WHO: Nico and Al WHAT: first meeting as Al returns from home, different; matchup WHEN: 8/18 WHERE: The woods to start WARNINGS: None STATUS: Closed and Complete
Al stumbled as he looked around. Where was he? He had just been back home, talking to Teacher about learning Alchemy the way he had in his previous life, and she had just agreed, and now… he was in a strange town, one that looked oddly familiar.
Backing up, he darted into the woods nearby. He didn’t know what was going on, but he needed some space and some time to come up with a plan.
He had really not needed this complication in his life. He needed to learn Alchemy and find his brother! Now he was somewhere else, somewhere that haunted him like a forgotten dream.
In the woods, he stopped and found a fallen log to slump on.
What was he going to do now?
“Oh. Brother, now what will I do?”
***
Nico really, really wished that people would stay away from his cave. Every day someone new showed up and that just made him nervous. He wanted his privacy. He didn’t want his cave to become a stop on some new highway through the forest.
When the guy showed up (none too silently), Nico fell into step behind him, not making a sound as he followed. When he slumped onto a rock, obviously upset, Nico crossed his arms.
“Well, you could go to town instead of hanging out in the woods.”
***
Al jumped and tripped and went sprawling. He was ten, and had no idea where he was, nor what was going on, and now people were scaring him? What was going on?
“What town is it? Where am I? Everything is so odd here.”
His accent was very subtle, something Asian, and something European, all at the same time.
He stared at this new person, gaining a small measure of contentment that the guy didn’t seem that old.
***
“Madison Valley,” he said. Nico’s accent was mostly American, but with a hint of the Italian accent of his birth. “Are you new here?”
He hoped not. The last thing Nico wanted to do was try to be nice and help out a newbie. Although he was a little kid, which made Nico a little softer towards him than if he were older.
***
Al blinked and copcked his head. “I… I don’t… I don’t remember. I was in my country, in Teacher’s house, then here… but that name sounds familiar.”
He felt like he had read or been told something and it was being elusive.
“I don’t remember where from, though. Ugh! I hate not knowing things.”
***
“I don’t know if you were here or not,” he said honestly. He hadn’t paid that close of attention because he didn’t really want all that much to do with the people in town. “But if you go into town, or post on the network, maybe people will remember you and can fill in the blanks.”
He cocked his head.
“Sometimes people have been here and don’t remember. Sometimes they come back and do remember. Maybe you’re kind of in the middle?”
***
Al squinted, and listened, and found himself nodding, because it made a certain amount of sense. “That could be. Fits the facts as they seem to be. Something is making me not remember, but feel like I should. Which is weird, you know?” He shook his head.
“Anyway, I guess I should try to deal with it, right? Like Teacher says, I need to deal with the world as it is, and try to make it as I wish to be.’
He extended his hand to the other man, who looked a little awesome really.
“I’m Alphonse Elric, sir.”
***
“I’m not a ‘sir’,” he said, a bit weirded out by that. After all, he was only fifteen. “I’m Nico di Angelo,” he said and took his hand regardless. Nico was awkward and creepy, but he wasn’t a jerk.
“Who’s Teacher? Is he here?”
That would make things a lot easier for the kid.
***
“Hmm? Okay. Nice to meet you, Nico.” He almost uses the man’s full name, but he did not seem to like formality, so Al refrained.
“Everyone calls me Al. And Teacher is Izumi Curtis. She taught me Alchemy along with my brother the first time we met, and she is going to reteach me now.” He nodded, smiling warmly.
“I don’t think she is here, but then i just got here. She was back home right before I showed up here.”
***
“Alchemy?” Nico had heard the word, but he didn’t know why this guy was using it. From what he knew, it didn’t work and had gone out of fashion centuries ago. Oh well. This place was weird. Maybe it did work on his world.
“Well, we’re not going to figure anything out standing here,” Nico said with finality. He was annoyed at having to go into town, but he wasn’t a jerk and he wasn't going to leave this scared kid out here all by himself.
***
“Yeah, the process of turning one thing into another by applied power and formulae.” Al had no idea what was going on in this guy’s head. How did he not know of Alchemy? This place was odd.
“Oh? If you tell me where to go, I can probably find it on my own. No need to bother you more than i have.” Al didn’t like bothering people. It wasn’t in his nature.
***
Oh, he did know about it. He just couldn’t believe for the life of him that it was real. For a long moment, he considered telling him okay, that he could totally go to town on his own, he’d just sit here happily and do his thing. But...he wasn’t that much of a jerk. And he was just a kid, and if something happened to him in the woods Nico didn’t want to be responsible.
So he sighed, running a hand through his curly black hair.
“Nah, I’ll walk you there. Show you where to get something to eat and stuff.”
***
Al perked up. “Really? Thanks.” He smiled warmly, and cocked his head. “Where do new people usually go?” Might as well ask questions now. It seemed the right time.
He would follow Nico anywhere reasonable, really. Which would be Al-reasoning, so a lot farther than a normal person, really.
***
“To eat? Well, pretty much everyone in town likes Hinkles. They serve these little square burgers which are really cheap and actually really good. They have breakfast in the morning, too, and they’re pretty much open all the time.”
It wasn’t all that good for you, what with all the fat and grease, but when you were a little kid, that didn’t really matter.
***
“Oh, yeah? Cool!” Al was enthusiastic as they walked and he stuck his hands in his pockets, then stopped suddenly, pulling out a long object that he didn’t know was a phone, and a small folded object that he vaguely recognized was a kind of wallet. Arriving back in Madison had deposited his items from before in his pockets again.
“Where did these come from? And why are they in my pockets?” He examined both, carefully. “Hey, this card has my name on it!” And there was a key in the wallet, too.
“I wonder where this key goes.”
***
“Probably your apartment,” Nico said. “Although you’re going to have to have a Guardian. They insist on that, you know.” This guy was definitely younger than him, so they weren’t going to let him live here by himself.
“But if you don’t like the Guardian they put you with, you can find someone else here, a refugee maybe, to take care of you.”
Nico hadn’t had a lot of luck with the guardian they’d given him, but that wasn’t too surprising. He wouldn’t tell that story to Al. He didn’t need to know that you could be kicked out if you messed up. Although he doubted that Al could mess up the way Nico had.
***
“An apartment? Would you happen to know where those are? A guardian? That sucks! I’ll have to see what I can do about that.” He didn’t like the idea of living in someone else’s house, by their rules. Unless Teacher was really here.
Or maybe a new teacher? That could be cool!
“Thank you, for helping me.”
***
“Yeah, I know where they are,” Nico said. He’d lived there for a little while, even though he’d eventually left because it hadn’t worked out.
“Yeah, it’s no problem.”
Not even antisocial Nico was going to leave a little kid alone in the woods.
***
Al smiled as he nodded to the man. “Yeah? Can you show me where they are? Maybe my guardian is waiting there. If I have to have one.” Which he still was not so sure about. Why now?
Still, he kept plodding along down the path they were on. He would learn, somehow, what he needed to know. And maybe he would remember what he had forgotten.