Enigma
By TeriyakiPrinces
Rating: Mature because blood and a lot of swearing which makes fanfiction net want to kick me out.
Warnings for the chapter: Feels.
Disclaimer: Not mine. To see original content, look up Hiromu Arakawa.
A/N: I didn't lie, I've got a few days before the updates are a month apart! But nevertheless, I apologize to those that have been waiting for this patiently. Real life calls, as you all know.
I made a mistake in the timeline so I've gone back to fix it- we're in May of 1914 not 1915 so everything is pushed back a year, including Gaia's arrival which is now in 1912 not 1913. Not a big deal, just wanted you to know.
This chapter was quite a lot of work to write, with formatting and the inclusion of canonical scenes in a way that the story fits with what I'm trying to do, as you shall soon see, and I'm sure some of you know what is coming, something that was already hard to read, so if you spot any plot holes or grammar mistakes please point them out.
Gaia, Alphonse, and Edward sat in the bare hospital room, silent, as Winry and Mr. Hughes burst into it. Winry was on the verge of tears as she ran towards her sister, spluttering apologies and hugging the taller girl tightly.
"Win, it's alright. You called, didn't you?" Gaia patted her head, reassuring in her tight grip around Winry's shoulders.
"I know! But I'm so so so sorry, I left you here and totally forgot about you and I feel absolutely awful-" she cut herself off, guilty once again.
"I forgot about you." Another caress of her head, and a sigh rumbled through the chest she pressed her face against.
"Alright, alright. Stop that now, okay? You're embarrassing me. I've got a hard-ass image to maintain, you know?" her tone, despite the words, was soft and understanding. The shorter blonde stepped away, sniffling as she wiped at her eyes.
"I'm really sorry."
"Miss Maurer? I should be the one to apologize." Gaia turned to look at the tall dark-haired man standing behind her sister, hand rubbing at the back of his head as a cheesy grin took over his face.
"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, and you must be Gaia Maurer! Sorry for dragging Miss Winry away, you see I was very excited because my daughter turned three today and..."
Gaia looked on with fond eyes as Hughes's mouth ran away in his recollection of the day's events, spouting anecdotes and endearments for his family. She recalled her devastation at his death in the manga and anime- he was the reason she didn't have the heart to watch the first show, even though she reread the books over and over and over again. She always skipped his demise, she remembers.
She had told herself that she wouldn't assume anything about her new world, her new home, but at this moment she was hard-pressed not to run out of the hospital straight back to Resembool and maybe even past the desert to Xing, leaving everything behind because dammit she already knew she wouldn't be able to resist falling farther down the hole of no return if she got closer to any more of these people. These people who were pure, unadulterated good. These people who, for lack of a better term, were her family.
She didn't have the heart to leave Winry and Pinako, though. She had lived for three years in their company, learned alchemy from books they had managed to salvage before the Elric's house was burned, and most importantly come to love them as if they were her true sister and grandmother, respectively.
And now, for better or for worse, she had two younger brothers to look after that she couldn't abandon, either. Alphonse had spilled his guts to her only a few hours previous, but now they had developed some type of emotional bond that rooted them to each other. Edward was a package deal, in a way. The little runt was young and stupid, for a child genius, anyway, and needed help from anyone he could get it from. She is willing to give him that.
By the time Gaia, Winry, and the Lieutenant Colonel had reached the Hughes residence, a two-story townhouse with a robust garden in the front, Hughes had gone through the entire story of how Gracia and he had met, married, and the moment Elicia was born. He was getting close to her first birthday when Gracia Hughes herself walked out of the door, her figure silhouetted against the light of the doorway in the nighttime.
Hughes rushed forward to embrace his wife and introduce her to their newest guest, and Gaia did not in the slightest feel guilty at the relief she felt when his tirade stopped.
"This is my wonderful, beautiful, kind wife, Gracia!" The woman in the doorway smiled and blushed prettily, stepping aside to let the two girls into the house.
"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Hughes. I hope we won't be an inconvenience to you for the duration of our stay." Gaia said, bowing slightly to the shorter woman.
