When ones life ends, what does a person exactly leave behind for their friends and families to see or have? Money? Their special antiques? Clothing in which they wore when they were twelve years old? Items that were left behind by the deceased could become heirlooms and will be passed down to the living legacies. For all we know, it could be anything. So, what does a married couple leave behind after a tragic death? Two written memories and a child who became a fine young woman twenty years later. The memories are written in two journals; one is written by her mother and the other by her father. Both who are witnesses of the Ishvalan Civil War and a forbidden love have wrote their memories within those pages. These pages haven't been looked at after their deaths. As for their child, she's grown to be healthy, strong, smart, and yet caring. She's also been through forbidden love, but she's been through more. Bullying, over-protection, and friendship losses have been inflicted on her almost everyday. But now, she develops a smile now that she has a friend and her family of Ishvalan blood. She's tomboy, quiet, and a sweet individual. May she continue the life in which her parents gave her...
In case you've forgotten, my name is Serenity Hickman. I don't know how you can forget; my name isn't that forgettable. Yep. I'm still here in this godforsaken town in which we call Central. This place is full of people who you can't trust and there are those who are cool to talk to, but that's a rarity. There is nothing new that happened to me though. Don't believe me? I have been out alone, playing with Dex, hanging with Taylor, getting my late calls from Envy, and being his sex toy. So, everything has been the same two years later. But this is coming from me. What's new in general is that the Elric brothers got their bodies back, Ling is the emperor of Xing now, and Mustang lost his sight. I don't know how he did, but what I do know is that he's going to get help by a man named Tim Marcoh. I just really hope that Mustang will go through it with no problems at all. Anyway, my Ishvalan family is moving here to Central just to be closer to me. It's awesome for them to move here and live in the same town as I do. I would like to live with them, but I'm actually looking for an apartment for me to live in. Taylor and the people of the military are helping me look for one. So far, there is none that I that like to stay in. Despite that I didn't find one yet, I know that there is one that I'll enjoy staying in.
I'm outside of the Command Center waiting for Taylor to get here. Apparently, she called me earlier telling me that there are some people she wants me to meet. I wouldn't be surprised if they hate me as well. I am so used to and over this hatred in Central. It started from the Ishvalan Civil War to the living of the mixed breed. It just doesn't stop. If it does, then I'll be happy to hear that, but it still lingers. After a good fifteen minutes of waiting, Taylor shows up with three people; two are girls and one is a boy. As I observe them, I see that their eyes aren't filled with animosity whatsoever. If their eyes are like that, I wonder if meeting them will go well. "Hey, Serenity, how are feeling?" Taylor asks. "I'm doing fine I guess." I answer her. "Well, that's good enough." Taylor approves my mood, "Serenity, this is Maci, Bayrose, and Dale. They actually wanted to meet you." "Oh. R-Really?" I question. "Yes." a girl with short black hair and glasses answers. "We have heard about you, but most of them were pretty offensive to you, of course." a girl with curly blonde hair told me. "When Taylor told us about you, we wanted to come here and meet you for ourselves." the guy said. "So what Taylor told us is true. You really are a cool person." the blonde girl states. "Thanks..." I thank her, "...but I don't I know you guys that well for you to say that I'm nice..." "Yes we do. Taylor told us all about you." the blonde-haired girl disagrees, "My name is Bayrose and if you need anything, you can talk to me." "Same here and I'm Maci." the short haired girl introduces herself. "And I'm Dale. Good to meet you, Serenity." the guy introduces himself as well. " Nice to meet you guys too." I greet to all three of them. "Now that we got that out of the way..." Dale changes the subject, "...what are we going to do today?" "I'm not sure." I answer, "I've almost been around every single place in Central that I ran out places to go." "Well, we'll just walk then." Taylor decides. "Oh I forgot to tell you guys." I remember. "What is it, Serenity?" Maci asks. "I have to help my family move into Central. I can't hang out for too long." I reply. "We can still hang out." Bayrose says, "We can help you help your family." "Will you?" I question. "Of course." Taylor answers. I smile at them and say, "Thanks, guys. I really do appreciate that."
As we walk around Central, we joked around for the longest. We haven't gotten into any serious conversations whatsoever. When Bayrose told her opinion about boys, it caused her to ask me a question. "Hey, Serenity, I know you have boy problems so, I want to ask is it hard really hard to stay single all your life?" she asks. "Now that we're friends, I can tell you that I DO have a boyfriend." I answer her question. "You do?" Dale questions. "Yeah, but he's not like the guys of Central really. He's different." I summarize very little about Envy. "So, what's he like?" Bayrose asks. "I really don't want to talk about him that much..." I tell her. "Why not?" Maci questions. "I rather not say." I retort. "Just so you know: if he's treating you like shit, you can talk to me." Dale says. "Okay, Dale." I chuckle. As much as they want to know, I don't want to tell them about Envy. If I were to talk about Envy with someone, it would be with Taylor because she met him. Maci, Dale, and Bayrose haven't met Envy or any homunculus unless they've seen Bradley in the flesh. It would also include some unnecessary questions...
The more we walked, we got closer to the train station. Since we were over there, we went inside to wait for my Ishvalan family. We sit on a bench and wait patiently on them. Taylor sits beside me on the bench and she asks, "Why won't you tell them about Envy?" "I just don't want to, Taylor." I reply, "And don't talk to me about this please." "First of all, I just mentioned it, so we are going to talk about it." Taylor gives me the "dead serious" face. I let out a sigh and I begin to give my explanation. "Do you remember how you joked about how Envy looked when you met him?"
"Yes. Why?"
"The fact is he tried to kill you. I don't want him to kill my new friends because of what they say. And of course he despises humans so..."
Taylor chuckles at my reasoning. "I'm saying this because you're my best friend. Did you even think in your damn brain that your homunculus isn't going to harm us? You should've figured this out years ago, Serenity. He won't harm us because he likes you. As much he doesn't give a rat's ass about us, he won't do anything to us." I didn't say another word after what she told me; all I did was nod. I understand perfectly, but I'm still afraid. If Envy were to met Bayrose, Maci, and Dale, what's going to happen to them? I just don't know...
With all of this nonsense swimming in my head, I feel a hand touch my shoulder. I look up to see my little cousin, Jawdan, in front of me with a smile on his face. When I saw his smile, I smile back him and give him a nice, gentle hug. "You look sad, Serenity. What's wrong?" Jawdan asks. "I'm fine. Just a little tired." I retort, "Anyway, how are you feeling?" "Good." he answers. Maci scoots towards me and she asks, "This is your cousin?" "He's so adorable." Bayrose compliments him. As Maci and Bayrose continue to admire his cuteness, Jawdan plays shy and hides behind his mother. "Now look what you did." Dale starts blaming the girls, "You guys scared the poor kid." "But he's so cute!" Maci and Bayrose squeal in unison. My aunt laughs at the girls' admiration of Jawdan's adorableness. "I see that you've made a few new friends, Serenity." Aunt Bahira observes. "Yeah. Taylor introduced them to me not too long ago." I tell her. "You did a good thing, Taylor." Aunt Bahira obliges Taylor's good deed, "You're a good friend to my niece." "You're welcome, Mrs. Jafri." Taylor acknowledges my aunt's thanks. "Aunt Bahira, we got some extra hands on deck." I notify, "My friends insisted on helping you guys move in." "That's excellent news." she says with excitement, "Your uncle and the others do need some help with our stuff." "So, what're we waiting on?" Dale questions, "Let's get started."
My friends, family, and I helped each other gather the belongings to the new house my family is staying in. It took us hours, but we managed to get everything inside the house. In the middle of unpacking, Dale and Bayrose had to return home; Taylor, Maci, and I stuck around to help a little more. I was given the task by my uncle, Fadil, to put the books onto the bookshelf. As I place them there, one book caught my attention. It was a notebook that had a very familiar name written on the cover. The name is Balqis Azimi. "This is Mother's journal." I realized. "Your mother?" Maci questions as she walks to my right. "Yes." I answer. I examine the notebook a little further and I see that the black was losing its color and the cover was beginning to tear. I flip through the pages and almost every one of them is written on. Taylor walks over to look at the journal as well. "The way it looks is proof that there was so much going on during that war." Taylor comments. I swallow trying to keep myself from crying, but one tear slides down my cheek. Taylor takes out her hanky and wipes the tear away. "You can have that, you know." I hear the voice of my aunt behind me. The three of us turn around and see Aunt Bahira standing by the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. "I know that you would like to learn about your mom, so it's yours now." her calm voice says. I hold the journal tightly against my chest know that this is also what's left of my mother. "Oh and I have another journal to give you." Aunt Bahira looks in the box filled with books searching for the journal that she mentioned. Once she found the journal, she hands it to me. I take the brown notebook and place it on top of Mother's. "Before we left from our last visit, a gentleman by the name of Armstrong gave this to me. He said to give it to you, but we were in a hurry to leave." she explains. "Thank you, Aunt Bahira." I thank her. We bring each other into an embrace and I hug my aunt a bit tighter just for Mother. We release each other from our emotional embrace. My aunt smiles at me as I hold my parents' notebook in my arms. You young ladies can leave if you like." she suggests, "There's not a lot of stuff to unpack now." "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow maybe." I say to her before leaving with Taylor and Maci.
Taylor and Maci soon left me and returned back to their homes. As I walk back, I hold the journals tightly under my arm, so that way they won't fall from my grasp. With these, I'll get to know more about my deceased parents and the obstacles of their relationship. Knowing theirs and mine, they both have hard times. But the human and the homunculus was almost like my worst nightmare. Somehow, I manage to pull through along Envy. I make it back to the Command Center and head to my room. Since I came back pretty late, there wasn't much to do other than to eat dinner, shower, and go to bed. After doing all of that, I return to my room and relax with Dex. While I pet Dex's tired head, the phone in my room rings. I reach over for the phone and place it by my ear. "Hello?" I greet through the phone. "Hey, Serenity." the voice of the homunculus replies.
"Hey, Envy. What's up?"
"How long will it take you to find this apartment? I'm getting bored just by waiting for you to find one."
"Trust me, love. As soon as I find one, I'll tell you the place, floor, and room number. Then, you can be around me for as long as you like."
"Can you be quick about?" Envy asks me. The way he's talking to me makes me laugh. It may sound like an impatient homunculus on the phone, but it's more of a homunculus missing me. Envy might not say it, but I know that's what he's saying. The way he sounds is so adorable. "How about this? I'll go search tomorrow with help and be sure to find one then." I planned.
"Just as long as you find one."
"Envy, don't rush me."
"Fine. Whatever."
"I promise to find an apartment as soon as I can. I promise." I say to Envy before hanging up. I allowed Dex to sleep on my bed for tonight then pull the covers over my body. Before I went to I look to my dresser and look at the journals stacked on top of each other. Pretty soon, I'll looking into what my parents have witnessed when they were living. The more I know, the more I'll understand...