Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist !
Authors Note: I thank Hiromu Awakawa and her team for writing Full Metal Alchemist. I also want to thank Kenji for helping me write this story. Thank you Shes My Morphine for helping edit this story. Without your help this would of really really sucked. LOL
"Why............why must my life end like this?" thought the young silver-haired boy as he knelt on the ground. He continued to clutch to his knife that he was given as he looked around his surroundings. His breath was short for the air was thick with the pungent scent of drying blood and rotting flesh. The scent of iron and corpses, made him ill and yet so very hungry. The only meant he had close was rotting on the battlefield...the maggots were already eating there way out of the eyeballs of the corpse closest to him. "I'm gonna go insane without nourishment..." he thought, his mouth watering and his stomach turning.
A strapping, young adult samurai was trudging through the torn up grounds of the battlefield, avoiding all the slaughtered men strewn across the ground. His unselfish desire was to assist any survivors. He was neutral in his ways, not caring which army any of the survivors came from. His eyes scanned the horizon and then fell to the floor as he was beginning to feel a sense of hopelessness. The shuffling of armor alerted the samurai. He looked up to see the boy who survived looming over a corpse beginning to strip away the armor and shoo away the maggots in the slain soldier's eye sockets. The survivor boy was holding a knife in his hand. What caught the samurai's attention was the desperation, and starvation in his eyes. "NO DON'T DO IT!" the samurai cried out rushing to the boy's aid. He gripped the boy by the arms in an attempt to pull him away from the corpse but the boy was strong and struggled hard. "Have a sense of humanity boy!" he pleaded.
The young boy struggled to look into the eyes of the samurai to show him that he meant business. "Let go! I need to...I'm starving!" he cried out. The boy struggled and flailed his arms, looking ridiculous as the samurai's strength surpassed his. The boy became weak and very tired...he passed out in the samurai's arms. "I think I will take him home and Yumi will help him." the samurai thought as he began walking up the hill back to where he came carrying the boy over his shoulder.
The vague scent of food was drifting somewhere in the atmosphere. The silver-haired boy was feeling hazy and light headed as he forced his eyelids to open realizing that his last conscience memory was on the battle field. Had he passed away? No there was a samurai there... how much time had slipped away? Hours? Days? Where the hell was he anyway. God he was still so starving. All of his muscles ached his head was pounding and he couldn't see through the film of sleep induced tears over his eyes. He brought his hands up to his face and rubbed his tired eyes. Upon opening them after several blinks to adjust to the sudden amount of light radiating off the lanterns, he saw a beautiful woman holding a tray with a bowl emitting steam.
"Good morning sleepy head," the woman said in a voice sweet as honey. In reality it was midnight.
The door opened and the young samurai had walked in, but this time out of his full suit of armor. He was dressed in the normal Yukata and pants.
He smiled as he saw the young boy, "This is good, he is awake. I thought you would have died out there little one." The young woman smiled and slowly got up from the floor.
"Welcome home Hideki." she said as she held her huge stomach. The young boy couldn't stop himself from staring in awe at the obvious child bouncing around inside the woman. He was in fact surprised at himself for not realizing it earlier. The boy forced himself to sit up to take the soup the woman had to offer. He chowed down without bothering to be polite about his eating habits. He felt relief as the broth warmed his entire body.
Hideki walked over to the young woman and kissed her cheek, "Thank you Yumi." Hideki looked over to the young boy and smiled. "How are you feeling?"
"I am feeling a little better, Thank you." the young boy replied as he bowed his head to Hideki.
"What is your name?" Yumi asked as she sat back down next to the young boy.
"My name is Kenji Murakami. I am six years old." Kenji said as he sipped his tea. He blushed softly as Yumi gently touched his cheek. He was not used to being treated smiled and kissed Kenji's cheek. "
"Well Kenji, why don't you stay with Yumi and I until we can find your family." Hideki said as he sat down next to Yumi. Kenji looked down at the mention of his family.
"I can't go back to them. My father banished me on that battlefield." Kenji said as he looked up at the two adults not expecting the reactions they'd given him. Yumi gasped and gently touched Kenji's shoulder.
