Benediction
Chapter three of four
By Kitori Chiharu
Pinako paused, watching Winry as she closely closed the door. The blonde signed, running a hand through her hair. "I'm worried about that child."
Winry blinked, looking up. "Who-him?"
"How is he?"
The blonde mechanic reached for the doorknob. "He's... Okay. He has a fever, though."
"Humon-"
"Yeah, well." Winry pressed a finger to her lips, silencing the woman. She nodded towards the door. "Whatever human part of him left is acting up. Why else would he visit Trisha-san's grave?"
Pinako Rockbell kept silent, eyeing the the small frame on the fireplace mantle. The picture of the young Elric brothers with their mother, Winry, and Pinako in a Christmas photo sat there. "I see."
He blinked, watching as Lina fiddled with her pen. She looked up, grinning at the boy. "Do you need something?"
"Eh..." Wrath moved over to her shyly, peering over her paper. "Yeah... I just wanted to tell you that I'll be leaving... So, yeah. Um, tell the nice lady thanks."
Lina stared at him.
Wrath paused. "So, um. Yeah." He turned around, ready to leave.
"Yo!"
It was almost as an instinct sense, but he immediately twirled around as Lina had flown her pen at him, catching it in midair."
The girl looked impressed. "Kid, sit down."
"Uh?"
"Sit down." The brunette repeated herself, patting the space on the bench next to her. Unwillingly, the boy agreed. "First of all, her name is Clara, not 'The nice lady'. Secondly, you're not leaving."
"Uh?" Wrath blinked again.
"I know you heard our argument the other day." Lina replied. "Quite frankly, it's not as simple as 'let's keep the stray kid'. We're bandits; we don't normally show our true identity a lot. And if someone knows, we either rip his mouth off or send him to an early grave."
"Wha?" Wrath squeaked in a childish voice.
"You have pretty good reflexes. With those automails, I can probably help you perfect it." The girl started scribbling down on a fresh piece of paper. "Your movements are haste, though."
"How is he?"
Wrath looked up to see the remaining three parties standing at the door. Lighting had a slightly grim expression on his face, arms folded. Clara and Eli were behind him, smiling reassuringly.
"Ah-ha!" Lina looked up, setting her pen down. "If he work hard enough, we can increase his speed and agility by 125, strength by 47, and reflexes by 89!"
"Woh." Eyebrows raised in surprised, Eli smirked. "That's pretty good."
Clara smiled at Lighting.
"Whatever." Lighting turned his heels, heading out. "He can stay. Just make sure he doesn't break anything."
Winry sat down on the chair. "You're awake."
"I think only abnormal people can accept me." Wrath sat up, pulling his knees in a sitting position. Shoulders slacked down, he grinned like a little boy.
"Oh?" Winry crossed her legs, leaning on her elbows. "Why would you say that?"
"You're only being nice to me because I'm paying you; it's nothing I'll misinterpret." The youngest Homunculi shrugged. "There aren't a lot of people who are good to me for naturalistic reasons."
"Ed and Al were good to you."
"Yeah." Wrath laughed in an almost demeaning way. Winry suddenly had a slight indication that the boy was truly a homunculi. "Until he realized that I stole his arm." Reaching up, he pulled his sleeves down, revealing the auto mail.
"I realize that humans are never fully satisfied until they have everything. Edward Elric had his own family, people who cared about him. So what if I had his fucking arm! I'd be glad to trade it for people who cared of me."
"You didn't have to turn yourself into a Homunculi" Winry spoke up slowly, keeping a unexplainable glance on him.
"Che, you'll never understand." He smirked at his hand, slowly balling his fist as the metal material made a clashing sound. "I'm just a random kid turned over to the Gate. But to have the power of manipulating it...It makes you more and more power hungry until you finally snap."
"You-"
"And then that voice in the back of your head whispers. 'I want more, more, more!' And then what? Humans' perfections are boring." Wrath chuckled in an innocent way. It was quite a disturbing sight, the image of a teenage boy snarling about contrasting matters in such a simple way.
"There were people who cared about you, though." Winry replied softly.
"Maybe." He shook his head, bangs fallen upon his eyes. "But would you really understand? Given, you work with people who have perfected alchemy, but you're just another human."
"I'll never look at things the way you do." The blonde girl smiled slightly, eyeing her finger as it traced against the smooth surface of her coffee mug. "But it's still better if you talk about it-"
"… Wrath. They call me Wrath."
"Alright." She grinned. "And they call me Winry."
"I know who you are." He replied easily, folding his arms with a slight pout. "Env… They once tried to pass as you, and Mo… She said that you were friends with the Elrics, so you were already an automatic target."
"It sounds like you had a plan to kill me or something." Winry replied, cautiously noticing the way he phrase the homunculus.
"You'd sleep better if I didn't tell you the rest."
"Alright." Winry laughed, leaning back in her seat. "I didn't want to ask at first, but how did you get into the theft business? And with PISIREN too? Funny, I always though she worked solo, and now she has a whole crew with her."
"Theft isn't as easy as people imagine." His voice suddenly lightened. "It's not just 'hey, let's break into the store and take whatever'. We have to carefully plan everything and extra escape routes. Besides, only the ones in top condition can be the break-in specialist." He shrugged. "I guess it was because of the automail."
Winry suddenly radiated a glow of pride like no other. "Should you be telling me all this? What if I slip to the police?"
"Considering the fact that you almost helped in forbidden alchemy, I don't think the police force would consider your advice very charming."
"I-"
"Don't worry." Wrath grinned. "I'm not stalking you. L… My friend did a full-on research on my mechanic before letting me come to get the automail fixed."
"I see." Winry smiled. "Are they nice?"
He blinked. "Who?"
"Your friends; the theft crew." She grinned, taking another sip of her coffee. "You speak really fondly of them, at least."
"Oh." He suddenly grinned again. "They're really cool. Even though they treat me like a kid, I still get to do a lot of fun things with them when we're off the job."
"Sound nicer than my job."
Wrath scrunched his nose. "You work with metals for a living, so I don't know if that's much of a compliment or not."
"I guess not." Winry smiled, brushing another strand of hair past her cheek. It seems that Wrath was feeling better already. "Well, I've got more work to finish. Your new automail will be done by tomorrow." She stood up, heading for the door way.
"Hey…."
Winry blinked, turning around.
"Where are they now?"
She smiled slightly, eyes cast on the floor. "They're around."
"Oh…" Wrath paused, blinking. "Well. If you see them… Can you tell them that-"
"The kid grew up." She smiled. "I know. He's not so bratty anymore; you can rest in peace as an alternative older brother."
Free talk
For anyway that's wondering about the sudden increase of Wrath vocabulary, be reminded that this story takes place a year after the ending of the anime. If my mind is working correctly, Winry and Ed were fifteen in the beginning, right? Well, Rose had a baby in the duration of the anime, so that means at least one year has passed already. So Winry should be seventeen or eighteen in this fic, and Wrath would be… Well, two years older than he already was. I'm not sure if he was human to start with when he first appeared on the island, but if homunculus are not to age physically, then how did Wrath turn from a baby to… Not a baby?
And yeah, I know about the movie. Only, I'm not sure exactly when it takes place, so I can't put Ed and Al into the scene either. Personally, that's really not much of a hassle since they weren't originally designed to be.
Yeah, just food for thought.
Anyone who has any idea who they're talking about in the last few lines deserves a cookie.