Fullmetal Alchemist and the Flight of the Anti-Social Butterfly

Chapter 21: DeAnna's Troubles

      It was a brand new day and the sun was shining brightly through DeAnna's bedroom window as she took a big stretch from waking up.  Edward commented, "There she is!  How did you sleep last night?"  DeAnna answered, "Like a cocoon evolving into a butterfly."  Edward smiled, "I am glad!    Alphonse will be finished with making French Toast in a few minutes so then you can eat your breakfast, ok?"  His fiancé nodded as she waited at the table patiently.  "Edward, who will be our priest to give our wedding vows?", DeAnna asked.  Then as Edward had folded up the newspaper, he told her that Cornello had passed away recently so he wasn't sure.  "Does he have any relatives that might have experience in being part of a church and might be willing to do so?", DeAnna inquired.    Edward answered, "He has one that I know of and her name is Rose, but I hear that he had a son many years ago who was going to take over the church due to Cornello going through an aging process.  I hear that he's a lot nicer than Cornello and not as corrupting as his dad."  DeAnna begged, "Can we invite both of them to our wedding, please?!"  Edward sighed, "Ok, but I'm not religious. Since this is a wedding and not a Sunday morning sermon, I can accept."  DeAnna cheered, "Yay!" So Edward got on the phone to make arrangements only to find out that Rose and her younger brother, Peter, agreed. 

      "The die is cast and plans are in place, DeAnna.  Are you excited to soon enter the first day of your future with me as one?", Edward stated.  DeAnna blushed as she cheerfully exclaimed, "Yes!  I will bless you with lots of happiness when that day arrives and even afterwards, my mighty protector."    Then Alphonse shouted, "Breakfast is ready, you lovebirds!"  He handed Edward and DeAnna their breakfast then Alphonse sat down to eat his breakfast too.  Zoe whimpered and caught DeAnna's attention as she commented, "Oh! Are you hungry too, Zoe?"  Zoe started to lick her chops then DeAnna asked to be excused from the table to feed her chimera.  "Your breakfast isn't going anywhere so no worries!", Alphonse answered.  So DeAnna gave Zoe some food and water as she petted her chimera with love.  "You are such a good chimera, Zoe!  I don't know what I'd do if you weren't reborn." DeAnna then returned to the table to eat her breakfast with proper table manners.  Edward praised, "That's my girl!  Good table manners, DeAnna!"  She smiled at Edward then she drank her iced tea that Alphonse had poured for her while she fed Zoe.  

      After DeAnna got showered and dressed, she went to water her flowers then she gave the tree some water as well.  She soon saw a swarm of butterflies coming towards her.  She greeted, "Hello, my butterfly friends!  I'm getting married soon, but I am so excited for that day!  Someday, I want to take my fiancé to meet the butterfly kingdom from where I was born.  Maybe he can agree to it as a Honeymoon outing?"  DeAnna fed her butterfly friends some of the leftover peach nectar from a few days ago since it was still fresh as she said, "Here you go!  There's plenty for all of you to enjoy."  She watched her butterfly friends eat then she told them, "I finally have wings now!  Problem is, I haven't flown in several days.  Would you like me to try flying with all of you?"  The butterflies twitched their wings very fast with excitement so DeAnna took a running start and tripped over a giant rock.    "Ow!!!!!", DeAnna cried as she noticed a couple of bolts from her automail legs were getting loose from her fall.  Edward heard DeAnna's screaming in pain so he rushed up to her asking, "What happened, sweetie?"  She explained, "I wanted to fly again and I tripped over a rock so the fall damaged my automail legs."  Edward commented, "There, there.  I'm going to see if Winry is available to make a visit so she can fix your automail for you at our house.  You can trust me."  Edward slowly picked DeAnna up and carried her indoors as she cried in pain.  He noticed that part of the problem was her automail legs were getting worn out and rusty.  Luckily, Edward had a spare oil can so he squirted the oil on to her automail legs and he rubbed the oil with a rag until the rust came off.  Then he had his fiancé lie down on the couch as he grabbed some pain medicine and a glass of water.    DeAnna thanked Edward as she took the pain pills with her glass of water.  After a few minutes, Edward got on the phone to make an emergency in-house appointment for automail repair and Winry agreed to it.  Since it was a side note before a wedding, Winry offered a discount for the repairs and Edward agreed to the price.  He also asked if Winry would like to come to the wedding with Pinako and she was very happy for the invite so she marked her calendar for the special day.

      Winry had just reached the Elric brothers' house as she heard DeAnna crying in pain.  "You poor girl! Are you ok?", Winry asked in a worried tone of voice.  Then she saw the damage to DeAnna's automail legs and sighed.  "You were supposed to protect her, Edward!", Winry scolded.  DeAnna replied, "I went to play on my own so please spare him.  It's my fault."  DeAnna continued to cry so Winry told her, "It's ok.  I've seen worse damage from how Edward abuses his automail."  DeAnna asked, "Edward has automail too?  I must've forgotten!"  Then Edward rolled up his left pants leg and took his boot off. "See, DeAnna?   I may only have one leg that's made of automail, but my right arm used to be made of automail too.  But Alphonse's sacrifice gave me my real right arm back.  Since we will be married soon, we can support each other's care with automail as a support to one another!    What do you say?"  

      DeAnna asked, "Wouldn't mating and me giving birth someday be complicated since both of us have at least one automail leg?  I want to carry your babies really badly, but I'd hate to think if I had troubles giving birth because of this issue."  Winry smiled, "I am sure that Edward would understand if you couldn't have children.  Besides, he loves you!" Edward nodded, "Even if you are somehow not able to have children, that won't change how much I love you in the end. I chose you because I want you to be happy, DeAnna.   It was never about what I want, but I would give up alchemy again if it meant being with the butterfly queen of my bleeding heart forever."  DeAnna smiled as she was lying down and getting treated for her damaged automail.  "There you go!  Good as new.", Winry had commented.  Winry asked, "Is that apple strudel that I smell in the oven?"  Alphonse commented, "I am getting the apple strudel out of the oven right now, actually.  Would you like some, Winry?"  She replied, "Of course!  After all, I might as well stick around for awhile."  DeAnna got off the couch and walked over to her usual seat at the table.  Winry commented, "DeAnna seems to be walking fine now."  Edward said, "That is a good sign!  Thank you, Winry.  You are a life saver."  Winry answered, "No problem! It's been awhile so I was starting to worry about my new patient anyway."  

         They all ate a plate of apple strudel until Alphonse exclaimed, "Winry!  You need to see this photo I took!"  Winry looked at the photo then she inquired, "You finally drank your milk, Edward?  What a good boy!  I'm so proud of you!"  Edward told Winry, "Yeah and never again.  It gave me a weak stomach and I had to use the toilet immediately which was an embarrassing disaster."  So Winry told Edward, "As long as you made an attempt to drink your milk, that's all I ever wanted."  Then after the awkward discussion, Winry had to leave back to her house.   It was getting late so DeAnna went to bed.   "Goodnight, my sweet butterfly queen!", Edward whispered as he kissed DeAnna's cheek.  Then he slowly shut her bedroom door and called it a night himself.