Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

CHAPTER ONE: CONTENTS

Chapter Two: The Steadfast Tin Soldier

• Summary: Edward is a little tin soldier without a leg. What person would ever like a broken toy? Ignored by the other soldiers, he adventures around the playroom to find a windup robot toy named Alphonse. He learns that not everyone who is incomplete is really broken.
• What to Expect? This contains a detailed plot summary at the beginning of the chapter and then about 2500+ words of the first chapter.

Chapter Three: Two Worlds One Family

• Summary: Edward and Alphonse lost their family and now they lost each other. Adopted by separate families, both of them are in constant search for each other. Unfortunately, so far they have been out of luck. Edward, adopted by an alcoholic, football-obsessed, Shou Tucker, struggles to get by and now has to deal with an unsuspected stranger who is just about to turn his horrible world upside down; Winry Rockbell.
• What to Expect? This has a detailed plot summary and the entire first chapter. 

Chapter Four: The Eastern Abbey (Downton Abbey AU)

• Summary: Alphonse and Edward are injured in an accident and left to fend for themselves. Unable to find a job, Edward fakes his credentials to get a position as the personal Valet to Roy Mustang, the heavily titled owner of the elaborate estate, the Eastern Abbey. There he uncovers a murderous plot while trying to swim through gossip to survive. Will he be able to keep his secret while playing a role as a well-established citizen?
• What to Expect? This is a half-made plot. It used to be a full plot with half a chapter but the documents were lost to the void. Now all that remains is a memory and this. R.I.P.

Chapter Five: A Not So Little Fish (Mermaid AU)

• Summary: The King's first son was killed at sea by a merpeople attack and he is furious. He orders all of the ships in the harbor to hunt the creatures to find the one that murdered his son. Is the king really after a murderer? and is it the right one? Prince Alphonse struggles to bring peace to the kingdom in his father's madness as Amestris starts to fall apart. Edward on the other hand isn't as dead as everyone thinks. 
• What to Expect? This is a half baked plot but with extensively written chapters (about 29k+ words.) It was originally posted on FFN but has since been revised, added to and flipped. Here is the raw cut version. 

Chapter Six: The Girl from the Other Side

• Summary: Winry loses everything when her Village is purged from the curse. On the run, she is saved by none other than an Outsider. Where two worlds collide, one cursed and one pure, they learn a bit about what makes them human and a bit about what makes someone a monster. Together they uncover a dubious plot about what the curse is really about. 
• What to Expect? So to make it clear, I did not read the entirety of this manga series. I read like 3 books. But I got inspired so this is based off that. Here is an extensively detailed plot and about 10K+ words of the first part along with raw cut alternate scenes.

Chapter Seven: Heaven Descending

• Summary: Carnival AU: The blood of Xerxes is the blood of the gods. Though the blood lines have run thin, the power of destiny still flows through some peoples veins. Some people may call them the 'gifted', others might just call them freaks. People born of the Gods are born with amazing abilities, though with that comes a heavy burden. Unknown to the world, Alphonse and Edward are direct descendants from the God Hohenheim. They fight to survive in a world against peculiarities and manage to keep their abilities a secret, until one horrible day, they can't. Now they have to suffer the consequences of being Gods. 
• What to Expect: This is a brought idea for a story. That's it. 

Chapter Eight: Land of Mine AU

• Summary: Amestris just finished a Civil War and needs to recover the land from war devices such as mines set across the Eastern Fields. Low on troops and motivation, Amestis sends the prisoners of war to go diffuse the mines and recover the farmlands. The POWs are given the hope of returning home once their assigned areas are cleared of all explosives. Edward and Alphonse, unfortunate POWs forced into this bargain, work desperately to return home safe and sound. However, with mines exploding left and right of them and a harsh Colonel Mustang watching them closely, the thought of home seems too far away. This is a story of war, loss, and a bit of hope. 
• What to expect? This is an AU from a tearjerker war movie "Land of Mines". Like it makes you cry relentlessly. Bittersweet like chocolate and coffee. I have a detailed plot summary of what will happen in this story. I really really want to read this though no energy to write it. 

Chapter Text

Plot: Edward is a little toy tin soldier who was made incomplete without a leg. He is given with the other soldiers in the bunch as a present to Selim Bradley for christmas. Usually being cast aside by the other soldiers and their child because he is thought of being incomplete, Edward is used to being alone. When Selim is playing with the other soldiers and Edward is forgotten on the floor he goes exploring the other toys that Selim has. Many of them mock him for having to hobble around as a broken toy, but he manages to find a old wind up robot toy that caught his attention. It has run out of juice and Edward struggles to wind it back up. Startling awake, the robot thanks Edward for saving him and introduces himself as Alphonse. Al never gets to explore to talk to the other toys in the room when not being played with because he always runs out of juice and shuts down after his is unwound. Together Edward and Alphonse explore and hang around together whenever Selim isn't playing. Edward always tries to wind him up whenever he can because he is the only person who doesn't care if he isn't full.

The other soldiers don't like it that Edward is missing formation and leaving the box that they are in. Roy Mustang, another soldier, warns him about the dangers of intermingling where he doesn't belong. He already knows that many of the toys in the playroom don't like the idea of Edward being broken and he doesn't want him making anymore trouble for himself. Edward however ignores him and continues to go out.

One day when Edward and Alphonse are out exploring they come up upon a new toy that was added to the lot, a paper ballerina. Edward is completely taken by her and watches her but never makes himself known. Many of the other toys are taking a liking to her beauty but she tries her best to get away from them. Edward continues to try and see her whenever he can and Alphonse always teases him that he likes her. Edward retorts dumbly not wanting to admit it, "Why would anyone like a broken toy?".

The Ballerina is very peculiar to him as she doesn't act like any of the other dolls he sees in the play room. The Ballerina, when she thinks people aren't watching, gathers up stray parts in her sash and tinkers. He watches as she actually fixes an old smashed wind up mouse toy one night and is absolutely amazed. No toy ever helped out a broken one before.

One evening when all of the toys are out Edward is busy trying to wind Alphonse back up. He hears a commotion and looks up to see a Goblin toy named Kimblee pushing the Ballerina around. It is obvious that the Ballerina doesn't like him and tries to get away from him but he grabs her. Not knowing what else to do Edward tackles the goblin away from the Ballerina and they wrestle a bit. Edward eventually pins the goblin with his bayonet and tells him to stay away from her. The goblin knowing he was defeated, doesn't fight but warns the soldier that he shouldn't try hanging out where he doesn't belong and that no matter what he does the ballerina would be his.

 Edward quickly takes the ballerina back to where he knows her little workshop is and asks if she is okay. She introduces herself as Winry and says that she had seen him around. Edward assumes that she meant in formation but she meant that she saw him help the robot toy and also watching her from behind the tinkertoys. How else did he know where her little workshop was and take her there instead of her cardboard castle? Edward question her on why she helped that broken mouse toy and she doesn't really give him a straight answer but instead asks him if he would like a leg. He doesn't really know how to answer because no one really ever helped him before. At first he wanted to deny it because he didn't feel it was right. No one helps him. But after a bit of bickering and persistence from Winry, she starts to make him a leg. She took measurements of his leg but it would still take a long time for her to actually make it.

Edward continues to leave the formation and Mustang gets rather annoyed. Wanting to tell Alphonse that he can't continue to pull Edward away he follows Edward and realises that he wasn't just seeing Alphonse but Winry as well. Mustang knows how many people want winry, especially the goblin and he drags Edward away. He removes the newly made leg from him in hopes that the goblin doesn't see it and know that Edward is seeing her still then locks him in his space in the tin soldier box. He just wants to keep Edward away from the other toys so that he doesn't get himself in trouble with the wrong people. He feels bad for doing it but he felt like it was the only thing he could do.

After missing for a few days, Winry gets worried for Edward and finds Alphonse. She winds him up and he comes back to life. He is confused that it wasn't Edward who got him and instantly becomes worried. He and Winry sneak over to where the soldiers are kept on the table. During their rounds/marching they free Edward and they escape across the table and window ledge. Winry wants him to stay away from the rest of the soldiers and live with Alphonse and her but Edward argues with her. He knows that Mustang is right and even says that a broken soldiers like him shouldn't be around them anymore. He turns to just go back to the other soldiers but stops when Kimblee stands in his way. The Goblin saw Winry helping him and wanted to finally put a top to it and claim what was his. Edward stumbles backwards as Kimblee charges and tries to lift his small tin gun but with one quick bat, he is knocked out the open window and into the street below. Alphonse tries to protect Winry as well but he is knocked off of the window ledge and shatters to the floor amongst the other toys. Kimblee captures Winry and manages to gain control over the entire play room as he corruptedly controls most of the tin soldiers and other toy ruffians.

Roy struggles to live amongst the other soldiers as they follow Kimblee's orders. He wants to figure out how to stop him but after hearing what happened to Edward he knows that he has to go find him. One evening he sneaks off to try and find Alphonse. He looks to where the robot usually was but he isn't there. Eventually he stumbles upon the broken pieces of Alphonse and in desperation starts to put him back together. Over a few nights Roy manages to rebuild him and they go out to find Edward.

Edward, meanwhile, is stuck outside of the house. He stumbles around needing to try and find a way back in but he has trouble on the ice and doesn't make it far. Two homeless boys stumble upon him and pick him up. They start to play with him and take him far away from the house he knew. Edward is devastated but is actually amazed that the kids want to play with  him. They put him in a little toy boat and sail him around the little streams in the gutter. Unfortunately they start to bicker on who get to play with him and forget that he is sailing down a stream. The boat ends up hitting the curb and breaking and he falls down into the sewer grate but not before dropping his rifle. Without his rifle as a crutch he is stuck down there and unable to get out.

A rat named Greed comes upon him as he is trying to get out. He taunts him that his owners had forgotten him as he had never seen a toy down in the sewers before but Edward yells at him, not wanting to hear it. Amazed that the toy had such a mouth he offers the soldier a deal. He will take him back to his house if he would be willing to rid the house of its traps so that he could live there as well as sneak him some food. With no other option and desperate to return home, Edward agrees. The rat lets him climb up on his back and journeys up the sewer and onto the street. Unfortunately Edward is lost and he doesn't know where the house is. They quickly lose their way.

Meanwhile, alphonse and Roy journey out on their own and try to find Edward. From rumors of a local crow  they heard where he was taken and run down as fast as their little legs could take them, Alphonse having to be wound up more than once. They see the boat crash and find Edward's bayonet next to it. Unfortunately they don't know where they had gone from there. They return to the house and ask the crow for help. With reluctance, the crow flies around with Roy on its back and tries to find Edward. It spots them down in an alley and lands scaring the rat. Greed thinks that the crow is going to kill him and tries to fight/run but Roy spots Edward and they catch each other's attention.

They quickly return to the house, get Alphonse and make their way into the playroom. They split up and Roy goes to the tin soldier box and sets a toy letter block on the lid to trap the few soldiers who are sleeping on their off shift in there. Alphonse and Edward make their way over to the mantle over the fireplace where the goblin lives. Winry is up there and Edward struggles to scale the shelves. Alphonse helps boost him up but unfortunately they are noticed by the few soldiers left on guard and are attacked. Alphonse holds them off with his larger body as Edward continues to climb. Kimblee sees him and instead of waiting for him to climb all the way up, he bounds down to him on a lower ledge and they start fighting. They manage to move onto an unsteady tower of jenga blocks and after a bad step it collapses down in front of the hearth. Some of the blocks rebound off of the fire and catch alite, scattering across the stone around them. Edward tries to stand up after his fall but he could feel himself heat up. With that much fire around him he slowly starts to melt. The goblin however is made out of better material and after recovering, starts for him. He taunts him with quote:"Farewell, farewell, O warrior brave,Nobody can from Death thee save." Edward scrambles and crawls for his rifle. Seeing his struggle Alphonse tries to help him but he is quickly running out of power. Kimblee charges Edward and just a he reaches him, Edward brings his bayonette around and the goblin runs right onto it. He pushes him off and the goblin falls into the fire to be consumed by flame.

Edward is left in the heat and his colors start to melt off. Winry wants to help him however she is paper and couldn't go near. Other toys too wary to enter the ring of fire Edward was trapped in watch as the paint on his arm and face starts to fade away. He is too weak to get up and leave but he still tries to crawl his way out of the fire, unfortunately he is unable to. When Edward loses consciousness after his arm starts to melt away, Roy finally returns from battle so see him there. He exclaims why no one is trying to help him but getting no answer he jumps into the middle of the scattered flame despite being made of the same material. He quickly picks the melting soldier up in his arms and drags him to safety ignoring the fact that his own paint starts to melt from him.

Edward's arm had started to melt and was distorted. Patches of color that melted off of his body left silver undertone. Winry scolds all of  the other toys for their ignorance and announces that Edward saved them from Kimblee's reign. They realise what they had done and all start to pitch in to help. They quickly find some paint and try to fix Edward up. Some of the more sturdy toys return Edward slowly to heat so that they could reshape his arm under Winry's guidance and others pain his colors back on. Edward wakes up to be fixed up (though still missing his leg) and everyone rejoices. Life returns to normal except now all of the toys try to help those that are broken.

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

There once was five and twenty tin soldiers made from an old tin spoon. All were alike and wore bright red and blue uniforms except for a single soldier who only had one leg. He was made last and there wasn't enough tin to finish him. However he stood just as well on his one leg as the other did on two. He stood steadfast.

……

Edward stood at the end of the formation breathing in the fresh air that he was enjoying since he was finally released from that cramped box he was kept in. To be stuck in solitary confinement for so long just waiting for a child to open them up was tormenting. Now since they were finally free, he was relishing in the sights that he could see around the playroom. Wooden letter blocks were stacked high in towers that made a type of metropolis below them. He could see nick knacks on the shelves and on chairs and boxes. Other toys stood still in the light of day waiting for the safety of nightfall to come awake and move about when they were sure the children were asleep. The soldiers, all twenty five of them however, were stuck out on the table where they were left from their most recent battle of the day.

The child, Selim, liked to have them battle each other even though they were all in the same uniform and on the same side. A child's imagination was baffling yet every toy enjoyed their creativity as much as the next. It was the whole reason why they were made, to be played with. The kid would always side them up twelve against twelve like there should have been. However, they were made twenty five. A spare soldier was stuffed in his own box made from the leftover metal from the spoon they were all born from.

Edward let his eyes dart down to his feet where he balanced carefully on his single leg. If only there was enough metal to actually complete him then maybe Selim would let him battle for once. He was always stuck on the end of the table waiting for the kid to set them all back up in formation again after he was done playing. That was the only thing he ever did. Yet Edward gripped his rifle strongly in his arm and held his chin up high like the rest of the soldiers in hopes that one day the kid might actually want him. But till then he just stood there and waited.

With the child having gone from the playroom and the soldiers all set up in formation their commanding officer stood in front of them keeping everyone in line. As they were new to the playroom they were to make an appearance in front of the castle as a formality. The day of their appearance was growing ever closer and their commander was drilling them harder and harder just to prepare for it. As if battle every day wasn't enough for them.

"Right-Face! Forward March!" the Colonel ordered, his chest brightly and delicately painted with stars and medals. Edward always mused that the only reason why he was Colonel in the first place was because the father had painted him so. Other than that he proved quite an idiot when he wasn't too busy being a bastard. The line of soldiers quickly started to march forward in pure synchrony with their weapons against their shoulders and their feet keeping a beating step. Edward however, was different. He had to lower the butt of his weapon to the ground and use it as his second leg. But no matter how efficient he came to walk with the aid of a crutch he always fell behind.

"Come on Fullmetal keep up!" he heard the Colonel scold him as the formation drew farther away to make their laps around the table in practice for their appearance. Edward growled under his breath but otherwise kept his mouth shut and hobbled faster. It was tiring but he eventually caught up with them when they were back in formation at attention. He joined the ranks again and returned his weapon back to his shoulder where it was supposed to be and brought the formation back to its unity.

The Colonel's cold gaze was latched onto him the entire time and only looked away after a couple seconds. Edward let out a tired breath of relief as he heard the Colonel start to go on another spiel on how important it was that they made a good first impression. He quickly tuned him out as he returned his gaze back to the playroom around him. He could see a rather large cardboard castle up on the mantle of the fireplace. It stood tall with a few paper swans out in front to decorate the painted blue lakes. To him that was a rather dumb place to put a toy let alone a cardboard and paper one. Fire was dangerous even to him. It was what melted the spoon to even make him and his brothers so surely fire could do the reverse. Most toys stayed away for their lives so he thought it foolish to have an entire castle teetering on the edge of the mantle like that. But he couldn't voice his observations out loud. He knew that was where they were going to be tomorrow. Once they presented to the castle and the king who lived inside, they were going to be lead by them and therefore loyal to them. An army had to work for someone of course. Even Mustang had to take orders.

In the middle of his thoughts Edward suddenly felt a rough kick to the back of his leg. His knee was kicked out from beneath him and his leg quickly buckled. He fell forward to the ground unable to catch himself and his tin body made a loud clatter as it hit the wooden table top. He heard snickering pick up as he glared behind him at the soldier who stood in the second rank to him. They had an obvious smirk on their face as they weren't even trying to pretend it wasn't them. Edward growled as he opened his mouth to retort but it seemed that the Colonel had a better idea.

"Fullmetal," the man roared from down the line. Edward turned his head to see the commander storm over towards them. He grabbed the collar of his shirt and hoisted him up off the ground, sending him back in formation. Edward staggered to keep his balance from the hard shove the Colonel gave him and nearly knocked into the soldiers around him. He kept himself upright with aid of his rifle which proved just to be more irritating to the Colonel.

"What do you think you are doing?" the Colonel hissed at him. Edward straightened out his shako on his head and glared at his commanding officer.

"It wasn't my fault I fell-"

"You are in a formation. No matter what happens you are supposed to stand fast. It shows discipline you seem to greatly lack. With the way you act you are obviously not taking this seriously," the man barked at him.

"Hey! I am trying!" Edward retorted as he hobbled back to his position in the ranks, not without sending a glare to the soldier behind him. "If you could just give me more time so I can get in step-"

"The presentation is tomorrow. You don't have time, which is why I am going to be pulling you from the ranks." Edward's eyes widened as he felt his face heat up. The Colonel quickly dismissed the rest of the soldiers to go about the rest of their duties before he turned back to Edward. "You are not going to be in the presentation tomorrow."

"You can't do this! It's not fair!" Edward yelled at him as the man turned away from him and started to walk back to where their boxes lied on the end of the table. He hopped after him. He knew it just made him look even more pathetic but he had to try.

"I can and I will. You will stand guard and patrol the room tomorrow evening. We need someone on duty-"

"They are expecting the entire company to be there. You can't just leave me out-"

"Fullmetal, it wasn't like it was an easy decision. The reason why I had everyone drill for so long these last few days was because I was wanting to see you finally catch up. But you can't. And we can't have a broken formation-"

"A broken formation, or a broken soldier?" Edward growled underneath his breath. He glared his burning eyes at the Colonel whose own were just as cold and as the metal they were all made from. They stood off with each other like the man was actually contemplating whether that statement was accurate or not. Edward for a second caught the man's eyes flicker down to the void that should have held his leg but remained empty. He felt himself boil as he saw the man actually consider the fact he was broken. After a few silent moments however, the Colonel shook his head and pointed back towards their boxes.

"You are on guard tomorrow whether you like it or not but now you are on barracks restriction."

"For what?! Falling?!" Edward exclaimed in disbelief.

"For misdemeanor. I don't want to see you out of it until you shift tomorrow."

"You can't just lock me in my box and pretend I am not there!"

"Yes I can," the man retorted coldly as he opened the lid of Edward's box waving a hand for him to jump in. Edward growled as he grimaced at the box. The Colonel called them barracks for formality. Maybe the other one was like that because it housed twenty four of them. Edward's box was just a cage like solitary confinement. He had waited forever to get out of it even if he was not to be played with. Now Mustang was sending him back in not three days after his release. He angrily tossed his rifle into it and hobbled over to the edge, watching his balance.

"I hope you skewer yourself on your bayonet," Edward huffed under his breath as he sat on the box's wooden edge. The Colonel gave a cheap mocking smile at him.

"One of these days you will understand, but for now," he gave a light push on Edward's chest and he quickly found himself tumbling back into the box. His back hit the hard interior with a clank and a clatter as the lid dropped over him. Edward angrily cursed as he pounded the lid but the Colonel was still leaning on it, preventing it from budging. "Remember, not until your shift tomorrow," he hummed stiffly.The man turned around and quickly faded from the small view that the little clear window of his box gave him.

"You bastard!"

……..

"Seriously, Roy? Barracks restriction already? We only just got out of them. Give him a break he is just a kid," Roy heard Maes call to him as he marched away from the boxes that they had all came in. The other soldier was sitting down on a lincoln log that the child left on the table from the battle they were just in. The kid often made fortresses for them to protect or maneuver and it left a mess on the table. He wondered if Selim's mother would ever tell him to put them away.

Roy sighed as he took a seat right next to him and stretched his feet out from their long day. War was not an easy thing, even if it was pretend. To be played with a child was exhausting work however it was what every toy was made for. It was their dream and to see the resulting happiness was a good enough reward.

"Fullmetal is not a kid. We were all made the same age," Roy retorted lightly.

"Yet he is still the runt of the box," Hughes noted. "As much as we think we were made the same, we were not."

"Much as that statement is true we are still expected to look, march, and act the same. He just…-"

"So you lock him in a box-"

"No! Well I mean not for that. Maes, I just don't know what to do with him. He can't keep up with everyone else, he isn't played with, the only thing he can really do is stand there. I know he's trying but he isn't cut out for this."

"Why not let him do something else? Instead of keeping him in the box, let him go do something else. It isn't right, Roy, to keep someone locked up like that," Maes told him softly. Roy looked out around the playroom they were in. It wasn't a very large room but it contained a jungle of toys. To a little tin soldier not even 3 inches tall, it was a metropolis out there with other toys much bigger than themselves. Roy quickly shook his head.

"No. He can't even walk by himself, he can't even run. What if something were to happen to him? I know all of the other men they would be able to get their way out of any situation but Fullmetal?" Roy asked him. Maes grinned sheepishly knowing what Roy was getting at. He couldn't even picture what he would do if Edward didn't return back to formation in the mornings. What trouble he could get in just by himself, especially with the way other people thought of broken toys.

There was a stigma behind the idea of a broken toy that no one enjoyed. Other toys took being broken as a sign of being unwanted by the child and they were looked down upon just because they weren't played with. Broken toys were never fixed. Edward was born like that, Roy knew, but the stigma was still hanging from him like a veil he could not take off. He wasn't wanted by anyone in the playroom. Though he knew this, it was still obvious that he dreamed to one day be played with like the rest of the soldiers. Roy just knew that day was never coming. He was just afraid of what other toys might do to try and get that point across.

"Maes, they would eat him alive put there. I don't want him to leave this table top. If he does, who knows what would happen? It is so big down there with so many other toys, even I don't know what to do," Roy sighed. His friend looked out towards the large playroom they were in. Toys covered nearly every inch of it. As the night started to draw on they could see them all start to awaken and move about. Toys of various materials and sizes poked out of their hiding places like routine to start their day without the fear of being watched by the houses children who were all safely asleep downstairs. A huge smirk grew on Maes face as he watched the night start to come alive.

"You know what I am going to do once I get down there?" He said softly but his voice was fully of mischevious humor. "Get myself a nice date with that little sheperd down there. She is possibly the most beautiful woman I have ever seen!"

Chapter Text

Modern Highschool AU Fullmetal alchemist. 

Plot: The Elrics were put up for adoption after their mother died since their father was nowhere to be found. Edward is set for the inheritance after he turns 18 but he just has to get it that far. Alphonse was adopted first and was sent away to another family somewhere on the other side of central while Edward, after a few lonely years in the orphanage was adopted by an alchoholic named Tucker. He gave Edward automail since he couldn’t stand the sight of a cripple and then rips on Edward for being smart and getting good grades in the private school he attends with the inheritance allowance that he gets. Edward has a job at the Sub shop in downtown Central where Roy Mustang(the owner) and Jean Havoc (his fellow classmate) work. Riza, his math teacher is worried about his grades, knowing he is smart enough to get A’s but finds him ripping up his homework before he turns it in. She finds out about the case of his problems and tries to help with a solution.

Parental Riza, Roy, ed.

Alphonse got adopted by a family that is high class and kind of pricks. They don’t like Edward even though he is the one with the inheritance. They try to keep Alphonse away from him at all costs. Alphonse goes to a private school on the other side of central (the rivals of Edward’s school). Edward sneaks out of the house on occasion to visit his brother though Alphonse can’t go to him. They meet each other on rival games and excetera. Alphonse lives a better life than Edward even though his parents aren’t the lenient type and refuse to even talk to Edward when he wants to visit. Maes Hughes, a friendly neighbor soon realizes the problems between Alphonse and the stranger who keeps meeting him and tries to help out. 

Winry Rockbell lost her family, her parents and Pinako, and she moves from Resembool to Central in order to go to a private school that would house her until she comes of age. She meets Edward the strange nerd and finds out that he is trying to get bad grades. When she sees his automail, there is little that can stop her from finding out the entire story. 

THINGS TO INCLUDE

Havoc, while delivering some subs on the sub scooter, gets into a hit and run and gets paralyzed from the waist down. 

In order to find out more about Edward, Hueghs goes down the sub shop and meets Roy Mustang. They become friends almost instantly. (find a way to make hueghs die)

Edward and Winry hate each other from the beginning but when Edward has a desperate need for some repairs he finds out that she is a newly recruited mechanic in one of the automail shops. 

Riza going over to Edward’s house to confront him about his grades but finds a little bit more about his situation at home. Edward asks her to talk more to him in the sub shop rather than at his house with tucker. Riza and roy meet in the shop.

Edward stays over in one of the campus dorms one night because he doesn’t want to go home to where tucker is. It turns out that Winry’s dorm is the only one that would hold him. He camps out on the lounge’s couch. This starts to make Winry wonder how bad his life really is. 

The Homunculi were originally after his inheritance since they were the distant relatives of his. However they lost track of him after he and his brother were transferred to the orphanage. Envy and Greed are his age and they go to the same school as he does. There they find out who he is and start to bully him and put him in terrible situations that might cause his death ect. One of their family tries to accidentally kill him with a hit and run but mistakens Havoc for him instead. Maes, being a detective, starts to dig into the case about Havoc’s crash and he gets killed himself the same way. However, he was able to dig up some paperwork on the Elrics and figure out that the will's name was changed recently under Hohenheim's concent even though he was missing for a very long time. 

Father is Hohenheim's twin and he was always jealous how sucsessful the man was. He was jealous of his wife, money, and especially his kids. He adopted a few kids of his own, seven to be exact, but they weren't like the elrics. He was jealous of them an wanted them badly due to the fact of their inheritance and blood relation. He wanted to adopt them so that he could get the money and their family but he didn't know where they went and by the time he found them it was too late. He is now trying to reclaim what was his to begin with. 

Two Worlds One Family

Winry sat in the back of the sleek black car and stared out of the foggy windows into the watery abyss that was Central. She had always dreamed of coming to the city, she had never been before, but under the circumstances she was under she now wished for her quiet comfy home in Resembool. It was cold here and everything seemed to be grey, even the people on the street. Winry sighed as she pressed her forehead against the freezing window pane of the car. 

“I am sure you will like it at St. Flamel’s.It is a good school, good people,” the man driving said to her quietly. She knew that Mr. Miles was just trying to cheer her up but it was a forced conversation that he knew even he wasn’t comfortable with. 

“Yes, I know,” she replied halfheartedly. There was a long moment of silence as she listened to the patter of rain on the windshield of the government vehicle. She really didn’t want to go to a private school in the middle of the city, she just wanted to stay in Resembool with her Granny and her workshop, but that wasn’t possible anymore. 

“You will stay at the school until we find someone who will be willing to take you in. It shouldn’t take too long. The dormitories aren’t too bad, just recently been renovated. You might actually like it,” Miles said, still trying to prompt a conversation out of her. Winry gave him a weak smile and nodded her head. The car was yet again filled with silence and Winry tightened her jacket around her waist. She couldn’t picture anyone taking her in aside from Pinako, but she was gone. A stupid accident in the automail shop and Winry was now forced into child services. It all happened too fast. Though the people were nice enough, and she knew they were trying to help her, she was now halfway across the country away from her friends, her home, and her work bench. She not only lost her grandmother, but the one thing connecting her, automail. Miles sighed as he turned the car round a corner. 

“I know it must be hard, Ms. Rockbell. I was your age when my grandfather passed and…” he stumbled a bit, a slim smile forming on reminence of a memory. A person would have originally seen it as peaceful, but Winry only saw the slight underline of loss. Miles cleared his throat and adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “Well, the last memorable thing he said to me was that you need to remember that the earth is round. The sun might be shining on your back now, but if you walk far enough it will be morning again and the sun will be shining in your face. There might be some good out there, you just need to find it. Of course that was because I broke up with my first girlfriend but… it worked even then as it works now.” Winry felt tears pick up in her eyes as the numbness that she felt just started to fade. She wiped them furiously and tried to keep herself under control. 

“Th-thankyou, Mr. Miles,” she mumbled as she felt the car pull to a halt. A hand rested on her shoulder right after the car was put on park. She looked up and the man was smiling gently down at him through his black sunglasses that he wore even when the sky was grey as it was. 

“Everything will be alright, just don’t worry.”

………...

Winry hauled her suitcases into the St. Flamel’s dormitory after several hours of tours and admissions work. Mr. Miles left her to settle down in her dorm as he still had paperwork to get to back at his offices. He was very helpful and in the end she did feel bad for being so sour to him most of the ride from Resembool. It turned out that class was already four weeks into session so there were plenty of students already on the large elaborate campus. Even now, the dorm was filled packed with rampaging teenagers, each screaming at each other and the football game that was on the television. Winry poked her head into the lounge area where the television was located. It was packed full of people, she guessed that everyone in the dorm was there. Some people were piled over each other on the couch and sofas that cluttered the room but others were standing or sitting on other various counter tops and study desks. Winry had to duck and dodge people who were a little too excited for the game. It looked to be a crappy recording from someone’s video camera. Some of the players were dressed in purple and gold, who the students were constantly booing at, and the others were dressed in the red and black of St. Flamel’s.

“Edward you did it again!” she heard a short black haired boy exclaim as a specifically short football player clad in black practically did a backflip over an opponent and cleared nearly half the field before being taken down by an athlete twice his size. His arms swung a little too wide when he cheered and accidentally hit her shoulder. He spun around, his face flushed red as he caught sight of her, his large square glasses nearly falling off of his face in fright of himself. “Ohh...s-s-s-” Winry was rather taken back that he was so startled by her. He didn’t even hit her that hard. He was stumbling over an apology and Winry quickly tried to wave him off in an attempt to keep him from hurting  himself. 

“I-it’s alright. I am fine,” she quickly blurted out and the kid seemed to relax ever so slightly even though his face was still bright red. “I am Winry… do you know where room 311 is?” she asked him. The boy’s mouth was clamped shut but he quickly nodded his head. She waited for any form of direction or guidance but the boy seemed to be frozen stiff even though he was trembling a bit. “A-are you okay?”

“That’s Kain for you, a communications fanatic and he can’t even talk to cute girls,” she heard a light laugh come out. A blond haired boy walked over and slapped his arm around the kid’s shoulder as he took a short sip of his iced tea he was drinking. He smelled like ash which the short kid obviously wasn’t comfortable with. “I am guessing he didn’t introduce himself. This little guy is  Kain Fuery, and I am his friend, Jean Havoc.” He switched his drink to his other hand and held one out for a shake. She took it questionably as the crowd suddenly erupted into cheers as another touchdown happened. 

“Winry Rockbell,” she screamed over the obnoxious noise. Havoc nodded his head in acknowledgment. 

“You are new here or just a freshman? I never saw you around before.”

“I-I just… moved from the countryside,” she mumbled as she was suddenly reminded of the wonderful green fields of Resembool. They were so beautiful compared to the dull grey wash of the Central city streets. Though the campus they were now on had green grass for a good square mile, it just wasn’t the same. 

“Hey! You’re a country bumpkin!” Jean exclaimed with sudden fascination. “So am I! I came from East City!”

“But… that’s practically a metropolis,” Winry stated, busting Jean’s imaginary origins and sending Kain into a fit of stifled laughter at his friend’s expense. Jean elbowed Kain in the ribs to which the short boy returned. 

“It’s still not like this,” Jean shrugged lightly, a poor act to defend his case. “Are you moved in? I was filming the football game all day so I wouldn’t know any of the news that goes on here-” Winry looked at the television screen and saw the shaky cameraman skills. It wasn’t the best, by far the worst, but it was better than having no game. 

“No, my stuff is still out in the hall. I was asking Kain where my room was.”

“Roo-room th-three t-ten,” Kain stuttered in Jean’s and Winry’s surprise. Kain’s redness returned and Jean smiled giving the kid a good reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“Well, why don’t we help?” Jean offered, a quick excited nod of the head from Kain followed.  

“Thank you,” Winry smiled in gratitude. “I just want to get settled in as soon as possible so I could… think things over a bit.” Kain hopped up from his seat and marched out of the crowded lounge with Jean and Winry following close behind him. Winry stopped to pick up her stuff and the boy’s offered to help with her few suitcases. Jean attempted to pick up one but barely was able to lift it off of the floor. 

“Holy hell, what is in this thing?” he complained as Winry handed off another lighter suitcase to him. Kain was laughing a bit under his breath, poking fun at his friend. 

“Just my tools,” Winry answered as she picked it up herself. Jean turned even more red from embarrassment, his jaw open in shock. 

“T-t-tools?” Kain managed to make out. Winry smiled softly and looked down fondly at the chest she was holding.

“Y-yeah. I… used to work with my grandmother on automail… but, well, now I just have them because I couldn’t let go of them,” she mumbled a tang of sadness building up in her. She let out a breath and forced a smile onto her face but Kain gave her a look of sympathy knowing that something was wrong. She was kind of glad he didn’t voice his observation because she quickly decided to just sweep it under the carpet for a later time. “Well, let’s get all of this stuff to my room. No point in standing out here in the hallway right?”

Kain took the lead as he lead them through the bottom floor of the dormitory to the end of the hallway. Jean was giving her an oral explanation of every nook and cranny of the place as they walked. 

“Yeah, so, this place is a co ed dorm where the guys are on the top floor and girls are on the bottom. There’s the showers,” he quickly interrupted himself as they passed  communal showers. Some girls were obviously cleaning as steam was piling out from underneath the door. “Kain lives here too so you might see him around a bit.”

“What about you?” Winry asked as they halted outside of her room. Her room mate must have been out as the door was locked tight. She set her stuff down and pulled out her keys. 

“Me? I am a commuter. I live just a few blocks away since we moved from the East City a couple years ago. My parent’s had a big business opportunity and they sent me here freshman year,” the kid answered. 

“F-f-floral a-arrang-gments,” Kain struggled to elaborate. Jean kicked his friend in the shins annoyed that he would relay that information. Winry chuckled as she unlocked her room and kicked the door open so that they could all enter. Jean and Kain walked in first and Winry grabbed her stuff to follow. It was a small room with a bunk bed, a sink and two closets. The far side of the room was covered in Xingese tapestries and lanterns. It was lit up almost like a festival. The glow looked nearly enchanting however the light didn’t shine over to the other side of the room, her side. Winry looked at the bare walls where tape and glue seemed to still be stuck from the previous owner. It was empty and desolate compared to her roommate’s. It was nothing like home. Jean and Kain were already setting her stuff on her bed which was the bottom of the bunk. Jean was talking randomly about some topic or another while Kain was nodding his head in agreement happily. However, Winry felt her eyes water a bit. She wiped them to try and stop herself but Kain seemed to notice and he walked over to where she was standing near the doorway. Jean seemed to notice his friend’s action and quickly shut up as he realised what was going on. Kain rested his hand on her shoulder as if asking if she was alright. Winry shook her head furiously.

“I-It’s just so different. Changing so fast,” she mumbled as she forced herself to regain her composure. 

“Come on now, Winry,” Jean smiled gently as he joined Kain’s side. He bent a little to get with eye level of her as his height was slightly towering. “Everything will be alright. I know this must be different from home and you must miss your family a lot, but it isn’t that bad. Once you move in it might make you feel better.When we get let off for breaks or weekends you could go home and-” Winry shook her head making Jean stop. 

“I can’t. My grandmother… she was the one who took care of me but… but…”

“Oh,” Jean mumbled almost inaudibly. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and Winry could tell he felt bad for bringing it up. “Is there anything we could do to help you feel more comfortable? I know it must be hard…”

“I… I don’t think-” she started but suddenly got cut off as a light bulb seemed to strike on in Kain’s head and he slapped Jean on the shoulder a little roughly. 

