Beta: TaintedLetter

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

For an entire week the Elric brothers stopped by every day at the greenhouse to go through Elizabeth's research. They were dedicated students, soaking up everything Elizabeth could teach them with ravenous hunger. They were quick to praise her, too, marveling at how much she had already discovered and advanced the field on her own.

Their praise made her feel warm and bubbly inside. It was a pleasant feeling.

It wasn't as nice as having Selim praise her, but far from bad.

By the end of the week they had already devoured about a quarter of Elizabeth's notes, and were raring to learn even more.

Unfortunately when they showed up at the greenhouse at the end of the week, they had glum looks on their faces.

"We're being called away to take care of a problem back in East City," Edward explained with a sigh and a headshake.

"Huh? How come?" Elizabeth asked, genuinely surprised. "Aren't you two too young to actually go out on missions for the military?"

Edward's face screwed up while Alphonse fidgeted uncomfortably. "Nope. Dog of the military and all that. You haven't been sent out?"

"Papa wants me to stay here to complete my research," Elizabeth quietly admitted. "I-I'm not allowed outside Central without permission."

"Your Papa has that much sway?" Edward asked, raising both his eyebrows. "Who is he?"

"Führer King Bradley," Elizabeth answered.

"Yeah, that'll do it," Edward deadpanned. "So you're the führer's kid, huh?"

"O-Oh, not by blood," Elizabeth said. "Papa and Mumma are fostering me until I'm sixteen. I'm the heiress to the Luxanna family, but I'm too young to legally control those assets."

"Assets?" Alphonse repeated.

Elizabeth pushed down nonexistent wrinkles in her dress. "Yes. The Luxanna family is an old, prestigious family that owns several weapons manufacturing businesses, mining towns, and part of the railway."

Both brothers seemed to be giving her a look of clear disbelief.

"You're a—you're a real heiress?" Alphonse spluttered.

She nodded. "Yes. At the moment, Mumma—Katherine Bradley—is handling all of Luxanna's affairs on my behalf."

"What's it like?" Alphonse asked.

Elizabeth didn't know how to answer that question. What was it like? Living in the Luxanna household meant absolute misery, and pain. She understood that what she had gone through was paramount to torture and extreme child abuse, but she didn't think the brothers would care to hear about such unpleasant things.

She couldn't bring herself to lie and say good things about it, either, though.

She settled on for abruptly changing the subject with a forced smile on her face. "You'll both be leaving for East, huh? Who gave the orders?"

Both boys seemed surprised at her response to their question, but wisely neither decided to question it. Edward answered, "Jackass named Mustang."

Elizabeth searched her memories before she recalled the dark-haired man who had pitied her previously. "Oh, him?"

"You met him?" Alphonse inquired.

"A couple of times," she said. "Papa describes him as someone with a lot of ambition."

"Ambition, huh?" Edward repeated, rubbing the back of his head. "He's certainly a task driver."

"When do you think you'll return?" Elizabeth asked.

The brothers exchanged glances as they thought. Alphonse said, "Hopefully in a month."

"Then I'll eagerly await your return," Elizabeth settled on, smiling warmly.

"Thanks," they chorused.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Fall 1911

"Ta-da!" Elizabeth cried out, holding out a black box filled with small red pills. She and Selim were enjoying a lovely afternoon tea in the gardens when she presented her latest success.

Selim looked at the small red pills. They looked like drops of blood covered in a thin layer of plastic. He reached in, grabbed a handful, and promptly threw them in his mouth.

"Ah!" Elizabeth squeaked.

There was an immediate gush of blood and he had to swallow quickly to keep it all down. When he was done, only a small amount of blood rolled down his lips, which he quickly licked back up. "Interesting."

"You aren't supposed to take that many! One pill will produce a liter of blood," Elizabeth cried out. "Oh, gosh what if you get sick?!"

"Do you not remember what I am?" Selim inquired, even as Elizabeth started to flutter around him nervously. She grabbed his hand to test his pulse, and held another hand on his cheek to feel his temperature. "Ellie, what do I eat?"

Elizabeth let out a small oh as she recalled.

"S-Sorry," Elizabeth apologized, retracing her hands. "Um... then... did it taste good?"

"Tasted like O negative," Selim blandly answered. "You said one pill would produce a liter of blood?"

