Title: A Fangirl's Dream
Summary: With an anime loving best friend, Ivy has heard plenty about whatever show of the week they're into. But when she manages to cross the gate during an attempt to take a shortcut home, she finds herself in a frightening position. The main character in an Another World fanfiction trope; and with reluctance, she finds herself teaming up with the main characters to get back home.
Pen Name: FanfictionIsMySideHustle
And I'm still here.
Ivy had been in Resembool for about a week now and every morning since she'd been with the Rockbells, she woke up just the same. Early in the morning, expecting to brace herself for another school day and listening to Akasha swoon. Then her eyes adjusted and she saw the green wooden ceiling instead of the cream, popcorny ceiling of her own room and remembered that she wasn't in Vallant anymore.
Ivy dug face into her pillow and took a deep breath, bracing herself to get the day started.
One, two, three.
Ivy stood up, eyes falling onto a chair with a set of clothes on it. Pinako had been lending her clothes to wear since all she had now coming to Resembool, was her backpack, her volleyball duffel bag, a phone she was constantly turning on and off in desperation to keep the thing from dying, and school notebooks smashed into her backpack haphazardly.
Still, she took off her pajamas in exchange for her volleyball jersey and some shorts to take her morning jog. In Vallant, Ivy had saved her morning jogs for the weekend, not having time to during the school week. It had become a routine start of her day now that she didn't have school anymore.
Ivy tiptoed quietly down the stairs, wincing whenever there was even a slight creak emitting from where she stepped until she finally reached the front door.
The smell of tobacco and the morning grass mixed together in a weird mixture of gross and familiarity and Ivy looked over to the right, seeing Pinako sitting in her rocking chair. "Mornin', Pinako."
With another drag, Pinako nodded in acknowledgement. "Off to jog?" Ivy nodded back, smiling. Ivy had kept her past vague whenever Pinako inquired about it, but she had revealed that she played sports. "I can't just get out of shape even though I'm not home." Ivy mumbled over the food in her mouth. Then Pinako said something about not talking with her mouth full.
"Yep." She squatted down as Den approached her, tail wagging. I still would totally take this dog back with me to Vallant if it wouldn't break the space-time continuum. "Want me to take Den with me?" The dog was great company for a jog, never running too far ahead and really responsive to being reeled back in.
"If you want." Pinako's eyes were closed, completely relaxed. "Just make sure you're back in an hour for breakfast. I'm making some pancakes since we still have some sugar for syrup. So I'll probably have you and Winry go to the market today and buy some more."
Ivy stood back at her full height, "Got it! You'll see me in thirty!" She loved pancakes. Taking a step down the porch, Ivy smiled down at Den. "Come on, girl! Wanna go with me on a run?" The slight wagging turned into a full frenzy as the dog barked and sprinted down the stairs, she looked back at Ivy as if to say 'Hurry up, slowpoke!' And with that, Ivy followed.
Without the smell of tobacco mixed in, the morning air of Resembool was fresh. Probably the freshest air Ivy had ever gotten a whiff of. The strong manure smell had began to ease on her nose and in the morning, the grass smelled more dewy than anything else. Livestock had already started being let out into their grounds and Ivy could spot a butterfly beating its wings as it flew over pink patches of clover blossoms. The grass was the greenest thing Ivy had ever seen and the air was warm, the occasional cool breeze hitting Ivy's face.
Resembool was alive.
That fact was ingrained in Ivy's mind every morning.
"Morning, New Girl!" The boy- Otto- from a few days ago shouted, and Ivy gave him a wave as her pace remained. She usually saw him or Erial during this time and though they didn't talk much, it had already started to feel routine for one of them to shout some kind of greeting to her when she ran.
The people were alive too.
Ivy ran and ran until she could start seeing the buildings of the main town and shops more clearly and with a few wide paces, halted to a stop. "Den! Girl, stop running!" The dog's tongue was lolling out and she sprawled out to the ground, relieved. Ivy tried keeping her breathing through her nostrils. And no gate to be seen. Again. I don't know why I keep expecting to just show up again.
When she had received her Resembool tour, there had been zero evidence of this magically appearing gate. But the one thing Ivy did know was that it had let her out between the midpoint of the main Resembool village and where the Rockbells lived. Then it vanished without any sort of trace, leaving Ivy here to just run around the town until it hopefully popped up again.
I'm never gonna get home at this rate.
Ivy shuddered. "Come on, Den, let's get back to Pinako's."
