DISCLAIMER: I do not own FMA
I know this is a bit long, but it's well worth it.
We arrived at the only person we trusted's house. Pinako. She was like a grandmother to us, but we weren't blood related. Winry was her granddaughter. And ever since we got back from central, Winry wasn't herself. Always running from me. I tried talking to her but she just got this angry, hurt face and left. I tried to get my brother, Al, to do my dirty work, but she wouldn't listen to him either. The only time she acknowledged our existence is when she hugged Al in his human body. She didn't even say hi to me. I felt really hurt and upset. I almost cried one night… okay, I did cry one night. Happy? So anyway, Pinako was no help either. She simply said she didn't know what was wrong with Winry.
I heard a creak from upstairs. Then a loud bang. "Hey, Winry!" I called from downstairs. No reply. "Winry I know you're up there!" Still no reply. "I'm coming up there!" I heard a quiet, Oh shit, from upstairs. I shrugged it off. She must be doing some mechanical work and hurt herself. So, I went to go investigate. When I opened the door, I was not ready for what I saw: A half-naked guy ready to jump out a second story window. Winry, still in bed. Winry blushed and started yelling at me to leave. I blushed at the thought of Winry naked under those covers. "Winry, what the hell is going on?" I yelled.
"You should really knock before waltzing into someone's room, Ed!" She yelled back. The still unknown half-naked guy proceeded to fall back into the house. Not too bright, I assumed.
"So who's this guy?" I demanded.
"No one Ed, so just go away," she growled.
The guy looked like a deer in headlights once he figured out who I was. "You-you're that, that Fullmetal kid," he stepped toward the window again, back against the wall.
"The one and only," I shot back.
"Please, sir, we don't want any trouble," he mumbled. Winry just glared at me.
"Huh, sir. I like the sound of that," I smiled mischievously. "I like to hear that from an enemy."
"Please, don't hurt us!" The guy whimpered.
"Oh, I won't hurt Winry. I have other plans for you though." I clapped, then placed my hands on the floor. The wood rose above his head and wrapped around him. He screamed in pure shock and terror, but not before Winry got up and punched me in the gut. I got a glimpse of her before I went down. She was clothed, mostly. Damn.
I woke up from the blackness of my mind after passing out from the pain. I moaned and rolled over, the light shining in my eyes. "Gaaahh…" I groaned. "Five more minutes." Then I realized the past events. I sat up and rubbed my head. Al was sitting across the room.
"Brother? How are you feeling?" He asked with concern.
"Like I've been punched in the gut and my heart's been ripped out my chest, still beating," I replied.
"Oh, I'm sorry Brother." He walked over to my bedside and placed an arm around my shoulders. I leaned on him, listening to his heartbeat for the first time in ages.
"Ya know, I haven't heard that in forever. It's nice," I said to him.
"Heard what?" He asked.
"Your heartbeat. I couldn't hear it through your armor. Well, minus the fact you really weren't in the armor."
"Oh," was all he could muster up. After a long, awkward pause, he asked, "So who ripped your heart out? Am I going to have to kick some ass?"
"Nah, nothing like that. It's just, well, yesterday I saw something I probably shouldn't have." I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I had to wrap this up. "I saw Winry in bed with another guy."
"What? Brother, are you sure?" Shock welled up in the form of tears.
"Saw it with my own two eyes. There's no mistakin' it. Winry was screwin' some low life." I sighed. Retelling it was the hardest part.
"That's… That's awful. And no one knew? How couldn't they? Shouldn't they have heard or seen something?" He just kept rolling out the questions, one after another until finally I had to interject.
"Al! Calm down! We can go talk to her okay?" He nodded as he headed toward the door, slipping his arm from behind me. I slipped on some pants and threw on a jacket before exiting with a stomach ache. The footsteps we heard were just Winry's dog, and he whimpered at us to pet him as we walked by. "No time right now, boy," I told him. We clomped down the stairs and went out the front door. Pinako was rocking in her new chair Winry made her as a Birthday gift. "You seen Winry?" I asked.
"Haven't yet today, shrimp," she grinned.
"Who you callin' shrimp? You old hag!" I fumed. Al pulled me away toward the river. He must've seen her before me 'cause I had no idea where she was. But, sure enough she was sitting by the water. I blushed, remembering yesterday. I turned and started to walk away when Winry called my name.
"Ed? Can I talk to you?" She turned to Al, "Alone?" Al nodded and trotted off downstream to find some fish. "Listen," she said while patting the grass beside her. I took a seat and crossed my arms. I was still a little upset. Okay, really upset. "Yesterday was an accident. We started out just working on some new automail for you, and things just got out of hand," she started tearing up. God, I hate it when she cries. Makes me feel like I've just murdered her family or something.
