Title: A Fangirl's Dream
Summary: Ivy has it rough. She's no anime fan or FMA fan. But when she somehow crosses the gate, she finds herself in the worst possible position: a protagonist of an Another World fic trope. And between the alchemy, automail, lack of plot knowledge, and struggling with her attraction to a pretty blonde mechanic, Ivy reluctantly teams up with the main characters in her journey to get home.
Pen Name: FanfictionIsMySideHustle

Waiting for Alphonse and Ling returned had proven to be uneventful. Hours passed until they heard the raucous footsteps of metal approaching. Ivy remembered sighing with relief and standing up with Winry. If there was one benefit to Alphonse's metal body, it was the fact that the kid couldn't sneak up on them and leave things to chance if every approaching person was him or not.

It had been a great reunion, discounting the fact Alphonse's right arm was now sporting three deep gashes that Ivy knows would have caused him to bleed out to death had his arm been flesh. His right shoulder was missing all the shoulder spikes. And most jarring of all, his chin piece was gone.

Then five seconds into the relieved laughter, Alphonse's right arm fell off. Ivy almost felt bad for the black bellhop who fainted.

"I really don't think we have any sort of material to get your arm to connect again." Ivy bit her lip as she ruffled through Winry's toolbox. "Does Alphonse's arm have screws or bolts?" She called to Winry who was giving him a lookover to see what parts of him were loose that they could fix.

"Flathead sheet metal screws." Winry replied in her professional voice. "About 50 milimeters in length."

Ivy groaned internally as she glanced over the various screws they had available. "We don't have any that big." She mumbled back. And even if they did, they didn't have the old parts that Alphonse lost. That didn't say anything for the missing face piece. "We might have to do a patch job to just keep him from being looked at until Ed gets back from Resembool."

"I can try fixing it." Akasha chirped finally from her side of the room.

Ivy gave the brunette an incredulous look before she remembered. "Right, your Xingese alchemy!"

Akasha nodded, "I should be able to do something about the arm, but I'm kinda nervous about the chin piece and making him look ugly." She gingerly lifted Alphonse's arm from the bed before nearly dropping it. "My nerd arms, no." Akasha hissed, Ivy held back a snort before leaving the toolbox to help her. "Don't say anything."

"I wasn't." Ivy replied, just relieved that Akasha didn't seem to be nursing a grudge from when Ivy prevented her from volunteering herself off into whatever Edward was getting into. And she was definitely thankful that she stopped her from jumping into the mess Alphonse and Ling projected themselves into. Akasha being alive and holding a grudge was better than Akasha being dead from whatever did this damage to Alphonse's armor. "This is like, perfectly tempered steel. This doesn't break easily." Ivy said as she placed Alphonse's arm as perfectly to his arm socket. "You had quite the night."

"Yeah." Alphonse chuckled nervously, pointedly avoiding a blue-eyed glare. "Sorry I couldn't get everything, Akasha, you'll probably have to thin out my armor."

Akasha shrugged it off nonchalantly, tugging on her gloves. "I'll just try not thin it out too much."

Then with a clap of her hands, Akasha got to work with blue light sparking from where she touched Alphonse's armor, the metal joining together to form the shoulder strap that nursed the spikes. Akasha being a superfan had never been more of a perk in this moment. "Woah." Ivy whistled. She knew from talks with the brothers that alchemy didn't just make things from nothing, but it certainly felt that way watching Akasha. "You've gotten 20% more cooler."

Akasha smirked and crossed her arms, "now you've awakened to my charms and usefulness."

Good, she was joking. That was really good. "You're sure you can't do his face either? We can probably use some of the smaller screws to give you extra metal if you're worried about thinning it out."

Akasha balked, "people actually care what a face looks like so what if I actually end up ruining it forever?"

"Akasha, I'm pretty sure Edward can fix that when he gets back if you really do mess it up."

Alphonse raised a hand, "I can actually do it now that I have both my arms again." He moved his right arm gently. "Thank you so much for the help, Akasha. I would've been stranded if you weren't here."

Akasha's cheeks were dusted with pink though she brushed it off with a grin, "I charge interest for my services!"

Alphonse chuckled, "I'll tell my brother so he can pay you when he gets back."

Ivy opened her mouth to supply a quip of her own but a yawn came out instead. "Damn it."

