Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ The Spirit of Alchemy ❯ Michi's Secret.. Revealed?! Michi's Dream Part I ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

"Are you alright, Michi?" Al asked. He was holding KoKo-chan. Somehow, the cat had escaped the fighting, and then come back to find them.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Maybe because of that." Al said, pointing to her chest.

Michi looked down. Her chest was bleeding severely. She remembered the spear, and gasped. "The spear.. That woman hit me with it, it has poison on it. She said it'd be absorbed into my system because it hit me."

Ed looked strangely concerned. "You need medical attention now, then."

Michi blinked. "I'll be fine, sorry I won't be able to go with you guys to my father's colleague, but you can tell her that I sent you," she said, incorrectly interpreting Ed's concern. There was no time for Ed to correct her, because the next minute, he was catching her, as she fainted.
Michi sat up, suddenly wide awake. Slowly, she looked down, examining where the spear had been. Well.. Where it should have been. She was in a white nightgown. Slowly, she peeked inside of it, looking for any wrappings, any huge gaping hole in her chest, anything. However, there was nothing there. Nothing, but her underclothes, of course. Gasping, she realized that she had touched something.. That was unusual. She could actually, truly feel it. If this was a dream, that shouldn't be possible... But, it made more sense that way, actually.

Was it all a dream..? she mouthed silently to herself. Was it all just a nightmare? She looked around the room. It was the design of her original house, before the fire. Her room was white, with a red rug. Her bed was small, but white as well, with pink trimmings on it. It had a canopy, with yellow and pink stars. This was her old room... Her stuffed animals lay scattered on the rug, and the bed. She blinked, holding out an arm. It didn't look like she was little, but she was sure she had to be. This house had been destroyed, so to be here...

But, why wouldn't she be there? The memories faded, and she could no longer remember. They slipped away like a bad dream, which literally, they were.. Weren't they? Michi had a nagging feeling that something wasn't right here. Something was off. Something... No, someone... Someone wasn't here that was supposed to be....

She slowly pulled the pink and yellow quilt away from herself, and stepped into her white fluffy slippers. Adjusting her nightgown that had gotten tangled in her sleep, she stood up. She looked to her left. If this was her room, then it should still be there....

She pulled away a few toys from the corner of her room. Mostly stuffed teddy bears, but occasionally a unicorn, or a doll. Pulling the last gigantic teddy bear back, she examined the wall.....

...... And found a small, golden key.

She struggled to remember what it was for. It had been years since she'd taken it out. She examined it. It was on a golden string, a lighter gold than the key itself. The key, however, had blue lines across it, and looked very old fashioned. She took the string, and placed it around her neck. The key slid in under her nightgown, completely concealed by the garment, so not even the string could be seen. Somehow, her dream had made her forget things... Why was that? Shaking her head, she decided it was just no use trying to figure out dreams.

Now that she was wide awake, she went over to the huge window on the left side of the room, and opened it. She smiled, and shut her eyes, letting the night breeze blow her tousled hair all over the place. An image of a blonde boy came to her mind. Opening her eyes, she pouted slightly. Who was that? And why was she thinking about him? He seemed familiar..... But... She couldn't quite place him. Closing her eyes again, she tried to recall the image. It was very muddled, looking very distant, like a long-forgotten memory. She sighed. There was no way she'd know who it was now.

Turning around, Michi stepped back inside, shutting the window behind her. So many questions.. About her strange dream, and about her key. Both were things she felt she should know, but she couldn't find the answer to either of them. She felt that if she did, it would only lead to more questions, and each time she answered one, ten more would appear. She decided it would just be easier for her to forget the dream. After all, she could always ask her father about the key, he'd probably know.

Father... For some reason, she wanted to see him very badly. She shrugged it off, figuring it was just because she had been frightened by her strange dream. She remembered a glowing light, and hands touching the ground. She remembered a spear. A lady. Her own emotions taking her over. But, she had no idea what they had to do with eachother, their correlation to the real world. After all, dreams shouldn't have any importance in the real world, should they? Shaking her head again, she decided just to go talk to her dad. He wouldn't mind her awake this late at night, after all, he constantly was awake later than he should be. He probably wasn't even asleep right now, and if he was, well.. He loved her, so he wouldn't mind being woken up just this once.

