Heartbeat
By ALBA

FANDOM: Full Metal Alchemist

RATING: PG

SUMMARY: Wherein a heart beats and much musing takes place.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist. I forget who does, but I'm sure they're very rich now. Which I, most assuredly, am NOT.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: No spoilers. Post-series. Just a character study.

DEDICATION: For Sol, who wanted more fic on the "FMA-fan" list.

*****

Heartbeat

*Bad-dum*

The sound was soothing, a reminder of things both lost and gained.

*Bad-dum*

It could speak of life lost, that gentle sound silenced forever.

*Bad-dum*

He thought he'd lost this sound forever. The night he and his little brother had committed the ultimate crime, his little brother's heartbeat had been silenced. He'd managed to save his brother's soul, but the body no longer lived.

The heart he loved no longer beat.

When his brother had woken, he had woken trapped in a metal body incapable of living. Instead of a soft heartbeat, he creaked, and clanked, and groaned. Instead of soft human skin, there was only cold, unyielding metal.

He had never forgiven himself for that. That he still lived, could still feel, while his little brother could not. Oh, his brother had forgiven him, even reminded him that he, too, had suffered a loss, but he had never allowed himself to feel the forgiveness so easily given. Instead, he had promised that he would find a way, somehow, someday, to make this all better. That he would fix the damage he had caused.

His little brother would live again. He looked his brother in the eye and promised him that. Someday, he would have his body back.

From that moment, he'd lived only for his promise. For his brother, he would do anything. He'd suffered years of torment, seen things no man should ever see, all the while knowing that at the end of it all, there was a destination, a goal. He had to right the wrongs he'd caused.

It was only the thought of his brother that kept him alive on those long nights during the war. While the guns screamed and the fires raged, he thought of his brother and managed to get through the next day. And the next. And the next.

And then, finally, he'd found his answer. An answer that didn't require the sacrifice of innocents, or blood to be unnecessarily spilled. One that didn't go against the beliefs pounded into him by Sensei years before.

And he'd succeeded. By God, he'd succeeded. His brother LIVED.

*Bad-dum-dum*

A heartbeat quickening, waking at the feel of movement beside him.

"Nii-san?"

"Ssh, go back to sleep." A soft murmur in response.

*Bad-dum*

To hear this heartbeat again, Edward decided, putting his head back down on Al's newly-created chest, was worth all the pain.

**It was worth it.**

/END