Rewriting Fiction
KarmaHope
08: Friday, June 7 (2013)
11.29.2013

Note: Some dialogue was taken directly from chapter 5 of In Truth, None of it Was Fiction.

5:58 pm

Kai worried her lower lip in anticipation. The Cirles – Elrics – Cirles … whatever … would be at her house any time now. She had minutes – perhaps even seconds – to add the final touches to the calm façade she'd been perfecting all night.

5:59 pm

Her eyes drifted time and time again back to the papers that had been thrown carelessly on the coffee table in the living room. Well, they appeared to have been thrown there carelessly. In reality, she had spent several minutes arranging and rearranging the way they laid. It couldn't look like a trap – it wasn't a trap, she told herself – but the picture had to be visible, along with some of the words, and it had to be in a place where it would be seen.

6:00 pm

It was the coward's way out – she knew that. But … she just couldn't face them herself. She knew that if she tried she'd stumble over her words until she either gave up or everything came out wrong. It was safer this way. There was less chance of a misunderstanding.

6:01 pm

"KaiKai?" Christopher's voice cut into her troubled thoughts, "you're hurting me."

Kai immediately loosened the grip she held on the little boy in her lap. She hadn't even realized she'd been hugging him closer and closer as her anxiety levels rose.

"Sorry, Bud."

6:02 pm

Goddammit, she thought, watching the clock in the living room tick yet another minute past six. Where were they? As much as she didn't want to see them, she wanted them to show up and put her out of her misery.

"Come on, boys," she muttered under her breath.

6:03 pm

Should she have called Kathy? She should have called Kathy. Her mom had even suggested it – why hadn't she done it? She could've used the support. Kathy would have believed her, too … or so she thought. Would she have? Or rather, would she? It was just so out there …. Did Kai have enough time still to call her best friend?

6:04 pm

"KaiKai!"

"Sorry, Bud."

6:05 pm

Where the hell were they?

6:06 pm

She still had a text from David she hadn't responded to. She hadn't even opened it yet. tex, plz, talk 2 me, the banner had read … and she had promptly ignored it. She was so damn tired of his excuses and apologies, not to mention his poor grammar. Just because he was a boy didn't mean he was incapable of using correct grammar while texting. Hell, Alan was one of her favorite people to text – he even used capitals. Dammit, she had to stop thinking about that.

6:07 pm

There's nothing to talk about, she wanted to send back.

But she didn't have Kathy's guts.

6:08 pm

That wasn't even her biggest problem right now.

6:09 pm

Shit that was the doorbell. No, she wasn't ready for this! No! Goddammit. Ten more curses fell through her mind, and it was all she could do to keep from muttering them right in her little brother's ears.

"KaiKai!" Christopher complained once again, and Kai felt a ball of guilt welling in her throat.

"I'm so sorry, Chris," she apologized. "Come on, up you get," she said more lightly, lifting her brother from her lap. "Eric and Alan are here. You know, the boys I've been talking about for the past few weeks."

The three-year-old's grin widened, forgetting about his sister nearly squishing him for the third time. "Yay!" he exclaimed. "KaiKai," he then said, as if suddenly realizing something, "have they seen the fairies?"

Kai couldn't help but laugh despite the growing pit of dread in her stomach as the two of them made their way toward the front door. Maggie still had her brother hooked on fairies, and she still thought it was one of the most adorable things. "I don't know," she told the tow-headed boy. "You'll have to ask them."

"Kai? Can you get the door?" Marie yelled from the kitchen, her hands busy with the lasagna that was for dinner.

"I've already got it, Mom!" she called back, not letting go of her brother's hand. With a deep breath, she finally stepped into what could be considered the foyer. "It's show time," she muttered to herself. Plastering a smile on her face, she opened the door to the three men that stood outside.

"Uhm, hi," she stated simply upon seeing the faces before her. "Come in, come in," she said, mentally scolding herself for her lack of eloquence. She quickly scurried out of the doorway, allowing the Elrics – Cirles – Cirles – to pass by. Once everyone was inside, she closed the door behind them. "Mom is in the kitchen, if you want to say hi," she told Eric and Alan's father. "Oh! Shoes can go there," she said, pointing, "and, uhm, I'd say I'd take your coats but it's the middle of June soo …"

She should just stop talking, she realized as she felt her face burn in embarrassment. She didn't blush red – at least not often – but her cheeks grew hot as if she did. And this … this was definitely one of those moments. She almost kicked herself – this was why she wasn't going to be actually confronting the boys any time soon.

