~.~
-THE OUTSIDER-
by Iland Girl
'for those in search of home.'
A Fullmetal Alchemist Fanfiction
I don't own anybody but Erin... for now...
Chapter Three: Ripple
"The world is far less random than it appears. Once you started paying attention, patterns emerged where before you only saw chaos."
― Anna Jarzab, Tandem
Edward thought it was a strange thing, the Eastrin house. For some odd reason he couldn't picture the little hut as anything more than a pad for one person. It was an open floor save for the three doors on the left side. The kitchen, living room, and entrance were all exposed and it somehow bothered him that a remarkable scientist like Dr Eastrin's family lived in such a small space. Even his old home back in Resembool had been larger than this.
"Ma, I'm home. I brought guests." The teen called from across the way as he kicked off his shoes. He made no comment when Edward did the same and revealed his prosthetic leg, in fact he seemed to blatantly ignore it. Much to Edward's relief. Alphonse wiped his feet the best her could before they both made their way inside.
Mrs Eastrin was standing in the kitchen over a pot of something that smelled delicious. Edward couldn't help but sniff a bit, his stomach grumbling in response. Mrs Eastrin turned at the sound of her son, smiling when she heard Edward's stomach.
"Oh? Hello there, what brings you here boys?" She asked. They boys made their way further inside before Mrs Eastrin gestured for them to sit. Before anyone could say a word hot tea was placed in front of them. The boy from earlier sat down across from Edward and Alphonse, and there was a small stretch of silence as Mrs Eastrin turned away to grab the milk and sugar.
"We were hoping to talk to Dr Eastrin about his research, but we were told he isn't here." Edward explained, watching the wife like a hawk as she hitched in her step. He wasn't sure what to expect, but wouldn't put it past her to try something. The son seemed negative enough about people wanting to know about this research.
"I see," Mrs Eastrin said one she had placed the goods on the table. "I'm afraid I won't be much help boys. You see my husband was very secretive about a lot of it, and frankly I couldn't care less about his alchemic research. Martin here has more knowledge on the subject than I do."
Martin, the son, quietly sipped his tea. Edward followed suite after adding some milk to it.
"You're just a little late," Martin spoke up. Edward and Alphonse focused on him. "Well, maybe I should start a bit further back to explain. You see my father was working with. A small group of other alchemists. They were studying some weird stuff that, frankly, I can't understand."
"What kind of stuff?" Alphonse piped in. Martin glanced at him, his face firming up. Edward felt himself brace for it.
"He was trying to prove that there was…. How should I put it…. That another world existed." Martin explained. Alphonse gave a gasp, but Edward was finding this hard to believe. He narrowed his eyes and said nothing as Martin continued.
"Don't get me wrong, I didn't believe it either, but he kept talking about this one guy he was working with. Said the guy actually made it across." Martin looked to his mother for help. The mother, however, looked much more solemn.
"Anatol Lallier. He was a charming young man, would drag my husband away to his estate for weeks on end, and then my husband would come back with the most ridiculous stories. I honestly don't believe half of it." She said before sipping her tea.
Something wasn't sitting right, he couldn't put his finger on it, but his gut told him that Mrs Eastrin was a liar. He said nothing though as he looked between eh two. Instead he decided to wait.
"I remember him! He would show up randomly, even came banging on our door in the middle of the night to get Dad a few years ago." Martin added, staring into his teacup in thought.
"Anatol Lallier, where have I heard that name before….." Edward began. It was quiet for a moment, then it clicked. "Oh yeah, the Zephyr Alchemist. He was a hero of Ishval."
Guess that was why the Colonel said to check in. Probably wanted him to just run an errand and see how his old war buddies were doing.
"Where is Anatol Lallier?" Alphonse asked. It was quiet for a second, Martin shrugged and looked to his mother. She said nothing at first, then sipped her tea. The silence dragged on, and on, and on some more. Finally she finished and put her teacup down.
"I think that's enough boys." She told them.
"What?!" Edward shouted. Alphonse was equally crossed.
"You can't do that!" The younger brother argued. The woman looked at them, and suddenly Edward could see.
This woman looked much sadder than she initially had. The lines of her face belayed someone in their senior years, not a middle aged wife. She had dark circles under her eyes that she seemed to hide until she let the facade fall. She was tired.
