Disclaimer: Apart from the creation of Emily, the rest of FMA, plus any references to it, are to be entirely credited to Arakawa-sensei.

The aftermath of the ball…it was hard thinking of what to do next to be honest (lol).
NOTE: Eki-kyabe is a cure for hangovers.


It had been a long night after Alphonse, Edward and Winry had returned to the hotel, drunk on giddiness from experiencing the magic of a military ball. After excitedly going over everything in detail – the food, the outfits, the music, the speeches – Edward and Winry had fallen asleep with exhaustion on the soothing, comfortable hotel beds. Alphonse sat on the red sofa in the dark room, the silver moonlight crossing the walls and reflecting off the lone suit of armour softly. He knew that even if he was able to sleep he wouldn't – he was buzzing with excitement all over.

The memory of seeing Emily, dancing with her, the sound of the sweet, sweet music in the background mingling with her bell-like laugh. The way they had stood next to each other and clapped politely as the Fuhrer and his subordinates made speeches wishing the success of the military and for the Fuhrer to continue to have a long and successful career. The way that Emily had beamed up at Al when he glanced down at her quickly. The way that she had thanked him for the wonderful night and left, saying that she hoped that they met again.

Whether it was customary politeness for her to say that, Al would never find out. But if there was a slight, a slight, possibility that what she said was genuine…the idea made him squirm with delight. He wanted to see her again. He wanted to hear that laugh, see that smile, look at that face…he wanted to meet the person who had truly treated him as Alphonse Elric the boy, rather than Alphonse Elric the armour.


Winry Rockbell wandered through the main shopping high street of Central the following morning. She spotted a group of young women cooing and pointing at a selection of jewellery in a shop window across the street.

"Oh, that silver one is so precious!"

"That gold one is beautiful! It's expensive but so worth it!"

She watched in silence as the gaggling group huddled themselves into the shop. Darting a glance up and down the round to make sure it was clear of cars, she softly jogged over and peered into the window out of interest, wondering what the fuss was all about. The sparkling jewellery gleamed up at her. Translucent pearls sent in gold necklaces, gorgeous but unlucky opal and diamond rings, sultry sapphires and red wine rubies in silver bracelets…Winry passed a quick eye over each of the gems and felt that none of the artificial jewels were worth their value.

And they were artificial. They weren't in the same league as the coolness of iron, the smooth touch of chrome, the musky perfume of oil and polish – these puny metals and soft stones didn't have as much as soul as automail, or as much reliability. They were simply carved and churned out, carved and churned out, again and again and again and again. They're weren't elaborately planned or carefully constructed – they didn't have a function, they just sat there and sparkled.

Winry watched with a piercing blue eye as the women exited the shop and giggled over their new diamonds and pearls on their long, manicured fingernails and toned arms. She did wonder, sometimes, if she should be girlier – if she should fuss over her appearance, experiment with makeup and hairstyles, go broke buying designer clothes. But it just didn't feel comfortable. It felt like…she was being another clone (plus the fact that those shoes hurt like hell. She had blisters from the ball and couldn't wait for them to heal). She had been excited at going to the ball, but she couldn't spend every day of her life getting dressed up. If she had done it every day, the fun and excitement would be taken out of it – there would be no magic. And she didn't want to lose that.

She sighed again, still staring at the ardent display when a clear voice ran out, "Winry!"

She turned and saw Emily, dressed in her casual clothes (those who went to the ball got the following day off due to possible hangovers and any potential food poisoning), running towards her. "Hi, Emily!" She replied enthusiastically.

"How are you? Any hangovers?" The black haired girl beamed at her.

She laughed in reply, "No! Though I was expecting Ed to get a hangover. He's still asleep. Al is at the hotel too. What about you?"

"No, I didn't drink much. It must be only us. I saw Lieutenant Hawkeye this morning and she was buying eki-kyabe for herself and the Colonel."

"I didn't know she drank alcohol!" Out of all of the people she knew, Winry expected Riza to be the most non-alcoholic. Her self-restraint made it hard to imagine her letting her hair down (literally).

"I know, I was surprised too." Emily gestured towards the shop. "I'm sorry, were you about to buy something?"

She shook her head, the blonde strands brushing against her shoulders. "Nah, I was just looking. Jewellery isn't the same as automail…"

"Automail?" Emily brightened. "Edward has that, doesn't he?"

"Yes, Granny and I made it for him."

A look of astonishment swept across her face. "You made it? That's incredible! I don't know much about automail but is always amazes me. Could you tell me more about it?" She suddenly blushed and added in a stammering voice, "O-Oh! I'm sorry! You must be busy! Maybe we could talk about it another time?"

