Ed points at Fahren, then at Roy, eyes practically popping out of his skull. "You have a BROTHER?"

Roy sighs, a clearly annoyed look on his face. "Yes, Fullmetal, I have a brother."

Fahren is watching the exchange between Ed and his brother, unaware that Al is staring at him quietly.

"You never said you had a brother!"

"You never asked."

"Why didn't you ever just tell me?"

"Oh, my apologies. 'Here Fullmetal, here's your next assignment. By the way, it's to go check on my little brother, so be nice.' Yes, that sounds perfectly normal."

Ed crosses his arms, behaving immaturely yet again. "Well you could've mentioned it."

Roy shakes his head and turns to his brother. "Well, let's get Rovan home."

"Rowan. Ro-wan, not Ro-van." Rowan stands and heads for the yellow house; it's only two houses away. When the group all walk up to the door, Rowan hesitates. "..What if they not want me? What if they.. afraid?" He looks up at the group he's with, clearly nervous.

"Rowan, even if you look different, they won't be afraid. As far as animal standards go, you're actually.. pretty cute." Al says, adding in a little 'heh' afterward.

Rowan tilts his head, then nods. "Okay." He turns to face the door, takes a deep breath, and knocks on it. His ears perk up as he hears movement inside, and when the door opens, the woman gasps at the sudden crowd of outlandishly-mismatched people. She is surprised, but not scared; for she remembers Ed from before.

Ed stares at the woman, then at the little girl who looks up at Rowan from behind her mother's leg. "..Nina?"

Nina looks up at Ed and smiles. "Dino-saur! You came back!"

Rowan looks at Ed, surprised that they've already met. But, gathering his courage, he turns to his wife, who now towers over her in height. "Uh.. mee.. A-Ame-ria?"

The group carefully watches the interaction as Rowan sits on his haunches, gaining some height.

"..You talk. How do you know my name?" Amelia looks up at Fahren and frowns. "I remember you. Did you teach him?"

"No, Ame-ria. Name from memory." Rowan does his best to use all of his human mind, pushing the animal mind away. "I remember you. I was not taught, not trained." He leans one 'hand' on the door frame, steadying himself as he stands to his full height; though he still has to look up at his wife. He takes Amelia's hand in his free one and speaks, looking into her eyes. "I know I rook diff-rent." He pauses. "I reave, try to find cure for Nina. So Nina never get hurt. There was ac-cident, I awmost die. Fah-zer, ah.. Fah-ren save me, give me a new body. I know I not rook rike him any-more, but.." He takes a deep breath, large eyes watching her confused ones carefully. "Ame-ria, is me, Rowan."

Amelia suddenly whips her hand back in shock, eyes widening. "Rowan? But you-" She looks at Fahren, who is looking at her with a sad smile; then at Ed, who is clearly human, despite the plethora of creature features. She looks down at Rowan, whose large blue eyes are staring at her hopefully, mouth open only a bit. "Rowan..?"

Nina looks up at Rowan, stepping out from behind her mom. She walks over to him and looks at his furry, feathery form. "..Daddy?"

Rowan looks down at Nina, then returns to all fours, coming eye-to-eye with his daughter. He reaches both arms and pulls Nina into a hug, holding her tightly. "Nina. So sorry. I miss you, want to come back awways. I was afraid. So sorry."

Nina hugs Rowan back, and Roy has to look off to the side to hide the unshed tears in his eyes, prompted by the touching scene.

"Daddy I missed you too! I have so much to show you and we gots a lotta playing to catch up on!"

Rowan smiles, but looks up at Amelia, who is kneeling down now. "That's really you, Rowan?"

He nods, and reaches out his scaly, taloned hand, gently curving it around her cheek. "I miss you. So much." His ears droop a bit. "I know I sound odd. Is animar mind in here, with mine." Rowan taps his the side of his head. "But my mind stronger. I get better. Much better today. Right Ed and Ar? Right Fahzer?" Rowan looks back at the group, and he's met with smiles and nods.

"With your help, he'll talk just like he did in no time," Ed reassures her, believing it fully.

Amelia smiles and lifts Rowan up; though he's a bit heavy, he's much lighter than a human male. She pulls him into a hug, and he forms his equivalent of a grin, finally glad to be home.

Roy, sure that he's rubbed away any hint of tears, speaks up. "I apologize for interrupting, but I believe we should take the discussion inside." He nods to Amelia, who understands and heads inside, still carrying Rowan.

Aware that spies lurk in every corner of this city, Ed nods and heads inside after the family, with both Mustangs bringing up the rear.

