Remember how I said this chapter had something significant to the future chapters? Read carefully for some foreshadowing (is it really foreshadowing, though?) to chapter fifteen.
Chapter Twelve
Ed felt more like home here. She felt like she was finally somewhere she belonged. The foursome had ended up in Resembool for some automail repairs, and Ed had immediately holed herself up in Winry's bedroom. She remembered childish times of playing dress-up together - though Ed wasn't particularly fond of Winry trying to put makeup on her - and when they got a bit older and Ed was recovering from her automail surgery, they'd spend time in there talking while Ed rested. She often would find herself in Winry's room after a long day of physical therapy with granny.
If they had gone through normal lives, would her bedroom look like Winry's? It was rather plain, but there were...well, there were purple curtains. Not really much else for girly things. But would Ed have the closet full of clothing and knickknacks? She couldn't imagine.
The others didn't question Ed staying up in Winry's room. They stayed below. Granny hadn't been home when they showed up, so they were waiting for her to return. She was probably at the market or something. Possibly with a neighbor. Everyone knew everyone in Resembool.
Ed had left the room to make a sandwich, but returned to the room. She enjoyed feeling as though she was still young and innocent. Like Winry was there just ready to talk and Al was in his regular body. Ed missed those days.
Suddenly the door to the room opened and Ed almost snapped at the intruder for thinking they could just waltz into Winry's room like she had done. Though, she soon found it to be Winry. Ed didn't know why Winry didn't immediately see her at the desk, but Winry just continued on and began to remove her clothes until she noticed that Ed was there.
"Eh..." Ed trailed off. Winry suddenly screamed, and Ed couldn't understand why. It wasn't like she had anything Winry hadn't seen before! Well, maybe really just thought of Ed as one of the guys now, and for that, she guessed she could be happy. But Winry didn't need to freak out over Ed's presence!
Suddenly the door was jammed open. Thankfully Winry had put her shirt down by that point.
"Hey, what's the matter here?!" Mick suddenly shouted. That's right, Mick and Liam from Briggs were escorting Winry and the others. But where were the others?
"When did Edward Elric get here?" Liam asked.
"Drop your guns!" Darius suddenly shouted from behind them, pointing guns at them.
"What the hell is going on up here?" Greed asked as he held Den by her collar.
"Ling?" Winry asked.
"Wait, you guys are Kimblee's men, aren't you?" Liam asked.
"Hey, I know you guys!" Darius said. "You're from Briggs!"
"You two have been following us this whole time?!" Mick asked.
"Okay, Ed, you wanna tell me what's going on here?" Winry asked as the two tuned out the conversation between the others.
"Looks like a cautionary tale about guns," Ed remarked.
"Don't be a smartass, tell me why you're in my room," Winry ordered.
"I just wanted someplace private to eat my sandwich!" Ed defended herself.
Winry glared at her friend before turning to the others who had found their way deeper into her bedroom than her comfort allowed. "GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" she suddenly shouted, holding a wrench.
"Did you get that out of your bra?!" Ed shouted.
Winry dropped the hand that was holding the wrench. "I was worried about you," she said quietly.
"Yeah..." Ed trailed off. "I was worried about you too."
Winry looked over her friend. Not much had changed, but Ed looked slightly taller than she had been the last time they saw each other. She noticed a glint of metal coming from her friend in a place metal usually didn't reside.
"Are you wearing my earrings?"
"So why did you come to our house?" Winry asked as they all sat at the dinner table. Granny had returned and Greed had explained everything to them in detail.
"We're trying to get prepared," Greed said. "Her automail's in need of serious maintenance and I need her in peak condition." Ed was having a hard time getting used to people referring to her as a girl and Granny and Winry seemed shocked that others knew.
"Give her a looksee after dinner," Granny said. "It's your fine craftsmanship after all. I'm not really comfortable tinkering with it."
"Yeah, of course," Winry said with a nod.
After dinner, Ed found herself in Winry's room while she had her automail maintained by Winry. It brought back memories from when Winry used to tinker with her automail when they were kids.
"So how long has Ling... I mean...Greed...known about you?" Winry asked.
"More and more people keep finding out," Ed said. She would have shrugged if she could without screwing up Winry's maintenance. "Ling found out before we left for Briggs. Mustang almost found out and Greed just kind of knew when we met up. Darius and Heinkel, the chimeras, found out when they took me to the doctor."
"Why were you at the doctors?" Winry asked worriedly.
"Something happened with Kimblee," Ed answered without giving too much detail. Winry would just get upset. "It's complicated and not really important."
"Always keeping secrets," Winry commented. "Fine, don't tell me. But why did you get your ears pierced?"
"I figured we wouldn't see each other for a while," Ed said. "I don't know, the idea just kind of came to me. I thought it would keep me from losing them until the next time I saw you."
"Well, you can hold onto them for a while more," Winry said. "You keep them until the next time we see each other. It's a promise that you'll come back."
"I'll always come back," Ed said. "Always."
"So Al and I ended up in Liore," Winry said, changing the topic quickly. "They seem to be rebuilding their community."
"You don't say? Liore's getting up and running again." Ed smiled. "Good to hear. I was nervous they might not."
"We ran into your father in Liore," Winry said. "He should be on his way to Central now. I think he's heading for some slum named Kanema. You oughtta go there." After a moment she said quietly, "You know...it's almost Promised Day."
