I have to admit, riding to Resembool was extremely tiring.
It wasn't just that it was the first time out of hospital, where instead of the comforting uniformity of the hospital (everyone has the same goals there, similar-ish anyway). Everyone was different, set different paces for themselves, looked for different things.
This was something everyone was used to in a big city – heck, I remember being an expert at sliding between people and getting to places early in the torturous rush hour metro tunnels – but I was horribly out of practice when Joy grabbed me to switch trains.
People shoved, pushed, looked down, up, bounced babies, laughed and ribbed each other, and I think there was a bunch of school students that were trying out for the military or something in Central, because they had nervous smiles on their faces, large bags with papers peeking out of their bags in casual-formal wear. And the smell. Sweat, sunshine on stone, the ever-present dusty-charcoal smell of factories, the greasy fried potato smell from that stall I spotted just on the corner, the smell of the city was one I was intimately familiar with (and not, because there was no smell of exhaust and petrol), and it was… surprisingly unpleasant.
I'd been more of a city girl in my last life, but this wasn't the humdrum buzz of technology and disengagement– it was the bustling energy of living. No-one could look down at phones, because mobile phones weren't invented yet. So people walked with their shoulders wide and confident, and sometimes caught each other's eye. Gentlemen would tip hats at each other, murmur a 'good morning' that was lost in the hubbub, but it was the gesture that meant more than the words. Women smiled and giggled, aunties gossiped while holding baskets of morning produce, and it was all so loud.
I was standing a little broodily next to Joy's legs as she talked to a station attendant, staring at the riot of movement and feeling, for the first time, that yes, I was in another world. It hadn't hit me quite so hard until then, watching all these people live their lives.
Joy laughed at my face, after she had checked that our bags had been transferred to the right train.
"What is it, Marlon? You look like you've sucked a lemon."
Yeah. The lemon of humanity.
"It's noisy," I answered shortly, frowning at these two teen boys who were loudly daring each other to run across the train tracks towards the other platform. We were right at the border of Central and the East, a major stop in deciding where to go from there. Resembool wasn't a large town by any means, so we had to catch a train to East City. From there, there would be a local train to Resembool.
I admit, the air between Joy and I was still extremely awkward, but she tried. And in return, I tried my best back.
So after my complaint, I tried my best to hide how utterly overwhelmed I was. "But it's okay," I nodded, staring back at this toddler who was gumming this huge, hard, cookie thing. Probably teething. "When's our next train?"
I noted that Amestris tended towards more muted colours – brown and beige were the common colours for clothing here, with bright colours only used for fancy occasions. Dye was expensive, after all, and military usually stood out with their blue coats in the sea of whites, browns, and maybe if someone had been feeling especially glamorous that day, (gasp) olive green.
That's for guys though. Women had a few more pastel colours that they generally wore, but even then it was pretty standard.
"Fifteen minutes. We have time. Want to get something to eat while we wait?"
Later on, we settled into the train with some fruit on hand, and another few hours of train left to reach East City, and then another two hours before Resembool. And this time there were no prioritised cushiony seats.
I was lucky enough to get to sit on Joy's lap for some of it, but still.
The train rolled on and on, the city turning into more rural, green fields (which I watched in avid interest for all of two seconds before giving way back to boredom).
As much as trains were awesome and I was glad they were invented and everything, I was becoming absolutely sick of them.
When we actually got to Resembool, it was already high noon.
As much as I loved the inactivity and routine inherent in the structure of the hospital, the train was a whole different matter. Sure, you were still sitting there like a lump of turd, but that was in the dubious company of screaming babies, crotchety old grandmas, snoring people, shameless old men who did shameless old men habits (that were generally quite disgusting), this flirty newlywed pair at the back of the carriage, coupled with a hard wooden bench and the ongoing smell of smoke from an unfortunate incident when we went under a tunnel and a person didn't shut their window fast enough (Joy panicked a bit, insisted on holding a handkerchief over my mouth, and it was necessary and all, but annoying than anything else).
So I was practically first to stumble out of the train when I heard a bell ring and a guy yelling 'Resembool! This station is Resembool!' slowly walked down the platform outside.
Then I took a moment to take note of my surroundings.
The train station was rustic, just a platform next to tracks that then glittered as it wove down glowing verdant green fields towards the horizon. It was very different to the grey industrialisation of Central City– the air smelt like air here, with a taste of spring humidity.
