I'm sorry for the late update…
School has kept me quite busy, I've been plain lazy and my mind just couldn't focus on one story at a time… I feel reaaaally horrible to have kept you guys waiting for this long… TT^TT
But anyways, it's done now! Thank you SeaDevil for giving me a push in writing this, you really helped.
Oh, right I won't write any more birthday chapters. Even though I only did one, I can't come up with any good ideas for such chapters. I might write a special chapter in the future, I don't know, but I won't even try to set dates for when I'll update. I'm never sure when my brain will start thinking on this fanfic… -_-"
Anyway, I hope you like the chapter. Something… special will happen. ;) Enjoy! ^^
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"What do you mean that I can't go and get the book?!" I scream at Ed in frustration, glaring up at him as he's standing in my way to the door. It's the day after we visited Sheska, the day she supposed that it would be done. I want to know why my father was here in the first place, if it's really him and what kind of book he wrote. And Ed tells me not to go and get it? That's just mean!
"No, Gloria. You are going to take the exam in nine days, you have to train and read up on alchemy during these days. Until the exam is done, I won't let you read your father's book. You have to spend all your time preparing."
I glare at him harder, my nails digging into the palm of my hand painfully but I comply with his order. I asked him to teach me and he does have a point in what he says. If I read father's book, I'll get distracted from the exam, probably.
I look to the side with a pout. "Fine, you do have a point… But still, it could be my clue as to why he was here. Or if it's even my father."
Edward pats my head as if I'm a kid, ruffling my hair roughly and making me stumble backwards slightly. When I look up again, he's wearing a teasing grin.
"Good girl."
I glare at him, straightening my hair from being a ruffled mess, tying it in its normal twin ponytails at the top of my head in the process.
"I'm not some dog or kid you know! I'm older than you!"
His grin grows slightly larger and he turns around to walk out from the hotel room. I follow after him obediently with Alphonse following me in turn. It seems like Alphonse wants to see me suffer… Or maybe he's worried over us… Could be both, who knows what's hidden behind that metal mind of his…
"Well, it doesn't seem like it body-wise. You sure look like a kid to me." Says Edward with that fucking grin still plastered on his face. I bristle slightly at his answer, shooting him a nasty glare.
"… Are you implying something…?"
My glare gets darker, killer intent rolling off me in small waves. I have no idea how I'm able to scare them with what they will go through in the future, but I'm not complaining as Edward quickly stop teasing me.
"N-no, not at all. Anyway, let's go outside to the back garden, we can train you there." Edward says, walking a little bit faster.
I sigh tiredly, clearly not feeling like training today, or more precise, ever. Training needs work and sweat and I don't like either of those. I would rather laze in a chair all day, probably building a radio or something. And, yes, I can build a radio. When you're determined enough to study something, you can get pretty good at it. I've studied technology since I could read; I inherited fathers curious nature to almost everything scientific related.
"Train? Do I really have to…? It's exhausting…"
This time, it's Alphonse who points out that it's important to train the body.
"That's the main reason why you have to train, you lack stamina. You have to train your body as well if you're going to preform good alchemy."
"How could you fight in your world but not have any stamina?"
I lazily put my hands in the brown, slack pants I'm wearing; looking bored at the subject but is secretly excited and sad to talk about my side of the gate. Excited because, well, the Elrics are actually interested in my side of the gate, and sad because I miss it. We're now walking down the stairs to the bottom floor.
"Because I didn't have to fight that often, and if I had to fight it wasn't for more than a few minutes. And it rarely even happened anyways. The only training I got was from PE, but that was only once in a week."
"PE?" Al questions, I give him a small smile as I answer.
"'Physical Education' it consist of us running from time to time but we mostly do different sports. Most of the sports and games we did involve a ball so normally we didn't have to run that much."
"That explains a lot… Your world is pretty peaceful, isn't it?"
I scoff at Edwards statement, following him around the corner to walk down a different hallway. Yeah, right. My world, peaceful? Only those who live in ignorant bliss would believe that.
"Yeah, if you don't count the many wars we've had added with dangerous bombs which can blow up a whole city in a few seconds and all the countless persons having guns on them, it's really peaceful."
Both of them react strongly when I tell them about the bombs so they stop in the middle of the hallway, the backdoor being visible to where we are standing.
"What!? Bobms can blow up a whole city?! That's insane!"
I nod at Al with a straight face, my lip twitching slightly in amusement.
"Yeah, I know. There are a lot of insane and greedy people back at my home. There were some who had human slaves, some who leads a whole country to going bankrupt, some who cut down huge trees and creating deserts just to have farming fields, oh and let's not forget about the internet."
"Internet?"
