The Gift
10
Arrival
November 21st – Tuesday
"Waaaaait!" Ed yelled as he ran full speed toward the train.
The conductor blew a whistle and raised his hands for the workers inside the train to see, then beckoned Ed toward the entrance of the train.
The small blond skidded to a halt in front of the other man and said through panting breaths, "My...brother...and...coming...wait..."
The conductor seemed to understand and said, "Okay, son, we'll wait for them."
Ed sagged in relief and turned his gaze in the direction he'd just come from. A minute later a large suit of armor carrying a couple of suit cases and a dark haired man wearing light blue jeans, and a faded gray long sleeved, button up shirt that was unbuttoned and showed a white tee-shirt below, came running toward them.
"Those your friends?" the conductor asked in amusement. When Ed nodded, the man said, "Okay then, I'll make sure they get on. Why don't you go find a seat."
The teen took one last look at Al and Mustang, then made his way inside the train. The train wasn't nearly as full as he'd thought it would be, given that it was almost the holiday, and easily found a place for them to sit.
A minute later, Mustang plopped down on the seat beside Ed. He was breathing hard and sweat was trickling down from his forehead.
"What's the matter, old man?" Ed asked ungraciously. When the colonel, too out of breath to speak, just glared at him, the teen said, "You weren't running nearly as fast as I was. Maybe you've put on a few pounds as well as a few years? Maybe you should take more advantage of the workout time the military gives you instead of slacking off at your..."
But Ed never got a chance to finish, because Mustang growled through panting breaths, "I... said... I was... sorry, Ed!"
"Do you want me to put these up here?" Al asked gesturing with the suitcases, but Ed ignored him and scowled at the colonel.
"You said you'd be ready, and you weren't! We almost missed our train!" the teen said angrily.
"I was ready! My suitcase was right by the door! How was I supposed to know it was going to take that long to get to the station by foot?"
"I'm just going to set these suitcases up here..." Al said and stuck the luggage in the compartment above their heads.
"You could have done your hair here!" Ed growled. "Seriously, my hair is a lot longer than yours and I don't even spend half the time you do on mine!"
"Like I said, I didn't know it was going to take so long to get here…" Mustang muttered, then shifted to make himself more comfortable.
Ed made a sound of exasperation, then looked beyond his commanding officer to where Al was sitting in one of the seats across the isle. "What are you doing, Al?"
His brother looked up at him and said, "Pretending I don't know you guys."
"Gee, thanks..." he muttered and looked out the window as the train began to move.
There was silence for a moment before Roy said, "Besides, none of what you said before matters. I'm still in great shape. It's just common knowledge that smaller people can run faster."
Ed stepped off the train and onto the concrete platform of Rizembool's small train station. He smiled a bit at the thought that the station was small. When he'd been a child, he had never thought of it as small, but after traveling so much and being used to Central's huge train station, well...
Mustang stepped off after him and stretched with a loud yawn.
The teen grinned. "Tired? Feeling a bit stiff?"
"Shut up, Ed," the colonel said blandly and turned around to face Al who was just coming out with the luggage. "Do you want me to carry mine?" the older man asked and Al shook his head.
"No, I'm fine. It's not heavy for me at all. Thanks for offering though."
"Well, if you're sure," Mustang said again, though to Ed he didn't sound too disappointed.
The blond folded his arms and smirked. "That's right, Al. Don't let him carry anything. At his age he might pull something or injure himself."
"And of course you won't let your brother carry his own luggage. We don't want him to get squashed."
Ed's eye twitched in irritation and he growled, "Al...give me my suitcase…" Instead of complying, Al simply shook his head and started walking away. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" he shouted, but his brother only ignored him.
"Where's he going?" the colonel asked as they both started after him.
"Heading to the Rockbell's, where else?"
Mustang stopped and said, "You mean...we have to walk all the way there?"
"Have a problem with that, old man?" Ed asked as he veered off onto the dirt road that lead to their destination. It was dark now, but that didn't bother him any. He'd been up this trail so many times that he could probably do it blindfolded.
"No..." the colonel growled unconvincingly behind him.
