Sorry it's a little long, but here is Chapter 1 "Gloves" hope you enjoy :)
"Where are we going now, Brother?" Alphonse asked. They were walking down the street of Central City.
"We're going to see Colonel Mustang. He said he needed to see us." Edward walked with his hands behind his head.
It had been a few years since that time, the last time they saw her. "What does he want?" Edward looked up at his younger brother who was nothing more than a shell of armor.
"Don't know. He just called and said he needed us for something."
"Oh." Al was walking silently for a while; he wondered what they were called in for, maybe colonel Mustang was going to send them on some mission. Suddenly, Al thought he saw a familiar object in the corner of his eye, something black and red, something with a familiar transmutation circle, the one colonel Mustang has on his gloves. Al only saw it for a minute, before the green cloak disappeared in an alley. He wanted to follow it but he couldn't just leave Ed.
"Welcome, Elric Brothers." Colonel Mustang greeted them when they entered the room, he was as straight faced as usual, he told them about a new mission, so my guess was right, thought Al. "You'll have to be careful on this one, Franz doesn't particularly like people." He said that they needed to wait a few days before heading out, because Franz, the man they were going to see, was going to be out of town for a few more days.
"So what are we supposed to do until then?" Ed asked.
"Wait." Colonel Mustang said shortly. Then, Riza walked in.
"Colonel Mustang, apparently some girl is here to see you." Riza turns around to the door and says. "Come in" after colonel gave her a nod.
A slender figure walked through the door, she was short and looked about the same age as Al and Ed, she had messy, raven black hair that was let down on her shoulders her light grey eyes had flames in them, and she wore a dark green cloak, she had a blue shirt on and black shorts and black lace up boots that went mid calf. She seemed so familiar, Ed couldn't place her, but Al could. He recognized that hair, and those eyes, but especially her gloves, those odd gloves that seemed like colonel Mustangs yet different, those gloves that were oversized when they were children but now fit her so perfectly. And that fiery look in her eyes hadn't changed. She didn't say goodbye, and now she wouldn't say hello.
The new girl stared straight at colonel Mustang; she disregarded anyone else in the room. "You're Colonel Mustang, no?" she said in a crystal clear voice,
Her voice is what made Ed recognize her, which was the voice that scolded them for years, the voice of their friend, their fellow student, and their fellow orphan, well, orphan as far as they knew. She hadn't known her father, hadn't even seen him before now.
"I am Colonel Roy Mustang, who are you?" Mustang sat at his desk with his hands folded in front of his face.
"I am Alice Jane Green. Do you recognize that name?" she eyed him carefully.
He stood with his usual face, no recognition whatsoever, and then his eyes widened. "Green?" he asked. "Your last name is Green?"
"Yes, my mother's name was Karen Green." She smiled ever so slightly. Mustang almost fell out of his seat when he rushed over to her.
"Who are you?" she's the right age, he thought, could she be?
"Your daughter." She said calmly with his hands gripping her arms. Now it was everyone else's turn to be surprised.
"What?" Riza's eyes fell on Roy. "What did she say?" there was venom in her words.
Roy felt everyone's eyes on him. Why did she say that? He thought. Karen was in the past, she was his ex but why did she keep this from him?
"How is that possible?" Ed said exasperated. "A.J. what do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said, Ed." She said without taking her eyes off of Roy.
"You know each other?" Roy looked angrily at Ed.
"You can say that." Ed looked away and scratched the back of his neck.
"We're childhood friends." Al stepped in.
"Did you not recognize us?" Ed asked her.
"Of course I did silly!" she looked over at Ed and smiled sweetly. "I just wanted to get that out before we had our big reunion." She looked at Al and smiled again. "Nice to see you, Alphonse"
Al would have blushed, had he could have. "N-Nice to see you again too, A.J."
"Colonel Mustang, how old are you?" Riza glared at him.
"T-Twenty-nine." He stuttered as he met Riza's glare.
"You?" she looked at Alice.
"Fourteen." She replied coldly.
"So that means you had her at fifteen?" she said exasperated.
"Mom was fifteen too." Alice said to Roy.
"I know." He looked down and released her from his grip. "I know, she…well…she was my first girlfriend."
