Fullmetal Alchemist (Reverse'verse) - Yule Tidings [EdRian | AlWin]

[scriveyner]

Title: Yule Tidings
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
AU: Reverse'verse
Characters/Pairing: Ed/Rian, Al/Winry
Rating: T
Length: 3174
Summary: This year, however, Alphonse came and got him in person. It was a lot harder to ignore his little brother when he transmuted the door open and manhandled him out the door.

The snow fell softly outside the large picture window, blanketing the yard and street beyond in a new coat of gentle white. Darkness had fallen; it came earlier and earlier every day now this deep into winter; even now it was just early evening but the street lamps were on, casting golden light over the freshly fallen snow.

Edward sat at the window with his chin in hand, thoughts a thousand miles away. Behind him was the smell of cooking spices and fresh fowl - Winry had been in the kitchen all day, shooing men and children out from under foot as they snuck past her watchful eye to sample the wares. Alphonse had dragged a crate of decorations in from the shed outside, and the children had crowded around him, watching with wide, expectant eyes as he pried the crate open.

It was Yuletide, the last holiday celebrated before the new year, in the deepest, darkest parts of winter. It was a time meant for family and friends, celebration of the year gone by and the new years ahead of them. Edward stared at his own reflection in the window, closed his eyes and sighed.

He had been dwelling on the events of the last two days hopelessly. He had come home from the office, freed for the holiday only to find Rian packing a duffel bag. His lover had family of his own to see, and it wasn't a time to be selfish. Edward was, though, and felt horrible for it - they'd fought, Rian yelled at him and stormed out, Edward too pissed to even think about seeing him off to the train station and Rian slamming out the door hard enough it bounced off the frame and came open again.

After that, Edward had been determined to sit at him and observe his usual holiday tradition - working his way despondently through his liquor cabinet. It was something he'd done every year since that first lonely Yule since Roy's death - ignoring Alphonse's repeated phone calls every day and eventually crawling back into the office with a hangover to end all hangovers.

This year, however, Alphonse came and got him in person. It was a lot harder to ignore his little brother when he transmuted the door open and manhandled him out the door.

Which, really, it was a good thing - he never minded seeing Winry and the kids adored him. Well, one of them did, Thomas just eyed him with this look in his eye that Edward recognized when Winry felt like dismantling something "just because." Even with all the distraction, Edward could only think of the fact that this was their first Yule as a couple - and they were spending it apart, with the spectre of a fight hanging over their heads.

Edward hadn't been paying attention, so when Alphonse shouldered the front door open Edward jumped, startled. "Brother!" Alphonse yelled, backing in the doorway. "Stop brooding and help me!"

Winry shepherded the excited children out of the way as Edward assisted Alphonse in wrestling the freshly-cut tree through the door. The tree was just a little too big, pine needles went everywhere as they tugged it through finally, half-melted snow flinging from its branches. It was a bit of an ordeal to get the tree into its base - Alphonse had told Edward to get under the tree to make sure it was sitting right because he was the smaller of them, Edward took offense and kicked his brother, which escalated into a kick-fight between Edward and Alphonse as they both held the tree steady.

"They're gonna get coal in their stockings," Thomas observed from behind Winry's legs. Winry had Sara in one arm, resting on her hip, and a spatula in the other.

"Children!" Winry bellowed, and the kick-fight sullenly came to a close. "Behave!" When Winry turned to try to shoo Thomas out from behind her before she tripped on him, Edward stuck out his tongue at Winry, and Sara giggled.

Edward did end up crawling under the tree to make sure it sat levelly, eyeballing the base carefully. Alphonse fluffed the branches, as Winry sat the kids at the table and had them cut paper snowflakes to replace the real snow dripping from the tree's branches. Keeping busy kept Edward from thinking too much, and helping supervise the children decorating the tree did in fact keep him quite busy.

