“ You don’t have to worry about having to be punched, I’ll take care of that myself. “ Elric made very clear he was ready, and willing to beat this guy up. And he wasn’t too far from doing it, he got closer each and every time the idiot opened his mouth with that stuck-up accent of his.
With that, he yanked at his arm a bit. “ Keep up, will ya?! “ The Alchemist grumbled, glancing back briefly to him… but immediately found himself awestruck, and slightly uncomfortable making eye contact with him… They looked so similar it was ….terrifying.
In that moment, he became afraid of this person… perhaps just as scared as Erwick was of him, but for entirely different reasons. He would make sure to avoid making eye contact again if he were to remain sturdy.
Approaching the front, he stops, briefly releasing the Englishman, but there was a definite mark from steel fingers left on his wrist. “ Wait here, do as I say or I’ll make that punch a guarantee. “ Another threat spat out at the other, he comes up to the guard, about 3 times his own side, and slips out his pocket watch.
“ I’m a State Alchemist, I just want to use the Library for some research, and a fellow researcher is with me to provide translations for the books on the upper levels. He’s foreign he can read them to me. “
Just like that, bullshitting to the guard about some translation crap to get them inside, they were in. At least he put Erwick’s annoying accent to good use. He clearly has done quite a lot of things that weren’t technically allowed around here. But, that’s what you get for recruiting a 12 year old into the Military.
Coming back over to Erwick, victorious, the Alchemist’s face was still stern, he grabs his wrist again. “ Alright, let’s go-! “
Dragging him up the steps, the two of them headed on inside… The smell of dusty old books and research files, cases and unsolved cases. It was everything you’d expect, and somehow it felt nostalgic all the same.
A clank, then a step, and another clank. Elric’s footsteps were unique, a few of the people inside recognized him, but Elric would brush off any small talk, this was important. He snagged some keys from an unoccupied desk, without permission of course, and headed into the backroom.
Wait? …They weren’t going to use the library?
“ …Alright, here we go. “
Unlocking a door to the storage area, he shoved the Englishman inside, and stepped in as well, locking themselves in and stuffing the key in his pocket.
Slowly he turns… glaring down the other boy. Elric folds his arms, golden eyes narrowing. An anxious feeling growing in his chest.
“ Nobody will hear us in here …So you better start explaining how the hell you know what a homunculus is. ”
The Englishman tagged along as best he could, glancing around the area... It seemed so familiar, even though he’d never been here himself. Memories were such a strange thing, blurring the lines between where he stopped, and the knowledge of someone else began. Sometimes it left even Erwick shaken, unsure what damage had been done by their strange shared history, and the violent blending of two souls. Perhaps they’d been separated now, but who was to say it had been a perfectly clean divide?
That grisly reality made those eerie moments of eye contact all the more uncomfortable. His amber gaze seemed fierce and unrelenting at first, but soon averted from the golden eyes of the alchemist. This was no act of deference; this was the reaction of fear, something that Erwick did his best to hide.
There were some things he wasn’t prepared to share, not to someone he was certain would take advantage of every last weakness he had.
He’d hardly had time rub his throbbing wrist before the grip returned, and Erwick found himself hauled into a storage facility. ‘Is this where they keep books that need to be shelved?‘ the young man wondered. That was what it seemed like, but he couldn’t recollect this place; clearly the Elric of his world had never been back here, or not often enough for it to be worthy of note. ‘If he attacked me back here, no one would ever know,’ he suddenly realized. Perhaps it protected them from eavesdroppers, but suddenly the Englishman found himself far more wary of the teen before him. Which Elric was this? Was this the boy who refused to kill, no matter the foe or the circumstance, or the one he knew-- the one who’d once said ‘it gets easier every time?’
Erwick had no interest in finding out that answer the hard way.
‘Just don’t mess it up then,’ he decided. ‘And keep any words related to size out of your dialogue, at all costs.’ The strange teen took a few uneven breaths to calm his nerves... This was going to be a very complicated conversation, and one misstep could result in a very ugly ending.
“Well... I suppose I better start at the beginning.” What even is the beginning? With everything becoming so complex and convoluted, it was hard to tell where the explanation even began. It was like skipping to the end of the book, then trying to explain an event of the climax without summarizing the entire story. The teen crossed his arms and adopted an undeniably defensive posture, one hand discreetly rubbing at red marks on the opposing wrist.
“I’m sure the extent of our... Similarities hasn’t escaped your notice by now. When you asked if I was you, the true answer is I could have been, but am not. Essentially, I am who you could have become if you existed in an entirely parallel universe, where alchemy does not exist. Or at least, not in the form you know it. There, it is more akin to chemistry, and became outdated and forgotten over the centuries, replaced with physics and other sciences. But I’ll leave that history lesson for another time.”
The teen swished one hand, gesturing broadly... “The point is, my world was on the opposite side of, well, another version of your world. The Edward Elric of that world was tossed through the Gate-- which, for whatever bloody preposterous reason, led to my timeline-- and well... That’s how we encountered one another. Only his soul made it through, and let’s just say there was some memory backwash. As a result, what he knew, I know now.”
“That’s only part of this, mind you, but, well...” The teen frowned, seeming clearly displeased. “I think I’ll pause there, since I’d be surprised if you didn’t have any questions. I still have more questions than answers, and I’m the one who’s been stuck living this nonsense.” Perhaps a bit more of Erwick’s bitterness had seeped out than intended, but... Whatever he lacked in tact, he made up for in transparency. If nothing else, at least the teen was being genuine.
Whether that would count for or against him, though, remained to be seen.
