A/N: Yay, first FMA fic. More notes, etc., at the end.

Disclaimer: I am not a cow in any way, shape or form, thus not Hiromu Arakawa. I wish I owned FMA, but I don't. BTW, I think I'd be a chipmunk.

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Hoenheim of Light. Many may not realize it, but he played probably the biggest part in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist. Basically everything that happened happened because of him. It goes all the way back to the alchemy he and Dante performed; he brought back their son, she performed much human alchemy, and they'd both change bodies when the time was right.

Assuming all of that happened is part of my story; the rest is assuming what would happen if there were things he didn't do.

The story starts at the house of the Elrics: Hoenheim, Trisha, and their two young children.

oOo

He was ready to leave. He was standing by the gate with a bag in his hand, but then she came rushing out of the house, wrapped in her bathrobe.

"It's the middle of the night," she said. "Where do you think you're going?" She seemed to almost know, though.

"I have to go, Trisha," he said quietly.

She seemed quite unsure of what to say as the tears welled up in her eyes. "You're… leaving me…?"

"Oh," he sighed, walking to her. He caressed her cheek and kissed her gently on the forehead, and she pressed her face against his shoulder like she had so many times before. Her husband loved her; he was like her anchor in the storm of life. Now what?

"Hoenheim…" she murmured, "you can't leave me…"

"I can't bear for you to have to see me like…" he pulled up the sleeve of his coat, revealing a patch of rotting flesh, "this."

His wife threw herself against him, wrapping her arms tightly around him. "I don't care! I don't care! You can't leave just because of that; it doesn't matter to me and it doesn't matter to your boys. I've never needed you more, Hoenheim! The boys can't grow up without a father; I need you!"

"They'll be fine without me. You will, too; you'll learn to be alright. I… I have to go now, Trisha, sweetheart. The next train… it leaves in a half an hour."

He walked out the gate and closed it quickly behind him. As he started down the path, Trisha fought back tears and yelled, "Hoenheim, you promised me once to never leave me as long as you loved me. Do you love me?"

Hoenheim paused, though saying nothing.

"I asked you, do you love me?" Her tone was slightly harsher this time.

His head tilted slightly, as to be able to see her out of the corner of his eye.

"Hoenheim, if you don't give a damn about me any more, feel free to walk away; just answer my question first! Do you love me anymore?! Do I mean anything to you, or am I to become a lost memory, like the dirt you walk upon?!"

His shoulders stiffened, and he turned his head back and closed his eyes. Without making a move, he said in a low tone, "Trisha, I loved you since the first time I talked to you. I have loved you, I do still love you, and I will love you until the day I die. You are the only woman in the world who could ever capture my heart like you have."

"Then I don't see why the hell you're leaving." He looked at her after she said this. "You say you love me, yet you sneak out at night, abandoning your wife and children." His shoulders dropped, and her throat constricted as she said the last words. "I need you. The boys need you. I don't give a damn what you look like; you and the boys are my everything."

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, starting his way down the road that seemed all too long.

Trisha sobbed, and the tears flowed freely down her cheeks. The streaked her face, splotching her nightgown and settling on her lips, giving her salty, sorrowful kisses. "Hoenheim!" she yelled, "I love you!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, and slowly turned all the way around. Whatever plans he had, the determination to fulfill them left his face. The next moment his bag dropped to the ground. "I'm sorry, love. So sorry."

She could only keep crying as he reentered the yard and wrapped his arms around her. "I love you," he whispered. "I… I won't leave you. Just know I love you."

She pressed her face against his shoulder. "I love you, too."

oOo

And so one action begins to cause a vast chain of them. One action, or thing this case, lack of action, can change so much in the future.

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A/N: So starts the beginning of this fic. This has a lack of OC's, and a lack of much else. It is basically full of "what if's." It is the creation of an FMA Alternate Universe, an AU. Please tell me what you thought, and suggestions. Flame if you must, though constructive criticism is nicer. I'll be writing more of this, so tell me your honest opinions.