Brief Commentary:
This chapter is like, half-revised, since I didn't like the beginning. Keep watch for minor editing/revising in later chapters, but I think that the majority of the revision should be over, and I'll feel free to move on to actually writing the next chapter. ...Oh dear...now that I've implied that I haven't even started on it (which I haven't), I suppose I should be looking forward to a trip to the E.R. soon or something of the sort.


Reasons Not For Your Ears
Chapter Three

Throughout the remainder of that day and the next, Winry found that she was able to speak to Alphonse more calmly without the rush of nerves, and had resisted the urge to blush several times already. She felt much more relaxed and at ease, even in all his attractive glory. In between classes their dialogue had grown more casual, and Winry thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad for it to remain that way; she and Alphonse had quickly become good friends. Of course, Paninya and herself were hitting it off really well, too; they always managed to find something laugh about.

The majority of Winry's day was spent with both of them, only differing through their lunch schedules. The school's population of students had been too large for all of them to share a single lunch period, so instead it was divided into three different periods. Winry and Paninya shared the first, while Alphonse had the second. Despite this, it allowed the two girls a little "female time" that Alphonse, in his boyish naiveness, would be completely unable to relate to. Winry had allowed herself a giggle when Paninya mentioned this.

But through her musings, Winry remembered the boy, and whatever face she had been wearing dropped into something more disappointed and sulky.

As diligently as she had looked, Winry was extremely disappointed to find that there had been no sign of the boy at all. Maybe he did go to another school? In her musings, she found herself looking back on his appearance. Golden hair, gold eyes, a good body frame (as far as she had been able to tell)...from the distance, she was unable to tell, but the boy seemed to be only a little taller than Alphonse. Perhaps he would know? She decided she would ask before the next class (which happened to be the last).

Approaching him quietly (and pointedly ignoring the glares being sent her way from the girls Paninya had dubbed the "Alphonse Fan Girls Club"), she tapped him on the shoulder. She couldn't help but smile back as he turned around with a grin on his face.
"Hey Winry! What do you need?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."

"Do you know a boy who has gold hair and gold eyes, and he looks a little taller than you? I saw him last night, I think, and I was wondering if you knew..." she trailed off as Alphonse's expression began to change.

The grin had disappeared from his face, leaving him in some sort of stupor. His eyes seemed to glint in realization, and they grew cold and distant, the once warm golden irises becoming frigid with obvious dislike. Alphonse's mouth twisted into a sneer, and his posture stiffened. All Winry could do was watch in bewilderment, and even slight fear as she stared at the now unfamiliar boy in front of her.

"Winry," he said softly. The voice he used was so soft that it seemed threatening.
"Y...yes?"
"Please don't mention that bastard again in my presence." It wasn't a request. It was an order.
"Oh...okay," she said weakly, and quickly turned away to stride back to her desk. She could practically smell the smirks coming from the Alphonse Fan Girls; they must've believed she had just gotten turned down for a date. Letting out a snort as she flopped back into her desk, the blonde-haired adolescent began to tap her pencil in irritation, ignoring the confused looks Paninya was sending her way. What had brought on Alphonse's sudden personality change? She chewed her lip. Well, he had called the boy a bastard, so evidently he wasn't on good terms with him...bur why?

Winry shivered at the sudden flow of possibilities that ran through her head. Maybe the boy was really a murder, or an escaped convict, or some kind of gangster or drug dealer, or a thief, or a...maybe even a rapist? She quickly shoved the thought away. Honestly, a rapist? Where the hell had that come from? She felt disgusted with herself. But Alphonse had to have some motive; she felt that she could tell well enough from his personality that he didn't hold grudges or hate people for petty reasons. Was the boy honestly that terrible? Hell, she didn't even know his name. With a pout, she began to scribble small nonsenses onto a spare piece of paper, ignoring what she wrote. Paninya looked over curiously to see:

"Panda bears suck ass."

"Green is like a fucked up sand box."

