Hope ? Male Reader x Edward Elric

Chapter 3
"Are you okay?"
𖣔
3rd person

M/R didn't know when he fell asleep, but he seemed to have woken up at around midday. Slowly, he sat up in the warm bed, his head becoming dizzy and his eyes still blurring. He rubbed them slowly and blinked until his vision came back to him. Still tired after his small nap, he stretched his arms and made his way back downstairs.

'What was I thinking about again?' He thought to himself, cautiously and slowly going down one step at a time. M/R looked around the room, searching for someone in the house. His eyes landed on Alphonse and he smiled, walking up to him. "Al! Hey!" He chirped, leaning against the wall, his hair dishevelled and messy.

Alphonse turned to look at him, "M/R, hi. Had a nice nap?" He asked, looking down at the shorter male. M/R nodded, scratching the back of his neck, "I really didn't mean to fall asleep" He sighed and bowed down, "Sorry for the trouble."

Alphonse shook his head, patting M/R. "You didn't cause any trouble, sure, we were worried, but it's all okay." He said, reassuring M/R. M/R smiled with guilt and traced his fingers over Alphonse's torso.

"Hey, Alphonse?"

"Yeah, M/R?"

"How did you lose your body?" M/R asked, whispering the last few words. Alphonse couldn't hear what M/R had said, but could easily work it out. They both stood there in silence for a few seconds. The hollow male sighed and looked to the side, "A mistake."

M/R felt pain in his chest. Not one that was physically hurting him, but mentally. The word 'mistake' reminded him of his own mistake years ago. "If you tell me how you lost your body, I'll tell you what I know on the philosopher's stone." He said, looking up at Al who looked down back at him.

Al stayed quiet for a bit, thinking about the information trade. He nodded, however, knowing that Edward wouldn't possibly like the idea of their past being spread made him hesitant. I mean, an information trade is a good thing, right? It's just like alchemy! Equivalent change, or so Alphonse learnt.

"I mean, yikes...Where do I start?" Alphonse began hesitantly, his head ringing from the incident that had happened years ago. The words eventually began to spill out, his spirit shaking and turning cold. The memory was really a paining thing to remember, but venting it out to someone else made him feel at ease somehow. So, it was alright, right?

Al spoke about the sudden loss of his mother. The Rockbells taking him in, the transmutation circle. How he got his spirit sealed into a suit and how Edward had lost his limbs. 'How terrible..' M/R thought, frowning. Edward had given up his arm to 'save' what was left of Alphonse.

"Did you at least manage to bring her back?" M/R asked quietly, looking up at Alphonse with a sad smile.

"No. The thing we brought back wasn't even human." Another voice spoke out from behind them. Edward walked up to the two on the couch and sat down beside the (brunette, blonde, raven, whatever your hair colour is~). "I saw something called the truth. Was weird." He shrugged his shoulders.

M/R shivered at the thought of 'the truth.'

"That thing was weird. Some kind of see-through ghost, but at the same time, you couldn't look through it." M/R began to describe, wiggling his arms around the place, trying to put his finger on the perfect word to describe the being.

"So, you've seen it?" Edward asked, "That means you've tried to bring something back, huh?" M/R looked down, frowning at the memory of his own, nodding slowly.

"Time for my side of the deal, huh?" He sighed, the other two beside him humming. "It happened 5 years ago" He began, "My sister passed away around a week before the incident. Left me and my other 6 siblings devastated. My cousin, who lived with us at that time was also pretty upset about the news, those two were practically inseparable."

He smiled at the memory of those clinging onto each other like koalas. The memory was very vivid in his mind. "We all knew of the thing called the 'Human Transmutation.' Believe me, none of us had any skill in alchemy. We all sucked, but some of us could do a few things here and there." He smiled, rubbing the side of his arm.

"I can't relate really, me and Al could somewhat understand Alchemy. Next thing we knew is that we were alchemy prodigy's" Edward chuckled.

All three of them smiled to themselves, a few giggles here and there. M/R sighed, continuing on with his story, "You could probably guess what happened during the 'human transmutation'."

Alphonse and Edward nodded. They knew first-hand what it was like. The experience. The fear. The regret. Oh, how they wished they could turn back, but at the same time, they didn't really want to. They were onto a legend. A myth. Something that could possibly be a fib that didn't exist. But they both knew it was out there, and M/R might just be the key to it.

"You asked me about the philosophers stone earlier, right Al?"

Alphonse nodded, intrigued in what M/R wanted to say. If they could find the philosophers stone, maybe, just maybe, he could get his original body back.

"I've seen it before. Heck, I've touched it before." M/R smiled, looking down at his chest. Alphonse and Edward's eyes widened. 'So it really does exist' Edward thought, grinning.

"Where can we find it?! Do you know where it is?" The shorter Male asked eagerly, lightly shaking the taller male next to him. The other frowned, shaking his head.

"It's...Complicated. Well- I.." He fumbled with his words, "I'm not sure how to make it or where to find it. But, I dunno. I guess I know where one of them is." His words turning into nothing but a whisper, as he gripped onto his chest with a grim expression. The Elric brothers looked at each other, then back at M/R.

"I asked 'the truth' where my siblings were, but he told me I'd find that out soon enough." He frowned, trying to avoid the previous topic. He couldn't tell them that he had the philosophers stone with him. It's not as if he could access it either. It was physically inside of him. And he knew it wasn't the only one out there. He knew he wasn't the only one out there.

"I guess it takes a lot to bring a single living thing back."

"M/R.."

"Unlike your human transmutation. I was left with silence."

"Silence?"

"They were all gone. Nothing was brought to life. I-I think we did something wrong..I.."

"M/R." Edward frowned, engulfing me in a hug, "I don't usually do this so." Immediately, he quietened down when he heard small sniffs coming from the taller male. M/R hadn't noticed he was crying, but the feelings from the past come flooding back from Edward's touch. He nuzzled his face into Edward's chest and he leaned into him, melting into his touch.

He quietly whimpered as his hands trembled whilst gripping onto Ed's shirt. Alphonse's heart sunk at the sight of the male tearing up. He hated seeing people cry, and with the body he had now, he didn't think he was that good at calming people down.

Edward ran his hand through M/R hair in an attempt to calm him down, the sobbing eventually coming to a stop.

"Thanks, Ed.."

"Hm? Oh, no problem."