(A chapter that was not in the original! You guys inspired me, I guess. Parts of this chapter are very heavily influenced by hime1999's alter!series (and if you haven't read it… you should. Check the LJ alter(underscore)series community. Really!). And now you get your Edward! At this point the story moves a bit away from the crossover for awhile and focuses almost entirely on the Elrics (mostly Alphonse). So with this I unceremoniously throw this back into the FMA category, give it a pat on the back, and say "Hi story, at this point in you I was finally less angry at the characters and a real plot starts to develop! Yay!" These author's notes often make no sense, I'm sorry. It's finals week, I'm allowed a little bit of insanity, I hope.)
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Hohenhime Elric wandered through the street market in Munich, watching the people going about their business for the day. He stayed out of it today. He'd done his shopping the day before and now was only out for some fresh air and to watch the people. There was something about these people that was just intrinsically different from the ones he knew at home, and he hoped that maybe if he watched them enough he'd eventually be able to put his finger on what it was. As he walked he glanced down every alleyway. Street sense told him that it was a bad idea, dangerous people lurk and do their business in the alleys, but he looked anyway. It was a part of taking in the entire scene, understanding and analyzing the whole. The habit was wound too far into the very being of his existence that it was impossible to break. It did have its advantages, however, even if they were more often the advantages of those waiting in the alleys. This day was a rare case though – an almost completely improbable coincidence.
It had been odd enough that he'd found him the first time with the help of a stray dog. It had been a rainy day – he was cold and wet, huddled in an alleyway in London not far from where he had found himself a few days before. He had explained the coincidence away as a result of the two of them being sent through at such similar times. Here it was, two entire years later and he was looking at the same sleeping form yet again. He took a step into the alleyway and looked down at the boy, sleeping under a pile of newspapers. Not many children living on the street would have taken the time to read the papers before sleeping under them, however - but there they were, unfolded and put back together messily to form a blanket. This particular boy had also been careful to keep the papers over his arms and legs. Unusual, since most people had the sense to cover their torso instead, since it was where most heat was generated. Especially unusual considering the fact that it was now late spring and it was rarely cold enough to freeze at night. He was surprisingly clean, so obviously he hadn't been in this situation very long. Perhaps now Hohenhime would have a real chance to make everything up to him. This wasn't how he'd wanted it to be, but he could make the most of the situation. He knelt down and nudged the boy to wake him up.
Ed jumped at the touch, scrambling into a defensive position and readying himself for a counter-attack in case the shadow looming over him was a threat. Hohenhime sighed at his reaction, though it didn't surprise him. He blamed himself that his son had been forced to lead a life that would make that reaction an instinct. His regrets haunted him even here, in what would normally be the least likely of places. When the recognition finally shone in the boy's eyes, he offered his hand to him and helped him up. Ed took it and stood, and Hohenhime noted that his right hand had once again returned to cold, hard automail. No wonder he'd paid more attention to covering his limbs when he slept. Looking Ed over more closely, Hohenhime noticed that he was more than a little disoriented. He stood uneasily on his feet, resting his weight against Hohenhime. None of the contempt he had shown him when they had first been reunited showed behind his eyes. Perhaps those feelings had left him in London, though Hohenhime didn't believe it was likely. Without a word he bent down and swung the boy's left arm over his shoulders, walking him out of the alley. The people in the market were still minding their own business, only glancing to the side briefly. Hohenhime was known to take in strays.
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It was unfortunately no surprise a few weeks later when Hohenhime found Ed packing his things in the living room, careful to leave his automail arm at his side. Once he had gotten over the initial sicknesses that inevitably hit while the body was adjusting to all the new microscopic threats the new world had to throw at it, Ed had been determined to get out on his own and pursue his own research. At first he had listened to Hohenhime's theories on the gate, his research with the Thule society and his hypotheses on summoning the gate without requiring death. After a day or so, they began to sound more and more like fairy tales. He had only escaped before because the body he had been borrowing had been killed. Alchemy didn't exist here, he didn't understand why his father would continue to believe that some part of it could be used to summon the gate, or why he would intentionally lead an entire other group of people from this world into his ideas. Edward had no doubt that his father was a brilliant man, but he accepted that their means to ends were very different. Instead of listening to his father, he took to studying his automail limbs. They still functioned in this world, though he was very careful with them to avoid suspicion and to avoid needing to repair them. He tried to understand how they worked, if only so he would know how to fix them if the need ever arose, but he soon found himself amazed by their mechanics. Automail still worked in this world… perhaps it was the key – some sort of link, a constant between his home and this dirty desperate world. As he slowly got over the colds and flues that had assailed him since he arrived, he had his father bring him books – anything he could find on mechanics and physics, and as soon as he had the energy, he moved himself to what passed for the study in Hohenhime's small apartment. Later, he moved on to the library, devouring everything he could find in those few weeks, working his way up to modern physics. The science, he found, was often close to the principals of alchemy. He found himself particularly drawn to the studies of what was beyond the sky. It was something he had never considered back home, but here, looking up at the night sky, people always seemed to wonder if there was something more out there. There were scientists working to get people beyond the veil of the blue sky above them. It wasn't exactly the most logical way for him to return home, but it seemed to Edward to be far more promising than waiting around for the gate to open again.
He found Oberth's stapled research papers in one of the back rooms of the library. It was recent and, as often was the case in universities, ignored because it wasn't tested, was yet to be proven. Actual physical research appealed more to Ed than the strange theories of Einstein, about time dilation and returning younger than your friends when travelling at the speed of light. It sounded dubious, a theory similar to the way that Hohenhime tried to fit alchemical ideas into the logic of the world he was trapped in. He decided that he would simply have to set off again, get out from the shadow of his father, and find his own way back home. Hohenhime was pleasantly docile about the decision. It seemed that he'd accepted it that it was in an Elric's blood to leave and never look back when the need to go struck them. He stood at the door and waved as he left, suitcase in hand, to pursue his own ideas.