Brief Commentary:
Yay, the left arm feels all better! I lub you, God. -snuggles- Lulz, anyway.
Where we left off, Winry just learned that her best friend's daddy died. Creepy. o0;; Well, since Paninya's dad never existed in the series to begin with (he was killed in the train accident that cost Pan her legs), I'm going to see if I can't do something like how Paninya would react. Properly and in character, that is. But you know, to get in the mood for this kind of depressing situation, Breaking Benjamin is extremely helpful to listen to. Yeyzerz for depression (well, actually not, seeing as my older sister had a severe case of depression at one point, and I have a second cousin or something who committed suicide because of his depression, but still...).

Reasons Not For Your Ears
Chapter Nine

Aetern-san's father was murdered last night.

Winry stared at him in disbelief, mouth slightly agape. Paninya's father had been murdered? Had it been...no, she couldn't bear to think of something like that. Swallowing the bile in her throat, she managed a squeaky, high-ptiched,
"How?"
"From what was in the paper this morning, a bullet through the head," Mustang-sensei answered coolly, folding his hands together as his elbows leaned on his desk. Mouth opening and closing in shock, Winry very much resembled a fish, until she drew in a sharp breath and quickly turned away, muttering a "Thank you, Mustang-sensei" before she walked quickly out of the classroom to go to her locker. Roy Mustang failed to reply, his eyes narrowed coldly and his lips twisted into something between a scowl and a frown.

"Al..." Winry came up behind him and tapped his shoulder, her voice quiet and subtle. But Alphonse heard it, and he quickly turned around.
"Winry, what's wrong?"
That was the second time he had asked her that in that morning.
"You know how Pan's absent because of...family issues, right?"
Alphonse nodded, his eyes flashing in concern. For whom, Winry couldn't decipher.
"I asked Mustang-sensei why," she said carefully. "and he said..."
"Winry?"
"He said that...her...dad was murdered."
He stared at her in confusion for a few awkward seconds, before his eyes seemed to glaze over in realization and he slumped against his locker in a very un-Alphonse-like manner. She at first was equally confused at his reaction, before she remembered. His own mother had died; he knew what it was like to lose a parent, just as Winry did.
"Oh," was all he said in response. "Oh. That's...terrible. Horrible."
Winry nodded, biting her lip to keep from sobbing. The inner-turmoil she was facing must have shown on her face, for Alphonse put a gentle, reassuring hand on her shoulder and offered a small, sad smile.
"Let's go visit Paninya after school is over," he suggested. "I'll just have to make a call first. Let's try to make her feel a little better at least; we don't have to cheer her up."
"...okay."

An unbelievable amount of guilt wracked the young Rockbell's insides as she sat down, alone, for lunch. The air was much colder than it had been the day before, and she had been extremely tempted to bring out the jacket from her locker. But Winry quickly found that she was so miserable she seemed to be immune to the cold. Unfortunately, her impending hunger was something she couldn't ignore; she hadn't brought a lunch that day, either, in preparation for another story from Paninya. So she sat alone on the grass, a particularly violent wind tugging at her hair as she stared at her scuffled shoes in utter sadness.

Had the murder of Paninya's father all been her fault? But now that she thought about it, both Paninya and Scar had similarly colored skin...even though their hair was different...could Scar possibly be...? No, no, definitely not. Winry shook her head to clear it of the excessive white noise buzzing in her ears. Edward hadn't shot Scar in the head; just the shoulder. That was right, wasn't it? Unless Edward had actually reloaded and gone after him...but no, he had been shot in two places. The older Elric might have been rude and unlikeable, but he certainly wasn't stupid when it came to common sense.
But maybe Paninya's father's death had nothing to do with Scar or Edward; maybe just some common mugger had gotten hold of a gun had, tried to rob him and had used it. This was a depressing solution none-the-less, but Winry decided it made her feel a little better. However, suppose she was wrong? Suppose Scar had actually murdered Paninya's father?

