Carrying it All
by Rikugou
He didn't always hate their father. Of course, Al was too young to remember much at that age so it always seemed that way. In fact, he had at one point, in his early stages of life, liked the man! He remembered the loving warmth of their unbroken family when he got the little brother he always wanted. Golden eyes, the same ones Ed saw in the mirror every day, crinkling slightly at the corner as his father smiled at him after he did something noteworthy. And many more happy memories.
In spite of those warm memories, it was overshadowed by one small but significant point--the day his father left. More than a decade later, Ed could still dredge up the mental images of his father's broad back getting smaller and smaller as he walked away from them, not a single instant of hesitancy in his steps. His mother standing at the threshold of their house, holding his hand while the other was raised in a gesture of farewell the bastard didn't even bother turning around to see.
But he saw it.
He saw it all, clutching at his mother's hand, feeling the minute trembling of heldback tears even as she pasted on a cheerful smile to gently herd him back inside.
Not once did the man wave back at her.
Al was asleep at that time. Ed didn't know how glad he was for that fact, looking back at it now. It preserved his brother's golden illusions about the man and that satisfied him just fine. He didn't need the darkness.
As brother, he had every intention of carrying it all by himself.
-END-
Comments? Criticisms?
--Rikugou
Finished: 03.17.04