Number of words: 4,532

Published date: November 4, 2012

Began chapter: October 28, 2012

Finished chapter: November 4, 2012

Chapter 14: Father

"Geez, what's in this? It's heavy."

"Just some books."

"Books? You brought books with you?! What the hell! There are a gazillion books here already! Why'd you need to bring more?"

"Selim doesn't have these volumes and we needed them for reference for the transmutation. Do you mean we should have guessed on whatever we couldn't check? I'll tell you right now, alchemy doesn't favour guessing."

"Uh, well, no… But seriously? You needed all of these? There must be twenty books in here!"

"There's also my personal ones. We arrived almost two weeks before the lunar eclipse, so I needed to have something to read. I've been working on material for a new lecture and I couldn't work on that without having them to refer to."

"Ugh, remind me again why I'm going to miss someone so lame. Reading? Nerdy book-lovers can't also be good fighters; it goes against the natural order! You're a freak of nature, you know that?"

"'Nerdy'? So you're saying that if a person likes to read, they're automatically uncool?"

"Yup."

"Oh, come on! You mean to tell me you've never read for leisure before?"

"Listen: Cool people have way too many cool things to do than to be wasting their time on books. I'm just sayin'."

Ed didn't want to waste his breath arguing, so he shrugged his shoulders as best he could with one end of the heavy box of books filling his arms while Greed struggled with the other end. The pair of them lugged the box down the front steps of the mansion and heaved it into the back of the Elrics' car. The vehicle gave a squeak and bounce of protest at the sudden weight.

No doubt about it: Even though he'd needed them all, at that moment, even Ed wished he hadn't brought so many with him. They were heavy.

The sun was just reaching its zenith as the three men packed the car for the return trip to Resembool. It was a gorgeously hot and sunny summer day.

Ed paused, lifting his arms up to stretch from the heavy load and tilting his head to look up at the sky. Greed rested against the bumper, groaning out a rhetorical complaint over why he'd let himself be wrangled into helping. Ed didn't bother to point out that Greed had in fact offered to help without any prompting.

It was the sixth day.

Six days had already passed since the Homunculi's revival.

Ed wondered again if it was all right for them to be leaving.

As far as the brothers were concerned, the six days had passed without incident. None of the Homunculi had shown any worrisome symptoms that suggested the transmutation had gone wrong. Selim reported that he thought 'maybe my Stone feels a little bit different. But that's just maybe. I can't really tell. It might just be my imagination.' Nobody had attacked anyone else (as long as one discounted Envy and Greed's squabble on the first night). Nobody had threatened anyone (again, so long as one didn't count the insulting threats Greed and Envy threw at each other – but it was easy to tell that they only meant them in the heat of the moment; they weren't really planning to murder each other). Nobody had been killed in their sleep or run away or destroyed things. All in all, they were adjusting quickly and positively to their new environment.

Of course, Ed thought soberly, I'm sure Lust and Envy are just waiting for us to leave so that they can question Selim in the hopes that this is all a trick of some kind. Their waiting for the Elrics' departure was palpable, especially in Lust, who gave them nothing but a cold shoulder and frostily clipped words when required to speak to them. Doubtless she wanted them gone as quickly as possible and was acting particularly aloof in the hope that it would make them leave all the sooner.

I'd feel a lot better about leaving if I knew they'd accepted this, but they can't accept it until we leave. It was a frustrating situation, but there was nothing Ed could do about it. The Homunculi had no reason to trust them. The Elrics had been involved, but they were still just outsiders and meddlers in Lust and Envy's eyes. The responsibility falls on Selim now to handle his family and convince them that this isn't meant to be a punishment or something that they have to suffer through.

The important thing was that Selim wasn't tricking them and that Ms. Bradley was safe. Ed was convinced that Selim had been honest with them, and he was dead certain that their young apprentice would never allow harm to befall his mother. Therefore, there was no reason for them to stick around any longer.

Besides, he had his own family to get back to. Three weeks was pushing the limit on Winry's patience, and he didn't want to be away from his family any longer either.

"Are we taking a break already?" Al asked with a chuckle.

Ed grimaced at his brother. "Speak for yourself. You only took the light stuff," he said. He moved over to let Alphonse dump his own burden into the trunk. Al tucked the two small suitcases containing no more than a few changes of clothes and his bedroll snugly against the box of books.

