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“I don’t see why we have to stop here.” Greed complained. “I mean, how close can you be with your old martial arts teacher?”
“You’re just upset because you’ll have to lay low because she knows Ling from that Christmas party two years ago.” Ed retorted. “Besides she didn’t just teach us how to fight. Izumi also taught us basic biology and chemistry. We even lived with her for awhile, but that’s a long story.”
“Huh, seems like a pretty weird skillset.” Greed commented.
“Not really,” Al defended. “She’s got this whole philosophy about how it’s all connected. I’ll let her tell you about it.”
“You mean tell Ling about it.” Greed grumbled.
“Shut up, we’re here.” Ed said as he pulled into the driveway
“Ugh.” Greed complained but put on his sunglasses and fingerless gloves and let himself be pulled out of control by Ling.
The boys walked up to the front door and Ed knocked on it. It was opened by a muscular middle-aged woman with long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. She hugged Ed and Al as soon as she saw them.
“It’s so good to see you boys!” She pulled back but kept each hand on one of the brothers’ shoulders. “Let me look at you, oh, you look so much older!”
“Izumi, you remember Ling, from a couple years ago.”
“Of course.” She held out a hand and Ling shook it. “Well, all of you should hurry up and get inside, dinner’s just about ready.” Izumi stepped back from the doorway to let them in.
The Elric brothers passed through the threshold of the house with no problem but when Ling tried to step through he found that he physically couldn’t. He couldn’t even lift his foot.
“Um…” Ling said.
“Uh oh.” Greed added.
Izumi’s face immediately changed from cheerful to afraid to hard as stone in the space of a second. She moved to stand in front of the brothers. “Boys, get back. Stay in the house.” She insisted.
“This? Again?” Greed bemoaned. “How many mages are we gonna randomly bump into?”
“Just listen, alright? We can explain.” Ling tried to reason, raising his hands playcatingly.
Izumi punched him in the chest with a magically augmented blow that sent him several feet back before he hit the ground. She started walking towards him, cracking her knuckles.
Ling tried to say something else but his ribs weren’t quite healed yet and he couldn’t breathe deep enough to get out more than a strained wheeze.
Izumi opened her mouth to talk but suddenly Ed was standing in between her and Ling, his face full of anger and betrayal.
“Edward, get back in the house now!” Isumi practically growled.
Ed ignored her command. “You too? You knew about magic too and never told us?”
“We can talk about this after—”
“No! We trusted you and you kept something this big a secret from us? How could you?!” Ed said and stormed off.
Al started walking off too, then he stopped and turned to face Izumi. “I thought we were family.” He said, then continued walking.
“Al! Boys!” Izumi called, but neither brother so much as slowed their pace as they moved down the sidewalk.
“Should we try to sneak away while we can?” Ling asked Greed.
“No. I think we need to stay and talk to her.”
“That could be dangerous.”
“Yeah, but she’s important to Ed and Al, we have to try to explain.”
“Okay.”
“They met up with their dad recently.” Greed said to Izumi. “He was a mage too, it was the reason he left them.”
Izumi looked at Greed, then off in the direction the brothers had gone. Then she put her head in her hands. “Shit.”
“Why didn’t you tell them if you were this close? You really should have.”
“I’m not going to let a demon tell me how to best protect my boys! And I’m asking the questions here, understood?”
Her face was so scary that Greed immediately nodded in agreement.
“Right.” Izumi took a deep breath and regained her composure. “What are you doing travelling with Ed and Al?”
“We’re going to their dad’s storage locker to learn magic from his books.”
“And what do you get out of this trip?”
“Apparently he has some stuff on demon magic too. I want to learn.” Greed shrugged.
“To become more powerful?” Izumi asked.
“To be better able to protect myself and the people I care about.” Greed corrected.
“You care about people?”
“...Yes.” Greed said through clenched teeth. “What’s happening? Why did I tell you that?”
Izumi grinned. It wasn't a comforting expression. “That punch did more than just knock you back. I’m very good at truth spells.”
“Shit.”
“Ha!” Ling added, amused. “I wish I had some popcorn.”
“Now,” Izumi continued the interrogation. “Why do the Elrics let you travel with them?”
“We’re friends.”
“Why?”
“Hell if I know.”
She looked Greed over critically. “Do you mean the Elrics any harm?”
“No.”
She sighed. “Then get up and help me find them.”
They found Ed and Al sitting at a table outside a Starbucks. Al tried to get Ed to talk to him but he just stared at his coffee in frustration. Al turned to look at Greed and Izumi as they approached, but only met Greed’s eyes, ignoring Izumi’s pleading gaze.
“He yelled himself out on the way here. He hasn’t said a word since he ordered his coffee.” Al said to Greed.
Izumi sat down at the table’s third chair. “Look, I know you’re hurting, but I did have my reasons for keeping this a secret from you.” Ed and Al both silently turned to look at her, and she took it as a sign to continue. “I thought I was protecting you, the world of magic is extremely dangerous.”
