A/N Gah, sorry again! Everything's been so busy lately. *-*
"Elli, we've got another customer!" Mr. Roberts called from the front of the store.
"Coming!" Winry replied, rushing out of the back room with an automail arm still gripped in one hand. "Oh, Mr. and Mrs Dublin."
"Elli, what are you doing here?" Mrs. Dublin asked in surprise.
"I found a job here," Winry explained. "It's good work and it pays well. I'm learning new things every day."
"Well that's just wonderful, dear," Mrs. Dublin congratulated her warmly. Winry smiled; their neighbor was always so nice to them. Mr. Dublin stood slightly behind his wife, a bored look on his face. It was only the second time Winry had seen him, but something about him looked familiar; and not from the last time she had seen him either.
"What can I help you two with?" Winry asked, glancing over her shoulder to where Mr. Roberts was pointing out something to another customer.
"We're just looking for a…what was it again, dear?" Mrs. Dublin asked her husband.
"An S67 part," Mr. Dublin answered gruffly.
Winry looked at him in confusion. "Are you sure you have the right part?" she asked. "That's used in more advanced machinery. What do you need it for?"
"A project I'm working on," he replied shortly.
"Really?" Winry asked curiously. "What is it? Anything I could help you on?" She knew between doing research on the disappearing military officers and her job she didn't have much free time, but she wanted to do something like what she used to work on back home. As much as she learned from work, she still missed working on automail, since most customers that came in just needed parts for broken appliances.
Mr. Dublin gave her a critical look. "Why?"
"I just thought it might be interesting to have something new to work on," Winry replied with a shrug.
After a moment of consideration, Mr. Dublin finally nodded. "All right," he agreed. "It might be nice to have some help. Do you know anything about advanced automail?"
"I was working on automail before I came here," Winry answered excitedly. "I'm sure I could pick it up pretty fast. What is it exactly?"
"It's still in the experimental stages, but I wanted to create automail that covered real limbs," Mr. Dublin explained. "Almost like armor."
"But why?" Winry inquired curiously. "Automail is a replacement for people who have lost a part of their body." As Winry said this, she thought about Ed and how he was always saying that she had given him a leg to stand on. "Why would you need a substitute for something you haven't lost?"
"Not a substitute; more like an enhancer," Mr. Dublin said. "Like if you're weak, and want to be stronger. You'd be able to do more things, such as lifting heavy objects. Many jobs require strength that most people don't have, but would like to possess."
"Strength gained in such a way can never compare to real strength," Winry replied. "However, it does sound interesting. When would you want me to come by?"
"Whenever you can," Mr. Dublin responded.
"He's always locked up in his workshop working on his projects," Mrs. Dublin put in.
"I think I have some time tomorrow evening," Winry said after a thoughtful silence. "I'll be sure to stop by."
"We'll be glad to have you over," Mrs. Dublin replied happily. "As a matter of fact, why don't you have your friends come over with you? We can have dinner together."
"Sounds like fun," Winry agreed. "I'll see if they can spare an hour or two. Oh, right, I'll go ahead and get that part for you, Mr. Dublin."
Walking back to the counter, Winry shuffled through a few boxes until she found what she was looking for. Pulling out a small package with a neat label printed on the front, she set it on top of the counter and rang it up. Mrs. Dublin shuffled through her purse and handed a few crumpled bills to Winry, who carefully placed them in the cash register and handed back a few cents change.
"Be sure to come tomorrow," Mrs. Dublin told her on her way out, waving.
"Okay," Winry replied, giving a small wave of her hand in acknowledgement.
---
"What do you mean we're all going to the Dublins' tomorrow night?" Ed asked furiously. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're not here to socialize; we're on a mission."
"That's why I'm saying we should go," Winry retorted. "If someone really is keeping tabs on us, wouldn't it look more normal if we went to our neighbors' for dinner? You three hardly talk to anyone because you're always in the library or checking out some kind of information. The only reason I'm known around town is because I'm working, like an ordinary person would. This is to keep our cover!"
"Winry, we have more important things to do than this; we need to work fast so we can get out of here," Ed went on. "Someone's already seen through us, so it doesn't matter if they think what we're doing it ordinary or not anymore. Besides, would it really be considered normal to go over to someone's house when we barely know the people living there?"
"There's no certainty that they know who we are or what we're doing," Winry pointed out. "If we rush things, it'll only turn out badly. What do you think, Al, Rina?"
Al gave a start, then looked up at Winry, blinking his large brown eyes. Sighing, Winry knew he had been daydreaming instead of listening to the conversation. Again. Rina was hardly better, sprawled out on the couch of the living room while everyone else sat a few feet away in the kitchen.
"You both have a point," she noted, brushing aside a piece of loose hair out of her face.
"Guys, we aren't going to get anywhere like this," Winry snapped, agitated at Ed's stubbornness, at Al's apparent inability to pay attention, at Rina's indifferent attitude. She was tired of all of it, of trying to act normal and doing nothing but research and work all day. Maybe that was the real reason she wanted to help Mr. Dublin; so she could get away from all of this.
"Why don't we put it to a vote?" Ed suggested calmly, noticing Winry's foul mood. "All in favor of going?"
Winry thrust her hand in the air, joined soon after by a still indifferent looking Rina. Al bit his lip, glancing from Ed to Rina to Winry, then back to Rina again. Slowly, he, too, raised his hand.
Ed gave him a look of utter disbelief, then sighed, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. "All right, then, we'll go," Ed conceded. "But we have to be careful; we can't say anything that could give ourselves away."