Except for the books, the Elric brothers were light travelers, which wasn't surprising considering their younger years of roughing it across Amestris and their older years of visiting the neighbouring countries. Having spent almost half of the past six years in the East, where beds were rare and sleeping on the floor was the norm, Al almost found that sleeping on the bedroll was more comfortable to him now than sleeping in a bed. He had bunked down in a corner of Selim's study room. Edward, regardless of whether anyone was still in the room or not, had claimed the living room couch, where he'd stretched out without concern for blankets or pillows. Twice, Al had slipped in late at night to drape a blanket over his brother's exposed stomach, tsking under his breath over how Ed was going to catch a cold. (Even after six years, the younger Elric still suffered from occasional insomnia, never having managed to fully re-establish the circadian rhythm he'd lost while in the armour.) And Greed had gotten up one morning to gleefully find Ed lying on the carpet with a stain of drool around his mouth from rolling off the couch and onto the floor in his sleep.

In some ways, the boys had become men. In others, they hadn't changed at all.

"Is there anything else?" Ed asked.

Al shook his head. "I grabbed everything that was left. Selim?" he called. "Would you mind doing us a favour?"

Selim immediately jumped up from his play in the driveway, dropping the stick he'd been using to trace transmutation arrays in the dirt. None of the arrays had been activated, so he'd either been rehearsing earlier lessons or doodling. He ran up to the three men eagerly.

"What is it, Teacher? Do you want me to tell Mother that you'll stay for lunch after all? Do you want us to pack you something to eat on the trip?"

"No, that's all right, Selim," Al said, smiling in that gentle way of his and holding up his hands to stop the little boy's words. "I think we've got everything, but I'd like it if you could take a quick look around the house, just to see if you can find anything that we forgot or misplaced. Okay?"

"'Kay!" And with that, he darted off into the mansion.

His response relieved Ed and Al, for Selim's mood had been fluctuating all that morning. When they'd sat down at breakfast, he had seemed sad that they were leaving, poking at his food listlessly. It was only after Edward took him to the study room to give him his homework for their next visit that he'd brightened considerably.

"All right, this should be enough," Ed declared as he set the last of his selection on top of the stack of textbooks. "Go over the exercises from chapters 4 to 6 of Quintessence, pages 342 to 412 of Charnock, and the metal sections of Waite. I want you to be able to explain how to identify each metal when pure, in what situations a post-transition metal is more appropriate to use than a transition metal, why fixation is often combined with the fire triangle instead of the earth square, and what would happen if a post-transition metal transmutation was attempted with a triad – rather than tetrad – grid. That should lead nicely into the next subject."

He paused to give Selim a chance to finish making notes.

"What's the next subject, Big Brother?"

"Metalloids," Ed replied. "And if you finish that list, you can continue on in Quintessence and Charnock and get a head start on it. But I doubt that'll happen; we'll be back to check on things in two or three weeks. This should be plenty until then. You know the drill: Write down any questions you have or parts that need further explanation. If you get really stuck, you can call us."

Nodding in understanding, Selim finished making his notes and placed the checklist on the table, then cheerfully followed Ed out of the room.

Ed discreetly studied his young pupil as they walked. He barely noticed the distinct red dot in the middle of Selim's forehead, didn't think anything of the discrepancies between Selim's physical age and mental acuity. He spent a moment musing over how, though there were certainly differences, Selim was in a similar position to what the Elrics had been in. Most of the people they had met believed Ed had lost his limbs in an accident and that Al was an eccentric armour enthusiast. Only a trusted few friends had known their secret past: that the Elrics had committed a taboo and paid the price with their bodies and that Al had existed only as a bodiless soul.

In the same way, Selim's past was known to few and the rest of the world took him as just another child with a strange birthmark who had tragically lost his parents and now lived with his elderly aunt. For that was the story Ms. Bradley told: Her younger sister and brother-in-law had died in an accident and, with no other relatives to care for him, Ms. Bradley had taken her nephew to raise as her own.

Bearing their secret had been hard on the Elrics. It wasn't easy to lie to people, especially when they'd helped them. Ed had believed at the time that the more people who knew their secret, the harder it would be, but in fact, the opposite had been true. The more friends the Elrics found, the more people they trusted, the easier it was to bear their burden. Even though they had committed the taboo and, in a way, deserved what they'd got, everyone had supported them and hoped for their success.

Selim hadn't phrased his arguments in that way, probably hadn't recognized the desire to have people around him who knew his secret, but there it was.

There was also the peculiar protectiveness that came from their teacher-apprentice relationship. Edward hadn't seen his own teacher in a long time, not since she and Sig had left for Xing. Izumi Curtis hadn't replaced their mother, hadn't tried to replace her, and yet she had treated them like her own children. At times disappointed and disgusted by their stupidity, at other times proud and willing to let them stand on their own, uncompromising and compassionate, Mrs. Curtis was a force that the brothers both feared more than anything else in the world and yet trusted implicitly.

