Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Fullmetal Alchemist: Revised Version ❯ The House of the Waiting Family, part 1 ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: FMA? T'ain't mine to begin with. Otherwise, it would have been like THIS.

 

Additional Disclaimer: Any lyrics I post with my chapters aren't mine. I borrow them strictly for…uh…advertising purposes.

 

A/N: -pokes head out of the writer's burrow- Je regrette pour mon retard, mes amies! ;.;

 

By the way, Al-lovers, do not hate me for taking his suit-of-armor look away. I mean, if you really dig him for being a metal man and all. XD;

 

Just tell me you want him as a human, a kitty-lover, and think that there's nothing wrong about him being NOT involved with alchemy.

 

Interlude

 

Ed yawned and stepped off the train to stretch. “Finally. We're here.”

 

They were finally in Resembool, where he and Winry grew up, and nothing seemed to have changed six months prior to when they left. Even that dry grassy scent swept over him like a nostalgic song. It was great to be back, even though this was the place where the cows grazed…

 

He sighed.

 

But he wasn't bothered by anything. Nope, not after what he and Winry just found out. It was the reason why Ed was in such a good mood. Who would have thought that his and Winry's answer to their problem would be two towns away from their hometown? Dr. Marcoh's notes definitely won't go to waste with him. Now all he needed was to have his arm fixed, and go to the library at Central. Then he could finally get down to some serious business. He grinned, staring off into space with his hands on his hips. He could almost feel his own arm back where it used to be…

 

One small step for us, one giant leap for Edward Elric!

 

“Ed!”

 

He turned to see Armstrong with the luggage and over his shoulder, the excess luggage.

 

“Ed!” came Winry's muffled voice through the crate again, startling all the passersby.

 

He slapped his forehead.

 

“Winry, shut up!” Ed hissed to the crate. “You're supposed to be…not talking!”

 

“Ed, I want out! Now!” she demanded. Apparently, she didn't have too much fun with her fluffy company. “Do you know how dark it is in here? And on top of that, I smell like the sheep!”

 

“Not my fault!” he defended, throwing the Major an accusing glare.

 

“Come now, you two!” he boomed, undeterred by the arguing pair. “We must make haste for the road and continue our journey!”

 

Hefting luggage in one hand and with Winry's crate over his shoulder on the other, he strode in the direction of the exit, and paused at the gateway.

 

“…Hmmm…”

 

Ed gave him a long look from behind. “You don't know where to go…”

 

Fullmetal Alchemist

Chapter 9: The House of the Waiting Family

 

Sittin' here thinking about yesterday
About what we did and how we used to play
Just the thought of you brings a smile upon my face
That's how it makes me feel to see you everyday

- Mya

 

“All set!” declared a tiny old woman kneeling on the floor beside a customer.

 

He rubbed the kneecap of his prosthetic leg, bound together with leather. “Oh, this feels nice. As good a job as I expected from Dr. Pinako.”

 

“So how about it? You up to moving to automail?” she raised her brows.

 

“Wha?” the man laughed uneasily as he put his coat and hat back on. “You're joking, right? It might be handy, but isn't the post-surgery pain and rehabilitation process difficult?”

 

“You're pretty scared for someone your age.” Pinako told him evenly. “There was this punk kid who got a right arm and left leg of automail.”

 

He did a double take, but waved it off just as quickly as he'd started. “You don't say. I don't have that sort of courage though. Goodbye.”

 

The man left and headed back home downhill. The old woman sighed to herself as an afternoon breeze blew past the house. Content with the peace, she inserted her favorite wooden pipe into her mouth and lit it, taking the time to enjoy the tranquility of the weather. On the dry green grass lay the family dog, its fur of black and white. And it napped with its head resting on its left foreleg. Made of metal.

 

Suddenly, its head came up, sensing something(or rather someone) coming up the road. And it began to bark, catching Pinako's attention.

 

“Hm, what's wrong, Den?”

 

Two figures appeared on the horizon. One big, the other…

 

And the old woman grinned, her pipe between her teeth. She knew exactly who that one was.

 

“Oh, so they've come.” she lifted her head towards the house. “Al! Alphonse! We've got company!”

 

-sss-

 

“Hehe.” Ed chortled to himself, imagining the looks on their faces once they arrive.

 

“I guess it's been a while, huh?” Winry's muffled voice came from the crate again as they walked up the dirt road.

 

Ed's boots kicked up dust like they always used to, his suitcase over one shoulder. “Yeah…and nothing much has changed around here either.”

 

Armstrong inhaled, and sighed blissfully. “Mmm…clean air. Very good for the lungs.”

 

Everywhere, nothing but rolling hills of soft green grass that seemed to stretch on for miles round. And the clear blue sky accentuated that country feel. It all felt great. With the wind blowing in their faces, Ed and the Major set off for the little yellow house that stood on that lone hill up ahead. And even from this distance, he could make out the little old woman standing there on the grass, supposedly with a lit wooden pipe in her mouth. Pince-nez spectacles gleaming in the afternoon sunlight with eagerness for their most favored customer.

