When Meeting Old Friends

Disclaimer: Characters and setting are the property of Hiromu Arakawa. I'm just borrowing them for a bit of non-profit angst.

Izumi Curtis didn't let herself watch the children as they played. They'd left Dublith because of the children. Izumi could cheerfully and forcefully tell the town's people that it was none of their damn business when they questioned her decision to take in a child with such a profound air of wrongness but the children trusted her more than their own instincts. She didn't know how to make them understand that even though she'd taken the boy into her home and treated him as her child Shon was not a suitable playmate for any small, fragile bits of life.

This would be a fresh start. Shon had been badly frightened by the rage he'd invoked in Dublith; there was a good chance he'd be more willing to do as she said this time. If she and Sig kept to themselves these children wouldn't be so inclined to try to include Shon in their games. Hopefully they could live here quietly in semi-reclusion and no one else would be hurt by her sin.

Still, it wasn't going to be easy; she'd always loved children. Wistfully Izumi's gaze slid back to the laughing, exuberant play. She and Sig had decided that they wouldn't let it be known that she was an Alchemist, if their parents didn't turn to Izumi when their tools broke the children wouldn't bring their broken toys to her. She could still watch them and wish that her Shon could be like them.

Izumi's eyes widened in surprise when she saw a familiar golden-haired boy hesitantly join the younger children's games. Almost before the boy's identity registered in her mind Izumi was searching the group for the blonde's calmer, bronze-haired shadow. She frowned when she failed to spot Alphonse; in Izumi's experience the brothers were completely inseparable. The younger boy's absence was enough to make her doubt that the blond was really Edward and not a doppelganger.

One of the smaller children balanced precariously on a tree limb while he tried to reach a higher limb on the other side of the trunk. The older children had made it across the gap with ease but he couldn't quite reach. He leaned out a bit further then shrieked as he lost his balance and fell. As one, Izumi and Edward clapped their hands, Alchemic fire raced across the ground and merged beneath the falling boy. The dirt changed texture and became a cushion to soften the boy's landing.

The two Alchemists sighed in relief when the small boy's terrified cry turned into laugher as he bounced on the cushion. Then Edward and Izumi's eyes met across the park.

"Teacher?" Ed's voice came out as a strangled squeak. Then he turned and ran.

"Ed didn't use a circle," Izumi said to herself; her eyes filled with anger and disappointment as she realized what that meant. She'd heard rumors, she'd almost gone out looking for her errant apprentices, but then she'd found Shon and in the delay the stories about the Fullmetal Alchemist began to sound less and less like Edward and Alphonse Eldric. She'd let herself become convinced that it wasn't them, she'd been wrong.

Izumi sprinted across the park, angling to cut off her wayward student's retreat.

Edward reached the gate he'd chosen for his escape three steps in front of Izumi. She lunged forward and just caught the trailing hem of his coat but that was enough. Izumi yanked back sharply and sent Edward tumbling to the ground. Then she took another step forward to loom over the boy menacingly. "Edward, haven't you learned that running away only makes your punishment worse?"

Ed's face colored. "Err, hi Teacher. I didn't see you?"

"Edward," Izumi sighed and shook her head. "You're a terrible liar. I don't know why you even try." Then in a carefully neutral voice she asked, "Where is your brother?"

"Al's in Rizenbool," Ed replied. "Winry and Auntie Pinako needed help."

A measure of tension went out of Izumi's frame at Ed's reply. She caught Ed by his arm and pulled him to his feet. "Then we'll just go collect him and I'll deal with the both of you at once."

"You're taking me to Rizenbool?" Ed asked.

For a moment Izumi saw a look of bone deep terror in his eyes then it was gone.

Ed yanked his arm free. "I'm not going," he declared. "Roy'll think the Military got me, then he'll get himself in trouble. Besides, they'd expect me in Rizenbool, I really would get caught. And we've got important stuff to do. I'm not going and you can't make me!"

"Edward, what is-" Izumi began.

"I said I'm not going!" Ed shouted, he clapped his hands and leapt backwards as he raised an earthen wall between himself and Izumi.

"Edward!" Izumi shouted angrily and shattered the wall just in time to see Ed's braid disappearing around the corner.

Izumi gave chase again but this time Ed used his Alchemy with reckless abandon to throw up barriers between them.

Edward's antics didn't go unnoticed by the Military detachment stationed in the town. Ed looked over his shoulder to check on Izumi's progress and ran right smack into a bulky Lt. Colonel. The man grabbed Ed's shoulder and put his gun to Ed's temple. "If you do anything more than breath I'll shoot," the Lt. Colonel threatened.

Ed froze.

"Corporal Dice, get over here," the Lt. Colonel called. One of his subordinates ran over to them. "Remove the arm."

"Yes sir," Dice replied as he ripped Ed's shirt so that he could detach the blond's automail arm. Once the arm was off the Lt. Colonel relaxed and lowered his gun.

Ed spun on his heel and kicked the Lt. Colonel in the stomach. Then he snatched his arm back from the startled Corporal and made a break for it.

A bullet kicked up the dust just in front of Ed's feet. "Freeze!" a voice shouted.

Ed looked around the square and saw four other soldiers all aiming at him. He hesitated and the Lt. Colonel brought the butt of his pistol down on the back of Ed's skull.

Izumi watched the soldiers restrain her unconscious student with murder in her eyes. She was about to intervene when a small, pale boy with wide, purple eyes caught her attention. The boy crept closer to the soldiers and their captive with an expression of boundless curiosity. A look of indecision crossed Izumi's face. Then she worked her way around the edge of the square.

"Shon!" she hissed and sharply gestured the boy to her side.

Shon sent one last, fascinated glance toward Edward then sighed and obediently went to Izumi.

"You were to stay in the yard," Izumi reminded the boy.

"I'm bored!" he declared. "Play with me!"

"Shon, I want you to go straight back to the house."

"I don't want to!"

"Now!" Izumi snapped.

The boy gave her a sulky, resentful glare and Izumi knew he wouldn't obey, she knew what sort of trouble he could cause as well. She looked back at the soldiers, they were wrapping Edward in some sort of modified straightjacket; it seemed likely that their intension was her student's capture and not immediate harm. Izumi caught Shon's arm and began marching the recalient child home while silently promising Edward that she would be back for him.

Author's Notes: If there's any doubt, Shon is Wrath. Al died shortly after Lab 5, before Izumi comes into the story (actually I started writing this story before seeing any of the episodes with Izumi in them), thus Ed and Al never went to Dublith with her, the miliary never followed them there and the other homunculi never discovered Wrath. He's been with Izumi for several years at this point and is still in his 'untainted child' persona (although, and I'm thinking about the scene where he was 'playing' with the mouse, he's a bit of a sociopath). Izumi eventually named him (and I couldn't have her naming him Wrath).