It was I who first spotted the family that was standing on the platform though, since Joy was watching over someone lugging our bags out of the train and carefully counting them. They weren't part of the sparse flow going in and out of the trains – they stood like they were waiting for somebody.
Then the blonde woman (hugging a daughter, and that was my first clue, really) brightened when she spotted my aunt's black hair.
"Joy! Long time no see!"
Joy turned around at that, her whole face relaxing – I'd noticed that, how she'd been so tense with me, unsure. But now when she saw her friend, I saw her grin for the first time. "Sarah! It's nice to see you," she laughed, nodding a thanks to the boy who'd lugged our bags and pressing some money into hand before going to greet Sarah fully. Sarah, a nice looking woman with blonde hair pulled practically back in a pony-tail, walked towards us with big strides and a wide smile. She handed her daughter to her husband to give my aunt a hug.
Her daughter looked with unabashed curiosity at me, before giving me a wide smile with a peek of teeth, and I couldn't help but smile back.
While the two women caught up a little, the father took a few steps forward until he was in front of me, kneeling down and settling his daughter on her feet before directing his smile at me.
"Hello!" He grinned, "My name is Yuriy Rockbell. Feel free to call me Uncle Yuriy!" He held out a large hand for me to shake, and I took it with confidence, clutching three of his fingers and giving it a shake. His face warmed a little with amusement then, when I introduced myself back.
"I am Marlon Crawford," I said clearly. "It's nice to meet you, Uncle Yuriy."
His daughter was fidgeting until Yuriy nudged her a little on the back, making her stumble forward a bit. She turned a glare at her father (who just chuckled in that way adults did when their kid was abashed over something small) before turning to me and blushing as she held out her own hand.
Our hands were the same size when I took it.
"Hello," I said, in a tone less like I was reciting lines and more warm, for this little girl who was trying her best. "My name is Marlon Crawford. It's nice to meet you…?"
There wasn't any need to ham up my 'innocent child' act anymore, after all. My dad, who'd needed it, was gone.
"W-winry," she stuttered, her mouth having a slight lisp on the 'r', "Winry Rockbell. It's nice to meet you too!" She blustered the last part, loud with her eyes shiny and large. She shook my hand a little wildly before letting go. I let go of my spark of surprise at her name (Winry, a golden girl waving a wrench) and smiled a little wider.
"Winry's a very pretty name," I complimented. She immediately blushed again, even harder this time, and I wondered if she didn't get compliments a lot, or if she didn't have many friends. She was such a cute girl though, with fine gold hair, blue eyes, dressed in a white dress that reached her shins.
"Th-thanks," she squirmed, and at this, Yuriy laughed.
"Winry, you're not usually so shy," he teased, stroking her head. "Why, don't I just remember you yelling at Edward about how he mean he was to Alphonse this morning? And boasting about how much taller you were compared to Edward too, while you're at it. Ah, my daughter is such a spitfire!"
Winry's face twisted in mortification as I watched her whine a 'Daaaaaad!', and my aunt and Sarah Rockbell turned to us around then.
"Yuriy, it's nice to see you again too," Joy greeted with a smile, while Sarah gave an amused eye at Winry's antics.
"Marlon is half a year older than you, Winry, and you always said you wanted an older sister, didn't you?" Sarah joined in on the gentle teasing, and when Winry's face turned even more red, and her eyes started to collect a few tears (it was obvious this introduction wasn't what she'd planned in her head), I couldn't resist and took her hand in mine again, squeezing it.
Turn on the charm, x10! Gain a little sister on the way!
My gut was telling me she was a good kid, and I really, really wanted friends.
"I've always wanted a little sister too, so don't worry," I said with my best smile, tilting my head for maximum effect, with the words actually truthful. Leo and Danny were great older brothers, but they were still guys, and sometimes being the youngest, only girl sibling sucked. "I would love to get to know you, Winry! You're very cute."
Winry blushed up to her ears.
It was adorable.
Joy just gave me an amused look then, that made it obvious that she was quite dubious about my sudden 'apparent' want to have a kid sister. Shush, it's true this time, Joy.