"Aw, Win. Don't cry. You know I hate it when you do that." I wrapped my arm around her as she sobbed, tears staining my jacket. "Come on, cheer up. No rain today, only sunshine."
She smiled as she remembered every time I've said that when she cries. "You know, I can remember the last time you said that. We were just kids and I lost my doll down the river. You froze it and retrieved my doll. When I got it back, it wasn't even wet."
"Gotta love alchemy. But I have one more question, why didn't you speak to us the entire time we were here?" I asked.
"I was too scared to admit I missed you guys. To tell you how hurt I was that you never called, you never wrote. Not once. For a while I thought you were dead. So when I saw you again I was furious. No one should be treated like that," She explained.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't even think—" She cut me off with a kiss.
"I've missed you," She said.
"Missed you, too," I kissed her and she wrapped her arms around my neck. Her lips were warm and soft. She smelled of roses. Winry always smelled of roses. She intertwined her fingers through my hair. I rested my hands on her bare legs and her back. He tongue slips through my teeth. She undoes my braid and my hair falls. My hand slips up the backside of her shirt. My grip tightens on her leg as she lays down, my lips still pressed against hers. I kissed a line from her chin to the base of her neck and so on. I was almost to her…
Al screamed. God dammit, Al. It was one of those ear shattering, blood curdling, you
know-something's-wrong screams. This better be good. I stood and gaped at the
horrendous sight before me. Al, blood from head to toe, came running as fast as he
could toward us. "Al, what happened?"
"They… They… They…" He stammered.
"Spit it out, Al!" I demanded.
"They're all… they're all dead." Was all he could say before falling to the ground unconscious. What'd he do? Roll in the blood? Sometimes, I just couldn't understand that boy.
"Winry, make sure Al's okay. Try to get some of the blood off him. I'm going to go see what happened." I started running from the direction from where he came. The bridge, I thought. Maybe someone got ran over. Sure enough, the bridge was where the action was, but it wasn't an accident what happened there. Something like that couldn't be an accident. Body parts everywhere, blood spatter as far as the eye could see, and the shocked faces of the dead as they were blown to bits. Al must've been there when it all happened. That explains the blood all over him. But why was he spared? Nothing made sense at the moment. One victim still remained, though just barely. She hung on for dear life.
"What happened here?" I asked, horrified.
"That man," she pointed at a half-there guy at the other end of the bridge. "He exploded with, with light coming from all around him. A blue light… A blue light…" she said as she slipped into darkness. I placed her jacket over her face in respect.
I walked over to the man accused. His palms were carved with transmutation circles. "Alchemy…" I said under my breath.
"Ed?" Winry called. "Ed? Is everything okay?" Her concerned voice pierced my concentration.
"I've had better days," I replied. "Uh, Winry? You might not want to come up here. It's kind of messy."
Too late. Her jaw dropped. She withheld a scream. "What… What happened here?" She fell to her knees, palms on her thighs, head down. Tears welled up and spilled over her blue eyes.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out," I whispered. "I know who, but I don't know why exactly. It looks like a terrorist attack. And he's the suicide bomber," I said as I pointed to the half man with the carved transmutation circles. It looked like the Crimson Alchemist, Kimblee, but he was unknown to me. Wait a minute, I thought as I saw and auroborous tattoo on his neck, he's a homunculus? But, I thought homunculi couldn't preform alchemy? Then saw that one of his arms wasn't the same pigment as the rest of him. So he's like Wrath, then. A rustle in the bush beside the bridge caught my attention.
"Mustang?" I asked, shocked that he was here.
"Think again, squirt." Mustang then shifted into Envy.
"Who you callin' squirt, you soulless murderer!" I scowled at the grin that spread evenly across his face.
"Ouch, a little harsh," he laughed.
"What do you think you're doing, sending one of your cronies to blow up innocent people?" I barked.
"Just having a little fun. Lighten up, pipsqueak. They're just humans after all." He seemed a little perkier than usual. I wonder if seeing people die puts him in a good mood…
"Oh, yeah? Well at least I don't look like a girl!" I shot back.
He just laughed and mutated into… me. "Oh, look at me. I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist and I make even an ant look tall!" He taunted.
Anger welled inside of me. I hate getting called short! "Stop it!" I yelled.
"Stop it," He mocked. He exaggerated the pitch of my voice and swung his hips. Then he pouted his lips and crossed his arms.
"I do not look like that!" I protested. I looked down. Arms crossed, hip out to one side. Oh, no. Ugh, since when have I done that? Straightened out my stature and placed my arms at my sides. "Why are you really here, Envy?"
