Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Set in Stone ❯ Family Portrait ( Chapter 17 )

`Til The Sun Shines

 

Chapter Seventeen

Family Portrait

 

`In our family portrait we look pretty happy

We look pretty normal, let's go back to that

In our family portrait we look pretty happy

Let's play pretend, Act like it goes naturally'

- Pink, Family Portrait

 

The city did have an uncanny resemblance to Grand Central; Ed had to admit as he walked through their empty streets. He hadn't truly explored the place yet and he needed an excuse to get away from the others. There were times when he thought he could put up with Noa, sometimes even Envy, but after his trip to the surface he thought it would be best if he kept away from the gifted gypsy.

 

He walked past the houses with broken windows and faded paint; some had doors swinging off the hinges. He imagined they must have been beautiful when they had been occupied; it looked like a rich city. There was a huge hill and on top of it one of the larger houses, he began to walk towards the house; it was the most well-kept out of the bunch, perhaps he could see how some of these people had lived. Despite the fact that he knew the place had been long abandoned, he still felt hesitant about going in uninvited. However, all hesitations he had were blown away when in the distance he could see some of Eckhart's cronies lurking around the houses.

 

If he stayed out of sight, they'd leave him alone. He'd had enough headaches to last a lifetime hanging around those idiots. He shut the grand doors behind him quietly and couldn't help but stare in awe at the giant house. Whoever had lived here had been rich, must have been real elites. His footsteps echoed and the wooden floorboards creaked beneath him as he walked slowly into the house. There was a large glass chandelier that hung above his head, and two sets of stairs on the side of the room that met on the second floor. He could make out 3 doors that were visible but guessed that there were more. He climbed the stairs, letting his real hand run along the polished oak rail.

 

By the time he had reached the top of the stairs he was able to count 9 doors, three on each of the walls, excluding the wall which reached to the high roof. The first two he tried were merely spare bedrooms, but when he opened the third there was a splendid sunroom, with beautiful curtains that accentuated the fading crème walls. He stepped into it; there wasn't much furniture, a simple coffee table, a few armchairs; simple but effective. He stepped over to the curtains and drew them back, stepping out onto the wooden balcony, which looked like it would collapse under him any second.

 

He imagined, that when people had lived there, that the garden had been beautiful. But now, it was nothing but wilted trees and dead grass; there wasn't any soil or fresh oxygen down here, the atmosphere was stuffy, and it couldn't rain. The foliage had died long ago. He turned back inside to investigate the other rooms. The first he tried was another sunroom, and he realised where the door he'd seen on the balcony connected to. The door in the middle of the nine was a dark room, and he drew back the curtains in hope of tempting some light inside, to see what other surprises the house held.

 

It was a relatively cosy room, a fireplace in the wall, a couch and two armchairs, and a small side-table next to one of the armchairs. He moved over and brushed the cobwebs and dust off the bottle and glass that sat there, but couldn't make out the faded writing on the label. It smelt like whisky. He frowned to himself and wondered if they had a wine cellar, it'd be worth money now with the time it had spent aging. He left what he had decided to dub the family room and moved to the next.

 

It was the largest bathroom he'd ever seen. There was a bath, that was worthy of being called a small pool. There was a shower in the corner, and a toilet, as well as a sink with a large mirror. He looked into the cracked dusty mirror, wiping some of the grime off the surface, and winced at the large purple bruise visible on his face. Stupid Envy, he cursed to himself, but moved on. The taps still work, but the water was rusty and discolored. Maybe if he could run the rust out of it he may have a bath later. There was, for a reason Ed couldn't think of, a fountain in the middle of the bathroom, it looked nice sure, but what was the purpose? Well he thought it would've looked nice at a point, but the water had stopped running long ago, and a layer of dust, grime and mould had settled upon the dancing ballerina.