Ever since her mom died, Michi'd been alone with just her father. He was nice, but, he couldn't always help with things that Michi needed. But, that was okay. He tried, and that's what mattered. They both'd been missing her mom so much. The first few months were terrible. They moped around all day long, never doing anything. Eventually, her father had decided that enough was enough, that they needed to keep on living, for her sake. Michi felt responsible for her mother's death. She'd never confided this to anyone, though. Or.. Had she? She recalled telling someone something, long ago........ But who? She hadn't made any friends, preferring books to conversations, and alchemy to tea parties.

Michi slowly crept across the room, towards her door. Reaching it, she grasped the golden doorknob. It felt cold to the touch, and turned easily in her hand. Pushing the door open, she stepped out into the hallway. Walking down the long hallway towards her father's room, she passed the staircase leading down to one of the dens of the house, and heard voices. She blinked, and stopped, staring down the golden trimmed white stairs, arching down to the floor below. Did her father have visitors? At this hour of night?

Slowly she creeped down the stairs, skipping the third one. She knew that it creaked, and although the voices were loud enough that they wouldn't notice a little creak, it was still better to take precaution. Slowly, as she reached the bottom of the stairs, she stopped, and peeked across the railing, into the den. She could see her father, laughing, and sitting at a table. He had his favorite blue mug in his hand, probably filled with coffee, and was sitting there casually, leaned back against the chair, legs sprawled out. The image looked ridiculous, considering he was wearing dress clothes, yet was in such a casual position.

Michi smiled slightly. Her father never fit other people's expectations of him. Sure, he was rich, and famous, but he was a person before all of that. People just didn't seem to grasp that fact. Michi stepped around the banister of the stairs, and headed into the room her father was in.

She silently stood in the doorway, unnoticed by her father. She took this opportunity to glance at the people he was talking to. One was a blonde haired boy with a black... Tank top, for lack of description. He wore his long hair in a braid. His jacket, red in color, was hung over his chair. He wore a serious expression on his face, looking at her father intently.

The other person was also blonde. He looked similar, but his hair was darker, and his eyes were a blue, instead of the first boy's golden. He had a red jacket as well, but unlike the first boy, his was still on. Michi guessed that they had to be brothers.

While she was examining the two of them, the first blonde boy had moved his eyes quickly to her direction. They met eyes, and she felt a chill down her spine. He seemed familiar... The image from her dream flashed into her mind. She saw the same boy as was in front of her now glaring, and screaming, held back by his brother -- a person dressed in metal armor. She looked at the second boy, who had also faced her quickly, and the image of the person in metal came up.

These people were from her dream?! What was going on..? Michi shook her head briefly, to clear it, and looked back at the two boys. They both had their eyes on Michi's father, and the first one was speaking.

"Do you know anything about the Philosopher's Stone?"

Michi gasped slightly. Images flooded to her mind once again. The boy. Him facing her, his expression identical to the one he wore now. Asking about her house. If she knew about the stone. About her father's colleague. A train. Him sleeping....... Him sleeping...

Michi felt something funny in her chest, when she remembered that. A sort of thrill. Images were still flooding her memory, but that one lay underneath them all. Michi gasped again, and clutched her head, falling to the floor. Feeling a touch on her shoulder only very faintly, she tried to make herself listen to what the person was saying, whoever it was. She couldn't right away, and ended up with only hearing the last part.

"....Okay?"

"H-huh?" Michi asked, rubbing her head. She was laying down on the ground. She had no idea how she got there. Opening her eyes, she looked up at the speaker. He was the first blonde haired boy.

"I said, 'are you okay?' "

"Y-yeah......"

Michi's father bent over her too, concerned. He helped her up. Swaying dizzily, Michi managed to reach a chair, the one that the first blonde boy had been sitting on. She shivered, not so much from the cold as from the fear, but the boy misinterpreted her shiver and grabbed his jacket, putting it over her shoulders. She wrapped it around herself, not wanting to seem rude, and muttered something that might've been a thanks.

