A/N: I had chapter one finished for months; over a year actually. I had about two pages of this chapter written out and got stuck ages ago. Funny, I finish it off in half a day or so of inspiration... I kept it for a while though, until I had part of the third chapter written out so I could try and keep on top of this story.

Again, this is not beta'd. If someone feels up to the task just say so in a review or send me a PM. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

To anonymous reviewer S – I'm not a fan of yaoi either. There will be no yaoi in this; I've yet to decide if there will be any pairings at all, though I'm leaning more towards none at this point. I may have one pairing, I'm still thinking about it, but it won't be yaoi or yuri. I would have replied to you personally but you didn't leave an email address. I added NO YAOI in the summary anyway.

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA, but I own my version of Mer-Ed. Please don't steal, okay? If you wanna use my version of Mer-Ed then please ask. Same with any merfolk in this.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Chapter Two: All That Glitters Isn't Gold

Edward watched Alphonse leave with fascination. The way the human propelled himself forward was amazing to Ed, as there were only a few ways to move underwater and they were all similar: push the water to move. Al had not pushed the air to go forward. The whole thing seemed very strange to Ed, though he wanted to know how it was done.

He looked ruefully over his shoulder at his fish-like tail and flicked it lightly, sending droplets of water into the air. His tail was just as vibrantly coloured as his armfins and was patterned much the same way. A row of membrane-connected spikes started on his back, just beneath his ribcage, and ran down most of the length of his tail like a long dorsal fin. The membranes were one third orange, one third yellow-gold, and one third white like the ones on his arms. The top half of the spikes were black while the bottom halves were red; the red melding into a stripe-like pattern of scales that ran down his tail until the last spike, where the red branched out and encircled his tail, continuing halfway up the sides of his tailfin where the scales melded into black.

Orange scales surrounded the red pattern, blemished only by spots of black that appeared in-between the red stripes. The orange smoothly changed to yellow-gold, the same shade as on his fin membranes, before turning into white along his tail's underside. Three black bands circled the end of his tail, right before it flared out into his tailfin. The tailfin itself, shaped much like a dolphin's, employed the same colour scheme as the fin membranes.

On each side of his tail, not far down from where the skin was replaced by scales, were more fins. Each side fin started off with a half red, half black spike over a foot in length. Three weaker spikes, black in colour, were progressively smaller the closer they got to his scales. These two side fins were ribbed with membranes the same colours as the others.

Ed also possessed a fin on each shoulder blade that looked exactly like the ones on his sides. They were currently lying flat, like his armfins. Ed's fin-like ears were the same colours; orange, yellow-gold and white; the main spike half red, half black.

Holding his injured hand up to his face, Ed sighed. He was thankful that he hadn't torn the pale, skin-coloured membranes that ran between his fingers. Moodily, he began scratching the rock with one of the small black claws on the tips of his digits. Thirty seconds later, Ed gave a start as he realised that he had carved a basic little transmutation circle into the rock.

'I wonder if they have alchemy here on land…' he thought. Ed used his claws to scratch out the circle. Bored with waiting, he let his gaze roam across the stretch of beach on his side of the rock spur. An image of Al jogging to the rock and climbing over it entered Ed's head. He flicked his tail again.

He knew that sea turtles could move on land when they had to lay their eggs, but he seriously doubted that he would be able to move. His tail muscles were quite powerful, but all that strength would not help him much now.

A strange current was responsible for Ed ending up on the beach. He had gotten lost and tried to swim through a strong current that flowed like a river. His strength had proved no match for the current, and it had swept him close to the surface. While the current had Ed in its clutches, he had vainly tried to grab hold of a nearby reef so that he could pull himself out. His passing grab had only resulted in the sharp coral tearing off his skin and slicing into his hand.

All merfolk knew that they had to get any injury gained from coral seen to as quickly as possible. If left untreated, the lesion usually became infected and never healed properly. Parents constantly told their children to be careful around coral, and to get any coral-caused injury treated as soon as they could or they would end up like the foolish merman who thought he was too tough to need treatment and lost most of the movement in the end of his tail.

'The surface world looks so different,' Ed pondered while staring up at the sky.

If you looked directly up from where Ed lived, you could only see lighter coloured water. If you swam up far enough, you could see a tiny glint of light shining. Now that Ed was on the surface, he cast his eyes about for the tiny glint. Once his pupils found the sun, Ed hastily screwed his eyes shut and muttered a soft curse under his breath.

