author: carla, aka cali-chan
rating: PG-13, because of some swearing... Can't be helped,
since there will be people calling Ed "short" once in a while. Rating might
go up to R, though, depending on my mood when writing later chapters.
genre: AU, romance, a bit drama, really cheap humor XD
canon: manga ONLY!
pairings: EdoWin, RoyAi. Hughes will definitely be gushing about
his wife a lot...
summary: AU, chaptered, high-school themed, but not your usual
sweet-valley high school fanfic. Edward Elric has to become the best track
runner there is, for his mother, for his brother, and for everyone else
in his life. But will triumph come at a high cost?
in this chapter: Ed and Al go visit someone that will help Ed decide. Mwahaha BD
Chapter 6: Not to visit Sensei...!
Alphonse gulped as they unloaded their stuff at the bus station in Dublith. "Brother, do you really think this is a good idea?"
Edward didn't answer him, as he was busy picking up both his and his brother's backpacks. Al prodded him with a finger. "Brother, we can't hide the fact that we had an accident from her. She'll be furious! And what if she trips us like she used to? I'll end up in a wheelchair! And if she makes us run laps? I can't run laps, Brother...!"
"Al... Al!" Ed exclaimed, grasping his brother's shoulders and shaking him lightly, not enough to hurt him but sure that he'd get his attention. "Listen, I need to do this. So we just have to deal with it, okay?" He adjusted both bags over his shoulders again, so nothing would fall off, and gave Al a nervous smile. "Besides, bad news travel fast. She probably already knows about the accident. And I'll keep her off you as much as I can. That good for you?"
Al pulled on his collar but nodded reluctantly. He only did it to humor Edward. He was more or less resigned to his fate; even his older brother was no match for the woman when she was angered. And boy, was she going to be angry. That one they couldn't get out of. He just hoped she'd be lenient with him because he couldn't run from her...
"...Though you should probably try walking without your cane for a while. Just to... try something new..."
Al: T.T
Brother just wasn't making this any easier...
Al barely had time to put away his walking stick when they heard a voice calling them. They smiled when they saw Mason, who was surely sent by their teacher to pick them up. "How are you two! Ed, I see you've grown... Al, I see you've grown even MORE..."
"Don't even go there!" Ed growled at him, which made the man laugh.
"Ah, I see you haven't changed at all," Mason chuckled, picking up their bags effortlessly. "Hurry up, now. Mrs. Izumi is expecting you, so we better run. Oh, what am I saying, you're excellent runners, of course you'll run..."
Edward held back and walked at his brother's pace, so no one would notice that Al had to walk slower than normal. "Brother, this is the first time I've been seen as a runner since the accident...!" he whispered, with such awe in his voice, that it was difficult for Ed not to sweatdrop.
"I'm glad you're happy, Al..." he said, not bothering to hide his amusement. But still there was dread creeping up his spine. "Let's just hope it lasts." They walked for something like fifteen minutes until they finally came to a small, non-descript house. But it was a very familiar house.
"Stay out here. I'll go see if Mrs. Izumi can come out," Mason told them, and then went inside, yelling his boss' name.
Ed and Al huddled together, maybe thinking that there was strength in numbers. Not that it was going to be of any help. "What are the odds that she's having a really bad day and can't get up from the bed?" Edward asked his brother, voice a little shaky.
"I don't know, but I don't think it'll matter anyway," Alphonse muttered back. There the conversation died, and they eyes opened like plates when they saw a huge leg stomp its way out the door. The huge leg was followed by a huge arm holding onto the door, and the huge arm was followed by the huge body of a huge, somber-looking man who made the Elric brothers start sweating like crazy.
"H-hello..." Edward stuttered, looking up at him. Alphonse clung to his arm like he hadn't since he was six.
For a second there, it seemed like the man was about to hit them; but then, his expression changed into something that could almost-- ALMOST-- be called a smile. "Edward? Alphonse?" Both Elrics nodded. "You've-- Alphonse, you've grown!" The fact that he specifically commented on Alphonse's height didn't go unnoticed by Edward, but there was no way in hell he was going to freak out on his teacher's husband. That would be like suicide. "Glad you boys came by to visit!"
"Actually, I came by to get Sensei's opinion on something..." Ed explained, still feeling tense.
Sig nodded. "Very well. I'll go tell her you're here. She hasn't been feeling well lately, but I'm sure she'll be able to help you out." With that, he too went inside to talk to his bedridden wife.
The silence stretched on for what seemed like hours. The sun shined, crickets chirped, and was that... hay rolling down the street? The two were doing their best to look everywhere but at the door. And perhaps that was why they didn't notice the kick until Ed found himself flying through the air.
