"Yeah," Naomi grinned. "People are amazing. Especially Doctors. Winry--" She turned to the blonde, now being lifted onto a chair by Al, "--you were amazing!" Winry giggled. "Thanks Nao." Ed was watching me bathe the baby, a look of unadultarated fondness in his eyes. "Naomi," Winry said finally. I looked at her. "Can I talk to you?" I nodded, and helped her sit outside the room. I closed the door and sat down.
"What is it?" I asked, titling my head to the side. She paused. "I forced open Ed's watch." I furrowed my brows and looked at my knees. "Tell me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't you be telling this to Ed? And what do you mean by forced?" Winry swallowed. "He sealed it shut with Alchemy. Naomi..." Winry looked at me, her eyes filled with sadness.
"He engraved the day they burned down his house into the watch." The minute the words left her mouth I paled. "He..." Winry nodded. She clutched her apron. "I don't know why," She said as I glared at the floor. "You'll have to ask him." I furrowed my brows and frowned.
"Right." I said, getting up. I opened the door. "Ed! I need to talk to you." I said fiercely. Ed gulped, but complied. We walked into the kitchen and Ed sat down on the table, me following suit.
xxx
EDWARD
"So," I mused, "What's up?" Naomi looked at me through silver eyes, alight with the burning light of the lamp above up. "Winry opened your watch. She saw the date, and told me..." I immediately paled. "Shit, Winry!" I cursed, clutching the table. "Even Al doesn't know bout it!" I hissed.
"Why?" Naomi whimpered, voice barely above a whisper. "I didn't want to forget it. I needed something physical to hold onto." I scoffed. "Pretty pathetic huh?" "No," Her stern voice made me look at her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Not at all, it just makes you human." I turned away from her and hummed. "Why are you crying?" She hiccoughed. "You never do," She said. "So someone has to."
I looked back at her with wide eyes. I suddenly felt my cheeks grow increasingly hot, but I couldn't look away from her. She wiped the tears away and jumped up. "Let's go back. I don't think Winry will want to go back after seeing that." I frowned. "What do you mean?" She simply smiled, leading me by the hand.
My real hand.
xxx
Turns out Winry really didn't want to go back, instead she became Gabriel's apprentice: the man who made Naomi's arm. We had to take a longer trip to the Valley, and almost missed our train.
"You better have some new tricks up your sleeve for when we come back!" Naomi yelled, waving at Winry. "You bet!" "Don't forget to call Granny!" I yelled. "Like you're one to talk!" She cursed.
Once on the train, Naomi asked: "What was the first thing you learned as Alchemists?" So, Al and I recounted our first lesson with Izumi Curtis.
When we finished, Naomi giggled. Those giggles turned into full-on-laughter. "Oh my god!" She howled, wiping away tears of mirth. "That's amazing! I can't believe that!" She cackled. "She sounds amazing!" Through clenched teeth and said "Yeah, amazingly terrifying." Naomi sighed.
Miracle of Rush Valley & Izumi's Lesson
Start from the beginning