That tiny glint of light was a whole lot bigger and brighter on the surface.

'It's a shame,' Ed suddenly thought, 'that humans don't seem to speak the same language. How much easier things would be!'

"I wonder what's taking him so long. I hope he hasn't gone to get a fisher or something…" Ed said aloud. He involuntarily shivered and tried to push the negative thoughts out of his head.

Alphonse appeared over the rock spur not long after Ed had resorted to tapping his claws idly to an old merfolk tune. The young human was breathing hard, but he tiredly jogged up to Ed and set down a box on the rock that Ed was still leaning upon. The box was white with a red cross painted on the lid and Ed studied it but made no move to touch it.

Once Al had caught his breath, he opened the box and took out a small bottle of disinfectant. To Ed, the chemical resembled polluted water and he pulled back a bit from the rock with a small hiss and a splash from behind. Startled, Al fumbled with the bottle but managed to keep a hold of it. Al's eyes suddenly became fixed on a point just to the left of Ed's head, where Ed's tailfin was out of the water and in full view.

"Wha… What is that? What…are you?" Al breathed out when he located his vocal chords.

"Huh?" Ed replied, following Al's line of sight. When he realised that the human was staring at his tailfin, Ed gave it a small jerk, flicking droplets of water into Al's face with a laugh.

Al weakly chuckled back. "Wow…a real mermaid…!"

"Knabo!" Ed said loudly.

"What?"

"Knabo," Ed repeated, frowning at Al. The human still looked baffled. "MerBOY," he said, placing a great emphasis on 'boy'. All merfolk knew the names that humans called them; 'mermaid' always being the first. 'Maid' was a human word for female, so he had taken offence and corrected Alphonse.

Al looked embarrassed and apologetic. "I'm sorry, Edward. Everybody always says mermaids, but of course they can't all be girls, right?"

Ed held up three fingers with his right hand. "Mermaid," he said, putting one finger down, "mermen," down went another finger, "merboy," he finished, putting down the last.

"Got it," Al said while nodding.

Ed looked pleased at that and flicked water at Al again.

Al laughed, but motioned for Ed to stop. He had climbed the rock instead of wading around it to keep his clothes dry, but his efforts would be wasted if Ed continued. The two lapsed into a comfortable silence. The ocean continued to sing its own song, filling the silence on the beach with the gentle lap of waves ghosting over the shore as the tide slowly began edging further up the sand.

Al opened the small bottle and covered the hole with a cotton ball, tilting it up so the swab would soak up some disinfectant. He put the bottle down and held out his free hand, waiting for Ed to present his injury. Ed did so, if reluctantly, and Al wiped the swab across the cut.

"Aj!" Ed exclaimed. He bared his teeth once more and hissed, trying in vain to pull his hand out of Al's surprisingly strong grip.

"Sorry!" Al said quickly, ducking his head in apology.

Ed narrowed his eyes but stopped trying to pull away. He let Al continue, gritting his sharp teeth as Al thoroughly disinfected the gash. When the young human deemed the wound clean he pulled a roll of cloth along with a soft square of gauze out of the first aid box. Al unwound the bandage a little and gently began winding it around Ed's hand, placing the gauze over the cut and letting the cloth hold it in place.

Al grabbed a pair of scissors from the box with one hand and neatly snipped the bandage. He swapped the scissors for a small clip to hold the bandage in place. Al then sat back to admire his work with a pleased smile on his face.

Ed held his hand up to his eyes and looked it over. The bandage was wound firmly, though not too tight, was fairly comfortable and looked rather neat. Ed moved his wrist, happy when the cloth didn't impair his mobility.

"Dankon, Alphonse," Ed said with a grateful grin.

"You're welcome, Edward," Al replied, taking a guess at what the merboy said.

An awkward silence sprung up between the two boys. Al busied himself by packing everything back into the first aid box and clicking it shut while Ed studied his wrapped hand and flexed his fingers. Ed glanced up after half a minute passed.

"Do...nun kio?" the merboy asked. He shifted his tail, slapping his tailfin lightly on top of the water a few times.

Al stared back at Ed somewhat sadly. "I wish I could understand you," he said wistfully.

Ed's gaze moved from Al to the open water. "Mi devas iri nun," Ed said awkwardly, his gaze flicking back and forth.

