Author's Note: The site isn't letting me use those little paragraph divider thingies. Sorry if anyone gets confused with the small time lapses. I'll try to add the dividers later. Uh... yeah. I'm trying to fit this into the manga and anime simultaneously, so there won't be any of the anime-version of Sloth. I hope this isn't boring you to death! XD

Morning.

Mother's funeral. The first half of the day was clear and pleasantly warm. A kind breeze rolled across the hills. The brothers were to meet at Pinako's house before ten o'clock to have breakfast and get ready for the funeral. Al's head was swimming and he followed Ed around in a hopeless daze. Ed had nothing more to think about. His face was solid as brick.

Winry greeted them outside the front door of her house, Den at her side. The dog barked excitedly as Ed and Al approached. He was used to them—they'd been around since before he had and were present the day Winry had received him as a gift from her parents. They were part of the Rockbell house as much as Den was. Winry smiled sadly as Ed brushed past her, younger brother in tow, black clothes draped over his arm. "Good morning, Ed and Al," she said, with what sounded like hopeful sweetness. "I'm glad you made it. Granny thought you might be late..."

Ed didn't say anything.

Al paused in the doorway of the Rockbell house to look back at Winry, her blonde hair shining lightly in the mid morning sunshine. "I'm sorry, Winry," he said to her, his voice hurt, although apologetic. "Ed and I are just…"

The girl's expression softened with understanding. "I know, Al…"

He nodded softly and followed his brother into the house.

The funeral was at eleven, but it felt like time had fallen away sometime after Mother had. Ed was much too absorbed in his own conclusion to say anything to the various adults who had offered their condolences. They said they 'understood what he must be going through'. That wasn't possible. Did those adults know what it felt like to know your younger brother cried himself to sleep? They could keep their sympathy. It wasn't going to bring Mother back. But Ed knew what was.

The funeral proceedings were dull and slow. Some people cried. It felt strange to be dressed up for this. These clothes had been used for church only before now… but Ed supposed that this was as much as mass as any Sunday one they'd ever attended for any other reason. People he had never seen dress up were now cloaked morbidly for the burial of his precious mother. Even Pinako had laid aside her apron and pipe. Next to him, all Alphonse could do was sob as Mother's death was truly confirmed by prayer and burial. All Ed could do was watch with a straight face.

This was not going to be the end.

The brothers remained at the tombstone long into the day, not leaving its side even after the other people had gone away. Her stone became obscured by flowers from others grieving her loss, but none more so than Ed and Al. Father, who Ed now honestly believed to be the cause of Mother's death, hadn't even bothered to make himself present once she was gone. That bastard.

Even by now, Al's crying hadn't subsided. By now, it was very obvious that he and Ed had different ways of showing grief. Al with his tears, Ed with his face of stone and his far away golden eyes… But Al could stop crying soon. Edward was quite sure of that. This plan of his was going to work.

"How are we going to do this?" Alphonse whimpered, fresh tears still rolling down his cheeks. "How are we going to live without her?" He looked up at his brother, eyes confused and pleading. Ed had to have an answer, didn't he? He always had one…

The elder brother was silent a moment. He didn't give Al so much as a glance, eyes locked on the carved stone; face straight, eyes still dry. Had he even cried at all? He furrowed his brow only slightly. "We're not, Al," he said quietly. "We're going to bring her back…"

Ed had always dreamt of getting a real alchemy teacher. He often daydreamed about being taught by a real master who knew all sorts of different transmutation theories, and could teach him new things that Father's books hadn't entailed. In his mind, the alchemy master was always a proficient older man with dark hair and stern eyes. Someone strict but intelligent. Someone who knew the ways of alchemy and could teach him, and somehow provide a fatherly presence in his life, which was something he had never really known.

Well, he'd been somewhat right.

His teacher was indeed proficient with dark hair and stern eyes. His teacher indeed knew the ways of alchemy. His teacher could, in fact, teach him new things. But his alchemy teacher was a woman… and she was bitch.

The idea of having Izumi for an alchemy teacher had seemed like a good idea at the time. She could transmute without a circle! She had strong alchemic skills and a solid demeanor. But she was strict and seemed unforgiving. She couldn't be the fatherly presence in his life, nor could she replace his mother. She could, however, teach him enough decent alchemy to make his plan work.

