READ AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END*******
The first morning Winry had woken up in that house was extremely cliché. Her eyes had fluttered open at the sound of birds chirping, as a ray of sunlight bled through the curtains and fell upon her pale complexion of a face. What time is it, anyway? She thought to herself. Her bed seemed unnaturally comfortable compared to what she used to sleep on, which would be considered a slab of stone. She turned her head to the side to catch a glimpse at the small clock Kain had so generously placed at her bedside. The smaller hand pointed downwards, just a ways past the VI and the longer hand pointed straight to the III. 6:15. Doctor Harriet had taught her a lot about Roman numerals during her stay at the hospital. In fact, it was the first interesting conversation they had had when she was placed there. It was after her bought of depression and anxiety, and she had been more interested in the machinery such numerals were printed on rather than the actual scripture. Doctor Harriet had regretfully told her she didn't know much about machinery, and had requested another doctor from Mr. Willis, who was more knowledgeable with such things, come in and help her. And he had. She didn't remember much about him, other than his incredible aquamarine eyes. He seemed to know a lot about clockwork though. Poor man, he'd been so puzzled when she wouldn't answer a single thing he'd say to her.
Winry sat up straight in her bed, arching her back and allowing a slight grunt to escape her lips as she stretched arms upwards to the ceiling. Exhaling, the blonde rubbed her eyes and wiggled her toes a few times. She giggled. Kain and Noah had really gone out of their way to make her feel comfortable. Such a comfortable bed, such a cozy room, such a welcoming house. It hadn't quite sunk in yet that she wasn't in the hospital anymore, under strict surveillance and diets, locked away in a room, isolated from the world like...
Like one of those perfect pretty girls the evil witches always wanted.
"Excuse me?" a small voice called from behind the door, followed by two gentle knocks. "Uh... Are you awake?"
Winry immediately sprang up, flattening out her night gown, patting down her hair, and rubbing her face, hoping to rid most of the excess drool or eye crust left from her sleep.
"Y-yes! Please, come in!"
The door opened to reveal a concerned looking Noah, who began giggling once she caught sight of the blonde. Winry's shoulders slumped. W-Well, I tried...
"Oh, don't look so glum. You just have a, uh, loop of hair at the top of your head." The Roma walked over with a sympathetic, yet amused, look on her face. Winry felt her play with a strand of hair on her head before she stepped back.
"There. You look... good. You know, considering." She smiled nervously.
"No need to be embarrassed, Miss... um..."
"Just call me Noah. You don't have to be so formal." She smiled, walking out the door and motioning for Winry to follow. The blonde trotted behind the woman willingly.
"The bathroom is over here, dear, right next to mine and Kain's room. You can wash up and get ready. I'll make breakfast. Kain will be up soon."
Winry nodded and thanked the woman, tiptoe-jogging her way to the bathroom. The bathroom was rather large in comparison to the rest of the house. There was a long counter going from the door to the toilet. The counter itself seemed to be made from a cheap stone material, with steel for the faucet. There was flower incense, much like the one she had back at the hospital, placed next to the sink with a tall cup of toothbrushes and a small tin of toothpaste. Above was a closed cupboard. Winry opted not to open it. She'd invaded the couple of their privacy enough already. Across the toilet, built into the wall, was the bath, fixed with a showerhead over top and green drapes with a yellow leaf patterning. The tiles on the floor were a sandy brown colour, and felt cool under her bare feet. I should probably find myself some slippers soon...
Winry turned the tap slowly, a light squeak echoing from the handle. She had slowly lost count of how many times she'd splashed water on her face. She felt her worries being washed down the drain along with the water, and hadn't realized how good cold water had felt on her skin. She'd always opted for the extra hot shower. It always tired her out and helped her sleep better, but feeling awake was oddly satisfying.
Turning around to grab a face towel, she found herself staring at her own reflection. It was a full body mirror pressed tightly against the wall, practically built in. It the dangerous kind that could do wonders to the human mind. It allowed you a full look at yourself, from head to toe, and a little more, even, to catch every single flaw, flab, and crooked tooth. Winry's tired eyes scanned herself. She hadn't quite gotten a good look at herself for quite the long time.
