A.N.- My first attempt at writing for Fullmetal Alchemist. It is pretty short because it's just an experiment. Please let me know how you like it and if I did ok. Thank you and enjoy!
FanggirlX
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.
The train whistle screeched through the air signaling that it was pulling out of the station. Steam from the train engine shrouded the ground in a thin warm veil. Stepping through the damp mist Winry glanced around the boarding station. Where were they? Where was he? He was supposed to be there to greet her and take her to the inn. There was no sign of Al either, and he was the responsible one; which was sad considering he's the younger brother.
Winry sighed and headed for a bench to sit and wait a while. She'd give them a little while longer and then she'd call for a ride to take her to the inn.
Twenty minutes later her patience was just about as frayed as it possibly could be. Winry stood, clenching her fists and growling to herself quietly.
"Damn that Edward…" she grumbled to herself.
"Hey Winry!" his voice called out.
Her head snapped up and she locked eyes with him.
He stood waving like a lunatic several yards away, Al in his mighty metal armor beside him.
Anger momentarily forgotten in the rush of excitement, Winry ran to them.
"Guys!"
Ed opened his arms to hug her in greeting. An unexpected pain to the head had him falling to the ground on his butt.
Rubbing his abused skull Ed glared up at Winry, the blonde clutched a wrench in her hand. The anger had been remembered.
"What took you guys so long?" she glared down at Ed.
He glared back up at her, leaping to his feet fists clenched tightly at his sides he shouted, "We had business to take care of first we couldn't help it."
Winry huffed, "It's fine just take me to my inn now please. I'm bushed."
Ed looked at her apologetically before mumbling, "Well…see, we have one place we have to stop first…"
Winry felt her eye twitch. Of course they did, and odds were it wasn't to get celebratory ice cream for her arriving.
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Roy sighed dramatically as Hawkeye shot yet another magazine full of holes.
"Why exactly do you feel the need to torment me like this?" he grumbled, as he tossed the ruined magazine away with the flip of his wrist. The question was not exactly directed to her more actually it was Roy just talking to himself but she replied anyway.
"You need to get your paperwork done, Sir, you need to set your priorities better."
Roy sighed again and pulled out his pen slowly. Just as he was about to put ink to paper the door to their office slammed open and in pranced Hughes.
"Roy, I'm bored, things are moving much too slowly for my liking today. Let's go get a drink?" he said with a hopeful expression as he crossed the room, a slight whine in his voice.
Roy's onyx eyes lit up with glee, "Yes, I agree. We should call an early quits today! Everybody today is much too slow take the rest of the day and find something to do!"
Before Hawkeye could stop any of them the team all grabbed their coats and vanished as if a magician had said abracadabra.
She stared down Roy, who obeyed her silent demand of replacing his toush in his seat.
Roy looked to Hughes sorrowfully, "I'm sorry, it seems I may not be able to join you on this fine evening. Hughes."
Roy looked pleadingly to Hawkeye, "Why can't I go? Everyone else got to leave."
The blonde woman grinned a bit twistedly, "Yes, do you want to be part of that little group tomorrow when they receive their punishment for obeying such a ridiculous declaration?"
Roy thought about it and then smirked wolfishly, "Maybe, depends on-"
Hawkeye slamming her book down on the desk shut him up quickly.
Hughes who was now settled in one of the comfy chairs in the room giggled into his hand. Roy shot him a dark glare full of malice, yet Hughes remained unaffected he even was kind enough to wave to his friend.
A flash of red out the window then caught the spectacled man's eye.
Upon seeing Ed and his brother as well as that cute little girl they were friends with trotting towards the building he grinned. Hughes suddenly had an idea to save not only himself from boredom but his buddy as well.
"Hawkeye, if I remember correctly…Fullmetal is supposed to be coming by this evening for a discussion on their latest mission."
Roy caught on quickly to the fact that this saved him from paperwork, "Ah yes. Fullmetal. Boy must have slipped my mind…small people usually do."
Chuckling at his own words Roy stood and sauntered toward the door.
The ice cold tone of Hawkeye froze him, "Fine, your paperwork will be here waiting for you when you are finished." Poised to open the door and leave the man glanced back at her a lock of his black hair falling into his eyes. The woman certainly knew how to kill any amount of joy…
Smiling at her broadly Roy nodded, "Yes, thank you Hawkeye."
Before she could change her mind and chain him to his seat Roy dashed out of the room, Hughes close behind him.
"Ahh…Hughes that was a great idea. Fullmetal, I'd have never thought of that one. Pipsqueak finally was good for something."
Hughes opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a shriek of indignant anger, "Who are you calling a pipsqueak?!"
Roy narrowed his eyes at Hughes, "He was really coming?"
Hughes nodded and pulled his friend aside to whisper his plan to him.
Once filled in Roy laughed merrily, "Oh this could give me hours of entertainment! Hours!"
Hughes nodded and motioned for Roy to take the lead, after all Hughes was a man of thought so he tended to let others carry out the plans he devised. A gleam in his eyes shimmered off his glasses as he thought to himself, So that if it blows up in their faces, I don't get any repercussions.
"Fullmetal, this last assignment was a disaster, a complete disaster, just what did you think you'd solve carrying yourself the way you did?"
Edward's young face flushed with shame and anger.
Roy smirked inwardly, so he'd guessed right. Thank god for predictable subordinates.
"It's not like we had much of a choice the guy was-"
"Ah, ah, ah. Excuses are pointless. For such reckless behavior time and time again I feel some…discipline is in order."
