a comment/constructive criticism from "WargishBoromirFan" has made me recheck and update the past chapters for any grammar mistakes. there might still be some but that is as far my writing skills can take me at the time. English isn't my native tongue and so, the grammar can slip from time to time.
so thanks for making me aware and I am glad you like how I am writing the characters in this story. it's always nice to hear you readers thoughts on what I write.
enjoy!
He didn't really fancy paying Scar a visit but he had to accept that Mei likes the man and she wanted to make sure her once traveling companion was doing well. Alphonse is not really sure what made Mei like Scar, he rarely talks, and he and Edward have seen firsthand what the rage that man held could do to others.
He can never forgive Scar from having killed Winry parents nor the chimera that once had been Nina, but he has to accept that Mei won't change her mind towards Scar and as long he is together with her: Alphonse just has to deal with the scarred man.
At least it gives him a chance to see how Shade is doing. Alphonse likes that man way better, he's friendly and has a curious mind very familiar to him and Edward. He does hope Shade is doing well, for even though it was rather apparent that Scar cared for Shade, Alphonse is painfully aware of Scar's feelings about alchemy and Shade is a master alchemist. Alphonse dreads that Scar might hurt his own brother from the loath he feels towards alchemy.
They step off the train in Ishval and head over to the command center so they can hear where Major Miles is located at the moment, for where the Major goes, Scar goes.
They never got that far though, for on the way they encountered Harika and Selena. Both greeted him and Mei. "We didn't know you were coming on a visit" Harika remarks.
It pleases Alphonse to see the young girl being a bobble of joy and her before dull eyes are now shining. She has indeed turned for the better here in Ishval and that made the whole rescue mission worth it.
Mei Chang is the one who answers the young girl. "We wanted to surprise Mr. Scar and the rest of you."
"Well, you certainly succeed," Shade speaks in a light chuckle of seeing two familiar faces again. He walks over to Alphonse and Mei, shakes both their hands with his right. He is starting being able to move it but only for menial tasks such as a simple handshake or flipping a page on a book. He still can't lift anything heavy, the flesh around the automail hasn't yet healed enough for that.
He eyes Alphonse and asks him friendly. "Starting to sense the dragon flow yet?" and the young man replies smiling. "Yeah, your lessons really paid off."
Shade is glad to hear that. "Happy to help," to then turn to Mei when she asks the question he knew she would sooner or later. "Where's mister Scar?" She cares about him and Shade knows his brother does the same, he does wonder the story behind how these two got acquainted in the first place.
"My brother is currently helping Major Miles in the Daliha district. There are a few communication problems." Shades replies and still finds it amusing in how his brother groaned about having to play mediator again between the farmers located in the Daliha district and the Amestrians who do not understand there is a reason of them having the legend of Ishvala's bed. His brother told him about the legend and for some reason he started to laugh but not sure why. Scar looked he knew why though but stubbornly refused to explain the joke behind it.
Anyway, back to their sudden visiting guests. "But I should be able to keep you company until he returns." Shade turns to lead them back to his brother's home but stops when he takes notice that his two children have run off, fortunately not far as he can see Selena's turquoise scarf nearby.
Both girls are kneeling down before something. "Girls, what'd you got there?" He asks and walks over to them with Alphonse and Mei close behind.
Selena turns around and reveals a cat with a sandy tabby pelt. "Isn't it cute?" She asks while petting the loudly purring cat. Shade, although he agrees the cat does look cute and very friendly, he just cannot shake the feeling that he should stay away from it.
Alphonse steps over and pets the tabby cat under the cheek, it really likes that and he is pretty sure it's purring gets louder. He smiles in how the cat tries to stroke its entire head against his hand, wiggling around in Selena's arms in its attempt to show how much it wants to be petted.
And like any kid who finds a cute animal, Harika asks her father. "Can we keep it?"
