Vil was somewhat eager to meet the rather prestigious visitor that was due to arrive soon. He had already cleared it with the headmage, as his grandfather was very well known in certain circles. Even Professor Trein held him in great respect, and was particularly eager to meet Vil's grandfather once he knew who it was.
He was not expecting Edna to take ONE look at his grandfather and immediately fly into pure unbridled feminine fury. By this point she had become rather fluent in the local language, so hearing her explode into her native tongue was very surprising. He couldn't catch half of what she said, as he was mostly passable at the language, but he could make out the general gist...most of which were clearly expletives.
Needless to say he immediately called Jamil, who put the yelling on speakerphone. If he couldn't figure out what Edna was shouting, perhaps Alphonse could.
Vil could feel the wince on the other end.
"Vil, just out of curiousity who is she yelling at?" asked Alphonse.
"My grandfather, Hohenhiem. Why?"
The wince on the other end became much more pronounced. Vil was very curious when Alphonse immediately asked for a description of what he looked like.
There was no way in hell he was going near Edna when she was this pissed and unlikely to differentiate friend from foe. He didn't want a black eye after all.
Alphonse arrived there in record time, took one look at what was going on and let out a long suffering sigh.
"I take it you know my grandfather."
"Considering he abandoned our mother before Edna was even seven, he completely deserves having nee-san throw things at him. The fact she isn't using her alchemy to kick his ass is her going light on him."
Vil was about to comment when Alphonse's response clicked.
"Wait. What do you mean he abandoned your mother before Edna was seven?!"
"Well I'm not about to get between nee-san and her completely justified anger towards our father," said Alphonse incredulous.
Vil was dumbfounded, as was Rook.
An hour later...
Edna was being firmly held back by her patient younger brother. Idia was rather nervous, justifiably so at meeting Edna and Alphonse's only living parent.
"So let me get this straight. You're telling me that Edna is actually my aunt, and that you're some sort of immortal creature?" said Vil. He had a headache, not helped by Edna's still simmering rage towards his grandfather.
From what he heard from Alphonse, Edna had every right to be pissed off.
"I had very little choice in the matter," said Hohenhiem. "If anything I originally left to find a way to reverse it to join my wife, but you see how that ended up."
"What about grandmother?" said Vil.
"Your grandmother died from a similar condition, but it was caught much earlier and she lived a bit longer than my first wife did," said Hohenhiem. "The only reason I'm still here is because Edna went missing, and she's likely the only one who has the capability of defeating the monster that destroyed Amestris, among others."
If Alphonse had a physical body, he would have stiffened. He remembered the destruction all too well, as well as the aftermath. It hadn't been pretty.
"Why me?" demanded Edna. "Surely I'm not the only one who's performed...that."
"You have the highest resonance with the stones, and you're the only person who's gone through those gates more than once and lived to tell about it," said Hohenhiem flatly. "As it stands, they're currently in hiding because the Seven drove them off but the homunculi you were fighting when you disappeared are still very much alive and active."
Edna was already growling, and if Alphonse wasn't literally holding her back she would have likely continued in her attempts to claw his eyes out.
"So let me get this straight. You left your sick wife with two children all alone, and when they attempted to contact you ignored them completely despite all efforts to reach you. Edna would have been old enough that she would have likely seen the strain of her mother attempting to hide her illness and failing from her eldest, who would obviously be expected to pick up the majority of the slack due to being a single parent. Not only that, but you left enough information to cause a second source of lifelong trauma to two children who hadn't even reached puberty yet," said Vil slowly. No wonder Edna was pissed. "And the only reason you're here now is because you expect her to clean up a mess you left behind."
At least now he knew why Edna was so much like him...she was his aunt.
They were still claiming cousins though.
Vil looked to Al. Al stared back.
"Edna. You get fifteen more minutes of attempting to strangle him, and that's it. If you want to continue being no contact with him, I will completely understand and support it," he said flatly.
Edna blinked, before a dark grin appeared on her face.
"That's plenty."
Hohenhiem would end of leaving Night Raven with a spectacular black eye. Vil felt absolutely no sympathy for him, now that he knew the specifics. He was already calling his father and explaining this new information, and the fact he technically had an older sister and brother.
Considering Edna had no real papers (in this time period) they were going to list her as a cousin to cut back on the inevitable headaches of explaining the full details.
~*~*~*~*~
Vil had warned Idia that it was likely years of putting up walls to protect herself would come crashing down, hard, after finally venting to her deadbeat father.
Edna had to become the mature one, the strong one, to protect herself and her brother after their mother's passing. After all, she was the oldest.
So finally venting to the one who had left and made things so much worse long term...well, it wouldn't surprise him in the least if Edna decided to open up on the people she had come to trust.
Vil had firmly set himself in an 'older brother' role, one that could be relied on to give her the guidance she needed to improve and survive.
