Stand by You

VIII

After spending another hellish day on the train, we finally arrived at Resembool. I was the first one to leap out of the train and dance across the fields, arm out, breathing in the fresh air. "It must be nice being back in Resembool," Alphonse laughed as Major Armstrong unloaded him from the train.

"The nostalgia," I sighed. We walked down an all-to-familiar dirt path up to a house. In front of the house, you could see a wooden board with the word AUTOMAIL painted on. Den, the Rockbell's dog, barked at seeing us, as he wasn't welcome to new guests. Granny Pinako came out to see what all the commotion was about. Seeing Edward, she turned her head up and yelled at the floor above her. "Winry! Winry!" She shouted. "Our best customer is here!"

"Yo, Granny, " Edward waved at her.

"We're home!" Alphonse yelled.

"My word, what have you gotten into?" She asked, examining Edward's missing limb.

"A lot has happened," Edward laughed. "Can you set us up again?"

Armstrong put the crate down and held out his hand to shake it. "This is Major Armstrong," Edward introduced as Granny Pinako and him shook hands.

"Pinako Rockbell," she said.

When she caught sight of me, her jaw dropped. "Evelyn? Evelyn Joyce? Is that you?" She asked.

"Yup," I laughed, nodding.

"Now, this really is a surprise! Are you tagging along with their journey?"

"No, I'm just their bodyguard."

Granny  Pinako smiled and nodded respectfully at me before turning back to Edward. "You know, I didn't see you for a while Ed, and you've gone and grown smaller," she commented.

Edward popped a vein at being called small. "Hey!" He growled through gritted teeth. "Usually in this situation, you say 'grown bigger'!"

"If you had grown bigger, I would have said it," she fired back, glasses gleaming.

"What was that, you minimum hag?" Edward shouted.

A spinning wrench fly from the sky and I ducked, avoiding it as it hit Edward square on the forehead. Perfect timing. Winry appeared on the balcany. "I told you, when you come back for maintenance, call first!" She reminded.

"Winry, are you trying to kill me?" He shouted.

She laughed, "Welcome ba--" her jaw dropped at the site of my. "EVELYN, YOU'RE HERE?!" She screeched.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Guess it really did turn out to be a surprise."

*~*~*~*~*~

Edward laid out the remains of his automail that he picked up after the fight with Scar. "Oh, no!" Winry wailed, gingerly picking up some of the pieces and cradling them.

"Sorry, it got a bit smashed up," Edward apologized sheepishly as he took a sip from his cup.

"A little smashed up Ed, a little?! Ed, don't you see what you've done to my beautiful creation that I slaved over?!"

"It's the same thing, only in smaller pieces!"

Angry at Edward's calm reaction, she punched him across the cheek. Glancing at Alphonse, she sneered, "Don't tell me-are you a little smashed up as well? What sort of trouble you two been up to?"

Alphonse refused to respond so she gave him a good swift kick and knocked him out of the crate he was in. "Geez, all you ever do is worry me," she scoffed, putting her hands on her hips.