Chapter 2: New Partner
Finally, the clock striked ten. After hours and hours of work Amy was finally free to head back home. Most everyone else had already left. They were all probably passed out in they're warm beds by now, surrounded by blankets and blankets of covers and cushy pillows to lay they're heads upon. A feeling Amy Tokohashi was just moments away from as she drove towards home. Glad that she could finally escape all the hard days worth of paper work.
After what seemed like forever Amy had finally pulled her car into her small apartment driveway. She sighed deeply as she began to turn off the engine and pulls the keys out of the ignition. Gathering up all her files of paper and work bag she opened the door of her old faded blue car and stepped out. She rose her head up towards her house, smiling slightly. Man did it feel good to be home. She already knew that Gabbi was probably still up due to the fact that the lights in the living room were still on. Chuckling, she shook her head and slammed her car door shut, walking up the stair rail way and up to her apartment.
"I'm home!" She called out, quietly closing the front door behind her. The moment she came in she was greeted to a big mess of toys, coloring pages, crayons, markers, and books that the twins had left behind. Amy sighed deeply at the mess and threw her stuff onto the couch nearby. 'Another mess I have to clean. Just great...' She thought glumly as she slowly began picking up the toys.
"Oh Amy, your home." A surprised voice said from behind.
Amy turned her head around to find Gabbi coming downstairs from the twins bedroom holding some dirty clothes. She smiled, "Hey Gabbi. Sorry i'm late. Edward kept me over time for coming to work late." She mumbled as she placed the twins toys into they're small toy chests.
Gabbi smiled as she walked towards her, "It's cool I kind of figured that would happen."
"Heheh yea. So did everything go alright with Koharu and Hotaru today?" Amy asked looking back at her.
"Uhm yeah actually! We had lots of fun play a few games, coloring, and watching tv." She said smiling.
Amy chuckled, "Yeah I can see that." She said pointing out the mess that was still lying around.
Gabbi grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck, "Sorry about the mess. I was just on my way down here to clean up everything after putting the twins to bed until you showed up. As you can tell we've been having a pretty busy day."
"Yeah, it's cool. Did the two eat all of they're dinner?" Amy asked, placing all the crayons, markers, and coloring books on the table.
"Almost. The both of them still won't eat they're greens." Gabbi laughed, "They kept insisting that I give them desert anyway. Koharu through a fit afterwards when I told him he had to at least finish his pea's first before I gave him any ice cream. Same with Hotaru. So I gave them both a bath for punishment, but man did they scream. It took me thirty minutes just to catch one and settle them down in the bath tub." She sighed.
Amy laughed, "Figures. They hate taking baths. Did they tire out afterwards?"
"Mmhm. As soon as I got them into they're pajama's they went out like a light." She giggled.
"That's good." Amy said with relief as she collapsed back on the couch behind her. She yawned tiredly, slipping off her shoes as she layed back against the couch, taking in a deep breath along with it, "Man what a day..." She muttered looking up at the celling.
"Did everything go ok at the office?" Gabbi asked, putting the rest of the dirty clothes in the laundry basket beside the kitchen.
Amy sighed and shook her head, "Sorta. Edward made a big shocking annoucement today."
"What kind of annoucement?"
"Apparently after all these years he's failed to tell me that he actually still had family that existed! His younger brother is going to be joining the rest of us slaves now." She grumbled, putting her hands behind her head in a lazy fashion.
"Hm wow. That is surprising. I didn't know Edward had a brother. He hardly ever talks about his family. Do you know his name?"
Amy snorted, "Some cheese ball named Alphonse. Pft, even by the name I can tell he sounds dorky. Even Winry never mentioned him, and from everything I heard today Ed's younger brother is the complete opposite of himself. They must be embarrassed by him or something." She muttered.
"Alphonse? That doesn't sound like a dorky name to me. It sounds pretty cute." She smiled with a small blush, "Which department is he working under?"
"Not sure yet. Ed said he would explain everything by tomorrow though. I hope the poor boy isn't stuck with some idiot like Riza was when Havoc first started out." She chuckled remembering that day. She could still hear how loud Riza Hawkeye, the corporation's instructor, had yelled at Jean Havoc on his second day working. Apparently he had nearly lost all of his paper filing and had accidentally broken the copying machine they day and had nearly blown a small fuse inside Riza's patience and she completely went off on him. It was scary but for some reason so amusing at the same time. She giggled at the memory.
Gabbi laughed as well, "Oh yeah I remember you telling me about that. Havoc and the rest are still working there though, right?"
