If I told you that I knew about the Sun and the Moon, I'd be untrue
Day 3 | October 27th: Costumes
Trick (angsty) AND Treat (Fluffy)
Description: this takes place after the Promised Day and before the marriage. Feel free to choose if it’s before or after the proposal. I apologize in advance for any errors -_- A little note: as you probably already know Samhain is the original Celtic name for Halloween.
His mask was golden. It depicted the Sun.
And the worst thing was that he had chosen it.
Here's what happens when you're in love.
In Resembool there would be a ball organized for the Halloween party and Winry wanted to go there at all costs. Initially Edward clearly and categorically refused but had to surrender, exhausted, because trying to win arguments with her was a losing game from the start.
So, he had absent-mindedly chosen that mask in a shop where his woman had dragged him telling him to choose something suitable and not too flamboyant or she would have made the choice for both. In the end, he had opted for something simple, inconspicuous, that covered only the eyes and didn’t make him look tacky.
Or someone who had "horrid tastes", just to quote Winry.
Only when he opened the package he realized what he had decided to wear for the party.
He had taken it from the cardboard box and placed it on the desk, staring at it carefully. He didn’t know why, but immediately he thought of the mask that he had worn for years every day to conceal that perennial sense of anguish that, despite trying to forget, still came back to torment him from time to time, even without reason.
The way the light reflected on the golden mask reminded him of the brilliance of that automail that had been part of him for five years, and also that one which still continued to support him. The empty holes for the eyes were open windows on the horrors that cyclically haunted his nightmares.
He reached out and took it between his fingers. It was light, not like the burden he had been burdened with throughout his life. When his past returned, whether he wanted it or not, he could still feel that weight on his nerves, on his skin, for a long time in contact with the cold metal that shone under the moonlight.
He would have liked to let go of that stupid ball, but he had promised it to her and, despite the obstacles of life, Ed had never failed to be true to his word.
He placed it on his face tying the laces behind his head, then hiding them in his golden, loose hair. For a moment he found himself catapulted into his past, when he left at night from the place that was their home – once the one in which he was born had been razed to the ground just by him – wearing a coat that was red like blood.
He remembered every time he have returned home. The warm walls of the Rockbells home or among the debris of the Elrics house.
Exhausted, with no hope in his heart. Driven only by the will to redeem his sins, to lighten his soul, looking for a redemption that he had never believed he deserved.
They came to mind every time he metaphorically took that damn mask off his face with despair and horror, and he gripped his aching shoulder by sticking his fingernails, scratching his skin, almost as if he could take away the pain from himself. Together with every horrible memory.
He remembered Alphonse’s metallic hand on that shoulder, with his silent support.The alchemist closed his eyes, forcing himself to come back to the present, telling himself that those years had finally passed. They were distant, sad memories.
He touched his right arm, still grateful for having regained it, together with his life. All that remained was scars.
Everything was different now. He was free. And, for the first time in years, he really was.
The ballast was less heavy. His heart was no longer forced by the pain and, finally, he had allowed himself to be loved. Loved by someone who had never run away from his shadows. Someone who loved him without reserve, without wanting to change the way he was. Someone who had deeply shaken his soul and had made him do things unthinkable; like going for a romantic walk surrounded by warm autumn colors.
He smiled and his old life’s memories disappeared.
They would return, he knew it well, but that night they would not torment him again.
He got up and left the house; his smile was quickly concealed thanks to just a few years of experience in which he had pretended that there was nothing but affection between them, wearing his usual mask of the unfriendly disappointed Ed, that, perhaps, was no longer credible.
He arrived in the square decorated for the Halloween party. He had seen hundreds of candles arranged along the way to get there; there were candles even on the tables full of food. They illuminated the clear starry sky with a soft amber light. The orange and black decorations, accompanied by little spiders with white webs drawn by the school children, seemed to shine under the warm light of the candles. Pumpkins carved by the peasants were arranged in every corner.
All the boys and girls from Resembool were there, masked for the dance, the faces were covered with thin colored masks. The older ones had opted for more sober clothing, but they also had a mask that hid part of their face.
He looked around without seeing her.
Annoyed, he sat at a table with Alphonse. He wore a thin black mask that concealed only his eyes just like his and preferred not to comment on his brother's golden mask.
Ed poured himself some wine and waited.
Her mask was silver. It depicted the Moon.
The alchemist stared at her as she arrived in the large square, wrapped in that blue dress with a cleveage that would have appeared in many of those boys dreams.
