Hughes dragged Winry and Toshiro all over town for hours buying gifts for his daughter's birthday. Toshiro had only been vaguely aware that there was a party planned for the day.
"Mr Hughes," Winry looked up at the man holding onto a ridiculously large teddy bear, "Why are we buying all these gifts?"
"So glad you asked, today is Alicia's birthday!" Hughes said launching into full blown father mode.
Winry looked at Toshiro questioningly,
"Alicia's his daughter, I believe she's turning three." He said filling in the gaps.
They arrived at the Hughes family house where Gracia and Alicia greeted them.
"Daddy!" Alicia said.
"ALICIA! I missed you so much!" Hughes said rubbing his beard against his daughter's face.
"Daddy stop, it tickles!" the little girl giggled.
Toshiro rolled his eyes at the man's antics but allowed himself a small smirk.
"Hello, Toshiro." Gracia said, her attention turning to Winry, "Who's this?"
Hughes chose that moment to sober up somewhat,
"Remember the Elric brothers I told you about?" he asked her.
Gracia nodded.
"This is their childhood friend, Winry. I told her she could stay here." "Oh but we only have one guest room" Gracia said worriedly.
"I don't mind sleeping on the couch." Toshiro informed.
Winry looked suddenly flustered,
"No, if it's too much trouble I won't impose." "Nonsense, it's no imposition." Gracia informed her.
Winry didn't look reassured.
"Come on." Hughes said smiling slightly, "Trust me, there's no place in the city better then here. I insist."
Winry looked embarrassed but nodded anyways, her attention turned to Alicia,
"I hear today's your birthday, how old are you?" she asked the little girl.
"Tw…" Alicia trailed of, then raised three fingers, "Three!" Winry looked aw struck,
"S-" she stopped, then in unison she and Hues blurted, "SO CUTE!"
Toshiro face palmed, running his hand down his face,
"Please not another Hughes." The side of his lip twitched in annoyance.
After nearly half an hour of trying to avoid social interaction, Toshiro decided to step out a while, feeling very uncomfortable. He never was good with crowds. When the party was over Toshiro walked back inside to find that the couch was already made up and everyone else had wandered off to bed.
Finding his eyes drooping and suppressing a small yawn, Toshiro decided it was about time he went to sleep. He changed into his borrowed pyjamas and folded took his uniform and clothing to the wash. Gracia had given him permission to wash his clothes when he so chose and since the machine was in the basement it wouldn't be waking anyone up on the upper floors.
When the cycle was done he hung up the clothes to dry. It would probably be done in the morning, he decided heading upstairs and immediately falling asleep on the couch.
He was once again up early. As the sun rose he was only slightly surprised to see Winry awake.
"Thank you for letting me stay, Mr and Mrs Hughes." She thanked them.
"Not a problem. Are you sure you want to leave today though?" Gracia asked her.
"Yes, I'll find my own lodgings." Winry smiled.
Toshiro rolled his eyes, knowing full well that the Hughes' wouldn't let her go without a fight.
"Winry," Hughes whined, "If you leave I'll be stuck with Toshiro! Though he's a huge help around the office he so scary whenever you give him a nickname! Not only that but…" his eyes were teary, "He makes me do all my work!" Toshiro felt a vein pulse in his head,
"You should be doing all your work anyways." Toshiro glared.
"See what I mean!" Hughes pouted.
Toshiro let out a sigh,
"You wanted to pick up tickets, Winry?" he asked her.
"Oh, yeah." Winry smiled.
"I'll walk with you."
"Oh, alright." She agreed somewhat reluctant.
"Hold up, how about I come with you too. If I leave you alone the awkward silence will be unbearable."
"Hn." Toshiro grunted non-comically, rolling his eyes.
Winry looked relieved that she had someone to have a conversation with, not that she had anything against Toshiro, just that he was difficult to be around too long. Not to mention that half the time he was glaring at her, then the other half he spent glaring at something else!
She let out a small sigh, this was going to be a long walk.
"So we meet again." Edward glared at the bottle of milk with distaste.
If an onlooker were to walk by and peer into the hospital room they might think that the hatred was mutual.
But that was impossible, right?
"Aw man, what's the big deal with milk anyways!" he suddenly blurted, "I'm not drinking it and that's final!" the blond ponytailed boy turned to look at the suit of armour that sat in the corner of the room, "Do me a favour, Al and drink it for me." He paused, "Well, I guess you can't since you have that body…"
"Brother, you still have most of your real body; you need to take care of it. Just drink it."
