Fic: Prompt: "Cherry Red"
Word Count: 1827
Prompt: Cherry Red
The Last Piece of Pie
by strandedthought
Alphonse sighed as he took another bite of his apple pie. “Winry, this is really good,” he complimented through a mouthful apple-cinnamon goodness.
“I’m glad you like it Al,” she replied, her grin stretching from ear to ear.
“What, you mean no scolding him for talking with a mouthful of food?” Ed yelled, his frustration at not getting any pie doubled.
“No, Edward, unlike a certain someone, I’m sure he won’t do it all the time, and if you were looking you would have seen he even covered his mouth when he spoke, so I wouldn’t have to see anything gross,” she pointed out.
“If you don’t want to see something gross just don’t look at someone’s mouth when they’re eating!” Ed ranted.
“When someone talks it’s only polite to look at them. It’s not like I’m purposely looking at your mouth when you talk, it’s just on your face.”
“Oh, I should just not talk then?”
“Not when you’ve got a mouthful of food!”
Al sat across the table from the two of them at a loss for words. The atmosphere in the room had changed from warm and hospitable to hostile in less time then it took for a bolt of lighting to strike. The fact that there faces were already cherry red certainly was a sign that he needed to leave them be. Without hesitation, or calling attention to himself he took his plate and snuck out of the room, glad that his real body was much stealthier than the one of tin he’s been freed from.
He found Pinako in the other room, a pipe in her mouth and Den at her lap. “They’re at it again, eh?”
Al nodded as he took a seat next to her. “I don’t think he knows what to do now that everything is over,” he explained.
Pinako laughed.
“What?”
“I’m sure he knows something he could do, he’s just nervous, and that’s why he’s been arguing so much,” she explained.
“What’s that?” Al asked.
“You’ll figure it out in time,” she answered, and left Al on his own.
They were too close.
That was one thing that always unnerved her when they were arguing. For some reason, she and Ed always got closer to each other when they argued. So close to each other, that she couldn’t see anything but his face.
“I’m just going to eat that last piece of pie!” Ed yelled.
Winry was about to retort when Pinako made a show of putting a plate in the sink, clinking the fort and plate together as loudly as she could.
“Oh, is that what you were arguing about?” Pinako asked, successfully holding back her amusement at the drastic change in Ed’s expression.
“I told you it was hers,” Winry laughed.
“I’m going for a walk,” Ed shouted, roughly pushing away from the table to get up.
“You didn’t have to yell, and don’t forget your coat, it’s cold out,” Winry called as he stormed out the back door.
“Sometimes, he’s just so, so, aughh!” Winry complained, throwing her arms in the air to vent her frustration.
“You shouldn’t antagonize him,” Pinako commented as she left Winry alone in the kitchen.
“I didn’t, did I, Al?” Winry asked, only turning to look for the other Elric brother when he didn’t answer. She let out a sigh of disbelief, and then made her way to the work station she kept in the basement.
“It’s always the same, nag, nag, nag,” Ed mumbled to himself as he walked along the path leading through the dark hills of Risembool.
“Stop the country from being decimated, and it’s don’t talk with food in your mouth,” he complained, kicking a rock in the path.
It wasn’t long before he was standing in front of his destination.
A chill ran down his spine while he looked back and forth from the two stones marking his parents’ final resting place.
“Things were easier when I just wanted to punch you,” he growled at the fresher of the two graves. “Stay close to the ones you love, those are some really corny last words,” Ed grumbled through his teeth as he shoved his hands in his pockets.
The house was dark, all but for two rooms. The silence of the living room where Al sat reading was occasionally disturbed by the clangs of Winry working in her latest design in the room below.
“I don’t remember it ever being this noisy,” Al remarked.
“It usually isn’t,” Pinako commented. “You should get some sleep your body isn’t made to stay up all night. I’ll go tell that noisemaker to call it a night.”
“Thanks, but I should go make sure Brother hasn’t done anything stupid,” Al sighed, plucking his and Ed’s coats from the hooks near the door as he left.
Over the past year, Al had found that the bond he shared with his brother hadn’t changed much since his body had been restored. He could still predict his brother’s reactions fairly well, maybe even better than before. That was how he knew exactly where to find Ed, and wasn’t the least bit surprised to find him sitting in the branches of the tree on the bit of land their house had once occupied. Though, he was a bit surprised to find that Ed was not answering his calls.
