A/N: As by now, you, my followers, have probably seen me apologize on my update speed on my other fics, I will not bore you with more here. Suffice to say that I will try to be better. Enjoy this chapter in the mean time!

Chapter 34: The Talents of Children

Clara liked to draw circles. It was therapeutic for her when she felt overwhelmed or when she just wanted to lose herself in something. She liked the precise details of drawing the circles. If she did it perfectly, she could get what she wanted. If she kept practicing, she could make it better. There was something very straight forward about that.

"I don't know how you stare at the paper for so long," Kristen often said, usually when she was half dangled off a chair or hopping on top of her bed. "I get bored so quickly."

"I like it," Clara said. "It's simple."

"It's not simple to me. All of those lines are so complicated." She huffed.

"Different things are simple to different people," Clara said. "These are simple to me. People are simple to you."

"What's so complicated about people?" Kristen asked.

Clara raised her eyebrow. "See? Different things for everyone."

At the very least, Clara came from a family of alchemists. Her mom liked to watch her work and help her whenever she could. She would help correct her circles when she made errors and explain the importance of each little part.

Her dad always took time to explain theories she couldn't quite grasp. He had many, many years of experience with different types of alchemy even though he wasn't as much an expert at using it.

Her uncle Edward liked to give her challenges. Try to make this. Try to transmute these materials. He pushed Clara to get better and she wanted to prove herself to him. He was the youngest state alchemist after all. A prodigy. She wanted to be as good as him.

Her uncle Al always smiled when she showed him her latest efforts, congratulating her even if they weren't perfect. He said perfection didn't matter when she was so young. It's all about practice. It took me awhile to get good too. Don't be in too much of a hurry.

And her cousin Riley, well he was her studying partner. They often spent long hours in the library together on a lazy Sunday afternoon, reading away and asking each other questions. At least until Kristen burst in and demanded they take a break and play with her. Kristen was probably the only reason they went outside some days. They both got easily absorbed.

And then there was the little voice in her head.

The first time he spoke to her, she was only six years old. Since then he popped up every now and again to offer advice. He didn't speak often. Sometimes she went months without hearing from him. But then, sure enough, he appeared to speak again.

You're learning fast. But you should always keep pushing yourself, child. You should always strive to be better than those that came before you.

But my family is full of incredible alchemists.

That doesn't mean you can't be better.

Clara didn't tell her parents about the voice because she worried what they might say. It wasn't like the voice was much of a danger. He only ever gave her helpful pointers and tips in her alchemy. But she got the feeling it wasn't normal to have a voice in her head.

So she kept silent. Clara was good at keeping silent about many things. She only used words when she found them necessary.

"When I do put you in school, you'll have to make friends," her mom said. "You don't want to just be friends with your family."

"Why not?" Clara asked.

"Well...because there are lots of people out there," her mom replied. "All of the people in our family now...they didn't used to be my family. I had to go out and find them."

"That sounds hard," Clara murmured.

"Yeah. It is," her mom admitted. "Friends aren't always easy to come by."

Friends were hard. People were hard. But alchemy made sense. That's what the voice in her head often told her.

All of the mysteries of the world can be brought into perspective with alchemy. You can use those circles to achieve whatever you want. And you're going to achieve incredible things, Clara. I can tell.

Clara hoped she was right. Beneath her quiet exterior, she wanted to be extraordinary.

Riley Elric liked to make others happy, and that was the defining motivation for everything he did.

He had an aptitude for alchemy. He was good at it. It made sense to him when he read through the books. So did his mother's mechanical books, for that matter. Most things Riley read made sense to them, and when they didn't, he fought to bring them into perspective.

But despite his aptitude for alchemy and mechanics he didn't have a particular passion for them. Not like Clara or his father or his mother or...anyone in their family really. They were all overwhelming passionate about what they did. Riley often felt like he was only studying to keep up appearances. He didn't want to be a disappointment to his dad, after all.

