As Sheska marched down the street with the brothers Elric in tow, Anna whistled a happy tune, coupled with Lukas to form a duet. To Alphonse, their tune was very catchy and quite the spirit lifter. He grinned to his companions, and tried to mimic their song to form a trio, but he laughed when his lips couldn't pick up the beat quick enough. When his attempt backfired, the twins stopped and laughed along with him as their joined laughter filled the mid-spring's day air. Glancing to the blooming trees around him, Alphonse smiled, a sense of relaxation surrounding him as the brilliant colours of the flowers and the tranquil atmosphere around him reminded him of his home back in Resembool. He wondered if it was spring there as well. The flowers there were so beautiful. Aunt Pinako would be standing on the front porch with Den, smoking her pipe and admiring the colours of Mother Nature. Maybe Winry would be out there with her. He remembered going to play hide and seek and tag over the hills and by the creek near Winry's house when they were kids. Back in those days…
Alphonse sighed, thinking to himself that there was no point looking back when they had to move forward. However, despite the task before him, he could never forget the past, and swore that he never would. Not a day would go by where he didn't think about everyone they had left behind, and, glancing over to the expression on his older brother's face, neither did he. Reaching over to him, Alphonse asked Edward in a small, concerned whisper, "Brother… are you thinking about them too?"
Edward looked over to his brother with a slightly moment of shock, then sighed melancholically. "Yeah Al…" he answered meekly.
Al could only look at his brother with pity, not only for him, but also for the fact that they were both in such a state of remorse over what they had lost. What they had lost… "Hey brother…" began Alphonse.
Edward looked back to him and asked, "Yes?"
Wearing a sad smile, Al chucked once as he finally put I together and looked Edward strait in the eyes to make sure he was going to get every single word of what he was about to say. "Do you think that… maybe, when we went through the Gate… Winry, Aunt Pinako, the military, everyone… do you… do you think THAT… might have been the price we paid? Even for my memories, surly there must have been something that we lost, and even if we have each other… do you think that losing them… was the price we paid for… each other?"
Edward's eye widened when Al spoke to him of this. He thought about what his brother said and took it to heart. After all, even after Al had come through the Gate with all his memories intact and they could finally be reunited again after all those years… they were still… not home. Lowering his head so that his bangs covered his face, Edward smiled sadly and looked back up to his brother. "Equivalent Exchange, huh?" he whispered wistfully.
Suddenly, as the brothers were caught in their memories and yearnings of home, a clear sound passed into their ears and made them look up. It sounded like…
"A piano?" Alphonse asked quizzically.
"Yeah, I hear it too." Edward commented as they both tried to listen to the tune.
They were distracted, however, when they heard a loud cackle behind them. They turned around to see Anna laughing at them, her hand beside her cheek in a sly manner. Lukas was chuckling too. They looked to each other, wondering if they missed some sort of joke, then back to Anna as she gleamed at them. "That's right…" she said, her voice laced in a crafty tone, "you've never been to Claire's house before, right?"
They both shook their heads and Anna laughed again before noticing that the piano sound was getting closer and closer. Suddenly, a wrong note stopped it. There was a pause before it started again at the beginning. As the fray glanced up to the house, they walked to the front door as the brothers realized the piano playing was coming from inside the house.
"Well, we're here!" said Sheska, still annoyed from her onslaught at the bridge.
"Careful of the little one~" Anna cooed in the Elrics' ears, making their hairs stand on end. Looking back at her with suspicious expressions, Edward whispered to her. "What is wrong with you?! Don't do that!"
Sheska knocked at the door twice as Anna and Lukas laughed at them. Then, everything got quiet when they heard the piano stop after another sour note and then the sound of voices. The Elrics couldn't make out any words, it simply sounded like blubbering gibberish to them. Perhaps a different language? They sounded like they were arguing. One was Claire's voice, definitely, but the other… they didn't know whose it was. It sounded a little meek, but a male's voice. A little boy? Suddenly, the clatter of footsteps running closer to the door as the piano started again, then, the door unhinged and opened. Edward and Alphonse were prepared to greet their friend when, instead of seeing a feminine face covered in reddish-blond curls, they saw the little face of a boy looking shyly up at them with short, light brown hair. They exchanged a confused glance before the little boy spoke. "Q-Qui-êtes-vous? … Vous êtes ici pour ma soeur?(W-Who are you? … You're here for my sister?)"
Silence. Edward and Alphonse could only stare at this little boy, not understanding a word he said to them. What in the world was that just now? Some sort of new dialect or language? If there were a time where the Elric brothers were confused, this would be the prime example. They didn't know what to say because they didn't know what this boy was trying to tell them. They could only stand there with priceless expressions on there face, knowing that there was meaning behind the boy's words, but didn't know what, and felt hopeless for not knowing. Anna suddenly laughed at their predicament, making Edward and Alphonse wince as they heard another sour note, and patted them on the shoulders. "What's wrong, boys? Never heard another language before?"
"Apparently not Anna! What a riot!" chuckled Lukas, who laughed along with his sister.
Sheska hushed them both and nudged at the Elrics to get their attention. "Don't stare you two, you're scaring him."
