Chapter 36

A Chapter by Keevan

"Grandma, I'm home!" Winry called when we entered her house in Resembool. The place was exactly the same as the last time I was there.

"You were gone an awful long time, missy!" Pinako snapped as she entered the room. "A month is way too long!"

"But I was learning so much about AutoMail designs and stuff, I kind of lost track of the time," Winry said in her defense. "Oh, and Edward's staying with us tonight."

She said Edward. She didn't mention Lucy.

"I think you forgot about Lucy, WInry," Pinako said. "Be polite!" Thank you, Pinako.

"Right, right," Winry mumbled. Edward immediately turned to me and said, "Lucy, c'mon, I wanna talk to you." I nodded and followed him out the door.

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"Spit it out," I said after ten minutes of walking. "What is it?" I had followed Edward down a dirt path. We finally stopped at a hill, and at the bottom of it, I saw that house.

"Edward, I don't want to be here," I said quietly. "Let's go back..."

"In a minute," Edward said, turning to me. "I want to ask you some questions."

"I told you already, spit it out!" I shouted at him, getting annoyed. I then clamped my hand over my mouth, a fear icy cold in my chest that the Bad Man heard me.

"He's not going to hurt you," Edward said calmly. "I'm here. Just tell me, what's your connection with that guy? Is he the reason you left Resembool last time?"

I sighed and sat down on the ground, crossing my legs.

"He's...he's my father," I said. "He's a very bad man. He killed my mother, molested my sister, and then he killed her, too. I'm pretty sure that's what he's going to do to me, once he gets his hands on me..."

"Awful, and I remember you telling me a little bit about that when we ran away from him the last time," Edward mumbled. "but he's not gonna get his hands on you, because I won't let him."

"E-Ed," I stammered, not believing that he just said that. He held out his gloved hand to me and said, "Come on, let's get back to Winry's before we miss dinner. I'm starving!"

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I didn't eat. Again.

I said I wasn't feeling well, and just sat outside on the porch with a cigarette, thinking about whether I should light it or not.

"I'm about to get into smoking more than a pack a day," I mumbled to myself. "Maybe I should lay off for a while..."

That's when the door opened, and I was greeted by a wet dog nose sniffing my cheek.

"Where'd you come from?" I asked the dog.

"He's ours," Winry said, sitting on the porch steps next to me. "His name's Den."

"I didn't know you had a dog," I said, patting his head. Den licked my cheek, then bounded into the yard. He started rolling around happily in the grass.

"Where's Ed?" I asked without thinking.

"Grandma's oiling his AutoMail, because it sounded a little squeaky at dinner," Winry replied. "Speaking of which, why don't you ever eat? Do you have an eating disorder?"

I'd never thought about that. Food was just...never appealing to me. I just ate whatever I thought looked good, but that was on rare occasions.

"Grandma thought you looked a little thin, so she kept some dinner for you if you want it," Winry said, pulling a plate of pork and rice from behind her. She handed it to me, and I said, "Thanks, but really, I'm not hungry."

"Could you just eat it to make Grandma feel good?" she asked. I looked at her, then sighed, giving up. I dug the fork into the rice and ate it, surprised at how good it tasted.

"This is good," I said, taking another bite. The pork was good, too. It wasn't long before the plate was completely empty.

"Glad you liked it," Winry said with a laugh. She took the plate and stood up, Den finally coming up the stairs and sitting by the door.

"I'm going to bed," Winry said. "so I'll see you tomorrow, Lucy." I nodded as she went inside.

Were we just....getting along?

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