Alphonse remembers how he often asked his mother the same thing but she never would let him keep the cats he dragged home, they just didn't have the money for it. He turns to Shade who looks quite hesitant about it. "I don't know…" the girls' father muses and Selena presses further by saying. "We promise to take care of it. Please, dad."
Well, the girls have proven capable of taking responsibility and he has heard pets does children good… so why does he has this nagging feeling it's a terrible idea? It's not like he can use this weird hunch as an excuse. "Hm, I guess I could let you—" The girls cheer, startling the cat and it jumps over to Alphonse.
Shade is quick to come with the condition. "but if I see you neglect responsibility, let it be keeping it healthy or making sure it doesn't destroy the house, then the cat has to go." Selena and Harika nod they will take full responsibility for it, but something tells Shade that it won't be going for long. Ah well, it's just a cat, it can't be so bad.
Harika gets to hold the once again calm cat from Alphonse, who along with Mei follows the man and two children back to their home. Alphonse is a bit surprised in how big this seemly made of sandstone house is, and how wonderfully cold there is inside. The house itself looks somewhat normal, except there are pillows on the floor before a small table. Alphonse has taken notice that Ishvalens often sits on the floor, he does wonder why they do that instead of using chairs like other people in Amestris does?
He and Mei take a seat at the table awfully close to the floor, Shade joins them right after he has made them something to drink and removed all the papers lying around. The two girls are searching through the kitchen for a suitable bowl for the cat. The feline itself waltzes over to Shade and strokes its body against his left arm.
The Ishvalen pets it briefly before pushing it off. "Where's the two— was it chimeras they called themselves?"
Alphonse nods he got it correct, "Jerso and Zampano are currently meeting up two of their own comrades in Morhed." He explains and after this visit, he and Mei promised to pick them up before they return to Resembool where they will meet up with his brother who will soon return from his own travels in the west. Maybe they can combine what they have learned, and find a clue in how to separate the animal from a human chimera. "We're going to meet my older brother in Resembool."
Shade nods and while scratching his still fleshy hand, he remarks. "So you're a younger brother? How is your older brother like?"
Alphonse chuckles. "He has quite the temper, especially if someone calls him short."
The smile does drop when Shade remarks. "Sounds a bit like my own brother, except it's more the name calling he's touchy about."
Alphonse is not really sure how to respond to that, he doesn't think his brother and Scar have anything in common in personality. "I don't think Edward has anything in common with Scar."
Shade merely shrugs with a smile that at first glance merely seemed to say 'if you say so' but that smile combined with the glance the man gives him. Alphonse gets the sense that Shade does not really believe that, does makes him wonder if— Shade sneezes, startling Alphonse out from his thoughts.
"Sorry about that," Shade muses and is starting not to feel very well. He gets up to dry off his running nose and for some reason, his hand keeps itching. "I think I'm coming down with a cold or something," but something in the back of his head is constantly pushing, trying to reveal that this is not a cold. However, like with the mystery of the books, this info of his head will not come to the surface and tell him what he knew before the rebound screwed up his mind.
,,,,,,,,,,
"It's a wonder how you Ishvalens know exactly where this underwater river is located." Miles speaks after he and Scar have returned from solving the argument between the Amestrians who had tried to build them a new well and the farmers kept telling them the well would've been useless where they had built it at that location. It proved that the Ishvalen farmers stood correct and Scar once again explained about this legend of the river that keeps Ishval alive.
Pulling his brother's horse away from the water trough, Scar answers his red-eyed brother. "Every child of Ishval will be taught the location of the river through our stories of Ishvala."
"Does your nieces know the story as well?" Miles asks him as he mounts his own brown horse.
Harika didn't know the story and Selena only did briefly when he told them the legend of their god. "Yes, I told them the story not long ago." Scar explains his comrade and is still annoyed that after everything his brother has forgotten, he still, somehow remembered his blunder back when he got the story told as a kid.
For once, Scar is relieved his brother does not remember what the blunder is about and prays that memory will never return. He would like younger him mistake will be put to rest already.