"It's Karmyn, right? Kai? My sons have mentioned you." Kai looked up when she realized the boys' father – Hohenheim? Or should she say Van? What was his alias? – was talking to her. Her cheeks burnt even hotter as she comprehended what he was saying – Ed and Al had been talking about her with their father?

"Oh! Uhm, yes," she said, taking the proffered hand in a handshake. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Cirle."

"Vincent," the man corrected her.

"Vincent," she repeated back before letting go of his hand. For all the stern lines on his face, he seemed to be a very nice man.

"Vince?" Marie walked out into the hallway, drying her hands on a dishtowel. "Sorry, I'm running a little late … things came up," she said. Even without a glance in her direction, Kai knew her mother was referring to her. For the third time in so many minutes, she felt heat prickling across her cheeks. It took everything she had not to mutter a small 'sorry.' She was trying not to give it away.

"It's fine," the man said, "we are too."

As her mother and 'Vincent Cirle' lapsed into conversation about work, Kai turned to the brothers. Until now, they too had been standing awkwardly in one corner of the small hallway. She couldn't help but wonder if they felt as awkward as she did at that moment. It would be pretty damned hard, she thought. She and Ed- Eric weren't even really friends. They talked sometimes, sure … but not an overly large amount. As for Alan, she could consider him an almost-friend. After that Spanish project – which they had done exceedingly well on – they had continued texting every now and again. And they were friends in class …

"Uhm," she began, as she was seemingly unable to start any of her sentences any other way that night, "Eric, Alan, this is my little brother, Christopher." As she spoke, she dragged a suddenly shy Christopher out from his hiding spot behind her legs.

"Hi," the little boy said timidly, still clinging to his sister's leg.

"Go on," Kai encouraged him, "you were all excited a couple minutes ago." When he shook his head adamantly, she looked up at the Cirles apologetically. What she hadn't expected was that a few seconds later, Ed- Eri- – fuck this – Edward knelt before the boy.

"Hey, Christopher. My name is Eric, and this is my little brother, Alan," he said, gesturing to Alan – Alphonse – yeah, she was just gonna think of them as Edward and Alphonse from now on – behind him. The younger Elric walked up until he was standing beside his brother a few feet in front of Kai. Al smiled at her, and she shot a strained one back at him.

"How old are you?" Al asked, looking down at the boy.

Christopher looked up at Kai, who nodded. He then shifted his attention over to the Elrics for a few moments before holding up a small hand with three fingers extended. "Three," he announced proudly.

Kai didn't miss the look that the boys exchanged. Elicia, she realized suddenly. She had been three when the boys had first met her, hadn't she? Had she done the finger thing to them, or only to Winry? She couldn't remember. But even if she could, did things really happen the way they had been portrayed in the manga and anime? It was kind of mind-numbing to think that while Ed and Al were real, most of the events in the manga may not have been. After all, Arakawa had only had the Elrics' words to go off – so most of the events with Mustang or Winry or any time when the Elrics weren't around were most likely completely fabricated …

"Kai?"

With embarrassment, she realized the boys had been speaking with Christopher for the last couple seconds while she had zoned out completely. Now they were trying to get her attention and … dear God, she just couldn't do this. She just couldn't! Her cheeks flamed up for the billionth time that night.

"Uhm, yeah," she said, trying to cover her inattention. "We don't have to stand in the doorway all night … follow me."

The Elric boys followed Kai through her house, as they hadn't been given much of a choice in the matter. Al watched as Christopher walked next to his sister, occasionally glancing back at both him and his brother. He hadn't known much about Kai's little brother – of course, it wasn't surprising given he and Kai didn't talk a whole lot. In any case, he was adorable, and Al could see that Kai loved him to pieces.

He sighed as he and his brother followed their classmate. Nobody said anything, and it wasn't a comfortable silence that hung between them all. Christopher hummed on about something, and Alphonse caught his brother's eye. They were both thinking the same thing, he realized. They always were. It was always little Elicia Hughes. In every small child they'd met in their years on this side of the Gate, they'd seen either her or Nina Tucker. Along the road, the glance the two brothers exchanged had become less and less of a promise of return … and more one of resigned acceptance.

