"Winry, haven't you seen enough?"
Manami sat with Ed and Al, seemingly nonexistent for this whole time Winry was looking at this girl's automail... which, so far, was a half hour.
"Yes..." Winry finally stepped back.
"Great!" Ed jumped up. "Now we can take her to the authoriti—"
"Now I gotta meet your engineer!" Winry spoke over him, making him grit his teeth.
"Sure, I'll take you guys to him!" The thief grinned sheepishly. "But only on the condition that you forget all this?"
"Sure, no pro—"
"Excuse me!" Ed was the one to cut off Winry now. "We're still here you know! This girl stole from me! And attacked me!"
"Minor problems!" Winry huffed, and Ed stammered for a second.
"Minor pro— D-Did you see the damage she's caused?!" He threw out his hand to gesture behind him. He didn't know that there were people behind him.
"Yeah, you wrecked my shop." One of them spoke,
"And my roof."
"You straight up destroyed my house."
"And you traumatized my doggie!"
Ed jumped at the sight of the dog that attacked him earlier.
"Okay, that dog traumatized me—"
"We'll hang out here while you work on the repairs!" Winry waved, smiling innocently.
Al and Manami awkwardly waved, looking like they had no intention to go with him.
"Traitors, every last one of you." Ed spat before whipping around.
After Ed repaired everything that had been damaged in town, the thief went to lead them through the mountains. For whatever reason, it was twice as hot out here, to where Manami took over her coat and draped the hood over head head so that it would still hang over her back and protect it from the sun... but at least her arms weren't suffocating anymore.
Still, they were all drenched in sweat... except for Al, of course.
"A-Are you sure your mechanic is way out here..?" Winry whined, earning a glare from Ed.
"You're the one who had to meet this thief's engineer. Speaking of which..." He held out his hand. "I'll have my watch back."
"No can do," The thief grinned. "That wasn't part of the deal."
"A deal I didn't agree with!" Ed barked, but then the thief pointed.
"We're here. That's Mr. Dominic's shop."
"Finally..." Manami whined. "I'm gonna melt if I'm out here for another minute..."
The group approached the workshop, the thief stepping inside first.
"Hello!"
"Hmm?"
Everyone stepped inside to see a young man wearing glasses. "Paninya, what are you doing here?"
So that was her name...
"I brought guests!" She announced happily.
"Oh, are you here to buy some automail?" The man looked to them and bowed his head. "Nice to meet you."
"This is Winry," Paninya gestured to the blonde. "She's interested in Mr. Dominic's work."
"Hi, we also exist." Manami shot a look to Paninya before lifting her good hand to wave to the man. "I'm Manami, this is Edward and Alphonse."
"Nice to meet you all." He smiled.
"Do we have guests?" A new voice spoke, and everyone turned to see a woman with a very big belly. It didn't take long for everyone to realize that she was pregnant.
"Good afternoon!" Paninya greeted her.
"You kids came just in time." The woman smiled. "I just made some tea and snacks. Come in and have some!" She offered, turning to walk away, expecting everyone to follow. The man followed her first.
"Seems pretty dangerous to be pregnant all the way out here." Manami commented.
"Don't worry, she's got her husband, Ridel! And..." Paninya looked to a different, closed door. "Mr. Dominic..."
"That wasn't him?" Ed used his fingers to draw imaginary glasses around his eyes as the girl walked to the closed door, Winry at her side as she pulled it open.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Dominic!"
"Why are you here again?" A grumpy voice muttered from inside.
"I'm here to pay you back for my legs, of course!" Paninya chuckled, but they only heard a scoff.
"I told you to forget it." They saw him come out the door. "Hmm, guess I heard right that we have guests."
The old man eyed the three other children and a suit of armor. Odd bunch... He motioned with his head for everyone to follow him through the door that the spectacled husband and his pregnant wife had gone through.
They had set a table with tea already prepared, with sugar and biscuit cookies placed at the center of the table. They all sat down and introduced themselves and even obliged in the snacks and tea. Once the talk of automail came up though, Ed, Al, and Manami ducked out from the table to leave Winry to it. It was just a bunch of mumbo jumbo they didn't understand anyway...
Instead, they saw the pregnant woman sitting in a rocking chair, her husband standing with her and rubbing her back.
Manami approached them first. "You're expecting a baby soon?" She asked with a small smile.
"Any day now," The woman smiled back. "Also, I believe I forgot to give you my name. It's Satella."
"Manami. Nice to meet you." She went to shake her hand.
"Whoa, you're so big!" Ed popped up next to her, staring at her belly in awe. Manami quickly elbowed him in the side, making him yelp.
