A murky past is better left forgotten.
Chapter One - A father's decision.
Authors Notes: This story is based off of a Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic by Rose ( Spaceroses) a friend of mine;
The story is an AU set in a more fantasy-like era and focuses on the Fullmetal Alchemist characters within this alternate universe.
This following story is a gift from me, and it follows the past of this story universe's version of Shou Tucker.
I hope you like this Rose! ^_^ :: Hugs::
And also to everyone else who reads the story; enjoy!
Shou Tucker belongs to Hiromu Arakawa, BONES, Square Enix.
Jacob Tucker and Peter Andrews belong to Rebecca Mason ( me!)
There was no denying it, they were always there at the back of his mind, memories that had partially been clouded over by time and partially for the fact of forgetting they even existed in the first place.
But no matter how deeply tucked away in Shou's mind they were, there would always be times when the memories would resurface to haunt him in his sleep...
It was a rather gloomy day within the kingdom of Amestris as the clouds above began to darken with the amount of moisture that had formed within them, it was no wonder that a heavy downpour would soon begin.
Yet through all of this miserable weather, the spirits of the people living in East City were high as they joyfully celebrated the birth of a new prince who had entered into the world just a few hours previously.
The sound of singing and laughing could be heard from the numerous taverns in the streets, each building seemed to be full to the brim with people that were eager to join in with the celebrations; and an orange glow filtered out through the windows and doorways, giving off a pleasant aura to an otherwise gloomy street.
However...the thought of celebrations was not in the mind of one bespectacled man as he walked rather briskly down the cobblestone streets with his young son who seemed to be struggling to keep up with the older man's pace.
The child in question had curiously looked up at the sky after a cold raindrop had splashed onto his nose, only to let out a surprised yelp when his father grabbed ahold of his hand and started to run towards the nearest tavern for shelter.
The man's tavern of choice was one that seemed to be a bit more quieter than the rest and only seemed to have a few people inside.
' Good, I'll be able to hear myself think' he thought to himself as he stepped into the building, followed closely by his son.
The bartender of the tavern had just been cleaning out a glass when his attention turned to the two newcomer's...the older one being more reconisable as a regular at the tavern; a blonde eyebrow raised somewhat questionally as the father and son started to come towards the bar.
" I'm sorry Mr. Tucker, but I'm afraid we don't serve drinks to minors" he told the bespectacled man with a slight grin on his face.
Giving a slight roll of his eyes, Mr. Jacob Tucker just shook his head and gazed at the bar-man with a less than amused expression.
" Very funny Pete, I didn't bring Shou here for his first drink...he's not even eighteen yet" he stated dryly before patting the boy in-question's shoulder and pointed over to a clear place within the room.
" Go and play over there Shou, Daddy needs to talk about adult business"
Shou said nothing in response ( never really being the kind of boy to say much) as he just stared up at his father with innocent blue eyes, before finally giving a nod and just walking over to the corner of the room with the hope that he'd find something fun to do.
Jacob just gave his son a fatherly smile before looking back to the barman, his expression seemed to become much more serious as his cold blue eyes focused on the other man's.
" Peter I need to ask you, when are they holding the next slave market?" was the only question the young man asked as he took a seat on one of the bar stools.
Although as the man in question gave him a quizzical look, Jacob just gave a light shrug.
" It's a business matter..."
Peter just looked over to the calander that was hanging on the wall and just looked at the date that had been freshly marked with ink from a quill pen as the Prince's birthday.
" Well by the looks of things, it won't be today..." the middle-aged man replied as he scratched his head slightly.
" It's been declared a national holiday because of the birth of the new prince" although Pete then just chuckled slightly and pointed out to one of the other taverns.
" Of course...the only places that are working over this glorious holiday is the taverns; I should think that the streets will be full of drunken people, attempting to stumble their way home"
Jacob just gave a look of amusement at that...but in reality he really just found the whole holiday thing pointless.
' What's so special about it? the prince is just another human in this forever-growing world; nothing but another mouth to feed, nurture and spend money on...and yet, the entire kingdom throws a holiday upon his birthday...if only everyone else had that same privilege, but then that would really tip the world's economy upside down'
" Yes, I hear King and Queen Mustang were quite pleased at this new arrival..." he responded, trying to at least sound civil on the whole matter; he couldn't be showing disrespect towards royalty afterall!
" We can only hope that he'll reign this country with a strong hand like his father and Grandfather before him"
However his anxiousness grew over the next slave market when Pete had started to talk even more about the little prince and how the future seemed bright for everyone within the kingdom...at this rate, Jacob would never get to do business!
