More stuff. . . Yeah. Stuff.

Disclaimer: Don't I wish. . . *sigh* Alas, I am not Hiromu Arakawa, otherwise EDWIN WOULD HAVE KISSED! THEY WOULD HAVE!

BTW, I'm putting my friend's OC Toni into this now. Toni Rockbell is a somewhat close second cousin of Winter. She made an appearance in one of my other fics. She's a bit of a nut, but at least she's fun!

Okay. Here we go again. . .

Ed groaned. The ringing in her ears wouldn't go away. It was too early in the morning to be answering phones!

"I'll get it, Brother!" Al said, rushing over to the phone. She picked up the receiver. "Hello, Alphonse Elric speaking." A pause. "All right, put him through." Al sighed. "Hi, Winter."

Ed perked up. Winter Rockbell, their childhood friend and Ed's automail mechanic, never called them at the hotel. Actually, he never called at all because he never knew where they were. It had to have been important if he was calling the hotel. . .

"Okay, Win. I'll tell her. No, it's fine! We're both okay! Don't yell at me, yell at Ed!"

Ed scowled at her younger sister. "Al!"

"Seriously, just talk to her." Al looked over a metal shoulder, somehow managed to give Ed a get-over-here-right-now look without a real face to express it.

Ed groaned but complied with Al's wishes, dragging herself out of bed and stomping over to the phone. She snatched it and held it to her ear. "What, Winter?" she snapped, still peeved at being awoken and irritated at having to talk to her mechanic.

"Is that how you address someone you haven't talked to for a month?"

"Yes," Ed replied.

Winter sighed. "Whatever, Ed. I called to tell you that Toni might come visit you soon."

Ed immediately brightened. "Toni's coming?!" she exclaimed happily. "That's awesome, I haven't seen her in ages! How old is she now?"

"Oh, 20-something. I think. Yeah, 25 or so."

"Awesome! Did she get a job?"

Winter sighed heavily. "Yes, she did."

Ed could hear Winter's exasperation. "What's the matter with her job? Is it something illegal?"

". . . No, it's legal. . ."

"Then what's the matter?"

A groan. "She's still blowing things up in the job."

Ed blinked. She then began to giggle. It quickly escalated into full-blown guffaws. "That's what you're so pissed about? Wait, are you surprised by this? Winter, it's Toni! She's been blowing shit up since we were toddlers, probably before that, even! Why wouldn't she be blowing shit up now?"

"She's supposed to be an adult."

"Don't be so high and mighty, Mr. Grease Monkey. Your job is your hobby, too."

"Shut up, alchemy freak! At least making automail doesn't involve taking down buildings, which is something both you and Toni seem to do daily!"

"Because it's fun, Win."

"Ugh! You're impossible."

"So I've been told," Ed replied lazily, enjoying this careless banter. It was always like this between her and Winter. Ever since they were children they'd fought about the silliest things. An innocent discussion about whether or not it was going to rain turned into a big argument about who was better at making mud castles- and that was when they were both four or five. Now, they could be discussing what the date was and it would become a full-blown shouting match that covered everything from Edalia's nonexistent tallness and alchemy obsession to Winter's love for automail and the teddy bear he still slept with that Ed and Al had made when they were kids.

"Shut up."

"Fine. So, Toni might stop by?"

"Uh, no. She will stop by. I gave her the address to the hotel you guys always stay at. Told her to go there and ask for 'the Elric brothers.' I think she might have cried tears of laughter when I said that. . . She still can't believe everyone thinks you and Al are guys."

Ed jumped up in excitement. "She's definitely coming?! When?! Tell me!"

"She should be there in an hour or so. She left Risembool yesterday."

"Great! Thanks, Win!"

"Do your maintenance, Ed."

An eye roll. "Sure, Winter. Bye!" Ed hung up the phone with a sigh. "Damn, he always manages to slip that in there at least once. . ."

"Brother!" Al cried excitedly. "Is it true? Is Toni really coming?"

Ed grinned. "Yup! She should be here in around an hour!"

Al would have grinned if she could. "That's awesome! We haven't seen her since we were kids!"

