Striving for better

//My sons are the best sons! There’s Edward, Alphonse, and 

-looks at smudged writing on hand- 

EGGY MAURICE

          that was almost enough to make him drop the fork — being told that he’d made her cry before, and countless times as was, while the rest of the sentence didn’t come forth to assuage the sudden little panic. because that was the one thing he’d never ever want to do: to make his mother sad, in any form, shape, or way. that and the concept of tears of joy was still a bit too abstract to be grasped by his mind… but Ed tried his best to listen & pay attention, so that he could understand where she wanted to get at.

          so far… she’d cried because she was HAPPY to have him, right? and then the same for Al? again, a strange concept, because he was also happy to have his little brother but had never cried for such motive… maybe it was one of those grown-up things? like paying bills & driving cars? not that there were many at all around Resembool, but well — point was, Trisha definitely succeed in shooing his sour mood away, and it was now more ENTHUSIASTICALLY that he countered the last sentence.

          ‘ i bet i can understand it right now, though! i can read dad’s alchemy books, and granny said they’re really tough! …i can’t read all of them, but i can read SOME! ‘

“You really enjoy those books, don’t you?”

Van shouldn’t mind; they’d just been collecting dust after all, sitting undisturbed for months on lonely shelves. She watched her son absolutely light up talking about them. It never seemed to bring the same joy to her wayward husband; he always seemed BURDENED by it, like there was something always out of his reach that he desperately chased.

“But I’m afraid alchemy and science haven’t quite figured out emotions, Ed. They’re so different from person to person. Sometimes they’re the same, but no one feels anything the same way.”

But his earnest enthusiasm was nothing to dismiss outright. If he could learn how to use such a TENACITY, she was sure he’d go further than anyone could give him credit for.

Now if he could just apply the same tenacity to eating his vegetables...