"Seriously," Akasha grouched. "when one person yawns, another person yawns and-" Akasha yawned expectedly but she still gave Ivy a glare.

"I plead not guilty."

"Oh you are guilty."

Winry yawned right after that.

They were doomed.

"You all did wait up pretty late." Alphonse laughed. "I should probably go so you can get some sleep."

Winry gestured to the couch with one hand and closed her toolbox with the other. "You can always just stay in here, Al." The blonde smiled. "Just no peeking while we change into our pajamas."

That made Alphonse flustered, waving his arms wildly before finally just turning around and sitting in the opposite direction. "I'm just gonna fix my face." He said at last, clapping his hands.

"Oh don't worry, Al, we know you're the good brother." Ivy clicked her tongue, she was happy to get out of her jeans. "Edward is the guy to watch out for, I know he ate my pudding at Mr. Garfiel's."

Akasha coughed and Ivy squinted. "Unless it was someone else."

"No no, it was Ed." Akasha coughed again, pulling her shirt over her head.

Note to self, there's potentially two guilty parties here. Don't forget that. Ivy continued changing with less vigor, her tiredness more apparent now that her worries about Alphonse were gone. Ling would show up when he showed up so she knew she had nothing to worry about there. Now it was just a waiting game for Edward to get back from his repairs and the thing he would be doing with Ross, if that's what Armstrong was really doing. Ling wasn't all that clear in his debriefing. I'll just ask Akasha tomorrow. Ivy's eyes drifted over to Winry.

Her hair was out of it's ponytail, flowing down her back and Ivy's heart clenched. Winry didn't really ever make a habit of wearing her hair down during their daylight hours, but when she did it was like the entire mood shifted into something different. Ponytails were bright and bubbly, Winry's usual brand of optimism. Her hair being down was soft and slow.

Ivy didn't realize she was still staring until blue eyes were looking back at her and Ivy looked away in a panic and finished pulling on her gym shorts. "We're done over here, Al, you can chill out."

She glanced back again before she could stop herself and Winry was looking back again with a small sad but knowing smile.

Ivy hated it. "Akasha, scooch over to your side of the bed and let me through."

"Where are you going, Big Sis?" Alphonse whispered when Ivy reached the door, fully clothed.

"Morning jog." Ivy gestured to the window. It was barely dawn, the sky a barely light gray. Much earlier than she would normally go out. "Just gotta get all this pent up energy out of me. Oh you don't have to come with-" she raised a hand when Alphonse stood up.

He shook his head, though. "It's still kind of dangerous to go out when there's barely anyone outside in a big city like Central." Alphonse argued.

Ivy didn't want to risk waking up Winry or Akasha, so without much of a fight she nodded. Alphonse was always good company. "If only it was nighttime." Ivy said at a normal volume when they were further away from the room. "Then we could complain about the light pollution."

Alphonse made a noise that made Akasha think he was smiling on the inside. "Yeah."

Ivy inhaled deeply when the morning air touched her skin when they were finally out of the building. It was a bit chilly, but she'd warm up eventually. "Nothing like a good morning walk."

"Not a jog anymore?"

"Nah." Ivy shook her head. "I'm not feeling it anymore."

"Now I've never heard of you not wanting to go for a run."

Ivy snickered, "yeah don't tell Winry, she'd have a heart attack and not for the reason you might think." She thought of messy buns and a flustered face as the blonde power walked as quickly as she could. "The amount of times I've made her do my morning jogs in the morning, her heart attack would be from anger. But I guess it isn't so bad to slow down sometimes."

"You're actually getting Winry to do exercise?" Alphonse sounded surprised.

"It was either doing more exercise with me or we weren't getting matching mechanic jumpsuits, she took the L on that one."

"'L'?"

Oh, right. "She took the Loss on that one." Ivy clarified. "Slang from home. I'll have to give you a run down on it at some point so you don't lose it whenever me and Akasha are talking to each other." She glanced at the taller Elric. "But don't worry, it doesn't all include people back home calling each other 'whores' or 'bitches'." A mistake Akasha and Ivy made sure not to commit since. Mean Girls, we hardly knew ye.

"Well that's good." Alphonse said before a pause fell over the conversation. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, dude, of course."

