Giggles filled the living room as three little voices filled the house with joy. The fire in the fireplace crackled as its warmth complimented the sound of the joyful children.
"Do it again Eevee! Do it again!" A young four year old urged, his golden eyes shining.
"Yea! Baby Doll Eyes!" The girl next to him almost squeaked in excitement as the brown pokemon turned around and used the move. Her eyes brightened and hearts seemed to fly around her.
The children's hearts fluttered a bit as they beamed, "Its so cute! Eevee is the most adorable! Right Winry?"
The lighter blonde girl nodded eagerly, "Eevee is the cutest! Even cuter than Den!" She covered her mouth suddenly, looking both ways, "Don't tell her I said that though…" she'd never want to hurt the Mightyena's feelings.
Alphonse leaned towards her and whispered, "Secret's safe with me."
They giggled again as another made his presence known. "Are you guys done yet!? I wanna train with Eevee! Cal says he wants to battle me with his Pidgey! I just know Eevee can beat his stupid face!"
"Now Edward," A deeper voice interrupted, Ed looked up towards his father, "You're far too young to be a trainer, Cal is three years older than you, he's not even old enough to have a pokemon yet."
Edward huffed and crossed his arms, "But Dad! I was Challenged!"
"You aren't supposed to battle with Eevee anyways, your mother didn't raise her for battle." Hohenheim attempted to reason.
"Fine, then I'll just use Sawsbuck!" at his words his father appeared somewhat fearful.
Hohenheim stuttered, "I-I don't think that's a good idea…" he trailed off, "That poor pidgey." he uttered under his breath.
His older son turned around and pouted, "You're no fun! Mom's the more fun parent!"
Hohenheim seemed to freeze with an awkward smile. He chuckled as a cold sweat ran down his forehead and he left the room.
Edward watched him leave, "You know what."
"What brother?" Al questioned, petting Eevee's head.
"Better not be something really stupid like usual." Winry gave him the look he got fifty percent of the time he looked at her. The look that she knew he was gonna do something he was going to regret.
Ed ignored her intuition and glanced at the cracked open door of his father's office, then ran over to the doorway to the kitchen where his father was speaking to his mother. "If I run I can make it." with that, he took off.
"Ed!?"
"Brother Wait!"
Ed slipped into the cracked doorway and emerged a few seconds later with a pokeball in his hands. "There! Come on!"
The six and four year olds cautiously trailed after him, "Are you sure about this brother?"
"I'm completely sure!" He grinned as he ran outside, "Mom! Dad! Al, Win, and I are gonna go play outside for a bit! We'll be back by dinner! Eevee is in the living room!"
Winry's exhausted lungs struggled to take a breath, "Ed- this is ask-askin' for trouble!"
Ed rolled his eyes, "They'll never know! It's not like Sawsbuck is gonna tell dad! Sawsbuck can't speak!" He went silent before his voice grew determined, "I'm finally gonna show Cal that I'm not as weak as he says I am! He has no right to say the stuff he says or do the things he does to me. I'll show him!"
They ran up and around the field of tall grass so they wouldn't have any unwanted encounters and soon arrived at the top where Cal was waiting.
The boy laughed, "Why did ya bring twiddle one and twiddle two!? Need baby backup?"
Ed wrinkled his nose, "You're SO Funny. They're here to watch me kick your fat butt!"
"Brother! Mom says not to say words like that!" Al yelped.
Ed gritted his teeth at Cal's laughter, "Alright then Ed, let's get this show on the road! Pidgey! Come on out!" The bird flew into the sky with a screech and flipped around before perching on Cal's outstretched arm. "Where's that lame Eevee you told me about?" he teased.
"She couldn't make it! But I've got something even better!" He tossed the pokeball in the air, "Let's battle Sawsbuck!" The tall pokemon sprung out of his pokeball, his large horns covered in pretty autumn leaves of warm colors.
Cal smirked a little, "Big pokemon for such a little guy…"
"I'M STILL GROWING YA KNOW!" Ed shrieked with anger.
Cal took the opportunity to call his first attack, "Pidgey! Gust!" The pidgey flapped its wings creating a strong gust of wind that headed straight for Sawsbuck. A giant dirt cloud kicked up due to the windy move.
