notes: Gesundbrunnen is a locality in the Berlin district of Wedding; after the industrial revolution, Wedding was home to many factory workers who lived in tenements. Gesundbrunnen was a slightly better off district than Wedding proper. Also! In the 1920s in Wedding, there were literal street fights between nazi sympathisers and communists. It was known as "Red Wedding" because of this.

Mitte is another district in Berlin. It's often referred to as the centre of old Berlin, and, while not as affluent as Tiergarten, Steglitz, or Zehlendorf, it is not home to tenement houses filled with factory workers.

Haidhausen is a locality in Munich which was home to the Beer Hall where Hitler had his Putsch, so, I'd assume, also home to Ed and Alfons.

Originally posted on AO3 under the same username, and I have character studies (of Wilhelmine and Wernher) up on there as well.

Edward Elric wasn't entirely sure what he was doing in the theatre district; he supposed that he must have gotten lost. He cursed under his breath. He knew the name of the neighbourhood where he and Alfons lived, of course, and he could just ask for that... provided they didn't laugh at his accent.

That was enough reason to keep him from asking any of the people near him.

Instead, he wandered down more unfamiliar streets, trying to keep an eye out for any familiar buildings or street names, until he certain that he was utterly and hopelessly lost.

Edward groaned; it appeared that he had no choice. He'd have to ask for help.

"Excuse me..." he approached a blonde woman standing next to a man whom Edward could only assume was her husband. Like a lot of older women he'd seen in the city, this one wore a dress with a pouffy skirt. Ed couldn't imagine how that was comfortable. "Do you know how to get to Haidhausen from here? I'm from... Berlin," he added, trying to explain away his accent. "I'm not really familiar with this area."

The woman tapped her husband on the shoulder. "Wernher, darling, this young man wants to know how to get to Haidhausen."

The man looked over at him, and Edward started. He was older, certainly, and he had brown eyes instead of blue-black, but... the man was almost a dead ringer for Roy Mustang.

"Oh, yes, of course..." the Mustang lookalike said, turning his full attention to Edward. "You turn left down here onto Maximilianstraße, continue over Maximiliansbrücke... at the Maximilianeum, you want to stay on the right... although I suppose it doesn't really matter as they both converge..."

Edward nodded blankly. "That's... a left down there and then... go straight until that big building?"

"Yes... then you're going to reach Sckellstraße, where you turn left... that opens on Weiner Platz, doesn't it, darling?" the man looked to the woman at his side for confirmation, which made Edward even more uncomfortable.

"That's right... then... I believe you go to Steinstraße? It's slightly left..."

"Well, from there I think... you should probably know where you are."

"So I just go straight and then turn left... and then it should look familiar?" Edward asked.

"Yes. I'm sorry I can't be of more help... I used to live in Haidhausen, but it was over twenty years ago... I'm afraid I don't remember it much."

"That's fine. You've helped enough."

The doppelgänger smiled. "I'm glad to be of service." He hesitated, but apparently decided to say what had been on his mind: "I'm sorry, but... did you say that you were from Berlin?"

Ed shrugged. "Yeah."

"Where? I grew up in Gesundbrunnen in Wedding myself."

Edward hesitated. He didn't really know any of the names of the districts within Berlin, let alone what they were like... He decided to say the same. "Uh, I didn't grow up too far from there..."

"Your accent sounds a bit unfamiliar... but my parents live in Mitte now, and it's been years since I've been to Wedding. The accent's probably changed a bit, I'd imagine." He waved a hand dismissively, and Ed felt immensely relieved.

"Uh... right. Well. Thanks for the help." Ed shifted awkwardly on his feet, unsure of any other social obligations that he might have.

"Oh, of course. My wife and I are glad to be of service."

Wife. Well, that only confirmed what Ed had been dreading. He forced himself to smile and nod. "I'll just be going now..."

The man nodded, and Ed left, following the directions that he had been given to get back to Haidhausen.

He felt vaguely sick. Was this some kind of cruel joke? The one person he'd asked for directions had turned out to be Mustang's double – and what was worse, he was married to some blonde woman! He couldn't help but wonder what this Mustang was like – was his name even Mustang? There was no alchemy on this side of the Gate, so what was he interested in? Had he been in the military? How in the world did he end up married to some blonde woman? It might be understandable if the woman were Hawkeye's double, but this woman looked absolutely nothing like Hawkeye, either.

Ed tried to shake it off, but he couldn't. He only just managed to focus enough on where he was going to avoid getting lost again, but once he was back in a familiar area, he allowed himself to dwell on what had just happened. He managed to stumble into the beer hall and order a beer before letting his thoughts overtake him completely.

He had known, of course, that there was no chance with the real Mustang. Even assuming that Mustang liked men, Ed was his subordinate, and Mustang was too damn determined to get involved with any of his subordinates... especially one fourteen years his junior.

Still, Ed supposed that he'd been hoping that if he found Mustang's double, the man would be more... open to the idea of a relationship. Clearly that was not the case. Even though Ed wasn't exactly good at reading romantic interactions, it was clear to him that the double had absolutely adored his wife. The way that that man had looked at her... called her darling... Ed wondered what he had done to deserve this hell.

Living with Alfons was hard enough, when he looked so much like Al, who Ed loved more than anything... but there was Hughes's double, and Fräulein Gratia, too. He should've known it was only a matter of time before he saw some other parallel – he'd just hoped that it had been Hawkeye on her own, or maybe Havoc or Breda or Fuery. Even one of the Tringham brothers would have been easier to bear than Roy Mustang – especially when this world's Mustang was married to a woman.

He paid his 50,000 marks for his beer, grumbling about the inflation, and ordered something a little stronger. This was going to be a long night.

notes: So... the alter!Roy, Wernher Muhlfeld, is married to a woman who is technically an older version of alter!Catherine Armstrong. But, as Ed has never met Catherine, he wouldn't know that. And I'm spelling it "Gratia" because "Gracia" is not a German name.

You can read my character study on Wernher on AO3. The work is titled Character Studies: Shamballa Equivalents, and I have the same penname there as well.

I'm setting this chapter in the middle of June 1923, and I'm assuming about $5.50 for a beer in today's money, and then taking the average for the month of June for the inflation. I used both historical money converters (US dollar only), and old conversion charts for dollar-to-mark, again, taking the average.