The fire that had once been in Edward's eyes at the thought of anyone back home wasn't there in this exchange. Al quirked a side of his mouth in a sad smile, and his brother returned it halfheartedly. We will get back, the younger Elric wanted to say, there must be something we haven't tried yet … but he'd stopped lying to himself years ago. In cases like these, quiet acceptance was less painful than stubborn rejection.

"This is our living room," Kai announced, breaking both Elrics from their thoughts. "Uhm, yeah," she continued, "you can sit down if you like, or …"

Edward didn't hesitate in taking a seat, sprawling out lazily as he tended to do. Al found it difficult to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. "Brother," he murmured exasperatedly under his breath. A small giggle from beside him caused him to look over at the girl standing there, a hand over her mouth in an attempt to stifle the noise.

"Ah, no, it's nothing," Kai waved him off quickly. "I just … thought of something."

"Al?" Edward's voice cut through the room like a knife, and Al could hear the layer of panic that coated it. It was enough to catch his attention immediately, and he turned away from Kai as the elder Elric leaned forward to pick up a piece of paper that had been lying on the coffee table. Even though he was no longer looking at her, he clearly heard the gasp that escaped Kai's lips.

"I, uhm, I – I have to see Mom about something real quick. I'll be – uhm – I'll be back in a minute," Kai said quickly, stumbling over her words before she dashed out of the living room toward where Alphonse presumed the kitchen to be, Christopher trailing behind her.

"Al … you really have to see this," Edward ventured, scanning the white sheet in his hand with wide blue eyes. As Alphonse stepped closer, his brother held the first piece of paper in the small pile toward him. 'Read this,' he prompted, switching to Amestrian.

Al was only a couple sentences into the page when he realized. A cold tingly sensation washed over him. Was it dread? Was it anticipation? He didn't know. 'She knows,' he stated simply, looking up from the paper.

Edward met his stunned expression with a grim one of his own. 'It's not like we didn't expect it,' he said as Al took a seat on the sofa. 'It's kind of funny, in a way …'

Ed couldn't help but feel that everything was happening all at once.

For example: the night he and Al had told their dad about Kai was the same night their father had accepted a dinner invitation from one of his coworkers. 'Just because we're living undercover,' Hohenheim had said, 'doesn't mean we can't be civil.' The brothers had vaguely remembered Kai saying her mother was a professor at Harvard. Surely there had to be several different chemistry professors at the school … right? When Edward had asked what the woman's name was, the answer had caused two uneasy stomachs to flip.

'Did you say Dallas?' Alphonse had clarified; shocked … but not surprised.

'She doesn't have a daughter, does she?' Ed had then asked in a last-ditch attempt at avoiding fate. The growing rock in his stomach had settled even further. Perhaps it was some other Dallas, he'd thought. It couldn't be an entirely uncommon last name … right?

'Actually, funny that you mention that,' had been Hohenheim's response, 'she does. She's actually about your age. Well, your physical age,' he'd corrected. 'You might know her.'

'Yeah,' He had muttered, leaning back where he sat and placing his palms over his eyes, 'we do.'

'Actually, Dad …' Al then began, 'we, uhm, actually had to talk with you about that.'

The Xerxestian man had then listened to his sons relay their story with great interest. What were the chances that the woman he had befriended at work would be the mother of the girl his sons had gotten entangled with at school?

Looking back on it, things had gone over pretty well. The brothers and their father had discussed the various outcomes, and decided on a couple of things. It would all depend on how this night – and the rest of the school year – went. They were already plotting their next move, though … the three of them decided they'd probably be moving to Australia next if they had to. That, at least,had to be remote enough. Hiding in plain sight hadn't worked out, so now they'd have to actually hide.

But neither brother really wanted to leave. As much as they knew keeping their identities secret was important, going back into school and society had reminded them how it felt to have friends, or at least how it felt to be around people.

And now … moving again looked like a definite possibility.

Edward forced himself out of his train of thought as he and Al looked through the other two papers that continued the article, but every further word confirmed their suspicion that their short blonde friend did indeed know who they were.

There was no doubt in his mind that Kai had set this up. While he hadn't seen her leave, he was now very much aware of her absence. Although he didn't know her very well, he did know that she was smarter than to leave the sheaf of papers lying out where they would be seen … unless she wanted them to be seen. It hit him then why she had been stumbling over her words more than usual – she knew. She knew and felt awkward about it, and was nervous, and … yeah, he could forgive her for that.