When not even the word short got a reaction, Al knew it was safe to assume Ed had fallen asleep. He threw the jackets on the ground at the base of the tree and painstakingly searched for the foot and hand holds they’d made with alchemy before their mom passed away. Even with the training he was allowed to do everyday his muscles still weren’t used to all the activity after being in the gate so long, and by the time he reached his brother his hands were sore from the rough bark, and his breath came a little quicker than usual.
“It’s late,” Pinako announced as she studied the piece of automail her granddaughter was working on.
“I didn’t notice,” Winry shrugged, as she took the cue to start cleaning up.
“This is a fine piece, for Ed?” she asked.
“Yeah, he’s being growing a lot since Al got his body back.”
“So, you have noticed,” Pinako said with a smirk.
“Of course, I have, he’s my client,” Winry defended.
“Why are you cheeks red?”
“I’m going to bed,” Winry mumbled as she took the arm from the older woman, turned away, and put the last few stray pieces of metal and wire on the table back in place.
“Night,” Pinako said through a chuckle, and made her way up the stairs.
As she was getting ready for bed, Winry spotted the dusty old lantern on her dresser, and thought of her childhood friends.
“Brother,” Al said as he shook Ed’s shoulder.
“What, I’m up,” Ed groaned, stretching his arms.
“Yeah, you’re up, al right,” Al mumbled, waiting for Ed to remember where he was.
“Why’d you climb up here, you shouldn’t over-exert yourself,” Ed scolded as he came to his senses.
“Yeah, well, some idiot stormed off, and fell asleep in a tree, what else was I supposed to do,” Al retorted.
“I would have been fine,” Ed grumbled.
Al sighed and shook his head. “Well, you’re awake now, let’s just go back.”
Ed nodded in return, and they made their way down the tree.
“We should rebuild it,” Ed commented as he put his jacket on.
“No alchemy,” Al suggested, and got a nod from his brother.
“Sorry about earlier,” Ed said sheepishly as they made their way back to the Rockbell house.
Al smiled as they approached the house with a light shining from the balcony of the second floor.
They were quiet when they entered the old house, avoiding squeaking floor boards like a couple of kids sneaking out during the night, to avoid waking Pinako and Winry.
Al was about to go into his room when he called to Ed, “Brother, you should go tell Winry we’re home, so she can shut off the lantern.”
Al didn’t catch whatever it was Ed mumbled under his breath, but made his way into his room when he saw his brother head in the direction of Winry’s room.
Ed didn’t bother to knock on the closed bedroom door, but barged right in. “Win, you can turn off that lantern, we’re back.”
When he was greeted by silence he looked around the empty room with a frown. “Winry?” he called as he made his way towards the door leading to the balcony.
“Where is she?” he asked himself as he turned off the lantern, and returned it to her room.
Winry sat in the dark kitchen, the last piece of pie in front of her. She was glad they hadn’t returned through the back door, because she was too tired to handle the way Ed would have reacted to her eating the pie Pinako had supposedly ate earlier.
She didn’t know why, but this piece of pie in particular tasted better than any of her other cooking, and she relished each bite.
At least until she looked up from it to find Ed staring at her, the red of his face clear even through the dark.
“The last piece was for Granny, huh?’ he asked.
Winry nodded as she swallowed the bit in her mouth, watching Ed get closer.
“Let me have the rest,” he demanded as he rounded the table.
Winry shook her head and shoveled a huge piece of it into her mouth as she got up and moved away from him.
Ed nodded, a murderous glint in his eyes.
Winry took extra care to make sure he saw her putting the last piece into her mouth as she retreated…right into a wall.
“No where to go?” he whispered as he closed the distance between them.
Winry panicked, she couldn’t swallow that last piece. His hands were on either side of her head, and she couldn’t look away from his challenging glare.
Before she knew what was going on his tongue was in her mouth, stealing that last piece of pie.
“Ha,” Ed barked, as he swallowed the pie, still unaware of the implications of his actions.
Winry took a shaky breath, her eyes now on his lips as he licked them. The plate and fork in her hands clattered to the round as she pulled him back to her, and initiated a second kiss.
Just as he realized what was going on and relaxed the lights flipped on, and they gained an audience.
As she pulled away from Ed she looked over his shoulder and found Al staring at them mouth agape and eyes wide. “Sorry, I just wanted a glass of water,” he apologized as he left them alone.
“And I just wanted some damn apple pie!” Ed groaned, his face the color or the ripest summer cherries.