"What?"

"Mi" – Ed pointed to himself – "devas...iri...nun," he said slowly, pointing out to sea.

"Y-you're leaving?" Al stuttered. His eyes shone with a sudden anxiousness that confused Edward.

The merboy shrugged, using Al's tone to guess what had been said. "Mi bezonas reiri," he said with a hint of reluctance.

Al suddenly got to his feet and started wringing his hands together. He kept darting looks between Ed and the vast expanse of water before him. "But..."

"Mi planas veni dorso, vi scias," Ed said casually, grinning as he flicked some water from his tailfin at Al. "Mi ŝuldas vi kaj Mi ne forgesos gxin."

The gulls wheeled and called as the tide slowly crept up the shore, coming inexorably closer to the two boys. The gentle lapping of the waves was the perfect music to stave off complete silence. The tide had risen enough to almost submerge the rock Ed was leaning on and the merboy knew he couldn't wait any longer.

Ed ran his bandaged hand over his other forearm, wincing ever so slightly as a bright dot of red appeared at his fingertips. For a moment Al feared that Ed had hurt himself, but the merboy simply held out his wrapped hand.

Al stepped forward hesitantly and Ed wiped his fingers across Al's palm, careful not to scratch the human with his sharp black claws. As Ed pulled his hand away, Al looked at his palm. A single scale, a brilliant fiery red hue, sparkled in the light and reflected the sun's rays like a glittering gem.

"Oh, wow... Thank you..." Al said softly, entranced by the gift.

"Adiaŭ, Alphonse!" Ed said, giving a short wave with his cloth-covered hand as he used his tail and other hand to manoeuvre away from the shore.

Ed began swimming backwards with powerful thrusts of his tail the moment he was able to float without his tailfin touching the bottom. He opened his side and arm fins for extra power along with the webbing between his fingers.

"Bye, Edward!" Al called out, waving one arm in reply. The urge to cry out for Ed to wait was overwhelming, but Al knew that Ed would keep going regardless. Would he ever see the strange merboy again? Ed dived under the water and out of sight. Al headed back to his house, sniffling as he tried to hold back tears.

As Edward submerged into his watery world he glanced up at the rippling surface and the distorted waves of light that filtered down, gradually darkening the deeper he went. This was what he knew, what he understood. He hadn't actually seen any land beyond the beach or any living thing up there besides the gulls and the lone human boy, so he didn't really have any idea what the surface world was like.

Were all humans like Alphonse or did they only become cruel as they grew older? Was it something inherent in their species? Did they learn it from their parents? Or were all the 'beware the humans... for they eat whatever fish they catch, including merfolk' stories just a bunch of old fishy-tales?

Edward shook his head and scanned around for a familiar landmark. It would not do to accidentally get caught up in that current again and swept back to the beach to wait for the tide once more. He spotted a rock formation that he seemed to have a vague recollection of and adjusted his path accordingly.

The ten-year-old merboy had no idea why he had given Al one of his scales. He stared thoughtfully at the forearm he had plucked it from. Yes, he would come back someday. He had no idea when, but he would make it back here when he could to see his...friend?

Ed gave a cheerful, fanged grin as he started the long swim home.

A/N: Well, what do you think? I find flames a pointless waste of time, but constructive criticism is appreciated. I always use feedback to better my work.

Kudos to anyone who can find the old Doctor Who reference! (DoctorAsh, if you don't find it I will curse you with my awesome voodoo powers!)

Esperanto translations:

Knabo! - Boy!

Aj! - ow/ouch!

Dankon, Alphonse - Thank you/thanks, Alphonse

Do...nun kio? - So...now what?

Mi devas iri nun - I have to go now

Mi – devas...iri...nun - I – must...go...now

Mi bezonas reiri - I need to go back

Mi planas veni dorso, vi scias - I plan to come back, you know

Mi ŝuldas vi kaj Mi ne forgesos gxin - I owe you and I will not forget it

Adiaŭ, Alphonse! - Good-bye, Alphonse!

I have a pic of Mer-Ed (when he's older though...) and you can see it in case you have trouble following my descriptions, though a friend assured me they were easy to follow... Here's the link; just remove the brackets: http(:/) .com(/)gallery(/)?offset=24#/d2r01jj

As always, please review and share your thought on this story!

~Fantomo