victory_road | Sept Catch-All for Sharkhouse [Closed]

Al had seen that post go up, actually--much later in the day, scrolling back through the feed. But at the time...he'd been stressed and dealing with his own ghost, and by the time he remembered again, the time to talk to her about it had well and truly passed.

But that's something for another time.

He listens again, a faint frown on his face as Heather explains. He remembers the explosive argument with Envy, had even spent the entire night waiting for Envy to come out of the darkness with a weapon in hand. But nothing had happened, and...now he knows who to thank for that.

"...I'm glad he had you around, back then. I'm not gonna lie, I spent the first week expecting him to jump out of the bushes yelling about--I don't know, me being our father or some bullshit."

He sighs and looks back out at the river. There's a lot he feels like he should say, but...he doesn't know how. Regrets and memories and how things have changed so much in the past few years...

"...we have a very weird family here, don't we?"

She nods, slowly, as he speaks.

She can't exactly blame him for that. Especially since even now, after so much progress, Envy still hasn't completely outgrown his tendency to pick fights with the single Elric he shares this world with.

"Heh. We certainly do."

Reaching down, she picks up a stone and tosses it into the river. It's so dark now that the splash of it landing can't even be seen.

"... We've talked about your dad. Envy and I, I mean. I know he's probably kind of a biased source of information, but even based on what he told me, you couldn't be further from your father."

Al's expression tightens by the slightest amount, but in the waning light it might be easy to miss. The silence that stretches on longer than normal after her words, though...that's a little less so.

"...yeah. I know he wasn't...he didn't make the best decisions. Not back then, and not even with...with us."

With Trisha. With the sons he said he loved in his very last moments.

"But...there had to be reasons for it. I'm sure he thought he was...protecting us, somehow..."

It's hard to miss the faint note of desperate belief in his voice.

Edited 2016-10-05 21:07 (UTC)

If this hadn't been such an intense discussion from the very start, maybe she would have missed it. But she's been paying a lot of attention. And so, she catches that moment. Almost more from the faintest sound of his muscles shifting than from the look of his face.

When he speaks, her throat tightens, too.

She can't-- won't-- mention the conditions of the deal she made with Envy. Even if those conditions were pretty much rendered broken by the circumstances since the deal was made... she's not going to tell Alphonse Elric that she only-slightly-blindly promised to help Envy murder their father.

"... People never do anything without a reason... but they don't have to be good reasons."

She pauses, letting out a long sigh and raking her fingers through her hair.

"... I'm not gonna try and tell you that your dad's a monster. It's... honestly not my place to. Or even my business."

Even if, as early as Envy's first confessions, the first information she'd ever gotten about his dark origins, she'd always suspected that the father who abandoned him was probably responsible for harming others, too. A tiger don't change its stripes, and Heather has no sympathy whatsoever for Hohenheim.

"... But there's something else I think you should know. ... When I died, the very first time? ... It was strange and complicated, but... the man who straight-up went through the gates of Hell to try and get me back... what he got back wasn't his daughter. The parts that made her up... those were still there. I was her, but... I also wasn't. And he knew that. He knew, deep down, that what he got back was something else. Something... maybe even monstrous. ... He wasn't wrong. I was different, and dangerous. And I know the temptation was there-- he wrote about it in his letters to me later on. That there were times he almost killed or abandoned me... or god forbid, left me back there in Hell."

Not with Dahlia-- god forbid. That bitch was already dead, by that point. If only Envy had been so lucky. .. But then again, it had been Harry Mason who'd made Dahlia's death possible to begin with. If he'd cut and run...

"... But he didn't. He kept me. Raised me, taught me. Loved me like his very own daughter. Even when he had to sacrifice so much to protect me, even when in the back of his head I'm sure he knew that he could have lived a happy, normal life by leaving me on the doorstep of a hospital and trying to forget I ever existed. ... He's the reason I couldn't kill that woman from my past. He's the reason I'm here, able to talk and laugh and carve out a life for myself. He's the reason I didn't turn into a monster."

She trails off for a moment, again. Picking out the words, because this next part is important.

