"Ah, Maes, who is this?" A woman with an hourglass figure and light green eyes questioned curiously. Her hair was short and blonde, framing her face. She wore a pale pink dress with a darker pink blouse on top and light blue house slippers. She was holding a little girl with darker blonde hair and hazel green eyes like Hughes. "Oh, my, are you alright?" She questioned Isabella, worry clear on her face despite not knowing the girl.
Is it just me, or are all the main characters starting to make a fuss? But, realizing how horrible she must have looked in hospital attire and missing limbs, she had to admit that she might've acted the same way-mentally of course. Okay, that makes sense then.
"This is Isabella! She's the girl Roy told us that would be living with us! She's friendly. Isabella, this is my lovely wife Gracia and my adorable daughter Elicia. Aren't they just the cutest!?"
Still being held awkwardly by Hughes, the girl nodded slowly, "Y-Yeah..."
Offering her a small smile, Gracia said, "Would you like some tea? I was just about to start dinner for Hughes, Elicia, and myself. It would be lovely to have a new face at the table, isn't that right?" She asked her daughter, who nodded with a smile at her mother.
"Yay! Yay! Bella staying!" She cheered, apparently taking a liking to the newcomer. Hughes set Isabella down on her foot, her holding out her only arm to catch her balance-only to nearly fall and have Hughes grab onto her quickly.
"Careful now! Here, grab my arm. I'll help walk you to the living room. You want to come with us, Elicia?" The girl beamed and wiggled out of her mother's grip, causing Gracia to place her daughter on her feet gently with a smile. She ran towards her father and the newcomer happily.
"Yay! Play, play, play!"
Isabella tried not to smile at the little girl, who was waving her hands excitedly in the air as she ran over to them. If she still had her left arm, she would've offered it to Elicia and asked if she wanted to walk together. If she had a soft spot, it would be little kids. "We can play later if you want?"
"Weally?" Elicia smiled at the girl, before running over and hugging her right leg, "Yay!"
It was safe to say that Isabella got along with the Hughes' family wonderfully. But, then again, who didn't? At the taste of Gracia's food, she almost drooled it was so good. Hughes laughed at her for that, but had to tell her that he agreed.
"Gracia's cooking is the best!" He had said.
Gracia reminded her of her own mother, who when she thought about her she wanted to break down and cry. Isabella refused to though. She wouldn't cry. She just needed to figure out a way to get home.
Which was why she was startled on the train to Resembool when a voice rang in her head, saying, "Enjoying yourself so far, my little "Oath"?"
Truth... She thought, horrified. Hughes noticed her sudden change of expression and asked worriedly,
"Hey, you alright, Liz?" It had been about a week since she moved in with the Hughes' family, and Hughes had taken to calling her "Liz" and Elicia "Bella". Gracia had just settled on "Isabel" rather than anything else. "What's with the sad face?"
She looked up in surprise, eyes widening. She quickly stumbled, "Oh-Oh, uh, well I was just...well, Gracia reminds me of my mother and I..."
A sympathetic look appeared on Hughes face, "I see... She is quite motherly isn't she? She's only known you for a week and treats you as her own!" He let out a small chuckle, "In fact, I say you should consider yourself part of the family. You fit right in anyway."
"Huh? R-Really?" She was more than surprised and had to say that she didn't expect this, she didn't expect any of this really. Once morning she was just chasing after her school bus and suddenly she was sent her. What did Truth mean when she said "the transactions of bodies" and "Other Half"? Did that mean there really was another person like her out there? A doppleganger? "Th-Thanks, I think..."
"And to think we met only a week ago!" He laughed and slapped the girl on the back, causing her to jump and lurch forwards, nearly falling off of the train seat. "Haha! It's a wonder why we didn't meet earlier!"
The girl would've sweatdropped if she could-wait, did she-? Yeah, she did. Isabella sweatdropped. That felt so weird...Oh, well. Heh... She couldn't help it; she laughed. After a total of four weeks she laughed. "You're insane!" Pausing once she realized what she did, she awkwardly turned her head to look out the window.
Why did Truth decide to save her? That car should have smashed her head in, but instead Truth pulled her out at just the right moment and stuck her here. He said he wanted her to change the timeline. Does that mean he wanted her to save Hughes and Nina and Buccaneer? And Fu? What was she supposed to do exactly?