With a large grin, I go into as detailed description on internet as I can come up with, a slight twinge in my chest for missing the unbelievable thing. Internet is awesome and no one can argue with me on that.
"Yeah, a place where people can share their obsessions, where they can find laughter in times of trouble and comfort when they feel lost. It's a place where people can feel at home and at the same time be completely who they want to be. You could look at pictures of cats or something. They also, for example, watch videos of goats who sound like screaming humans. And they make their own diary with stupid photos for each comment. There are ways to keep in touch with people you don't even remember meeting, douchebags you'd rather forget and the occasional childhood friend who moved to another state. And many, including me, read made-up stories about another story where someone either rewrite the story or add their own character in the story. Some of those stories are terrific but some are written so bad that it's laughable. There's also this awesome search master that is perfect, who can find exactly anything you might need information on in just a few seconds."
"… You're delaying your training, aren't you?"
I blow a raspberry at Edward, putting my hands on my hips with my hands touching my bottles which are strapped to my sides.
"Whatever made you think of that idea? I absolutely looooove exercise."
Edward shakes his head as my sarcasm, walking quickly over to the backdoor and exit into the outside air, leaving me and Al behind. Al looks down at me before he follows his brother, calling after me the three words which sealed my doom.
"Well, let's start."
I slump forward in depression, a small gloomy cloud looming over me as I slowly stalk after him towards the door.
"Ugh… Fudge my life…"
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"What kind of push-up is that?! You're not even moving your arms! You're moving your butt! Don't you even know how a proper push-up looks like!? Start over again!"
"Whaaaat?! Noooooo! I was already on my 20th!"
"I don't care, I'm your teacher so you better listen! Now start over!"
"I don't wanna!
"Be glad I'm not throwing knives at you, that's what our teacher did!"
"That's child-abuse!"
"Ehm… Gloria, I think it's best to listen to brother. He's doing this for your best after all."
I sigh tiredly, doing one push-up before I stand up and run over to the second line to do one sit-up. When I run back to the first line, I do two push-ups and so on so forth. I'm panting in exhaustion already and I'm barely even running as I run between the two lines. It's more like a sluggish jog. Although, I continue to do push-ups and sit-ups like I've always done. Push-ups; bending my arms a little with my butt mostly moving. And sit-ups; bending my stomach a little so my head leaves the ground.
When Edward sees my performance in his training, he gains a small cloud of depression, slumping forward in defeat.
"It's no use, she doesn't know how to do it properly. There's no way she'll build up her stamina like this…"
Alphonse pats his shoulder comfortably, holding up a fist in determination for his brother.
"Don't give up brother, I know you can do the impossible."
I stop to look at the two brothers, panting in exhaustion and brushing away my bangs from my face. When Edwards gets a dangerous glint in his eyes, I'm seriously scared of my health but when he looks up from the ground, his expression is really calm.
"Alright, let's test a new training method." I nod tiredly at his words, straightening slightly so I'll have it easier to breathe.
"Lie down on the ground," I do as I'm told, relaxing in relief. "Now, do your 'sit-ups' with your hands on your stomach but with your head never touching the ground." Once again I do as I'm told, feeling relieved that there's nothing more to this.
I feel my body resting as I'm lying on the ground, nodding my head in an even rhythm. "Huh, this is pretty easy." I comment, nodding my head with a smile. Although, soon that pleasantry goes over to soreness and soon after that, pain. When my rhythm is slowing down, Edward calls out for me to continue. I do as told.
"Edward…"
"Yes?"
"Are you a fudging demon!?"
"You seemed to like nodding your head when you did sit-ups, so I'm just letting you enjoy it even more. If you've done the first training seriously, you wouldn't have had to that. Now, continue."
"My neck is burning!"
"Continue!"
"Ehm… Brother, don't you think that's enough?"
"No, she has to continue until I deem it enough."
I cry fake tears of misery as I continue nodding my head up and down, the pain blossoming in my neck every time my neck is further down. I never knew something this simple could hurt this much. And I still haven't punished the brothers for almost leaving me in the dust back at the burnt down library. I have to come up with a suitable punishment for it.
After 30 seconds of more nodding, Edward finally tells me to stop and my head collides harshly against the ground as I let my aching muscles relax. But he doesn't let me rest for long as he harshly tells me to stand up. I continue to lie where I am, glaring up at him with my neck still aching. This causes him to smile evilly at my defiance. This makes me sweat nervously and feel like I just dug my own grave. Even though I've kind of died once already.
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Later that evening, I collapse onto my bed, all my muscles screaming for sleep. Every muscle in my body is aching, even those I didn't even know I had. I silently decided to never, ever defy Edward again. … At least during training.
