Author's Note: Hey guys :) OMG school has started this past month and I can already tell that it's gonna be a hectic one for me. Pre-cal and AP US History will not suit me too well this year. So depending on how demanding my workloads are, I may or may not be able to write frequently :/ Then again it's not like I've been persistent in the past xD Anyways thank you to my reviewers and my silent readers as well! By the way, italicized O's indicate dreams. This is Al's dream but I told it using 3rd person, it just worked out better that way. Oh and I'm sorry if Trisha seems over the top, but she is kind of the epitome of Motherhood. (and sorry it took so long, my computer screwed up and I lost a good 500+ words so I had to remember and rewrite D: But strangely enough, I ended up adding extra stuff. Thus this chapter and probably the next two will be uber long :D) Anyways, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I sadly don't own FullMetal Alchemist in any way shape or form, but I shall borrow its characters for my own amusement ;) This section will be told in 3 or more parts.
The Nightmare Pt. 1
Alphonse Elric crossed the extremely small hallway and shuffled quietly into his room to turn in for the night. He was careful with his footwork to prevent from waking his elder brother whose own bedrom sat mere feet away. Despite his stealthiness he knew it was pointless. 'Nothing could wake Ed when he snores like that.' He mused to himself. After changing into a pair of very comfortable pajamas he found pleasant sleep awaiting him underneath the covers. Sliding in gracefully he placed his head on the soothing fabric of his pillow and yanked the covers up around him, securing the warmth.
His eyes drooped ever so slowly while his mind went over the day ahead. Thoughts of the new girl Mei consumed him. Her beautiful, pale face illumunated the darkness of his mind. He would try his hardest to prevent anyone from discovering his new feelings for the Xingian, especially from his obnoxious friends. If Ed found out... He couldn't even imagine all the emarrassing teasing that would come his way. He would get him back so bad for teasing him about Winry. 'Wow, I think I should lay off... Who knows what torture would come my way if I keep this up.' He thought seriously, even though it wasn't in his nature to tease people, well not anymore, and even when he did, Ed was usually his only exception. But he's his brother so he has plenty reason and right already.
He smiled to himself, thinking about how happy Ed seems. His feelings of brotherly love were then followed by the speculations of his brother's newfound somewhat of a relationship with that Winry girl. 'Winry... I feel like I know her. On another note she seems really nice, a nice girl is what he needs. She's really pretty too so that works out in brother's favor as well. If they both look good then they should have ridiculously cute babies... Babies? Man I need sleep.' In an attempt to shake away the strange thoughts involving his brother's love life, he physically shook himself and rolled over. Thoughts of Mei again recaptured his mind as sleep finally took its toll on his body. He drifted off with a blushing grin.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
"Al! Alphonse! Come on, wake up!" A 12 year old Edward attempted to shake the practically unconcious Alphonse out of his lethargic state. Now that he was irritated with the sleepy denials to move, Ed drew back his fleshy right fist and brought it upon the younger brother's skull without mercy.
"OW!" Al shrieked as he rose quickly, a little too quickly, only to fall off the edge of the bed and continue towards the unforgiving hardwood floor. Unable to control his childish nature, Ed burst into laughter and had to continue wiping away tears. The now wide-awake Alphonse glared at him while rubbing his bruising bottom.
"Brother! Why are you always so rough!" He asked in defiance towards his brother's actions. Remembering why he came to wake Al in first place, he put on an excited grin and proclaimed, "Don't you remember? Dad's taking us to work today! It's some 'Bring you family to work day' or something. We get to see his lab! Or at least I hope we do... Anyways he'll be taking you, me, and mom!" The ever-present grin only got wider as he recalled the information.
Al's eyes widened in rememberance and then got a sly look on his face.
"What?" Asked the elder, referring to the strange look being shot at him.
"Ed... Doesn't Mr. Rockbell work with dad?" He asked cooly, maintaining his sly expression.
"...Yeah, what of it?" Ed asked again, unaware of where Al was going with this.