Not that his father had ever forced him to study alchemy. He was just so encouraging whenever he saw Riley with an alchemy book. It made him happy to see his kid becoming a little alchemist just like him and Riley did love to make others happy. So he kept at it. He kept getting better because he wanted to see his dad grin.

He got into mechanics the same way. It made his mother happy and so he wanted to understand. When he asked her a question during her work and studiously wrote it down, she seemed to burst with pride. So he kept on asking questions and experimenting when he could. Sometimes his parents argued over whether or not he would be an alchemist or an automail engineer. It was all in good fun, but Riley didn't want to let either of them down.

His aunts and uncles seemed proud of him as well, always lovingly doting on his works. Well, he wasn't sure if Uncle Envy could be considered loving. Mostly he teased his Dad and insisted Riley couldn't possibly Edward's kid because he was too nice. But Aunt Liz loved his alchemy. Aunt Lucy loved his mechanics. Uncle Al seemed proud no matter what he did. But Riley liked making all of them smile.

And then there were his cousins.

Naturally, Riley was inseparable from Kristen and Clara from a young age. He often wrestled with Kristen to make her happy and keep her entertained while Clara was too busy reading. And he studied with Clara and helped her get better at her alchemy. The girls rarely asked what he wanted to do. They assumed he would go along with any of their schemes. Often, they were right. Kristen got so excited about most things that it was infectious and Clara was so intent on her studies that Riley followed suit. He was the kind of boy who absorbed other people's emotions and interests.

But he was also the one who played a voice of reason when one of their schemes threatened to get them caught or hurt. He was the protector of the two, being two years older. It was his responsibility. And he knew he would be a protector of the new cousins and his little sister when they got old enough to play.

Being the oldest was a big responsibility. Uncle Envy told him that once.

"See, kid, I did a really terrible job at being an older brother for a while," Envy said. "In fact, I tried to kill your dad more than once."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. Half the time he deserved it," Envy shrugged. "But you...you have a level head on your shoulders. You'll take care of them."

Riley nodded. He would, and not just because he wanted to make his uncle or his dad happy. Taking care of others was one thing he would do no matter what. The one thing he really was passionate about all by himself.

Family, ultimately, was more important to him than anything else, and he would bare whatever responsibilities came with that.

In a family full of prodigies, Kristen didn't seem to excel at anything. She came from a family of genius alchemists. Even her sister had taken up the mantel to carry on the legacy. But Kristen never felt like a genius once in her life. Sometimes she barely felt smart.

Clara always seemed ahead of her. She started reading first. She started drawing transmutation circles young. She started comprehending higher concepts that Kristen could barely grasp. It wasn't that Kristen didn't try but reading took so much focus, and often the words scrambled on the page. She couldn't sit still long enough to try. She got to antsy. She had to move.

She had learned to talk before Clara though, and she had learned to walk first. The basics. Kristen was quite good at the basics. She could carry on conversations with adults and kids alike and she was great at making friends. She was the fastest runner between Clara and Riley as well and she could climb trees in a snap. Trees, roofs, tall fences. Whatever. Kristen loved to move.

In fact moving seemed to be the one thing she could excel at. Moving and talking. She came from a family of fighters after all. Her mom was good with knives and her dad could knock anyone in the family flat on their back in no time flat. Kristen loved to watch them work and imagined herself being that strong one day.

That's why she always wanted knives like her mom. That's why she wrestled with her cousins. While her sister was busy excelling at alchemy, Kristen felt like she was behind. She wanted to excel at something too. She wanted to be a prodigy.

But her mom didn't want to give weapons to a kid. Not yet, she often said. Not yet. Not yet. Kristen hated those words. She was far too impatient for not yets.

One day her patience snapped and she snapped back at her mom. "When then? When am I going to get to try? I'm not good at anything like Clara and Riley. The only thing I could be good at is fighting but you won't let me try. I'm just going to grow up useless."

That had silenced her parents for a long moment.

