A/N: HELLO FELLOW FMA FANS! ….I apologize for being so inactive, I was concentrating on my other stories that I unfortunately neglected this one :( BUT I will still update, maybe not as frequently and maybe the updates will be far and fewer between, BUT I WILL UPDATE!

Here's a bit of a thing that stuck in my head until I wrote it down, hope you enjoy! :3

NOTICE: Edward is narrating the events in this chapter, marked in italics.

My Mother's Story

This may sound crazy.

I may be delusional.

People won't believe me.

But I don't give a damn.

Some stories were believed to be myths, legends or simply forgotten. People would never believe a story of supernatural things, right? Of things incomprehensible for the human mind to decipher, of things deemed impossible by people who were thought to have tried and done everything the world has to offer.

Well, this story was real.

It was the story about my mother.

In a way, this story was supernatural too.

The love she had for him, that is.

It was a peaceful time free of illnesses and the plague destroying her crops, it was a time, some would say to fall in love.

Trisha Elric was a woman of work.

He was a man of science.

They called him Hohenheim.

Not much was known about him, only that he was a traveler, with the appearance of people long seemed gone, with hair and eyes the color of the sun and knowledge far surpassing even the healers in Central.

Her neighbors warned her, told her to be wary of him if he were to cross her path, to not ask questions and mind her own business, but she simply couldn't.

They said he was cold, a man of few words and even fewer smiles. But tales of his astounding, heroic deeds of helping the ill and those in need traveled fast in a village as small as Resembool, he was bound to be a good man, right?

It was at the marketplace that she first spoke to him.

It had been an accident on her part, running into him, quite literally.

Her basket had dropped to the ground, thankfully sparing the delicate eggs, and she had hurried to pick it up and apologize.

And the man had helped her. Had apologized to her. Had…smiled.

It was a smile that spoke of years of living on this earth, years no other human could have lived, it spoke of happy days remembered but long gone, it spoke of pain and sorrow buried beneath a cool façade.

It spoke of friendliness.

So she returned it.

With a bright smile and a meal.

The man had been flustered, especially about all the sudden rumors circulating about town, about the unmarried Trisha Elric inviting the normally distanced, mysterious, but undoubtedly handsome traveler to her home.

But she ignored them.

And after their tenth shared meal, so did he.

He stopped trying to convince her pursuing a relationship was a bad idea, he stopped trying to distance himself from her, he stopped trying to act cold and aloof when she bestowed upon him the brightest of smiles and the kindest of glances.

He stopped resisting, and so did she.

They were young, but so were many other people that were married. It wasn't a bad thing, not necessarily. People eventually accepted that the poor, hard-working woman melted the cold traveler's heart.

But he had a secret.

And she had a fear.

She had noticed the signs, she wasn't a fool.

He had become distant again, he hid paper scrolls he had in his study and she never entered without permission, which was rarely given.

He was hiding, she was worrying.

It was in the evening in their home, the evening that felt like their hundredth shared one, that she finally broke.

She had talked. He had listened.

She thought the love they held for another was gone, but when the so carefully kept secret had spilled from his lips in a whisper, did she understand.

He was an alchemist, a very powerful one.

He had come from a country called Xerxes, of an ancient race.

He was immortal and was the one to even invent the practice of alchemy.

He had been betrayed by a being he had called a friend and as curse in disguise received the gift of immortality.

The smile on her face was more than he could bear and before he could stand up to leave, she had hugged him to her and cried in relief.

Despite the hundreds of years he had spent walking this earth, he hadn't ever encountered someone like her and he could say he finally found the home he would happily die in peace.

And then, their first baby came.

It was a boy and they named him Edward.

Trisha had chosen the name, but with a smile, she promised he would get to choose for the next one.

And he did.

Their second son's name was Alphonse.

Somehow, Trisha had expected such a name, coming from a man named Hohenheim.

And they were happy, for a long time.

A too short time.

The old man left while we were still young and mom raised us alone. Al and I hated him for leaving, for hurting mom like that, but she never spoke ill of him, she always defended him, always.

During the day, she would smile and say it was okay. But in the night, we could hear her cry sometimes. We had no idea what really happened back then, why the bastard left. I thought because he was a selfish bastard, siring children and then leaving. But it was only when mom got ill and right before she died, that I was slowly beginning to understand.

She looked like she had aged more than the time Edward had known her. Back then, he didn't understand it all too well, all he knew was, his mother was sick, very sick.

And a few weeks later, his mother was gone.

It was old hag Pinako that had told him what Trisha said before she died.

"I'm sorry but I'm dying first,"

It had been a promise to Hohenheim.

To wait for him to return.

It was around that time that Edward, the genius alchemist he had grown up to be, had figured it out.

Hohenheim hadn't left simply out of boredom, he had left to protect his family.

The Homunculi, the Dwarf in the Flask, the Nationwide Transmutation Circle…

Edward hadn't known, neither did Alphonse, of course they hadn't. Mom never said anything and nobody had known but her.

It was after the battle with the Homunculi, the battle with Father, that Edward and Alphonse understood.

Hohenheim was immortal.

Trisha was – had been – a normal human woman.

She aged.

He did not.

She had promised to wait for him, however long it took, to lead a long and healthy life in order to greet him when he came back.

But the plague took her and their promise was broken.

And so was Hohenheim's heart.

Pinako had told him how he had died, kneeling before his mother's grave, with a smile on his face.

He had never seen his corpse, he didn't think he could have had the stomach to either, but he could picture it and strangely that had put his mind at peace.

In the end, they had led a hard but fulfilling life and Edward thought that, maybe, if such a thing existed, they may be able to enjoy their time in the afterlife together.

I never thought about how a person could be happy when leading such a rough life. But after living my own, I figured it out. Mom didn't have a lot, folk in Resembool didn't swim in money, but she had family, people that loved her and that had been enough. She knew her husband had loved her, because of us, because of me and Al, she knew she could trust him, so she did. Despite all the hardships, she endured and she saw him again, in the end.

And in the end, she was smiling.

Thanks for reading! :)