Fullmetal Alchemist and the Flight of the Anti-Social Butterfly

Chapter 5: A Water Blast From The Past

      DeAnna stayed outdoors for awhile longer as her butterfly friends were all migrating for the day.  As she looked at her Carnations, she saw that some looked a little dry.  She exclaimed, "Oh, no!  My poor flowers.  Here, I will feed you as well."  Then her antennas started to become light blue since her use of alchemy was stored there.  Just as the energy stored up enough power, she created a water blast which gave all of her flowers a bit of water in one shot.  Edward came outside to check up on her when he witnessed her unique use of alchemy.   He called out, "DeAnna!  You never told me you could use alchemy.  That was beautiful!"  DeAnna waved to Edward and smiled.  Then Edward thought to himself, "That's strange.  She is starting to like me.  Maybe she is secretly showing signs of love towards me, but who knows?   I am her trainer and friend, but I also sworn to take care of her too."   Edward asked her, "What do you want for dinner?"  DeAnna answered, "I thought you and Alphonse were making soup?"  Then Edward scratched his head as he smiled, "Of course we are. I have a big bowl of chicken and rice soup waiting just for you."  DeAnna rushed inside as her and the Elric brothers decided to eat.   Edward noticed DeAnna's lack of table manners because she was lowering her head too low as she shoveled her spoon with soup really fast.   Edward scolded, "No, DeAnna.   That is wrong.  Here, let me show you how to eat properly."  So DeAnna frowned and apologized then she watched Edward's instructions on eating properly.  He grabbed his spoon then he scooped a bite of soup into his spoon and he lifted it to his mouth to chew with his mouth closed.  After Edward swallowed his bite, he asked DeAnna to try it.   She tried her best, but the soup fell out of her spoon.   Edward commented, "You were close, but please try again.  You can do it, DeAnna!"  So she tried again and she followed all of Edward's steps on eating soup properly. Edward praised, "Yay!  You did it, DeAnna!  Good girl!"  Then after dinner was finished, DeAnna was sleepy so she went to bed. 

       The next morning, Roy was knocking at the door.  DeAnna sensed somebody familiar from her past, but the alchemy energy in her antennas were just finished recoiling.  As she answered the door, her eyes became cloudy because she recognized Roy Mustang and his men as the ones who executed her mother when DeAnna was a child.  Then as Roy introduced himself to DeAnna, her alchemy created a water laser that blasted him to the ground.  Edward ran up to DeAnna as he scolded, "No, DeAnna!  That was bad.  Bad princess!"  Roy got on his feet and told them that it wasn't a problem so he didn't blame her for being weary to new people.   Edward explained, "DeAnna doesn't like strangers, but she's not confident around most males."  Roy answered, "I see.   Well, I just wanted to say 'hello' and to welcome the new addition to your home.  She is a beauty and good alchemy strength too."  Edward replied, "I will correct her behavior later, but I am sorry that she lashed out at you.  This isn't like her at all."  So Roy told Edward, "Take care of her, ok?  She seems to have protected you unless there is something I am not grasping on to."  Then he said his goodbyes to DeAnna and Edward. 

      DeAnna looked at Edward who had a disappointed look in his face.   Edward scolded, "DeAnna, what were you doing?  He could've arrested you or worse. I don't want that to happen to you because I care about you.  As for today's lesson, you failed.   I wanted to see if you were ready to socialize with other guys, but you don't appear to be ready."  DeAnna had tears in her eyes as she explained, "He killed my mother!  The queen is dead because he executed her and my first impression was out of a bad memory so my alchemy blasted him out of feelings that made me not like him.  I guess I just wanted to teach him a lesson."  Edward sighed for a moment then he told her, "Revenge solves nothing except more suffering.  Did you think that maybe the problem is your hard feelings?  To overcome this feeling of hatred, I want you to apologize to Roy.   I will leave the forgiveness up to you.   Hatred is a killer.  The Homunculus hated humans so they did everything they could to kill humans out of hatred.  Then in the end, their hatred and lack of understanding destroyed them."  DeAnna slowly understood so she told him that she would apologize at the next contact.  Edward put his hand on his heart and DeAnna immediately remembered that social cue so she felt guilty.  Edward told her, "Ouch!  You hurt me, DeAnna."  Then DeAnna apologized and offered to make things right.  Edward suggested, "I will give you Roy's address and I want to have you write an apology letter to him.  That will be your correction for bad behavior."  DeAnna hugged Edward and she told him, "I will do so for you, my great protector."  Edward answered as he smiled, "I know you will and it will make me proud once you have completed it then sent it out to him."  Edward kissed DeAnna's forehead briefly then he told her, "Now please go indoors and do the right thing just for me."  DeAnna nodded, "Anything for you, Edward!"  Then she went indoors to write the letter.  Edward watched her closely as she was writing and he smiled.  

     Alphonse told his older brother, "I don't blame DeAnna.  She was acting naturally to her unfortunate past experience with Roy.  But I can also admire that you wanted to teach her right from wrong."  Edward explained, "Proper training and discipline are a must for her.  I want so badly to bring out the beauty in not necessarily her looks, but to help her grow into the princess that she is meant to be!"  Alphonse teased, "Will you become her Prince Charming?"  Edward got flustered so he shouted, "Hey!  I told you that I'm letting my experiences with training DeAnna run it's course!  If she confesses her love to me then I will accept and not because of the happiness that goes along with it.  All I want is for her to be happy because DeAnna's happiness is my happiness."  Little did DeAnna know that Edward was secretly telling Alphonse that Edward loves her and that he would lay his life down for her happiness if that's what it came down to.