Title: Conversion
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Pairing: Alt!Roy/Ed (main), Roy/Ed
Categories: Romance, Drama, AU, Angst
Length: Epic (68,638)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: arathe
Author Website: FF.net

Author's Summary:
Five years after his arrival on an alternate world, a chance meeting with someone from his past gives Edward Elric the hope that maybe, just maybe, he might have found his ticket home.

Review:
This story follows after the Fullmetal Alchemist anime and does not include the movie. You have Ed who is traveling on a train and who meets a Roy Mustang who isn't his Roy Mustang, but somehow spills out his guts to the man anyway. It's not a very believable beginning, what with the spilling out one's entire past that is sure to sound crazy to the average person in alternate!universe land, but the fic soon smooths out and you have to admit that it gets the ball rolling.

Ed ends up staying with Roy, who's this eccentric rich person taking care of his niece after his brother and his wife died. Roy is actually integral to Ed's plans to get back home, and rather willingly goes along with Ed's schemes. They grow closer and Ed grows more attached to this other world, even though he still feels the need to get back to Al. There's a steadily growing relationship between alt!Roy and Ed and you find yourself wondering how things are going to end up.

It's a not a completely smooth fic. The pacing is a little bumpy and it's not completely polished, but you can certainly feel the emotions and get caught up in the fic anyway. It's very much a romance and it tugs on your heartstrings, and the ending is that sort of bittersweet feeling that ends up being more sweet than bitter and somehow makes you content anyway. With what happens in the fic I'm certainly glad with the way it ended, and it just fit. It's a great read for when you're in the mood for romance, and alt!Roy does have a way with the written word that sort of makes you sigh (in a good way!) and want to give him a hug. Or an Ed, haha.

Conversion