This became like a morning routine for the next five days. Alphonse have already picked up my father's book and checked the progress on Marcho's notes. Al promised to give me father's book once they got their notes, Edward would be too busy with the notes to notice that I'm reading something else than the books Edward would give me. The gathering of the notes happened according to the anime as far as I remember, and like Al promised, I got my father's book. Edward wasn't too happy about that when he saw it but when I promised to read through his material in less than three days, he let me read my father's book.
What I found in it really surprised and… fascinated me.
After reading about three sentences, I can recognize the old coding language me and my father did for fun. My father taught it to me when I was young and we used it to write secret notes to each other which mother wouldn't be allowed to know about. I hastily snatch a paper and pen from Edward, who's sitting next to me on the table. Edward cries out in offence, but I ignore him in favor of scribbling down the uncovered words in the first three sentences.
It has been a few months since I came up with this word code of mine. I believe it is a good way to steer away all the people who want to partake in my secret studies. No one can find out about what I'm doing other than my assistant.
It actually seems right… Did father teach me a coding which he invented when he was here? Ignoring the brothers, I continue to decode the book. But I couldn't help but get stuck at a few places which held quite interesting research done by my father. The first passage which I got stuck on was this.
The first experiment was to see how long it takes for a human to die out of breathing in an acid gas, the screams from the patient distracted me but I managed to count it to about 15 seconds until he stopped screaming and 18 seconds until he died completely. When we tried another subject, we made sure that this one would be someone who has been on a battlefield. He actually survived 5 seconds longer than the first one, it must be because of the ash and smoke he's breathed in.
After reading that passage, I continue decoding for quite some time until I reached the 20th page I stumbled across a new experiment which I couldn't help but read.
As the first experiment continued with my assistant supervising it, I started on a new project. To create a biological weapon that will disintegrate the body's vital functions. I started off with fusing the attributes of different bacteria to make it durable against medicine. I studied the yeast to find out what attributes it has to disintegrate sugar the way it does. I added this attribute to the bacteria and it is able to disintegrate the sugar just like the yeast but only for a limited amount of time. After further evolving, the bacteria survived longer than in the beginning when it disintegrates sugar. I have to find a way to make the bacteria focus on all coal-based material instead of just sugar.
After a short lunch-break, I reached the 50th page where I once again got stuck in the text.
The experiments with the super-humans are going well, we make the test subjects inhale a mild poison at a daily basis, we're thinning out on human subjects and I don't want to waste any more. We divide the test subjects in half to try and evolve the humans by adding animal DNA into them. The first test subject died when we added too much different DNA at the same time. After that failure, we decided to take one small portion of one animal at a time. The rat, cat, pig and dog are mending best with the humans because of their mammal nature. The first reptile subject died after a few days since the human body rejected the new DNA. It will be a while until we're able to test the surviving subjects since they are still getting used to their new DNA.
With a bright grin, I get stuck on page 100, father's research getting even more interesting.
After letting the bacteria stay in spot for a long time, I noticed something extraordinary, the bacteria has propagated like I suspected it would and they have disintegrated the sugar I gave them, but the interesting thing is that the bacteria is starting to attack each other, taking out the slightly weaker bacteria. It has evolved on its own during the time I focused on other experiments. I'll now test out the bacteria how it will react to salt. If the experiment is successful, I will-
My reading is interrupted by a flick in my forehead. I yelp in shock, tripping over my chair, dropping my papers all over the place. I sit up, glaring up at Edward who's retracting his left hand which obviously flicked me. I start gathering up my scattered papers as I speak to him sully.
"What was that about? I was just getting to the good part too…"
Edward's eyebrow twitches slightly, crossing his arms as he glare at me.
"You were too into the text and you were smiling. Smiling in a way which no child should do. Should even be able to do."
"I agree with brother."
I pout as I gather the last of the 100 pages, returning to my seat at the table. Acting as if the poking never happened, I continue to decode the book. Grumbling slightly, Edward return to his work as well. Although, this time, I forced myself to not get stuck on any of the research. I'll be able to read it once I'm alone, right now I'll focus on finish this.
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"No way…" I whisper in wonder and disbelief. I re-read the last paragraph to make sure that I read right the first time.
My research facility was destroyed by the military, all my subjects killed along with all my employees in this research. They killed my assistant when she tried to defend me. I managed to hide in the hidden passage before they got to me. When I went back to the centre of the lab, everything was destroyed, they didn't even steal anything. I'll put this diary in the military library in hope that someone who's interested in my research will finish it for me. I will soon escape from the military; they are searching for me high and low in fear of my research. Only I know how to handle it so they would never be able to harness anything me and my team made. From the alchemists who've survived doing human transmutation, spoke about seeing a gate. I will use that gate to escape from the military. This will be the last anyone hear from me.
