~*~ Edward
Still fuming from conversations from dinner, I started making my way to my room. I heard footsteps behind me but the rhythm was inconsistent. It had to be Winry and something was wrong. She's nervous about something…
"What do you want, Winry?" My voice sounded annoyed, but she knew me better than to get upset. I turned around to face her.
"Um…Ed, I talked to Miss Izumi earlier and uh…" She stuttered for awhile, but I waited. This was classic Winry. As expected, her head dropped and she stared at the floor as she spoke fast. "EDWARD, WILL YOU TEACH ME ALCHEMY?"
I took a step back in shock. "What?"
She slowly looked up and she met my stare with hesitation. "Alchemy, will you teach me?"
I remained frozen, unsure what to say or think. I mentally shook it off and played the 'I'm too cool card' instead of really answering. "Me? A teacher? Winry, you're losing it." I turned to walk away again, but she just followed.
"Edward, I'm serious. Alchemy is all you and Al talk about. I want to be able to talk with you. I want to be involved and I want to understand what it is that you've dedicated your life to. I can see it in your eyes when you talk about it, Ed. You love alchemy. You can think of no better thing to do with your life. And I want to understand what is so important about it to you."
Whether out of curiosity or…no, it was definitely curiosity, I'd decided to try. "Promise me something first." Her head twitched to the side a little as a silent question. "Never, and I mean never, become a state alchemist…AND DON'T EVEN READ THE COVER OF A HUMAN TRANSMUTATION BOOK. Or I will personally disable both your hands so you can't ever draw another transmutation circle." I was about to pause to let her respond, but I saw a flaw in my threat. "And I'll see to it that you could never get automail as replacements."
Her jaw dropped open. She took a deep breath and looked directly into my eyes. Her eyes were icy flames. "I promise on my love for automail, Edward. I will never do either of those things."
A small smile crawled onto my lips. "Alright then! Let's get you some reading material!"
I went to my personal library. It's not very big, but it's functional. Introduction to Alchemy. The only thing I would have Winry read cause it's important and she can't handle too many words on one page. The book had a few pictures. It was a one day read for me. Who knows how long it'll take her to read. I handed her the brown book. It had one word across the front "ALCHEMY." It's the alchemy book of all alchemy books. She stared at it for awhile and I could see her eyebrows scrunch together in reluctance. She looked up at me with that same fiery gaze from before. Without a word she walked to her room. I glanced in the door way to see her totally focused on every word. For a second, I felt a father-like pride. Then I realized what being a teacher was all about. If this was the case, I could definitely get used to this…