"Is everything alright with you and Winry?" That was something Ivy wasn't expecting to come out of the 14 year old's mouth.

"Um." Ivy pursed her lip. "I mean, she took the news about as well as you'd expect. Which was why I didn't want her to know in the first place." It brought out too many things that should have been left unsaid and things were out on the table like scattered tools and blueprints she couldn't fix.

"No I mean," Alphonse paused to gather his thoughts before speaking again. "I mean before that. Even before we got to Central, it seemed like things were off between you but Winry didn't tell me what happened." Ivy was more than relieved. If Winry had told Alphonse, he probably would have told Edward, and then it would've turned into a mess of everyone knowing her business. "Now it just feels like it's gotten worse."

Ivy kicked a rock they were approaching. It didn't feel satisfying to watch it tumble out of control into the street. "It's… complicated."

"That's what Winry said too." Ivy could never be mad at Alphonse, but she wished she could shrink away into nothing but a speck so she wouldn't have to be under his piercing gaze. It was like her soul was the one being looked through beyond an empty husk she was just occupying for the time being. "I'm just not really sure what kind of complicated it is. Winry usually tells us everything that bothers her, so it was weird that she didn't this time. And I know Brother and I haven't known you as long as her, but I'd like to think you'd tell us what it is so you and Winry can go back to normal. She really likes you."

"Yeah, I know." Ivy's response sounded mechanical even to her. She knew way beyond what Alphonse meant that Winry really liked her.

"I mean, she really likes you." Alphonse reuttered, touching a hand to Ivy's shoulder catching her attention. His red eyes seemed to be shining brighter than normal, he really was looking into her soul. "A lot."

He didn't just mean gal pals just being gal pals. Ivy's throat felt dry. "I thought you said she didn't tell you anything."

That caught Alphonse off guard, he took his hand off her shoulder. "She didn't." He said after a moment. "I just figured it out after a while when Brother was getting his new arm and maintenance that she liked you a lot more than just being friends. I think when I saw how mad she was at Akasha when she called you a- that word as a joke." Alphonse seemed to tread carefully with that particular memory. "I've seen Winry mad before, but not like that. So it sort of clicked for me then. I didn't know that you knew already though."

"I didn't want to know in the first place." She knew it sounded a lot more harsh than she was originally intending. "Don't you know how shitty that is? You meet an amazing girl who's just your type but you have to leave her behind. Then just tack on the fact you have an awesome job with an even more awesome community backing it. You really don't wanna know if someone likes you then, especially if you might like them back." It wasn't the first time Ivy wished she was more like Akasha. "I have to leave it all behind."

Have to or want to? A voice seemed to be whispering in her voice. There's a fine difference between the two.

As far as Ivy was concerned, there was no difference. Or at least, not enough of a difference to make her suddenly flip the script of the original plan.

"Just wanting it isn't good enough." Ivy muttered. "Besides, Hughes would roll in his grave and haunt me forever if he knew I had an opportunity to go home and then didn't take it."

"I don't think he would."

"I don't wanna talk about it, Alphonse." Ivy sighed. "I just wanna enjoy what time I have left here and I don't wanna make things worse by giving Winry hope I'll change my mind." She didn't want to think about even allowing herself the opportunity to change her mind. What she needed right now was a topic changer. "Enough about me." She looked back at the boy, the desire to walk no longer in her.

She looked at his reattached body and face. "Is something weighing on your mind, Al?" Ivy asked. "You didn't really go into details about what happened. You're okay, right?"

Alphonse looked at his hands and Ivy appreciated that he was letting this go. If this were Edward she were talking to, she doubted he would afford her the luxury. "I guess there's a lot on my mind, I found out some things that could really change our journey."

Ivy licked her lips and shoved her hands into her pocket. "In… a good way?" She asked when Alphonse didn't say anything more.

"I'm not really sure I would call it that."

"Alphonse, you've gotta elaborate here 'cause you're freakin' me out." Ivy replied honestly, giving the boy a frantic look.

"It's something I should probably say when everyone is together." Alphonse said softly and Ivy had to bite her tongue to keep her from snapping and pulling her hair out. Alphonse apparently caught the look on her face because he quickly added, "I don't want to worry you and I will talk about it, I just think Brother would want to be around to hear it too."

