Alchemy: Tiny Steps

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D/C: I own nothing.

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"English and Edward's accented voice."

"Amestrian, Xingese, foreign languages, or to add emphasis."

Written notes or to add extra emphasize

'Thoughts.'

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Mr. Elric: Edward Elric

Professor Elric: Alphonse Elric

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Clang.

Clank.

Clunk!

"Too slow."

"Not enough strength."

"To much power."

"Almost there."

Susan Bones panted heavily as she faced off against the indomitable Major General Olivier Armstrong, sword in hand. Five minutes haven't even passed, she already is out of breath and any moment the young girl looks like she is about to keel over. This is the most fun she had in the longest time. None of her previous teachers had ever gone against her in such manner and gave her helpful criticism.

Here's to hoping Susan can still feel her arms by the end of the practice.

Sitting in the corner of the training room is Susan's aunt and guardian, Madam Amelia Bones. She quietly poured herself a cup of tea, non-magically. Something about not wanting to dilute her tea with magic. She also poured another cup of hot tea for Major Miles, who is sitting on the other side of the small table that sat in between them. They were invited to watch the practice and it amuses them both for different reasons. Bones for reminiscing on how much Susan reminds her so much of her late brother, even down to her footwork. For Miles, the only time the Major General had ever been around children is her own and that's all. It's a refreshing sight.

With one last, clank, Armstrong easily pushed young Susan down to the ground before she put away her sword. She looked down at the young girl with a stern expression, Susan looked heavily bruised, breathing harshly and one of the biggest smiles she'd seen. "Again!"

...

"So much…fear. So much… chaos." Edward chanted out into the empty room, his eyes blank and body nearly lifeless. Sitting at the other side of the room is Roy, who is just as traumatized, mumbling to himself quietly. It's only been three days since the last meeting with the Ministry Officials, and many of them are still healing from their wounds. It was agreed that all meetings will be postponed until the last week of August or until the official nomination of Minister is announced.

"I am rethinking of my plans of leading Amestris." Roy stated in a blank voice, he twisted his head just enough to look over at Edward.

Edward snorted, his previous trance all gone. He now causally sat in the chair and faced Roy with a placid expression. "Now, now. Don't quit while you are already ahead, Mustang. The Major General took care of the majority of the work. We just have to finish it…"

"Here's to hoping she doesn't kill us before we can finish whatever we are doing in the first place." Roy deadpanned.

Edward paused for a moment and promptly shivered out of fright. Oh yes… everything will be for not if he gets killed. "At least she took out our main opponent and caused this place to rethink their opinion about us."

"Ah… yes… Opinion." A new voice chimed in tiredly.

Edward and Roy turned to see Alphonse walking into the room looking completely worn out. He had dark circles around his eyes, hair disheveled and looking like he is about to fall over at any moment. Alphonse's hands is a clipboard that is overflowing with papers, letters and other random items. "Everyone that Major General Armstrong confronted against in the meeting is at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Fudge just experienced a third mental breakdown, Umbridge is dealing with a broken skull, fractured femur and a couple of torn up ribs, and everyone else has similar outcomes as them."

"What about that reporter?"

"Er…" Alphonse looked through the documents and pulled out a rather thick envelope. "Both wrists were broken and dealing with hair loss. Ms. Skeeter is planning on taking us on in court."

"…Can she do that?" Roy asked with an eyebrow raised.

"We'll… unfortunately for her, Madam Bones allowed what occurred in that room to slide under the table due to an old law. Plus, Skeeter wasn't even allowed in the meeting that day and was only permitted under Fudge's watch. She was his responsibility." Alphonse read the letter tiredly. "Bad news, she might continue to slander our names."

"Does she really want to risk the anger of the Ice Queen herself?" Edward deadpanned.

"Well… when she was saying all of this, apparently she was still under the weather. It's up to interpretation at this point."

"...I wonder what's Winry is doing right now?"

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'Think of the honeymoon. Think of the honeymoon.' Winry thought repeatedly in her mind as she fought off another shiver. Half a year at Briggs and that dream vacation is hers…Hers and Edwards. Yeah…theirs…

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Severus peeked his head through the doorway he knew Edward is currently located at. He is carrying a bottle of finely ages firewhiskey and a couple of glasses. Hopefully, he'll manage to pry some information from him and break him from his trance. By the looks of it, Edward had snapped out of his comatose-like state. Edward sat in a front of the fireplace with his rough draft of his book. "Edward?"

"Hm?" Edward hummed out, his attention still on his book. "Vat?"

"Care of a drink?"

"It petter pe fireviskey." Edward stated his accent back in full blast. His eyes narrowed on the bottle Severus is waving around in front of himself. "Kood. I'm in need of it."

Severus snorted, he handed Edward a glass before he sat down in a chair next to the Golden Blonde. "That bad?"

"I haffe zeen many zings in mein life. Zeeing zee Ice Gueen in aczion once more, prings pack mein nightmares." Edward flinched at the first memory of meeting the eldest child of the Armstrong Family. He extended his arm out with the glass in hand for Severus to sever him his drink. "I vould face off mein demons any day zan to effer face her head on."

"What did she do?"

"Sche uzed her svord... zen uzed ein ben... after preaking zee ben... sche schtarded kicking... Oh, truth..." Edward gulped down his drink in one gulp, he shook his head at feeling the drink prickle his throat as it went down. "Zen... it vas offer. Zey vere all fordunate sche did not kill any of zem."

"You make it sound like you expected death?"

"Ja." Edward answered with a snort. "Hoveffer... from vat I haffe peen told, killing vould rezort to haffing zomeone takeoffer her Briggs Bears."

Edward extended his arm out again, signaling for Severus to refill his glass. Severus rolled his eyes as he filled the Alchemy Teacher's glass once more. At least he got some information on what occurred in that meeting room. Major General Armstrong was insulted, she took personal action and the end result are many taken to get medical attention. Nothing new. Nothing old. "I am surprised none of you were ordered to leave the country or have your minds obliterated."

"...Madam Bones found ein old law..."

"…Of course, she did."

...

"Are we going to allow them to stay here?"

"I don't know. They should be kicked out! Their minds are completely gone."

"Now, now. Let's be rational here. We have to look at it at both sides here. The woman was insulted and acted as such. Perhaps this is normal for them in their country."

"Ugh… that's rather savage."

"From what I've heard, that Armstrong woman wanted to duel them but they declined. Apparently, there's an old rule about this somewhere. By law, none of them did anything wrong."

"…Thinking about it… I think I've read about that law. It had to do when previously no one could come up with an agreement and well… there was a reason bodyguards were allowed now to be in certain meetings."

"What good did that for Fudge and everyone else in his entourage."

"…I still say they all should stay. When are we ever going to get someone to teach Alchemy to our children? My son was one of the few that visited Amestris, what he saw over there… Alchemy surpasses Magic in many ways. Did you know Alchemy is highly known over there?"

"What?"

"How!?"

"Public knowledge?"

"Yes. Same goes for Xing. From what he told me, both Alchemy and Magic are similar yet vastly different."

"How are they different?"

"Dunno. All he talks about now is how much he needs to study to continue taking the class."

To Be Continued…

R/R.