Hello readers! I'm sorry for the wait but I did warn you that I was going to be in Florida for a week! (and now I have to feel bad for Ed and the others for making the same 22 straight hour trip in a crappy van while I was in a couch bus with AC and comfy seats and I still thought it was horrible!)
Florida was freaking awesome though, especially when I got to go to Hogsmeade and go into Hogwarts! It was soooo cool! I got to go into Honeydukes and Zonkos and the Hogs Head and have a major nerdy freak out.
Now, last week the anime world was presented with some devestating news...Fullmetal Alchemist...has ended. I would now like to ask for a moment of silence to remember the fucking pure awesome-ness that it was. (I don't care on bit if I sound like a retarded over-dramatic fan-girl here. Go ahead and laugh if you feel like it) *sniff, sniff*
And now, please enjoy chapter 28!
What the Hell was going on? Edward had no clue. Was this man standing before him, one that looked so much like himself almost to a point of craziness, really his… father? Or had the confusion and craziness of the past week finally gotten to him and was he now hallucinating? But the man didn't look like a hallucination at all; he looked one-hundred percent flesh and bone.
Edward's looked back into his eyes and was sure that they both had the same look to them: confusion with great amounts of shock and surprise. But as Edward continued to stare he noticed something else in his supposed father's eyes: happiness and…relief?
"Edward…"he said again. "You've, you've gotten taller…?"
"Why does that sound like it's a question?" Ed growled before he could stop it.
"Yo, Ed!" Jean called from inside the Motel room.
Ed could hear him getting up from the couch and begin to walk over to the door. He wanted to close the door behind himself or at least stop Jean somehow, but his mind and body still appeared to be in a state of shock that he just could not snap out of. When Jean finally reached the door, he gripped the edge of the door frame and pushed himself slightly in front of Ed before he looked and froze slightly. Jean looked just as surprise as Ed did for about a moment.
"Whoa," Jean remarked, taking turns to look at both Ed and the man before he turned to Ed and elbowed him on the shoulder and said, "Dude…this is just like an episode of the twilight zone! Ah, man this cra-zy."
Ed couldn't help but smile slightly at his friends' extremely relaxed attitude towards things that would most likely be classified as anomalies and then passed them off as something that would happen on a television show.
"So, um," Jean bent down slightly and began to mumbled quietly to Ed. "I guess I should leave you alone for a bit and tell the others to piss off if they want to know wee you are?"
Ed gave Jean a small, but greatly appreciated smile before he nodded slightly. Jean gave him a hard slap on the shoulder before he walked back into the Motel room and shut the door behind him.
Why the Hell is he here?
"I uh, guess you're wondering why I'm here Edward."
Fucking mind-reader.
"But i-it's a rather long story. One that should not be talked about on a door step of-."
"Who are you?" Ed asked before he could stop himself.
He instantly regretted letting his mouth getting the better of him after he saw the expression of sadness and mild hurt cross over the man's face.
"I-I mean," Ed quickly stuttered, wanting to fix his mistake. "I think I know who you are but…but, could you just tell me who you are…just in case I'm wrong?"
The man let out a small sigh of relief before he looked at Edward and said in a voice that sounded strained, "I am you father, Edward."
"That's who I thought you were," Edward said quietly.
And then, the inevitable awkward moment began to wash over the two men as they stood there, looking at anything except each other. Edward couldn't really think of anything productive to say and as his father did not say anything, Ed had to assume that he didn't have anything to say either.
"So…" they both began at the same time.
"Uh, what were you going to-," Ed stuttered.
"Go ahead Edward," Hohenheim said at the same moment.
Both smiled slightly at each other before Ed made a motion that told his father to say what he had meant to say before he interrupted him.
"So Edward, as I was saying, I know I've been gone quite a while. A-and I'm not trying to make excuses!-but I do have reasons as to why I couldn't contact you or your brother for such a long time. I want to talk to you two so, when you're done with your friends, I'd like it if you could bring your brother back to his house and we could talk-."
"How do you know where he lives?"
"That too, I shall tell you later, for it is part of my long story I have to tell you," he said with a small smile. "But, I would rather you come sooner rather than later."
"Why?" Ed asked.
"…it would be for the best if we did this sooner," he answered after a slight pause.
"O-okay."
"Good," he said before he began to turn towards the stairs. "Well then I'll be seeing you two soon-."
"Wait!" Edward shouted, halting his father in his tracks.
"What is it?"
"Don't…don't you want to see Al?"
For a moment, Hohenheim looked slightly caught off guard but then he gave his head a little shake and smile gently at Edward again before he spoke.
"I don't think I'd be a good idea to leave your friends waiting any longer than they already had to; they're probably getting suspicious." And then he turned around and began to walk down a few of he steps. He was almost at the bottom before he turned around to look at Ed, who had stayed in his spot, and said, "Besides, I don't think it'd be a good for Al to have another shock after another in such a short stretch of time."
"So…Dad's at my house?"
"Yeah."
"And that's who showed up at the Motel?"
"Yup."
"So why didn't you tell me earlier?"
Edward was sitting next Al in his car while they drove back to Al's house. An hour had passed after his father had showed up and they were now on their way home. As expected, there was some confusion with in his friends about who had shown up at the door, but Ed was able to quickly gloss over it and change the subject. Ed had wanted to grab Al and follow Hohenheim out into the parking lot and demand for answers right then and there, but he didn't want to appear as if something was wrong. Thankfully, once Russell and Fletcher declared that there own father wanted them home as well, Ed and Al excused themselves to drive the two home and then to Al's house. They were about five minutes away when Ed revealed to Al what was waiting for him at his house.