"Just a few more days then." Ivy sighed, relenting. "I'm serious though, Alphonse, if it's something you really can't keep into your system until Ed gets back, I want you to tell me what it is and I promise I won't flip out." Much. It would depend on what the information is. "You can tell me anything."

"You can tell me anything too." Alphonse replied.

"I know." Ivy nodded, quiet. She knew.

She just only wished she had known the extent of how long Edward would be gone because soon, a few days stretched into a full week. And now, it was a week and a half, and there was still no sign of Edward anywhere. And maybe that in itself wouldn't have been too bad if it weren't for Ling and Lan Fan. It wasn't so bad when they first showed up and took residency in room 502. Then they started ordering room service.

Ivy held back a shudder.

Their appetites were unholy creations from the deepest pits of hell. No man's jaw should be able to unhinge like a snake. If Akasha suddenly dropped to her that Ling, was in fact, not a human and was a glutinous alien in human skin... Ivy would not be surprised. Now they couldn't even leave the hotel, forget replacements jogs around the hotel she was too jumpy underneath the glares of the staff. Ivy knew from Akasha that Edward was somewhere in the desert talking to Ross, but still. If the guy could hurry up, it would be appreciated. (Ivy also wouldn't be surprised if Edward yeeted Ling and Lan Fan into space when he got back and saw the bill.)

"Please tell me Pinako has some Edward updates." Ivy said when she saw Alphonse and Winry enter the room. She and Akasha decided to camp out in Edward's room to ensure Ling and Lan Fan didn't order anything else.

Alphonse shook his head, "she had updates, but none were about Brother."

"Of course." Ivy sighed.

"He'll be back eventually." Akasha said, twirling a lock of hair.

"To a room service bill he is gonna burn." Ivy whispered, Akasha couldn't hold back a snort. "So what's going on with the old lady now?"

"My dad showed up in Resembool, that's what's going on." Alphonse sounded like he was in disbelief and Ivy perked up. She'd only seen the man's face once, there were no other photos that she knew of besides the family picture he was in on the wall of photos in the downstairs workshop of the Rockbell home. Eventually, curiosity had gotten the better of her and she lifted the photo on top of his face to see what the man looked like, only to be shocked when a face full of tears was staring back at her. She didn't know how that made her feel and she pretended she never looked in the first place.

"The deadbeat?" The words slipped out of her mouth without meaning too and she winced. Akasha elbowed her in the side, Ivy couldn't argue that she probably totally deserved it. But Alphonse didn't seem offended, only lost in his thoughts.

"Yeah." Alphonse nodded. "Dad showed up after being missing for ten years."

"Shouldn't you go and see him?" Ling asked curiously.

"Well..." Alphonse scratched as his chin. She was sure what Alphonse wanted to say was that even if wanted to, he couldn't physically leave the hotel thanks to the lack of funds. "Even if I saw him, I don't know what we would talk about." He continued on after a moment. "It isn't like I dislike him, I don't even remember him. But I guess if I did have to see him, I'd want to discuss alchemy with him. I can tell he probably knew a lot from the library of books he left behind. But..." Alphonse slapped a hand over his face with his grown. "I know for a fact Edward isn't going to talk any alchemy with him, he'd only pick a fight with him."

Ivy pursed her lips. "Yeah, that isn't too hard to imagine."

Winry sighed, sweating a bit. "He'll probably punch him in the face."

"Rest in peace, Mr. Elric."

"Hoenheim." Akasha and Alphonse corrected at the same time before looking at each other in surprise.

F

U

C

K.

"Yeah, that's right, how did you know?" It was only a miracle of the universe that Akasha had this slip up in front of the nice brother, Ivy knew Edward wouldn't have let such a casual slipup of knowledge he didn't share with her go.

"Oh um, I kinda heard about him during my our travels to Rush Valley before we met." Akasha chuckled nervously though her smile didn't reach her eyes. "Ling was lost again and we were stuck looking for him and some people were talking about a man with a beard and gold eyes and blond hair called Hoenheim and when I met you and Edward, I kinda assumed he had to be your dad by virtue of looks. I've never met anyone else in Amestris with gold eyes besides Ed. I just didn't know how to casually bring it up." How Akasha eased into her lie, Ivy has no idea. It must have been that Theatre elective she took because Ivy knows she would've shit a brick by now. "I'm kinda glad I didn't bring him up since you're saying that he and Ed have a bad relationship."