Scar lightly kicks the horse Star to move and quietly he and Miles ride back to the Arjun district. They arrived back in the district right when people leave their houses again for the evening work. After having returned the horses into the military stable, Scar spots the stable cat and like the other times he sees it. He gives the mother cat a bit of food and pets her grey head.
Miles does no longer voice his amusement that a warrior monk like Scar has a soft spot for these felines.
Scar is glad Miles keeps his mouth shut about it, he's embarrassed to show this side, but he just can't help himself when he encounters a cat. When the mother cat feels she got enough of the attention, it runs back to its makeshift bed and with it gone. Scar walks over to the sink to wash his hands.
This catches Miles attention, Scar didn't do that the other times he said hi to the stable cat. "That's a change." He remarks and it hasn't been the only one. Miles has taken notice that the nameless Ishvalen has gotten both happier and more aware of the time, which did at times show as impatience when dealing with whatever issue they have to solve.
The return of his brother has truly changed Scar and Miles sees that as a good thing for even he could see that Scar doing nothing but work in restoring Ishval, never doing anything to relax hasn't been good for the man.
Scar casts him a quick look and does, fortunately, explain this change of behavior. "My brother is allergic to cats."
Miles has to bite his lips so he won't laugh at this small fact, it's hilarious to think that a cat lover such as Scar happens to have an older brother who is allergic to the felines. "Quite the irony," he speaks and the look in Scars eyes says that the scarred man agrees with him. If the nameless Ishvalen has to wash his hands, then that must mean Shade is really allergic to cats. "Must be pretty bad."
Miles has no idea… this quirk of his brother has been the bane of his existence. Scar remembers he once tried to smuggle a cat back home but that only worked for two days before the cat hairs in the air gave his brother a reaction and he let the cat go; for there's only for so long a kid wanted to listen to a constantly sneezing older brother. "Will you need me later this evening?" He asks Miles, not something he did before but now that his brother has returned, Scar wants to spend time around his family, even if it means enduring his brother's constant poking into his past regrets.
"I will get you if I need any assistance." Miles answers and adds with a smile as he passes him. "You go and be with your family."
Which Scar thinks they both will; Miles has a family not far from Ishval as well. However, his child didn't get the Ishvalen iconic eyes but instead his mother's brown. Still, Jessie is a good kid, bit shy but one Miles can be proud of.
Scar leaves the command center and passes the market place where he buys groceries to a dish their mother loved to make. He's not as good as mother, but at least he's not as bad as his brother.
Scar does get quite surprised when he found not only Mei but Alphonse Elric inside his house. He's not angry though, more caught off guard of this unexpected visit.
Then he hears his brother sneezes and looking at him, Scar is not sure if he should feel sorry for him or roll his eyes that his brother has forgotten that he's allergic to cats and now got an allergic reaction.
He decides to get a bit worried for his brother looks miserable, he has gotten a bad rash on his right hand and wheezing for air. The sign he has been in close contact with a cat. "Where's the cat?" He demands the visitors and his nieces hard.
Alphonse and Mei blink, with the latter asking, "How did you know, mister Scar?"
He does not blame them for this, it's not like they know but the cat really needs to get out before his brother gets worse. "Where is it?" He asks harder.
Selena appears sheepishly, holding the local cat in her arms. "Here it is..."
Scar hates to do this but, "the cat needs to go."
"But—"
"It's making your father sick." Scar interrupts the girl's objections, turning to his brother that muses through his dry throat. "…That explains a lot…" to then sneeze from having a cat's hair on his skin and probably some got into his lungs from how he's struggling for air.
Scar returns back to Selena who does, fortunately, see reason and with no further arguments, brings the cat outside. Scar then tells Mei to get his brother some fresh water. "Wash where the cat touched him." She does and Scar then tells Selena to change her clothing, well aware she's filled with cat hairs from having lifted the cat. Selena gives him the shirt and her scarf and he asks the rest. "Anyone else been holding it?"