 

He finally left the bathroom and moved on to the three rooms on the left wall. He discovered an art room in the first, with canvases and palette's, and he blamed Marian for knowing what they were called. She had always been artistic. He almost expected to find a grand piano, or some kind of music in one of the rooms, before remembering that such things didn't exist in this world and those were things you'd find in the elite houses of Munich or London. The other two fell into the same pattern as the opposite wall and were spare bedrooms; he supposed being rich you'd expect a lot of guests and relatives.

 

He walked back down the opposite staircase that he'd climbed and noticed as he was descending, 2 doors symmetrically placed in the corners of the large room, and seeing as he had gone this far, decided to explore these as well. The first was a large kitchen, with many adjoining doors which were small and didn't consist of much, merely a bed and a table beside them. He supposed those were where the workers slept. Although he did find a wine cellar, and decided to come back another time. The door on the other side of the room actually had a pool inside it. The fake plants around it had fared better than those outside, and whatever provided light in the place had seeped through the dirty glass the roof was made from.

 

A small door to the side held all the linen for the house, and held more sheets and pillowslips in the large cupboard than Edward believed he had ever owned in linen or clothing. After returning to the large entrance room he climbed back up the stairs, noticing for the first time that the stairs continued onto another level. A straight simple pair that continued with the symmetrical theme the house seemed to go by. And after climbing them he was rather disappointed. There was nothing flashy, just three simple doors. He opened the first on the right, and his disappointment was washed away. There was a large king sized bed, and a bedside table on either side, one with a broken clock on it, and another with nothing. He walked over to the side that didn't have anything on the desk and bent down to pick up the photo frame that had fallen, yet couldn't make out the images. He supposed at that time they had made the same advances as the people in the other world with photographs. All that was left of the deteriorated picture were black and white patches.

 

Another door to the side revealed a considerably smaller en-suite, and Ed wondered just how many more doors he would find in this mansion, he still hadn't looked at the double doors underneath the banister. He left the room and moved to the one on the other side, after opening the one in the middle and discovering more stairs, and choosing to explore them later. He guessed that this was a child's room. Somewhere in their teens, he didn't know what the kids 400 years ago we're like. He laughed quietly to himself, he should ask Envy. There was a single bed, and a chest of drawers with an accompanying mirror. There was a bookshelf, something that the other rooms were missing, with an impressive collection of books, and Ed decided to himself that he'd take a look at them once he'd finished looking in all the rooms.

 

He left and ascended the stairs in the middle door, opening the door with a creak and looking into the dark room. It was times like these he was glad they had electricity, and was annoyed this houses' wasn't working. Eckhart had restored it somehow to many of the houses that the lot of them occupied, and he wondered vaguely why she hadn't picked out a grand estate like this one. After finally managing to pry open the shutters, and getting over his sneezing fit from the dust he decided that this must be the study. There were books lining the walls, a desk; which he was kneeling on to open the shutter; with not much else.

 

It looked much like he remembered his father's study to be, apart from the armor missing from the corner. He noticed that a lot of the books from the shelves were missing; unlike those of, after shuffling through the wardrobe, he had deemed the sons room which all of the books had placed with precision, apart from the one next to the bed. The rest of the house had looked untouched, whereas this seemed to be the last room disturbed before the city's disappearance. Not being able to help himself and his love of books, he pulled out a picked one of the books at random, opening the old pages to find that the text at least hadn't faded by much. “It's alchemic text…” he realised after reading a few of the lines and his eyes darted back to the many books, his fingertips brushing over the spines. “This city attempted to create a philosophers stone…there's got to be a research journal in one of these houses…” He muttered aloud, the noise a welcome relief from the constant silence.