In the meantime, little Shou was quite happily minding his own business in the area of the tavern that Jacob had said for him to go to.
There hadn't really been any toys to play with though ( much to the four year old's disappointment) but in the end, Shou had just settled for making shadows on the wall and after that, had decided to play imaginary with him thinking that he was an explorer in uncharted territory.
" And so, adventurer Shou Tucker makes his way through scary ground...hoping to find places that no one has ever seen before!" he chanted to himself, mispronouncing a few words as could be expected for a child his age.
The scent of wood on the timber panels on the wall seemed to waft up the little boy's nose, obviously they'd only just been put up by Pete as means of improving the interior so that it looked more appealing to people who prefered to dine or drink in more sophisticated-looking places...and the barman had often complained that people should just be happy with what they have.
But the glow that the panels gave off whenever the fire-place was lit often produced a rather warm and comfortable atmosphere, the firelight's yellow-orange flames ( despite being a fair bit away from the wooden panels) blended well with the brown shade of the wood and so the glow was a cross between a soft red and a warm orange.
And a lot of people had commented on how nice the atmosphere from this colour combination, was...so Pete had decided to leave the panels up.
The wooden panels however didn't really matter to Shou as he carried on with his imaginary quest; as he started to creep along the floor, Shou seemed to be oblivious to the conversation between his father and the barman...and only managed to catch a few words such as ' prince', ' kingdom' and ' following in the king's footsteps' neither of which really made sense to the young boy at all.
But he did end up incorporating the first two words into his make-believe game.
" And if I come across an undiscovered kingdom...it could be ruled by a young prince!" he didn't know much about prince's...but his mother had often told him that they were little boys who practically got anything they ever wanted...but she had then countered that even though they got everything they ever wanted, they sometimes never seemed satisfied and ended up wanting more...at least, that's what happened to the king of Amestris a long, long, long time ago.
" Although I'd have to be quick in finding him...otherwise he could end up wishing for immortality and be eaten by a dragon like the king that Mama had told me about!"
That story had always frightened Shou...even if Emily had told about it having an important moral at the end; about not trying to reach for things that humans weren't meant to reach for, otherwise it could end up destroying them in the end.
Yet the little boy had ended up interpreting it quite differently; Don't wish for living a longer life otherwise a big dragon will eat you and then eat it's own tail so you can never get out.
And what's more, it had made perfect sense to Shou...
So with his mother's story in mind, Shou finally started to get on with his imaginary quest to find a new kingdom and try and save the non-existant prince from meeting a grisly end.
In the meantime, Jacob had been growing more and more impatient with Pete's talks about royalty and how much the kingdom of Amestris had flourished over the last decade or so...and eventually, the bespectacled man just ran a hand through his wavy light-brown hair nervously and flashed his blonde friend a strained grin.
" Yes Pete, it is quite insightful and I really do appreciate you sharing all of that fascinating information with me..." he lied through nearly gritted teeth, his tone seemed to hold an undeniable sense of boredom in it...but he was at least attempting to cover it up with a more enthusiastic tone.
"...But I really want to know when they will be holding the next slave-market, because it's a really important matter"
Pete just looked to Jacob for a moment with a clueless looking expression before finally giving a sigh and turning his attention to the calandar once more.
" Well...things will probably be back to everyday business tomorrow, so the next slave market will probably happen then...or if not tomorrow, then more certainly in two or three days time"
The smile that Jacob seemed to do seemed to suggest that the information was enough for him...or so it would seem.
Although there was something rather untrustworthy about that smile; Jacob had never asked about the slave-market before...and to just suddenly ask this question out of the blue? something was definately up.
" Erm...but aren't you a little bit tight on money to consider purchasing a slave?"
Jacob didn't really say anything in response to that at first, other than give a small smile and shrug.
His attention then turned to the window as the rain outside became heavier, the splashing sound of raindrops hitting the cobblestones and the window sil could be heard more than clearly...the twenty-something though that it was amazing how a lot of tiny raindrops could make such a big noise.
Eventually, Jacob spoke up once more...but his words were far from comforting.
" Who said I was going to be purchasing anything? I need to sell something..."
That just made Pete go silent for a bit...and for a while, the sound of the raindrops, a few other people talking, the clinking of glasses and young Shou talking to himself were the only sounds that seemed to cover up the awkwardness of the moment.
' What on earth is it that he wants to sell?' he mentally asked himself, not really liking where this was going.
Pete was no stranger to the conditions that the Tucker family lived in; he knew that buying things, even the most basic things such as food and clothing was starting to become difficult for them.
