DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, I only own my own OCs and this particular fic. Thank you very much.
Four
After introductions to Winry were made, everyone moved into the Rockbell living room. Pinako went to the adjoining kitchen to prepare coffee and breakfast, while Winry offered for the guests to make themselves comfortable. After setting down Alphonse, the Major excused himself to the bathroom, while Delilah sat on the floor beside Al and tried to get Den to play with her again. Ed shrugged off his coat and accepted a mug of coffee when Pinako came back into the room for a moment.
Winry suddenly noticed that Ed was missing his mechanical arm, and she screamed as he casually sat down and drank from his cup.
"Yeah, sorry," he said between sips. "It got broken."
"What do you mean, 'it got broken'? That was my masterpiece! A state-of-the-art prosthetic! GAH! Just let me see the damage so I can fix it and get you out of here!" Winry's screeches caused Den to lie on the floor and cover his ears with his paws.
"Yeah, when I said 'broken,' I meant 'smashed to bits,'" Ed admitted, trying to laugh it off.
Winry swooned. When she regained herself, she smacked Ed with another wrench. "Not only that, but you went and broke Al, too? Just what sort of lifestyle do you two lead?"
Alphonse laughed nervously but didn't answer.
At that moment, Pinako announced breakfast, and everyone gathered in the kitchen to eat. Delilah was sad to leave Den, but her growling stomach convinced her she needed to tend to herself for a while.
The food was delicious; neither Delilah nor Marcoh had been exceptional at cooking (Delilah often forgot altogether that she was cooking and would end up burning everything), so she was pleased at the home-cooked meal. At one end of the table, Major Armstrong and Pinako engaged in their own conversation that Delilah couldn't hear over the loud and boisterous words of the teenagers at her end of the table. Delilah was content to just listen or zone out on her own thoughts, but Winry decided to include her in the chat.
"So, Delilah, right? What're you doing with these two?"
The younger girl had been about to stick some hash browns into her mouth, but she lowered her fork. "I am supposed to help them do research in Central." She figured that telling the whole truth may not be acceptable to the brothers, since they hadn't said much so far.
"Oh." Winry seemed a bit startled at Delilah's quiet, airy voice. "Well, I hope you know what you're getting into. Al can be sweet, but Ed's a handful."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Edward demanded.
Winry ignored him. "What do you like to do?"
"I like to read and learn. And I do enjoy puzzles." She glanced at Den longingly. "…I really like animals. Oh," she exclaimed softly, catching sight of Den's leg. She turned back to Winry. "May I watch you make Edward's arm? I have not studied automail before."
Winry smiled, excited by the mention of the mechanical art. "Sure!"
Ed finished eating first, so Winry sent him off to change into something loose so they could examine him. By the time he returned, breakfast was finished, and Delilah had helped Winry clean up the dishes. Pinako had Ed sit on the couch, and Ed explained that they needed to go research the Philosopher's Stone and were therefore in a hurry.
"It seems that we have to adjust your leg, too," Pinako noted, inspecting Ed's legs.
"So you have gotten taller, after all," Winry teased. Ed twitched, but he somehow managed to shake off the jibe.
"How long's it gonna take to make my arm from scratch?" he asked. "A week?"
Pinako huffed on her pipe thoughtfully (Delilah mentally recited all the terrible things smoking could do to one's body, but she said nothing). "Don't underestimate me. I can have it ready for you in three days."
With that said, the old woman took out Ed's leg and replaced it with a much simpler spare. Delilah watched with fascination, doing her best to note how Pinako attached the prosthetic to the metal stump at the end of Ed's flesh thigh.
Ed stood and nearly fell over. "Whoa… Hard to walk on a leg I'm not used to," he noted, touching the wall to help him balance.
Winry ignored him and counted off all the things she had to do. "I have to craft all the parts, assemble everything, check the connections, make adjustments…. This is gonna be all-nighters for sure."
Ed noticed her mutterings. "Sorry about that."
"You wanna get to Central as soon as possible, right?" Winry asked, confident in her abilities. "Let's see what I can do!"
Ed was stunned at her words, but then she jokingly hit him in the shoulder.
"But for a rush job like this, you're gonna have to pay extra….! Oh! I'm sorry, Ed, I forgot you're not used to that leg."
Ed grumbled incoherently from his position on the floor.
()()()()()
As Winry tinkered away at Ed's arm (which was at this point a pile of metal and screws and cables), Delilah sat on a stool beside her and watched. Delilah found it fascinating how Winry sorted through the seemingly confusing pile with ease, measuring out the correct pieces. Delilah was silent the whole time, but after about ten minutes, Winry sighed and put down her tools.
"Delilah," she began apologetically. "Don't get me wrong. You're a lot better company than Ed is, but I can't really work when there's someone looking over my shoulder. It's too distracting."
The younger girl blinked slowly. "Oh. I understand." She herself had never really been bothered if someone was crowding her, but Marcoh had liked his personal space. She stood. "I can leave."
Winry smiled sadly. "I'm really sorry; I know you wanted to learn more about it."
"I can always read about it. It is no trouble," she replied, turning to leave the room.
"Thank you, Delilah," Winry called as she left. "Maybe when I'm working on something that isn't so rushed, I'll teach you about it."
"That sounds nice." With that said, Delilah emerged out into the hallway. She wondered how old the house was, how long the Rockbells had been working with automail, and, most important of all, where had Den gone to?
