Winry watched as her son, Toby, shoved away his milk, thinking his mom didn't notice. She left her work of fixing her husband's leg and walked over.
She leaned down and whispered in his ear, "Now you don't want to be short like, Daddy right?"
The young boy shook his head viciously and gulped down the milk, eyeing his father the entire time.
"What did you tell him?" Ed asked his wife.
"Oh, nothing!" She held a finger to her lips and looked pointedly at her son. Her son responded with a look of zipping his lips and throwing out the key. Winry smiled in return. She glanced over and watched her daughter, names Nina, waddle in the room. She held up a drawing and pointed at things saying what they were.
"Wow that's so good, honey!" Winry smiled. Nina then walked over to her dad, who picked her up and set her on his shoulders.
"Wow, I'm taller then Daddy!" She exclaimed happily.
"Didn't need much help with that..." Toby snorted and walked out of the room.
"Down! Down!" Nina giggled as her dad set her down and she chased after Toby.
Toby walked past the attic, he always avoided it because it was creepy to him. His sister still chasing after him looked at the open door and peeked in, noticing the room for the first time. She was having a hard time walking down the stairs, as they were very tall.
"T-Toby?" She called.
"Nina!" He heard her down the attic. He knew that place was scary and was very scared of his sister getting harmed. He remembered the promise he made to his dad for her the first day a kid had made fun of her.
Flashback
"Now Toby, I want you to protect your baby sister. I named her after a little girl I knew once."
"What happened to the little girl, Dad?" Toby asked, curiosity burning.
"She... She died. She had a very mean father who did very mean things. But that's not the point. I don't want to lose another Nina. I want you to protect her for as long as you can. Forever. Okay?" Ed looked into his son's eyes. He wanted more then anything his daughter safe, and more then anything he wanted his son to always be there. Someone who the old Nina didn't have.
"I promise."
Flashback over.
He followed after her down the stairs.
"Nina?" He called.
"Toby!" She was in a pile of mattresses, she must have tripped.
Toby picked her up and pulled her out of the mattress pile.
"Woah! Look at this place Toby!" Nina walked over to the corner and pulled out a suit case from a pile. She popped it open and inside was a small notebook.
"Can you read it?" She said thrusting the book to her brother.
"It's Dad's." He muttered looking at the hand writing.
"Yeah, but whats it say?" She asked, listening while pulling out more books from the case. She started to listen but stopped him.
"Toby, it all says the same thing, whats it mean?" She said staring down the pile of books almost as tall as she was.
"Well this one says, "The History of Alchemy", "Alchemy: the World's Sin", "Alchemy: Acts of Faith", "Alchemy: Knowing How"." He muttered the last bit, not wanting his sister to hear or learn about this stuff. It didn't look safe. She dug through the last one, despite Toby, and finally found what she was looking for.
"Pictures!" She exclaimed and stole some chalk from a book case, drawing the picture on the book. She then placed a stone in the middle.
"Nina, don't you dare!" But it was too late, Nina had already clapped her hands on the cold ground. They watched as a light sparked and followed the rims of the sign she drew, then flew into the rock. She picked it up and looked at it. It was in a perfect shape of a bunny, Nina's favorite animal.
She jumped up the stairs calling for her mom and dad to come see what she made. She was yelling about how pretty it was.
"Daddy look!" She yelled. He looked over and smiled.
"Oh that looks exactly like a rabbit. Did you find that stone?" He smiled at her.
"No I made it!" Her father looked at her doubtingly but still smiled, he plucked it from her hands and examined it.
"Oh and how'd you do that?"
"Alquermay!" She said, "Or is it Alcaymar... Oh I know! Al-che-my!"
Ed dropped the stone and it fell to the floor breaking.
"You used what?!"