Winry shivered and hugged herself, attempting to wipe away such thoughts. She was completely unprepared for a new-yet-familiar face to pop up so close to her own.
"Ahhhhhhhgh!" She smacked it in self-defense and stood to move quickly to somewhere else. However, a clever hand had snaked out and grabbed her ankle, tripping her and causing her to fall face-first into the cold, hard ground.
"Owww- what the hell, Ling?" Winry grumbled as she wrenched her foot from his grasp and crawled into a sitting position. Rubbing her sore nose, she glared at him fiercely. He also had managed to sit up, glancing back to keep one eye on Ranfan, who was not that far away as she shyly spoke to a few other girls.
"Hey, Winry-san, was it?" he grinned, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Didn't mean to scare you."
"Then don't do that! Is that a customary greeting where you come from or something?" she snapped at him.
Ling's grin only grew wider.
"Ha ha, not really. I've just always wanted to do that to some one besides Ranfan. Her reactions get boring after a while; she'll only punch me in the face. I haven't been slapped before," he explained, gently rubbing said slap-mark.
"Hmph," she grunted, folding her arms over her chest. "You sure as hell deserved it."
The exchange student nodded, his other eye still zeroed in on Ranfan; like a child on his mother as he attempted to steal cookies from the cookie jar. Winry had a sinking feeling that she was the cookie. But none-the-less, he looked pretty creepy with two pupils averted into different directions. She smacked him again.
"Stop that!"
"Ow, stop what?" Ling whined, holding the part of his head that had been hit. He tried to gain some sort of pitiful look, but it rather resembled a squinty-eyed, long-faced monkey glaring at her. Winry snorted in amusement.
"That eye thing; it's freaking me out!"
"Oh, this?"
He did it again. She smacked him a third time and he let out a whimper.
"Winry-san, that isn't very niiiice!" Ling whined.
"Then stop doing it, moron!"
"But I need to keep tabs on Ranfan; who knows what some boy could come and do to her!"
"You just want to make sure she doesn't see you with me," Winry gave him a bored look that said 'Don't try to argue, asshole,' and wrapped her arms around herself again. Ling was silent for a few minutes before he spoke up again.
"Where's your friend? Was it Paninya-san?"
"Absent," she muttered.
"Why?"
"Family issues."
"Are her parents getting separated?"
"Fuck no," Winry growled at him.
"..then what-"
"It's none of your business!" she stood up suddenly, glaring furiously at the exchange student as he stared up at her in bewilderment.
"I was just asking-"
"Shut up!"
With that, Winry stalked away at a relatively fast pace, determined to get as far away from Ling as she possibly could. She jerked at the familiar feeling of a hand wrapped tightly around her wrist. Trying not to show that she had flinched, she whipped around to find that the strong fingers enclosing her hand were those of Ling, and not the ones of Edward Elric, as she had, for some odd reason, expected. Winry was confused to find that she felt slightly disappointed at this. It was her turn to stare at him in surprise.
"Winry-san, please tell me what is wrong with your friend," his voice, usually warm, had gone icy cold, and his grip on her wrist tightened unfathomably. It was not a request; it was an order. She stared at the ground, before Ling jerked her chin up with his other hand and gave her a stony glare.
"It is rude in my country when you do not answer a question you have been asked; truthfully or not."
As carefree as the exchange student had seemed, Winry felt herself now repressing a shiver. He was certainly frightening when he wanted to be.
"Her...her father..."
"Speak louder, please, Winry-san."
"Her father was...he was..."
"Stuttering does not suit you, Winry-san."
"He was...murdered."
She expected something like a gasp of surprise, or maybe a strange look, but much to her surprise, he released his hold on her wrist and removed his other hand from underneath her jaw and smiled at her. It was a kindly smile, a happy one; it wasn't reassuring, nor was it sympathetic.
"Thank you, Winry-san," was all he said, before he walked off to join Ranfan.
Rubbing her wrist sub-consciously, Winry could only stare after him, utterly dumb-founded. So he hadn't really cared about Paninya; he had just wanted her to answer his question? What kind of person was Ling? Remembering the glare he had given her, she decided that she wouldn't think about it.