"D-do you want to be friends then?" Winry ploughed forward, undaunted even though her blush was still full force. Edward and Alphonse were male names, weren't they? I contemplated the girl in front of me briefly. And by what Yuriy said, it seems like she was more tomboy than girly-girl. Maybe she didn't have many female friends?
When I didn't immediately respond (to my defence, she gave me less than half a second, as kids do), she continued, twisting her hands in her skirt and all. "I mean, don't listen to mama or papa, I'm really nice, and I have so many things I wanna show you, and I, I really like your eyes you know, they're a really pretty green—"
Gosh, this kid was too adorable.
"I would love to be friends with you, Winry," I said as warmly as I could, extending a hand which she took tentatively for a second or so, before holding it in a surprisingly strong grip. She beamed, and the adults (who had been quietly talking while watching us two with amused eyes), chuckled and shepherded us out of the station.
Winry's other hand found Yuriy's, while she kept a tight hold of mine in her own sweaty little one, and she chattered non-stop, "oh, and that's farmer Kinsey HI MISTER KINSEY, he's really nice because he sometimes gives me and Ed and Al a ride back from the market with Ducky, oh right, Ducky is his son, it's short for Duncan but his hair sticks out like a duck-butt so we call him Ducky…"
Yuriy was obviously entirely too amused with his daughter, his smile a light-hearted thing that reminded me of my last life. Danny looked at me and Leo like that when we bickered over board games, for all he was only half-an-hour older than Leo.
It also reminded me of Alain, who had never had such a light-hearted expression on his face in all the majority of the year I've known him. He was always hunched over documents when I hadn't tried my best to capture his attention, and even then, only able to be tiredly happy when I got him to laugh.
He was going to be sent to Ishval soon. I remembered the set of his jaw when he'd climbed into that carriage. So determined. So… sad.
(Didn't you hear? They say an Ishvallan fights with the worth of ten men)
Winry suddenly stopped her torrent of words as she shot a wide, shiny expectant smile at me. I blinked before pasting a smile on a face.
"Hmm? What was that, Winry? I'm sorry, I didn't totally catch that." I squeezed her hand too, in brief apology.
Winry just launched into her question again though. "Weeeell, I was just wondering what you think of Resembool! I mean, I've told you lots about it, but I still don't really know what you think, I mean, they say Central is a really cool place!" Then her voice dropped into a hush. "It's the capital, you know?"
I couldn't stop the slight smirk (because children) that started tugging at my mouth before I squashed it into a smile as I looked back forward.
"Central isn't that much of an amazing place," I murmured vacantly, thinking of the people on the street that were herded towards the city limits by the military so that they didn't block the roads, the factories that continued to spew smoke everywhere, and the heavy weight of the Fuhrer's residential district that gave me the chills after I'd started suspecting the government. "Compared to that, Resembool is much calmer. I like it. It's beautiful."
Winry just gave the largest smile.
"You speak really nice! Like, super nice, just like the adults."
Then that train of thought obviously led nowhere, because Winry just skipped somewhere else and tugged at her dad's hand, and asked what was for lunch. I listened, apparently it was some type of chicken broth thing, when there was a hiccup in the conversation behind us when Joy's amused voice cut into the conversation.
"Yes, you speak very nicely, Marlon," and when I glanced back a little clumsily (this body was so out of shape it was ridiculous), she was more relaxed than I had ever seen her, her hair a little loose from the breeze and with her arm linked to Sarah.
I gave her a shrug – it wasn't as if she didn't guess I'd been acting more childish for Alain's benefit – and turned back to Winry who right then was beaming.
"I love chicken broth!" She was just jumping around, energy high and buzzing. Her short blonde hair was bouncing with every jump.
She skipped like that – short, skips that were high but not fast – all the way down the road until we bundled into the wooden cart waiting down there for us, complete with a horse.
I wonder if her parents had told her of my condition, and that's why she never tried to pull me to run forward like she obviously wanted.
It was obvious my first friend in this world was a nice girl.
I kept my smile up valiantly, in my opinion.
When we'd arrived, Joy had immediately put me to bed – after Winry's parents had pointed out which room was ours and whatnot.
Nice, I'd realised, was an understatement regarding Winry, the little girl with the strong grip and clearest blue eyes I've ever seen. She threw all of herself into everything she did. If she was excited, she was excited. If she was happy, she was happy. If she sulked, she was that type of sulker that had a cloud over their head, the imagined weight of all the grievances in the world on her shoulders, her lip jutted out and her eyes watery, all with complete and utter honesty.