"Oh, you're no inconvenience at all, dear. We've got two spare guestrooms, and I've already set them up for your use." the green-eyed woman smiled brightly, and all of a sudden Gaia and Winry both understood how well suited Gracia and Maes Hughes were to each other.
Gaia looked to the staircase at the end of the small foyer, not at all surprised when a tiny child stumbled down the stairs in pink striped pajamas, clutching a plush bunny and trailing a blue blanket behind her.
She rubbed at one eye, yawned, and looked up with gigantic green orbs to the adults (and teenagers) around her.
The most common eye color in Amestris was blue, paired with light brown or blonde hair, though as in most other countries dark hair was also a common sight. Skin colors ranged from very dark, as she had seen before in America when she visited one summer, to porcelain-pale, but most had a cool, pink, or peachy undertone.
Green eyes were a rare sight in Amestris, with hazel or brown being a lot more common. It was estimated that only 1 in 5,000 people had eyes of that color in all of Amestris.
So, it was understandable that when Elicia Hughes looked into Gaia Maurer's eyes, the first thing she assumed was that they were somehow related.
The fact that she automatically assumed she was her 'Aunty' was nothing short of the most adorable blow to her ego Gaia had ever received.
A week later, Gaia walked back from the military hospital intent on finding the street market she had visited during her vacation in Central about a month before. She intended to buy some groceries before returning to her temporary residence at the Hughes home to cook dinner for the ridiculously generous family. You could say many things about Gaia Maurer, but she was no free-loader.
With the news that Winry was to leave with the Elric brothers on their way to Dublith on her mind, she mulled over her options. Winry was interested in going to Rush Valley, an automail haven in the mountains just north of Dublith, but had understood that Gaia couldn't come with her so far south because of her medical condition. Though the green eyed young woman had gotten used to the muggy hot air of Resembool over the past three or so years since her arrival there, the thinner air of the mountains coupled with little cover from the dry sunny climate would not bode very well for her sub-par adaptation skills. The most obvious destination after that was to return to Granny Pinako and Resembool, yet there was a matter she wanted to address before she skipped town.
That matter, unfortunately, was proving to be entirely too elusive for her tastes.
She had located Central Headquarters, the building in which Hughes worked, and marked out on a map, which she had bought off a tourist shop during her last visit to Central City, every phone booth in its' vicinity that a bleeding man could drag himself to.
That gave her, she thought, about a mile-wide radius to be thorough, with a few hundred meters away from the main entrance being her primary focus.
There were exactly 47 phone booths within a mile of the damned building, 13 of which fell in her target area.
Now on her way back, map in her pocket and bags in her hands, the plastic cutting into her palms as her stupid shoes clunked along on the sidewalk, Gaia felt at a loss. These weren't characters to her anymore- hadn't been for a while- but she felt an obligation to at least try to prevent one of her favorites from his fate. Along with Olivier Armstrong and Riza Hawkeye, Maes Hughes was the character she had loved the most, and had bemoaned the loss of the most as well.
Now that she had the chance, even though it was a goddamn slim one, of saving him, she had to take that risk.
Then she was back at the fairy tail-looking cottage with the literal white picket fence, and a small ball of energy was hurling at her from between two bushes of lilac. She heard the tell-tale laugh of the little girl's mother in the background, and smiled before dropping the bags in her arms and scooping up the pig-tailed child, swinging her around and around as she squealed in delight.
Gaia had been christened as Aunty by Elicia, and in the two days since their first meeting the three year old had become attached to her new (doting) semi-relative like it was nobody's business. Gaia, ever the mature adult, had caved within days to the huge green eyes and become her new cuddle-buddy and play-mate, throwing the little girl up into the air and spinning her around and tickling her to her heart's content.
Gaia was all about honesty in the sight of adversity, and she had to concede that having the tiny body radiating warmth next to her as she fell asleep was helpful in staving off unwanted memories and dreams. She had tried to dissuade the munchkin from sleeping with her, but the little girl was surprisingly stubborn when she wanted to be.
The little girl's parents weren't surprised at her quick attachment to Gaia, laughing it off as their cute daughter being friendly and kind, and the eighteen year old couldn't understand how accepting of her they were. She had been living with them for a week, now, at the insistence of both Gracia and Maes, who even went so far as to claim that he wouldn't dream of putting out his sister-in-law while she was still in Central.