The girl looked outside-but paused at the sight of her reflection. Her heart-shaped head seemed to be emphasized in this world, and her eyes-Oh, she wanted to laugh. I'm a Tsundere! She thought to herself amused as found herself surprised at the rich-brown color her eyes was given. Her bangs were choppily cut and hung in her face, going from right above her eyes on the sides and falling to the bridge of her nose in the middle before growing shorter again. Her skin was pale, but she still kept the two moles underneath her right eye and the one underneath her left. Her trademarks. Her hair also stopped just below her shoulder-blades, but instead of looking nearly black, was just a chocolate brown color.
Currently the girl was wearing a plain light blue sweater with black jeans and shoes that added an inch to her height. Her hair was also in a messy braid from when she let Elicia braid it.
"Ah, look at that! We're here!" Hughes commented, snapping her out of her thoughts. The girl blinked and turned her head, seeing him stand up. Offering a hand for her to take, she grabbed it and let him pull her to her foot, helping the girl off the train. Hopping down with a little bit of difficulty, she would've fallen if Hughes wasn't there to catch her. "Careful, now! I think it's this way..."
It took about ten minutes total for them to arrive, and Isabella stared wide-eyed at the sight of the building. It was amazing. It was becoming even harder to believe that this was all happening to her. But, at the same time, she started to believe it more and more. It was complicated.
The door opened and they looked down to see a short elderly woman with grayed pink hair up in a bun looking up at them with a smoke pipe in her mouth.
Isabella couldn't help but comment, "You realize smoking will give you lung cancer, right?" Looking the girl up and down, the old woman replied with a stern frown,
"I'm well-aware of that fact, miss. I take it you're here for automail?"
Hughes smiled at the woman, "Yep! A few Officers found her bleeding out in an alley near Central Command and took her into the hospital. She's been living with and my family since!"
"Very well. Come on in; You may call me Panako. My granddaughter's should be down in a moment, come in." It was safe to say that she wasn't pleased to see a Military officer, but a patient was a patient no matter who they were. "Winry! We have customers!"
"Coming, grandma!" Was the girl's reply. A girl with long blonde hair tied back in a pony with side bangs that framed her face, and bright blue eyes appeared after a few moments in the doorway. She was wearing a black tube top with a beige mechanic's garb half-open and tied around her waist. She also wore a pair of brown workers gloves and a green bandanna. The second she saw Isabella though, she dropped the wrench with wide eyes, her face pale.
She looked as if she had seen a ghost.
"E-Elizabethe?" Isabella blinked, before an annoyed look formed on her face as she scowled.
"No, my name's Isabella. Not Elizabeth-why does everyone say Elizabeth?" She asked herself, narrowing her brown eyes.
Winry didn't seem to know how to reply, clearly frozen to the spot, "I-I..." Swallowing the lump in her throat, she tried to regain her composure as she cleared her throat, "I'm sorry, you just reminded me of someone I knew. I'm Winry Rockbell," She smiled at her and held out a glove, "Nice to meet you!"
Still scowling, Isabella took Winry's hand and shook it, "Isabella Jones, "nice" to meet you."
Winry, despite at how well Isabella may have hid it, noticed the sarcasm and once again felt the blood drain out of her face. Isabella noticed and frowned, wondering what was wrong with her. Winry apologized again, shaking her, "It's nothing, sorry, you just... are a lot like Elizabethe."
Not knowing how else to respond, Isabella just nodded, "Right, then. Automail?" She was already getting too close to the Hughes family-they were just too hard to hate. Something in her refused to make herself be mean to them. Her eyes widened in surprise and quickly nodded, getting back on track.
"Right! Okay, I can go show you some designs if you want to look at them and choose which one you like best, or-"
"Whatever you think will work best will me will be great." She cut in, causing Hughes to smile widely and hug Isabella.
"Look at that; she's already making friends!" Isabella's eyes widened and she cried out in protest, trying to push Hughes off with a barely noticeable embarrassed blush on her face.
"Get off!" She cried out, scowling. She gets awkward when people hug her and she isn't hugging them. Plus, she only knew Hughes a week and he was already this friendly with her. "Don't hug me!"
"Aren't you adorable!?" He rubbed his cheek against hers and she pressed her hand against his shoulder, attempting to push him off, "Just look at her! She's not even my own and I already love her to bits!"
"G-Get off before I hit you!" Quickly raising her fist, she slammed it down hard onto his head. He released her, backing up with his hands on his head, "!" She cried out as she hopped back, shouting as she nearly lost her balance and quickly regained it.
"That hurt, Lizzy! What was that for!?"
"For getting too close! I don't like being hugged!"
"Nonsense! Everyone loves hugs!"
"I don't!" With only one foot and arm, Hughes made sure that this time when he hugged her she wouldn't be able to push him away. He would take down that shell of hers-no child should be wearing one as strong as that a such an age. She shouldn't be pushing people away.