The dichotomy had been hard for his teenaged self to understand, but now that he held the same responsibility that Izumi had held over him, Ed found the same protective desire to see Selim succeed. His position was reversed. Now Ed was one of the supporters, hoping that his student could find happiness with his family and wanting to do what he could to make that desire come true.

Abruptly, he stopped walking. Selim continued for two more steps before turning to look up at his teacher in confusion.

"Selim, are you still sure about this?"

Selim tilted his head to the side.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "That we shouldn't have brought them back? Big Brother, it's too late to be worrying about that now."

"No," Ed responded, shaking his head. "I don't mean that. I mean, you thought you missed your family, but… I'm just not sure you understand how much work it will take. Having a family is hard sometimes. There's a give and take to it. You've got to experience things together and there isn't an instant bond. It's not as simple as saying that you have them back and you'll live together happily from now on. It doesn't work that way."

The old sin that Selim had spent so much effort subduing manifested in the boy's suddenly rigid back, in the way his brows lowered and voice became cold as he responded, "I am aware of that, Big Brother. Please do not treat me like a child."

"I didn't mean to be insulting. I just want to make sure you know that getting what you want doesn't necessarily translate into instant happiness."

"I know that," Selim replied scornfully, then grinned at the retort that occurred to him. "I'm not like Greed."

Ed considered that and had to admit that the description fit. The whole problem with greed was that a person went from wanting something to getting it to being disappointed that it didn't make them as happy as they thought it would, and so they had to move on to something else and the vicious cycle never ended. Happiness wasn't a treasure to be discovered; it was an internal thing that had to be worked for and consciously cultivated. It took most people a long, bitter struggle to realize that truth. Ed sincerely hoped that Greed knew this, or at least that he would learn it sooner rather than later.

"Please don't worry about us," Selim continued in a tone that suggested he was trying to reassure Edward rather than the other way around. "I didn't just learn alchemy from you. You want to make sure I know that while they're unhappy, I can't be happy too, right?"

Ed stared at his little protégé for a moment, then grinned and ruffled his hair, eliciting an indignant protest.

"Hey!"

"I'm sorry, Selim. You've learned more about humanity than I realized," Ed said indulgently. "That was a blunt way of putting it, but yeah. I'm glad to hear that you understand."

His mentor's approval sent a smile across Selim's face. Maybe Ed's reservations about leaving had been affecting him too. Selim perked up and his listlessness vanished into cheerful but impatient anticipation.

The three men watched Selim dart off into the mansion to complete Alphonse's request, but even though Ed and Al were relieved to see Selim acting cheerful, Greed sighed from his seat on the car's bumper.

"You do know this is gonna' suck for me, right?" he asked grumpily.

"Huh?" Ed glanced down at his friend, lifting an eyebrow quizzically. Greed met the glance and shrugged, holding his palm up on his knee as he explained.

"Once you two leave, I'll be the odd one out. I don't care what Pride- Selim- Oh, whoever," he grumbled. "I don't care what the kid says, but in case you've forgotten, I ditched the Homunculi. We're not a particularly forgiving bunch, if you didn't notice. And who have I got to hang out with here? Envy hates my guts. Sloth is more boring than a rock. I don't think I've ever dealt with kids before and I don't want to either, and I'm pretty sure that if I try anything with Lust, she'll hand me my ass on a silver platter. The Missus is the only pleasant one here. And all you've offered me is training the brat? It's not going to be nearly enough."

For Greed the Avaricious, no, it wasn't nearly enough.

Yes, Ed knew it was far from ideal, but he couldn't very well tell Greed, Sure, do whatever you want. Take off. There's no reason for you to hang around here. Send a postcard every once in a while. He opened his mouth, prepared to explain that they needed him to stick around because how could they be sure the transmutation would remain stable? and the whole point of bringing them back was to give them the chance to experience humanity and maybe having a real family and not just the perverted parody that their father had created would be the thing to satisfy his greed, and if he went out into the world and did whatever the hell he wanted, he could be recognized by any of the small number of people who knew him, Mustang or Hawkeye or the Briggs soldiers, and then how would he feel if he brought his siblings' new world crashing down on them?

He opened his mouth, logic at the ready, but it was Alphonse who answered first.

"Two months," he said, hands pressing together in the familiar Xingese gesture of supplication. "Just give me two months and I'll figure out some way to get you to Xing. I promise. And if two months go by and I haven't come up with anything, then you can feel free to try whatever you want on your own."