 

Ed couldn't help but smirk at the familiarity of the situation.

 

And as predicted, something shorter than the old woman bounded down the road, and the black-and-white dog came to greet them with a wag of its tail, paws hitting the ground with a strange rhythm as it approached: click-clack, click-clack.

 

The alchemist grinned, coat flowing in the wind. “Hey, Den.”

 

They finally reached the house, where their surrogate family stood waiting.

 

“Hey, Granny Pinako.” Ed greeted, showing his teeth. “We need your help again.”

 

They took several moments for introductions, and the old woman shook hands with the Major. “Nice to meet you. Oh!” she suddenly realized, sizing Armstrong up. “Ed certainly got smaller.”

 

“I DIDN'T GET SMALLER, YOU MICRO-MINI HAG!” he roared on reflex.

 

Pinako threw him a dirty look before taking something else in, and she furrowed her brows worriedly. “Wait. Where's Winry?”

 

“Hi, Granny.” the voice coming from the crate over Armstrong's shoulders was the old woman's answer, and her pipe nearly fell from her gaping mouth.

 

“Good grief! What's she doing in there?”

 

Ed put up a hand as a signal that he'd explain later.

 

“ED!”

 

He froze, and craned his neck to look behind him. Up on the balcony of the Rockbell home, a boy a year younger than him and Winry stood with his hands on his hips, glaring slightly from that height down at the sure-to-meet-his-doom alchemist. He was clad in a blue jumpsuit, complete with a red cap he was wearing backwards. His short, brown hair swayed in the afternoon breeze.

 

“You said you'd call before dropping in!” the boy called, friendly moss-green eyes fixed on the rest of the company. “I should take a wrench to you for breaking that promise!”

 

Ed cringed visibly.

 

“No, not that…” he mumbled to himself, praying for none.

 

“Hi, Al!”

 

Al's eyes popped out of its sockets looking at the sisterly figure he'd grown up with, standing in the grass, clad in that skirt-blouse-top ensemble. With just one leg.

 

His reaction after seeing that? Surprised. His reaction before? Shocked, when she came straight out of the wooden crate Armstrong had over his shoulders the entire time like a newly wound up toy. She was holding onto Ed's left arm for support, beaming up at him.

 

“Hey, look who got taller! You might have beaten Ed to it!” Winry joked cheerfully.

 

The beaten shrimp fumed. “We'll see about that!”

 

Al stared for a while, before breaking into joyous laughter. He knew he was going to be happy to see his “older siblings” again.

 

“Ahaha! Welcome home, guys!” he shouted happily from the balcony.

 

-sss-

 

“Holy crap, Ed.” Al muttered, breathlessly staring at the automail arm's designated port, empty and holding nothing. “What have you been doing with my automail?”

 

Said alchemist shrugged, sipping through a mug while he sat on the sofa cross-legged without his coat and jacket. “Sorry. It got busted up.”

 

Sitting in the living room, Winry finally had a chance to be out of the box. She'd been mad earlier when Ed and the Major left her with the luggage while they went to look for Dr. Marcoh. She was glad to be free again, walking around with a crutch that Pinako'd given her to help. She shifted it to the other side before moving to sit closer to Ed. Armstrong was out back chopping up firewood. The old woman had gone to find the measuring tape, leaving the three friends to talk among themselves.

 

“It's a long story, Al.” Winry helped, trying to smile. A not-to-be-taken-seriously story is what we need now though…

 

Frankly, they were thinking on the same level.

 

Al just rubbed his eyes with his wrist, brushing the cap off his head to scratch his scalp. “Seriously now. Just how were you using that one-of-a-kind arm I worked three straight sleepless nights for?”

 

Ed didn't have a word to say at first. For a moment, he felt sorry for Al. He knew he worked hard, and put his mind and skill hard into his automail's maintenance. If there was anything other than milk that Ed hated, it was getting, receiving help from people who weren't in any way directly involved with them and their little “fiasco”. He didn't know it, but Ed was just really considerate sometimes.

 

Still, he couldn't escape the inevitable when he simply said, “Got totally smashed into little pieces.”

 

The mechanic looked ready to die. Or kill.

 

“I can't believe you! Just for that, I'm charging double the expenses!”

 

Ed nearly coughed into his mug in shock. “What? Aw come on, Al! I didn't mean to break it, seriously!”

 

Randomly, an image of the greedy, revenue-hungry boss from the coal mine floated into Winry's mind.

 

“Seriously? Seriously!” Al ranted/whined, wrench waving dangerously in the air. “I haven't slept because of that arm! All because you wanted thicker plates! I don't know what on earth you two do, but if you keep doing this, I'm gonna quit!”

 

“You don't mean that, do you Al?” Winry asked worriedly. Would he really? Al gave up easily sometimes.

 

Something about the look she gave Al made him unsettled. Just a bit. No, he hadn't meant it.

 

“Besides, even if Ed's pretty…impulsive,” Winry struggled, smiling nervously, “he's really trying to take good care of his automail. So go easy on him, huh?”

