12 Days of Writing

Making the Ornaments

Summary: The Christmas tree is completely destroyed! Good thing alchemy has so many uses . . .

Ed and Winry stared at the mess in their living room. It was a nightmare.

Glass shards were everywhere. The Christmas tree Ed had set up the night before was snapped in half, all the ornaments shattered and scattered. What had happened?

The children and the dog were curled up on the floor, luckily out of the glass zone. One look at Winry, and they both knew what to do. Winry began scooping up children and dog and took them to their rooms while Ed started to clean up the mess on the floor. His prosthetic leg creaked and he winced, the cold weather making it harder to move around.

"You know," Winry started as she came back into the room, "We could always call Al. It'll make things faster, anyways."

Ed nodded, feeling a little miffed still that he couldn't use alchemy anymore. "Yeah, call him and Mei. This mess might need two alchemists."

Winry giggled at her husband's obvious irritation and went for the phone. She dialed the number and started talking to Ed's brother in light hearted tones as Ed picked up more shards.

Christmas was tomorrow. They'd better get this all figured out before the next morning, otherwise their children's forth (and usually tended to be their most memorable) Christmas was going to suck.

*/\*

It took Al and Mei less than thirty minutes to get there, the knock soft against the wooden door.

Winry opened the door wide, ushering the couple in from the cold. And then Al and May stopped abruptly upon seeing the chaos in the middle of the living room. Ed had only cleaned up so much before they arrived. "What happened?" Al asked incredulously.

Mei went to Ed's side and quickly started to draw alchemy symbols on the floor as Winry explained, "Well, we were only gone ten minutes, going around to the neighbors' and dropping off gifts when we came back to this," she gestured to the mess, "only it was worse earlier."

Al nodded and clapped his hands together, activating his alchemy without a circle. Ed was a little jealous that his brother got to keep his alchemy, but quickly pushed the thought down. He was just glad his brother was alive and well, in his real body again. Plus, he felt a bit of pride at how fast his brother had risen in the alchemy world. He was almost as good as Ed had once been. Almost.

The tree was fixed in a matter of seconds with the help of Al, and the glass shards became ornaments once more through the help of Mei. Only . . . the ornaments didn't look the same as what they had before.

"I'm sorry," Mei said, moving back from her circle. "I don't know what they looked like, and I just . . . made them into what they look like at home."

Ed smiled at his brother's girlfriend and shook his head, "It's fine. It'll be a nice surprise for the kids in the morning. Besides, they look beautiful."

And they really were. The most beautiful, in Ed's opinion, were the red and gold ones that she created. They were solid red, with intricate gold placed delicately over the top in soft, weaving patterns and elaborate designs. 

Mei smiled at his compliment and stood up from the ground, an ornament in hand. "Let's redecorate the tree before the kids wake up."

Ed, Al, and Winry took a few ornaments too, and before long, they were laughing and joking while they hung up the glass.

*/\*

It was late when they finally finished, the clock reading half past eleven. There was no way that Al and Mei were going home so late in that dreadful weather. So, Ed proposed they stay the night in the guest room.

"Well," Al rubs the back of his head shyly and looks to Mei, who's nodding enthusiastically. "I guess it would be fine. Don't want to get in a crash on our way home."

Ed nodded and led them to the guest room, closing the door behind him softly as the two made themselves comfortable. When he came back into the living room he saw Winry standing there with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, coming up behind her. She whipped around and Ed stifled a laugh.

"Ugh, Ed, really?" she said teasingly.

"What're you thinking about?" he said as he pulled her close to his chest, her face directed at the tree.

"I was just . . . wondering about things."

"What kind of things?"

"Well, mostly how much everyone had to go through . . . And, I guess, I was thinking about how peaceful it is. How beautiful."

Ed squeezed her and said, "Well, I like peace. It means we can enjoy Christmas as a family this year."

Winry smiled. "Yeah, I like that a lot."

And Ed smiled too. It was nice to have peace.