And she flitted back and forth on these emotions in a way only a kid could.
"You can use Mr Kitty too!" Winry insisted, her hands shoving yet another soft toy at me from her bundle of soft toys. "He'll keep you company, because he always keeps me company when I'm sick!"
Winry beamed at me, expecting something from me, and I nodded with a smile and tugged it closer under my left arm because my right arm was waaaay too full.
"Thank you, Winry," I said. Mr Kitty was very cute. Just like Mr Froggy and Miss Lamb and Mrs Ducky and Mr Cow and… yeah. Winry didn't seem to have the most original naming sense.
When I said that, I somehow passed muster? Somehow? And then she bounced happily onto my bed.
The adults had left us in here after Joy had set up all the things (read: a surprising amount of machines I'd grown familiar to seeing) she'd brought from Central. Surprisingly, I was actually sharing a room with Winry. Joy got pissed of course – Winry's parents had apparently told her they were going to leave soon, and she didn't like imposing, but Yuriy and Sarah were those people who just laughed everything off and insisted nothing was imposing?
Yeah, those hard to deal with types.
There was an extra room, but Joy took it. It was a small room, but cozy, but they couldn't fit all my machines in there, so they just tugged Winry's wardrobe out of the room and got out the extra twin bed and stationed me in their daughter's room because her room was the second largest one So now Winry was sans a wardrobe and plus another tiny child's bed and at least four medical machines and all she looked like while doing it was asking if she could help, bounding over to me (who was in a chair because walking was exhausting stuff), and fidgeting in front of the kitchen staring at some cookies on a counter too high to reach.
She'd muttered to me she wanted to share them with me because her mom made the best cookies ever! And then Sarah actually took two cookies out and gave them to us and I wanted to shake them and tell them there should be a limit to being nice, dammit!
"Are you sure you want to… share Mr Kitty?" I asked now, happily settled in bed with pajamas and way too many soft toys. "And Mrs Ducky and Mr Cow and Froggy and Miss Lamb with me? I'm really happy but I think you should keep some too."
I tried giving Mr Cow back, because his eyes were actually kind of creepy, and she took it, tucked it under an arm, before her eyes lit up and she started bouncing on the bed.
Oof, stop that, Winry. That's my hand you're sitting on there.
"It's just, it's just you're my first girl friend, you know?" Winry said, an excited smile on her face. "Like, you know that house on the hill? That one, out the window!"
A rather big wooden house sat right on top of the hill. Did they have lightning rods here? I mean, they obviously had electricity so probably. If they didn't, that house was a really big fire risk.
"Ed and Al live there," Winry continued, and her eyes took on a slightly fond and slightly frustrated gleam I usually saw on people when they were good friends and they had no idea why, "and they were family friends for Mama, because Aunt Trisha is a good friend of mama! And then now I take care of them," Winry puffed out with a proud chest and I tried to smother a smirk again by morphing it into a smile again.
"I look forward to meeting them, since you like them so much."
Winry's immediate disgusted face. "Ew, no. I mean, I like them, but they put frogs on your chair, and, and tug your hair and then they only laugh when you get them back! Well, Al does. When Ed explodes it's kinda funny"
"You really love them, huh?"
Winry rolled her eyes. "You're just like Mama and Papa. How did you get from that that I like them a lot?"
"You'll understand when you're older," I replied, and Winry gave me a lot that spoke pure you're the same age as me before she let me off with an indulgent pat to the hand, and I couldn't help it. I cracked up, wheezing my laughs through my faulty lungs and nearly dying when I choked. After Joy and Winry had panicked enough and calmed me down again, I just thought.
Man. Kids.
Hilarious.
Around then, everyone let me to sleep my 'ordeal' off (like really?) and I only woke up around dinner time. By then there was this absolutely delicious smell of some type of lamb stew in the air, and I happily hopped out of the room and went down the stairs to greet a conked out Joy on a sofa in the living room.
After tip-toeing around her, down the hall was the kitchen. Peering into the doorway, I saw a tiny Winry trying her best to help Sarah knead what looked like choc-chip cookie dough and man.
If Earth had more kids like Winry, I might've not hated them so much back there.