They nodded to her, but still looked to each other with the same confusion as before. Suddenly, they heard more footsteps as another figure came up behind the boy, and the two brothers, as well as the little boy, beamed a smile when they saw Claire walk up. Thank god, someone they could understand around here. Maybe she knew what this little boy was saying.
"So I see the whole group has arrived. Come to drag me back to the library in chains and glue me to a chair and force me to do more research on that riddle?"
"Hmmm… a tempting idea." answered Sheska, grinning wildly. Claire raised a brow and scoffed.
During this conversation, Edward noticed that the little boy by her side never stopped staring at him and Alphonse the whole time. It made him feel a little awkward as his gold eyes stared into brown. Noticing the tension, Claire twitched, trying to think of how to ease the situation. "S-Sorry about that, h-he… he's just a little shy around strangers."
"Hey, who are you calling strangers?!" barked Edward.
"You obviously." Claire retorted, frowning at his rash behaviour. Looking down to the little boy, she spoke in a soft voice, letting the boy know that he didn't have to be afraid. "C'est correcte Frédéric. Ils ne sont pas méchants. Tu peux leur parler. Au moins, dit-leur ton nom…(It's all right Frederic. They're not mean. You can talk to them. At least, tell them your name.)"
Edward knew that the boy was hesitant, but Claire's presence obviously seemed to reassure him somewhat. Finally, he spoke in a small, mousy tone, "J-je m'appelle Frédéric. (M-my name is Frederic)"
Again, more silence as the duo blinked to the little boy. Claire caught on and laughed, whispering to him, "Peux-tu essayer maintenant en anglais, comme l'on avait pratiqué? (Can you try it now in English, like we practiced?)"
"Mais, Claire-! (But, Claire-!)
"Essai Frédéric, hors il n'y a pas de raison pour moi de t'étudier en premier lieu. (Try Frederic, or there's no reason for me to teach you in the first place.)"
The group was silent as the two argued over the boy's shyness, and neither Edward nor Alphonse knew what they words were being exchanged. Edward figured, for all he knew, that they were saying bad things about them. However, he gathered that, by the way she addressed him; the boy's name was Frederic. Then, Frederic gulped, getting a deep, thoughtful look on his face, as if trying to find the right words to say before turning right to the Elrics and opening his mouth. "M-my… name is… Frederic. I'm… pleased to meet you." He said slow, trying to get all the right accents and intricacy to sound as English as possible.
Suddenly, Sheska gasped and Anna grinned, giving the kid a thumbs up as they cheered for him for getting the words right. "Good job Frederic, you're doing wonderful! You're starting to catch on!"" Sheska cheered.
"Yeah, not bad kid." grinned Anna.
Frederic beamed an open mouth smile to them before cheering and running back in the house, yelling out, "Maman! Maman! (Mommy! Mommy!)"
The others simply grinned as they watched him run off, then Claire turned back to her friends. "Sorry about all that," she began, "but he's been begging me to have you come over. He wanted to meet the famous rocket scientists." She teased as the brothers laughed with embarrassment.
"It's nothing, really." Alphonse said.
"Well, you might as well come in now that you're here. Frederic will never hear the end of it if I just go and disappear with all of you again." Claire sighed as she let them into her house.
As they all wandered in, Edward could hear Claire and Sheska talking about Frederic. "He's improving, I can tell!" bragged Sheska.
"Well, after all the lessons I'm giving him, I would hope he is. He can understand English extremely well, but he just has to get the hang of trying to pronounce it all properly and expand his vocabulary." Commented Claire, speaking to Sheska as if Frederic was her student in school. Edward wondered if he was.
They walked into the living room, glancing around at all the knick-knacks and the pictures. The grandfather clock in the corner of the room struck four o'clock. They spent a couple minutes exploring the room because neither Edward nor Alphonse had ever been to Claire's house before. Claire had to yell at Anna to put down something because either it was fragile or held value. Edward was looking at the books she had piled in the bookshelf before looking over to see a small picture sitting on a coffee table. Walking over, he picked it up and squinted as he observed the two people in the picture. He could tell that, whoever they were, they were very happy. Their smiles showed that. However, neither of them was Claire or Frederic. There was a woman in it, she looked similar to Claire. She had the same long, curly hair, but the hue looked light, so perhaps she was a blonde, and her eyes were close, but she wore a big smile on her face. There was a man in it too, but he didn't know what kind of connection this man had with the woman. Perhaps they were good friends, or even lovers. He had short hair, and by the hue of the picture, it looked like darker hair. If nothing else, the word that Edward kept getting as he stared at the picture was 'happy'.
Just then, he heard a new voice enter the room. "Mon doux, Claire, tu as apporter tous tes amis sans me dire? Je pourrais prépare du thé pour eux. (My my, Claire, you brought over all your friends without telling me? I could make some tea for them.)"
The voice was a very soft, feminine voice. It carried a great presence with it, Edward noted, as he turned around to see Claire flustered as she looked to the small woman who entered the room. The curly blond hair and sweet smile made him realize that this was the same woman in the picture, and as she walked up to him with that same smile, she extended her hand to him, and, with a thick accent, said, "Hello. It is nice to meet you; I am assuming that you are Edward Elric. Claire talks to me about you and your brother quite often. I am Claire's mother, Jacqueline."