[April 3] [Fullmetal Alchemist] Southern Region Boys

[seta-suzume.livejournal.com]

Title: Southern Region Boys
Day/Theme: April 3, 2012 "the furniture of love"
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Character/Pairing: Solf J. Kimblee & family, etc.
Rating: PG


Solf didn't ever bring any girls home- not in a serious sense. There was one, Lily, a girl from their school, who came by sometimes in the afternoon, but it wasn't as if she ever got dressed up and came by for dinner. Lon didn't think their father had ever even met her. Mom had. The four of them- Lon, Solf, Lily, and Mom- had shared some lemonade and tea biscuits together one afternoon.

Neither of them made close friends at school, but if they had, they probably would have been hesitant to let Dad meet them. Dad was kind of difficult. ...But he didn't have anything to do with this. "It isn't like we're going to get married," Solf shrugged.

Lily was a kind girl, polite, and eager to include Lon in a handful of the activities she engaged in with Solf (they didn't do too many things that would be described as "romantic" - when they saw a movie together, they did it in the rented out factory space like (and alongside) everyone else in town; when they danced, they did it behind the house or at a friend's place with a mail-ordered record. She did it to be nice, not to manipulate or get anything in particular from him. ...At least Lon didn't think she did.

She was just a nice girl who liked his brother a lot. Lon had no idea if Solf liked her back. The only thing that might indicate he was treating her specially was the amount of time he spent with her. It was more than any of his other classmates, but compared to the hours he wiled away with Lon or Mom or even by himself, it wasn't necessarily anything worth mentioning. Solf liked most people in a general sense (he was always paying attention to what other people said and did- which meant he was a pretty good mimic), but he was only interested in a few people specifically.

After a while, Lily started to say that she was Solf's "girlfriend," but Lon never heard Solf say it. He held her hand sometimes, but if they ever kissed, Lon never saw it.

He was glad. He didn't really want to think about kissing at all at that age (Solf was four years older and more like an adult even at that point than Lon imagined he would ever be). He wanted to think about his brother kissing girls even less.

-----

"What are you looking for?" Lon had been sneaking peeks over Solf's shoulder long enough to know that it was a South City newspaper he was perusing, rather than the dull local affair that their father subscribed too.

"Somewhere new to live," the paper crinkled between his fingers, "I've been corresponding a bit with an alchemist in South City."

"I thought you weren't interested in being taught by anyone else," Lon mused. Solf seemed inviting enough (or at least, not actively discouraging), so he stepped around the couch and came to sit beside him.

Solf responded by giving him a joking (Lon assumed it was joking) shove with his arm. "No, I'm not. But the man I've been writing to isn't interested in doing an conventional sort of teaching anyway. He won't give me lessons or require any assignments from me, but I'll be able to ask him questions if I have any and draw upon his knowledge of the subject. So...more of a mentor than an ordinary school teacher."

Leave it to Solf to find some way to make things turn out the way he liked. While Lon had certainly seen him do a great many things he wasn't particularly interested in doing because he thought the repercussions for saying no would be too harsh or because there was something he believed he could get out of such actions, Solf was remarkably clever when it came to getting his own way. Often, he convinced people that they had had something like his plan in mind all along.

"You'll be going away then?"

"Yes, and soon I hope. I've been looking forward to this."

"How will you afford it?" Lon leaned his head on Solf's shoulder and scanned the prices wanted to rent out rooms in various regions of the city. As far as he knew, Solf had nothing put pocket money. He had never held a regular job (though occasionally he ran errands for some of the neighbors and he had saved all the money that Grandfather had left them when he died while Lon was pretty sure he had spent most of his portion of it somehow or other).

"The alchemist who's going to mentor me is giving me a job."

Lon tilted his head awkwardly upward to look into Solf's cool, golden eyes. "An alchemy day-job? You're going to get to ply your craft like a professional every day?"

"No," Solf rolled his eyes as if that were a ridiculous suggestion- which, in very quick retrospect, Lon realized it was. If one wasn't funded by the state, how could any alchemist hope to live such a life? "He has a day job as an electrician and I'm going to be an apprentice in the shop."

"Oh. ...So that will pay for it." Lon frowned. It wouldn't have been like Solf not to have some plan set up to take care of things before he began readying himself to move. "...I'll miss you a lot."

"Well, I never said you couldn't come along. ...But you're the one who's going to have to convince Mom and Dad. That's an obstacle or two even I fear to undertake."

"Scared?" Lon laughed and his head bounced against Solf's shoulder.

"No. ...But I'm not stupid either." Did Solf want him coming along or not? "Of course, if you can't manage it, I'll miss you when we're separated. I'd be sure and write to you every week."

It was hard to imagine that would be sufficient.


Well, Lon knew his mission now. Lily would remain in calm, tiny Fernburg. Lon would join his brother and go south.

[to be continued later this month?]