Animal Person…?
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. That belongs to Hiromu Arakawa and whoever else is responsible for its creation and distribution.
"Here, Ed! C'mon, hold it, it won't bite!"
Winry Rockbell cooed at the little ball of fluff in her arms. The gray kitten mewled loudly, swiping at her face with a soft paw. She smiled widely and offered the cat to the short blond alchemist, turning the kitten so that its blue eyes faced the Fullmetal Alchemist.
Edward Elric sighed. "Win, you know I don't like cats," he spoke irritably, taking one step backwards. It wasn't that Edward didn't like cats – he just didn't have time for a pet, and had no interest in having a furry companion. Alphonse Elric, however, thought otherwise.
"Aww, look at him, big brother!" If Alphonse was still capable of human expressions, his eyes would have been starry and there would have been a gigantic smile plastered on his face. "Isn't he just the cutest thing?" One big finger came down to tickle the kitten's belly, and the creature purred, kicking its legs upwards. Alphonse nearly swooned.
"Ed! How can you be so heartless?" Winry frowned at her friend, noticing how the alchemist was fidgeting impatiently. Edward rolled his eyes.
"Please! It's just a cat!" he spoke sharply, glancing at the kitten for a moment before looking away. Alphonse picked up the cat, cradling it in his metal arms. The kitten mewed, the abrupt change from warm flesh to cold metal obviously startling it. Alphonse scratched the kitten behind the ears, and its complaints died down into rumbling purrs.
"It's not just a cat!" his brother protested. "It's a kitten, big brother, and it's all alone! It wouldn't be fair to leave him here by himself!"
"Cats survive by themselves all the time," Edward retorted. "This one will, too. You know you can't keep it, Al." That was what this entire conversation was leading up to, after all – it was inevitable that Alphonse would ask to keep the cat.
"I know I can't." Alphonse sounded sad. "But Winry and granny can!" He turned to the mechanic, the kitten still resting in the crook of his metal arm. Winry nodded, picking up the cat and hugging it close.
"Of course!" she reassured the younger Elric brother. "He'll be welcome here. I'm sure Den and this little guy will bond instantly." She tickled the kitten under its chin, and it purred again.
"If you both are done with embarrassing yourselves…" Edward spoke, looking annoyed. "We came here for a reason, remember?" He waved his right arm in the air – wires were sticking out of it, and the fingers of the arm were motionless, flopping around as he moved the whole arm. Winry raised her gaze from the cat, seeing Edward's arm.
"Here, Al, hold him." She thrust the cat at Alphonse, turning to glower at Edward. "It's been only two weeks since I last fitted you with new auto-mail!" She was sorely tempted to hit him with her wrench again, but she didn't have it with her for once. "And now you come here and demand for me to make you a new arm? The least you could do is tell me what you and Al are up to!"
Edward looked sullen. "Just give me a new arm, already. Then we can get out of here."
"Yes, because it's such a pain for the great Fullmetal Alchemist to drag his butt out to Resembool to have his auto-mail fixed," she snapped, turning and disappearing into the house. Alphonse sighed, the gray kitten asleep in his arms.
"You sure do have a knack for annoying Winry, brother."
"Fetch, Den!" She pulled her arm back and threw the stick as far as she could. Den pelted after the object, skidding to a stop as it hit the ground. He bent his head and sniffed the stick curiously, his tail wagging slightly. Winry sighed, leaning back to transfer her weight onto her palms – she had been sitting on the grass with her legs folded, but she let them stretch out in front of her now. Her hands were resting on the ground behind her.
"Fetch, Den!" She upped her voice an octave, making it squeaky. The black dog stiffened at the sound, whipping around to stare at her. Winry laughed, glancing to her right – Edward was sitting on the grass, too, with Alphonse standing next to him. The blond alchemist was chewing a piece of grass. He looked oddly at peace for someone who wasn't content sitting around and doing nothing.