The trek back was solemn, Ivy walking slowly with the occasional stop whenever Den needed a break. The surreal moments from before now drab in comparison as Ivy doubtfully kept an eye open for a gray gate, her one ticket home.
It remained unseen and Ivy found herself at her hosts' home with no fruits for her labor.
Den rushed passed her to get to her water bowl. The smell of syrup and bacon heavy in the air, Ivy found herself smiling a little. There's nothing pancakes can't fix. She leaned her head into the kitchen seeing the table already set with a few plates, one of which with a small stack of pancakes slowly building up like a fluffy, golden tower. Pinako was across from it at the stove top, scrambling eggs."Yo, we're back."
"Ah, welcome back." Pinako spared her a small glance before looking back at the eggs. "Breakfast'll be done in a minute. Do let that granddaughter of mine know and both of you wash up so you can finish setting the table."
"Upstairs or downstairs workshop?"
"Upstairs."
With a thumbs up, Ivy walked up the stairs where the upstairs workshop, as it had been coined. It was the closest room to the staircase. She had seen both when she was shown where everything was in their house. The downstairs workshop was more for clients from the town and keeping any orders they had stored neatly. It was spacious too, even having a couple of beds in it and what looked like surgeon's tools.
The upstairs workshop, on the other hand, was a lot smaller and the biggest thing in it aside from a drill press was a workbench. "It's mostly for when we have a lot more down time and doing extra work with whatever metal we get from the blacksmith in town." Winry explained, smiling widely. "So I get to spend a lot time here coming up with new blueprints and designs!"
Ivy had half expected the door to be close, since the blonde mechanic made it a habit to avoid Den coming into the room and potentially eating a stray bolt on the ground. But it was wide open, revealing Winry's hunched over form at her workbench. The limb she was working on, a leg, the pole that was the calf already attached to the foot.
Winry's gloved fingers moved nimbly, screwing something important with what Ivy was assuming to be the ball joint for the knee. She paid no mind to the world around her, completely in her zone. Winry smiled to herself and set down her screwdriver and Ivy had briefly thought 'Oh, I guess she did notice me come up the stairs' but the girl was surprised when the engineer gave what was on its way to becoming a full fledged prosthetic. It was almost as if they were having their own private conversation between prosthetic and automail engineer, blue eyes shining.
Anime people really are the prettiest people in the universe. Ivy blinked, no blemishes to be seen on Winry's face aside from a spot of oil. She wasn't even doing that thing where an anime character's hair flew threw the wind as cherry blossoms fell all around her. (Though that was likely due to the fact this place was clearly inspired by Europe.) She was just working over a prosthetic limb.
Ivy watched for an extra thirty seconds before she finally cleared her throat. "Winry, my love, breakfast doth wait for thee."
Blue eyes met brown, "Oh! You're back!" Winry stood up, arching her back in a long stretch. "Did you have fun on your jog? I don't get how you actually like running." She pulled off her green bandanna and Ivy smirked in amusement.
"We both like math which makes us equally weird, but it's weird that I like to run?"
"Yes. Yes, it is." Winry laughed. "Did Granny tell you that she wants us to go to town later to do some shopping?"
Ivy thought back to her conversation with Pinako that morning. "Yeah, we can do that whenever you're done with your leg." She gestured to it. "It looks different than the automail parts I see around the house."
Winry looked back at it and pointed at the white pole base. "This is one of the traditional prosthetics we make." She explained before taking off her craftsman's gloves. "Remember how I said that we usually deliver them around Amestris? Well, Granny says we just got an order for some from this town in western Amestris, close to Creta. Considering the situation there right now, we're trying to get them done as soon as possible, you know?"
Is this one of those things about their country I should know already? Ivy thought, a flutter of panic in her chest. This is one of those things about their country I should know about. She nodded, hoping that her attempt at making a concerned face looked authentic. "It's pretty terrible. I get why you were so zoned out." Akasha had already told Ivy how much Winry had loved automail in prior conversations, but it was a lot easier seeing the passion Winry had for it up close and personal.
It was almost mesmerizing, in a weird and rhythmic way, watching the girl work.
"I should watch you work sometimes." Ivy usually just stayed clear whenever either of the Rockbells were working. But it seemed pretty relaxing.
Winry's eyes looked as if they were shining and about to fall out of her head. "You should!" I think I just created a monster. "You'll love engineering, Ivy! It's like an artform!"
"Girls!" Pinako's voice thankfully stopped what Ivy knew was about to become a rambling session akin to one of Akasha's. "Have you washed up like I told you to?!"