Walter Tocbutons's Diary, out.
I put my head in my hands in thought. My father used human transmutation on himself to escape from being captured by the military. He hid his research right in front of the military's noses and managed to go through the gate to the other side. How was he able to trick truth and go through the gate? He wasn't ever sick in any kind of way and he had all his limbs left so he couldn't have paid a toll. How could he have gone through the gate without using a toll? It just doesn't make sense. And how come he taught me this code? Did he know that I would end up here? No he possibly couldn't have known, he didn't teach the code to Mary, only me.
I take a deep breath, pushing my worrisome thoughts into my favourite little box and stand up. I stretch my sore body before looking towards the two brothers. They are so absorbed into their research that they don't even notice me standing up. I smile bitterly, leaving my finished de-coded research with the text downwards. I take a blank paper, writing on it that I have to go outside to take some air before I leave it on top of father's research. I then make sure that my bottles are still around my waist, noting that I have to get a belt for them since my net gloves will soon rip apart, and walk towards the door of the library.
I walk out, waving goodbye to Ross and Brosh, coming up with the excuse that I'll go eat dinner since it's relatively late out. I then walk down the streets of central without any particular direction in mind. But that's when I hear a confused mumbling coming from an alley I just passed by.
"Where am I? I died in a plane crash… Didn't I?"
I freeze in my steps, quickly walking back to the alley I heard the voice coming from. Did that person just say 'plane crash'?!
"I'm sure I remember dying… But, how can I then be here? Where… IS here?"
Could it be possible…? There's another one like me, coming from my world. But why is that person here? Did that person die in the same crash as I did?
I step into the alley, my eyes slowly getting used to the lower light until I can see what the person looks like. It's a teenaged boy, about 16-17 years old, sitting against the stone wall with a hand at his face, blocking my form from his view. He has coloured his hair red with black streaks in it. His hair has a lot of hair wax in it to make the hair defy gravity and allowing his hair to have a Naruto-like spiky hair but it seems very dirty, like he's been lying on the ground for a long time. I can see the gleam of two silver rings in his right ear.
His clothing is very normal for an average high-scholar. He has normal, blue jeans with a black belt around his waist to hold the pants in place and a grey hoodie on. I can see the lining of his red shirt underneath his hoodie and I have no doubt that that is a shirt with a funny print on. It looks like he's about to pass out, either from exhaustion or sleep I don't know. But most of all, he seems confused.
I take a deep breath; I have to help him somehow. If he stays here much longer, he will be found by the military tomorrow morning and if I'm right, he will know nothing of what he's talking about and then the Homunculi will know that he's here. That could end up badly for him no matter if Father or Dante is the leader. I can name a lot of things they would find him interesting for and different things they could do to him and none of them are pretty.
"Hey, are you alright?"
The boy removes the hand from his face, looking at me with blank green eyes. Huh, he's kind of handsome… I did not just think that… Focus, Gloria!
"Who are you..?"
Damn, that voice sounds smooth and dusky… Agh! Stop it! To distract me from my own thoughts, I walk forward until I'm in front of the boy, sitting down so that he doesn't have to crane his neck to look at me. I don't want to seem threatening after all. I clear my throat as my thoughts once again are lead astray to his beautiful eyes to bring me back to reality.
"I'm Gloria Dementor. I'm in the very same situation that you are."
"… What do you mean?"
Oh-my-fudges-he-sounds-like-a-lost-puppy,-that's-so-fudging-CUTE! I shake my head to get rid of those thoughts, clearing my throat again as I look off to the side, away from his cute and confused looking expression.
"I also died in that plane crash and ended up here. And yes, we really died. Although, I had no idea you got dragged into this mess as well. I'm glad I was the first one to find you though."
"So… You're like me?"
I nod, looking at him again through the corner of my eye, blushing slightly as I look into his pretty eyes. No. I. Do. Not. Blush! I just got red in the face because of the cool breeze, alright! I don't care what you say, that does make sense!
"Yeah, I came from Tipton, Tennessee, you?"
"…Newcastle, Tennessee."
"Huh, same state, same plane and ending up in the same world. What a coincidence."
"Yeah, I guess… Wait, world?"
By now, the boy's fog has lifted up a little and I can tell that he's thinking clearer now. I smile slightly, nodding sadly as I meet his gaze head on.
"Yeah, we're in a completely new world now. We're in a city called Central in a land called Amestris. The whole country is controlled by the military, the leader being a 'Fürer' much like the Germans had long ago. They use a kind of magic called 'Alchemy', a very scientific kind of magic which makes people able to reform material into something new. It's really complicated, but I know a lot about this world. More than you would ever do."
