moonshadows

The woman and I are glaring at each other before Ed has a chance to introduce us.

"Uhhhh...Lieutenant Hawkeye...? ...My teacher...Izumi...and...her...husband...?"

Roy is keeping quiet and still with that 'humor my wife' slant to his body. Al is completely lost, and Izumi's husband is an implacable mountain behind her. She and I seem almost polarized, with hostility between us almost making the air crackle; I remember her from the messy incident, and it seems she remembers me just as fondly. She resonates, however, something I remember from back then - and from the way her eyes just narrowed, she must be picking up on me, as well. She's good; no one else has ever done that.

"If you'll excuse us-" I start, not breaking eye contact.

"We need to talk. Alone," she finishes, gaze never leaving my eyes.

Ed seems to be trying to back away slowly; Roy is amused. Izumi and I stalk off side by side, neither of us willing to follow the other. We walk a ways away in a straight line before stopping, well out of earshot of the others.

"You've seen the Gate," she says, and it's not a question.

"Yes," I reply. "That boy-"

"-was my son, yes. How did you know?"

"He resonated with you, the same way Ed and Al do."

"With each other?"

"With their mother." When they came to headquarters, it wasn't hard to match their resonance with the Fuhrer's secretary, even without Roy's whispered comment that they'd attempted human transmutation after their mother died.

Izumi's hostile glare backs down two notches towards neutral. "You're good,"
she says. "Why aren't you an alchemist?"

A flash of memory, a frustrated teacher looking over the perfectly-drawn and very simple transmutation circle. 'Why didn't it work?'

I smile grimly. "It wouldn't work, around me."

She claps her hands together just like Ed does, and the shockwave runs through my body and ripples an extra second in my abdomen. My breath hisses in sharply, and I clench my hands before forcing myself to relax. Izumi looks at me intently.

"You felt that."

I nod, not speaking.

"How old...?"

"Was I when I saw the Gate? I don't know. My family never spoke of it and I never told them I remembered it. I didn't think I was supposed to; it was my first memory."

"You were very, very young, then. And it affected you that strongly..." She trails off, thinking.

"And if I may ask, how old was your son?" I don't have to add, 'when you transmuted him'.

She looks away. "I miscarried. He was stillborn."

"You can feel your transmutations resonate through your body, correct?"

Izumi nods, solemnly.

"Did you perform alchemy while you were pregnant?"

"Only once. I know what you're getting at. Why are you asking?" Her glare kicks back towards hostile.

"I'm pregnant."

I drop the statement like a bomb; Izumi goes still. I haven't even told Roy yet. There is a long, shocked pause while all of Izumi's hostility drains out and only my anxiety is left.

"How far along?" The question is urgent.

"Only a few weeks. What do you know?"

She makes a stroking motion as though wanting to touch my stomach and make sure the unborn child is still healthy. "If I haven't just caused you to miscarry - I'm sorry, I didn't know - make absolutely sure no alchemy is performed where you can feel it until well after the baby is born. How sensitive are you?"

I glance back to where Ed is gesturing frantically. "Al mended his jacket through alchemy recently."

Izumi's eyes widen a little, then narrow thoughtfully. "No alchemy around you at all, then. I figured out far too late that it affects the fetus; I miscarried a dozen times before learning not to do alchemy when trying to conceive." There is old pain there, and I don't have to guess why. There is no woman quite as frantic as a would-be mother. "I don't know what effect your exposure to the Gate might have on your child, but I trust you'll know if it makes your baby sensitive."

I nod. "Thank you. Shall we go back?"

She smiles at me, one woman to another, and we walk back to the group. Ed's back is to us, and he looks to be teasing Roy about something. We get into hearing range just in time to hear the tail end of an implication about husbands and a lack of manhood.

"...care to repeat that?" Izumi's warning tone is every bit as sharp as mine.

Ed whirls around and sees both of us glaring at him, arms crossed. He gulps as the blood drains from his face, and he seems to have forgotten how to breathe. We hold him like that a long time, with Al saying 'teacher?' meekly, before Izumi's husband rumbles something softy and Roy puts his arm around me. Not to be mollified that easily, I fix him with a stern look.

"We're going to have to talk, later." I make it sound like a threat.

He kisses me lightly on the cheek, not fooled at all. "Yes, dear."

Al snickers, and Ed seems to be hiding behind him.

"No alchemy in the house," I tell them. Ed just nods miserably and tries to remember how to breathe.