"Isn't it obvious that he's not going to get that stick?" The piece of grass dropped from Edward's lips as he spoke, his voice slightly tinged with sarcasm. "He's not that stupid, Winry, give him some credit."
She bristled. "Den is a great fetcher! I guess he's just feeling tired today." She beckoned to the dog, and he trotted over to her side. She rubbed his muzzle and scratched him between the ears as Den settled down next to her.
"Dogs are great companions," Winry smiled, draping an arm around Den. The dog looked up at her, tail wagging. Alphonse nodded his head, but Edward made a scornful sound.
"What?" She glared at him. "You like Den, too!"
"Den's different," he shrugged. "He's as much of a friend as you are. But dogs in general…" He made a face. "They slobber all over you, they excrete everywhere, they're just nuisances."
"Someone's not much of an animal lover," she commented. Alphonse laughed.
"Yeah, brother isn't too fond of animals. When we were visiting Shou Tucker's house for research, his daughter's dog kept jumping on him. Remember Alexander, Ed?"
"Oh, yeah." His face twisted. "That was… unpleasant."
"A little part of you enjoyed it, though," Alphonse spoke, sitting down next to his brother with a great amount of clanking. Edward sighed.
"Yeah. He was okay, too."
"So you're not a dog person, neither are you a cat person." Winry frowned, laying her head on Den's back. "We need to find the perfect animal for you," she declared, nodding decisively. "Everyone likes some animal or the other. We'll just have to show you lots of animals until you find one you like."
Edward stared at her. "So what, you're going to try and show me a tiger, too?" His mouth twitched slightly at Winry's annoyed look. "Kidding," he sighed, shaking his head. "But seriously, Winry. There's no time for all of this. Al and I are on a mission, and you have your customers to attend to."
"You're just making excuses! Trust me, there is definitely an animal out there for you."
"You're wasting your time," he grumbled. "In any case, Al and I are heading out tomorrow morning. So there's no time to go look for a 'special animal'," he made quotation marks with his fingers as he spoke the appropriate phrase, "for me."
Winry huffed. "Just you wait," she retorted, a smug smile crossing her face. "You guys always come back here, sooner or later."
"… you came to visit us in Central?" Edward looked puzzled and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Why?"
"Do I need to have a reason?" Winry retorted, folding her arms across her chest. "I just felt like it! And Mr. Garfiel let me take a couple of weeks off. You should be grateful that I came all the way out to Central to see you guys!"
"We are grateful, Winry!" Alphonse hastily intervened. "Big brother is just… surprised."
"Yeah, surprised," Edward muttered, shaking his head slightly. "Why do I feel that you have an ulterior motive behind all of this?"
"Of course I don't!" She smiled brightly, and Alphonse would have smiled if he could.
"Oh yes, there is definitely something up," the Fullmetal Alchemist spoke. "You do not smile like that unless something is up."
"Shut up, Ed! Anyway, I wanted to visit the Armstrong stables…"
"So you do have an ulterior motive." Edward sighed. "You're not still going on about that 'perfect animal' thing, are you? Winry, it's so childish."
"It's not childish!" she replied hurriedly, unwilling to admit that in reality, the concept was very childish. "Everyone needs one particular type of animal to love. I think horses might work for you!"
"What makes you think that?"
"I… I don't know! But it's worth a shot, come on, Ed…"
"… oh, fine."
"No. Just no."
"Come on, Ed! They're harmless, really!"
"Are you joking? That one over there looks like it wants to kill me. Just look at it! It's staring at me!"
"It's just surprised to see someone new in the stables! Look, it's staring at me, too!"
Catherine Elle Armstrong watched the two friends bicker with an odd expression on her face. "I thought… you wanted to come see the horses?" she asked quietly.
"We did!" Winry responded immediately, while Edward scowled.
"No, she did," he grumbled, but he followed when Catherine moved towards one particular stall, stroking the muzzle of a magnificent chestnut mare.
"This is Amber Lightning," she spoke proudly, as the mare snorted into her hair. "Isn't she a beauty?"