She had told him not to be flashy but she had dressed up like that! Edward knew, however, that everything had been designed by her to attract not theirs, but his attention.
Winry kept complaining about his cold attitudes in front of other people. She always told him that it was weird for her being treated like she was just her childhood friend and then, as soon as they found themselves alone, to frolick as if it was something forbidden.
She was right. Yet he felt embarrassed to show his feelings so openly. He wasn’t used to blatant manifestations of affection.
Perhaps this would never have changed.
But she had decided to give him a push that night, and he understood it as soon as he saw her.
Dressed that way, with that silver mask, opposite to him.
She was calm and bright like the moon.
The light of Ed instead was made of fire and made the steel burning, unbearable.
At that point, he expected to see her walking towards him, he would have expected to see her sit at their table throwing sarcastic jokes. He already imagined Alphonse giggling without even trying to hide it.
Instead, she gave him a challenging look through her mask and went to the other side, where he knew there was a young and attractive automail mechanic. The two of them were Resembool's younger mechanics.
He felt himself pervaded by jealousy, as usual.
That guy had no shadows in his past, no giant and horrible scar, no nightmare that woke him in the middle of the night. And they also had an interest in common.
How could the comparison hold up?
But she had told him clearly that she was not interested in anyone else and that, among other things, it was full of idiots driven only by testosterone – her exact words – and she had never even wanted to hear about them.
He knew it was an irrational fear, yet he was indomitable. The fear that she might get tired of staying behind – these were his words, instead – a capricious alchemy freak.
"I’ve always loved you, Ed; you and only you," she had told him with a smile and then she had loved him with all of herself, as always. It had been their first night together. Edward felt his stomach contract pleasantly thinking about it and felt close to those idiots driven only by testosterone more than she could imagine.
Trying not to get noticed, he tried to glimpse her through the dancing people.
Alphonse, beside him, barely shook his head without hiding an irritating, amused smile.
"Something to say, Al?" He asked, trying to look more annoyed with him than with that shameless woman who made him jealous in front of everyone.
"She's provoking you," his brother replied simply.
"I don’t know what you're talking about."
"I'm talking about the girl who, coincidentally, wears a mask to complement yours."
The alchemist blushed like a clumsy child. But, just as he was pondering over a pungent and sarcastic answer, he saw the two automail mechanics laughing amused. James stroked one of the long white gloves that covered her arms to the elbows.
Then Ed jumped up, leaving Alphonse to his amused smiles, and headed for them.
He barely heard the end of their amusing discussion, grabbed Winry by the hand and dragged her to the dance floor without saying anything.
"Took you long enough," she smiled, as they danced there for all to see. "James was almost out of jokes."
Despite the mask, Ed still managed to raise an eyebrow questioningly.
"He volunteered," she explained with a slight grimace. "Now I owe him a favor."
"He also wanted to pretend to bend down and kiss me. I told him not to try if he didn’t want a brain trauma."
He felt stupid. She made a fool of him. Ed should have felt offended, but having her in his arms made him forget everything. He laughed and held her tight to his body, looking at her closely.
Winry blushed, "Stop it, Ed."
"Looking at me like that."
She gave him a pungent look, "As if you had seen me naked!"
The boy leaned over her. Approaching his face, he could better see her eyes through the decorations of her silver mask.
"But I saw you naked," he whispered making her blush even more.
Despite the blush, however, the blonde girl smiled and looked around, "They are staring at us. Didn’t you say you wanted to be discreet? Tomorrow, Resembool will know that we’re a couple. "
The alchemist didn’t look around, he knew that Winry was right. But he didn’t care.
From an ancient alchemy book, when he was only a child, he had learned that the feast of Samhain celebrates the death of the male divinity, represented by the Sun, and his rebirth through the female deity, represented by the Moon. In fact, Winry had literally put him back on his feet, brought him back to life; from the very beginning they had been destined to complete each other. When the Sun and the Moon unite, they create the perfect being. Even the little one in the flask was aware of it, taking advantage of the alignment of the two stars to achieve perfection.
True, during the Halloween night, a crack opens between the worlds, a weak point of which the ghosts made of nightmares and anguish take advantage. But it’s only a moment, before the rebirth.
He and Winry were the Sun and the Moon.
The Xingese Yin and Yang.
In fact, he noted, there was nothing that could be more natural for him than loving her.
"Then..." he said, making her looking in his eyes, "let's give this audience something to talk about."