The next morning, we were woken up bright and early when someone kept throwing pebbles at our window. Last night, Winry had only fallen asleep after five bedtime stories (all surprisingly feminist fairy tale stories about princesses taking their life back into control and one about robots, surprisingly?) and I'd dropped off soon after.
As I'd never been a morning person, I was trying to contain my annoyance at the ping sounds coming from the glass.
"Winry," I murmured, sleepily turning over and pressing my face into Mr Kitty's belly. "Someone's at the window."
"Mnnngh," Winry replied, sounding similarly lethargic. "Mnaah."
"I agree," I nodded, pulling the light sheet over my head.
A few seconds later, another ping came from the window. This time, it was accompanied by voices.
"Winry!" A boy called. "Good morning!"
Then another voice piped up with another pebble, bigger than the others, hit the window. "Wake up, you lazy bum!"
"Winry," I tried again, this time turning to my other side to stare blearily at the bed across the room. "There's a boy calling you a lazy bum."
Winry's calm, sleepy face immediately turned into a scowl as she, still with closed eyes, fought off her covers and stomped over to her window and flung it open.
"SHUT UP, ED! I'M NOT A LAZY BUM!"
"Ahaha, Winry! Your hair is such a mess, bwahahaha!"
With the window open, the voices were much clearer, and I assumed the more brash one was Ed, and the one trying to placate a suddenly much more awake Winry as Al.
"That's not nice, brother," Al was scolding, and I struggled to make myself wake up and trudged to Winry with my own heavy feet, a hand blocking a yawn as I came up behind Winry and propped my chin on her shoulder.
"Who're they?" I said as I slowly woke up, with the morning sun in my face as I blinked at the tiny boys underneath the window. At the same time, Ed was glaring up at the my foreign face with a tiny frown and a direct (and quite unintentionally rude) 'who're you?'
Winry puffed up as if to protect me from them, but I just linked my arm with hers and stood with her side by side as I peered down with interest. Ed was the one who looked like Winry and my age, probably, with blonde hair and familiar-looking gold eyes that were… absolutely gorgeous, actually. Al was a softer boy, a year younger, with gentle brown eyes and a beatific smile.
…where was I, and how did I go from Central-angst to a countryside surrounded by beautiful children.
"You must be the girl Winry mentioned was going to live with her for a while!" Al beamed, waved the hand that wasn't being insistently tugged by his older brother. "Hi, I'm Alphonse Elric, but just call me Al!"
By all rights, a two-year-old shouldn't be this eloquent. In fact, I distinctly remember a lot of baby cousins that I'd babysitted when I was previous-life-Marlon as being idiotically droolly and asking me ten times what the colour blue was. But Winry and Ed seemed to speak really well too, so maybe the average level of intelligence in this world was just higher?
(Later, I'd just realise Ed and Al were, in fact, certified geniuses. Real geniuses, and Winry was just extremely, extremely smart. Convenient, I guess, for my own faked genius? Explain it away as something in the water, hah)
"And I'm Edward!" The boy shouted more than any sort of friendly introduction, before pointing at me. "Now tell me your name!"
"Brother, that's also rude," Al said, the first two-year old I've ever met to sound that long-suffering, and I smiled as I leaned forward.
"Marlon Crawford. It's nice to meet you too, Al and Edward."
They were just about to reply when Sarah stuck her head out from the window downstairs, which I realised was the kitchen.
"Ed, Al, have you had breakfast yet? If Trisha doesn't mind, you can eat breakfast here. I'm sure Winry and Marlon would love it."
Ed and Al then said something a little softer that failed to drift upwards to us, before racing up the hill back to their home, which was actually quite a little bit of distance away. Winry pulled me back from the window then, to a little chest of drawers where she pulled out a hair comb and started violently tugging at her hair.
"Stupid Ed! Why can't he be nicer like Al?"
I leaned on the wall as I waited, haven't ever been bothered with my hair because mini-Marlon's black hair was kind of thin from sickness and drugs, and thus, didn't really need that much maintenance. I was examining the wallpaper (curlicued roses and tulips, with daisies scattered here and there) when I replied.
"He didn't seem that bad. Edward seemed very… honest?" I asked back, because that was the first compliment that popped in my head.
"Pffft, yeah, right!" Winry raspberried, before scowling at a particularly stubborn knot, and I reached out and plucked the hair comb out of her hand.