 

He decided to take a look at the books and take some back with him, as soon as he had explored what was behind those double doors, the curiosity was nagging in the back of his mind. He supposed it was the dining room, the only room he hadn't found yet, and as he pushed the large patterned doors open, he discovered he was right. There was a long table that stretched almost to the back of the room; it looked much as Havoc had described the Armstrong manor. There were still rusting silver candle holders placed evenly along the table's length, and potted plants, withered and dead, had been placed along the sides of the room. His eyes were drawn upwards, to see a huge pattern in the roof made of stained glass. It was an intricate design and looked to be a rose, and it was bathing the room with a faint red tinge.

 

On the far wall was a large painting, and many other smaller ones surrounding it, of what he supposed was their garden, or perhaps what their neighborhood had looked like in its prime. However the painting's had dust on them, much like everything else, and the images were hard to distinguish. He turned to go back to the study when another painting on the wall he'd had his back to caught his eye, it was grand and bright. Three faces stared down at him, and after wondering who owned the place, he now knew. They were different then how he's last seen them, but at the same time they were much the same as he'd ever known them. The painting looked like it had been cleaned recently, it wasn't destroyed or decaying like the other one; it looked as though someone had recently, at the most in the last 20 years, come and cared for it.

 

He looked around with a newfound amazement; this had been his father's house. This had been the place he'd lived with Dante and Envy. Hoenheim didn't look like he had changed much in the portrait; he still had blonde hair, a beard and glasses, and behind the glasses his golden eyes, of which Ed had inherited. Dante looked much like he had last seen her, the splitting image of Lyra, apart from the slightly wavier hair, and the pleasant smile on her face. And Envy…well he looked like the only thing Ed had ever seen of his true form. Yet probably not as deranged. He realised that the boys' room must have been Envy's and the other, Hoenheim and Dante's. He shuddered a little; it was still weird for him to think of them as a couple.

 

He walked back up the stairs, not really deterred by his discovery; it was a nice house after all. He opened the door to the study and realised that the missing books must be those that Hoenheim had taken with him. Did he clean the portrait downstairs? He sifted through some of the books, grabbed 3 and headed back down the stairs, he better get back before they began wondering where he was, he could always come back tomorrow. However he stopped at the foot of the stairs, after closing the door and curiosity dragged him back into Envy's room. He didn't know anything about his estranged brother, not even a name. He looked through the bookshelf briefly, and discovered that many of them were also alchemic texts, so he had been an Alchemist.

 

He grabbed another two books, before noticing a few that didn't belong with the thick volumes up in the right corner. He huffed angrily, and looking around first, as though expecting someone to be there, he pulled the chair from Hoenheim's study to the bookshelf, standing on it to reach the thinner books. They were children's stories, and he was about to climb back down when one caught his eye. He pulled it down, it was a baby book, his mother had made ones for him and Alphonse and the first page had your name. However as he turned the delicate paper, some fell away, and his brother's name was still hidden. He sighed and was about to put it back when something fluttered out slowly. He picked it up off the shelf and looked at it. It was hair. There was a strip of cello tape around it and paper inside with the small words, his first haircut. Ed grinned, oh this would come in handy later and he climbed back off the chair, leaving it near the wardrobe instead of dragging it back upstairs. He was about to leave when he remembered the book on the bedside table.

 

It was a green leather book, well kept and still in pristine condition, someone had looked after it as well as the portrait, and he wondered how long it had been since Envy had visited, or if he ever had. He opened the first page and there was a page of neat curvy writing with a date in the corner. March 8th. It was a journal, and though it was prying, Edward took that with him too. He placed all his items on the bed and decided to explore the room further. He opened the draw in the table the journal had been on and found another book, or at least he though it was but when he opened it, he found a photo album. There were pictures of Hoenheim and Dante, pictures of the three of them together, of some fancy gatherings he decided they must have had, people swimming in the pool, some pictures of his older half-brother when he was younger, another group of people around him. Then when he turned one page he couldn't help but smile, there was a picture of human-Envy and a girl, kissing his cheek, and he was blushing, even in the black and white photograph he could tell. He added the album to his pile, Alphonse and Hoenheim would appreciate the photos.

