Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting this... fall semester kind of took me by surprise ^^; Anyway as promised, here is the first chapter of the new fic... For those of you who don't already know, this is a sequel to my dear friend Sonika87's FMA fic, Fullmetal Promise. If you haven't read hers yet, please do so before reading this!
(Argh, for some foolish reason ffnet will not let me post a proper link to Sonika's story. But I gave you her pen name and the title of her story, so please, go look it up! ^^)
Also, of course, this story (as well as Sonika's) contains mucho spoilers if you haven't watched all of the anime (for instance, if you're only watching the dub) or if you haven't read the end of the manga yet. Be ye warned.
After the final chapter of the manga was released Sonika and I talked a lot about the end of Fullmetal Alchemist, a conversation which ended with a promise on my part to write a wedding fic. From there, the idea developed into a project between the two of us, a three-part tribute to Arakawa-sensei and her fantastic story, wherein Sonika wrote the first story, I am writing the second, and she will write a third, epilogue-type-thing once I'm done. I would also like to personally dedicate this story to: Sonika, for making me write it, Edward Elric, for being one of my heroes, and Vic Mignogna, for giving him a voice, as well as so many other wonderful characters I have come to know and love... and for being so sweet and supportive of fans. You're all amazing!
And now, without further ado... enjoy. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own FMA or any of the characters, story, plot, etc. contained therein... much as I'd like to. :P
Chapter 1: Homecoming
Has it really been a year?
Edward Elric gazed out the window, watching the landscape blur as it passed the train by. Time was strange these days; though the days he'd spent researching in the west had seemingly flown by, it still felt like forever since he'd gone home to Resembool. Of course, he'd come back for visits since leaving a year ago to study alchemy, but such vacations had been few, far between, and never more than a day or two. For all that he'd thought he'd known about alchemy, it seemed there was still so much to learn.
But his life was no longer ruled by alchemy, and there were other things even more important he had to attend to now. After one long year, it was finally time to go home again, and make good on the promise he and Winry had made to each other.
Ed's cheeks reddened a little at the thought of it.
Luckily, he was more prepared for what would happen next than he'd been when he had first proposed. Back then, he hadn't even thought to buy a ring – though Winry, to her credit, hadn't complained. But this time, he was determined to do things right; he wanted to make Winry as happy as possible. He slid his hand in his pocket, checking one more time to make sure the box with the rings he'd bought before boarding the train was still there.
Of course, Winry wasn't the only one waiting for his return. For the first time since they had parted ways, he and Alphonse were finally going to be reunited. Every time one of the brothers had found a chance to visit Winry and Pinako, the other had always been unable to show. Ed wondered if he was taller than Al yet – and grinned. After all the growing he'd done lately, he had to be.
Ed's height was not all that changed since they'd last seen each other; so much had happened, it was amazing to think it was only a year that had passed. Winry was, if possible, even more of an expert than ever at automail design and repair, and she was now practically running Ateleir Garfiel, having pretty much surpassed the skills of the man she had been apprenticed to. She and Paninya, who thankfully had stayed straight and never went back to pickpocketing, were now the best of friends. Alphonse, meanwhile, seemed to be closer than ever to May, judging by his letters, and Winry had kept in touch with all of them (also becoming good friends with May, and through her, had news of the new Emperor Ling and Lan Fan as well) by letters and phone calls.
Meanwhile, Colonel – no, General Roy Mustang had not only been promoted, he'd been hard at work with his team rebuilding the Ishval region and converting it into a trading point between Amestris and Xing, with help from May and Ling. Ed was amazed at how much they had accomplished; news of the reconstruction and amazing cooperation between the peoples had reached his ears even in the far west, and Al too had heard news of it during his stay in Xing.
It was nice to finally be able to look forward to change again, without fear of the homunculi or the Promised Day looming over their heads.
For a moment, Ed frowned, memories of darker days casting a shadow on his face – but then the Resembool train station came into view, and he broke into a grin once more as the happy faces of the most important people in his life came into view.
Grabbing his stuff quickly, Ed began making his way to the door even before the train had come to a full stop, and when the doors finally opened, he was one of the first to hop down onto the platform. As the crowd from the train pushed past him, he paused and looked around for his welcome party, all the while enjoying the convenience of actually being taller than some of the people around him – it made moments like this that much easier.
