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Enjoy the second chapter!


Chapter Two:

Down the Road

Winry Rockbell stared out the window from her workbench in her ground-level workshop, wiping her sweaty forehead on her sleeve. She'd finished designing and building an auto-mail arm for her newest cash cow, and she was ready to show him what she could do.

"Here we are, Michael," Winry turned around, showing him the arm triumphantly. A young man looked up at her; he was tall with the same face and build of Edward, except he had dark hair and green eyes that, instead of reminding her of her dear Aunt Trisha Elric, reminded her of a pile of-

-well, it's not very appropriate.

"Thanks, baby girl, I knew I could count on you," he rose onto his feet, both flesh legs, and walked over to place a kiss on her cheek. She winced as he kissed a sore spot on her cheek. "Now, let me see . . ."

Winry showed him the arm again, looking it over. It was a much lighter steel than what she'd worked with earlier in her career, but it seemed to be more versatile and less prone to rusting. Plus, it didn't seem to bother Michael too much. It was made with a similar design to Ed's, with her signature carved on the wrist, exactly where Ed had his. Michael frowned.

"You had to make it that way, didn't you?" Winry wasn't sure what was wrong with it, but apparently there was something. Michael brought his hand up, making her look up at him and move to stop him but was too late when his hand collided with her cheek hard enough to leave a dark red mark. He glared at her as she rose her hand up to touch the mark, and cringed as he stomped out and slammed the door to her workshop hard enough to make her scream. Tears reached her eyes.

That's the second time he's hit me today. That's six times this week and it's not even over Winry moved toward the door, grasping the handle when she heard Den bark loudly. "Michael, can you see who's here?"

When silence was her reply, she frowned and walked out, stealing a peek from the window. "Well, I'll be damned . . ." she grabbed her fleece jacket and opened the door, allowing Den the first run toward two figures who made it over the hill and were talking nonsense, most likely. She went out on the porch and pulled something out of her back pocket, it glinting in the sunlight.

At first, her reaction was excited, a smile gracing her face as she recognized that smile that only belonged to the always-friendly and loving Alphonse Elric. But when she caught the gaze of his elder brother, her eyes turned evil and a passerby would swear they saw flames shoot up from the ground. She pulled her weapon up over her head, and threw with excellent precision toward the elder Elric's head.

The loud "Agh!" let her know she'd hit her target.

She broke into a run off of the porch and toward the figures.


"Brother!" Al watched his brother fall to the ground as his cranium was smacked by a silver wrench. He couldn't help but smile at the took, because that meant . . . "It's Winry!" he stood up, ignoring his brother's cries and pleas for help, and soon was on the ground himself, holding a giggling Winry Rockbell in his arms.

Winry picked her head up and flashed a smile at Al. "Welcome back, you morons!" she giggled, getting off of him and helping him stand. She stood straight and placed her hands on her hips, switching into a mode where Al could swear they went to the same Detective Camp he did. "And you!"

Ed opened an eye, nursing his throbbing head. "Yeah, me. The same 'me' who came back to see you," he started to get up, still holding his head with his cold auto-mail hand and holding himself up and steady with his left hand. "But maybe that was a bad . . . Mm?"

Winry had fallen on her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck before he could continue, and his cheeks became light pink. He took his hand away and rested it on the small of her back while his left moved around her shoulders. Winry sniffed. "Welcome back, you bone-head. I missed you both."

Ed's face felt like it was on fire. "Th-Thanks."

Before either of the brothers had enough time to even look at each other, a gruff voice was heard clearing its throat. Winry pulled back, getting on her feet and looked at the ground but spoke to the brothers. "I'm not sure if you guys remember, but this is . . ."

"Calloway. Michael," Al spoke, resting a single hand on his hip as Winry used to. Ed got up onto his feet and stared Michael down.

"Michael, huh?" Ed almost mistook Al for General Mustang. He stood in front of Michael, having to look up slightly. "It's been a while, hasn't it Calloway?"

"Edward Elric, is that you?" Michael had a deeper voice than Ed and Al, maybe closer to Roy's tone, and was a good 4 inches taller than Ed (and, since Ed was now a good 2 inches taller than Winry, making Al and Winry around the same height, that would make him a good 6 inches taller than Winry and Al). "Man, I haven't seen you since we were, like, ten, right?"

Ed snorted. "Nine."

Michael turned to Al next. "And look here; it's little Alphonse 'I-Still-Look-and-Sound-Five' Elric. How ya been, buddy?" He held out a hand at Al, who backed away and sent the man a disapproving frown. Michael retracted his hand and turned to look at Winry. "Let's go."

Michael turned around, Winry following shortly thereafter, but Al caught her hand and Ed caught her shoulder gently. "Win, what is that dirt bag doing here?" Winry looked down and sent the brothers an apathetic look with a sapphire flash of despair.

"Michael is . . . is my boyfriend." She turned, shrugging away Ed's hand and tugging away from Al. The brothers looked at each other, Al with a worried expression and Ed with a concerned and somewhat angry one.

You . . . didn't wait . . . for me?


So, that's how the second chapter works! We meet my absolute LEAST favorite character! (And one of my OC's who will most likely pop up again in another story, probably. Or at least something like him.) I know you guys don't like him – what's to like? – And I'm expecting you tell me in a REVIEW~ 3

Also, I never really liked the idea of Winry's boyfriend being a bossy dickhead, so I had to change it up so he at least had some sort of good intention of meeting the brothers. Hope it wasn't too bad?

Next Update: Hell if I know. Whenever, I guess. *shrug*

~Cookie