 

However the books were getting difficult to hold so he went down to the large linen closet in the pool room and pulled down a large cotton bag. Well that helped. He sneaked back into their hideout and managed to get to his room without being spotted, hastily stowing his newfound items of interest under the bed and sitting up just as his door opened suddenly. “Hey I could've been naked.” He objected to Eckhart, who looked like she couldn't have cared less.

 

“Where have you been?” She demanded instead, Noa by her side. “After the disaster you caused yesterday I don't think you'll be getting time to wander about.”

 

“I didn't cause that.” Ed growled at her, he really hated this woman. “If you hadn't sent Envy with me we wouldn't have gotten in an argument, you know we don't get along.”

 

Eckhart smiled that smile that annoyed Edward to no end. “I would think that a man your age would be able to control himself. Whether you started the fight or not,” She said loudly over Ed's objections, “it still happened. It takes two to Tango Edward. Get back to work.” She said snappily. He growled at her, but all the same moved out to where he was designing the uranium bomb. “And don't go wandering about again.” She said, following him to the room.

 

“I'll do whatever the hell I want.” He answered his mood somber again, the freedom he'd had at the old house was gone and he was reminded why he was there.

 

“Do you need a reminder to behave Edward,” Eckhart asked silkily. “Because I'd be happy to provide one, I believe you have a brother topside.” The reaction was abrupt. He spun around on his heel and looked angrily into her face.

 

“You want this thing made Eckhart? Because I'm the only person alive who remembers how to make it. You leave my family and friends out of this or it won't get done.” He turned and continued the way he was going, but Eckhart smirked insanely.

 

“You say that now Edward,” She said, in a voice that was smooth and quiet but still reached Ed's ears, crystal clear. “But I remember you saying that once before, two dead people later, you're still here. Maybe you shouldn't care about so many people, because at this point, I've an almost inexhaustible source of motivators.” She threatened and turned, leaving the shaking, fuming man to do what he'd been blackmailed into doing.

 

Ed turned angrily with a yell of frustration and drove his automail fist into the wall, leaving a few scratches on the metal through the glove, but doing more damage to the wall. Hurry up Mustang, he thought, before I'm found out.

 

 

Mustang's map had turned out to be nothing but a quick sketch on a flimsy piece of paper, far undeserving, in Havoc's point of view, of the extremely smug victorious look Mustang had worn on his face for quite a while afterwards. A surprising amount of people had volunteered to help with the dubbed `attack' on the underground city; some not even part of the military.

 

The already cramped office was becoming even smaller with all the extra people. There was the usual military gang, minus Hawkeye of course, Armstrong, Alphonse, Izumi and Sig, Hoenheim, the other Alphons, the Tringham brothers, Maria and Denny Brosh, and Scheiska. As well as getting smaller, the room was getting louder, with the many people trying to voice their own opinions and ideas over the rest of them, it was getting so loud that Mustang almost sent out a burst of flame before realizing there was no space in which he could send it without harming someone. He resorted to shouting.

 

“Shut the hell up!” He yelled loudly and the room finally fell silent, many pairs of eyes turning his way. He spoke quieter. “The top brass don't know about this meeting,” he said, “so I'd appreciate it if curiosity was not drawn this way, I hold a high rank, but there are others who are above me, who have offices down this hallway.”

 

They finally ended up talking about what they had gathered there for, and Alphons had revealed, reluctantly, that he and Ed had already made plans, but by the end of the night Alphons was so convinced against them that he had persuaded Ed to drop the idea. Ed had revealed a lot to Mustang the night before, of many things that some in the room already knew, but most were clueless about.

 

He was creating a design for a uranium bomb for Eckhart so that she could overthrow Hitler, once she returned to her world. Edward knew that she had no intention of returning and he had no choice but to create the bomb; he said it was because “I can't stand to see any more people die because I made the wrong choice.” Mustang didn't completely understand the comment, but he didn't miss the looks that Izumi and Al shared and the ones that Hoenheim and Alphons sent each other. He also guessed, by the way both of the pairs missed the looks that neither knew that the other was aware of whatever they were hiding.