Once Michi was completely settled, her father began speaking. "Well, I see you have met my daughter.." he said, looking at the two boys. "This is Michi. She hasn't been feeling well as of late, so it's no surprise that she fainted." He looked at her, very concerned. "Are you sure you're alright, Michi? Maybe you should go back to bed."

Michi blinked. When had she fainted? She saw the first boy stiffen at the mention of her name. Why was that? She shook her head. "No, I'm fine daddy." She wanted answers. Who were these people? How did she dream of them? This could be her only chance to find out, and she didn't want to ruin that by going to bed.

Her father nodded, accepting her answer. "Alright, but if you get dizzy, you have to go to bed, agreed?"

Michi looked at her father. "Agreed."

The first boy kept staring at Michi, making her very uncomfortable. The second, however, was looking at Michi's father.

"Please, do you know anything?"

"Yes. I will tell you later. First, some introductions must be made."

Michi, during this, had been staring back at the first boy. She was trying to remember something.... She had definately seen him before. Definately knew him... But where? How? What was his name..?

Name..? She blinked, a part of her dream coming back to her. She remembered meeting them.... At a train station, them wanting to get to her house. She had asked why, but didn't get a clear answer.

"Are you two brothers?" Michi asked.

"Yep. That's my brother, Al," the blonde said, gesturing towards the metal armor, "and I'm Ed."

Michi's father was starting an introduction. "Michi, these two boys have come here to ask me an important question. Would you two care to introduce yourselves?"

The firt boy nodded. "Of course. My name is --"

Michi cut him off. "Ed......." she said, looking into his eyes. Her gaze implored him to say she was wrong. "And your brother..." she gestured towards the other boy next to her, who had a look of surprise. "He's Al, right?"

The first boy gasped. "Yeah... How did you know???" he looked at her curiously.

"I...." she looked away. If her dream told her that, then... Was it not a dream after all? She put her hand to her head, trying to stop the thoughts from taking over like they were.

Ed just looked at her, then shook his head. "Nevermind," he said. If she got too stressed over it, her father would make her leave, and for some reason, he didn't want that. "It's not important. But yeah, that's us."

Michi's father cleared his throat. "Well, now that we've got our names, how about our relations to eachother?"

Michi turned to look at him. "W-what?"

Her father had a smile on his face. "Yup! You and Edward and Alphonse here are related."

"Wh-wha? How?!" Ed said. Michi blinked. So evidently, her father had wanted them all to meet, and hadn't told any of them about this.

"You two," he said, gesturing to Michi and Ed, "are betrothed." He was silent a moment to let that sink in.

Michi was still, completely still. Betrothed? Waves of shock crashed over her, one after another, after another. Ed looked just as shocked as she did. He fell to the ground, not having a chair below him to break his fall, since he had let Michi sit in his.

Michi's father smiled, and continued on. "Yep! In addition to that, though, you guys are all second cousins to eachother. Tricia, your mother," he added, looking at Ed and Al, "was Michi's cousin here, born way before Michi herself."

They all looked at him. "Then how the hell are we betrothed, if we're related?!" Ed yelled angrily, smashing his fist on the table.

"Well...... It's legal for second cousins to marry!" her father said, causing Ed and Michi to fall over sideways.

"Legal or not, why would you betrothe us?!" Michi asked, looking at her father. She sounded hurt. She hoped that she could make him change his mind. She certainly didn't want to be engaged to someone like him.

"Well, it's important, that's why." he looked at them, and said nothing more. There were a few minutes silence, while everyone let that fact sink in.

Michi looked at her father. "So that means.."

"Yes. You're his fiancée, Michi."

Michi fainted. Once again, Ed rushed to catch her.

AN: Hiya guys! Sorry, this was only part one. XP Hehehe, surprises, surprises, huh? Sorry I haven't udated in so long, school started on August 30, and since then, I've been running around with loads of homework. But, since Makii updated, I decided I would too, since I got inspiration. Hope you guys like the chapter, and R&R!!


Next chapter: The Key, The Alchemist, and The Past: Michi's Secret.. Revealed?! Part II