Draped in Wires
by. Poisoned Scarlet

Theme 007: Family

"So, pipsqueak, what's the big deal?" Pinako asked, as she cut into the juicy steak her granddaughter had prepared for her. Edward was gobbling up his own dinner rapidly, wanting to get back to his book as soon as possible.

"Big deal on wha', hag?" he asked through a mouth full, causing Al to wrinkle his nose.

"Ew! Ed, that's disgusting! Don't talk with your mouth full!"

Ed glared briefly, swallowing the food and drinking some juice when he felt a little choked up. "Big deal on what?" he repeated.

Winry came back and handed Mei her own plate of food, which she thanked for politely.

"We know Al and Mei are going to stay for around three months?" she glanced at Al for confirmation, who nodded in return. "But you just dropped by after sending an unexpected letter to Alphonse...so are you going to leave in a few days or stay? We gotta' make sure to clear out the bottom room if you're gonna' stay since we use your room as a patient room," she explained, making sure he knew she wasn't asking because her granddaughter had a coward moment and couldn't ask herself but because she would be conducting a minor surgery in a few days and she needed to make sure the patient had a room to rest in.

Edward slowed his eating, aware that the sudden ruckus in the kitchen had gone silent. "I'm staying for a while," he shrugged. "Maybe a year or so. Dunno' yet." He shoveled another spoonful of food into his mouth to refrain from answering Al's immediate question of:

"But why?"

He swallowed, not meeting his eyes. "Because."

Al frowned. "Because of what?"

"Because I got tired," he shrugged, knowing his brother didn't believe him at all by the way he was looking at him with that press of his lips and the slight narrow of his eyes. However, Mei and Pinako seemed to be a little convinced by his statement. He decided to keep going. "I'm running around back and forth out in the west and it's a huge pain to have to follow leads in order to prove one theory or disprove another," he sighed, telling the truth this time. "It's a pain in the ass and I'm don't like mystery even though Al and I spent our whole damn childhood chasing after the Philosopher's Stone! And then got sucked into a damn conspiracy plot!" he added as an afterthought, grumbling into his drink as he chugged the remaining juice down.

Another cup was handed to him and he drank that one down, too, giving Winry a thumbs up as he did.

"So you're staying then?" Winry asked, a little hopeful.

He looked at her over the rim of his cup. His face felt hot again and he quickly flashed his eyes to something else – like the vase of flowers sitting in the middle of the dining table to offer some decoration. "Yeah, I'm staying," he mumbled into the glass, unable to keep a smile off his face when he caught a glimpse of her joyous beam.

It all clicked to Alphonse in that moment.

"Hey, brother, you want to know something neat?" Al suddenly spoke up, tone edging on mischievous as Winry paused by the threshold and snapped her head to him; eyes narrowed in warning.

"What is it?" Ed asked, curious at the sudden tension between his brother and Winry. If it included Winry, he wanted to know.

Now.

"Well..." Al snickered at the look of death on Winry's face. "Ah, sorry, brother, but Winry's giving me such a mean look! I don't think I'd be able to take it if I told you and then got my head cracked open by her hand!" Al dramatically sighed, only widening his smirk at his brothers impatient grunt.

He frowned, looking between them suspiciously. Just what, exactly, had he missed? "Just tell me, Al."

"Nope."

"Al..."

"Winry'll get mad!"

"Forget about her – what is it?"

"Hey! I'm right here you know!"

Ed rolled his eyes. "Then get in there!" he pointed to the kitchen dismissively, "and then you won't be here."

She set her hands on her hips and glared. "Edward!"

"Alphonse?" he raised a brow, leaning in as his brother grinned covertly and also leaned in to tell him just what he found so 'neat' – which was really nothing as he simply wanted a little payback for Winry's teasing a few days back.

He still hadn't forgotten the love-birds comment...

Winry felt panic well in her stomach at the younger siblings cunning grin. She had absolutely no clue what the younger Elric was planning but she felt her gut wrench at the thought of him releasing classified data no one – much less Ed – was suppose to know!

Like how she sometimes inhaled his shirts when she cleaned up his room.

Or how she kept a picture of him on her dresser, framed next to a picture of Alphonse and Paninya to dissuade suspicion.

Or how she sometimes awoke at night in a sweaty fever although she was pretty sure even Al wouldn't be able to figure that one out...

"Al," she began warningly, "I've got some dirt on you, too, that I wouldn't mind telling Mei here." She was pleased by the look of horror on his face. She smiled, skipping to a puzzled Mei and resting two hands firmly on her shoulders from behind. "Wouldn't you just love to hear a couple of nice baby stories from Al, Mei?"

Mei's eyes lit up like fireworks. "Alphonse-sama when he was a baby?" she asked, eagerly.

"Yup. Chubby, cute, and such a hand-full," she smirked at the younger Elric's pale face.

"Okay! Okay! I won't tell him!" Alphonse pleaded, hand outstretched to stop her from spilling out things from his childhood – from when he knew he was seriously a goody-two-shoe and frightened of everything bad unlike Ed or Winry. "I was just playing around, Winry, no need to get so pushy..."

Winry patted Mei on her shoulder. "When he's ready he'll tell you," Winry sincerely told her, satisfied by her win as she walked back into the kitchen with a smug stretch of her hands over her head.

Ed, meanwhile, only scowled heavier.

"What the hell were you gonna' tell me?" Ed demanded, up to his head with the whole none-too-subtle mystery crap they were pulling on him. Didn't he just say he detested mystery?

"Sorry, brother, maybe she'll tell you when she's ready."

"AL! That's not funny!"

"It wasn't meant to be funny..." the boy mumbled back, earning a growl of impatience from Ed.

Pinako puffed out rings of smoke, fondly saying: "Ah, it's great to have the family back together," while Edward tried to shake the answers out of Alphonse and Al just calmly tried to continue eating with his brother breathing down his neck.