'Ed,' Alphonse said suddenly, 'she left a note.'

Edward gladly dropped the printed picture of Winry. Ninety years later, it still hurt to look at her face. Shifting closer to his brother and shifting his mind back to English, the he read the message left in Kai's spikey handwriting.

Eric, Alan …

I'm sorry.

I won't it up if you don't – you can trust me on that. I wasn't even going to tell you I knew, but I was convinced that that wasn't the best plan. I don't want to make you uncomfortable. If you want to sever all connections with me after tonight, I'll forgive you. You're just trying to protect yourselves, and I get that.

If you boys want to run away and move to Chile or something, that's fine with me. However … you don't need to hide here. I'm still willing to be your friend … if you want.

Your secret is safe with me, Edward and Alphonse Elric.

-Kai

'What do we do?' Al asked, looking to his elder brother.

'Well,' Edward started hesitantly.

Together, the two boys made a decision that would greatly influence the rest of their lives.

Kai sat on a stool in the kitchen, listening to her mother and who she knew to be Van Hohenheim talk about bioengineering. Her pounding heart threatened to bust through her chest, and she knew that in the other room, the two Elric brothers were talking about her. Dammit. She still hadn't been prepared. She'd meant to walk out of the room casually, as if she actually had to talk to her mother, but then Ed had found the paper all too soon and that plan had flown out the window in her inability to function under panic.

She watched her mother set Christopher down on top of the counter as he giggled. When she had entered the kitchen, her little brother had left her for Mom, not that she blamed him. She wished that she could get away with running into her mother's arms, but Hohenheim was there and she was almost seventeen years old, for crying out loud. But her mom knew. She had to know, what with the way Kai had run into the room with a wild look in her eyes.

Sometimes, Kai imagined herself boldly approaching the brothers, confident in all regards. If your contacts are bothering you, she'd say, I have solution and extra containers upstairs. They would stare at her in disbelief and she'd continue, I know they get pesky sometimes, and it's not like you need them to see … unlike most people. There would be silence as the boys judged their options. Then, Edward would approach her and say –

"Kai?"

– Thank you. No, not Kai … what?

Kai whirled around in her seat to face the direction the voice had come from. She felt her heart stutter as she saw it was Edward in the doorway, observing her with an inscrutable expression. Biting her lower lip – hard – she stood slowly, refusing to break eye contact in a moment of strength that surprised her. She might never be able to face them with the full confidence she longed for, but she would be damned if she allowed herself to be trodden over.

"Yes?"

"Al and I would like to talk with you," he said. He didn't speak harshly, but his tone was hard and unyielding. It wasn't a request, Kai could tell, and she swallowed nervously.

"Yeah, of course," she said, nodding slightly. Just as she was about to follow Edward out of the kitchen, she caught her mother looking at her with a question in her eyes. Kai nodded once more, and then left the room. That had been the agreement – if Kai confronted the brothers, Marie would take the responsibility of informing Hohenheim. It had been the only way to get Kai to challenge the brothers directly.

Dear God, why couldn't her life just be normal? She'd always wished for adventure and excitement … and now she wanted anything but.

It was with great trepidation that she reentered the living room. As she followed behind the elder Elric, she couldn't help but think that she should have put everything together much sooner than she did. Eric – here she used his alias intentionally – walked much in the same way that Edward had been portrayed. Lacking the presence of the jacket he'd worn in the anime, his hands were shoved into his pants pockets. His gait was laid back, but not at all lazy … okay, maybe a bit of feigned laziness. Even now that he didn't have an image to maintain, he hadn't lost his mannerisms … the same mannerisms that Arakawa had picked up on and involved in the manga/anime series.

Alan was harder to see Alphonse in, she thought when she caught sight of the other boy sitting on the couch. Al had been a suit of armor for most of both animes, then either years younger or years older when there were finally scenes with him at the end. The hairstyle was the same as it was in Brotherhood, though, and although human eyes and anime eyes were almost impossible to compare, she could see where Arakawa had gotten the general shape from. He was also really sweet, like the Al from the anime … and …

Then again, she reconsidered as she tried desperately to escape the situation at hand; perhaps it wasn't surprising she didn't figure it out sooner. While their personalities were almost exactly the same as they had been in the animes and manga, their voices weren't. They were eerily similar – both the Japanese directors and FUNimation had done a damn good job at finding voice actors that were close enough to fake it – but it was different enough that it was not instantly recognizable.

