It was a balmy November day wind blowing restlessly, almost as if it was expecting something. Perhaps a visitor of some sort, two young women sat in a small workshop the large bay windows letting in the cold winter light, the elder of the two young woman was babbling on about something that the younger, her apprentice didn't much care for. Her apprentice was a slight young woman who sat on the hard wooden floor, preferring it to the chair across the table from her blonde teacher. Her teacher was Amestrian, not that there was anything wrong with that to her, all there was, was a considerable language gap that the adolescent had managed to breach in the seven months that she had lived with her teacher, Winry Rockbell.
Winry stopped her rambling and looked down at the young lady who sat crouched over the piece of machinery, her gray oculi focused on the fingers of the apparatus "Your brother lives back in Drachma, yeah?"
The russet-haired individual looked up from the arm and nodded "Aleksi, my younger brother, I thought it would be suitable if I used duralumin and carbon fiber, I want the arm to be comfortable for him"
Winry smiled softly and let the conversation die, watching her pupil study the cords that would be connected to her brother's arms. She frowned as she noticed that the cords were wrong.
"Use a thicker wire, the thinner ones are great for domestic use, but they aren't as durable" The blonde offered digging through her toolbox before holding her hand up in victory, brandishing bulky wires
"Thank you" The Drachman nodded taking the cords, working tirelessly on her brother's automail.
Winry worked for another hour or so before retiring for the night, it had been a long day and she was ready to drop, she studied the young Drachman who sat on her floor as she closed her toolbox. There wasn't a lot she knew about her, besides the fact that her name was Mischa Svetlana, she was seventeen, and loved her brother dearly.
Mischa looked up from her work, feeling the young Rockbell's eyes on her. She asked for an anatomy book for a reference before bidding the woman goodnight. The quiet allowed her to get more word done than earlier when her mentor hadn't ceased to blathered on about this and that. She had grown accustomed to Winry's intensity, but it never failed to surprise her when she would let out a massive screech about something she had done wrong. Truth be told, though Winry was an expert she was a terrible teacher with a short fuse. Nevertheless, she was thankful that the hundreds of miles she had traveled had paid off.
It was much later when she retired for the evening, a bit after two, as the clocked had chimed earlier. Her overcast eyes widened as she heard arguing in the main room. She stood on the stairs leading up to her room, eavesdropping.
"Why don't you ever just call like a normal human being? Is that too hard?" Winry's voice was strained, and Mischa could only imagine how distressed her expression must have been, especially now that it was so late, or rather, so early in the morning.
"Well, I thought you like surprises" A distinct male voice chuckled richly "Besides, it's not like anything has really changed since the last time I saw you"
The voice was vaguely familiar, but from where she did not know. Mischa leaned against the wall to listen some more. Thoroughly content in listening to the conversation until it became too fast for her to understand, grumbling about how she was too stupid to understand Amestrian, she ghosted up the stairs, pausing only to hear one last thing.
"Things have changed Edward, I can't wait forever you know! I've got a girl from Drachma, she counting on me to teach her how to build an arm for her brother! Believe it or not, she's got potential, a lot of potential, and she needs me to help her." Winry sounded almost distraught with the man "If you need your arm fixed that's fine, but don't expect me to be waiting next time you come back"
There was silence and Mischa shook her head, feeling that maybe she had ruined something for her teacher.
The next morning the Drachman had found Winry and the blonde man sitting in the workshop, he whispering sweet nothings in her ear. She coughed lightly to alert them of her presence, the duo jerked apart and Winry blushed deeply
"I'm sorry to disturb you, I was just going to tell you that the arm is finished and I will be taking my leave soon" Mischa nodded, her silvery eyes serious and dark.
"Will you be back in time for the wedding?" Winry asked eagerly, surprising the youth
"I- I- I, uh, do not know" Mischa sighed "I must fetch my brother"
"How long do you think it will take? I want you to be my maid of honor" the lively woman pressed
"I'm…oh Winry" the Drachman shook her head "You can't push your wedding back because of me. I will return in two weeks"
"Good! We're having the wedding in a month" Her mentor grinned
"I depart this afternoon" Mischa bowed slightly "I will return as soon as possible"
Winry's eyes bulged as she asked why she would depart so soon, Mischa simply bowed again and grabbed her pack from the floor. She was sitting in the chair by the door when the blonde man from the workshop approached her, she looked up from lacing her boots and stared sullenly.
"You're her…apprentice then?" He asked his golden eyes studying her
"Yes, I am Mischa Svetlana" She poked out her hand in salutation
Taking her hand he shook it firmly "Edward Elric, The Fullmetal Alchemist"
He took pride in the title she could tell, she smiled softly at that, her stern mask dissolving "Well, I must be off to the train station, it was…a pleasure to meet you"
"You're retrieving your brother, he's the one you're making the arm for isn't he?" Edward pressed
She nodded "It's the least I can do for him"
And with that, she was out the door, her eyes set on the horizon.