The shorter of the two didn't appear to notice the sorrow in his voice.
"I won't drink what I don't like. Besides it's not like I need milk to grow." Ed argued, "Despite what it may seem I am getting taller. You're lucky you have such a big body." It was obvious then that he had said something he shouldn't have as the armour stood, enraged, and as the door swung open he shouted,
"I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS DAMN BODY!"
The blond haired girl and short white haired boy stood in the doorway, both shocked but for different reasons.
That suit of armour, the white haired boy thought, nearly gaping, it was radiating spiritual pressure, it wasn't normal. The way it stood, the way it moved, it was all wrong. It was like someone had taken a plus soul and bound it to the metal.
How was that possible?
And then he thought back to the books he had read. Was this alchemy?
His brow furrowed, should he attempt to perform konso on it?
No, the soul was still alive.
"I…" Toshiro was broken out of his thoughts when Ed started speaking, "I'm sorry, Al. You're right, it's my fault."
How was this his fault? Toshiro wondered. Had he taken a person's soul and somehow bound the boy to the armour?
"Is there really any way to get out bodies back?" the armour shouted.
'Our bodies,' Toshiro observed, that meant that something had effected Ed, whom he now assumed to be the older of the two, as well. Though it appeared as though whatever it was effected the younger of the two more so that the older as Ed was missing an arm and a leg. Toshiro shook his head, no; he couldn't assume that the missing limbs were tied to the younger ones missing body, though it did seem to be a safe bet…
"I'll get you back to normal, believe me." Ed insisted.
"'Believe you'?" the suit asked infuriated, "What am I supposed to believe in this empty shell of a body!? According to alchemic theory humans are composed of a physical body, mind and soul, but has any of this been proven?"
Toshiro snorted. If it wasn't true than what exactly was he?
"Memories are data when you think about it, possible to reconstruct!"
Toshiro was growing weary, he had a pretty good idea as to where this was going. It appeared that Ed did as well, but he had to ask anyways,
"Where are you going with this, Al?"
"You told me once that you had something you wanted to tell me. Maybe what you really wanted to say was that my memories and soul are fake!" the boy Toshiro assumed was Al declared, "Well big brother, can you prove that a person named Alphonse Elric actually existed!? Isn't it possible that Winry, and Granny, and everyone is lying to me!? Well big brother, what do you have to say!?"
SLAM!
The short blond haired boy banged his fists down on the small table holding his food.
"You were…keeping all of this bottled up this whole time? I see…"
He got up and walked out of the room.
"Idiots." Toshiro said, "First the short idiot, then the damn armour idiot." "W-what did you say!" an angry aura surrounded the short blond haired boy, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MIGET SO SHORT YOU CAN SQUASH LIKE AN ANT!"
Toshiro didn't flinch.
"Who are you calling an idiot!?" the armoured boy shouted, even more enraged.
"You two." Toshiro said in monotone, "After all you'd have to be an idiot if you'd think someone would risk their own life to save something that was fake." Both boys were silent; realization seemed to dawn on the one in armour.
"I swear the two of you are bigger morons than Ichigo!" he ranted in Japanese.
"C-come again?" Al asked weakly.
"You are both bakas!" he gave them both two very cold glares, though not his worst.
If he had they would have both wet themselves.
"I-I…Ed…" Al said wanting to apologize.
But Ed got up and swiftly left the room.
"You…" Winry said darkly, "YOU IDIOT!"
Toshiro let out a sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose, a sudden headache coming on as Winry ranted to the boy.
"Now go find Ed and apologise!" she shouted.
"O-okay…" he said getting up and walking cautiously out of the room.
"What are you waiting for, run!" she yelled.
"Yes m'am!" the armour took off running.
Toshiro scowled and leaned up against the doorframe. Winry and Hughes left to follow Al, while Toshiro just stood there.
"T-that was scary." Lieutenant Ross said, entering the room.
Toshiro only glanced at her wondering what was so scary about that.
"Y-you're really perceptive, you know?" Brosh added, "How did you even know that the two of them had attempted to bring their mother back to life?"
Toshiro only stared at them. He hadn't known that. But this information only solidified in his mind that the two brothers were complete and utter bakas.
"It's obvious." Toshiro decided to say, "When the younger one moved I could hear how hollow his steps sounded."
"So you knew he was empty." Ross completed.
"The rest was just conjecture on my part. I didn't actually know they had tried to bring their mother back from the dead. How idiotic."
"Er…right." Brosh said oddly.