Disclaimer: I do not own Edward or Alphonse, or Winry. Who I do own is Himmel and Kesshou, and I guess if you wanna get technical, Mrs.Strauch and Ms.Töpfer are mine too. Who are they? You tell me. --'
Takes place: After Ed and Al end up on the other side of the gate. Way farther. (Ed has kids of ages 4 and 6) There is a tidbit of a memory at the beginning of each chapter. That's just how it goes.
KeyATTENTION- most words are in germen. They're Germen, they live in Germany, so dat's how it goes. Just so ya know.
Vati- Daddy
Mamma- (take a whiled guess)
Himmel- (name) sky, heaven
Kesshou- (Japanese) (name) crystal (crystallization) blood plasma (plasma)
Neue Gedächtnisse- (title) new memories
(Learn it now, so your not all 'huh?' later in da story. Then you gotta break the 'illusion' and go back up to the top, and look up a word…I still don't know them all myself though, so who am I to talk. --')
Neue GedächtnisseNo. I can't stay.
No. You can't come.
I'm not worth it. I can't keep being so selfish.
You told me so many lies. Always excuses. I felt so alone. You left. He left. Now I had none left. Life was worthless, meaningless without you in it. I knew I had to. Had to try. I couldn't just give up. I'd waist away without you in my world.
I know it was selfish. Roy opened the gate one last time, only to shut it for good. At first I just came telling myself that I had to make myself watch the event. I wasn't a public event. Know how I got in? Winry Elric. A cousin. Of course, half of them knew it was a lie, but how could they deny my presence at such an affair?
I hadn't planned it. The gate opened, and there you were. Standing by your side was Al, and I knew I couldn't go through with it.
I dropped my bags and ran.
You opened your eyes when I called your name. I broke your concentration, and I knew it. Al was brought to his knees under the alchemic pressure.
Stay back.
No. I can't go back.
No. You can't come here.
So many warnings, to many words. I didn't care. I approached and the bolts of alchemy felt like nothing compared to what happened to my soul when I saw your face. I could feel the tears streaming down my face. They didn't have time to stay there long. I could feel my body being taken. Something so trivial didn't stop me.
When I reached the open gate and reached my hand out to you, it hit a force, almost like a sheet of glass, which separated us. I smiled as the rest of me was being taken.
No.
Why.
"WHINRY!"
"Ed?"
…
"Edward?"
…
"Edward Elric! You get your butt out of bed this instant or, whatever god you do or don't believe in, have mercy on your lazy-ass soul!"
"Mhe…"
Winry placed her hand angrily on her hips. She loomed over the 26 year old Fullmetal Alchemist. He lay limply on the edge of the bed, his mouth slightly agape, a small stream of drool emitting from his half-snoring mouth. She tried to keep the smile that played on her lips from plastering itself across her annoyed features. She shook her head in a sort of defeat.
"Well, I did marry him…" she whispered to herself, looking at her sleeping husband with a hint of pity in her features.
"Yep. You said 'yes', you always had that choice, so don't blame me."
The mechanic's eye's widened and before the 'sleeping' Ed knew what hit him, a wrench quite literally did, squarely on his head.
"OW!" The man sat up abruptly, wincing before peeking one eye to look at the fuming woman. "Same as always. I get you a present for our anniversary, and you use it to him me."
The look on Winry's face that had moment ago screamed get-ready-for-the-telling-to-of-your-pitiful-life, melted into a look of surprise, staring at the instrument in her hand. 'Yeah, it was just laying there on the nightstand…"
"Comes with drills and screw drivers too. They're a set."
The woman gasped as she picked up the drill bits from the small toolbox, observing their diamond tipped ends, though not for the reason most women would. Although you could apply the statement 'diamonds are a girls best-friend' to the mechanic to a degree, the diamonds on her new tool gave her joy because of their almost indestructibility when working with heavy metals. "Oh Edward, They're wonderful!" She bent down and pecked the still sore boy sitting on the bed. "But it's still no excuse!" She warned, waving a finger at him. "You came in so late it didn't even wake me."