"Winry, are you ready to go?" Alphonse asked her as he closed his school book-bag and shut his locker.
"Yeah." Winry did the same. Her face again had become sad, although she attempted to mask it as best she could. "Do you have a bike, Al?"
"I usually take a car here and from here to back home. Would it be alright if we put your bicycle in the trunk and drove there?"
She blinked at him in surprise. Oh well; Alphonse was fairly wealthy. Not to mention he lived in the only mansion in the town. Suddenly she felt extremely sub-conscious, and began to chew her lip.
"Sure, Al," Winry eventually smiled softly, before she, too, shut her locker and strolled outside with him, pointedly ignoring the death glares being fired her way from most of the female population near by.

Once they were outside, Alphonse quietly said,
"So, Winry...you said something about...my brother?"
Caught off-guard, she nodded cautiously and kept herself from looking over at him.
"What did he do?" his voice was extremely soft, but the iciness and hatred in it was also quite evident.
"He..." Winry paused in attempt to think of a way to explain it. "Well, yesterday, I was walking home from school because I hadn't brought my bike, and I met up with Pan. We talked for a while, then she left when it started to get dark..."
Alphonse stared at her with his complete attention, golden eyes blazing with many, many emotions she could not yet begin to decipher. They had stopped walking several minutes before. Slowly, Winry began to explain the events that had occurred the evening before, having to stop and reign in her emotions in a few places. She could still feel Edward's blood, lapping hungrily at her clothes and soaking her hands and hair. The smell of gun powder and tobacco still lingered in her nostrils, and Edward's panting still breathed heavily in her ear.
When she had finished, Alphonse at first said nothing. He was so still, that if he wasn't standing up, and the rise and fall of his chest wasn't so evident, Winry could have very well mistaken him for a corpse. However, this thought was swept away the moment she glanced at his eyes.

Hatred, disgust, concern, fear, sadness, relief, anger, rage, exhaustion; those emotions and perhaps hundreds more boiled furiously in his golden irises, as he stared silently down at her. Suddenly, Winry felt very small. So small that if he so much breathed on her, she would be blown hundreds of miles away.
"...are you okay now, Winry?" Alphonse said in a hushed voice, his hands clenched into fists and trembling from how hard he was squeezing them; his very knuckles were snowy white.
"I'm a little traumatized," she admitted. "but I'm better."
She nearly screamed as she felt hands clamp around her shoulders and Alphonse dragged her face extremely close to his. It had been the second time, she thought blankly, that she had been grabbed in such a violent manner that day.
"The next time you see my brother, Winry," he told her in a gentle voice; it, however, was filled with fury and a dark hate. "please let me know, so that I can kill him."
Winry gulped as he released her, and slowly nodded her head. She knew what he meant was not said in jest. Did the gap between to two Elrics extend so far as to the threat, no, the promise of murder? Suddenly her fear began to flow back, and Winry immediately set her gaze to the ground.
"Let's...let's just go, Al," she said quickly, trying her damnedest to hide the quiver in her voice as she began to walk again toward the bike rack. Suddenly it seemed much further away. Alphonse said nothing in response, but she could hear the soft scuffle of his shoes as he followed her.

Mouth dry, Winry wondered desperately to herself how the fuck she had gotten swept up in this in the first place.

Sorry about Ling's personality; it has to do with up-coming plot events (yay again for plot structure)! Breaking Benjamin was especially helpful when writing that. :) And yes, Alphonse was not kidding when he said he would like to kill his Nii-san.
On another note, I will probably be rewriting the first few chapters (or who knows, I might re-write the whole damn thing), because I really dislike how it starts out. Please review!