"I did." Alphonse answers and Scar commands him to take off his shirt and throws one of the shirts he bought for his brother. It's too big for the young man but it will have to do until he has washed his shirt clean for cat hairs.
All of this seems a bit extreme, but it's not like Alphonse knows anything about what it means to be allergic. Shade did get 'sick' quickly after they brought the cat inside and he is currently lying on the floor, looking as if he caught a nasty cold. "How serious is this? Should we get a doctor?" He asks Scar who is currently washing his shirt for the cat's hair.
"If he doesn't get more cat hair on him; he will get better in a few hours." The scarred man answers and after he hung the clothing up to dry, Scar walks outside to presumably talk with the two girls, both are still outside with the cat.
Alphonse checks on Shade, the man still looks miserable but his wheezing has subsided.
"Are you feeling better?" Mei asks him while she cleans his left arm and hopefully, the rash will disappear soon.
Shade lets out a sneeze and answers with a faint smile. "Not really, but it no longer feels like—" he sneezes again, "-like I have sand down my throat."
That's good to hear. Alphonse decides to check up on the girls, and hope that Scar isn't giving them a hard time on having brought home a cat. It's not like any of them knew about Shade being allergic. However, what he sees outside is not something he expected.
Instead of finding Scar giving the two girls harsh words as expected, he finds the man petting the cat while talking surprisingly calmly to Selena and Harika.
"— so, you see? As long we remember this little rule, there is no harm in having the cat around."
The two girls nod and Harika takes over her uncle's task in petting the cat. Alphonse has always thought Scar to be a hard and harsh man, not having the patience to deal with children or even having much care for others. So he finds this scene of the scarred man petting a cat and talking softly to Selena and Harika is quite surreal. It makes Scar look so… human.
Scar notices him and drops his gaze in embarrassment, again something very surreal. Who should have thought the hardened killer who didn't even blink murdering people, could feel embarrassed when people see he has a soft spot for cats and apparently also children.
The scarred man gets up, leaving the two girls in petting the cat and quietly passes him, does stop when Alphonse admits. "I'm starting to see what your brother meant."
Scar gives him a somewhat confused look which does, once again look strange as Alphonse has been so used to see that angry frown all the time. "There are some things we have in common…" he muses and is not really sure if he like this revelation of having a lot of things in common with the killer of Winry's parents.
Scar is not entirely sure what Alphonse Elric meant, the only thing he and the Elric brothers have in common is knowing how it's like to have a brother. He does wonder what his brother said to make Alphonse try and speak to him like a normal person.
Not that he deserves it.
The young man walks over to his nieces and joins them in giving the cat some attention. Well, looks like he and Elric have that in common.
,,,,,,,,,,,,
Alphonse Elric and Mei left later that evening, with the latter voicing almost the same thing Miles did not long ago. "It's good to see you have become happier, Mr. Scar." Which left him in the pondering if he really has become happy? He guesses he has become more grateful at being alive, that he hasn't lost every connection to his much happier past. But he won't say he's happy.
Scar still carry hatred towards Amestris and at times he has to fight against himself so not to give in to the beast of vengeance, it has become easier with his brother around but this return has also made his life, well, it has become very complicated.
"I would like to hear the tale in how you got acquainted with Mei Chang."
His brother's voice cuts through Scar's thoughts and he turns to where Shade is lying. Even though it has mostly faded, his brother hasn't moved from his spot since he got the allergic reaction. Scar walks over to his brother, but instead of explaining how he met Mei, he asks. "Shouldn't you be on your way and be taught by my comrade?"
Shade does not move from his spot. "Hm, I don't really feel like it at the moment." He murmurs and smirks up to his frowning brother. "Must be from my allergic reaction, so, I think I will skip the lessons tonight."
His brother is so lying, his allergic reactions of the past have never stopped him from going out and be schooled. "You're full of bullshit." Scar tells his brother bluntly, did make Shade laugh and yet he did not move.
"Is that a way to treat your sick older brother?" Shade playfully complains, he waves his left hand towards the kitchen. "Especially when he needs some tea for his sour throat?"