"I didn't want to panic you-."
"Well too late!" Al exclaimed, causing the car to veer left slightly on the road. "How could I not overreact? I mean, it's our dad!"
Edward let out a small sigh as he listened to Al rant. How could he not have realized this wouldn't be a good idea? Hell, how could Hohenheim not realize this wasn't a good idea? Just springing this sort of news onto Al? What was he thinking? But as Al began to pull into, Ed could see his brother freeze at the sight of their father's shadow through the kitchen curtains.
"It's alright," Ed said, turning to Al.
"How do you know?"
"I don't. But you're just gonna have to trust me on this one."
Al gave him a shaky nod before he turned off the car, unbuckled himself, and opened the car door. The night's hot air seemed oddly cool to Ed as he walked with his brother to the side door. Once they reached the door, Al let out a small nervous laugh and turned to Ed, who nodded in encouragement, before he reached out and opened the side door.
"I'm home!"
"So Jean, who wasat the door?" Maes asked once it was impossible to see Al's car.
"I couldn't really tell you," Jean said before he lit up another cigarette. "I mean, I didn't know him but…"
"But what?" Riza asked in a stern voice.
"I think it was Ed's dad," Jean admitted quietly.
"Wait, what?" Roy asked.
"Are you sure?" Maes asked.
"Did you even hear him say it was his Dad or not?" Sheska asked.
"How would you even think that?" Winry asked.
"Hey, you would too if you saw that guy," Jean said defensively.
"What do you mean by that?" Roy asked.
"I mean, that…the guy looked a like Ed probably will in about twenty years. That is if Ed grows about another foot," Jean added with a small snort.
"Really?" Winry asked in disbelief.
"Yeah. Guy had same eyes-and you know Ed has some freaky abnormal eyes- same face. Hell, he even had the same hair style; length and all. Almost freaky how much he looked like Ed."
"Well then I think we can assume that Al doesn't know," Maes said.
"But what I want to know," Riza began, "is why this guy just showed up out of the blue like this."
"Yeah and how did he know that Ed would be here?"
"Who knows?" Roy asked. "Ed's life has always been a mystery to us, him included. Maybe his dad's always known where he lived and maybe he just found out about Ed just like how Ed found out about Al."
"So, what are you saying? We should just wait for him to show up?" Sheska asked impatiently.
"Yes," Winry said firmly, looking both at her and Jean. "It's best to stay out of this until he talks to us about it."
"Fine."
The six teens gave each other small looks before they all settled back into their respective seats and resumed watching a movie that no one would remember, all of them being too deep into thought to care about something as trivial as a stupid movie.
Even though Ed had been telling himself to expect it, he still felt a jolt of confusion when he saw his father sitting calmly at Al's dinning room table with Sig and Izumi; all had cups of tea sitting in front of them and were now staring at the two brothers. Sig was looking just as he always did, like a bear busy deciding whether or not he was going to eat you. Izumi had an odd expression on her face, one the Ed couldn't quite read but it gave him a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Hohenheim was smiling awkwardly at Ed and Al; Ed could see him looking over Al for a moment before gaining the same relived and happy expression in his eyes from before. The silence only stopped when Izumi spoke.
"Alphonse, Edward, would you please sit down with us?"
Although Izumi's tone of voice made her question appear less like a question and more like a deadly statement, Ed let out a shaky breath and moved clumsily to the table with Al following behind him. Once they two had sat down, Izumi spoke.
"I can only assume that Edward has told you about his brief meeting at the Motel today Alphonse?"
Al nodded slightly at this statement but kept his eyes focused onto the circular patterns in his wooden table.
"Well, you're father here had some things that he would like to say to you two and I'd think it's be best if you listened to him."
Again, Izumi's voice held no inclination that this statement was up for discussion, but Ed did not want to fight her over it; he wanted and needed answers from the man and there was only one way he could get them answered.
"Alright then," Ed said, staring back into a pair of eyes that were hauntingly similar to his own. "Start."
"Well I have to tell you know that this will be a rather long explanation Edward," Hohenheim said, straightening up in his seat and tightening his hold on his mug.
Edward gave a little stretch in his seat and let out a small yawn before he said, "I've got plenty on time to spare. So start at the beginning."
Edward leaned back into the back of his chair and let his gaze switch from his father, to Izumi, to Sig, and then to Al before restarting the cycle.
"Where to begin, where to begin…" Hohenheim muttered quietly to himself before taking a sip of his drink.
Edward wanted to feel annoyed that this man had asked to speak to both of them as soon as possible and yet he didn't even know where to begin. But at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a bit of pity for the man who had a slightly help less gleam in the corners of his eyes. Was he in trouble or just extremely unsure as to how he should proceed?
"I guess the best place to start would be back almost 20 years ago," Hohenheim began before he redirected his eyes to look back into Ed's. "And it all begins with a man by the name of Zolf J. Kimblee."
So Kimblee makes a come back into the story. Next chapter, Hohenheim will reveal much about their sored past together and heads will begin to roll.
I promise that next chapter will come much quicker than this one! I already have 1,000 words of it.
See you all soon!
-FSK