"Just wanted to shake thing up a little. Get out of this rut, ya know?" He looked sincere, but that didn't make up for the lives he stole.
"Did you really have to kill people though? Couldn't you have blown a vacant building or something?" I asked.
"Aw, that's no fun!" He said, still in my voice. He grinned. Even in my body, it was still Envy's malicious grin.
"Can you not be me anymore? It's really creeping me out," I suggested.
"Fine." He morphed into Winry. "How's this?" The real Winry looked up at the sound of her voice and gasped. She stood and ran to Envy. She reached up to touch his face. "Neat, isn't it kid?" He smirked.
"Incredible, but how?" Envy shifted into Win's mom, Sarah. "No, anyone but her," She barely choked out before breaking down. "Please change it back!" She sobbed. In rage, she took a swing at Envy. Not her brightest move. Envy caught her fist and twisted her arm around until her back was to him. Winry cried out in pain.
"Let her go, you bastard!" I yelled. I tried to run at him, but he just continued to twist Winry's arm. She whimpered.
Ah, ah, ah," Envy tsked. "You don't want girlie here to lose an arm, do ya?" I stopped in my tracks, fists balled at my sides. "Good. Now run along, kid. You don't need to be here when I snap her neck." I cringed at the thought.
"Let her go, dammit!" I demanded, ready to use alchemy.
"You'll have to fight me for her!" Envy tightened his grip on Winry's arm before I heard a snap, and he threw her to the sighed. She cried out and held her arm tight, tears falling relentlessly.
I clapped and used the iron in the blood to from a spear. I charged at Envy, but he was too quick. "Come on, short stuff. Where's your game?" He snickered.
"And stop calling me short!" Envy knocked the spear out of my hand, forcing me into hand to hand combat, since I was without my automail arm to transmute into a sword. I didn't have time to make another spear and the one I had was long gone with the river current. I clipped his jaw, he got my gut. His nose bled before my hand, my shin's bruised. Crack, crack, crack of his fingers, crack, crack, crack of my ribs. He just kept healing. He was too tough, and I was weakening. I had to do something, quick. Before he killed me. I got an uppercut to his diaphragm which knocked him off his feet and over the bridge. He was quick to hop on the rocks and avoid the water. Why isn't he going in the water? Hm, maybe I can use it against him. I jumped down and landed directly in the river.
"Come in and fight me, you coward!" I challenged. Envy took a step forward, but quickly retreated. "What's wrong? Is the kitty afraid of a little water?" I heard a low rumble in his throat, suggesting a growl. He stepped up to his toes in water.
"Happy now, squirt?" He called.
"How are you going to fight me all the way over there?" I taunted.
He came in up to his ankles, and I saw steam rise. His face twisted in agony. He
quickly stepped out again. What's going on? Maybe a little alchemy will help him in. Dirt rose behind him and pushed him into the water. Aw, now my sleeves are
wet. I smirked. I shook off the water I could and walked over to see the damage. All that was left was a stone, but that disappeared into the soil as well. Odd, why did he dissolve in the water? I shrugged it off. Winry!
Winry was curled up in a ball, clutching her arm. "Hey, Win. You okay?" I asked. No reply. "Winry?" Still nothing. "Winry answer me!" Oh god, oh god, oh god. No, no! I rested a hand on her back.
"Stop yelling, Ed. I'm fine." A sigh of relief escaped. I scooped her up gently and started walking toward Al. His jacket and face were free of blood, but he was still unconscious. Mehh… I'll come back for him. I walked back to the house. I tried to walk smoothly but it still hurt Winry's arm. I set her on the porch in Pinako's chair.
I opened the door. "Hey, Granny, get a wet cloth. Win's in some rough shape. A splint, too." I left before she could ask why. Al was right where I left him. By the river, the tide lapping at his feet. I pulled him up into my arms and set off for the house. At the porch, Pinako gave me a quizzical look, but I just shook my head. I continued to the stairs and walked up them carefully. Never disturb a person who's unconscious and could be in some emotional shock. I gently set him on his bed and left to check on Winry. Blood everywhere, broken arm, but alive. That's all that mattered.
"What the hell happened here?" Pinako was splinting Winry's arm.
"Ran into some trouble. I handled it though, no worries," I reassured her. "Don't ask questions. I don't want to talk about it." She just nodded and continued helping Winry.
After about an hour, with Winry stable, I thought Al should be waking up soon. The stairs the led to his room creaked under my feet. I opened the door. It looked like Al was asleep, but I knew better. He looked peaceful, not his usual tossing and turning of nightmares. I sighed and turned to leave.
"Brother?" Al's voice was barely above a whisper.
"Yeah?" I turned around.
"I love you," He smiled.
I returned the smile. "Love you too, Al. Forever and always."