Not much to say, except "enjoy chapter 12"

DISCLAIMER: Ed Elric, Al Elric, Winry Rockbell, Pinako Rockbell, Alex Louis Armstrong © Hiromu Arakawa / Shukaku © Masashi Kishimoto / Marina © author.

Key:

Normal text - speaking/narration

Italics - thoughts

Ch 12: Fit as a Fiddle

"Everything looks fine! Thanks, Brother!"

"I'm glad to hear that. Let's do the usual then."

"The usual?" I questioned.

"Yeah. Our teacher told us that to train the spirit, you must first train the body. So Al and I have mock battles frequently." Ed laughed. "But I've never beaten him once."


"I see. Then I will cooperate!" The Major threw off his shirt and flexed his muscles.

Understandably, neither of the Elric brothers wanted to go up against the Strong Arm Alchemist. "No thank you," they said simultaneously.

Ed and Al got into their fighting stances. "Let's start!" The blond charged at Al, throwing punches left and right. The suit of armor blocked all of Ed's punches, grabbed his auto-mail, and threw him to the side. Ed flipped, landed on his feet, and came at Al once more.

Winry trudged to the door and observed their fight. "Hey! Don't be reckless with it and break it again!" Both brothers were too busy mock battling to take notice.

"Don't worry Winry. If anything happens, I'll take care of it! Go back to bed!" I called. The mechanic gave me a 'thumbs up'––too tired to do anything else––and plodded back upstairs.

Meanwhile, Al attempted to punch his older brother, but Ed evaded by rolling to the left. He kicked at Al, who seized the state alchemist by the right leg and flung him into the distance, effectively taking Ed out of the picture.

"Now I will fight you!"

"ACK!!!" Armstrong forcefully tackled the suit of armor, catching him by surprise.

Al charged at the Major, resulting in a stalemate. "Not good enough! You won't be able to move forward like this!" The Strong Arm Alchemist picked up Al as if he were nothing and threw him to the ground.

"Brother."

"Dammit!" Ed had managed to get back to the mock battlefield.

Armstrong questioned, "What's wrong? Is that it?"

"Kch!" Both Elric brothers launched themselves at the Major. Working as a team, Al locked into another stalemate with Armstrong, while Ed slid underneath to knock the legs from under him. This allowed Al to use the Major's momentum to flip him over. The Strong Arm Alchemist sailed through the air and landed on his back in slow motion––pink sparkles all around him––while Ed and Al celebrated the result of their teamwork.

Later that day, under the light of a fiery sunset, Ed––accompanied by his little brother and our escort––showed me the remnants of his home. Al walked around, remembering bits and pieces of a life he once had. "This was the front door and the living room. On cold days, we put firewood in the fireplace. Brother always slacked off when we had to chop wood."

Said elder brother smiled ruefully.

Shukaku refused to be ignored any longer. I'm hungry dammit! Feed me! A rumble disturbed the relative silence and I sighed. Whatever Ichibi wanted, he got........and in this case, he wanted food.

"I think someone's hungry." Ed teased. I shot him a black look, but he kissed me gently. I returned the smooch, and we meandered back to the Rockbell residence hand in hand.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The next morning~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You kids, come back here once in a while to eat with us." Pinako offered.

Ed grinned. "Sure, eventually."

"Thanks Baa-chan."

"Thank you for your help." The Major said respectfully.

"Winry, it was nice to meet you, and thank you so much for the auto-mail lessons."

The auto-mail mechanic glomped me out of the blue. "You're absolutely welcome! I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot––that was totally my fault––, but I'm glad we were able to smooth things out. You are the NICEST person I've ever met; you were able to forgive me even though I pretty much yelled at you."

"Yeah, well......." I scratched the back of my head, embarrassed.

"No, I'm serious! Anyways, I'll let you go. Take care of Ed and Al for me, and don't hesitate to call me if something goes wrong with the auto-mail. You're able to fix the small stuff, I know that much."

I snorted. " Oh, I don't have nearly as much skill as you do. I'm not a suitable substitute for you at ALL."

Winry suddenly remembered something. "You don't have any tools, do you? Hold on, lemme get you some." She raced back inside the house, and Ed gave me a weird look.

"...........What?"

"Nothing." He smiled.

The auto-mail mechanic came back, now holding a well-worn toolkit and slightly out of breath from her sprint. "Here ya go! This baby has everything a mechanic needs to make and repair auto-mail...........As you can see, it's served me well." She held it out to me, intending it as a gift.

"Winry...........You don't have to give me this."

"How else are you going to fix Ed's auto-mail?"

"Um, alchemy?"

Winry put her hands on her hips. "After all the time and hard work I just put in to teach you?! I think not!" She joked.

"It wasn't THAT hard to teach me, was it?" I inquired.

"Well........no. Now hurry up! You'll miss the train if you keep waiting around."

"And whose fault is that?!" Ed was slightly annoyed, for reasons unknown to me. He started tugging me away from the house and towards the distant train station. "C'mon, let's go."

Winry laughed and waved. "Have a good trip guys!"

"BYE!!!!" I waved back as Ed, Al, the Major, and I departed.

Ed gave me the same weird look he had given me a couple minutes prior. "So.........what's with you and Winry?"

"What about me and Winry?"

"Well, she all but hated you when we first got here, and now you guys are like best friends. What the hell happened?!"

I halted. "We talked. That's what happened."

"About what?"

"What is this, an interrogation?" I teased. "We talked about..........stuff. Winry requested that what was said between us stays between us. What does this tell you?"

Ed thought for a minute. "........To badger you until I get a proper answer?"

I imitated a buzzer, indicating that the blond had answered incorrectly. "Wrong! It tells you that you should respect our privacy and not ask about anything." Ed's mouth silently formed an 'o'.

"Come on guys! The sooner we catch the train, the sooner we can get back to Central!"

"We're coming Al!" To me he commented, "I'm not in any hurry to see Colonel Bastard."

We saw Armstrong turn around and approach us. "I'll have to carry you if you don't hurry up!"

"OK, OK, we're coming. Hold your horses." Evidently, Ed didn't want to repeat his being-carried-by-the-major experience.