Chapter Text
When her father had turned to her on that day, asking with a kind smile on his face if Nina wanted to play with him the next day, she had been SO excited.
It had been far too long since her dad had knelt down on the floor with her, making her dolls speak in high-pitched voices and chasing her around the house with a loud laugh. He had been sad and quiet for a long time, starting when her mother and father would scream at each other and Nina would bury her face in Alexander's fur, trying to stem her tears.
Then one day, the screaming stopped, and Nina and her father moved to a large house with many rooms and polished floors, and her dad had a silver watch hanging from his pocket. Nina never saw her mother again after they moved, and her father had told her that she had left, and wasn’t coming back. After that, Tucker stopped playing with her and locked himself away in the basement of their new home often.
Nina missed her father. She had Alexander, yes, and she was so grateful for the companionship that the big white dog brought her. If the two were close before, they had become nearly inseparable since her mother walked out, and Alexander would snuggle her at night and chase her around the backyard of the new house when she was lonely.
But it wasn’t the same without her father. Sometimes, Nina had felt like she had lost two parents instead of one with how little her father seemed to acknowledge her.
Then a man with black hair and a blue uniform showed up at their doorstep, two boys in tow, asking her father if they could visit for a while and read the books her father had in the library. He had a glint in his eye when he looked at the boys that her father used to have when he played with her. Her father had told her to stay in the other room while they spoke, but she had soon been able to meet the boys who had settled themselves into the library while her father talked with the man in the blue uniform, who smiled at her softly and waved when she peaked around the corner to look at him.
One day, when that same man came to pick up her brothers, Alexander had jumped on him and Tucker had scolded her. Nina had hurriedly apologized to the dark-haired man, but he just laughed and told her it was alright, he liked dogs, and gave both her and Alexander a pat on the head.
When Nina learned that the boys the man had brought were alchemists like her father, and that they were there to study, she gave up the hope that she might have new playmates. But when she approached one of them and shyly asked what he was reading about, he threw her on his shoulders and danced around with her, and she laughed harder than she had in years.
There was a short boy with golden hair named Edward, who acted loud and angry when Nina called him little, but was so very kind to her, and would let her braid his hair and he would chase her around the yard while she rode Alexander like a horse. He had a metal arm and leg, which Nina thought was cool, and he sometimes even let her polish the silver limb with a soft cloth.
And then there was Alphonse, a much taller one whose head almost scraped the ceiling, who was covered in metal much like his brother and smelled like oil but whose voice was soft yet hollow, who let Nina ride on his shoulders and clean the shoulderplates of his armor after they ran around outside.
Nina called them her big brothers, and they called her their sister, and for the first time in a long time, Nina wasn’t so lonely anymore. She loved them very much, and to her delight, her father seemed more talkative and kind when they were in the house.
Nina thought things were going to be happier now that her big brothers had helped her father. And for a long time, they were, and her father started making meals again and inviting her down to his study to play with Alexander while he read his books. But when her brother’s visits grew less frequent, and another man with blue clothes and blonde hair told her father something she didn’t quite understand that made him that unhappy man again, Nina got scared that she would be lonely again.
But then he asked Nina if she wanted to play with him the next day when her brothers were busy, and she had been overjoyed.
The following day, her father had asked her to stay in her room while he got ready for the game, and he took Alexander with him. Nina had been a little disappointed and confused that she wouldn't be able to play with Alexander while her father got ready, but it wasn’t uncommon for her dad to take Alexander down to his study to keep him company while he worked, so Nina didn’t question it.
Maybe he needs him for the game we’re going to play.
Nina busied herself in her room by pacing across the carpet, tossing her dolls into her bin with her eyes closed, and flipping through shiny books that Edward had bought her when she expressed interest in their alchemy and storytelling. She settled on one she had read many times before, kicking her feet in the air, too excited to sit still now that her father was finally playing with her again.
When her father did come to get her after what felt like hours of waiting, Nina’s happiness vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.
