Chapter three

'Stop, Al, your boring everyone already.' A voice came from behind them. They all turned around.

A boy was standing there in front of a big window in the kitchen, his silhouette framed by sunlight. He had the most gorgeous long gold hair that was tied into a braid, gold eyes, and light complexion. (NOTE: I am a fangirl.) The boy was wearing black pants, a black shirt with a red jacket slung over his shoulder. He wasn't wearing any shoes. Winry spotted one of the things she liked most in him, he had automal. A right arm and left leg made of automail. Winry wondered why, most of the customers she and her mom had done automail for were solders that had come back from war. But his metal limbs in her opinion just made him even more appealing. She imagined running one of her hands through his hair and sighed, unable to take her eyes off him. She stood up and walked over to greet him.

And found herself looking down, as he was about half a foot shorter than her.

'What?' the boy said sarcastically.

'Nothing.' Winry said, feeling really embarrassed.

'Winry, Rose, this is Edward.' Al said, trying to break up the awkward silence. 'Ed is my older brother.'

'What?' Rose said without thinking. "He's the older brother?'

'WHO ARE YOU CALLING THE SMALLEST BUG IN THE UNIVERSE THAT IS SO SMALL YOU CANT EVEN SEE HIM OR STEP ON HIM?' Ed looked like he was going to run over and start attacking Rose any second.

Al went over to his brother to calm him down. He dragged the gibbering midget over to the table and forced him to sit down. Winry was afraid he would get back up and viciously attack her sister, but he stayed in his chair, to everyone's relief.

'Hey, you two.' Al was talking to Winry and Rose. 'Do you want to join us for breakfast?'

Winry and Rose nodded. They did not want to go back into the cold, and a granola bar apiece wasn't exactly a full breakfast.

They all sat around the table and a nice but formidable looking woman came out of a room in the hall. She was wearing a military uniform like Roy's, and was twirling a gun around her finger. She stopped whistling abruptly as she saw the two strangers at the table.

'That's Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye.' Al told them.

'Oh I see we have guests today.' Riza said. 'Hey Mustang.' Roy looked over in an apprehensive way. 'Be a nice little dog and go fry us up a nice breakfast, will you?' she smiled sweetly.

'Hey, don't forget you're a dog too.' Roy walked over to her and took her hand. Riza calmly turned him around and led him over to the stove. 'Get cooking.' She ordered, and Roy obeyed.

"Well, you can obviously see which one is dominant.' Al said. Ed was watching them with a slight smirk on his face.

They all are their breakfast in silence. Winry was staring at Ed the whole time, but he did not notice due to the fact that he was busy having a silent but furious staredown with the half empty milk carton in the middle of the table. Rose still couldn't tear her eyes away from Al. It's only a matter of time before she starts calling him Ally-wallyphonse or some other stupid pet name, Winry thought with only mild disgust. She kept eating.

Eventually everyone finished their meals and wandered over to the sunroom on the second level. You could see the whole house from this vantage point. The sunroom was the reason there weren't any lights on in the house, it had such large windows. But for some reason, the sky outside seemed less brilliant than usual.

Rose was looking over the house and at Alphonse with extreme admiration.

Everybody settled down onto a couch or chair. Winry was flying high; she was situated on a couch between her sister and her dream guy. Once again Winry had a fleeting urge to run her fingers through Edward's beautiful golden hair. Rose was less happy. Al was sitting in a chair 3 feet away. She was still drooling.

'So, Rose and Winry, was it?' Ed smiled and looked into Winry's eyes, causing her to have to look down in slight embarrassment. 'So, what are you two doing out so far in the woods?'

'We, umm, we...we were just looking around the area, you know…we moved in around here a while ago so…' Winry was positively babbling. Rose was still to transfixed looking at Al to follow the conversation. Winry nudged her, and she snapped out of it.

'Near here?' Riza, Roy, Ed and Al seemed surprised.

'Girls.' Riza's voice was calm. 'There aren't any houses anywhere near here.'

Winry and Rose looked at the fascinating rug on the floor.

'Hey.' Al said quietly. 'You can tell us.' He looked into Rose's eyes, and whispered quietly to her. 'You can tell me.' She looked at him, and whispered back, but not so inaudibly that they all could not hear.

'We ran away from home.'