"Y-Yes."

"And these pills can be made from plants that can be mass produced?"

"If in greenhouses," Elizabeth clarified. "Hearty needs a heavily controlled environment."

"Ellie, do you realize what you've just done?"

"Cut back on blood donation drives?" Elizabeth guessed.

Selim's lips twitched up in a smile. "...Yes."

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

The Elric brothers came and went at an unpredictable pattern. They weren't ones to give call, or notice when they would be arriving, nor how long they would be away. Whenever they finished their assigned task (almost always given to them by Mustang) if they weren't on the chase for the Philosopher Stone—something Elizabeth had doubts about its existence, but she didn't say such to the boys. Especially since when she told Selim that, he started laughing hysterically—then they would pop by Central to learn more from her.

It no longer surprised Elizabeth to be caught up in her work, only to hear the greenhouse doors opening up and the two brothers greeting her with good natured cheer and a sheepish apology for being away for so long.

Elizabeth didn't mind, though. While she would have preferred if they stayed in Central so she could finally have companions who enjoyed alchemy as much as she did, she was perfectly fine waiting for their return.

She had Selim, after all. He always cheered her up, and she never, ever, felt lonely because of him.

The two got to enjoy so many lovely adventures together. Life with Selim was an absolute delight, Elizabeth firmly believed, and she was ever so grateful that he was her best friend.

She owed everything to him, and that was something she never forgot.

Time danced on to its own tune, flying by too quick for Elizabeth's liking. She wished things would slow down so she could cherish these lovely days with her new family even more so.

She practiced swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat with brilliant tutors every morning. After her lessons, she either partook in her research—and since becoming a State Alchemist a laboratory was added on to the greenhouse using a combination of her allotted funds as a State Alchemist, and her Luxanna fortune—or spent the morning with Mumma or Papa.

Mornings spent with Mumma entailed reading, and sporadic lessons depending on her mood. Some months she'd be dedicated to teaching Elizabeth dancing, and others she'd be determined to have Elizabeth learn about embroidery, or how to fish.

Mornings with Papa were largely spent in his office while he went through paperwork. Elizabeth would brew his beloved tea, and sit quietly on the couch as he grumbled about idiots. There were some mornings that he passed off his paperwork for Elizabeth to take care—largely financial reports since Elizabeth was already trained in due to her heiress status—and he would sneak out to stretch his legs.

Both versions of the morning spent with her foster parents were lovely ones. She was all too happy to spend her time with them, and it seemed like they reciprocated her feelings.

There were even times when Papa let Elizabeth doze in his lap!

Afternoons were entirely dedicated to her research—unless Selim was let out early, in which case he took priority. She cared for her rats, and plants, conducted alchemic experimentation, and wrote extensive notes.

All of her medicine was objectively being tested by a separate laboratory, and they forwarded her the results as need be. She herself wasn't allowed to perform the tests both due to her age, natural bias, and it was against policy.

So far she had a large majority of successes, with a handful of failures scattered about that required more work.

Her free time was entirely devoted to Selim. The two friends had only grown closer over the years, and it wasn't uncommon to find one right behind the other.

To all outsiders they would appear as simply very dear friends.

For Elizabeth, that was partly true, but it understated how much she appreciated Selim.

For Selim...

Well.

Perhaps Elizabeth's affections were not entirely unreciprocated.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Spring 1914

At age eleven, Elizabeth Luxanna had not grown much since becoming a foster child of the Bradley's. She was still a small girl, standing about 1.33 M with long unruly chestnut brown hair that she kept tied off to the side and over her shoulder. She continued to dress nicely since she now represented the führer's family, always wearing a stylish dress. Her face was unremarkable, but her bright green eyes were hard to forget, and her smile was always sweet.

Always near her was another small boy—although taller than her by a solid 5 CM—who was equally well-groomed. He kept his black hair neatly combed, and dressed formally for most occasions. He had deep blue eyes that always had a spark of mischief in them—although at times some would swear they saw something darker, more malicious inside of them—and as sweet of a smile as Elizabeth.

Although she was small—and physically young—she was regarded with reserved respect by her fellow military officers due to her advancement in medicine as the Spring Alchemist. Since the age of seven she had worked fervently to mutate existing plants into more powerful and potent medicinal herbs. For the most part, she was successful, able to revolutionize the modern medical field at such a young age.

