How Izumi and Sig Met

Author: MoonStarDutchess

Chapter 1: First Time in Dublith

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA

AN: I thought I'd try a slightly different style of writing this time. This was only supposed to be an oneshot but it is so fun to write that I decided a multichapter fiction would be fun to do on something other than Royai. This is belated request from Izumi's Apprentice. It will be three or four chapters. Too many words to make into a oneshot and I didn't feel like doing a two part fiction. Hope you all enjoy it.

Note: Aloofly is a word. (That's regarding an argument I had with someone once.)

Also keep in mind this is a rather young Sig and Izumi. I would say about 19 years old. Sig is about 21.


First Time in Dublith

Dublith was a town located south of Central City, well known for not being well known and popular for not having anything interesting. Perhaps their lack of positive recreational activities was the reason for the majority of the city being tough as nails and ready to get in a slugfest over a broken pencil if someone said the wrong thing about it. The cops couldn't be more relaxed than if they were floating in midair and if a fistfight was to occur, chances were they'd be the ones taking the bets.

The children were innocent enough…for children of Dublith. There were young girls that loved their dolls and animals of course, typical girls to the outsider. However, if someone were to try to snatch said doll or animal the girl wouldn't meekly cry at them. No, not a girl raised in Dublith. Most likely, the offending person would end up with bite marks, one of their facial features bruised, missing a finger, or all of the above. The young boys played the typical games like tag, baseball, football, and who can tough out more hits to the head with a metal trashcan lid before they passed out. Yes, just typical kid games.

Then of course, there were the "mature" men and women of Dublith. They were the ones that were too old to play the kid games. They were the ones that could kill a person with a pretzel or cause one to absently wonder how they lost that limb in that all stakes Monopoly game without knowing it until a week later. The men liked their bars, drinking and women and the women liked their husbands home and far away from the bars, drinking, and women. It was because of this that the women became skilled in the martial arts of homemaking aka taking a rolling pin, frying pan, or any other heavy kitchen utensil to their husband's head if he wasn't home on time.

Safe to say, the doctor was the most well off man in the town and even he had to bandage his own cuts and bruises when he got a patient that didn't like needles, which were many people in the city. For people so tough, it was safe to say that needles were the only threat that one needed to get every badass in the city to behave themselves.

That was pretty much how Dante described it before Izumi ever stepped foot in the town but from what she'd seen so far, there was no truth to what her alchemy teacher said. Dublith seemed just the same as all the other small Amestrian towns that she'd visited. The roads weren't paved with beautiful stone like the cities. Instead it looked like the roads there got the leftovers from whatever the city didn't use and if one wanted to be specific, what was paved wasn't even technically roads; more like entranceways into the town.

A person entering Dublith would first be walking on rough pavement then find themselves walking on dirt, the dust flying up into the air in small puffs if the ground wasn't wet. If it were wet, then a visitor would find their boots caked with light-colored mud that looked like the horrid looking material surviving Ishbalans used to make their homes after the rebellion.

The houses were stalwart and well built, able to withstand the yearly windstorm that bombarded the small town in the spring. However, the walls of the houses were dusty, their owners most likely giving up on trying to keep them clean: either that or not caring. The buildings were one of two colors, light tan, which blended well with the environment around them, or dark red, which attracted the most dust yet, was such a relief to the monotonous neutral tones present around the town.

The further she walked into town the more green plants and different color buildings she saw. There were bigger houses than the one-story homes on the outskirts of the city. Some were even built with red brick and mortar that she knew had to be shipped into the town. However, even those large houses that were probably elegant at one point in time were in a significant state of disrepair.

She was quite surprised when the people walking past greeted her and smiled. It wasn't the required for manners, stick-in-the-ass way that people in Central or East city greeted, but like they truly were glad to see her. With the way the city's economy was, it wouldn't surprise her if they weren't sincere since visitors tended to spend money. She would spend a bit then she would be out of here and back to Dante that only lived a few miles from there. All of that training, all of those years and she'd never stepped foot in the town. If she had a heart, she'd almost believe that she felt a pang at leaving. There was something about the place that told her it would play an important part in her life.

She turned left into an alley following Dante's instructions exactly. If there was an alchemy supply store up this alley it was a piss poor place to put one. She kicked a small garbage can out of her way then heard a loud shriek and a hiss. A black cat ran out of it and stared at her, its gold eyes making it look as if it was possessed by some evil presence. She stared at the cat for a moment then simply walked past it, ignoring the way the hair on its back ascended from its skin.

She stepped over a few beer bottles and aloofly wondered if she would have to step over a homeless man before everything was said and done.

"Look at the babe fellas," she heard a gritty male voice say. She growled, knowing exactly what was coming. Single young woman in an alley all alone, a group of thugs that weren't nearly as tough as they thought they were, and liquor and their dicks were also a factor in the standard set up. This cliché was used so many times that one would think the thugs would get a hint and be more creative. Didn't they know that the odds were they'd get their asses kicked into next year?