Winry smiled, "I'm not busy at all! We can talk about it now."

The two girls beamed at each other, linked arms and strolled down the street talking excitedly as though they had been friends forever.


Emily and Winry had wound up at the hotel restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was only half full, and many of the occupants had only lately risen and were ordering cups of coffee in an effort to ease their aching heads. The girls sat next to the window and the world sped by as they talked and giggled. The subject quickly turned to the Elric brothers.

"Gee, aren't those guys up yet?" Winry huffed and looked at the golden clock above the empty bar. It was near one o'clock. "They're so lazy!"

Emily chuckled and picked at a few leftover chips from her lunch and quoted the old saying, "Boys will be boys."

"Even for boys there's a limit on how long you can sleep in."

"You've known them all your life, right?" She chewed on a chip and offered the plate to Winry who speared the potato wedges with her fork.

"Yeah, we grew up together in Risembool. They were lazy then, too." She commented dryly. "Although Ed was lazier than Al – he always tried to get Al to do his chores."

Emily laughed. "The typical older brother, huh?" Winry nodded and they chuckled together. "It's surprising that Alphonse is so much more taller than Edward…even though there is only a years difference between them."

Winry blinked in confusion, "Al is-" she stopped herself suddenly and then realized – Emily didn't know. Of course she wouldn't know, she scolded herself quickly, it wasn't as if the brothers just blurted out to everyone they met that Al was only around because his soul was attached to a suit of armour. If people knew then he most likely would be taken to some lab to be experimented on!

"What is it?" Emily asked.

"Oh, er…" Her mind worked furiously, "I was just going to say that Al is more fond of milk than Ed. So that's why Ed is shorter than him," Winry babbled quickly.

"Who're you calling 'short'?!" A loud voice demanded, causing some of the officers to wince. "Oh, sorry." Ed waved a hand apologetically at the scowls that was directed his way. Alphonse also bowed apologetically. Edward reached Winry and Emily and tugged on a strand of her hair. "Eh?" He demanded again quietly. "Who you calling a pipsqueak?"

"I didn't say that! Get off, Mr I-don't-get-up-till-one-in-the-afternoon." She batted him away.

"It's only one hour after morning – what's the diff?" He pulled out a chair and sat down. "Hello, Emily."

"Hi Edward, Alphonse." Emily smiled at them.

"Good afternoon, Emily." Al replied as he sat down. Ed signalled to the waiter to serve coffee.

"Have you recovered from your hangover?" Winry teased him.

"What hangover? I don't drink! I'm a minor!" He replied sharply, causing people to glare at him again. "Ah, sorry."

"Bet that didn't stop you…" she murmured and ate another chip.

"Alphonse, would you like some of these?" Emily gestured towards the plate.

Al waved his hands, "Ah, n-no thank you! Ed and I had some breakfast…lunch…er, food taken brought up to us when we got up." He finished, clearly embarrassed.

Ed and Winry grinned at each other, both sharing the same thought – Al clearly had a crush on Emily. In silent agreement they both stood up.

"Ed, I need to do some check ups on your arm. Do you mind if I check it now, before I leave tomorrow?" Winry asked innocently.

"Yeah, sure. No probs." He agreed enthusiastically.

Al started to get up too, "I'll come with you."

"Why don't you stay here, show Emily around? You said it's been a while since you've been here, right, Emily?" Winry asked.

Emily blinked in surprise, "Y-Yeah, it has."

"It's settled then!" Ed patted Al on his arm. "We'll see you two later."

Before Al could protest or come up with any excuse the two slipped away quickly, their eyes glinting evilly and their hands covering their sniggering mouths.

A silence fell on the table. Al twisted his hands nervously and Emily bit her lip anxiously.

"We-" Al started.

"I-" Emily said at the same time.

They stopped and laughed quietly, Emily's cheeks glistening a pale pink.

"Sorry," Al said lightly, "what were you going to say?"

"I was, er…" she faltered, her face turning to a rosy red. "I was, um, going to say that I wouldn't mind…well, walking around Central for a while. With you." Her eyes flickered up to him and down to her fidgeting hands again.

Al felt a wave of relief and a tinge of excitement sweep over him. "Sure. Where did you want to go?" He stood up and offered her his hand.

Emily looked up at him in surprise and then smiled warmly, one of Al's favourite smiles. She placed her hand in his and replied simply, "Anywhere."

Winry and Edward grinned and gave each other the thumbs up as they watched in the shadows behind the restaurant doors.