Songs For The Soulless (A FullMetal Alchemist AU Fan Fiction)

Chapter Seven

It had been...a particularly odd day for Edward. He had woken up and showered, gotten dressed, went on a walk, decided on impulse to cut his hair, and went out for lunch. It was all so...normal. Years of neverending traveling and dangerous adventures in search of getting his and Alphonse's bodies back left him completely unprepared for just how monotonous the average day in a city was. Seven o'clock, the streets began to liven, people yawning as they began their daily commute to work or home should they have worked the night shift. Eight o'clock, men and women walked leisurely around the city, not a worry in mind, merely enjoying the breeze that the summer weather had brought with.  Nine o'clock, ten o'clock, eleven, noon, one, two...

It was all the same, and Edward was unsure how to handle it. He looked down, moving his food around his plate, the metal tongs of his fork scraping quietly against the ceramic of his plate. It wasn't that it was bad, he just felt uneasy. Something always happened, every time he tried to relax. He sighed, setting his fork down. A hand moved and ruffled his newly short locks, except for his bangs, which he kept longer. It was weird, not having the heavy, familiar weight of his braid resting on the back of his neck, but also oddly freeing. He stood, his chair scraping on the brick floor beneath him, and he laid the money owed for his half-eaten meal on the table, along with a hefty tip as an apology for what could be seen as a rude gesture. He had no fight with these people, just trying to make a living as they were. As he left the restaurant, he began to notice something. People just...didnt notice him. Without his signature braid and his flashy red coat, it was almost like he had just disappeared into the crowd. Since the Promised Day, he'd hardly gone out unless he had to because total strangers would approach him on the streets and thank him for his help, others would simply stare at him, some would whisper and point and others glared. 

But here he was, in a loosely fitted button-up shirt that Gracia had bought him, saying with a kind smile that she was tired of seeing him in his rough-and-tumble clothes and that, while he could still wear that should he want to, he needed some other choices alongside it. That, paired with the casual brown slacks he was wearing...well, he was just another somebody walking down the streets. 

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He made it back to the apartment he and Alphonse shared around six o'clock, having wandered aimlessly around the city, purchasing a small figurine of a kitten on a whim for his brother and some groceries for that night's dinner.  Alphonse was sitting at the small table they had out in the open area opposite the kitchen, and he looked up for a moment to offer his brother a greeting. Then he looked up again. 

"Brother! You cut your hair!" He exclaimed. Edward's hair hadn't been this short since they were both young, more than seven years prior to now. 

"Ah...yeah, I figured I would try something new. It's a bit weird without long hair, I don't know how you do this Al." Ed whined, not really meaning it but enjoying the banter nonetheless. 

"Well, it looks good on you, brother. Honestly, I'm surprised you kept it the length you did for so long. It was always getting caught in your automail." It had, but Ed hadn't been ready to cut his hair over something so trivial.

"Whatever. Anyway, something for you, and groceries for tonight. I'm going to be in my room for a while." His fingers yearned to play at the moment, and he had nothing better to do. He tossed the figurine towards his bother, chuckling at Alphonse's wordless exclamation of panic as he caught the delicate object before it fell. Edward left the groceries in their cloth bag on the table for his brother to investigate. 

He shut his door quietly behind him, sitting down at his desk with a sigh. His guitar stood on its stand next to him, and he deftly picked it up. There was silence for another moment before he hesitantly strummed a G chord. A minor, G, D, G...he lost himself in the rhythm.

"Well, gray clouds wrapped 'round the town like elastic,

Cars stood like toys made of Taiwanese plastic,

The boy laughed at the spastic dancing around in the rain.

White laundrettes cleaned clothes,

High heels rub toes,

Puddles splashed huddles of bus stop crows.

Dressed in their suits and their boots, well they all look the same.

I took myself down to the cafe to find all the boys lost in books and crackling vinyl,

And carved out a poem above the urinal that read;

"Don't you cry for the lost, smile for the living.

Get what you need and give what you're given.

Life's for the living, so live it, or you're better off dead."

While the evening pulled the moon out of it's packet

Stars shone like buttons on an old man's jacket

We needed a nail but we tacked it 'til it fell of the wall

While pigeon's pecked trains, sparks flew like planes

The rain showed the rainbows in the oil stains

And we all had new phone's but no one had no one to call

And I stumbled down to the stomach of the town

Where the widow takes memories to slowly drown

With a hand to the sky and a mist in her eye she said

"Don't you cry for the lost, smile for the living.

Get what you need and give what you're given.

Life's for the living so live it, or you're better off dead."

Well I'm sick of this town, this blind man's forage

They take your dreams down and stick them in storage

You can have them back son when you've paid off

Your mortgage and loans

Oh hell with this place, I'll go it my own way.

I'll stick out my thumb, and I trudge down the highway.

Someday someone must be going my way home

Till then I'll make my bed from a disused car,

With a mattress of leaves and a blanket of stars,

And I'll stitch the words into my heart with a needle and thread;

"Don't you cry for the lost, smile for the living.

Get what you need and give what you're given.

You know life's for the living so live it, or you're better off dead.

Don't you cry for the lost, smile for the living.

Get what you need and give what you're given.

Life's for the living so live it, or you're better off dead.'"

Edward let the last chord fade away into nothingness, his ears straining as he could almost imagine that he could still hear it humming. He still felt odd, strange, unnerved by all of these sudden changes...but, perhaps, they weren't so bad after all.

--1136 Words--

Well, I tried out a new writing style for this chapter. More descriptive, a touch more formal...it still ended in pretty much the same way as all of the others, though. I've been having a really hard time finding time and motivation to write, so even as short and simple a chapter as this had me wracking my brain to try and get it to come out smoothly and I'm still not one hundred percent satisfied. Either way, I've kept you all waiting long enough for this. I hope you enjoyed!!