"Ling and Greed told me all about it. It could give us a chance to get our bodies back, but it's most likely gonna result in catastrophe for Amestris." Ed paused. "Listen..."
"What is it?" Winry asked.
"I want you to take Granny and Den and leave the country for a while," Ed said. She couldn't let this ugly thing get to her family.
"I'm not running away!" Winry shouted. "You can't just send us off like that! I know you wanna protect us, but you need to try to save everyone!"
"I'm gonna do everything I can to stop it, but there's a chance it might not work!" Ed shouted. The two found each other right in their faces. Ed even discovered that she was towering over Winry slighter. She finally hit a growth spurt.
"I don't wanna hear any doubts from you!" Winry shouted angrily. "Please, Ed. You can't let them go through with this! Just tell me you're gonna stop them and save the country. I wanna hear you say that you're gonna protect the country and then get your body back. Do whatever it takes to make that happen."
"Winry, you make it sound like it's easy," Ed said with a sigh.
"This isn't the time to start doubting yourself, Ed," Winry said as Ed made her way to the door. "Listen to me!"
"Winry, you just don't know when to shut up, do ya?" Ed asked as she walked out the door and slammed it.
"Edward!" Ed heard Winry call through the door.
Greed laughed from the stairs.
"Oh, man, she's a peach," Greed said with a grin. "Sounds like she wants everything; my kind of girl."
"That kind of wanting is dangerous. That's not how reality works," Ed said, holding up her automail. "Take a look; this is what I got for wanting something unrealistic."
"I disagree," Greed said. "You wanna bring back someone that you lost. You want money, maybe you want women. Or, you wanna protect the world. These are all common things that people want. Things that their hearts desire. Greed may not be good, but it's not so bad either. You humans think that greed is just for money and power, but everyone wants something they don't have." Ed paused as she walked on the stairs, though quickly regained herself and continued walking.
Instead of staying where he stood, Greed followed behind Ed. She felt the Homunculus' presence, though said nothing until they were alone in the empty patient's cottage. It was where Ed had spent plenty of her time after recovering from her transmutation. She spent her time there after her automail surgery until she was cleared to move around by granny Pinako.
"Why are you following me?" Ed asked in the darkness of the room. She hadn't turned the lights on and neither had Greed. It was quiet besides her own breathing. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest.
"Because I'm Greed," Greed said. "I want everything, remember? Money…power…. Women."
Ed felt herself stop breathing. "I'm Edward Elric. No woman would go by a name like that."
"But your body is that of a woman," Greed said. His hand reached out, turning Ed around forcefully before running his hands down her body. "And you know what I want."
"What if it's not what I want?" Ed asked. "I may have the body of a woman, but that doesn't mean I would want to do something as disgusting as waste myself on you."
"As I said before," Greed began. "Everyone wants something they don't have. Especially women."
"I don't want you," Ed said, repeating herself over and over until she felt herself pinned Ed to the wall they were standing in front of. "I don't," she said.
"Stop," she spoke.
"You're leaving in the middle of the night?" Winry asked as the group prepared to leave. They were standing outside the Rockbell house. It was better they leave this early, anyway. They still couldn't risk anyone seeing Ed and the chimeras with them being fugitives.
"We were actually planning on leaving earlier today," Ed said. "It was good to see you. And thanks for the tune-up, Winry."
"If you happen to run into Hohenheim, you make sure to give him that message from your mother, all right?" Pinako had forgotten to give it to him the last time she had seen the man, and entrusted Ed with the decision of doing it.
"I will, I will," Ed said as she waved off.
"Wait, Ed!" Winry called. "I need to-" They still hadn't made up from earlier.
"Lay low until the Promised day passes," Ed interrupted. "We're gonna stop them, Winry. And Al and I will be home before you know it. Have an apple pie waiting for us, okay?"
Winry smiled. Their fighting had been completely forgotten. "And make sure to keep my earrings in good condition." Ed smirked and waved as they walked down the dirt road.
"Message from your mother?" Darius asked.
"Apparently she had some message she wanted to give the old guy," Ed said. "I promised I'd hand over the message if I ever saw him."
"Was it the message that his daughter might be a transvestite?" Greed asked.
"SHUT UP!"
So, my publishing these chapters depends on two things; how fast I get ten chapters ahead of the one I posted done, and how many reviews I get. I was going to publish this chapter earlier, but since there weren't any reviews on the previous chapter, I decided to wait until there was. I've written a bunch more chapters, so my updating schedule depends entirely on you guys. Good luck and good fun. (I finished writing chapter twenty-three and am now working on twenty-four).
Also, I'm not doing this because I want a million reviews on my chapters. I just want to be able to time the chapters properly so people aren't reading the chapters in bulk and don't have enough time to truly appreciate each chapter and what happens in it. Anyway, moving on to answering anons.
Lily: ":) I'm really glad you updated. And I'm really happy to see greed and Ling again because they are my favorite characters".
I'm glad you like Ling and Greed! I actually really like Ling too. He's goofy and stuff and I find that kind of cute. As for Greed, he's my favorite Homunculus, so he's got that going for him. I feel like he's more honest than the other Homunculi with him understanding that everyone's a little greedy. As with the manga, they will be in the next few chapters, but remember, chapter fourteen is where the manga ends.