A/N: SOMEONE JUST MADE MY DAY AND HIT THIS STORY FOR THE 20TH TIME! I've been holding out till the 20th hit and I was going to shrug it off and type this anyway but then the 20th hit! (I get excited too easily) XD
Eighth: Ed, do the disclaimer.
Ed: But I'm not in this chapter!
Eighth: Don't say that! Then all the nice readers will go away! (He'll be back I promise)
Al: Sorry about Brother. But at least he said more than two words last time!
Eighth: For Truth's sakes you were three, Al!
Al: And Naida's two and speaking full sentences?
Eighth: …...
Aure: Children, please! I'll do the disclaimer! Honestly... The Eighth Homonculus doesn't own Fullmetal Alchemist or its characters, So in this chapter the only thing she doesn't own is the name of the town itself...
Eighth: Do you all hate me or something?
Everyone: …...
Eighth: Oh, I see! So Aure, you don't mind if your bread gets squashed?
Aure; Huh?
Eighth: MUWAHAHAHAHAH!
#2#2#2#2
Outskirts of Fisk, 1903
A white blur sped through the rolling fields, something long and copper-colored streaming out behind it. Sheep 'baa'ed' at the object from behind wooden fences and part of the blur giggled and whooped in return.
Suddenly a man's voice came from the blur, shouting "Snack time!" It stopped, spinning twice to give off momentum before lightly dumping Lucinda in the grass.
She flopped back, face flushed and hair wind-tousled, laughing. "You dropped me on the food, stupid! Now it'll be wrecked!"
Aure plopped down next to her, his wavy hair windblown even worse. He wrestled the food bag from her and opened it to inspect a squished loaf of bread. Shrugging, he took a bite. "Well I'm sorry for getting hungry! It's not like any energy gets spent running at the speed of sound toting around my fat little wife!"
Lui swung her boot at his head. "Take that back!"
"Yes, dear wife! What was I thinking disclosing that you weigh more than a cow to the grass?" He joked.
Lucinda's crimson eyes narrowed. "Why you!" She jumped up to smack him, which lead to a short chase near the side of the dirt road Aure had been carrying her piggy-back down. She didn't have a chance - he was faster than sight could register, and he let her end up with an armful of air five times before sweeping in for a kiss.
"Sorry, love, I didn't mean that. You're as light as a feather, I just get hungry fast!" With that, he sat back down to finish his bread.
"Hmph. I wish I was the fast one!" Lucinda sighed, plopping down next to him. She reached to break off a piece of squished bread.
"Then you would be carrying me." Aure punctuated by swinging his half of the bread. "Plus, being 'Patience' is horrible. I always have to wait around for Pops to do anything."
"What did he say? It must not have been good." Lui speculated. "You pouted all last night."
"He explained it to me, but it didn't make much sense. I was never a great alchemist, and even that was a long time ago... But the gist of it is he has to travel to do it, and probably needs more Philosopher's Stone than he has."
"That many? That's insane!" Lucinda exclaimed. "Come on, tell me what he's doing!"
"I would if I could, love, but I'm too simple for it." He flopped on his back in defeat, covering his eyes. "Something about... replacing souls with the ones he's going to put in the ground. Does that make sense?"
"Not how you say it." Lui muttered, then lay down next to him. She turned her head towards his. "So what are we going to do?"
"'Not fight someone else's war.'" Aure quoted bitterly. He sighed and turned to look at his wife. "He'll probably need more Philosopher's Stones... Shall we go Stone hunting, then? Someone's bound to be making them, after all." A slow smile was creeping across his face.
"Stealing them?" Lui asked skeptically.
"They're bad things to have!" He sang.
"But still-"
"For the good of the country!" Aure said excitedly, hopping to his feet.
"You're not going to listen to me, are you?" She sat up, grinning as well.
"Maybe. What say you, Lucinda Helios?" He held out his hand to her.
"Well it's for the good of the country..." She shouldered the food bag and took his outstretched hand.
"Then off we go!" Aure cried, letting Lucinda hop on his back.
"Into the sunset?" She laughed.
"No, that's ridiculously cliché." Aure insisted. Then he started running, the fastest homonculus alive.
Off into the sunset.
