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]

[In an effort to demonstrate that he's cool and mature enough not to need any stupid sentimental keepsakes like these, he sticks his tongue out right as the camera goes off.]

[elementofloyalty]

[She whacks him upside the head. Lightly, because she expects that from him. Then goes over to take the photo paper from the camera as it protrudes outwards.]

Don't move, we need two!

[She sets the timer, then races back to hold him in position with a grin.]

[rewritethis]

Dammit, you can't just hit me over the head and tell me not to move!

[However, since she is holding him in place, the camera only captures him quietly bristling at her and grinding his teeth rather than anything actually violent.]

[elementofloyalty]

[Giggling again, she grabs the second photo and hands it off to him.]

Here, I think this one will remind you the best of all our time spent together.

[rewritethis]

[He takes the photo, looks it over (without batting an eyelid at his own expression; he's had pictures taken of considerably worse), then swats at the top of her head with it mostly on principle.] You sure you don't want this one too?

[elementofloyalty]

Sure, I'll carry around two like you're Tank or something. [She rolls her eyes, then grins.] Who wants to see pictures of my pet, come take a look!

[rewritethis]

[Scowl.] You're lucky that's not what I tell people when I introduce you. [Because publicly he's still slightly in denial about being friends with her at all, but shush.]

But I'm serious - you can have it if you want. To tell you the truth, I'm not big on photos. Nowhere to keep them; they'd just get lost.

[elementofloyalty]

I want you to have it. Stick it in a dresser or something, I don't care. Just keep it.

[rewritethis]

A lot of good it'd do stuck in a dresser here while I went back.

[elementofloyalty]

Look... I'm not the most sentimental pony ever, but...

[She folds her forelegs over the photo, holding it to her chest.]

If and when the day comes where I want this, I'll be glad I had it. And you might feel the same.

[rewritethis]

[He's still holding the photo out towards her.] I'm telling you, even if it did go back with me, and even if we did have anywhere to keep it where it wouldn't just get lost somewhere I'd never find it again... [He reaches behind him with his free hand and waves his original photo at her too.] You think I need something like this to help me remember what they looked like? Come on, you know me better than that.

[...That may have been slightly more than he'd intended to say, but it's a minor thing compared to his point, isn't it?]

[elementofloyalty]

Duh, of course not. Like I'd ever forget anyone either! That isn't why I want it.

[rewritethis]

Why do you want it, then? Thinking of taking up photography instead of painting?

[elementofloyalty]

Just... different reasons. Look, don't ask me to explain stuff like this, I'll just mess it up and end up having to write a letter to Princess Celestia about what I learned, okay? All I know is I'll be glad to have this picture someday.

Also, it'd at least prove that you exist when no one believes me about humans. Though I suppose you don't have that problem because if you ever go home you'll never mention the talking ponies to anyone.

[She grins on that last line.]

[rewritethis]

[He shrugs.] There's a difference between going back and going home.

[elementofloyalty]

Doesn't mean I'm wrong. [She elbows him with a playful wink. (Or should that be 'knees'?)]

[rewritethis]

[He starts to open his mouth for a snippy retort to that, but instead looks at the photos he's holding again and then slaps both of them back down onto the desk without saying it. He's still being generally snippy, though.] Fine, go ahead and bury me in junk I'm supposed to hold onto for no good reason. That's just one of the things I don't miss about having a home.

[elementofloyalty]

Hey, there are perfectly good reasons to hold on to stuff! You just don't choose to admit it!

[He can be snippy all he wants, he's got a ways to go before he can erode her amazingly good mood. Even now, she turns a little loop in midair just for the delight of doing so. She gets halfway through another before she stops to look at him upside-down, playfully.]

You should relax a little, y'know. Why get upset over a photo? Or anything, right now? We're back to normal, and it's the holidays! Let's just enjoy ourselves!

[rewritethis]

Relax just so it's easier for you to drag me all over the place, you mean.

[He goes back over to his shelf, where he was clearing aside some of the books he doesn't look at too often.]

Anyway, I wasn't upset. [This level of huffiness is pretty much his baseline, after all.]

[elementofloyalty]

[She watches him, still upside-down, as he removes books. Yes, she's totally judging how much he likes her present by which books he's displacing.]

Hey, I like reading as much as the next pony... uh, so long as that next pony isn't Twilight Sparkle. But if you don't stay active, you'll just end up in pain! So I'm doing you a favor.

[rewritethis]

Hey, if you wanna see how active I'm staying, just keep talking. [It'd be an empty threat even if he wasn't obviously paying more attention to rearranging his shelf.] It's not like those are mutually exclusive either, you know.

[When he's made enough space, he nudges the removed books somewhat carelessly to one side with his foot and goes to bring the box over.]

[elementofloyalty]

I've seen you reading. You barely move. Sometimes I've been tempted to check for a pulse! I mean, the one time I was saying your name for like fifteen minutes before you finally even looked up!

[rewritethis]

What? Just 'cause someone maybe doesn't want to waste the reading time they actually have doesn't mean you have to be so desperate to kill them off. [And hey, it wasn't that much longer than ten minutes, thanks!]

[elementofloyalty]

There's reading, and then there's going comatose, and sometimes I'm not sure you know the difference.

[rewritethis]

You can't exactly talk. At least the stuff I read is productive. [He's fairly sure she hasn't seen him with a comic book more than, like, once or twice...

It's not long before most of his new books are neatly lined up on the shelf. He leaves the final, blank one out on the desk next to the photos, and begins to load all of the displaced books into the box instead.]