Her father was smiling wide, eyes alight with the happiness that she always wanted to see from him, but there was something unsettling about the way he stared at her as he slowly approached her. He held his hand out towards her, and Nina took it hesitantly, her heart beating nervously against her ribs as she avoided his prying gaze.
Her father’s grip was unexpectedly tight, his fingernails digging into the soft skin of her palm, and Nina tried to tug her hand away as he hurried her out of the room, telling him that he was hurting her, but her father only clutched tighter and told her to stop struggling or they wouldn't play.
Nina wasn’t sure she wanted to play with her dad anymore.
He didn’t look at her as they walked down the hallway to his study, but Nina noticed that there was deep red soaking through the hems of his sleeves and that he smelled like the pennies that were in her coin jar. The hand that held hers was also smeared with red, small scratches covering the back of it. Nina, worried that her father was hurt, asked him about it, but he just told her it was from the study.
Nina felt a little scared, the joy that had filled her all day turning into butterflies that fluttered fearfully around her stomach, but the trust she had towards her father outweighed it. Even with his scary smile and wide, unsettling gaze, Nina trusted him. Her father had, and never would, do anything to her that would hurt her.
As they descended down the stairs towards the door of the study, the smell of pennies only grew stronger, and Nina wrinkled up her nose in an attempt to block out the bitter scent. Her father fumbled with the doorknob, leaving more slippery red stuff on the metal, and walked inside the dark room. He guided Nina to a spot near the wall, and told her to wait a moment for the game. Nina nodded her head, rubbing her eyes with her chubby hands and squinting, trying to see her way into the dark room.
She blinked a couple of times, allowing the sparks of color to slowly fade from her vision as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. Her anxiety towards her father’s bizarre attitude was briefly forgotten as she gazed around the room in awe. The walls were covered in papers and chalk drawings of what she knew to be transmutation circles, Ed had shown some to her, with lots of bright symbols and notes scattered throughout. Her father was standing by his desk, shifting through one of the drawers, muttering to himself.
Along the floor were similar white circles, stretching outward from where Nina was and colliding with others that had been rubbed out or had been connected to others. She followed the white lines with her eyes, curious as to where they lead up and connect to, trying to see if she could recognize any of the symbols she had seen when playing with her big brothers.
Then she saw Alexander.
He was lying down a couple of feet from her, his white fur a sort of bright presence in the dark, his back facing her. The sight of her furry friend relieved her, and she whispered his name, trying to call him over. He seemed to be asleep, not acknowledging Nina’s attempts to get his attention, so Nina threw a glance back at her father to make sure he wasn’t looking at her.
Fighting back a sly grin, Nina quickly padded over to Alexander, kneeling next to him to shake him awake. Maybe this was part of the game, and she just hadn’t realized it. Maybe her father was purposely looking in the other direction so she would find Alexander and chase him, just like she used to when her mother was still around. She wished that the coppery smell would go away though, as it only seemed to get stronger the closer she got to Alexander.
She gave the dog a gentle shake, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as his normally warm, thick fur seemed cooler under her palms. She gave his big body another push, whispering his name again and again, but he didn’t move, didn’t lift his head to acknowledge her or snort himself awake like he always did when Nina woke him from his naps.
Then, Nina tried to lift his blocky head and screamed.
Dark, crimson red, the same that was on her father’s hands, coated the fur around Alexander’s neck. Nina dropped his head, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth, purple and swollen, eyes rolled into the back of his head. Nina started to cry as pure panic blossomed anew in her stomach, shaking Alexander and calling his name, her tears dripping down into the dog’s blood-soaked fur. The smell of pennies was unbearable by this point.
Something sharp dug into Nina’s shoulder, pulling her away from her best friend, and she started to cry harder, trying to crawl closer to him. Alexander was HURT, and she needed to help him. She needed to get to her father and get away from whoever was grabbing her so they didn’t hurt her too. She kicked and screamed, reaching out for her friend, and noticed that her hands were now covered in blood.
“Nina! Stop it!”
Nina’s heart jumped at the angry tone of her father’s voice, and she stilled for just a moment, before turning and burrowing herself into his pant leg, crying.