He smiled at that. "Oh, right, and me climbing into an empty bed at night didn't clue me in that you were up late working on some weird contraption."
"Contraption?" odd to most that she'd be most offended by this, Ed wasn't surprised. "I'll hope you haven't forgotten that two of those "contraptions" are connected to you body right now!" She glared at him for a second, as if contemplating of knocking something else off that would have to be replaced. "Oh! And you say you knew I was up and you didn't see me after you got in?" she added almost as an after thought. "What's up with that 'hubbie'?"
The nervous man rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, yeah, I was sortta tired…hadn't slept in three days, you see." His expression changed "Oh, and about that 'lazy-ass'? I recent that." He crossed his arms in mock insult.
"Well then, I'm sorry." She bent down and kissed him. "You work very hard." Adding sincerity to her voice.
Ed smiled happily. "Mmm…I haven't had a kiss in ages."
Winry smiled at him slyly. "Well you're always gone." She slid her hand down his chest, teasing him.
"Really?" He said, returning her lust filled look.
"Yeah." She said with half closed eyes. She leaned seductively into him, adding in a voice that matched her actions "I get lonely."
"Maybe I can fix that."
Her smile grew broader. "I bet you can."
"Vati?" The moment was suddenly shattered as a young boy of about 6 ran to the doorway and looked in, a face of excitement flowing across his features. "Kesshou! I found him! I found him!" With eyes twinkling, he made to step into the room. A worried look soon crossing his childish face. "Wait, they look like they're about to start wrestling again."
The couple blushed. Winry pushed herself off of Ed, walking a few steps toward her son. "Himmel, remember Mamma told you that your Vati and I weren't wrestling, we were-"
A metal hand clamped over her mouth, "Nope, we were wrestling." Finished the said 'Vati' for her.
She pushed his hand away from her mouth and rolled her eyes, furiously whispering, "Oh, so God isn't real, but the Stork is?" Ed gave her a half smile that looked more like a grimace.
"Vati's been gone for a long time…" Their attention turned back to the sad looking boy.
"Vati's been busy with Uncle Alphonse." He smiled at the boy, going over to him and bending down to his level. "But I'm back now."
The small child's eye filled with tears and he threw himself ageist his father.
"Vati, Vati, Vati…" a little girl tuttled her way down the hall "Vati!" She shouted finally reaching them. With a big tackle hug aimed at her beloved father's face, Edward was brought to his knees.
"Help! I'm being attacked by munchkins!" Edward playfuly called as the children dog piled him.
"Hey! I'm not a midget!" Himmel got to his feet, crossing his arms over his chest and pouted down at him. Kesshou, looking up and seeing her brother standing, mimicked him. "Yeah! Me neither. I'm no dwarf."
"I didn't say any of that…" Edward said, confused. A fit of laughter erupted from behind him and he turn to see Winry holding her sides from the bout of giggles that racked her body. "Y- you- [snicker[ you're- Ed, just like you- with- an-" She gave up and set to laughing her heart out.
The children smiled at their mother's pleasure and began running circles around their fallen father chanting "Vati's back, Vati's back, Vati's back,"
A simple smirk set to his face, and he let himself fall backward on the floor with a sigh.
"Vati! Vati! Come look at what I made! Mamma taught me!" at his bouncing son's statement, Ed's mind retreated to a far off memory.
"Mommy! Mommy! Look what I made!"
"I made one too! Look! But it's not as good as brother's…"
"Well I think they're both wonderful" She smiled at them. His mother was so kind. In those days, the memories of those times, they felt so distant to him now…
Of course, he'd never be able to pass on that knowledge and skill to his own children, seeing as Alchemy didn't work in this world. Ed closed his eyes, trying to settle his emotions. Winry caught his look and calmed herself to a gentle smile.
