Here's my first Fullmetal Alchemist story! Yay! It's set after the ending of Brotherhood/manga, so it may give some details away hid you have not completed the series. It is mainly some short stories that lead up to and explain some if the pictures seen during the ending credits. Enjoy and feel free to review; your opinion will make the story better, and I would really like some feedback and suggestions you may have!
Several months had gone by since Edward and Alphonse Elric had traveled to opposite regions of the world. The great distance between the brothers was strange, for they had never been so far from one another...
Along with this, the brothers were also out of contact; communication from the far west to Xing was quite difficult since few traveled beyond the eastern border of Amestris. However, a letter arrived at Al's temporary residence in the eastern country.
"Alphonse!" May Chang, the seventeenth daughter of the previous emperor exclaimed upon receiving the mail for her romantic interest. "This is for you," she handed it to him, "it's from Resembool."
Al looked up from a book on Alkahestry. "Resembool?" Closing the book, the youngest Elric took the letter from May. "It has to be from Winry! I wonder how she's doing; she must be lonely after me and Ed left again."
Tearing the envelope away, Alphonse unfolded the paper in surprise. The writing was not that of his childhood friend; it was the recognizable scrawl of his older brother. "I didn't know Ed was back home..." He mused while reading the letter.
Before getting half way through it, Al's jaw dropped, and his eyes grew larger at the words written on the page.
"What's wrong, Al?" The Xingese female asked, taking notice of her loved one's expression.
"Nothing's wrong," the young male replied as his face lit up with joy, "it's Ed and Winry; they're getting married!"
"What?" The Chang heiress chirped. "But when did they...? They didn't even tell us that they were involved! Did you know about this?"
"No, I had no idea..." Alphonse replied. "I mean, I know that brother was interested in her, but I didn't think things would progress this fast! I thought Ed was still out in the west somewhere!"
After a few seconds of silence, Al finished reading his brother's message. "Well," he returned his gaze to the beautiful young Chang, "do you think you could continue teaching me Alkahestry in Resembool? The wedding isn't too far away, and I'd like to see Ed and Winry."
"Of course!" May squealed. "I'll go anywhere with you, Alphonse!"
•-•-•
It took several days for Al and May Chang to arrive in Resembool; they had to cross the barren desert and ride multiple trains before reaching the Elric's hometown.
It was a beautiful sight for Al, seeing all of the familiar views from his childhood. However, the best part of returning was being able to see his brother. Even though a few short months were all that separated them, Ed and Al had much to speak about.
"Hey, Al." Located on a bench across from the train's exit sat Edward Elric.
"Brother!" The younger Elric shouted upon realizing Ed was there to greet May and himself.
"How's it going?" The trio consisting of the brothers and the young Xingese female began walking back towards the Rockbell residence.
"May's been helping me with Alkahestry," Al replied with a smile aimed at the others, "I guess that's about it... We were planning to go further east next month, but then I got your letter and changed our plans so we could visit you."
"So Ed," the shortest in the group began, "when did you and Winry decide to get married?"
"Yeah! And why didn't you tell us before now?" Al added; from the day that their mother died, the Elrics had shared everything and only truly opened up to each other.
Ed shrugged with a sheepish smile before scratching the back of his head. "Well... I guess it happened when I was getting on the train to head west, and-"
"Did you even leave?" Al interrupted, wondering whether Edward had actually ventured beyond Amestris.
"Yeah," the eldest replied, "for a few months, anyway... But I came back shortly after that when my automail got messed up, and then I realized that I didn't want to leave Winry again, so I decided to stay in Resembool with her."
"Al! May!" Just a short distance away was the Rockbell home, and Winry was standing on the porch calling out greetings to the younger Elric and his romantic interest.
The blond female jogged down the wooden steps to welcome her companions. "How have you both been? I haven't seen you for years, May! And Al, it's been too long since I've heard from you."
"Sorry, Winry," Alphonse responded while smiling to prove his apology was an authentic one, "we've just been busy with Alkahestry."
"I'm just glad that you had a safe trip here," Winry admitted, "why don't you come out your things down inside? Traveling from Xing must have been tiring."
"It does take a while," May Chang noted as the group ascended the stairs to enter Winry's home, "but it was worth it!"
"Ed, can you take their bags upstairs?" Winry asked of the eldest Elric. "Grandma will get mad if we leave them down here."
"Sure," Ed sighed; Winry always got him to do this kind of thing, but he knew she was an extremely busy person with her automail and all.
Alphonse pushed the front door closed with his foot as he was the last to enter. "I'll help you, brother."
"Would you like to help me with dinner, May?" Winry turned to the Xingese female. "I was going to make an apple pie, but I won't have enough time to do that and dinner without some help."
With May agreeing, the two females went towards the kitchen, and the brothers hauled all of the luggage to the upper floor.
They entered the room they once shared as children. "You can both sleep in here while you're staying," Ed told his little, yet taller, brother, "you can push the beds together if you want to... but remember that little hag is here." He added as a warning, causing Al to chuckle.
