waxwings | IC CONTACT

But-

[His quickened breathing is audible, though it suddenly becomes much quieter as he lowers the phone. His head is spinning. Neither he nor Al, probably no one who's attempted human transmutation ever considered that the homunculus they tried to create, the person they tried to bring back to life, would resent that! It didn't make any sense! Why would she want to kill the people who brought her life?! Did that mean Teacher's child-

Goddamnit! His double was right. He didn't want those answers at all. He ended the call and threw the device across the room.]

[Ed waits. He doesn't see or hear from the kid for a while and it hasn't exactly escaped him that what he'd said had struck a little too close to home. He had warned him. So, he waits. A couple of hours at least, to give him some time to deal with it. The thing was, being Edward Elric, it didn't take all that long for the guilt to start eating at him. He could be as flippant and abrasive about it as he wanted, this really wasn't the kid's problem but he couldn't deny that it made sense for him to be upset about it. For a number of complicated reasons.]

You okay?

[Texting feels safer, he figures it's less personal and if the teen wants to he can just ignore it. That's fine with him. At least he tried.]

[It takes a little while before Edward replies. First, he had to find the damned phone because he didn't see where it had landed. Second, the fact that he got any message at all from his double was completely unexpected and the fact that he was showing concern made it...weird. He doesn't know how to respond, but he eventually makes up his mind.

He started trying to type, but he was slow about it, not having much practice typing on anything. Fuck it. He called back.]

What do you want?

[Flatly.]

I thought I'd see if you wanted to get a drink at the bar.

[Ed sighs, a fairly long and deliberate attempt at schooling his emotions because this kid annoyed the shit out of him.]

Seemed clear enough to me. Checking to make sure you're not permanently scarred.

[You know. From the tiny glimpse that you got of how much worse his life is than yours. It's fine.]

[He didn't respond to the 'invite' to the bar. He thought it was a stupid attempt at being funny.]

You're about ten years too late on that.

[He knew his double was talking about the conversation earlier, but he really didn't want to think about that right now.]

[Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Mostly just trying to point out how dumb he thought that question was.]

Ten-?

[Hold on, doing some quick mental math. Something didn't add up.]

How old are you?

Sixteen. Why?

[Okay, hypocrite the kid's world isn't the same so this information shouldn't short circuit the brain quite like it has but here we are.]

How...

[Wait.]

Back up. What happened ten years ago?

[Smooth.]

[Hypocrite indeed.]

Mom died.

[Uh, duh? There was an inflection in his voice showing clear confusion on why his double didn't put that together himself. How the hell could that detail be different if they both attempted to resurrect her?]

Actually, it was more like eleven years ago. I don't get it. You obviously went through the whole thing of bringing her back.

Edited (Why typing) 2020-01-31 21:39 (UTC)

Yeah.

[That's all he gets out. Yeah, he definitely went through the whole thing of bringing her back but there's a whole five or so years missing unaccounted for here that's making it really hard for him to make sense of things. They didn't really discuss when they'd tried bringing her back but now he's under the impression that everything was a whole five years earlier than it was, possibly including trying to bring her back.

The more he thinks about it the harder it is to reconcile with the thought this kid went through any of that so much younger than him. His breathing is so shallow his double probably couldn't make that out to confirm he was still there.

There's nothing, just silence on the other end of the line, maybe for a minute before it goes dead.]

[Ed pulls the phone away when he realizes his double just hung up on him.]

What the hell?

[He must have said something but he had no idea what triggered the man. He called him straight back.]

What?

[He might sound a little annoyed and out of breath. Don't ask.]

What do you mean "what?" Why'd you hang up?

[Seriously. It bothers him that he doesn't know how he offended him.]

[The temptation to just hang up again is overwhelming. He doesn't owe the kid an explanation. He doesn't answer right away, exhaling deeply.]

Does it matter?

[It's the teenager's turn to get annoyed.]

Yeah! I don't know what I said to make you freak out! It's obviously bothering you.

Why do you care what bothers me!?

[Fuck off kid.]

[As an Ed, he should know that Edward Elric fucks off only when he wants to fuck off.]

I could ask you the same thing! YOU called ME back! REMEMBER?!

I'M NOT THE ONE THAT HATES YOU FOR EXISTING!

[Hanging up again, thanks.]

[A few more hours tick by and by now, Edward's calmed down from that shouting match. The last thing his older double yelled at him bothered him though. It wasn't his fault that they were all in this situation, and it had to be just as weird for him to see someone else wearing his face as it was for the teenager. He had been an ass and it left a bad taste in his mouth for some reason.]

I don't hate you. Sorry I was an asshole.

[Aaaaand sent. There. He even took the time to type the damn two sentences out since he assumed his voice was the last one he wanted to hear.]

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