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Fullmetal Romance

A Fan Fiction Comedy By

Turles

Chapter 3: The Letter

The very next day at the Rockbell home, Winry Rockbell was outside at the mailbox pulling out the newest letters. She flipped one over the other as she walked back inside where her Aunt Pinako, as well as her friends Ed and Al Elric were, she passed over each letter seeing that they were simply bills as well as some "thank you" notes from those who had received auto-mail. Though, she came to the very last letter that seemed very unusual, it wasn't in the typical white envelope that the others were in. The letter seemed to be…a peach-like shade. Even the feel of the paper on the outside was unusual and the writing on the outside was elegantly written as if the movement of the hand belonged to that of an artist.

"Anything wrong, Winry?" Alphonse Elric asked noticing how Winry was staring at one of the envelopes.

"I'm not sure," Winry stated not looking up at Al, she looked at the address on it and saw that it was addressed to her, but there was no return address on it whatsoever, "Looks like this letter is for me."

"Aren't you going to open it?" Aunt Pinako asked of her niece.

"I think I should." Winry responded as she set the other letters aside, went to the nearby dinner table, sat down and turned the envelope over. She saw that there was a wax seal on the back of it, in red wax while it was stamped with one letter on it, the letter, "F". She slipped her finger in and opened the letter. She took out the little piece of paper inside, it was like the envelope itself, the paper seemed thicker, more refined than most that she's handled. The writing upon the letter was just like on the outside of the envelope, elegant and curved like brushstrokes of an artist's paintbrush. She looked at the first line and read to herself.

To Winry,

It has been difficult to find the greatest of words to tell this to you, but each time I set pen to paper, nothing seemed to do any sort of justice to you. Even thinking about you, each word I would write would seemed too clichéd, like your hair, how it is like spun gold that shimmers in the mid-afternoon sun. Then there are your eyes, someone might say that they're like twin sapphires, but for you they're more like the finest cobalt steel that could be refined in the entire world. A smile…such a smile that when it's directed at me, I feel as though I'm alive once again. I want to be the sky for you, even enveloping all your pains whenever I look up, I want to feel that I'm not alone even if I'm far away.

I've tried to set your name into many places, I've tried in the sky itself, but the wind blew it away, I tried in the sand but the waters washed it away, and so I'll write it here in my heart where it shall stay. I know that I shall see you again, and I will gladly loose my right arm so that you may repair both it and my heart as well.

Winry could help but blush and giggle slightly to herself as she read the letter silently.

"What is it, Winry?" Al asked as he approached Winry from behind, "A secret admirer?"

"Hmmm," Aunt Pinako hummed to herself as she took a small puff from her pipe, "seems a little suspicious. What's it say, Winry?"

Winry read aloud the letter, giggling every so often between each sentence, though to those who were listening, especially Edward Elric who was sitting in a far corner of the room trying to contain himself from what he was hearing from the letter. Though to him he was wondering if Winry was laughing because of how she felt about the letter or because it was silly.

"Finally!" Winry exclaimed, "I have a secret admirer of my own! Maybe if I meet him he can help me buy all those automail parts that I can't get around here!"

Here eyes were glazed over dreamingly as she thought more about the endless possibilities of who the person was that sent the letter, and in the high hopes that he may be rich.

"Aren't you jumping to conclusions, Winry?" Al asked sounding rather concerned, "After all, you don't exactly know who this guy is, you're not even sure if you've met him. There's no return address and even the letter doesn't say who it's from."

"Don't be silly, Al!" Winry blew off the concern with her dreaming smile, "I know that I'll meet him one day."

"But that is a little odd," Pinako interjected, "That he ended it by saying that he'd gladly loose his right arm just so you could fix it. Sounds almost like stalking to me."

"That might give us a clue," Al added, "He said that he'd gladly loose his right arm just so you could fix it, so he must have been someone whose received automail recently. What'd you think, Ed?"

Ed didn't answer for a moment, he was glad that his back was turned to them so that they couldn't see the expression on his face when Al called for him. He was already thinking that his brother might have already figured it out before he could even make further plans.

"What's that Al?" Ed asked as he turned back to his brother, Winry, and Aunt Pinako

"This guy who wrote this letter," Al repeated, "Any thoughts on it."