And even with the job Jacob was in, the factory gave out a meager wage...that hardly helped the Tucker's situation either.
" I see...erm...so is it some person you and Emily took in off the street or something like that?"
Again, there came that un-nerving silence...and it was now that Pete began to show signs of discomfort.
" Dang it Jacob, just spit it out!" Pete exclaimed all of a sudden, not being able to stand the stalling silence from his friend any longer.
" If it's not some wandering tramp, than who the heck is it? don't tell me you're selling you own wife?!"
Jacob actually pulled a genuinely shocked expression at that and frowned at the looks that some of the other people gave him...this was the last thing he needed!
Giving a dismissive wave to them, Jacob turned to face Pete and shook his head.
" What kind of man do you take me for? of course I'd never sell my own wife!" and he meant it too, Emily was perhaps the best thing that had ever happened to him in his entire lifetime.
" But times are getting desperate; and me and Emily need a good income...I've heard the money you can get by selling a slave that's in good condition is most profitable"
Jacob then trailed off and said no more on the matter but just gave a look to Pete, just to see if he could figure out the rest...
Pete just thought in silence for a few moments...yet his expression soon darkened as he finally caught onto what Jacob was implying; and perhaps it was a good ( or not so good) thing that Shou's imaginary quest had taken him out of the main room at this time.
" You're going to sell your own son?!" Pete practically roared, slamming both his hands down on the bar as he scowled at Jacob.
However, the angry blonde barely gave Jacob any time to respond before he started up again.
" Are you out of your mind? he's just a four year old child!"
" Don't you think I haven't realised that?" Jacob sighed in response and just adjusted his glasses a little as they'd started to slip down slightly.
" I don't see why you're over-reacting...it's not like I'm sending Shou to his death or anything like that; besides I already said...me and Emily desperately need the money"
" Over-reacting? over-reacting?! Jacob, Shou's your own flesh-and-blood for goodness sakes...and you're just willing to sell him off to that dreaded slave market as if he was a piece of prime meat!"
He just couldn't understand it...how could a supposedly loving father sell out his own kid, his own defenseless little kid who was more or less still a toddler; and all for the sake of getting more money...that's all this was about, trading something that could think and feel for nothing but cold and lifeless pennies.
And what's more, Jacob didn't seem to see anything wrong with it!
Noting his friend's rising temper, Jacob just bit his bottom lip...this was the reason that he hadn't really wanted to reveal the reason in the first place, as Pete's temper could be quite frightening at times like these.
As a few beads of sweat trickled down his face, Jacob just did an audible gulp and seemed to edge off of his stool slightly.
" It was because of something Lord Yoki told me!" he exclaimed, hoping that would be enough to justify his reasoning.
" He told me that he's sold children to the slave market loads of times, his own children Pete...he said that people do this all the time, so it can't be wrong!"
Pete's blue eyes just narrowed at the mention of Yoki's name and let loose with a disapproving huff.
" You mean to tell me that you believed that greedy swindler?" he muttered, shaking his head slightly in disbelief.
" Yoki's a born liar who'll do anything he can to make a fortune...have you ever heard the story about the fox and the rabbit, Jacob? you know...where the rabbit tells the fox that he'll sell his family to the market and the fox decides to do the same; both of them do just that, they put both of their families into different bags and tie them up...but unknown to the fox, the rabbit made a hole in the bag he'd placed his family in...
So that when the cart came to take them away to the market, the rabbits escape through the hole in the bag and go back to the rabbit...while the fox's family are carried off to market"
And it was then that expression of Pete's seemed to look even darker than before...although this time it was more of a foreboding warning look rather than an angry one.
" It's like that story Jacob...and you're not the rabbit"
Jacob just remained silent after that...but the expression on his face clearly showed some discomfort in what Pete had said.
' What if he's right?' his thoughts seemed to tell him.
' Perhaps this is just some kind of trick...'
Unfortunately, Jacob soon frowned and just shook his head...his mind had already been made up the moment that he'd got Pete's answer on when the slave-market was; and as far as Jacob was concerned, nothing Pete said was going to shake him from his final decision.
" Yes well...since you've finally given me the answer I wanted to know, I think me and Shou will be going now..." and with that Jacob pulled himself up off of the stool and went to look for where his son had got to, asking people for the wherabouts of his son when he saw that Shou had seemingly strayed from the place where his father had told him to wait.
Shou had by this time, come close to reaching the small kitchen that was down a dimly-lit corridor...apparently at this point in time his 'quest' had reached an interesting point, he had found a guardian beast that kept watch outside the kingdom! in the shape of a little mouse.
