A young boy, no more than six, with a shock of red hair and a round face sprinkled lightly with freckles was running towards her. He carried a bag of apples that seemed to weigh his little body down with each step.

 “You forgot these at the fruit stand,” he panted once he reached her. He struggled to raise up the bag to Izumi, so she crouched to meet the boy’s eyes, taking the bag from him and placing it on the grass with the rest of her groceries.

 “That’s very kind of you,” she told him with a smile. “Not many young men would be that thoughtful.”

 The boy smiled shyly. He opened his mouth, blushing under his freckles, and quickly closed it again.

 “It’s okay, honey,” she encouraged him. “What were you going to say?”

 “It’s just… you looked kind of lost or something,” he said, with wide eyes. “Did you get lost?”

Izumi’s stared at the boy in confusion. Lost? What did he mean by lost? But before she could question him a sharp pain wracked her stomach. She breathed in deeply as the pain prickled through her insides. Please not here, she begged her body silently. I don’t want to scare the kid by spewing blood all over him. I am Izumi Curtis. I don’t care if you are my body, you will listen to me. After a moment the feeling thankfully passed. Pain prickled at her abdomen, but she pushed it from her mind. She knew the blood and vomit would be back, but she smiled for the boy, who was regarding her with childish concern.

 “No,” she reassured him. “I’m not lost. In fact, I’m going home.”

 “That’s good,” the boy said solemnly. “Being lost is scary.”

 “It is, isn’t it?” Izumi rose to her feet, dusting off her knees. “Now, where is your mother? I’m sure she’s worried and wondering where you are.”

 Izumi scanned the crowds and spotted a woman with curly hair, the same bright red as the boy’s. The woman was walking briskly towards them, her face twisted into a deeply annoyed scowl.

 “Is that her?” She pointed at the woman.

 The boy nodded and shot Izumi a worried look.

“I think my mummy’s angry,” the boy said in a small voice.

“Perhaps she’s just worried,” Izumi put her hand on the boy’s little shoulder. “I know I get angry when the people I care for are missing or hurt.”

But as the woman drew closer, she could see that she had been mistaken. The red-haired woman appeared to be older than Izumi, and was much shorter and stouter. Her shopping bags were slung over her shoulder, and her features were twisted into a positively livid expression.

“Jonathan,” the woman snapped. “What are you doing?

“It’s my fault, ma’am,” Izumi said as kindly as she could. She made an effort to move her body ever so slightly in front of the boy. “I forgot some groceries, and your son brought them to me. It was very noble of him.”

The woman gave Izumi a judgmental glare. “I didn’t ask you, and I don’t want my son to be at all influenced by an invalid alchemist.”

Izumi was hardly surprised that the woman knew who she was. Dublith was not a large town, and Curtis Meats was a very popular butchery. But no one got away with calling her an ‘invalid’.   

 “I think that I’d be a better influence than you think,” Izumi said coolly, her nails digging into her palms. If she wasn’t Jonathan’s mother, Izumi would think about inflicting some kind of physical pain, but she wouldn’t do it in front of a child. “Your son reminds me a little of two boys I’ve trained. And those boys have gone off to do wonderful, brilliant things. They’ve achieved things that you could never imagine.”

The woman said nothing, but Izumi noted that she did not make eye contact.

“Come on, Jonathan,” she said, grabbing her son roughly by his little shoulder. “You’re nonsense is making me late."

The boy shot Izumi an unreadable glance and let his mother drag him off. Izumi shook her head and raised a hand in a silent farewell. She kept her hand up until the boy and his mother disappeared within the shopping crowd. Neither of them looked back.

Izumi retrieved her bags from the grass with a sigh. She was sure that if she and Sig had been able to sire a child, he would have been just as thoughtful, intelligent and curious as that little boy. But they would never know. Her stomach began to prickle again with that awful pain. She disregarded it, but knew the coughing and blood would follow shortly.

 The walk home was not exceptionally long, but Izumi tread slowly, despite the cool weather. She pulled a nearly forgotten apple out of her bag and took a big bite. The apple’s skin crunched pleasantly beneath her teeth, but the fruit inside was bitter and mealy.