FMA Fanfic- "The First Conversation"
Title: The First Conversation
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Characters/Pairings: Alfons Heiderich and Edward Elric, NOT slash, but you can infer it as you wish
Rating: PG-13, for language
Summary: Alfons and Edward struggle to have a conversation when neither of them can speak the other's language.
PLEASE READ!!!!
OK, I must admit, I'm very shy about posting this. I've never posted a "serious" fic before. I've checked and re-checked it about 30 times so there should be no grammatical or spelling errors, but it's all about content in the end, and at parts of the story I feel as though it's rambling a bit, but I wanted the conversation flow to be realistic in all it's awkwardness and now I'm rambling. :|
I got the idea for this fic a while ago, from FerioWind on DeviantArt (I forget her LJ username), and just recently recovered it. In the end, there will hopefully be three parts: The First Conversation, The Endless Conversation, and The Last Conversation. All of these fics are focused soley on the relationship between Alfons Heiderich and Edward Elric.
***Alright, this part is important to read, because it explains why I wrote the story like I did. Italics represents something being said in English. Regular text represents something being said in German. The first POV is Alfons, and he only knows Ed by "Edward", so he only refers to him as such. Also, when Alfons says "Alfons", although he is really referring to the Al back in Amestres, he assumes the two names are spelled the same. This is the same when Edward continually refers to Alfons as "Alphonse". He simply assumes the two names are spelled the same way. I hope this isn't too confusing. ^^;
Please read, comment, and enjoy! <3
The First Conversation
Alfons stole glances at the young man sitting across from him, who was rudely gaping. Alfons wondered if he had anything on his face or in his hair. He stirred his coffee anxiously.
“You look just like Al!” The young man kept repeating excitedly.
Alfons offered a smile. Supposedly, this was Professor Hohenheim’s son, Edward Elric. He should be nice. But somehow, this seemed a little too nice. I mean, what was Hohenheim thinking, asking if him if Edward could stay at his apartment? They were strangers! They had just only met, for god’s sake! But Edward seemed strangely fascinated by him, for some reason. And Professor Hohenheim had asked so nicely if he could stay with him, as apparently the professor had somewhere he needed to go tonight. He had even offered him money, which of course Alfons had refused. So here they were, a few hours later, sitting in a sort of awkward half-silence, interrupted only by the spoons for their coffee clinking against their cups and Edward muttering his strange little mantra.
By now, Alfons had recognized Edward’s language as English. Unfortunately, Alfons’ English was limited. He could try, at least. He really couldn’t take this silence anymore.
“Ah… hello. My name is Alfons. What is your name?” He said each word slowly, just like in the book, watching Edward’s expression carefully. But this was stupid. He already knew his name, and surely Edward knew his. However, he seemed a bit taken aback at Alfons’ English outburst.
“Alfons? Alfons! My little brother’s name is Alfons too! If he were older, he’d look just like you!”
He said this all very fast. He had said his name three times, and Alfons was pretty sure he heard ‘name’, ‘brother’, ‘like’, and ‘you’. Alfons quickly gathered that Edward was trying to tell him that he had a brother that was like him. He noted that Edward hadn’t bothered to introduce himself. And he had seemed surprised that his name was Alfons, too. How odd. Wasn’t he paying attention at all when his father was introducing them earlier? Although, now that he thought of it, Edward had seemed a bit… distracted then. But not now. He was currently watching Alfons’ every move, waiting for him to talk again.
“Your name is Edward, yes?” Alfons tried to make conversation with the little English he knew.
Edward gave him a strange look. “Yeess. But you know, Alfons? My brother? He’s not here in Germany. But he looks just like you. Hey! Can you understand what I’m saying?” Edward waved his alien-looking metal arm in front of Alfons’ face. His arm was just one of his strange attributes. That and his gold eyes.
And there it was; Alfons had heard ‘brother’, ‘like’, and ‘you’ again. Also ‘yes’, ‘I’m’, and ‘what’. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really make anything out of it. He sighed in slight frustration.
