Well this has been a long break...

So I discover that Christmas isn't really the season for fanfiction if the lower numbers of review and views are anything to go by. (So if everyone who's alerted/favourite'd this fic might leave a small review- even a one-word one!, I'd be really happy)
(Then of course, school sorta kills time for writing full stop...)

In addition to that I get the feeling that my writing style has change (a lot...), which makes writing Code Geass fics seem more preferable at the moment... I'll admit that the only reason I felt like writing this was because I had a large science assignment due, which sort of led my brain along to the trail of alchemy.. Updates in future will probably be highly sporadic- I'm not dropping this fic though.

To my dear, lovely reviewers...
You're inspirational. Seriously. I mean it; I'm quite sure that reviews are the fuel that a lot of us run on, (that or it's favourites and alerts), but it is nice to know that someone's reading. And your reviews were sort-of the motivation/guilt-trip I needed in order for this chapter to exist so it's not going too far to say that this chapter is practically dedicated to: Fluehatraya, soefon and Jostanos.

Chapter Ten - Stranger

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change - this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress.

~Bruce Barton

-Amestris ~ Risembool 1995-

From the moment Harry saw his to-be best friend, he knew that Edward Elric was different. It was partially due to his golden hair and eyes, but mostly because the first sight he got of the boy was him getting hit by a metal wrench, which he only recognised because Winry had been cradling it throughout the whole train ride from Central while talking about how much she missed her friends, especially 'Ed' and 'Al'.

He'd looked at Winry with an expression somewhere between horror, fear and awe. Then astonishment had set in; why would Winry, sweet innocent and technological-loving Winry suddenly throw a metal projectile at someone who she had seen for only a fraction of a second - who had only been conversing with his brother?

He'd stood there then, just staring at the sight before him. There was, strangely enough, no blood on the scene and the metal wrench had somehow reappeared in Winry's hands as she rushed down the hill she had been standing on towards the two boys.

Something clicked in his mind then, as he watched his new foster-sister run down the hill shouting to the boys below.

"Edward Elric you midget! You're still as short as ever!"

Harry started; that was surely an extremely rude way to greet a friend, although he supposed it was better than throwing metal wrenches at their heads. He noted that she'd only seemed to have aimed for Ed and hoped, really hoped, that she didn't always greet people, or even just him, by throwing things. His new foster-sister was proving herself quite intimidating.

For an instant, he thought the boy was going to throw the wrench back, and prepared to dodge. To his surprise, there was no sound metal whirling through the air, but a squelchy sound that was so much worse; a literal mud 'monster' moving towards them.

It was about one and half meters high - taller than them all by quite a bit, and wobbling as if not quite stable. Rather than walking, it seemed to crawl up the hill towards them like a snail, leaving a muddy trail of dirty water behind, but moving much faster than a snail.

Caught between half fascination and horror, he stood, half frozen but subtly inching behind Winry who stared at the creature, likewise captivated by digust and facinated horror.

It reach the top of the hill, where they were, and collapsed noisily, splashing them with mud.

To Harry's horror, it wasn't the type of mud you get when it rains- when it was more brown water than anything else, but a horrible clingy mud with a doughy consistency. It clung, it stained, it stuck and it was slimy. He made a disgusted face and tried to scrape it off with his bare hands.

Winry was worse off, having been closest at the time. Her dress, previously a lovely sunny yellow one with sunflowers, was blotchy and riddled with brown splotches large and small. The boys below laughed, though there was no malice intended, although the younger one who had not had the wrench thrown at him looked guiltier than gleeful.

The laughing faces faded as Winry pulled out another gleaming metal wrench, giving Harry less than a second to wonder where she'd pulled it out from before she threw it with unnerving accuracy. It make a 'clanging' noise as it bounced off the elder boy's head and he fell over, obviously stunned- but possibly unconscious, while his brother started and looked at Winry warily.

By this point in time, Harry was feeling rather left out- not that he particularly wanted to be involved; he had a feeling that Winry had the capacity to kill someone- and shuffled away slowly, deciding that he'd rather not be present should the lone conscious boy send another mud monster after them.

It should probably be mentioned that his first impression of Edward Elric and, to a lesser extent, Alphonse Elric wasn't exactly a 100% positive one. More specifically, his first impression was that Edward Elric was weird.

By either chance or fortune, Harry didn't encounter the two brother again until the next week, at school.

It was the start of a new year of school so he was not, at least, the only new person. There were five others presented to the class; three transferred from the city and the remaining two were twins who had moved to Risembool to live with their uncle- their parents having died in a riot that had broken out in a town near the Eastern Desert.

