Worlds Away
Chapter 1
...
There was nothing.
Nothingness.
Whiteness.
Nobody.
Naught.
Empty.
None.
Zero.
Nil.
No.
Edward stood there, right in the middle of the nothing. Although, how he could be when there was nothing to be in was beyond him.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
Then suddenly there was something. Something tall, something dark, something so intricate and glowing with power he could almost not perceive it. Almost.
A door. A great, dominating, vaguely familiar door. Its presence didn't fill the naught space, but still, it had an aura. An aura strangely radiant of malevolence and reality, creation and destruction. Edward idly wondered where it lead.
Suddenly there was another something. This something reminded him of another word: human. Although his mind said this word, his sight disagreed. It was part of the whiteness, only slight shadows giving it the resemblance to a human body.
Ed couldn't make sense of any of it, but simply seeing the thing pumped adrenaline into his veins, anger and fear rising at the back of his throat. He felt himself shout, but the words were absorbed by the nothingness, not quite reaching his own ears.
The something that resembled a human slowly turned to stare at Edward.
It smiled.
The smile held no happiness, no joy. It brimmed to overflowing with smug satisfaction and malice.
"Edward Elric!"
WHAP
Edward jumped from his chair at the sudden assault, falling under the table with an undignified shout. He vaguely heard someone snickering, but it was hard to tell with the sudden throbbing of his head.
"How many times have I told you not to sleep in my class," his attacker said, grinding out the last few words. "Get up! If you want to sleep it'll be on your own time!" She held her weapon—a rather large textbook—high in the air, ready to strike again.
"Yes m 'am!" Edward squeaked, jumping back into his chair properly. His teacher lowered her arm with a hrrmph, striding back to the front of the room.
"Let me remind you that you're the one who badgered me into teaching you two after my retirement from Stanford," she said sharply. "So if you want to transfer out of DCC next year, you better start acting like it!"
"Yes Mrs. Curtis," Edward replied, unable to keep eye contact with his infuriated teacher. Yeesh, she scared him sometimes. Of course, she was right. He wanted to get out of Dublith Community College and into Stanford as soon as possible. How else was he to get a decent degree in engineering?
Picking up his pencil, he hastily copied a formula from the chalkboard, scribbling in symbol meanings and other notes in the side margin. Skimming over his previous three pages from the class—all filled top to bottom with notes—Edward thought he did a pretty good job. He only missed a small section while napping, which Alphonse could fill him in with later.
Keeping an ear tuned in to Mrs. Curtis's lecture, Edward cast a sidelong glance at his brother, who also scribbled down notes at the same table as Edward. He noticed how Alphonse didn't even try to hide the know-it-all smirk from his face, his eyes flashing up to silently say I told you so.
Edward indigently turned his attention forward again, ignoring Alphonse with a quiet hmph. So what if he stayed up a few hours after Alphonse told him to go to bed. So what if he ignored his warnings of falling asleep and suffering Mrs. Curtis's wrath. Edward was the older brother. He could do whatever he wanted.
"…And that's how you apply quantum theory to physical chemistry," Mrs. Curtis finished as she wrote out a page number and a few letters on the board, her chalk screeching uncomfortably on the last stroke. "Apply the same formula to these problems in the textbook for homework. I expect it finished by next Monday. Dismissed."
Edward and Alphonse gathered their things, wishing Mrs. Curtis a good weekend before vacating the converted office. They passed through the den and kitchen, opening a side door into the Curtis Meat Shop, where Mr. Curtis stood behind the counter.
"See ya later, Sid!" Edward said, sliding around the large man and out from behind the counter, his brother close behind.
"Quite a bump there," Mr. Curtis rumbled, observing the red lump on Edward's forehead. "You givin' Izumi trouble?"
"Ed fell asleep again," Alphonse said, aiming a sly smirk at Edward. "He just can't learn his lesson." He shrugged as if his brother was a lost cause.
"Hey! That's the first time I've fallen asleep all week!" Edward tried to defend himself as he walked out the door.
"You fell asleep twice Tuesday," Alphonse called after him, catching the door before it closed and following Edward out.
"I don't remember that," Edward feigned innocence as he pulled out his car keys, unlocking his truck which sat comfortably to the side of the meat shop. He gave the rusty hood a few habitual pats before he hopped into the driver's seat.
"Liar," Alphonse accused lightly, giving up the argument as he slid into his respective seat.
Edward stuck his tongue out childishly, shifting the car into reverse and tapping the gas before glancing up at his rearview mirror.
A dark silhouette getting closer, so close to them—
Edward slammed on the breaks without thinking, Alphonse crying out in surprise as they smacked back against their seats.
"Ed! What's wrong?" Alphonse asked shrilly, startled by the sudden impact.
Edward turned around in a panic, but the figure was no longer there. Nothing stirred in the bare lot. Not a soul in sight.
"Ed? Did you hit something?" Alphonse said, panic still in his voice as he turned around.
"…No I… I thought—" Edward started, his gaze still locked to the empty lot. "Nothing. It was nothing."
"…if you say so," Alphonse said, casting another nervous glance behind them. "Be more careful."
Edward nodded, but couldn't shake off the odd nervousness crept into his gut. He just saw a shadow and mistook it for a person. Easy mistake. Could happen to anyone.
He shifted the car into drive, being careful to look around before driving off into the street. By the time they arrived home, the incident was already forgotten.
