Found this while looking through old papers I wrote during the year, and typed it up. I like it, and I hope you will, too. It's intended to be a oneshot, but...-shrugs- If anyone wants it continued, let me know. It might be interesting...
If I owned FMA...oh, if I owned FMA...-dreamy look-
Why is it that in a single instant, fate can be completely altered? A simple child's curiosity can change the fate of a household, a rebellion, a nation. Perhaps even the world.
It is the child's curious insomnia that leads a stove to catch fire, spreading to the rest of the house. A child venturing out just a step too far, caught in an accidental fire, provides the perfect cover for a bloody genocide that kills millions. And a lonely child, curious as to what her friends are leaving her out of this time, may find herself, years later, in a very different position- all that she knows in a very different position- than where she would be had just four words not exited her naive mouth.
Silence hangs like a thick blanket over the room, a slight skritch-scratching on the floor and the occasional rustle of dusty pages only blending into the room's somber aura. A small girl peeks in through the doorway, pink sundress fluttering slightly around her small knees. Her blonde eyebrows scrunch together as her clear and innocent blue eyes travel from the circle patiently being drawn onto the floor, to a small vial bubbling quietly in the corner, to the concentration on her friends' faces.
"What are you doing?"
Her quiet question breaks through the fog, and the other occupants of the room make small noises of surprise before looking up at the girl, framed by the early-morning light in the hallway.
"Ah-Winry!" A book drops with a soft thump as it hits the floor, and the youngest occupant of the room jumps up, a wide grin on his face. The boy on the floor looks up and offers a small smile before returning to his masterpiece. "We weren't expecting you so soon."
The simplicity of the room and the dusty tomes of books command quiet, even if no one is quite sure why anymore. The room has a quiet sense of tension, of a secret that begins somewhere…and the boys try their hardest to uncover it.
Soon enough, they will. Even more than they realize.
"But what're you doing?" the girl prompts again, holding her elbows and moving to crouch near the circle the older boy is working so patiently on.
"We're studying." He responds, standing up now that his work is complete. "Here, wanna watch?"
The girl nods, and he nods to his brother, who looks at him for confirmation for a few moments before his eyes brighten and he turns to rummage for something on a nearby table.
"Don't wake mom," his older brother warns as a stirring stick of some sort drops to the floor with a clunk. The younger brother nods, still searching the table, before straightening with a smile and handing a large piece of paper to his brother. The elder boy nods his thanks before turning with a slightly worried look to the curious girl.
"It's like we did for your birthday last year," he says, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "Promise you won't…freak out?"
She glares at him with determination blazing in her eyes, back straightened considerably. "Okay!"
And the older brother smiles and places the paper in the center of the circle, motioning for his brother to crouch down beside him. "Now, watch."
They clap their hands down onto the circle, producing a blue light of energy that sparks and jumps around them. A whooshing sound whirls around her, and she resists the urge to cover her face as vibration seem to push all the energy in the room towards the pulsing circle-
And, as quickly as it started, it's over. She straightens and peers at the paper, which, to her surprise, is now an elegantly folded swan. The brothers grin at her proudly.
Perhaps somewhere, in another time, another reality, she would have laughed and applauded and dragged her friends outside into the warm summer air, to run and play, and have a picnic with their families come lunchtime. Perhaps there, the brothers would leave in a few short years, appearances drastically altered. Perhaps she would wait for months and months for a single message, a word that they were alive…
But here, in this time, this reality, four words exit her mouth.
"Can you teach me?"
And, just like that, the reality is drastically altered.