“What?” Jean asked him, complaining as he rubbed his hurting shoulder. Though he and Kain seemed o be quite intune with each other for one he didn’t know what he was getting at. 

“G-gar-garf-fiel-ld’s-”

“Who the crap is that?” Jean questioned. Kain looked aggravated as he wasn’t able to make out what he wanted to say. He looked at Winry once with a determined look and motioned for her to stay right there.He jetted out of the room and down the hallway for the stair case. Winry looked back to Jean in absolute confusion but he seemed just as bewildered. He let out a huff of air and massaged his face tiredly. “What are you doing now?” he grumbled underneath his breath. Winry walked over and sat on her bed which was now loaded with the few bags she had. Jean sat down on the bed with her, the silence suffocating. They sat for a few minutes and Winry calmed herself down to the point that she started to pick apart her bags to Jean’s suggestion. They only got through half a bag before Kain came rushing back into the room carrying a wrinkled old flyer. He waved it in Jean’s face and he snatched it grumpily out of his hands to read it better. 

“You ran all of the way upstairs to get this?” Jean asked in disbelief. Winry leaned in curious to what they were looking at. 

“What is it?” she asked not getting a good look. Jean rolled his eyes and handed it back to Kain who seemed very aggravated with his obliviousness. 

“It is just some guy he fixed a radio for over the summer. He likes tech and the guy is a mechanic-”

“A-a-aaut-tom-mail,” he told Winry, passing the flyer to her. She took it carefully and read the title. 

“Garfield’s Automail Shop and Outfitters?” she mumbled. Kain nodded his head and pointed to the bottom of the page. In absolutely microscopic writing it said Help Wanted underneath all of the advertisements it had. “They need a mechanic?” she asked, sudden excitement lifting. Kain furiously nodded his head. Winry stared at the flyer in bewilderment. She couldn’t believe it. Stuck in this unfamiliar world and she was able to bump into not only two nice people, but the one person who knew where she could become herself again. Automail was the same everywhere. Though different styles and needs, it was something she grew up with, it was something familiar. Winry felt herself tear up slightly as complete joy tickled her skin. She flung her arms around the short little boy who suddenly froze stiff at her embrace. “Thankyou,” she said to Kain whose face was completely beet red. 

“n-no-o p-pr-rob-bl-lem,” he muttered tensely. 

……….

Edward sighed as he rummaged through the cabinets in the kitchen, pulling out random medications. He heard Nina giggling happily in the background as Tucker got her ready for school. It was a bit chilly so Edward told him to make sure she had a hat. Fall was coming in quick and even though school just began a few weeks ago, it was already starting to cool off to the point that his joints were aggravating him. 

He pulled down a box from the cabinet and looked in it, empty. He growled to himself as he tossed the empty casing aside. How many times did he have to tell that drunk bastard to get his own daughter her medication from the pharmacy? He kept digging. Reaching into the far depths of their medicine cabinet he found the one last inhaler they had. He read the side where he labelled the date when it would run out. It was only in a month. They needed more soon. Edward sighed to himself as he set it to the side and started to search the clutter for some pain relievers. He knew deep down that he wouldn’t find any yet again but he still looked for the slim chance he might find a bottle that Tucker missed. 

“Please tell me we have some aspirin,” Edward grumbled to the other room where the man of the house was waiting patiently with his daughter. He heard a rough scoff and Edward rolled his eyes knowing what he was going to say next. 

“What do you need that shit for? If you want to be a man handle your own pain,” Tucker sniped at him, Edward mouthing the words mockingly as he said them. Edward growled under his breath and shoved all of the useless bottles and boxes back into the cabinet. He snatched the inhaler off of the counter and strapped his school bag around his shoulder before storming into the other room. Tucker was bent over Nina, tying a scarf around her neck near the door. She had a bright smile on her face as she was jumping up and down ready for school, her long brown braids bouncing with her. She was the only person Edward knew that actually wanted to go to school so early in the morning. Nina was smart, probably taking more after her mother than her father.  She was practically running out of the door already. Shou, however, was smelling as pungent as ever with the reek of alcohol he used to celebrate St. Flamel’s football game with. It was a tradition for him to douse himself in beer every single time he watched a football game. Edward wondered why he ever liked the sport that much unless the man wanted a death wish. Now the day after, he obviously was suffering from a huge hangover, flinching at the light laughter of his own daughter. Edward looked at the man with disgust. 

“Maybe, because I buy it, I might want to use some of it instead of you selling it to your friends,” Edward retorted. Tucker turned around and glared at him.

“Don’t back talk me boy. Someone in this household has to pay bills and until your crippled ass gets that football scholarship, it has to be me. If you want to complain about how your stupid arm is hurting you, you could remember what it was like without one,” the man retorted. Edward subconsciously reached up and grabbed his aching shoulder as if hoping it would just stop hurting. He could feel the stiffness of the metal through his jacket, a cool taunt of what the man was getting at. The green, bloodshot eyes of his dad glared down at him in full disgust. If he didn’t appear to be a full human, the man wouldn’t even have let him into his house. He felt a little hand grab the bottom of his jacket and he looked down to see Nina holding tight to him. She was impatiently waiting to be walked out to the school bus. Edward looked back at the man who was waiting for any type of retort that he could just tear into.

“I don’t need it, it’s only a little bit of pain,” Edward huffed reluctantly as he bent down and handed Nina her inhaler. She pouted as she looked at it, crossing her arms in refusal. 

“Big brother, I don’t want it,” Nina mumbled. Edward sighed as he reached out and gently unfolded her arms and pressed the inhaler securely into her hand. They had this conversation every Monday with her before school. It was like after every weekend she just grew this fascinating hatred for her medication while every Friday she was glad to be carrying it around. It was a cycle Edward knew she would grow out of, but it didn’t look like it would be soon.

“Nina, remember the wheezes you get. Remember how terrifying they are?” he asked her and she dumbly nodded her head, upset. “You need to take this, have it on you at all times incase they come back. That’s our last one so don’t lose it. I am trusting you with it. You have to keep it safe, can you do that?” Edward asked her. She smiled weakly and nodded again, putting it in her little pink school bag she kept all of her miscellaneous homework in. Edward stood up and took her mittened hand in his and lead her to the door, Tucker tailed after them, hanging in the doorframe as they went outside. Pulling out his bicycle from the side of the porch where he parked it every day, Edward turned to Tucker to see the usual aggravated and dumb look the man wore all day long. 

“Tucker, don’t forget to pick up Nina’s prescription tonight. I don’t get off in time to make it to the pharmacy-”

“Stop pestering me. I will go when I go. Get to school,” he growled at him. Edward huffed at him and turned around, grabbing Nina’s hand with his left and guiding his bike with his right. They walked down the path from their house and onto the city sidewalk towards the bus stop where Nina’s school picked her up. She skipped happily along beside him as if all was right in the world. 

“Big brother, will you be able to pick me up when I get done with school? We could take Alexander for a walk and-”

“I am sorry Nina, but I have work tonight. Mr. Yoki will have to take you home. Maybe Friday I could see if I could get off early,” Edward told her, watching her spirits drop fast. The pout returned and as adorable as it was, Edward felt guilty for having caused it. He was always a sucker for Nina’s puppy dog eyes. 

“You always say that,” she mumbled. Edward sighed as he stopped them on the corner and watched the yellow bus pull up to a halt. The engine roared and the brakes squealed, the smell of diesel filled the air. 

“How about I help you with your homework when I get home? I know you want help for your science test next week-”

“Thank you big brother!” Nina exclaimed as she gave him a quick hug and spun around for the bus which doors just opened. “I will make sure to bring home lots of work just for the two of us! We could work all night!”

“That’s not what I meant!” Edward called out after her but she was already hopping up the tall steps of the yellow bus. As the doors closed and the engine gave a belching roar, Edward rolled his eyes with a smile. He spotted her waving out the window and he returned the gesture until the bus rounded the corner of the block. The instant the bus disappeared Edward’s smile faded and he mounted his bike. Now it was time to face his own school day. 

………..

“You know I already had two tours yesterday, I think I can find-”

“Yes, but Vato didn’t give you one. Why wouldn’t you want one from the one person who knows the most about it?” Jean interrupted the next morning as he steered Winry through the hallways and towards one of the many computer labs. Jean had returned to school bright and early that morning just to introduce Winry to even more people. She felt like a rag doll being dragged around to show people, but the kid didn’t accept no as an answer. He pulled her into the computer lab where only a couple faces could be seen. Winry recognised one of them to be Kain from the previous evening. He was talking to another boy who looked slightly older than him with squinty eyes and amazingly blue hair. Kain was talking avidly to the kid about what seemed to be a old radio system he was looking at on the internet.

“Just imagine if I could get my hands on one of these,” Kain said in fascination. “Since Edward doesn’t have a cell phone a long distance radio could keep him in touch with everyone-”

“But Fury, we would all need to have one-” the kid told him. 

“All you would need to do is sync the freque-que-que-,” Kain started out until he caught sight of Winry entering the room. His face turned bright red as usual. The blue haired boy looked at him curiously as if something was wrong with him but then turned to see what he was looking at and understood instantly. 

“Hello Havoc, hello Ms. Rockbell,” he greeted with a smile.  

“How-” Winry started to ask how he knew her but he gently cut her off.

“I heard that there was a new student today and I saw the teachers updated attendance sheet. It had your name on it. Since I never saw you before I just thought… am I wrong?” the boy asked her but she quickly shook her head and he looked so relieved. Jean and Kain both rolled their eyes at the kid.

“Winry, this is Vato Falman. He is a history geek with a near flawless memory which bridges on the edge of creepy and scary,” Jean said, covering the introduction the boy failed to mention. Vato frowned at him, but he didn’t look insulted. Winry smiled and the two new acquaintances shook hands. 

“Near flawless memory?” Winry asked in surprise and Vato’s ego seemed to inflate slightly. 

“Yes, I am able to code and store memories pretty easily from my short term into my long term. Very useful unless there was something that I really didn’t want to see-”

“Like when he walked in on his grandmother in the shower,” Jean emphasised. Winry winced at the mere thought of that as Vato was sent shivering as the image was undoubtedly playing itself back in his head. 

“Why do you have to bring that up, Havoc?” he complained nearly looking sick.  

“It is a terrific story, why not?” the boy laughed as the boy continued to try and get a hold of himself. Winry didn’t doubt that he could paint a picture with the image he was remembering. “Anyways, as we were saying his memory is only near flawless. He sometimes forgets really simple things all together, like which shampoo bottle was his.”

“It’s not my fault my sister puts her hair dye in her shampoo! It all would have been fine if she just used normal shampoo!” the kid complained as Jean and Kain were both sent howling at his expense. He obviously was being teased to the point of no revival with this incident. His hair was the brightest blue there could have possibly been. The shampoo did a good job on him, one that Winry wouldn’t have guessed unless he went to a salon and got his hair bleached.

“I-It doesn’t look bad,” Winry said to try and cheer him up but that seemed to make it worse. 

“Vato, at least you don’t look like an old man anymore,” Jean told him not making the situation any better. “He used to have a whole head of premature grey hair.” The bell suddenly rang and Kain quickly logged off of the computer and grabbed his bags. With a shy smile to Winry he sped out of the door as fast as he could. Jean sighed and looked at his watch as if making sure he still had enough time to get to class. He gave Winry a little shove towards Vato as if to pick up what they came there to do. 

“Vato, you have a free period, why don’t you show Winry here around-”

“I have class-”

“Mr. Armstrong’s art history class, which is exactly why you are not going, unless that is you want to be drowned by senseless emotion,” he pointed out. 

“I have a free period I could give you a tour. I am sure he wouldn’t miss you on the first day,” Vato offered. Winry frowned at the thought of missing her first class of the year. It wasn’t good to skip out especially if it was your first day. However, art history was never something she wanted to endure. She nodded her head and accepted the offer. 

“Very well then, I am off to Calculus, yay me,” Jean said with an overwhelming amount of sarcasm. “You two have fun.” 

“Very well then Ms. Rockbell, should we head out?” 

………..

“The Science building has been around since the start of St. Flamels because as you might know this is a school that strongly believes in the practicality of science. It has seen many many renovations in its day and it is nearly state of the art. Some students from the University across the city even come here to use it sometimes for their basic lab studies. It is the only building on campus that is open 24/7 because of the projects that are set up here sometimes can become time sensitive,” Vato said completely off the top of his head as if it was normal to know the complete history of the school. They stopped outside of few select rooms and peered in to see some classes being conducted. Vato pointed out the computer lab which all had newly fitted macs for design and blueprints. Right next door was the school’s own radio station set up with the works. 

“The school’s station spreads across nearly half of the city and is frequently tuned into by not just students but other civilians for news reports that our journaling club write and review. Most of the clubs that are set up are made to give students leadership positions and build up their resumes for college and even future careers. Fuery spends most of his time in here. He is the head of technology in nearly all of the school clubs. He goes around and fixes theatre lights and computers which saves the school money in maintenance. He also has his own radio broadcast every evening.”

“I thought he… had problem talking. He can’t speak to me at all-”

“Directly. He is perfectly comfortable talking from across the line to amazing numbers of people. Fuery has selective mutism which is one of the reasons I met him in the first place. My parents are psychologists who tried to help him over his social anxiety in fourth grade. It helped for the most part but like everyone he still has trouble,” Vato told her as if telling another person’s life story was alright. “Don’t worry though. Once he warms up to you he would be able to talk normally. I would give it about a week.”

“A week?” she mumbled to herself as she thought about having to last that long with barely a sentence coming from the kid. Kain seemed like a really nice guy, all of them did, and especially since he was interested in technology she really wanted to see what type of work he was doing. She wasn’t much into computer sciences, much more gears, engines, and automail, but it still interested her a lot. She would just have to be patient. 

Vato lead them through the building from the tech and computer labs to the physics and anatomy class rooms. They each had a full lab connected to them where Winry saw some of the students dissecting cats as their projects. She felt herself grow slightly sick and realising that after seeing that she would probably never want a kitten ever again. Vato talked and talked about all of the history of just this building alone. It was a little overwhelming and only half of it got through to her as she was more focused on seeing other students work. They wound their way up to the third floor which was solely made for chemistry. It didn’t look like anyone was in the classrooms but Vato continued their tour none the less. 

“Our chem labs are fully stocked and our glassware is kept completely clean and in mint condition. Those who don’t take care of the equipment don’t work in the labs. As I said before many universities use our labs which is why we try to keep them as up to date as possible. Some of St. Flamel’s own students are already studying college level sciences and performing their own research projects. Projects are able to be proposed to the school board and given small fundings for materials, though anything substantial must come out of pocket or elsewhere. Many scientific breakthroughs have happened in these labs alone,” Vato informed her as they passed one of the lab doors whose light was strangely on. They didn’t get a step closer when they heard a loud string of curses fly out of it. Winry was slightly frightened at the brashness and she heard Vato mumble a subtle ‘oh no’ under his breath as it seemed he was preparing for the worse. The Lab’s double doors burst open and crashed into the walls they were connected to as a flash of gold, black, and pink sped through them. 

“That bastard!” the boy shouted as he flung the piece of pink fabric he held in his hands at Vato, the closest person he could find. His golden eyes burned with absolute rage and Winry took a step back from him as he walked over to them. His fist was crumbled over a page of notebook paper which seemed to have some sort of note scrawled across it. “Where is he? Vato, where is Kimblee?” he growled as if he couldn’t even try to hold in his own frustration. Vato was fumbling over the large piece of fabric which now appeared to be a lab coat stained the wrong colour. 

“Tucker, calm down I am sure that whatever he did-”

“He stole it. He stole Maus, Vato!” he seethed as he unballed the piece of paper and shoved it into his face. Winry heard another ‘oh dear’ come from him as he handed the note over to her to at least somewhat free his hands. Winry couldn’t help but glance down and see the horribly written note on it. 

Tucker, borrowing Maus. I am sorry about your lab coat. It was my turn to wash them and it accidentally got mixed with the reds.

-Zwolf Kimblee

The boy grabbed Vato by the shirt and glared at him like he wanted to punch him. Other than being slightly startled, Vato was acting like this was completely normal. 

“Where is he, Vato, you would know.” The kid started to stumble over his words as if he didn’t want to tell him. Winry could tell that he knew, but he didn’t want to say anything in fear of starting a fight. 

“Hey!” Winry shouted out at the new kid as she quickly shoved him off of her tour guide. The golden boy looked absolutely surprised as if he didn’t even realise she was there. Winry grabbed the lab coat from where it was tangled around Vato and threw it back at him. “Back off. You can’t just go around throwing things at people!”

“Who are you?” the boy growled, a little less sinister than before. Winry glared him down as if threatening him to do anything. 

“Winry Rockbell. What is it to you beet face?” she insulted as his face was even more red than Kain’s got when they were in a room together. He opened his mouth as if to make a retort but closed it as he was completely speechless. He cursed to himself and tore his eyes away from her.

“I don’t have time for this,” he mumbled as he quickly pushed past them. Winry stared as she watched the boy storm down the hall and disappear into the stairwell. She huffed to herself and crossed her arms as she regarded the encounter. 

“What a jerk,” she grumbled but was taken back as she heard Vato chuckle lightly as if this was normal. 

“Yeah, that’s Tucker for you,” he said softly as he straightened out his wrinkled shirt. “He doesn’t give very good first impressions-”

“Very good? He was threatening you-”

“Not really, he was just upset,” Vato corrected her. “Kimblee has been at his throat ever since they started sharing lab space together.”

“It still doesn’t mean he has to be so violent,” Winry grumbled but Vato just shrugged. 

“He normally isn’t,” he mumbled. He started to lead them back down the hall where they were headed before the whole fiasco took place. Winry was still rather ruffled from the experience of meeting the golden eyed boy. The fury in his eyes was pure and it scared her. She wondered just what limits this boy would break to speak his mind to whoever did this to him. With such a demeanor coming from him, she wondered how Vato could even talk to him as a friend. She hoped at least that she wouldn’t have to meet him again any time soon.

…………

Winry sat outside of the Deans office among a long line of other students listening to people yell at eachother from the other side of the door. She couldn’t make odds or ends of what they were saying but it definitely made her quite nervous for when the time came that she would have to go in there as well. She knew that she wasn’t in trouble at all, since she was only there to pick up a new attendance sheet for Mr. Grumann because her name wasn’t on his, but she still didn’t want to be there even for that. Now she was listening to a highly heated argument on the other side not knowing when they would be finished. Staying down at the Dean’s office for her entire Calculus period definitely wasn’t her first choice to make. 

Suddenly the door to the office burst open making her jump a little in her seat. The argument did not cease as it was carried out with them into the hallway. Mr. Raven, the Dean of Students who she recognised from her introduction to the school on several occasions stormed out, his face ridden with disappointment. 

“Take a seat, Mr. Tucker. We will discuss the details of your fight when your father gets here in a few minutes-”

“No! Please, I need to be able to play in the football game this weekend. My father-”

“Maybe if you kept your grades up where they should be and didn’t break Mr. Kimblee’s nose this would be an easier discussion. Now please take a seat Mr. Tucker!” Mr. Raven scolded the boy. Winry felt her stomach drop as the kid she recognised from earlier who was still holding the pink lab coat in his arms. He growled to himself and collapsed in the closest chair which ended up being right next to her. She felt her face heat up as she turned away from him, hoping not to make any eye contact at all however she couldn’t help but look at him. She never saw any guy keep their hair that long, though she had to admit it was probably quite common amongst the football jocks that she had seen around the other high schools. He had several small scars on his face which would be near invisible to anyone if they weren’t sitting as close to him as she was. She guessed that he probably got into fights alot. It frightened her to hear that just a little after she saw him he went and broke a kid’s nose for stealing something from him. Hopefully he wouldn’t remember her or else she might just end up the same. 

“What are you looking at?” she heard him grumbled to her.

“A thick headed football jock,” she mumbled under her breath. 

“How would you know- oh god not you,” he started to retort when his golden eyes caught onto hers. A Flash of recognition went through them and then regret as he quickly moaned and turned away from her. 

“Yes, me,” Winry huffed. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked her bitterly.

“Definitely not getting my ass chewed out for breaking some kid’s nose-”

“Shut up! You don’t know anything!” Edward scolded her harshly. Winry didn’t flinch as he glared at her. He was more upset than angry. She didn’t know why she was pushing his buttons but she couldn’t help it though. He turned away from her and looked down at his hands. He was clasping something grey in his gloved hands and it took a while for Winry to notice it was moving. It was a grey furred lab rat. She was rather surprised as that was the last thing she expected to see. The boy started to pet the rat behind the ears and it sniffed at him curiously. He looked nervous as he held it. He was constantly looking down the hall as if he was afraid someone would catch him with it. 

“Why do you-” Winry started but he quickly glared at her as if threatening her to shut up. Winry bit her lip but glared menacingly back at him not letting him get the upper hand. “Why do you have it?” she whispered when suddenly voices started to come down the hallway. One of them was familiarly Mr. Raven but the other was someone else Winry did not know. However, Edward must have. He frowned and quickly stuffed the rat gently into the pink lab coat’s pocket. He gently pushed it to her. 

“Take it-” he said quickly and Winry was very taken back by his quick order. 

“What!” she exclaimed but he just continued to push it towards her not giving her any other choice. 

“Take it, please. Just put him back in his cage in Lab no. 5. I can’t let Tucker catch him. I am in enough trouble as it is-”

“Why would-”

“Please, just take him,” the boy ordered her again, softly this time. Winry latched weakly onto the coat, very stunned as the two people rounded the corner into their corridor. Mr. Raven was talking to a rather ragged looking man with glasses. Though Mr. Raven was talking avidly to the man, the new comer was just glaring deathly to Edward. He seemed to draw back under the man’s stare as if he knew what was coming. 

“And that, Mr. Tucker, is why we are not going to be allowing your son Edward on the next few Football meets. We are even considering withdrawing his research from our laboratories-”

“Research?” the man asked surprise like he wasn’t expecting it. Mr. Raven nodded his head and Winry wouldn’t have guessed it but the glare got even worse. “Edward, get in the office. What did I tell you before?” the man started to snipe and Edward got out of his seat just to get a rough slap on the back of the head. The boy rubbed his new ache but looked back at Winry as if to make sure that his rat was alright. He was shoved into the office by his father before the arguing picked up, nearly twice as loud as before. Mr. Raven, who was going to follow in behind them stopped for a second and looked down at Winry as if surprised she was there. Winry was afraid for a second that he would have wondered why she was holding the boy’s lab coat but it seemed he thought nothing of it. 

“Ms. Rockbell, what are you waiting here for? Don’t you have class?” he asked gently as if he was genuinely concerned. 

“Y-yes but Mr. Grumman sent me to pick up a revised attendance sheet. M-My name wasn’t on it-”

“Oh, that man,” Mr. Raven chuckled loudly. “He is able to just print one off himself. He probably was trying to get you to skip class-”

“H-he what?!” Winry exclaimed. 

“He’s always doing this. There is no penalty for skipping class just as long as you keep your grades up. I think he probably has high hopes for you. Your transcripts were phenomenal in math and coming from the famous Rockbell household I expect you do a lot of it in your work,” Mr. Raven informed her with a smile. Winry felt herself unable to speak and as she was completely turned around. She sat there for no reason at all, the entire class period. Mr. Raven waved to her and wished her luck before closing the door to the office where the Tuckers were still yelling at each other. With Mr. Raven’s voice now in the screaming mix Winry could barely tolerate the volume. She looked down at the lab coat she was holding. She could feel the rat buried comfortably beneath the fabric. She groaned to herself as she got up out of her chair and started down the hallway. How did she get wound up in this mess?

On the boarderline of sprinting, Winry ran to the science building at a pace that just barely could get her caught by a teacher for speeding. Though the bell didn’t ring yet for the end of calculus it wa nearing the end and she didn’t want to miss her next class. For her first day she already missed two of them. She tiredly climbed all the way up to the third floor of the science building and skipped her way down to lab number five where she remembered the boy storming out of that morning. It seemed so long ago but fresh in her mind. She opened the door and turned on the lights. 

Though Vato gave her a very good tour, because of the chaos that happened that morning she never actually got to see the inside of the lab. There was a small lecture space on the side of the room where they probably got an overview of experiments for their lab portion of the classes and then the rest of the room was filled with various lab benches with sinks and safety equipment. Cupboards were labeled for various materials and it seemed all of the glassware was sparkling out to dry or stored underneath the benches. Special machines Winry wouldn’t not be able to guess the names to were placed in select spots of the room where she guessed other people were performing their own experiments. Vato did say that the university was linked with their science buildings on occasion and that some students were starting on their college work early. 

Winry found the cage on the side of the room on top of some black countertop space. It was neatly tucked out of the way and all of the boy’s research materials were neatly stored next to it in a small rack. There was a small clipboard on the cage and Winry curiously picked it up to look at it. It was a logg for when the rat was taken out off the cage and what was done to it. Most of it was said for feeding or cleaning which was really not unusual at all, at least not what she expected for  lab rat. 

“Maus?” Winry muttered as she looked at the name at the top of the page, right next to the owner’s signature which was all but an inconceivable scribble. She looked back down at the coat in her hand and unbundled it where the lab was safely snuggled. Its grey head poked out of the mess curiously as it sniffed around for the new stranger that was holding it. “That’s a little redundant.”

Winry sighed as she opened the door to the cage and carefully pulled the grey rat out of the pocket of the labcoat. It squirmed as if it didn’t know it was being handled and Winry quickly set it down in its cage where it sat and sniffed around in the familiar environment. She closed it up and Winry folded up the lab coat and draped it over her arm to hang back up on her way out. To say she liked rats was an extreme overstatement, but if she hated them she wouldn’t have brought this one back to its home.

 She remembered what Edward was raging about when he left the lab. Apparently the boy name Kimblee stole Maus, though at that time she didn’t know it was a pet rat. Did the Tucker boy really break the kid’s nose because he stole his rat? Winry remembered when she was little and a neighborhood bully stole the stray baby kitten she was looking after in the abandoned barn down the road from her house. She was terrified that the boy was going to hurt it but when she ran home crying Granny Pinako told her to stop crying and stick it to him. Winry could have laughed as she remembered how her Granny sent a little six year old out armed with a small wrench to fight for her cat back. She never actually hurt anyone, but she was able to get the little cat back safe and sound. She felt her heart drop a little as she reminisced about her grandmother. Winry sucked in a huge breath and let it out slowly  as she walked back towards the door and dropped the ugly pink lab coat on the coat rack. She had to get through this, she knew it. Like Granny had told her back then, don’t cry if you’re still able to fight to be happy.  

………….

The bell rang for lunch and Winry blindly followed the crowd to the dining hall which was across campus. It was crammed pack with students and Winry was having trouble fighting through everyone to find a place to sit. 

“Hey! Winry!” She heard someone call out to her. She looked over her shoulder to see Jean pushing through the crowd towards her. He was holding his own lunch which seemed to be packed from home in a paper bag. “Hey why don't you come sit with us? We usually get a table over in the corner over there-” 

“Sure, thank-you!” Winry yelled back at him and the obnoxious amount of conversations around the hall was deafening. He smiled and lead her over towards a good sized circular table with ratty wooden chairs around it. Though the labs were up to date it didn't seem the dining hall was. She took one of the empty chairs between Kain and Vato who were already sitting down enjoying their meal. They seemed to be having a rather indulging conversation but of course Kain cut himself off as he saw her. She felt slightly bad for having this effect on the boy but she hoped that he would get used to her soon like Vato said. 

“So, Ms. Rockbell, how were your classes so far?” Vato said as she started to dig into her sandwich that she got from the schools deli. 

“Considering I barely went to any of them I think okay?” she answered truthfully.

“Let me guess, Mr. Grumman got to you,” Jean smiled weakly. Winry furiously nodded her head.

“I ended up sitting outside of the office for the whole day because I didn't know what he meant,” Winry told them. “It was a waste of time-”

“N-n-next t-t-time,” Kain stumbled and everyone else nodded their heads. 

“Yes, next time you could probably use your time more effectively. Homework is always a good thing to catch up on when Mr. Grumman does this or even during your free periods,” Vato elaborate. 

“So Mr. Grumman really does dismiss people early for class a lot,” Winry questionably stated.

“Only his Calculus class. He combines calculus in with precalc so the entire year is kind of just review,” Jean told her. “Some people don’t show up except for tests.”

“You nerds talking about crazy old Grumman again?” a new voice striked up behind her. Winry turned around to see a super happy dark skinned girl holding her own lunch. She plopped down in the seat next to Vato and kicked her feet up on the table. 

“H-h-hey P-p-panin-nya,” Kain said happily, his lip quivering slightly with his anxiety.

“Hey, Kain, what’s got you all locked up?” Paninya asked finally looking around the table to see who exactly she was sitting with. Her eyes fell on Winry and a knowing look fluttered through her eyes. “Oh, I see, you must be that Rockbell chick I have been hearing so much about. You know it took him a whole three month to warm up to me? I think that was because the first time we met was when he got stuffed in my locker in the women’s locker room. Let’s just say I opened it right after a shower from track practice and was in for a big surprise,” she chuckled with a wink. Winry glanced over to Kain who was completely beat red. All attempts for conversation from him were shut down. 

“I… didn’t think that there would be bullies in this school…,” Winry muttered but then again she remembered that blond haired Tucker fellow she ran into twice that day. He didn’t seem the most friendly person at all and even punched a kid’s nose in. However she never expected Kain to be on the bad end of everything.

“Well, there are a few but Edward does a nice job of keeping them in check. I don’t know why he does it but I guess he can’t help himself,” Paninya told her. “Speaking of which,” she started as she began to root through her bag. She pulled out a small plastic bottle and threw it at Jean who clumsily caught it before it landed in his pudding cup. “With it being this cold out, I know that Tucker would be hurting a bit so I brought him some pain medication for him to take.”

“T-tucker? Edward Tucker?” Winry stumbled as she realised just who she was talking about. The girl nodded her head. 

“Yeah… wait… oh no… bad first impression I am guessing?” she smiled knowingly. 

“Yes, I was giving Ms. Rockbell a tour and Kimblee was messing with Maus again. It wasn’t the most welcoming impression, I must say,” Vato told her. 

“Damn, well second impressions are always better with him.”

“Well his second one wasn’t the most charming appeal either,” Winry muttered as she crossed her arms. 

“You met him a second time? When?” Jean asked.

“When Grumman sent me to the office. He was there because he punched a guy’s nose in. The Dean and his dad were going at it-”

“His dad?” they all asked her as if making sure they heard her clearly. She nodded her head. 

“Yeah… the weird guy in glasses?”

“That’s him… well, I bet he was taken home then if his father was there,” Jean mumbled. “I will just put these in his locker then,” he said shaking the small bottle of pills in his hand. “Sorry you had to have such a bad impression of him, Winry. Honestly, he isn’t that bad.” Winry shook her head not believing the kid one minute. There was nothing about Edward Tucker she had met yet that made her think he wasn’t that bad. However, everyone here seemed to like him. She wondered how a kid like that could have friends like these. 

“How did you all get to meet him?” Winry asked curiously. Everyone just smiled as if that was the biggest joke they have heard. 

“Met at the mechanic’s,” Paninya said. “He was not happy at all to be seeing me in there but he was just buying some spare parts and couldn’t find the right fit.”

“Ran him over on my bicycle on the way to work,” Jean added. “He dropped all of his groceries and made me run out to buy an inhaler before the pharmacy closed since biking was faster. Barely made it but he was so relieved when I did.”

“He met Kain here because he stopped a few kids from stuffing him in the electrical closet. They had him tied up with extension cords to his chair. Only knew there was a problem because the radio broadcast wasn’t on,” Vato told her. “I met him because I am in the honor’s society. He was there for a few years but took up football instead. He never seemed like a football player to me though.”

“Wow… those are all very exciting,” Winry mumbled and everyone just chuckled at her, even Kain. 

“Yeah, but put yourself in our shoes, they still weren’t the best impressions to get. I thought he was a hot headed idiot for the longest time,” Paninya said. “I mean it is kind of true, but less so.” 

“Yeah, with him you just need to take your time,” Jean stated.

“Maybe tomorrow you will have a better chance,” Vato offered. Kain nodded his head in agreement as the bell rang for class.

…….

Tucker wasn't at school the next morning. Winry didn't have a problem with it. She really didn't want to try and meet him again. She wasn't curious about the long haired stranger at all even if it was about a misunderstanding. However she seemed to be the only one who didn't care. Jean and Kain were worrying over lunch about Tucker missing school. When she asked why they were so worried, as many students could miss school by getting sick or probably in Tucker's case skipping they never gave her a straight answer. They just told her that Tucker never missed school if he could avoid it. 

Because of his absence, Winry was tasked yet again with the job of feeding Maus. 

After school Winry got a pass from the Dean to go into town off of campus. She picked up the pamphlet that Kain gave her along with the directions he had clumsily stuttered out to her and made her way towards Garfiel's Mechanic shop. She got lost twice but got set back on course by asking a local flower shop keeper where to go. 

Garfiel's was a small shop front that looked rather run down. It seemed to need a lot of repairs itself and Winry would have doubted the mechanics skills if it weren't for the constant flow of people in and out. Some customers seemed to just want some spare parts for a car or a dishwasher while others seemed to be going in for their automail. There were gleaming prosthetic legs shining out of the cuffs of peoples legs, shining metal arms hanging out of peoples short sleeves. So many people around one shop. This must have been the best in town or the only place in town. Winry would have bet for the prior.

Chapter Text

Edward lost his mother to a farmhouse fire as well as his limbs. Alphonse and edward worked and lived on their own on the streets for some time, barely making it through yet they were still decently happy since they had each other. That was until alphonse became severely sick (endocarditis) and becomes hospitalised. Unable to get his brother proper medicine, Edward picks up any job he can from a factory worker to a farm hand but none of them kind paying to “cripples”. He barely has enough money to keep his brother in the hospital let alone pay for the medication. With no one else able to take him in for work due to his amputation, edward forces himself to hide who he is in order to save his brother’s life. He takes up a job as a valet under false resume and background in the wealthy home of Sage’s Abbey. He says he was the son of a german lord valet and he moved to England for financial reasons. He hides his arm and leg all the time in order to avoid being kicked out of his position. Every paycheck he gets he rushes it over to the hospital in order to help his brother. Savings are still slow but he is making enough progress to keep his brother alive in their care.

Edward is the man of Roy Mustang, replacing the old valet Maes Hughes. Roy owns the wealth of Sages Abbey in the form of a hospital partnership. He is widowered but has a daughter named Winry. He is having trouble marrying off his daughter. With no male heir in the family they would have to find a suitable arrangement which Winry is not too keen about. He doesn’t take to Edward at first. He really hates him and works Edward to the bone the first few weeks because he misses his old Valet and friend Hughes who died from a mysterious heart attack. However due to Edward’s hard work and his care for the broken family, they eventually grow to respect each other.

As Edward works in the house he ends up seeing Winry more and more. He finds her to be an odd noble as she likes to go adventuring and rarely is she seen inside the house even though Mustang tries to make her act more like a lady in order to try and marry her off. He runs into her at the oddest places and they start to suspect that each other are carrying secret though of course Edward has to keep his mouth shut about it. 

Winry is curious about Edward and one time when Breda takes her into the village for the day she sees Edward walking out of a flower shop with a load of flowers. She doesn’t know what he is doing with them but doesn’t follow. However as Breda and her pass the cemetery in the car she sees the bundle lying on a grave with no one around. This makes her suspicious.

One time when Winry was being courted by a young man named Pitt she was invited on a riding trip. She was getting her horse ready when something spooked it and it reeled. Edward, helping the young gentleman’s horse, saw this and pushed her out of the way taking the blow to his automail arm, subtly damaging it. Everyone worries and asks if both of them were alright and he says that he’s okay, hoping to hide his arm from view. Mustang, seeing that his valet protected his daughter, takes a liking to Edward and apologises for being so hard on him earlier. Pitt makes a rude comment later in the evening about the event and Winry’s health and he is not invited back to the Abbey again. 

Edward, starting to be pressed for his money in the hospital to keep Alphonse there, he asks Bradley to get his paychecks a little earlier in order to help pay. Bradley says that he is selfish and improper to rush his wages and that it insults Roy to ask however Edward is desperate. He needs to make those payments. 

