Back stories!

[saintedsinner]

Premise: Short story about their youth before Mom dies.
Timeline: June 1998
Warnings: Skunks

KITTIES!

The first year that the Elrics were allowed outside on their own proved to be a daunting task for their mother. In the spring, her sons and Winry had inadvertently played in a thatch of nettles that lead to oatmeal baths and itchy skin for two weeks. Shortly there after they disturbed a nest of ground bees and were rewarded with picking out stingers and more oatmeal baths. At the end of that month came the cockle burrs in which Edward and Alphonse found every single patch from their house to the Rockbells. Their mother was combing and picking out small green stickers for another two weeks.

Trisha had a reprieve for three days when it down poured outside. Reprieve was a delicate word, since she had to trade one minor disaster for another. In exchange for sticky burrs and grass stains, she received two over energetic boys that scuffled in the living room and broke two picture frames. When the sun shone down towards the end of the week, Trisha unleashed the young Elrics out on the countryside with a mixed heart. She watched them with a small smile on her face, her precious boys romping and squealing in delight.

The smile faded slightly when they found a giant mud puddle in the front yard.

She had a quiet four hours that allowed her to finish the laundry, clean the boy's room and work on the garden. Trisha sat on the front porch with some cooled tea to wait for her children to come home. Her thoughts drifted to earlier times when the four of them would go for walks and explore the countryside. The shouts of her eldest brought her out of the daydream and she turned to see Edward clamber on ahead of his brother. "If he keeps them, I want a dog!" Irritated gold eyes glared up at her as he climbed the porch steps. "Alphonse found kitties!"

Trisha's eyes widened as Alphonse slowly cleared the step with a small bundle of black and white fur in each arm. Ed's ranting was forgotten as burnished gold eyes peered up at her. She noticed then the larger black and white bundle of fur following the boys, chattering and growling as it trotted closer to them.

"Alphonse, put the skunks down!" She rushed over to the boys with the intent to haul them away from the animals, but by then it was already too late.

"EEEEEWWWWWW! Those kitties stink!"

"Those aren't kitties, Ed, those were skunks." Trisha took the hem of her dress to try to wipe at Al's face before he shoved his grubby fists into his eyes. All three of them had been sprayed and it was over-powering. Their mother sighed inwardly as she ushered them all to the bath, stripping them of their clothes in the process. Good thing she planted extra tomatoes.





Premise: Al's hair gets cut short
Timeline: June 2000
Warnings: none

Haircuts are for sissies

The hazy, lazy days of summer had come at long last and finally the Elrics were once again let loose upon the countryside from sun up to sundown. Some days they wouldn't be seen by their mother until suppertime, other days the two would stick close by and romp together in the yard. It seemed that Trisha had her hands full every night trying to scrub them clean before supper.

Lately there had been a competition between the two boys, this time something about who could grow their hair faster. Ed's bangs now hung past his nose and tickled his lips when he spoke. Al's was more or less the same length only bushier and more tangled. He was always envious of how shiny and glossy Ed's hair stayed, no matter what. And now Al was howling in tears, begging their mother not to cut his hair.

"Alphonse, there's tree sap all over in it!" She was exasperated in trying to get her youngest to settle down. "It's not going to come out unless I cut it out, son."

When the deed was done, Al was sniffling and whimpering on the back step with his hair now soft and slightly spiky on top of his head with it cropped very short at the nape of his neck. Ed watched on with a pout to his face while he hugged his knees to his chest. Al looked miserable and Ed couldn't help but feel guilty. He was fully aware of the trees they were playing 'follow the leader' in were sticky with sap this time of year.

"Don't worry, Al. It'll grow back." He tried to console his brother. "Maybe it'll be longer than mine, soon!"

"Winry already said it was longer than yours!" Al scrubbed his tears away with the back of his hand in angry frustration.

"Aw, what does Winry know?" Ed heard that too, and since the springtime, it felt as if they were in direct competition for Winry's attention. Even if she did want to play automail shop and replace her dolly's limb with metal constructs, they both loved her and made the decision that whom ever's hair was longer by the end of the summer, the winner would 'marry' her. And the Elrics were nothing if not competitive.

"I don't want you to win, Brother," Al muttered sullenly, throwing Ed a sad look.

Ed threw his hands up in perfect imitation of his mother's frustration two hours ago. "Well, fine! You can marry her!" He really didn't care about who married Winry as long as his brother was happy.

"I don't want to marry Winry, too!"

"Well, why are we doing this stupid game!" A lot of things change in the life of a six years old's world and four weeks was all the difference to them. "If you don't want to marry her, then why--"

"'Cause I didn't want her between us!" Al's eyes flew wide open and he clapped his mouth shut with both hands. It wasn't supposed to come out that easily! His eyes were glued to his brother, already fearing the worse in Ed's temper. He was going to get pummeled for certain.

Edward held this odd look on his face for about a minute before he shook his head with a grin. "Come on, Al, you know that's never gonna happen! She's a girl." The word 'girl' was uttered as if he implied Winry had lepracy. He giggled and stood up, running his fingers through Al's soft and slightly prickly hair as he stepped up to go back into the house.

From that moment on, Al secretly called him the 'Blind Fellow' because Al didn't think he could have been more blatant and Edward was once again oblivious.