In her humble opinion, they were entirely too trusting, but she acceded that she did come as a friend of the Elric brothers, apparently a high honor.
So she stayed, cooked, and played. She plotted and planned and hid her schemes behind smiles all while coming up with new ways that life could carry on in the perfect little way it was now, picket-fence, lilac bushes and all.
Then came the night when even after careful planning and preparation, her heart beats fast and heavy in her chest as she runs to a telephone booth screaming, begging, praying the man inside is still breathing.
There are no flowers. The green of the cloth across dark wood is different than that of the grass. Everyone is wearing black, the wretched color, and it's not fair that her leather coat, one of the last reminders that she came from another world entirely, blends in so well within the small gathering.
Gaia stood to the side of the two mourning Hughes', solemn as she watched the coffin be lowered into the ground. The sky seemed to have ignored the somber mood, bright sunlight- too bright- streaming down to bring out the hard contrast of the hole in the earth.
Gracia is crying, everyone is crying, Elicia is confused, and Gaia feels so very alone. She knew Maes Hughes for approximately a week and a half before she had his blood on her hands.
The viscous blood on her hands as she pressed her palms to the hole in his chest.
Her hands are shaking, now, and she slides her eyes shut beneath the wide-brimmed hat. She flinches at the sound of the muskets fire off a 21-gun salute, like a jolting reminder that Major General Maes Hughes was a military man who died with a bullet in his chest.
It takes every sliver of control she has to not charge at the homunculus standing to her right.
She hides her shaking hands within the deep pockets of her coat, clenching them into tight fists as she staves off the urge to plunge the bastard's sword into his heart.
She is only human, after all, and needs to bide her time in the vengeance she will bring upon his god damned being.
A private memorial service is held in the Hughes home for family and close friends during which Gaia stayed close to the widow and her daughter, taking Elicia into her arms when the condolences and pity began to wear on her small shoulders.
She was so very confused as to why Daddy wasn't coming home, and it was heartbreaking.
Gaia had finally put Elicia to sleep, after many hugs and reassurances and tears. She headed downstairs to help with cleaning up when she heard a deep voice paying its' respects to Gracia. Gaia crept down the stairs slowly so as not to make the floorboards squeak, and peeked into the entrance-way.
"I'm sorry, Gracia."
"Roy, you don't have to be sorry, it was not your fault. Just, promise me you won't tear yourself apart over this. I am working on living through this, and so should you. You've got friends and family to help you, just like I do. And of course, our home is your home if you need anything at all."
"Thank you, Gracia. I'll try." He looked up from the home's matriarch, and in the process caught Gaia standing by the doorway.
"I didn't catch your name, miss." It was obviously a command, and she remembered faintly that she should have been embarrassed at walking in on something that was apparently private.
At the moment, she couldn't give a single fuck for propriety or manners in this backwards world.
"My name is Gaia Maurer. We've spoken before."
Roy Mustang's eyes widened at the distinct tenor of her voice, and his face paled.
"You're the one who found Maes-" he refused to get choked up, she noticed, stopping before his voice cracked and he broke the perfectly composed facade he was sporting.
She respected that, in a way.
'Mr. Hughes! Please, please don't close your eyes. Hold on! Fucker, hold on, dammit! NO! Fuck that! Gracia and Elicia are waiting at the house, keep it together, man!' The static cut out the rest of her crass words before a gasping, rasping voice came over the speaker of his office phone.
"My name is Gaia Maurer, I'm – I was a friend of L. Col. Maes Hughes. Send someone to help me, please. I'm about to pass out, I think, there's a lot of blood. Please."
His eyes misted over, and he bowed at the waist towards her.
"Thank you for everything you did for him in his last moments, Miss Maurer."
Uncomfortable, she inclined her head in return. "I just wish I could have done more, Sir..."
Getting the hint, he supplied her with an extended hand and a sad, broken smile.
"Mustang. Roy Mustang."
I'm sorry, please don't come to my house with pitchforks and torches, I know I'm a monster.
Edited 5/18/17