Roy starts to see Lady Hawkeye, who is a noble woman of a wealthy family in America. She is living with her father in london as he is there for research and they meet during one of his trips into the city. He invites her to dinner and they start to take a strange liking to each other. Roy finds her absolutely fascinating because unlike any of the other noble women he met before she is rather strict and uncaring of how others see her. He finds her refreshing. Hawkeye meets Edward in the dining room the first evening when they are eating. The normal footman (Fuery) became ill and the others were on leave so in desperation Edward was made to fill their place. She notices that he is having trouble gripping the plate as he is serving. The dish nearly toppled several times and she orders (quite strictly) him to correct his holding to his left hand in order to fix it (even though it was proper for him to hold it on the right). He does and this brings Mustang noticing that Edward, after the event of the horse, has been having trouble using his fingers of his right hand. 

In the evenings Edward tries desperately to sneak into the garage where the cars are kept and borrow tools to try and fix his arm but he isn’t a mechanic and can’t do it well enough. Winry catches sight of him wandering at night outside of her window one evening. When she sees him go to the garage she follows him. Edward has dismantled part of his hand by the time Winry gets to the garage. She asks him what he's doing there and Edward is terrified that he was caught. He does his best to hide his hand but Winry eventually demands to see it or she will ask her father to fire him for sneaking around and stealing tools. Edward, is terrified of losing his job and shows her, begging her not to get him fired. Winry is initially shocked upon seeing his automail but recovers. She asks to look at it and then seeing what was wrong begins to fix it for him. Winry questions how it was broken and Edward explains that it was when the horse hit him. She is amazed that he went so long without it properly working. Edward jokes that if he has lived so many years without an arm he knows how to go without one. They spend the night in the garage talking. She asked him if he needed a mechanic why didn't he tell them about it. He explains that people aren't too kind to cripples. He had a hard enough time as it was getting this job. He was afraid that if they knew he would be fired. Winry agrees to keep his secret for him. 

Characters and Roles of House:

Pinako- Housekeeper in Sages Abbey. Responsible for all female workers and is very loyal to the family. Was even there for Winry’s birth and treated her like a granddaughter as best as she could.

Bradley- Head Butler who used to be wealthy but lost his earnings to Roy when his family took over Sages Abbey. He plans on trying to assassinate the Mustang family so that their land and earnings are free for auction. He works with Kimblee and Lust in order to do so.

Lust- Chamber/parlor maid. Able to learn her way through the women’s side of the house and tries to manipulate the female workers to help in Bradley’s plan. 

Sheska- Chamber maid who is able to remember everywhere she put something as well as everything that goes on in the house. She is key for being a witness to scandals that go on in the downstairs of the house. 

Curtis- Cook. Strict and stern in the kitchen, especially with Edward. Makes sure he eats right and gets his work done. 

Rebecca- Lady’s maid. Though sometimes like to be strict with her work, she and havoc sometimes find time to… take a break.

Edward-Valet

Kimblee- Second Footman. Scheming bastard along with Lust and Bradley. He is responsible for slipping common poison into Hughe’s dinner in an attempt to take his place as Valet in order to finish their plot. Tries to get Edward fired. 

Armstrong- First footman. Accompanies Winry on her outings and works as a small mentor and body guard when he is with her (in his own armstrong way). His family has worked in Sages Abbey for Generations and he likes to keep the tradition of things. Hopes to become head butler some day like his grandfather.

Havoc- Stable master. Works in the stables with the horses and when they are not in use he is the chauffer for the family’s carriage. He sometimes catches Edward sneaking around for tools or running around on the grounds. 

Fuery- footman. Kind to Edward and is first to find out about his limbs. Winry presses Kain when she can when she suspects Edward is keeping a secret but he doesn’t tell. He is a very loyal person even to someone like Ed who is new. 

Breda- chauffer for the family’s motor vehicle. Often is able to get into long talks with Roy on their trips. He is the first one to see Edward roaming through town on his own. 

Falman- House Steward Advisor. Not officially the house steward since Mustang likes taking his finances into his own hands but he does give advice on money and interest of the house when he can. He’s the one who tries to research or dig into Edward’s background when they want to know more about him.

Chapter Text

Prince Edward was sent out on a voyage across the ocean to Xing in order to develop a peace treaty with them. Amestris wanted to protect themselves against warring nations of Drachma and Arego and by forming this alliance they would be able to boost trade and build upon their military. King Hohenheim knew that Xing was more than willing as they were also in close proximity to Drachma’s lands. However Edward never made it to Xing. Terrorists boarded the ship, some who were also part of the ship, and killed anyone who fought back. They wanted to stop the treaty in order to aid the super power of Drachma build its empire. Edward was tied up and thrown over board, drowning in the depths of the Xerxes sea. The boats returned back to the docks of Amestris and blamed the attack on the merpeople. Hohenheim grew so furious that he ordered for every ship in the harbor even his naval ships to hunt for mermaids and bring them back to him alive so that he could find which one killed his son. Amestris’s economy fell apart as the only focus was merfolk hunting. There was no trade, little food, and even the navy was diminished. The only reason why Drachma wasn’t taking over was because they didn’t have a strong navy as of yet and the Amestrians still had their land borders heavily guarded at briggs.

There are many myths that arise around the mermaids, few are true. By sailors it is thought that the mermaids take the appearance of those that they last killed. When in reality they are the ones that were killed. Mermaids are not born but rather made. People who drown in the ocean by being pushed overboard will turn into merpeople. Their tied legs will soon grow together and form a tail moments after death, their lungs will fill with saltwater, damaging their voices and letting them breath in the deep. This transformation hurts but it is better than dying. Merpeople can sing their enchanting songs underwater, which are luring to the weak minded sailor but above water they can not speak as the salt water has damaged their voices, making them raspy and gargled. Merpeople use sign language as their main form of communication because of this.

The eyes of a merfolk are quite sad as they can relay the horrors of their death and their past in them. It is one of their only powers. Merpeople tears do hold luck, good fortune, and healing powers however they are hard to come by as merpeople are strong and stubborn like the sea itself. Though these tears can be used for their fortune, if one were to drop it into their own eye, they will see the past that is hidden in the merfolk’s eyes and know where they came from.

Edward is one of these mermaids because when he was pushed overboard by the terrorists he was able to become one. He swims around the ocean destroying mermaid traps that the boats started to put out for them so that no one could get caught in them. He doesn’t know much about the upper world anymore but he knows that once a mermaid is caught, they will never be seen again. Even though the merpeople community is spread out into small tribes and he is often found by himself, he is determined not to let that happen to anyone.

As he is swimming around near the shore line he spots a mermaid trap which he is ready to dismantle. Just as he is about to start on it, he hears splashing from the surface. He looks up to find a human swimming in the water. It is quite uncommon for humans to be in the water because of their fear for the merpeople, so Edward was quite entrigued. He forgets what he is doing and watches the boy instead. However as he watches he notices a shark circling down below him. The shark wants to bite him. Determined not to let that happen, Edward swims as fast as he can and takes out the shark. They splash to the surface scarring the human and Edward struggles to restrain the predator. He yells a the human to swim away and falters when he catches sight of him. The human looks nearly like him with golden hair and eyes. It was Alphonse. In his pause the shark manages to bite his arm and the human swims away back towards the shore. Edward struggles with the shark some more, the water turning a red color from his wounds and after being bitten once more in the shoulder, Edward is slammed against a buoy and is knocked out. He sinks to the bottom of the waters and gets caught in the trap he was wanting to dismantle previously.

Roy is from the navy which was recently disbanded because of the king’s order. He struggles to find a job

A Not So Little Fish

Chapter One

Surface Bound

It didn’t used to be like this. The docks were swarmed with cages and nets fishermen had laid out the night before for their morning sail. Day in and day out the boats were ready for their catch. Each captain dreaming that they would be the one who fullfill’s the king’s orders. But day in and day out it was a pointless and endless battle with the sea. The dreary downtrodden days to hopless mornings made everyone almost forget that it didn’t used to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to be like this at all. Instead of fishing traps and lines, the docks used to be brewing with trade and merchants. Instead of blood of the catch, the docks used to be soaked with gold. Amestris wasn’t always like this, and neither was the Royal Navy.

The Royal Navy used to protect the waters from pirates that would frequent the shores of Amestris. They would set up blockades, end merchant feuds, and fend off any enemy forces. Amestris’ Royal Navy was known to be the best in the world and it was something to be proud of. But now, it was nonexistent as the last ship had been disbanded a few weeks prior. King Hohenheim was still sending his forces out to sea, but instead of being armed with cannons and swords, they had tack and line. Their sole mission now was to hunt and capture merpeople.

 To Roy, the Royal Navy was his life. He was a high standing Captain of the H.M.S. Leviathan and through hard work and leadership he was seeking his promotion to Rear Admiral. His life was good back then. Everything seemed to be going right, but then the King’s son died. Now, Roy didn’t know if anything would be the same.

When the navy started to disperse, Roy feared the day when his unit would be disbanded. Many soldiers were relieved from the Royal Navy to the streets with no job, no food, and no pride left to work with. They all had few skills except for sailing and no money to fund any endeavors they wanted to do elsewhere. More and more soldiers had to fight for jobs on the harbor or in nearby towns just to get some money for food. The homeless and the starving scattered the streets and it was a fight not to become one of them. Roy knew a few sailors who’s pride was whiddled away so far that they couldn’t handle the downward spiral their lives had become. There were now a few less people fighting for the nonexistent jobs. Roy was able to watch the chaos from the safety of his ship for a few months but was every day passed he knew his time was coming nearer. Eventually, Roy’s fears had become a reality and his unit was disbanded.

 Roy was lucky. He was able to find a rare job opening on one of the Navy’s recycled ships which had all of its fire power removed and equiped with nets, trap cages, and lines. The Admiral Raven of the H.M.S. Fullmetal used to be one of Roy’s friends in the Navy. Though they had fallen apart over the years, Roy was glad to see that their friendship was at least worthy of a job on a fishing crew. He was going to be checking the traps they pulled in for merfolk. It was a lousy job, which had taken a huge swing at Roy’s pride, but at least it was paid. He would be able to get money for food and that was sadly where his expectations laid. Who knew? Maybe after the bloody skirmishes with Drachma, a fisherman’s life would be relaxing. There was definitely less blood, gore, and loss.

Roy closed his eyes and shook those thoughts from his mind. He knew he was trying to lie to himself to make this tragedy seem better. He was a soldier. His life long duty was to protect people. He couldn’t do that on a fishing ship even though half of the citizens imagined merpeople to be the enemy under the water. He didn’t like fighting this senseless battle, hunting for the one merperson in the entire ocean that had killed the King’s son. It was a revenge mission that Roy held not passion for. There was no victory from fishing for merfolk aside from having clear waters to sail in and even when it was more likely that your boat could be top sided by a rather unforgiving wave than attacked by a merperson.

Roy hauled his duffle bag higher onto his shoulders as he boarded the beautiful beast that was rocking gently in the harbor. The crowds on the docks pushed and shoved him as the crew started to haul up supplies that they would need on their newest voyage. Roy spotted some odd looking tanks which were supposedly used to hold their live catch in until it could be delivered to shore. The polished glass gave out a haunting chill which rattled up his spine. The tank reminded him of a coffin, something most sailors never had the privilege to own. Loading the ship was a rather messy deal and Roy didn’t like the disorganized manner of it. Orders were being shouted out from everywhere instead of just a few people and it was hard to listen to all voices at once. Suddenly Roy felt a rough shove from behind him and he stumbled forward nearly dropping his bag.

“Either move or get run over,” he heard a harsh voice scold him. He looked up to see a blonde haired woman behind him, carrying coils of rope over her shoulder and a harpoon in her hand. It looked rather sharp and the glare in the woman’s eye made her seem like she was rather keen in running him through with it.

“Okay, okay,” he muttered as he took a few steps back from her. She raised her eyebrows curiously as if she was watching an ant scurrying around. Her eyes went right through him as easily as the harpoon would and Roy felt very uncomfortable. However, suddenly they seemed to soften and the dirty greasy woman before him gave a rough smile.

“You’re from the Navy aren’t you?” She asked. Roy nodded his head and she smirked. “I just heard the last unit got disbanded. You were in it?”

“Yes, Captain Roy Mustang, of the H.M.S. Leviathan.”

“Yeah but not anymore sir,” she smirked, though her voice held some form of sympathy in it Roy couldn’t place. “You aren’t commander of anything but that rope over there. I heard you were our new hauler.”

“That’s correct,” Roy grumbled as he felt himself sink even lower into the depths of society. He lost his rank, his power, and his paycheck. If he lost anymore he would be dead.

“Don’t worry sir, you will get the hang of it. It took me a while to get used to the difference as well,” she said.

“And you are?”

“Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye from the H.M.S. Thunderbird. My unit was disbanded two years ago, but now I am the wrangler.”

“That is?” Roy asked, unfamiliar with fishing terms at all. Riza raised her eyebrow though she seemed to understand his confusion. They were in the same boat, quite literally now. She knew what it was like on the first day. She lifted her harpoon for him to get a look at. It was a deadly thing with a barbed arrowed tip. It could probably kill a man at 80 yards by sheer force alone if one was good at it. Roy didn’t understand why anyone would need anything that powerful unless they were hunting whales which merfolk weren’t equivalent in size to.

“I make sure that our catch doesn’t bite,” Riza told him and lowered the tip of her harpoon. “Merpeople are fast, even out of water given the chance. I am here as more of a safety incase things go foul.”

“Are merpeople really that vicious?” Roy asked her as she started to walk across the deck to store her things. She seemed to falter with his question and stopped where she was. She looked up at him with a raised brow. There was a look in her eye that Roy couldn’t quite catch, the fragments of which seemed disappointed. It was a complicated expression that he didn’t feel like he had the right to understand. In it all, the woman only managed to confuse him and wear away at Roy’s dwindling self-confidence.

“Do you mean you never saw one before, sir?” Her voice was stagnant and held mock disbelief in it. It made Roy a little insulted for being the one person who never saw a live merperson before.

“No, the waters for my fleet were all clear except for pirates and Drachmans. They were our concern-”

“Well, they aren’t either of those,” Riza cut him off. “We don’t really know what they are aside from being half fish. This isn’t war, it’s just a job. We don’t take sides, we just work.” Roy frowned as the woman’s answer only mystified the presence of the legendary creatures even more. She spoke in a grave tone and Roy felt it resonate around the crew. There seemed to be a dread about the entire ship that he never noticed coming in.

Roy knew that this wasn’t war, though some people forgot that. It was the mermaids who killed the King’s son right before his coronation. There weren’t many people in the nation who had hated the royal family so all collectively they wanted to see their murderers brought to justice whether it be through court or through a fishing hook. This wasn’t war, it was just a job the king had set the country out to do and everyone supported him like it was his new campaign. There wasn’t any real side to it. It seemed that everyone else was tired of fighting for a pointless mission.

Suddenly he heard a shout from above him and he looked up to see a familiar face beaming down at him with a rather superficial grin from the quarter deck. Admiral Raven looked more a businessman with his greying hair and neatly trimmed beard than a sailor. Roy remembered him as a chipper man in his youth but he had now hardened over the years they were apart. The smile that he gave him was a mask over an angry man and Roy could read through it quickly. What had brought around the change, Roy didn’t know, but he sure didn’t seem happy with being demoted to Captain of a fishing ship. Seeing the presence of the ship’s Captain, Hawkeye busied herself as she walked off to haul more supplies on deck. She left without much of a backwards glance to him.

“Ahh, Mr. Mustang, I didn’t think you would show up,” the stiff voice of the captain growled at him.

“Well it is either show up to this dung heap or not eat,” Roy muttered under his breath so that the Captain couldn’t hear. The man stumbled down the steps from the quarterdeck and over to him, the men of the crew dodging him as they hefted long coils of rope over their blistered and calloused hands. They were quite an ugly crew from what he saw and very few of them looked inviting other than the former Lieutenant.

“Well, Mustang, I could see that you are a bit new to how we work here, being the last ship since the incident to be disbanded you are probably still used to the order of the navy,” the man started, hitting Roy’s feelings right on the nose. “But you will get used to it. Just don’t get in anyone’s way and you will be fine. All you are doing is going to be pulling the cages up to the deck. The man that you replaced got his hands caught in the rope and… well…. Let’s just not do that.”

“Yes sir, I know what to do,” Roy said smartly though his gut dropped as he realized that the person who had his job was either dead or brutally injured. What a story to start off your voyage. Raven smiled superficially and patted him on the back roughly.

“You got this then. Let’s just hope for a smooth sailing and a good catch. Just as a warning, those merfolk, when they hit the deck they will be fighting. Do not get in the way. My men know how to take care of them.”

“Sir, are they really that aggressive?” Roy asked him, having his question be disregarded by Riza. The man frowned and solemnly nodded his head.

“Yes. They are now just like they were before. You know, I was on that ship when one of those bastards drowned the Prince,” the man told him, a deadly look in his eye. “They are faster than cannons, almost like bullets coming out of the water. They jumped out of the water and pulled over half of the men overboard drowning them if they didn’t skewer them first with their coral blades. It was a bloodfest, the worse I seen. But when the King set out that order for the merpeople, I can tell you seeing that was all the fuel I need to take them down. You do not want to be the ones who corner a merperson, but it is better than being the ones cornered.” Roy felt even weaker than before. He could just picture the fins of merpeople jumping out of the water like vicious sharks, latching on and taking their victims under. Roy felt like Riza was right. He couldn’t compare them to any Drachman or pirate. He couldn’t compare them to anything.

“Don’t worry, Mustang,” Raven chuckled, his aura changing rapidly. “We got them beasts on the run. Once we catch the bastards it is all smooth sailing. Now you should probably go below deck. We don’t need half of the crew until it’s time to haul in the cage but then it gets chaotic. Try to stay out of trouble because I promise trouble won’t stay away from you.”

………………..

Alphonse sprinted through the halls of the castle apologising to the many housekeepers he ran into on his way. He was making his way to the war room where he knew his father was. The King spent most of his time in there even though Amestris wasn’t in any direct war against any of their neighboring countries. However, Alphonse feared that they might be soon. The King was having a meeting with the Generals all of whom were sitting on the edge of their seats like everyone else in the kingdom wondering what the King’s next move was. Alphonse knew that he needed to be there. Though he was no General, though he was no King, he was a prince, the 2nd of the King’s family yet the heir to the throne. He at least wanted to try and stop his father from the mistake he knew was about to happen; the disbanding of the last naval unit.

As he rounded the last corner he saw a couple of their guards closing the large oak doors to the war room and he hollered out to them to stop. They faltered a minute as they watched the Prince of all people jet down the hallway towards them. Before they could say anything against him, Alphonse squeezed through the crack in the door and gave a small apology to the guards that he had passed. He stumbled into the room before the doors were locked behind him.

The room had a large round table in the center of it and maps hung around every wall. It was a rather intricate room that overlooked the harbor through large sunshine filled glass windows. Alphonse remembered playing in there when he was little, before he had any responsibilities as prince like schooling and lessons. He would often run around and spin the large delicate globe around that sat in the corner of the room until his father kicked him out for disturbing his studies.

 A group of elderly men, including his father circled the table and were quietly discussing their next plans. It was quieter than Alphonse expected a war room to be but he guessed it was just because he never experienced one in the height of war.

“We need to focus on economic relief. We need to restore trade in the harbor or else our citizens would surely starve-”

“No, we need to recruit more people into our army. The soldiers up in Briggs have been needing new recruits to help defend our land borders. It would provide more jobs and opportunities to the poor.”

“There were plenty of jobs before. If the homeless are too lazy to get jobs let them move to the country and become farmers. It is what this country needs more of, less fish more vegetables.”

“No,” the King said, a dull look in his eyes. Alphonse had never seen his father really smile before. He always seemed to have a frown on his face. He always seemed to be angry, but he was determined which he guessed was the sum of it. He was too young when his mother died to remember her and it was the same for his brother. He didn’t know how it impacted his father because he never really knew him before the aftermaths of their deaths. But he could imagine him to be less angry, less revengeful, and more caring. He imagined him to have something resembling happiness shining in his golden eyes instead of just regret. “We need to disband the navy all together, put more people out into the sea. If we get more ships there can be more crews to provide jobs and fight those devils under the sea.”

“Sir, there is only so much water that the ships can fish in. The boats are already fighting for their trapping grounds as it is,” a General argued stating the obvious. With the disbanding of the navy unit over the course of the last few years. The fishing boats have just increased to compensate. The waters were sprung with cages set to catch fish or merpeople and there was barely room for anything else. People were fighting over who got to trap where as there wasn’t enough room for all of the boats to work. Not only that but Alphonse had noticed that there was just too much fish being hauled in as a result. Over half of it wasn’t eaten and the rotten piles of meat just left a stench in the city streets that you couldn’t avoid. Even though there was only one more unit left in the Navy if they disbanded it there would just be more pressure than there already was. 

“Might I have a word?” Alphonse said nervously as he walked a bit more into the room. Heads looked up at him curiously, a bit surprised that he was there at all. King Hohenheim turned around in utter shock to see him standing there. Hohenheim didn’t like Alphonse partaking in any of the politics of the nation. In fact, he didn’t like him taking his responsibilities at all. All Alphonse wanted to do was help his father run the nation and help it grow into a better place, one with less starvation, with more wealth and more strength. He wanted the nation to return to what it once was, the one he read about in the history books and heard about from the citizens, the nation Ametris was before his brother died, but his father wouldn’t allow him even to take the reigns a little bit and he knew that stepping into a war room like this was something that was above and beyond a simple adolescent rebellion. His father looked furious at him for even thinking about entering the room, for even imagining to take part in the kingdom he would one day have to rule, but Alphonse wanted to try. He was 15 after all. He was to be coronated at age 16 like was tradition in the kingdom. If he didn’t get used to the duties of a king he wouldn’t be ready when the time came.

“If we restore the Royal Navy to its previous state, the sailors who are flooding the streets without jobs will be restored to their previous occupations. They will be earning a pay check and they will be contributing to the economy in the purchasing of goods. If we restore the navy, the ships can protect trade around Amestris’s harbors and seas from Pirates and trade routes can be restored bringing in more merchants from outside the kingdom to boost the revenue that we collect. The Navy could also help protect us from the powers of Drachma. Though they have a weak navy and we have nothing to fear from them but their land soldiers, if we have a navy we would be able to attack them by land and by sea incase they plan to invade,” Alphonse told them though the Generals were a little too dumbfounded to really pay attention to him. His father was still glaring at him as he listened to his proposal, hating it more and more because it went against his plans. However, after a moment of digesting, the Generals found the suggestion quite appealing as they nodded their heads to it and discussed it a little further in hushed voices.

“Where did you learn all of this, young Prince?” One of them, General Edison, asked him finally after moments of critical thinking.

“I took several classes in economics from the tutors that Father gave me-”

“I don’t think we saw you in here before. It is definitely a good notion you got there,” another stated. Alphonse smiled weakly and nodded his head in acceptance to it however his father closed his eyes, a huff of aggravation quite evidently seeping out of him.

“We don’t have anything to worry about in the sea from Drachma. The soldiers of the navy could help in the army, farm crops in land, or help the town. The sea isn’t the only job they need to have. Disbanding the navy will give more sea to the fishermen to use and it will help defeat our merpeople infestation faster and get them out of the way making our waters safe,” Hohenheim growled at him, posing his direct confliction to his solution.

 “Father,” Alphonse started again. “If we disband the last of the navy, there is nothing standing in the way of this country and sure destruction. Either economically or by outside forces.” The Generals looked back and forth between each other and muttered back and forth trying to decide which of the royalty’s opinions they liked better or was more practical. However his father didn’t want any part of the discussion.

“Alphonse,” the King finally stated after a long moment of silence. Alphonse perked up at the sound of his name and he felt himself holding his breath in fear of what he might say next. “Might I talk to you outside?” He asked, shooting an arrow through his hopes. The man got up and with a gentle yet firm hand lead his son outside of the war room, leaving the Generals to discuss the country’s affairs by themselves.  Alphonse felt a pit in his gut start to grow and he knew that he made a mistake for ever stepping foot in there. Not only did he disobey his father but he probably embarrassed him in front of all of the Generals.

“Dad-”

“Alphonse,” Hohenheim sighed, the sound of his disappointment riding strong in his voice. Alphonse frowned as he looked up at him, their golden eyes meeting for what seemed like the first time in ages. “I am disbanding the navy for the betterment of the country, for the safety of the citizens. Once those dreaded creatures are out of the water we would be free from fearing the ocean we sail in. By sending more people out to hunt those blasted merpeople-”

“Dad, the merpeople haven’t attacked a ship in over four years. We don’t have nothing to fear but the stories that keep spreading around. I know that you are upset about what happened to brother but-”

“It wasn’t an accident Alphonse, it was a direct attack on the royal family. I will not have it that creatures from the deep are attacking our family, our nation like this-”

“But dad this isn’t the way to go about it-”

“Once the ocean is free, our navy ships can sail free, but until then, my son’s killer needs to be found.”

“Dad-”

“Alphonse!” Hohenheim argued cutting the boy’s retort off before it even began. Alphonse frowned as he closed his mouth, the anger in his father’s voice growing more than it ever did. “I don’t want you interfering in my line of work. You obviously don’t know anything yet about politics. I know what is best for the country-”

“Dad, I don’t know because you will never let me try! I am 15 and soon I will be of age to accept the throne however you aren’t letting me learn and try to become a king-”

“Alphonse, you won’t need to be king until a long while-”

“A year dad-”

“You don’t need to worry about this. You don’t need to worry about any of this. I will take care of it-”

“No you won’t dad. You are running this country on a grudge, you are running my life out of a grudge that you have against the creature that killed my brother. You are tearing everything apart. You don’t even see the state the country is in because you are obsessed. You are more interested in catching that monster than helping me run a country. You won’t let me do anything you let my brother do. You let him travel, see the world, and you won’t even let me go down to the shore for a simple swim.”

“You don’t know what is out there Alphonse-”

“Because you wouldn’t let me see it!”

“I am done with this conversation Alphonse. I am going back into that room and I will discuss the betterment of this country. I do not want you intervening ever again,” the King ordered before he turned around to make his march back into the war room. Alphonse felt his face heat up in anger as he watched his dad turn his back on him yet again.

“If this is the country you are making I don’t want to live in it,” he muttered underneath his breath just loud enough for his father to hear. The king faltered at the door and looked like he was about to turn around but Alphonse was already storming off down through the hallways where he came from.

………….

Edward searched the ocean floor mindfully as he swam along its bottom. While the other merfolk were gathering the seaweeds that they often collected, Edward was scanning the sea for the dreaded wired cages that they all so feared. He remembered a time where there was no cages to be afraid of. He remembered a time when there was only open waters and gentle currents to play in. But soon the metal traps started to appear, not just for fish, but for them as well. And as their abundance grew, the merfolk began disappearing. The humans were hunting. Edward didn’t know why it started but he knew that the cages grew like wildfire. They would come crashing down from the surface with no care in the world where they landed. They would smash houses and fields that they would land in. The merpeople tribes were as small as it was and a cage like that could destroy their villages. Edward remembered moving their own village twice because of the huntings but no matter where they went the cages would surely follow. They caught fish, crab, manatees, dolphins, any type of sea life in their midst without care and even the unsuspecting Merfolk. The cages were hard to see in the depth of the ocean and many merpeople would swim into them not knowing before it was too late and they couldn’t get back out. Sometimes foolish merfolk would challenge each other to go near a cage and end up getting caught inside just to be stuck there until the humans came to retrieve their haul. It wasn’t until Edward started to investigate the traps by himself that they were able to relieve the waters of some of their tension.

Edward would cut the cages when he found one. Each cage was marked with a rope and a float that he humans would pull it up by. If he cut the ropes there was no way to retrieve the cages and then they could work on a way of freeing their captives. Edward swam the borders of their tribe’s territory every day, cutting the new cages and checking the old to make sure no one got stuck in them. He was very careful in doing so because if a strong current picked up in the waters he knew that he could have been the next victim as well.

One thing that Edward was curious about was why the humans were hunting them at all. He knew them like all merfolk did, long ago in another time, and because of this he knew that humans were very strange creatures who didn’t do anything without reason, may those reasons be good or bad. But hunting merpeople didn’t seem reasonable at all to him. He didn’t understand, none of them did, but they all dealt with it differently. Many of the merfolk in Edward’s tribe and others grew angry at the humans for what they were doing and often tried to tip fishing boats over that were setting cages. Unfortunately that just brought two ships in its place with twice as many cages. Though still angry, the merpeople decided it was better to just avoid them all together. Edward however, was curious. He wanted to understand why. If he had a reason, maybe there was a solution, but he never got around to figuring it out. The humans were still a mystery to him. He knew that not all of them were bad, not from what he could remember, but now he just didn’t know. As more and more of his friends disappeared around him he grew more desperate for answers, and he grew more scared that he might be the last one left. So he continued to cut the cages and hope that he could find the reasons the humans depended so much upon.

Edward neared the shoreline and he caught sight of the glimmer of metal at the bottom of the sea. It was a cage, new and just recently placed. The wiring on it was brand new and the sunlight that came in through the shallow waters sparkled off of it signaling its danger. Edward slowed down as he approached it and looked around through it. It was empty with only a few fish inside who were waiting for a way out. Edward felt a wave of relief wash through him as he swam up towards the rope. No one was in it. It was unlikely that anyone would have been caught in it since it was so close to the shore as well as the tribe’s borders, but he still felt the fear build up inside of him whenever he had to check one. He didn’t want to find someone stuck on the inside. He remembered the few incidences that he was too late. He caught a new trap with someone in it and he didn’t have enough time to help them. They were already being pulled towards the surface, fear in their eyes and arms outstretched begging for help. He was nearly pulled to the surface once in his own attempt to help them, but he just didn’t have enough time, he couldn’t pull them free. Edward feared having to find someone in the cage. He never wanted to see the horrified look in their eyes ever again. Though merpeople carry the stories of their lives in their eyes and their tears, the fear they had when they were trapped in the cages was more of damnation than sorrow. They all knew that the end was coming. For whoever go lifted to the surface, they knew they were never coming back.

Edward swam halfway up the line and pulled out his sharpened coral knife from his seaweed belt. It would take some work but he knew that he could cut the marker free of the cage and have the sailors boating around blindly trying to find their traps. Just as he was about to cut the rope however he heard a sudden splashing coming from above him. It sounded familiar and yet so foreign at the same time. Edward glanced up to see the blurry black outline of the figure scuttling across the surface of the water one stroke at a time. It swam around the buoy that was anchored just a few feet away from the cage, marking the distance from the shoreline and the border of his tribe’s territory. At first Edward thought it was a merperson. They used to swim near the shore and on the surface before the huntings began. It was fun to feel the air on their faces and splash their tails against the water but now they were too scared. None of them did that anymore. None of them even dared.

Edward, forgetting the rope, swam a little bit higher as he watched the figure. As it came into view he realised that it wasn’t a merperson, but rather a human. Strange enough, as the merfolk stopped coming to the surface, the humans had stopped swimming in the open waters. Edward was rather shocked to see that a human had come this far out from the shore, deep enough for sea life to swim beneath them. He watched wide eyed and entranced as the person kicked their two legs and propelled themselves through the blue water of the sea. They stayed afloat and held onto the floating buoy for a spell before continuing again. Edward followed around below them, curious as to what they were doing. From his distance he determined that it was a man, a young man, from the muscles around the chest and the lack of other things. He didn’t know what he looked like, he didn’t know anything else because he didn’t dare get too close. But aside from the ability to kick him in the face and scream bloody murder he knew that the human couldn’t hurt him without the boats and cages. However, he also knew that it wasn’t his own safety that he stayed away for. In his own fright, he didn’t want to scare the human either. It was one of the first few he had seen swimming. And he rather enjoyed watching them. If he scared the person away and back to shore, he was afraid that they might never come back into the water.

As Edward stared up at the person, he caught another flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. He saw the slim and sharp features of a rather thin shark circle around the area. Edward knew that sharks didn’t eat humans but this one seemed mistaken. It circled around as if determining that the food it wanted to eat was worth it or not. It continued to circle, and Edward thought it would have realised that the human wasn’t a fish by now but it got closer and closer to it, its mouth widening ever so slightly. Edward wanted the human to swim away but they didn’t seem to think that there was anything in the water. As the predator went in for its final charge so did he.

Edward launched himself at the shark right as it was about to take hold of the human’s leg and he tackled it away. Cool air hit his skin as he broke the surface of the water, the shark struggling in his arms to get away. Vicious teeth snapped as it tried to break free but Edward held on tight as he struggled with it. Their fight tore waves in the water’s surface and turned the blue hue of it white as they tore about in it. Screams from the human’s sudden surprise hit Edward’s ears as the shark slammed him against the back of the buoy, knocking the breath out of him. Edward glanced over as he struggled to keep a hold of the small but angry shark. Why wasn’t the human swimming away? As he was about to yell at him he suddenly froze as he caught sight of the human’s face. It was contorted into pure fright, golden eyes almost hidden beneath the mass of wet golden hair. Golden eyes. He felt consumed in them for a long second and he felt like he couldn’t look away. He remembered gold. He remembered seeing  them before.

Suddenly a roaring pain ignited in Edward’s arm as the shark managed to bite a hold on it in his trance. Edward screamed at the human to get away even though he knew it was in vain. His voice came out gargled and scratchy from the years of sea water contorting its sound. He couldn’t speak above the water’s surface. The human didn’t budge until the water started to turn red from his bleeding arm then he seemed to get the idea. In fright the human sped off towards shore as Edward was able to pry the shark’s jaws off of his arm. However the instant it let go, the shark just took another hold on his shoulder, biting even deeper than before. Edward screamed as he clawed at the shark, pushing it off of him. It spat him out and whipped around its tail at him to abandon the fight. It knocked him in the chest and Edward felt his head slam back into the metal of the buoy. His body slipped below the blood stained water as he sank towards the bottom of the shallows. Black clouds of blood trailed behind him as he felt his mind spin and roar around him. The last thing he felt was his back hitting the sea floor and watching the dim light of the sun glistening through the water fade to nothing.

……….

Alphonse scrambled back onto the shore, his breath high in his throat as he gulped the air greedily. He spun around in the sand, his legs shaking so terribly he thought that he might just have fallen over. That was a shark. That was a shark! And a merman. He didn’t know which to be more scared of. The fighting in the water was just a spinning of tails and splashing of scales and he was absolutely terrified. He felt so close to death he could barely keep his head above the water. Until he saw the man however. The merman struggled with the beast with golden eyes latched upon him. Alphonse couldn’t help but see the shock in the creature’s face as they stared at each other. He didn’t know if it was fear or curiosity. But then he saw the blood. It was so much blood. It drenched the water and turned it black and red staining it. Alphonse swam away as he heard the threatening growls from the merman yelling at him. He didn’t know what it was saying he didn’t know if it was violent or going to attack him however he wasn’t going to find out. Alphonse swam as fast as he could towards the shore, wishing everything in the world that he didn’t go in. He should have just followed his father’s warning for once but he was just so angry he needed to get out. He had ran away from his guards, he had run away from his castle just to clear his head by the seashore. Alphonse wanted to swim but he shouldn’t have gone out into the water. He should have listened to his father.

However as Alphonse stared out into the sea which once held the torment of two predators fighting over him, it was now silent. The waters crashed to the shore like they had always did, unbroken and without a sound. The only difference was the large stain of blood lingering near the buoy where he had been swimming just moments before. Blood. It was a horrible sight and he couldn’t stand it but it had him wondering if it could have been his own filling the ocean if the merman hadn’t intervened. Alphonse shook his head, his trembling body getting the better of him as he collapsed by the shoreline, the sunlight warming his body gently. Sand stuck to his wet body and scratched his skin as he ran his hands shakily through his hair trying to calm himself down. It was a merperson who killed his brother surely it was after him, but it wasn’t like the shark had any other reason to be there than to have an afternoon snack. Alphonse was once not afraid of the ocean. Just moments ago he had been free in his mind and free in his thoughts with nothing of the ocean to haunt him. But now, the fear of the ocean had been set in him, but he couldn’t determine what to be scared of.

…..

Edward’s eyes flickered open and he saw that the sunlight had faded from the sea’s waters. The dim moonlight replaced it, hardly reaching even the shallow depth where he laid. He groaned as he sat up a bit and tried to remember what happened. Oh yeah, he fought a shark. Edward didn’t know what came over him. No one he knew even thought about fighting a shark before let alone coming between it and its’ meal. Edward just didn’t want that human to get bitten. Instead, he ended up scaring the human off and getting himself bitten. He cursed himself for being so stupid. He should have let the shark eat him. Maybe that would have taught the human not to swim in such deep waters. But then again, there probably wouldn’t have been enough of him left to teach a lesson to.

Suddenly Edward remembered the golden eyes of the human he saved staring back at him. They were large, frightened, and yet, they held a confidence that Edward couldn’t quite remember where he saw it before. It was such a long time ago, nearly fifteen years since he saw anything above the surface. He knew that he was slowly forgetting what he once was, just like the many merfolk before him.

