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Fullmetal Romance

A Fan Fiction Comedy By

Turles

Chapter 2: The Arrangement

Later that night, Edward Elric had knocked on the door of Charlie Daniels home. He decided that this man would be the key to helping him in his plans since he got back to his home town. He came alone to the house; he told his brother that he needed to do this part alone. As he waited, his heart was racing inside his stomach hoping for the door to open right away. At first during that long pause of waiting there was nothing, no answer. Anyone else would have just walked away and tried again later, but Edward was far too stubborn to give up that easily, especially for something like this. He reached up with his metal arm and knocked harder than before leaving a few small dents in the door. With those hard knocks, the door opened and outstepped Charlie Daniels who at first was looking left and right and then he looked down at Ed.

"Can I help you?" He asked

"Charlie Daniels?" Ed asked, "I'm Edward Elric, I've come to ask you for your help about something."

Charlie had tipped his head down a little further and raised his eyebrows at the young boy, "Come inside and we'll talk a little more."

Ed was allowed inside, and his eyes were greeted with bookshelves and bookcases everywhere. All along the walls were cases stacked with all kinds of books, but they never reached the ceiling, they only went halfway while the other half of the walls were decorated in framed pieces of artwork. Yet, Ed didn't loose his baring too quickly as he followed Charlie into his kitchen where he explained as he went to his cooking pots and pans on the elaborate stove,

"I didn't answer right away since I was just making a little dinner." Charlie said as he prepared a little further, "Had I known that company was coming, I would have made more. Please have a seat."

Ed found a small dinning room table near the kitchen, he stepped up and sat down while his nose caught the smoky scent of cooking meat as well as a very sweet scent. Even though Charlie said that he would have made more, but for the looks of what there was, it looked like Charlie was cooking for about three or four people. He sat down and watched Charlie dance around the kitchen moving from one space to the other as if he was performing some kind of tribal ritual. Never before had Edward Elric seen such pride or ritual that went into such a simple task as preparing a meal.

Charlie had then brought out two plates and began cutting and serving for himself as well as Edward, even though he never asked Ed if he wanted any, perhaps Charlie already knew that Ed was not the kind of person to turn down a hot dinner. He brought over the plates of food along with a glass of water for Ed and a small glass of wine for himself.

He sat down across from Ed and took a sip of wine and said in a calm voice, even though he may have exhausted himself from he meal tribal ritual in the kitchen, "What is it that I can do for you, Edward?"

Ed looked at the dish of food for a moment and wanted nothing more than to dig right in, but decided against his own character to get the issue at hand since it concerned someone very near and dear to him.

"I heard that you were a teacher of literature, right?"

"Guilty." Charlie smiled as he bowed his head with his glass of wine in his hand.

"Do you know anything about poetry or romance?"

Charlie tilted his head back in thought and answered, "Sure, why do you ask?"

"Well, you see there's this…girl…that…I know…" Ed found it hard to discuss something like it especially in front of someone that he only met a few seconds ago, even more so watched him make a man feel intellectually inferior in a restaurant. Still, this was part of his plan, he remembered earlier that day how when he got back to the Auto-Mail shop with Winry, she was fantasizing aloud about Charlie. She was saying that she wished that someone like him would come along with such intelligence and sweep her off her feet as well as gifts of auto-mail parts.

"Ah, I get it," Charlie nodded, "You need help in trying to get her attention to you, right?"

"Right, problem is, I'm not that great with words." Ed admitted in slight shame, "Which is why I'm here."

"Alright," Charlie smiled as he took a sip of his wine while being very careful not to dip his nose into it, "I'll help you out, but on one condition."
Edward's heart flew with great hope that he was willing to meet any condition, "Anything."

"Just don't make fun of my nose," Charlie said sternly.

"Deal," Ed smiled, "I won't say anything about your nose if you don't say anything about my height."

"What about it?"

Ed was a little stunned by the answer since so many people have made comments about how short he was for his age. He scratched his head at this and then had to explain it to him.

"Well, I'm a little…" Ed paused since it was another hard thing to admit, "short for my age."

Charlie shrugged, "Well, you're still young, you may hit a growth spurt somewhere, but it's a deal, I won't say anything about it."

"Alright then," Edward smiled as he dug into the plate of food before him with his renewed ravenous appetite, he spoke to Charlie between each swallow of food, "How are we going to do this?"

Charlie was carefully savoring each mouthful of food he had but after another sip of wine he explained his idea to Ed, "Well, you mentioned your not that good with words," He began, "So, then that means speaking to her shouldn't be the first step, what we should do at first is try another medium."

"What'd you have in mind?" Ed asked as he shoved another piece of food into his mouth.

"Writer her a letter." Charlie answered.

Ed nearly choked on the food he swallowed before taking down some water, "I'm no good at writing letters either."

"Who said you had to write them?" Charlie asked with a sheepish smile on his face.

"Ah," Ed smiled connecting the dots in his head, "I see where you're going with this."

And it was with that, that Edward Elric the Fullmetal Alchemist finished the food that was in front of him, while Charlie Daniels disappeared from the kitchen and dinning room and brought back an old fashioned fountain pen and a ream of very elegant paper, sealing wax and stamps.

To be continued…