He notices the way Al tenses and he's honestly not sure what to make of it, still trying to sort through the memory of the past week up against this new (not new) information. Ed searches his brother's expression as he speaks with slow dawning realization. "You... didn't tell me, because you didn't want things to change."
In any normal situation he might be amused by Alphonse idly braiding his hair as they talked, but this was different. This was a displacement behavior, Al probably barely registered he was even doing it but all Edward felt now was guilt. As if doing that to him hadn't been bad enough, he'd made the Al here suffer too because of it. The thought of that twisted something different within him, like anger. His jaw clenches as he glances away, golden eyes closing with a shake of his head.
After a sigh, Ed simply leans against his brother again. "I'm sorry... Al, I didn't-" He doesn't even know what to say he but he knows that he'd Alphonse with the way he was behaving before, and Al didn't want to go back to that. Maybe he had been scared of hurting his brother, but in his effort not to hurt his brother he'd hurt his brother, so what difference did it even make at this point? "I didn't want to hurt you like that, either."
It was all messed up and there wasn't really anything he could do, there wasn't anyway to change the past. Instead he shifts to lie down once more, tugging his brother with him and wrapping both arms around him as if to prove his point. "It won't be like that anymore, okay?"
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In any normal situation he might be amused by Alphonse idly braiding his hair as they talked, but this was different. This was a displacement behavior, Al probably barely registered he was even doing it but all Edward felt now was guilt. As if doing that to him hadn't been bad enough, he'd made the Al here suffer too because of it. The thought of that twisted something different within him, like anger. His jaw clenches as he glances away, golden eyes closing with a shake of his head.
After a sigh, Ed simply leans against his brother again. "I'm sorry... Al, I didn't-" He doesn't even know what to say he but he knows that he'd Alphonse with the way he was behaving before, and Al didn't want to go back to that. Maybe he had been scared of hurting his brother, but in his effort not to hurt his brother he'd hurt his brother, so what difference did it even make at this point? "I didn't want to hurt you like that, either."
It was all messed up and there wasn't really anything he could do, there wasn't anyway to change the past. Instead he shifts to lie down once more, tugging his brother with him and wrapping both arms around him as if to prove his point. "It won't be like that anymore, okay?"