Greed rubbed his chin thoughtfully, but he didn't look entirely convinced. His eyes slid back to study the mansion and Ed, grinning suddenly, leaned over to follow his gaze and spoke teasingly.

"Yeah, sure, I can see how it'd be hard for anyone to stay here for two months. No chores, no job, no need to cook if you don't want to, the freedom to spend the days wandering in the woods, a beautiful garden in the backyard, plenty of books to read on every subject imaginable, a huge and expensive mansion to lounge around in… It sounds like absolute torture!"

Greed got the point and chuckled along with Ed.

"Okay, okay, I get it. It's a regular vacation here. Fine. I guess I can manage for two measly months."

"Promise?" Ed asked.

"Eh?"

"You said it's your personal rule to never tell a lie, right? So I want to hear you promise that you'll stay here and not take off."

"Hey! Just 'cause I died doesn't let you off the hook of being my henchman! You don't get to boss me around!"

"Say you promise?"

Greed grimaced at the young man, but acquiesced at the stubborn glimmer in Ed's eyes.

"Alright already! I promise I'll stay put. Geez, and I'll look after Ms. Bradley and train Selim too! There, happy now? Do you want more from me?" He laughed at the joke and gave Ed a cocky grin.

Ed returned it, satisfied. Greed could be trusted one hundred percent. There was nothing to be worried about in leaving them.

Selim returned to the front yard a few minutes later. He hadn't found any stray items belonging to the Elrics, but, sensing that they were now ready to leave, he had gathered Mother and Gluttony from the kitchen, Sloth from the garden bench, Lust from a book in the living room, and Envy from hiding surlily in his bedroom, probably hoping to avoid seeing them off. Since the last evening, he seemed to be avoiding Big Brother, though Selim couldn't imagine the reason behind it.

Ms. Bradley's upbringing in society meant she was always polite, but she took it even further than usual, clasping both brothers' hands and speaking with the utmost gravity.

"Edward, Alphonse, there's no way I can thank you enough for everything you've done for us. You've looked after both of us and to help Selim with this is more than anyone could ask for or expect."

Edward started to blush. "It's all right, Madam Bradley. You don't need to thank us like this. I mean, it's half my fault anyway and-" His face only grew redder when Greed began to silently laugh at him from the steps.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to embarrass you. I just want you to know how much I appreciate everything you two have done."

Alphonse took the thanks in stride and responded in kind.

"It's been our pleasure, Ma'am. You're always such a gracious host. Thank you for allowing us to stay here."

Ed scowled slightly at how natural Al sounded. It was a good thing he'd never been to Xing; he just sucked at polite talk. It made him feel like a dolt. Behind Ms. Bradley's back, he could see that Greed was now almost doubled over. In an odd bonding moment, Envy had moved from the doorway and was pretending to throw up in the bushes, leaving his older brother in stitches. Gruffly, he butted in to end the show before the pair of Sins ended up offending the poor old woman.

"You know that you can call us any time if there's a problem," he said, trying to send a warning look over her head at Envy in particular. Envy, straightening from the bushes, caught his glance and gave a small, unconscious twitch. Clearly he heard the message underneath: If you screw with her and I hear about it, you're not getting away with it.

"Work hard while we're gone, Selim, and don't forget about training," Al reminded pleasantly. "We're planning on coming back in two or three weeks, but of course we'll call beforehand to make plans, Ma'am."

"You're welcome anytime, dears," she responded warmly.

Alphonse accepted her hug without hesitation, and Ed did the same with only a little less grace. Then, for a moment, the two brothers stood and looked at the Homunculi.

Sloth stood off to the side, watching the proceedings with disinterest. Or maybe the fact that he was bothering to watch meant he actually was interested. Who knew? Ed certainly couldn't tell. Gluttony looked a little sad that they were leaving, which only proved that he was kind despite his cannibalism of before. Lust stood tall and cold on the landing and both brothers felt a bit of relief that they'd be escaping from her intimidating presence. Ed would have expected her to be less intimidating without her powers and with six years putting them on a level playing field as adults. Instead, they probably would have fared better as their teenaged selves, for it was impossible to remain completely unaffected by Lust as her namesake's representative. There was no denying that she was a beautiful woman and her manner of carrying herself effortlessly produced dry mouths, quickening heartbeats, and stuttering voices. Ed sent a brief mental warning in Greed's direction: You're right, Greed. Try anything with her and she'll spit you out and trample you like a bug. Hopefully his friend was smart enough to let self-preservation win over desire. Envy stood and stared back with bitter eyes and Ed felt definite regret that he'd be leaving the former shape-shifter on such bad terms. He really hadn't wanted Envy to hate him, really had felt pity for the Sin and hoped that Envy would take his words to heart, but his rough-handling wouldn't soon be forgotten.