"Ok kids, Vati has to change. Go play. Oh, but Himml, I want you to stay inside the fence if you go outside, and make sure Mrs.Strauch or Ms.Töpfer are out there watching you. Kess, you stay indoors." She ushered the children out in the hallway. They dispersed from sight, and Winry turned and heaved a heavy sigh, plopping herself on the floor next to Edward. They gazed at the ceiling a while before she rolled over, laying her head on his shoulder.
"Two and a half months is to long. Please don't leave soon…" her voice was muffled.
He didn't say anything for a while. "You know I can't promise that."
"So what's on your mind? You've got a look of nostalgia written all over your face."
Ed sighed for what seemed like the billionth time that day. He had long ago stopped trying to keep his thoughts from the now Mrs. Elric, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "Just thinking about how much my mother meant to me." He murmured and turned toward her, smiling sweetly "You're a lot like her actually."
Winry looked surprised "R- really?"
"Mm-hm." He snickered "I guess that mean I ended up marrying my mother after all."
She glared at him playfully. "Now if I hadn't known your mom, I might have taken that as an insult. But really Ed," all seriousness and a hint of concern in her voice. "What's bothering you? Please tell me."
"Well, you are able to teach the kids something useful here, but all the stuff I know doesn't mean anything here." He murmured his complaints quickly, rambling his feelings out to satisfy her. "I dunno…I just kinda always pictured if I ever had kids, I teach them skills just like Teacher did for me and Al. Give them something to look up to me for."
"Edward." She said, drawing his eyes to meet hers. "Our children absolutely adore you. Don't let anything make you think otherwise." Ed smiled at her reassurance.
"Thanks Win." They lay next to each other on the floor a bit longer.
"…Is it odd?"
"Hmm?" Winry opened her eyes; she had been starting to doze off.
"Is it odd…that after all these years, it still hurts. My mother…"
Winry laid her head against his. "Not in the least. My parents…" she paused. "I think when you lose someone like that, you epically Ed, you never really get over it."
"…I miss our world too."
"Me too, Ed."
"Then why'd you come over here?" he rolled his head to look at her.
"You already know Ed." She yawned, but wasn't really tired anymore. "You wouldn't come back."
"After all this time, all these years here, I still feel so Alien to this world. It's like a dream, something I can't get out of. You and Al seem to have almost adapted to this place, but no matter how long I've been here, it all just seems so fake." He shook his head. "Not the people so much, but the life. I…I can't explain it."
Winry's eyes filled with emotion at his unsure statement. "I know I put up a good face, Ed, but I really feel so distant to this place…I…I fell like I'm drowning…drowning in lukewarm water. So surreal." She buried her face in the crook of his neck.
"…"
"…Vati?"
The two bolted up. Standing in the doorway was a small, confused looking girl. "Kesshou…" Winry blinked at her, surprise wearing into concern. "What's wrong honey? Didn't you go play?" the child solemnly shook her head. "Why not?" She walked up to her, kneeling to her level and brushed away a few stray hairs from her face. Kesshou's face was still cute and round, her being four years old. Her hair was a lighter blond, like her mother's, though it was beginning to fall in a frame around her face like her father's. Her eyes blinked, a starting blue matching concerned filled azure looking back at her.
On the contrary, the 6 year old Himmel's face was shaping up to look like his mother's. His hair was a familiar gold, but fell from his head like his mother's. He wore it pulled back in a short ponytail at the nape of his neck, a trait of his father. His eyes were a soft gold, fading light to dark in his wide orbs. But that particular child was outside kicking a soccer ball at the moment and not standing mysteriously in their doorway, having listen in on a thought personal conversation.
"I…I didn't go outside, so I didn't do anything wrong…" She looked up at her mother.
"Of course not." she smiled at her, rubbing her cheek with her thumb.
"Is it true?"
"Is what true, honey?"
