Author's Note: If I'm going to try to find female figures to make little one-shots about, I might as well throw in some good ol' brotherliness. Pinako's tough to write. I hope I didn't make her sound too soft. Again, still trying to stay canon to the book -and- the anime, so I have to change some lines here and there. Thank you so much for reading so far!


Alphonse's body protested as he tried to sit up. He felt strange. The alchemic fire had stopped ripping at the transmutation circle, and the fierce wind hand stopped thrashing the room. The mental image of Ed's hand reaching for his burned clearly in his mind. Ed? Omigosh! He creaked as he leaned forward, but didn't notice. He forgot momentarily about his own awkward self. Not far from him sat Edward, leaning on his remaining hand, his gold eyes dulled, staring with an air of hopelessness into the floor. Al didn't have time to really wonder why he didn't feel his heart catch in his throat. There was blood everywhere.

The pool of it he remained in had seeped out from under him and what remained of his left leg. His right arm was a different story. It was completely gone. Blood soaked his shirt, the stain expanding towards the chest. He didn't even lift his head.

"Brother!" Alphonse cried out in horrified alarm, realizing that his voice echoed peculiarly within his now seemingly hollow self. "What happened to you?" He looked down at his own hands, realizing in alarm that his hands weren't really 'his' at all… "And me!" he would have sobbed if his new body would permit it. "What happened to me?" Steel and leather; these hands belonged to that suit of armor up against the wall. A suit of armor that was no longer there. A suit of armor that was… him.

Ed didn't move. He couldn't bear to look into that cold steel helm that was now his little brother's face. He couldn't stand the thought. What a horrible, loathsome thing he had done to him. He was the worst brother in all existence for killing his only sibling and then attaching his soul to that cold, unfeeling thing, and he was the worst son in the entire world for making that sin against god to replace his mother. "I bound your soul to the suit of armor in the corner," he mumbled. "All I could get for one arm was your soul. It was the best I could do."

Al pulled his bloody older brother into his arms. Ed had always seemed 'big' to him. Strong and willful, and full of determination. Now he was considerably larger than his older sibling. Ed seemed so small and lifeless now. All this blood everywhere… Al mentally choked, realizing that at this rate, he wouldn't last very long. "Brother, why..?" He didn't get an answer. Something occurred to him, however. He didn't look away from Ed, despite the crimson mess. "What about Mom..?" he asked, the fear creeping into his voice.

"Don't look," Ed said, his voice unafraid, but bitter and pained instead. "It's not even human…"

Still clutching Ed, Al turned to look very slowly.

In the middle of the transmutation array was the result of their work; their prize for what they had lost. It was the most horrifying thing he'd ever seen in his entire life. A ghastly face stared at him, upside-down with dead eyes. It was surrounded in a pool of blood, likely its own. Al looked away before he could observe it any further, and realized to his distress that he couldn't even close his eyes to feebly block out the image in his mind. Did he even have a mind anymore..?

--But the blood! It was pooling around them now, and Ed's gold eyes were getting foggy. What could he do? He was just one boy in a suit of armor. Could he even walk in this strange body? He would have to go to the Rockbells'… Pinako was the only one around to help his brother now, and this new body would have to permit him to bring him there….

Running clumsily along the path to Pinako's, Alphonse could remember wishing once that he couldn't cry. He has been playing outside and had fallen and scraped his knees on the path. Ed led him home by the hand and Mother had fixed up his scrapes. Mother had commented on what a good big brother Ed was, bringing his little brother home when he hurt himself. Al had felt like such a baby, crying over something that Edward was probably "too big" to be bothered by.

Right now was different. Right now, having to be the one to bring his big brother 'home' to get fixed up, he would have given anything to cry.

Pinako Rockbell thought herself to be a reasonable woman. She was old and she was tough and she was respected, and that was the way she liked it. In this rural little country town, everyone knew her face and she knew everyone's in return. In her years, she had seen her share of battered war heroes, coming to her to heal and to get prosthetics to replace the limbs they had lost. Some even went the extra mile and endured the suffering for automail limbs—metal and mechanical arms and legs that functioned almost like real ones. They were attached to the nerves and could be controlled the same way as flesh and blood limbs, sans feeling beyond the pain of grafting.

She prided herself in being an automail mechanic. She thought she was doing service to the world. She had brought up a son who had given his life in service to the war, and although the death of him and his wife came as a blow, Pinako felt in her heart that his death was his way of serving a country he loved and wanted to help. In his and his wife's deaths, Pinako had been left with their daughter, Winry. It was hardly any time later that their neighbor down the road passed on, too, leaving behind her boys. Saddening, really.

However, it was like no feeling she'd ever felt before when the Elric boys—or what was left of them—showed up on her doorstep.

She was used to them. They were around during the day to play with Winry. Pinako had been looking after them since Trisha's death. They went home at night. She had been a little suspicious of their quiet plotting, but thought nothing of it. She didn't question their reasons for seeking an alchemy teacher.

When they showed up at her door in the middle of a dreary storm, however, she knew.

Human transmutation. Her suspicions were confirmed now… everything they had secretly worked towards was this. The sight of the two, even in all her experience, made the pipe fall from her mouth. The younger brother wasn't even a person any more. He was a massive suit of armor; a soul encased in steel. The older brother was an unconscious bleeding mess. An arm, a leg and a body were gone, and what did they have to show for it..?

Automail. On an eleven year old.

"I must be losing my mind in my old age," Pinako thought stiffly. Never had she given in to such a seemingly ludicrous request. Automail on an eleven year old. She had seen grown men cry during the surgery. She had seen hardened war heroes cringe and scream. And yet this little boy wanted an automail arm and leg for himself. Pinako still wasn't sure why she'd agreed. Maybe she was getting cold hearted in her old age and wanted the money. Maybe she was still a surgeon at heart and the idea of helping someone who needed her still appealed to her. Maybe the thought of Ed continuing his life without that arm was hard. (He could get a regular prosthetic leg, but the arm..?) Maybe it was the look in his eyes when he said he wanted it.

Those eyes were not afraid.

And if those eyes were unafraid, they were all the consent she needed to give mechanical limbs to a kid. She would start reviving those nerve endings the next morning, and they could begin the surgery within the week.

…if those eyes weren't going to back down, then like hell Pinako Rockbell would.

Edward Elric would get his automail.