"... Whoops." Ivy winced. "Yeah um, I was supposed to come here and tell you to wash up."
"We better hurry up before Granny actually comes up here with a broom or something then." Winry sported the same grimace. Pinako was loving but she was as strict as all hell. "It won't really take me long to finish this leg up so we can go in about an hour after breakfast to town, okay?"
Ivy opened her mouth to say something but Pinako's voice entered the air again. "Girls!"
"This town is pretty cute." Ivy noted, looking at the different shops. It looked like it was straight out of the set of Dr. Quinn, a show her grandma watched religiously when she came over since she had found a channel that played reruns of it. They had finally gotten to their errand giving by the matriarch of the Rockbell family, Winry leaving behind her mechanic get up for a white tank top and black skirt.
Ivy had only been to the main village once, her first official day in town when Winry gave her that tour, but now she was actually paying attention to it. It seemed lively, kids running around playing games and townspeople having their daily dose of gossip.
"What's your town like, come to think of it?" Winry asked without looking away from the list Pinako had given them. "You never really told me about it."
"Er…" Ivy looked away, trying to make her sudden interest in a practically fluorescent pink roll of fabric seem natural. "Oh um, I'm actually from the city."
Winry looked up from the paper, surprised. "Really?" Ivy nodded and Winry's face scrunched into an expression of disbelief. "But there's no close cities to Resembool for miles! How did you even get this far? Which city are you talking about? Central?"
God fucking damn it, I hate myself so much! "Yeah. Central. Great place." She hoped Winry would just drop the topic, but of course that only made Winry want to talk about it more.
"You came all the way to Resembool from the city capital?" Ivy wanted to fling herself into the sun as Winry continued on. "What made you want to come all the way to here to where there's nothing but sheep?" Their walk had come to a full stop, the quest to finish up the market list put on the back burner.
Ivy started rubbing her shoe into the dirt. "I don't know."
"But-"
"Winry, can we just… not talk about me and home, right now?" Ivy snapped, looking at the dirt. "I just picked Resembool randomly on a map and wanted to get away from home and blew away all my funds, okay? That's why I'm here right now."
The pause was long before Winry quietly replied, "I'm sorry." She sounded the way that puppies looked when they had been kicked but Ivy didn't look at her face, fearing that the sudden guilt would consume her if she did. Great going, Carter. "I didn't mean to pry."
The Kill Bill sirens playing in Ivy's mind seemed to be timed to how hard her heart was beating. "It's fine." There was a pause. "We should hurry up and get what your grandma wants. Which store here has all the stuff she said she wanted?"
"It's that one." Winry pointed at a store with a blackboard stand in front of it labeled 'Lee's General'. "I can get the sugar and oil that Granny wants. Can you get the soap and crackers? She wants more snacks for when she's working so she doesn't have to get up and go to the kitchen."
"Yeah."
Winry lead the way, her head down and Ivy felt even worse. She knew that the girl hadn't meant any harm. She was just trying to be friendly and worry about her friend who had apparently ran away from drama back at home and wanted to try fixing the situation in any way she could. But what the heck am I supposed to actually say? Ivy thought, grabbing a couple of soap bars. Hey Winry, I actually come from a world where your entire life is fictional and somehow got here for some reason and I've been really just jogging around in the morning hoping the magical door that sent me here will reappear again. Did I mention that my best friend is obsessed with the show you're from?
Ivy knew that confession would go as good as trying to tell a starving cannibal that you tasted bad and to avoid eating you to avoid a stomach ache.
Grabbing two boxes of crackers, Ivy sighed. All I'm doing is just making things worse when I'm just trying to lay low and be normal until a way to come home appears. She glanced over in Winry's direction and found the girl still looking over the different oil selections carefully. Before they had arrived to town, she had mentioned that usually they had to order their oil from Rush Valley since the general store could be hit or miss on whether or not they had quality oil to use. "But sometimes we just have to grab something and make do with it until we get oil we actually like."
Ivy looked over at some books instead, hoping to pass the time.
Farmer's Almanac.
Remembering Ishbal: A Recounting of the Ishbalan Civil War.
Fictional political history? Ivy fumbled the products in her hand to one side as she lifted the book from its place on the shelf and turned it over to look at it's summary.
The gunshot heard around the world that resulted in one of the bloodiest wars in Amestrian history. A novel recounting the rise to prominence of the small desert nation of Ishbal and it's political disagreements with Amestris and the events leading up to the civil war by world renowned historian… Ivy turned the book back to the cover which was simply just a map of what she was assuming was Ishbal, then she placed it back on the shelf.
