This is a companion fic to Luminarium. I honestly think you can read them as Luminarium and its sequel, or Obscurum and its prequel. If you disagree, tell me and I'll give them a definite order.
**
Hohenheim knocked nervously on the front door. Funny that he was knocking on the door to his own house. Funnier that he even considered the house his, after eleven years of not living in it.
At any rate, nobody was home. Hohenheim reasoned Trisha and the kids would be at the Rockbells'. They were good friends, after all. So he would just go there.
For the second time that day, he knocked on the door of someone he knew while still feeling like a stranger. This time, the door opened for him. He stared.
A younger Sara Rockbell stared back. This, he assumed, was Winry. She'd grown up beautifully, he thought. He couldn't wait to see his own children. He smiled at her, then wondered why he didn't introduce himself. She didn't remember him.
Suddenly, she did recognize him – from a photo, perhaps? – and her face hardened with a scowl. She turned away angrily, and suddenly he was staring at a closed door, his hand still raised in greeting.
Gone.
He heard voices, and registered that one of them was Pinako's. He was surprised at how old she sounded. He'd always remember Pinako's energetic voice, all those years ago…she sounded so different now.
The door opened again, and the short woman glanced at him. She raised one eyebrow; Hohenheim was suddenly hyperaware of the fact that he hadn't aged a day.
"What brings you here, Hohenheim?" she asked sardonically.
What was he doing here? "I'm looking for my wife," he replied. And his kids. "Is she here?"
Pinako's face darkened. "Come in." When he complied, she led him to the kitchen. "Trisha's dead."
"Dead?" Hohenheim echoed numbly. "No, that can't be, she promised…"
"It doesn't matter what Trisha promised; she's dead." Pinako repeated. Hohenheim shook his head in disbelief.
"Where are Edward and Alphonse?" He needed to see them.
"Dead too," Pinako said bluntly.
In horror, Hohenheim staggered against the wall. "No…no…"
Pinako waited for him to compose himself. He didn't.
"How?" he finally asked.
"Trisha died of an illness nine years ago. Edward and Alphonse were killed in an alchemy…mishap." She used the word with disdain, and just a touch of ambiguity. Hohenheim knew immediately that she wouldn't tell him any more than that; had he lost the right to ask after his own family?
Then again, he couldn't pretend he didn't deserve it.
*
Dinner that evening was an awkward affair. Hohenheim barely ate anything, and Winry refused to speak. Every time Pinako tried to start up the conversation again, it sputtered out like a candle in the rain.
Winry didn't try to hide her disdain for Hohenheim. Until the man had shown up on the Rockbells' doorstep, Winry hadn't realized that she'd inherited Ed's hatred of him. Her parents had been taken away from her, and she knew how it hurt. She wouldn't forgive Hohenheim for having the choice that her parents hadn't, and making the wrong decision.
For Ed and Al's sake, she pierced Hohenheim with her best, most vicious glares. She made sure he understood completely how much she despised him.
*
He waited for the save cover of darkness to make his escape. Safe, because there would be no one to stop him. A cover, because the night would hide him and his guilt.
He didn't have to leave, of course. He could linger, get to know Urey and Sara Rockbells' daughter. Except she hated him.
He could stay; reacquaint himself with his old friend Pinako. But she would only remind him of all the time that had passed, remind him that he was still a monster.
No. He had to leave again. There was no longer any reason to return, nobody to make him want to come back.