" You haven't tried to bite me yet..." the four year old mused as he gazed down at the little animal as it sat cleaning it's whiskers...it did seem to come across as quite tame, even when Shou slowly got down on his hands and knees in order to peek at the mouse even more.
" Oh I get it! you must be a guardian beast in-training!" he stated, feeling somewhat relieved that getting to the undiscovered 'kingdom' would be easy afterall.
After a few more minutes of awkward silence and looking in wonder at the little mouse, the mouse in-question had stopped cleaning it's whiskers and was now looking right at the four year old, it's little nose and whiskers twitched with almost as much curiousity as Shou himself was showing.
Yet some large footsteps sounding on the wooden floor startled the poor little thing...and before Shou knew it, the mouse was scampering away to hide.
" No wait, come back! the kingdom's going to be unguarded if you don't come back and someone bad could come and enter the kingdom!" Shou called out to the mouse, stretching his chubby arm out to it...but alas, he couldn't catch it.
Although a small chuckle just got the boy to look around and see Jacob standing there with his arms folded and a slightly amused expression on his face.
" And what bad person might that be Shou? not your old man I hope" Jacob just said, although he had noticed the mouse as it ran off and just looked a bit uneasy about that.
" You know how your mother gets when you play around with animals like that Shou...they could carry things that might make you sick"
' So Pete's got mice here, huh? ...it won't be good for his business if those disgusting things breed...'
" I hope you didn't touch it..."
Shou got to his feet all at once and just shook his head.
" N-no, not at all Daddy" Shou replied honestly and just did a nervous little laugh.
" It's just that I was trying to find an undiscovered kingdom...but the guardian beast was in front of it; but it seemed friendly...so we had a talk" well...it had actually been a one-sided conversation, but for some reason Shou quite liked the idea of if these supposed guardian beasts could talk.
One of Jacob's eyebrows raised slightly as he took in the things that his son had just told him.
' The boy's got quite an imagination, I'll give him that...' the young man thought to himself before coming over to Shou and holding onto his hand.
" Anyway, come on...Daddy's finished talking business with Mr. Pete, so we can go home and see how Mommy's doing"
" But-!" Shou retorted...although he soon thought better not to argue against his father, for some reason his father never seemed to understand any of the stuff his own son came up with, so why would now be any different.
" Okay Daddy..." the four year old sighed and just clutched ahold of two of his father's fingers ( his hand was too small to hold onto all of Jacob's hand) as the two walked back to the main bar-part of the tavern and began to go towards the door.
Thankfully, the rain from before had now stopped...but the skies above were still a miserable shade of grey; but that didn't put off Jacob from going home in the slightest.
Yet as he and Shou made their way out of the door, Jacob just heard Pete's voice follow him out...the tone of it being somewhere between unimpressed yet pitiying.
" I hope you know you're making a mistake, Jacob...it's going to come back to haunt you someday!"
At Pete's words, Jacob just gritted his teeth and began to walk faster...the last thing he needed now was someone acting as his conscience; it just made doing what he needed to do, what he had to do, even more difficult.
Shou had also heard Pete's words to Jacob and looked up at Jacob with a worried look, he could see that something seemed to be bothering his father just by looking at his face.
" Daddy...Mr. Pete's not angry at you, is he?" he asked innocently.
' Did Daddy do something bad? Mr. Pete's never been angry at him before' but that couldn't be right...Shou's father was a respectable man afterall, he'd never done anything wrong.
That got Jacob to mentally wince as even Shou had obviously picked up on Pete's words; looking down to his little boy as they walked along the street, Jacob only just managed to strain a reassuring smile.
" No Shou...I think he must of been talking to another Jacob that's all...afterall, there can be more than one person with the same name" he insisted, trying to make his words sound as honest as possible...hoping for all that it was worth that his son wouldn't see through his lies, he could be a perceptive boy afterall!
However, it seemed as if that was all it took for the four year old just gave a little nod.
" Ahh, okay then..." Shou said and then just smiled sweetly up his father.
Jacob more or less did a mental sigh of relief when Shou had decided to leave it at that...although the unsettling feeling caused by Peter's words didn't seem to go away and the bespectacled man certainly hoped that it wouldn't end up making him change his mind.
' Pete's got it all wrong, this sacrifice I'm making is for the good of our family... our boy is stronger than a lot of the other kids sent there, he'll be successful...and when all will seem lost, he'll rise like the legendary phoenix from the flames; I know he will, he has to...' he mentally told himself, over and over again as father and son eventually arrrived home.
It may of been wonderful time for little Shou then; but in two days time, little did he know that everything would change and his life would never be the same again...
To be continued.