Edward winced as he felt his shoulder. The wound was still raw and Edward could still see wisps of blood being taken away by the soft current. He could see where the hundreds of teeth from the shark sank in. It wasn’t good. He needed to get back to the village and get it taken care of or else he knew it might just be infected. If that happened it wouldn’t have mattered if the shark took his entire arm or not.

He groaned as he struggled to get up from the floor of the sea but as he did he smacked his head off of something hard. He yelped and clutched his head, trying to massage the pain away. What was that? He tiredly opened his eyes to see metal wiring surrounding him, the metal glistening ever so dimly in the moonlight. The heart in his chest seemed to freeze over as he looked about him. Metal wiring surrounded him and trapped him along with a few other large fish that got caught in its steel tomb. He was on the inside of a cage. Edward desperately pulled on the wiring wanting to break it. He tried the openings on the tops and sides put they wouldn’t budge. They were only made for one direction, in. He was stuck.

He felt his chest tighten as fear struck him. He was caught. He was finally caught but how? He desperately looked up to the surface of the waters where he saw the buoy float, its muffled bell ringing as the waters rocked it back and forth. He fell in. When he hit his head, he fell into the cage trap. Edward gripped his hair as he tried to calm himself down but nothing would work. He was dead, surface bound. If the shark bite didn’t kill him, he was sure the humans would. He didn’t cut the rope. He would be hauled straight up the next time they checked the trap. His friends wouldn’t come looking for him. They probably didn’t know where he was. Though they knew he checked traps he was usually out late, they wouldn’t know he was missing until the morning and then they would have to search their entire territory for him. It would be too late. The humans would sure have come by then. Edward was as good as gone.

The sinking feeling in his chest reached rock bottom and Edward stopped fighting the metal cage around him. He sank to the bottom, desperately wanting to find some form of company. His life couldn’t end there. It just couldn’t, yet he knew that it was. He shouldn’t have hung around so many cages, he should have just left them where they lied and hope that no one swam into them. He shouldn’t have saved that boy from the shark. He should have just let him get bitten. Now he was trapped in a metal cage he was trying to save everyone from, now he was bitten by a shark he was trying to save the human from, now he was alone on the ocean floor with no one around to hear him. Edward put his head in his hands and shook his head. Merpeople were too prideful to cry. But right then, Edward wasn’t thinking of what it was like to be a merfolk. He was remembering what it was like to be human.

……….

A Not So Little Fish

Chapter Two

Human

Edward crossed his arms across his chest as he stared down at the harbor. The large boat, “Fullmetal”, was being prepared for departure with some of the finest crew picked from the Royal Navy by General Edison himself. He had been planning this trip for ages and now his father had finally accepted. He was going to Xing.

Amestris was a superpower. Its navy was strong and its army even stronger. It was a strong country that Edward was very proud to be a heir of. Though he didn’t like quite how his father was running things, he would admit only to himself, that he was doing quite a mighty fine job at it. Now it was soon coming to his turn. Edward had turned 16 and his coronation was supposed to be yesterday. He was going to take his father’s place as king however he asked his father to postpone it after his trip to Xing to full fill the peace treaty that they had negotiated. If they managed to make a bond between Xing and Amestris they just stood that much more of a chance against the invading forces of Drachma. Though Drachma wasn’t a strong country in naval power it wasn’t one to be trifled with either. Edward didn’t want to go to Xing with all of the worries about becoming the new King. He wanted to make the treaty without the bothersome troubles of kinghood and focus on the important matters at hand. Not only that, but Edward didn’t really want to be king. He was proud of the nation, he was proud of his family’s work, but he just would rather help people without all of the politics behind it. If he could continue to make the country stronger without worrying about what the public opinion was of him, he would have been the happiest man alive.

But he wasn’t the happiest man alive. Yet luckily his father had agreed to his trip and postponed his coronation until after he returned from overseas. For now, Edward couldn’t have been happier.

“Are you ready my dear?” He heard the soft voice of his mother behind him. She walked out of the castle, a soft little bundle in her arms. It cried out to her as little arms raised in the air wanting something that it couldn’t elaborate yet. She looked weak and tired as if the little baby was too heavy for her to even carry. After all, she just had it a few days ago. Edward rushed over to her and took her arm as if worried that she would fall over. He knew she was a strong woman but he didn’t want her to test her waters and be proven wrong.

“You should be resting. It isn’t every week you give birth, Mother,” Edward scolded her as he lead her to one of the fine chairs outside in the front garden of the castle. She loved flowers and she wanted anything to be by them instead of sitting inside the stone walls all day. She chuckled at him and waved him away tiredly as she took a seat.

“After you I was up and running the whole country when your father was away in war between Arego. I guess little Alphonse just took a bit more out of me than you did,” she laughed as she cradled the little baby. Edward smiled and bent down to look at his little baby brother. Golden eyes stared at him tiredly as the baby sucked its one thumb, his other arm still outstretched towards the sky. Edward let the little baby take a hold of his finger and it held on strongly, as if it didn’t want to let go.

“Well I am sure he’s going to grow up a bit while I am gone,” Edward said lightly as his mother offered him his brother to hold. He took the little baby lightly in his arms and cradled it happily. He was so excited that he was a big brother. There was nothing in this world that he had wanted more than that. Now his own little brother, Alphonse stared up at him, a soft smile forming on his lips which were still clenched around his thumb.

“It is only a few months Edward, you are bound to be back by your brother’s first birthday.”

“I hope so,” he beamed back at his mother. Edward heard footsteps come down from the castle and he looked up from cradling his brother to see his father walk down the steps with the usual guards around him. Edward didn’t get much time to spend with his father with him running the nation and often being swarmed by an entourage of armed men, but he nonetheless cared for him even then. King Hohenheim came to see him off.

“Come on Edward, I don’t want you to be late,” Hohenheim cheered as he motioned for him to follow. Edward nodded his head as he gently handed his brother back into his mother’s arms and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

“I will be back soon mother, don’t worry,” Edward told her.

“Don’t worry dear, I will be waiting for you here.” Edward hurried across the grass towards his father and took up pace towards him down to the docks. The man, though royalty, wore simple clothes just like he. The man often was working on his own studies if not the nation’s welfare and he said that complex work called for not so complex clothes. Edward admittedly liked that idea not because it was from a wise old man but because he didn’t see sense in spending so much on clothes when they just got in the way of what you were doing. The two of them walked down towards the docks in silence, yet the conversation spoke for itself. Edward and his father didn’t talk a lot and they didn’t need to. Though they had conflicts in political standpoints they had mutual respect for each other everywhere else. Only when Edward reached the bottom of the hill where his ship was waiting for him did his father stop him for a fairwell.

“Edward, I know you don’t want to be king-”

“Dad, I will if I must,” Edward told him, not wanting to get into their little father son argument again.

“I know. You will have to but while you are in Xing, please enjoy yourself while you can. We all get old, it is just when we choose to. Being King doesn’t make you old.”

“It surely made you old,” Edward grumbled underneath his breath just for his father to tussle his hair in annoyance. Edward groaned and swatted him away, trying to fix his hair himself.

“Edward, just stay safe and do what you set out to do. I am proud of you,” Hohenheim smiled. Edward felt his chest tighten as he smiled up at his father. That was the first time he ever called him that. Edward felt his father’s arms wrap around him and pull him into a quick hug, he easily returning it. The bell of the boat rang off signaling departure and the end of their farewells. Edward pulled away from his father and started off down the docks towards his ship.

“Don’t mess with the merpeople Edward!” Hohenheim called out to him as he stepped on the boat.

“Don’t be superstitious dad! Everything will be alright!”

………….

It had been a few long days sailing on the sea towards Xing. Edward had fairly good sea legs by then but he could tell that some of his crew were fairing far worse than he was and he had to question why they were in the Royal Navy at all. He stumbled across the deck that evening, easily dodging the sailors who were tossing rope about in the lantern light and raced himself to the bow of the boat to look down at the waves crashing against the haul. At the speed they were going at it felt like they would reach Xing in no time even though he knew that it would take several more weeks before they even saw land, let alone get to the capitol of the foreign country. Edward sighed as he stared up at the stars above them. Their navigator was setting course due east and he knew they were in the right direction. He had studied the stars for a long time not because he wanted to know them but just because he wondered where they went. He never learned that of course but the knowledge he did gain just let him wonder more. Edward sucked in a huge breath and let it out, the salty air burning his lungs with a sweetness he couldn’t deny.

As his eyes settled on the horizon however, Edward frowned as he spotted the sight of a ship approaching them. Their path to Xing should have been clear as the Amestrian barricades should have sent any trading ships on another course towards the ports. The ship was small and approaching fast and the longer Edward stared at it, the longer he didn’t like what fortunes should come with it. Suddenly Edward heard the bundling of fabric and looked up at the sails of the ship to see men folding them up to deny the ship the wind’s graceful speed. They were slowing down. Why were they slowing down? As Edward looked out to the other ship he saw it doing the same. Edward stumbled back towards the Quarter deck where the General was steering the boat. He climbed the stairs two at a time and met the man at the top, staring dead eyed at the new approaching ship.

“General Raven, why are we slowing down?” Edward asked him as he saw the third and final sail get folded up, their speed having been diminished to barely drifting across the ocean.

“Oh you are awake young prince, I wasn’t expecting you to be up this late in the evening.”

“I couldn’t sleep. Why are we stopping? I thought we were on a straight course to Xing,” Edward rephrased not liking that the General was acting so casually about this.

“We had orders from your father to transfer ships part way. He was afraid of Drachman spies attacking and stopping our plan for a treaty-”

“This was my trip, he put all orders to me. I made sure that the crew would have enough equipment for a straight trip,” Edward said as he looked back out towards the ship they were approaching. He didn’t like it. Never before did he see a ship of that structure in his Royal Navy nor in Xing’s. He had studied the ships of the nations and none of them were familiar to it. As he looked closer he noticed that the ship wasn’t even flying a flag. That could only mean one thing.

“That’s not our ship,” Edward exclaimed. “Those are pirates. General we need to pick up the sails again. Prepare evasive action-”

“I am afraid not, my prince,” the cool voice of the General came out. Edward froze as the man’s voice seemed to chill him to his very bones. “See, this isn’t your ship anymore. It never was. We aren’t going to Xing.”

“But-” Edward staggered as he tried to back up but he suddenly felt rough arms wrap themselves around his shoulders as two men grabbed him from behind. He struggled to fight them off but he knew that they had trained their navy right and there was no way that one untrained prince could fight off two navy soldiers. Yet he struggled anyways.

“What’s going on, General?” Edward demanded from him as the arms from the guards tightened around him. “What are you planning on doing? We are making a peace treaty, nothing more!”

“Yes Prince, but there have been some arguments from unnamed parties about this. And if you make this treaty there wouldn’t be a good benefit on the trade as there used to be. It wouldn't be as… cheap, I guess you could say.”

“Pirates?! You made dealings with Pirates?! You traitor. They would stab you in the back before you can even go through with this!”

“Well see, we made a trade. We would be able to tax their product as long as I divert naval ships from their coarse. As long as they are able to sail, we are able to raise revenue. It is quite simple if you ask me.”

“You idiot!” Edward yelled as the ships pulled up to each other and the gangway was laid down for the pirates to board. There were several uproars from the crew and Edward heard metal clashing and breif gunfire before they were all silenced. It was a blood bath and obviously the whole crew of the Fullmetal wasn’t agreeing with the change in plans, but now they were. Edward struggled as the men ignored his curses and carried him back down to the main deck where the new arrivals were waiting for him. He saw the blood of some of his crew members spread out and soak the floorboards as dead bodies were slumped over where they fell. A large mass of ugly looking strangers, each with a hungered thirst in their eyes stared back at him, waiting for the plan to come to a finish. General Raven glided smoothly across the deck towards who seemed to be the commander of the other ship. Edward kicked and pulled trying to get the men behind him to let go but it was no use. Even if he did get out of their grasp what then? Face a hoard of angered pirates with nothing but his bare hands? Edward looked around and he felt himself begin to panic as the dead bodies around him seemed to become more prominent in his mind. He was going to die.

“If you kill me you are going to have the Royal navy on your tails for the rest of your lives,” Edward argued but the General just laughed and turned around upon hearing this.

“What are you talking about boy, I got the entire navy in my back pocket. They will do nothing  without my order.”

“Hohenheim’s the King he would be able to override your orders and send them out yourself. Once you return back they will all know what happened-”

“And who will tell them? Your crew? The only people that they would be talking to is Davy Jones and you are soon going to join them,” he gruff voice of the pirate captain called out. A roar of laughter raised in the crowd and Edward felt the dread wash over him as he looked around.

“And as for your father, young prince. You were coronated. Though it takes a few days for the power to be officially handed down, you will become King before we even reach the Amestrian shores again. Your father will not be in power and the heir will be dead,” Raven stated. Edward frowned as he heard him say this. The man still thought he was coronated. Edward wanted the ceremony to be private so the news hadn’t gotten out that he postponed it. They thought that he was lined up to be King already. He opened his mouth to argue but he stopped. If he corrected them it wouldn’t matter. They would still kill him and continue on with their assassination plot. If he told them it wasn’t true they would return back home to kill off his father and possibly the next living heir, his brother. They would know and there would be nothing stopping them. He couldn’t let them lay a hand on his brother. If he had been coronated Alphonse would no longer be the prince, but just the brother that got the pride of royalty but no manor. He couldn’t do that. Not his brother. Not his baby brother. Edward closed his mouth and glared at the General, pure hatred in his eyes.

“If you are going to kill me, do it already. Bullet to the head, knife to the throat, I don’t care. But you will never win. The Elric von Hohenheim family will still rule Amestris even when I am gone. You can count on that,” he spat at him.

“A bullet to the head? How dramatic. No we aren’t going to do that. Bodies wash ashore with time and if they find yours with a bullet in it they would know something was wrong. I think we have a better idea.” Edward felt his arms roughly tugged back as rope started to wrap around his wrists, tightly cutting his skin. He fought against them but suddenly he felt some people pick up his legs roughly and and bind them the same. He struggled and managed to kick one in the face but they had him bound in no time. He was headed for the sea. The men carried him towards the edge of the ship and Edward fought as his life depended on it, knowing his last breath of air was coming closer and closer.

“Don’t worry my prince, we will be sure to give you a wonderful funeral that no one will forget,” General Raven sighed. Suddenly the arms let him got and Edward was sent plummeting into the cold waters of the sea, with his last breath of air trapped in his lungs. He tore at the ropes around his arms and legs but the air was slowly escaping him. He looked up towards the surface in desperation, his eyes burning from the salt water, but only saw the dim glimmering of moonlight trickling through the deep waters. It’s light caught him in its embrace as he slowly felt the waters suffocate him to sleep.

……..

Edward stared up at the moon through the bars of the cage. He had always liked the night sky, but it came with so much pain he only dared look at it since he went under the water. Now as he stared up at the twinkling light rippling through the sea’s currents he knew that it was the omen of the end. The sun was taken away with its last light and Edward was going to die the second time in his life underneath the moon’s haunting glow. He wished that he could have lasted longer. He wished that he could have just seen the stars one last time and cursed the God’s for their creation. He still never knew where they went.

The cage shuddered quickly and Edward jerked up as he looked around him. Oh no. It was too soon. The cage was slowly rising off of the sea floor and towards the surface of the ocean, towards the moon. Edward turned about, struggling even harder against the bars of the cage in an attempt to break free. The many fish that were caught with him were spinning about trying to do the same thing but it was hopeless. They were caught. The warm night air hit Edward’s wet skin as sucked in huge breaths of it as he clung onto the cage uselessly. His tattered tail twitched and flopped uselessly in the cage along with the fish he knew that he couldn’t move unless he was in the water. The air stung the wounds on his shoulder and it burned with the salt mixed in the water. However, through the pain, through the fear, Edward’s eyes were caught onto the brilliant lights of the sky’s millions of stars. His breath was held in fearful wonder as he gazed up into them for the first time in his fifteen years under the sea, and possibly his last.

A Not So Little Fish

Chapter Three

A Catch

Roy sat under deck at one of the makeshift tables made from the barrels of fishbait they had brought on board. Hawkeye and her friends sat around him out of the way from the other sailors who looked a whole lot gruffer than they. He had been introduced before they even set sail and had been talking to the lot ever since. Jean Havoc was a smoker who sorted the catches that they hauled in from fish to crab to merfolk. Vato Falman was the logistics of the ship who kept tallies on their haul and quantity of supplies. He was rarely needed up on deck and it seemed his sea legs showed that. Kain Fuery was a navigator that popped in now and then. He was usually up on deck helping the General steer the boat. He was young but from what Roy managed to see of him he was bright. Finally there was Heymans Breda who was a hauler like him. He was giving him advise on what not to do and when. Though Roy was glad for all of the information, he was making him even more nervous than before.

“Now the instant we lower the cage to the deck someone will be there to open it. But we still can’t let go of it. We would need to pull it off to the side before we run for cover as the wranglers step in or else we risk squishing our entire crew.”

“Great,” Roy muttered nervously as he remembered the General’s description of the monsters of the deep.

“Don’t worry, you got this,” Jean said as he drew another breath from his cigarette.

“Yes, it’s calculated that more people die in storms than by merpeople,” Vato reassured him. “The last attack was over four years ago.”

“So how do we know we didn’t catch them all already?” Roy asked.

“They’re out there, they are always out there,” Heymans replied.

“We aren’t trying to catch them all, Roy,” Riza stated flatly. “Just the one that killed the King’s son.”

“This is bullshit,” Roy huffed under his breath. But everyone else heard him and glared at him coldly. They were all former soldiers in the Royal Navy. They were all in different units but they all shared the same loyalty to the king as anyone else. Roy had that loyalty too but not in this. “We are ruining the economy and the wellbeing of the nation to go hunting for one merperson we probably would never find,” Roy elaborated.

“You’re just sore that the King kicked you out of your job.”

“I was mighty good at it!”

“So were we. I don’t like what this is doing for the country but if the King says that it would help protect the waters then who are we to challenge him. He has never let us astray before, maybe this is just rough waters,” Breda suggested.

“Okay, fine, but how will we ever know if it is the one or not?”

“Easy, we look at its face,” Jean answered him.

“What?” he asked even more confused.

“Well merpeople take on the face of the person they last killed. Didn't you know that?” Heyman's told him.

“Yeah they kill the good looking people and then copy their faces,” Jean commented.

“So… we are trying to find a merperson who looks exactly like the dead Prince?” Roy asked. “What if they killed someone else after-”

“That's why we take them all into the king,” Heymans answered.

“You know none of this is based on fact,” Riza grumbled under her breath at the men sitting around her. “Merpeople just don't go about killing for no reason. Like Vato said before, there hasn't been a human killed by one of them in years-”

“Y-yes Riza but there have been several documented sightings and out of the ones that we did manage to haul in there have been sworn cases that they looked exactly like some of the citizens relatives that drowned at sea-” Vato elaborated but was cut short as the bell up on deck started to ring signalling the approach of a cage.

“Finally!” Everyone but Riza cheered as they got up from the makeshift table they were sitting at. Several hands slapped Roy's back as if they were trying to get him pumped for his first haul. However, Roy was a little more preoccupied at the moment as he stared at Riza. He had gotten several different opinions on the merpeople but hers seemed just not to fit. He wondered what was so different in her experience than others. He guessed that he would have to find out eventually when they hauled the cage to deck.

When Roy got to the deck and poked his head out into the fresh salty air of the sea he noticed that the sky had turned to night on their voyage. However with the stars shining and the moon beaming down on them it was still much brighter outside than it was in the dinky cabin they were in previously. Men were running around everywhere trying to grab equipment, rope, spears, he even saw Jean grab a bucket so that he could sort the catch. Roy was pushed and shoved out of the way until the large hand of Breda reached down and grabbed him by the collar.

“Come on Colonel there's no time to lose,” he exclaimed with a voice of sheer excitement. He was dragged over to his position at one of the ropes which was connected to a pulley system. Breda was right behind him ready to pick up the rope in his bare hands. “Remember, thumbless grip unless you want to lose them!” Roy quickly picked up his portion of the rope, adrenaline more of fear than thrill raced through his blood as he waited for the next order. The air felt thick around him and he felt like he could barely breathe. He caught sight of Riza perched on the Quarter deck with her harpoon ready. Many of the other wranglers were gathered around in the far corners of the ship but none of them carried as deadly a weapon as she. Roy felt himself try to swallow the lump in his throat at the very thought of a merperson being in the cage that they were about to haul up.

A couple of men leaned over the side of the ship with large hooked rods to grab the rope of the cage and latch it onto their pulling mechanism. Suddenly a large whistle blew signaling that the deed was done and shouts started to rise to the sky.

“Pull!” Breda orders and Roy fumbled to heave his weight back on the heavy rope. It was thick in his hands and wet from the sea are but with the strength that he and the other haulers had he could feel the cage slowly rising the more rope they got on the deck. It was a large metallic box by the looks of it with three holes in it, two on the sides and one ontop where the fish can enter but not escape. As Roy pulled he got a better look at the rather large cage it was near the size and height of a billiards table in the pub that he would often visit after a long day on the naval yard when he had a paycheck to spend on drinks. A large pile of grey fish, most likely a type of schooling fish were piled high in the cage having all swam in together. As they pulled another set of ropes on the cage were used to guide the cage over the deck of the ship. As it was aligned over it Roy heard triumphant shouts from the crew that was gathered around it.

“We got one!” Heymans exclaimed behind him to Roy’s surprise. On closer inspection he saw a rather torn up large red tailfin amongst the grey of the other fish flopping fish. Amongst that there was a rather pale arm poking out of the pile of scales. They caught one, they really caught one. Roy was almost stunned but he felt a slight kick from behind him as Breda scolded him. He snapped his attention back on his work as they lowered the cage so it hovered the deck by a few feet. Sailors jumped around it and then flipped the latch on the bottom opening it up and letting all of the contents spill out onto the deck. In that instant all hell broke loose.

The guide rope pulled the cage out of the way of the crew and they all dropped their ropes, Breda pulling him away from the fight. The wranglers, all but Riza, jumped into the pile with little concern for the other fish that they caught and the struggle began. Scales flashed as the large red tail bucked and kicked out trying to get the men off of it. It was so strong that unfortunate fish that were caught in the middle were flung about the ship, poor Jean having to chase after them with a bucket in an attempt not to lose them. A horrible noise rose up which sounded like a mix between a deep growl and a high pitched screech. It was one of the worse noises that Roy had ever heard. Suddenly one of the men tumbled over and the merfolk made a pitiful dash for the edge of the boat however not being in water, the large tail was useless to it and slowed it down. Roy caught sight of a young golden haired boy staring wide eyed in fear at the men on the boat coming after him. A red streak of blood trailed after the creature as Roy noticed that its arm was covered in it from what seemed to be a good sized wound on his shoulder. The men approached him and one yanked on the merman’s arm as it fought to get free. The boy opened his mouth as if to scream or yell but that ungodly noise just came out of it as men seized the creature by its arms and chest, holding it still. It struggled and tried to pull its arms free but there were too many people on it. Roy caught sight of Riza lowering her aim of the harpoon with a rather relieved expression hanging over her. The fight was over.

Brave souls gathered around the catch as they all stared at it in awe. The large red tail of the merman kicked and lashed out as the boy tried to get away. Roy was rather entranced by the utter look of fear in the creature’s eyes as they got closer to it. Roy saw a flicker of gold in them and he gasped as he took an ever so slight step back to get a full picture of what they had just hauled in. Whispers started up amongst the crowd as they all took in the sight of their new catch.

“Oh my god,” he heard Jean say under his breath. “You know what this means.” Breda just nodded his head. For once Roy was not lost in their broken conversation. He knew exactly what they were talking about. This was it. His first haul was probably his last for this merperson was the spitting image of the King’s dead son, Edward Elric van Hohenheim. They caught it.

Huge thunderous footsteps came down across the deck and everyone cleared out a way for the Captain to get through. Raven’s eyes seemed to widen as he saw the merman before him, struggling to get free. It was a face that no one has seen in over fifteen years but it seemed to haunt Raven more than the rest of them.

“By god there you are,” the man said in utter astoundment. At the sound of his voice the merman seemed to freeze as it looked up at the man now standing before it. The fear in the merman’s eyes in Roy’s amazement grew so quickly to anger that several of the men had to step away from how wildly the creature’s tail started to whip. The growls came out in horrible shrieks more than they ever did before. The merman was furious. It lunged for the Captain against the arms that held him down and for a second Roy almost thought that it was going to break free.The fury in its eyes burned like molten gold and seemed to strike Roy’s very being with fear of its anger. However Raven wasn’t ever so slightly moved. With a rather dull smirk, he turned around to the crowd of sailors.

“Well my men, it seems like we finally done it. We caught the merman we had been hunting all of these years!” Cheers ran up amongst the crowd and Roy felt drowned in the sudden hysteria. “We are the ones who get to deliver it personally to the King’s doorstep. Be prepared to eat well when we get back to the mainland.” The sailors cheered and cried as the Captain walked out and back towards his cabin, a large thick tank replacing where he was once standing. Shouts rose up from the crowd commanding to get the creature into the vessel. Men struggled with the tail as the merman fought against their hold and struck out at them. They dropped the creature into the clean dry tank and it hit the bottom with a thunk. Blood smeared the glass where the creature’s shoulder touched and it fought to quickly get up, but as the last of its tail was shoved into the tank, the thick glass lid was put in place. Roy almost for a split second imagined it to look like a coffin instead of a fish tank. The men locked the lid on tight and buckets of water gathered up from the sea that they were sailing in were poured over top of it. The water sank down through the holes in the lid and gradually filled the tank that the merman was fighting so hard to get out of. The water in the tank was lightly tinted with the creature blood as the water washed over its injured shoulder. It was an ungodly sight. The red tail that hung in the tank looked like it was made of blood itself as the tainted water rushed over it. When it became only half full, enough to keep the merman’s tail and skin wet, they roughly pulled the confinement along with the creature in it towards the entrance to the deck below. It struggled and banged on the thick glass of the walls but it could not break it. It seemed to know that, or there was a flicker of defeat in the golden eyes of the beast.

When it disappeared below deck Roy turned to see that nearly everyone else had dispersed. Breda had disappeared and Jean and Vato had to return to the jobs that they had with sorting and counting the fish that was brought in along with the merman. It looked like quite a boring job and Roy was glad that he didn’t have to be part of it. However he felt a rough hand on the back of his collar as someone grabbed it.

“Come on newby, you are going to be taking first watch-” one of the unnamed sailors ordered him. He had foul breath as if he didn’t brush his teeth even though they were pearly white as ever. Roy was sure that they were all fake.

“First watch of what?” Roy asked him as he roughly tore the man’s hand off of his collar but others seemed to be gathering around him.

“Of the fish of course,” another replied. “You don’t think we keep a dangerous beast like that on our boat without someone watching it.”

“The one time we didn’t do that it killed two men when it managed to escape.”

“Now with a guard we are at least able to hear their screams and keep the death count to one,” the man smiled. Roy frowned as the men looked down at him like he was fishbait. If he was going to be getting so near to that creature he bet he was going to be. However, Roy stood his ground, knowing that they were just going to poke at him and try to rustle a fight out of him, either that or wait for him to wet his pants. But that was never going to happen.

“Fine, I will take first watch,” Roy replied gruffly, turning the cruel smiles of the men upside down. “It isn’t like I have anything better to do,” he muttered. In all reality that was true. He didn’t really want to spend the night with the crew below deck if it meant being in close quarters with this group of men. He would have rather sat and watched a stupid caged fish for a while. Even if it did get out, it was a fish out of water injured at that. It wouldn’t get far. The men gruffly let go of him and gave him a shove towards the stairs that led below deck.

“Better get going then,” they grumbled upsettedly without any spark to their voice as they all returned to their own work that they had neglected. Roy huffed as he straightened out his shirt and marched towards where the tank had disappeared to. He was about to head down below deck and out of the night when another hand grabbed him once again by the shirt. Roy angrily shoved it off of him before he even knew who it was.

“Why does everyone like to grab me!” He exclaimed as he turned around to see Riza standing beside him with a rather unamused expression on her face. Roy closed his mouth as soon as he realised it was her. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied. “However, you do know that no one is going to relieve you from your shift, not after catching this one-”

“Wh-what? Why?” Roy demanded.

“Because they’re all probably going to get dreadfully drunk and no one wants to miss dinner,” she told him. “I will bring you something if I can get it.”

“Thanks,” Roy sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck tiredly. His hands were raw from pulling the rope and pressing them against his cold neck soothed them ever so slightly.

“So how was your first haul?” Riza asked as they headed down below together.

“Horrible.”

……….

Edward twisted around in the small confinement that he was placed in. The red tinted water sloshed around him with every movement reminding him what state his shoulder was in, but he kept on fighting. He hit and banged on the glass walls of the cage with his fists, his hips, and even his tail yet no matter what he did it wouldn’t budge. Even if he did get out he didn’t know what he would do then. It would have been a long trek to the top of the ship where he could potentially drop back into the sea. If he could even carry himself that far the sailors on the ship would likely see him and catch him again. Yet as he remembered that bastard’s face he couldn’t help but try and hit the glass harder. That was the last person he wanted to see. He was the last person he wanted to be in the hands of; General Raven. The more Edward thought about him the angrier he got. He cursed his existence as he struggled to fight for the diminishing hope for freedom he had left. It had been fifteen years since he last saw that bastard’s face and since he was dropped into the ocean to drown. He didn’t know what had happened to the aftermath. He didn’t know if his brother was in his clutches or not, if his father was even still in power. But now that bastard had him back.

One thing that humans didn’t know, or atleast, Edward didn’t know before it happened to him, was that people don’t drown at sea. Instead, they just learn to breathe water. Edward didn’t know how it happened but one minute he was dead, and the next minute he was breathing again with a tail grown from his tied up legs. He was alive, but he didn’t know if that was a good thing, not anymore. He couldn’t tell his family he was alive, he couldn’t go back on land. He was sea bound and unable to leave by his own will. He lived in a completely different world from the rest yet the hatred of his death still lived in him, in his eyes. Merpeople weren’t anything but the deaths that created them. Though they formed families under the water in the adoption of other lost souls in the sea, they held the entirety of their former lives in haunted visions in their eyes. Merpeople would often share these stories with others so that they wouldn’t have to live through them alone. But it was never the same. They were dead, and that was a fact, and they could never go back. Some Merpeople chose to forget their other lives because it pained them too much with what they lost, but other just forget in time as the years drag on. Whether it was God’s joke or gift to give them a second life in a different form, Edward didn’t know, but now his two lives were running together as he was captured by the exact man who had killed him in the first place.

“You know it is pointless,” a voice suddenly rang out through the little dark room his tank was set in below deck. Edward froze suddenly, as he looked up and around through the dim lighting of the room to see a rather dark haired man approach his tank from around the back of some storage boxes. The man wore a wrinkled and dirty white shirt and some long navy pants, some he remembered the Royal Navy wearing long ago. The man collapsed down on a crate across from his tank and crossed his legs tiredly, exhaustion seeming to grow in him. “There is no way you are going to break out of there. It’s pointless to fight,” the man muttered seemingly to himself. Edward slowly lowered his hands from the glass and nodded his head in acceptance to the fact which he had been trying to deny. There was no escape for him. He was caught.

Edward was terrified at the thought of what these humans would do with him. He didn’t know what happened with the other merpeople that were taken just that they never returned. He thought up all of these unimaginable things before he had to force himself to stop. Like the man had said before, it was pointless to struggle. Edward would occasionally flick his tail when he felt his scales dry out and become itchy. Having only a half tank of bloody water meant that he couldn’t swim and that he wasn’t fully submerged. He had to constantly roll over every now and then to make sure that he wouldn’t dry out like a fish out of water. He chuckled lightly at that analogy as it was perfectly true, causing the man to glance at him curiously from where he was perched on the crate. He seemed just as bored as he was.

“What are you laughing about?” The man asked him but Edward glared at him and didn’t answer, because he couldn’t. His voice was just a jumble of scratchy growls out of water. He knew that he couldn’t really have a conversation with a human if he wanted to. The sound of his voice was animalistic and might as well have frightened the man away. Instead Edward just flicked his tail again.

After a while Edward watched him for a little bit and curiously examined the man. He was young, younger than he was by maybe a couple years. Edward still looked sixteen from when he was drowned in the sea but that was fifteen years ago. If he was still alive he would be thirty one and his baby brother he could only imagine would be fifteen. He remembered leaving on that day fearing that his brother would grow up without him. It seems like he didn’t have a choice in the matter. He could only imagine what he looked like now, he could only imagine that he was still alive. A pain grew in Edward’s chest as he thought about it. He tried so hard over the past years to try and to forget about it. He almost drove himself mad thinking about his brother when he had first taken to the sea. Fear and regret followed him at the mere thought of it. If his baby brother was dead, if he was killed because of General Raven’s treachery in the navy, Edward didn’t think he could imagine anything that terrible. However that just made him wonder. General Raven was a high official in the Royal Navy. If he was still there, why would he be fishing for merpeople on a boat? Edward looked at the man across from him again and remembered that his attire, at least what was left of it, seemed to be left over from the Royal Navy. What had happened? Why were they fishing them? The man looked beaten and tired, even slightly thin for that matter. Looking at that poor excuse for a soldier Edward had to question what had happen to the state of his country above water while he rested below.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” the man said suddenly from out of the blue. Edward looked up at him to see the man glaring at him softly. He realised that he must have been staring at him a bit too long as he was remembering his brother. Edward frowned at him and turned his head away from him as he flicked his tail again, sloshing the red water around some more. It was his blood, Edward remembered as he looked down at his shoulder. The bite in his arm looked horrible as it was turning puffy and red. It was healing, he hoped, but he wasn’t quite sure anymore. Edward lifted his left hand and gingerly poked one of the teeth marks in his shoulder but winced at the pain. No, he was sure that it wasn’t healing anymore.

“You’re hurt,” the man stated the obvious and Edward just glared over his shoulder at the man before returning to where he was silently brooding, however the man didn’t seem to want to let it go. He hopped off of his crate and walked over to him, crouching down beside the tank that trapped him there. The man studied his shoulder and Edward tried his best to hide it from him in the small space he had. He didn’t understand the man. He was one of the crew that captured him. He helped put him in this tank. He was the one watching him to make sure he didn’t escape. Why would he be worried about a bite that he had? Edward didn’t want the man so close to him. Not when he was on the other side of the tank. When the man knelt down closer to the tank Edward smacked it as hard as he could, the shock of the punch giving the man enough of a fright to fall away from him. Edward grinned at the dumb look the man had.

“I suppose you think that is funny,” he huffed angrily. The man kicked the tank in return sending the water in it sloshing around and Edward tumbling in its wake. He growled at the human but the man ignored him as he took back his perch on top of the crates, crossing his arms in defiance to Edward’s antics. Edward returned to trying to break the lid off of the tank. He pushed and slapped it, knowing that it still wouldn’ budge at all. He saw the latches on the side that held down the lid and he stuck his hand out of one of the holes in the lid to try and reach it. It was too small. He couldn’t reach. The man beside him rolled his eyes as he watched his pitiful attempts to escape. He didn’t know if he was tired of his racket or annoyed with him as a being but the man shook his head in disbelief.

“I told you, it’s pointless.”

……………

A Not So Little Fish

Chapter Four

The Clock Shop

Alphonse couldn't shake the fact that he had come face to face with a merperson. It had stricken fear into him beyond compare and he didn't know what to do about it. His father always feared him going towards the ocean because of this, because of what happened to his brother. Now Alphonse knew why. Those creatures were horrifyingly beautiful. Strong enough to take down a shark, with severed screeching cries, but a tail as shiny as blood rubies and golden eyes that shined through the deep. He knew those eyes. He knew them as well as he could just looking in a mirror. They were exactly like his.

He had spent the remainder of that day locked in his room trying to process his terrifying experience. He didn't know where this merman came from or why but he probably saved his life. Now Alphonse paced the corridor outside of his chambers and ran his hands through his short golden locks. The more he thought about it the more curious he got about merpeople. They seemed vicious but after what happened they surely couldn't be as bad as the stories say. Killing them even if it was for his brother, he didn't know how to accept that anymore or even if he should. Were they ever really beasts to begin with?