Ed snickered and was about to say something else, when he was grabbed from behind, turned around and kissed very thoroughly. Mustang's hand rubbed down his side and to his…
Ed's eyes widened and he tried to move away. It wasn't as if anyone was going to see…they were already pretty far from the well lit train station, but it wasn't as if they could really do anything right here, and he didn't relish the thought of being aroused without any follow-up.
Mustang felt him up for another moment before letting him go and walking past him with a murmured, "Don't cum in your pants."
"You bastard," Ed whispered savagely.
The colonel turned his head and even though it was dark Ed was sure the man was smirking. "Ah…the unfortunate inability of youth to hold back…" the man said then started laughing loudly.
Before Ed could retort, Al yelled from a head of them, "I don't even want to know!"
Roy sighed, half in relief that they were there, half in resignation that he was actually here, when they finally stopped in front of the door to the Rockbell house. Ed pushed the doorbell then looked up at him and said, "It's a good thing you had us with you. Old people shouldn't be out by themselves. They might fall and injure themselves."
Normally, Roy enjoyed the playful banter back and forth, but tonight he didn't quite feel up to it. He was tired from the trip and nervous about what lay a head in the next two days. However, he didn't want Ed to worry about him, so he said, "Well, Ed, it's a good thing I was with you. After all, little kids do have a curfew, you know."
Ed opened his mouth to say something when light spilled out onto the porch as the door opened to reveal a short old woman with a pipe in her mouth. She looked at them each in turn, then let her gaze settle on Ed.
"Do my eyes deceive me or have you gotten shorter?" the woman said around her pipe.
"Who are you calling short, you subatomic hag!" Ed yelled.
"What did you call me, you pocket-sized pipsqueak!" she returned.
"Shut up, undersized witch!"
"Minuscule midget!"
"Microscopic dwarf!"
Roy glanced at Al as the two continued to insult each other. This wasn't exactly how he'd imagined being greeted.
"Undersized runt!"
"Infinitesimal old woman!"
The short woman blinked, then said in a pleasant tone, "What?"
"Infinitesimal," Ed answered in a normal voice. "It's an adjective meaning infinitely or immeasurably small."
The graying woman nodded and took a puff on her pipe. "That's a good one. I'll have to remember it. Now, are you going to come inside, or do you like it out there in the cold?"
She moved back so that they could walk in and Roy let the two Elric brothers go first. As he was about to step forward the door suddenly slammed shut. He blinked, for a moment not understanding what happened, then he heard from inside, "Winry! What are you doing?"
Aaah...so that was it...
The sound of voices yelling back and forth met his ears as he quietly studied the door. Roy suddenly realized something with a feeling of uncomfortable dread. Ed had said that the old woman, Pinako, was okay with him coming. He'd never said anything about the girl...
This was just going to make things even more difficult...
Suddenly the door swung open and Ed was standing there looking very unhappy. "Sorry about that..." he muttered and moved aside so that Roy could come in.
After the door was shut behind him, Roy glanced up to see an angry looking girl with her arms folded and looking away from him.
Great... Just great... he thought tiredly.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before Pinako began giving directions to Al where he should put the luggage. As she did so, Roy frowned. Al and Ed would be sharing a room and he'd get his own. He'd kind of hoped to share one with Ed, but he supposed it was alright...
As Al left to put the bags away, the old woman muttered something about getting some food ready and headed off in another direction. Before he could say anything, the girl, Winry, grabbed Ed's arm and proclaimed that she wanted to make sure his automail hadn't been damaged in any way, leaving Roy standing alone in the entry way.
The colonel sighed heavily.
This was going to be a long Thanksgiving...
Next updates are the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. I will definitely have more dates for you by the 24th. I've just been really busy right now with school... ((takes a moment to whine)) I have three big group projects; a stupid, but tediously time consuming term project; not to mention normal homework and studying for finals. TT
Okay, I'm done. Haha
I'll have more dates to you really soon.
Side note: for those of you I'm sending the update emails to, did you notice I put 'chapter 7' in the subject line instead of 'chapter 9'? haha, yeah...that's what comes of doing this kind of stuff at like, 5:00am...
Another side note: I have been sending replies back to your reviews, but I don't know if you guys are getting them because I have to go to the ff.n site to see them. I'm sure you'll get them eventually when ff.n's email notification system starts working again. Until then, just know I'm not ignoring you. :)
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