The boy frowns in confusion, thinking over my description of the world we are in. I just hope he believes me, if someone told me that I was in a whole new world after I woke up from unconsciousness, I wouldn't believe them. Although, it helps knowing that you really died in a plane crash.
"Can you prove it?"
"Ehm, what?"
He looks at me sternly, daring me to disagree with his request. It seems like he doesn't want to repeat himself so I nod. I snap my fingers first, making the array on my metal wristband glow blue as I control my personal water and make it slip out from my bottles. The boy watches my water in wonder, his eyes widening as I bend the water with just a twitch of my fingers. I then clap my hands, imagining the right circle in my mind and pressing them against the ground to bend up a small earth bird. Although deformed, you can see that it's a bird.
The boy's eyes flicker between the floating water, the deformed bird and finally setting on me. I can see that he's majorly freaked out although once he sees my smile; he takes a deep breath to calm himself down. I make the bird sink into the ground again by another clap of my hands and will the water to go back into my bottles. After a few more deep breaths, the boy look at me, although still a little stunned, and gives me a smile.
"It's a lot to take in but… I believe you I guess. There's no other logical solution. I did die after all."
I stare, stunned at his smile. I can feel my cheeks heat up a little in a NOT BLUSH and I look off to the side quickly. Oh-my-fudges-his-smile-is-so-bright-and-pretty-kyaaaaa! I stop myself from thinking anything more. Did… I… just… … No, I didn't. It never happened. Damn this boy for being so fucking cute and handsome and so much like my first crush. Damn him… Alright, back to reality.
"Soooo, what's your name?" I ask him as I casually stand up, holding my hand out for him to take.
The boy eyes my hand, as if he's unsure whether he should take it or not. But one glance at my slightly smiling face makes him come to a decision and grabbing my hand. I pull him up to his feet steadying him as he's about to fall forward from the blood rushing to his head. When he can stand on his own, he lets go of my hand, replying to my question with a smile of his own. He's at least a head taller than I am…
"I'm Andrew, Andrew Ford. It's nice to see someone who's in a similar situation as I am. Nice to meet you Gloria."
I nod in agreement before I make my way out from the alley. Andrew seems like a cool guy so far. Although, I have to be on my toes from now on, you never know who or when the homunculi could strike.
"Come on, let's get you to the hotel. You're smelly."
"Hehe, alright." He says, slightly embarrassed, as he follows me. As we're walking down the street, the evening getting darker, I can almost feel how many question he has. He's dying to ask me a lot of things, I just know it. But I can't talk about it like this in the open, Envy might hear us. I don't know if I'm being paranoid or stuff, but I would rather be safe than take any risks with this topic.
"H-hey, Gloria? I-"
"I'm sorry, but I can't answer your questions here in the open. You have no idea what kind of ears might hear us when we talk. If it's heard by the wrong people, it's over and done for us. So wait until we get to the hotel."
Andrew sighs slightly in disappointment, walking up on my left with his hands in his hoodie pockets. But he nether less keep quiet. But having a harmless conversation wouldn't hurt, would it?
"Soooo, how old are you anyways?"
Andrew looks down at me with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't you just say that we should talk when we're back at the hotel?"
I wave my hand in front of me in a dismissal motion. "About the special topic, yes. But it wouldn't hurt to know more about you on the way there, right? So how old are you?"
Andrew gets a very proud grin on his face, flashing his teeth in a sexy way. … I did NOT just think that…
"Well, I just got 14."
"Whaaaat!? Seriously? You're 14? But with your height and attitude I was sure you were 16 or something."
Andrew chuckles lowly in amusement, keeping up his grin with his eye crinkling in amusement. How can he be so handsome and cute at the same time…?
"Yeah, that's what everyone tells me. How about you missy? How old are you?"
I sigh slightly, my shoulders slumping in disappointment as I realise how complicated my age is. "I'm kind of 16 I guess."
"Kind of 16? That doesn't really answer the question."
"It's complicated alright? So what's your favourite colour?"
"That's easy, red. You?"
"Mine's green. What's you-"
Andrew cuts me off by putting up his finger in the air and then pointing that finger at me.
"No, now's my turn to ask. What's your hobby?"
"Building and researching all kind of technology. I'm even able to build my own stuff!"
Andrew's eyes grow wide in surprise at my hobby but he soon gives me a smile.
"Wow, so you can build a phone or radio?"
"Yeah, all sorts of stuff. But what's your hobby?"
Andrew stretches up his back in pride.
"Mine's to sing and play guitar, I'm quite good at it if I do say so myself."
I give him a teasing grin, amusement dancing in my eyes.