"Sawsbuck!" The trio called in worry, however both sides were surprised as the deer like pokemon was completely unaffected.
"Wha-?! But, flying type moves are effective against sawsbuck!" Cal stepped back.
Ed laughed, "Alright Sawsbuck! Use-uh… use…" He stopped to think, he turned to Al, "What are Sawsbuck's moves again?"
Al shrugged as a super effective 'I dunno'.
"What's wrong?" Cal asked, prompting Edward to dig even deeper into his brain. He'd found a memory of his father using sawsbuck to help with garden work.
"Use grass knot."
Ed smirked, "USE GRASS KNOT!"
However, Sawsbuck turned to them and looked down at them.
"Uh… Sawsbuck?" Ed laughed nervously.
The pokemon leaned down and picked Ed up by the back of his shirt, "H-hey! Cut it out! Let go Sawsbuck! I said use Grass Knot!" The pokemon leaned down to allow Al and Winry access to his back. The two obeyed and climbed on as the pokemon began to walk in the other direction.
"Is that a forfeit Ed?!" Cal snorted.
"No! Just you wait until Sawsbuck listens! He's just taking his time!" The pokemon only continued to walk away.
"See ya around Ed!" the boy called his pidgey back and walked back towards his house.
Ed let out an angry snort, "Sawsbuck! What was that all about!?" Sawsbuck gave no indication that he had even heard Ed. "Come on!"
They could see their house steadily approaching, "Thanks for bringing us home Sawsbuck." Al patted his neck lightly.
"Home!?" Ed sounded horrified, "NO! SAWSBUCK! RETURN!" He attempted to call the pokemon back but he just couldn't aim the pokeball correctly. "Return! RETURN! SAWSBUCK PLEEAASE RETURN!" The pokemon only stopped at the door and hit his hoof against it twice.
The absolute last person Ed wanted to see opened up the door.
"Ed?" It sounded frustrated, that tone meant he was in trouble.
A sheepish smile spread across Ed's face, "Hi dad." he nervously chuckled.
He patted the head of his friend, "Thank you Sawsbuck." the deer gave a happy snort and slowly let Ed down before letting the other two children safely off of his back.
Hohenheim led them all inside and sat them down on the couch, "I told you that you weren't allowed to battle."
Ed looked downwards. "Who says we were battling?"
His father turned to the pokemon, "Were they trying to battle?" he nodded his head. "Don't lie Ed."
Ed's mouth was agape with shock, Sawsbuck had literally tattled on them.
"Trisha? Could you come in here?" Ed's fear grew larger, he knew this was certain death.
"What is it? What's Sawsbuck doing in here? Why does Ed look guilty…" she faced him and crossed her arms.
"They were trying to battle with Sawsbuck."
"WHAT!?" she looked at the three of them, her nose wrinkled and face angry, "I told you you were too young to battle! And STEALING your FATHER'S pokemon like that-"
Ed sniffled, "I'm sorry mom, it was all my fault… I just was so sick of Cal and his dumb words." he clenched his hands into fists
Trisha sighed, "Edward, you need to know that stealing is wrong, and that you can never do that again, okay? Not just your father's pokemon, stealing any pokemon, anything is wrong. It makes other people sad when you take their things without their permission." she paused and turned to his brother, "Same for you Alphonse, I can't believe you did this, its very unlike you."
"B-but…" Al began to quiver.
Ed spoke up quickly, "No! It wasn't his fault! It was all mine! I just dragged him along! It's all my fault… "I'm sorry mom," he sniffled and leaped into her arms, his mother had a way to bring out the emotions in him.
She ran her fingers through his hair, "It's okay Ed, it's gonna be alright."
"Are you gonna punish Al?"
"No."
"Am I still in trouble?"
Trisha smiled, "Just because you are sorry it doesn't mean you escape punishment…" she looked up in thought, "Now… let's see… because you stole your father's pokemon… he can steal your dessert for a week."
"NOOOO!" Ed deflated.
Al pet his head, "It's okay brother, I'll tell you exactly how it tastes, I'll be really descriptive so you can imagine it!"
"Thanks Al." He muttered bitterly huffing and crossing his arms.