Alphonse glanced up to the large intricate portrait on the wall. They had pieces of artwork nearly everywhere they could fit in the castle to make it feel less cold in the stone fort and more homey. Some of them were painted by master artists, some of them were family portraits, and some of them were even made by him as he took to painting on his free time. This one in particular was a family portrait painted back when he was just a baby, when his mother and brother were still alive and with them. It was the only real portrait they had of everyone together. Apparently it was finished a few days after Edward left for Xing by the pure memory of the artist, Alex Louis Armstrong.And the detail was phenomenal.From the color of their skin to the glint in their eyes, it almost felt like the portrait was alive. It was one of the only things that helped Alphonse imagine what his brother would have been like. He was too young to remember him or even  his mother for that matter. The Queen had died only a few weeks after the Prince by an unknown illness. She was weakened after his birth and fell ill after that. The portrait even showed the Queen’s face a bit paler than the rest, and a bit crest fallen.

Alphonse glanced over the painting, taking in all of the detail. He couldn’t ever grasp the concept of how much this single portrait told about their family. Yet as he observed the entire thing, his eyes hung over a single detail that was placed on the large canvas, the golden eyes of his brother. They shined with determination just above his quirky grin. There was a fire that didn’t seem it could be dosed just like in his own, but just like somewhere else he had seen. The longer Alphonse looked at it he more he wanted to know.

Alphonse made up his mind to visit the book store in the town. It has been a while since he had actually spent time in the city rather than the castle and he knew he was long overdue for a trip. The palace had its own library, stocked with many books from around the world with many more topics than one could ever choose from but Alphonse actually rarely used it. His tutors all stalked the library shelves looking for lessons to teach him and if he went in there he would be sure to have a class with all of them. He always tried to avoid it the best he could and because of this he made trips to the store instead and made his own little library in his room from the books he had bought over the years. Now, with the topic he was looking for, he wouldn’t dare step foot into the library, he needed to go to the store.

Dodging the castle guards so he wouldn’t have to be escorted, Alphonse snuck through the castle gates and raced towards town where he knew that the bookstore was waiting for him right on the corner. It was a shabby little place but it was stacked high with so many books that the shelves couldn’t even hold them all. It was the perfect place to get lost in for a while. He opened the door and a little bell rung signalling his entrance. He looked around but the shop seemed to be empty, the keeper being somewhere unbeknownst to him. Alphonse quickly scanned the shelves determined to find what he was looking for. It was difficult to find anything as there wasn’t a particular order to any of them. He felt almost overwhelmed by them all.

“Sheska!” Alphonse called out knowing that the girl worked there nearly everyday of the week and nearly every hour at that. He didn’t think that she slept at all let alone eat, she was so obsessed over reading the books they had for sale. When he didn’t hear a reply, Alphonse searched for another location of the store and then called out again.

“Sheska! I need your help!” He said and suddenly got a muffled reply. It was a bit strange that the cooky girl didn’t come to meet him. Even though it was difficult for her to put down any book, she would throw down the encyclopedia when royalty walked in. She was so nervous around him that she had fainted the first time he walked in. Over the years Alphonse had to try and tell her to try and relax. He even tried to go into the store in his more casual clothes, that he was wearing now for that purpose, which seemed to help a bit but she was still on edge most of the time he was there. But no matter the class difference and her anxiety around them, Alphonse became gradual friends with the storekeeper the more books he got.

The voice was coming from the back storage room and Alphonse curiously opened the door to see a large mess of books on the floor where they were being kept until there was more room in the actual store front to put them. As Alphonse walked in he heard the muffled sound get louder and he walked around trying to find where she was.

“Sheska, where are you?” He called out finally when he found that there appeared to be no one in the room.

“Here!” A sudden exclamation came to him and Alphonse looked down at the giant cascaded pile of books to realise that the noise was coming from within. In a leap of fright, Alphonse started to shovel through the books trying to get to his friend who was buried alive beneath them. The woman burst out of the heap as soon as she could gasping for air. She looked distressed as if she was just held at gunpoint.

“My Prince!” She yelped as she caught sight of Alphonse. She grabbed his arm and hugged it, thanking him repetitively for saving her with much formalities. Alphonse struggled to shove her off of him as they tumbled around in the pile of books.

“Sheska I need your help-”

“Anything Sir!” She exclaimed. Alphonse helped her up and out of the cascade of books. They stumbled out of the room and quickly closed the door behind them as if scared of more books falling on their heads. Alphonse allowed the woman to get her breath and organise herself before he continued. The fact that she was as organised as the store they were standing in with her frizzy hair and offset glasses meant that it didn’t take that long.

“Sheska I can’t seem to find the book I want in this mess.”

“Not again sir! I am sorry that it isn’t very organised I will try my best to clean it up for the next time you visit-”

“You said that the last time-”

“I-I just get distracted with all of the books!” She admitted nervously, her face very red in embarrassment. “I try but… they overwhelm me, sir.”

“Please don’t call me sir anymore,” Alphonse told her. He said this probably three times every visit to the bookstore but it was the one thing she couldn’t do. She was honestly trying. He saw her struggle a few times to leave it off but her attempts never succeeded. Sheska furiously nodded her head, unable to say anything in fear of calling him sir once more. Alphonse took a deep breath and looked at her very seriously.

“Sheska I need to ask you if you have any books on merpeople.”

“Merpeople? Why would you want to have something on that?” She asked him curiously pushing up her glasses as she scurried through the shelves of books. She only glanced at the different stacks of books before diligently pulling out a series from various places in the store. She knew where everything was even though it had no actual form of organisation to it. Alphonse had trouble keeping up with her.

“I just… want to know more about them,” he answered plainly as he didn’t want to talk to her about what happened the other day. Alphonse actually was afraid to tell anyone. His father would surely reprimand him if he found out and only push for stricter laws around the waters.

“Well we got only a few books here about them but they don’t really say much separately, however if you were to get all of them they would have decent material in them,” she told him. “One of them details how merpeople actually breathe the air in the water while another explains how merpeople can’t reproduce.They are very scientific overviews of the subject but still hold and explain merpeople’s magical properties just how I would expect you to like-”

“Wait...Sheska, what did you just say?” Alphonse asked her, cutting her off from her rant about the books. The woman looked a little taken back as she put the pile of books down on the front counter and pushed up her glasses back up on her nose.

“Well, sir, f-from all of the books you got from here before, I noticed that you like science a bit more so I thought-”

“No before that. Merpeople can’t reproduce?” He asked curiously and she just nodded her head.

“Y-yes sir. This one scientist named Tucker wrote several excerpts on the anatomy and function of merpeople. They can’t reproduce amongst other things-”

“But.. how are there so many of them?” Alphonse asked her.

“I.. i never really thought about it. There are just so many books.... I kind of get distracted-”

“Could I have the book with the excerpts in it?”

“W-well, sir, they are scattered throughout this entire series. You are going to have to get all of these books just for a few pages-”

“Isn’t there a way I could just get the pages on merpeople and not all of the other stuff?” He begged her. Though he appreciated the books he got from the store he didn’t need to haul several thick volumes back to the castle. Sheska scratched her chin for a little bit and then let out a huff as if she was debating something she didn’t want to do.

“Well, sir… I could… make copies for you of the pages you need. It will take nearly half a day but-”

“Please Sheska that would be wonderful!” Alphonse exclaimed as he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her in gratitude. “How much would it be, I would give anything-”

“I-I don’t know s-sir… they are only a fraction of the books that I take them from and… I am afraid that I won’t be able to do it today. I need to run to Garfiel’s for my grandmother. She needed to get one of her antiques repaired and she can’t pick it up with her being bed ridden with her broken hip,” she told him. “Thank you again by the way for buying all of those geography books and maps. It really helped get her a good doctor sir. It was more than enough to get her a good healer.”

“I am gld to hear that she is at least doing okay though,” Alphonse said back a little disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to get any books on the subject at all. He was just so curious as to the merman who he saw the other day that he needed to figure out what they were. He didn’t think he could sleep with this continuously on his mind. The shopkeeper seemed to notice his upset and she got very flabbergasted seeing that she upset a Prince, the next heir for that matter. He had helped her on many situations financially, mostly because he wanted to buy so many books and she just needed more customers to help her along. It was his consumption of books that got her grandmother to a proper doctor. Ever since then she felt like she owed him something when in all reality, Alphonse just wanted books. She started stuttering to try and find a situation that would make him less disappointed but she couldn’t seem to come up with anything.

“Uh.. uh sir.. I mean I could work quick on it and get it to you by tomorrow morning but I really need to run my errands-”

“What if I were to run your errands. Would you be able to be done with them by my return?”

“B-but Sir!”

“Please Sheska, I need this. Would you be able to do that?” Alphonse begged. The woman frowned but then slowly nodded her head. She didn’t like the idea of a Prince doing her any favors it seemed too strange for her, and Alphonse knew it, but it wasn’t the first time he was willing to do something for a friend.

“I-I will start on it right away. Hold on let me just give you some money, Sir to cover the-”

“Bye Sheska! Start writing! I want those pages when I get back!” Alphonse said quickly jetting out of the store before Sheska could even grab her wallet. As he closed the door he hear the flabbergasted cries of his friend behind him. He chuckled slightly as he started to stroll down the street away from the shop. He didn’t want Sheska to have to pay for it. It was ridiculous that she couldn’t even let him pay for the costs, but he guessed that the woman was just worried for his wallet.

Alphonse knew where Garfiel’s was. Though it was quite a long ways from the bookstore when you passed it it wasn’t very hard to miss. The sign was huge with brightly colored roses on it even though it was far from a flowershop. It was a mechanics. Alphonse had only been there a couple times since most of the errands for the castle were run by the servants or the workers. They often went there to repair some of the clocks or suits of armors that lined the halls. The only time Alphonse went into Garfiel’s was because he went to go repair his brother’s pocket watch.

His father didn’t want to keep many things that reminded him of Edward. All of Edward’s things were piled into his room to collect dust over the years. The only thing left were really the paintings of his brother which were all cleared from the King’s chambers and corridors. Though the kind boiled over Edward’s death Alphonse was rather upset that he didn’t choose to remember him. He didn’t know much of his brother and one day when he was twelve, he wanted to find out more. Alphonse had snuck into his brother’s old chamber and rooted through his things in an attempt to find something he could think about. It was dark and dusty in there but he had managed to find several notable objects like a long list of writings, personal painting that he must have done with his tutor (most were strangely dark and gaudy), and even his pocket watch. Alphonse found that it had stopped ticking and had taken it down to Garfiel’s for repair without his father’s knowledge. In the end, Alphonse just returned it back to the desk drawer that he found it in to continue collecting dust just with a bit livelier tick to it.

Alphonse walked into Garfiel’s mechanics. The walls were covered in an arrangement of gears and bolts most of which Alphonse didn’t know had any purpose to other than to be a wall decoration. Though the walls were filled he was upset to find the storefront empty though he heard the tinkering of the clocks in the back as the owner must have been working on something. Alphonse walked to the front desk and hit the little bell on the counter to await someone’s company. The tinkering slowly stopped as they heard the soft ringing noise swirl through the air. A person emerged from the back workshop and to Alphonse’s amazement it wasn’t the owner at all. Instead of being the tall strapping and rather fashionable man named Garfiel what Alphonse came face to face with was a blond girl no older than he was. A welding mask was flipped up on the top of her head and she was covered in grime yet brilliant blue eyes poked out beneath it all in absolute curiousity. She didn’t say a word as she walked over to the counter and waited for him to say what he needed.

“Oh… um… Do you know where Garfiel is? I… came to pick up an order,” Alphonse told her nervously as it seemed her eyes were looking straight through him. The woman shook her head and took out a piece of parchment on the desk and a pen. Quickly and rather neatly, she wrote down a sentence and passed it to him.

He isn’t here. What order do you need to pick up? Alphonse read it over and then looked at her curiously.

“Can… you not talk?” He asked innocently and the woman shook her head with a frown and just tapped the paper aggravated as she wanted her question answered. Alphonse stuttered as he tried to answer her. “Oh, um, I need to pick up an order for Sheska. It apparently was her grandmother’s?” He asked. The girl nodded her head as if she remembered exactly which one it was without even looking. She motioned for him to wait there as she leapt off towards the back room where all of the gadgets were stored. Alphonse waited patiently and tapped his fingers on the counter to no apparent rhythm and looked around the room. He sighed as he looked down at the parchment that the mechanic was writing on and looked at the words she had written. They looked scraggly and what was rather funny to him was that it looked like she had just learned to write. The woman returned with a rather huge cuckoo clock and Alphonse felt his stomach drop. Was this really what Sheska needed to pick up? He could barely imagine her lifting it let alone carrying it across town. In fact, he could barely imagine lifting it himself even though the mechanic seemed to be doing just fine with it.

“Wow… that’s… some clock,” he muttered as he watched the woman set it down on the counter. The woman smirked silently at him knowing full well the pain he was going to be in. She reached for the tablet and Alphonse handed it to her. He watched her write with absolute curiousity and seeing that he was practically leaning over the parchment as she wrote the woman shoved him away to finish what she was going to say.

“You know… sign language might make it easier for you to talk… or morse code-” Alphonse said but the woman just stopped and looked at him like he had cacti sticking out of his ears. He subconsciously took a step away as the woman stared at him, getting very uncomfortable under the gaze of someone he just met when suddenly he heard a tapping on the counter.

You know morse code? She asked him as if it was a rare occasion to meet someone of the sort. Alphonse nodded his head and cleared his throat as if he wasn’t just very intimidated by her.

“Y-yeah… I mean… this city is now nearly flooded with fishermen. They use it to talk over the ships to the shore. Why… why wouldn’t I know it?” The woman suddenly blanked out and turned white as he finished. She tapped on the counter lightly as if she didn’t have enough energy to tap just a bit harder.

Fishermen? She asked him.  I nearly forgot…

“How… How could you really forget that?” Alphonse chuckled nervously. “The king has been driving us towards the sea for fifteen years-”

You aren’t a fisherman are you? She asked him, her eyes holding a defensive look. She looked like she would have fought him if he said the wrong things. He didn’t know where this suddenly came from.

“What? No. I-”

You look familiar. She stared at him hard and Alphonse took a few steps back just for her to round the corner of the counter to close the distance he had made. It was as if she was staring into his soul. His eyes caught hers and for a split second he felt an overwhelming burden on his chest as his golden eyes locked onto her blue ones. He didn’t know where this feeling was coming from. It felt like everything was cold and suffocating. To put it plainly it felt just sad.

“I-I am the Prince-” he s-stuttered, only able to free his eyes from hers when she closed her eyes in seeming disappointment. She walked back to the counter and leaned on it, massaging her temple as if a sudden headache came over her. Alphonse inched closer unsure of her at all. “Did… Did I remind you of someone?” He asked her cautiously. She simply nodded her head but left it at that. “Do you mind if I ask who?” She looked up at him and contemplated whether telling him or not but in the end she had relented and tapped out only two words.

Your Brother.

A Not So Little Fish

Chapter 5

The Colonel

Roy watched the merman turn about in its small tank. The water was stained a dark pink colour from the wound in the creature’s shoulder. He wondered where it came from. It looked like a bite of some sort rather than a scrape it could have sustained on the boat. But he had learned not to worry about it. The merman was feisty and didn’t like him getting near it at all. Roy questioned why he was even worried about the merperson. He knew that they were monsters, at least that was what everyone said. Roy had never met a merperson until then. He was on the sea often enough being in the navy. He fought in boundary skirmishes and lost many of his men and even some friends to the sea but never to a merfolk. Hughes, that bastard, always wanted to meet one. He was fascinated by them, kind of obsess as Roy would put it, like a kid dreaming of catching the tooth fairy. However, the North sea swallowed him up like half of his crew in an attack from Drachma before he could even see a flicker of their tails.

 As Roy stared at the merman before him he knew that Hughes wouldn’t have been disappointed. It was remarkable. Though the merman was beaten, its shoulder hurt and its tail tattered from years of wear, the scales of the merman’s fin looked like individual rubies and its moved with a grace that Roy couldn’t even begin to fathom. He wanted to get closer just to take in its entire worth however he knew he must have been crazy. From the stories that everyone was spewing about them he should have been wanting to walk away from it not closer. However no matter how he looked at the creature he couldn’t dismiss it as just a ruthless beast. He didn’t know if it was the fact that it appeared part human or that it looked just frightened and scared that made him all the more curious. The furious and frightened golden eyes of the dead prince glared at him with a fire Roy didn’t dare fight. So instead of trying to run away, Roy just sat on the crates where he was and watched the merman flick its ruby tail and swish the dirty water around in its small coffin like confinement.

 Roy got bored quickly on his watch and by a couple hours into his shift he knew that no one was coming to relieve him. He was going to be stuck down there the entire night with the creature. With nothing to preoccupy himself Roy made an attempt to strike up a conversation with the merman but he knew that it couldn’t reply intelligently and even then he questioned if it could even understand him at all. Yet as he watched the merman move about, he just wanted to speak with it all the more.

“Mesmerizing aint it?” a sudden voice calmly said. Roy nearly jumped in his skin as he turned to see the Captain walk down the stairs and into the cargo bay. He quickly stood up on his feet going to attention but the man simply waved him off. He kept forgetting that they weren’t in the military any more.

“Uh.. I guess so, sir,” Roy mumbled as he sat back down on the crate he was previously perched on. Raven smiled shortly at him walked gracefully across the floor as if they weren’t on a ship that was tossed with every wave. As the merman caught sight of him Roy saw that it noticeably recoiled, tensed.

“Yes, merpeople are very peculiar creatures,” the Captain muttered absentmindedly as he stared into the tank holding the trapped merman. The monster looked almost scared when facing the Captain. “They look half human and yet… they’re not. You can’t communicate with them at all. They can’t talk and they can’t be understood. The only thing is…. Their eyes.”

“Their what sir?” Roy asked curiously but the man didn’t seem to hear him. It was then that he realised that the Captain wasn’t talking to him but rather to himself as he examined the merman where it was trapped. He didn’t think that the captain would care about their catch at all but it seemed like he was now obsessed over it. He was staring at the merman with such ferocity that Roy was actually scared to interrupt. Their eyes were interlocked  for a long time and the only thing that could be heard in the room was the lapping waves of the ocean outside. The way that the merman matched the Captains stare with equal and even greater force was almost entrancing to Roy. The merman was scared, that was obvious to him, but it was so defiant towards the Captain it made him almost believe that they knew each other. Suddenly though without warning the merman’s arm shot out through one of the holes in the tank and grabbed a hold of the Captain’s collar who was standing too close for his own good. With a quick yank the merman slammed the man’s head against the lid of the tank. Raven collapsed to the floor with a bloody nose and the creature gave a loud growl that almost sounded like laughter if the grin on its face was anything to go by.

“Sir!” Roy exclaimed as he shot up and ran towards Raven’s aid, not too fast though. Raven groggily sat up with a groan and ignored his efforts to help him to his feet. He slowly took out a handkerchief and started to dab the blood off of his nose. The man didn’t seem phased at all that he nearly got his head smashed in by a creature of the deep. In fact, Raven looked preoccupied with other thoughts than if his nose will ever look straight again. Staggering to his feet, the Captain swayed only a little with the rocking ship before gaining his balance. He took one last look at the monster and Roy caught something under the man’s breath, yet again not meant for his ears.

“It really is you, you son of a bitch,” the man muttered before he stumbled back towards the stairs. “Keep up the good work, Mustang. Just don’t get too comfortable with your new friend. He isn’t going to be around much longer,” Raven called out over his shoulder before he disappeared from view, shuffling his way through the door. Even then, when the Captain had addressed him directly did he not think he was talking to him. Roy looked curiously back towards the merman who had dropped its smile in replace with a look of damnation. Golden eyes looked even more frightened than before, its life balancing in the hands of a few humans who wanted his skin. Yes, the Captain definitely wasn’t talking to Roy.

……

Edward had turned his back to the man watching him, not wanting him to see him sulk in his own despair. Raven was after his hide and it seemed that even death couldn't have stopped the man's plans to end him. When the man looked into his eyes Edward let him see everything. He let him know exactly who he was in that silent exchange. Raven looked dissettled, almost afraid but that wasn't going to stop him from killing Edward once and for all. The worse was, the only thing Edward could do now was wait for the hammer to fall. He was as good as gone.

Edward swished the water again to keep his tail from drying out. He heard voices start to pick up from behind him. It was the sailor man, Mustang as he was called by the General, and one of his friends who seemingly brought him dinner. He tried his best to ignore their talk but the dull conversation seemed to sooth his fear and distract him from his closing fate. He pretended not to notice them, keeping his back turned towards them, but his ears were perked and listening intently.

"Amazing aren't they?" the woman's voice said quietly. Edward knew they were talking about him. Her comment both boosted his pride but also tore him down, making him feel like an exhibit.

"Beyond what I imagined. I never saw one before now," Mustang mumbled. "My one friend would have given anything to have seen one in person." It was muffled and Edward knew his mouth was full. The man must have been starving with the ferocity he ate with.

"I am guessing your friend is superstitious?"

"No, just curious," Roy chuckled. "I don't think he could do what we are doing. He was not the type of person to hurt even a fly. That didn't stop many other people from wanting to strangle him though. He talked about his wife and his daughter so much I think my ears fell off at some point."

"What's he doing now?" the woman asked after a soft laugh at the man's annoyance. There was a stifling silent and Edward knew that a note had been hit.

"He drowned in the Drachman border skirmish. He's dead," Mustang muttered.

"I am sorry," the woman told him sincerely.

"It's alright. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have thought twice about these half human creatures. They were just a big myth to me before he started on about them."

"They are more human than you think." There was a light chuckle of disbelief that came from the man.

"I don't know if it could understand me let alone talk-"

"Have you ever thought it was actually you who couldn't understand them?" the woman challenged.

"No," Mustang muttered contemplatively. Edward rolled his eyes as he couldn't believe some people's ignorance. Of course he could understand them. Though he appeared as a monster, though he couldn't even talk he wasn't stupid. He could understand them. Edward flipped over to his other side and peered out across the room to where the two people were talking. Like the man, the woman was wearing the familiar blue pants. Edward wanted to question where they got them, but of course he didn't have the words to ask.

He caught sight of the tray of food that the man was eating out of and he felt his mouth start to water. He could smell it. Whatever it was his mouth started watering for it as he hadn't realised that he didn't eat in the last day. He moaned as his stomach started to churn and tentatively knocked on the glass of his confinement. He was done ignoring them. The man seemed to notice that he was now watching them and nudged the woman. They both turned to stare at him and he gestured with his hand for them to come over. The woman came over with little hesitation but the man seemed to be stunned in his place. When Hawkeye knelt by the tank her wide eyes stared in awe and some strange form of understanding that Edward couldn't quite place. He felt a strange curiosity rise in him as he stared at her in such close proximity. He knew she was dangerous, but… something told him she wasn't bad. She was holding a few pieces of bread in her hand, assumably from dinner. They looked a good day old but Edward felt his mouth start to water as he stared at it. He reached his hand out of one of the holes in the thick glass lid as he tried to reach for the flimsy piece of bread she was holding in her hand. His arm wasn't able to fit that far out of the crack so he knew that he wouldn't be able to snatch it from her. She was ever so slightly too far away. A small smile grew on her lips as she seemed to understand what he wanted and Edward felt slightly taunted by it. He growled at her angrily in his frustration but that only made the woman chuckle.

"Here," she said as she leaned in to hand him one of the pieces. Edward grabbed a hold of it, and pulled the bread back down into the tank with him. He faltered for a moment, in disbelief. She actually was giving it to him? She wasn't just tricking him? Edward looked back up at the two humans, looking them each over once. They appeared genuine which was something Edward never really had the luxury for. Seeing that he wasn't eating it, the woman urged him on. "It's just bread. It isn't like it's going to kill you," she smirked. Edward looked down at the food in his hand. It had turned slightly soggy from his wet hand but it still looked good. He took a bite of it and his eyes widened in shock. A smile formed on his lips as his stomach growled for more. He hadn't had human food in such a long time. It was amazing. Though it was just bread he missed the variance of flavor. In the ocean he only had fish but on land there was everything from grains to meats from all over the world. He couldn't imagine that something so simple could have made such a big impact on him.

"Not so bad is it?" she chuckled lightly. Edward shook his head as he reached his hand back out, begging for more even as he continued to eat what he had. Mustang looked absolutely amazed as he watched him eat it. His face was stricken with pure awe. The woman was about to reach for the second piece when Mustang held her back.

"Hold on," he said as he ran back to the crates where he left his own tray of food. Edward watched him return with it and he seemed to be looking at what he had. "Do you like jerky?" he offered the variety of what he had. Edward looked at him hesitantly and nodded his head. He wasn't quite sure of the man but soon he found a piece of the dried meat in his hand. He looked down at it and back at him before taking a bite. He closed his eyes and relished in the joy of the savory flavor. God, why did land food have to be so good? He hadn't had it in ages. He heard a deep chuckle and he opened his eyes to see the man looking down at him with dark black eyes. He seemed amazed at him as a being and Edward couldn't blame him. He knew that when he walked on land, the world of the merfolk was a myth. Seeing one was an oddity.

"This is amazing," the man breathed, his eyes lingering over his tail. Edward flicked it as he felt it become itchy from drying out. There wasn't enough water in the tank to keep it fully submerged. He could barely stretch out to his full length. The elaborate red lengths of fin flickered in the swishing water. Thinking that the man was staring for long enough Edward batted the tank wall with it, startling the man slightly. He grinned smugly at the man's fall up and Mustang just glowered at him. He hit the tank back in a small act of revenge and sent Edward spinning lightly in the waves of the water.

"Sir," Hawkeye reprimanded the man who just defiantly cross his arms.

"He started it," the man muttered under his breath. Edward opened his mouth to retort but closed it after the only thing that came out was a low snarling growl. His voice was ruined after years in the salty water. The two humans were slightly startled at the harsh noise, as was he. He covered his mouth and looked down away from them, angry that he couldn't even talk. Shaking his head for his stupidity in trying to talk to humans, the ones who were trying to kill him after all, he turned his back towards them once more. He scooted to the other side of the tank to get as far away from them as possible, not letting them in. Seeming to get the hint, he heard shuffling as the people stood up.

"Come on, we should give it space," he heard the woman mumble quietly. "They are planning to sail soon. We should be docked by morning. If there is breakfast I will bring you some."

"Thank you," the man muttered tiredly as he stood up too. "If you can sneak it.... Bring some more bread for the fish."

"I am sure a prince was never called that before," Hawkeye replied wearing an obvious smile by the tone of her voice. Edward's eyes widened as he heard this. She called him a prince. Footsteps retreated as the woman left the cabin after a small salutations. She knew. She knew who he was. Edward turned only slightly to see the man scratching his head by the door completely clueless, the fucking idiot.

…….

Alphonse couldn't sleep once again. He had his journals and writings Sheska finished for him lying right on his dresser, his most recent one propped open between his pillow and the headboard of his bed. His tired eyes scanned the page for useful information on the creatures of the deep. He found little other than their anatomy and physiology. Apparently they couldn't reproduce, they resembled a vast array of different fish species, and they were noted to be ageless as there were accounts of some merpeople resembling past kings that were thought to have drowned in sea. However, that didn't mean they were immortal. The shops down by the docks were flooded with scales from mermaid tails that they caught in the sea. They were trophies in a way and very expensive. Alphonse always dreaded when they brought another merperson to the castle. Hohenheim seemed to drown in his rage and disgust and Alphonse knew that once a merperson went into the castle they weren't leaving. Even though he voiced his concerns, he knew that his father would never stop, that is until they had the one that killed his brother.

Alphonse sighed as he closed the book and set it back on the pile of writings that he had. As much information as they had, none of them were as interesting as what he heard in the clock shop that day.

He had stayed late in the clock shop as he talked to the new mechanic Winry through taps on the counter. She had known his brother, Alphonse didn't know how. He had barely known his own brother because he was only a few days old when Edward left for Xing. Winry looked no older than he was and yet she had stories of his brother. She told him how much he reminded her of him. She told him more than Hohenheim ever did. But most importantly, Winry had told him that Edward said that he loved his little brother.

"Being an older brother was everything he ever wanted. You made that happen," she had tapped out for him. Alphonse nearly felt his heart split in two. It felt like the more he knew about his brother, the more alive he was, however that just meant that the impact of his death would hit him harder. Alphonse questioned how Winry knew so much about his brother if she was no older than he was. It was rather peculiar in that instance that she kicked him out and closed the shop as he didn't realise it was already going on 8 o'clock and it was getting late. He learned no more about his brother, but he planned on running into town again in the morning. He needed to know.

The next morning Alphonse carried through with his plans. He quickly ate his breakfast in the privacy of his own chambers and snuck out of his bedroom window before anyone in the castle could think of checking up on him. He cascaded down the wall and escaped off of the castle grounds to head out into the town by himself. It was early in the morning and many of the villagers were running about to their own jobs, many of which were fishermen reluctantly setting sail on their boats. Alphonse ducked under loops of netting and made his way towards the clock shop he had spent so many hours in the previous day. The lights were still off but Alphonse could see the familiar young form outside of the door, unlocking it with an old set of keys. She looked tired, probably having a late night working on all of the gadgets in the shop. Alphonse guessed that he was probably to blame for distracting her for so long the other day.

"Winry!" Alphonse called out to her. The young woman turned her head at the sound of his voice, her ocean blue eyes growing wide. She turned as if to run but Alphonse quickly reached out and snagged her wrist. "Winry, please I just have a few questions," Alphonse begged her as he was confused at how scared she looked just looking at him. She shook her head and tried to pull away again. "Winry, please, I just want to know more about my brother."

"I can't" Winry tapped out on his wrist frantically.

"But why? I have never known anything about him. My father never talks about him and all I want to do is learn more. Please, only a few questions-" Alphonse asked her.

"I just can't. It was a mistake talking to you-"

"But… But-" Winry tried to remove his hand from her wrist but he held on tight like it was his lifelink. She was the only person who had information on his brother, who would actually tell him about what is going on. However she was a fish that didn't want to be caught. Desperate for him to release her, Winry took her knee and drove it into his stomach knocking the air out of him. Alphonse gasped as he felt his own grip falter as his lungs tried to recover from the shock. Winry pulled back as to not get grabbed again but as she turned to flee Alphonse found himself kicking his leg out and tripping her. He would have felt horrible previously for tripping a girl, not only that but an unarmed one, but she was the one who started it. Winry fell to the cobblestones and and let out a small cry as she hit the ground. However the sound that came out wasn't human. It was a shrill growl that sounded animalistic at best. Alphonse found himself taking a step back from the intensity. Winry immediately covered her mouth as she heard her own cry, her eyes wide in fear as she stared back at him, wondering what he would do. Alphonse didn't know either as he just stood there in shock. He had only heard that sound one place before. That was from the merman at the beach. Alphonse lifted his finger shakily and pointed it at her, still filled with awe and fear.

"You… You're…."

"Please no-" Winry tapped out on the cobblestones. She was trembling and Alphonse's eyes widened as he saw it. He looked around him and noticed a few people staring at them, wondering what was going on. After all it wasn't everyday a prince tripped over a young lady. Alphonse quickly bent down and grabbed the key ring where Winry had dropped it and opened the door to the shop. He held his hand out to her but she recoiled slightly as any attempt at niceties or light conversation like the day before was gone.

"Come on, it will be better if we talk off the street," he said. Winry's blue eyes darted around to see some of the people staring and she hesitantly took his hand. Alphonse lead her into the shop where she worked and closed the door. It was dim in there as the curtains were still drawn over the windows and Alphonse could have seen dust cascading through the air in the rays of light that were able to evade the curtains but he wasn't looking at that. He was looking at the mechanic he met all but yesterday.

Alphonse was curious as to the mystery behind merpeople. How did they exist? Why? What were they? Alphonse wanted all of these questions answered but now he was even more confused.

"How did you make that noise?" Alphonse asked her quietly. Winry wasn't looking at him, instead glaring at some far away spot on the floor of the shop. She was shivering as her muscles were tense. She was terrified but he didn't know if it was because of him, or because of what would happen. Alphonse thought she was just going to stay quiet but he soon heard the tapping of her answer on the counter of the store.

"That's my voice" she answered simply.

"I have only heard that noise before from a merman whom I met down by the beach the other evening. That was its voice. Are you…." Alphonse stumbled running his hands through his hair tiredly as he tried to grasp the idea of her, "Are you… a… mermaid?" There was no answer that time. Alphonse ran his hands down his face as he felt his legs collapse out from underneath him and he landed in a wooden chair placed near the counter for waiters. Silence in this context was confirmation of his accusations. He let out a huge breath of disbelief as his mind took a blow. With it, an endless stream of questions was released. "How do you breath below water? How do you exist? How do you have feet?" he exclaimed in hysteria. Winry's blue eyes glared at him angrily at his frustration and Alphonse was consumed almost instantly in an overwhelming feeling of sadness which disappeared the instant she looked away. Alphonse's mind cleared and he shivered from the odd experience.

"Aren't you afraid? Are you going to turn me in?" Winry tapped out on the table cautiously. Alphonse looked up confused.

"No! I don't want to turn you in! I am trying to stop these witch hunts!-"

"Why? Why, you of all people, would want to stop them? Everyone is afraid of us. They call us monsters. Why do you think differently?" Winry scolded him, oddly confused about his mindset. Alphonse was a little taken back.

"I… I didn't know what to think at first to be honest," Alphonse muttered, admitting his thoughts. "I wanted to stop the hunts because of what my father was doing to the nation. He has destroyed our economy and run Amestris into the ground just for this. However, I never really knew what I thought about mermaids. The only time I met one was a few days ago, on the beach. I was terrified. He was right next to me. I didn't know what to think. He saved me from a straying shark and… I think he got injured. I don't know what happened but… I know you aren't monsters."

"But now I am just confused!" Alphonse continued. "Are you the only one who can… walk on land? Where did you come from?" Winry looked away from him after he asked her this. She seemed to be contemplating his story. Eventually she got up and went back into the workshop. Alphonse thought she was leaving him but she no sooner left than returned with a pad of paper and a pencil. It seemed what she wanted to say was too long to tap out. Alphonse stayed quiet as he listened to her scratch words down on paper. As she wrote, Alphonse quietly lit the lamp on the desk for her to give her some light. It took her a while but Alphonse wasn't in much of a rush. So he waited patiently as she carefully considered every word. When the pencil was set down Alphonse looked up to see her contemplating whether or not to give it to him but eventually he found the paper getting set in his hand. She didn't look at him as he read her story.

"I washed ashore a few years ago…"

…..

A Not So Little Fish

Chapter 6

The Fish with Legs

Winry didn't think that she would get caught in the hurricane. She had tried to swim to deeper waters to get out of the waves but she was caught in a wicked current. Her tail was battered in the churning waves and she spun around directionless in the blackened waters of the storm. It dragged her closer and closer to shore. Her tail, arms, and sides got skinned against rock and coral that lined the shallow waters. Water barely was washing over her head as she tried to orient herself. She lifted her head just for the raging winds to beat it senseless. She couldn't see. She could barely hear above the howling storm. She didn't know which way the ocean lied or how far away it was. She just knew that she was caught in the shallows somewhere, vulnerable to the elements of the storm. Winry let out a cry as the rain beat her back. She clung helplessly to the sand beneath her in hopes of not being swept away again. She didn't think that she could take another tumble across the coral.

It felt like hours until the storm finally lightened up. She only knew it was passing when the rain didn't feel like knives against her skin. She shivered as she looked up, wiping the rain from her eyes. She saw the dull rise of grass poking through the dunes on a beach ahead of her. Small lights of a house were off in the distance lighting the darkened grey sky of the storm. Her heart froze as she realised how close she was when she saw someone moving in the kitchen window. Whipping around she couldn't help but let out a yelp of horror when she noticed that she wasn't just near the beach in its shallows, she was on it. The tide had risen in the storm, and she was carried with it. Now that the tide was gone she was trapped in a shallow tide pool that was barely larger than she was. The water was far away, a trek that could have taken her hours to haul herself across if she was strong enough. But she would have to try as she heard a call come out from the house above her.

"Hello? Are you okay down there?" she heard a voice come through the wind. She gasped and struggled to turn her body around. She wouldn't be able to make it, she knew, but she needed to try. She couldn't end like this. Winry pushed her body through the shallow water of the tide pool but suddenly bit her lip as a roaring pain road up her tail. Gasping with the shock she looked down to see the tattered mess of her tail. The tips of her sapphire caudal fin were red as pieces were torn away from the force of the storm. It laid in tatters and she knew she wasn't going to be able to make it, let alone swim away when she got to the ocean. Her tail was a mess.