Plus, she hadn't seen the anime in years.

"–ow?"

She clocked back into reality just as Edward finished speaking. Funny – she didn't remember sitting down on the couch. Of course, that meant she also didn't remember a word of anything Ed had just said.

"I – I'm sorry," she stammered nervously. Dear God, stammered? "Could you repeat that? I … wasn't listening." She could tell this irritated the former alchemist, who muttered something under his breath. She didn't know what he said, and frankly … she didn't want to.

"I said, 'How? How did you know?'" he repeated quietly, looking up at her through the brown bangs and unruly cowlick that just wouldn't stay in his ponytail.

Kai bit her lip as she cast a side-glance at Alphonse. He, too, had the question in his eyes as he met her gaze. Dropping her eyes down to her hands in front of her, she thought of how best to approach the information.

"I … I guess I've known something was … different … since I first met you, really," she began meekly. "Your eyes – well, contacts. They're just too … blue. I mean, the blue eyes/brown hair combination is normal, yeah, but … the shade is just a little too bright to be natural … I think? And they're the same exact shade … yeah, that's more it, I think …" she trailed off, lost in her own thought on the matter.

"Uhm, yeah … there's a reason for that," Alphonse replied, shooting a look at his older brother. "Someone accidentally grabbed a pair out of my box that morning. Neither of us noticed until after that first day of school … and then we couldn't change it. Changing it would have made it more obvious."

"And so you ran with your mistake …"

"Moving on," Ed grumbled. Kai huffed a little laugh.

"Then … then you said some things that didn't really make sense. The verb tenses were off, or … something. Sorry, this was weeks ago, when I first met you both, so I don't remember it too well. Oh!" She suddenly exclaimed, startling the two boys sitting opposite her. "Edward, when you met Kathy. You were agitated about something. I didn't realize it until after I knew who you were, but it was because she's like, five inches taller than you, right?"

Where she had found it in herself to tease the boy with the Napoleon complex, she didn't know. When Edward's eye twitched, she waited with baited breath, wondering if he'd explode into one of his infamous 'short-rants.' She thought he would, what with not having to hide his identity and all, but he managed to restrain himself.

Still, Kai rushed on. "It was mainly just little things at first," she admitted, "things that would just serve to confirm the facts later on. You know I saw your prosthetic that day in gym," she told Edward, "and you never drank your milk at lunch. Said something about 'cow secretions,' I remember. I thought it had sounded familiar at the time, but I couldn't place it. And Al, you always asked about Gollum after you heard about him."

She shifted her gaze down to a spot on the floor. "I was little things like that," she shrugged. "But then … then I saw the picture of your grandmother in Al's locker and …" she paused after that as she saw the realization flash across their faces. Her hands picked at each other – this was going to be the hardest part to admit, but she knew she had to do it.

"You probably know that I used to be an otaku," she said, wincing slightly inside at the use of the word. "I mean, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been so obsessed with Fullmet– FMA and you wouldn't be having this problem right now." She'd corrected herself before using the term Fullmetal Alchemist. Usually, she wouldn't care, but … the actual Fullmetal Alchemist was sitting across from her. It felt weird. Very weird. "And, uhm, well … I saw the picture, and she looked so familiar. And then I was reading the manga that afternoon and I realized where I had seen her before … I printed that picture … and …" here, she took a deep breath before pushing forward.

"Ikindofwentbackintoyourlockertocomparethetwo," she muttered swiftly, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

"I'm sorry?"

"I … kind of went back into your locker … and compared the two pictures," she said, slower this time, but not any louder. Luckily, the two boys heard exactly what she said.

"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed before either of them could say anything. "I know it was wrong, and I'm sorry. But I really didn't expect anything to come out of it, honest! I thought I'd just laugh at the coincidence, and then … y'know … life would continue. But," she continued, more subdued after her outburst, "she had the same earrings. The same number, the same type, the same placement … and there was no way that could be a coincidence. Her clothes weren't reminiscent of the 1910s, no matter what country. And so … then I couldn't let it go.