Scar rolls his eyes but does as asked, he brews some tea and takes a seat beside his brother where he hands the cup of hot liquid.
"Ah, thank you. Now, how did you meet Mei?"
Of course that's why he made such a big deal out of this. Shade has never done things without an agenda. "You really want to miss a lesson for a simple story on how I met her?" His brother gives him a look that he got that one right.
Scar again rolls his eyes, this time with a smile, though. "Fine, I met her when..." how does he explain this without saying what he did? "Another companion of mine found and revived her, and when I returned from my... business, she explained she was from Xing."
Shade eyes his brother in wonder in how Scar hesitated in specific points of this small story but for once he did not question about it; instead, he allowed Scar to tell this short story.
Which Scar is thankful for, it's hard enough explaining this as it is. "Although I had no wish in her coming along, Mei was persistent and I pretty much owed her from healing a wound I had received. Over time, I figure we just sort of bonded."
"She looks up to you." Shade points out from the observations he has made from that young Xingese woman.
Scar huffs. "And I still wonder why." He hasn't done much to earn her respect. He most of the time paid her no mind and when he did, it was he needed her to do something. Well, there was the time when he helped in searching for what he- back then- thought as a cat. Oh, and the time he told her, although rather harshly to go back home with that greatly weakened homunculus.
After Scar returned to Ishval and Mei to Xing, he thought that was the end of it, but no, he began getting letters from Mei and, well, first just to be polite, he replied on the letters but later he did it because he genuinely cared for her well being.
Shade simply hums a reply at his brother's words, he does still not know the full story as it's clear his brother is very hesitant to speak about the past, but Shade considers this a huge victory. It means that maybe one day, Scar will feel comfortable sharing what causes him so much regret.
It's not today this mystery will be solved though and that's okay. There are other things Shade wants to know anyway. "From how quickly you recognized the symptoms, I say it's not the first time there's been a cat in the house." He has to bite his lip so as not to laugh in how embarrassed his brother has become.
"It isn't."
"Did you drag a cat home once?"
"... Maybe." Scar replies quietly, feeling very hot around his cheeks when his brother starts to laugh. Shade does, fortunately, try and restrain himself from laughing too loudly so they won't wake Harika and alarm Selena to come and check on them.
"Dear lord, I wish I could remember that..." Shade speaks through his laughter, that would've saved him from a lot of hassle but also give him a good laugh when feeling like it.
Scar does not reply, he's trying too hard putting on a stone-face but utterly fails in looking as if he does not care about this subject, too bad his cheeks are still burning.
Okay, maybe it's time to stop embarrass his younger brother. Shade sits up and after have emptied the cup. "I don't have any other allergy I should be aware of?"
"No."
"What about you?"
Scar shrugs. "Not what I am aware of." He hasn't yet gotten a reaction anything similar to his brother.
Shade turns his head slightly away, musing under his breath. "Lucky bastard..."
"Do you call this:" Scar points at the large scar that gave him his current name. "lucky?" He much rather wants to deal with an allergy or lousy eyesight than have this large reminder of what has happened to him.
"It didn't change much, you always got one ugly mug" Shade remarks matter of factly and eyeing his scowling brother about for a second, he burst out laughing.
Scar has no idea why, since Shade did insult him, but it did get a chuckle out from him.
I got this whole chapter by the silly thought of: "what if Scar's brother happens to be allergic to cats?" and I just rolled with it. I find it very amusing to think that Shade has a brother who loves cats but never able to have one in the house thanks to his allergy.
I have cranked this cat allergy up to a ridiculous level for comedic effect- at least I think this is a super extreme reaction. All I am allergic to is perfume and that only gives me itchy eyes and skin if getting the stuff too close or onto my own skin. so I asked one of my friends who is allergic to horses and took how she explained it in how Shade would react having a feline near.
comments and such will be a great, as it will tell me if you guys like this story or I should simply keep it to myself.