"How do I know you're not just excited to see Winry?" Mirth flashed his chocolate eyes and started laughing profusely at Edward's flaring cheeks. "I-I a-am not! What makes you s-say that?"
"Oh brother you are hopeless, you and I both know that since they moved in across town you've had the biggest crush on her!"
"Shut up! What do you even know about girls? You're 9!" He then stuck out a small pink tongue in his direction and flew out the door into the hallway. "We're gonna leave without you, brat!" He teased from the bottom of the steps.
Shaking his head he stood up, still sore, and threw on proper clothing for the day ahead of him. He had to admit he was pretty excited, the chance to spend time with his dad let alone poke around his dad's research was pretty rare. After all, his dad was gone a lot and was usually always at work, frequently spending nights there. Al himself already understood his father's responsibilities, better than Ed at least. The elder usually complained whenever he wasn't around particularly about his continuous absences. However as soon as their dad actually came home, the piss-poor attitude vanished almost instantly.
He then chose to focus on the day ahead instead, and on the fortunate chances of bonding he had with his family. His whole family. He liked the sound of that. Ready and starving he ran out of the room, nearly jumping down the whole flight of stairs.
"Oh Al! You're awake, here have some jelly toast before we leave." Called the angelical voice of his mother. Both Ed and Al sat down and devoured their small meals in anticiation. Looking up from his crumby paper plate, Ed noticed something different about his mother. "Mom... What's on your face?"
Taken back for a second, Trisha giggled heartily. It was a soft and gentle tone. "It's just a little make-up darlng, it's not very often I get to see everyone in Central. I just want to look more appropriate for the occaisson."
"Oh... Well I don't think you need any of that stuff, Mom. You're too pretty already!" Ed exclaimed with Al nodding his head vigorously in approval.
In surprise yet pleased her children thought this way she could only give them a heavenly smile. Then it morphed into a cute smirk, "Ed, how come you can say something so sweet so easily to me but you can't say anything similar to little Winry?"
Utterly baffled, Ed just sat there in disbelief that his own mother was doing the same thing Al does.
"Ha! I told you!" Alponse mocked with bravery.
Before Edward could retort with a smart-mouth comment, the front door opened abruptly to reveal two figures.
"Oh hello dear, is everything ready?" Asked Trisha to one of the figures. "Yes, Trisha. Come on boys, lets get a move on!" Hohenheim said with a stern yet warm expression.
"Yay!-Woo hoo!" Both Elric boys exclaimed as they hopped away from the table to run towards the doorway. "Oh! 'Scuse us Mr. Rockbell," Alphonse politely declared when they accidentally brushed past him on their way out.
"Don't get too reckless boys! I don't want to make an emergency trip to Central Hospital today!" Trisha clucked after them. "Relax, they're fine. Yeah, they're boys but Ed and Al are pretty saf-" Hohenheim began.
"Ow! Ed!" Al slowly got up from the gravel and exposed a bleeding knee cap. "Yeah, just fine." Trisha muttered to herself while glancing at Hohenheim before going inside. Urey just laughed, "Nice one." Hohenheim just glared and and walked over to Al, soon accompanied by Trisha with a first aid kit.
All bandaged up, Ed mumbled something that resembled an apology and helped him up off the ground. "It's okay I gue-"
"Can we go now!" Shrieked a little girl with a blonde bob outside the car door. Urey walked over, "Yes Winry, sorry but you know the Elric boys." Her big blue eyes widened at his words. "Wait, so Alphonse and... Edward are coming?" Then another voice from the interior of the car said, "Of course sweetie. What, did you think we would take you without having anybody to play with?"
"Mom!" She sighed in annoyance as her father nodded in agreement. "I'm not a baby! I just- Ugh, nevermind..." She avoided her face from theirs as a light crimson crept upon the apples of her cheeks. "C-can we just go now?" Sara smiled and motioned for Urey to get in, "Of course Winry."