 

Said alchemist's brow twitched at the word “impulsive”. That didn't sound very helpful at all.

 

But she convinced the young mechanic all the same, and Al sighed before dropping to the wooden floor to sit cross-legged in front of them. Readjusting his cap, he fixed his gaze on the pair, training his eyes on Ed's armless port before drifting over to Winry, and where her right leg used to be. He could see the metal core poking beneath that layer of plaster and clay; half her thigh was all there was. And he creased his brows with worry. What on earth are they doing?

 

“So…” he began anxiously, “what happened? What happened to Winry's leg?”

 

They exchanged quick glances before saying simultaneously, “We were both reckless.”

 

To Al's dismay, and he slapped his forehead.

 

“I don't believe that at all!” he cried. “Come on, you two! Just say it! You got into a big fight, right? Is that why you're both beaten up?”

 

Another quick exchange. Now that they thought of it, a “big fight” didn't sound all that harmful(or revealing for that matter), especially with the way their “little brother” worded it.

 

“…Yes!” they answered in unison.

 

Al gave them a queer look. “…Guys, the chorus is…really scaring me now.”

 

-sss-

 

“So, you want to go to Central as soon as possible to get the files on the Philosopher's Stone?”

 

Ed nodded his answer. “Yeah, I want this done pronto.”

 

Pinako propped his feet on a cushioned footrest to inspect the length, and she raised a short, thin eyebrow. “Right, it's not just the arm. Your leg's going to need some adjusting.”

 

Winry couldn't help but stare at the difference between Ed's automail leg and his real one. That definitely meant he was well on his way to becoming taller. Taller than her, she hoped secretly.

 

Ed followed her gaze and smirked. “Hah! What did I tell you, Winry? I got taller myself!”

 

She smiled, giving him a pointed look. “But that's a pretty small achievement, don't you think?”

 

Her words got the expected response, and he fumed.

 

“It proves I won't be called shrimp for long! And once I get there, you're gonna have to look up to me!”

 

I already do that, actually… Winry thought to herself sheepishly.

 

And Al, of course, had to get a word in himself. “Besides, last time we measured you, you were only at -bleep- centimeters, right?”

 

Cricket chirp.

 

It only took Pinako pushing Ed's legs down to keep him from lunging at her grandson, his remaining arm flailing madly in the air, a colorful string of curses spilling from his mouth. Some of it actually made the other two teenagers flush. Or rather, one did. The other just staaaaaaared.

 

“The leg's fine because we still have the base.” Pinako stated, tapping his kneecap with her pipe. “But we'll have to start from scratch with the arm.”

 

Ed frowned. “Oh. So that would take around a week, then.”

 

Small eyes turned to the ceiling while drawing from her pipe. After a few moments of contemplation, Pinako returned her gaze to him with a crafty smile.

 

“Don't underestimate me. It'll be three days.”

 

The boy smiled broadly. Trust Pinako Rockbell to be top-notch.

 

Putting their work gloves on, Pinako and Al set to their tasks. The old woman, with a flick of the wrist, removed Ed's leg and handed it to Al, replacing it with another one simply meant for training.

 

“Anyway,” Pinako went on, “just put up with using this spare for three days.”

 

“Yeah.” Ed nodded, getting up from the sofa to adjust himself to the leg. Stiffly, he used a nearby cabinet to maintain his balance.

 

“How is it?” Winry asked.

 

“It's pretty hard to walk with a leg I'm not used to.” he answered.

 

Al fixed his hat on his head again, Ed's leg over his left shoulder as he counted from his fingers.

 

“Let's see. After carving, there's assembling, adjusting, connecting and finishing…” he mumbled under his breath. “I'll be up all night then.”

 

Winry heard him, and smiled anyway. “Thanks for the help, Al.”

 

He turned, returning it just as happily. “Well, you guys are pretty busy this time, so I think I should do my share of work doing this, don't you think?”

 

Ed peered over his shoulder at the pair. “I bet Al's used to the late nights anyway.”

 

“And those nights were spent on your arm.” the mechanic countered. “So now, instead of an overnighter, I'm having three nights of no sleep while working on the automail that you so carelessly wrecked.”

 

Ed was sorely tempted to get into another one of their little wrestling matches just for the hell of it. Al's height advantage, coupled with his attitude, was really beginning to get to him. Still, he knew Al was just being honest. And Ed knew he did work hard for the pair. And if it had been anyone else, he couldn't trust them the way he trusted the Rockbells when it came to automail.

 

Letting up, the alchemist sighed and headed for the door. “Anyway, I'm going out.”

 

Al blew on a hair strand near his forehead and turned. “I'll get on it. Winry, you wanna come?”

 

She shook her head. “Nah. I think I'll go outside too.”

 

“Okay. Call if you need something.” Al offered before making his way up the stairs.

 

Winry watched him go before getting up from the sofa herself and following her best friend out the door.

 

End of Chapter 9…NOT

 

A/N: I FINALLY UPDATED! And half-finished, may I add! Sorry XP But I did want to let you guys know that I'm not dead. LOL

 

I promise, the second half will be up soon.