#2#2#2#2
Fisk, 1903
Fisk was a small town, not nearly as bustling as Lucinda remembered it. On the other hand, she had lived there 80 years earlier, before the fire had destroyed the place. It had risen again from the ashes, but had not nearly regained the population that had died that terrible day. All the buildings were different, too, so it was not a huge chance that Lui would break down crying over a random lost memory.
Still, Aure was worried, and glanced at her furtively every few seconds, his arm around her shoulder as if to protect her from any bad memories that might come hurdling down the street.
None of what he expected did, but that didn't stop two children from it.
A little boy of around eight lit out of a bakery at the end of the rather quiet street, carrying a large basket. "C'mon Nai, I'll race you!"
"No fair no fair no fair!" A tiny toddler with bright red hair shouted after him, trying her best to keep up. "You're way bigger than me, William Dunn!"
The boy laughed. To anyone else he was obviously running slow so the little girl could keep up with him, but she though he was picking on her and sped up with a vengeance. When she passed him, the little girl turned to stick out her tongue at him...
And smacked headlong into Lucinda, sending herself flying.
"A-are you okay?" Lucinda asked, stunned.
"Nai!" The boy came up and helped the girl up. "You good?" She nodded deliberately and brushed her hands off, and he laughed. Then he stood to bow to Aure and Lucinda. "Please excuse Naida, I should have been watching her."
"Oh, it's all right." Lui smiled kindly. She crouched to address the tiny girl on her level. I'm sorry for bumping into you.."
The little girl looked up at her with delight. "No, no, my fault! Sorry, Willy makes me mad and I fall down..."
Her three elders laughed. "Well everyone's all right, that's good!" Aure smiled at the kids. "What would you guys say to some cookies?"
The little girl looked at him for the first time, a big grin on her face and her golden eyes wide.
Aure tried not to reel backwards, taken aback. He had traveled this country for centuries, and the only people he had ever met with golden eyes were Hoenheim and his sons. And Aure himself, if that could be counted. His own had turned dark when he became a homonculus some 300-something years ago.
He chanced a glance at Lui, who was smiling thoughtfully at the little girl. Had she noticed what he had? Trying to shrug it off, he fished too un-crushed cookies Trisha had given them out of the food bag and handed them to the children. "So where are you kids off to?"
"Back home. We were just picking up some bread for breakfast tomorrow."
"Big basket, though. Do you have a big family?" Lucinda asked, as she and Aureolus fell in step with the youngsters.
The little girl laughed, and William grinned. "You guys aren't from around here, are you? My parents own the best inn in Fisk!" He proclaimed proudly.
"Well then we're in luck!" Aure smiled. "We just got here today and don't have a place to stay yet."
"Yay!" Naida cried, pumping the tiny fist that wasn't holding William's hand.
"I think she likes you." William grinned up at them. The tiny girl nodded. "Which is odd," he said aloofly, "Because she hated me when we first met." He flung in her direction jokingly.
"Willy was mean and said 'No way am I watching that lil' kid!' though!" She justified, doing her best imitation of him. Everyone laughed, as they came up to a wooden building with a sign that read "Dunn Inn."
"Here we are!" William said, leading everyone up the steps. "We can go talk to Momma about your room, Dad'll be home soon, too."
Aure paid for their room and they went upstairs to rest until dinner. William's mother saying she would send someone to tell them.
Lucinda collapsed on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. "That little girl..." She sighed.
"Reminds you of Vivi?" Aure guessed, going to sit down next to her.
"You think I'd be used to it by now." She closed her eyes. "It was so long ago, and I know she's be an old woman by now. Hell, I'm an old woman! But every time I see a little child, it just comes flooding back." She rolled over to look at Aure, and he put a hand on her cheek. "It's odd, though, Naida resembles Vivi a lot. She has the same red hair and little nose, I'm sure of it!"
Just then the girl in question opened the door, her gold eyes peering around it. "Can I come in, Mr. Aure? Mrs. Lui?"
"Sure, kiddo!" Aure answered, standing up. "Is it dinner time?"
"Yep, but..." The tiny girl came in, holding something behind her back.
"What's that, Nai?" Lucinda asked, having sat up.
"I wanna show you a picture my gramma gave me!" The tiny girl grinned, tottering right past Aure and holding a photograph over Lucinda's lap.