"Yeah. It's been a year since then. They've mastered they're jobs and everything's been ok since then..." She said softly, her voice trailing off in the air. It was quiet for a few moments, both the girls sitting in comfortable silence as they rested they're eyes against the couch. It wasn't long until Amy slowly opened her eyes back again and turned her head to look over at her old friend, "Hey Gabbi? Did you find any interesting jobs you wanted today?" She asked.
Gabbi sighed and looked down, a dark gloom taking over her, "Unfortunately no..." She muttered. "There's barely anything i'm interested in."
"Oh..." Amy spoke quietly, "I'm sorry. I really wish I could help you out." She said softly, sitting up.
"Meh, it's fine. You have your own life to worry about. I'll deal with being jobless in the meantime." She smiled reassuringly, "But you should really go on ahead and go upstairs to get some rest. You've had a long day and you have to get up early, and you don't want to be late again." She chuckled.
Amy sighed and smiled back at her, standing up in the process as she began to stretch, "Yeah I guess your right." She yawned turning back around to Gabbi, "It has been a long day. You get some sleep to, ok? Maybe tomorrow we could call in another babysitter to take care of the twins while you go out job hunting. That sound ok to you?"
Gabbi shook her head, "Naaa. It's fine. I'll try finding some jobs on the computer that way you don't have to spend the rest of your money on some cheap teenager who won't even bother to play with two rugrats." She giggled, "I'll be fine, like I said."
Amy shrugged as she headed towards the stairs, "Alright then. Whatever makes you happy. I guess i'll be seeing you in the morning!" She called out, "Goodnight!"
"Goodnight!" Gabbi called back, both waving back at each other as they eventually headed to they're own rooms to sleep for the night. Awaiting and hoping, like each night before, that the new day would bring hope and something new...
"Ugghhh! So many...damn...paper work...neeeeh!" Groaned a tired Amy as she slammed her head against her work desk, which was at the time, covered with paper work and documents.
After finally waking up at an early time, Amy had already gone strait to work the next early morning of the day, making sure not to be late so she wouldn't have to work over time like she had done last night. The twins were still in bed by the time she had left so she didn't have much of a chance to say goodbye to her children as much as she wanted to, even though Gabbi had already promised her that she would do it for her, she still felt bad about it. 'I never do get to spend any time with my own kids.' She thought sadly, 'I'm always so wrapped up in work it's hard to believe I even get the chance to them everyday.' She sighed deeply and turned her head to look at her plain, dull office clock.
10: 55
'The twins must be up by now.' She thought as her eyes then adverted down towards her red cell flip phone. She stared at it for a few minutes as her right hand slowly dropped the ink pen from her grasp and inched towards the small cell phone. Her fingers twitched with anticipation as she gently stroked the sides of the object, 'It wouldn't hurt to check up on them. It's not like i'm going to be trying to avoid my assignment or anything. I just hardly get the chance to talk to my children.' She thought as she grasped it slowly into her hand. She looked around, making sure that all the blinds had been closed and then looked down at the cell phone. She slowly took in a deep breath and opened her phone up, 'Alright! Here goes!' She thought, about to press the speed dial button until...
'READY STEADY CAN'T HOLD ME BACK, READY STEADY GIVE ME GOOD LUCK, READY STEADY NEVER LOOK BACK, LETS GET READY STEADY GOOOOO!!' -catchy jingle-
"GAH!" Amy jumped in surprise as her cell phone began going off, playing the ring tone from her favorite band. She blinked a couple times, her heart pounding at the sudden alarm and looked down at her cell phone.
'Gabbi Emerson'
Amy chuckled, "Huh, what do you know. It's like that girl's got ESP or something." She muttered to herself as her thumb pressed down on the talk button and raised the phone up to her ear, "Hello?"
"Hey Amy! What's going on!? I'm not bothering you am I?" She asked cheerfully.
"Oh hey, not much just working on some extra paper work. I was actually just getting ready to call you and check up on Koharu and Hotaru."
"Well what do you know!" Gabbi giggled, "The twins are doing just fine! They woke up just a while ago and are watching some cartoons on the couch." She said, pausing for a moment before continuing, "Hey Amy? I don't know if this is a bad time or not, you know since that new guy of Edward's is going to be working there, but you see I have great news to tell you!" She said happily.
"Really? What is it?"
"I just applied for a job at Philosopher's Corporation!" She giggled with excitement.
Amy's eyes widened with surprise, "Wow, really? That's great! But why did you decide to work here?"
"Well I needed to the extra money. I'm already looking for a good decent babysitter or at least a daycare to take in the twins. I should have enough to put them through some kind of program. That is, if it's alright with you?"
