sorry for him.

[elementofloyalty]

[She helpfully nudges the box into better position, apparently intent on following him to see him put them up on his shelves or whatnot.]

If you're about to say, 'because he got beat up by a pony'...

[Ed has conditioned her to expect certain things from him.]

[rewritethis]

[Now they're pretty much out of the training centre and headed towards the dorms. He looks up when she moves the box, but doesn't complain about it, which might also be unusually generous for him.]

Nah, why would I care about that? If you knew him a little better, I bet you wouldn't have gone so soft on him. But... [He doesn't sound sad by any stretch of the imagination - but pensive, maybe.] The thing about him was... he was all alone.

[elementofloyalty]

Oh.

[Something about this strikes a chord with the pony. She drops down to fly by his side -- which is an odd experience, because most ponies don't have the clearance to fly next to them.]

[Ed she thinks you're comparatively tall.]

Well, whatever we can say about you, you're definitely not that.

[rewritethis]

[He turns his head to look down at her. It isn't something that happens every day.] Yeah.

[With her this close to the ground, it's hard to entirely shake the feeling that he's walking her like some large, overly colourful dog... Well, he reflects, despite what he told the other her, he probably did go crazy a while ago. And worse things have happened.

However...]

Wait a minute - what "whatever you can say about me", Dash?

[elementofloyalty]

I mean that of all other possible adjectives or descriptions that could EVER be applied to you, even the most basic ones like 'asleep' -- alone will never ever be one.

[Surprisingly diplomatic of her, isn't it?]

[rewritethis]

[Definitely diplomatic compared to a certain class of adjectives and descriptions that he often finds applied to him!

He grabs the box with both hands, swings it down from his shoulder and attempts to (more or less playfully...) bop her over the head with it.] Like you need to tell me that.

[elementofloyalty]

[She laughs, rolling with the blow in midair to do a complete 360. A wing may have whapped him in the middle of it.]

Maybe you don't need to remember now, but if I TELL you now, you're less likely to forget when it matters!

[rewritethis]

Don't you think I - [Whap.

His mildly stunned look lasts for only a moment before twisting into something that would be the picture of apoplectic rage if she didn't know him any better.] You little... [He raises the box over his head like he's brandishing a club and swings it at her again. At this rate he's going to end up chasing her all the way to the dorms.]

[elementofloyalty]

[Ed's harmless when he's loud and flaily. He's funny, even! Which is why Rainbow is laughing as she stays just ahead of him, all the way to the dorms.]

[rewritethis]

GET BACK H- [The biggest hint that he might be slightly exaggerating his annoyance with her is the abruptness with which he appears to cool off once he's a step or two away from his door.] Oh, we're here.

[After opening the door, he drops his coat approximately on top of a chair, carries the box of books over to his desk without any further suggestions of violence -

- and hesitates just as he's about to set it down. There's something small and rectangular on top of the desk that apparently he didn't see earlier...]

[elementofloyalty]

[Rainbow follows right behind him like she owns the place, coming to a hovering stop behind him and over his shoulders.]

What's up?

[rewritethis]

How did this...?

[He flips the photo over, though probably not soon enough to stop her catching a glimpse of smiling faces and a flash of red. The back is blank apart from a mark near the top suggesting that it was stuck to a wall or something until recently - and, going by its dog-eared corners, had been for a while.

Ed looks at it for a couple of seconds longer before shaking his head.] Beats me why that's just lying around. It must be about time I did some real cleaning up in here. [That excuse doesn't entirely square with his initial reaction, but it'll do. He lifts the lid of the box.] Maybe that way I'd already have somewhere to put these.