"Kristen, you're not useless," her mom had said. "Where would you get an idea like that?"

"Because you always say Clara is so good at what she does but I can't do any of that stuff. I'm not smart like her," Kristen felt herself bordering on tears.

"You're plenty smart," her dad said. "Hey, you don't need to do alchemy to be smart. I didn't do alchemy for years."

"You understood it though. It's different," Kristen mumbled.

"Kristen you don't have to be an alchemist," her mom said. "And you're only ten. You have so much time to get good at other things."

"But Clara and Riley will always be ahead," Kristen mumbled.

Shortly after that, Kristen's mom brought her to a woman named Riza Hawkeye. She was in the military, one of the best snipers in the world.

"Riza is going to teach you how to handle a gun and other weapons," her mom said. "But you have to do everything she says. If you play any games, you're out. This is not stuff to toy with. You have to take this kind of thing as seriously as your sister takes alchemy or we won't let you keep going."

Kristen agreed readily. She could tell her mom wasn't sure about giving her access to weapons but her mom hadn't been so much older than her when she first learned to fight. Her dad didn't seem worried about it.

"We'll probably be leaving the kids with Izumi soon enough. She could use some toughening up."

And so Riza Hawkeye became Kristen's instructor. She taught her how to clean and take care of guns and how to shoot. The cleaning part was boring but Riza insisted that if Kristen wanted to learn how to use a gun, she had to respect it.

So Kristen obeyed. And at last she found something she could excel at.

She had a good eye and a steady hand, with practice, and she always threw herself into any physical challenge Riza set before her. Training with Riza gave Kristen a place to work off her energy. Even when she was at home she did drills. She did pull ups on trees and threw knives at the fence in the back on a makeshift target she drew herself.

Sometimes a General named Roy Mustang came to watch Kristen. He and Riza seemed quite close and Roy said that he was familiar with her mother.

"I gave her a job as a state alchemist," Roy said. "I was her superior. You may not be an alchemist yourself but one day you could make a fine addition to the military. If you can behave."

"Yes, sir. I can behave." Kristen saluted.

Riza and Roy would often talk when they thought Kristen wasn't listening. But Kristen almost always was tuned in to their conversations.

"She really looks a lot like Elizabeth," Roy said. "Even if she didn't get the alchemy bit."

"Not everyone is cut out to be an alchemist. I never was," Riza replied. "But there are other important skills."

"Of course," Roy said. "Still...it must be hard being in that family. They're all a bunch of freaks."

"I am a freak too," Kristen called out. "But a different kind of freak." She fired two shots into her target in rapid succession. They struck near the center.

"Yeah. She's definitely Elizabeth's daughter," Roy sighed.

It pleased Kristen to be compared to her mother. Because that meant she belonged. She wasn't just an outlier in a family of geniuses. She belonged to the Elric and Parker clan just as much as any of them and she claimed that role with pride. She moved loudly into every room and demanded to be heard and seen.

Because one thing Kristen feared above all was being forgotten.

Excelling in combat...it was just her way of shining in a family of already bright stars.

All of the next generations were different in so many ways. Even the two year olds were starting to show their colors. Timothy was a sweet hearted, quiet boy, Lori was thoughtful and calm and Nina was a bouncing bundle of energy always commanding the attention of those around her. They would all have their own skills and callings. Some mechanics, some alchemists. Some neither. But they all made up the legacy of those who had survived a lot of hardship and loss. That legacy always seemed to be growing too, with the arrival of two new little ones just a year a part: a girl named Trisha from Edward and Winry and a boy named Alexander from Al and Lucy. An ever growing family.

It seemed that life, which so often had taken away, was giving back in abundance. The Law of Equivalent exchange. It was easy to feel uneasy though, when one had too many blessings.

One never knows when the scale is going to tip again.

A/N: How forboding. There's a few more chapters of filler before the plot starts slowly building again, this time involving the children much more (I wanted to get them aged a bit and establish their personalities first). Review and see you next time!