"Bad might be an understatement." Alphonse muttered. "What about you, Ling, are you close to your father?"

Ling only offered a neutral shrug, "it's hard to be close to him when I've never even had a conversation with him."

Ivy felt like the blinking guy meme. Was this fuck up left and right day and no one told her?

"Sorry for asking." Alphonse said shakily.

"Oh he's not dead." Ling said, clearly amused. "It's just that the man is an emperor, I can't just casually to speak to him."

"... an Emperor?" Ivy looked at Akasha so quickly her neck cracked. Akasha just gave one nod and Ivy nearly lost it. "Seriously?! He's a prince?!"

"That I am!" Ling practically sang.

The only response Alphonse and Winry could manage was to bust out laughing. Damn, that was rough.

"I'm used to a more... shall we say, awed experience." Ling pouted.

"Trust me, man, we're in awe." Ivy couldn't hold back a snicker seeing Winry holding back her giggles with a half-hearted apology. "I don't think anyone was expecting you to just casually drop that you're a prince in the middle of a conversation. Damn Akasha, we were rollin' with royalty this entire time, we've really gone up in the world."

"You know if you become my bride, you would be a future empress." Ling's lips stretched into a grin. "A real Cinderella story, Ivy, what do you say?"

"Ling, honored as I am at your proposal, I gotta say no because I can make no guarantee that I wouldn't be only marrying you for the money." Ivy deadpanned. "5% would be because you're my friend, the rest is definitely only because you're a prince."

"I can appreciate your honesty." Then he looked at Winry. "So Winry, become m-" Ling couldn't even finish his question before a wrench met his cheek.

"Oh, I just couldn't! There are people in this country who need automail engineers like me!"

That Ivy couldn't hold back clutching her stomach and folding over her knees. God this guy was rich. And apparently, not just metaphorically speaking. She was glad Alphonse was able to reel the conversation back into something proper. "But, if you're a prince, why are you collapsing in the street and freeloading for food?"

"Haha," Ling laughed lightly, wiping away the blood from his mouth. "Well I guess it is a little hard to believe." The boy's expression grew more serious. "But there are over 20 princes."

Lan Fan nodded, "officially there are 24 princes and 19 princesses." That sobered up Ivy's laughter. She thought Akasha and Austin were bad enough and they weren't even her blood relatives.

Ling picked up from where Lan Fan left off. "Xing is a nation comprised of 50 different ethnic clans. The eldest daughter of each clan is presented to the emperor to be his concubine and bear his his child. My mother married the Emperor as the representative of the Yao Clan and I'm number 12 in the line up."

"Concubines? Wait, you're getting more than one wife?" Ivy crossed her arms. "Some proposal."

"Yeah, he's already hit me with that line too since it was kind of my cover story in Xing I was a lover of his." Yeah Ivy really needed to hear Akasha's story about her time in Xing, something always got in the way of it. But never again after hearing that drop.

"Akasha, I'll share many things with you. My man or woman is not one of them."

"Same here."

"Ahem."

"Right, continue on."

"Like I said, I'm the 12 in line for the throne, which means rising to the Emperor's throne is well within reach."

"... But the inheritance."

Ling opened an eye at Alphonse's words. "That's the exact problem I'm grappling with right now. Recently the Emperor became stricken with illness and he apparently doesn't have long to live." He talked on as if he were only discussing business and economics. Ivy isn't sure she could manage to talk about even her own father with such a level of coolness. "Presently in Xing, the clans are desperately vying for power. Whoever wins the Emperor's favor will succeed him to the throne."

"And since he's dying, the thing that would impress him the most is the secret to immortality." Alphonse cocked his head at that after the sentence left his mouth. Or the closest thing he had to a mouth. "But if you give him the secret, then that means the present Emperor won't di so-"

"Ling wouldn't ever become emperor." Winry finished, blue eyes blinking in realization.

Ling didn't look too bothered by the prospect. "He won't live much longer, like I mentioned before." He shrugged. "I just want to bring something back that gives him a semblance of immortality long enough to win his favor. I just need him to raise my clan's position, even if by a small amount. After that, I'll seize the throne myself." Ling pointed a finger at Alphonse's chest plate. "I came to this country with the fate of fifty thousand Yao people in my hands, lured by the legends that surround the Philosopher's tone. And then I found out about your body's secret.

