I realized that all of my works tend to center around the Elric Brothers, so I decided to focus on Izumi for once. (I couldn't entirely get away from the Elrics, though... I'm pathetic -_-''')
Anyways, enjoy!
Finally, the day had come. Izumi was finally going to have her baby, something everyone had been anxious for. Outside of the hospital room, Sig's parents were awaiting their first grandchild. Their anticipation was only outmatched by Izumi's as she felt the baby's head pass out of her womb. She gasped and huffed in pain, wanting to see her child at last. It had been more than nine months- it had been a matter of years to wait for this child. It hurt so much, more than any injury or wound she'd had before. But she kept on pushing, because she had to get the baby out. Izumi had to see the child's angelic face, plump and red from screaming. Finally, after one last howl of pain, she felt the baby's weight leave her, feeling so much lighter. As she panted in relief, she looked up at the doctor, who had managed to bundle the baby. He had an ashen look on his face, almost ashamed.
"Doctor, what's wrong?" Sig asked, gripping his wife's petite hand in his giant one. The doctor tilted the baby towards the couple, and uncovered its face.
It was unmoving, grey- the baby was a stillborn.
Izumi felt her heart swell with mourning for this small baby, the child she had never met. It was her child, alive or not- the place in her heart she didn't even know had been filled with love for this child felt hollow. Someone had bored a hole straight into the center of her heart. Her baby, her child had never gotten the chance to live.
"It's a boy," the doctor said solemnly. A boy. Izumi and Sig had never thought of names for a boy- they were expecting a happy, healthy girl.
What a surprise they got.
Izumi choked back tears, holding out her arms. "Please," she begged, "let me hold him." The doctor complied, and the still, cold bundle was placed in her arms. Izumi looked at his face, and felt an immediate sense of love and familiarity. This child was her son, and she loved him no matter what. The feeling was mixed with a deep sorrow, one that would probably never go away- the sorrow of losing a child, regardless of age. "Tristan," she breathed. Tristan, for sadness. For sorrow.
Her Tristan had never even taken a breath.
Izumi held the bundle tight to her chest as it became more and more rigid. Deep, heaving sobs wracked her body. Why? Why her baby? "M..my.." She sobbed into the fabric of the blanket. "MY BABY!" Her voice jumped a few octaves, screeching like a car suddenly braking.
Sig gripped her hand all the while, small tears running down his solemn face.
Months later, the hole in Izumi's heart was not only widened, but accompanied by a hole in her reproductive system. She had tried to bring her baby back to life, with disastrous results. The doctors had said she had lost her uterus, ovaries, Fallopian tube- everything. There was no chance of her having a baby ever again. This time, she mourned a second time for her son- she was sure his innocent soul had been in that abomination, just waiting to get out. Sig had killed it once he found Izumi unconscious, cradling the horrible thing in a blanket. It was like killing the baby all over again.
She also mourned for the children she would never get to have, taken away from her by Truth. She had deserved it- defying natural order was a serious offense. But had the children? Each and every one of those eggs- they had the potential to become a person, to have a life and family and kids of their own. Izumi felt silly for thinking of it like this. She knew that even if she had kept her eggs, the majority of them would have just been absorbed into her uterine lining and shed. Still, she couldn't help but think she had killed thousands of babies, instead of just two.
A few years later, Izumi and Sig were traveling when they came across a dam, about to break. Bunches of worried people were gathered around the large structure, already cracked and spilling water in. Soon, it would break completely and drown everyone.
"Step back," Izumi called, placing herself directly in front of the breaking levee. Almost everyone stepped back, except for a single man. He was stout, muscular, and stern looking, with a bushy mustache.
"Just who do you think you are?" he huffed angrily. A vein was throbbing in his forehead. Izumi clapped her hands together, and a ringing sound emitted from them. She forced her palms into the ground, and blue lighting crackled around the area.
