Open Up
Booyah. I didn't think I was going to get the second chapter up this early so I am feeling quite proud of myself. Once again this is a bit of a filler, but it's got some info on Cecelia. The ending is kind of crummy, but I thought it was getting a little long, but oh well. This is chapter two for ya! Reviews are welcomed but not required.
Typical disclaimer: I don't own FMA but I do own Cecelia.
Edward Elric was in a bad mood. No, bad wasn't a powerful enough word to describe his mood. Edward Elric was in a crappy God-awful mood. Things were certainly not going his way. They; him and his brother, arrived in Resembool early yesterday evening and were greeted by a fresh blanket of snow that only continued to grow. The brothers unanimously agreed to spend the night at the local inn rather than try and find their way to Winry's while the snow continued to pile up, although they could have made it there anyway, but decided that that going through the snow wasn't worth the trouble. In theory, the snow fall would stop while they were sleeping and they could make it to the Rockbell home without having to wipe melted snow out of their eyes. But things didn't go according to plan.
"It's not that much snow." Said Alphonse with a slight shrug, but his optimism did not pass on to his older brother.
"Oh whatever Al," he paused to adjust his left boot for safety measures, "let's just go before it gets any worse."
The two braced themselves for the cold and ventured outside of the inn and began their 'journey' through the thick snow laden ground with Edward grumbling and or complaining most of the way and Alphonse merely nodding when prompted to do so. By the time they arrived at the familiar yellow house their pant legs were stiff from the snow and their fingers red and chilled to the bone. Before Ed could lift a hand to knock on the door, it was jerked open and the two Elrics were pulled into a bone crushing hug by their child-hood friend.
"What are you two doing here?" she asked after letting them inside and get accustomed to the warmth of her home.
"Visiting for the holidays of course." said Edward with a grin.
Winry rolled her eyes.
"Yeah right, you just came here because you want presents."
"That's not true Winry, Ed and I wanted to come and see you. It's been awhile and it's been hard to keep in touch since I've been in Xing."
"Oh I guess I believe you both, why don't you come into the kitchen. We just set the table for breakfast."
Edward stayed put and a look of nausea passed through his features. This did not go unnoticed by Winry. She pinched his ear and began dragging him towards the kitchen.
"You're such a troll Edward. I didn't make breakfast, but honestly my cooking isn't that bad."
"I think your cooking is lovely."
"Thank you Alphonse, I knew you were my favorite." said Winry at the same as Ed called him a suck up which earned him a harder pinch, only letting go when they were in the kitchen.
"What is with all of that noise out- oh, hello boys." greeted Pinako with a small smile from the kitchen table.
"Hello Auntie Pinako." they said in almost perfect unison.
Ed shrugged off his coat, hung it on one of the chairs and plopped down on said seat. It was then that he realized that there was another person at the table other than old lady Pinako. A girl was seated at the table and was meticulously arranging silverware on napkins.
"Oh guys, this is Cecelia Wheelright," the girls head popped up when her name was called by the mechanic, "Cecelia, this is Edward and Alphonse Elric."
Ed offered her a small wave while Alphonse more politely stuck out his hand. She shook his hand and returned Ed's small wave.
"Which one is which?"
"I'm Alphonse and the one sitting next to you is Edward."
"Oh, well it is a pleasure to meet you both. I just served breakfast."
After adding the final touches to the silverware and napkins, she passed them out to the Rockbell women and the Elric brothers before picking up the spatula to dish out the pancakes that sat in a neat stack in the middle of the table. The aroma of breakfast wafted up to his nose and he clamped a hand down on his stomach in a feeble attempt to stop it from growling. As soon as he dribbled maple syrup onto his pancakes he was stuffing his mouth with large bites. It may have looked unappealing to everyone else at the table, but he hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday and he was hungry.
"So Cecelia, what brings you to Resembool?" asked Al after everyone had begun eating.
"I was on a train headed to Central, but I fell asleep and missed my stop."
This earned a small chuckle from the group.
"That's too bad; hopefully you'll be able to make it out there."
"I certainly hope so; I had a few things to take care of." she replied and waved her fork around for emphasis.
"What were you going to do up there?"
"I'm trying to get a book published and I planned on showing it off to some of the publishers down there."
Ed finished off his pancakes and was half tempted to reach for seconds but decided against it because the others were still finishing up their first helpings. He looked at Cecelia out of the corner of his eye just as she tucked a bit of her wavy chocolate brown hair behind her ear. Her eyes were an interesting shade of hazel being more green than brown. In his eyes, she was pleasantly plain with normal hair and normal clothes which consisted of a long sleeved crimson red shirt. Obviously he couldn't tell what she was wearing from the waist down seeing as she was sitting at the table. But what mostly made her stick out were her eyes and the freckles that adorned the bridge of her nose.
While he was previewing this new girl, he hadn't noticed that moved to face him and was slowly bringing her face closer to his. Her eyes were bugged out and she made an odd noise which brought Edward out of his thoughts and made him jump slightly.
"What the heck are you doing?"
"What?" she said after enjoying a small laugh at his reaction. "You were staring at me so I figured the polite thing to do was to return the favor."
He scowled and brought his gaze down to his syrupy plate.
"Oh and you have nice eyes, it's like the shade of melted butterscotch."
This only caused his cheeks to take on a tint of pink from all the unwanted attention and chuckles he was getting from his peers because of the new girl.
"Erm…thanks." he mumbled.
Cecelia pushed herself away from the table and rinsed her dishes off in the sink.
"Well I will leave you all to socialize while I'm upstairs taking care of a few things."
And before anyone could object, she was already walking up the stairs and to her 'room.'
"She's a little odd, but she seems pretty nice." said Winry after a brief moment of silence.
"A little odd? Did you see the face she was making at me?"
"Oh whatever, you started it."
"I did not." he retaliated.
"Brother, you sort of did start it. We all noticed you staring at her."
"Al! Why do you keep taking her side you traitor?"
Ed huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, biting the inside of his mouth to stop himself from smiling. He was supposed to be the victim after all. I feel like this is going to be a nice visit.
What what! Chapter Two. See you cats in chapter three.
