The Golden Alchemist (An FMA Fanfic)

Chapter 10

I go upstairs to gather my things. Then a thought crossed my mind. Where am I going to go? I can't go back home, I mean unless I want to be yelled and questioned by Roy and kept under survaliance so I don't run out again. And when I say 'survaliance,' I mean actual survaliance; I would have someone standing outside my door 24/7. I know how his mind works... Sometimes. Perhaps I'll by those books I was thinking about earlier. I grab my Alchemy book and open the first page and look at my picture of Ara. I never thought my picture of Ara would have that much of importance to me.

I push the thought aside and put it in my bag, along with everything else. Aralyn. What had I turned her into? And how did Roy seem as if he knew what I was doing? Had he seen it before- but how would he? It's forbidden. So many questions that I can't answer. I shake my head. I can't be thinking of these kind of things! I get side tracked so easily... I walk down the steps with my bag in hand. When I was at the last step, Pinako stopped me, "You know, it'll take a while for you to be 100% back to normal."

I look at her blankly, "How long?"

"About a year and a half," she replies.

"I'll do it in a month and a half," I state simply, only because I knew I could. She looked shocked and then chuckled a bit. "What?" I ask curiously.

"Nothing. It's just that Edward said something very simular when we had done his auto mail." I scoff at her comment. There's no way Ed and I are alike. Without another word, she walks away. I start walking towards the door and I notice how weird it felt to have this leg. It's definitely going to take some getting used to...

Again, that question popped into my head. Where am I going? I sigh and turn back to go find Winry. Thankfully, it didn't take long, though. She was in the room to my right. So I stop her by asking, "Winry?"

She looks up from what she was doing in response. I continue, "Do you know of any good places I could buy books?" She responds with curiosity, "What kind of books?"

"Alchemy books," I state simply. She looks suspicious for a short second, but that look is replaced with a friendly smile, "Ed and Al have tons of alchemy books. I'm sure if I ask them, they'll let you borrow some." I look at her just as I did with Pinako earlier-with shock and awe. Winry continues, "That way, we'll have to meet again so you can return them."

I manage a smile, "Sounds great." She walks out of the room, asking Ed and Al, I'm assuming. I just stay where I'm at, not really wanting to know the answer. Why does she trust me? I literally just showed up at her door asking for a leg, stayed in her house, and avoid reasonable questions. I'd be suspicious of me, and I certainly wouldn't trust me if I were her.

I'm not saying I'm untrustworthy, but if I were in her place... Well, I don't really trust anyone to begin with-including Roy. Not with everything, anyway. My point being, I don't know why she'd trust me with anything.

I hear yelling from the room Winry walked into. A moment later, she comes out saying, "They'll be happy to lend you some books!" I raise an eyebrow as she leads me outside. As we're walking, I ask her the question I was thinking of earlier, "Winry, why do you trust me?"

She looks back. "You don't exactly seem like a criminal," she states jokingly. She laughs a little and I join her. That's a good enough answer for me to believe, I guess.

After a while, we are in front of a different house. I look questionably at the house, than at Winry as she simply just walks right in. She looks back to see if I was following, which I was. She leads me to a room full of books and gestures to them, while saying in her usual happy tone, "You can choose from these." I look at her thankfully and start searching through a small pile and find some that look interesting.

I ended up taking ten books after searching through the piles. "Thank you very much," I say sincerely to Winry. She smiles and gives a slight nod in response. She's really upbeat, isn't she? We begin to walk back, and when we get to the road I say, "Well, I'd better get going. Winry looks over, "Are you going back to Central?" I answer honestly, "I don't know." She looks at me, obviously wanting some answers. "I ran away." At least I'm being truthful, here.

"Oh," she says quietly. "Why don't you just go back and explain why you ran away?" she suggests. I shake my head, while looking at the now setting sun, "I don't really want to go back." It's silent for a moment before Winry saying, "Well, at least let us feed you dinner." I look at her and I could tell that she wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer. So, I don't object and just walk back with her.

I sigh and ask under my breath, "Why are you so nice?" I mean it, too. Again, to her, I'm just some random stranger... I didn't mean for her to hear that, but I guess she does, because I hear her giggle a bit. I shift my gaze towards her and see her shrug.

When we get back to the house, I help set the table. If someone's giving me food, I have to thank them somehow, even if it's in advance. As I place the last plate down, Pinako says, "Thank you for helping, Kate. You didn't have to." I look over to her and reply, "It's the least I can do. You're feeding me and," I gesture to my leg, "you gave me this!" Pinako just smirks and shakes her head as she returns to the kitchen.

Since Pinako obviously doesn't need my help putting food on the plates, I start reading some of the boys' books that I had taken. But as soon as I open the cover, I hear metal hitting the floorboards. Must be Ed or Al... My suspicions are confirmed as I hear Ed ask, rather rudely, "What is she still doing here?" I hear a smacking sound-Winry smacking him upside the head? Man, I can't believe I missed that!

Winry replies, "Kate's staying for dinner. Gotta problem with that?" I think Al said something, too. but I can't make out what it was. Other than that, I don't hear anything. So you know what that means? I get to read!

I get about half way through the book before Winry beckons me to the table. So I get up and sit next to her at the table to eat food. Pinako sits on the other side of her. Across from Pinako is Ed, sitting across from Winry is Al, and an empty chair across from me. I look down to see... Stew! Pinako made stew! It smells delicious. This is the one thing that milk tastes good in. Oh, how I love my stew.

As we begin eating, I notice that Al isn't eating again. In fact, I haven't seen him eat the three days that I've been here. And why does he wear that armor all the time? It's not like a kid could fit in that...

A/N: Again, this is a short chapter. I didn't really know what to write for this chapter, but I managed to write something. 😅 And just a reminder: Kate is ten at the time, so I'm trying to make it sound as if it's coming from a ten year old's P.O.V. Again, I apologize for the shortness. OOOH!! I almost forgot! For when she takes the state alchemist test (if she does) what weapon do you guys think she should make? And I'd prefer the suggestions for this to be a weapon-I can't say much more without spoiling some ideas.... soooo.
Bai~ and thanks for reading!
-Anna-Marie :))