"Yeah, since before. . . oh." Gloom set in as the siblings realized that they had not seen the older Rockbell girl in around 6 years. "She never saw you in the armor, Al."

"Yeah. What are we going to tell her?"

Ed flopped down on her bed with a sigh. "The truth. You know she won't fall for the 'it's a hobby' or 'alchemy training' crap. She practically helped raise us. She'll know we're lying."

"And that's if Granny or Winter haven't already told her," Al added glumly.

"Oh, right. . ." Ed said with a sigh, her frustration growing quickly. "Gah, she always managed to do this to us!"

"Do what, Brother?"

"Throw us off our game!" Ed exclaimed. "She's always been able to see through the lies, and her crazy zaniness makes her so unpredictable!"

Al giggled. "I thought that was why you liked her so much, Ed."

"Well, yeah, but still! She's so-"

There was a knock at the door, interrupting whatever Ed was going to say. "Excuse me, Mr. Elric?" a male voice called.

"What?!" Ed snarled.

To his credit, the man's voice remained unfazed. "You have a visitor."

Ed and Al both froze.

It is Toni?

"Oh, just let me in already! I haven't seen them in years, I have stuff to tell them!" a female voice called loudly.

Ed and Al sweat dropped. Definitely Toni.

The door was slammed open. Ed and Al jumped and screeched, "WAAAH!"

"EDDY! ALLY!" a blonde blur cried, racing in to hug Ed. Ed frantically struggled in the vice grip of the woman, but to no avail.

"Save me, Al!" Ed cried, reaching a hand towards her armored sister.

Al shook her head frantically, hands up in an "I surrender" pose. "I'm not getting in there! I'll impale one or both of you!"

The door closed behind them as the poor man hightailed it away from the insanity occurring in the room.

As the thud of the closing door echoed through the room as Toni turned her head towards Al. Somehow, the noise seemed to seal the doom of the Elric sisters.

"Good, we're alone," Toni decreed, setting down the still-thrashing Ed. "Now I can speak freely to you idiots."

Ed and Al gulped audibly and exchanged a glance. She knows.

Toni frowned, blue eyes flashing. "So. . . you committed the taboo." Ed could have sworn thunder echoed throughout the halls of the hotel at that deceptively simple and painfully loaded sentence.

Ed nodded slowly. "Y-Yeah. We. . . we did, Toni."

For a moment, there was no movement in the room. Toni glared at Ed and Al, who stared at the floor, embarrassed by their actions.

Toni sighed and held out her arms. "C'mere, morons."

Ed gratefully burrowed into the shirt of the elder blonde. She could feel the cool metal of Al's breastplate against her shoulder.

"You two are such idiots," Toni whispered fondly. "I'm glad you're alive, twits."

Al let out a choked laugh. "Yeah, we are too."

Toni released them both and stepped back. "Well! Enough with the mushy-gushy crap." She grinned a familiar crazy grin. "I'm here, ladies!"

Ed smirked. "You sure are, vzryv devushka*."

Toni gasped. "Vy izuchayete Drachman**!"

"Don't get too excited, I only know a little," Ed said firmly.

"And that makes, what, five languages you know?!"

"No, only four, and that's counting Amestrian. Creta speaks almost the same exact language, but they call it Cretan."

And Ed and Toni were conversing like that. They had always been good at getting into conversations easily. Al just laughed quietly as the two discussed random things, listening carefully and contributing every once in a while to keep the words flowing easily.

Toni Rockbell, the crazy cousin, had arrived.

. . . This chapter did nothing besides introduce a new character. Nothing.

Oh well. . . I still like it.

RFF!

Oh! By the way, I used Russian as Drachman. . . but I didn't use the characters of Russian, just the phonetics so that us non-Russian speakers can sound it out.

*vzryv devushka: explosion girl

**Vy izuchayete Drachman!: You're learning Drachman!

The word of the day is FIREBRAND! Ooh. . . makes me think of Mustang. . . who, by the way, should be learning Ed's secret sometime in the not-so-distant future. . . that is, if all goes according to plan, which it rarely does, so let's hope for the best! XD

Love ya! lulu