"You got your first girlfriend pregnant?" Riza screamed. "At fifteen?" she was shocked to find out about his past.
Alice ran up to Ed and hugged him tightly, then ran to Al and hugged him."I missed you guys!" she said as she let go of Al.
"We missed you too." Ed smiled at her.
"Oh, have you seen Winry recently?" she asked.
"A few weeks ago, why?" Ed inquired.
"I haven't seen her in years!" she exclaimed. She jumped around asking questions like, did she seem more mature, what Winry was doing, if Winry had mentioned her, what they had been doing these past few years.
They paused at the last question, what had they been doing? Looking for the philosopher stone, trying to avoid Lust and the others, doing missions, stuff with Scar, but what else? Ed simply answered. "Not much, things for the State Alchemists."
Riza was bombarding Colonel Mustang with questions. "So who is that?" Alice asked.
"First lieutenant Hawkeye." Al replied.
"Is she dating Roy Mustang?" she asked with an eyebrow raised.
"No!" She heard Riza and Roy yelled from across the room.
"I was just asking!" she yelled back. She pouted and noticed Al looking at her. She tilted her head. "What's wrong Al?"
"No, it's nothing. I just noticed you haven't changed a whole lot." He would have grinnedhad he could have, but she heard his smile through his voice.
"Haven't changed?" she cried. "What part hasn't changed?"
"Well you look different, but your personality is the same." He smiled in his voice.
"So I have the personality of a child?" she cried.
"Walked into a minefield, Al." Ed muttered.
"I'm a child?" she curled up into a ball in the corner.
"No, I didn't mean it as an insult!" Al corrected. "I meant it as a complement; it's good to stay a child for as long as you can." Ed heard the tang of bitterness and sadly looked away; the sadness in his voice hadn't escaped Alice either.
"Al?" she said as she looked up. He still didn't want her to see him like this, he wanted to be able to feel it when she touched his arm, or notice when she accidently brushed up against him, that's really what motivated him to leave, to find a way to bring his body back. What was he thinking? He cursed himself. Those were thought's of so long ago, thought's of a child that's been long dead. But when he looked into her concerned face, he could almost feel his heart skip a beat, but he didn't have one.
"I'm sorry, Alice, Al, if my suffering has disrupted your little moment." They heard Roy shout from across the room. Lieutenant Hawkeye was unsatisfied by the answers she got so she started tormenting him.
"Do you think we should help him?" Ed asked.
Alice thought it over for a few grueling seconds to Roy. "Maybe…" she said airily.
Ed sighed. "Alright, Al come on, we should get going. See you later A.J." he said.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you now, it's not A.J. anymore, it's Alice." She said with a smirk.
"Whatever, A.J." her eyebrow twitched.
"Alice." She told him.
"Okay!" he exclaimed and rolled his eyes. "Let's go Al. Bye, A.J." he waved and walked out.
"Alice!" she screamed. Then she was left alone with Riza and Roy. She really didn't want to wait for Riza to get off of him so she decided to walk away and confront him tomorrow.
"Where do you think you're going?" Roy asked.
"You're obviously busy, so I thought I would come back later." She smiled.
"You don't just come in here, say you're my daughter and walk out!" he was angry.
"But like I said, you're busy." she waved goodbye.
"You-" he was about to start but stopped when he saw her gloves. Just like his. "Where did you get those gloves?" he asked with a low voice.
"Mom, she gave them to me, said they were made by my father." She eyed him. "They were his, but he gave them to mom to keep her safe, she then gave them to me when I was five."
His face became white, she really was his child. Her dark hair was like his, her eyes were lighter but still like his, and that smirk she was doing, is like the way he would smirk when he was a kid, that mischievous look she gave when she did it too, everything about her screamed him, but then there were some of Karen. Her cloak, that was Karen's if he wasn't mistaken, and her necklace, a silver chain that held a single key on the end, which was Karen's too, the way her nose was small and dainty, and her eyes held that fire, that was all Karen. But where was she?
"Where is Karen?" he asked and her eyes fell to the floor.
"Mom-"she swallowed hard. "Mom died, she died of an illness, same as Ed and Al's." she had a pained look on her face.