Once inside, the discussion varies. Most of it is Nina showing her daddy things and telling him things; and some of it is Amelia testing Rowan's memory. She does this in part to make sure he is in fact Rowan; but mostly to make sure that his body migration retained all of his memories. Sure enough, with each reassuring memory Rowan shares with her, she looks happier-and much more at ease. Six months she had been without her husband; she had received his lifeless body near the beginning by Fahren, requested by Rowan who at first couldn't bear to let her know he had become this. Five months after, Rowan had asked Fahren to tell Amelia that he was indeed alive and safe, although this only angered her. Fahren hadn't dared explain the whole ordeal, as he could easily be arrested for human transmutation.

Now the three looked happy as can be, but Rowan sure knew better, dim as his animal mind is.

"Ame-ria." When she looks at him from talking to Al, he speaks again. "Fahren stiw trying. Trying to make cure. You come to Mistwerr? To his town? Come be crose. Cwose. To awmost-cure." He looks up at her, his large, expressive eyes conveying hope.

Amelia looks over at Nina, who looks so happy to have her daddy home, despite his new form. She glances at the mantle, where a photo of the three rest. Rowan was a strongly-built man with short brown hair, always with a grin.

"It would be the best move," Roy chimes in. "Central isn't exactly the safest place for chimeras."

"I'm sure the only reason the military hasn't had its way with me is because I'm too useful to them still. Not to mention it would raise suspicion, since I'm such a popular figure," Ed adds in, completely unnecessarily with a bit of ego-stroking. At the stares from the others and Roy's raised brow, Ed snorts. "What? It's true. If I wasn't so well-known, some higher-up would have had me right in one of those 'abandoned' laboratories. It's just dangerous for any chimera here. Rowan can't stay here. Not without risking himself, Fahren's research, and all of Fahren's other chimeras."

Bringing them back to the reality with Ed's words, they look at Rowan, who is giving Nina a ride on his back, but not going fast-in part because he's not built for this, but also because, due to her frailty, if she fell off of him, it would require a trip to the hospital.

"Moving wouldn't be that difficult, honestly. As long as there's medical care close by for Nina when she needs it, then we can do." She smiles down at Rowan, who is now laying on the floor, looking a bit tired. After an exciting day like today, it's understandable how tired he is.

"We're gonna move to daddy's new home?" Nina asks, looking up at Amelia, who nods with a genuinely happy smile.

"That's right, Nina. We'll all be together again." Rowan lifts his head, ears perking up too. D'aww.

Roy had only released Fahren at the promise that Fahren would call him often and keep him updated. On anything. After Roy returned to his duties, Ed, Al, Fahren, Rowan, Amelia and Nina all travel to Mistwell, where Ed and Al create a home, not far from Fahren's, just for the three. It's tailored perfectly to them-with soft floors, rounded edges and safety generally in mind for Nina. And for Rowan; many things were made low enough that he could reach them. Ed also went to the store in town and bought a few books in varying difficulties, so Nina could read to her father, and her father could learn to read harder things; to re-train his mind so the animals aren't as prevalent. Ed and Al had then taken their leave, glad to see the family in one piece again.

While they were all happy to be a family again, Rowan and Amelia were still torn by an obvious barrier of physical humanity, and to remedy this, Amelia asks Fahren to make her like Rowan. While Fahren would have been shocked, he had to admit to himself; he had seen this coming. Having had been working hard at his research in the month between their arrival and her request, he is able to produce for her a beautiful chimera. Female, brown eyes to match hers; avian and canine, just as Rowan's is, but with a more well-planned tail, and a beautiful set of white wings. The chimera's body was able to stand on its hind legs and walk around with only minor difficulty, as compared to Rowan's struggles just to stand; and to top it all off, Fahren had discovered how to use his knowledge of transferring the soul from one body to another to take the animal's souls and move them into a rat's body, clearing the chimera's body fully for Amelia.

The transition from human parents to animal parents wasn't hard for Nina. She was happy to have her family all together in one place, and everyone was happy in the house, and so she was. For her, it was just perfect. And she didn't have to worry about hurting her parents on accident with hugs, because if she hugged them too tightly and snapped any bones-for example, when she did to her mommy-the bones healed right away. She only wished that her own body was that strong, and then, everything would be perfect.

I want to add something unnecessary before I post this.

Fahren's name, if you added heit onto the end of it, would be fahrenheit, a measure of temperature; of heat. He is also a Mustang, his brother being the FLAME alchemist. I did not think about this at all when creating his name, which I happened to think of randomly. It's purely coincidental, and I find it hilarious. Fate laughs at me, I think.