Disclaimer: Neither my friend nor I own anything official related to FullMetal Alchemist and/or FMA: Brotherhood. The idea behind this story, however, does belong to us.

Sorry it took so long to get this up... school happened, so inspiration kinda came & went, but the summer's pretty much beginning, which means more time to write! :)

Anyway~...

Chapter One

The Capital City of Xerxes, Year 1500

The last thing Alphonse remembered was being pulled away from his brother and into the Gate... When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was that wherever he was, it was warmer than home would be.

'This doesn't look like Resembool... where am I?' He looked around, exhausted and confused, to discover that he was in the alleyway of a city.

It didn't take the ten-year-old long to notice that everyone he saw pass by the alleyway had blond hair...

'And golden eyes?' "Just like Brother!" he exclaimed to himself. His eyes were wide in surprise and awe at the fact that there were more people like him and Edward... wait a minute. "Golden hair and eyes..." 'But that can't be! How could I be in Xerxes...? It disappeared four hundred years ago... didn't it...?'

But he had no time to mull that over, because his body decided then that food was in order... the only problem was, what, and where he might get some. He'd always been better at reading the ancient language than speaking it aloud... so this had potential to be difficult. His stomach growled again, more loudly than the last time, and he decided to work on that problem after figuring out his current predicament.

He left the alleyway and looked around, while wracking his brain on whether his dad's notes had included words for foods... soon enough, he recalled, they hadn't. Only a few things he'd read had not been related to geography and multiple sciences. And to make matters worse, he had no idea of the currency here.

Alphonse found himself on a market street after wandering for a little while, and looked around, trying to gain his bearings. He could figure out some of the kinds of foods there were, as they looked sort of familiar to him, but others puzzled him. He made a mental note to figure those out eventually.

Apparently, he'd been standing still, staring at a food stall for longer than he'd thought, because at a point, a man came up to him and offered him an apple.

"Are you hungry?" was what he asked in the local language, although his voice initially startled Alphonse.

He looked up at the man, and froze in shock. 'Dad?!' He couldn't help but stare for a minute before forcing himself to focus on what had been said instead of the face looking down at him.

"...uh..." He had to take a moment to search for the right words to translate. "...y-yes... t-thank you." Gate, he hoped he wasn't mispronouncing anything...

The man put the apple in his hand with a smile.

Alphonse was inwardly happily surprised that apples could be found in such a place as this. He smiled up at the man in thanks again, then rubbed the fruit on his shirt and took a bite. 'I guess I didn't mispronounce anything there after all... thank goodness. I don't want to make a bad impression, considering I don't know how life goes here...' He moved to the side of the road, wanting to get out of the way, until he realized again just who had given him the fruit. He stopped mid-bite and looked around. The man was walking away!

"Wait!" Alphonse called in his still-rusty Xerxian, turning to follow the man.

Sorry if it seems rushed like the last chapter. Hopefully we'll manage to put longer chapters together in the future xD;

Reviews/criticism are welcome.