So, I've realised that I forgot to write a disclaimer, so this one counts for the entire story: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Chapter three
Dex was sitting at the piano and jumped as he suddenly had someone tapping his shoulder. He turned around quickly, only to see Mom standing there like her fingers had been burnt by his reaction. "Oh, sorry! You didn't seem to hear me!" she exclaimed.
Dex let out a couple of breaths to calm himself down. "I just... I just didn't think you'd be down here so soon. Is there something wrong? ...Besides this whole mess?" he asked awkwardly.
"Uhm, no... I just... I wanted to talk with you alone if that's okay?
"Oh, sure." Dex immediately stood up. "I'll grab you a chair," he told her as he walked over to the one in front of the worktable and dragged it over to her, placing it in front of the piano stool. He wanted to make sure that she wouldn't think that she was intruding. Because he really didn't mind. Actually, the thing he wanted most right now was to talk with his parents. But problem was that this Mom was sixteen and hardly knew him at all, while he knew a great deal about her. It would make anyone nervous and uncomfortable. And she wasn't thirty-five with a lot of knowledge in the ways of motherhood.
"Thanks, Dex..." she said awkwardly, sitting down, folding her hands in her lap.
"No problem, Mo- Winry."
They both blushed. Awkwardness was making the tension in the room triple, if not more.
"...Sorry," Dex said, looking down.
"No, I get it... It's just..." Mom began, but didn't seem to know how to finish it.
"...It's just that you've been consciously crushing on Dad for nearly a year already and it's making it awkward as heck for you to be around him now."
"Am I... Am I a good mother? It's just that you seem to be emulating Ed a lot," she asked quietly.
Dex looked up at her at that. "Of course you are! You're the best! D'you think that you'd still be married to Edward Elric after seventeen years if you didn't treat his family right?!" he asked in outrage.
She blushed and looked down. "I... uh... I guess you're right..."
"Damn right, I am. And if it helps, then Dad's crushing on you too, but he's too embarrassed to do anything about it. He's Dad as a teenage boy, it's what happens..." Dex told her, trying to make up for it.
"He... He is?" she asked shakily, obviously stunned.
Dex sighed. "Yeah..."
"And you? Do you have anyone?"
He blushed himself. "Kinda...?"
She looked up at that, obviously interested. "How is she? Do I like her? Is she pretty?"
"Yeah. She's pretty funny and she loves singing. And she's dead smart." Dex felt a bit odd about the part he was leaving out because it didn't really matter about her and it made him sound like a jerk when he phrased it wrong.
"What's her name?" Dex was getting flashbacks in full to when he had told Mom about her the first time.
"Val, or Valerie in full."
"Oh, that's a really pretty name. What does she look like?"
Damn.
"She's got a kind of red-brown hair that goes down just past her shoulders. And she has a very kind face."
"She sounds like a really nice girl. But is there something wrong about her?"
Dex looked at her fiercely at that. "There's nothing wrong about her! It's just that a lot of people think that I keep her as my pet because she makes me feel tall and other bullshit!"
Then he blushed and looked down again. "She's got achondroplasia, she's 85 centimetres tall," he explained quickly. "But it isn't like that. She's not short. Her height is just one Val, simple as that. One thing is when she's like that, but it's completely different when someone's just short like my cousins. Val's just Val, and my cousins are pipsqueaks because it annoys them." He chuckled slightly. "First thing she said when she met Jamie was 'wow, you're short', even if he was nearly thirty centimetres taller than her. She's the one who first started joking about growth hormones too. She's not bothered about her height, but they are, so that makes it funny instead of just me mocking her height. I know it kinda sounds like I'm an inconsiderate jerk when calling them pipsqueaks and talking about growth hormones like it's a bad thing ... But it's like Val says 'nuh, they're short 'cos they're tiny brats and can do something about it. You're just waiting for your growth spurt and I'm Val, hello.'"
There was silence at that.
Then Mom began laughing. "Sounds like you've found yourself a nice girl, then..."
"Yeah," Dex said awkwardly. It wasn't as awkward as he had thought it would be, though, but he'd had a lot of support from Mom and Dad ever since he started liking Val. And he definitely wasn't ashamed of her being his girlfriend, because she was awesome. "She wants to be an actress. Like musicals."
"Which makes it pretty perfect for the pianist when he has someone to sing along to his playing, right?" Mom said, obviously getting back at him for how awkward he had been making her and Dad.
Well, Dex was going to win no matter what. "Yeah, and you and Dad love to watch us when we do. Sitting there with your arms around each other, you resting your head on his shoulder..." he said, smirking at her, enjoying the way her entire face went bright red.
"Oh... Uh... How... How nice."
"Val always says you're such a sweet couple."
Mom looked like she was about to burst with embarrassment. "So how did you meet?" she asked in a very squeaky voice.