Winry held court on the couch, supervising ALL the children while Alphonse took over in the kitchen. Sara decided on decorating Edward's hair with glitter as she sat on his shoulders, he sneezed so hard she nearly fell off with laughter. Thomas was bound and determined to Not Have Any Help as he decorated all the branches within his limited reach.

Alphonse brought in some warm spiced cider, and Thomas allowed his father to pick him up so he could hang paper snowflakes and garlands. Edward and Alphonse stood on opposite sides of the tree and passed the larger garland around so that the tree wore at least some of its decorations evenly. They caught each other's eye and grinned hugely, even as Thomas tore a paper snowflake from his sister's hands hard enough to make her start to cry.

"We're getting tired," Alphonse said, trying to disguise his amusement and sound stern. "It's almost time for dinner, anyway." Winry scooped up Sara and held her in her arms, murmuring softly to her. Alphonse turned his eye on Thomas, but the phone in the kitchen rang. Winry scowled and started to the kitchen, but Alphonse waved her off. "I'll get it."

"If it's work," Winry warned him, "I will go down there myself, Alphonse Elric."

Edward snorted a laugh; there was an equal chance that it was one of Winry's select clients with a cold-related automail malfunction. Thomas skulked behind the couch, hoping his misdeed would go forgotten, as Winry sat back down with Sara in her arms. The two-year-old sighed contentedly, eyes starting toward half mast.

"It's good to hear you laugh," Winry said softly as Edward flopped in a chair. He looked at her in surprise, and then smiled gently.

"It's good TO laugh," he responded thoughtfully, reaching for his mug of cider. "I get too wrapped up in myself sometimes, I'm sorry."

"I'm glad you realize it," Winry said. "I really didn't want to get blood on the new 'spanner that Al got me."

Edward winced at the thought and poked the side of his head with an automail digit. "I think you permanently altered the shape of my skull with the last one," he said. "I'd appreciate it if for Yule you maybe got me a free pass on head trauma for the next year."

"Oh Ed," Winry said, her voice sickeningly sweet. "You know I can't promise that."

Alphonse reappeared in the doorway, grinning. "So, did you guys leave me the star for the top of the tree?"

"Like I could reach it," Edward said disgustedly. Alphonse laughed as Thomas appeared from behind the couch with a much-battered, ancient-looking tree topper. Edward recognized it, surprised. "That's the tree topper from Auntie Pinako's."

"We saved it," Winry said as Thomas solemnly handed the topper to his father. Instead of taking the tree topper, Alphonse picked up Thomas, who squirmed, surprised - then beamed as his father lifted him high enough to put the tree topper on himself.

"Brother," Alphonse said as he let Thomas down. "I could use your help in the kitchen." Edward looked at Alphonse in surprise, he usually wasn't allowed in the kitchen until it was time for clean-up, and for good reason. He hauled himself out of the chair as Winry said, "Don't let him NEAR the pie, Al-" and Sara perked up sleepily.

Once safely in the kitchen and away from curious ears, Alphonse sighed, and Edward looked at him quizzically. "I need a favor," Alphonse said.

"Uh-huh," Edward said.

"We stored the Yule gifts from Sinterklaas at Winry's workshop," Alphonse said apologetically. "Can you run and get them before dinner? I meant to bring them yesterday but I got rather ... distracted." He gave Edward a look.

"But it's COLD out there," Edward groaned. "You know how I hate the cold, and my automail-"

"Please, brother," Alphonse pleaded. He cast around the kitchen, and found a basket of warm bread with a towel over it to keep in the heat. "Look, I'll sneak you a piece of bread-"

"All right, all right," Edward said. "For two pieces of bread."

"You are such a-" Alphonse snorted, but gave Edward two pieces of bread, which were gone almost before he'd tucked the towel back over the basket. "Hurry, too, the kids will wonder where you've been."

Edward bundled in his long coat and scarf, and stole Alphonse's trilby as he didn't have a hat. With a wave to Alphonse, he stomped off into the cold, breath fogging behind him. Winry came into the kitchen as Alphonse closed the back door, and frowned at the obviously plundered breadbasket. "You were feeding that monster. Where's he going?"