"I realize now that it was a crazy conclusion to jump to, thinking that people from a fictional story were real, but I was dumb and overexcited. I think. I don't really know what was going through my mind at the time." She delivered the statement with a wry laugh. "For a few hours, I thought I was wrong. I searched you on Google. Every hit was related to the anime, and I thought I was going crazy. But it really is true. I wasn't wrong."

"No, you weren't." The voice she recognized as Ed's reached her ears.

"You probably want to know how I got that article, right?" she asked, finding her feet fascinating.

"That would be helpful, yeah."

Kai sighed. "I asked Neel, Kathy's brother. He's a whiz at computer stuff, and I'm obviously … not. I don't know what databases he searched, but that's what he gave me earlier today," she said, gesturing to the paper that still lay on the coffee table.

"… Today?" Alphonse then asked, surprised. "You only found out today?"

It was all she could take – she burst out laughing, much to the astonishment of the two boys before her. "About an hour and a half ago, really," she told them as she tried to calm herself down. "I thought I'd have until Monday. Obviously, I didn't."

"Right …" Edward replied, breaking the silence that had once more fallen upon them.

"So, uhm, yeah. You read my note … I meant everything I said. I really won't blame you if you move to Chile or Zimbabwe or something … I'm a liability now, and I know that. It's just … ah … I – I wanted to be friends with Eric and Alan, and … I mean, Edward and Alphonse aren't all that different," she confessed, nervous once more. Her fingers had switched from playing with each other to playing with the hair that fell across her face.

"We usually do leave when people find out who we are," Al admitted gently. "Fangirls … have been an issue before. If we don't leave, then we usually run into problems, even though no one believes them when they tell people we're the Elric brothers."

Kai's heart threatened to rip in two with his words. Her friends meant the world to her, and she had issues with losing those that she called her friends. Now, it seemed that was exactly what would happen. And it was all her fault. If only she had kept her mouth closed, then perhaps they would have stuck around longer. Could have. Would have. Should have. It never did bake any bread.

"So," she began, cursing the crack that had reappeared in her voice, "why haven't you left yet?" Just go, she thought bitterly, just go now so I don't have to deal with the dreaded anticipation for the moment you do.

"Well, it's not like we've really had a chance to," Edward said, sitting forward on his part of the couch. "But … uhg this sounds lame and cheesy," he lamented, tugging at his bangs briefly. "You – I mean, you seem ... I don't know! You're not freaking out, or losing it, or telling us that it's impossible and that we're faking it –" here, Kai snorted. They had no clue about what had gone down before they arrived. "– and you're not … fangirling."

He sighed. "When people find out, it's usually been 'oh my God, you're Edward Elric! It was all true? Ohmigod!' followed by various questions about Amestris and our friends. But you … you're offering to back off. You've simply stated outright that you know. And, well … we've already discussed it."

"What, really?" Kai couldn't believe it – they'd already had such a conversation in the few minutes she had been out of the room?

"Kai, we guessed that if someone here figured it out, it would be you," Alphonse answered, "and we were okay with that. We are okay with that."

"Don't think you can help us get back, though," Edward said. "We've probably already tried everything you could think of … it's not worth the effort anymore."

Kai thought for a moment. Did this mean that they wouldn't be moving? That they weren't mad at her for figuring it out? Both her head and heart were awhirl, and there were still many things she didn't understand. She had questions – so many questions – but it seemed that she would get the chance to ask them later on. She looked up, meeting the boys' eyes for the first time as Edward and Alphonse. The false blue looked back at her own natural blue, and it was there and then that she made up her mind.

"Well," she said, meeting their gazes levelly, "I can certainly damn well try."

Author's Note:

And there it is. I hope that all worked out vaguely the way you thought it would, and that it worked out somewhat naturally. After receiving some of your reviews, I went back and added a couple lines in this chapter to try to rectify the 'It's weird that she automatically made the conclusion that the Elrics were real' matter, because that was a very valid point.

I look forward to hearing your reactions! There are a couple pivotal points in the 'before Amestris' arc, and we just hit one of them :)

On an entirely different note … Truth & Fiction, the forefather of this fic, has reached over 700 reviews. There has been an influx recently of people following and favoriting that fic, which is weird, because I haven't updated that one in ages, and probably never will again. Are people going back and reading that one after seeing this one? I don't know … but I guess I'm not complaining!

I hope everyone had a happy FMA day yesterday. It seems rather fitting that this chapter is posted so close to that date …

12.08.2013
10.04.2014

The next chapter will be posted 18 October