#also BIG shoutout to all the fma mermaid fics ive ever read that inspired this somehow lol

[maggins]

hey loOK it’s the FMA x Luca crossover nobody asked for!! [crowd booing]

i’m in so freaking deep i also wrote a bullet point outline of this AU so gET READY for a lot of text, grammatical errors, plot inconsistencies and overall unfinished ideas because i’m a terrible writer and i’ve never done anything like this before (but bOY was it fun to erratically type down these ideas as they came along)

Hohenheim was a human, Trisha was a sea monster living in disguise among humans

Hoho never knew Trisha was a sea monster; they lived in a town that was pretty prejudiced against sea monsters and he had that internalized phobia (???)

Due to having having mixed parentage and having been born while Trisha was in human form, Ed appeared to be a human-looking baby on birth, so Hoho never really suspected anything

Hoho and Trisha’s life together was short but sweet, but not long after Trisha got pregnant with Al, Hoho (not sure how??) discovered her secret and was horrified

(not sure about this part now it feel sO CRUEL) Hoho took Ed and ran away with him, clinging desperately to the hope that he was just a human child and that Trisha’s sea monster-ness hadn’t actually passed down to him since he never displayed that ability to transform when wet

surprise, surprise, Hoho was wrong. Ed’s sea monster genes just awoke a bit late (maybe a few years later??), but he was still a sea monster through and through after all

Meanwhile Trisha, heartbroken and with an unborn baby to take care of, returned to the ocean and went to live with two old friends of hers: Izumi and Sig. They welcomed her with open arms and helped her raise baby Al

Trisha had always been fond of humans and their world, that is why she was living on the surface in the first place, but Izumi never shared that view. Even more so now that one of them had broken her friend’s heart and stolen one of her children. That hate increased tenfold when years later Trisha got captured/killed(?? not sure which yet oops) by humans. This led to her being overprotective of Al and warn him against the horrible land monsters who not only took his mother away, but also were absolutely NOT be trusted (since Hoho was a human who held Trisha’s love and trust, but the second he found out about her true nature he ran away with their older son)

On Hoho and Ed’s side of things, Hoho got increasingly frustrated with his clashing worldviews of hating sea monsters and the fact that the person he loved and now his son are actually those exact creatures. Not to mention that now he has to raise Ed all by himself and can’t have anyone find out about his son’s true nature.

He does so for a while, moving from town to town and laying low so as to not raise suspicion, but also getting locals’ help wherever he goes bc they take pity on this wandering vagrant and his small son

However, Ed is growing up and being… Ed, and it gets harder for Hoho to hide his true form from everyone else so eventually they settle on an abandoned island just off the coast of [insert weird mix of Resembool and Portorosso town here]. For a while Hoho stays there and takes care of him, but eventually leaves and Ed has to fend for himself for a while (à la Alberto and his dad)

Ed has grown up to be a very curious and inquisitive boy, but he also acts a bit rashly, which has led to him getting in some trouble. However the greatest trouble he’s ever encountered was when some hunters almost got caught him and harpooned his arm, leading to its loss (i was actually not sure if he should lose his arm before or after Hoho leaves, but i guess it’d make a lot more sense for his survival if he had someone there with him to treat it rather than him being a literal child all alone on an abandoned island and still having to deal with the loss of an arm)

(I’m still not sure of the exact circumstances in which Hoho leaves or what kind of justification he could have for leaving Ed all alone to take care of himself, and missing an arm nonetheless; buuuut idk maybe he admitted to himself he couldn’t actually do this alone anymore and went away to try to find Trisha again or some other sea monster bc he can’t raise Ed to just be a human anymore, he was and always will be a sea monster, and there are things that Hoho just can’t teach him)

So this is kinda like parent trap….. brother trap???? lmao that makes no sense at all wHATEVER the brothers grown up separately (i’m still not sure if they should be aware of each other’s existence??? Ed probably would know bc how come he was a sea monster and his dad wasn’t one like aNSWER ME DAD WHERE DID I COME FROM; but Al would be more sheltered by Izumi i suppose); Ed goofs around on his island and Al leads a pretty boring life underwater, longing for m o r e

They meet one day kinda like in the actual movie Luca, hit it off right away, make plans to go to town and get a Vespa maybe blah blah blah (but like….. elric*st shippers DNI)

and tHEN THERE’S WINRY. i suppose she’s our giulia now lol except automail still exists in this weird mish-mash world, and she’s been training to be an engineer probably from the moment she’s born lol and once the brothers’ secret is out she takes it upon herself to build an automail for Ed that not only is lightweight and extremely water resistant, it also has to be adaptable to whenever Ed changes forms… one hell of a challenge but holy shit she’s resilient and Ed really, rEALLY appreciates her kindness and willingness (Al cheers on them from the sidelines, the little shit)

the reason i wasn’t sure i should kill off Trisha for good was just…. gosh, she’s been thru so much, she deserves a happy reunion with her TWO sons, one of which she hasn’t seen since he was a toddler jUST LET ME HAVE THIS OKAY ;n;

i’m also not sure how the brothers discover they’re actually siblings, but i’m thinking Ed is the one who figures it out first by learning more about Al and his mom, and piecing things together with the stuff his father told him…. and when he DOES figure it out…. oH BOY……. ;;;u;;;;

aaand that’s all she wrote