Fic: Ed x Alfons; "To Find Shamballa", Chapter One
Title: To Find Shamballa
Pairing: Edward Elric x Alfons Heiderich
Side Pairings: Alphonse Elric x Winry Rockbell, Roy Mustang x Sheska, onesided Roy Mustang x Riza Hawkeye
Rating: G-NC-17
Summary: Alfons Heiderich had gone to Transylvania to pursue his passion, and maybe find a way to help save his tattered country. Little did he know that he would find Edward Elric.
Note: This is the remake of the entire Movie arc. This is heavy DIVERGENCE. This is EXTREME DIVERGENCE. DIVERGENCE WITH A CAPITAL DIVERGENCE xD ...And yes, I have this already posted on Fanfiction.net, but that version that I have started to post is the cut version (meaning all lemon scenes will be edited out, and all that)...while the version of this story posted here on LJ will be the complete version.
Note 2: I realize that the first chapter seems to be a bit lacking...but chapter 2, I promise, will be much longer.
Crossposted to: blau_und_gold, fma_yaoi
----
Transylvania, 1921.
Name: Alfons Heiderich
Age: 15
Occupation: Apprentice Rocketry Engineer
----
“Hey, Alfons!”
Machine oil, whirring bearings, the scream of engines…to most this would be horrendous…annoying, maybe. Women would complain about the feel of the grease on their dresses, and most men would growl irritably at the sound…probably saying that it hurt their ears, or maybe that it distracted them from whatever important things they needed to do…such as mundanely reading the paper, or talking about things to make them feel self-important…more intelligent than they actually were, in the hopes of giving off the impression that they were intellectuals, or something of said type. Something perhaps that said that they hadn’t seen the horrors of the recent war…though that was something that everyone wanted to forget, and one couldn’t blame them for that.
Mix those smells, the fog coming up from the bursting of the failed engines, the fizzlepopping of crackling gears…
The ungodly heat…
The tiny size of the blueprints sitting next to them, mixed with the constant worry of them being smeared or torn from the constant nearby activity…
Most would rather eat the horrible concoctions known as Herr Oberth’s home cooking rather than put up with it. It was a rather acquired existence. One that was not for the faint of heart but for the most stubborn of men (or women too, if they so wished…though there were few who wanted to ease out of the easy housewifing life in the pursuit of intellectual gain…he had met one during his travels, but…), but none who actually lived with it cared not one bit.
Alfons Heiderich wiped his forehead, rising from his previous crouch and stepping towards the guardrail, looking down at the man on the level below him.
Herr Dorrecht was a nice enough guy-hailed from Berlin, or so he heard…he showed up about six months before Alfons did, in fact. In this place, not many asked questions…nobody really cared about where you were from, or what you did for a living…so long as you had the drive to work, the passion for engineering, and the genius to put both together. But Alfons couldn’t help but notice that he was a bit short…and maybe a bit short-tempered for most people’s liking, though he did what he could for those who knew him well…like a loyal dog who barked too easily and too much, perhaps. At least, that’s how he saw it.
Though he had been wrong before. God knew he was sometimes bad at judging people…especially with his innocence.
“Yeah?” Alfons called.
“Herr Oberth wants to see you!” Dorrecht shouted back.
Alfons blinked. “Me? Why would he want to see me?”
“Hell if I know-just get down here!”
“I’m coming!”
Four months already. It certainly didn’t feel that long. It was still hard for Alfons to get used to the sounds sometimes…the smells. The scent of machine oil still sometimes made him high, and it was hard for him to get used to the workroom-he still tripped on that damn staircase every single time he tried to go up. Blame natural leg-clumsiness and anxiety, perhaps. Engines were tuned and worked on the top floor, but they were tested on the bottom floor…they weren’t heavy, though Law (everyone knew that wasn’t his real name…though that’s what they called him in any case) insisted that he carry them nonetheless…he was big enough, so nobody argued with this idea, of course.
…Everyone except Alfons, the resident Pollyanna.
Though all he would get in return for that gesture was a laugh and a shake of the head.
Did he really seem so fragile?
Maybe it was his face…he was told that he had his mother’s face, after all. His mother’s face and his father’s build…which together probably made him look…well…
Strange.
He couldn’t say feminine…but strange.
Letting out a sigh, he combed his fingers through wheat-blond hair, stretching his arms before heading to the stairs.
He hated those damn things…were never stable enough. He had tried fixing it himself, but he ended up falling from down from the ledge and nearly broke his leg. His hands were steady, but balance beam gymnast Alfons was not.
He had to grapple onto the railing just to allow him to get down safely…though that wasn’t too hard, at least…
“Alfons, hurry up!”
“Yeah-sorry!”
How could everyone else get down the stairs so safely-it never ceased to surprise him how even someone as huge as Law could step down without any help but Alfons had to lean and cling to the rail just to get down to the bottom, and even then it was hard to get down without falling.
But still…
Four months there. It really had been that long, hadn’t it…
“Herr Dorrecht, did he tell you what he wanted?”
He shook his head. “Notta thing. Just said that he needed to talk to you about something.”
“Vague as ever, I guess. Well…Engine 3 is still being worked on…let’s try to get our set done and working before Bido’s team gets finished with his.”
“I’ll pick up on it-now move your ass! God knows his speeches take long enough as it is.”
“Duly noted. I’ll try to hurry.”
* * *
There was never a question of duty in this household. Herr Oberth worked on his own theories, meanwhile the apprentices practiced their own craft by forming teams and competing against one another, seeing which of them could complete any given task the fastest, and the most efficiently…and while all that was going on, Frau Oberth cooked and cleaned…took care of the house. She was a patient woman though…dealt with the likes of Alfons and the other engineers with stride…though she was almost like a mother. She made them clean up after themselves, make their own beds, and wash their own dishes when they were done eating.
