A/N: I'd like to acknowledge that I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, and that I only own parts of the dialogue for this story. The conversation in the kitchen took place on a Facebook role-playing page.
Anyway, I own the plot…. that's about it.
Also, YAY! This is my 25th Story, happy anniversary to mee! (squeals)
It was around ten o'clock in the morning, and the sound of laughter could be heard in the backyard of the Elric's Resembool home. Once being called the Rockbell home, it housed Edward, Winry, and their two children, Sarah and Nina.
The children were playing in the backyard with their cousin, Trisha, and the other member of the five-year old's group, Maes while they were being supervised by Edward, Alphonse, Roy, and Ling. The Xingese Emperor had decided to visit at the same time as Alphonse and Mei, bringing his loyal bodyguard Lan-Fan with him across the desert. Deciding to make it a party, they also invited the Mustang family, and the Hughes family.
Alphonse was turning burgers on the hot plate he'd set up over the barbeque, while the children giggled and squealed. Mei, Lan-Fan, Riza, Gracia and Winry were all inside in the kitchen.
While Riza cuddled with her youngest child, Liz, who was barely a few weeks old, and Mei lounged on the sofa, her pregnant bump stuck into the air, Lan-Fan and Winry stood in the kitchen, preparing to make the apple pie that had become tradition for the group to eat every time they came together. Instead of assisting with the cooking, however, Gracia decided to take a break and take a whole load of photos instead, as a tribute to her husband. Elicia sat, looking bored, in the family room, reading a magazine by herself, having just reached that age where family functions bored her.
Lan-Fan stood watching as Winry swept her hair back into a ponytail. The black-haired twenty-eight-year old stood, her apron back-to-front, and holding a whisk upside-down, staring at the utensil with a confused appearance.
"Uh… let me help you with that," Winry said as she noticed the other woman. She took the whisk from Lan-Fan's hand, turned it up the other way, and smiled.
"Oh.." the assassin stared at it again, "That'd explain why my baking is always lumpy."
"Heheh, yeah. Uh, so first, we need to get the dog out of here. She likes to eat pastry," Winry began, dragging the dog out of the back door and closing it behind the four-legged mammal, who decided to go after all of the food in the back-yard instead.
"Um, are you sure you want to go through with this, Lan-Fan?" the blonde asked, and her friend nodded resiliently.
"Okay, we need to pre-heat the oven. We need Musta- I mean, uh, matches." Out in the garden, Roy sneezed.
Riza looked up at the mention of her last name, but shook her head and went back to nursing Liz, ignoring the scene before her.
"I have some, is this what you were after?" Lan-Fan asked, producing a box of matches from her pocket. Winry didn't even know why she had them on her, but decided that she was better off not knowing.
"Yep. Can you light the oven, please, while I get the pastry ingredients," Winry managed a smile. This did not look good.
Lan-Fan nodded, turned to the oven, and stared at it for a few seconds, before lighting a match and throwing inside, shutting the door. Winry froze.
"Done….?" Lan-Fan turned back to Winry, who nodded slowly, realizing that she was working with a maniac.
"Great. Now, how about you do something more simple… can you peel these apples for me?" Winry handed over the five green apples, expecting it to take the other woman a while to do. She began to sift the flour and sugar together into the bowl, when she heard a thunk. Turning back to Lan-Fan, she saw the woman throw the apples into the air, then slice at them with her katana, neatly peeling and slicing them in one smooth action. Winry flinched.
"Heheh… uh, now can you do me a favour?" Winry asked, and the other woman nodded sincerely.
"Right. Now, down by the lake next to the train station, there is a patch of herbs. I need you to pick me some mint, can you do that?"
The bodyguard nodded, before turning and racing out of the door. The blonde woman sighed, ignoring the constant flashing of Gracia's camera.
Winry had enough time to mix up all of the pastry and line the dish that she was going to use with it, ready for the apples.
"Oh, no!" She cried as she remembered. Riza looked up again.
"What's wrong?" Gracia asked.
"I forgot to re-light the oven," the blonde young woman muttered, and grabbed a match, lighting it properly as Lan-Fan came back.
"I brought along a few sprigs, is this enough?"
Winry had no idea where her friend had gotten the basket from. Then again, if a random stranger wearing a Xingese mask and a backwards apron demanded a basket of her, she'd probably hand one over too.
"That's plenty, thank you," she said weakly, looking at the entire plant that was in the basket. She'd have to apologize later to the people who maintained that herb garden.
"What would you like me to do now, Winry-san?" Lan-Fan asked. The woman racked her brain to find a simple task for the other to do.
"Over there, there's some vanilla sugar. You can put one or two teaspoons into the apples and mix it all up, and then put it in the pie." Lan-Fan nodded her assent and began her task, as Winry went back to cutting out tiny pieces of pastry to make a two-dimensional automail to sit on top of the pie lid.
A few minutes of silence, where Winry felt like snapping at Gracia for the amount of photographs she took, and then-
"Done!"
Winry turned at the sound of her friends' voice, having only just finished her design as well.
"That's great, La- uh, can I ask why there are two teaspoons in the pie?"
"You told me to put one or two teaspoons in…"
Winry almost- ALMOST- hit herself in the head with the palm of her hand.
"Yes. I did. That was my fault. Okay," she said, pulling the offending utensils out of the apple mixture, and placing the lid and design on top, "We're done. It can go in the oven now."
"Yay," Lan-Fan said, pulling off her apron. "I must make that again for His Excellency."
Winry attempted a smile, but she imagined that it came out looking more like a grimace.
"I'm sure he'd like that."
That day, everyone ate their apple pie without complaint, and congratulated the two women on their work. The one sprig of mint that had been used to garnish the food lay at the bottom of the dish.
A/N: There we are! xD Hope you enjoyed it! xD