(Unbeknown to most of them, she was simply acting from the vague memories of her numerous previous lives, their knowledge lingering in the back of her mind. She was not a genuine prodigy, like believed, but simply a ridiculously old soul.)

She treated their respect with polite distance. Very few had treated her kindly—let alone respected her—when she first started out and she was reluctant to forget such.

Although there were a handful of peers that Elizabeth genuinely respected.

The Elric brothers were the first, as both boys always visited Elizabeth when they could to further study botany alchemy. They eventually wanted to apply the science to themselves—and Elizabeth had privately conducted a few tests with donated cadavers (always provided by a cheerful Selim, or an oddly satisfied Papa) to see how alchemy affected a human body. The tests were skewed since she was not allowed to work on live patients (not that she was opposed to such, but simply because her laboratory wasn't equipped to deal with them and she was too busy to dedicate more time to such. Live subjects required much more work than cadavers, after all, and she adamantly opposed to animal testing outside her rats so only humans would do), but it was better than nothing.

The brothers were thankful for her work—if a bit perturbed at how comfortable she was working with dead bodies—and reciprocated her kindness by bringing her rare books they came across, or even rarer plants they thought she might enjoy.

Elizabeth could honestly admit that she viewed Edward and Alphonse as friends.

Following behind them was one Maes Hughes, and more so out of sheer persistence. Whenever she would visit Papa in Central Command, Hughes always seemed to pop up to escort her. At first it unnerved her, but after a while she grew accustomed to his presence and she enjoyed listening to how devoted he was to his wife and daughter.

(It made her wonder if Papa would ever be like that?)

And then came that fateful day that forever cemented the bond between the two...

It was the day that Selim had finally allowed Elizabeth to take a picture of him. He despised cameras and photographs of himself because he viewed them as a dangerous source of information. But for Elizabeth's ninth birthday he gave her a picture of the two of them smiling happily together.

It instantly became Elizabeth's treasure, and she always kept it on her.

So when Maes pulled out a picture of his infant daughter and began to brag about her, Elizabeth whipped out her photo of Selim.

"Elicia is cute," Elizabeth agreed, "but Selim is cuter."

Maes gave her a flabbergasted look. "You're comparing that boy to my darling Elicia?!"

"Look at him," Elizabeth insisted, holding up the photo and tapping on Selim's beaming face. "How can you look at that face and not instantly love it?"

"Are you saying my Elicia doesn't have a face that makes you love her that very second?!" demanded the deeply offended Maes.

"Not as much as Selim!" Elizabeth hotly retorted, not understanding how anyone could not adore her best friend like she did. He was AMAZING.

Maes gasped, finding her words sheer blasphemy.

And thus began the never-ending debate over who was ultimately cuter. It was a gruelling fight with neither side giving way, and at times it would escalate to such a point Papa had to physically restrain Elizabeth for her to not use her rapier on the doting father.

When Selim caught wind of the debate he just gave her a look of sheer disbelief and decided to ignore it.

After Maes Hughes came Mustang, but on a less familiar plane.

She had only met him in person a handful of times, but she had heard all about him from the Elric brothers and Maes—and from what they said he heard plenty about her from them, too.

To Edward and Alphonse he was a: taskdriver, jackass, arrogant, smug, jerk, who could sometimes be a decent guy.

To Maes Hughes: idealist, arrogant, good guy.

To Papa: Ambitious idiot. Has good intentions, but fails on execution.

Frankly, Elizabeth didn't have a good impression of him. But all three sources claimed he was a "good man" so Elizabeth was reluctant to dislike the man outright.

She didn't have a lot of consistent interactions with other military officers. Most still gave her a wide berth, or she saw so rarely she didn't bother to form a connection with them.

Which was fine with her.

Elizabeth Luxanna was perfectly content with her life.

What a pity, she would believe in hindsight, that the Dwarf in the Flask had to make his move that year.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

We'll have reached the start of the anime in the next chapter. :)

Answer: I think Alphonse or Armstrong would make wonderful teachers, but I'd still want to learn under Wrath.

Question: If you had to be reborn as a main cast from FMA (okay to change his/her gender), who would you want to be, and who would you hate to be?

Reviews are love!