"Obviously," Winry scoffed, still seething. "I'm going to my room; I have to write in my journal." No one said a word as she left the room, none of them wanting to be the person she vented her rage on.
"What's up with her?" Rina muttered as soon Winry had left.
"She's not used to this," Al explained tiredly. "She isn't like us; she's not part of the military."
"Meaning what?" Rina snapped. "That we're not sick and tired of all this too? Does she honestly think that she's the only one doing the work around here? I don't see her doing anything but dragging us down."
"Rina," Ed warned, his voice dangerously low. "Al only meant that Winry hasn't done anything like this before and doesn't know what it takes. She's been doing her best to help us with research and keep our cover by taking a job. I don't see you working."
"I do my part by cooking and shopping," Rina said. "If you ask me, you're the one not doing anything. Al comes with me and helps shop, but I don't see you making any effort to do anything."
"I can't go out into public too much, or else I might be recognized," Ed defended himself.
"Ed, no one's seen you in two years; everyone thinks you're dead," Rina told him impatiently. "You're not going to be recognized. Besides, Al and I probably have a better chance of that happening than you do, and nothing's happened so far."
"Guys, let's just go to bed," Al interrupted tiredly. "We're all fed up and tired of this; we need a good night's rest so we can think straight. We shouldn't be fighting among ourselves."
"Al's right," Ed agreed. "In that case, I'm going to bed." Without another word, he trudged down the hall to the room he shared with Al, not looking back to see if his brother would follow.
"Look, about the other night…" Al started when he was sure Ed wouldn't be able to hear them speak.
"Don't," Rina cut him off, standing up. "Just don't. Just…stay away from me." She silently left the room, her expression unreadable.
Sighing, Al let his head fall into his hands. Everyone was so tense these days, and now, he had gotten on Rina's bad side. Ever since he had made that promise, she refused to talk to him for any length of time and more often than not went out alone. Even when they had returned to the military base to continue their search, she wouldn't even make eye contact with him. What are we going to do now? Al thought. We can't go on like this.
---
The next evening found Winry, Ed, Al, and Rina standing outside of the Dublins' door. Winry was actually a little surprised that everyone had come; all day everyone had been losing their temper and bickering, resulting in conversations being avoided for the most part.
As Al reached forward to ring the doorbell, the front door swung open to show the smiling Mrs. Dublin, dressed in a formal dress that went all the way to her ankles. It made Winry wonder if maybe they should've dressed nicer too, instead of throwing on the cleanest thing nearest to them. Then again, they didn't exactly have any "nice" clothes.
"Welcome," Mrs. Dublin greeted warmly, stepping aside and waving them in. "Dinner's just about finished."
"Thank you," Winry said when it appeared no one else was going to say anything. Ed looked sulky, Rina wore a scowl on her face, and Al appeared to be spacing out again. Internally sighing, Winry wondered if they were even trying to act like nice neighbors. Usually Al would at least offer a polite response.
Mrs. Dublin led the small group to the living room, where Rina and Ed immediately took the two chairs, leaving Winry and Al to sit on the couch. Glancing from Al to Rina, Winry wondered if something was going on between them. They hadn't been acting as carefree as usual. In fact, as time had passed more and more, Rina had seemed to get even more agitated than the rest of them. Had she and Al fought about something?
"Can I get you anything to drink?" Mrs. Dublin asked, flitting between the kitchen and the living room.
"No thank you," Al replied, smiling one of his dazzling smiles. Mrs. Dublin, flushed, left the room. At least someone's getting serious about this, Winry thought appreciatively, exchanging a grateful smile with Al.
"Is Mr. Dublin here?" Winry asked Mrs. Dublin when she had returned.
"He's in his workshop in the back," she answered. "Go down that hall and the last door on the left is the one you're looking for."
"Thanks," Winry replied, standing up. She gave a quick glance behind her, wondering if it would be okay to leave everyone like they were, but Al gave her a small, reassuring smile. Knowing it was okay to leave them in Al's hands, Winry went to the door that Mrs. Dublin had told her and knocked on it twice.
"Who is it?" came the gruff reply on the other side.
"It's Elli, sir," she answered. "May I come in?"
The doorknob turned and Mr. Dublin, dressed in oil-stained jeans and a T-shirt, admitted her in. Inside of the room, tables were set up, each holding messy stacks of paper with plans strewn all over the place. The walls had detailed plans written on them, all carefully placed and explained.
"This is a nice workshop you've got," Winry commented, looking at t he stacks of boxes piled up in one corner.
"Thanks; we'd better start," Mr. Dublin said briskly, sitting down at one of the tables. "How much do you know about anatomy?"
"Enough," Winry replied, sitting across from him. As they started discussing neural reactions, Winry started to relax for possibly the first time since they had gotten in this town. Doing research and working for a place that didn't specialize in the things she knew the most about was new to her, but discussing automail put her on familiar footing and made her feel at ease.
Working in that workshop with Mr. Dublin, Winry knew that she'd come again; this place was going to become her personal escape from the outside world and, most importantly, her aggravated friends.
Yay, I actually got this up today! You know what this means, right, guys? I've updated three times this weekend. ^.^
And about the parts and everything mechanical related: I don't know if any of it's real or true. I'm no engineer or anything, so I just made it up as I went along.
Special thanks to Setfiregirl and BloodyAphrodite, my sole reviewers of my last chapter. Thanks you two, I really appreciate the support and comments! As for everyone else: Thanks guys, I'm really feeling the love. :P