"Your mom was so fat she swallowed a train and died."

"I need you to cut your toenails; they look like they've been with cookies for weeks."

"Which came first, the kangaroo or the seal?"

She attempted to give Winry a questioning glance, but was put off when she found that she was being ignored.


A drop of rain hit Winry's nose as soon as she stepped out of the building to head home. After managing to dodge Paninya's questions about the events that had occurred just ten minutes before hand, and the mysterious things she had written on the scrap paper, her already foul mood had instantly been made worse.

"What? It was clear this morning..." she let out a low grumble as she glanced up at the gray sky, the water droplets falling harder and more thickly now. She sighed. "Aw, man, I have to walk all the way to the damn bus stop...I really should've taken the damn bike, even though it would get rusted. Dammit."

Grouchily adjusting her grip on her book bag, Winry trudged along the wet side-walk, shooting envious glares at the students who were fortunate enough to have rides home in their own cars, or even on their bicycles. She swore rather loudly when she underestimated the depth of a puddle and found both her feet up to her knees soaked in mud and water. The day, which had been better before, had now turned into one borne from the depths of hell...well, maybe she was exaggerating, but that was certainly what it felt like. Winry shivered as she noticed how almost her entire body had become drenched in cold rainwater, and mentally decided that taking a nice, hot bath was her number one priority when arriving home. Damn rain...and she didn't even have an umbrella.

As she looked around, she somberly realized that nature seemed to be reflecting her mood. The leaves that were left on the bare, dark-muddy colored trees were black and tan, most of the actual plant life resembling this in some way. The houses surrounding her had no lights on (it was the middle of the afternoon), and seemed gloomy and depressing. Cars on the roads near by moved slowly and sprayed thin sheets of dirty water behind them, the figures seen in the car windows mostly slouched over. Only the brightly-colored umbrellas she could see in the distance seemed to contrast with the scenery.

Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice the looming figure observing her from a dark alleyway, eyes flashing in the shadows as she passed. It inhaled sharply, then let out a low hiss of some unidentifiable emotion, and disappeared.

Winry, meanwhile, had found that said thoughts had lead back to the boy she had seen two nights earlier, and was giving her sub-conscious a stern bad-mouthing, not realizing she had made it to the bus stop until she nearly smacked into the sign. With a grumble, she was forced to wait several minutes before the public transportation vehicle actually arrived, managing to spray her with dirty water in the process. Feeling very much pissed off, Winry climbed on board and sat moodily on a seat a little ways away from the door, eager to get home as quickly as possible in order to take a bath.

Twenty minutes or so later, the bus pulled up to a stop near her neighborhood, where she stepped off and raced down the sidewalk, not enthusiastic about getting soaked with water again, despite her already wet condition. After a minute, she reached the apartment building she and her grandmother currently resided in, and climb up the stairs to open the door.

Kicking off her shoes, Winry shouted,
"Baa-chan! I'm home! I'm going to take a bath, okay?"

A small grunt of recognition came from the living room, and taking that as an invitation to do whatever she planned, Winry proceeded to bound up the stairs and throw open the door to the bathroom. Plugging the drain, she began to run the hot water, and while waiting for the tub to fill, she locked the bathroom door, peeled off her soaked uniform and underthings and stepped inside. She let out a long sigh of appreciation and wiggled her freezing, numb toes. Her skin crawled pleasantly as her cold body met the hot water and unsettled her nerves, eventually soothing her stiff muscles as it filled almost to the top of the bathtub. Turning the tap to stop the water, Winry slid into a reclined position against the side of the tub to relax for a few sparse minutes.

"Fuck that stupid boy," she told herself, "I probably won't see him ever again, so why think about it? Fuck him."

But despite her firm words, Winry could not keep her thoughts from wandering as she slipped into a giddy, relaxed stupor.


Revision is happiness. Unfortunately I'm still going to have to edit a few things in following chapters as I go on. Dammit.