[ AU ] Central City, Amestris, 1918

[equalexchange]

It had been several months since the Elric brothers had found themselves mysteriously awakened back home in Reizenbul. The whole thing had been a surprise to the both of them, and to the people of Amestris -- both were thought to be long gone after the War Between Worlds, and the closing of the Gate. If anyone noticed that Edward was a bit

Comments

[wizard_errant]

When Dairine said she was going to do something, she did it. It was true when she was ten and said she'd take down anybody who messed with her sister. It was true when she was eleven and told the Lone Power It wasn't going to get the best of her. It was true when she was thirteen, and told Roshaun she'd dress up to meet his parents.

And it was true when she was sixteen and told Edward Elric that if they ever got off the island, she'd come and visit his world.

Amestris hadn't been hard to find, once she'd got home and Spot could access the universe again. It was just hard to get to. There was something about the place, apparently, that was not entirely healthy, and the entropy rating was too high for permanent Gate. Dairine thought she'd have to make one, but then, Skerret was the Master of the Crossings, and she pulled a few strings, and asked very nicely, and next thing she knew there was a one-person Gate to Central with her name on it.

The place was pretty much as Edward had described it. Dairine stepped out of the Gate into a bustling city with tall buildings and people everywhere, not that unlike some of the versions of New York she'd seen.

She tucked Spot under her arm. "Are we there?"

He chirped happily. "Affirmative!"

"Can you get a bead on our boy?"

Spot grew several new eyeballs and peered all around them. "Yes, but I need more time. Processing."

"Uh, honey," Dari said, pulling her jacket around the computer, "maybe you should kinda lay low with the eyes and things...we're not invisible or anything. Kay?"

And they started off into the city.

[equalexchange]

Edward was surprised to find that even after years of absence, he still knew the roads and back-alley's of central as he had the day he'd left. He knew all the shortcuts to the train station, and the military center. The only real changes to the city had been aesthetic. A few updated faces, and the parliament building was back in use in the way it was intended to be.

For a moment, his thoughts were pulled back to the city, golden eyes roaming rooftops and freshly-painted plaster. It was easy to get lost is the crowds, and Edward blended in easily, due to his short stature. This also made it difficult to find anyone else in the crowd, and so he did not see the familliar red-haired girl and her computer several feet ahead, headed in the opposite direction.

[wizard_errant]

People in cities don't notice anything that doesn't talk to them first--this is, in Dairine's experience, a universal fact. Which is why she's not that worried about people noticing Spot, but still.

She's in front of an official-looking building with a wide set of stairs, and sinks down onto one of them to pull Spot onto her lap and let him work his location program.

[equalexchange]

Edward slowed his steps, as he approached the building. Where once there had been a building, then nothing but ash, there stood a building once again. Central's first branch library (restricted, to military personell -- more specifically, to state alchemists, and not the one he was planning to meet Al at that evening) had been rebuilt, and Edward stopped across the road, looking up at the new structure. He smiled to himself. No doubt it was filled to the brim with Scheizka's handiwork -- Every old book, document, and record, re-written completely from memory.

Slowly, his eyes roamed down the sides, to the steps, and he startled. The girl seated on the bottom steps would not have been so terribly stratling if she had, say, been dressed in Amestris' military uniform jacket and suit skirt. But her clothes did not quite belong, and that shockingly bright hair might have been distinguished enough all on it's own. But the device in her lap sealed it, and Edward found himself rooted in place with surprise.

Is that...

[wizard_errant]

Even before Spot's satisfied, "Program complete!" Dairine's started to feel eyes on her.

Slowly, she looks up. Three of Spot's eyeballs do as well. Well. That was lucky.

In her experience, luck seldom had anything to do with it.

"I am on errantry," Dairine says, and smiles at him, "and I greet you."

[equalexchange]

Edwards feet set in motion before he knew that he was doing. When his mind caught up with his steps, he quickene, the pace, unable to help the smile that found it's way to his face. A bright sort of grin, that lit his golden eyes like two, tiny suns.

"You actually figured it out!" he exclaimed, more enthusiastically baffled than anything else.

[wizard_errant]

That formality out of the way, Dairine bounces to her feet, shifting Spot off her lap onto the step. "I told you I would," she says, grinning fit to split her face open. And despite his usual aversion to being touched, she can't help it, she throws her arms around him and hugs him hard. "Hi, Edward."

