Me: Hi everyone!

Danny: It's been a long time since you started a fic, Hayden.

Me: And a long time since I've written something for Fullmetal, even though this is the first one I've decided to upload. And anyway, why are you still here, Danny?

Danny: … I'm your stalker. I shall follow you everywhere.

Me: Even if it means leaving your own fandom?

Danny: *shrugs* I guess.

Me: Well, anyway *turns to readers* so this fic is basically the next generation of Fullmetal Alchemist, set about thirteen years after episode 64/chapter 108. I'm trying my best include as little OCs as I can, but sometimes it just can't be helped, y'know? Also, a lot of people know me in the fandom I usually write for, so they're aware of the fact THAT I'M BRITISH AND I SPELL THINGS DIFFERENTLY. *coughs* It's just that I get so many PMs telling me that I spell stuff wrong and it annoys me, because, to me, it's right. That's all.

Danny: We won't leave you waiting any longer!
Me: On with the fic!

A New Way to Bleed Chapter 1: Maes

"Daddy's home!"

"Nina, get back from the door! How am I supposed to let him in if you're in the way?"

Winry Elric pushed her five-year-old daughter gently to her left and slid the key into the lock. It turned with a small 'click' as she opened it and the green wooden door swung outwards, revealing a blonde man in his thirties.

Nina dropped her teddy and threw herself at her father, tackling him with a bear hug.

"Hey, kiddo," Edward smiled, putting his suitcase on the floor, "How've you been?"

"Mummy taught me how to make apple pie!" she squealed happily, bouncing up and down.

"I'll take that as 'good', then," he replied, laughing.

The man looked up at Winry, who was still standing where she was originally. She gave him a smile, and he returned it tiredly as he stepped through the doorway.

"You know," Winry took his coat, "three months is a long time for these kids. You almost missed Maes' thirteenth. You do realise it's tomorrow, right?" Her voice had some kind of hidden edge to it, which her husband instantly picked up on.

"Yeah," Ed blushed slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. For all he knew, Winry could be really mad at him. You could never tell when she would hit him on the head with one of her wrenches. "Sorry about that," he apologised, "Al called me from Xing. He and May are finally getting married. I went over there personally to give them my congrats and stuff."

"Oh really?" Winry's attitude seemed to change, "what about all those Xingese laws that say royalty can't marry the commoners?"

"Yeah, but there's a new emperor," Edward replied, smirking, "from the Yao Clan."

"What? Ling?" Winry said, disbelief written all over her face.

The man nodded, trying not to laugh. "I was there when he was crowned. Quite boring though, but a good after-party."

"Wish I could've been there," Winry muttered as he paused.

"And Mustang's only one rank away from Fuhrer now," Ed carried on, he hadn't heard his wife's last comment. He laughed slightly, "it seems like everyone's getting what they wanted. Except he has to wait for Armstrong to either die or give up her position, which I don't think she'll do for quite a while."

"What about Armstrong's kid? How old is he now?"

"I dunno," Edward shrugged, "I haven't been to central in ages. But I guess he's roughly about five or so. Maybe you should give Gracia a call and ask, Elicia does babysit him sometimes… she would know."

Winry nodded, putting her coffee mug down on the table. "Did you want to try some of Nina's apple pie? I got it out of the oven just two minutes ago."

"That would be awesome," he replied, "I'm starving!"

Unlike the rest of the house, the kitchen hadn't changed much at all since Edward and Winry were children. Most of the appliances had to have been replaced, but apart from that, it was basically the same.

"Maes!" Winry called out to what appeared to be the ceiling as Ed sat down at the table, "your father's home! Come and say hi, will you?"

There was no reply for a while, but they soon heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs and a boy appeared in the entrance to the kitchen.

Maes Elric had a slightly darker shade of blonde hair than both of his parents, much like his uncle, Alphonse. It was fairly long for a boy, falling down to just below his shoulders. His choice to keep it tied back was the same as his father's, although a braid (as rare as it was for Edward to have one now) was out of the question. A simple ponytail was enough for him. His eyes were clearly from his mother's side of the family – a bright, brilliant blue.

"You're getting taller, you know that, don't you?" Edward said as his son walked further into the room.