"Yeah, sure! Of course it's alright with me! You've really been putting alot of thought into this haven't you?" She asked, chuckling. Amy smiled slightly as she continued listening to her old friend talk. It was going to feel different with having her work around here, but she knew Gabbi had no other place to work at. None of the place she had suggested in the past interested her friend, but she was completely sure that she would be interested in it here either. She nodded her head as she continued talking to Gabbi, until she began hearing a loud knock at her office door. She blinked a looked up, hearing two familiar voices along with the knocking.
"Hey Amy! You mind taking a break for a minute? We have a special surprise for you!" Giggled a cheerful Winry behind the door as the loud knocks continued.
"Yeah! Hurry up and finish up that paper work! This shouldn't take too long! I promise it'll be worth your while!" Shouted the voice of a surprisingly happy Edward.
Amy blinked a couple times at the sudden interruption and began to sigh as she turned her attention back to her cell phone, "Hey Gabbi? I'm sorry but could we continue this later tonight? Apparently i'm being called away on something else." She said, nodding as she listened to Gabbi, "Alright then, seeya later tonight. Bye." She called, bringing her phone back down to her lap and closing the phone back up as she then placed it back on her desk.
She sighed as she then looked back towards the door, "Alright you can come in, but this better be important you two! I don't have time for this!" She shouted back in a harsh and annoyed tone. She watched as her office door quickly began to open up, Edward and Winry walking in with very scary and disturbing smiles.
Amy sweatdropped, "Uhm, can I help you?" She asked, coughing.
Edward smiled down at her as he leaned against her doorway, "Hey Amy, sorry if we disturbed you, but we were wondering if you'd like to take the time away from your busy schedule to help out a new employee of ours." He said with a smirk.
Amy arched her left eyebrow, "What do you mean, 'new employee'?" She asked, getting suspicious.
Ed shrugged as he turned his head to look out into the hallway, "Oh I don't know. Maybe you'd enjoy some company for a while in this lonely cold office of yours. You seem like the type that would enjoy some new help, you know?" He said with amusement as he looked down at the floor, shoving his hands into his pockets.
Amy sighed and frowned up at him, "No I don't know Edward. Just spit it out already. I don't have time for games today. I would like to get a head start on my work so I can get home to my kids early." She said with annoyance.
"Yeah your right. Maybe I should just go ahead and say that you got a new helper in your old secretary job." He snickered as Amy's eye's went wide with shock and fear.
"No...Edward please don't tell me you did what I think you just did, PLEASE!"
He snickered as little red horns began to slide out from the top of his evil blond little head, "That's right. Amy, please meet your brand new partner and co worker, my younger brother, Alphonse Elric!!" He cheered quickly stepping aside so his brother could make his way into the office.
Amy's mind mentally screamed in horror as she watched a tall dirty blond man come stumbling into her office, carrying a couple boxes that Ed has given him earlier that day. she watched as the boy blushed deeply as he walked in, completely embarrassed that he had nearly tripped right in front of her, "H-Hi..." He mumbled shyly. The boy named Alphonse, once entering and catching his sights on his new partner, immediately felt his legs grow weak and his heart start to race as he gulped and stared at the beautiful woman before him, nearly tripping over his own two feet.
Ed grinned down at his younger brother as he gave him a big pat on the back, "Alphonse! This is where your going to be working from now on!" He said cheerfully as he lead Alphonse inside.
Amy growled, her eyebrow twitching with anger, "He is NOT...staying here!!" Harmony growled out.
"Oh come on Amy. Alphonse is that bad. He's actually really smart and could help you out on alot of extra paper work you have so you won't always be late to leave." Winry encouraged, walking over towards her.
"NO WAY IN HELL!!"
"But Amy-..."
"I SAID NO PIPSQUEAK!!"
"HEY! REMEMBER WHO YOUR TALKING TO!!"
Amy growled in anger. She couldn't believe this! After all these years of working alone, why would Edward even think about giving her a partner now!? What would this accomplish! He knew how much she hated alot of men! "Why Edward!? Why didn't you at least tell me!" She shouted out at him.
Ed frowned, "Hey now, relax! Go easy on Al! He's harmless!"
"That still doesn't make it ok!" She grumbled, turning away. Alphonse stared at her, feeling himself grow even sadder as he looked down at the floor.
Ed's face softened at the look on his brother's face and turned towards Amy with a serious expression, "Alright. If you really want to know why. Then please, follow me into my office." He whispered, walking towards the door.
"I'd rather-..."
"Think twice before you say it." Edward growled back at her.