Winry glanced behind her as she saw the Elrics pile into a car behind them. She swallowed nervously. 'They're just boys, there's no problem at all!' Although she wasn't too sure of her own conclusion.
Both cars honked at each other, signaling to leave. The vehicles sped away on the gravel road, leaving the white house and oak tree that grew smaller and smaller in the distance behind. The end had begun.
-Hohenheim, Urey, Ed, and Al are all gathered in the labratory both men share-
Their small, white hands left fingerprints and smudges on nearly every object in the lab, much to both of the older men's annoyance and dismay. The boys bounced question after question and the men's answers bounced right back. They had to tell them more than once to keep their hands off of the more expensive equipment.
They got more frightened when the touching resumed so they sent the boys off to look in the back of the lab where specimens and chemicals resided safely inside giant, thick test tube-like containers. Believing the boys were both well distracted and far away enough, they resumed an important previous subject between themselves.
"So have you heard?" Urey asked in a hushed tone while presenting the face of grim news.
"About Kimblee? Yes, I have. I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered while glancing at his children with fear in his eyes. "How long ago was it that he broke out?"
"Two, maybe three days ago. Some of our personnel have gone missing too. I wouldn't doubt it if they're on his side or if they've been tortured to death on information they have no answers for." Urey's eyebrows crinkled with worry. "Nobody really even knows anything about what he wants, so anyone captured is sure to be dead."
"Well except for us, at least some of it anyways... We need to be careful today." Hohenheim added, hinting at the presence of their families.
"I agree, it was too dangerous to risk it, bringing them here... But my girls insisted. After all, Winry has been sneaking into my study recently. I often find her asleep with physiology books splayed out everywhere. There's no doubt she wants to be my successor, and hell she may even surpass me. Bringing her here was also a great opportunity. But she isn't interested in the least in this biochemistry stuff," he said while guesturing to the surroundings that belonged to Hohenheim. "You should've seen her face when I showed her my lab in the East Wing." Urey and Hohenheim discussed their children for a while to distract themselves from their previous conversation.
"Oh! Urey, you know I was thinking of something perfectly entertaining for lunch." Hohenheim added with a rare sparkle of mischief in his aged, golden eyes. Ones that Edward took after greatly.
"Do tell." Urey smiled.
"Okay so here's the plan..."
-Ed and Al-
"Brother! Dad said to stop touching things!" Al scolded, swatting away Ed's hand from the expensive looking microscope.
"Oh, nag nag nag! Quit it would ya? You're starting to sound like mom." Ed hissed.
Al grimaced, looking hurt. Ed noticed this and immediately felt bad, so he tried to distract his brother from where this was escalating. "Hey, look at this..." Ed shied away from the adults' view and pulled Al along. They crept over to a small file cabinet in the corner of the room. Hearing busy chatter among the men, Ed decided it was safe to crouch down and inspect the contents of the cabinet.
"Wow, Ed, I never figured you for a snoop." Alphonse teased lightly.
Ed shushed him and blushed in embarrassment for his sudden impulse. "Well, we never get to come here, so I think we should see every last bit we can. Besides, this is the prestegious Human and Sciences Laboratorium of Central! Think of what more we would know and could do just by peeking in one or two top secret files," he said while pulling out one labeled as such.
Al's eyes widened in fear and he bit back yelling at his elder brother's stupidity. He instead lowered his tone to a surprisingly deadly one. "Edward! Really?" But Edward had beat him to it and already flipped open the file. His soft and golden eyes widened with amazement at the first heading.
"...Al look at this." Despite his usual sense of proper judgement, the curiosity was killing him. So Al, too, peeked inside the folder.
'Top Secret: specified for authorized personel only. Breakthrough: New Element has been created in the underground labs. Subject#sffx4011284: Philosopheronium, a.k.a. Stone of Mankind, a.k.a. Elixir of God, a.k.a. Stone of Immortality, a.k.a. Philosopher's Stone, is now under protection of the underground labratory guards until further conductions have been made upon it's use.'