The Art of Wool Shearing.
The Basic Principles of the Science of Alchemy.
Ivy wasn't sure when the book got into her hand, but it soon was in her clutches.
Alchemy- the science of understand, deconstructing, and reconstructing matter. However, it is not an all-powerful art. It is impossible to create something out of nothing. If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be given. This is the law of Equivalent Exchange, the basis of all alchemy. In accor- Ivy placed her items on the shelf to place two hands around the book for more balanced grip as she went to the table of contents. Is there anything here about magical gates or things alternate dimensions being looked into via alchemy in here?
The table of contents only consisted of five chapters.
None of which had either reference in there.
Introduction by Tycho Brahe
Preface
One: The Law of Conservation of Mass
Two: The Law of Natural Providence
Three: The Three Phases of Alchemical Transmutation: Analysis, Deconstruction, Reconstruction
Four: Forbidden Alchemy
Five: Alchemy and Modern Amestris
Afterward
Ivy bit her lip. Maybe there's something in the first few pages?
"Ivy, did you find the soap and crackers okay?" Ivy nearly jumped at her skin as she looked to see Winry, bag of sugar lying atop a crate she was carrying. "We can ring everything up now."
"O-oh um yeah, I'm coming!" She placed the book back on the shelf reluctantly and grabbed her part in the errand. "Was just looking at the book selection here and saw some book about alchemy."
Winry blinked in surprise. "You do alchemy?"
"Not at all." Ivy shook her head as the two of them made their way to the cashier. Not unless there's a way it can get me home. "I just have a friend back home who's obsessed with learning about it." Akasha who had taken chemistry just because it was the closest thing they had to an alchemy class. Akasha who was vehement in trying to make it an actual graduation requirement. I guess I can't really talk considering I took chemistry because of Breaking Bad.
"Huh, funny. I have two friends that are alchemy freaks too." She had a distant look on her face. I'm guessing it's Edward and Alponz or whatever his name is that she's thinking about. "I wonder what they're doing now. They left home a long time ago to look for something."
"Worried about them?"
"... I worry about them all the time. They're the worst at keeping in contact with us."
They reached the man at the register after falling into a small silence and Ivy was glad he was there to break the new tension between them. "Hey there, Winry. It's been a few days since you've been in town. How's that old lady of yours?"
Winry giggled lightly. "Granny's been fine. We've been a little busy though. We got an order for prosthetics to mail over to a town called Waidsill."
Concerned swept over the man's features. "Over by Creta? The situation there is getting worse by the day, I swear." He grumbled something under his breath that Ivy couldn't catch. "You and your grandmother whip those limbs into top shape!"
"We always do or my name isn't Winry Rockbell!"
The man, Mr. Lee?, looked over at Ivy. "Oh, who's your friend?"
"Oh." Winry set the sugar and oil crate on his register. "This is Ivy Carter, she's staying with me and Granny right now. Ivy, this is Mr. Lee. He and Granny are old friends."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Lee." Ivy set the cracker boxes and soap bars down next to Winry's materials. "I'm gonna be here for a while."
Mr Lee let out an 'ahh' of understanding. "Well ain't no one more hospitable than Pinako." He guffawed, slapping a hand on his stomach. "The stories I could tell you from when we were young! It's a surprise she ever settled down. Are you learning how to make automail?"
Ivy felt Winry stiffen beside her and and slowly looked over to see what face she was making. Hungry was, for lack of a better word, the first thing that came to mind.
"Er… I feel like if I say no, I'm going to be disappointing someone really badly right now."
That just made Mr. Lee laugh even harder and Winry puffed her cheeks out indignantly. "You should become Granny's apprentice! This is why you want to learn more about automail and watch me work, right?!"
That requires me not going home, Winry. "So how much for the oil and everything else?" Ivy said instead, looking pointedly away from the blonde who let out a 'hey!'
"That'll be 50 sens, please!" Mr. Lee wiped away a tear, a final chuckle escaping him. "They'll make an engineer out of you before you know it. It's the first time I've really seen Winry with a friend who isn't ready to run around doing errands fixing things up for everyone with alchemy. So she isn't gonna let you go just yet."
I feel like I'm about to have my autonomy about this decision taken away.
Their purchase made, the two girls left Mr. Lee and his shop behind in favor of the Rockbell's shop. "You'll be making automail before you know it." Winry had muttered and Ivy was sure that if she was in 2D form, she'd be doing that anime sweat drop thing.