"Hey," came the short reply, completely ignoring the question.

"Pie?" Winry asked, holding up the plate in her oven gloves, "Nina made it for us."

"Although Mummy helped a little bit with the hot stuff," Nina added, blushing. She knew that Maes always loved things that she'd 'cooked all by herself'.

The five-year-old's hair colour and length matched Winry's almost exactly, but lately she had been putting it up into two bunches. Her eyes were stunning shade of gold – a peculiar colour for an Amestrian, but Edward was just the same.

"In that case then, I'll give it a try," Maes ruffled his younger sister's hair.

He took a slice from his mother and sat down at the table with a fork, opposite his father.

Although, as he liked to view it, as far away from Edward as possible.

If Maes spoke honestly, he wasn't sure what to make of his father. Most of the time Ed was abroad travelling and researching things he knew next to nothing about. Whenever he was home, interaction between the two was rare and they often just made small talk. Things like "how's school?", or "what did you do yesterday?". The boy's answers were always short, too. And then his father was gone again, often for weeks at a time. He didn't know much of his family, either. He supposedly had an uncle, but the last time he had 'seen' him was when he was very young. Alphonse Elric was just a blurry, distorted memory somewhere in his past. Maes often asked about his grandparents too, but his answer was always that they all lived in Drachma, and because of the war going on it would be hard to visit them.

Nina was too young to ask about their family properly, but she (like her older brother) had started to question the fact that neither of them had left Resembool in their lives. They'd both seen photos of the city known as 'Central' though, and the military there. Maes thought the Fuhrer looked a slight bit too threatening for a woman, so, against the fact that his mother called it 'sexist', he had given her the nickname 'shemale'. It wasn't really too offensive – the family often used it around the house as one of their inside jokes. But if any officials who seemed to visit the house now and then caught them using the word, well, they'd be in trouble.

There was a man in the military Maes did seem to be able to relate to though – General Mustang. He didn't know much about him, but he seemed like the kind of person who wasn't afraid of anything. Apparently he was the one in charge of the Ishbalan campaign, according to one of the two Ishbalan twins who went to his school. They had moved to Resembool just after Maes was born about thirteen years ago.

"This is really great Nina," Edward said through a mouthful of food, "you did a great job."

"Thanks Daddy!" Nina said happily, taking a fork-full herself, "Mummy told me I could make more next weekend for the sheep festival! I'm gonna sell it and be rich!"

"Are you now?" Ed laughed.

"Oh," Winry suddenly said from her end of the table, "that reminds me, Ed. You got a call from Central yesterday."

"Really?" Edward looked up from his snack, curious, "who from?"

"That's the bit that concerns me slightly. It was from Mrs Bradley."

Edward dropped his fork, his still wide open.

"Who's Mrs Bradley?" Maes asked his mother.

"It's none of your concern, Maes," Winry replied, unusually sharply, "are you OK, Ed?"

"Yeah, sorry." Ed grunted and picked up his cutlery, "it's just that I haven't heard from her since… well, I haven't heard from her at all for ages."

"That's probably because Armstrong's personally sorting it out herself ever since Grumman was killed seven years ago. She doesn't like you very much, you know."

"What?" Maes had never heard this before, "why? Since when did Dad know the Fuhrer?"

"It's none of your concern, Maes," Winry repeated.

"What… what was the call about?" Ed asked.

"Oh, nothing much," Winry's speed of speech seemed to become slower and more forceful – as if it had another meaning, "her son's just been having a few bad dreams, that's all."

Bad dreams? Maes was really confused, but he decided against asking his mother again. Whatever they were talking about was definitely important – he could tell that even in Winry's voice, even if it seemed innocent enough. And whoever this 'Mrs. Bradley' woman was was obviously very important to his father for some reason that was big enough to make him drop something in surprise.

"I might make a visit to Central, then," Edward decided, "but Al is coming back from Xing for a short stay. I don't know when he's going to arrive…"

"You mean Al's returning to Amestris?" Winry asked, "after all this time?"

"Yeah…" Ed replied, clearly thinking, "should be soon… around the time of the sheep festival next week maybe…? I'm not sure. I'll pay a visit to the Bradleys after then."

"Isn't that great, guys?" Winry turned to her two beloved children, smiling, "you're going to meet your uncle!"