Below the information, or lack of it, was some bulleted information written in familiar illegible scrawlings.
'Dad?' Edward thougt in confusion.
'Have yet to find, checked down below, found nothing. No recent evidence approving such information. Where could it be? Certain guards refuse passage in the dungeons under the North Wing. Find a way-'
The rest of the chicken scratch had become smeared and the only words left were either unimportant or irrelevant.
They both gasped, "The Philosopher's Stone..."
"Wasn't that just a myth, a legend of Chemistry's greatest achievement in the 17th century?" Al asked, practically begging for an answer.
"Yeah... But there's just no way. I mean we've read about it but it hasn't been physically found yet, or even man-made. I mean it's just legend and was documented by some guy centuries ago, but the supposed element has been either destroyed or false. Impossible..." Ed was speechless.
'Just what the hell does dad do here?' Edward began to fume. He the noticed the document had been dated about 6 months ago. '...And just how long has he been doing this too... ?"
Alphonse was clearly shaken by the infomation and only hoped that it wasn't affecting his elder brother too badly.
Edward started to flip the pages.
"Boys! Where'd you go?" They heard Urey and Hohenheim calling after them, their heavy footsteps thudding closer, threatening with every step to turn the corner and catch them red-handed.
"Crap!" Edward cursed and threw the document back inside the proper divider, silently clicking the metal drawer shut.
Still ducked low, they maneuvered away from the cabinet and hastened their shuffling feet. Bumping against one another, they scrambled around the corner, only to beat the older men to their target. Both boys were desperately trying to make the news unnoticed amongst their faces.
"Where were you, boys?" Hohenheim asked in curiosity. "Yeah we couldn't really hear you anymore." Added Mr. Rockbell.
"Oh you know, just poking around." Al misworded. Hohenheim flinched, worry flooded his expression. "Not literally!" Ed interjected, glaring daggers at the clueless younger brother.
Thinking quickly, Edward blurted out, "Hey dad, I'm pretty hungry. Can we leave now?"
Following suit with the acting, Al nodded vigorously. "Yeah what did mom and Mrs. Rockbell make? Let's go." Appearing unsuspicious and nonchalant, the men agreed with them and thought nothing of it.
They followed the boys in haste as they ran through the maze of desks and out the door they had previously entered in. Once they were out of both sight and earshot, Edward struck the top of Al's head for the second time that day.
Rubbing his head in pain he glared back at his older brother, "Come on. Again with the violence? Really?"
Edward scoffed loudly in gruff annoyance, "Yes, again! Al you gotta be more careful okay?"
"Says the guy who just snooped through top secret files that even dad apparently doesn't have the answers to." Al smart-mouthed, sticking out his tongue in indignance.
"Shut up, Al! That really was a close one. We need to be more carefully next time..." Edward almost whispered to himself.
"Next time? Ed, I don't want to snoop anymore, you might find something you'll regret." Al scolded, yet again.
"I honestly couldn't care less what else I might regret seeing, Al." Edward mocked immaturely. "All I know is that I need to look at that file again... Just so I know I'm not crazy." He then glued his eyes to the glassy surface of the floors. His face became absorbed in concentration, like it usually did when he had something to ponder.
Al was going to protest, this time more loudly, but was silently hushed when he noticed the grown men coming out of the lab directly behind them.
Adjusting the strength of his tone, he opened his mouth to protest with more persuasiveness. However his body beat him to it as his stomach roared in defiance, demanding an antidote for its displeasure. He closed his mouth and clutched his stomach as a perky pink shrouded his ears with embarrassment.
Ed noticed the bodily outburst and grinned, trying not to laugh. He then jogged forward and guestured, "C'mon, let's go eat! I'll race ya!"
Giving in to both his hunger and childhood, he chased after his brother and into the stairwell.
Hohenheim turned the key to the doorknob and locked it securely. After double-checking with a firm grip of the hand, he returned his attention to the boys currently running into the stairwell. Both Urey and Hohenheim followed the pair, although not a fast, sharing small-talk.