"We're home!" Alphonse called as they entered the house/workshop, quickly shutting the door against the cool autumn wind.
"Welcome back!" another voice called from the kitchen.
Hanging up his keys, Edward slipped off his shoes and followed Alphonse to the kitchen. He leaned up against the doorframe, laughing a little at the sight before him.
Pinako—the owner of the house and longtime family friend—sat at the table, mechanical pieces spread out like some sort of giant puzzle. The skeleton of a robotic hand lay in the middle of it all, bare wires splaying out from the wrist. Pinako took a long drag from her smoking pipe, exhaling lightly at the sight of the brothers.
"You know we have to eat there tonight Pinako," Edward commented, referencing the messy table and the wafts of smoke clouding around her.
"Yes, yes, I know," Pinako said, shuffling a few parts around. "But Winry's taking up the whole workshop trying to finish two orders by tomorrow, and I've got to make some hay-way on this hand before the night's out. She's probably going to pull another all-nighter."
"Again?" Alphonse said, looking worriedly towards the stairs. "If she keeps doing this she'll get sick from exhaustion."
"She'll be fine. She has the whole weekend to sleep it off," Pinako dismissed before looking critically at the two boys. "Unlike you two, who I'm sure have homework to start on."
"Aw c'mon Grannie, we're not twelve anymore," Edward whined, slouching dramatically against the doorframe. "Cut us some slack. We got home two minutes ago." Pinako's eyes flashed mischievously
"For someone who isn't twelve, you still look like it," she teased, taking another breath from her pipe.
"Hey! I am a twenty-year-old man, and I do not look twelve you miniature grandma!" Edward shouted angrily.
"Who are you calling miniature you microscopic shrimp?!"
"Don't call me a—"
"SHUT UP! I'm trying to concentrate up here!"
Edward cringed as the full volume of Winry's voice echoed from the upstairs workshop, sympathizing greatly with Alphonse's wince. Right. No disturbances when she tried to finish orders.
"I'll clean up before dinner, don't you worry," Pinako said, making a shooing motion with her hands. "Now go along before she comes down here with a wrench."
Sighing in resignation, Edward nodded and headed upstairs, Alphonse close behind him. They turned left at the top of the staircase, careful to stay quiet as they passed the workshop. Alphonse silently opened a small door at the end of the hall, revealing another staircase to the attic.
Edward dipped his head slightly as he entered, mindful of the low doorway, before making a beeline for his bed, dumping his messenger bag on the floor and collapsing onto the squeaky mattress.
"Tired…" he muttered.
Alphonse rolled his eyes, shoving a few papers to the other side of their desk as he spread out his own homework. "Don't go to sleep now. It's barely three!"
"Shuddap," Edward replied, waving his arm half-heartedly. He lifted his head lazily from his abused pillow, his eyes heavy-lidded as he glanced out their small window.
A dark silhouette ducked out of view.
Edward jumped out of his bed, suddenly wide awake as he dashed towards the window. He knew he had seen that shape, the shadow. If only he could remember where—!
When he reached the window, he saw nothing outside except for the backyard, quiet and undisturbed as it always was.
"What the hell?" Edward muttered, his forehead pressing against the glass as he strained to see any movement.
"Ed…?"
Edward turned around to see Alphonse staring at him, eyebrows raised in question.
"I saw something right outside the window, like—like a person was watching us," Edward explained, aware of how ridiculous the words sounded as soon as they left his mouth.
"Ed, we're on the third floor," Alphonse spoke slowly, as if trying to calm a panicking child. "There's no way anyone could get up here."
"I know that!" Edward snapped, irritated at his brother's disbelieving gaze. "But I saw something outside the window!"
Alphonse's eyebrows only went higher, but he stood and approached the window, his concern for Edward obvious on his face. He took a long look outside, even going as far as checking the view from odd angles and tapping the glass.
"I don't see anything outside Ed," Alphonse said, turning to place a gentle hand on his brother's forehead. "Are you sure you're alright? Maybe you should go to sleep after all."
"I'm fine!" Edward said as he brushed Alphonse's hand away, looking outside the window once more. Maybe he was seeing things. He was pretty tired after all.
Turning around, he almost missed the sight of a shadowy figure disappearing into the trees.
Almost.
...
Ahhh, hello everyone! Nice to be writing fanfic again. I know what you're probably thinking: "Why didn't you finish Collisions? Why are you re-writing it? Why is it no longer a crossover?"
Well, if you are a returning reader, then that means you remember me talking about somebody else adopting and completing the story. Due to some complications, this never happened and the story sat for 2 years. I was way too busy with high school to finish it, and frankly, I had lost interest.
Recently though, I've rewatched FMA Brotherhood and I've wanted to write something so bad! So, I thought of my old story Collisions. But after re-reading it... I just didn't like it. Like most writers, I tend to look back at my old writing as something rather disgusting, and there really was some serious story flaws I disliked. I didn't want to continue it. So, I decided to re-write it with a different direction.
As to why it's no longer a crossover, it's because I simply cannot think of a way that the Host Club will ever be relevant to the (revised) plot. So it is simply a modern AUish... thing completely centered around FMAB. My old readers probably recognize the first scene from the last chapter... I shamelessly re-used that, because I'm very proud of it! (Oh, and it's totally plot relevant I promise.)
Thank you so much to my old readers for staying with me, and thank you new readers for choosing my story! I hope you enjoyed it and come back for more!
-MerryMusician