 

All of them however, had helped to design their route into the city. Hoenheim and the Curtis's knew of some other entries into the underground city, Izumi had explained that her and Sig had gone and looked around for Ed after he disappeared. Mustang didn't question how Hoenheim knew. They had set out the plan of the city, with the help of Scheiska's photographic memory; apparently a lot of people had visited the city, Scheiska had been one of the ones to find Al when he had come out of the church 15 years ago; and with the help of Russell and Fletcher's fathers' log.

 

One of the biggest surprises had come when Alphons and Hoenheim discovered that Noa was working with Eckhart. Alphons had denied it, saying his fiancé would never have even though of it. But he couldn't deny the evidence, and after yelling and protesting and storming out of the room, he had to admit that it was true, but he denied that she would've done it willingly, and none of them could say anything against that.

Although Mustang had to admit, that that surprise, came nowhere near as shocking as the one that followed. Al had let slip the comment that had stringed together all of the clues. The photo Ed had left at his house and the woman with the uncanny resemblance to one Winry Rockbell; the name he'd muttered in his delirium at the hospital; his reluctancy to allow anyone to help him on the road he'd chosen for fear of them getting hurt; why Hoenheim and Alphons knew it before he had; why Izumi and Al knew it before he had; why he was so secretive about where he'd been…

 

“What?” Mustang said, surprising the rest of the room's occupants, who hadn't realised what he had from Al's seemingly innocent comment. “He's got a wife?!”

 

`Don't go knocking on death's door, ring the doorbell and run, he hates that.'

 

Told you it would take a while, I got back from my holiday on Tuesday at about 6 o'clock. Oh the joy, seven hours in a car with my 5 year old half-sister telling me her cat died and making me real nervous about letting her near mine. I realise I rambled a bit in this chapter, don't even ask me how I came up with it, I'm suggesting, for the purpose of this story, that Hoenheim's family was rich, therefore the mansion like house. Wish I had a house like that *sigh*. Only a few days left of my holiday *sigh* and I still haven't done my art assignment. Crap swear damn swear crap swear damn. So I suppose it's a bit of a cliffy for you all, *insert evil laugh* the story's approaching it's end but theres a few chapters left, I'm still debating with myself as to how I'm going to finish it. Would you believe I got sick on the holidays? That'd be right, can't even scab a few days off school. But I got that Goo Goo Dolls CD that I've wanted since it came out in May or something, again something that came out in America before little old Australia.

 

Phe: Ah, so that's why the spell check kept saying I was spelling it wrong, yet it wouldn't suggest the right one, so I was in a bit of a rut. Hehe I'm too lazy to get a dictionary, its like huge and weighs a ton and all the pages are falling out and I can't be bothered. And yeah, we know how much Ed loves to punch things, there shall be beatings involved. Thank-you! This chapter is late compared to what I usually put up and I don't really know if it's that well written, but thanks for the compliment! There's a lot of rambling in this one.

 

Misa92: I got it from animeost.net but the sites down or it changed webpage and whatever it is I can't find it again, I'm so annoyed. But I uploaded it on megaupload for you, you can download it on: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NHJ54U2Q It's actually a lot longer than what they play in the movie and has an extra bit, I wanna learn it on guitar but I don't know where I could get the music. I haven't played any of the FMA games either, never actually seen `em in this country. Why do you get home so late? My art assignment's due on the second day back of school. And I haven't started. We we're given 10 weeks in the term to do it, and I didn't do it so I've got about 4 days lol. Yeah my mp4 or whatever the hell its called hasn't arrived yet, I was so disappointed when I got home on Tuesday and it wasn't there `cause it was gonna get delivered between 7 to 14 days or something and Tuesday was day no. 7.