The Golden Alchemist (An FMA Fanfic)

Chapter 9

After a while of thinking to myself about what had happened to Ara, I grabbed my crutches and went upstairs to my room. I lay down on my bed and open my alchemy book again. I really don't like studying or researching things, but right now I will to find out more about alchemy and how I can get into the military as a state alchemist.

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I wake up to the sun shining through the window, just like every other morning. Honestly, I'm surprised that I managed to read that book front to back almost ten times before falling asleep. I don't like studying or catching up with things, but I love reading. And that's the only book I brought with me. I make a mental note to buy a couple books later.

I go downstairs and look for Winry with excitement. "Kate, you're awake!" I hear Winry. I turn to see her standing in a doorway with a wrench in her hand. I smile when she asks, "Ready for your auto mail?" I nod and follow her. "I'm going to warn you now, okay? It's going to hurt when we connect your nerves to the auto mail." I swallow and answer, "That's fine."

We walk into the room and I see a bed next to an auto mail leg and many tools. Winry getures me to sit, so I do. They start working on it, and I pay attention to every little detail. Which bolt goes where, which nerve will soon connect, and so on. "We're going to connect the nerves now," Winry warns. "On the count of three... One... T-" She connects it before she finishes saying two. I let out a blood curdling scream, but try to stop it by biting my lip. An unwanted tear escapes my eye. When the pain ended, I opened my eyes slowly. "You didn't finish counting," I told Winry with a bit of annoyance in my voice. She gave a smile and said, "Why don't you try out your new auto mail."

I swing my legs to the side and nervously stand up. It fit perfectly! I walk around a little bit and out of the corner of my eye, I see Ed studying me. I may have been a little too excited that I got a leg, but I don't care. "Thank you so much!" I nearly yell, "It's beautiful-the auto mail." I start studying it again. If I'm going to be on my own, the chances are I'll need a replacement or need to fix it later on. Winry, keeping her smile from before says, "At least someone appriciates my work!" She had glared at Ed when she said 'someone' and I held back a laugh. I decided a smirk from me would annoy Ed enough. It was cute how much you could hear these two bicker; it's pretty obvious they like each other, even if they don't know it yet.

I rummage through my pockets and pull out all the money I brought with me. "I don't have much," I say, somewhat quoting what I had said when I first came. Pinako puts a hand up in dismissal, "Keep it. This one's free; use that money for books or something." I stare at her with confusion and awe. Why would she do this for free? It obviously took a lot of time for them to make the leg, and they had to put it on! "But-" I start to say but Pinako just puts her hand up dismissavely again. I nod and say sincerely, "Thank you. Really."

A/N: I'm really sorry that it took forever to upload... You guys are probably tired of me saying that by now, but it's true. I've had a lot going on and I've had a writter's block, too. :/ And I' sorry this one is short. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter; I'll be working on another right away! I'm not sure if it's going to be as long as my usual chapters, either.

Apologies,

Anna-Marie <3