My Turn to Protect You
By Bashfulglowfly
Edward Elric settled down into the comfortable padding of his desk chair and watched as his baby girl, Nina, sucked contentedly on her bottle. He looked up and on the other side of the desk was his brother, Alphonse, who was managing to keep his highly active son, Maes, entertained.
"Nina certainly likes her bottle." Said Alphonse.
"Yeah, I think I'll have to start on solid food before too long though." Replied Edward.
"Winry isn't producing enough milk?"
"Ah…Winry doesn't breast feed."
Alphonse blinked a bit on that but he recognized the look on his brother's face and decided that he wouldn't ask the natural follow-up question as to why Winry didn't breast feed. "So, what are you working on?"
Edward grasped the change of topic and ran with it "There's been a few older Alchemist kick the bucket recently and I've been asked to go through their papers and see if there's anything worthwhile looking into."
"The deaths aren't suspicious, are they?"
"No, most of them were geezers except for the one guy that decided to read a book and walk across a train track at the same time."
Alphonse winced. He knew what trains could do to a sheep or a cow. As a child, more than once, he and Edward had helped a local farmer clean up the aftermath of animal vs train, so he was fairly certain that cleaning the remains of a human hit by a train was even less pleasant.
"So, what will…"
The door to Edward's study slammed open startling the occupants in the room. Nina lost the nipple on her bottle and began to whimper. Alphonse saw the look of terror on Maes' face and turned to see what had frightened the boy.
Winry stood in the doorway.
Alphonse was startled at the look of sheer rage on her face. He half expected smoke to come out of her ears and flames emerge from her mouth. One hand was gripping the doorknob, and the other was fisted around what looked like a letter.
"Are you fucking Mustang?!"
Alphonse was startled at the amount of rage in Winry's question.
Maes hid his face in Alphonse's shoulder, and he could feel tears start to soak his shirt. The little boy's body shook with the force of his silent sobs. What the hell is going on here?
He looked at Edward. His brother's face had turned into a lifeless mask. He didn't recognize the quiet voice that answered Winry's demand.
"I haven't seen the Fuhrer in over a year. He didn't even come with Riza after Nina was born. At your request."
Winry shook the fisted letter at Edward. "Then why are you getting a letter from him?!" she shouted.
"Because I'm doing some work for the Government and the Fuhrer is keeping track of my progress."
Winry glared and threw the letter on the floor. She spun on one heel and slammed the door shut behind her as she left the room.
The two men didn't say a word as they comforted the two children.
Edward held Nina to his shoulder, her bottle forgotten on his desk. He stood and walked over the letter, carefully crouching down to pick it up.
As Edward walked back to the desk, Alphonse noticed something about his walk. "Brother, you're limping."
Edward sat down with a sigh. "I'm sure you'll understand when I say that I can't exactly ask Winry for repairs right now. And I don't have a reason to go on a trip and find someone else to do the repairs."
"Not to mention that she'd notice when you returned," Murmured Alphonse.
Edward didn't say a word but looked at his younger brother with dull golden eyes.
888888
Alphonse stayed with his brother for another few days. He could see the near constant state of anger Winry was in, but he didn't dare ask her why she was so angry. And he couldn't ask Pinako because the woman who had been a grandmother to him had passed away not long after Nina had been born.
It was his turn to protect his brother. Not to mention his beloved nephew and niece.
His stride was purposeful and his face set as he walked across the opulent office.
"Roy, Ed's in danger."