Dos cosas, primera en español:
¡Hola vosotras! Tengo vuestro capítulo semanal~ ¿Para qué lo queréis? ¡Revisad!

Segunda en inglés:
Go translate that yourselves. Anyway, the chaps are gettin' longer! So, if I can get, say like, 10 - 15 reviews, I'll extend the next chapter. That sound good? Oki-doke~ And once again, vote in that little ol' poll.

De todos modos, thanks, awesomenaruto for being my beta. :)

|Sᴇᴛᴛɪɴɢ: Canon. Amestris.
|Tɪᴍᴇ: Canon. 1913, early spring. Beginning of April.
|Eᴅᴡᴀʀᴅ Eʟʀɪᴄ: No automail. Pickpocket. Older Elric brother. Age 14. Chimera.
|Alphonse Elric: No armor. A pickpocket. Age 13. Chimera.
|Rᴏʏ Mᴜsᴛᴀɴɢ: Colonel. The Flame Alchemist.
|Rɪᴢᴀ Hᴀᴡᴋᴇʏᴇ: First Lieutenant.
|Mᴀᴇs Hᴜɢʜᴇs: Lieutenant Colonel. Married.
|All retain their respective ages.
|All the characters keep their original appearances from the first anime—that's just 'cause there're more hair colors so I don't sound repetitive—and personalities.

Os presento: ʜᴇʀᴍᴀɴᴏs — felinos .

~ T S N


Title Subject To Change
-TʜᴇSʟᴇᴇᴘɪɴɢNᴇᴋᴏ-


.: 7 :.
ғ
ʟ ɪ ɴ b r o t h e r s
[
The chimera and the speechless]


Roy took a moment to gape at what was before him. Astonishment aside, he didn't know whether to feel pity or revulsion toward the boys.

How could something like this have come to pass?

"Sir?" He looked to Riza, who was looking at him in an uncertain and inquiring way. Roy looked from the now silent and scared captive in the woman's arms, to the limp one he himself was supporting from under their arms. He wanted to drop the kid—thing, whatever it was—but that would be unprofessional. Instead, his mind was whirling, trying to determine an appropriate course of action.

It was Maes who burst into his thoughts with, "They don't seem too dangerous."

The colonel turned his attention to the other man. "Hughes, they're chimera.(1) We can't go on what they seem like."

"They're also children, Roy, and that's all we have to go on at the moment."

"They're only half children, though; they're also half animal!"

"But they're still children, nonetheless."

"Yeah, well what do you propose we do with them?" Mustang asked, growing slightly irritated.

"I say we do what we were going to do: load them up in the car and take them–"

"An orphanage won't take them."

Hughes rolled his eyes. "I know. But I'm not going to leave them out here on the streets. Besides the fact that they're too young to be living on their own, I'm sure that if we left them here, they'd end up robbing a few other people."

"Then where do we take them?"

"Your place." The man held up a hand to silence his companion before he could interrupt. "I say this because Riza's ruled out on account of her owning a dog. I doubt Black Hayate would take too kindly to these boys. And it can't be my house because I have a wife and daughter there. I don't think bringing…these—" He gestured to the silent pickpockets, "—home would go over very peacefully and would simply be cause for more stress."

Roy bit his lip in indecision. He knew his friend had perfectly valid points, yet, he wasn't all that comfortable with the idea of housing two chimera-freaks.

Hughes spoke again as he walked over. "It wouldn't be permanent; just until we can find somewhere else better. We can decide what to do from there." Roy wondered what his friend meant by "better". Who would want to take in a chimera, besides some nut-case scientist? Still, he allowed the other man to take the youth from him, lifting the blond into his arms, and walking over and setting him in the backseat of the car. The kid didn't say a word, his eyes averted downward. That done, he motioned for Hawkeye to do the same.

Mustang nodded an affirmative in her direction when she hesitated. Then, reluctantly, he climbed into the front seat, watching as Riza climbed in next to him, and Hughes slid into the back seat alongside the boys.