She was thin. Sickly thin, but with rather wide hips that proved she could be curvier with a bit more meat on her bones. She had long legs and moderately sized feet, stretched fingers that showed green veins and prominent collar bones. Her blonde hair had grown incredibly long, stretching well past her thighs in a stream of lanky blonde hair. She could make out the repulsive split ends and blandness of colour (perhaps it had once been a beautiful sunshine blonde?). Finally, her rather large eyes were blue, but just blue. Not a deep oceanic hue that emanated life or the kind of blue that would show you the sky if you were to squint well enough. No. Just blue.
Her entire look just shouted bland. She was a bland girl, a bland person. She was the kind of person who you'd simply walk past on the street, without a second glance, or a second thought about the fact that she may be another person, living life day to day, having people care for her, and having people she cares about. The only peculiar thing about her was the odd tattoos embellished across her stomach. They were visible now, through the wet portions of her white nightgown that the water droplets from her face had fallen onto. Slowly, Winry lifted her gown up to get the first good look at the odd patterns for the first time.
It was unlike anything she'd seen before, and it made no sense. On the far left of her stomach was a long line of scripture, boxed inside a thin rectangle going from the bottom of her breast straight down to her thigh. Next to it was a vertical consecutive pattern of circles inside of large triangles, with smaller triangles inside the circles. Then, there was a long line, breaking the flow of the odd patterns. The pattern then continued on the opposite side of the line, consisting of more odd scripture, seemingly written in a foreign extinct language, in two perfectly spaced out columns. Finally, across all of this was a large triangle, covering her entire lower torso, with an eye smacked on the dead-centre. There was another circle surrounding it like a force field, connected to each edge of the triangle. Winry gently traced the outline of the largest triangle with her index finger, slightly shuddering at her own cold and wet touch. This was the reason she was here right now, with Kain and Noah. This tattoo was the reason. There was a man in search of her at that very moment, she knew. Winry hadn't seen the last of him, and no matter how much she could deny that, no matter how far away Edward would send her, she knew it wouldn't be over until that man was caught.
"Winry" Noah's voice came from behind the door. "Are you alright in there?"
Winry gasped, dropping her gown and opening the door. "Yeah, sorry. I zoned out there for a minute."
"Don't worry about it; I just wanted to let you know breakfast is ready." Noah smiled. Winry nodded, flicking off the lights witch. She'd have time to her thoughts later on in the day.
"I'll just go change and come. It'll only be a second!" she called, trotting off into her room and closing the door behind her. Winry opened the drawer to reveal her new clothes, all bought by Doctor Harriet. She settled for a pair of dark blue trousers, paired off with a loose white t-shirt. The looser the better, she thought with a sigh. At least until she gained some weight.
By the time she stepped out, Kain was seated at the table with Noah exiting the kitchen with a tray of hot mugs. Winry silently hoped Kain had told her she didn't drink anything besides hot water and lemon. When Noah placed her mug down, a wave of relief flooded over her, as she realized he had. Bless him.
The trio ate quietly, the wide variety of breads and jam that Noah had (so kindly) placed before them. There were hardboiled eggs, one for each of them, with a number of thinly stripped bacon, whole wheat toast bought from the baker down the road, and homemade jam Noah had put so much effort into.
"My adoptive grandmother taught me how to make this when I was very young," she explained with a distant look in the eyes. "Although those days aren't ones to really reminisce with happiness, she made them more bearable..."
Kain's eyes were glued to yesterday's paper he hadn't gotten a chance to read, due to the long trip they'd taken. The headline at the front of the newspaper that was facing Winry read 'Fritz Lang Questioned by German-English Man Assumed to be Representative from Disbanded Thule Society'.
"Who are Fritz Lang and the Thule Society?" Winry asked aloud, scrunching her face as she spoke, as if the names felt extremely distasteful to the tongue. Kain ignored the worried glance Noah gave him, and kept his eyes glued to the paper.
"Fritz Lang is a famous Jewish film director." He answered, putting the paper away and chugging the rest of his tea. Winry waited for him to continue, but it seemed like he wasn't going to tell her who the Thule Society was. She let out a silent huff of irritation. It seemed like everyone had a secret to keep from her.
"Winry, I still have some time before I have to set out for work. Why don't we go down to the library together so you can check it out? You know, see if it suits your fancy or not." Kain said.
Winry grinned with a nod, disregarding the Thule Society subject, or whatever they were called. "That would be great, Mr. Foster!"
