A request for Winter Melody, and therefore, dedicated to her! Enjoy! (This fanfic is very shy... sorry, inside joke. I'll shut up now.)
I own nothing.
Edward slammed the door shut on the pouring rain and shed his soaked outer clothing, collapsing onto the rug by the fire with a shiver. Water dripped from his hair onto the floor and a trail of damp footprints from door to fireplace marked where he had been.
"Edward? Is that you?" called Alfons from the kitchen. "It's not Frau Gracia, is it? Ah- Hello Edward." he smiled, standing in the doorway- and then frowned. "You look half-drowned. What on earth were you doing out there?"
I saw my mother.
"Just thinking." Edward shrugged, giving a weak smile.
She's alive. She's so happy, so carefree... her husband didn't leave her in this world. Her children didn't have to watch her die.
"In this weather?" Alfons shook his head. "You'll catch your death of cold. Wait there- I'll get you a blanket."
I'm not her son here.
"Thanks," he said, smiling gratefully.
Alfons draped the blanket round his shoulders and then sat beside him. "You're welcome- now why were you really out there?"
I saw my mother, Alfons. She was weighed down with bags and struggling through the rain without a coat, and I was so shocked by the sight of her I nearly passed out then and there.
"Ah, just... homesick, I guess." Edward gave Alfons his best 'look-really-I'm-fine' smile. Alfons smiled back, but he didn't look like he believed him.
And then she asked me what was wrong. What could I tell her?
"Oh." said Alfons. "Somebody else who reminds you of home?" he asked, more softly.
Edward nodded mutely.
"In another world I am your son, and I watched you die. In another world I gave up my leg for you. In another world I made you a monster. In another world, mother, I killed you." I couldn't say it. How could I say that to her, Alfons? How could I say that, and bear to watch my own mother's face twist in horror as she hurried away from the 'madman'?
"Who was it this time?" Alfons asked. Edward knew he didn't really believe him, but he was willing to listen, and that was all Edward really wanted.
I offered to carry her bags for her. She tried to refuse, but I insisted- I couldn't let her struggle on. Not with that face.
"My mother," Edward said hoarsely. "My mother."
I walked her all the way home- almost two miles from here- and when I got there, I helped her put away the groceries and she offered me a cup of tea. She was just as I remembered her, you know.
Alfons rested his hand on Edward's human shoulder, a look of compassion in those eyes that were so different and yet so similar to those Edward remembered. Alfons may not have believed all of Edward's stories, but he was sure that there was a grain of truth in each of them- like the fact that Edward's mother was dead.
"I'm sorry." he said.
"'S not your fault." Edward muttered- but he didn't shrug away the comforting hand on his shoulder the way he normally would.
"Look, sit yourself on the sofa- come on, up off the floor- and I'll get you a cup of tea, alright?"
"Here you go. Now... tell me about it, Edward. Tell me everything."
Before I left, I turned to her, and I asked her to forgive me. "Why?" she asked.
Edward launched into a story that Alfons had only heard once before; and although he still wasn't sure that he believed in other worlds, he did believe this- Edward's grief was too real for this to be a lie.
"When my brother and I were little..." it began, and Alfons listened, no matter how much he didn't want to hear, because Edward needed him to.
"Please," I said. She shook her head at me, but she took my hands in her own and looked me in the eyes and said;
"Oh, Edward," said Alfons when he finished talking. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"It's... it's alright. I know you don't... I shouldn't get worked up about it."
"I forgive you."
Alfons sighed; hesitated for a moment. "Look, Edward..."
"Hmm?"
"Thank you." I said. But you know, Alfons- while we had tea together, we talked.
"It's... it's not that I don't believe you, it's just... it's hard to... I mean..." he gave up. "I don't know. It seems so unreal... but I don't think you're making it up."
Edward gave him a small smile. "It is kind of weird," he admitted. "I guess."
She told me about her family, Alfons.
"Kind of." said Alfons, shaking his head fondly. "Frankly, it's ridiculous- but I... I do believe you. I try to, anyway."
"Yeah, I know you do." Edward leant back into the sofa. "I know it's hard to accept... a couple of months ago I wouldn't have believed it." he said with a soft sigh.
She told me about her sons, Alfons.
"Edward- oh, you're still soaked through!" Alfons frowned. "You really will catch your death, if you're not careful- stand up, let me pull the sofa closer to the fire. You shouldn't let yourself get in such a state, Edward, I worry about you." he scolded gently.
I had never thought about it before, you know.
"I know, I know. I'll take more care of myself. I promise." Edward grinned.
"Good." Alfons smiled at him, and Edward could see not just his brother in those eyes, but his friend: two different people, so alike, so different.
I never knew.
"Thanks, Alfons."
"Don't mention it."
I guess in some small way, we really are family...
I never thought that you and I might share a mother.