The Elric Sister: Those Golden Eyes

Chapter 9: Be Thou For The People

~Continuing Flashback~
Al aged 10, Ed and Van aged 12.
Al POV:
Winry runs around the mechanics store getting us to buy her things, of course. Ed's been awfully distracted lately. Van looks ticked off that Winry is making us buy her things with her hard earned cash. I see Van sign something at Winry but Winry doesn't understand. I then see what Van signed.

'Keep making me spend all my money, I swear I'll beat the living shit out of you or have you forgotten about last time? Don't get me wrong Winry, you're like my sister and I love you but try me, I dare you. I won't let you boss me around like Ed does, got that?' I nervously translate for Van and Winry smiles nervously while scratching the back of her neck, she goes over to Ed and makes him buy her stuff instead. I told you Van has a short temper.

I'll never forget the time that Van beat Winry up. It was when mom had died, Winry was nagging Van until Van was on top of Winry...punching her. Ed and I had to pull her off, she was in a lot of trouble with aunt Pinako. But aunt Pinako ended up pulling Van into a hug while Van cried in her arms about our mothers death. There was one other time but I wouldn't exactly call it beating her up. Winry was digging through Vans things, Van was about 10 and a half at the time...when she could still talk... Anyway Winry pulled something out of Van's bag, it was a keepsake from our mother. She was tinkering with it, trying to find out what makes it tick. She pulled it apart bit by bit, thinking that she could easily put it back together. But it turned out it was to complicated, even for Winry. I remember her, desperately trying to put it back together before Van got home from visiting our mothers grave. Winry gave up and was pacing back and forth through the room trying to think of a plan, the locket that mom had given Van was on the coffee table when suddenly Van burst through the door. She looked somewhat happy but then she looked at the table, the necklace had been taken apart bit by bit and not put back together. She walked over to Winry.

"Did you do this?" her bangs were covering her eyes (she can talk rn because this is before she lost her voice.) Winry slowly nods her head. Van kicks the back of Winry's legs making her fall to the ground, landing on her knees then slaps Winry. She grabbed the loose ends of the trinket and ran out the door. She later apologized for her behaviour but I never saw that locket again. I personally think that was worse then the beating she got from Van.

When I snap back to reality I see a car pull up to the curb. A soldier comes out to inform Van and Ed that Mustang wants to see them.

Van POV:
"There's a mission?" Edward asks Mustang.

Hawkeye is in the room, before we leave I run to her and hug her, giving her my brightest smile and waving as I run out of the building.

'So, we have to inspect the coal mines?' Ed nods at my question. We get into a car that drives us there. Winry seemed pretty upset when we left, but I'll push that thought aside for now. When we arrive, everyone seems so shocked that there's visitors. Everything here is extremely expensive including our hotel room. We lower the price by transmuting things for people. They're all so happy until Ed brings up the fact that he's a State Alchemist. He was kicked out on the spot. They don't know I'm a State Alchemist, but I wouldn't really care if they did. I'll say it loud and proud (pun intended). I look at Al.

'Im going for a walk, let Ed know that I left.' Al agrees and I leave the hotel.

I wonder why Winry has been acting like that lately, it's a little odd. I smile mischievously. Maybe she's still scared of me, hey, at least she's not throwing wrenches at my head when we go to visit. She knows that Ed can't fight back but I sure as hell can. I miss her a lot sometimes, maybe she feels the same way and that's why she's so sad when we leave. I begin to walk back to the hotel and I see that it's completely trashed, Ed is gone and Al uncovers himself from under a pile of rouble. I ask what happened and he explains that Ed left with a man from the military named lieutenant Yoki and a woman named Lyra destroyed their hotel.

Maybe I should fix it but then again maybe Ed has a plan...or not. I'm just gonna wait and see how this plays out. So I do and Ed did, indeed, have a plan. I watch the plan unfold from the side lines. Nice move. Ed made fake gold and gave it to Yoki.

"Alchemists be thou for the people." those words echoe in my head and I now understand what that means.

He fixed the hotel, signed the contract for the town back over to the villagers and off we went. We sent our report to Central for Mustang.

~End of flashback~
3 years later:
Al aged 14, Ed and Van aged 15.
Van POV:
As Al and I sit in the back seat with Ed, listening to him chatter about The Fullmetal alchemist, we both sweatdrop. This the third cab we've had to take because of Ed. I'm just as short as him, I don't see why he's complaining so much.

The cab driver says that he heard that The Fullmetal alchemist is pretty short. Here we go again. Ed chases the man through the desert while Al and I chase after him.

"Brother! If you keep doing this, we'll never make it to Liore!" Al yells at him.

I catch up to Ed and whack him on the head.