“Daddy, what’s wrong with Alexander?” She sobbed, still trying to reach for him. Her breath felt like it was being snacthed from the bottoms of her lungs as she forced the words out, and she was having trouble getting enough air. “He’s hurt!”
Tucker pushed her off of his leg, instead grabbing her wrists tightly and holding them above her head. Nina gasped in confusion in pain at the violent gesture as her skin was pulled in the wrong direction and started to sting, and her father began to drag her away from the white, blood-soaked dog. Nina stumbled as she tried to keep up with his quick gate, whimpering as he tugged on her wrists.
“I TOLD you to stay where you were,” Her father’s voice was angry and quiet, the same way it got when she sneaked out of her room and stole candy when she wasn’t supposed to. It made cold fear run through her veins, and she cowered away from him, letting out another sob.
“I’m sorry!” Nina blubbered, shaking her head. “I thought it was part of the game! Please don’t be mad at me!”
Please, Daddy, you’re hurting me.
Her father shoved her back to where she had been sitting before without another word, fingers digging into her skin, his eyes dark and glowering as he finally lessened his grip on Nina's wrists. She stumbled, landing on her hip, and she rubbed her sore wrists with her hand, her bottom lip trembling as she looked back up at her father, fear and confusion swirling around her head.
“Daddy, will Alexander be ok?”
She reached out to grab the fabric of his pants for some sort of reassurance, but her father pulled himself away in annoyance, shooting her a glance as he pushed up his glasses. Nina choked back another sob.
“Alexander broke the rules of the game, Nina,” he said slowly, not answering her question, kneeling down to her eye level. “You don’t want to end up like him, do you?”
“N-no,” Nina stuttered, curling in on herself to escape her father’s boring stare. Had he been the one to hurt Alexander? Would he really hurt her like that? What was going on?
She thought they were going to play.
“Then you will stay right here, in your circle, you understand?” His tone was venomous, and it made Nina too scared to look up at him. She felt her father grip her chin, forcing her head upwards.
Her father’s eyes were wide, wider than she had ever seen them before, his pupils so large they nearly overtook the colors of his eye. Nina couldn’t recognize the look on her father’s face, she had never seen him like this before, and it made her want to scream and cry for help because it scared her so much. Another choked sob escaped her lips, and she flinched as her father raised his hand out of fear that he would hit her, but to her surprise, she felt his fingers wipe away the tears on her cheek.
“Don’t cry, Nina,” he whispered. “Don’t make this any harder than it is,”
Those words just made her want to cry even more, and she tried to lean into his hand for reassurance, but he pulled away immediately, standing up. Nina tried again, reaching out a shaking hand for him, but he stepped backwards. Hurt clouded Nina’s heart, and she sat back on her legs, sniffling. Her father had never been one to deny her affection or comfort. She just wanted to know that everything was going to be ok.
“What’s going on, daddy?”
He chuckled at that. It wasn’t a kind, reassuring chuckle that he would give her when she showed him a drawing she was worried about or when Alexander bowled him over when they played, and Nina would run up to make sure that he was ok. This sound was angry and mean.
“Don’t you worry about that. We still gotta play our game, remember?
Nina nodded, and her father gently patted the top of her head, his hand ruffling her bangs as he gave her a closed eyed smile. Nina forced a tearful smile on her face, and her father stepped away, walking back towards Alexander. The minute he turned away, Nina covered her face, wiping her runny nose with her sleeve in an attempt to calm herself down. She stared at the floor, observing the white lines that her father had told her to sit on, realizing that they all swirled together to create a large, shaky circle, one that she was sitting directly in the middle of.
Oh. This is what her father meant by staying in her circle.
She looked back to her father, who was adjusting Alexander’s position on the floor. In her attempts to rouse him, Alexander had been twisted backwards in a bizarre fashion, spine bending back in a way that looked painful, and Nina hoped he would wake soon. Her father knelt down, rubbing at the blood smeared tiles with a few muttered words, and reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a piece of broken chalk, and went about scribbling lines on the floor. Nina rubbed her tearfilled eyes with her sticky hands, getting blood on her face as she tried to get a better look at what her father was doing. Like herself, Alexander seemed to be in the middle of his own large, white circle.