Because this woman was in grieving.
It was finally then that Edward realized this woman presumed her husband dead, and all this talk was probably getting to be too much. So Edward put a hand on Al's arm to settle him.
"Mrs Eastrin, I know this must be a tough time for you, but please. If you can help us out in any way, we would like to know what happened." Edward said as calmly as he could. The woman in question looked at him, just looked. He wasn't sure what she saw, but something seemed to spark in those almost dull eyes. She sighed, pinched her nose, then nodded.
"About eight months ago, Anatol comes to the door. He refused to say anything to me, but he had to see my husband right that instant. So my husband comes out, and he tells him he needs him to do something."
It was quiet while she spoke. So quiet, so silent that a pin could be heard hitting the floor outside the hut. Nobody moved, both brothers were tense with curiosity at what could possibly be-
"He wanted him to…to make something called a philosopher's stone."
Edward gasped at that, Al did too. Both were in a stunned silence, both couldn't say anything before she carried on.
"I wish I could tell you more, but I can't. I truly can't. Shortly after that night, John came home. He came home, but he wasn't the same. He didn't sleep all night, would wake with nightmares. He wouldn't eat, I had to beg him to somedays. He was just….. a husk."
Edward and Alphonse looked at one another.
"Did he…. Did he ever tell you what was wrong?" Alphonse asked. Mrs Eastrin shook her head, a tremble in her shoulders as she recalled those awful days.
"He would only ever tell me one thing. That he was a monster."
Mrs Eastrin teared up, they waited. Martin patted her back and held her hand. He looked tired too, no doubt it was hard playing witness to a parent wasting away. She regained herself some minutes later and looked to be ready to try and speak again.
"Then, just-just out of nowhere he gets up one day and says 'I'm going to find them' and left. He never told us where he was going, he just said to guard his research and that was that. That was three days ago."
"What about Lallier?" Alphonse asked, but Mrs Eastrin was sniffling again. Martin turned to them and answered for her.
"We haven't seen him since he asked for the stone. He just vanished."
This was the closest thing to Hell I could probably come up with.
Somehow I had gone through some freaky wormhole with an omnipotent being that wanted to play mind riddles, dropped in the middle of a field only to be licked awake by some stray dog, then find out this world has some strange magic that allows people to defy the laws of physics and remake something that's been broken by drawing squiggly lines in the dirt and having a mini light show for dramatic effect.
Sometimes I wondered if I was really just blind and deaf and making everything up in my head at this point.
A soft whine from my side brought me back to attention. The stray dog from earlier was sitting next to me, staring at me. He had to have been a stray, he was way too mangy to be own by someone, and way too skinny.
"You and me both pal." I muttered, patting him head a few times. He whined again, poking his cold wet nose in my face. I flinched.
"Easy! That hurts." I said, pushing him away gently. Footsteps drew closer to us, so I looked up. This was the first person to cross my path since earlier that day when I saw the crowd. Funny enough, this was the person I ran into earlier. Somebody in a suit of armour. Hard to forget when you slam your face into something that solid.
"Oh, it's you." A surprisingly young voice said. I was surprised he remembered me too.
"Uh, yeah, sorry about earlier." I muttered, letting my hair fall in my face. There was the sound of shuffling feet, then I peeked up to see the armoured boy scratching his helm.
"Well, um, are you alright? You took off in a hurry there." He said, his voice sweet and honest. I smiled, but it was humourless. There were no words to explain what I was feeling right now. Over stimulated? Numb? Empty? How do you put all that into one tangible word?
"Yeah, I just….. I'm having a rough day." I explained. The stray dog whimpered, so I looked up to him and pat him a few times. "I think we're both having a rough day."
"Oh, well that's good. I mean not that you were having a rough day, just that you're okay. Uh- I'm sorry, but what's your name? My name is Alphonse."
Alphonse. What a strange name, though I supposed there would be some strange things to accompany this magical hoodoo they had going on. I looked up to him, my hair falling in my face some.
"Erin… um, please to meet you." I said softly, looking back to the stray. There was another silence as I continued to pet the dog.