Amy sighed and rolled her eyes as she began stomping her way over, brushing past Alphonse as she followed her way over towards Ed, "Fine! I'm coming, i'm coming." She grumbled as Ed soon began to lead her out of her office and upstairs towards his.
After they had both left the young man called Alphonse sighed deeply as he looked back down at the floor, clutching the bundle of boxes in his arms, "Figures she wouldn't like me..." He muttered sadly.
Winry smiled sympathetically as she wrapped her right arm around his shoulders, bringing him into a small hug, "Hey now, it's not your fault. Amy's always like this. She's just not use to working with other people, that's all. She has...trust issues. Especially with men." She said quietly.
Al looked up at her, "Why?" He asked.
"...You'll find out eventually. Just unpack all your things and wait until Amy gets back alright? Then you guys can introduce yourselves formally." She said, giving him a reassuring smile. Alphonse slowly smiled back as he soon began doing what he was told, still continuing his thoughts about his beautiful new partner...
"Alright Amy. Please sit down and make yourself comfortable." Edward said quietly as he walked towards his desk, hearing Amy closing the door behind them.
"I'd rather stand, thanks." She muttered, crossing her arms as she stood in front of him.
Ed merely shrugged as he sat back into his long comfortable black office chair, "Alright, suit yourself." He said, closing his eyes and resting back into his chair. Silence began to fill the room as neither of them said a word. Amy got a little uncomfortable with the silence and let out a small cough as she took a glance around his office. It was alot bigger than hers, but also alot darker. All the blinds were down and she could feel the cool air conditioner blowing in front of her, behind Edward. It was indeed a big and cold room, but also very stylish. She had to admit her boss did have good taste. his desk was made of glass, his sofa, leather, curtains, a silky red. For the owner of a big corporation he had it all. Even she had to admit, she was jealous.
She coughed, bringing herself back into reality as she looked back down at Edward, "So uhm, w-why exactly did you assign your brother with me?" She asked.
Ed sighed and looked up at his ceiling, "Why else Amy? I mean if you think about it clearly enough your the only one besides Winry I can actually count on." He admitted softly, "I can't trust any of the others to look after him cause you know just as much as I do how much they love to play around. You can't take them seriously. Not even for a moment." He frowned.
Amy looked down, "I understand, but honestly Edward. I have my own problems. I can't waste my time looking after one of your family members just because the kid can't find his own job and stick with it." She said shaking her head.
"That's not the problem though. He does just fine on his own, really he does, it's just the fact that because of him doing so well and passing everything so easily he's not so popular with the other employee's. They get jealous and constantly tease him and beat him up..." He said quietly closing his eyes.
"I'm sorry but that just isn't my problem." Amy sighed, "I can't defend him."
Edward shook his head as he looked down at her, "That's no what i'm asking."
"Then what are you wanting me to do? Train him? Teach him how to fight? Teach him how to be a man? To get girls?! What!?"
"...Be his friend Amy." He said softly, "He needs one. Me and Winry can't be his only family forever. He needs other people to interact with." He said staring up at Amy. She went quiet as she turned away from him. He sighed and looked down at his desk, "Please Amy. That's all I ask. Your the only one I can trust and i'm pretty sure Al will feel alot easier working with a girl for once. It'll make him more open, more comfortable. It'll boost his confidence a little." He said with a small smile.
Amy shook her head as she crossed her arms back over her chest, "I'm not too good with that sort of thing anymore. I'm not who I once was Edward. Maybe you should of told me you had a brother before this all started happening. Maybe then I would of accepted."
Ed sighed as he stood up from his desk, running his fingers through his hair, "I know, I know. But Al didn't like it very much when I talked about him in front of other people. He always feels in the shadows when it's compared to me. So I promised him I wouldn't."
"Oh yeah great job on that." She muttered, looking away.
"Ugh come on Amy. Please! Just do this! For me?" He begged, pleading through his eyes as he stared up at her with one of the most sorrowful looks he had ever given her.
Amy blushed and looked away, placing her hand on her chin, "I still don't know Edward..."
"I'll pay you extra, as much as you'd like!"
"Deal!" Amy grinned as she and Edward slapped they're hands together and shook on it.
Ed laughed as he smiled up at her, "Thank you sooo much Amy! It really means alot! Alphonse will be so happy about it!"
"Alright, alright! But before I go and do this is there anything I should know about? Like any kind of allergies or sicknesses he gets?"
Ed shook his head, "Nope! He's actually really healthy for his age! He's just really shy so try to talk more to him and get him to open up. Who knows you may actually find him to be one of the best friends you ever have!" He grinned.
Amy chuckled, "I dought that, I reallydought it..."