The most of a good-bye they got from the new members of the Bradley household was a lazy wave from Greed.

Edward and Alphonse slipped into the car. Ed started the engine and, with the sound of tires on the dirt path and Selim shouting "Bye, Big Brother! Bye, Teacher!" they began the long drive back to Resembool.

Almost as soon as the vehicle melted into the shadows of the thick trees, Envy turned to Selim.

"You know, it's been bugging me for a while now, but why do you insist on calling them that?"

"What?"

"'Big Brother' and 'Teacher'. I get the teacher bit, but big brother? He's not your brother, and even if he was, you're older than him."

Selim nodded absently, half of his attention still on the sound of the Elrics' car as it made its way down the path to the main road.

"I suppose that's true," he allowed. "Maybe it'd be more accurate to call him 'Uncle'. Or maybe 'Cousin'." The little boy frowned, suddenly confused by the logic, then enthusiastically grabbed Envy's wrist and began dragging him into the house. "Come on! I need to get some paper to figure it out!"

Envy protested but didn't dare strike his eldest brother to make him let go. Curious, Lust and Greed shrugged and trailed after them.

In the library, Selim quickly pulled a blank sheet of paper and pencil from the desk drawer and, with his head bent over it, scribbled away. It was only when he finished and stood straight that his siblings could see what he'd drawn.

It was less a drawing and more a diagram. Although none of the Homunculi had seen a family tree before, with Selim pointing to the different bubbles and reciting the names, it wasn't hard to figure out.

"Van Hohenheim was the Elrics' father. Here's Hohenheim and these lines to the Elrics show that they're his sons. Now, here's Father. Father came into the world through Hohenheim's blood."

They all nodded, knowing the basic story of their father's birth. The ancient Xerxians had hoped to exploit their father's knowledge of Truth, had threatened his vulnerable existence and selfishly demanded the key to immortality while offering nothing in return. Obligingly, he had given them what they'd asked for, though not in the form they had wanted. Souls pulled from bodies, the Xerxians had been turned into a Philosopher's Stone and spent the next four hundred years living on as energy in the Homunculi.

"Well then, so Father and Hohenheim were related. Which means we're related to the Elrics too! See? If you consider Father to be Hohenheim's brother, then Hohenheim was our uncle and Ed and Al are our cousins. And if you consider Father to be Hohenheim's son, then he was our grandfather and the Elrics are our uncles."

Selim looked up, pleased with his explanation, but his three siblings remained silent, staring at the page.

"But it'd feel kind of weird to call them uncles when they're younger than us, don't you think? So I like 'brother' more. And even if Ed is technically younger than me, he looks physically older, so it'd be weird to call him 'Little Brother'. So 'Big Brother' works best."

Still, none of them responded immediately.

It was only after Greed picked up the paper and studied it that he gave his opinion on the matter, neatly summing up how Envy and Lust felt as well:

"That's #!$&ing messed up!"

Author's Notes:

Al covering Ed's stomach: It is a Japanese old-wives' tale that sleeping with the stomach exposed causes colds. Well, don't take that as fact, as I only remember reading that in a manga once. I could be wrong; that's just how I remember it. But Al does that in canon once.

Waite: An American alchemist and occultist, Arthur Edward Waite wrote and translated many texts on alchemy and was also the co-creator of the Rider-Waites Tarot deck.

Alchemy and science: If anyone reading is actually a chemist or scientist, please let me know if I've made up an alchemy-science reference that really doesn't work, or feel free to suggest ways to make it more accurate. I haven't taken, nor do I have any love for, the sciences, so I'm just faking it, but I would hate to write something that is blatantly ignorant.

Ed and Al's nicknames: It is common in Japanese culture for family members to be referred to by their relation rather than by name. It is not so common in English cultures for us to call our brother "Brother" the way that Al does with Ed, but "Big Brother" is commonly used by the younger brother to show respect for the older brother in Japanese. The dubbed version of FMA also retains the Elrics' habit of calling Izumi "Teacher", which isn't common in English. I wanted to retain those tendencies from the original Japanese version and I believe that Selim is in the position to call both of them by these nicknames. I'm explaining this because it may feel slightly odd if considered only from an English viewpoint.