"I'll keep that in mind," Alphonse replied, "she's like a grandmother to us, so I'll be careful to make sure that she won't be aware of what happens between May and I... It must be strange for you and Winry with her always here."
"Well..." The elder brother sighed, not really sure how to respond.
Al watched as Ed hesitated to answer. "So you haven't...?"
"It's not like nothing has happened..." Ed slouched against the wall to begin telling Alphonse an embarrassing story about why his relationship had not yet been a sexual one.
- the story -
Edward had been back from the west for nearly a month at this point, and things at the Rockbell residence were rather boring at the current time: Pinako was running some errands, and Winry was busy working on a new automail design. Therefore, the Elric had nothing interesting to do.
He had resorted to sitting in the front room on a sofa, listening to Winry run her grinder over pieces of metal to make then smooth. Entertainment was limited in Resembool, especially without the ability to perform alchemy.
Eventually, Edward heard the machine stop. Shortly after, Winry entered the room and examined the slumped position Ed was in.
"You seem bored," the girl concluded, "I can give you some chores to do."
"Haven't you given me enough things to do in the last couple of weeks?" Ed sighed. "I came back from the west to see you, but I barely have with everything you've got going on along with the tasks you and Pinako have been giving me."
"Okay then," Winry replied cheerfully before taking a seat next to Ed on the sofa, "I'll take a break from working on my new automail."
Ed smiled at his future bride. She was so beautiful and kind; how did he not realize that he was in love with her sooner? Either way, she was here with him now, and she shared his romantic feelings.
The pair spoke about various subjects for a short time, but, as with most couples, their interaction resulted in a kiss. This was not the first time they had made contact in such a way; however, this instance was much more passionate than the previous ones.
Edward slowly reclined Winry until both were lying across the length of the sofa while still tenderly brushing lips. It became clear and was accepted by each that this encounter would be highly intimate.
However, the moment clothing began to be shed, Den, the dog with one automail limb, began woofing at the front door. Followed by this, soft footsteps were heard climbing the wooden stairs leading to the front door.
"Ed," Winry pushed up on his chest, forcing his mouth away from hers, "someone's coming to the door."
"Just ignore them," Edward prompted; neither he nor Winry wanted to halt the impending event, "whoever it is can come back later."
The blond girl agreed by pulling Ed's partially nude body back to her... but when they both heard a key slowly unlocking the door, everything ceased.
"It's Grandma!" Winry frantically shouted in a whisper. The Elric pulled himself off of his future wife in a scramble to return the articles of clothing he had discarded mere moments ago.
By the time the old woman had opened the door, Ed and Winry were seated on opposite sides of the couch. Both were fully dressed, but the dishevelment of their clothing and red coloring of their faces provided enough evidence for Pinako to understand what was happening in her absence.
"Ed," the little woman began, causing the young man to tense his muscles, "did you finish the chores I assigned you?"
"Yes," he replied, face still flushed from the awkwardness of the current situation, "I did them before lunch."
"Tomorrow I am going to give you a longer list of things to do around here," she continued, "you clearly have too much time on your hands right now... You can call me old fashioned, but I don't approve of you getting so close to my granddaughter before you're married."
Both of the younger adults' eyes grew wide and made contact, as if to confirm whether they truly heard correctly. "Now then," Pinako added, "instead of looking so embarrassed, make yourselves productive."
- end story -
"So that's basically what happened," Edward concluded, "later that night, me and Winry decided that since the wedding isn't that far away, we're going to wait."
Al, who was now sitting on one if the twin beds, had a partially shocked and partially amused expression on his face. "Wow, brother," he laughed a bit, "that must have been really awful."
"It was pretty embarrassing... Winry looked completely mortified when Pinako came in. I can only imagine how I must have looked..." Ed added with some uncomfortable laughter.
"Do you know where you're going after your wedding?" Al proceeded to ask his older brother; there weren't really many destination type locations in Amestris, so he was genuinely curious.
Edward sighed. "We're going to Rush Valley. Winry hasn't been there in a while, and it's really one of the only placed not screwed up from the military's actions a few years ago... but that also means that she'll be fawning over automail the whole time."
"Hopefully not the whole time," the younger Elric replied coyly before breaking into another short fit of laughter. Edward joined while remaining hopeful that Al's words, though said as a joke, were true.
"Hey! Edward, Alphonse, dinner's ready!" Both heads snapped towards the entryway when Winry called out for them.
Downstairs, May and Winry were sitting at the table conversing while waiting for their respective lovers to join them. Once they arrived, May looked to them with interest.
"What you laughing about?" She asked curiously.
"Yeah," Winry chimed in, "we could hear you both busting up the entire time you were up there."
After spooning out some delightfully aromatic stew, the brothers joined the ladies at the dining surface. "We were just talking," Ed said while waiting for his dinner to cool off, "you know, catching up on the last few months."
I will be updating every Wednesday, so the next chapter will be out 9/11/2013. Please review and give me ideas! Thanks so much guys!