She wanted to cry or scream in anguish as she was stranded there, her death coming ever closer with the approaching human but she was cut off as she heard a gasp come through the dying storm. She looked back to see a woman cloaked in a battered rain coat staring down at her from the top of the sand dune. Her brown eyes were wide as they looked over her, getting caught on her tail. Winry was frozen in fear, unable to run and unable to fight. She was a caught fish out of water and was in the mercy of the person's hands. The woman, quickly getting over her initial shock of finding her, set down her bright lantern in the sand and rounded the small tide pool towards her tail. The woman slipped in the muddy sand but kept her footing as she knelt down by her hurt fin. Winry tried to pull herself away from her but let out a sharp cry as she moved her tail in the wrong way. She could barely breath with how bad it hurt.

"Shh," the woman ordered her, bringing her finger up to her lips to silence her cries. "We can't let anyone hear you. You need to stay quiet." Winry was taken back as the woman looked closer at her tail. She didn't want anyone to see her? Who was this woman? The human reached a hand out towards her blue tail and Winry recoiled, not wanting her near her. But another roar of pain rattled up her spine. Her fist pounded the sand beneath her as she bit down another cry. It hurt so bad!

"You can't swim with this," she heard the woman state. "We need to get you out of the storm." The woman quickly got up and grabbed her lantern from where it was set and retreated back towards her house. Winry watched her go as fast as she came and fear built up in her. What if she was getting someone to retrieve her? Merfolk were disappearing from the oceans. They were being hunted and caught. The woman was undoubtedly getting someone to take her in. She couldn't stay there. She needed to return to the ocean.

Looking around, Winry spotted a small cumulation of driftwood that had washed into shore with her. She stretched out and grabbed it, breaking off a decent size stick. One thing that the woman was right about was that she couldn't be heard. She closed her eyes as she put it between her teeth and sucked in a huge breath. It felt like fire was ignited beneath her as she dug her hands into the sand and pulled herself out of the tide pool. Tears of pain built up in her eyes as she bit her cries down into the wood, silencing them. She dragged herself across the wet sand, feeling it get stuck beneath her scales, each grain irritating her wounds even more. She sobbed as she made her way slowly down the beach knowing the entire time that she would never make it before the human returned. But she would be damned if she would just be a sitting duck.

"Please stop!" she heard a call behind her. Winry looked back to see the woman returning, a dog running around her feet and a type of sled being pulled behind her across the sand. The woman was going to take her. Sobs wracked her chest, making low growls in her throat, as the woman pulled up beside her. Winry was dead. She was going to die. The woman knelt beside her and gripped her shoulders. Winry tried to shove her off, fighting for her life but the woman held on tightly.

"Please, I am not trying to hurt you. Don't be scared," her voice told her calmly. It didn't sound menacing like she pictured a fisherman to be. Winry opened her eyes and saw the woman's concerned expression. She didn't look scared of her, but rather for her. "I need to get you out of here before someone sees you. I am going to take you to my house so we can heal your fin. You can't stay out here-"

"No! Let me go!" Winry tried to say through her sobs but it came out a screeching mess. The dog next to her barked once loudly, quickly being silenced by her owner. However the dog ignored the owner's request and quickly jumped between the human's and Winry's arms, its large slobbery tongue licking Winry's face. She gasped as the dog nuzzled its nose into hers and froze at the familiar sensation. She could remember a large black three legged dog running through a wide grassy field. She shook her head, shaking the images of the green landscape from her mind. It quickly returned to the worried brown eyes looking back at her.

"Please, I am trying to help you. I will return you to the ocean when your fin has healed but we need to get you out of here. Will you come with me?" she asked calmly. Her voice was sure, its confidence eased Winy's worries if only by a little bit. She looked back at her fin and her distance to the ocean. She was not even closer after everything she did. She was barely out of the tide pool as it was. However, if the woman took her up to the house, she would be even farther away from the ocean's safety. She couldn't imagine being so far away but she knew she wouldn't make it if she tried to fight the woman. Submission was the only way. Winry closed her eyes and reluctantly nodded her head. Seeing her answer, the woman quickly pushed the sled closer to her and lined it up lengthwise to her already spread body. The dog ran around her feet as the woman busied herself with getting the sled together. Winry fought her urge to continue her flee to the ocean and bit her lip as she buried her face into the sand to choke down another wave of sobs.

"I am going to have to roll you onto the sled. It might jostle your tail a bit," the woman told her. Winry felt the woman's gentle hands underneath her stomach and her tail. She felt herself get flipped over and she let out a cry as her tail was moved. Hearing her wail, the dog was immediately at her side, licking her face quietly. Tears streamed down her face as she laid on her back on the strange sled. The woman quickly pulled out blankets and started to cover her, tucking them around her in a bundle. She whispered apologies to her over the wind as she tucked the soft fabric around her shoulders. Before she knew it she felt a jolt as the woman pulled the sled away from the ocean and towards her house up on the hill. The dog padded along beside the sled, keeping pace with Winry's shoulders. Winry felt exhaustion eat away at her fear and her eyes flickered with the bumping of the sled. She watched the dark waters of the ocean fade away as green grass replaced her view.

Just like home.

…….

Winry leaned out of the tub, reaching for the dog she now knew as Black Hayate. The little pup was playfully bouncing outside of her reach, holding a small ball in his mouth. Winry growled at it, wanting it to come closer so that she could throw the ball again. The dog never learned that she couldn't leave the bath tub. There was a knock on the door and the dog barked, accidentally dropping the ball which Winry then snatched before the dog could realise its mistake. The door slowly opened and the woman, Hawkeye, walked in holding a small tray of food.

"I brought you dinner," the woman announced. "I also need to re medicate your fin. Do you mind?" she asked her, setting the tray down beside the tub for her. Winry shook her head silently, eagerly reaching out for the bowl of warm soup the woman had made her. Hawkeye held a bottle of aloe paste and a small brush in her hand to apply it to her tail with. Her long deep blue tail was hanging out of the large tub as she was too big to stay completely submerged. She could feel it drying out and would often have to move around to keep it wet.

"It's coming along great. Do you imagine you being able to swim soon?" Hawkeye noted as she pointed towards thin transparent parts of her fin which were healing and regrowing from her long stay in the woman's bathroom. It was nearly regrown though the color hadn't fully returned to her sapphire scales. Winry nodded her head as the woman began to paint her fin again with the medicine as had become routine for her every evening. The room was filled with silence once more as Winry ate her soup quietly.

It has been nearly four weeks in the bathroom of this woman's house. She was terrified the first week just staying there. She didn't know if the woman was just lying to her and waiting to turn her in or sell her but it turned out that she was just honestly trying to help her. It was odd, Winry reflected, getting help from the very people who were trying to hunt them. As scared as she was in the beginning, Black Hayate had a strange power of being able to comfort her. He slept in the bathroom with her and ate in there to keep her company.

Winry sighed as she gently rubbed the dog's head, petting it softly. She had not thought about her past life in years. She had tried her best to forget because she knew she could never go back. However, with the terrifying meeting with this human and their dog, Winry couldn't help but remember her life when she too walked on two legs. Den was her dog. They would play for hours on the grassy fields when she was little. He would never seem to get tired and neither would she. Her Granny had always told her that dogs would always be there for her when she would least expect it. She guessed her Granny was always right, like usual. Even now, there was a dog looking after her. A sudden pain in her chest ignited and Winry pulled her hand back from Hayate and held her chest tightly. Where was Granny now? After she drowned in the ocean, Winry could only imagine how distraught she was. Was she still grieving even after all of these years? What she wouldn't give to see her again. To give her a sign that she was okay, but she couldn't. They lived on a farm hours from the shore. She would never be able to journey that far.

"Are you okay?" Hawkeye asked her gently as she noticed her change in demeanor. Winry looked over at the woman who was staring at her with large brown eyes filled with concern. She turned away slightly and nodded her head hesitantly as she tried to preoccupy herself with her dinner. Unfortunately the woman wasn't convinced.

"What is the matter? Do you miss your family?" she asked her, knowing the signs of homesickness from anything. Winry sighed as she nodded her head. "Don't worry, with how you are healing you will be back in the ocean in no time-"

"They're not-" Winry hiccupped but only a crawling growl came out and she cut herself off. Knowing that she wanted to talk the woman leaned behind her and grabbed the tablet that she had placed in there for her to use. She handed her a pencil to write on the paper with. Winry took it gently, afraid to soak the pages through with her wet hands. A hand rested gently on her shoulder as if to tell her it she could go back soon but the woman didn't realise that was far from the case.

"My grandmother isn't in the ocean." Winry shakily wrote for her. She felt water brimming her eyes as she wrote out what she had been thinking for so long. Hawkeye's eyes widened as she read her words. She seemed confused, rightfully so.

"What do you mean?" she questioned quietly. Winry put her pencil to paper but nothing came out. How could she explain where she came from? Humans didn't know anything about them. They didn't know where they came from, how they were created. It was a conversation that Winry couldn't put into words. All she wanted to say was that she wanted to see her grandmother again. Closing her eyes, Winry wiped the tears from her eyes as homesickness overwhelmed her. She looked down to where the tear tracks were erased on her arm. The were smudged and wet. In the ocean, tears couldn't form but the grief of their passing was still forever trapped beneath their eyes. Winry gasped as her eyes widened. Her eyes. She grunted as she tried to lift herself up in the tub. Hawkeye rushed forward warning her not to strain herself too much but the instant she was within reach Winry slapped her hands not too gently on the woman's cheeks and

 "Why don't you ask for it this time?" she asked him. Edward looked at her as if she was stupid. He couldn't talk out of the water. His vocal chords were ruined from the years of salt water running through them. He couldn't speak in the air. However, seeming to understand his confusion she reached down to the side of his confinement and started tapping. Edward thought it was just a jumble of noises but his ears suddenly caught onto one word sounding itself out across the glass.

Write

Edward felt his mouth drop open as he heard it and looked back at her, stunned. She knew morse code. They were sailors of course they knew morse code. How could he have forgotten that? He hadn't used it in ages and never thought of using it. Edward reached his hand over to the glass and pressed against it. He focused hard trying to remember the patterns for the letters he needed. Using the best of his concentration he tested the language and wrote out one word.

Please?

In that one word a million reactions flew around the room, all sprouting from Mustang who seemed to be minding his own business until then.

"What?!" the man exclaimed as he slammed his plate down on the crate he was sitting on and rushed over to the side of the tank. Edward recoiled as the man screetched to a stop, his face frozen in shock. "It can talk?! It understood me the whole fucking time?" The woman rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"Yes." Mustang moaned as he dragged his hands down his face in exasperation.

"I was just rattling… I probably sounded so fucking stupid-"

You did. Edward tapped out trying to hold in a chuckle. The man kicked the tank angrily, sending the water sloshing.

"Shut up! You could have replied! Said something! God damn it!" the sailor groaned, still embarrassed with himself.

"Come on, a prince would surely have some manners," she said softly. Edward's eyes widened

"Sir, I brought you some dinner," Riza said stiffly as she tried to get his attention. Roy struggled to tear his eyes off of the merman and look at her. It appeared to be a whole bowl of creamed wheat and a few slices of bread. He sighed as he thanked her and picked up the bowl from the tray, grateful that she had remembered to bring him anything at all. He sat back on the shipment crates and dug in with fervor. He hadn't realised how hungry he was until then. Riza leaned against the crates next to him, her eyes locked on the tank that rested before them. A small frown played against her lips as she watched the merman rest in the water. It had turned its back to them, sulking in its own fate.

"They are amazing, aren't they?" she muttered, seeming to truly be asking him his opinion for once. Roy looked away from Riza back at the tank, the ruby tail easily catching his eye.

"Yes, beyond what I could have imagined," he muttered almost breathlessly.

"So amazing yet very few people know where they come from,"

Edward was just about to grab a hold of it when Mustang jolted up from where he was sitting across the room.

"Hawkeye!" he scolded as he threw his plate of food down and pulled her away from the side of the tank. Edward quickly withdrew his hand and scooted away from the man. "Don't get near the tank-"

"It is fine-"

"It broke the Captain's nose!" the man exclaimed but the woman tore her arm out of his grip and sent him a deadly glare like she wanted to impale him with a harpoon. Mustang backed away a bit, taking the woman seriously. Edward glanced between the two of them nervous for what the outcome of this fight would be. The woman returned her gaze to the tank and picked up the piece of bread from where she had dropped it in her scuffle.

"Come here," she said roughly as she grabbed him by the cuff of the sleeve and dragged him over to the side of the tank. Mustang looked very nervous and confused as the woman shoved the piece of bread in his hand.

"What? No, I am not-" Mustang started to retort as he realised what she wanted him to do.

"Yes you are if you want me to get you breakfast in the morning," she scolded him as she pushed his hand back towards the tank. The man looked like he wanted to fight her but stopped struggling when he noticed Hawkeye's full confidence. Edward was confused with it as well. The woman seemed completely comfortable around him even though most people considered him a monster. Humans were afraid of merfolk. It was just how things were. Mustang looked back at Edward, his black eyes catching on to his and nervously stuck his hand out close to the tank with the bread in it. Edward could read the man's deep curiosity for him. He had spent the last few hours just staring at him as he waited for his dinner, however that didn't mean that he still wasn't afraid he was going to break his nose as well. The lack of trust was reciprocated in Edward.

"Just be patient," Hawkeye told the man as he seemed to think that Edward wasn't going to take it. Edward didn't like it that he was being fed like a caged animal but his stomach growled as the overwhelming smell of the sweet bread got to him. Hesitantly, Edward found his hand slowly reaching through one of the holes of the tank's lid, towards the bread. Mustang slowly leaned forward a bit as he saw that he couldn't quite reach it.

Chapter Text

The Girl from the Other Side

Summary: Based on The Girl from the Other Side by Nagabe. After a terrible accident, Winry wakes up to find herself lost in the dark woods away from the safety of her village in the hands of a cursed outsider. In an adventure to return her back to her family, she will find that sometimes monsters are not as dangerous as they are foretold to be.

Plot: The world is split into the Inside and the Outside. The Inside is where the humans live in safety from the darkness and evil that swarms the Outside. Creatures are cursed in the Outside and one touch from them can spread the disease that make them a monstrosity. A large wall separates the Outside from the Inside and it is heavily guarded so that the cursed creatures cannot infect the humans. However paranoia of the curse is spreading. Towns are being raided and people are being killed if others fear they have been touched. It is a witch hunt and no one can escape.

Winry lived in a village near the edge of the border for her entire life with her grandmother. When news of an outsider being seen near the village arises, panic and fear reaches the hearts of those that live there. The royal military enters the village in hopes of stopping the curse where it lies. They patrol the streets and a curfew is set for the protection of the villagers but even that doesn’t seem enough. When restlessness reaches its peak, accusations arise and the town is purged to prevent the curse from reaching farther into the Inside. Villagers are killed on site. Winry runs away and is chased into the woods by the guards. She runs for days trying to get away from the guards but they continue to pursue her in fear of her heading to another village and infecting them. Unfortunately the soldiers manage to stick her in the leg with an arrow eventually. She falls a great distance down a rocky cliff and hits her head, rendering her unconscious.

Winry wakes up in a bed with a nice fire crackling in the hearth but there is no one around. She has trouble remembering what happened to her and doesn’t know how she got there. She tries to stand up but there is an unbandaged wound on it. There are medical supplies set next to the bed and she quickly bandages her leg up wondering why the person who helped her didn’t do it before. As she is finishing up the door opens and she looks up to see who it is. An Outsider walks in carrying a tray of food and she nearly screams seeing the monster’s dark black form. The Outsider is startled by her shout and manages to clumsily drop the tray to the ground shattering everything. He curses and scolds her for screaming like that. Winry asks him what he is doing there and what he wants from him, more importantly if he touched her. The Outsider explains that he saw the guards chasing her in the woods and stopped them from putting another arrow in her. He didn’t touch her but managed to drag her back to the house on a litter made from blankets and sticks to try and help her. It was because his fear of cursing her that he didn’t bandage her leg when he could. He must reinforce the fact that he didn’t touch her over a thousand times just so Winry would stop fearing that she was cursed. The Outsider cleans up his mess and Winry introduces herself, still slightly afraid of the monster before her. She asks for his name but the Outsider is very hesitant on giving it. After a bit of pestering he tells her his name is Edward.

The Outsider leaves to get her more food, because the only stuff that he had was what had dropped on the ground. Outsiders don’t need to eat which is why they don’t have much to give. When he is gone, Winry tries her best to get up and sneak away. She can’t walk too well and only manages to get to the woods outside of the abandoned cottage Edward was occupying. When Edward returns he finds his house empty and fears for the worse. He runs out and finds Winry trying to run away on her bad leg. She falls and he manages to catch up to her with his long legs. He scolds her for trying to run away by herself and she demands that he lets her go. Rather rudely he tells her that she is free to go but that she should reconsider running away by herself lest she wants to get cursed by an outsider. She is confused by this and states that he is an outsider and that she is trying to get away from him for that reason. Edward is an outsider but is trying his best to help her and not curse her however he knows that other outsiders are angry with what happened to them or what they are and will try their best to turn humans into monsters like them. Since she can’t walk well enough to go out by herself, she agrees to stay with him until she is better but warns him that the instant she is well she is going to find her way back home wherever that may be. Edward agrees to her terms and finds a branch for her to use as a walking stick because he can’t carry her back to the house.

He tries to make her dinner but manages to burn everything. Winry settles for some bread and berries to prevent the house from burning down. Edward fixes the fire and tells her to change her own bandages before going to bed then disappears into the cottages study for the rest of the night. Winry hobbles back to her room and redresses her wound in silence. She is scared as to what will happen to her as the night wears on and wonders how on earth she will ever get back home, wherever that might be. (At this point she can’t remember what happened to her village).

The next morning is about the same. Edward woke up very early to gather food from one of the abandoned villages. He returns but Winry intervenes when he tries to make breakfast again and makes it herself, not wanting to waste anymore food than they must. She makes Edward a plate but he tells her that he can’t eat it. Edward later goes out to chop some wood for their fire and Winry becomes very bored from staying inside all of the time. She wanders around and before long finds herself in the study exploring the desk and its many scattered papers and books. She notices scientific arrays and equations near an old journal but doesn’t get to look at it long before Edward comes in to find her. He yells at her for being in there but Winry just asks him why she couldn’t explore the house when she can’t leave. They argue for a little bit but eventually come to a stand still. She is booted from the study and is told never to go in there again without anymore explanation.

The following day Winry complains to Edward that she is bored. He tells her that it isn’t his problem and that she should go find something to make herself unbored as he goes into the study and locks himself away. Winry adventures around the house again but quickly finds herself in the immediate yard looking at the tools near the flower garden. She finds a broken and beaten clock outside and picks it up. She busies herself to fixing it and brings it back inside.

Edward, is oblivious to all of this until the clock strikes the hour and he hears the chimes suddenly go off in his house. He curiously goes out and into the kitchen and sees Winry wobbling on her good leg as she tries to hang the clock up on the wall. He asks her what she is doing but only manages to scare her. The clock slips out of her hands and shatters to the ground forcing her to fix it again. She returns it to the table and begins her work once more, angry that Edward had startled her. Edward joins her at the table, curious as to what she was doing and asks her where she found it. He had thrown it long ago and accidentally broke it. She says that throwing a clock usually causes it to break and asks why he had thrown it to begin with. He seems rather reluctant to answer and just cuts it short and says how he didn’t like seeing time count itself away. He wanted to fix it for a while but he gave up. She asks him why he can’t fix a clock but can work on complex equations in his study. He answers that his work has nothing to do with mechanics and that he had never learned anything like that.

Winry gets into telling him about her granny and the mechanic work that she did all the time. Edward asks her what she remembered about her family and she said that the last thing she remembered was an outsider being spotted near the village before she woke up in his house. There is a small pause but Edward reassures her that they will find her way back to them. Silence stretches the conversation and Winry eventually questions him about his family. Surely even a monster needed to be born somewhere right? Edward stops the conversation there and doesn’t say anything about it. He just says that he had been away from them for a long time and sometimes wishes that he could stop counting it. Winry stops fixing the clock for a little bit, realizing why he had thrown it to begin with. She however decides to continue to fix it and states that he shouldn’t look at time as counting how long he has been away but counting down till he could be reunited again. That was what she was counting for. The outsider seemingly smiles at this and when she is done he helps her hang it back on the wall.

Edward is working in his study one night when Winry is asleep. He gets distracted from his work and starts to write in his journal about the peculiar finding of Winry. He questions why he brought her back at all and didn’t leave her out there. He is used to living alone but eventually in his writing admits to himself that even he couldn’t let Winry feel the loneliness he has. He doesn’t want her to become cursed like he has. He begins to reflect on when he wasn’t a monster but doesn’t get far when he hears a muffled howl from outside. He looks up and out the window as he recognizes it to be another outsider. In fear of them coming near his house, he gathers his lantern and his coat and goes outside, scouring the small perimeter of his yard he finds nothing. He returns to his cottage but is still slightly worried. He checks the guest room to see Winry safely sleeping in her bed and this eases his worries. Closing the door he returns to his study and picks his pen up but couldn’t continue his journal. He ends it there.

Winry heals in a couple weeks but even though her leg is still weak she demands to go back to her village. Edward says that he doesn’t know where she came from but knows that there is an inhabited human village a few days hike away. He takes her to a nearby abandoned village and makes her a pack with food and a few blankets. She helps and makes him one even though he can’t eat. She argues that he at least needs to pack himself a blanket in case he gets cold. He agrees to take his own pack and slips the small hatchet in for firewood and some matches. They begin their journey and follow an abandoned road through the dark woods. They travel slow and need to take many rests because Winry’s endurance is still low. During the nights Edward stands guard over Winry. He hears a few more strange calls from other outsiders but other than that there is no trace of them.

After a few days they come to a crossroads. Edward points in one direction which is the longer way through the woods. Winry challenges him why they can’t go the shorter way through another abandoned village. He is stubborn and tries to make them take the longer way around however Winry wins the argument because she needs to restock on food. Their journey that far took a couple days longer than expected. Edward reluctantly takes her through the village. When they get to the village Winry begins to search the houses for food. She notices that the Outsider is acting very distant as they travel through the village. She gathers enough food and they start to make their journey out of the village when Edward halts in his track. She wants to ask him what is wrong but notices that his eyes and full attention are locked on a small house on the hill. Without a word he starts to walk towards it like he is in a trance. He pauses outside of the door and his hand falters on the knob It seems like he is remembering it. Winry wants to ask him about it but keeps her mouth shut as he finally decides to enter. The house is dark and dusty. Winry sees Edward distantly run his fingers along the tables and he wanders around the house. He comes across a family portrait and picks it up. It shows a small family each with smiling faces. Two small boys with shining golden eyes and hair are grinning goofily back at the camera, the older one holding onto the younger one. Edward is silent as he looks at it and Winry notices tears in his eyes which she just noticed then that are golden. Before she could say anything more, Edward puts the picture down and shakes his head, clearing it. He says that they shouldn’t have come there and that they should continue. Edward leaves the house but before Winry can follow she sneaks the picture out of the frame and takes it with her.

She asks him what that was all about. He says that a family once lived there. Many families once lived in that town and that it lived in prosper until one day a kid foolishly went into the woods and never returned. A few weeks after an outsider made its first appearance in the village. They attacked it and requested the military to come in. He said it was funny, the outsider never killed anyone yet so many people died anyways. She asks why a monster would be so concerned over humans. He simply states that outsiders are only created when no one wants them anymore.

They make their way out of the town and down the road. At night fall Winry makes camp and Edward sets up a fire for her so she wouldn’t get cold. They hear a rustling in the bushes and Edward quickly drops what he is doing and gets in front of Winry. She asks what is going on but he tells her to keep quiet. In the darkness they hear a harsh low voice come out. It asks why there is a human in the dark woods. Edward states that he is returning her to her village and that she isn’t going to be there much longer. Another dark figure like Edward comes out of the shadows. It is cloaked in a dark black cloth and looks bigger and a little more demonic than Edward’s own dark figure. Edward recognizes it as the other outsider Kimblee. It asks why he wasn’t cursing her and Edward simply states there is no reason to.

………

“You know it was them who abandoned us, who locked us out of their houses and villages. Once you return her home they will surely attack you. I just don’t see why you bother at all,” the monster chided. Edward’s eyes narrowed at him and he felt his muscles tense as he watched the creature lean lazily back on a tree. Their eyes were locked and Edward felt himself become wary of what it was going to do. “Yes, I really don’t understand why you bother at all.”

“They are scared and don’t know what they are dealing with. All she wants to do is get home, nothing more. I don’t see why I shouldn’t help her do that,” Edward growled defensively. “You surely were afraid of us at one point in your life.” A low chuckle erupted out Kimblee’s chest and it pushed itself off the tree and clapped its hands eagerly.

“I was! I was! You got me there. But now I embrace it!” he exclaimed joyously. “All of the things we are able to do without all of the hindrances of sleep or food. It is definitely a superior way to live in my mind.”

“We are monsters any way you look at it,” Edward scolded him.

“Ah, but if you think about it, we are only monsters because we are different, Edward,” Kimblee chimed. “But if everyone is a monster, no one would be. So I must question your logic once more. Why do you refuse to touch this human?”

“The curse doesn’t make the monster, Kimblee, we were already one before we looked like this.” Kimblee’s eyes narrowed and Edward saw his muscles tense. The smile ran out of his eyes and Edward found himself taking a defensive step backwards. In an instant Kimblee lunged.

…….

The two outsiders fight ferally and Winry watches in horrified awe as they turn almost animalistic in their fight. At one point it is thought that Kimblee won and he comes after her as Winry is too afraid to run far however Edward tackles him and sends him to the ground before he could touch her. Edward grabs a hold of the hatchet and slams it into the outsider’s skull repeatedly. Kimblee’s body still struggles to get him off and Edward manages to chop the creature’s hands off before he is thrown off him. Kimblee, seeing that he was no longer in a state to fight, runs away for the time being. Edward wants to chase after him but Winry stops him and makes him drop the hatchet. They decide that it would be for the best if they kept moving a little farther.

They make it to the next town and camp in an abandoned house. Winry has trouble sleeping and talks to Edward for a little bit as he keeps watch. She asks him if he was the boy in the story he told her earlier. Edward admits it but says that he isn’t that kid anymore. She states that there should be a way to stop the curse. Nothing is incurable but Edward says that he has been searching almost his whole life for a way to lift the curse and has yet to find one. Until then he can’t return to the life he once lived. He had tried that already and the entire town perished because of it.

A few days later they come upon the wall to the Inside. Edward stays back and urges Winry forward. She thanks him for helping her back. She is a little upset for leaving him but he says that she still doesn’t belong in the outside. She says that if he could she would hug him but she can’t. So instead she gives him her scarf. Winry walks through the woods into the clearing near the wall. The guards halt her and ask her where she came from. She tells them that she is from Resembool but got lost and asks if they could help her get back. Hearing this, the guards exclaim that she is cursed and raise their bows and swords at her. Winry staggers back and runs back towards the woods as they chase after her again. Edward, who was watching in the woods to make sure she makes it into the inside sees this an rushes out between Winry and the guards. The guards stop, afraid to be touched by the outsider. They try to kill him with some arrows but they don’t work. He yells at them, angry at what they were doing. The guards don’t shoot but they don’t lower their weapons. Seeing this standstill, the gate opens and another soldier walks out. He introduces himself as Colonel Roy Mustang and asks Edward what is going on. Edward states that Winry needs to get back to her family in resembool and that she isn’t curse. He ensured of it. Mustang states that there is no one of Resembool left. It was purged a few weeks prior for being infected. Everyone is dead. Winry cries and asks why that was, why they would kill everyone so relentlessly. The Colonel, unlike the guards, looks very regretful for what had happened. He tells them that an outsider was seen near resembool and the town was assumed to be infected but the fact that Winry still wasn’t a monster should be proof enough of their mistake. Against the other guards concerns he tells them to escort Winry to the inside. They comply and Mustang turns back to Edward and thanks him for helping her. He asks if there was anything he wanted from them in return. Edward says that he doesn’t but Mustang pushes. The Colonel knows that there is more to them than what they are told to believe and asks them again. Edward admits that if there was a possibility for him to find someone in the inside, to find if they are even alive, he would appreciate it. Mustang agrees and they say their goodbyes before returning to the inside.

Edward watches Winry go through the gates before he retreats into the dark woods. He feels very lonely again and a little sad with her leaving but tries to pretend that that was how things should have been. Edward returns home none the wiser that the Insiders want to try and destroy the curse once and for all. The Insiders, realize the damage they are doing just by running away and destroying their own villages. They want to stop the curse at the source and kill the outsiders. Winry is interrogated for information that she could have gotten from her time in the woods. She tries to explain that Edward wasn’t evil but everyone but Mustang doesn’t believe her.

She goes through the Inside and with Mustang try to hunt down someone from any of the destroyed villages. Mustang remembers the name that Edward wanted and finds Alphonse Elric who lives in a small tenant building in the city. They knock on the door and try to tell Alphonse why they were there. When they say Edward’s name Alphonse yells at them that his brother is dead and that if they wanted to taunt him they should just leave. Winry pulls out the picture that she found in the village and shows it to Alphonse. Stunned that she had it he asks if Edward is really alive. She tells him that in a way, he is. Alphonse allows them in and Winry explains her adventure with Edward and what he told him. Alphonse asks if this is true and that the outsider wasn’t trying to trick her.

Mustang actually is the one who says that it is true. He had seen part of the transformation himself. Lieutenant Hawkeye had left the Inside for a normal patrol with Mustang but had been touched by an attacking outsider. He couldn’t do anything as he watched her turn into an outsider. A recovery patrol came out to find them when they didn’t return on time and killed the Lieutenant before she could fully transform to stop the curse. The brought Mustang back safe and sound but news of the encounter was not spread.

Mustang warns Alphonse that they must go warn his brother before the Inside troops go to exterminate the outsiders. It would undoubtedly turn into a full war. They gather horses and they sneak out of the village riding fast to try and find Edward before the military can. Winry leads the way as she knows the trail to the cottage Edward stays in.

Meanwhile, Edward is staying in his house and sees the reminants of Winry’s stay. He tries to pick up and when he notices the clock he takes it quietly back off of the wall once more and sets it on the kitchen table. He doesn’t want to throw it away but he doesn’t think he could keep it. He goes into his study to try and continue his work but he can’t focus enough at all. There is a knock on is door and he curiously gets up to see who it is. He opens the front door to see the mangled form of Kimblee in front of him. His head is still split but it looks like he sewed his hand back onto his stump. Seeing that Winry is no longer there, Edward reluctantly allows him inside.  Kimblee taunts him lightly and says that the human abandoned him again and that is all they are good for. Edward doesn’t retaliate. Kimblee warns him that now the humans know where he lives and undoubtedly will be coming for them. Edward says he doesn’t care. He will stay there. It isn’t like they could be killed easily. Kimblee says that he isn’t going to let them get that far. At first the humans don’t want them and now they are trying to exterminate them. Kimblee says that he will curse the lot of them and take their souls before they get him. He asks Edward if he knew how they were made. Edward replies of course. They were cursed by another outsider and their bodies turned into monster. Kimblee questions him what the first outsider was then. There always has to be a first. Edward doesn’t know what he means. But Kimblee just says think about it. Kimblee leaves making note that he isn’t going to hold back.

Edward is left by himself for a couple days. He tries going back to his normal life. He is sweeping the floor when he hears a knocking on the door. Knowing it isn’t Kimblee and fearing it to be the military, Edward grab the hatchet from next to the fireplace incase. He opens the door slowly just to come face to face with Winry, the soldier, and Alphonse. Edward recognizes him immediately and is frozen in shock upon seeing him. Edward quickly shuts the door without saying a word and locks it not wanting them to come in. Winry knocks on the door again and asks him why he isn’t coming out. He is terrified. He doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t want to touch Alphonse nor does he want him to see what he turned into. Winry continues to try and talk to him through the door but Edward doesn’t give in until he hears Alphonse’s voice. Alphonse asks him if it really is him. Edward reluctantly admits yes after a hesitation. Alphonse convinces him into opening the door and he eventually complies. Seeing his brother is like a shock to his senses. They just kind of take each other in for a little bit. Alphonse reaches out to him as if to see if he is real but Edward side steps and nervously invites them inside. He is very careful to keep to himself as he makes a cup of tea for them. He is terrified of cursing Alphonse.

Mustang gets down to business and tells Edward that the military is behind them, coming to take the inside villages back and stop the curse. Edward says that he doesn’t want to fight them he just wants to live quietly and not have to worry about infecting anyone. He already destroyed his own village he thought he killed Alphonse all this time, he doesn’t want it to happen. Alphonse tries to reassure him but it doesn’t get through. After realizing that he won’t be moved, they end up leaving. Alphonse wants to stay with his brother, he doesn’t want to leave him alone. He says he had lived alone long enough but Edward gets angry at him and chases him away. The three of them leave and try to make plans on what to do next. They still don’t want to leave Edward alone to the hands of the military. They sure were on their way by then. Mustang says that they should try and delay the troops by blocking off the cross roads through the abandoned village. They would then be forced to take the long way around. They start to head towards the crossroads but they realise they are too late. The troops are already on their way and they are forced to turn back to warn Edward.

Edward, still in his house, hears shouts from outside and clashing of metal. He tiredly walks outside to see a battle waging in the woods. He walks out towards the fight to see Winry, Alphonse, and Mustang defending themselves. They had been claimed by the military to be cursed or manipulated by the outsiders. Soldiers are swarming the woods in search of outsiders like him. Edward hears a loud scream as he sees Alphonse get caught in the shoulder by a bolt from a crossbow. One of the soldiers are standing over him with an arrow drawn back. Alphonse tries to get away but Edward knows he won’t make it. He runs forward and covers Alphonse. The arrow sticks in his hip as they tumble forward. When they recover Edward realizes that he is holding Alphonse and panics as he lets him go. Alphonse’s eyes are wide with shock as he not only sees that Edward saved his life, but also just cursed him on accident. Soldiers relentlessly release arrows into Edward’s back and Alphonse scrambles away from him afraid that he is now cursed. Edward is too stunned at what he had done to fight as the soldiers throw bolas at him and tangle him up in the ropes. He is captured by the soldiers and is dragged into a cage by ropes. The soldiers quickly forget about the few humans there and leave with the outsider in tow.

Winry and Mustang chase down Alphonse, begging him to stop when they are out of danger. Alphonse exclaims that he was cursed, that Edward touched him when he tried to save him. He doesn’t know what to do. He wants to help his brother but he is distressed that he is now cursed. Mustang lists some symptoms that he might have because of the curse but Alphonse says no to all of them after a quick diagnostic. Mustang tells him that he is surely cursed, but he doesn’t seem to be catching as of yet. He is safe. Winry asks him what the soldiers are going to do with Edward. She is terrified for them. Mustang is really confused because he thought that the soldiers were going to go kill the outsiders, not capture them. Winry says that they should go and find Kimblee the other outsider. She warns them that he is one that is willing to curse nearly everyone near him but they need his help to understand more about the outsiders. They hunt the woods near the village and find bodies of soldiers scattered through the treeline. Kimblee is walking through the woods not even trying to hide from the soldiers that just passed through. He has some arrows sticking out of his back and it appears that he had gotten in a scuffle which probably ended in the lives of those soldiers. Winry calls out to him and Kimblee looks almost thrilled to see them. He says that they were idiots to come there because he wasn’t going to let them go without being cursed. After he says that he senses that Alphonse is already carrying it and almost laughts at the realization that Edward cursed his own brother. Winry begs Kimblee to help them. She asks them why the soldiers would capture Edward. Kimblee seems really surprised at this as he thought that Edward would have been killed. Winry asks him if there is any known way to kill them. Kimblee says that he doesn’t know much of the outsiders except for the fact that they were created by humans. Winry says that is obvious, outsiders are cursed humans but Kimblee corrects her. The humans made the curse. Mustang asks how that is possible. Kimblee states that immortality was never meant to be but people undoubtedly tried. The curse was a result of people getting too close to God. There is a debt to still be paid and that is why the curse still exists. The humans are undoubtedly trying to undo their mistake and try and reverse the curse by experimenting on an outsider. They decide to return to the city in hopes of saving their friend and hopefully finding a way from stopping the curse from spreading through Alphonse.

Edward is taken into the Inside for the first time since he became an outsider. However the streets are empty as the citizens were ordered to stay inside away from the outsider. He is taken straight into the capital to the castle where the king is staying. Edward is taken to the dungeons and the cage is carefully set in one of the cells. He is still tied up from the ropes but the soldiers are too scared of him to untie him. Edward is still slightly in shock from what he did to his brother and becomes secluded in his thoughts. Most of the guards try to taunt him as he waits down there but he ignored them the best he could. That is, until the prisoner in the cell across from him starts to talk to him. Ling Yao was arrested for stealing the king’s bread. He says that he is a rather peculiar person and he never met anyone like him before. Edward mumbles that it is because he is a monster not a human. Ling laughs and challenges his accusation. He says that he can feel the chi in everyone. If he was a monster he wouldn’t be able to feel it in him. He is still human. However, Ling does say that it seems his chi feels trapped in a way. Like it can’t escape. The guards tell the prisoners to shut up.