"Don't be rude!" She hissed.
"No, he's right... and trust me, I feel as big as I look." Satella sighed. "Would you kids like to feel?"
"Yeah!" Manami smiled as she and Ed both reached their hands to feel. They waited a moment before...
"Ah..!" Manami jumped in surprise, her smile widening. "It kicked!"
"Whoa!" Ed had also jumped. "That's crazy... to think, we were like that in mom's stomach too, Al."
He looked back to his brother, who was watching closely. He couldn't feel, but that didn't make him any less interested.
"It's almost surreal, sometimes..." Satella sighed softly and went to put both hands on her stomach. "How you're starting someone's life inside you. It's so scary and exciting, all at the same time."
"They stay in there for nine months," Ridel added. "And nobody gets a say on when they're ready to come out, except them."
"You'll get to find out for yourself someday." Satella smiled to Manami, who jumped in surprise.
"M-Me? No, no..." Manami shook her head and waved her good hand dismissively as her cheeks turned a bright red, happening to catch a glance with Al.
"Why not?" He asked. "You don't want kids?"
"I-It's not that..!" Manami trailed off.
"Edward!~" Winry called, beckoning for him with her hand. "Come over here for a minute!~"
Manami breathed a small sigh of relief, now that the attention wasn't on her anymore.
Ed, on the other hand, was hesitant to go over there, feeling a giant wave of uneasiness. He knew where this was going...
And before he knew it, he was stripped to his underwear again.
Mr. Dominic examined his arm and leg, mumbling to himself the percentages of each material in the arm. He could tell just by tapping it!
"His arm is too heavy." He mumbled, making Winry shrink.
"Yeah, I was thinking of increasing the hardness to make it lighter..." She said quietly.
"Mm, that's a good start. As of now, the stress of the weight is too much. Perhaps that's what stunting his growth."
"?!" Ed snapped his head to look to Dominic. "Wait! So... if we lighten this arm, I might grow taller?"
Dominic eyed him before looking away. "It's possible."
That was enough to make Ed sigh dreamily, imagining himself taller than he never would be.
"M-Mr. Dominic!" Winry quickly bowed. "Please accept me as your apprentice..!"
"Nope." Dominic replied, without skipping a beat. Winry couldn't help but slouch a little.
"M-Maybe you could reconsider..?" She weakly argued, but Dominic huffed.
"I don't take on apprentices."
"If that be the case..." Ed leaned forward to get closer to him. "If you could just teach her how to help me get taller..."
"Buzz off!"
"M-My dad is pretty stubborn... sorry..." Ridel whispered from behind Manami and Al.
"Alright, it's about time you kids get going ho—"
CRASH!
"GAH!" Manami shrieked, instinctively moving to shut her eyes tightly and cover her ears... with both hands. That made an intense pain throb in her right shoulder and even run down her arm, making her groan from the pain.
"?!" Al looked down to her as the thunder rumbled. Ed and Winry noticed too, and they all glanced at each other.
Manami was still scared of thunder. A trait she's had since she was little.
Dominic had already gotten up to walk to the front door. "Agh, and of course it's rainin'!" He yelled.
"Are you alright..?" Al was only focused on Manami at that point, who was still bent over with her hands over her ears.
"I-I'm fine..." She stammered in a low voice, going to straighten up, groaning again as she slowly went to lower her arms.
Domini popped his head back in the room they were in. "Well, you can stay until the rain let's down." And then he left again.
There was a moment in the silence in the room, all eyes on Manami.
She hated it. It only made her feel more anxious.
"... may I use your restroom?" She asked quietly.
Ridel quickly nodded. "It's going to be a left out that door and it's at the end of the hall."
"Thank you..." Manami swiftly left, leaving Ed to glance at Al and Winry. They looked back at him for a moment before noticing that Al went to follow her.
"Ah, hell..." Ed sighed before going, too.
Manami had already made it to the bathroom and shut the door behind her, not noticing that Ed and Al followed her. She quickly went to turn the sink on and cup her left hand in the water to splash on her face. She looked down to her hand and noticed that it was still shaky... she sighed heavily as she splashed some more water on her face and took several deep breaths to try to calm down.
When she finally did, she went to remove her coat and look at her right shoulder to check on the wound. She didn't seem to reopen it, which was relieving... she went to flex her right fist and watched herself in the mirror as she slowly lifted her fist up to her bicep. That didn't hurt much... that was a good sign. She did it a few more times before dropping her hand and taking off her sling to stuff in her back pocket.
It was good to know that it was only when she would raise her elbow that her shoulder would hurt. Progress was progress.
