Chapter eleven

Ed froze as the doorbell rang. He was still sitting on the floor in front of the tub, drying his ports meticulously to at least not make Winry mad. He was only in his boxers and tank top, but that was also just practical anyways as he'd hopefully be getting his leg reattached within a few hours.

Ed heard voices talking downstairs and then...

Then Winry began sobbing, and Ed knew that they had just met Alphonse.

The sound made his stomach clench and he started contemplating the benefits of just staying upstairs and never meeting them at all. He wanted to put it off. He couldn't meet them like this. And if he went and met them now, then that would draw away attention from Alphonse and he deserved every single piece of it he could. It was just disrespectful of him to come downstairs now.

Ed heard footsteps in the stairs and he knew that someone was coming to get him and the heaviness of the footsteps suggested Mister Hughes or Mustang. Ed seriously hoped they weren't about to break down the locked door to drag him out and downstairs.

The footsteps came closer and then there were knocks on the door. "Edward, are you ready soon?" The Colonel said. "The Rockbells are here."

"I'll come when I'm ready, I'm drying my ports, it takes time, so just go," Ed told him grumpily, even if he knew that the ports were actually as dry as they were ever going to get.

"Then I'll help you."

Fuck, he's onto me...

"I'd rather not, Colonel."

Ed could hear voices downstairs, sounding worried.

Then he heard the unmistakable sound of chalk on wood and a few seconds later, the bastard was standing in the doorway. "It's not optional," Mustang said and then he walked closer and sat down on the floor in front of him. "And those look dry, so would you tell me why you're stalling?"

"No," Ed said grumpily.

Mustang sighed. "Edward, they want to be there for you. And they're not going to accept it if you just stay up here."

"My reasons are my own, so stop with the psychology crap and get out."

Get out before I begin sobbing again because everything hurts so much that I can barely breathe.

"Edward..." Mustang said and Ed suddenly had a warm hand on his left shoulder. Ed moved to shrug it off, but Mustang didn't budge. "It's okay to hurt, but you're only hurting the Rockbells by pushing them away."

"Fuck you, Mustang! Just leave me alone!" Ed was still angry with the Colonel for not telling him about the Hugheses.

There were suddenly a set of furious stomps that Ed recognised only too well as belonging to Winry and he prepared himself for the wrenching of his lifetime.

"EDWARD ELRIC, YOU IDIOT!" came the furious screams and Ed instinctively tried to shield his head with his remaining hand.

But as the footsteps came into the room, there wasn't the pain of a wrench connecting with his head, but the feeling of an impending attack as the hand on his shoulder disappeared.

Then came the arms closing around him as his childhood friend hugged him tightly and sobbed against his cheek. "You stupid, stupid idiot! How could you think that we didn't want to meet you?!"

"W-Winry, I..." Ed stuttered, his mind going blank at the fact that Winry was hugging him.

"You're family, Ed!" Winry protested, hugging him tighter, making it very easy to feel that working with automail had made the girl quite strong. "Now come downstairs," Winry said sternly, turning around quickly and before Ed knew it, she had grabbed his wrist and ankle and lifted him onto her back, shifting her grip to hold under his knee to secure him.

"Winry! Put me down!" Ed protested, his body caught in a mess of emotions from Winry's unstable mood together with his own.

"Granny's got a spare leg for you while you wait for us to build you some brand new automail," Winry said quickly, her voice choked by tears, but her tone was excited and Ed realised that this was probably her way of coping with her grief.

"But my leg's fine, Winry! And I can hop downstairs so put me down!"

"Your leg might be fine, but now that you're not military, you can get another type of automail that is especially made for people with partial or complete vision loss. It's a lot weaker because the inner workings are more advanced and complicated so the outer plating has to be made from special alloys that allow the signals to travel more efficiently, as well as the fact that the inner workings are heavier, so the lighter exterior makes up for the additional internal weight, so it's not practical for the way you've always been getting into a fight!" Winry said quickly and eagerly, not caring at all about Ed's protests. "It will be perfect for you because it's almost like you can feel it when using your automail because it is based on the ASM-system, as there are a series of small sensors inside the plating that send small electrical signals to your nerves, so once you learn what the different signals mean, you can even use your automail to write with! And it doesn't hurt, even if it takes some training to remember what all the different signals mean, that's why it's called the Artificial Sensorial Memory System! Isn't it perfect, Ed?!" Winry said excitedly, but Ed could hear the silent plea in her voice and the desperation to help was evident.

Ed was barely able to keep the sobs away as he gave up on getting loose once they reached the stairs. He'd only hurt her anyways if he actually made an effort and right now, Winry was doing her hardest to help him despite everything he had done and it meant the world to him, no matter how undeserved it was. "Sounds... Sounds great, Winry."

"Right?!" Winry said cheerfully, her voice slightly croaky from the tears she must have shed these past twenty-four hours. "It's really practical, but you need to take good care of it. I expect you'll be a pro at using it after a couple of weeks with how stubborn you are. We've already ordered the standard maintenance guide in braille and everything! We're getting all the parts sent from Rush Valley by express train, so they'll be arriving tomorrow. And I know it costs a lot, but there should be just enough left on your account from your military career because of the ridiculous amounts of pay you get as a State Alchemist."

"Sounds good, thanks..." Ed said quietly. He had planned to spend that money on automail anyways, but he hadn't realised that it was going to be all used up in one go.

"Actually, Miss Rockbell, that expenditure should fall on me as Edward's guardian," Mustang said calmly from a few steps behind them. Ed hadn't heard him and had just assumed that he had gone ahead. The fact that he could be so wrong made his stomach twist with a small amount of paranoia.

Then his words sunk in. "What?! Do you have any idea how much that that's gonna cost you?!" Ed demanded.

"I do, Edward, which is also why I ought to be the one to pay as I am the one who actually earns the wages of both a State Alchemist and a Colonel as well as being your legal guardian."

Ed couldn't say that his logic wasn't sound, but it didn't make it any less infuriating. He could practically see the bastard's smug face as he said it.

Actually, Ed could only imagine that face as either smug or angry because that was the repertoire that Mustang had presented him with for the past ten months. That and exasperation.

Because Mustang didn't care about things that didn't get him further through the ranks or that he didn't gain anything from and he got it through manipulation.

So was he manipulating Ed?

But just what is he trying to gain from me this time?