...
The surgery was excruciating to say the least. But, to say the least, which having being ran over and breaking ribs and losing two limbs..it made it a little easier to hold back her screams.
It didn't mean that she didn't scream, though.
"Don't worry, we're almost done."
Another scream and the biting of a lip, her fist clenched.
"Just a few more wires, Isabel."
She blacked out from the pain.
...
She woke up, panting and sweating, eyes darting around the room feverishly as sweat beaded down her pale face. Panako's face appeared in her view with a small frown on her face, saying, "We're done. You've been out for the past three hours. Now, don't expect yourself to be up and moving anytime soon. Recovery after surgery can take up to three years, so don't think that you're going to be running around in just a few minutes. We still need to make your automail, since we only applied the port."
Isabella let out a heavy sigh, hanging her head back as she closed her eyes exhaustively, "Okay...whatever..."
Winry tried to cheer her up, "You're doing good so far, though...Just a little bit longer. We'll let your ports rest for three days before attempting to attach the automail; sound good?"
"Whatever works..." Right now, the only thing Isabella wanted was to sleep.
"Hey, keep your eyes open-I'm not finished talking yet." Isabella groggily opened her eyes, staring blankly up at Panako's stern face, "Good, now, as I was saying-It takes at least three years to completely recover from automail surgery, including the automail being attached to your limbs. Understand?"
She nodded briefly, before thinking briefly, Ed managed it in a year and Lan Fan in what-six months? Yeah, I like seven...Seven is a good number..
"I'll do it in seven," She muttered, causing Panako's eyes to widen. "Good night..."
"You'll be spitting up blood," Panako told her, amused, "and crying to yourself at night if you tried."
"I can do it!" She protested, snapping awake instantly at the idea of not being able to do something she said she would. "Just you watch...I gotta get home..."
And she had a feeling she knew just how to get there and what time. But that means she'll have to somehow find the Elric brothers and befriend and somehow, just somehow manage to get them to agree to let her travel with them.
Her, a girl with zero fighting experience whatsoever except for the occasional violent tendencies as the very short few self defense moves her siblings taught her, was going to have to figure out a way to let herself travel with them...
She was gonna end up dead, no doubt about it.
But she had to try...
I might as well go down with a bang! She thought, slowly falling back to sleep.
She awoke, and found herself lying on her side on a bed that was clearly not her own-at least, not the one the Hughes' family had lent her. Sitting up, she cringed at the pain that formed on her right thigh. She made a face at the scars that traveled all the way up to her hips, figuring that if she turned around, the scars would be touching her lower back. She appeared to be a wearing a tube top that covered her flat chest and a pair of shorts. She blinked and looked around, pausing at the outside view.
It appeared to be early morning and birds were already chirping. Squinting her eyes, the girl let a small smile grace her lips-despite the fact that she wasn't a morning person. In fact, if someone tried to wake her up before ten, she generally gave them her death glare. Well, that's blood type AB for you. Yawning she forced herself onto her one foot and reached out quickly with a hand onto the wall to keep her balance. Hopping along the room, she looked around observing.
There were pictures lining a dresser, and one in particular caught her interest.
It was of the younger Winry Rockbell and Elric brothers, with Trisha in the background. They were all smiling and laughed, but there was one thing that confused her...
Who was that girl?
There was a girl between Winry and Al, standing behind Edward and pouting childishly with her arms crossed. Her cheeks were puffed out and her bottom lip stuck out, her eyebrows were furrowed as she glared at Ed who was pointing and laughing down at her. Clearly he was making fun of her height.
Raising a hand to her hair, Isabella traced her bangs with a frown on her face, observing the photo thoughtfully.
The girl looked like her. Younger, but still her. At least in this form. Eyes widening, she whirled her head towards the door at the memory of what Winry had said and did.
The transactions of bodies... Looking like she had seen a ghost... Her "Other Half"... Does this mean that rather than the "Soul Mate" concept, there was another "her" out there? Is that what truth meant? Was her "Other Half" alive in her place?
If so, does that mean her family doesn't even know she's gone?
A pain churned in her chest, like a knife cutting against raw skin and over an already opened wound. She blinked a few times, feeling her eyes start to water.
She refused to cry.
She was knocked out of her thoughts by a knocking on a door. She turned her head and said, "Come in."
It was Winry. She said with a smile on her face, "Ah, Isabella, I came to tell you that breakfast is ready if you want any."
The brunette nodded, before her eyes drifted to the picture and asked, "Who's she?" Winry paused, frowning as he face paled slightly and her eyes watered.