"Is he yours?" Alphonse asked me. I found it curious that he was still sticking around, and for a second I wanted to snap at him. The dog whimpered though, and I realized I had stopped petting him. I continued my pets as I answered.
"No, I guess you could say we…. Well we just found each other." I said, sitting upright then. To my surprise Alphonse was now crouched nearby. He held out his hand to the dog, who sniffed it before leaning into his touch. Alphonse then proceeded to pet the dog several times.
"He's a good boy, I can tell." Alphonse's voice lilted like that of a child on the verge of giggles. I had to agree with his statement.
"If you don't mind my asking, um, well your clothes. You're….. you're not from around here, huh?" Alphonse asked. I smirked, not at all surprised my dark hoodie and skinny jeans stuck out so badly.
"No, I'm not." I said softly, observing Alphonse petting the dog.
"So…. Where are you from? I can't place your accent." Alphonse pointed out. I was almost caught off guard by that. Considering German wasn't my first language I never thought anything of the accent. Most fluent speakers could identify my lilts as a native English speaker. I guess that wasn't the case here.
"German isn't my first language. It's my second. We speak English in my country….. erm…. Kanata. It's north west of… here…."
I observed the duo in front of me a while longer. I watched the dog practically melt at all the scratches he was getting, and faintly recalled something my mother used to tell me.
'Dogs are the best judges of character. They won't suck up to someone who isn't worth their time.'
"Can I be honest with you?" I asked rhetorically to Alphonse. He looked up at me, and again I gave him a humourless laugh. "I don't know where I am. I just….. I just woke up here. And I don't even know how to get home."
It might've been funny, were the subject a bit lighter, how once I started talking I couldn't stop. I felt like I was at confessional, and the sins were spewing forth. I felt an immense relief though from this confession. The weight lifted so suddenly I could almost cry.
"I'm not sure how to help you, to be honest," Alphonse said. I wiped some tears away to look at him. He shifted, as though uncomfortable with how to proceed.
"No-no! I didn't mean- I'm just tired. You don't have to do anything for me, Alphonse." I said, curling my legs up to my chest again. The stray whimpered at me, licking my fingers. I patted his head, but didn't make any move after that. Alphonse stepped closer; I didn't look up.
His hand outstretched in front of me.
"Of course I do. You can't spend the night out here! At the very least brother and I can help you get a meal."
I was surprised, so I looked up at him. He didn't move, but I had the sneaking suspicion he was smiling underneath that mask.
So I was left at a stalemate. What do you do? Do I stay out here and starve? Shiver, cuddled next to a stray dog who was thinner than he should be? Or did I tempt fate and risk being abducted by a seemingly nice kid in a suit of armour? In the back of my head I wondered if it were really abduction if I had no where to go.
So, very gingerly, I took Alphonse's large hand. He helped me up carefully, before stepping back and gesturing to follow. I took several steps before realizing the stray had yet to follow. He sat there by the bench, staring at us leaving with drooped ears. I smiled, gesturing for him to come to me.
"Well? You coming along?" I asked. His ears perked up and his eyes shone as he practically bounced over to us. He leaped onto his back legs to lick my face, nearly toppling me over from his size. At the last second he backed up and wagged his tail by my feet as he pranced around.
I shook my head and stuffed my hands in my pockets before carrying on after Alphonse.
Hi everyone!
Um, well, I guess I should start with an apology. You see the rest of January and February was a NIGHTMARE for me. Not going to go into detail, but there was just a lot going on. Deadlines, drama, trips, financial crisis... yeah it hasn't been great. But not to fear! I have (hopefully) returned! i wanted to get this out early, because i get the feeling I'm about to get SUPER busy again. My friend's getting married, another is going through a crisis of her own. Tis the life. Oh well, hope you all are having a wonderful day, and thank you so much for sticking with this rewrite. This chapter is short, and I apologize, it was originally supposed to be much longer, but I wasn't satisfied with Ed and Erin's first meeting, so that shall happen in the next chapter!
You can already see some changes I made from the original (if you read that) and to be honest that's because I have a better idea of what the heck I'm doing this time around.
Once again, thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review! I'm hoping to get in the top 10 for most reviewed FMA OC stories!
I hope you enjoy it! See you next Time!
Iland Girl