“What?” He said.
Ed stared blankly at him, and then slumped back in his seat, disappointed.
“You don’t know Amestrian?” He muttered, looking up at Alfons with slightly hopeful eyes, as if he didn’t quite believe him.
“Uh… no?”
~~*~~
Ed looked at the young man sitting across from him. He looked like Alphonse. Hell, he was Alphonse! But he obviously couldn’t understand Amestrian at all, which sucked. Ed was really getting sick of only being able to communicate to Hohenheim and the other few old men at Hohenheim’s work. Thankfully, Hohenheim had begun to teach Ed some German, at Ed’s insistence. He was going to have a conversation with someone his own age, damn it!
“Um…. Hello.” He said hesitantly. Damn. Not much of an impact. But it had caught Alphonse’s attention. Good.
“I know… small German,” Ed said, cringing at the German word for ‘small’.
“Really? Very good!” Alphonse replied, speaking slowly, obviously aware of Ed’s understanding of the German language.
“I am from… place not here.” Woo. Congrats, Ed… way to state the obvious.
Alphonse didn’t seem to mind though. He eagerly replied, “Where?”
“Amestres.”
Alphonse looked at him oddly. Ed returned the look. What was wrong with him? Hadn’t he ever heard of… oh. Right. Hohenheim had warned him of this. Amestres didn’t exist in this world. He struggled to remember the close equivalent… oh, yeah!
“Like England.” Ed offered.
Alphonse smiled. “Oh. Did you like it there?” Ed was grateful that he still spoke slowly.
Ed smiled back. “Yes. I had little brother there. He was good.”
Alphonse’s face lit up. “Oh! And your brother… was his name Alphonse as well?”
Ed grinned. “Yes! He look….like… face of you.” He had a hard time trying to say what he wanted to say in German. It was a weird language.
Alphonse nodded, as if he understood. “Yes. He looks like me, right?” He pointed at himself.
Ed bobbed his head up and down eagerly. “Yes, yes!”
Alphonse laughed. Ed stopped bobbing. Shit. Now he was laughing at him. He wanted to make a good impression on this look-a-like, but he was just coming off as stupid and childish. He probably thought he had a brother complex too. Wonderful.
“What… you… enjoy to do?” Ed asked, attempting to change the subject, while also keeping the conversation alive.
Alphonse smiled warmly. Ed felt a pang. He really, really looked like Al.
“I enjoy rockets. You know… the machines your dad helps with. I also enjoy cats and apple pie.” Alphonse laughed, but stopped when he noticed Ed get up.
Ed knew rockets. He had also heard ‘cats’ and ‘apple pie’. What Winry had promised Al when he got his body back. And the strays Al always picked up. This had to be Al. He took a bold step forward.
“Al? Is that you? Al?”
But Alphonse merely looked at him with puzzled blue-gray eyes. “I’m sorry?” He tried.
Ed sighed. Well this was depressing. He suddenly didn’t feel very much like talking.
~~*~~
“Where to sleep?” Edward asked.
What was with the sudden change? Was it something he’d said? He had only answered his question… oh well. Edward was probably just tired. And with all the limited knowledge of languages on both sides, there really was no polite way to end their conversation. He showed Edward to the spare room, and watched quietly as he settled himself in. Alfons had to keep his jaw from dropping as Edward took off his shirt. His arm… it really was a fine piece of machinery.
Alfons felt himself blush. What was he doing, staring at this strange foreigner as he undressed? He left Edward’s room quickly to go get ready for bed himself.
Yet, oddly enough, while lying in bed later, his thoughts drifted to Edward and his little brother. He wondered when they would see each other again, as they were now obviously apart. He also pondered why Edward had insisted on referring to England as Amestres. And why, if he was from England, he didn’t have an English accent. There was definitely something strange about that.
Alfons rolled over to a more comfortable position. Perhaps he would leaf through some of his English texts tomorrow morning. And maybe offer Edward a place to stay for the next few weeks, while he looked for an apartment of his own.