“We found that out on our own.” Al said. “And we didn’t have any way to protect ourselves.”
“Protect yourselves from what? Are you in danger?” Izumi replied.
“It’s fine.” Ed said coldly. “He’s dead.”
Izumi looked at Greed who mouthed ‘long story’, she looked back to the brothers. “Okay. I was wrong to think that ignorance would keep you safe, but that wasn’t my only reason.”
“Well?” Al prompted.
“I… I… When you boys came to me you were so alone and full of grief. I thought if you knew magic was real you’d try to… Magic can do a lot, but it can’t bring back the dead, and trying to use it to do so is one of the most dangerous things a person can do.”
“So you didn’t trust us?!” Ed snapped.
“That’s not it! I always meant to tell you eventually, once you were older and could understand better, but… as time passed it became harder and harder to try to tell you—Wait! Ed!”
Ed stood up, leaving his drink. “I’m going back to your house, to my old room. I need to think.” He walked away.
Al stood up too. “It’s not just that you lied to us.” He said. “We trusted you to teach us how the world really worked, and instead you hid it from us.” Then he turned away and followed Ed.
Izumi put her head in her hands.
Greed sat down in one of the now empty chairs. “Give them some time. They care about you and they just need to process this.”
“No, they’re right. I betrayed them. I just wanted to protect them.”
“Sometimes what’s safest isn’t always what’s best.”
“Don’t try to give me advice.”
“Right.” Greed said, with the proper amount of fear.
“Now, since we have some time, I have a few more questions to ask you.” Izumi said.
“Right.” Greed replied, with more than the proper amount of annoyance, but she looked like she needed a distraction, so he didn’t argue.
“I was under the impression that Ling, the person you’re possessing, was the brothers’ friend.”
“He is. He’s my friend too.”
“… Maybe I’m not as good at truth spells as I thought.”
“No, no, you are. It’s just that our situation is… complicated.”
Izumi raised an eyebrow. “I have heard of some of the more hedonism-focussed demons having arrangements with the people they possess. Desperate people.” She said after a pause.
“Sure, that’s close enough.” Greed shrugged.
“What made him so desperate?” Izumi squinted in suspicion.
“Not me!” Greed defended. “There was an outside threat.”
“What exactly is this threat?”
“It was a mage. But, as Ed said, he’s dead now. The brothers and their dad took him out. Lucky thing their dad showed up, we had no idea how to deal with the mage on our own.”
Izumi slammed a fist into the table, briefly drawing the attention of a few passers by. “I could have helped.”
“Yeah, you could have. But they didn’t know that when it counted.”
Izumi put her head in her hands. “I can’t believe I’m being lectured by a demon. I can’t believe you’re right.”
“Would it be more palatable coming from me?” Ling asked.
Izumi looked up at him. “You sound too smug for your own good.”
“Right. Shutting up now.”
Izumi sighed, got up, and started walking back towards her house. “Come on then, I’ll modify my wards to let you inside.”
“You’re trusting us pretty quickly.” Ling said.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, kid.”
“You’re friends with the Elrics. And despite evidence to the contrary, I do trust them.”
“Then I think the three of you need to have a long conversation.” Ling suggested.
“Yeah.” Izumi sighed. “Yeah we do.”
When they got back to Izumi’s house Greed and Ling waited outside on the porch while she adjusted her magical protections and talked with the brothers. It was indeed a long conversation. Long enough for the sun to start setting.
“If you keep staring like that we’ll go blind.” Ling chastised.
“It’ll heal.” Greed assured him.
“I don’t get it. You’ve seen plenty of sunsets before, it’s not like sight was ever one of the senses you lacked.”
“I don’t know, it’s just different, watching it while being free. Plus, it’s something to do. Just sitting out here is getting boring.”
“Should I be worried? The last time you had to wait this long for anything you decided to pass the time by running around in a public fountain.”
“At least I took our shoes and socks off first.”
“Only because I told you to. Then you slipped and cracked our head open on the side of the fountain and we had to run back to the car before people tried to call an ambulance.”
“But I remembered to grab our shoes and socks before we left.”
“Of course you did. You’re you.”
Greed laughed.
Ed opened the front door. “Hey, dinner’s ready.”
“Yes, finally!” Ling said, and got up from the porch.
“Did you guys work things out with Izumi?” Greed asked.
“I… I don’t know if I can fully forgive her yet, but things are moving in the right direction.” Ed replied. “Enough so that dinner shouldn’t be too awkward.”
“Well, thank god for that at least.”
Dinner was indeed tolerable, and some would even say enjoyable. Izumi made great food.
The next morning plans were made for the brothers to return to Izumi’s house next summer, once they had gotten the basics down, for something like a formal education in magic.
Greed and Ling were glad. It seemed like a good way for the brothers to start rebuilding their relationship with this woman who obviously meant a lot to them.