This story takes place during the childhood of Winry, Edward, and Alphonse, before the loss of Alphonse' body and Edward's arm and leg, and before the passing of Trisha. The two brothers know little alchemy, only making small knick-knacks and toys. Winry is taking her first steps to learning about engineering and automail.

Chapter 1 – Mishaps

"Ugh, why can't I get this to work, Granny?" Winry whined as she tugged onto the wrench. She gave it another pull, and in the same motion, her hands slipped free from the handle, turning her into the ground with a painful thud. "Owww..."

Pinako offered a slight chuckle, lifting the small girl up by her arms. "Oh dear, you know you have to add a bit of oil before you screw it in. How about we take a little break?" She suggested, wiping her hands off with an oil-stained rag.

"Okay," Winry sighed. She walked over to the window, feeling a small pinch of shame for not impressing her grandmother. Her eyes swept the hilly plains of their property, pressing her small hands against the smooth window. She watched as the soft grass danced in the mild wind and the small white clouds raced across the sky as blue as her eyes.

Just as she was about to smile at the sight, a body slammed onto the window on the other side, causing her to lose her balance and fall over again.

"WINRY!" A small, muffled voice chirped.

"Edward? What are you doing?" Winry yelped, scrambling to get back to her feet.

Edward stretched a toothy grin and batted the palm of his hand against the window. "Come out here! We've got something to show you!" He yelled before taking off around the side of the house.

Winry furrowed her eyebrows, squinting after him. She shrugged and reluctantly turned from the window and headed for the door. As she opened the door, she immediately was alerted to the crunch of thin metal under her shoes. Scattered around the house were small pieces of scrap metal, bolts, screws, and many tools that belonged to Pinako.

"What the..?" She said, puzzled. Pinako had no sort of habit to leave parts or tools lying about, at least not outside. She silently prayed that what the boys were up to would not get her in misfortune with Pinako.

"Over here, Winry!" A voice that sounded like Alphonse rang out from around the house, followed immediately by a loud clutter of metal and then a yelp.

"Alphonse?!" Winry shrieked. Kicking away and dodging the heaps of metal, she dashed across the yard, following the house and turning at the corner. Upon rounding the corner, Winry was greeted with a sight of even more massive piles metal, this time, the metal pieces were fused together; Most looking like random masses of what seems to be imitating automail.

Winry's horrified expression grew deeper as she looked on ahead. Ahead of her, the largest mound of metal reached almost to the roof. On top of the roof stood Edward, bent over and laughing so hard that small tears formed at the corners of his eyes. Her eyes swept down to see Alphonse upside down on his back, leaning on the mountain of steel.

"Edward! Alphonse! What are you two doing?" She squeaked.

Edward cocked a smile at Winry. "Oh, Winry, it's nothing! We wanted to help you and granny with the automail stuff, so we figured we'd try our own tactic!"

"But... why are you using all of granny's tools? She's going to get mad!" Winry's croaked, her voice get louder and more high-pitched as tears began to fill her blue eyes.

Alphonse flipped himself over and quickly straightened up. "Winry, you have to stay quiet, please, its o-"

"Edward, Alphonse, what is the meaning of this?" A smooth voice interrupted.

Winry looked behind her, finding a soft, gentle hand that belonged to no other person than Trisha Elric, placed on her shoulder.

And that's it for Chapter 1, guys! Thanks for reading, and I'm sorry this was short, but I will be continuing this! Stay tuned!