Once they had reached the bottom steps, they became witness to yet another disruptive outburst between the two brothers. They argued back and forth, still doing so with escalated teasing, until they were outside and at the bottom of the concrete steps.
Peering over the smaller, blonde heads in front of him, Hohenheim could make out a distinct brunette figure waving them over.
The unmistakeable voice of Trisha Elric rang out towards both the boys and men, "Lunch is ready! Come and get it!"
With mouths watering, the smell of apple pie wafted over and all four of them quickened their pace until they reached the picnic.
For the moment, the boys had even forgotten their argument. Oh the power of food.
-Outside with the women, these events take place just peviously to the boys' arrival-
"So how did you enjoy your father's lab, Winry?" Trisha asked in a light tone. "Oh yes, do tell dear!" Sara echoed.
Winry's young blue eyes rimmed with excitement, "It was so wonderful! I've never been so close to the medical materials before, I hope I can do the same thing daddy does."
Sara smiled at her little prodigy, "Of honey, you might even surpass him!" She laughed while flapping out the checkerboard blanket with the aid of Trisha.
They flattened the corners of the blanket and Winry scuffled over and plopped the basket full of sandwhich ingredients in the middle. Trisha began to butter the slices of bread while Sara started slicing and separating the different assortments of deli meat. Trisha looked up from her task and eyed the young girl, unwrapping the slices of cheese. "So what do you think of my boys? Have they been nice to you?"
A barely noticable pink splashed her cheeks as she answered, "Oh well Al is pretty nice..." She then hid her face and found the cheese wrapper lying in her lap very interesting, "As for Ed..." she gulped and looked up abruptly, "well he's kind of annoying!"
"Winry!" Sara scolded. Trisha hushed her close friend and gave her a hidden wink. "Why he's probably being annoying because he likes you."
"H-he what?" She shouted, bewildered. Her large eyes narrowed and she began to pout, "You're messing with me..." Her small nose wrinkled in annoyance.
Putting the finishing touches on the complete sandwhich platter and pile of fruit, Sara looked up.
"On the contrary," Her mother disagreed, "In fact we think they both like you! Why, we just heard them arguing about who gets to marry you, just the other day." Her eyes crinkled with laughter at her younger daughter's tomato stained expression.
"T-they did n-not!" She sputtered, crumpling the cheese wrappers in a tiny fist.
"Oh, here they come now!" Trisha exclaimed, standing up and waving towards the small group going down some steps. "Lunch is ready! Come and get it!"
Her heart nearly leaped out of her chest and watched in horror at the boys racing towards them. 'Don't freak, get it together!" She instantly composed herself just as they arrived.
They seemingly did not notice her flurry of embarrassment as they too focused on digging into the many sandwhiches. The older gentlemen soon imitated their actions, after they sat themselves beside their wives. After several minutes of consumption the adults looked over at each other with knowing glances.
Sara was the first to speak, and rather loudly at that to attract the attention of the kids. "Oh darling do you you think we should tell them about it?" Urey looked over at her and nodded in agreement. "Winry?" Said girl looked up from her paper plate, "Yeah?"
They looked at each other in mirth for a few seconds. "We have something we need to tell you."
Her eyebrows raised, clearly in interest.
"You are betrothed," said Sara, "and to an Elric brother." Urey chimed in.
Her mouth gaped open and threatened to catch flies, oblivious to the joke the adults were playing. The boys heard that as well and looked up in fright, then surprisingly, jealousy.
"I'm what?" All three yelped. Ed glared at Al and the same was returned to him. Winry decided to keep quiet and watch what was unfolding.
The boys then stood up and began to argue. 'About me? Idiots...' She thought with a blush that matched the watermelon held at her lips, keeping it concealed.
"You're too weak Al! You wouldn't be able to protect her no matter what! And you're too young, too!" Ed teased, sticking out a tongue with clear immaturity. "Oh yeah? Well who's to say she likes you? You're too short! Yeah, I said it!" Alphonse answered cockily. "WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO PUNY THAT EVEN A MICROSCOPIC GRAIN OF SAND COULD SQUASH HIM?"