"Your soul has been bound to a metallic body. Because your body will never die, you're the closest thing to being immortal."

Ivy glanced at Akasha, but her eyes were focused solely on the conversation happening before them. She knew where Ling was probably heading with this. Mention to the Emperor there was a chance his soul could be placed to another vessel and boom, eternal rule of the country. Then prolong said ritual by however long it took for the man to finally keel over. This was what Akasha was surrounded by during her time in Xing?

Alphonse's manic laughter pulled Ivy out of her thoughts. She shivered. This laughter was different than the chortles from just a handful of minutes ago when they found out Ling was royalty. It was off-kilter.

"It's no use, Ling." Alphonse sighed with a chuckle, staring down at his hand. "I'm not immortal, at all. I don't even know if I'll have a normal human lifespan. This body of mine is a ticking time bomb."

...

Silence swept over the room as Ivy took in what Alphonse just said. "A time bomb?" Ling said, she was glad he didn't lose his words the way she did. Was this what Alphonse didn't want to tell her before?

"Uh huh. A metal body bound to a human soul?" Alphonse started. "Somewhere down the line they will reject one another, and when that happens, it'll be like a time bomb going off." Ivy right leg began to bounce. "It could be tomorrow or it could be a hundred years from now. Even I don't know when it'll happen. This is the farthest thing from being immortal, Ling."

"I-in that case, we have to get your original body as soon as possible!" Winry stammered, blue eyes wide with panic.

"Now hold on." Ling said, raising a hand. "When it gets too dangerous to stay in that body, can't you just transfer your soul into something else?" He proposed. Ivy couldn't hold back a glare, opening her mouth but he continued on. "You don't feel pain and you never have to eat, it sounds like a pretty good way to live to m-"

"There's nothing good about it!" Winry snapped, launching herself to her feet. "You don't know anything!" The blonde huffed. Her hands were clenched into fists, Ivy was almost sure she was going to launch another wrench at her face. But Winry just turned to the door, muttering a quiet 'I'm sorry' before slamming the door after herself.

"Winry!" Alphonse called after her before looking at Ivy.

Ivy nodded to the door. "I think she needs to be reassured by you a lot more than she needs to be reassured by me, Al." She watched carefully as the taller boy made his way out the room before shooting Ling a sharp look. "You ever heard of this thing called tact, my guy?"

Ivy shuffled into room 503 gingerly, flicking on the light switch. "Hey." She had waited a while after Alphonse returned to go to the room, wanting Winry to have her own space. But her need to check on her finally pulled through.

Winry looked up from her pillow. "Hey."

"I was about to hit the showers, unless you wanna go in first."

"You can go first, if you want." Winry's voice was muffled behind the fluff, but Ivy understood her all the same as she took to her bag and grabbed her towel. She was glad this hotel supplied shower shoes or she would have been fucked thoroughly. And very smelly. She couldn't force herself to snort at her own bad humor this time as the heavy air hung between them. "You know," she started. "Mr. Garfiel is gonna kill us when we get back to Resembool, we were supposed to be back by now. Ed would be taking his sweet time, by now."

"Yeah, he is." Winry's voice sounded lighter, heavy but lighter. "One of us should probably call him soon before he flips."

"Eeeeh, let's save the inevitable screeching for later." Ivy forced a chuckle out of her. "It isn't gonna end the world if we stall a bit longer, he'll call eventually."

"Eventually."

"But I can't wait til we head back to Rush Valley, I miss my bed." Ivy sighed. Room service could drop by with new sheets, but nothing beat the familiarity of your own resting place. "I even miss dragging you back from your work desk and that stupid oil stain on my jumpsuit. And I miss Paninya dropping by for lunch."

"I miss the oil smell." Winry sounded distant, like she was far off from where they were presently in Central. "I miss stopping by Mr. Dominic's and how he'll grouch about how we're in his way but he still gives us tips about engineering when we ask. And I miss working and being able to craft sample models, I miss my hands moving around."

