Cardinal Sin (1) : Rebirth of the Fullmetal Alchemist

4 - Alchemists of Hiven ; Philemon and Frederick

Two young men burst through the doors of the library, and, causing a great deal of commotion, ran through the bookcases until they found who they were looking for. Their panting caused Ed to raise his head and look at them. 

They must have been around Ed's age. The taller one out of the two seemed like he was most responsible; his head high, dressed properly in pants, a buttoned-up shirt, a neat coat and a hat toping his head of brown curls. He checked on his exhausted friend, with an air of concern. 

The latter was just a little shorter, skinny as a stick but still holding in his hand a briefcase of impressive size sturdily. He leaned over the table, his blue, eyes wide through thin strands of the black hair that had fallen onto his face while running.

"What do you want?" Ed growled, irritated that he'd been interrupted by two out-of-breath strangers.

"You're researching alchemy," the one leaning on the table remarked. 

Ed glanced down at his book. Some of his annoyance went away for he was always at ease when talking about that particular subject. "Obviously."

"Fred and I have read those books already," said the same young man. "Alchemy from Amestris is so interesting, right?"

In the back, Fred growled, "It's Frederick" but was ignored.

"Nothing I don't know," Ed said in answer to the shorter one's question. "I've learned all of this stuff already."

"Really?"

"I'm from Amestris."

The young man stood up and looked at his friend Fred with raised eyebrows. "Amestris. They've got good Alchemists there."

"Yes, they do." The taller, more responsible-looking one turned to Ed. He held out his hand, smiling. "I'm sorry about him. My name is Frederick Galemi and this here is my friend Philemon Smithson."

"You can call me just Phil," added Philemon.

Ed took Frederick's hand and shook it, standing up. "I'm Ed—Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist."

Frederick and Phil's eyes widened perfectly in since. 

"Fullmetal Alchemist?"

"Impossible!"

Inwardly, Ed was grinning triumphantly, though his face was impassive. 'Haha!' he thought. 'So I'm famous even here in the West!'

"I thought the Fullmetal Alchemist wore a red coat, and white gloves and had his hair in a braid," said Frederick, looking down at Ed's plain clothes suspiciously.

"I retired as a state alchemist two years ago, so I ditched that look."

"But isn't he really..."

Automatically, as old habits die hard, Ed thought to himself, 'If he says short...'

Frederick finished with the hesitant, "Really short?"

"I AM NOT SHORT!" Ed bawled. "LOOK AT ME, DO I LOOK SHORT TO YOU?! DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME A TINY LITTLE PIP-SQUEAK!"

Phil suddenly lurched forwards and grabbed Ed by the arm, interrupting his little outburst. "If you're the Fullmetal Alchemist, then you've got to help us!"

Shaking Phil's hand off, Ed regained his seriousness. He said, "You need help? With what?"

Uninvited, Frederick and Phil both took seats opposite Ed. They were both very serious at this point.

"Phil and I have been researching alchemy for the past two years ever since we dropped out of our school," Frederick explained. "Recently, we received this... er... object—I suppose—that we can't quite understand. We've been trying to find out what it is, but without any luck. We fear if we don't identify what it is and what it can do, it may get out of our control and possibly become a threat."

"What is this thing?"

Frederick shook his head. "We don't know and it's incredibly hard to describe—I wouldn't even know where to start."

"I would be better if we just showed you, actually," Phil said.

___________________

Philemon and Frederick are invented characters. They are not in the series at all. 

I googled names for men in the 19th century and ended up spending way too much time scrolling through names from the 1700s, discarding almost every name I came across. Finally, when I found Philemon, I thought it would be a great one because I could nickname him Phil. As for Frederick, I got bored of looking and remembered that Frederick was a pretty old name. 

P.S. Frederick hates being called Fred, but Phil does it anyways from time to time just to be annoying.

—Annalise