Chapter Seven: Charades, Part One

"Do you know where he lives?" Edward asked.

"Well... I know where he used to live, in my dimension... But, since he never made that last chimera, his funding would have been cut off and he wouldn't live there anymore. It's no use even checking at his house."

"What if our universes are different?! We should at least check and make sure!" Edward said.

The two Eds were staring at the mansion in front of them. A dog barked from the yard. "That's Alexander - Tucker's dog," Ed told his duplicate.

"I thought you said he wouldn't be living here anymore," Edward said with narrowed eyes.

"Uh... I guess I was wrong?" Ed said with an apologetic smile. Edward rolled his eyes and started walking toward the door. Ed followed, until he paused to pet the dog. Alexander pulled Ed's pocket watch out of his pocket.

"I guess you can play with it, this time..." Ed said with a smile and let the dog take it. He watched the dog for a few seconds before widening his eyes. "Hey! I didn't say you could bury it!" he said and ran after the dog.

Tucker opened the front door to find a boy digging a hole in his yard. "May I help you?" he asked.

Edward was the one to answer him. "Uh... Yes. You experimented with dimensional travel... We were wondering if you could share your findings with us."

"Yes! I found it!" Ed shouted joyfully as he held up his mud-covered pocket watch. His gloves and knees were also muddy from the search. The smile faded from his face as he realized that Edward and Tucker were both staring at him. "Hey! Don't look at me! Alexander did it!" Ed said, pointing at the dog, who whimpered in reply.

"Come on in," Tucker said with a smile. He turned toward Ed to say, "I'm sorry about Alexander. I'll have your clothes cleaned as you wash up."

"May I ask why you were doing research on alternate worlds? I thought you were the Sewing Life Alchemist," Ed said on the way inside.

"I am, but I was partnering with two brothers by the name of Tringum and stumbled onto the odd properties of the substance we were working with. After our partnership ended, I thought I would go into those properties farther."

'Russell and Fletcher?' Ed thought. 'So, would those two have gone to Tucker if they didn't have me and Al to impersonate...?'

After Ed started his shower, Edward and Tucker sat down to talk.

"So... Are you two brothers?"

Ed looked around for Tucker and Edward as he re-braided his hair.

"We're in here, Al," Tucker called from a nearby room.

Ed paused. "Al...?" he wondered aloud.

"Yeah. I took the liberty to introduce ourselves while you were showering, brother," Edward said, giving Ed a look that said not to mess anything up. Ed glared at Edward as he took a seat close to the other two.

"Thanks, Ed," Ed hissed through clenched teeth.

"So... How old are you boys? 11? 12?" Tucker asked.

"What?!" both teens said in surprise.

"I'm 15!" Edward insisted.

"...And I'm... 16," Ed added. Edward widened his eyes.

"No you're not, Al! You're 14, remember?" Edward said as he glared daggers at Ed.

"You two can stop the charade, now," Tucker said with an amused smile. The two boys stopped arguing and glanced toward Tucker. "Both of you are Edward Elric, aren't you?" he asked.

"When did you find out?" Ed asked the man.

"When you called my dog by name," Tucker said with a grin. "I guess we know each other in another reality."

--End Chapter--

My original chapter notes (bold words are new):

Hmm... I actually already wrote the next chapter, as well, but I don't think I'll put it up just yet. - It's a little dark... Maybe I should change the rating of this story to T... (I thought that I wouldn't have anything dark in any of my FMA fanfictions, since the series is already so dark, but I guess I was wrong.)

Eh... I started this fanfic thinking I'd have it take place before Mustang moved to Eastern, but now I can't remember what episodes came before that move, so I'm not sure if everything will be canonish or not. (Although, Tucker working with alternate dimensions probably isn't canon, anyhow. But, I figured that if those Tringum brothers worked with red water, when - according to Wikipedia - they work with plant life, then Tucker, who works with animal/people life, could do something else, too.)

(--After watching the episodes with him, I found that Tucker didn't have a gate - I don't think - and so, I took out that detail just now. I also originally had Ed and Al in Central in the first two chapters, but then decided to change it after this chapter, and now I just changed it back! How weird... But, I did just now add in Mustang being on the phone instead of in person, and added in Armstrong to make it more canon. The main thing that made me pick that time period was when I heard Ed and Al talking about looking up at the stars when they used to live in Risembool - and I thought, 'hey, in my story, they're looking at the stars... Maybe I should make it take place right here! It's after Scar's attack and before lab five...' Like I said in the original notes, I wanted to have it take place earlier on in the anime, but then... I ended up having some reference of Scar's attack in a later chapter.)