"So it's very nice of you two to come and visit after eight years of not doing so!" the woman stated, not even bothering with a fake sweet tone. She was being deliberately hard. Edward groaned from where his face was stuck to the ground... he wasn't sure if what he was feeling were his toes or if they were gone and he was just experiencing phantom pain.
She turned to Al and smiled. "Alphonse! You're really tall!" Al was almost beginning to relax when his teacher came up to pat him on the shoulder-- but the pat came a little too hard. He, too, ended up sprawled on the ground. Now everything hurt, but he sucked it up so she wouldn't notice the problem in his legs. If she did, the pain would be ten times worse. "Ha! You haven't been sparring. I wonder just how you've been practicing... Just running isn't enough, I thought I'd taught you that."
Not all was well in paradise, though, as she hadn't quite finished speaking when she coughed and spat a little blood out of her mouth. Her husband Sig was by her side in an instant, holding an handkerchief to her and lightly patting her back so she wouldn't choke. When she was feeling a little better, she turned to both boys, who were just getting up. "But anyway, come on in! We'll have some lunch and then we'll see what you came here for." If it had been any other person, they wouldn't have believed such a drastic mood change. Inwardly recognizing that some things never changed, they followed their teacher and her husband inside the house.
--
"I thought you already knew my opinion on that matter," Izumi told them as they finished eating. Ed had just explained the situation to her, and her expression had turned very serious.
"Yes, Sensei," Ed muttered in reply, looking down at the table. There were things you were taught at a very young age, that you couldn't understand at the time and so you learned to believe it even if you could find no reason. These things you did not doubt, you just took for granted. And as you grow up, and you begin to think these principles may be wrong, or at least try to find the reasoning behind them, it is still very hard to let go of the belief. This was one of those things, for the Elric brothers. Ever since they were very little they learned that their teacher had no love for State-sponsored runners. She never told them why, but her dislike was deeply ingrained in her two students. Now Ed wanted to know why it was she held those feelings. "But maybe it'd be more helpful to me... if I knew the reason."
Izumi looked at her two students, who were both sporting the same expression of dread and guilt. She wondered if it would be good for the both of them to know the truth. She frankly couldn't tell. The last time she'd seen them, they had seemed so innocent, still. But now...
She'd first met the Elric brothers ten years ago, when she'd gotten a job at Leizenburgh Elementary as a PE teacher. Little Ed was every bit the typical brat. Little Al followed him around everywhere, eyes shining in hero-worship; it was very cute, really. She liked kids, even if she wasn't really known for her patience. Ed didn't share the feeling, though. He always had a wiseass comment in class; he was always loud and rebellious, and they got into many an argument in that first semester she taught classes. She never thought an eight-year old pipsqueak could try her patience so much.
That was until the day they saw her run.
She never knew why they'd decided to go look for her after getting out of the showers. All she knew was that as she crossed the finish line and stopped to take a break, she found them on the edge of the track, looking up at her, eyes wide as saucers. They told her they liked to run, and they had been practicing, but their technique wasn't any good. They wanted to become better. And they begged for her to train them.
She grudgingly agreed (after they both hung onto her legs so hard that she couldn't walk and she just did whatever they asked so they would quit it), and it was the beginning of a... well, not really beautiful, but really interesting friendship.
She taught them everything they knew. She taught them to love the sport; to revel in the feel of the wind touching their face as they ran, and of the earth beneath their every step towards the goal. And she got to know them pretty closely. She learned that Edward was always so tough because their father had abandoned them and he thought he had to assume the role of the man of the house. She learned that ever since their father left, Alphonse had shifted his attention to his older brother, hoping Ed could be his guide in life. She learned that their mother was everything to them, that they wanted to be good runners because they wanted to make her proud, because their father had loved to run, too. She had grown to love the little rascals.
And then the miscarriage happened.
It was not only a terrible blow to her and her husband-- it also took a heavy toll on her body. She became sickly and suffered from a lot of pain, which would accompany her to her last day. It was a very hard ordeal overall. Of course she couldn't run anymore, and had to quit her job. It also meant she couldn't continue coaching the Elrics. In the end, she and her husband had to move back to their hometown, Dublith. They'd been living a quiet life ever since. She wasn't too worried about the kids, actually; they had improved enormously in the time she'd worked with them. They undoubtedly had a lot of potential, and they continued visiting her, anyway... until their mother died.
That was the last news she heard from them, seven years ago. Now she looked at them and she wondered where those two innocent kids she'd known were. It seemed they carried heavy burdens on their shoulders. Only the loss of the single most important person in their lives could cause such change in them.
She cleared her throat and stood up, Sig immediately rushing to assist her. She picked up her plate and handed it to her husband. "Let's just do the dishes first, and then we'll head outside. We'll talk there."
Both boys nodded and along with Mason, they started to take all eating utensils to the kitchen.