"You can call me Kain, you know, Winry." He grinned. "I'm not much older than you, you know. No need for formalities."
Winry chuckled nervously, rising from her chair to help carry the things back to the kitchen with Noah. Half an hour later, Kain and Winry said their farewells to Noah at the door.
"You could come..." Winry heard Kain whisper to Noah, placing a hand on her waist. Noah smiled sadly at him, tightening his tie and flattening out his collar.
"You know I can't..." She whispered back, taking a quick glance at Winry, who didn't bother looking upwards and pretend to be fiddling around with her boot buckles to avoid any unneeded discomfort. "As long as she's safe, we shouldn't have anything else to worry about for now, Kainan."
"You can't be caged up at home forever, you know." The spectacled man huffed in irritation. Noah chuckled, planting a kiss on his cheek.
"If only everyone were like you."
As Winry and Kain walked down the street, Winry stole occasional glances at the man. His expression was different every time. First he seemed disappointed by something, then angry, then disregarding, then mildly irritated. It was amusing, but not in the funny way. More in the admirable way. The man wore his thoughts on his sleeve, and yet he still held an intimidating appeal.
"Don't worry, Kain." Winry said, startling the man. "The world will change over time. We just need to keep living life one day at a time, right?"
Kain stared at her for a moment before smiling with a nod.
"Just drop it, Al."
"It isn't a sin to tell me things from time to time, you know."
"When had I ever cared about sinning for this to be the second time? I'm telling you Al. Just drop it."
Edward and Alphonse had been bickering for what seemed to be the twentieth time that week. The brothers seemed to find one another more and more irritating as the days progressed. This argument in particular, however, was considered to be one of their more civil ones. The more intense fights had resulted in Alphonse storming out of the house at the middle of the night, shouting atrocities along the lines of 'I don't even need you' and 'I'll find a more decent job and go live on my own', followed by whispered mumbles of how he deserved every guilty feeling he'd received from the day Winry had died. But he'd only whisper the last remark with scarce audibility so only he could hear it, because deep down somewhere among the thousands of hateful things he felt about his brother at that moment, there was still a source of undying love for the only family member he had left. He was now a boy of twenty one years, who attended university classes during the day, and dealt with drunk rejects at night. As if the stress of university and the frustration of lowly drunks weren't enough to set him off already, Edward dared to hop onto his last remaining nerves and perform a salsa routine fit for kings. No doubt, Edward's superiority complex and Alphonse's youthful habits drove both of them mad. It hadn't made anything better when Edward decided not to share the reason why he had never came to pick Alphonse up from work the previous night, and had left the poor young man to walk home seventeen blocks at half past twelve in the morning. It truly had begun to break Alphonse's heart that he and his brother were going through such a rough patch in their lives. So, for that reason, Alphonse would occasionally try to be more civil with their arguments when he wasn't ready to give his brother a nice sock in the nose.
"Well, I hope you had a good time, wherever you were." He said briskly with a hint of annoyance in his tone. Edward huffed in irritation, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel.
"I told you, Al. I was at work last night. I can promise you that." He said. Edward turned into the university lot, encircling a fancy statue of a man whom he presumed was its founder.
"Here's your stop, your Majesty."
"You don't have to drive me if you don't want to you know." Alphonse hissed, reaching under the seat for his briefcase. Edward raised an eyebrow at him.
"You willing to wake up at 5:30 every day just to catch the streetbus? Didn't think so."
"Look, I don't know what your deal is today, but you're really acting like a child, Edward." Alphonse said, frowning at his brother. "I really wouldn't mind waking up earlier if this is such an inconvenience for you."
"It's no inconvenience."
"Then why the stupid comments?!" Alphonse cried.
Edward shrugged with a yawn. "Just get out, Al. I gotta get to work."
Alphonse immediately did as he was told, slamming the door shut behind him and mumbling something that sounded to Edward like "Who are you, anyway?" There was a brief sting in Edward's chest, but it passed away quick enough. He huffed in irritation. What the hell is his problem?
But all the same, Edward couldn't help but feel the least bit guilty as well. He had been distancing himself from Alphonse in the past few weeks that he'd started work with Bunny and Winry. Not to mention how he still hadn't mentioned to Alphonse that Winry was, indeed, alive still. But how could he? Alphonse had enough worries on his mind at the moment. One more wouldn't do him much justice. Edward finally reached the conclusion that he was doing so for the safety of his brother. Yes, that seemed about right.