"Ah, probably just some nut-job," Ed immediately blew off the whole thing.

"You really have no sense of romance do you, Ed!" Winry bellowed

"What does that have to do with it?" Ed bellowed back.

"Hey, calm down you two." Al tried to diffuse the situation, "There's no need to fly off the handle at each other. Still, at this point it seems best to wait and see if more letters arrive."

"You're right, Al." Winry nodded as she brushed her cheek against the letter, "In the meantime, I'm going to hold onto this…"

"Ah," Ed sighed rather angrily, "I'm gonna go for a walk."

As Ed left to go outside for his walk, Al was wondering to himself about the whole oddness of the situation.

"What's with Ed?" Winry asked.

"I'm not sure," Al answered, "I'll go ask."

Alphonse Elric was concerned to say the least about his reaction to Winry's letter on his brothers' behalf. Then again, it was the first time that he had made some kind of reaction to a situation like this, but Al had to remind himself that they were still young and that there wasn't enough time to really experience such things. Still, there were things in that letter that seemed to bug Al on several levels, the fact of how the writer of that letter seemed to describe Winry in ways as if that person knew her. Particularly with that line of instead of describing her eyes like sapphires, the writer used the finest cobalt steel as his simile. It was that, more than anything that made Al walk out the door of the Rockbell house and follow his brother.

His suspicions started to grow as he watched the back of his brothers red jacket and saw that he wasn't going for just a walk, it was as if he was definitely heading somewhere. He had to follow, but he wasn't about to get himself caught, no, he wanted to sneak, which was quite difficult because of his suit of armor body. He had to hide behind a couple of trees when he saw that Ed was turning back to see if anyone was following him.

After following him for a couple of miles, Alphonse saw that his brother was walking up to a small house at the outskirts of town that had several different trees, bushes, and flowers about it. He watched from a distance his brother knocking at the door of that house, and he saw the very man that had come up with those "twenty-something better nose jokes" a day or so ago. He watched Ed speak to him for a moment and the two of them went inside.

Al's felt himself grow excited as he came down the hill to the house. Knowing that he didn't want to be discovered, he crouched down and inched himself to one of the nearby windows that had some potted plants set upon it. He set his head next to the wall and tried to listen to the conversation going on inside.

"She didn't expect a thing!" Ed's voice said with great joy.

"But does she have an idea of who it could be?" The voice of that man named Charlie Daniels had asked.

"Well, they were thinking that it could be someone that's met her, but nobody suspects that it was us. So what's the next step to the plan?"

"We just keep writing a couple of letters."

"So it was Ed and Charlie?" Ed asked quietly, and he was about to stand up but he suddenly heard a loud bang and then he looked down to his great horror to find that he knocked over one of the potted plants on the window sill.

The door opened immediately and Ed's voice boomed out, "Whose there?"

"It's just me, brother." Al called out in a surrendering voice.

"Al," Ed called to his brother, "What're you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same thing, brother." Al responded a twinge of smiling sarcasm in his voice, "So it was you who wrote the letter to Winry wasn't it?"
Ed blushed slightly and said as he looked down at his shoes, "Not exactly."

"He's right," Charlie Daniels came out of the house, "I was helping him."

"You?" Al asked, "But why?"

"I think we should go inside and explain this better."

IN silent agreement, the Elric brothers followed Charlie Daniels into his house where he was just sitting down to a little lunch as he graded a few school papers.

"You see, Alphonse," Charlie stated as he marked a small red check mark on one of the papers, "Your brother came to me and wanted to confess how he feels to this woman he knows, Winry Rockbell, but as you know he doesn't exactly have a great way with words, which is where I come in."

"So that's how it is," Al responded, "But why didn't you tell me Ed?"

"I thought it was a silly thing to admit to, Al," Ed continued to blush; "Besides if you knew, Winry would probably not stop asking you until you told her."

"That's the other thing." Charlie stated as he reached up to scratch his nose, ignoring the fact that Al was slightly staring at it, "Two people can keep a secret, but three is a little difficult. I think we may have to take this to a new level."

"What'd you have in mind?" Al asked.

To be continued…