"That you and Vati are from a different world?" She looked at them wondrously, excitement in her bright eyes. "Like a fairytale! Is there magic there? Can I go there? What's al-cem-iy, is it what you call the magic there? Do you have special powers? Is…" she gasped "Is uncle from there too!? Who else, who else!" She jumped up and down, her face upturned and smiling.
They both stared at her a while. The shock soon wore from Ed's eyes and a soft smile came to his face, his eyes unfocused, looking deeply into long ago memories.
Winry turned her head to look at him for a hint of what she should do, but all she saw was his sad, lost looking face. She looked back at her daughter, concern etching her face. "Kesshou…you've got to understand…"
"That it's all true."
Winry looked back at her husband with a started expression. "Your right, Win. Lying to our children with fairytales and myths will only screw them up later in life. So If I'm taking a truthful and scientific view on this, I guess that means telling them that there is another world just beyond the gate of this one. That alchemy has powers no one has ever heard of in this world, and that both of us along with Al aren't originally from here."
He got to his knees and took his daughter gently by the shoulders. "You won't even remember this, and if you do, you'll grow up and think it's another fable that we led you to believe. But it's true. And as much as I wish you could one day see it, go there and walk though my old home town, meet the people we knew there- god, hawk-eye would never let me live down marrying your mother." Lowering his eyes, his face became unreadable. "But that's impossible. The gate is forever closed. Besides, we've got to learn to stop being so selfish and doing only what we want, and learn to help others on a grander scale." He locked his eyes back with Kesshou's. "Can…can you even begin to understand…?"
The small child looked at her father. "I… Vati, I…" a spark of understanding? But, no, she was too young. "I…I'm sorry Vati…I…I don't." a shadow covered the spark, whether it was real or fake. Ed looked at her a second more, then stood, shaking his head.
"Look at me, crazy and rambling…" he rubbed the back of his neck in an embarrassed fashion. "Sorry about that Winry…" He smiled at her nervously and Winry shook her head, smiling.
"Geez…sometimes I wonder about you…"
Kesshou didn't quite understand what had happened, but couldn't forget it either. Vati wanted her to understand something but…she was too young? Well, that was ok. She'd get older soon enough, then she'd be able to get what he wanted her to. There was no rush. "Vati! Listen! Guess what I learned!"
Ed looked at her as she took a deep breath and started reciting what she had learned. "Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron…" the child continued listing off the periodic elements sorted by atomic number, oblivious to how astounding it was, soon reaching "Thorium, Protactinium, and Uranium. See? Yay!" She did a little victory dance on the spot. It had taken her about two and a half minuets in total to recite the whole 89 of the known elements of the time.
The dead silence slid on. Ed blinked. "Win…your child is a genius…"
"Honey," the mother began with a dazed look. "Where did you learn those?"
Kesshou smiled broadly. "Whenever Vati gets angry he starts saying 'Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron,' so I asked Ms.Töpfer what Vati was saying. She said he was reciting the elements. I said I want'id to learn, so she taught me! Yay!" She twirled around again, giggling. "Am I smart like you now Vati? Hmm?" she said, smiling at him after she stopped and steadied herself.
Winry shook her head. "When did she have time to teach you? How long has this been going on? Edward, your daughter knows the periodic elements!"
Kesshou rocked on the balls of her feet as she explained to the befuddled parents, "Whenever I went out to play, I'd sit with Ms.Töpfer, and she'd teach me! We started after Daddy left. We even made flash cards. I am 4 and a half, you know!" she stopped her swaying to look at her parent's faces, her mother's mouth still agape.
"No, wait that would make sense…" Winry looked at Ed, who was now mumbling in a slightly hunched thinking position. "Ah! I get it!!" he said, pounding a fist softly on his palm. "Winry, you told me that Emma Töpfer taught at the new high school here, right? That means that she would know and have access to the information. Now, Kess recited 89 elements, right? But I know of 109 in existence. Here, they must have only discovered 89 of them! Also, I was gone three months, and if they studied from that point until now, it's not that unbelievable. Make sense?" He looked at his wife hopefully.