Idia, on the other hand was her lover (even if they hadn't gotten to that point yet), and thus was the one she was able to confide in regarding matters she didn't want to unload on her family.
Which was how he ended up in this situation. Edna, aggressively cuddling him after letting out years and years of repressed feelings and abandonment issues. Idia had been so confused but just held her and let it all out. Ortho was in sleep mode, thankfully and rather than distract her Idia had simply pulled her into his lap and let her cry.
She had tried to keep a brave face by hiding in his shirt (which was thoroughly soaked at this point), but anyone with eyes could tell she was an emotional wreck.
She had already claimed his spare hoodie, which seemed to calm her down a bit. She was practically swimming in the material, since Idia was much taller and a bit bonier than she was...it was practically a dress on her.
Edna had finally stopped crying, but was still emotionally raw.
With great care and no small amount of relief that he had already replaced her automail with something much lighter, Idia managed to carry her to his bed.
He wasn't remotely interesting in doing anything physical. Edna was in no state to even think of anything like that and it just felt wrong.
Instead he changed into his pajamas and curled up against her, wrapping his arms around her firmly. Edna burrowed herself into his side, reminding him of a cat.
Today had been on hell of an emotional roller coaster for everyone involved.
Three days later...
Vil sat something down in front of Edna. She had spent the past two days with Idia, and he knew very well that the most they had gotten up to was cuddling.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Identification papers. The headmage was mostly putting it off due to the cost, but since we were able to verify you really are related to me, we were able to get it expedited. Though it doesn't hurt Kalim was able to get his family lawyers involved to streamline the approval process."
Edna raised an eyebrow.
"You're the only person around who knows about real alchemy, not the watered down version everyone uses. I had no idea grandfather was an alchemist as well, as he usually acts as a historian...and not one that is easy to contact," said Vil. "Kalim mentioned his family was highly interested in your skill set, even if the most you do to repay them is translate an entire library's worth of documents left behind, as very few can even read Amestrian anymore. And what little translation we do have is highly suspect due to damage."
Edna could live with that. Besides, Kalim was a nice guy and a good friend.
She looked at the paperwork, which was all very official and had all the right seals.
Most of the information was correct, save for the fudging of several dates and locations...specifically her birth date and where it happened. That was the major snafu, as they could hardly explain she was technically over six hundred years old, not just sixteen or so.
"How did your dad feel about the news he had a sister?"
"Still in shock and now justifiably pissed because now he knows why his mother died so young," said Vil. "She had no history of cancer before that point, so learning it was grandfather's fault cleared up a lot of confusion."
His father was less than happy having that cleared up, but had been hearing nothing but good things about his half sister from his son.
On the plus side, Vil now had ample reason to improve Edna's wardrobe even more than he had already. It wouldn't do for his cousin to walk around in shabby clothing.
"Now onto other business. I have it on good faith that a certain person is planning to take you out on a date later this week."
Mostly because Vil had a little...chat...with Idia about properly romancing her or else. Idia hadn't needed too much prompting to agree to the suggestion, and had taken Vil's recommendations under advice.
Case in point, Edna's odd hatred of milk. She wasn't allergic or lactose intolerant, she was just put off by the stuff after learning where it came from.
Vil had been openly amused at her reaction to learning that the food world had advanced to the point where she could actually find alternatives to her least favorite drink. Almond milk was a bit odd, in her opinion.
The two them were still getting to know one another, so taking her out to a fancy restaurant was a bit much. To that end, Vil had found some reasonably priced cafes that were out of the way near the port Idia could take her to, while still giving him an excuse to dress his cousin up.
They were also close by, which meant that they could be back before curfew.
While casual visitors weren't allowed into the school, students were allowed to visit the local towns within reason. However there were a few strict rules, one of which was that it was generally only allowed during weekends.
Edna rarely wore dresses or skirts, as she was much too active normally.
Vil on the other hand had a plethora of old clothes he had gotten from his modeling work that he could put to good use, with a bit of resizing of course. He had done wonders by correcting Edna's lack of beauty routines and general maintenance.
Professor Trein had corrected her lack of proper decorum among polite society, and was pleased at the results. Edna had gone from a country girl with no manners to speak of to a proper young woman.
Now was the final step...correcting her fashion sense. He had no issue catering to Shroud's "cosplay" requests, as it made things more interesting and some of the outfits were things Vil would have worn himself. Even if he didn't really get into whatever series it was from.
He was looking forward to the challenge, really.
Edna blushed at the reminder, but was honestly glad. Idia wasn't the type to go to loud, noisy concerts or fancy places. While she didn't mind the fast paced events she had seen on her phone, she preferred a quiet library generally.
It was nice to be treated like a girl every once in a while, even if it had taken her over a decade to get used to the idea of being one.