Nina didn’t want to play anymore. She didn’t know if that made her bad or if she was breaking the rules like her father said, or if she was being mean and ungrateful, but she wanted to hide in her blankets and wash Alexander's sticky blood from her hands. Alexander had played Dad’s game, and Nina was afraid something similar would happen to her if she played along. Nina may not have completely understood her big brother's work, but she knew enough to know that the game had something to do with alchemy.
Her father paid her no mind, too busy fixing the lines that had been messed and smeared. Nina sniffed again, the fear that rolled around in her stomach making her feel nauseous and hot tears threatening to spill down her cheeks again. She was so, so scared, trembling terribly and wishing that her father would stop being like this and just hug and comfort her.
Nina knew that she was supposed to stay put, and Nina always listened to what her father told her, but the primal fear she felt towards her father outweighed any desire she had to listen to him. She wanted to trust Tucker, but he was acting so strange and awful, and there was the looming, overbearing thought that if she didn’t leave right now, before her father finished fixing Alexander’s circle, he would do something to her.
Nina couldn’t think straight. All she knew was that she was more scared than she had ever been, Alexander was hurt and she was positive her father had done it, and he was lying when he said that they were going to play, and for the first time in Nina’s life, she was scared her father would hurt her. So Nina sucked in a hitched breath and bolted towards the door as fast as her shaking legs could carry her.
Tucker screamed her name, and Nina’s heart rate spiked, ramming painfully against her ribs as she fought back the desire to break down and hide. She desperately reached for the doorknob, the slick blood on her fingers making it agonizingly difficult to open. As her father’s furious voice grew louder, panic overcame her as she let out a strangled sob, the door refusing to budge. She shook the knob frantically, the wood creaking as she leaned against it.
Then a hand wrapped around her arm.
Nina didn’t know why she did what she did next. Maybe it was the bitter fear and panic that filled her every thought, the overwhelming smell of blood, or the knowledge that help could easily but just beyond the rickety wooden door, but when she felt the vice-like grip of her father’s fingers, she turned her head and sank her teeth into his hand.
A pained scream sounded as blood filled her mouth, and the tight grip on her arm disappeared, and Nina took the chance to escape. She stumbled away from him, away from his booming voice and cursing words, trying to find a way to get out of the dark room or call for help. A strained sound escaped her mouth as tripped over her own feet, crashing into the wall.
Pain exploded in the front of her face as her nose cracked underneath the impact, and she cried out, collapsing onto her knees with a thud as warm blooded started to drip down her face, mixing with her tears. Tucker was still screaming, shouting her name and words she didn’t understand, his loud footsteps drawing closer.
Nina crawled away from the sound, trying to find a place to hide. She could hardly see where she was over the glossiness in her eyes and the darkness of the room. Everything hurt so much, and she could barely think over the shouting and the pain, barely breath over the terror that sealed up her thoat, thoughts running rampant.
He’s going to hurt me daddy’s going to hurt me and I’m going to DIE i'm going to die daddy why are you doing this please stop daddy PLEASE-
“Nina, come back to the circle,”
Nina froze, cowering in the corner of the room she had managed to crawl to as her father’s voice rang out, a deadly, poisonous tone to it. She blinked and covered her face as he crouched down near her, reaching out a hand that still dripped with blood from where she bit him.
“Come back to the circle, Nina. Come back right now,” he demanded softly, his injured hand making contact with her knee.
“No,” she choked out, tucking herself even further into the corner as thick, wet blood dripped down her lips. “I don’t want to. You’ll hurt me,”
“No, No,” Tucker shook his head slowly. “No, I won’t. It’s just the game, remember? I won’t hurt you,”
Pain flared in the center of her face as she shook her head, sobbing, trying to crawl away from her father’s reaching hands. He had already hurt her. He had bruised her wrists and thrown her on the floor and SCREAMED at her in a way that he had never done before, scaring her so badly that she had tried to get away from him.
“I don’t want to play anymore, daddy. Please don’t make me,” she pleaded tearfully.