"... That's why Envy and I work, Al. I know you're worried, but I said earlier that there were a couple of things I wanted you to take out of this conversation-- well, this is the second one. The biggest-- maybe the only-- difference between me and Envy is that I had help. I had a father. ... And Envy... didn't. That's it. That's the difference."

Al frowns, ever so slightly. Part of him wants to defend their father on some level, but...he can't deny what Hohenheim did to Envy. No matter how the man may have changed, it doesn't erase what happened in the past. It would be a lie and an insult, and Envy deserves better. Deserved better.

~~When Al is really honest with himself, he admits they all did.~~

He's...not entirely sure what to say in response. There are a lot of words floating around in his head, but...they're not his place to say. And Heather, in many ways, is right. If Envy'd had any form of real support back then, he wouldn't have turned out this way. He could have been...someone different, someone that wasn't shaped by hatred and jealousy and poisoned words whispered into his ear. Who that person would have been, if he could have been...maybe an actual brother to him and Edward...it's impossible to say.

He nods...and sighs.

"...yeah."

What even is there to say? Even though she'd done her best to plan, Heather had sort of been flying by the seat of her pants this whole time, even though she'd pretty much monopolized the conversation. Hopefully without overstepping any boundaries in the process, but... well. Al was bound to find out more about her sooner or later.

Now had been as good a time as any.

In any case, she doesn't blame Al for a shortage of words.

She doesn't say anything for a moment, either. Just reaches out to put an arm around his shoulders, if he lets her.

"... So... still mad at us for sneaking around behind everyone's backs?"

It's a slightly feeble attempt to bring some humor back into the conversation, but she has to at least try.

He does, and leans against her when she pulls him close. He can't help a faint, self-depreciating chuckle at the joke.

"No, you had a right. I proved that one pretty well." He turns, and wraps both arms around Heather in a tight hug. "If you guys make each other happy, I don't have a right to get in the middle of that."

"You sure did."

But she says it with a laugh, and ruffles his hair for emphasis. No, she's not angry anymore. She'd been furious at the time, but to be honest, looking back, it was... pretty hilarious. Even if it had only happened a few hours ago.

The hug is a little more surprising, but she returns it without hesitation.

"Things will be fine. ... Plus, not to mention... as Envy's official partner, my say has even more clout. If I tell him to stop being a butthole, he has to listen."

Al laughs outright at that, squeezing Heather a little tighter before letting go.

"Oh, so is that how getting Envy to play nice works? No wonder I wasn't having any luck!"

"It sure is, why do you think he was always so well-behaved when France was in the same room?"

France is still kind of a sensitive topic to joke about, even for Heather (it wasn't that she'd known him well so much as... well, what happened if he came back?), but she can make it for the sake of clearing the air.

And besides, really, it was true.

SECRET TO WRANGLING ENVY: DATE HIM.

Unless you're Henry.

Henry's just special.

And sometimes scary enough for a Homunculus to listen to.

"France was the only adult that could actually manage this whole house on his own!"

Al chuckles again and moves to finally get up, stretching and brushing the dirt off of his rear.

"I guess we should start heading home before it gets too dark out, huh?"

"Honestly? It's true. We suck."

She climbs to her feet after him, laughing. Truth be told, she wouldn't change the dysfunctional house for the world. Even if they did have to replace a few destroyed appliances and stop a few kitchen fires.

"We probably should. Maybe we can grab some takeout on the way home, 'cuz I'm sure nobody's even started talking about dinner plans yet. What d'you say?"

Al feels much the same. For all that things can get rowdy and hectic, and if can feel like a walk of shame coming out of the house when the neighbors are around, Al really does love that house. It's the only real home he has anymore.

"Hey, I only half-suck!"

Alphonse grins and gives Clara a few scritches to wake her back up, and the Pidgeot coos and blinks her eyes open very slowly.

"That sounds good. What about Five Rais? We haven't ordered from there in a while, and I could go for a good burger."

"Sounds like a plan to me. I think I still have everybody's order memorized."

She releases her own Pidgeot in a flash of light, rubbing his silky crest, then climbs on.

"Bet I can beat you there, half-sucker."

Al casts Heather a look, and grins before hopping up onto Clara, who...still looks half asleep, but she almost always does.

"Oh, you're on!"

Sept Catch-All for Sharkhouse [Closed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject