This is Real Life
AN: Hi there! Ta da, my new story so I can have 4 instead of 3 on my page! I love the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, so I decided why not? This will be an AU take on both anime and manga combined, and since Brotherhood is still fresh in my mind, it will most likely have more elements from there. I hope you like my twisting of the Fullmetal story, and on to the chapter we go...
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. If I did, it'd turn out more like my versions...
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Mom was in the hospital for a really long time. We didn't know what for - they wouldn't tell us. All we knew was that an automobile had been involved, and mom was sleeping a lot. They warned us that the medicine would make her different when she was awake, but we hadn't understood just how much she'd change. It was a shock for all of us when she opened her bloodshot eyes for the first time. They tried holding us back, they tried telling us we couldn't, but we were just so happy that we ran to her, thrilled she'd be okay. She wasn't.
Mom attacked us. A lot. Every time we were there, she would hurt us. It wasn't mom anymore. It wasn't human. It was a monster. After a while, they wouldn't let us back to the hospital - they said the medications had ruined what was left of her mind. And then she wouldn't wake up. We were too young, and dad wasn't around, so they made the decision to put her to sleep forever. She died at the end of summer. Granny Pinako had us move in with her, and Winry was really nice about it, but it didn't feel right. Ed and I, we were all we had left. Granny and Winry were both really nice, but we knew we didn't belong there, so one night, we planned to run away. There was a wood not far, and a train station beyond that, so we packed all we could and took the train as far as we could go.
We ended up in northern territory, near the Drachma borders, and brother didn't like how cold it was, so we decided to go to Xing instead. It would take a long time, he said, and he felt bad about dragging me away - there was so much snow, and it was so beautiful! - and he let me go exploring in the mountains while he figured out the complicated stuff like map reading and money. I wish I'd stayed with brother. There was a horrible snowstorm, and it was so cold …brother found me, and took me to a hospital, and when I woke up, I found out something awful. Most of my body had been frozen - we weren't used to the extreme temperatures, and hadn't packed for it - and to save my life, they'd had to replace so much of my body with automail …I felt like a walking tin can. Only part of my face and various spots around my body were still flesh and bone. That was difficult enough, especially considering that my voice now had a funny tinny sound to it from the metal near my lungs.
But then, I found out that brother hadn't been the one to bring me to the hospital. He'd had an accident while carrying me down the mountain, and the rescuers had had to leave him behind while they took me instead. By the time they'd returned for him, brother had lost his arm and leg to frostbite - and by the time I found all that out, two months had passed since it happened. Brother had been telling me the story when a doctor had arrived and filled in the parts he'd left out, showing me the bandages on his shoulder to make a point. We got scolded a lot, and Granny was called to come pick us up, and we started our therapy. It took a really long time, and brother, who's always loved books, took up reading again. He said he found something, something that might be real, something that could help us get our bodies back to normal. The Philosopher's Stone.
Supposedly, an alchemist had created one to use in the field during the war, so that soldiers who lost an arm could have two again in mere seconds to rejoin the fight. It bypassed all laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy, and could restore us back to normal without cost. It sounded too good to be true, but brother became convinced that it was real, no doubt, and we both wanted to go look for it. Two years later, Colonel Mustang came for us. Granny was against us joining the military just to look for the stone, and had always been against us using alchemy anyway, but she didn't stop us, so we traveled to Central City to take the State Alchemist Exam. We got into a fight almost as soon as we got there. Ed wanted to take the exam by himself, and I didn't want him to go alone. In the end, after a long, tough battle, he won, and we were placed in the care of a man named Tucker while he studied for the exam.
We encountered a problem at the Tucker's; that's how brother put it. Really, it wasn't a problem, it was a catastrophe, and brother knows it too. I have a feeling if he thought too much about it, he'd want to kill Tucker, but he's already dead from a car wreck. For Nina, he had to stay level headed. Little Nina, who had been terminally ill but had loved living and her dad, turned into a cat chimera by her own father just to keep his research going. Research that would never get finished. Nina and her father both were gone. It's been three months now, living in the barracks, and brother is still against me joining the military with him, but he isn't against me staying, even though I'm sure it's hard for him to look at me. I'm positive it is, actually, because I can see it in his eyes all the time, that strange, sad longing, for things to go back to how they were, every time he looks my way. I wish he'd understand that I'm okay with how things are, now that he's given me hope…
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"Hurry it up, Al!" An impatient voice called over the roar of the train whistle. A clink, clink, clink followed his voice, belonging to the left leg of a blond headed youth standing by two small suitcases. He shifted from foot to foot, a slight clanking heard every other motion, and eventually he hefted both bags and stomped towards where he'd last spotted his brother. A long red cloak bonced off his heels as he walked, a blond braid swinging after him. "Al!" He called again, sharper this time, and a glint of steel and sandy blond popped up from around an obscure corner.
"Just a second, brother!" He called. The cloaked boy huffed, a fluff of bangs flying up from his breath.
"Al, I swear, if you pick up one more stray -"
"But brother!" Al protested pleading, rushing over with a bundle of tan fluff. A tiny mew later, and Edward knew he'd been right.
"Alphonse," he said warningly. Downcast, Alphonse reluctantly snuggled the cat a little more and went to put it back. But, somehow along the way, he managed to find an elderly woman who also fell in love with the creature, and quickly rejoined his brother in a car on the train.
"That was mean of you, Ed," Alphonse said grumpily, crossing his black clothed arms with a quiet chink. Eyes the color of molten lava leveled at him.
"Al, we don't have time to go chasing after every stray kitten you feel sorry for," Edward explained. "We're on a mission here, a time sensitive mission. How are we supposed to even take care of a cat while we're working?" Alphonse slumped back, refusing to meet his gaze.
"You're the only one who's working," he mumbled. "I just try to help. I just get in the way. I could stay out of the way in our hotel and then I could just take care of it." Edward dropped his chin into the palm of his hand, staring blankly out the window as the train lurched forward with a hiss and a whine and tottered on its way.
"You don't get in the way, Al," he sighed heavily. "Look, I don't mind you caring for the animals back in Central, but not when we're busy. You want to take care of them, don't you? Wouldn't they get lonely if we're busy with missions and they were stuck in our hotel room?" Alphonse thought it over for a moment. Edward could almost see the emotional war raging inside of him as the gears in his head turned.
He eventually muttered a soft "I suppose." Edward reached across to him and ruffled his hair, smiling as he sqwaked in protest.
"Don't worry, you can pamper as many strays as you want once we get back, okay?" Alphonse perked up a bit, cocking his head curiously.
"What is the mission, Ed? You didn't have time to tell me before." Edward patted his coat pocket where the details resided thoughtfully.
"Well, there's this town in the desert called Liore where some guy has been acting a little funny lately ..."
AN: Whew, I'm not sure where this is going, but I feel like I started it with a mix of too much angst and too much skipping of important details...oh well...anyway, here it is, number 4! As I mentioned before, I have an odd quirk (not from Boku No Hero Academia, by the way) where I like even numbers, and so this story was born so my other three wouldn't be lonely and also so I could have peace of mind. Hm, I wonder how the trip to Liore will be changed? Maybe it will stay similar, who knows. This book will probably be updated a bit more sparingly than the others so you can have new chapters sooner, although if I get encouraging reviews, I might be tempted to move it along quicker. All I'm saying is, don't expect the next chapter, say, tomorrow or something. This note is becoming awfully long, so I'll end here. I hope you enjoyed it!