Chapter One

City of Heresy

Loire

10:35 am

The short blond boy dressed inadvisably in black leather with a heavy red overcoat sat at the counter next to a large figure dressed in full armor. One would assume this would raise at least eyebrows but in the border towns they tend to see oddly dressed and behaving people passing through. This would in their favor to an extent, until the smaller one began asking questions.

The smaller boy, Edward Elric, known as The Fullmetal Alchemist, was not in the mood for subtle. It had been an awfully long hot day already and it wasn't even noon. He just wanted to figure out what was going on in this town, search for clues on the Stone, and get home. He wasn't in the mood for some random religious nut exploiting people for his own gain…not that Ed was ever in the mood for such behavior.

After they managed to get information out of the locals, and headed over to the church, Ed talked to Rose. Or rather he lectured her on the foolishness of her beliefs. He had promised himself he would stay out of any of these philosophical debates with the locals because it would just make the mission more complicated… but then he saw the desperation in her eyes and heard it in her voice. He recognized that desperation, it led to bad places. Places that made the impossible seem logical and cost far higher than you could imagine before you began.

After managing to convey none of what he had meant to be helpful advice, he was led to Father Cornello. It was not surprising considering the way the rest of the trip had gone, but the double cross was actually almost insulting. After they managed to get away, and Al took Rose to safety while Ed waited in the man's office, he considered using the man's phone to check in but before he could do more than reach for the phone he was interrupted.

Loire Hotel

8:30 pm

That evening, after his final bit of badly dispensed advice to Rose, he was surprised they were actually welcome at the local inn. Normally he would have insisted on running to the next town over before relaxing enough to sleep, but this had been an exhausting day and he just wanted sleep.

They received their room key, and he handed it over to Al before stating. "I'm going to call and check in you go ahead up to the room; I'll be up after I find something for dinner."

"Okay Brother, don't go far." Al said before heading up the stairs. Ed looked around for the phones.

They were around the corner tucked away next to the bathrooms. Ed dug the change out leaned against the wall after he dialed the familiar number. It rang a couple of times before the line picked up. "Hey, it's me." Ed said well aware of how tired he sounded.

"Public line?" Mustang asked in response.

"Yeah, open payphone next to the bathrooms. How's Yu? Oh, and Cobalt?"

"They're fine. I assume by your tone you'll be heading back tomorrow?"

"Yeah, the whole damn thing was a bust. Dead end." Ed said trying not to sound depressed about it.

"Hey. Next time, okay?" Mustang said trying to comfort the best he could over the phone, especially an unsecured line.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll have a full report ready when I get there. I'm going to go find food and a pillow. We'll be on the first train out tomorrow." Ed said, before hanging up and turning to head toward the dining room.

Rose was standing near him, by the entry of the dining room, so he sighed heavily but gestured for her to join him. If he didn't get food in him soon, he would get grouchy and no one wanted that. Rose didn't speak until after they had ordered. "Thank you. For dinner I mean… For being willing to talk to me as well I guess."

"Eh, I kinda owe you at least a dinner after turning your whole life upside down. Not that I regret doing that. It had to be done so if you plan on threatening me or whatever I would prefer if we ate first since my stomach is about to eat itself at this point." Edward said in a failed attempt at being nice.

"No, you were right. About the church. He was never going to even try to help me…was he?"

"No, he wasn't. To be fair, it isn't possible Rose. Life flows one direction and when you attempt to alter that flow it costs far more than it's worth." Ed said as he clutched a fist in his right hand.

"Who were you on the phone with? If I'm not being to forward?" Rose asked after a minute of him still staring down at his hand. She wanted to ask him more about what came next, but he seemed distracted, maybe changing the subject would help and then she could sneak her questions back into the conversation.

"Babysitter. My Boss. Depends on who you ask." Ed said absently with a yawn. "Look, I don't know what else I can really do for you or say. Just keep moving forward and one day you'll moved so far ahead it will be a pain you can breathe through… it may even fade to simple regret. But if you keep pursuing the impossible the pain, it just keeps hitting in new forms. "

"I don't understand."