"…No…"
"Oh, come on Win! It makes perfect sense! Look at it with an open mind!"
"No, that's not what I'm skeptical about." She said talking to Edward, but now turning to her daughter. "It's that she memorized all the elements, but still struggled with her ABC's!"
"What! They're hard." The child said, stubbornly crossing her arms.
Ed looked at the seen before him a second longer before throwing his head back and laughing, something he hadn't done in a very, very long time.
"Well, if one things for sure, these kids are going to have one hell of a interesting life. I just hope they don't fall onto the same path Allophones and I did."
Kesshou gasped. "Vati swore!" she yelled, pointing a finger accusingly. Her father smiled and swung her onto his shoulders.
"Sorry Kess. Come on, let's go find Himmel and play a little." He turned to Winry and gave her a wink. "I'll be back in a hour." With that the two ran out the door, Ed being careful to duck for Kesshou's safety in the doorway.
Winry was left to sit on her bed and was soon lost deep in thought. Ed had changed so much since he had re-entered this world. It was a year before both Roy and the Elric's were able to shut the gate for good. That's when she had slipped through.
-----
"WINRY!"
The world blacked out. The next thing she remembered was wakening in a white hospital room.
"Ms. Faber, are you awake?" A woman dressed in a white uniform looked down at her with a smiling face. "You've been in a coma for a very long time, young woman. How are you feeling?"
She blinked, trying to understand what had happened. Her eyes widened. She tried sitting up before falling back to the bed, accompanied by voiced warnings from the uniformed female.
"Ed…Edward!" Winry's voice was hoarse, like it hadn't been used in weeks…or years. Panic filled her senses. "Wh…what's the date?"
This nurse gave her the same sickeningly happy smile. "It's the 23rd of August, 1921, dear. I'm afraid you've been out for over two years."
But…that wasn't right…it was only one day off from when she last remembered, the date she had…the gate…
Again she tried to get up, failing again, this time falling out of the bed.
"Ms. Faber! Please, it will take therapy for you two be able to…" Winry struggled to her knees. She never remembered a time she felt weaker. She was shaking so violently her vision was blurred. She struggled on her hands and knees to the window, bulling herself to the ledge.
Outside was a city, bustling with people and life. The streets, though a dismal and stony gray, were wet with puddles from the rainy days that had passed. Automobiles hurried down the street, followed by horses; some pulling carriages, or only holding one master in the saddle. The city was of one in the country of Germany, a small town not to many train rides from the capital city.
Winry let herself slip to the ground in a little heap. Buzzes of voices and activity moved through the air around her, invisible and nonexistent to the fallen girl. Looking at the furan world beyond, she knew. She knew she wasn't in Central anymore. Tears came to her eyes as a sad smile crossed over her face.
'Well, I'm here Edward Elric. Whether you like it or not, I'm stuck in this world with you.' She didn't feel the arms of the doctor picking her up from her spot on the floor or lay her safely on the bed. Too lost in her mind, she didn't feel the needle prick her, or the small injection enter her system. "I'm here now. I don't know where, but now there's hope. All you have to do…'
Her eyes blinked slowly shut, her thoughts drifting to a dreamless sleep. "Now you have to find me…"
…Ed…
End chapter 1
Well, what do ya think? This is just an intro. The main story is going to consist mostly around Kesshou and Himmel. Little back ground, then we bounce into the teen years. (Ooh, how fun…)
If some of you don't get something, like the fact that Winry is in her counterpart's body in the 'real world', and that it has been her counterpart that has been in the coma, and that she's only been asleep for one day, review or message me! I really like reviews. They make me happy… :D
Also, first real FMA fic here, so cut me some slack if it's a little o-O ish. I hope to get the next chapter up soon but WHO KNOWS! School is a terrible thing, my friends…(so is homework. Lots and lots of homework…)
Ja ne!
-Shinjite