"Just don't get too cocky."
"Hey, I am good at it!"
I hold up my hands in surrender at his outburst, keeping the grin on my face.
"I won't believe you until you show me."
"Alright, I will show you when I get my hands on one."
"Good, now what's- hey, there's the hotel." I cut myself off as I see the hotel me, Ed and Al are staying at. I walk a little faster, beckoning Andrew over. The sun has already gone down for the day and I still haven't eaten any diner. I was too busy talking to Andrew to even think about it anyways. But it's too late to get dinner now.
I hold up the entrance door for him as I step inside the building. Nodding towards the receptionist in greeting, I lead Andrew towards the stairs which will lead us to the room we're staying at. I haven't thought even once that Edward might get angry with me for bringing a stranger inside our room, but now that I think about it, I really wish that they're not at the room yet. Although, when I open the door with my key, my hopes are crushed as I see Edward and Alphonse lounging in the couch, reading a book.
When they hear the door opening, they look towards me, both of them saying their respective greeting before turning back to reading. But when they realised that I had someone else with me, they both look at me again at the same time, their gazes being drawn towards Andrew who's awkwardly standing behind me while rubbing his arm. Edward is the first to react, snapping his book shut, standing up from the couch and point right at Andrew with an angry pose.
"Who is he and what is he doing here?"
I look back towards Andrew, noticing his confused expression and lifting my eyebrow in question. I decide to ignore it for now, nodding him inside to follow me and enter the room fully. Edward didn't take this lightly, now he's even more rigid.
"Gloria, who is he?" Aah, the ever sweet Alphonse. Thank you for calming down your brother a little. Although, this isn't the time for pleasant talk, I have to convince them, namely Ed, to let Andrew stay with us.
I snap my fingers, making my water push in the hesitating Andrew into the room, closing and locking the door behind him I then make the water close the curtains over the window before solidifying to ice over the door so less sound would be heard from this room. Looking at the Elrics, they are now alert because of my actions and how serious I am and I immediately go to the point.
"He's from the other side, just like I am."
Both of them tense up at this, Edward seating himself on the couch again to listen to what else I have to say. With a single word, the tension in the room rises.
"Explain."
I nod, bringing a chair for Andrew with me and placing it in front of the brothers. I give Andrew a meaning look, pointing at the chair and he nervously moves from his spot against the door to sit down in the chair, looking much more conflicted than he did before. Having used all of my water to create an Ice barrier against the door, I decide to stand where I am next to Andrew. Then I proceed to explain.
"After I finished de-coding my father's research, I went out for a walk. I then ended up meeting Andrew here. He was mumbling to himself in an alley about dying in a plane crash. Planes only exist on our side of the gate but I have no idea how or why he came here with me. When I realised that he's from my home, my country, my state, I couldn't just leave him there. We from the other side have enemies here, enemies who don't even know that they need us yet. If I had left him where he was, the military would have gotten to him. He would be questioned on where he lives, what his purpose is for being here and he wouldn't be able to answer. That, in itself, would have caught our enemies' attention. So I brought him here. He needs to know more about this world and he needs someone to hold him in line from being detected by the bastards. And I will take that responsibility on myself. I will not let someone from my world get corrupted."
Edward stares at me calmly and I meet his gaze in determination. It feels like if I back out from this, I will lose a competition. And I do not want to lose.
"How can you be so sure you can protect him from the enemies you speak of? You're not an alchemist yet and you can barely use any other alchemy than your own personal one. And what do you mean with him being corrupted?"
I narrow my eyes at the blonde, crossing my arms under my still-developing-breasts and thus seeming much like my normal age that the age this body has.
"I don't care if I can't perform perfect alchemy like you two can, if my alchemy isn't enough to protect him then I will use my life. But I will become stronger for every day; train my alchemy so I get better and better so that I can protect both of us. And he can easily be fooled in this world. He knows nothing of it and if he, anyone really in this situation, would be provided information for working with them, I have no doubt that he would accept it."
We have a stare down for a few more seconds before Edward closes his eyes in acceptance. I mentally cheer with joy as he lets Andrew stay, but under the condition that should he do something stupid the punishment will be on me. I grin broadly in response, patting Andrew's shoulder as I promise to do so. With that, the tense atmosphere vanishes and I face Andrew with a grin. He still has a quizzical look on his face.
"Now that that's solved, you, mister, have to take a shower. You need to get that wax and dirt out from your hair."