"Good. Keep it that way." Ed said as the food arrived, and he stopped talking in favor of shoving food into his mouth as fast as possible.

"You're a state alchemist, why would you need to be babysat?" Rose asked suddenly, causing Ed to choke on an aborted laugh.

After he managed to clear his airway and took a sip of water he said in a raspy voice. "I don't need a babysitter for myself; my son is about to turn seven months in a few days."

"Um… I thought you were about my age?" Rose asked in confusion as she looked over the boy across from her.

"Dunno. How old are you?" Ed asked around a bite of food.

"Sixteen, seventeen next month."

"Just turned fifteen myself. What can I say, I'm kinda the king of impulsive life choices? The good news is I never make the same mistake twice?" Ed said with a shrug, as he grabbed the last roll because he only had to be polite for a few minutes and if the other diners hadn't taken it by then it was up for grabs. House rules.

"You were fourteen when you had him?"

"I was fourteen when he was born. I didn't have him, that's not how it works, but yeah. Like I said impulsive choices."

"I see." Rose said now sounding a little uncomfortable. Ed understood, he wasn't the only teen parent in the country, but it wasn't common either. Not that he felt like explaining the complicated and bizarre way he came into parenthood even if he didn't have a cover story to maintain.

"Here I have some photos." Ed said as he pulled a stack of photos out that was small enough for Hughes to have dubbed it 'a good start' and thick enough to have made Mustang groan. Rose for her part seemed wary not that Ed noticed once he was in 'dad mode'. "Here this one was taken last week. It was his first-time eating peas. It turned out that he hated them, and this one was a week before that when he was playing with our cat. Cobalt enjoys Yuery's attention. Here another one, this time he was trying to crawl. He didn't really get any further than pulling his knees beneath him but yeah."

"You seem very proud of him." Rose said attempting to distract him from the picture show. "He takes after his mom I assume?"

"What do you mean, he looks just like me." Ed said completely straight faced. Rose sputtered for a moment in confusion before he started laughing and added. "I'm just messing with you, yeah he looks just like Emma."

The Emma story was getting easier to tell every time and Mustang had encouraged him to go over it as often as people brought it up to make it easier, much like his train bombing story to cover his missing limbs and his brother's armor. Rose had opened the conversation, so he was guiltless. He pulled the other photo out, the one he kept for when someone brought up Yuery not looking like him. It was a photo of a raven-haired girl about Ed's age sitting in a hospital bed holding a bundle that had to be a newborn. He had put the photo in his wallet once he had been given permission to remove it from his desk. To make it fit he had folded it in half and as a result it was beginning to look a bit frayed and faded.

Luckily, he had additional copies of the photos hidden in his apartment, so he wasn't overly concerned with the photo being ruined, and the frayed look made it look better according to Mustang for some reason. Rose looked at the photo out of politeness before handing it back with a small smile. "She's very pretty, you have a nice-looking family."

"She was pretty, yeah." Ed said.

"Did something happen to her?" Rose asked in a cautious tone.

"She died about four months ago."

"Oh! I'm sorry." Rose said, as she decided internally that it explained a lot of his gruff behavior toward her and her own mourning. He had to still be mourning himself. She felt a little selfish thinking as she had that he had no idea what he was talking about when he'd lectured her. Now though with this new information, he was simply speaking from one broken heart to another.

Ed had no idea this was her thought process, or it would have launched him into another lecture. His motives for being so harsh with her was simple. He saw it in her eyes, she was desperate enough to try it herself. He put his stack of photos back in one of his many pockets before continuing his meal. The intentional silence grew awkward for her, before she finished her own meal and excused herself. He sighed with relief as she left. He had hoped to avoid a second round of 'What do I do now' and for whatever reason that showing off his son's photos held, they worked. He would have to remember that for the future. Apparently, showing off baby photos threw off lectures and begging. No wonder Hughes always kept them on hand.

After settling the bill, Ed made his way up to the room where Al waited reading a book. As soon as Ed came in though he set the book aside and looked expectantly at his brother. Ed rolled his eyes before answering the unasked question. "LazyCat is fine and perfectly happy to be visiting the Colonel who is spoiling her rotten. Yuery is also well, thanks for your concern. Dinner was passable, some kind of meat pie, kind of bland but big… nothing to bother with for your food list."