Ed and Al had both cheered up reasonably ever since Ed's proposal that they bring Mother back. Al was often filled with a nervous but excited anticipation when he thought about how Mother would be able to come home to them once they got back to Risembool. It would soon seem like she had never really left them! Soon the boys began to talk about her as though she weren't really dead—just 'gone away' for awhile, per say.

But learning alchemy wasn't as simple as lessons in a classroom, or writing with ink. It wasn't at all like reading from Father's texts and copying the transmutation circles found inside. Izumi had other ideas; the first of which was to prove that they were good enough to be her apprentices in the first place. So she left them on an island for a month to fend for themselves. No alchemy. No help. The only assistance she provided was in a single knife, and a few words.

One is all, and all is one.

That, she had decided, was to be their motivating factor. Think about those words; what they were, and what they meant. Draw their meaning from the world around them. Figure it out, or she'd toss them back to Risembool. Thus, it was play her seemingly twisted game, or learn nothing from her at all. If they failed, they'd stop lessons without really having started them in the first place.

After one month of suffering and being maimed by some brute in a mask (among other 'minor' problems), the Elric brothers found the meaning of the words, and confidently presented it to the returning teacher, who was surprised they'd even figured it out, and lugged them back to Dublith in her little boat.

I am the one and the world is the all!

The principle of alchemy.

Izumi Curtis was the wife of meat shop owner Sig Curtis. He was a huge man of few words, quiet and broad. He rarely said anything that Ed and Al were aware of, except for the occasional grunt in response here and there. He was a little intimidating, but he wasn't so bad. Izumi, on the other hand, had silently been dubbed the "crazy sadistic witch" by Ed. She could almost be called beautiful if she wasn't so terrifyingly violent. Besides alchemy, she also taught them some martial arts. This was a good opportunity to learn to fight properly, and apparently the mind and the body needed to be balanced in a good alchemist, so she trained them hard.

Ed and Al started off as terrible fighters. They had thought the worst of their training may have been left behind on that island with the masked brute, but Izumi was ten times as tough. She was fast and agile and very, very strong. She cracked down on incorrect techniques and used their margin of error against them when they failed to correct themselves even after the hard lectures on the importance of proper hip rotation and other seemingly useless things.

"Alphonse!" she would bellow. "That's not a side kick! Pivot when you turn, and retract your leg when you're finishing!"

"Edward!" she would boom. "Keep your shoulders square when you punch! Aim for the center line! You aren't going to hit anything with that!"

Sparring matches with Teacher were painful and tiring. She made a good job of pointing out their many mistakes, and then using them to her advantage. They knew she was going easy on them or they'd be dead, but even still, training lead to aching bodies every time. Most times, they couldn't even land a decent attack on her without being thrown into a wall or some shrubbery. At the end of just a week and a half, the Elric brothers were bruised up, battered and covered in numerous little bandages for scrapes and cuts they'd managed to acquire. For some reason that Ed found to be most sadistic, Izumi usually fixed them up after she fought them.

"She's just fixing us so she can beat us up sooner," Ed mumbled.

Training was always hard work, but they improved quickly. Ed and Al tried hard to push away discouraging thoughts with the pleasant one that once they were finished training, they could go home and be with Mother again. During a lesson that included both sparring and alchemic theory simultaneously, Izumi told them firmly several times that human transmutation was never to be attempted, because it toyed with the cycle of the very world itself, and death was not something meant to be undone. Besides this, the topic came up time and time again, as though she were trying to beat it into them as much as her hard martial arts training.

Never, ever attempt to bring back a human being.

More training. More alchemic theory.

Under no circumstances should you use alchemy to revive something that is already dead.

More practice. More sparring.

To resurrect a person who has passed on is to disrupt the cycle of the world.

But the Elrics weren't going to listen to her. Izumi never knew Mother. She couldn't possibly understand how much they missed her and needed her to come home. Teacher didn't know the pain of losing someone so special. How could she? Izumi didn't have any children, so there was no way she would understand the bond they had shared with their beautiful mother. Forbidding human transmutation was just the adults' way of covering up their own failure. It was simple. Once they left here, they could have Mother back, and they wouldn't need to see Teacher any more. She knew they were currently parentless, but that didn't mean she would need to find out once they had brought Mother back. They just weren't going to tell her.

Izumi had never doubted the talents of Edward and Alphonse. They were gifted; both of them. She had never seen children their age master arrays so quickly and with such a deep understanding. Oftentimes, she wondered what drove their seemingly insatiable thirst for knowledge. They knew so much already, and everyday they learned more, but it somehow seemed like it wasn't enough for them. If they didn't understand something the first time, they'd both work tirelessly until it made sense. Until they could make it work.