Silence slipped between the two of them as Ivy looked at Resembool now, the sun at the highest point in the air. The grass no longer had dew hanging off their blade tips and the breeze was warm. The spring-like feeling of the morning was gone. Come to think of it, since our world was somehow connected I wonder if it's May here too. Ivy made a mental note to check the calendar when they made it back.
Summer vacation had been just around the corner, only a month away. But here Ivy was ditching school by accident and with a fictional character. Hell, what am I gonna tell Mom when I finally get back. Ivy could only imagine the actual hell that would be unleashed when she did and the same amount of time happening in Resembool passed in real life. Her mom would send a sandal flying at her face so fast, Ivy could already feel the sting wondering if there really was a light at the end of a dark tunnel when you were about to die.
Mom.
Ivy tried her hardest to look discreetly at Winry who was now only carrying the oil crate, Ivy holding onto everything else in a bag, her gaze lowered to the ground. She was lost in her own separate thoughts.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."
The guilt from before returned as she remembered the downcast voice Winry had used. I still haven't apologized. "... Hey Winry?"
The blonde looked over, curious. Nonchalant. Yet Ivy knew that more than likely she was feeling the same tension."Yeah?"
"I just wanted to say sorry about earlier in town. I was kind of an asshole the other day. And then I was just kind of an asshole in town. I know you were just worried. I just… It's kind of complicated talking about home right now."
Winry looked back at the ground. "It's fine, Ivy. I shouldn't have pried."
"It was kind of a dumb move on my part making such a big travel jump." She thinks that I ran away from home dumbly from the country capital. "I'd probably be worried too if you told me the same thing. I shouldn't have snapped at you. I don't wanna hurt your feelings, we're friends now."
Winry stopped walking abruptly and Ivy halted, the dark feeling in her stomach starting to boil.
"... I just want you and your mom to get along. If that's what's happening."
"..." Ivy didn't say anything. She didn't have anything thought of to say. It would be ridiculous after all to say the truth. That she and her mom got along great. Because if that was the case, why run away from home and probably give your mom a heart attack?
"I… I think you probably noticed already about my parents." Winry continued after seeing Ivy wasn't going to say anything. "It's just me and Granny. Back when the civil war with Ishbal was still going on, soldiers came and had them come to the battlefield because there weren't enough doctors. But then my mom and dad never came back." I already know that they're gone, Winry. I am so sorry.
Ivy almost felt sick knowing even a small semblance of knowledge about Winry's backstory.
"So I just think it's sad that you're both fighting. But I know that I don't actually know what it's like for you at home and that it's wrong for me to think you should go back and make up with your mom. But I don't want to force you to tell me anything and make us not get along."
"Hey, we might have tense moments but I think we're always gonna get along." Ivy gave the blonde a small nudge. "Who else will make me reconsider the wonders of automail."
Winry looked up, smiling softly and for a moment Ivy thought about how her eyes were so blue. The artist of this show really did a good job with her character design. Winry finally opened her mouth and the athlete had half expected something about automail to come out of her mouth. "You can talk to me about it whenever you're ready."
"I will." I can't. "Now no more disagreements between the two of us or else I'll throw myself into the sun."
Winry laughed and Ivy felt a small bit of the guilt leave. "Let's just hurry back to Granny so I can get back to work on our order." The two of them continued their trek light heartedly. "Will you still watch me work today?" Winry peered over, looking hopeful.
"Who am I to ruin a perfectly good make up session by saying 'no'?"
"Yes!" Winry laughed in victory, taking a few steps to the side to nudge Ivy's side.
The next morning, Ivy woke up to a book simply titled 'Automail' lying next to her on her pillow and laughed.
Author's Note
And here's Updated Chapter 3. There wasn't too much to change here other than giant hunk of text that I moved to chapter 2 for Akasha's POV but it was fun going through this chapter again. It's definitely a Winry and Ivy bonding moment chapter as Ivy reels into the fact that from the perspectives of her hosts, she's just some idiot who ran away from home and is financially unstable because she blew off all her money so she needs to be more patient when it comes to the questioning. So her nature of taking some kind of interest into her friend's hobbies came into play since she does consider Winry a friend at the this point.
I also really liked writing Ivy's perspective in how anime characters nine times out of ten always look really pretty but not feel jealous or spiteful because of it. I can't wait to start posting more of Akasha's POV in her story Swept Away.
If anyone is still reading this, I hope you like this chapter's fixing.