Ivy sat on the bed, her desire to hit the showers second to her nostalgia. "That model casing you made for Old Man Jenkin's leg was brilliant, by the way." The man had often complained in previous visits his automail had a tendency to overheat quickly since he was slow to move around. Too many openings in a plate could lead to easier damage to the material inside, but not enough can lead to overheating. It was a delicate balance in their style of automail crafting. Winry found a way around it by designing a slight raise in the new model made from a tungsten alloy with a specialty coating that could be used as a lubricant at the joints.

"I still think I'll have to make him a whole new leg, but I wanna see how the casing will hold up.' The pillow lowered and Winry smiled, "but thanks, I'm really proud of it too. I just wish I had more time to work on it before we left for Central. Ed's arm took up a lot of that time."

"It'll be worth the wait for the guy, you're a brilliant engineer worth waiting for." Ivy winked. "Like, the number one engineer I know."

Winry's smile widened, "you're the fourth."

Ivy choked, "wow. Amazing, Winry."

"Well I have to keep in mind, Granny, Mr. Dominic, and Mr. Garfiel!" Winry laughed lightly. Ivy missed this. "But you'll make your way through the rankings eventually."

"Eventually." Ivy repeated. "I'll leave you in the shavings of my aluminum alloys, mark my words."

Author's Note

It only took forever and a half but a new chapter is here, you guys! Sorry it took so long, I got caught up finding a job and then I did find one and decided that after I finished training and got a consistent schedule that I would make a new updating schedule around it. Then, some BS happens where someone on my first day of training forgot to put my I-9 into the system so said system automatically terminated me and my manager said that I needed to reapply for the same position again and shit. But y'all, the universe came through because I legit submitted to so many other jobs and I thankfully got something 1) way closer to home and 2) in a position I actually wanted (working far away from other people and not having to interact with customers). I still don't know what my schedule will be for it yet, I start on Halloween but I'll keep you guys posted. Because of the job hunting I didn't have enough time to start writing chapters in advance but hopefully soon.

That aside, I am so excited for these next bout of chapters because in a chapter or two we will be entering an arc I've really anticipated since conceptualizing this new spin on the OG plan I had from the first incarnations of this story. I can't go into much because spoilers, but all I will say that it heavily centers on Ivy and Akasha and their relationship from when they were kids to the present strains on it as well as Akasha and her relationship with the cast of FMA. I hope you guys really like it when it comes out since more BG info will be coming out.

I hope you guys are getting hype, I really appreciate comments on everyone's thoughts of what's going on so far and what may happen!

(Also, does any of my readers play the game Cookie Run: Ovenbreak from the app store? I'm only asking because today a new cookie drops called Croissant Cookie and I swear she has huge Winry vibes.)

bingereaderguest: Like I said, I can't go into details because spoilers... but let's just say, your comment was very warm. Akasha was also meant to be kind of mixed in the beginning for readers to deal with since she hasn't yet emotionally matured, but her growth and development and vulnerable side will be coming in a few chapters.

Vedahzii: Oh yeah, for sure, fam. Akasha is not taking this world seriously.

krystars: I live for Al and Ivy's personal interactions too, she loves both Edward and Alphonse in a familial sense but she has the biggest soft spot for Al and honestly who can blame her? Her speculations surrounding Ed's potential crush on Winry is mostly her knowing he is her designated love interest and partly out of the assumption that he likes her because, well, it's Winry. And she's awesome. Who wouldn't like her (besides Akasha). And "him" for Winry was Alphonse since she knew he would be going off somewhere that would likely be very dangerous and involved the people who likely killed Hughes ^o^. My mom is doing a little better, thank you for the concern (TAT) I appreciate it! You take care too, these are crazy times!

Meno Melissa: A new reader approaches, thank you so much for all the comments I am glad you are here! This fic is based off the manga/Brotherhood with only the occasional reference to the 03 anime like Ivy's choice colors for her mechanic jumpsuit. I think I've only ever read one fic where an OC was an automail mechanic besides that, nothing else (also that OC didn't like Winry jfndkfdnskfn). And yeah, Akasha is going to to take a while to warm up to Winry. She's the embodiment of FMA super fans with irrational dislikes of Winry and hasn't budged into the direction of growth yet, but she will soon I promise! There is a lot in store for Akasha in this story and I look forward to when it is all shown in her perspective!