Maes was genuinely surprised. His parents seemed so casual about it, strange after the weird moment about the son with the bad dreams. And he wasn't sure how he was going to greet his uncle. Clearly, Alphonse Elric would remember him, but Maes didn't have much of an idea of what he looked like. The latest photos the family had of him were from when he was about ten or so, then after that he seemed to disappear from the pictures altogether. There was one photo though, as he was told, with them altogether as a family –including that fiancé of his, but Alphonse had taken it to Xing with him when he left.

"Yay!" Nina gave a happy little squeal, "Uncle! Uncle!"

"Well, anyway," Winry stood up, taking her plate to the sink, "I have an arm to work on for someone coming in in a few days, and you'll probably need your leg seen to, Edward. Knowing you, it hasn't been maintained since you left."

That was another problem that often made Maes wonder – his father's prosthetic leg. Winry was an amazing automail mechanic and a lot of people often came to her when they needed a new metal limb fitted. But Maes liked it when they brought with them exciting stories about what happened to them. He could sympathize with them and help them feel better while they went through all the pain and the fever that came with the operation. Edward didn't have a great story about how he came to lose most of his left leg. According to him, he lost it during an explosion during the Eastern rebellion, and that was that. No dramatic adventure or anything, just how he met Winry. Which, to a boy of twelve, wasn't something especially entertaining. Whenever Ed was home, his mother always nagged about his lack of consideration for her 'beautiful work of art' at one point or another.

Winry picked up her daughter – who she knew loved watching her make the automail, and walked towards the door to the basement.

"You coming, guys?" she asked as it swung open.

"I've got this pie to finish," Ed said, "I'll be down in a minute."

"I'll… pass," Maes said, "I'm gonna go back upstairs and finish my book."

"Well… Ok then," Winry replied, slightly sadly, and left the room with her daughter in her arms.

"Since when did you like reading?" Edward asked before he took another mouthful of pie.

"Haven't you heard of a new hobby?" Maes replied, slightly sarcastically, "I started while you were gone."

"Really?" his father seemed genuinely interested in his son's new-found interest, "what were you just reading?"

"Just one of Mum's old kid stories from when she was little," he answered, "we don't have anything else besides that and automail instruction books, and they're boring."

"So you're not thinking of taking up the family business, then?"

"Not at all," Maes folded his arms, "It's way too complicated."

"I'm sure I could teach you a bit myself," Ed offered, "it's not that hard, once you get past the first stage."

"But you're never here! You're always off somewhere with that brother of yours or someone I still haven't met."

"Look, I'm sorry I haven't introduced you to Al yet, OK? You'll meet him very soon, as you know. I'll take you to his wedding if you like, alright?"

"Dad, I don't even know my own grandparentsand Ihaven't even left Resembool in my life."

"Look Maes, Amestris is a dangerous place at the moment. There's a war in Drachma-"

"But that's all the way up in the north!" Maes protested.

"And Central's the command base for it!" his father argued back.

"So why are you going up there to see Mrs. Bradley after Uncle Alphonse gets here? Can't I at least come withyou? Please? It can't be that bad if you're going."

Ed sighed, tired from his long journey home. Back when he was Maes' age, he'd argue a lot. Sometimes he even got a form of enjoyment out of it. But it was starting to get old for him and he just couldn't be bothered. He had more important things to attend to.

"Fine," he said reluctantly, "I'll take you, but you need to stay with me all of the time. Like I said, it's dangerous there." Edward stood up, deciding to ignore Maes' answer in case it came with a witty comment, and put his now empty plate by the sink, walking down into the basement to get his leg seen to.

A smile formed on Maes' face. Finally, he had a way out of his tiny hometown. He'd take the opportunity to find out his father's relationship with that shemale Fuhrer and learn exactly what research he's ditched his own children for.

Yes, he thought smugly to himself, this is going to be a very exciting little trip.

Danny: So that was the first chapter!

Me: The first three are going to be kind of introducing the three main charcters in this fic, the next one being little Pride (I love him so much XD) and Elicia. You know the three prologues in Soul Eater? Yeah, kind of like that. Until next time though, leave a little review for me! I want to see how many people are interested in this fic :3