"I am so sorry," she whispered sympathetically. The sympathy seemed ever so foreign to the boy, he considered this punishment entirely normal. Then again Kenji never had a normal childhood. Normal children were loved unconditionally by their parent's in safe home's far away from battlefields.
Yumi grunted a little as she held her stomach. The baby was kicking much more often than usual and her contractions seemed closer than average. "The baby must be excited about our new family member." Yumi said as she smiled a little. Kenji gasped as he heard this new word.
"Family member?" he asked as he looked at Yumi. "What do you mean?"
"We want you to stay and be a part of this family." Yumi explained.
"I always wanted a son!" Hideki agreed happily. "What did you think we were going to do? Heal you up and then send you out into the world...a little six year old? As far as I'm concerned you're just a little kid and little kid's need to have a healthy childhood! A home! The works!" he laughed heartily.
Kenji smiled and bowed his head to them. "Thank you."
Yumi clutched her stomach feeling the contractions getting closer together until...her face grew hot and red as she felt it. "Ummm Hideki......I think my water just broke."
Hideki's eyes widened. "Ah...Are you sure darling?" he asked.
Yumi's stomach pounded and she gripped it in pain. "OF COURSE I'M SURE!" she snapped.
"Oh God! Not now! It' s March! You aren't due until April! How can this be? Oh God water! Hot water! That's what you need right?! Kenji get off the bed! Yumi lay down! God I don't know what to do! Should I call a doctor? Kenji's too weak to go out and get one right now...Oh God what do I do?!" Hideki paced around the room looking for the closest thing that could possibly help his wife with the birth of their first child.
Yumi was laying on the bed taking deep breaths gripping the sheets. "Hideki, the baby's coming...FAST!" she screamed. She could already feel it beginning to crown.
"WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?" Hideki cried out.
"YOU PULL I PUSH!" Yumi yelled at her husband. Kenji was backing into the very corner of the room. He couldn't comprehend what was going on. One moment he was being welcomed into a kind and loving family and the next...Oh God was Yumi going to die? Fear pulsed through the young boy's mind. He was wide-eyed watching Hideki operate. Yumi cried out taking deep breaths and clutching onto the bed pushing and breathing as Hideki attempted to retrieve his first born child.
"You're almost there!" Hideki told his wife as their child's head was freed from the womb. He pulled gently on his babies shoulders. "KENJI GET A TOWEL OR SOMETHING!"
"I don't know where to find a towel!" Kenji responded staying tight in his corner of the room.
"THERE IN THE CLOSET BEHIND YOU BOY!" Hideki yelled back. "HURRY MY BOY!"
Kenji slid open the door to the closet revealing piles of towels. Being of short stature he picked a pink one in the middle making the whole pile fall on top of him. "HURRY KENJI! THE BABY'S NEARLY HERE!" He picked up three towels in all, rushed to Hideki's side and threw them beside him. He rushed back to the corner of the only place he felt secure right now.
Hideki threw a bloody blue towel on the floor wrapping a little flesh colored bundle into a pink towel. "It's a girl Yumi!" he smiled. Kenji was still shaking in the corner of the room watching Yumi closely to see if she would awaken. She wasn't making a sound. Was she dead? Oh God what would he do if this woman who had shown him such compassion was dead?
"That's fantastic honey," Yumi grinned. "Can I hold her now?" she asked. Hideki handed his little girl to his wife and knelt down beside her. "She's beautiful!" Yumi exclaimed. "Kenji come over here and come look at her!"
Kenji reluctantly took the steps over to the bed. In Yumi's arms was a little tiny, helpless baby. The baby had stopped its shrieking and now made little cooing noises in her mother's arms. "What's her name?" he asked
"Hmm...I'm not sure yet," she put a finger on her chin in thought.
"Ch...ch..chii..ch ch." the little baby cooed.
"Chii? What's that supposed to mean?" Kenji asked.
"Chii?" Yumi sampled the word on her tongue. "It sounds adorable."
"I love it Yumi! That's it! We should name her Chii! What do you think honey?" he asked excitedly.
"It's official. Kenji...meet Chii. Wow. Two new members in our family! I say we celebrate!"
Kenji yawned. "I think we should get some rest first dear," Hideki pointed out.