"I see." He said no more. What was there to say? How could he comfort his only child whom he's known for fifteen minutes? But still the question rose, why had his
Ex-girlfriend kept this secret? "How long ago?" he wanted to know how long she was able to keep this from him.
"Five years ago." She said without making eye contact.
"I'm sorry." He whispered. So nine years, Karen kept him in the dark for nine years. Although he felt sorry for the small girl in front of him, he couldn't help but feel a slight stab of anger when he thought about it Karen leaving him out of his own daughter's life for nine years.
"Don't be sorry!" she yelled, it startled him and Riza who had been standing behind them quietly. "Everyone says sorry like it can help, like it's their fault, but it's not!" tears started flowing down her face. "It's my fault!" she yelled louder this time. There's no telling how long she had lived with that on her chest, Alphonse and Edward both heard it, they weren't as far as she had thought, they had stopped behind the corner to listen in. Al saw his brother's knuckles turn white as he balled his hands into a fist.
"It's my fault." She said more quietly, she put her hands in front of her face to look at her mother's gloves. "It's all my fault, I didn't protect her," Ed clenched his teeth. "I didn't stay with her," Ed felt like he was about to explode. "I didn't say goodbye." Al balled his fists. Ed was remembering his own mother, something he didn't like to do a whole lot. Al wanted to comfort his brother, but he also wanted to calm down himself. Why was he so mad? To hear her cry like that, that wasn't what he ever wanted to hear.
Roy was immediately holding her, cradling her while she cried in his arms, as if she had been his child all her life, being held like a baby in the arms of her daddy. Roy felt his paternal instincts kick in as he let her cry into his chest, he lightly kissed the top of her head and whispered comforting words to her. Riza watched in awe, she had never seen him like that, a fatherly figure holding his daughter, she had to admit, she was moved.
"It's my fault. It's my fault." She whispered over and over again and held his uniform jacket, a father was not something she had ever had, and a part of her wanted it like that, to stay still in time as if she could walk home and her mother would be there to welcome her, she knew she wasn't as strong as Ed and Al, she knew she could never leave everything, even the memories she shared with her late mother, never burn down her house and watch it fall, every memory, every laugh, every hug, gone. Burned into ash like it was nothing, she felt like nothing.
Roy tried his best to comfort her and she finally stopped crying, she still held his jacket in the hopes that he would never let go, she wanted to be still, stuck in the same moment over and over again, in her mother's arms but this was good, this was okay, her father's arms were just as good right? Granted, her father for fifteen minutes, but still, this was good.
"Are you okay?" he asked ready to let her go, but she wasn't, she held tighter and wanted time to stop, man was she weak, wanting never to move forwards, never to forget her mother's voice, but time will do that, five years had been enough to diminish any hope, of course, hope was lost as soon as she saw Al in that armor, when she saw Ed bleeding out. That was enough; she never wanted to remember that, seeing her best friends find themselves in such a horrible mess. Never again will she have hope of her mother being alive and safe somewhere, never again will she wait idly by and watch as someone else do what she never had the courage to do.
"Yeah." She sniffed and forced her hands to let go. "I'm okay." She whispered as if she was trying to convince herself instead of him. "Sorry." She smiled sweetly as she tried to hide her pain; she had let it slip and vowed never to do that again.
But Roy could see her pain; he could see right through her, her tear streaked face revealed it all, her tears on his jacket, her paleness, it all was pointing to her broken heart, screaming that she was hurt, in pain beyond belief. No one could understand that, no one besides Al and Ed who watched their mother die just as she did.
"Al," Ed said in a low voice so he couldn't be heard by the pain ridden Alice. "Let's go." He didn't wait for an answer and started walking down the long corridor.
"Ah, Brother." Al held his hand out but it dropped to his side when Ed kept walking. He couldn't see his face, but Al assumed Ed was angry, he had experienced everything she had, he kept it inside just as she did, but the one thing he didn't do like her was the fact that he would take his anger out fighting, she had no one to fight with, no one. But now, she had Roy she had Al and Ed, and she knew that. She wasn't going to let that go. Not as long as she could breath.
Little did she know, she wasn't going to be breathing for much longer.