"You!" Al said yet again, feeling under control. Well he as until he was tackled to the dirt followed by rolling around in angst.
Trisha looked slightly worried but a calm Hohenheim reassured her it was a meaningless scuffle.
"Enough!" The voice had unexpectedly come from Winry. The boys looked up with wild blonde hair all in disarray. "You're both too short, get over yourselves." She spat and then resumed eating angerly. Athough a small blush was still present.
"Did we go too far?" Sara whispered through a giggle behind her hand and into Urey's ear, but not quietly enough.
Ed stood up, brushing himself off. He snapped out of his defensive reverie and countered the parents. "Seriously? You guys are awful!" He then dashed away to the main building, presumably to the bathroom.
Al too, dusted off the blades of grass strewn all over his clothes. He glared at the parents and attempted to give them the silent treatment. He nibbled quietly for a small while and then glanced up towards the others' faces. They were desperately holding back laughter, he could tell. Allowing permission, he cracked the smallest of smiles through his full mouth. The parents burst into laughter and pretty soon, after swallowing, Al and Winry joined in.
"Okay, okay... that was pretty funny." Winry admitted through a crooked smile. Al nodded briefly, "I just hope Ed comes back without remembering what he said about Winry!"
Her eyes widened like two huge sapphires and an adorable rouge plastered her entire face. She held her face in her hands. 'They weren't kidding about that! He must like me!'
Alphonse was about to tap on her shoulder to get her attention when he heard a "Psst!" from the bushes. He glanced over to see serious golden eyes looking straight at him from inside the foliage.
"Be right back..." He muttered and went over to the bushes, unnoticed by the adults in mid-conversation about something precarious.
Al crept under the sharpest leaves and crawled over to Ed's hiding place. "Wow, I can't believe you said all of that out loud brother," he giggled, "she's going to know you like her when you come out." Despite the blush already present on Edward's face, he hushed him, clearly showing worry all over his face. Mostly in his eyes. That's when Al's smile slowly disappeared. "Ed... what happened?" Concern clear in his tone.
Edward gulped. "Well... when I went inside, I decided to check out that document again..." Al gave him a disapproving look, "Go on."
"Right, well when I got there, the door was unlocked."
"So?" Al shrugged.
"Well Dad must have locked it, he always locks up his things..." Edward pressed.
"Yeah, but we didn't see him do it ourselves... so what's the big deal? I mean how do you know if he did or not?" Al asked yet again.
"I know we didn't but I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have to see him to believe that he didn't ransack the place."
"What? You mean... someone broke in?" Al asked in shock.
"Yeah and I'm pretty sure what they were looking for, they got..." Ed said, looking down in even more worry.
"No... they didn't take the files. Did they?" Edward looked away again. "Edward!" He unusually hissed in persistence.
His huge golden eyes were wide with fear as he looked up and stared at Alphonse.
"They're gone."
To Be Continued
Haha, you enjoy? Just wondering over here... was it a little too mean for the parents to tease them like that? I thought it was cute, and funny :) And sorry to leave you on a cliffy :) And I added the picnic part even though it would be somehing Al never experienced.. it's just part of the story. I'm kind of using the dreams as an opportunity to explain the past. And I know Ed and Al are a little young to talk about stuff like that, but as we all know they are little prodigies in the anime/manga. And I felt kinda bad for making this more dialogue and less action again. You're probably all like 'Wait, what? How come Ed, Al, and Winry don't remember each other?' I'll get to that later haha :D But dont worry, the next few chapters is where it all goes down. Like bloody mess, so stay tuned. The next chappie will continue off this already in the dream realm. Wow writing this has been so much fun for me, but my butt does suffer from sitting in one spot for way too long but hey it's my longest chapter yet! *pats on back* Oh no applause please! ^_^, Haha 'Til next time :D Adieu!
Please review! Don't be shy! :)