It wasn't as if he disliked this new school; it was a huge improvement from his old, but he found himself surprisingly lonely at times; of all the new kids, he was the only one without an interesting past, without any stirring stories about the might of the country, or the savages that inhabited the desert.

Winry was constantly there, always friendly and ever so approachable, yet he found himself keeping a slight distance from her- the wrench incident unforgotten.

For the first week, he drifted, wandering around the school and through his own thoughts, only really paying attention when the teacher called on him to answer and only half-heartedly copying down the notes.

It was on one such day, that he finally snapped out of his extended trance-like state.

Mr. Kelvin, a tall stern and near-bald man, was explaining the the properties of atoms, supposed 'building blocks' of the world. Harry was himself sceptical; not finding reason to believe that everything and himself was made up of tiny bits so small no-one could see them. He sat attentively none-the-less, determined to remember, if only so that he would be able to answer the questions Mr. Kelvin so loved to ask his students.

"And so, note how the smallest atom, Hydrogen, has a weight of 1.008-" he cut himself off abruptly, almost flinching as a lazy hand raised itself into the air.

Harry, who had been copying him down, word for word, looked up, startled at the sudden pause.

"Sensei, hydrogen has a mass of 1.0079." Ed's voice hinted at drowsiness and not-so-hidden boredom.

Mr. Kelvin flinched slightly and shifted uneasily. "Well now, there's not all that much difference between weight and mass at your age, and 1.008 is just rounded up a bit," he attempted to pass off his earlier mistake. Harry wasn't sure why the blond boy was making such a big deal out of it, weight and mass were the one and the same and it was a minuscule difference, right?

Ed sat up straighter, the first sign of attentiveness he'd shown all semester. "However, weight is the amount of gravity acting upon an object, while mass is the amount of matter an object consists of. Isn't it impervious that we learn these things right from the start? And on the subject of rounding, in any scientific experiment, we try to ensure that the results are as accurate as possible, correct? By rounding from the start, we are already sabotaging out results. The presence of oxygen was only discovered due to the absolute accuracy with which Joseph Priestly conducted his experiments."

It was a convincing argument, shooting down all of Mr. Kelvin's points while providing valid ones. Looking back, a few years later, Harry would regret that he'd been unable to understand the near entirety of it. He was, however, able to understand that weight and mass were apparently not the same thing; knowledge he would later flaunt for the sake of appearing intelligent and knowledgeable. However, the most important thing he'd learnt that day was something that had been in front of him, and quite obviously so, for some time; Edward Elric was different.

Watching Mr. Kelvin flinch and blurt out seemingly random, half-nonsensical reasoning in a most unprofessional manner, he thought back to all his other classes, realising that he'd never really noticed the blond boy before. Or rather, the teacher had never seemed to notice him.

Ed's form in his memories was nearly always leaning forward over his desk, pen in hand and writing something at an absurd speed. He'd never looked up, sometimes slouched in his seat, sometimes even took a nap and never raised his hand to answer questions. Then again, he'd never been called upon to answer questions before either. It was rather bewildering really, the teacher seemed to almost ignore his existence, yet be polite up to the point of wariness, backing down and following by his logic and reasoning. But most of all, they listened. If ever Ed raised a topic, they'd listen intently, if ever he pointed out a mistake, they'd correct it, often following his words without doubt, not even bothering to check if he was indeed correct. Most of the time it seemed almost as if Ed was teaching, despite him never showing any effort. It was odd to say the least.

His curiosity about the boy only increased during the short break they had after science, as he found himself trailing off behind him. It was a learning experience; small things that he'd never really taken the time to notice (like how Ed would always sit with Al under the large fig tree that overlooked the playground, or how everyone else seemed somewhat deferential to the two brothers), were made blindingly obvious. It didn't do anything to answer his questions though; there wasn't the slightest hint why everyone was so polite- sometimes to the extent of a near fear. What it did do, on the other hand, was prove the boys' popularity. It seemed as if all the other students and number of the staff were keen to become their friends.

In comparison, Ed and Al seemed somewhat cold; nearly always sitting by themselves unless someone, usually Winry, came to sit with them. Compared to the others, they made little or no efforts to socialise and become friends.

Regardless, they were popular, and, as someone who had never been truly popular before in his life, Harry found himself slightly envious of the two, unable to comprehend why it was so.

Updates, as mentioned at the start of the chapter, will be highly sporadic, and they'll probably slow down once (if) I start a Code Geass fic as well. Thanks for reading (and is it just me or did a start too many sentences with the word 'Harry'?). Might come back and edit this chapter later...