It reminded Alfons fleetingly of his own mother…when she was still alive.
Though granted, his mother was much more fussy. Wouldn’t even let Alfons go out in the rain with an umbrella, for God’s sake. Said it would catch him a death of a cold.
Ah, he missed her…much more than he was willing to admit…even to himself.
Coming home to a warm smile after the teasing he received at school was always a blessing…
But this place had its own charm too. Its own way of doing things…its own…
“Alfons!”
…definitely its own charm.
Little Noa was only four; a spritely little thing with dark skin and long brown hair, with a pair of brown eyes that were almost too large for that round, cute face of hers. How long had she been there, under the Oberths’ roof? Certainly longer than Alfons had been…
She was some sort of tribal girl…that he knew. A gypsy perhaps…they were from Transylvania, weren’t they? Or was that from Hungary? He could never really remember. One didn’t see Gypsies walking the streets, after all…they were nomads, wandering from place to place…
But she was obviously stationary…but she was too little to be a servant, and Frau Oberth took good care of things as she was…
He had figured a surrogate child…
Though it seemed that he was the only one that she talked to.
“Noa! You know you shouldn’t be running around here by yourself. The work area and the hallways near it are dangerous…someone might trip over you…you might get hurt.”
Her eyes fell, and the girl tugged at the skirt of her violet dress, trying valiantly to match Alfons’s long, quick strides.
It was only polite to slow down to match her tottering gait, of course.
“I-I know…b-but…Herr Oberth wanted to see you…”
“It’s sweet that you’d like to help out, but Dorrecht already let me know. And you know that if Frau Oberth catches you in these hallways you’re bound to get in trouble.”
“You won’t tell, will you?”
“Of course I won’t tell, Noa.”
“O-okay.”
A few more steps…
“S-so…” Noa’s voice was tiny as Alfons opened a door, letting them both in. The hallway was narrow, but from the third door on the right, that ran through another tiny hallway…
“Yes, Noa?” It was almost obscene how much Alfons had to look down to see her…he knew he was tall, but sometimes it hurt to have to crane his neck like that.
The little girl was looking down towards her feet, though…she wasn’t looking at him.
“D-do you…know why he called you?”
“No.” Alfons said, “That’s what I’m going to see him for. To find out.”
“Oh.”
It was almost heartbreaking how disappointed she sounded….
“So um…” She paused. “Do you wanna know?”
“Why he called me, Noa?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I don’t know…would he be mad if you told me?”
“Nuh-uh. He wouldn’t be mad.”
“Then yes-I’d love for you to tell me.”
It was always so cute how she’d furrow her eyebrows, as if deep in thought. She would put her finger in her mouth, just a bit, biting down…but not enough to hurt, or draw blood…
“Well…someone’s here.”
He blinked. “Someone’s here?”
“Uh-huh. A new…apprentish.”
Alfons chuckled a bit. “Don’t you mean, ‘apprentice’?”
“That’s what I said.”
“But if he has a new Apprentice, why would he call me?”
Why would he call him? He was the most junior apprentice, with more physical accidents then he was willing to admit to. He didn’t even know his way around perfectly yet…even in four months. It was true that his test engines seemed to work the best out of all the others’, and he knew that it irritated not just one of his colleagues, but…
“Dunno. The man went into the room, and then Herr Oberth came out and found the Dog-Man, who was around…and then he told him to go get you!”
“That’s not a nice thing to call someone, Noa.”
“But he is like a dog!” Noa insisted, walking faster. “He barks like one and he gets mad if I go near him…just like the dog next door.”
Just like a child to interpret antisocial, grouchy behavior for being ‘mad’. If one looked at it her way, then Dorrecht was mad all the time…which could almost be true, actually.
No, that probably wasn’t a good way to think.
“That’s just because he’s grouchy.”
“Well, he’s nice to you.”
“That’s because he works with me…I’m sure that if we didn’t work together he’d be grouchy with me, too.”
“Kay.”
He didn’t know when he had stepped out of the last hallway and stepped into this one, or when he had even opened a door at all, for this matter, but if he took any more steps forward, he was going to smack straight into Herr Oberth’s door…
God knew that he didn’t want to show himself to the new Apprentice looking like that.
That would be the perfect way to introduce himself: “Hi, I’m Alfons Heiderich…I’m the most junior apprentice and I just slammed right through the door…I’m sorry, I swear I’m not a complete idiot.”
“Well, I’ll go now…” Noa backed away a few steps, smiling. “I did your fortune this morning and drew the “Wheel of Fortune”…so something important might happen. Bye!”
It was always a wonder why she clung to him so much. He was always in the workroom, fixing engines, looking over blueprints…but whenever he would step out, there she would be…babbling some nonsense about a card or another, or talking to him about God-knows-what. She was cute, and very sweet…
But he had to wonder why the girl took to him over gentle giant Law, who was practically born to be a father. Alfons was certain that the man would marry, and probably marry quickly once he got back to Germany…once he found a prospective girl, of course.
Or why she would tell his fortune every morning…even when she didn’t have to.
…
“That’s a story for another day, though, isn’t it?”
The girl was off and quickly out of sight, and Alfons turned back towards the door, putting his hand on the handle and turning the knob…
He could hear the hum of Herr Oberth’s quiet tone already, though there was another voice…though he couldn’t quite make it out…
He ducked into the room, nearly slinking inside as he shut the door behind him.
“Herr Oberth, you said you wanted to see me?”
…He had not expected to hear a slight gasp as he entered the room.