"Okay, calm down. I'll help you with that knot first. Now, sit in front of me," and I plopped on the bed, and Winry just obediently sat cross-legged next to me. She slowly regained her cheer as I slowly picked at the edges (how on earth did she develop this hair knot while she was asleep?) and I was done and tackling a second, humongous knot when there was a delighted gasp from the doorway.
"Oh, you guys are so close already!" Sarah gushed, clapping her hands like a schoolgirl. It didn't fit my image of her as a really nice, professional lady, to be frank. "I just came up to tell you guys it's breakfast, and Ed and Al are probably going to come over, so be prepared!" Sarah winked, and her ponytail swished as she clattered back down the stairs.
I had finished Winry's hair, and was braiding her hair into a halo braid (her bangs were a good length for it) when Joy came in and raised an amused eyebrow.
"I have to give you your daily check ups, Marlon," Joy said with a small smile, her own black hair braided back as always.
"W-wait a bit," I muttered, all my concentration directed at finishing this braid perfectly please because admittedly, I was very out of practice.
The end result was a little puffy, but still quite nice. When Winry pulled out a hand mirror and gasped in surprise, I considered it a job well done.
"It's beautiful," Winry enthused, patting her hands all over the braid until she visibly stilled her hair in horror at maybe ruining it, and I gave a small, amused huff. The Halo braid could live with a bit of mussing, which was why I chose it. Winry sounded like an active kid.
"And now Edward can't say your hair is messy and laugh anymore, right?" I said with a wink (or my desperate attempt at a wink, which is a half face grimace), and Winry blinked at me a few times before breaking out into this huge smile, and launching herself at me.
"I love you!"
"Yes, yes," I said, patting her hair before Joy's little cough brought her back to her senses and Winry got the hint.
"I'll go down first and wait for you!" Winry said, bounding out the door. "I'll protect your portion from stupid Ed's grabby hands! Your breakfast is safe with me!"
Then the whirlwind of energy descended down the stairs, where the faint clatter of the kitchen got momentarily disturbed as Winry reached the shrill heights of a child's 'indoor voice', insisting Sarah and Yuriy to look at her new braid, and I finally let myself slump a bit on the bed.
"How do kids have so much energy?" I asked aloud, and Joy's only response was to finish calibrating the settings to a machine that could clear my lungs if needed (I think) or do something about reading something or…
Yeah, maybe I should pay attention to the machines that literally save my life time and time again and learn what they did, haha.
"You're a kid too, Marlon," Joy turned to me, before motioning me closer, and I obliged. "I'm happy you're getting along so well with Winry. Do you like her?"
"She's very nice," I said as I tracked two dots burst out of the house on the hill and race down the hill back to Winry's house. "I'm glad she's my first friend."
Joy's smile was a quiet, unrestrained one when she unwrapped the blood-pressure thing from the machine and started winding it around my arm.
"Although our accommodations didn't go as planned, maybe its better this way," Joy mused, as she pressed a button to make the air pump into it. "It was nice to catch up to Sarah and Yuriy."
We were silent throughout the rest of the things Joy wanted to check, before she asked me if I was up to going down the stairs – I said yes, because I think I could start jogging soon, if I continued to try my best – and down the stairs I was greeted to a close-knit family, like those perfect sitcom families they showed. Resembool had a lot of light-haired and light-coloured people, unlike Central which tended to me more dark (case in point – the dark hair Joy and I sported), so it was really picturesque. All these blonde haired, multi-coloured eyed kids with two blonde adults in a clean kitchen, with morning sunlight streaming in…
Yesterday, I was catching a train from a father who was caught up in some political conspiracy heading out to a rapidly growing civil war, from a city hospital that refused to treat dark-skinned patients with red eyes. Today, I was wearing my one blue dress about to step into domestic bliss without my most important person in this life. I stiffened my upper lip though, because he'd given me this chance for a reason. And I was going to be happy, dammit.
"Marlon, I saved you a seat!" Winry waved, nearly knocking her elbow into Ed's face, and his golden eyes flashed in annoyance through a mouthful of food.
"Hey, watch it!" He scowled, swiping another cup of juice guzzle it down with something else. "Your elbow nearly hit my face!"