"A housewife," she answered smartly as a large, grey stone wall sprung up out of the ground. She stepped back, wiping off her hands and admiring her work. "This is only a temporary fix, but I think it should hold."
The mustachioed man simply stared up at the structure, his jaw slack. Just then, two small boys ran over, around the age of seven. One was short, but seemed older than the taller one, and had hair that was a redder shade of gold. The taller one had a soft, friendly face, and a darker shade of the same strange gold hair.
"Wow, that was amazing!" The taller one exclaimed, with the soft voice she would have expected from him. He had grey-green eyes, with lots of gold flecks. His brother, on the other hand, had completely golden eyes- the sign of a trickster.
"Can you teach us alchemy?" The shorter one asked with the same enthusiasm as his brother.
"No," Izumi replied coldly. The look on their faces made her heart sting just a little. "I'm not taking apprentices. Even if I were, I'd need your parents' permission. Where are they?" The glimmer in their eyes vanished, and their faces became even more disheartened.
"Our mom is dead," the taller one said softly. The shorter one clenched his fists, apparently angry.
"And our bastard father left us," he said, voice shaking with barely concealed anger. Izumi couldn't help but feel sorry for them- all they had in the world was each other. It was almost fateful- she had longed to be a parent, and these children needed one.
She hoped it was a sign. Her motherly instincts had kicked in, and she longed to be their surrogate. She sighed, pretending to be exasperated.
"Fine, I'll take you in," she sighed, and the boys' faces lit up. She felt her heart jump, if only just a little. "You better study pretty damn hard. What are your names?" They started walking off, now a four-person group.
"I'm Edward Elric, 8 years old," the shorter one said nervously, like a soldier called on for an answer they didn't know.
"I'm Alphonse Elric, 7 years old," the taller one continued.
And so began Izumi's 'adoption' of the Elric brothers.
Over time, Izumi began to grow close to Ed and Al, so much that they developed a relationship that was a strange crossbreed of mother/teacher and child/student. When they weren't around (which wasn't often), Izumi would brag about their accomplishments, frequently calling them 'my boys'.
'My boys- they can draw a circle in 5 seconds flat!'
'Ed and Al can calculate electron count in their heads. Those are my boys!'
This became so excessive that her drinking buddies and spouse began to refer to 'their boys'. One of Izumi's friends since high school, Susan, had a little girl who she would refer to as 'my boys' when out with the group! The brothers had absolutely no idea their teacher was so fond of them- Izumi put them on a tough regimen of fighting and studying.
However, like all good things, the Elric brother's time at Izumi's house came to an end. A week after the brothers had left, Izumi was having another one of her 'sick days'. As she coughed blood into the toilet, she called for them.
"Ed, Al…Get Sig," she said before realizing that they weren't there. Upon hearing his name, Sig rushed into the bathroom.
"Oh honey," he sighed, looking at the blood splatter left on the tile. "Having another one of your 'bad days'?" He helped her up from her kneeling position, gripping her arm tightly.
"Yeah," she replied, wiping a bit of blood from her mouth. "I called for my boys, but I realized…they aren't here." Sig escorted the weakened Izumi to their bed, where they both sat down.
"It's always tough, losing apprentices," Sig said softly. He, unlike Izumi, had accepted apprenticeships for quite a few years now. One of his apprentices, Mason, had chosen to stay and get a job helping out at Curtis Meat.
"Did you ever have that special father/son relationship with any of yours?"
"...Mason, maybe. He's like the son I never had." Izumi sighed, little drops of blood coming out of her mouth along with the air. It didn't help with sympathy if the apprentice in question had never left!
"I really, really miss my boys."
"I'm sure they'll visit someday."
Sure enough, 'her boys' came to visit about five years later. Izumi was packing meat into the deep freezer when she heard a knock on the door.
"Hello?" the voice called. It was very familiar to Izumi, although she couldn't place her finger on it. She walked slowly to the door, opening it to find no one other than 'her boys'!