"Her name is Cobalt as you well know Brother. And I was going to ask after the baby so don't be like that." Al said with a sigh. "What kept you if everything was fine?"

"That church girl showed up, eavesdropping on my phone call too, so I bought her dinner and showed off photos of Yu until she left for some reason… I don't know maybe she just wanted a free meal." Ed said as he changed into his sleep shirt and threw his pants over a chair. He climbed into bed and yawned largely.

"Well she seemed nice at first, but then I think she may be a bit lonely or something." Al said as he turned off the light and picked back up his book. The limited light of the moon would cause eyestrain if he had eyes, but there was just enough light for him to see the pages. Before he could say anything else his brother was already snoring softly.

Train bound for East City leaving at seven thirty…

7:35 am

Al ran ahead as the train began to pick up speed and his brother trailed a few steps behind. He jumped onto the caboose platform before reaching out for his brother and helped Ed onto the train. "That was close Brother." Al said as Ed straightened his coat and the entered the rear door.

"That was too close. I'm getting to old for this crap Al." Ed complained as they made their way through the cars in search of an open space. He sighed in grateful frustration as he finally found a seat three cars from the engine.

"You are barely fifteen Brother; you are hardly old." Al said as he sat across from Ed.

"Age and being too old are separate issues Al." Ed muttered grumpily. He rubbed his shoulder port absently, as he tried to stretch out his leg. Both had been aching heavily all morning, as commonly occurred following either bad weather or an alchemic battle. Fighting in general took a toll, but the use of his powers clashing against another's caused pain in his stumps.

It didn't help matters that his gait was feeling uneven lately. Really, he needed to take the time to return to Resembool to have his leg adjusted. Unfortunately, that would then lead to an extremely uncomfortable conversation with his friend and mechanic, Winry. Edward had promised Al that he would talk to her as soon as he could, but then he had managed to avoid the conversation for the last three months since he'd made it.

Al was watching him in that way he did when he knew Ed was in pain and pretending not to be, and it was annoying him. With a heavy sigh Ed slumped over in his seat to nap, he muttered to Al. "I had a long night, kept waking up looking for Yu."

Al sighed as he said. "I know. Still, that's not all of it. You need to go see Winry and Granny Ed. You're starting to limp, and it's causing you pain. I know you're putting off telling them about the baby but really Brother this stubbornness is only hurting you."

"I know, I know. Look, I'll talk to Mustang and if the lazy Bastard hasn't found anything new for us, I'll see if he can spare me for a bit to head out to the country for a few days. It still may have to wait though Al, I can't just take off now that I've been working in the office. What if they need me for something?"

"You and I both know your office job is just busy work so you could have an excuse not to look into nannies. Mr. Mustang will let you go if you bring it up to him, he's been extra nice lately." Al said, then with a sly tone added. "Besides, your gait being off means you grew taller since your last adjustment, don't you want to show it off?"

Ed snored in return before Al sighed a second time and turned his attention to his journal. Things had been strained between them since Yuery's arrival a few months earlier. Alphonse, if he was to be honest with himself, knew that he was the primary source of the strain

. He was frustrated with his brother, and annoyed that Edward had been keeping things from him. He knew it was petty and selfish, but he was also annoyed that their journey had suffered from these delays. He couldn't voice that aloud to anyone. He did believe his brother that this baby situation wasn't planned even if he didn't believe Ed about where that child had come from. This was part of the problem. Al didn't believe Ed about the baby's origins even if it did fit in well with all the random craziness that seemed to follow them around. Al just wanted things to go back to normal and for them to find a stone and then just… just live he supposed.

Ed did look exhausted lately, which concerned Al too. Ed was spending every weekday in the office, evenings researching and going through his exercises, and nights caring for Yuery. Ed needed sleep, sometimes it seemed like he needed more than most people, and he wasn't getting it. There was no use in fretting though, so he made his way back to the dining car to collect something for Ed to eat once he woke up. Ed had skipped breakfast to make the train.