Roy hoped he didn't wind up regretting this.


Maes Hughes set the inert blond boy on the couch in Roy's house. Both kids had seemed rather listless on the ride over, which had concerned the man slightly at first. But when they had arrived and he'd made a move to take the copper haired one, Al, the other brother had immediately wrapped his legs tightly around his brother's waist, his own hands trapped behind his back. The blond had glared at Hughes with a scared, yet stubborn protectiveness in his golden eyes as he pulled his apparently sleeping brother closer.

It had taken them nearly ten minutes of struggling—threats, defensive retorts, many reassurances, and finally, a cocked gun from Riza—to get them untangled. But they had done it.

Riza, carrying the sleeping Al, was preceded by Maes carrying the other boy, who had nonverbally insisted on positioning himself so that he could look over Maes' shoulder the whole time to intently watch over his brother.

Mustang just stood uneasily to the side as they deposited their cargo on his sofa. He obviously still didn't trust the human-chimera.

Without another word, Maes stood and went to the medicine cabinet. There, he grabbed some bandages and almost some antiseptic, but decided against it—he wouldn't trust their guests to react well to it. He also grabbed a washcloth and a bowl of water.

When he returned, he caught a glimpse of Riza's back as Roy let her out the door.

At a raised eyebrow, Roy explained, "She's gonna go down and clear up some things at the office for us."

"Tell her thanks," Maes said before setting the items he held on the floor in front of the couch. He, too, knelt there, facing the brothers who were now together again, as if drawn to each other by some magnetic force. "Can I trust you?" he asked unexpectedly, lifting the key to the handcuffs from his pocket. The golden-blond eyed the piece of metal hungrily and nodded. The green-eyed man looked sternly at him. "I wanna hear you say it."

"…Fine. I won't run away," came the hoarse confirmation from the kid. At a glance to the still-suspicious colonel, he rolled his eyes, continuing, "Or try to kill you or maim you or anything." Roy snorted and left into the kitchen.

Hughes chuckled slightly and reached around to unlock the cuffs. With a click, they were off. The young teen massaged his wrists. "What about Al?"

"I'll get to your brother in a minute." Actually, Hughes merely didn't trust both boys unbound. "Let me see your hand. I wanna clean that cut." He indicated the gash on the back of the small hand. The teen regarded Hughes warily, pulling the hand in question closer to his chest, the catlike ears upon his head folding back in an animalistic way. But Hughes just dipped the washcloth in the bowl and proffered it on his own hand. He knew that the boy wasn't stupid enough to leave an injury like that un-cleaned when he had an opportunity to clean it.

So he at last relented, looking away ashamedly as if to deny his submission. Hughes gently slid the cloth over the wound. He was sort of surprised that the boy never flinched once. When he had cleaned it adequately, he wrapped a white bandage around the hand and immediately dipped the cloth back in the water again.

This time, however, he held out the dripping fabric to the chimera-boy. The boy was taken aback at first and stared at Hughes' green eyes confusedly. "What?" he asked guardedly.

Maes just nodded his head to the sleeping Al. "I take it you'd like to do him yourself? Or, at least, you don't want me messing with your little brother."

The teen nodded slowly and grabbed the cloth from the lieutenant colonel. Immediately, he went to work on his sibling.

Maes watched as the golden-eyed teenager tenderly wiped the washcloth over Al's cuts and scrapes, leaning to re-dip the towel every once-in-a-while, then continuing. He would occasionally run his fingers through the dark goldenrod hair and mutter things under his breath to the sleeping brother. While the yet-unnamed brother's feline ears were the same golden-color as his hair at the base of the ears and fading to an off-white near the tips, the other brother's unique appendages were the exact shade as his honey-brown hair, a fair bit fluffier than the blond's. They would occasionally twitch with the teen's ministrations—the kids didn't appear to have any human ears. Down one pant leg, Hughes saw a small amount of movement every-so-often, which he grew to suspect might be a tail. All in all, it was very heartwarming to watch.