"To get the Sinterklaas presents left in your workshop," Alphonse said, tucking his arm around Winry's waist. She put both of her hands on his chest and shoved at him, frowning. "All the presents are hidden in our room."

Alphonse grinned at her. "I know."

"What are you up to, Alphonse Elric?" Winry asked, as he kissed her.

"Thomas," Alphonse called, letting Winry go and walking to the opening between kitchen and living room. "I need you to help me set the table, get in here!"

Winry watched Alphonse with one hand on her hip and a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as Alphonse helped Thomas count out six plates.

#

It was bitterly cold out, and dark too. Snow was still falling gently, but there were breaks in the clouds, and stars twinkled in the black night skies. Edward had his hands buried in his pockets, and nose deep in the warm scarf.

Alphonse's house was near the end of a long street of military housing - officer's houses, mostly, two-stories with a fenced-in yard, enough privacy but still seeming to be nearly on top of each other to someone born in the country.

There was no one else out. The roads had several errant tire tracks in them but were largely as untouched as the sidewalk that Edward was working to forge a path through. Easily six or seven inches of snow had fallen since the morning, at least a foot of snow in total had arrived after Edward had yesterday. Edward grinned as he slogged through the white powder; Thomas would probably want to go sledding tomorrow. There was something about playing in the snow that made him forget exactly how much the cold aggravated his automail ports.

He owed Rian an apology. As much as he'd been hurt by the casual dismissal of spending their first holiday apart, Rian's family did come before he did. The Hargroves didn't have their own phone line, living far enough into the country that such a thing was nothing but a luxury. The apology would have to wait until whenever Rian decided to grace Edward with his presence again - which could be a while.

He hated being alone with his thoughts. Edward thought foul thoughts about his little brother and maybe accidentally stepping on his foot with Edward's automail one when he turned the corner to the street where Winry's work shop was. It was a street lined with businesses, all their shop fronts dark as everyone was with their loved ones for the holiday. There were a few people trotting down the street, bundled up, and the snow was more packed down here.

Edward paused in front of Winry's work shop and frowned at the door. He hadn't bothered asking for a key, he knew he was allowed to transmute this door open with no difficulty. Before he clapped though, he glanced up to check the street for people watching him, just in case. The last thing he wanted to do was spend Yuletide arguing with some MPs stuck with the slag duty. There was a single person headed down the street, folded in on themself just like Edward was; duffel bag slung over their shoulder. Probably an arrival from the late train, but no one there to greet them was a sad thing indeed.

But then there was something about that figure's hunched walk, something familiar about the gait-

-and Edward straightened in surprise as he realized, and Rian spotted him.

He didn't expect Rian to get up such speed in the snow, the sidewalk was a bit packed down but it was still slippery, but Rian raced toward him and threw himself at Edward, who barely caught him and they both went over backwards into the snowdrift against the front of the shop. "Colonel!" Rian gasped, face rosy with the cold air.

Edward's fingers, numb even in his gloves, curled into the back of Rian's thick winter jacket. "What," he said, too shocked to try to make sense of it. "What are you DOING here?"

Rian buried his face against the bottom of Edward's chin, mostly in the striped scarf Edward wore. "I'm sorry," he mumbled against the fabric. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm an idiot and you probably hate me-"

Edward grabbed him by the chin to force his face up and kissed him just to stop the steady stream of words. Rian breathed hard against his mouth and blinked up at Edward, eyes large and dark. "What are you sorry for?" Edward asked finally, when they separated. "I'm the one who owes YOU the apology, Rian-" He wrapped one gloved hand around the back of Rian's head and Rian winced, so Edward released him. "My ass is going to freeze off sitting in this snowbank," he said, and Rian scrambled off of him and helped yank Edward to his feet.

Once they were both on their feet and Edward patted the snow from the back of his coat, he gave Rian a strange look. "What ARE you doing here?"