"Well, if your face wasn't so fat, I wouldn't have gone near it!" Winry shot back. Quite a 180 change from her shyness from yesterday, I noted as I drew nearer.
Al, the nice, quieter one I knew I would probably befriend easily, was sitting quietly and thanking Sarah and Urey for the meal.
"Thanks for the meal, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Yuriy," I commented as I slid into the seat next to Winry's, as Joy settled down in her own seat next to Sarah and I eyed the food on the table. Eggs, sausages, some soup for me just in case the food got too heavy.
"Thank you, dear. Now, eat up. You're a little too skinny, I fear," Sarah said with a smile, and I nodded politely as I started heaping some eggs on my plate because eggs, eggs are real food and I missed it, no matter how much I appreciated the hospital. They weren't very spiced up too, which was extra nice.
"The sausages are nice too, Marlon!" Winry pointed, and I looked over and noticed that Winry had oily stains all over her mouth, and a huge milk moustache too.
"Winry, wipe your mouth a bit," I encouraged, holding up a napkin, and Winry was taking it when there was a laugh on the other side.
"Pfft! Winry, you got yourself your own Al!"
Winry clenched the napkin in her fist and quickly wiped her mouth, before whirling around to face Ed.
"What do you mean 'your own Al'? Are you telling me I'm as rude as you are?"
"What?" Ed puffed up. "I'm not rude. Tell her, Al!"
Al was busy eating some eggs and didn't reply immediately, but when he did it was with an extremely nice and sincere smile.
"Oh, brother. I don't like lying, you know?"
I looked appreciatively at the boy then, sitting across the table with the nicest smile.
"Your sense of humour is incredibly advanced," I complimented, and Al's eyes twinkled as he bit into the last bit of his sausage.
"Thank you," he replied, and he just lodged himself into my heart more because what type of two year old had 'advanced' in their vocabulary? Hanging around these kids wouldn't be as hard as I thought.
"Y-you, you guys are all ganging up on me!" Edward protested. "Al, I thought you'd be on my side!"
"I'm sorry, brother," Al immediately apologised. "But no matter how much you try to distract me, I'll still tell Mum if you don't drink your milk."
Oh, this kid was harsh.
Edward glared at his untouched cup with incredibly frustration.
"I…I don't want to."
"Brother," Al grinned. "I'll tell Winry all about that time last week if you don't drink."
Edward glugged down the milk so fast, I was tempted to applaud.
But now Winry was curious. "What? What aren't you guys telling me? Ed? Al?"
Edward, who had been washing his mouth with orange juice in an attempt to rid his mouth of the taste of milk gave Al the side eye. Don't tell her, it clearly said, I drank the milk. Al nodded. I won't, brother! His own eyes replied, and they both subsided into friendly banter while Winry just huffed to the side, frustrated, and turned to me instead.
Hmm. Maybe this was why Winry wanted a female friend?
"Let's go out to play together later!" Winry said happily. "I really want to show you that warren of bunnies we found yesterday's yesterday!"
"The day before, hun," Yuriy absentmindedly corrected as he continued glancing through the day's paper. I noticed the tiny fine script on the corner nearest to me though.
'Obituaries: pgs 19-22. Cretan 19-20, Ishval 20-21…'
I knew Joy was watching me – it was one of her mad skills from being nurse, being aware even sleep-deprived – and so I ignored what I noticed and replied to Winry and made some small talk with Al and Ed.
Apparently Trisha wanted to meet me (they'd mentioned me when they'd asked about eating breakfast at the Rockbells), so Ed was particularly forceful at inviting me.
Mama's boy, I snickered in my head, but I agreed anyway.
When the door opened and out stepped a woman with the most gentle smile I've ever seen on man, yes, I understood how those boys could love their mother so much.
"Hi, I'm Trisha," she smiled, bending down with her hands on her knees and looking at my face. She did none of the typical adult things, with eyes that lingered on my shallow cheeks and my disgusting complexion (even Sarah and Yuriy did it for a few seconds before forcing their eyes away), or the fact that my hair was slightly patchy and thin. She just stared at my eyes and talked to me like I was worth listening to. "What's your name?"
"Marlon, Mrs Elric," I replied, giving a small bow and offering a hand for her to shake. Her eyes crinkled at the edges to fold into wrinkles that were already forming, laughing crow's feet, as she took it.