Ed's left eye twitched slightly, "Discipline?…What sort of discipline?"
Hughes stepped up, "Well, I think you should go easy on them this time, Roy. I mean, the kid's right. He hadn't had much of a choice in the matter this time; he'd been stuck in a between a rock and a hard place. Right, Ed?"
Edward smiled gratefully at Hughes for coming to his aid and nodded, "Yeah that's right."
Roy pretended to think this over before he nodded his agreement, "Very well then, you have to clean the mess hall. That seems punishment enough."
Hughes winced dramatically, "Oooo, but there was a food fight earlier."
He turned to the boys and explained, "It turned into an actual fight but let me tell you, gravy and mystery meat were thrown all over. It's even on the ceiling! The poor janitors have been so busy they hadn't gotten to it yet."
Roy chuckled silently, keeping his face perfectly still. What they didn't know was Hughes and Roy had been the main offenders in starting it in yet another attempt to make something interesting happen. Of course something had since it had become an all out brawl. Another fact the men were leaving out was that in reality it was their job to clean up the mess hall.
Edward sighed and glanced over his shoulder at Winry. "Sorry, Winry." he muttered sadly. "We'll try and be fast…"
Hughes felt a small pang of guilt, their friend rarely got to come visit them…
"She can join you." Roy said, "She can sit in there and watch or help if she wishes. I have no problem allowing her on the grounds this once."
Winry narrowed her eyes at the two men, "Thanks…"
Edward and Alphonse slowly trudged down the hall toward the mess hall, with Winry close behind them.
In the cafeteria, it looked like a meat war had taken place. Gravy was literally on the floor, walls, and ceiling; not to mention the windows, tables, and nearly every piece of furniture.
Alphones whispered, "I don't think I'll want to see gravy for a month after this."
Ed nodded and turned to Winry, his golden eyes sorrowful, "I really am sorry, Winry, if I'd been more careful earlier this would've never happened."
Unable to take the look on his face Winry shrugged, "It's fine, Edward, just hurry so we can get me checked in."
Smiling slightly he thanked her and pulled on a pair of gloves that lay in the pile of cleaning supplies left by the doors.
Alphonse pulled on a large pair himself and the boys set about cleaning the gravy covered mess.
Winry watched them for about an hour before she couldn't take much more. They both looked miserable.
Walking over quietly she rolled up her sleeves and pulled on gloves of her own.
She knelt and began scrubbing the floor with a wash brush.
Ed heard the extra sound and turned to see what it was, "Winry, no. What are you doing?"
She smiled at him sweetly, "This'll get done a lot faster if I help you guys."
A soft look came in his golden eyes and Edward nodded, smiling slightly, "Yeah, you're right. Thanks, Winry."
It went peacefully for about twenty minutes.
Ed's temper flared as he, for the umpteenth time, pried a piece of meat off of the window, having the unidentifiable meat substance fly into his face with a splat.
"Just what kind of punishment is this?!" he shouted flailing his arms about angrily, "I bet this wasn't even a real punishment! Knowing those crooked soldiers they just didn't want to clean it themselves! Those lazy jerks! That's exactly like something they'd pull!"
Alphonse tried to soothe his brother, gently saying, "But, brother they were right. We did mess up again, and maybe this isn't a real punishment but what if the real one is even worse? We should be grateful to them."
Ed swung his head around to glare at his little brother, "Like hell I'll be grateful for this! Those idiots are using us!"
In his short rant Ed had flung his arms about again, in an attempt to expel some of his excess angry energy. The sponge he'd been holding in his rubber gloved hand slipped out and flew upward, towards the mess they'd yet to get to on the ceiling.
It hit a particularly nasty looking pile of gunk and then fell to the ground with a slap.
Ed who had stared on in fear, dreading it knocking that awful mess down on top of them sighed his relief…though much too soon.
Turning back to the windows he and his brother heard the sickening plop signifying some meat had indeed fallen.
As he was turning to see where it had fallen he heard a low dangerous growl, "Ed…ward…"
Eyes wide in fear Ed held out his hands to stave off the steaming mad gravy covered Winry, who had a piece of mystery meat sliding down the side of her head. "It was an accident, Winry! I didn't mean to! I didn't know it'd fall!"
Slowly as she stalked towards the boy she picked up a big mop.
With a crazed look in her usually lovely blue eyes Winry screamed her fury and dove at Ed who barely managed to miss being hit before dashing off.
Alphonse helplessly watched on as Winry chased Edward all around the mess hall, both of them slipping and sliding in the mess.
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Elsewhere Roy and Hughes were giggling like school girls as they watched the wild chase take place through binoculars.
"This was a great plan, Hughes. Not only do I skip paperwork and manual labor but I get to torture Fullmetal."
Hughes nodded where he crouched beside his friend, "It was good if I do say so myself."
The men then heard a third voice, "Oh yes, very good."
They froze in fear and met each other's gaze. That had been the voice of…oh no. The duo turned to see their worst fear.
Hawkeye.
"Sir…" she growled.
Roy jumped up, "My, look at the time! I should be heading back to my office, Hughes. I have much, so very much paperwork I need to get done before my lovely lieutenant gets stressed out!"
Hawkeye grabbed both of them by the ear and dragged them off before either could make their escape.
They didn't bother struggling, it'd only provoke her wrath further.
The pair of friends looked to each other, extravagant tears in their eyes, "It was nice knowing you, buddy."
Roy nodded as best he could, "You too, man. We had a good run."