"I, I met Tony at the train station to go back," Rian said. "And we got into an argument because I was still pissed at you from before." He gave Edward a sharp look. "But then Tony thwapped me and said we'd had a dozen Yules together and to turn around and go back to you. But when I got back to your flat you were gone and I," here he took a great gulping breath. "I couldn't find you anywhere, you weren't at the flat or the office or the pub or anywhere-" Edward put both hands on Rian's shoulders, that were shaking. "I didn't think of the lieutenant colonel until this morning and I got on th' first train here but it got delayed by the snow and-"

Edward hugged Rian to him. "I didn't leave a note because I didn't think you'd be back," he said softly into Rian's ear. "Not before I was. I'm so sorry, Rian, this is my fault, I'm such an idiot-"

This time it was Rian who kissed him, leaning up against his body, snow falling gently around them. "We should both be idiots together," he said. Edward threaded his left hand through Rian's.

"You came just in time," he said. "Dinner's almost on."

"Good, I'm starving," Rian said. "I don't think I've had anything to eat since yesterday."

#

Winry was checking out the window again when she saw the two dark figures trudging, hand in hand, through the snow. She smiled and put the dish she had laden with food on the dining room table. "They're back," she called into the kitchen.

Thomas popped up from under the dining room table - with a table cloth on it, it had become his impenetrable fortress. "Is it Sinterklaas?" he yelled, scrambling to the window.

"No," Winry said. "Sinterklaas only comes when all the good little boys and girls have been tucked into bed on Yuletide eve, Thomas." The boy let out a disappointed huff and still pressed his nose to the glass as he tried to make out the figures in the darkness.

"It's about time," Alphonse said as he opened the door just as they reached the stoop. "I was beginning to think you got lost."

"I had to look for presents, remember?" Edward said, then realized that Thomas was staring directly at him.

"Ah," Alphonse said. "Sorry about that." He grinned at Rian, who was awkwardly untangling from his knotted scarf. "But I see you found one, at least."

It was hard to tell if Rian was blushing, or if his cheeks were still just flush from the cold, but Alphonse could always tell when Edward blushed. He grinned at his brother, who growled at him. Winry was still setting dishes on the table for dinner. "Alphonse, stop tormenting your brother and get in here, I don't want to carry this bird, I'll drop it."

Thomas frowned at Rian from the window. "Did YOU see Sinterklaas?" he asked.

"Sure did," Rian said, and Thomas immediately perked up. "And do you know what he told me?" Thomas scooted closer to Rian as Rian shrugged out of his coat, and took Edward's before Edward could leave it in a pile on the floor. "He told me that he was keeping a close eye on you, Thomas, so you better be on your best behavior this year!"

"Come on," Winry shouted from the dining room. "Food is getting cold, you two!"

#

Later that night, after dishes were put up and children tucked securely into their beds, the adults sat around the living room and had mulled wine. Winry sat in Alphonse's lap, socked feet tucked under his legs for warmth, while Edward and Rian sat together on the couch. Both were pliant and sleepy from too much good food and the spiced, mulled wine.

Alphonse and Edward were talking work when they could get away with it, and when they couldn't Alphonse would try to ply Rian with some blackmail material on Edward. Winry thought this quite hilarious, although she would stop often mid-laughter and listen intently for noises from the upstairs. Thomas had insisted on leaving out some of the poorly formed gingerbread men they'd baked earlier in the day for the legendary Sinterklaas, and the cookies were quickly fallen upon by Edward and Rian.

When they were quite sure that the kids were asleep Alphonse shifted Winry off his lap and quietly went upstairs to fetch the presents, and after a moment Winry went upstairs to assist him. Alone momentarily in the downstairs, Rian leaned his head to Edward's shoulder and sighed. "Happy Yuletide," he said sleepily. "Ed."

Edward leaned his own head atop of Rian's and smiled. "Yule tidings to you too," he murmured happily.