Andrew pouts cutely in disappointment but agrees anyway, making me promise that I'll explain everything after his shower, and walks into the bathroom. I stare after him with a thoughtful frown on my face. How DID he follow me here? If he came with me through the gate, shouldn't he appear at the same place I did? And why didn't he appear at the same time as I? Maybe Truth accidentally pulled in him as well? But he can't have pulled him out 10 days later, at that time he would have already been long gone. Could he have stayed in the gate longer than I did? That could explain his dazed expression and confusion. But how did he get through? He must have paid some kind of toll, right? I will have to ask him about that later.
With a snap of my fingers, the ice is removed from the door and the water goes back to my bottles. I untie my make-shift belt with my bottles on and put it on the coffee table in front of the couch. I can feel the brother's gazes on me and I look up to meet their eyes. They're looking at me as if I'm crazy or something and I raise an eyebrow in question.
"What is it? Have I done something wrong? You said it was ok for him to stay."
Alphonse and Edward glance at each other, Edward raising an eyebrow and letting the younger brother to talk first.
"Gloria, what did you say to him?"
I furrow my eyebrows in confusion at his question. Why would they ask that? Didn't they hear me?
"I… told him to shower…? Why are you asking me? You heard it didn't you?"
Edward narrows his eyes at me, eyeing me as if I'm a new animal species he just discovered. His gaze makes me uncomfortable and just when I'm about to ask them what it is, Edward interrupts me.
"We didn't understand what you said, because you spoke in another language it seems."
I blink in surprise at his statement, leaning back in the chair and scratching my cheek. I spoke in another language? How could I have done that? It just… came so naturally to me. I must have spoken in the same language this whole time, haven't I? Sure, I know Spanish, but I didn't speak any Spanish when I spoke to Andrew.
"I… spoke in another language? No, I didn't, I've spoken in the same language as I always have. And why would I have to speak in another language for Andrew?"
Edward scratches his chin in thought, his intense gaze almost going through me. I shift nervously in my chair, looking at Alphonse instead for help. Alphonse flinches in surprise at my look, as if snapping out from a daze, and quickly elaborates.
"Well, when you spoke to us, you spoke normally but by the looks Andrew gave us, he didn't understand a word we said. Then when you spoke to Andrew, you immediately changed to another language. When you spoke in that language, Andrew understood you."
"It must be something about him being from the other side of the gate." Ed thinks outloud, still looking at me with that unnerving gaze. "Maybe something went wrong in his passing and he can't speak nor understand our language, but only the language you had on your side. Since you, yourself, are from your side, you automatically know how to speak your language. You unconsciously change language when you're speaking to him since you know he's from your side. That must be the reason, there's no other reason I can think of."
I furrow my brows in thought. That seems like a pretty accurate hypothesis. It makes sense to why I didn't notice that I changed language. And if Edward can't come up with another reason, I doubt that I would come up with something else. Maybe something went wrong inside the gate for him and that's why his appearing was delayed and he doesn't know the Amestrisian language…
Before I get the chance to say anything else, Andrew opens the bathroom door enough to let his head stick out. Steam sipper out from the door and a sheepish, dripping Andrew turns his attention to me. I can feel my cheeks heat up a little at seeing his former spiky hair hang down his face but I compose myself and meet his eyes with a smile.
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Do you happen to have any new clothes I can borrow?"
I raise an eyebrow at him, looking at Edward and Alphonse before giving Andrew a deadpan look.
"Does it look like any of our clothes will fit you, you tall bastard?"
He blinks in realisation, looking at the reading Edward who's ignoring our exchange of words, Alphonse who's doing the same and me before he finally realise that I'm right. He grins brightly in pride but even though says 'my bad' and closes the door again. I sigh tiredly once he's out of sight, since Edward didn't react to what neither I nor Andrew said about Andrew being taller, I must have been talking in another language. Although that doesn't stop me from feeling slightly depressed. I'm the oldest and I'm shorter than them all… No, I'm not short. I'm in normal height. It's just everybody else who is freakishly tall.
"You spoke in another language again." Edward states before he continues to read. I frown slightly, snapping my fingers to play with my water. I have to come up with a performance that I will show on the exam. I will obviously use my water alchemy but I don't know what I'll do.
The second time the bathroom door opens, Andrew is fully clothed in his clothes but with the hoodie hanging over his arm. Like I thought, the red shirt he wore underneath was a shirt with a funny print. It's a shadow picture with death and a child holding hands with a text above them. It reads 'Paramore two different worlds'. Huh, how ironic.
"That's a pretty ironic shirt you have." Andrew grins smugly at my comment, standing next to the couch. He turns towards the Elrics and give them a small salute in greeting.
"I guess I never introduced myself. Hi, I'm Andrew Ford. Newly made friend of Gloria."
When the brothers doesn't reply him but only looks at him blankly, I decide to catch his attention.
"Ehm, Andrew. They don't understand what you're saying."