Winry smiled widely. "She's lovely!" She put out a hand and gently let it rest on Amber Lightning's muzzle. The horse snorted again, but didn't move as Winry cautiously petted its nose. Edward looked bored.
"Can we leave now?" he snapped. Winry sighed, withdrawing her hand.
"Well, I guess horses aren't for you, either," she grumbled, shaking her head. "I'm really sorry, Catherine. Thanks for showing us around, in any case."
"It's not a problem," the youngest member of the Armstrong members replied, watching the two exit the stables, still arguing.
"How about… a camel?"
"… are you serious? What do you think I am, a nine-year-old? A camel! Who could ever like a camel, anyway?"
"Okay, fine, not a camel. How about… a fish?"
"No! You eat fish, you can't like fish when they're alive."
"Stop commenting! Just say yes or no! Okay, then how about a turtle?"
"No."
"A bird? Peacocks are pretty…"
"No."
"A cow?"
"No! Definitely not!"
"A rat? It's almost as small as you are!"
"DON'T CALL ME SMALL!"
Winry sighed, throwing away the last picture. "I give up!" she cried, throwing her hands up in frustration. "You, Edward Elric, are completely heartless! How can you not like any animal at all? It's impossible!"
"It isn't impossible," he retorted, lounging on the couch at the Rockbell residence. Alphonse was sitting at the table, watching the two with an air of smugness. They had come back to have Edward's auto-mail fixed – again – and Winry had taken the opportunity to swamp him in pictures of different animals – some of which he had never even seen before.
"Some people just don't like animals," he continued, turning so that he was facing the ceiling. "We're not all like you, Winry. We don't coo over everything."
"Take that back!" She flung the pictures that were heaped next to her at him. Edward batted them away, grinning.
"You're such a girl, Win," he chuckled, sitting up. She rolled her eyes, getting up from the floor.
"How kind of you to notice," she replied sarcastically, walking over to him and shoving him lightly.
"You fixed my auto-mail three days ago," he complained, raising his right arm in the air and inspecting the palm. "So why am I still here?"
"We're leaving tomorrow morning, brother." Alphonse sounded resigned to his brother's complaints. "You know that. And it doesn't hurt to take a break once in a while."
"Yes, it does!" Edward snapped, waving his arm in the air. "We need to find the Stone quickly, Al! Before I turn sixteen!"
Winry was quiet. Alphonse stared at his brother in puzzlement.
"Why sixteen, brother?"
"Because…" He fell silent. Because when he turned sixteen, he would be sent out to the battlefield, to be used as a human weapon. He sighed, lying back down and covering his face with one arm.
"Because…?" Winry prompted him.
"Forget it." His voice was sullen. "You made us stay here three extra days, Winry, just so you could bombard me with pictures of animals. That's just stupid."
"Shut up," she grumbled, letting her head rest on the couch armrest. "It's not my fault that it's impossible to find the perfect animal for you."
"You should be concentrating on your apprenticeship instead of worrying about finding the perfect animal for me," he groused.
"I am concentrating on my apprenticeship," Winry protested, raising her head. "I meant what I said – I'll try and help you, so your road isn't so hard."
Edward sighed. "You're always trying to help, Win," he grumbled. "That's the problem half of the time."
"Shut up." She hit him lightly on the head, exhaling softly.
"You know," Edward spoke after a while, "I don't think it matters if I have a special animal for myself or not. As long as I'm with the people I love – nothing else matters."
Winry was silent for a moment. She'd wanted to find something that Edward identified with. He always seemed so lonely, even with his brother for company. Not that it bothered him, of course – but it bothered her.
But as she heard his words, she knew he was right. It didn't matter if Edward wasn't an animal person. He was a people person.
AN: That ending was a little weak… and both Edward and Winry are probably atrociously out of character. But well, I just wanted to do this… I dunno why. (: I hope someone enjoys it, in any case! I liked writing it. ^^