"Two years ago. We started going to school together and because I changed schools after year seven, I kinda ended up with a bunch of people hounding me because I'm Edward Elric's son. Being sort of a celebrity and looking so much like him, makes it a bit hard to know who wants to be my friend and who wants to be friends with someone famous. And so I kinda hid in the bike shed, when I suddenly tripped over something, which turned out to be someone sitting on the floor, humming... She'd hidden herself there because she was tired of people continuously bumping into her on purpose and excusing themselves because 'they didn't see her down there.' She wasn't exactly fond of someone doing the same even at her hiding place, but as I ended up genuinely falling and splitting my lip and getting a shiner, she kinda believed me. You and Dad got worried that I was being bullied at school, though, when I came home."
"But at least we like her."
"Yeah... I'm actually kinda surprised that Dad didn't invite her a-" Dex froze, his stomach clenching with realisation.
"Dex, what's wrong?!" Mom asked as Dex stood up, staring at her.
"I didn't ask to bring her with me because I knew that she was busy with her theatre camp, but Dad didn't know it and he didn't ask because this is the past which means that he knew that this would happen! He's known for nineteen damn years, and he didn't tell me! None of you did!"
Mom looked at him, completely pale.
Dex turned on his heel and ran upstairs, feeling tears streaming down his cheeks with betrayal as he ran up to Dad and punched him in the face. He still knew how to throw a punch, even if he wasn't exactly a fighting machine. And Dad was too confused to even stop him. "HOW COULD YOU?! HOW COULD YOU GO FOR NINETEEN YEARS KNOWING THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN, AND YET NEVER TELL ME?! HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME THAT I WAS GONNA GET SENT BACK IN TIME?!"
Dad was pale as he grabbed Dex's fists to keep him from punching him again. "Dex, take it easy! I must have had some reason not to tell you!"
"Maybe it's because it didn't happen now?" came Uncle Al's voice.
Dex froze. "What do you mean?!"
"If you're from the future then wouldn't it be dangerous to change the past? If it is an already established event, then changing it would mean going against the flow of the universe and time itself, wouldn't it?"
Dex turned around to look at him. "So... So Dad didn't tell me because he didn't tell me?"
"If it's an already established event, like Al says, then if I were to do things differently, then that would mean that I could be putting my son at risk because that way I wouldn't know what would happen to you," Dad said, looking horror-stricken.
There was suddenly a loud thump from the hallway and the three of them jogged over to see what was going on.
Only to find someone lying passed out in the hallway, looking pale. Dex froze as Dad ran forwards and flipped the not-so-stranger over on his back. "What the hell is Mustang doing here?!"
...September 17, 1934...
Ed felt his stomach clench. He'd been trying to act normal for every single day since Dex was born, but it didn't make it easier right now. He'd learnt to hide it, to cherish every single minute, and he didn't regret anything about his life. He had been surprised to find that Dexter's facts had proved themselves to have been more like predictions of the future. Predictions that were accurate as heck, but whenever Ed had found himself at those points that Dex had described all those years ago, he hadn't felt like anything had been forced. It had all been of his own free will.
And that made him feel a bit better about it, somehow, because it meant that Ed hadn't married Winry because he had had to. He'd had all his kids out of his own free will and he loved them to bits.
But it didn't make it okay that he was now covering up the dead body in the garden of the alchemist who had done this to Dex, with a black tarp. It didn't make it okay that the note in the man's pocket was a message that had been made directly for Ed, telling him that his days were counted because his son was about to destroy everything that happened on the Promised Day by going twenty years into the past. And that it appeared that the only piece of luck that they had had, twisted though it may be, was that the insane amount of energy that had been needed, had been too much for the alchemist to have completed his goal and he had therefore run short by about a year.
Even worse was the fact that the guy had only discovered how to have sent someone back in time, but without some fundamental rules about time itself.
Rules and laws that they had been working on understanding for the past nineteen years.
But now that his son was missing and the stupid branch was hanging on the tree oddly, Ed felt a tear threatening to run down his cheek. Because he was severely afraid that something would go wrong after all. Ed would like to say that time-travel alchemy was far worse than human transmutation. It was arrogant, bastardly and twisted and-
"Riza's babysitting," came a familiar voice behind him. "You and her will be looking after Leo, Al and Jamie."
Ed turned around to look up at the President himself, only to burst out laughing. Mustang had used the lawn in order to have sneaked up on Ed while Riza and Leopold were obviously up front.
Especially as Ollie began barking.
The reason that Ed was laughing, however, was that Mustang had obviously been forced to wear a disguise so as to have been able to have sneaked the leader of the country and his family into the Eastern countryside without any bodyguards.
Meaning that the man was currently playing a slightly hunchbacked, old man with a short, white beard and moustache, matching the grey ponytail, and dressed in a pair of patched jeans and a large, chequered, red flannel shirt. The top three buttons were open and his sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, and he was wearing a dark brown sixpence and was carrying a pitchfork over his shoulder. He obviously had some makeup on too, because his face had a couple of moles and wrinkles that Ed was pretty sure weren't real. His makeup had also been there to make him look like he was a lot more used to the sun than he was as well.
All in all...
"You look ridiculous!" Ed said, laughing, before getting to his feet sternly, pulling the President by the collar of his shirt. "Now get a fucking move on, because you weren't dressed like that the last time, which means that Dex is gonna have to wait for you to change, and even then you're gonna be useless for days!"