--
"Running for the State is no game," she started, as she sat in the rocking chair that Sig had brought out for her. Her two students sat on the floor in front of her, paying rapt attention. Edward was frowning. "Once you say yes, once you sign that contract... they own you."
"In what sense?" Al asked her, so curious.
"In every sense. You don't know how serious they are about winning; it's kind of a disease, in this country... too much pride, it becomes arrogance. They want to win. They want to win and be the best, and they don't care what they have to do or who they have to run over to do it."
"You mean..." Edward started, already thinking the worst. And he was right.
"I mean they'd do anything. You think they're giving you a chance; they aren't. They're only using you. They only want what you have to give them. They wrap you up in all the celebrity and the success and squeeze every bit of energy out of you. And if you don't deliver, they drop you; and want it or not, you're just never the same."
"How do you know all of this?" Edward asked her. He felt a little ganged up on. He knew, of course, that their teacher had a very negative opinion about State-sponsored runners, but he couldn't help but feel defensive.
"Well, you've never really been out of Leizenburgh... I can understand that you've never heard of these things," Izumi sighed, her expression going hard. "I think of it as common knowledge, the fact that State-sponsored runners tend to... disappear."
"What?" Alphonse asked, stunned. Disappear? Surely it had to be a metaphor for something else...
"There was a case, some years ago," she continued, looking up at the ceiling. She was trying to recall the details correctly, to give them a better idea of what they were getting into. "This man... he was a really good runner. It was uncanny; I remember watching him run, and it was almost like a work of art. He became like the wind... never have I seen anyone like that since then. He reached the World Championship, and he won. It was the first gold medal Amestris ever received."
"I don't see why anything would happen to him, then," Edward snapped. He didn't understand. At first, he'd imagined that she would try to put him off joining the State by telling him everything that was wrong with these people. He thought she'd try to intimidate him, tell him what a worthless person the pressure would make him, or something along those lines. But scare tactics? It wasn't like her. She knew he's no coward-- no matter how tough the shit got, he wasn't one of those who ran around crying for their mommy.
"Don't interrupt me," she told him sharply. She knew he was feeling attacked, but she was trying to make a point. "A few months after he came back from the Championship... rumors started popping up that he'd been using steroids to pump up his performance. Drugs. He always denied it, and the Federation always denied it. Nevertheless, he was ordered to take tests. Only two days before the testing was scheduled... he vanished. Nobody has ever seen him since. The general assumption is that he did take drugs and he couldn't take the pressure of people finding out so he went and jumped off a cliff or something."
She looked down at the boys, and saw that Alphonse was looking a little green. Edward's frown had deepened, if that was possible. "I don't believe that is what happened, though. A body was never found. And some weeks later the Federation gave a press conference explaining that they had never endorsed any kind of use of steroids and that while they regretted what had happened with this person, they hoped it would not tarnish the essence of track running. They came out looking like the victim. A bit too squeaky clean if you ask me."
"Wait a second, Sensei," Edward sprang up, looking at her with disbelief on his face. "Are you saying that you think the Federation killed him? Come on, you're making this sound like the Mafia..."
"I'm not saying anything," she replied forcefully. "Just stating the facts. You wanted to know about State-sponsored runners? Well, I'm telling you what I know about them." Edward still looked defiant but sat down anyway.
Alphonse looked up at her looking like he was going to be sick. "Who was he? How come we've never heard of him?"
Their teacher waved her hand. "Oh, it happened before I even met you two. It's been really long, even if you'd known, you wouldn't remember. It's hard, even for me... his name was very unusual... Honuheim? Huanheim?"
"Hohenheim?" The name slipped from Ed's mouth before he could stop himself. It wheezed through clenched teeth like a swear word.
Al's face snapped up, wide-eyed. When he saw recognition in his teacher's face, he had to ask. "What was he like? Can you remember?"
Izumi tried to remember. "Hmmm... Well, he was very tall, had long, blond hair, a beard... He was very handsome, I remember thinking." She felt her husband's dark glare on her back and she turned to see him standing behind on the other side of the window. "But no more than you are, honey! Now go on and continue working! I love you!" she laughed nervously, but it was apparently good enough for Sig. When she looked back at the two teens, she saw that Edward was looking down, with his bangs covering his face, and his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. "What's wrong?"
Alphonse, who was really pale, looked at his brother in concern before answering. "That man, he's our... father."
"The one who left home?" She asked them. Of all the things she expected to hear, this was definitely not one.
"It's just... hard to learn that he is dead after all," Al almost sighed. Izumi had to lean in to hear him.
"Oh, we don't know that, not really. We just know he's gone. For all we know he could be in hiding somewhere..." She rationalized, hoping that it would make them feel less shocked.
"Well that doesn't make it any goddamn better!" Ed exclaimed, and in a flash he was up and walking away, a light growl resounding in his throat. Al called out to him but he didn't listen, and they could only see his back as it grew smaller and smaller, finally dissappearing down a corner.