He looks at me, surprised at what I'm saying before looking at the brothers with a tilt of his head.
"Ooooh, that's right. I never understood what you said to them. Cool, how did you learn a new language so well?" At the last sentence, he looks at me with a bright grin with his eyes shining in admiration. I blush slightly at the compliment but I shake my hands in front of me in denial.
"N-no, I didn't learn it from scratch. I just knew the language when I came here. I don't really know why you don't know the language though."
"Ok, what are you two talking about?"
I look at Edward sheepishly, scratching the back of my head as I realised I completely ignored them.
"I-I'm sorry, we just talked about how he didn't know your language. But anyways, he introduced himself as Andrew Ford."
Alphonse bows slightly to him in greeting while Edward simply looks at him from the corner of his eye.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm Alphonse Elric and this is my older brother, Edward Elric."
Andrew's looks at me with a raised eyebrow until I repeat what they said in our language. He then grins brightly as he nods at the two respectively. He then turns towards me with a more serious expression and I too get more serious automatically.
"Now, could you explain how we got here? How your age is complicated and what I'm supposed to do now?"
I nod, motioning for him sit down on an ice chair I just created in between the couch and my chair. He sits down without protest. I tell the Erlics that I will tell Andrew the whole story about how I got here and stuff so they wouldn't interrupt my explanation. They both nod and go back to their respective books.
"I should probably start like this; I'm a 16 year old girl, stuck in this 12 year old body after I died in a plane crash. This plane crash was rigged by something called 'Truth'." I then proceed to tell him how Truth called me, how the gate babies stopped the engines, how I paid my toll, met the Elrics and the most important things which has happened up until this point. It isn't until I'm done telling about how my father was originally from this side of the gate that Andrew has sorted his thoughts and asks questions.
"So you were the one running from side to side on the plane, huh? I was sitting next to you back then. But how come I got dragged into this too when he was only after you? Not that I'm not happy to be alive, but I just don't understand."
I cross my arms with a sigh, closing my eyes in thought.
"I don't really know. Maybe you got in contact with the gate when they pulled me in and you automatically got pulled in yourself. But you must have paid a toll to get a body on this side. Do you have any idea what you lost?"
When Andrew doesn't answer immediately, I open my eyes again to see him looking down at his clenched hands in his lap. He knows what he lost but he's ashamed to admit it.
"Andrew, what did you lose?"
"I… Lost my smell and sight in one eye…" My eyes widen at this, Edward and Alphonse, noticing our reactions glances between the two of us with a quizzical look. Andrew looks even more frustrated now than in the beginning. He must be able to see from his right eye… That must be horrible… And to do that to those beautiful eyes as well…
I stand up from my chair, marching over to him determinately and bend down to give him a hug. When he doesn't respond, I hug him tighter to indicate that I'm here and start petting his dry hair. Oh. My. Fudges. His hair is so soft! I can feel myself smile as I continue to run my fingers through his hair. Since we're in an anime world, his hair is a little spikier and defies gravity slightly more than should be possible in our side. It isn't in Naruto style spiky, but more like 'Rin Okimura' Spiky. I could stand here and pet him all day!
"Thank you…" Andrew says quietly as he finally hugs me back. Since I'm not that tall, I didn't have to bend so low to hug him so he can hug me almost normally with his arms around my back.
"It's no problem. That's what friends are for. I won't let you get killed, I promise."
We keep hugging each other like that with me petting his oh-so-awesome-fluffy hair. But the fluffy moment is crushed when Edward asks;
"So, what did he say to get treatment?"
I stop petting Andrew; release him from my hug to glare at Edward. He meets my glare head on, not backing down the slightest.
"He told me what he lost, obviously. He lost smell and sight in one eye."
At this, Edward tenses up slightly, same with Al. Edward nods at the frustrated Andrew in apology. Andrew nods back but then quickly looks off to the side. I start petting his hair again and I can feel him relax slightly. This makes a grin stretch across my face and I continue to pet him.
Best. Fluffiest. Hair. Ever!
…
Alright, I won't deny it, It's too fucking fluffy to be ignored.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A new character has been added! Andrew will play a very important role in the future, you'll see. I also found it quite amusing to write Glorias fan-girl thoughts. :3
And why Andrew wasn't added in the birthday chapter was because I originally thought he would appear after Gloria had taken the exam. But this lovely little plot bunny came up and I'm much more satisfied with this than the original thought I had. Even though Andrew is there, Gloria will still focus on her studying for the alchemist exam.
Again, sorry for the huuuuuge delay. I never meant for it to be this long… So I'm really sorry everyone… Hope this chapter is enough for you to forgive me… TT^TT