We return - our burden follows

Distantly familiar

My own breath hitched – catching in my throat in a violent manner. It was difficult to imagine – seeing your son, barely into school, standing in front of you, maybe fresh out of it. I didn't know how to feel about my son, Edward, he didn't look like the teenagers was used so seeing in Resembool in any respects at all. "Ed?"

He nodded meekly, in such a way that it was only noticeable when all your attention was focused on him. That mine was. A smile akin to that of my Edward spread across his features, only slightly there but, nevertheless, present. I felt the muscles of my face pull in such a way that it suggested that my own expression was mimicking his. In my periphery, I could barely make out the shape of a blue and black blur – surely the military man – leaving the room discretely, slipping out of the door like a ferret.

I reverted my full attention back to the face of my son, fully intending to gawk at him smiling once again, but his expression had changed. There was desperation printed with distinct clarity across his face as he continued to stare at me unwaveringly. As a mother, there was something unsettling about that look, that expression carried with it a sense of dread that flooded my core.

He spoke a single sentence that, simultaneously, told me everything and absolutely nothing that I needed to know. "Is this – are you – real?" I held my arms out awkwardly, not sure quite how his teenager would act when compared to the current Edward – he began to tighten his already crossed arms over his chest shuffling his feet and staring at the ground. I was beginning to think that that my offer of an embrace was being rejected, though I soon found out differently. He shuffled his feet towards me and gently pushed himself into my chest like my little Edward would. My arms enclosed him and the tenseness that was spread throughout his entire body depleted somewhat.

"Can you tell?" I asked into his hair, his very long hair. He nodded, his forehead moving against my nose very gently. He seemed all subtlety in his actions towards me – as though I were a very familiar stranger – but his actions towards the military man seemed anything but – there was a sense of familiarity that came with their interactions. The way that he presented himself aesthetically did not match my perception of him, though it did match what I had seen of him and the man whose name I'd really have to find out. My son was treating me like a porcelain doll and I was left to wonder why, terrified to ask why I just continued to hold him to my chest. Then he stepped back, leading with a heavy footstep from his left.

He smiled at me once more before changing both his expression and dominant personality traits in an instant to call back the man "Mustang!" I made a note to remember that name.

"You done in here, Fullmetal?" There was that name again, it made absolutely no sense to me, however.

"Duh, why else would I be calling at your sorry ass to come back here?" The casual profanity did not sit right within me but it seemed wrong for me to scold him – it seemed as though he spoke the way he did consistently so I had to assume I had, at some point, given him permission to use them.

"Took you long enough." Mustang said as he wandered carelessly ack into the room "You haven't explained anything yet, have you?" The last question was very much accusatory.

"How would you expect me to do that? I don't know myself – at least not entirely."

"Did the circle mean anything to you?" I was cut out of the conversation abruptly as it reverted to talk about their time.

"Bits of it – but aren't you the one wo always brags about his alchemical superiority?" It was Ed's turn to sound accusatory, a strong undertone of mocking acing his voice. I struggled not to laugh.

"In my own area but you're better all around – as much as I hate to admit it." He really did appear to hate the words he bitterly uttered.

Ed laughed evilly "Oh, but I love to hear you say it – old man!"

"You're a bit of a sadist, aren't you? No matter, I'm sure that you'll find yourself short of remarks soon." The unnecessary stress that he put upon the word short seemed to burn away at was already revealing itself to be a rather short fuse contained within my teenage son.

"Who are you calling short! I'm not short you're just a giant! Call me short one more time and I'll have to call you an ambulance, bastard!" he continued to seethe and mutter incoherent obscenities and insults, shooting fiery glares this way and that – the anger at being called short most certainly fit the Edward that I knew.

"Oh, shut it Fullmetal." Needless to say, he did not. "Oh, come one! How am I meant to calm you down when I don't have Hawkeye here to threaten you?"

"Threaten me? As far as I remember you're the one she likes telling off – if the bullet holes in your office are anything to go off."

"Bullet holes!" I yelled, suddenly very concerned. At that moment, I became very much integrated in the conversation again, treated as though I were a mine (rather a change from being treated like fine china).

"No?" The answer was presented by Mustang, so clearly in a way so unconfident that it appeared to be a question.

"Then why would you have said so?"

"I work for the military as a colonel and my lieutenant likes to fire her gun at me when I don't do as I'm meant to. Your son often visits my office and is able to see the aftermath."

"That brings me another question," They both winced visibly at the phrase that opened my next sentence "How do you two know each other?"

They stiffened and silenced, their heavy boots not even making a sound as they slunk backwards towards the door – it appeared that they were practiced in moving in such a way. "Well?" I challenged, hands on hips and eyes trained on them as they halted.

"We trained under the same alchemy teacher." The answer was quick and it came from Edward's mouth – I was unsure whether it was a fact or a lie. They may well have hidden it as it implied that Edward had left me – probably school as well – a few years earlier than typically acceptable, but, had it been the truth, they may not have been so willing to concede the fact after their initial reactions to my query.

"Okay, I'll accept that for now." I eventually had to concede as it appeared trying to get any further explanation was similar from trying to draw blood from a stone "But how did you get here?"

"Miss Elric it would do you good to sit down as we tell you, may we travel to the kitchen?" Mustang clearly had to entirely different personalities, there were two sides to the coin – so to speak.

"I'll make you some tea, mum." With that Ed and I led Mustang through the house familiar to us both. Mustang looked around as though examining every nook and cranny of the house, trying to gauge something about the area in which his accompaniment had been raised for whatever reason. Ed looked around as though he couldn't believe that he was seeing what he was. A we passed the corkboard hat was home to the polaroid pictures taken of family and friends Ed glared at Hohenheim's unsmiling face – seen only in the picture where he was holding a smiling infant Ed far from his body with extended arms.

I opened the door to the kitchen and took a seat next to Mustang as Ed made a beeline to the counter where both the tea leaves and mugs were held. In a matter of a few minutes he had stopped bustling around the kitchen with much familiarity and set three mugs of steaming tea on the table ahead of us before taking his own seat.

"Explain." I stated boldly, finding the authority I expressed only with my sons and using to its fullest potential. They shrank in their seats before hesitantly beginning their story.