--
He came back, eventually. However, his teacher was so mad at him for running off like that, that it turned into an insult-fest (yet again). Later on she reluctantly agreed to let them eat dinner before they had to take the midnight train back to Leizenburgh.
They left their bags in the entrance and turned back to look at their teacher, Sig and Mason. "Well, it's been great seeing you all again! You certainly helped us a lot, Sensei!" Ed exclaimed, his voice a little too chirpy. Inside he was shaking; just a few minutes more and they'd be gone, and she never would find out...
"That's great, Edward!" she replied, smiling at them. "So when were you planning on telling me about the accident?"
Al and Ed simultaneously jumped ten feet back and clung to eachother instinctively. She was not smiling anymore; her eyes had narrowed and her face looked fierce. At the same time, it seemed like the night had grown darker-- were the moon not shining anymore?-- and they could clearly see a bright, angry blue aura surrounding the figure of their teacher. "W-what accident?" Al tried to make his voice sound as nonchalant as possible, but of course everyone could see right through it, what with the stutter and all.
"Don't take me for a fool! I'm a runner myself, did you really not expect me to notice that you're limping, Alphonse? Tell me now!" she almost barked back at them, and they jumped back just a little more.
They had no choice but to tell her, then, and hope that the beating they would get didn't hurt too much. They gave her a short version of the story; after all, they didn't want to miss the train. Her response was nothing along the likes of short. "STUPID boys! What the hell were you thinking! I taught you better than that! You can't be that reckless! What kind of athlete goes around looking for an injury! You could've been killed!" and that was just the general gist of it.
Ed and Al took it like men, though. They just looked down and let her rant at them, knowing that it would make her feel better, and they deserved it, anyway. She was right, it had been stupid. They heard her take a deep breath and pause for a moment. "You must've been in a lot of pain, weren't you?"
They both looked up at her, trying to convey how much they regretted their actions. "We're very sorry, Sensei," Alphonse expressed, and Edward nodded. "Yeah, we are."
She sighed and crossed her arms. "Well, there's not much you can do about it now." She walked up to them as Ed picked up both of their bags. "So, are you going to do it?"
Edward was silent for a couple of seconds. Al looked at him, ready to tell him that he understood and respected his decision not to join the State, when he saw the determined gleam in his brother's eyes. "If it was only up to me, perhaps I would consider rejecting the offer," Ed began, looking straight into his teacher's eyes like he didn't have an ounce of doubt in his body. "Perhaps then I would be scared. But I'm not doing this for myself; I'm doing this for my mother, and for my brother. I just have to try this. And I can't be scared, I simply do not have that option." He smirked then. "Besides, if they try to pull anything on me, THEY'RE the ones that should be scared, not me."
The shine was back in Alphonse's eyes as he looked at his brother, his admiration growing by the second. Izumi smiled again, albeit a litle sadly. "Just be careful, ok?" He nodded and she embraced them both as a goodbye, as Mason picked up their bags to take them to the train station.
author's notes--
tadaaaaaaahhhh! 8D
oi, guys, i'm really sorry about taking longer to update (it could be worse, though, believe me-- i have fics that haven't been updated in years!). as i told you, inspiration comes and goes and i'm just busier and busier every day. the next chapter will probably come out sooner than this one did, though, since it's one chapter i've been waiting a LONG time to write XD
i hoped you liked this one; izumi's just really hard to write and there were so many plot points in this one that i had to watch my steps carefully so i wouldn't end up with plot holes the size of canada. i JUST finished writing it, so please excuse me if there are any typos or sentences that just don't make sense. i'll come back and edit, i just didn't want to make you guys wait anymore.
oi! i JUST noticed that according to the little timeline i made up for this thing, ed will be 19 by the time he graduates O.o what the heck? that's just weird. please just ignore this... the ages aren't THAT much important anyway.
reviews, reviews...!
brickwall: ack! well, that's what i really meant. i'm sorry if it confused you! -- i'll try to be more clear from now on. let's just leave it at that :)
deepcrimsonotaku: oh, thank you! i'm glad you liked it, i'm working really hard to keep it as true to the original story as i can. it's kinda sad that some parts of it can't make it in, though, like for example in this chapter, i very much wanted to find a way to include the whole "month in the island" part. but alas, i just couldn't find one -- so it had to be left out. such a shame, it is sooooo funny. yeah, it's going kind of slow, isn't it? i just need some time to explain things through before ed embarks on his journey-- once edo gets to central, the story will move much faster. and i'm glad you liked al's despair (boy that doesn't sound very nice XS), i felt it was a very important part on his development as a character.
next chapter we're back in leizenburgh! and some new characters are coming in. be sure to keep on reading!