Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Veritas Hominum ❯ Hero ( Chapter 9 )

Hero

 

Ben snuck another glance at the blond man sitting across the table from him. Who was this guy, really? He'd grown up on Aunt Pinako and Winry's stories of Edward Elric, but this man hardly seemed to be the great “Full Metal Alchemist” he'd always heard of.

 

He knew that Winry and Ed had grown up together, and that he was the older brother of Alphonse Elric, the State Alchemist who came to visit occasionally, but the rest of the stories he'd heard were just too fantastic to be real. This Edward was absolutely nothing like the man in the stories.

 

He remembered when he was younger he'd ask Winry to tell him a story about the Elric brothers just to see her face light up while she told him about how Edward saved Lior, or his adventures searching for the Philosopher's Stone. He had especially liked the stories about how Edward would break the automail that Winry had built for him and then she'd hit him with her wrench.

 

Ben had been twelve when Winry apprenticed him as an automail engineer, but he'd been interested in it his whole life (not undue to the Rockbell's influence). He was fascinated with all parts of the process: designs for a particular person keeping in mind what they individually would need, building the automail from really high quality materials, everything! He enjoyed every part of it, save one.

 

Ben had watched grown men - soldiers even - cry like children at the intense pain of attachment, but this man with the bright golden eyes had done nothing but grunt and grit his teeth.

 

Maybe he really was the hero of his childhood.