Later a pair of guards come down and actually apologise to him. Lt. Ross is assigned to keep guard one night with Sgt. Brosh. She sympathizes with him and asks him if he is going to be alright. At first Edward doesn’t want to talk to them but he eventually relents. She acts slightly like a mother out of her own curiousity about outsiders. They talk for a little bit until royal soldiers come holding Edward’s journal with his other notes. They had raided his house and stole his research. One named Envy interrogates him on it and demand that they tell him the cure to the curse. Edward says that there isn’t one. He didn’t figure it out yet as much as he wished he did. Envy chuckles as he reads the journal, the later chapters about Winry. He taunts him about his feeling for her and says that monsters will never be loved by humans unless they were dead. Envy suspects that the only cure to the disease is to find how to kill the outsiders.

Edward is taken into another side of the dungeons where a scientists named Tucker has been working on a cure for the curse. There are alchemical arrays there and Edward recognizes them as some of his. Tucker mentions that his journal really helped in the progress he had made so far. He mentions that the symptoms of the curse are like rebounds of an unbalanced alchemical reaction. He suspects that the only way to stop the rebound is to balance the equation, either by making the energy input equal to finish or by taking away the product to make the equilibrium reverse itself. The only issue is that they don’t know what the original equation was. Tucker experiments different arrays on Edward to kill the outsider to erase traces of the disease. None of them work. But as Tucker tries his, Edward works on his own. Even though outsiders can’t perform alchemy, he can try.

Alphonse, Winry, Mustang, and now Kimblee make their way into the Inside to find Edward and bring him back home. They incapacitate the gate guards just to find that the entire city looks empty. The curfew is still in effect and they sneak through the empty streets. Mustang, coming upon some guards patrolling the streets hears them talk about how the outsider was going to be presented to the king the next evening. Mustang says that the best time to do anything is during that presentation. However they need to go in and alert Edward of the plan. Alphonse volunteered to do it but Mustang is concerned. Alphonse started showing signs of the curse like a small bruise on his neck and losing the sense of touch. Alphonse states that Edward is his brother and if things go south, he would at least like to apologise to him for calling him  monster. Mustang relents and Winry suggests that Alphonse wears his military uniform so that he could sneak in amongst the guards. They comply and swap clothes.

Alphonse sneaks into the castle dungeon but gets lost. One of the prisoners, Ling, says that he seems familiar though Alphonse says he never met him before. Ling says that his chi feels familiar to the outsider that he saw in there earlier. Al asks where he was taken and Ling says he would tell him if he lets him out. Alphonse does and Ling shows him through the dungeons where he thought Edward was taken. They find him in one of the last rooms, kept in the cage. Edward is still tied but is startled to see Alphonse there. He nearly cries as he tries to apologise to Alphonse for ruining his life and cursing him. Alphonse says for him not to think like that. He shouldn’t have ran away. He shouldn’t have been afraid. Alphonse says that with the curse now, should it take effect or not, means that they could be a family again and live together once more. All he wants is to be reunited with his older brother. Should he lose all of his feeling and change into a dark child to do so he would. Alphonse tells him about the plan and says that he will get out soon, hopefully with no trouble. Edward tells him to take Tucker’s notes so that he won’t have the circles and to replace it with one of his own just incase something were to happen. He doesn’t know that it works or not but he knows anything is better than what Tucker had prepared for them. Alphonse does it and makes his goodbyes before leading Ling out of the dungeons.

Mustang is less than excited to have another person with them. Ling feels very disturbed with Kimblee’s presence. They make their plans and get a good nights sleep.

Edward is untied and taken up to the courtroom in his cage. King Bradley is in the throne room along with many other people who want to view their progress on the eradication of the curse. Tucker makes a very long but good presentation about his research. The king walks up to the cage and observes Edward on the inside. He lowly comments about Edward’s monstrosity but also states that if immortality was able to come without the cost of a cursed body, he would gladly make another outsider to gain it. It is then that Edward realizes that the king was the one who made the first outsider and the curse that went along with it. King Bradely attempted to dawdle in immortality through alchemy and ended up turning his test subject into a monster. Edward horrified and angry that the king was the one who would set this curse upon his people becomes angry and shouts at him. The king plays it off to the court as some of the outsider’s lies and says to continue with the presentation but it doesn’t get far. Winry and the rest of them pop out of the crowd to stop the transmutation and fight to get Edward out of there. Kimblee, comes in through the door where he was hiding and the fight begins while all of the civilians run away at the sight of a loose outsider in the Inside. Winry tries her best to unlock the cage that Edward is kept in however the King catches her and pulls her away. Edward tries his best to break out but the cage is strong and he can’t escape. Mustang and Alphonse keep the guards at bay and Edward catches sight of Kimblee fighting as well. He yells at him that the King was the one who created the curse and Kimblee becomes overly thrilled that he now found the man to exact his revenge. He attacks King Bradley and they fight. Kimblee pins the king against the cage and Edward wraps his arm out and holds him there. However out of the corner of his eye he catches Tucker, the alchemist activating the circle around them to try and dispose of the two outsiders at the same time. Alphonse calls out to him and tries to get the lock off of the cage to get Edward out of there before the circle is fully activated however it is too late. They get caught in the reaction just as Kimblee crushes the king’s neck with his hand and the king drives a sword through the monster’s stomach.

When the transmutation is over it appears that nothing has changed except both the king and kimble appear to be dead. Everyone is very confused about this because swords and mortal wounds cant kill an outsider. Winry rushes forward and breaks the lock on the cage and opening it to let Edward out. Edward and Alphonse are both in a daze but Alphonse manages to help his brother out of the cage. The guards are shocked at the death of their king and they all quickly make an escape. Mustang holds the rest of them off along with Ling and Edward, Alphonse, and Winry leave the Inside for the dark woods. They walk for a long time and make camp in the house that Alphonse and Edward used to live in as kids. Edward for some reason falls ill with a fever and he says that his body is burning which is strange because he can’t feel anything. Winry advises Alphonse on how to take care of him because she can’t touch Edward however Alphonse starts to become ill as well. They stay in the house overnight and Winry tends to them as best as she can. She keeps watch out of the cottage to make sure soldiers didn’t follow them.

 Winry falls asleep on the porch and is startled awake by a crash from inside. Afraid that someone snuck in while she was sleeping she grabs the frying pan she was holding as a weapon and runs into the bedroom where the two elrics were staying. She sees Edward on the floor struggling to get up. He looks terribly weak but his eyes are wide with shock. She runs over to him and asks him if he is alright. Edward looks up to her, his golden eyes locking with hers. He says that his body hurts and Winry panics, worrying that he is dying. However Edward stops her and in a joyous voice he tells her that he can actually feel again. Catching onto what this means, Winry almost starts to cry. She wakes up Alphonse who is in the next room. Alphonse nearly doesn’t notice but he could feel too and the dark splotch that was consuming his chest and neck before now dwindled to a smaller space. Amazed at what is happening both Alphonse and Winry keep close watch on Edward as the day goes on. Edward eventually gains enough strength back to walk around the house. They watch as his horns gradually shrink and the darkness and hair that consume his body starts to disappear. His tail is gone and his face starts to return to normal. Edward cries as he sees himself back to normal and Winry is breath taken as she sees what Edward truly looked like all this time. She asks how this was possible and Edward explains the circle that he made. He doesn’t know if it is a lasting cure but he still can’t believe he is really back to normal. All of those years alone, he now can return to his family, however small that might be now.

Winry declares that there must be a celebration and goes out to find some apples for a pie. As she heads out however she is stopped on the road by a line of soldiers. They order her to stop but she turns around and runs back to the house, chucking apples at any soldier who comes to near with deadly accuracy. She bursts into the house and shuts the door quickly trying to lock it. The Elrics ask what is going on and she tells them that the soldiers found them and are outside. Edward hears banging on the door as the soldiers try and talk to them. They say that they need them to return to the inside with them. Edward says that he is not going back with them just so they could kill them. However the soldier corrects them and states that the outsider’s corpse that was left in the castle turned back to normal. Tucker told them that he knows the circle. They had found a cure. But they need Edward to go back and work on it. They agree and return to the Inside with them.

 Mustang apparently is trying to install order while they try to figure out what to do without a king. He is surprised to see Edward the way he is but speaks nothing of it other than saying he looks good. Edward recovers his journal from the dungeons and starts to copy down the circle and work on it. The day is saved but it takes a while for the inside to warm up to him and even longer for them to spread the word of a cure to the outside. Monsters journey into the Inside and are treated and cured just to return to their families. Eventually the wall separating the two worlds is knocked down and the humans spread back out to their previously abandoned villages. The world is good.

The Girl from the Other Side

Chapter 1

Into the Unknown

Winry was running down the street with a wheelbarrow full of odd gears. They rattled and jingled as they bumped down the road. She was sprinting as fast as she could, careful not to drop any of her odd pieces. The sun was approaching the horizon and she still had a decent way to go before she arrived home and she couldn’t be out for much longer.

“Everyone inside! It’s evening curfew! You there!” Winry heard the soldier call out to her. She looked over her shoulder but didn’t slow down to see the navy blue of the royal army’s uniform approach her at a jog. She had not seen any military folk until recently. She had never even known what their uniforms looked like, but now she knew how strong and overwhelming their presence could be. The man jogged along next to her at ease. “Miss, you need to get to your home. It is nearing night fall-“

“I live on the edge of town. I am getting there!” Winry huffed as she heaved her wheelbarrow to regain her slipping grip. “It isn’t like an outsider could get me between here and there with you looking out, right?” she joked lightly but it didn’t seem to amuse him. The man slowed down and with the weight of his hand on her shoulder, she did too.

“It isn’t just the outsiders we are worried about, miss, but the curse as a whole. There have been more suspected infections. We can’t risk contamination of the whole village. These curfews must be taken seriously. Stay in your house this evening.”

“Has that many people been touched?” Winry asked fretfully. She hadn’t heard any news of someone being touched. The Outsider that was seen near their village was never reported to be inside of it. She didn’t know how well the cursed travelled from one person to the next but she hadn’t expected it to be that fast. The curse was spread through the touch of the dark monsters that live beyond the Inside walls. They had been safe from the curse for such a long time, staying away from the dark forest as best as they could, but Outsiders have been appearing closer and closer to the villages. The military came to protect them from the beast but they couldn’t stop the curse from spreading.

“Stay in your house this evening, miss,” the soldier replied stiffly. “We will be having more men coming into the village tonight. Please don’t leave your house.”

“In order to do that, I must first get there,” Winry said with a small smile as she picked her wheelbarrow back up but the soldier grabbed her wrist and pulled it away from the handles.

“I am advising you to leave the load, miss. You won’t be needing it tonight. Go back to your house, now,” the man ordered sternly. His voice was oddly cold and Winry found herself pulling her hand back from him defensively. She rubbed her wrist lightly from the tight grip the man had.

“Okay…,” she said hesitantly. “You will make sure it stays here then?”

“Yes. It will be here in the morning.” Winry backed up a little bit from the man before sprinting back down the road towards her house. She was held up as long as

“Fire!” she heard the shouts behind him. Her heart pounded in her chest as she heard a twang of bow strings fire into the air. Piercing pain stabbed through her calf and her legs tumbled out from beneath her in mid stride. Winry let out a curling cry as she fell to the ground. Stinging pain consumed her arms and knees as she skinned them against the rough soil. Her body tumbled to a halt and the shouts raised behind her in triumph.

“We got it!” they exclaimed. Winry looked down at her leg through her watering eyes to see the end of an arrow sticking out of it. She reached down blindly and pulled it out, not even caring to stifle her scream. They knew where she was. She didn’t have time to be brave.

She tossed the arrow carelessly to the side and stumbled to her feet. She barely even got up when she collapsed, her balance sending her down the steep slope of the hill. The world went spinning and Winry dug her hands into the soil to stop her from falling. Sticks and rocks tore at her arms and skin until her head slammed against something hard.

……

Edward sighed as he bent down and picked up another stick from the forest floor. He broke it lightly an examined the young green wood on the inside. He grumbled something under his breath and tossed it carelessly to the side before picking up another. Dark black scraggly fingers wrapped around the stick and he picked it up to examine it like the last one. The dark hairy hand turned the wood over in its palm as his golden piercing eyes peered over his twisted snout to see that the stick was indeed dead and dried out. Deeming it good enough he tossed it into the bucket he was carrying for kindling. He was quickly running out of firewood and desperately needed to pick up some more. Edward looked up from where he was bent over and cursed as his long twisted horns got stuck in young sapling’s green branches. He waved his hands and yanked the branches away to free himself. How he hated the spring. It made things way too difficult. The wood was always way too wet and the water from the river was always too quick for washing. He hated it.

Edward looked down beside him where the water ran through the forest in the river. The sun glistened off of the water’s top and speckled the world with light. Edward felt his heart flutter slightly as he felt a small smile of happiness. He felt his long thin legs stride over towards the water’s edge, his short tail swaying behind him. He crouched down near the water and peered over into it. Golden eyes reflected back towards him hidden in a face masked with dark black hair and long demonic horns. He studied his reflection, the small flicker of happiness tuckering out of him as his eyes ran over the long mouthless snout and the long animalistic ears. He sighed as he splashed his hand into the river, shattering the picture that the water threw at him.

 Damn the spring.

Edward got up and continued his search for kindling on his small walking path. He bent down to get another stick when the silence that consumed the forest for years was shattered by loud shouts from up the hill. He swiveled quickly to see a single figure up on the slope running down it at deadly speed. He squinted his eyes curiously at it to find that the figure wasn’t a blackened creature like him. It wasn’t an animal and it wasn’t a monster. It was a human, a girl. Her bright white untouched skin shined out through the shadows and glowed beneath her blond hair. Edward felt his heart stutter slightly as he dropped the bucket of kindling. The twigs and sticks scattered to the forest floor. What were humans doing this deep in the woods? Why were they here in the Outside? He felt himself take a few staggering steps back as his heart was telling him to turn around and run away. Edward was just about to run when his heart stopped in his chest with the blood curling scream that erupted behind him.

His eyes glanced back and his heart iced over as the figure collapsed to the ground. The person struggled to stand as several more appeared at the top of the hill.  Soldiers. They were shouting, bows raised towards the girl that was tumbling down the hill at a ridiculous speed. The navy cladded men easily staggered after her in formation. The girl hit the bottom of the hill but even as the soldiers approached her she didn’t move.

“Finally, after all of this time we caught her,” one of the soldiers laughed as they strolled to a stop. “Can’t let the cursed one spread that filthy disease. Can’t let it get back to the Inside.” Edward thought they were talking about him for a second but they didn’t seem to notice his presence as the strings of the bows were brought back, the deadly tips of the arrows pointing straight towards the girl. Without thinking Edward found himself lunging forward as he heard the twang of the bowstrings being released. He heard dull thwaps as the arrows plunged themselves into thickened flesh. Edward couldn’t feel them at all. He couldn’t feel the pain but he knew that the wooden shafts of the five arrows stuck out of his back, the metal tips embedded into his skin. His golden eyes scanned the girl in front of him. Her blond hair spread out around her as she lied there in a forced sleep. She was unconscious. His eyes lingering on the nasty wound on her leg that was blooming red with blood and he felt a nasty anger overcome him out of nowhere. Gasps and shocked outbursts erupted from behind him as the soldiers realized that their arrows didn’t make it through.

“An Outsider! Don’t touch it lest you want to be cursed!” he heard one of the men shout behind him.

“Leave beast! This doesn’t concern you!” another one cried. Edward felt himself stand up, his hands shaking in rage. There was another thud as one more arrow plunged itself into his back. He didn’t flinch. There was no reason for him to.

“Why do you chase her if she is one of you?” Edward asked them, his voice gentle though his body was rough.

“She is cursed. We can’t let her back into the Inside or else she will infect the rest of us with your monsterous looks!” Edward turned around and saw all of the guards recoil at the full sight of him. Felt the force of another arrow push his body as it hit his shoulder. He looked down at its pitiful attempt to rid him.

“She isn’t cursed,” he stated plainly.

“The entire village was infected. We must purge it-“

“You bastards, she isn’t infected! You are purging nothing!” he yelled at them, a deep growl growing in his throat. The soldiers took a few steps back away from him as if they were expecting him to attack like a feral animal. If Edward would have allowed himself to stoop that low he would have. However seeing as they still had their mind set on the girl behind her he cast his hand out towards them, scattering them back some more to get out of arms reach. “Get out of here! Get out of here now or else I will curse you myself!”

“We can’t-“

“Those bloody arrows can do nothing on me,” he reminded them, his voice cold. Edward saw their eyes glance nervously down at the many arrows that were already sticking out of him and before he knew it they were sprinting back up the hill, tumbling over each other. Edward watched as they disappeared over the hill and didn’t turn away until he heard their terrified cries fade away and the silence return to the forest once more. His golden eyes flickered down to the arrow in his shoulder and he lazily tore it out with his hand. He sighed to himself as he saw the holes in his shirt. He had just found it a few days ago. It looks like he would need to go find a new one from the village. He reached behind him and plucked the arrows out of his back, dropping them to the ground before turning back towards the one human that remained in his region of the outside. Edward bent down and kneeled next to her, examining the young girl closely. Her chest rose and fell signaling that she was breathing but she showed no sign of waking. The woman was out cold. Edward reached his hand out towards her to try and nudge her awake but he paused seeing his blackened skin near hers. He recoiled quickly, not letting himself touch her. He sighed as he stood up and took a few steps back. Her body lied limp amongst the soft grass, the speckling sunlight filtering down around her.

He shook his head, disregarding his foolish idea. She was an Insider. He couldn’t let himself mingle amongst them. He couldn’t interfere. Edward turned away and quickly bent over his spilt kindling to pick it back up. He had firewood to gather. He tried to busy himself with his previous work but after a while he couldn’t help but look back towards the girl behind him. She still wasn’t moving nor showed any sign of it. The wound in her leg was large and ghastly and he knew if it wouldn’t attract an animal the human wouldn’t last the night. Undoubtedly another monster was lurking in the woods. He closed his eyes cursing under his breath as he threw his firewood back to the ground. He just knew he was going to hate himself for this.

……….

Winry groaned as her pounding headache thundered through her skull. Light struck her eyes and she flinched away from its burning brightness. She brought her hands up and massaged her eyes tiredly, blinking out the spots as they adjusted to the light of morning. Blankets sifted around her as she moved and she gasped lightly as she looked down and gripped the blankets in her hand. That wasn’t right. She groaned and winced as she tried to pull herself up into a sitting position. Her body raged in a fit as she moved and her right leg was burning. Leaning against the headboard she took a rest, closing her eyes as she tried to tune out the pain that coursed through her. What happened? More importantly, where was she? This wasn’t her room. This wasn’t her house. Winry looked down and grasped the blankets in her hand, tearing them off her. Red was all that caught her eye. It drenched the bedsheets in a horrific sight. She gasped in shock as the gaping hole in her leg came back to her with full force. She remembered running through the woods, the fear of the memory licking the edges of her mind. The exhaustion, the fear, the pain. She covered her mouth and tried to suppress a cry of despair as she looked at the ghastly remnants of her flee. What was it all for? Why were they chasing her? All she wanted to do was to go home. Granny was probably worried for her.

Winry kicked her feet off of the bed, wincing again at the pain that shot up her leg as she rested her feet on the floor. She bit down a cry as she scooted herself to the edge of the bed. She needed to get home. Winry braced herself against the side table as she attempted to stand but heard a clatter of bottles as it shook beneath her. She looked over to see bottles of herbs and a few rolls of gauze. She stared at it utterly confused. If there were medical supplies, why wouldn’t the person that helped her use them? Bewildered, she took it upon herself to fix her leg up as best as she could. She hissed as she put some of the ointment on her leg. It burned as it seeped deep into the wound. Winry bit down on the roll of gauze as she corked the bottle and fumbled to set it back on the dresser. She was just about to wrap her leg when she heard the bedroom door creak open.

“Hello? Are you awake? I got some food but I think I burnt it,” she heard a male’s voice announced gently as a body pushed its way into the room. Winry looked up expecting to see the stranger who had helped her out of the woods just to come face to face with a blackened monster of her nightmares. Its hairy body cloaked in a button down shirt and an apron covered in soot. Its blackened hands grasped a tray of food that looked as burnt as charcoal. Winry’s eyes slid up its twisted form as her heart froze over in the icy hold of fear. Her blue eyes connected with the golden slits that seemed to glow out of the monster’s otherwise dark figure. She felt herself frozen in horror and the only thing her body could think of doing was scream. The monster yelped at her sudden outburst and in his startle dropped the tray. It crashed to the ground, scattering the inedible meal to the floor and breaking several dishes on the way down. The Outsider backed away back towards the door cursing as Winry pushed herself back to the far corner of the bed she was on.

“What the fuck was that for?” the Outsider exclaimed as he massaged his ears. “Are you trying to burst my eardrums. Goddamn it-“

“What-What do you want with me? What are you doing here?” Winry demanded as she threw the pillow at him to try and get him to stay away from her. It hit him in the head and bounced off one of his horns just to fall into the outsider’s arms pitifully. The creature dropped it and glared at her as if she was being childish.

“This is my house. I brought you here because you were hurt-“

“What’s the real reason?” Winry scolded the monster. The Outsider looked a little taken back by her statement.

“What do you mean? That is the real reason. You have a hole in your leg. They were going to kill you. I brought you here so you could-“

“You brought me here so that I could turn into one of you with the curse. You had to have touched me, dammit. Now I am cursed and- and I am going to turn into a monster forever,” she had started to yell at it but her anger quickly turned into panic and despair. She was inside a monster’s house she undoubtedly was cursed. If that happened she could no longer go back to the Inside. She couldn’t show her face to Granny. She would have to leave everyone. How long would it take for the curse to take  over? How long did she have until her body started to blacken and her mind was lost to the evil darkness? Just thinking of it brought tears to her eyes.

“H-hey, don’t cry-“ the outsider said to her softly. There was a creak in the floorboards as the creature took a step towards her but Winry quickly swiped a medicine bottle off of the side table and chucked it at its head. The Outsider ducked and it collided into the wall behind it and shattered into a million pieces.

“Stand back! Stay away from me!” Winry yelled and strangely the beast seemed to obey. It held its hands up defensively and stepped away.

“Look, I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to curse you either. I went through a lot of trouble to get you back here so I would appreciate it if you would stop throwing-“

CRASH!

“Hey!” The outsider exclaimed as the next bottle shattered near where its head used to be. “Stop throwing my stuff!”

“I will keep throwing your stuff if you don’t just let me go!” Winry scolded him holding another bottle threateningly. “Where am I and what do you want with me?”

“I don’t want anything to do with you! I was in the woods gathering firewood when I saw you being chased by some other Insiders. You fell and stopped moving. They were going to put another arrow in your chest so I stopped them. You’re bloody welcome,” the outsider growled as it crossed its arms over its out puffed chest. Winry frowned as she listened to the monster. What it was saying seemed to line up with what she remembered and if the hole in her leg was anything to go by the monster was at least  telling partial truth. “I made a litter out of some nearby branches and my shirt and I brought you back here. You were hurt and I couldn’t just leave you there-“

“Yes you could!” she snapped, her fist clenching the bottle even tighter in her hand. “You could have! You could have just left me but now you cursed me. Why couldn’t you just leave me alone I would have been fine!”

“For the last time, I didn’t touch you! I didn’t curse anyone!”

“Then how did you get me here?”

“On the litter! I pushed you on and off of it with a fucking stick so I wouldn’t touch you. That’s also the reason I didn’t bandage your leg, so I wouldn’t touch you. You are not cursed!” he scolded her. Winry looked down at her leg which was now only wrapped in gauze because of her doing. The outsider had set the medical supplies near the bed because he didn’t want to touch her in trying to do it itself. However that didn’t mean the outsider still hadn’t cursed her.

“How do I know I am not cursed?” she pushed curiously. The monster glared at her as if it seemed very annoyed.

“Wait a few days. If you look like me you are cursed,” it deadpanned and Winry growled in aggravation at the creature’s bluntness. The outsider walked over to the edge of the bed and Winry felt herself pressing back into the walls of the room. She held the bottle of herbs tighter in her hand, ready to throw it if she needed to but the monster glared at her lightly before its eyes dropped to her bandaged leg. It held its arms behind its back as if to prevent himself from reaching out and touching her as he examined it.

“That looks perfect. It isn’t infected is it? I was afraid if I let it go for much longer it wouldn’t have been good-“

“It’s fine,” Winry retorted quickly making the monsters eyes widen slightly at her sharpness. Seeming to realise her tension it took a couple steps back from her to relieve it. Winry glanced down at her leg and back up at the creature. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret fly through her for being so mean. However she couldn’t admit she was being sympathetic to a monster. “It just hurts is all,” she mumbled lowly as she looked away from the outsider.

“I don’t have anything for pain… but it should heal fine. You’re going to have to change the bandages a few times a day-“

“I know how to take care of myself,” she grumbled dumbly just wishing for the outsider to leave her alone. It looked down heartened as all attempts at conversation were cut short. It backed up a bit from her and returned to the mess it made near the door from the tray of food. The outsider was still wearing its white apron and quickly tried to pile the charcoals of food into it to pick up. Winry doubted it knew what edible was. It picked up the mess without a word and was about to head out the door before pausing for a moment. It looked back with a curious golden eye that seemed to catch hers blue ones in a heartbeat.

“Wh-what may I call you?” it asked after clearing its throat. Winry was slightly taken back from its sincerity and couldn’t help but answer after a slight hesitation.

“Winry,” she told him just above a whisper. The creature looked away for a second to try and memorize it. After deeming it stuck into its memory it turned back to her and introduced himself lightly.

“Edward,” it replied. Winry thought remnants of a smile appeared on its face however it was shallow and still sad. “Umm…This was the last of the food. I will go get you more, I suppose. I will only be a little while.”  The door closed behind the monster, shutting Winry in the room like nothing had happened. She covered her mouth as the silence seemed to suffocate her and she tried her best to choke down a sob. How could this happen to her? One day she was building gizmos with her Granny the next she was being held captive by a hideous creature. Outsiders were always a figment of her imagination. She had never seen one before but it was now more horrific than she had first imagined. What was it going to do with her?

Winry heard footsteps on the other side of the door and quickly she heard the front door of the cottage close. She quickly wiped her distressed tears from her face and leaned across the bed to peer out the window. A dark figure stood in the front yard stretching its long black arms into a long travelling cloak to block out the moisture of the spring. It kicked a stone from the pathway and if the windows were open Winry could have heard several spouting curses from the beast as it walked out of the yard with a wicker basket hanging from its arm. When the black figure disappeared into the woods Winry scrambled out of the bed. She yelped as her foot hit the ground and pulled it back with a hiss. She couldn’t walk on it. Searching the room for something to aid her she spotted the small desk chair across the room. Winry pushed herself off the bed and hopped on her only good leg to the chair. She collapsed over the back of it and caught her breath, wincing as she jarred her wound. Using the chair she shuffled herself to the door in hopes that it was opened. It clicked as she twisted the knob and a chuckle of disbelief escaped her lips. It was unlocked. Why was it unlocked? Though baffled in her surprise, Winry quickly shook it from her as she hobbled out of the room.

It wasn’t hard finding her way to the front door. The cottage was fairly small and had little in it. There was a small kitchen with a fireplace to cook over and a few chairs to sit in. Other doors to a few various rooms like a study and another bedroom hung lightly open but kept the house overall small. She made her way up to the large oak door of the house and found it in a similar state as the bedroom one; unlocked. She quickly swung it open and a cool breeze of the damp spring morning hit her. She breathed it in and exchanged her makeshift crutch for an umbrella that was posted near the door. Without looking back, Winry quickly hobbled out of the cottage towards the woods and hopefully away from the fear of the curse.

………

Edward plucked a few berries from a low bush and lifted them to his face. He could see that they were still green and only showed slight redding. If he remembered what they tasted like he would expect them to be tart. He sighed as he dropped them into the basket along with the other goods he picked up. He had went into the nearby village and collected some goods like sugar and flower. The village was abandoned so shopping was as easy as walking into the houses and taking what he needed. He didn’t go to the village often even though it was only a short walk down the hill. It always seemed sad to him. So many people used to live in that village but now it stood empty and silent like the forest around him. He had only taken one cottage outside of the village to use as his own and left the rest for other adventurers to find.

Edward plucked a few more berries from the surrounding bushes and when he deemed he had enough, walked back up the path towards the small cottage he occupied. This human was proving to be far more difficult than he had first imagined. After all of the yelling that the girl had put up he was finally able to explain what happened. However, even afterwards it was still obvious she was frightened of him. Edward cursed to himself as he kicked a stray stone on his dirt path. He should have expected that. It wasn’t like he was a handsome inviting prince. He was a monster, cursed at that. He should have known that anyone would have been frightened of him. When he had left her in the room he could hear her crying. It had nearly broken him. All he was trying to do was help her. Maybe if he made her dinner the cottage might seem more hospitable for the time being. It might take a while for her leg to heal so he wasn’t quite sure how long she would be staying. It would be best if she wasn’t sent into a panic attack whenever she saw him.

Edward sighed as he reached out and opened the gate to the front yard. He closed it gently behind him and started to unbutton his coat. He wondered why he wore it when he couldn’t feel the coolness of the morning or the humidity. If it was raining it would have made no difference. But he still wore it for normality. He got dressed, took baths, and even lit a fire in the evenings just for normality. If he didn’t he would have nothing to do during his long sleepless nights and nothing to preoccupy his roaming mind.

As Edward got down to the second button on his coat he looked up to the front door to see it hanging wide open. The desk chair from his guest bedroom was sitting in the middle of the entrance way obviously out of place. Edward felt his heart stutter as he dropped the basket he was holding and hurdled his way into his cottage. He raced to the bedroom and threw the door open. It collided into the wall with a loud bang and his eyes landed on an empty bed.

“Oh no,” he breathed as he burst back out of his house and hurdled over the short fence not even caring to open the gate. His desperate eyes looked around the tree line trying to find any trace of the girl he had found in the woods. “No, no, no!” he cried as he sprinted off in an odd direction, begging with all of his might that was the one she had gone in. “Winry!” he called out to her in false hope that she would reply. He cursed to himself wondering why he had left her alone. He should have known she wouldn’t try to stay. He should have watched out for her! But she also needed food. He was all alone in that house he couldn’t be in two places at once. All of the possible horrors of what could happen to her flooded through his mind. What if those soldiers were still out there? What if she fell? What if another outsider cursed her? He couldn’t let that happen.

Edward bolted through the woods, pushing young saplings out of his way as he charged through the undergrowth. His eyes searched the landscape for any possible sign of her. He didn’t know what he was expecting to find, a corpse, a footprint, blood. But he needed to find her. It felt like hours but was probably only about ten minutes when his eyes finally landed on a crippled form hobbling through the tall grass near the river. Edward could see Winry’s blond form hunched over an umbrella she was using as a walking stick. Though she was hurt, she had gotten far on her bad leg.

“Winry!” he exclaimed a flood of relief nearly drowning him as he ran to catch up with her. At the sound of his voice frightened blue eyes turned back towards him and a terrified scream escaped the human’s lips. When he got close to her the woman quickly lashed out with the point of the umbrella as if she had an intention to impale him with it. Edward hopped back out of the way just to watch her lose her balance and fall to the muddy earth.

“Leave me alone! Don’t come near me!” she scolded him as she scooted back away trying to keep her distance.

“I am trying to help you!” Edward growled at her very aggravated at how stubborn she could be. “You can’t just go running off by yourself like this! You could get hurt-“

“I am already hurt because of you! All I want to do is to get home to my grandmother and I don’t care what it takes for me to get there. I am not going to show up cursed and in the hands of a monster like you!” she yelled at him, lashing out another time with the umbrella. Edward snatched a hold of it and ripped it from her arms, tossing it carelessly to the side. Winry yelped and opened her mouth to retort angrily but Edward cut her off.

“Have you ever considered the fact that worse things could happen to you here in the woods?! You can’t take care of your leg out here without proper medicine, hell you can barely walk at all! How do you expect to get away from outsiders that are going to want to curse you?!” Edward scolded her, his voice filled with frustration.

“That is what I am trying to do! Get away from you!” she growled stubbornly at him as she tried to raise herself up to her foot.

“I am not going to curse you, Damn it! I don’t want to curse anybody. But other outsiders? Monsters as you like to call us, aren’t like me. They will touch anyone they can get their hands on. If you keep running away like this you won’t last a day on that leg-“

“I will take my chances,” Winry snapped as she tried to make a pitiful hop away. Unfortunately, she tripped herself on an outcropping root and fell back to the earth. Edward dragged his hands down his face in disbelief as he took a few steps away from the aggravating woman to get some air.

“The nearest inhabited village is five days away are you going to hop all the way there?” he asked her condescendingly. Her blue eyes widened lightly in the realization of how far it was. It seemed that she had really forgotten how far she must have traveled. The woman sat up and covered her face as a look of pure despair came over her. She seemed to accept that she was damned if she continued on her own and Edward felt bad for being the person who told her.

“All I want is to go home!” Winry cried, tears welling up in her eyes. She buried her head into her arms and Edward couldn’t help but watch as a sob wracked her chest. Guilt rose in him and he shifted restlessly as he tried to decide what to say. He hadn’t talked to a human in ten years. It was obvious his people skills were lacking or else Winry wouldn’t be crying.

“H-hey,” he stuttered as he took a few steps back towards the girl who was currently crying in a huge puddle of mud. Her clothes and more importantly her bandages were tarnished like her hopes of leaving the dark forest and seeing the Inside ever again. As he neared her she didn’t even flinch as if she accepted her fate in the dark woods. Edward knelt down only a few feet away to get down to eye level, being careful not to touch her. That was one thing he was never going to do. “Hey, I want to take you home. Hell, I will even escort you there just to make sure you get back. The last thing I want to do is keep you from your family but you won’t make it far with your leg the way it is. You need to let it heal before we do anything crazy-“ The girl in front of him lifted her head so that her chin rested on her forearms. Her deep blue eyes looked up at him as he talked and Edward was almost taken back by the swirl of emotions that laid behind them. He could feel them studying his deformed face with awe and fear. He could watch the currents of homesickness swim through them. But what really got him was the small glimmer of hope that flickered across the surface. “-I am not good at keeping things neat but I could start a fire and make you some food.”

“How do I know I can trust you? How do I know you aren’t going to curse me or eat me in my sleep?” she asked him. Edward let out an annoyed breath as he refrained himself from wanting to smack the stubbornness out of her.

“How am I supposed to eat you without a fucking mouth?” he retorted defensively. Winry looked little taken back and her face began to turn a little pink as she realized her mistake.

“I-I don’t know! Maybe you have fun with it and pretend! Don’t ask me what you do!” she snapped, her face red.

“That’s disgusting!” Edward exclaimed appalled.

“Like I said, don’t ask me! How am I supposed to know what you monsters do? I don’t know if I can take your word at all because I don’t know!” Winry crossed her arms over her puffed out chest and turned her head away from him, an obvious pout on her face. Edward groaned as he rolled back off of his heels and collapsed back into the mud. Why was dealing with humans so difficult. He was sure if he looked like her she would trust him. Hell, she would probably trust a serial killer if they looked human and not know it. But him? No wise person would touch him with a ten foot pole, or any outsider for that matter. Edward pulled his ears in aggravation as he tried to think of something to tell her.

“Okay how about this,” he grumbled as he pushed himself back up. “How about I just mention the fact that the last people you ran into out here were aiming to kill you and I do believe the fact that I am trying to heal you makes me ever so slightly more trustworthy than they are. Is that good enough for you or would you like me to find someone else in this damn forest that isn’t trying to kill you and ask for their opinion?” Winry glared at him, her eyes studying him once more before they were cast back to the ground. Edward waited in anticipation for her answer. There was a moment pause but the girl finally answered,

“Fine. But the instant my leg is healed I am leaving! And if you try cursing me I will curse you back!”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Edward deadpanned as he pushed himself up off the ground. He walked back and picked up the umbrella that he had discarded and handed it back to her. Her hand wrapped around the end of it and Edward pulled her to her feet. She wavered but managed to balance herself. Edward let go of the umbrella so she could use it by herself to limp back to the cottage. He wished he could have just helped her but he couldn’t touch her so he had to make do with what was available.

“When we get back you are changing and taking a bath,” Edward mumbled.

“Hey! I am just as dirty as you!”

“Yeah? Well we will see who catches a cold first.”

“We will.”

“Fine.”

