Hey everyone! Izze here!

Yes of course I own FMA, why else would I be writing this?

You know, I read my story on fanfiction, and it made me cringe….it was so…so….I can't even describe. Somehow the more time I spend on this fanfic, the more I'm convinced I need to rewrite it…(sits in corner under "emo cloud")

Oh, and if any details are wrong about anything, please forgive me, because something called laziness prevents me from looking up the real information. Yes I am a lazy procrastinator. Deal with it.

Sorry for not specifying earlier, this is AU our world, specifically New York, because it's easier to write.

Enjoy the chapter and please review!

Chapter 4-Murder is annoying, doppelgangers are weirder

Roy Mercedes (my friend suggested this, I couldn't resist… Mustang…Mercedes…do you get it?) sighed and ran his hand through his hair. His paperwork…should go die in a hole. Why the hell was he stuck here at the office, at 10:30 at night, doing FRICKIN PAPERWORK?! This was living proof that life certainly wasn't fair, but why couldn't it ever be fair in his favor? Glancing over at the single photograph on the wall, he smiled slightly. 'Yeah, I know what you'd say to that.' A golden haired, azure eyed teen smiled back at him, carefree and happy. Carefree and happy. Not a very accurate description of the boy, this was probably the only picture of him smiling. He had always been so…sad? Determined? Stubborn? All of these words pretty much described the kid. He (Roy) had met the kid when he was five maybe? The boy and his little brother had been caught stealing from a convenience store, and had been brought to the police station. There, the store clerk and Roy found out that the brothers had no idea of what stealing was, and hadn't had anything to eat for the past day and a half. It helped that the littler brother was a cute little innocent looking chibi, with wide eyes and adorable smile. The older one was also cute in the way a growling kitten is cute; he thinks he's fierce, but he's just a little chibi (Ed: WHO ARE YOU CALLING LITTLE!!!?). After some food, hot chocolate, and some sniffling, the two boys finally explained what had happened, in the way only little kids can-disjointedly and incoherently. Their mom died a few months ago, they didn't know who their dad was, and they had been on the streets for a few months. Honestly, Roy had been seriously surprised that they lasted that long, after all it was New York, but those kids seriously were something. A year or two later, Roy and his wife adopted them, and the boys officially became Ed H. Mercedes and Al H. Mercedes. A happy ending. Lovely. Funny thing about happy endings? In real life, things don't work out that way. Seven years ago, (note: I think Ed's about 16, either way, I'm bending reality to make him 16. So there!) Al was 8, and Ed had just turned 9. Al and his adopted mom had gone on a quick errand to buy some milk, Ed would have come, but he was with Roy at home playing a game or something. But the quick 15 minute errand turned into an hour. Then two hours. Finally, after three anxious hours, some searching, and a phone call, Roy and Ed headed down to the station, where they found out that mom and Al…were dead. It was the second time Edward had seen his mother die. The worst part? No one knew how they had been killed, or who did it.

After the "incident" everything changed. It was hard to describe, but Roy felt Ed blamed their deaths on himself, that maybe if he had gone with them, something would've been different. He blamed Roy, too, for not trying harder to discover the murderer's identity. He lost all faith in the world, and Roy really couldn't blame him. Sometimes even he felt that way, after all that happened. And of course, adding insult to injury, Ed was killed in a freak car accident, on the day of his 16th birthday. Roy had only made it in time to watch his son die slowly, in the middle of the road, a sad smile on his face. Life hadn't been kind to Edward, and the boy accepted that. But his father couldn't.

Shit. He needed a drink; all these memories were making him depressed. In the absence of any liquor in the police station, some coffee would do for time being. He stood up out of his swivel chair in front of his paper-covered wooden desk, and walked out of his office. God, he was tired. He blinked sleepily as he turned on the ancient coffee machine, as it hummed and buzzed to life. He reminded himself for the hundredth to buy another coffee machine to replace it, as he stood there waiting for it to finish making the coffee. Eventually it was done, and he grabbed a waiting mug and poured the steaming brown liquid into the cup, but paused mid-sip. He thought he heard something..? Listening for another moment, he snorted, as the distinct sounds of Officers Havoc and Hughes arguing echoed into the room. He frowned. Weren't they supposed to be on night patrol duty in the cruiser? Gripping the mug in one hand, he strode down the hallway to find out what was going on.

A fairly short boy was sitting in a chair, but his back was to Roy, and he dismissed him as no one important, and turned to watch Max and James bicker-albeit in hushed voices-not noticing the dark eyed man sipping coffee with a smirk on his face. He drank with a particularly loud slurp, to get their attention, and the short boy's golden hair whipped around, and he stared in alarm at Roy.

Crack

The coffee cup fell from Roy's hand and shattered on the ground, his eyes staring at the boy's face in disbelief. The same face as that of his dead son's.

SCENE DIVIDER WOO!!!

Hope you liked the first half of this chapter!

Sorry it's kind of short, but I have writers block…so be glad I actually got this out.

I tried to make AlterEd's past sort of like real Ed's,

And I thought AlterRoy being his dad would be an interesting plot twist :)

You know, AlterRoy really should be more traumatized, but for the purposes of my story, he won't be.

Look, it's almost midnight, my brain ran away, and I've been driven insane by uber-younger than me cousins, so please ignore any editing errors, as I have neither the time nor patience to go over this chapter. Sorry.

Review? I need at least hmmm…four or five to update the next chapter.

More reviews=faster updates

Luv ya,

Izze