"Edward, if you would kindly let go of my shirt, I think you'll find that I'll be able to move a lot faster."
Ed released him, growling. He hated this. He wanted Dex back and he wanted him right now so that this nightmare could be over. So that their lives could go back to normal and this would finally be a thing of the past instead of the future.
He honestly wanted to sob, because he still remembered just how angry Dex had been when he had found out. How much hurt and betrayal there had been in his eyes. And although Dex had grown to accept it in the past, it didn't necessarily mean that he wasn't going to hate Ed for not telling him when he finally got back to his father.
And so Ed just stomped up the front steps, slammed open the door and found Al hugging his sobbing son and Riza standing there, washing Leopold's face, most likely due to makeup. She was dressed as a brown-haired man, making her look nothing like either Riza Mustang or a woman in general.
"Roy, get changed and get dressed, your suitcase is in the bathroom already, so just get to it," she ordered sternly. She had been very stern about prioritising children after she had become a mother, and she had had a soft spot for Dex ever since she had first met him nineteen years ago.
Meaning that she too wasn't exactly too fond of the idea of her husband stalling.
Ed found himself stressed and wanting to swear loudly for at least ten minutes straight, but that wasn't an option with two terrified preteens in the building, one of which was Riza Mustang's nine-year-old son. And so he left for the phone, picked it up and dialled their house.
Unsurprisingly, Winry picked it up immediately, obviously having been hovering over the phone for quite a while already. "Ed?! Has it- Is he?!" she asked tearfully.
"Yeah. But the rescue party is getting ready," Ed told her, barely able to stop his own tears. Remaining vague over the phone was kind of a given when you were sending the leader of the country back in time. "It'll be over in a few weeks, Win. And then we won't have to deal with this ever again. Now go tell the others what's going on. And remind April of what Dexter said. You've got the letter, haven't you?"
"Yes. I'll explain and then give it to her."
"Thank you. And hug them for me. And tell them that Dad loves them and that we're going to fix this, okay?"
"Of course. I'll call you later, May is desperate to talk to Jamie, so tell Al and him to come to the phone."
"Yeah. Love you, Winry. And we're gonna get our son back."
"Love you too, Ed, and you'd better do that."
And so Ed quickly wiped his eyes dry and fetched his brother and nephew, and suddenly found himself alone in the living room and at a complete loss as to what to do while he waited for Mustang.
He suddenly felt Ollie push his nose to his hand, trying to offer him comfort.
And Ed wasn't one to decline as he sat down and hugged the dog and began scratching his back.
Roy came back out of the bathroom, knowing that what was about to happen wasn't going to be fun, nor painless. One thing was being transported, another was almost completely spending your energy so that you knew you'd be lying in bed for days with fevers, shivers, and hurting all over while your body slowly replenished the energy that you needed to get back to normal after arriving half-dead.
And then he'd do the same all over again and come back in the same way, but this time he'd be scaring the living daylights out of his nine-year-old son.
This wasn't going to be fun. But it had to be done. And so he fixed his hair and suit, figuring that arriving looking his best, at least as much so as possible when he'd be lying unconscious in a heap, would at least save some of his pride.
He found Riza and Leo in the hallway, Leo, ever the sweet boy that he was, already with tears in his eyes. Roy sighed and knelt down in front of him, pulling him into a hug. "Come on now, Leo. I'll be back in a few weeks. It will be fine," he told him, stroking his back as his son sobbed into his shoulder while Roy held his hand at the back of his head. The style the same as Roy's own when he had been younger, but with his mother's blonde locks.
"But Mum says you're gonna get really sick, and twice even! What if something goes wrong, Dad?"
"It won't. You have my word."
It took them another ten minutes before Leo was even capable of pulling out of the hug, which meant that it was Riza's turn to say goodbye. Roy gave her a long kiss, before she fastened a note to his chest with a piece of tape. "Go get them, Roy. And take care."
"I will. And you take care of each other for me, okay?"
"We will, Dad," Leo said with his black eyes shining with tears. He had inherited Roy's facial features, and Roy felt a twist of pain in his gut that he'd be leaving his son for longer than he had ever done since he had been born. And so he hugged his family once more, before he took a deep breath and walked over to the complicated array that Edward and Alphonse had already drawn up before he had come. The three Elrics were standing there, Jamie looking terrified, obviously having been given the news about where his cousin had gone and that Alphonse was basically going to be reduced to a half-dead state within the next couple of minutes.
Roy sighed and knelt down in the middle of the array, just as Alphonse knelt down in front of him outside it.
"You bring him back, Mustang, you hear me?!" Edward said threateningly.
Roy nodded and took a last look at his son and wife. "See you in a few weeks. Love you both."
"Love you too, Dad," Leo said, just as Riza replaced the "Dad" with "Roy" as she held her arms over their son's shoulders.
"Okay, let's do this," Roy said, looking back at Alphonse.
Al nodded.
And so they pressed their hands to the array, Roy's body feeling like it was being squeezed and twisted as the energy coursed through him and dissipated just as he saw the now empty hallway and his body burst with fatigue and pain.
Then everything turned black.
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(But no flames, they're very discouraging)