Don't Wish the Impossible (FMA)

A product of my imagination gone awry...

It was raining very hard outside as a blonde-haired boy took one last look through the house he grew up in. He turned to his younger brother, now a soul trapped in a suit of armor and said, “There anything worth saving, Al?”

Alphonse glanced up and said, “Not that I can see, Ed.”

“Well then, let’s take what we need and—” Edward noticed a bottle made of opaque glass with a crystal stopper on top. “What’s this?” He picked it up and inspected it. “A bottle of perfume that mom left?” He lifted the crystal stopper to smell the contents.

As soon as the stopper left the bottle’s mouth, smoke and sparks escaped, making Ed drop the bottle and jump backward. When the smoke thinned, a woman in exotic and revealing clothes stood before them, waving the rest of the haze away. “Thank you for letting me out of that bottle, Master,” she said.

“Who the hell are you?!” Edward cried, hiding behind Alphonse.

“Me? Why, I’m the genie locked inside that accursed bottle, Master. Since you let me out, I’ll grant you any three wishes.”

Edward, surprised, repeated, “Any three wishes?” He gave a sly smile to Alphonse. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? I mean, I bet you can’t turn Al back into a normal human being.”

The genie frowned. “Of course I can!” She snapped her fingers.

The suit of armor rattled, and the helmet lifted, revealing a ten-year-old boy that looked a lot like his eleven-year-old brother. “I can’t believe she did that!”

Edward turned back to the genie. “All right! I’m ready for my three wishes!”

“Two,” the genie corrected.

“No, I never said I wish, so therefore, it’s not a wish.” Edward’s grin grew wider.

The genie frowned. “Fine, but no more free wishes, Master.”

Edward rolled up his pant leg and sleeve, revealing metal limbs. “I want my arm and leg back to the way they were.” The genie gave him a cold look. “Sorry, I wish my arm and leg were back to the way they were before I lost them.”

The genie smiled and snapped her fingers.

Edward felt a tingling sensation and saw what was visible of the automail glow. The light and tingling subsided, revealing flesh. “My second wish: Bring our mother back from the dead, fully healed, no longer sick, not a zombie, in one piece, not a monster, completely human, the way she’s always acted and looked, and make it so she lives a long happy life afterwards. No dying right after she’s brought back.”

“Specific, Master? That’s good,” commented the genie as she snapped her fingers. A bright flash followed, and there was Edward and Alphonse’s mother, just as beautiful as she was when she had died.

“Oh my, Edward, what happened?” Mrs. Elric asked, looking around.

“MOM!!” Alphonse sobbed, clinging to his mother as tears rolled down his cheeks. Edward did the same thing.

Then, Edward turned back to the genie, wiping away his tears. “M-my last wish...” he paused, thinking hard. He then grinned. “I WISH I WAS TALLER!!”

The genie didn’t snap her fingers. “Sorry, but don’t wish the impossible, master.”

Edward was never the same after discovering even a powerful genie able to revive the dead couldn’t make him taller.