The blonde finally swerved into his reserved parking space at the institute. He'd promised Bunny he'd have lunch with her that day. His morning schedule consisted of a teenage girl name Heather who was suffering from anxiety attacks regularly and a boy named Mitch in his nineteenth year recovering from anorexia nervosa. The poor boy had been bullied into starvation, and the girl had been in a car accident that had killed her father, leaving her with a stepfather who constantly ridiculed her for her lack of beautiful physique. After lunchtime, he'd have several reports to file concerning his other patients, along with discussing with the dietician the meals he'd have to have programmed for Mitch in the next upcoming week. Seemed simple enough for him. He'd been doing it for quite a while now, and he was quite sure of a lot of things in his life at the moment. Things were going smoothly enough, but for some reason or another, he still felt something missing. It was a feeling that hadn't occurred to him even once when he was treating Winry. He still had clear memories of her curious blue eyes, those large, dashing blue eyes that were a deep oceanic hue, and would show you the depth of her core wrapped in infinity if you were to squint well enough. Her long sun kissed hair like strings of gold he'd be more than willing to pay a fortune for if it meant just one run through it with his pinky finger. That pale, porcelain complexion, her supple lips that would sing the music his heart danced to (although it sounded like talking from time to time), the long fingers he'd kill to interlace with his own. She was simply fascinating; everything about her was fascinating and amazing to him, and it set aflame to his cheeks to be thinking about his childhood friend in such a manner. But there was a limit as to how much he could deny anything to himself, and even his days in Amestris were spent in deep concentration to keep her off his mind. He'd remember Nina Tucker asking him who the mysterious girl was he would write letters to, and how Alphonse would tease his apparent deep sexual desires of the blonde who would turn heads with a mere giggle. But things were different in Amestris; he had different priorities. But now, she was his main priority. And he'd be damned if he let her slip from between his fingers again.
"Good day today, Mitch." The man concluded, gathering his clipboard with a smile. "You're getting a lot better. Now how about some lunch?"
"Thanks, Dr. Elric. That sounds good right about now. I'm feeling... good today." The boy smiled sleepily.
"Great to hear, kid." Edward chuckled. "Besides, I heard they're serving hot borscht today with rye. You like that stuff, don't you?"
"Yeah." Mitch's smile widened.
It wasn't difficult to spot Harriet at the staff cafeteria. She'd been sitting at the exact same spot they'd always met at.
"Hey, Bunny."
"Hey, Elric." Bunny replied.
"Feeling bummed about Winry still?"
"Call me dramatic, but I had quite the bond with that girl."
Edward nodded with a smile. "Anyone could've told."
"Told your brother about it yet?" Bunny asked, picking at her salad.
"Nah. We got into a little fight this morning."
Bunny stopped picking at her lunch and eyed Edward with a frown. "You two seem to be doing a lot of that lately."
Edward shrugged. "We're both young males. Stuff like that happens when you get to this age with someone you're comfortable around."
"Fair enough, but just hear me out, Ed." Bunny said sternly. "You'd better keep an eye out for that brother of yours. You don't want to turn a complete blind eye on him like you did Winry back in Am... God, that place. I know this must sound ridiculous coming from someone you met a few months ago, but I don't want you making the same mistake again, alright?"
Edward snorted. "Why so serious, Bunny Rabbit? Come on, he's my brother. I could never forget about him. There's just a lot on my mind."
Bunny shrugged with a sigh. "Fair enough."
A.N: AN UPDATE WITHIN A WEEK! I'm going to try and update weekly from now on, with longer chapters, for the convenience of my darling readers! (': It's almost been a year since I started AIM (I know, I was dumbfounded). But, getting on with the more IMPORTANT STUFF...
Before I started this story, I was thinking about this for a while, but wasn't sure if I wanted to or not. Would you guys want me to add a lemon in this story? There IS a way I could do so, with the storyline still flowing nicely. Obviously, it would be between Edward and Winry. I initially didn't choose to because I had no prior experience with writing lemons, but I wrote a separate story that included a lemon, and it got a positive reaction, so I guess I'm not that shy anymore. *heh*. but, then again, its depending on what my readers would like. Leave a review letting me know whether or not you'd be interested in seeing a lemon in the future. (: thanks!
REVIEW!