………

Winry sat in the tub and washed the mud from her body and her hair. The water wasn’t too warm though the outsider did try and heat some of the water over the fire. She guessed that the river was still cold from the winter. Winry pulled the muddied bandages off her leg and looked at blood and dirt stains that surrounded the nasty wound that was left there. She hadn’t had a rag or anything to wash the dried blood off her leg when she bandaged it so now it looked like a horrible mangled mess. Just looking at it she realized how silly she was to even consider running all the way back to the Inside on it. If infection didn’t kill her, surely the wildlife or starvation would. She couldn’t get far on it even if she was determined to. However, what would she do if the outsider really was going to hurt her? Could this have simply been all a ruse for her to let her guard down? Winry closed her eyes and let out a frightened breath to try and calm herself down. Either way, whether she had escaped or stayed she was surely cursed or dead. She didn’t know which she preferred more.

As Winry grabbed the rag to wash her leg there was a light knock on the bathroom door. It could have been no one else but the monster that owned it. Winry was a little startled that he was there. At that moment, she was not only hurt but also naked and defenseless. The most she could do was throw soap at the Outsider and hoped it was allergic to Lavender.

“Um… Winry… I don’t have many clothes but…. I brought some for you to wear until I do the wash. They might be big… and there are holes in the pants for my… tail… I tried to mend it but…. I can’t sew,” the Outsider said from the other side of the door. Winry stayed silent and turned her eyes down to the water she was sitting in. She picked up her rag and continued to wash not wanting to answer the monster that was standing outside of the door. Silence etched its way through the house and Winry listened to the pacing feet outside wishing that they would just go away.

“I-I am going to set them down,” she heard the beast say. The door opened a little bit and Winry ducked farther into the water. The snout of the monster appeared first and then the long-horned head. The clothes were clutched in one arm and the other covered its eyes as if it cared for her decency. It blindly made its way to a chair that rested near the tub, almost slipping in a puddle of water. It turned its head away and dropped the clothes on the top of it. After giving a quick apology the outsider practically bolted out of the room. It nearly ran into the door in its blind race but soon Winry was alone again. She found herself chuckling lightly at how the monster was bumbling around but quickly stopped herself. No matter how funny it was to see the Outsider so concerned for her decency it walked around blind, it wasn’t a laughing matter. She was still trapped there with the beast. She was still alone.

Winry quickly rebandaged her leg. She picked up the clothes that the outsider set out for her. They were crumbled from how tightly it was holding them but they were better than her damp muddy ones. Winry slid the long shirt over herself it was long and swamped her but it was all she had to use at that moment. Picking up the slacks she turned them around and examined them. Like it had mentioned, the pants had a huge cloth patch over the back attached with horrible sewing. A kid probably could have done a better job. But she accepted it as she slid them on. It would have to do.

Wrapping her hair in a towel and grabbing the walking cane she was given, Winry opened the door to the bathroom and walked out. There was a blast of heat as she entered the living area of the cottage. The crackling of a warm fire burning in the hearth reached her ears and soothed her nerves. She looked up and saw the dark black monster hovering over the fire, emptying the wood box into it. The charcoal looking hands reached into the flames and dropped a log directly onto the fire, ignoring the fact that it probably burned itself in the process. Seeing as the fire was tended the beast reached in and picked up a hot plate that rested on the grate over the flames. It appeared to be a pie but it was burnt in most places and the inner filling appeared to almost be boiling over. The outsider was handling the pie carefully as if it was afraid to destroy it simply with its touch. Winry thought that it was already ruined.

“Doesn’t that burn you?” Winry asked curiously as she watched him not even use fire gloves. The outsider was so startled by her voice that it jumped lightly and nearly dropped the pie. It scrambled to regain its grip on the tin and set it on the table before it could fall to the floor.

“N-no I don’t burn,” the outsider told her as it wiped its hands on the apron it was wearing. “I didn’t know you were done. Do the clothes fit alright? I can start washing them after dinner-“

“They are fine…,” she mumbled not wanting to meet the monster’s gaze. Her eyes fell to the floor and there was a long pause of silence that whispered between them. Even though the fire was burning Winry felt cold just standing there. She didn’t know what to do. She was practically a prisoner in a monster’s den, was there any correct course of action to take? There was shuffling from across the room and Winry looked up to see the monstrous figure looming over her. She took a small step back, afraid of what it was going to do to her. The outsider seemed to realise this and took its own step back from her.

“Umm… I made you a pie,” it said hopefully, lifting a charcoaled mess up to her. She could smell the burnt crust and the boiling filling and it just made her withdraw even more.

“A-are you sure it’s a pie?” she asked it nervously, hoping not to offend the beast. The creature’s golden eyes fluttered down to the mangled mess in his hands and then back towards the kitchen where the cook book could be seen propped up on the counter.

“I mean I think it is…,” it muttered under its breath as it walked back over to the kitchen and flipped through the books pages. “It’s supposed to be-“ As the outsider flipped through the cook book trying to figure out what exactly it had created, Winry scooted closer to the fire, still keeping a fair distance from the monster. The heat radiated out towards her and warmed her wet skin. She closed her eyes tiredly as she felt it and a small smile tugged at her lips. It felt like it had been ages since she was warm. She imagined Granny tending the fire that they would use to meld some of the metal projects they were working on. The workshop was always sweltering hot and Winry would always complain about it but now there was an ache in her chest. She missed it, more importantly she missed Granny. Would she ever really get back home?

“Ha!” she heard a sudden victorious shout from behind her as the outsider jabbed one of its blackened fingers into the pages of the book it was examining. “It is a pie! I can see the resemblance now-“

“I-I don’t think I am hungry,” Winry mumbled as she kept her gaze on the glowing embers.

“But you need to eat something if you want to heal fast-“

“I am not up for pie right now.” There was a slight huff of disappointment as the outsider tossed the burnt disaster out the kitchen window and into the shrubs that laid below. There was a clatter of dishes and Winry soon found a small plate of berries set in front of her. She watched stiffly as the black furry hand withdrew itself and the creature took a step back from her. She looked up to see the Outsider looking down expectantly.

“At least eat that? They aren’t burnt,” it told her as it returned to the kitchen to clean up the mess it had made in its cooking adventure. Winry looked back down at the berries and studied them a little bit. It was just edging into the early season for the bushes and the berries that had grown were far from being fully ripe. Winry could see large green patches on them amongst splashes of red and blue. She picked one up, her mind running through how tart it would taste just to find herself very disappointed that it was in fact tarter than she expected. She made a nasty face as she tried to swallow the sour berry but her stomach growled out excitedly at the food she was giving it. She guessed she didn’t realise how hungry she was until then. When was the last time she ate anything? She could remember sitting down with Granny at the dinner table with a steaming pot of stew. Winry closed her eyes lightly as she imagined tasting how good it was. So long she had taken it for granted just for it to be replaced with soured berries. Would she have to live off berries for the rest of her life in the forest?

She felt tears fill her eyes and she sniffled lightly as she tried to wipe them away. How could she lose everything in the course of a few days? She tried her best to choke down her sobs but she felt like she wouldn’t succeed. It was a dam spilling over that needed to be released. She heard the clatter of dishes die down in the background and for a small second the only thing she could hear was the crackle of the fire and her own hard breaths.

“I…,” she heard the outsider’s voice stumble and hesitate. “I will go do the laundry now,” it muttered almost sadly. There was a slight pause before the monsters footsteps could be heard leaving the room and soon the front door of the cottage closed. Winry didn’t stop herself any longer.

………

Edward cursed himself as he piled his washed clothes into a weave basket to carry back up from the river. The water was clear and quick and with the help of some soap he was able to wash their clothes easily. Picking up his shirt Edward could see the woods on the other side of the river right through it. Six holes were torn in the fabric from the arrows the Insiders shot at him. He remembered the immense relief he held when he realized that none of the arrows had hit the girl. Terrified out of his mind, he was. But she was safe now, as scared as she was staying in his house, she was safe. That should have been enough for him, but it wasn’t.

He sighed as he poked his finger through the hole in disappointment. He would need to get more clothes when he went into the village again. Tossing it back into the basket he picked it up and carried it back to the house where the clothes lines were waiting for him. It was cool out, but with the sun he hopes the clothes would dry in time. Edward pinned the clothes up to the line one by one. As he bent over to pick up another shirt his eyes caught onto something poking out of the bushes. He looked up curiously and noticed that he could still see the destroyed remnants of his pie poking out of the bushes from when he threw it out. All he wanted to do was make Winry feel a little better. She was distressed, scared. He hoped maybe a pie might have made it better. But it turned out to be a burnt disaster. He never learned how to cook. And Winry wasn’t only upset about what happened to her, she was distressed because of him. She was afraid of him, so much that she couldn’t even look at him without shaking.

Edward frowned and dropped his gaze back down to the basket he was working out of. When he left the cottage he knew Winry was fighting from crying again. Because all of his previous attempts to make her feel better were thrown in the gutter, he had just left and let her be by herself for a little bit. He couldn’t stand to see her cry anymore but with her being so afraid of him, it seemed to be the only thing he could do. Maybe it was the best option for him to just not be there at all.

Edward looked back to his work as a soft breeze ruffled the clothes that hung on the line. The large white sheets flickered in the wind and a small flutter of happiness etched its way into Edward’s heart. A brown haired woman stood over him and reached out a welcoming hand. Edward could see her white apron ruffling in the wind that blew across the green grassy hill their house stood on. A gentle smile glowed on her face. Edward reached a small childish hand out to grab hers but it only managed to grab hold of the white sheet he had hung on the clothes line. As the illusion was shattered Edward felt his chest tighten and his blackened hand tightened around the white fabric like it was his only life line. His shoulders started to shake and Edward closed his eyes, not wanting the tears to overcome him. He sucked in a huge breath and eased himself. He slowly loosened his grip on the fabric as he calmed down and straightened himself out. He couldn’t cry.

Edward knew the ending to that story. He was living it, but he would be damned if he let anyone else live It too. Humans were afraid of him. He was an infectious monster and they all had a right to be scared but that didn’t mean he had to act like one. Edward looked back at the house as he picked another shirt out of the basket to hang on the line. Winry was terrified of him and he knew that she would undoubtedly cry some more but he just hoped that he might have the power to prevent the amount of anguish he felt when he first entered the dark woods. He could never return to the Inside, but hopefully she still could.

Edward finished hanging the wash and slowly returned to the cottage. He dropped the basket off in the hallway and walked into the living room of his cottage. The fire had dimmed down to only the embers and the room already started to cool from the lack of flame. A small form could be seen curled up on one of the chairs set in front of the hearth. Winry’s head was rested on one of the wooden arms, her hair unfurling towards the floor. She was fast asleep probably having cried herself out when he left. Edward quietly picked up one of the blankets that rested nearby and laid it gently over her, careful not to touch her. When finished Edward quickly took a step back bringing his hands close to his chest. A wave of determination flew into him as he stared down at the sleeping form of the girl. He will return her home. He will do anything to get her back to her family. He didn’t want anyone else to live and feel the way he did.

“I won’t allow it,” he vowed to himself.

…………

Winry batted her eyes open and tiredly allowed the sunlight in. Pushing her sore body up into a sitting position she came to the realization that she had fallen asleep in one of the cottage’s wooden chairs. She rubbed her aching back out with a yawn and rubbed her eyes tiredly to get herself fully awake. She felt a weight on her lap and looked down to see a blanket resting in her lap. Picking it up curiously, she was sure that wasn’t there when she had fallen asleep.

 She was about to inquire her peaceful thoughts further until she smelt a horrible burning. Looking up she noticed that the fireplace was yet again ablaze but this time had a smoldering pot over it. Billows of black smoke were fuming out of the fireplace completely ignoring that the chimney was there. The house was easily filled with a haze that burned her lungs. She coughed and searched blindly next to her for the cane she had been using to walk. She hopped up on her feet ignoring the stabbing pain in her injured leg and hobbled quickly to the kitchen window and threw it open. The fresh air easily absorbed the nasty smoke and made her realise just how horrible it smelled in there.

“Shit!” she heard a familiar voice exclaim behind her. The black skin of the outsider was hidden in the smoke of the fire as she saw the shadow of the beast race forward into the living room and rip the meal off the fire, tossing it onto the kitchen table. It ran immediately out again and she heard the front door opening to allow more air into the house to vent out the smoke. She could hear curses all the way. Winry, through the haze of the smoke, took a closer look at the blackened mess that was on the table top, simmering as it cooled. It was another pie.

“It’s worse than the first one!” she heard the outsider whine as it came back into the kitchen area. Winry took a tiny step backwards as it neared her. The monster leaned over the table and inspected the remains of its pitiful creation. It scratched its head in aggravation as it pondered what could have went wrong. “I think the fire was too hot again. It’s hard to keep the temperature level-“

“Why do you keep trying to make pies when you are obviously bad at it?” Winry interrupted him curiously. The outsider looked up in surprise as if it was surprised she was even talking to it. Their conversations have been kept short and she always thought silence was the best answer to give when the monster in front of her asked a question. However, when the outsider insists on trying to burn the house down just for a pie, Winry didn’t want to wake up one morning consumed in flames.

“I just… thought it would make you feel better…,” the outsider mumbled as it rubbed the back of its head sheepishly, turning its golden eyes to the floor. Winry was a little taken back by the monster’s statement. It was baking because she was upset? Winry didn’t think that it could feel sympathy at all but here the outsider was repeatedly trying to bake a pie to show her compassion. Was it really trying to help her? She shook her head at the ludicrous idea. Outsiders were cursed animals. She was standing in the same room as a beast she couldn’t let herself get pulled into its ruse.

“Well it’s not working,” she said flatly, nearly flinching at how cold she sounded. Even that was a bit mean for someone who was just trying to make her feel better. The outsider pulled back slightly, seeming unsettled by her words. However as much as Winry thought she insulted it, the monster just chuckled weakly.

“I guess it would have worked better if I made it right,” it said hopefully as it walked around the table and dumped it out of the window like its previous experiment. Winry rounded the table as the outsider moved to keep a good distance from it. It tossed the tarnished tin into the sink with a clatter and opened up the cupboards to see what it had left. “I think I have enough for one more try, firewood too. Maybe then I might be able to actually make one.” Winry watched in disbelief as it started to pull out some ingredients to make another pie.

“Why do you want to make another one?!” she exclaimed, aggravated beyond belief with the outsider’s stubbornness.

“Because I am bound to get it right sometime and then you will have pie-“

“I don’t want pie!”

“Then what do you want?!”

“I want to go home!” Winry shouted. “Who do you think you are, thinking that a pie would fix everything? I am injured and being kept here with a monster!”

“Hey! I know a pie won’t fix everything! It’s a fucking pastry, of course it can’t fix everything. But it is better than nothing,” the beast snapped as it slammed the jar of flour down on the counter. Winry forced herself not to flinch as she glared the monster right in its eyes. She didn’t want to waver. She didn’t want to let it scare her anymore. “I know you don’t want to be here. Who in the right mind would want to be near a creature like me? No one! But while you are here I hoped to at least make it bearable until your leg heals. I…” the outsider started to stumble from its rant as it thought hard about what it was saying. “I don’t want to see you cry anymore. But apparently, I am bad at that as well.”

 Winry froze as she watched the outsider look to the floor as if it had let her down. It seemed hurt and an overwhelming amount of guilt flooded her. No matter what she tried to tell herself about the monsters of the dark forest she couldn’t just push off her culpability any longer. She couldn’t believe that the outsider would have felt empathy for her. It was just trying to make her feel better with a simple pie. Winry covered her mouth as she tried to decide what to do. She had yelled at the outsider just for trying to help her. It had saved her and she still didn’t feel grateful for that. Winry didn’t realise how insensitive she had become when she was blinded by fear and worry. There was a clatter and Winry looked up to see the outsider already putting the ingredients back into the cupboard where it found them.

“Wait,” she said before she could stop herself. The outsider froze in its place as it was putting the flour back and turned slightly to gaze a golden eye upon her. They looked mildly surprised but Winry could tell that they were filled with disappointment, more towards itself than at her. She pulled her hand back from where it was outstretched to stop him and leaned against the counter as she felt that her cane couldn’t support her by itself.

“Umm, Edward,” she rephrased, the human name rolling off her tongue like sandpaper when she identified it with him. “I could…. Teach you… how to make a pie I mean.”

“You… You will?” the outsider asked her curiously, setting the flour back on the counter hesitantly. It seemed like it didn’t believe her at first. Like it was his turn to avoid the ruse. Winry however nodded her head innocently.

“Yes… just so we don’t waste food.”

“What do your parents do to make you feel better?” it asked her innocently. Winry frowned and turned her gaze away.

“They’re dead,” she growled at him harshly.

“Oh,” was all the outsider could say. It didn’t even ask why or how. It just dropped the conversation like a hot coal. Winry was very grateful. It wasn’t something she wanted to talk about especially with a horned monster.

 He had grown so accustomed to living by himself he had forgotten how much of it was actually a lie. No matter how much he pretended that life was normal, he knew it wasn’t. It was all a joke to fool himself. But it was the only thing he had.

Edward felt a tightness in his chest and he quickly grabbed his collar trying to ease it. He almost forgot how much he actually lost. The world thought him a monster but only a real monster would wish what he had gone through on someone else.

“I am getting better!” the outsider defended itself proudly. Winry raised her eyebrow in disbelief which popped the monster’s bubble. Its shoulders sagged and it rubbed the back of its neck tiredly. “I made you dinner-“ it pointed out, hoping to change the subject. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that much better of a conversation.

“I am sure you made dinner ten minutes ago, but now you made charcoal,” Winry said as she approached the table cautiously. She made sure to stay on the opposite side of it from the monster as to not get too close.

“Hey! I-It isn’t that bad. It’s still edible…. I think….” the outsider mumbled. Winry looked down at the boiling mess and grimaced. “Look, it’s all I had. I don’t have enough to cook anything else-“

“Well, I am not eating that.”

“Can you try it?” it asked hopefully. Winry wanted to say no but she looked up at the golden eyes of the beast in front of her.  They looked innocent enough yet she realized she shouldn’t test an animals boundaries. Like dealing with a feral dog you never knew what they were thinking. As much as she wanted to toss the pie out of the window, she accepted to have a piece as to not poke the bear. Happy that she was actually trying it, the outsider retrieved a plate from the near empty cupboards and placed a burnt scrap on top of it. It placed the meal in front of her with a fork and waited in anticipation for her to try it. Winry hesitantly took a bite of the black substance but immediately spat it out.

“Oh god, that’s aweful!” she exclaimed as the taste of it brought tears to her eyes.

“wh-what, is it too hot?”

“It’s salty! How on earth did you make a pie salty?” she shouted at him in absolute disbelief. The outsider tried to bumble with an excuse but he couldn’t seem to come up with one.

“What did you bake this with?” Winry asked still trying to get the nasty. The outsider looked a little taken back but turned around and opened some of the cupboards up. They were all completely bare except for a few small containers. He pulled them down and set them on the counter for her.

“flour, sugar-“

“That’s not sugar,” Winry said as she pointed to the container holding the white grainy substance. “That’s salt.” The outsider picked it up curiously and took a pinch of it out, sifting it through his fingers.

“Damn it looks the same,” he mumbled as he ran back to the cupboard and pulled out another jar. “Is his sugar?”

Chapter Text

Heaven Descending: Fullmetal Alchemist AU

Based off the show Carnivale

Idea: The people of Xerxes are descended from Gods. Though the blood lines have run dry and thin, the power of destiny can be found running through many people’s veins. Some people may call them gifted, but most call them freaks. Due to fear of their power, the country of Amestris rules over its citizens with an iron fist. Those who exhibit gifts immediately lose their rights and become a lower grade citizen for the sake of ‘balance and control’. To live a normal life, people have either learned to hide their powers in plain sight or suppress them all together. For most of the gifted, their powers are small and more like quirks. Edward and Alphonse on the other hand do not know they have direct bloodlines to the God Hohenheim of Light. Their power of their strange gifts could just bring the skies of Heaven crashing straight down to earth.

When they are little Edward first begins to realize he is different when he is playing with Alphonse down the hill. Alphonse trips and falls and breaks his leg, and Edward doesn’t know what to do. He calls to his mother back at the house and she comes rushing down. Edward desperately grabs Alphonse to try and figure out how to help when suddenly the tree they are near starts to wither and rot and Alphonse’s leg magically heals. By the time their mother gets down to them, Alphonse is completely fine. Edward has the power of healing and restoration at the cost of other forms of life nearby. That idea frightens Edward as he thinks he might accidentally kill someone when all he does is try to help. Trisha calms him down but tells him never to show anyone his gift and to never use it. She tells him that he should not have the power to decide who lives and who dies because the world doesn’t work like that. Edward, scared of his own power begins to wear gloves that day to avoid touching anyone. He starts to read medical books and texts to try and understand where his power comes from, or at least, how it works.

Only a few months later, Alphonse notices he is different when his shoulders start to itch and hurt. He begins scratching at them but soon it is unbearable, and he asks Edward to help. Edward feels strange bumps on his brother’s back and asks him what they were. Alphonse takes off his shirt and they find two roughly feathered wing buds sprouting off his back. He is growing wings. They can hide them for many years under his shirt. As they grow bigger he soon must wear sweatshirts all the time, then coats, then stuff them away in a suit of armor. The armor causes chaffing on his wings and hurts, but it is better than what would happen to him if anyone else found out.

Soon their mother falls ill and is on her death bed. She talks to each of them before she dies to tell them that she loves them, but that they must never tell anyone about their gifts or else bad things would happen. They both are scared and don’t want to let her go. Edward almost reaches out to heal her but she tells him not to. It is her time to die and she knows that they will continue to be strong without her. She dies and the funeral happens and the local authorities do their best to send them off to an orphanage. Scared and alone, Edward and Alphonse decide to run away.

They live homeless for several months and train hop from town to town. They start to steal food but made the mistake of stealing from the Curtis’ who aggressively start to parent them. They make sure the Elrics get a good education. The Curtis’ find out about Alphonse’s wings and deduce that Edward also is amongst the gifted but they never find out what his power is. They keep the boy’s origins a secret and continue to raise them. As they grow older the Elrics begin to look into jobs as teachers at a university in Central after many years working as apprentices. Before they leave, Izumi gets a note from the doctor saying that she is terminally ill with ovarian cancer. Edward, not wanting to be as useless as he was when his mother dies, heals her the night before they leave. It takes the life of a local town cat as well as a field of crop but the cancer disappears. Izumi is shocked beyond belief but before she could demand an explanation or spread the news, the Elrics leave town to Central to avoid persecution. They manage to become professors at a University in Central where Edward teaches biochemistry and Alphonse teaches physics.

They adjust to life in Central. They pick up their classes easily but trying to find friends is another ordeal. Alphonse and Edward are very untrusting due to being amongst the gifted. They are afraid that if people find out they would either be persecuted as devils or worshiped like gods, both of which they do not want. Alphonse slowly begins to hang out with Winry Rockbell, a mechanic that he goes to for armor repairs or new suits. Though it isn’t mechanics, Winry seems to have a good hand with designing armor. (Alphonse doesn’t wear the same suit everyday and really does start a small collection). Edward, on the other hand, does not have many people to hang out with. It isn’t like he doesn’t try, he does, he just never makes a good first impression.

One day while Edward is getting a cup of coffee at the local shop before school, he runs into a police officer named Roy. Edward is extremely wary at first as he is afraid that if he finds out he’s gifted, he would be arrested. Though gifts aren’t illegal, they aren’t treated well and often are faced with fines, restrictions, or lower citizen classes. However, over time and with a few good jokes, they warm up to each other and Edward begins meeting Roy at the coffee shop in the mornings to talk.

Everything goes well for Edward and Alphonse until a terrorist group attacks the university. The group is under the ruse that they act with the hand of god. They are a group of Gifted that want to slowly overthrow the Amestrian power regime. There is an explosion at the University and many people are injured. Alphonse and his small class are trapped in one of the science labs by fire and debri. Deciding to save his students, Alphonse exposes his wings and flies his students down several stories through their open classroom window. They make it safely just in time as another explosion goes off. As Alphonse’s wings are now exposed, the students are terrified as they see him for who he is. Alphonse is about to run away but the police arrive at the scene and arrest him.

Edward, on the other hand, didn’t have a class during the explosion. He was in his office doing paperwork. Being just down the hall from the explosion, his office is torn apart and rubble flies through the air. Though Edward is able to take refuge under his desk, his office caves in and he becomes trapped. Roy is a police officer at the scene and sees Alphonse gets arrested. Alphonse begs someone to help get the other students and teachers out. When Roy hears that Edward is still in there, he does not hesitate to barge into the building even as the roof is coming down. He races up to where Edward’s office is and begins to dig an escape route for him. Once Edward is free they begin their race out of the building. Unfortunately there is a secondary explosion set up. The hallway is torn apart and they get the full force of the blast. Edward is thrown against the wall but is skewered by a large piece of glass. He is dying and bleeding out. Edward tries to help him the best he could and Roy is being all dramatic about it. Tired of Roy’s complaining, Edward knocks him out with a punch to the face. Realizing that he has no other choice, Edward decides to use his powers to help him. He uses the lab animals and plants from the room next door and heals Roy in exchange for their lives. He then hauls Roy to safety before the second explosion could go off.

After finding out Alphonse is arrested, Edward does his best to testify for his release. Apparently Alphonse is being blamed for the bombs going off and is claimed to be a terrorist. They are attempting to drain him of information as to when the next terrorist attack is going to be. Edward rallies the students together who Alphonse saved and they fight against the police with the help of Roy and have Alphonse released. Unfortunately, along with the courts releasing him, they decided to change his citizenship to second class due to the fact that he is gifted. This makes it nearly impossible for him to get a job and housing. He was fired from his job at the university and is left on his own.

Edward takes Alphonse in and struggles to support the both of them due to the low salaries of teachers. Alphonse is distraught over everything and begins to have nightmares over his time in jail. Edward asks what happened to him in there but Alphonse is too upset to mention anything.

Emperor: Roy Mustang

              Good: Authority, father figure, structure, solid foundation

              Bad: Domination, excessive control, rigidity, inflexibility

Fool: Edward

              Good: Beginnings, innocence, spontaneity, free spirit

              Bad: naivety, foolishness, recklessness, risk taking

Strength: Alphonse

              Good: Strength, Courage, Patience, Control, Compassion

              Bad: Weakness, self doubt, lack of self discipline

Temperance: Hawkeye

              Good: Balance, moderation, patience, purpose, meaning

              Bad: Imbalance, excess, lack of long term vision

Chapter Text

FMA POW AU inspired by the movie Land of Mine. I loved it so much and cried through the whole thing so I figured I would just write a little something of plot line here.

Plot Summary yet: Amestris was split in two for a civil war that lasted twelve whole years. The war was caused because the military was using civilian harvests to feed their soldiers in a battle against the Drachmans in the North. The high quota of food demanded by the government left many towns in the east and south starving while the soldiers in the north ate their fill. The sides were weighed and measured, but the rebels have found themselves beaten.

Now that the country is rejoined, reconstruction of the burnt and smoldering towns and cities must take place. However, that can’t happen if weapons of war lie in the way. Mines were placed throughout Amestris during the war that need to be removed and the Amestrian Military is low on troops and motivation. Instead of using their own valuable soldiers, the Amestrian Military uses the rebel POWs to diffuse the bombs for them. Under the careful watch of guards and police, the POWs scan the fields of Resembool to clear all the mines from them.

Edward, Alphonse, and a few others were captured rebelling soldiers. They are forced to work as mine diffusers to gain their freedom and return home. But it is a dangerous job. Every day, their small group of men go out and return with less and less people. Though the Amestrian soldiers are cruel to them, Edward and Alphonse look out for each other and the other POWs. Even though they are practically starving and there is a chance they could blow up at any moment, if they keep their head up, they will eventually see home which lies only 50 miles away from their work site.

Mustang is an Amestrian officer who oversees the Resembool mine fields. He watches over the work that the POWs do and makes sure that they don’t run off. He is harsh and cruel to them because he understands that war is business. For him to go home and get promoted, all the mines need to be cleared. However, he isn’t as cruel as he makes himself seem. Mustang knows that man is not defined by who he fights for, only on how he fights. He knows that the war was ignited on issues that shouldn’t have happened. He knew that the Amestrian government was at fault for it all no matter who won. Seeing the people out on the mine field who were nothing more than farmers, sheep herders, or children at the start of the war makes him feel compassion for them.

 The men had been working for days on end with no sleep as were the General’s orders. People were dropping like flies from sleep exhaustion but they were pushed on until one man collapsed while working right onto a mine. Mustang called an hour break for all the POWs to recuperate after the shock of losing one of their fellow workers. After the time was over, Mustang was ordered to get all the POWs out to the mine field to keep working. The General didn’t want them wasting anymore time for the rebels. He had called everyone to line up to go down to the fields after an hour break, but he noticed that he was missing one person from his line. This person was Alphonse Elric. Mustang asks the group where he was, thinking that he had run off. Another kid, who he learned was Edward Elric, his brother, said that he had just seen him over the hill. He had thought that he was behind him when they went running. Mustang walks over the hill where he has his first encounter with Alphonse Elric. The kid is fast asleep in the grass and nothing more than a brick dropped on his face would wake him. Mustang kicks him hard to get him up and slowly the boy wakes up. The kid is exhausted and Mustang notices large bags underneath his eyes. If another person drops, Mustang has a good guess it would be him next. Seeing who it is, Alphonse jumps to his feet (almost falling over) and addresses him like they were trained to do in the beginning. He looks scared and Roy scolds him for falling asleep. Alphonse tries to reason with him to tell him that they can’t keep working like that. It’s one thing he is already aware of. He yells at him for arguing and orders him to get back into line.

Mustang sends them all down to the sand and orders them to start diffusing the bombs again. They don’t argue even though they know that if they continue they are going to die. However, as they begin to work Mustang starts to yell at them for going too fast and missing bombs or being careless. They slow down but he continues to yell at them until they are frozen where they are. It is then that Edward realizes that he wants them to sleep on the job at least for a little while. Though dangerously close to the mines, they can dig themselves into the dirt to get a few hours of rest. When enough time has passed Mustang kicks them awake so that they can continue their actual work a little more rested.

Reports come in from all over that other mine fields are losing too many POWs due to fatigue and starvation and are forced to use some of their own soldiers in the diffusing procedure. Not wanting to waste their own troops, the military is forced to provide facilities for them to sleep in and take regular breaks. Edward and Alphonse’s groups can take shelter in a local farmer’s barn during their periods off as they are clearing out the country-side. The owner hates the rebels because her husband ran off with them and got himself killed. She doesn’t like to help them and tries often to provide rancid food instead of edible stuff. It got all of them severely sick, one of the first cases blowing himself up on a bomb by vomiting on it. Mustang, hating to see the morality even farther dampened, reasoned with her that they would leave her farm faster if they were more fit to work harder. She relentingly started to provide better food though not much.

The mine safe territory grows and markers are set up to where it is safe to walk. The freed space is now used for exercising the farm’s animals, which some of the POWs have taken to doing (mostly Alphonse) to help with the woman’s land and work. One man who Edward talked to for a while and learned also lived in Resembool attempted to steal a horse and ride home. Mustang was forced to shoot him in the back. Edward is not horrified because he knew that that would happen and tried to warn the other man. They knew that they would be killed if they tried to run. However, because of that, Edward feels like home is even farther now than ever before. One night, thinking of home, Edward sits up outside of the barn after everyone else has gone to bed. Alphonse comes out and starts to talk to him. Edward states that he misses home more now than ever and that he wishes it was as easy as dodging a few bullets to make it back. Winry is probably worried about them and he wants to send a letter home to her to tell her they were alright. Alphonse tells him that they don’t even have paper. If they struggle to get enough food, he doubts that they would be allowed to send letters. He states that at least they have each other which is more than the other prisoners have. In the middle of their conversation Mustang comes to lock them in the barn for the evening and catches them outside. He scolds them to get inside but not after overhearing their conversation. As Edward starts to leave Mustang stops him for a second. He tells him that they will go home after this. Not liking him, Edward grumpily retorts that it was an empty promise.

When Alphonse is herding the sheep back in from the mine free zone one of them strays a little too far from their normal path and gets blown up. They had missed a mine and Mustang gets furious. That could have been a person like the farm wife’s daughter or another innocent bypasser. He scolds the group to be more thorough and orders them to march down the miles of field that they have already cleared. He says if they blow up it is their own damn fault for missing. It is a death march, but luckily they did not miss again.

As the days turn towards summer and the fields start to clear, they take a day off to recuperate. Edward relaxes in the grassy fields and starts to take a nap but unfortunately is disturbed by a young girl poking him. He recognizes her as the farmer’s daughter, Nina. She is holding a bunch of flowers out to him for him to take. He gratefully receives them and sits her down to teach her how to make a flower crown. Eventually they all have flower crowns for the entire company. Everyone begins to play with the little girl and her dog. They begin to really relax for the first time in forever. However a gust of wind suddenly picks up and the little girl’s hat is blown off her head. The dog is distracted by it and starts to chase after it. The girl follows wanting to get her hat back. Everyone starts to chase after the girl as she is heading right into the mine field. Alphonse goes after her. She stops in the middle of the mine field where her hat came to a stop and picks it up. Everyone yells at her to freeze and Alphonse runs in blindly after her. He makes it to her after a miracle of not blowing himself up and holds onto her to stop her from running off. She thinks its all a game until the dog that is still playing around gets blown up right next to them. Alphonse shields her from the blast but gets hit and his right leg and arm get severed. Nina is screaming terrified now but Alphonse bears through it and calms her down even as he is bleeding out. Edward I sifting through the field to diffuse a path for them. He wants nothing more than to run out to his brother but he needs to get the mines out first. By the time he gets there to where Alphonse is holding onto Nina, his brother has already bled out from his femoral artery and died.

Alphonse’s body is taken away and Edward is left in a state of shock. There is no funeral. There is only silence. The other prisoners do not say anything to Edward about his brother because they know there is nothing they could say. He barely eats as all he can do is think about his brother. Mustang does not make Edward work for that week nor the next. One night when Mustang goes to lock everyone in for the night he sees Edward standing outside of the shack staring very intently towards the mine field. Mustang knows the look in his eyes and quietly sneaks up to him. Just as Edward starts a blind bolt towards the field he snatches him back and tackles him to the ground. He scolds him that Alphonse wouldn’t have wanted him to throw his life away. Alphonse died protecting someone. He was a hero and he wouldn’t want his life to go to waste just for Edward to give up. Edward openly cries and mourns his brother, the first time he has since Alphonse died. He cries and says it is unfair. His brother never even shot a gun, never killed another person. He shouldn’t have been in the war and he shouldn’t have died. Mustang doesn’t know what to say but comforts him the best he can, enough to calm him down. This is the event that makes Mustang fully understand what the rebels went and are still going through. He truly vows to see it that Edward makes it home. Seeing the state that he’s in, Mustang does not allow Edward to return to the field and instead puts him in charge of all of the other chores. It is several weeks until Edward calms down enough to go back to the field.

Their assigned area is finally cleared a year after they had started working it. Everyone rejoices and they all have a picnic to celebrate that their work is over. They were able to go home. Mustang is extremely happy and the General comes down to see their progress and make plans with Mustang as to the logistics of returning the rebels home. Except, he doesn’t. The general received a change of plans that the POWs, instead of returning home as promised, would be sent to another area to diffuse more mines that were not cleared away yet. They were to continue their work. Mustang fights and argues with him, but is harshly put down and loses the argument. Feeling utterly defeated, he doesn’t know how to break the news to the rebel workers, who are currently the happiest they have been in ages. Mustang breaks the news and there is uproar amongst the POWs. They argue that they were supposed to go back. Mustang says that they will. He has made a plan to sneak the POWs back home to their families. He is supposed to transport them in a covered vehicle. At several points along the route to the new area there are blind spots. He has the rebels hop out and run away at these points so that by the time he arrives at the new field, the vehicle will be empty. He gives the POWs clothes from his own house to replace their working garb and hides small packs of food in the vehicle before they are loaded onto it. Edward thanks Mustang for everything and says that he is glad that he can finally believe it when he says that they are going home. He worries what will happen to Mustang when the higher ups see that he lost all of his prisoners. Mustang reassures him not to worry about it.

Everything goes according to plan and Edward is able to return home to his family and there is a bitter sweet reunion where they have a memorial service for Edward and the other people in his camp that Edward grew to knew but that didn’t make it. Mustang on the other hand, turns up to the new camp of course with an empty truck and no prisoners. An investigation and search is set out to find the prisoners but none are found. Mustang is stripped of his rank and set to work in the fields himself in their place. He works for three months before he unfortunately dies from a mine going off.