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Ed swallowed his fear but couldn't quite force the lump all the way down his throat. It had to be done, so he was told, but... Did it? Was this really the answer?
The baby in his arms stared up at its father dead in the eyes with nothing but innocence and dependence. Amelia reached a chubby hand up, grasping aimlessly. Or perhaps trying to touch Daddy's face.
Suddenly a spark of anger flashed in him. He pulled Amelia flush to his chest and simultaneously took hold of Roy by his collar and drove him against the wall.
"You're lying! This isn't the answer! Jealous bastard! You just can't stand that I love anyone but you, you narcissist!" Ed snarled protectively.
Roy's eyes went oddly cold as they were so prone to do nowadays, ever since Ed moved himself and his child into Roy's apartment.
"You see, Edward..."
He frowned and the next words leaving his mouth were the type of threatening you'd find with someone's hand on your throat. "That's a word you should use very delicately. It can be offensive to some people."
"And you know," Mustang added, softening up ever so slightly, "If someone's jealous, it isn't usually their fault. In this case, it's her who drives me mad." The older man finished in a murmur, caressing Amelia's cheek softly.
Greeted with only silence, Mustang looked down at Edward - whose grip on Amelia had loosened considerably - with concern as Ed was biting his trembling lower lip, teetering on the edge of a metaphorical cliff.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Roy cooed. "What do you want?"
Ed stepped back from Roy - stumbled, rather. He ran the free hand through his hair back and forth, frizzing his bangs out to match his frazzled state. He took a soft, but sharp, inhale, choking back the emotion constricting his throat.
"I want..." Amelia chose this time to resume her incessant wailing and his sentence was cut short.
He glared at the child that meant so much - good and bad. In his heart, Ed knew he was right. Mustang was always right. He touched Amelia's hair that in the time since he'd left Winry had brightened from a pleasant golden to a rude shade of banana yellow. Her eyes were still aurulent, but for gods' sake the damn thing didn't know how to do anything but cry and shit.
Edward shook his head in disgust.
"What do you want?" Mustang repeated.
"I want to be free." Ed said so decisively not even Mustang himself could have altered his choice.
Mustang nodded approvingly, Edward mimicked the motion. Roy gestured vaguely in front of them.
"I want to be free," Ed repeated, as he bent over the bathtub.
("That's right," the snake whispered in his ear.)
"I want to be free," he sung, though when the first drop of cold water contacted the baby's tender skin, its cries drowned out his words.
("Don't be afraid.")
"I want to be free." He repeated in a trance-like state, like Morgan Freeman calmly narrating a science fiction documentary, as he baptized her.
("Shh, it's almost over.")
It only took a short time for the desperate gurgling to stop; for her to join his mother in heaven. Ed had already pondered whether he could have just relinquished the baby to Winry. But then...he supposed he was jealous too. His baby.
The air went still. After picking up the wet corpse and cradling it against his broad chest, he stood. When he saw the look on Roy's face questioning why Ed was bouncing Amelia up and down in a steady rhythm, the corner of Ed's mouth turned up and his eyes danced playfully.
"She's sleeping."
Ed sighed contentedly and wrapped one hand 'round his raven-haired lover who warmly greeted the embrace.
"She's sleeping, and I'm free."