Their appearances had changed a lot in the past few years. Edward was (slightly) taller, his skin more rough and tanned from what Izumi presumed was hard work in the fields of Risembool. Alphonse had an extremely different appearance, and apparently had taken to wearing a suit of armor. Izumi found this suspicious, as the Al she knew would never willingly don such a threatening suit of armor.
"Edward! Alphonse! We weren't expecting you!" she exclaimed, waving them in. "Wow, you two sure have changed. You even grew a few centimeters, Edward!"
Ed clenched his hand into a fist, not daring to get any angrier in front of Izumi. "It's nice to see you again," he said, his body tense and expecting a scolding.
"Hello, Teacher." Al said, waving gently. "It's me, Alphonse."
"You've changed quite a bit, Al. How do you wear that armor all the time? Must be heavy." Al scratched the back of his neck nervously, a reflex from when he was a child. The brothers were hiding something, and Izumi knew it. "How about we spar a bit outside? I must see if you've been keeping yourselves fit." Ed shrugged.
"Okay." They all walked outside and arranged themselves into a triangle, each person assuming a fighting stance. At some invisible cue, Izumi took off with a running kick to Alphonse's side, toppling him like a line of dominoes. However, something was off- Izumi couldn't feel Al's body inside of the armor slam against the side she had kicked. He was also incredibly light, about 70 pounds at most.
He had either figured out some way to defy the laws of physics, or there was nothing inside of the armor.
Behind Izumi, Ed rushed at her, right fist cocked. She quickly spun around, catching his fist in her palm. Again, she noticed that his arm was more solid than it should be, as if it was made of metal. She swung him to the side using his arm as a grip, and he crashed into the brick wall of the house. That would keep him distracted for a few minutes.
"Looks like you still need some practice," she taunted. Izumi walked over to Edward's slumped form, grabbed his right arm, and pulled up the sleeves of the coat and jacket underneath. Metal glinted back at her. "An artificial arm, huh?" she said, a small amount of anger tinting her voice.
"I got into an accident, and-"
"Don't try that shit with me, Edward. I know Al's empty inside that suit of armor." Al, who had just gotten up, stiffened in surprise.
"B-but how did you know?" Al stuttered.
"That's not important. What's important is that you two committed human transmutation!" she exclaimed, driving her fist into Al's side. He wasn't knocked over this time, but a light dent was left in the armor.
"You don't understand. We really missed Mom…" Ed said, choking up. Anger flared inside of Izumi.
"How dare you say I don't understand! I understand more than you think, Edward!" she screamed. The exertion got to her, and she spat out a bit of blood into her hand. Izumi shoved the bloody palm into Edward's face. "I tried exactly what you did, and this is how I'm paying for it!" she shrieked. The defiant look on Edward's face softened.
"You tried human transmutation?" Ed asked, shocked. Izumi tried to swallow the lump in her throat that had just appeared.
"Yes," she whispered. "I… had a baby. He was a stillborn, and I tried to-" it was just then that Izumi coughed up more blood. As it splattered to the ground, the brothers rushed to her side.
"Teacher!" exclaimed Al. Ed bent over, whispering into Izumi's ear.
"We never knew… I'm so sorry," he whispered, and Izumi took a shuddering sigh.
"It's okay." Izumi said, now pushing the two brothers away as she stood up again. "I feel better now." The threatening flame inside of her eyes was rekindled, and both of the boys stiffened. "Out," she said, pointing a finger to the streets. "You are no longer my apprentices."
"But Teacher-!" Al exclaimed, quickly interrupted by Izumi as they were shoved out of the property.
"Don't call me that anymore. I'm Izumi Curtis, housewife." She slammed the door behind her, and the Elric brothers were left befuddled on the curb.
"Izumi," Sig called, "What did you do this time?"
"Just a bit of tough love for my boys."
Review, or else Izumi shall rip you spine out of your back and smack your face with it.