They talked secretively sometimes. She'd never earnestly questioned it, though. They were children. They did need some time to act their age now and then, and if they could do it by means of brotherly brawls and secrets, she could deal with that. They were, after all, only children. Right?

Izumi and Sig loved both of the Elrics. Despite her nagging and often strict teacherly qualities, she still found herself able to soften up for them now and then. The younger boy was sweet and compassionate. He'd never hurt another living thing if it were avoidable. He followed his brother everywhere. Izumi couldn't help but smile to herself. The older boy was different. He was tougher. He seemed to make an effort to act older than he was. He swore sometimes, too, but she'd crack down on that. His eyes were golden and intense, and she never doubted for an instant that if there was something he wanted, he would do all in his power to get it.

One night at dinner, Izumi decided that in the morning, they would move on to more advanced alchemic arrays and possibly some advanced martial arts techniques. "Alright, boys," she said, cutting her steak with a straight face. "In the morning, we'll start advanced arrays, but only if you can prove you understand the ones I've showed you so far."

Advanced arrays? Ed and Al's eyes lit up. "Yes, Teacher!" they both chimed enthusiastically.

"Now stop chatting and eat your dinner before it gets cold."

Immediately, both ended all other conversation and started wolfing down what was in front of them as though they were being timed. Izumi and Sig exchanged sideways glances.

"Stop eating so fast," she barked, but they were done not even a moment later.

"Can we go outside?" Al asked hopefully. Lacking anything else to say, their teacher agreed and the boys raced outdoors.

"Did you hear that?" exclaimed Alphonse excitedly. "Advanced arrays! We're getting so close, brother!"

"I know!" Ed's gold eyes shone, and he grinned. "Mom will be home before we know it!" He fidgeted slightly at the thought of her. Mother, with her beautiful smile and gentle eyes… her hands that could heal anything. Everything about her was to be loved, even the way she frowned and put her hands on her hips to scold their wrong-doings. Oh, how surprised she'd be to see them again! She would probably be a little mad that they'd done something so dangerous, but when she saw their smiles again, how could she stay angry?

Ed hardly even gave a moment's thought to Father. He was the reason Mother had gone away, and now they would have to take matters into their own hands… without him. What good was he, anyway, other than as a deserter?

Come home soon, Mother…

The boys slept soundly that night. They never argued when Izumi sent them off to bed; this was partly because they were afraid to find out what she'd do to them if they didn't listen. Teacher was strict. But tonight, they slept with the pleasant thought of advanced arrays and the surprised look on Mother's face when she found herself very much alive and at home again. They were happy thinking of her.

Izumi; housewife, master alchemist and teacher.

She was not a mother, and from here on out, she felt she likely never would be. The most time she really ever spent around children was fixing their things. Every child in the neighborhood who had ever broken a toy had come to her at least once before. And she would tell them, "If you can fix it with your own two hands, do it. Don't rely on alchemy."

Because some things weren't meant to be repaired.

But tonight, with her quiet house, she felt different. She sat opposite Sig at the wooden table. Neither said a word. She supposed neither of them were really used to having children in the house. The ones she had taught previously had lived within Dublith, and just came over themselves. The Elrics, however, were a different case. Motherless and from Risembool. They almost had no choice but to stay with her. She had already become accustomed to them being in the house. And now, Izumi sat with her chin resting on her laced hands, silent and listening. There was no sound. The boys must have already been asleep, she decided.

Izumi pushed herself up from the table. The chair's legs scraped back across the wood floor. Sig glanced at her, as though asking what she was off to do.

"I'll be back in a minute," she assured. "I just have to check on something."

Ed and Al slept on opposite sides of the same room, as they had at home with Mother. They were used to it this way. Izumi had always wondered what she and Sig would end up using that room for. Now it was occupied. It seemed strange. It seemed stranger still having children in the house.

A soft crack of light fell across the dark floor in front of the bedroom door. It creaked only a little at Izumi's soft push. She didn't know what she was doing. She had merely found herself there. Something within her had inexplicably told her to go and check on the boys. Intuition? Clearly not. Both brothers were sound asleep. She sighed quietly, tucking a loose piece of hair back behind her ear. The boys were sleeping.

Her heart drummed softly. Her boys.

They were her boys for now. With a gentle smile, she turned back down the hall to return to Sig.