Tears welled up in Ed's eyes as he whimpered and whined. Everything hurt, so damn fucking bad. Why, why did it all hurt so much? It was only his knee that was bleeding. He huffed, everything was right, the calculations, the ingredients, he couldn't understand why it didn't work.
That thing said he'd paid his toll only to see what he saw, he hadn't paid enough then, to see his mother again. He tried to take hat he couldn't pay up for… he tried to steal… and this was his penalty… But it wasn't Al's fault.
Al shouldn't have been punished too, but he couldn't see him anywhere.
The only thing he could see was this grotesque creature in the center of the transmutation circle. A shudder of dread went through him as it fell apart, its little skin it had hardly containing the bones that made up its skeleton. That- wasn't his mother.
He bit his knuckles as hard as he could, he just wanted his mom back, it was what this was all for, all the studying and training, all the hard work planning the perfect transmutation.
Ed was almost frozen in fear tears rolled down his cheeks, "N-no! It wasn't supposed to be this way! Mom- Al! ALPHONSE!" he called out, tears flowing like waterfalls. Al was gone, just like mom, he just couldn't accept that.
He exhaled shakily, "THIS ISN'T HOW IT ENDS! YOU HEAR ME!?" tears streamed down his face, "YOU HEAR ME YOU MONSTER!? THE WORLD! THE UNIVERSE! EVERYTHING! GOD?! WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT TO CALL YOURSELF!"
"He's my little brother…" he exhaled, I've lost my mom, my bastard of a father, I CAN'T LOSE HIM TOO!" He clapped his hands and placed them upon the large circle on the floor, "TAKE MY ARMS! TAKE MY LEG! TAKE MY HEART IF YOU WANT IT! HE'S MY LITTLE BROTHER! HE'S ALL I'VE GOT LEFT!" a bright light enveloped him and he was gone.
The beast was before him again, "Back for more? What a foolish boy your are."
"Give me back my brother! I'm not leaving without him!"
"You can't get him back. You don't have enough of a toll. Even if you gave everything you had, it would only be enough for a part of him."
Tears continued to fall and evaporate into the odd air, "I DON'T CARE! TAKE WHATEVER YOU WANT FROM ME! I'LL TAKE ANY PART OF HIM YOU WILL GIVE! JUST GIVE AL BACK TO ME!"
"If that's what you wish… Alchemist."
The cold, dark hands of the gate grabbed hold of him once more and pulled him backwards, and as they were about to close he saw a glimpse of a small black and red creature.
Relief filled him as he heard the thing he longed to hear.
"BROTHER!"
"Al…" he uttered.
When Edward opened up his eyes again, his arm was missing, red blood seeping out of his shoulder. Though he looked upward and found a sorrowful looking black and red pokemon whimpering above him, "Z-Zor-"
It suddenly seemed all too quiet and he could hear the scratching at the door that he hadn't noticed before. Suddenly, sharp pointed stars shattered the door into pieces and Eevee leaped inside, only to stop due to horror.
She focused her attention the the unfamiliar pokemon, "Ee-Ehveeh!"
"Zor-Zorua!"
"Eehvee! Ee!"
"Zor… Zua…"
"Eeh…"
"ZOR! ZUA!" the black pokemon called to her, "Zorua! Zor!" the brown pokemon seemed hesitant but took what she could from the Zorua before hoisting Ed's top half under her, while the Zorua lifted up Ed's bottom half in a much clumsier manor.
They carefully climbed the stairs that lead outside and rushed through the cool night air toward the Rockbell's abode.
"Al…" Ed exhaled, "You're okay?" he coughed up blood and swallowed it after a small bit of choking.
A faint, voice appeared inside his head, "Brother, why? How?"
"Telepathy, heh, gave my arm-must'a been used-make your body."
"Wh-why!? Why brother!?" the faint voice faded quickly.
"For you Al…"
Eevee carefully laid Ed's head down before scratching and calling through the door.
Footsteps were heard and the doorknob turned, Winry's shriek was so loud it knocked the last bit of Edward's consciousness right out. It was then that he'd finally found some dreamless rest in his pain.
Well, that was what he got for stealing.
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this AU! This will follow the main plotline of the Manga and second Anime but with original content and lots of pokemon. I always appreciate any feedback or comments you have for me! Thanks for reading!