[equalexchange]

Edward staggered back about half a step in surprise, his arms out to the sides. It was only a breif instant before he steadied himself, and folded gloves hands around her back in a breif, tight hug. "Good to see you again, Dairine."

He pulled back then, gently pushing her back by the shoulders. "When did you get here?"

[wizard_errant]

She bends down to pick up Spot again, cradling him in the crook of one arm. "Just now. I had to get special permission to come, it's not an easy world to gate to, apparently." She wrinkles her nose. "But here I am. Good timing, apparently! So where are we?"

[equalexchange]

"Ah..." Edward turned, and motioned with his right hand, automail fully conceiled beneath thick green sleeve and white glove. "This is Central City. It's the capital of Amestris," he replied.

He pointed down the road in the direction he'd been heading. "About a mile down that way is central military headquarters. I was actually headed to make an appointment for my re-assessment."

Edward couldn't help the easy smile on his face, or the cheer in his voice. Boundaries and laws of the universe be damned, Dairine had actually done it.

[wizard_errant]

"Yeah? Do you mind company?" Dairine asks, and then laughs sheepishly. "That's the one problem with this kind of thing, it's hard to warn you I'm coming. But I hope it's an okay time, because I don't know how often I can do it, and there are no other wizards on this world for me to bunk with." The smile dims just the slightest bit at this news. "Which is kind of weird, actually, but it probably has something to do with the alchemy."

[equalexchange]

"No problem," said Edward, inclining his head towards the road. It was obviosuly a motion to follow, as he set to walking again.

"I just need to make arrnagements with Lt. Hawkeye -- ah, no, I think she got promoted... Well, either way, I just need to set things up, and afterwards I was going to meet up with Al again at the 3rd branch Library. I was hoping they might have time for me today, but if not, it's alright..."

Edward grinned impishly, withdrawing his old silver watch. "You can come with us. We're on a bit of a long trip though. It's here, for the re-assessment, then we were going to head out to Lior, to visit an old friend, then back down south to Dublith. And if all goes well, probably headed back to Reizenbul after that."

[wizard_errant]

She makes a face at him. "What else am I going to do, sit here and wait for you? Of course I want to come along." She gestures wide with the arm not carrying Spot, as if to say, these are the only plans I've got.

They walk in silence for a few minutes after that, mostly because there are too many questions to ask all clamouring to be let out first. Dairine finally settles on the important one: "How are you? Now that you're back home?"

[equalexchange]

"Alright," he replied, because it's the simplest answer, and it's always good to start simple. "Good, actually. I mean, it's... home."

That didn't sound right. "It's strange. It really has been two years for me, but Al says it's not all that long after he first showed up on --" Edward paused. This was the first time he'd spoken of the Island to anyone other than Al. They'd both reached the conclusion that no one would have believed tham, anyway. "Well... so anyway... It's complicated. But, it's good to be back, with everyone."

But for as many people as he was glad to see again, there were almost as many that he missed, and he cursed himself for that.

[wizard_errant]

She looks at him out of the corner of one eye, head tilted, thoughtful.

"And you have alchemy again."

It had been the first thing she'd noticed about being home; the reason that everything else paled--she could feel the universe coursing in her blood again, and it was wonderful.

[equalexchange]

Edward nodded, and grinned. "Yeah. But ya know, after so long doing everything by hand, I'd gotten so used to doing without it."

He tucked the watch back into his pocket, "Not that I'm any less of an Alchemist than I was. I mean, I made this coat using Alchemy," he said, tugging on the front of the coat, "and lots of other things..."

He looked up at the sky as they walked, "But it's not necessarily something I couldn't live a normal life without, ya know?"

It even surprised him, to hear the words come out of his mouth. At age five, Alchemy had been a series of complicated words that he taught himself to read. At age six, alchemy was that he used to make his mom smile. At age ten, he lived, breathed, ate, and slept alchemy, with a specific goal and determination in mind. At age eleven, Alchemy took away more of the little he had left. At age twelve, alchemy became his work, and at age fifteen, that work finally started to pay off. At age sixteen, it became his brother's salvation, and his own.

Now, at age eighteen, it was weird to think that he could have lived without it.

"But, then again," he added with a sheepish grin, "It's all I really know how to do, and I'm broke."