She wandered through the bottom level of the house, finding Pinako working on Ed's leg, but she left the old woman alone. Maybe Den is outside, she realized, so she emerged out onto the porch and looked around. She saw the Major at one end of the property, his muscles gleaming in the hot sun as he chopped firewood with his alchemy (or was he simply using his bare hands?). However, she didn't see Den, so she descended the steps and decided to walk the perimeter of the house. She was so preoccupied with finding the dog that she didn't notice Alphonse leaning up against a barrel until she tripped over his leg and nearly fell flat on her face.
"Oh—are you okay?" Alphonse asked, startled at her sudden appearance. The chickens that had been pecking at him scattered due to the commotion.
Delilah stood up straight. "Yes." She looked around the area, quickly forgetting that she had tripped in the first place. "I am searching for Den. Have you seen him?"
"He went off with Ed, to visit our mom's grave," Al explained.
"You did not want to go with them?"
The armor-boy shifted. "I didn't want to bother the Major."
Delilah frowned and came over to him. "What if someone carries your head for you?" To illustrate her point, she grasped Al's head and pulled it off. At once, Al's red eyes faded from his helmet.
"H-hey!" he stuttered, his voice echoing from within his body. "I can't see out of my head if it's not on my body! Please give it back."
Delilah studied the helmet for a moment before placing it back on his body. Al's red eyes glowed once more. "I apologize," she said. "But you are very interesting."
Al, who had been adjusting his head, paused. "You're not nervous about me being hollow?"
Delilah cocked her head. "Why would I be nervous? You are not scary." When he was silent for a moment, she turned toward the chickens and tried to approach them, but they skittered away from her. She frowned and took a few steps toward them, but they quickly vacated the area.
"They aren't going to come to you if you chase them," Al told her. "They'll only come if you have food, and I can't remember where Pinako keeps that."
"They come to you," she pointed out, beginning to pick up loose bits of straw from around the chicken coop.
"Well, I'm metal, and I don't have to move to breathe or anything. They don't see me as a threat." He paused, watching her for a few seconds. "What are you doing?"
"It is hot," she explained. She stopped moving as a chick crossed her path before hurrying after a hen. Diverted from Alphonse's question, she said, "I wish they would let me pet them…."
"You really like all kinds of animals, don't you?" Al noted. "Oh, didn't you say earlier that they distracted you or something?" he asked, finally getting to the question that he had been meaning to ask.
Delilah nodded. She noticed a bit of straw beside his foot, and she came over to retrieve it before she plopped herself down on the ground and pulled a piece of chalk out of her dress pocket. "I think about a lot of different things, but animals get me to focus on just them." Her normally distant voice managed to put emphasis on the last word, but then she became quiet as she drew a transmutation circle in the dirt.
Al inspected her work. Though her lines were in the perfect places, they were a tad shaky, suggesting that she didn't practice drawing as much as one should if one wanted to be a distinguished alchemist. He watched as she put the straw in the center of the completed circle, and she took a breath before she placed her hands on the ground.
Al cocked his head slightly once the light from the transmutation circle faded. "A hat?"
Delilah placed the hat on her head. Its wide brim shielded her face and neck from the sun. "It is hot," she repeated, explaining her actions with that simple sentence.
Alphonse tilted his head back to look up at the sun. He couldn't remember the last time that the bright light had caused his eyes any pain. "I can't feel the heat," he admitted. "I can sort of…tell when things touch me, but I can't feel anything."
Delilah reached out and touched his shoulder plate. "You feel hot." She stood. "You wanted to know, yes?"
When Al didn't answer, she used her bare feet to erase her transmutation circle.
()()()()()
The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully. When lunchtime came around, Edward was still gone and Winry didn't want to be bothered, so Pinako and the Major ate inside while Delilah took her sandwich outside and ate next to Alphonse. She was still trying to keep a watch out for Den.
To pass the time while she ate, Alphonse told her a few stories of his and Edward's adventures when they were kids. There was the time they had fought over Winry's hand in marriage (Al had won, but had promptly been rejected by the girl); the time there was a huge snowfall and Ed and Al used alchemy to create a giant snowman; and the times they had used alchemy to make presents for their mother.
When Delilah was nearly finished with her sandwich, Alphonse stopped her. "Maybe you can get one of the chicks to come over," he said, gesturing to the last bits of bread in her hand.
Delilah tossed a few crumbs toward the chickens, and they immediately came closer, squabbling amongst themselves for the food. The ends of her mouth tipped upward, transforming her usually expressionless face.
a/n: I'm serious, guys. It's not natural for me to update this quickly. But...I like it. A lot. And those of you who review seem to like this as well, so I decided to reward you with fluff. Uh, if you could call it that at this early in the game...? Idk. Because love doesn't happen immediately, and I won't let it happen for a while because otherwise it wouldn't be very realistic. BUT YAY. THEIR FIRST REAL CONVERSATION. REJOICE! *throws confetti*
It's also really, really hard to convey Al's emotions since he's a suit of armor. I mean, I knew it would be tricky, but holy crap (why can't suits of armor blush in real life or something XD). And Delilah isn't good at reading people in the first place, so I kinda have to shift into Al's POV to show his thoughts and stuff. At later points I'll probably write directly from his POV or something.
I got three reviews for the last chapter, meaning eight reviews total! Keep them coming, they really help, and I appreciate every single one. Don't be afraid to ask about anything, either, I might just answer you (I like having conversations with people over the internet, not necessarily in real life, though XD). Go ahead and review, it doesn't take long, especially now that FFN has that neat feature where the box is right there~
See you next time!
EDIT: I went in and fixed a few typos. My bad!