She heard footsteps and turned to see that several large men came out of the side doorways of the alley.

"She's a pretty young thing," one of them said. The man in question was a tall guy with very tan skin. He had patches of dirt all over his shirt and his face was smudged with oil. His hair was dark green and in a bowl cut of all things. He had some sort of scar or birthmark, she couldn't tell for sure, on the right side of his face that reminded her of the letter F. It would be rather proper since from the way the guy carried himself he was clearly a Fucktard.

"Okay, look. I'm busy so it would save you guys a lot of grief if you just lie down on this ground and pretend I kicked your asses. That way, none of you will have anything broken or bruised and you won't have to explain to anyone how your dick was shoved up your ass by a woman."

As expected, this comment earned some growls.

"Who do you think you are missy?" another of the men said. This one would look identical to Fuehrer Bradley if Bradley was two hundred pounds larger. He grinned displaying a bunch of rotten teeth.

"I think I am fed up with this same damned cliché over and over again," she said, crouching down in a fighting stance.

"Let's just get to it," she growled.

The man with the F scar laughed loudly. "She's gonna fight us boys!"

All of the men started laughing until Izumi's foot happened to casually make contact with the nose of one of the men. She flipped around and landed on her feet, back into her defense position.

"Oops, my foot flew toward his nose. Sorry about that," she said.

"Get her boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy," the man started to say but his last word trailed when he felt someone lift him by the collar, his feet leaving the ground completely. The man's eyes widened when he realized fully what was occurring.

Izumi blinked when a very large but quite attractive man slung the guy into a wall.

"You shouldn't pick on a lady," the man said, his voice deep and rich reminding Izumi of one of those brilliant bass singers she heard on the streets of West City.

"You are going to pay for that now!" one of the men said, pulling out two sharp knives. He twisted the knives in his hands, clearly displaying his professionalism with the sharp weapons. He finally stopped and readied himself for a charge when a fist connected directly with his nose, and a crack resounded throughout the alley. The man's eyes crossed, his knives dropped from his grip, and he fell forward onto the filthy ground.

For the first time in her life, Izumi wanted to laugh aloud at something. However, she didn't know if the guy that was "defending" her was friend or foe, despite his chivalrous actions. She decided that she would take care of the other men just so that the stranger knew not to mess with her. However, if the stranger wasn't afraid and he did have malicious intents then she didn't think she could really defend against him. Of course, she wouldn't let him know that. She glared at one of the guys that were now turned toward the new man that arrived.

She walked over to him, tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned she grinned and knocked him out. The men had forgotten all about her being there, which was most likely what the newly arrived stranger wanted to happen. The men still paid her no mind as they charged the man, who easily threw them away as if they were mere ragdolls. They hit onto broken beer bottles on the ground or into the stone walls, further dilapidating them.

The ones that could walk stood, grabbed the ones that were unconscious and ran out of the alley and into the street. The man turned to her and she growled.

"I could have handled that," she said.

"Hum," he replied. "Sig Curtis," he said, extending his hand to her. She blinked, surprised at the simple introduction. She was actually quite relieved that he wasn't a big talker. She got enough lectures from Dante to last a lifetime and wanted as less conversation as possible

She took his hand and felt something she'd never experienced during a handshake. Her hand felt so good in his and she felt, oddly, protected. She'd never had the need to feel that way before but now it was as if it was so right, as if she was an actual woman and not one of the boys or a mere student. However, she wouldn't, couldn't, let the man before her know that his mere touch incited all those feelings in her. That it made her heart speed up and her skin all tingly and that it scared her to death.

"Why are you here? There's nothing in this alley," he said, startling her from her thoughts. She pulled her hand away.

"I'm looking for Olaf's Alchemy Supplies," she said, finding it very easy to speak with the man before her.

"Olaf's moved," he said. "He's beside my shop. I am on my way there so I can show you."

"That's fine," she said, trying to distance herself from him: to be a friendly, yet indifferent stranger. She didn't want to let on in the slightest that she might be attracted to him. No, there was no might about it. That interest was there from the moment he slung that guy into a wall so gracefully.

She cursed to herself. The last thing she needed to do was get attracted to a complete stranger. If she weren't already messed up enough, love would be painting a coat of more insanity on the canvas of her already established mental instability.

"You live in Dublith?" he questioned, causing her to look up at him. Her gaze met his and it felt as if someone had hooked her to a battery. She couldn't look away as she walked. Exactly when she was beginning to answer him, an abrupt introduction by her face to a lamppost interrupted her and her vision faded.

AN: I am enjoyed writing this. They are such a fun couple to write for! Hope you enjoyed it and please review if you did.