Chapter 2
Edward grew up in a small farming town called Risembool on the Border of Germany and what his neighbours say used to be Amestris.
He lived in a small cottage on a hill and his closest neighbours were the Rockbells who lived on a hill just three fields away.
It was a simple life. One showered with affection from his mother, a woman who, in Ed's simple opinion, everyone could learn from.
She lived day to day simply as if the world around them didn't exist, the world of villains and heroes.
With a smile on her face and an innate warmth for those around her.
She was like chocolate.
That was what the man from the bakery said, 'Good for the soul but bad for the heart.' Edward didn't quite understand what he meant, but he thought that it sounded right.
With soft brown hair and kind doe eyes, she even looked like chocolate, she was everything he could have wished for in a mother and somehow more.
His father… not so much.
Edward didn't know what it was but the gold haired man who was his father always left towards the Dead Lands with a frown on his face, and his calls to his mother while he was away always brought one to her face as well.
He wasn't particularly a bad father… just not a good one.
He struggled with some of the most basic things, like holding his little brother Al and cooking, their father was terrible at cooking.
One time Edward swears he almost burnt the house down.
Yet Edward was happy, he lived with his little brother (who thankfully took after their mother) and mother, they laughed and smiled, sure their father wasn't always around, but he tried and Ed knew that.
Edward saw the man late at night reading books that he hadn't thought them to read yet, but he still got him and his brother up each morning despite how little he slept and how each day the bags under his eyes grew.
Ed was happy.
Al was happy, everyone was happy.
Then one early morning their father left.
He didn't come back this time.
-x-
It was a late evening just a few days after his father left when Ed made his way into his father's study, Alphonse sharp on his heals.
He wanted to know why his father kept leaving and why he hadn't called back yet like he usually would.
He wanted to make his mother smile again.
It was then that he discovered the world of alchemy.
A world of a forgotten science.
Yet this discovery only made their father more of a mystery.
Alchemy was a dead science. A myth.
Yet the books layered upon the shelves of his study said otherwise.
The small trinkets around the house that would change shape in their father's hand suddenly seemed like more.
The world of quirks forgotten under the new light of alchemy.
Ed found it intriguing, no exhilarating.
Every page seemed to have another answer to some strange unspoken question that sat heavily upon his chest.
With Al by his side, the two brothers found themselves in their father's study day and night, time passing by in such a blur that the only moments they noticed was when their mother would slip through the cracks watching them for but a moment with a sad smile upon her lips before calling them for dinner.
Strangely enough, the absence of their father was less notable as they delved into Alchemy.
After enough practice, the small metal dolls that they made for their mother brought back the smile like they wished it would.
That was when they discovered Alchemy could create miracles.
-x-
They don't really talk about quirks in Risenbool, their parents even less so.
Whenever the topic was brought up something would change and they would suddenly seem to cut off slowly from the world around them.
Ed didn't know why all he knew was that it caused both of them pain.
It was one of those unanswered questions that sat upon his chest like a pile of bricks. This question was one of the ones Alchemy hadn't solved yet.
So Ed focuses on Alchemy because alchemy made their mother smile and alchemy would answer his questions.
Some just took longer than others.
Alchemy was all he needed.
Even if he wanted to know how the baker could make spots appear in the sky, or how the Rockbell's could sever nerves in their patients.
Or how he could knows deep down in his bones that Winry could do something more.
Or how when turned 4 something he remembers that everything seemed to change.
Edwards wished for answers, alchemy had already given Alphonse his. Ed would just have to work that little bit harder.
Alchemy would give him the answer.
He couldn't ask his mother. Not with how much it seemed to hurt her.
Alchemy would answer him.
So he learnt, he practised, he made Winry a doll for her birthday, (she didn't like it much) he memorised the elements of the world around him as he replaced the pages in his dad's books.
Though as he learnt, he grew, and like that day when he was four, the world continued to change.
A golden age of heroes they called it.
Yet it was only one man who became a symbol for the world.
All Might, the symbol of peace.
It was a title Edward was both fascinated by and jealous of.
The spark of admiration that grew in Al's eyes made his very own pride churn in disgust.
So Edward tried harder, he got stronger, better at alchemy until he held all the answers to his brother's questions.
Every question except one and that one seemed to be the most important.
"Where's dad?"
It was one of two questions that Ed never found the answers to in his books.
Quirks and his father.
It was a recipe for disaster.
One that came in the form of their mother's sickness.
Then suddenly Alchemy wasn't where he would find the answer, it was the answer.
-x-
Another chapter, but I'm keeping Alphonse's quirk a secret till the next chapter.
Edwards's is a later surprise tho.