Tucker’s face went blank for a moment at her begging, then contorted into an expression of rage, eyes going wide as he slammed his hands on the ground.
“You’re going to listen to me Nina!” He screamed, and she started sobbing again as he reached forward and grabbed her bangs, forcing her face upwards. “Get back in the damn circle!”
Nina smacked at Tucker’s arm with her bloodied hands, bawling so hard that she couldn’t form the words to beg her father to stop. He roughly pulled her forward by her hair, dragging her back towards the circle. She cried and fought and screamed for help, feeling the strands of her hair snap, but Tucker didn’t stop, tugging her closer to the alchemy circle and Alexander’s broken body.
The pressure pulling her forward disappeared, and Nina fell backwards, the curve of her spine thudding painfully onto the hard tile. She tried to lift herself up before feeling the weight of her father’s hand against her chest, crushing her into the tile as she struggled beneath him. He was saying something to her, but Nina didn’t register it, too focused on trying to breathe as her sobbing strangled her lungs, the blood from her nose pouring into her mouth and choking her words as she pleaded with her father.
Then Tucker’s blurry face disappeared from her vision and the weight on her chest disappeared.
Nina gasped at the sudden ability to breath, gulping in stale air that tasted like iron and burned her lungs. She coughed, pushing herself upwards to hack out the blood that had accumulated in the back of her throat, hanging her head forward to let the warm substance drip from her lips and onto the chalk lines below her, pulling in another strained breath.
“What the hell were you doing to her?!”
Nina’s head shot upwards at the sound, and she looked around frantically for the source. That voice belonged to Edward. To Ed, to her little big brother Edward, and if she was hearing his voice, that meant he was here and he could save her. She tried to stand, but her knees buckled beneath her.
“I swear to God Tucker, you better answer my damn question before I break your face!”
There was a sickening, wet sound followed by an agonized cry, and Nina froze when she finally found Edward inside the dark room.
He was standing over her father, fisitng the collar of his shirt in his flesh hand, metal arm raised, the shiny, silver fist was smeared with blood. Her father was screaming at him, words and obcensites that she couldn't make out, glasses askew and blood running down his face. Edward was screaming too, his voice loud and booming in a way she had never heard from him before, shaking her father violently as he tried to pull himself away from Edward.
New terror swelled in Nina’s chest as Edward threw another punch at Tucker’s face, his nose caving under the force of the impact. Her father didn’t even have time to cry out before Edward punched him again and again, the sounds of snapping bones and splattering blood filling the air.
Nina wanted to run up to Edward and pull him away from her father, and beg him to stop hurting him. Tucker may have been hurting her, and he may have scared her, but she didn’t want to watch her only parent and that the father that she loved be injured in such a fashion. He was still her dad, and despite what he had done to her, she still loved him.
She wanted someone to take her away.
But she couldn’t move. Despite the fear that clung to her heart and the pain that latched onto her face, Nina couldn’t make her legs work. She wanted to save her father, but Edward had never looked so furious before, and it paralzyed her. She didn’t want to watch, didn’t want to listen, but she couldn't bring herself to move, so she did the next best thing and curled up on the ground, pushing her hands as hard as she could against her ears to try and block out the sounds of fury and pain just a few feet from her.
A shrill, tinny voice broke through the torrent of punches and yelling, followed by loud clanking and the smell of oil, begging for Edward to stop and think about what he was doing, but when the sounds of agony didn’t stop, and her brother’s voice only grew more aggressive and bitter with each question he hurled at her father, the voice seemed to give up.
Nina sobbed to herself as the clanking sound faded away, trying to bury her face in the cold wooden planks she was lying on. She was in pain and everything was too loud and the person she hoped would save her was hurting her father and no one was there to reach out their arms and pull her away from it all. She didn’t even have Alexander to comfort her.
There was a high-pitched ringing, hardly audible over the chaos of the room, but Nina just managed to pick up on the panicked ramblings of the hollow voice that soon followed.
“Colonel, please , you need to come now, I think Edward’s going to kill Tucker,”