The picture was very old and faded, in black and white. It showed a family of three, a woman smiling and holding a toddler girl in her arms, and a man grinning next to them. The man and the girl shared the same grin, but the mother and daughter had the same shade of hair, which Lucinda knew was bright red.
Because the woman was her.
She took the photo in one hand, covering her mouth with the other. Aure had circled around to see, and bit his lip when he saw it and wrapped his arm around her.
"Nai... where did you get this?" Lucinda asked, struggling not to cry.
"i told you, my gramma! That's her, Vivian Maria Chilcott. But then she was Vivian Maria Eberhart when she married Grampa." She said, pointing at the little girl. "And that's you!" She pointed at the woman.
"Nai," Aure started slowly. "Vivian Maria Chilcott died in the great fire 80 years ago."
"No," the little girl shook her head for emphasis. " They said she was dead for a week before they found her in the 'rubble.' She liked telling me stories about it, but she lost her momma and daddy like me in it." The tiny girl hung her head for a second, but then looked up and smiled. "But I found you! Grammy'd be happy."
Lucinda looked at Aure for a second, then handed Naida the photo back. "Where is she? I have to see her."
"Well see," Naida looked down at her picture. "She got really sick and then she gave me a bunch of things. Mrs. Dunn says she went on a long trip and isn't coming back because God wants her to visit him." Her lip trembled. "And I can't go because I'm too little, so I stay here."
William cried "Dinner!" From outside the door. "Nai, what's taking you so long?" he asked, poking his head around the door. The boy looked at each person in turn. "What's going on?"
#2#2#2#2
"Lui." Dinner was over, and the couple had headed straight back to their room. "You can't be thinking what I think you are."
"And what is that?" She asked, removing her earrings in the vanity mirror.
"You want to take in Naida."
Lucinda sighed. "What am I supposed to do? She's my great-granddaughter, and she has no other family! You heard Mrs. Dunn. Mother died in childbirth, father doesn't know she exists, no aunts or uncles, and now both grandparents dead. What do I do?"
"She seems fine here." Aure went over to her and hugged her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder and meeting her eyes in the mirror.
"But she's mine."
"She's not Vivi, love."
"And what about Vivi?" Lucinda cried suddenly, whirling on him. "She was alive! Lost for a whole week! But then they found her. Why didn't I help look? Why did I just trust them?"
"You had no way of knowing that they just proclaimed anyone who was missing dead! Or maybe they found a body that looked like her in a place she would have been? They were all burnt, Lui. No one could have known!"
"I was 'all burnt' too! You had no problem making Van fix that!"
"Lu, I would have ripped my Stone right out of me to heal and bring back everyone! You know that!" Aure sat on the bed and buried his face in his hands. "This is why I didn't want to come back here..."
"Why?" Lucinda yelled, still in her rage.
"We always fight and then I do... stupid stuff." He peeked at his wife through his fingers. She was still glaring at him with contempt. "I... I'm sorry, okay? For everything, because apparently it's all my fault. But I love you, and... think about it. What would we do with a little girl? We're traveling the country to help stop a crazy monster with a God-complex from turning the country into a giant Philosopher's Stone. She could get killed, and what kind of life is that in the first place?"
"The kind we're leading!" Lucinda answered, cooling off but still persistent. "And we could protect her. She needs her family, Aure!"
"Her great-grandmother jumped out of an old photograph and her ancient sidekick? That's her family?"
"Yes it is!"
Aure sighed. "Fine."
"Really?" Lucinda cried, running up to him and taking his hands. She smiled into crimson eyes.
"Really. You sure know how to wear a guy down, you know that?"
"I've had years of practice."
"Too many."
#2#2#2#2
A/N: Well there you have it! Another small child's normal life shattered by the whim of the author! Oh do I have plans for you, Nai... MUWAHAHAHAH!
Joking aside, I will get into the actual canon eventually, I promise. This part was probably the hardest to write, and it has about 14 different versions. I shirked the original after typing the first half, but this came out wayyy better and with the same result. Yay!
As I was saying in the above author's note, I was holding out for 20 hits. So I think it's fair to wait for 40 now, right? :D
TTFN! - The Eighth