"Nice to meet you, Marlon. Call me Aunt Trisha. You've met Ed and Al, right?"
The two boys had been hanging to her side, wanting to jump into the conversation but barely hanging back. At Trisha's look of approval at their conduct, they jittered with happy energy.
We made small talk as Trisha insisted on letting me inside for a bit so she could patch some things for us to eat as they allowed us to romp in the fields of Resembool. Joy had given the three a stern talking to about how I was still 'recovering' (which led to a weak-ass explanation as to why I was sick, something about a weak immune system or something) so they were extra careful with me.
"Are you alright, Marlon?" Winry asked, gladly swinging our joined hands. I nodded and squeezed her hand as a reply, and Ed gave the action a scoff about how 'girly' it was, before Winry retorted that Ed was happy enough to do it with Trisha when they went shopping (then Ed went red, started retorting, Al tried damage control, and I tried to stop a laugh). Around then, Trisha wandered back in with a small cloth basket that Winry gladly took.
"I packed your favourites in there, plus a few extra snacks," Trisha smiled with a wink. "Now go on! Children should be outside, playing in the sun!"
She playfully shooed us outside, but not before giving all four of us a soft, motherly hug.
As I walked away from their house, I said to Ed, "Your mother is really awesome."
Ed puffed with pride, as Al smiled. "Yeah! Of course! Our mum is the best mum ever!" Ed said, waving his hands in the air with a whoop and running forward, before sheepishly running back when he realised I couldn't follow. When he settled down again, Ed continued. "She cooks the best tomato soup I've ever tasted, you know? It's so the best!"
"Yeah! Brother's right, her tomato soup is the best! I also like her potato bake."
"And she makes up the best stories when we go to sleep!" Ed said excitedly.
"We love her lots," Al said with a skip to his step, and I grinned.
"I can see why though," I mused as I thought about Trisha. "Aunt Trisha had a really nice smile. It was really gentle," I thought wistfully, now, once again, wondering at the blank spots in my memory. I wish I remembered – I probably had memories of my own mother smiling at me just like Trisha had with Ed and Al.
Ed nodded at me approvingly then, after I've given my review of his mother. "You're not bad, Marlon. It's very soon, but I approve of you joining the coolest band of friends on this side of Resembool! We're still deciding on what to call our group though, so you can wait for your formal induction ceremony later."
"Oh, thanks," I replied in surprise.
Winry leaned around me to give Ed a punch on the arm.
"Who made you leader, Ed? I could've already invited her!"
"But you didn't, I know you didn't!"
Winry puffed her cheeks out then, because it was true, and Al just laughed. "Brother, remember what mum said. Be nice to girls!"
Ed immediately shot back a, "I am being nice! And who said Winry was a girl, anyway?"
I couldn't fully suppress my wry grin at that, because even Al couldn't damage control Winry after that statement until I linked my arm with hers (a hand-hold wasn't strong enough to hold her anymore) and told her how pretty she was.
We weren't allowed to go that far (we were still young), and the farthest corner of the field that linked to Winry's house was the threshold we weren't allowed to cross.
There, we ate biscuits and gawked at baby rabbits. Ed and Al, surprisingly, talked about the water cycle when they stared at clouds instead of anything normal like 'what shape is that cloud', and I think I jumped a few esteem points with all three when I added my own contribution to the discussion, 'Ed, Al, you're forgetting about ground-water,' while explaining anything Winry didn't understand to her, because Ed had no patience and Al always got dragged into his brother's pace. 'You know ice, Winry? Well, all things have three forms. Like, there's the ice you can eat. It's solid right? It's hard, like dirt. Then you have water, which you can drink…'
We went to Trisha's for lunch, where we only ate with Trisha because Ed and Al's dad was busy with something in his study and couldn't come out yet.
One thing came out from that lunch.
Trisha was a goddess for handling four highly intelligent but energetic children so well.
Yay, meetings! :DD
I can't promise anything, I am so sorry, to all those people who faved and reviewed and alerted I love you so much but university is literally killing me. I have an exam tomorrow, WHY AM I HERE? Ah procrastination. The things you do to me. But I've used this time to solidify a few ideas. ^^ Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope this was alright. My sister was just complaining about how slow I start stories and... yeah, I, after I reflected, I realised that too ahahahaha. Thank you very much again. See you guys soon, hopefully.