Eventually, though, the chimera-boy noticed Hughes' observances and almost immediately ceased his fondling.

Hughes hurriedly tried to start up conversation. "So, is 'Al' short for anything?"

He received a glower in response. All the same, after a few calculating glances, the teen answered, "Alec. It's short for Alec."

"And do you have a name?"

"Ed…mund. It's Edmund."

"Well, Edmund, I know it might not be any of my business, but…how did you come by…" Hughes gestured to the kitty ears, "those, exactly?"

The ears in question flattened a little. After a little while, the homeless kid's eyes dropped. "It's a long story. And I don't see any reason to tell it to you."

"Fair enough," admitted Hughes, still interested, "but us knowing might help your situation."

"How?" was the distrusting, doubtful query.

"Well, not knowing would just make things more complicated." There was no reply. With a heavy sigh, Maes pushed himself to his feet and turned. "I'll be just a minute. I trust you not to run off?" Again, no response.

He walked into the kitchen to see Roy stirring a bowl of something in preparation for supper. "Well?" Mustang asked over his shoulder at his friend's approaching footsteps.

"You know anyone who's in the medical practice, good with both boys and cats, and can be trusted?"

"I can look into it. Get anywhere with 'em?"

"Their names. Though, I'm not sure how reliable they are. But nothing else."

"…They try to kill you?"

Maes snorted ruefully and took the bowl and spoon from Roy. "Um, no."

"Good. 'Cause if they don't, I will."


(1) As far as I can tell, chimera is one of those words that's never plural, like "deer" and "fish".


Well? Any feedback? Does this story still manage to be good in spite of having that horribly cliché plot device? :)

Will you give me reviews...? They make me happy!

About that poll– Huh?

Oh, you want more?

Is that it? …

Eh...okay. Read on, young grasshopper.


That night, Hughes stayed at Roy's house, just for safe measure.

He had called Gracia to tell her that he'd be staying over to do some important work. And, though his wife hadn't seemed very happy at the information, she had let it go without anything beyond the normal questions.

That settled, Maes made his way back to the living room to be with their new "guests". Roy had gone into another room upstairs to make some arrangements, which mostly consisted of calls to Riza—she being the efficient woman that she was.

Meanwhile, Maes just sat there, chin resting on his folded hands, watching the brothers. He noticed that the sleeping one's handcuffs were no longer present and he doubted that it was Roy who had released the kid. Well, these were pickpockets; it wouldn't surprise him if they could pick locks, too. Still, he didn't comment on it.

They remained in that fashion until about one o'clock in the morning, when the still-awake Ed broke the silence with, "Why are you still here? Shouldn't you go to bed or something?"

"Shouldn't you?" was the comeback.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Sorry, but I'm not about to close my eyes with you still here. You can hardly expect me to trust you."

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same way."

Silence reigned once more.

It was over half an hour later that a bleary-eyed Roy trudged down the stairs and into the living room. He dropped a scrawled-on piece of paper into Maes' lap and mumbled with a big yawn, "T'morrow mornin', seve' thir'y, I'm beat. Goin' t' bed." With that, the colonel disappeared back up the stairs, most likely into his bedroom.

Hughes picked up the page and tried to read the illegible handwriting. After failing three times, he gave up and sighed in the general direction of Roy's room upstairs. "You'd better be able to read this, or at least remember it by tomorrow…"

Ed didn't inquire as to the nature of the paper, just stared intently at Hughes. This could be a long night.


Jiji~ Aren't I kind? I gave you a whole nother section! Alright, it wasn't that long. But it wouldn't be there if I hadn't added it. So..if you'd just give me some reviews… ¿Sí?

Take a moment to imagine how many reviews I'd have if each one of my watchers left a comment? It'd be, like, heavenly. :D Remember, if no one comments, I presume nobody likes. T_T

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