Then, suddenly, there they were – he caught a glimpse of blonde hair, gleaming in the sunlight, and turned towards it to see Winry, Al, and May watching the crowd, searching for his face. May leaned over to whisper something to Alphonse, who chuckled, his eyes gleaming, and Winry glanced at them with a knowing look.
For a moment, Ed paused, content simply to see them smile and share a joyful moment with each other; he swore to himself that he'd make sure they'd all have many more such moments to share in the days to come.
Then Winry spotted him, and crying out, she smiled and waved at him enthusiastically – the others, catching sight of him as well, also grinned and waved.
Returning the gesture, Ed made his way over to them quickly, and soon found himself hugging his brother for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. "Ed!"
"Al! You've grown," Ed observed, frowning slightly. He was not taller than Al as he had expected; they were, if anything, the same height. He wondered if Al was finished growing yet.
"So have you, Brother!" Al exclaimed, shocked at being able to see eye-to-eye with him.
"Nice to see you again, Ed," said May, and Ed nodded and agreed that it was nice to see her as well (all the while smiling to himself – he was still taller than her, at least, even if she had grown as well).
"Edward," said Winry, coming forward, and before Ed could say a word she too was hugging him, her arms circling tightly around his neck as his own two human arms wrapped around her waist. "I'm glad you're back," she murmured, drawing back a little to look up at him.
"Yeah, me too," he said, suddenly self-conscious.
Her expression softened, and she leaned in closer…
"Hey, long time no see!" a familiar voice interrupted, shattering the moment quite effectively as Edward jumped.
His eye twitching slightly, Ed released Winry, turning to see that the owner of the voice was none other than Ling, grinning broadly at him as he chewed on a random snack he'd picked up from a food stand nearby. Ed blinked. "What the heck are you doing here?"
"Geez, what kind of a greeting is that? And for one of your own groomsmen, no less!"
Ed's eyes widened. "Groomsmen? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Well, Ed, you did leave all the planning up to me," said Winry, folding her arms. "And we needed one more man to walk the bridesmaid down the aisle, so…"
"So she asked me to be your groomsman! Too bad you don't have more friends, or you could have asked one of them instead! But as it is, looks like you're stuck with me!"
Ed gritted his teeth. Some things never changed, even when a change might have been welcome (at least in Ed's opinion). "But aren't you an emperor now? Shouldn't you be in Xing, watching over your country or something?"
Ling waved that off with an unconcerned flick of his wrist. "Nah, I left one of the princes in charge for now, just until I come back. Being the emperor is great and all, but sometimes it just gets kind of suffocating, you know? It's fun to be out and about on the streets again like a regular commoner." He took another bite of his snack, a candied apple which crunched noisily in his mouth as he chewed.
"What about your guards? Won't they be looking for you?"
"No need; I've got someone watching my back." He glanced up, and the others followed his gaze to see, peering down from the rafters of the train station was the familiar masked face of Lan Fan, as protectively watchful as ever. Though not much one for hellos or goodbyes, she nodded a greeting to them all before returning her attention to scanning their surroundings for any signs of danger or trouble.
"She's not going to wear that at the wedding too, is she?" May remarked, unable to picture the super-serious Lan Fan in a dress and heels.
Ling grinned mischievously. "Not if I have anything to do with it! Oh – which reminds me…" He turned to Ed and said cheerfully, "There's gonna be a party later tonight for you – don't be late!"
"Party?" Ed was about to wring Ling's neck – wisely, the young emperor stayed well out of arm's reach. "What are you going on about now?"
"Nothing, just a little get-together orchestrated by yours truly – just a bit of fun before the big day, nothing big, don't worry! You'll have a great time, I promise!"
"Ling!" Ed started, but Ling was already trotting off back towards town, with Lan Fan carefully shadowing him from a distance. "Get back here! What are you talking about?"
"Sorry Ed," said Al, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ling insisted we let him take care of the preparations. Winry and Granny's house is too small, so he rented out the festival grounds for tonight."
"Guess you invited a lot of people, then," said May thoughtfully to Winry. "Thank goodness our party is small enough that we can have it at your place."
"Well, maybe I did kind of go overboard with the invitations," Winry said, looking vaguely sheepish. "But I figured the more the merrier, right?"
"Well, it will be nice to see everyone before the wedding," Al mused.
Edward stared at them all, bewildered. Was everyone in on this except him? "What party? What are you talking about? What's happening tonight?"
The other three stared back at him as though they had temporarily forgotten he was there. Al, realizing Ed honestly didn't get it yet, finally said, "It's your bachelor party, Ed."