She heard a knock at the door.
"Manami..?" It was Al's voice. "Sorry, but... are you okay..?"
She turned to look at the door, blinking a few times. She stared to feel her cheeks burn a little. He didn't have to check on her... She went to open the door, surprised to see Al and Ed.
"H-Hey..." She greeted them. "Sorry, you didn't have to check on me..."
"I just followed Al because I knew Winry was going to nerd out again." Ed insisted.
"Brother..." Al looked back at him. If he had a face that was capable of making expressions, he would be glaring at him.
"Fair enough." Manami nodded. She didn't seem to mind.
"I didn't know you were still afraid of thunder." Ed pointed out, and she frowned.
"Could we not talk about it?" She forced a small smile, but they could tell that she looked a little annoyed behind it.
"Sorry." Ed stuffed his hands in his pockets and averted his eyes.
"Thank you." Manami sighed softly.
"Did you hurt your shoulder though?" Al asked. He respected that she didn't want to talk about the thunder, but he was pretty concerned about her wound.
"Oh," Manami glanced at her arm. "Yeah. I didn't open it back up." She smiled.
"And I can do this," she closed her fist and lifted it up to her bicep like she had done in the bathroom. "So I think I'll start doing a few of these each day as it heals."
"Mm," Al hummed and nodded. "Good to hear you're healing well."
"Me too." Ed agreed. She knew that he felt bad about the whole incident, but before she could insist that it was fine... a door had slammed.
"R-Ridel..!" They heard Winry cry from across the house. "Your wife, she's..!"
"What?!"
Without skipping a beat, Manami and the Elric brothers ran across the house to find Winry. She seemed to be looking for them, too.
"Miss Satella just went into labor..!" She cried, making everyone gasp.
"We can't send her to the hospital in this weather..." Dominic walked past them to grab his rain coat next to the door and put it on. "I'm going to get a doctor and bring him here!"
"Be careful, dad!" Ridel had followed him and watched as his father bolted out into the downpour.
"What could we get to prepare?" Manami asked Winry, and she put a hand on her chin as she thought.
"Warm water and wash cloths..."
"On it!" Paninya quickly went to leave the room as Winry continued to think.
But then the door burst open again, revealing a drenched Dominic.
"Th-The bridge is... destroyed."
"What?!" Everyone gasped, but Ed went to walk out
"Al! Maybe we can fix it!"
"You two stay here," Al looked to Manami and Winry, but Manami shook her head.
"I'm going with you." She said as she walked past him to follow Ed, before the suit of armor could protest.
"Be careful!" Winry called after them, watching them until they were out the door before going to help Paninya prepare.
Manami stepped outside in the pouring rain to see the bridge had been completely destroyed. The post that held it all together was burned to a crisp.
"A lightning strike..!" Ed yelled over the harsh rain. Probably the one that scared Manami earlier.
"Can you transmute another bridge?!" Manami yelled back to him, and he clapped his hands.
"I'm gonna try!" He touched the ground and they watched as a chunk of the river wall started to extend forward.
Ed bit his lip, knowing that if it were too heavy...
"GO!"
But it broke, and the chunks of earth fell into the river below.
"Damn! It's too far to build from one side!"
"We can try building one with supports under it!" Al suggested, but Ed shook his head.
"The river will just wash it away!"
"... there's no time!" Dominic yelled. "It's dangerous out here! I'll find another way."
But Manami was looking across the river, doing the math in her head.
... she could make it.
"..." She looked down to her right fist.
Rather... she normally would be able to make it...
"If someone were on the other side, could a bridge be built from both sides and meet in the middle?!" She yelled to Ed, who raised a brow.
"I'm pretty sure..!" Ed answered "But there's no way any of us are getting over there!"
"..." Manami decided, in that moment, she had to try.
She went to take a few steps back, reaching in her pockets to pull out her fans and open them up with a flick of the wrists.
It had been a while since she got to do that.
"What are you doing?!" Al yelled. "Manami, wait!"
"Stop!" Ed yelled afterwards. "You won't make it!"
"I will!" Manami yelled back at them. "Trust me!"
"Stop, girl! It's not worth risking your life!" Dominic yelled, but she ignored him as she went to crouch in a ready-to-run position. She slowly went to move stretch her arms out in front of her. That didn't hurt too much...
WHOOSH! Sparks flew behind Manami as she quickly waved her fans backwards, like a bird flapping its wings, and that had sent her dashing past them before they could even blink.
They quickly turned to see that she was already at the edge of the cliff... and she jumped.
"MANAMI!"