FMA: Gilded (Kiss)
Eleventh chapter of Gilded! Today is apparently 'Ed/Winry day', because the pairing is associated with the number 503 and it's May 3rd. Coincidentally, this chapter is very shippy! I'll just say I planned it that way. *g*
First chapter/explanation of this fic can be found here, with links to later parts.
Title: Gilded
Prompt: Kiss
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist (manga/Brotherhood)
Word Count: 443.
Rating: PG
Summary: In which Al's family is determined to traumatize him.
Warnings: SPOILERS through to the end of the manga/Brotherhood.
Author's Notes/Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist and all associated characters, settings, etc., belong to Hiromu Arakawa-san. The only profit I make from this work of fiction is my own satisfaction and, possibly, the enjoyment of others.
“And put down at least twenty pounds of steel plating - honestly, where could that girl have run off to? She knew I was sending out the order today - did I already say how many cans of oil, Al?”
Al nodded, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he scribbled quickly to keep up with Pinako’s dictation. “Er, I think - yes, ten cans, Granny.”
“Hmmm. Best make it a round dozen, what with the rain we’ve been having lately.” Pinako tapped her pipe thoughtfully with one finger. “What else, what else… Ack! Winry said something about running low on washers - do you remember what size she said?”
Al looked up from his pad and pencil, face blank. “Um…”
Pinako snorted. “Never mind.” She padded up the stairs, Al trailing her sheepishly. “I thought we had some boxes of them upstairs - ah! In this closet, I think-”
Her voice broke off. Al glanced up from his notes at the now-open closet and dropped his pencil.
In the small, unlit upstairs closet, his brother and Winry were wrapped around each other. Winry’s arms encircled his brother’s neck, her face hidden by his hair; Ed’s own, as he stared at the two people staring at him, was skipping red and going straight to purple. Al made a small kind of squeak when he realized he had no idea where his brother’s hands were, and he promptly stopped looking.
There was a long silence.
Then Pinako, without so much as a word, slammed the closet door and turned on her heel. Al followed, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to erase that image from his mind. Honestly, he was happy for them, but there were some things you really did not want to think about your brother and best friend doing in dark closets.
“Well, if we’re short on washers this month, that girl will just have to go to East and buy them herself,” Pinako said complacently.
A distressed sound escaped Al’s throat.
“Or maybe I should have her and the bean both go, eh?” she went on, brows waggling.
I’m not thinking about it, I’m not thinking about it…
“It’s taken this long for him to make a move; they should at least get some time alone they don’t have to spend in closets.”
Al dropped all pretenses of composure and fled, leaving Pinako’s list fluttering to the ground in his wake. She shook her head as she bent to retrieve it. “Children these days, I don’t know what they’re teaching them - a storage closet of all things! When we’re right in the middle of all these empty fields and barns, too…”
TBC ( Part 12 - Letter)