"Oh, that's...That's Elizabethe. You really do look a lot like her, and I'm really sorry for mistaking you with her...It's just-" She couldn't seem to finish as the tears continued to well up in her eyes. She swallowed and shook her head, plastering a smile on her face, "Well, anyway, she was a good friend of mine. I knew her since I was little."
"And the two boys?" Isabella already knew who they were, but she'd rather hear it from Winry Rockbell herself. "The short blonde seems to be making fun of the girl for her height, while the other one is trying to break up he fighting."
Winry smiled, "That's Ed and Al. Edward is the one making fun of the girl and Alphonse is the other. Edward is shorter than everyone, so when someone else is shorter than him he usually tries to make fun of them as much as he can. He likes to get into fights a lot and worries everyone, the jerk. Al's really nice, though he often gets into fights along with his brother. They're complete and total worrywarts. I don't why I even bother with them, honestly, Edward is such a jerk."
"They're your friend, aren't they?" Isabella questioned, raising her head to look Winry dead in the eyes. Winry was surprised at the forwardness of the question, not expecting a girl as cold as her to say something like that, "If they're your friends, then it's only obvious that you'd care for them. That's just how people are...My friends are all gone and I most likely will never see them again, but even then it doesn't mean I don't stop missing and caring for them. If you're friend are gone and you still worry, you care, right? Don't question yourself about your love for them-it's how you are. It means you are a kind and caring person, don't let anyone take that away from you."
Winry looked on, her blue eyes wide in surprise. Slowly, a smile spread across her face as she said, "Yeah, I guess you're right...Come on, breakfast is getting cold. And, about Elizabethe...she...She died a few months ago."
Isabella froze, tension slowly growing in the room. Her father dying from cancer when she was young, she could relate, but even if she apologized, she knew that the pain wouldn't be any less. Instead, she lowered her head with her bangs covering her eyes and commented softly, "That's rough."
Winry was grateful that she didn't offer any fake sympathies and nodded, "Yeah...Come on."
A few more days passed and Winry and Panako finally decided to apply the automail to her stumps.
And it hurt.
Like Hell.
She screamed, simple as that. She could feel her dignity slip away by the second.
She really hated pain. Isabella also happened to be confused at the fact as to why Winry was hovering around her more than usual, and Hughes said that Winry had apparently taken a liking to her. Why Winry had, Isabella couldn't fathom. She just went with it.
"Now, don't be to rough on yourself while you try to get your limbs to move; it will take awhile for them all to function properly. And don't strain yourself either!" Winry told her, pointing a screw at her face. Isabella leaned her head back, staring cross-eyed at the wrench.
She replied, sarcastic or honest neither knew, "Wouldn't dream of it, Win."
Winry smiled at her and she stood, placing her hands on her hips, "Good. Now, I want you back here in one month for check-up maintenance, understand!? And after that, two months!"
"Yes, ma'am." Isabella mocked, giving her a two-fingered salute with her right hand, "Don't kill anyone with your wrench while I'm gone."
"Don't break my automail and you have a deal."
"Deal."
"Okay, then!" Winry smiled and clapped her hands together, "It's been wonderful meeting you, Isabella!"
"You too. And Winry, I don't mean to sound cold or anything," Isabella began, totally contradicting her personality, "but how did your friend die? My father died from Cancer when I was young, so I can relate, I'm just curious-you don't have to tell me."
"...There was a fire. Her body was never found." Isabella furrowed her eyebrows and nodded slowly,
"I see..."
The silence was broken by Hughes, who burst out into the room with a huge smile on his face, "Isabella, guess what!? Gracia is making her famous apple pie for us when we get back! Isn't she just the sweetest!?"
"Yeah...Her food is delicious." Isabella offered a small smile at the elder man, who beamed happily at her. Isabella loved food-especially those who knew how to cook. The only thing Isabella could cook was a grilled cheese-preferably with Velveeta cheese.
Winry smiled at the sight, still seeming to be unable to stop comparing the two girls together. Isabella and Elizabethe... They were exactly alike.
Grabbing onto her flesh arm, Hughes started to drag her out the door, already having paid Panako and Winry for their services. "Come on now! We can't let that pie get cold! I can hear Gracia and Elicia calling my name already!"
"Let go of me, Hughes!"
I think I've fallen in love with my new(Old and currently rewritten) OC. XD Ha! Read and review! I'd like to know what you think so far. Are they all in character? I'm trying. For those reading "The Complicated Truth" I got most of the next chapter down, and for "Beauty is Overrated" I'm trying to figure out how to continue the middle, so I'm almost done with those two chapters. Never fret, the author is here!
