Iserlohnn - continued

THE PRINCESS AND THE MECHANIC

While Edward lay unconscious recovering from his shoulder reattachment, Princess Katarin kept the other Alchemists busy working on the Port Keys. She was very skilled with an etching tool and the others marveled at her ability to do very fine detailed work in a small amount of time. The Arrays etched on brass disks were an everyday item for the Alchemists of Iserlohnn. Mustang remembered his own fumbling attempts at crafting one of the portable Arrays while he had been Obaba’s apprentice. Etching was a lot harder than it looked and everyone, including Alphonse, botched at least one disk while they were trying to carefully create the intricate design onto the brass plate. Mustang was glad he was doing this while Edward was asleep because he knew Fullmetal would have given him a cheerful earful about allowing his skills to get so rusty.

Doctor Seris Ferguson, who was studying Alchemy, managed to get some time off her hospital duties to spend time with her teammates. She was interested in learning how to create the disk Arrays and Katarin was more than happy to teach her the technique. Seris found that having a surgeon’s dexterity was a great asset for creating disk Arrays. Even though she had the least training in Alchemy her disk came out almost perfect on the first try. Tenshi marveled at her skill. After ruining his third disk he was beginning to think disk creation was like singing, either you had the talent to do it or you didn’t. After three failures he gave up and decided to let the people who actually had a knack for it make the disks.

The Alchemists had some unexpected help from Winry. When she found out that anyone with a steady hand and a keen eye could make a disk, Winry was determined to try her hand at it. She was an excellent mechanic and any task requiring good hand eye coordination was her forte. She was determined to make a disk for Edward just to show him she wasn’t completely ignorant where Alchemy was concerned. He could be such an Alchemy geek it drove her crazy sometimes.

Tenshi wrapped a blanket around himself to hide the fact the hospital gown was like being practically naked and wandered out into the hallway. The smell of the etching chemical was beginning to get to him and he wondered how Edward was able to sleep through that stink. He wandered down the hallway stopping by a gift cart manned by a hospital volunteer. He wanted to find something to give Al to thank him for being nice and for making him a Port Key. Tenshi found something he thought would be perfect and paid the lady using his State Alchemist credit voucher.

He hid the gift under the blanket and wandered back to the room. As he quietly crept back into the room, he saw Edward was sitting up in bed absorbed in the flurry of activity happening all around him. Edward looked a bit stunned when Winry gave him a self-satisfied smile and stuck a perfectly forged Port Key disk under his nose.

“Think YOU could do this any better?” Winry challenged as Edward examined the disk in amazement.

“You...you MADE this?” he queried incredulous.

“Yep,” she replied. “See? If it involves metal I can do ANYTHING!”

“Damn…” he breathed genuinely impressed.

Tenshi wandered over to Edward’s bedside and looked at the disk he was examining and said, “Wow. That IS good!”

Winry smiled at Tenshi. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” he said smiling shyly up at her. “The arm is perfect. Thank you!”

“Told you she was good,” Edward said as put the disk Winry gave him on his nightstand. He turned back to Tenshi and, noticing an oddly shaped bulge under the blanket he was wrapped in, asked, “What are you hiding in there?”

“Something for Al,” he whispered.

Edward grinned. “Cool. Been a while since anyone gave him a present.”

“Best present YOU could give him Ed would be to not act like such a jerk!” Winry stated. Edward glared at her and Tenshi giggled.

“Laugh it up, hairball,” Edward growled. “And I am NOT a jerk!”

“Oh?” Mustang inserted with a smirk.

Edward’s gold eyes were pure fire. “No one asked for your opinion.”

“Well, they are getting it anyway,” Mustang said simply. “And you ARE a jerk sometimes, Ed. But you are also so fucking brilliant we tend to forget you can be a stubborn single-minded-”

“Shut up!” Edward interrupted. “You are the last person I want a shortcomings list from. At least I don’t try to rape someone while they’re asleep!”

Mustang moved so quickly Edward didn’t even see the hand that knocked him back hard into the pillow. Blood oozed from Edward’s nose and the corner of his mouth. Tenshi and Winry both were staring at the two of them in shock. Tenshi couldn’t believe Edward brought up that incident in front of everyone and Winry knew the Colonel had a bad reputation but she had no idea he’d stoop THAT low. The two Alchemists glared at each other for a long moment before Mustang turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

Winry shot a look at Edward. “What was that about?” she demanded.

“You don’t want to know,” Edward told her in a tone that made it clear he was not going to discuss the matter any further.

Princess Katarin saw Mustang stalk out the door and sensed something was afoot. She glanced up at Edward, who was wiping the blood off his nose and mouth with a tissue, and knew her instinct was correct. Flame and Fullmetal were at it again. She left the Doctor and Alphonse to see if she could smooth some ruffled feathers. She took off after the Colonel.

Tenshi saw her take off after Mustang and sighed, “Sometimes Edo-Sempi you CAN be a real jerk!”


The Colonel moved at a pretty fast pace as he stalked away from the hospital room and down the corridor. It was most likely due to the adrenaline rush of his current state of emotions. That Edward could be so thoughtless sometimes, it was a wonder they were even together in the first place. Had he actually forgotten just how snotty the boy could be, due to his lustful desires towards him? Okay, so maybe hitting on Tenshi while he was recovering was a little out of line. But as much as he hated to admit it, he was beginning to LIKE Tenshi a whole lot more than Ed. At least Tenshi would never say things to intentionally hurt him the way Ed sometimes did. Tenshi was a nicer person than Edward. But after all that Ed had been through it was no wonder he had become a bit of a cold heartless bastard.

That was one thing they both had in common - bad memories from their pasts. If anything kept them together it was the fact that both of them secretly believed they didn’t deserve to be with anyone kind and decent. As much as Roy would love to find love with someone gentle and sweet, the likelihood that would actually happen seemed to be slim and none.

To top it off, they had so much work to do! Kenton Aries was still afoot and no one had any clue where he was! Right now there was no time for Edward’s petulance.

His steps were fast, but not fast enough for the Princess to not be able to catch up. He hung his head low, hearing the pattering of soft delicate footsteps dashing his way not too far behind him, and he believed it to be Tenshi who was known for being generally caring about everyone- especially Edo, Al, and Roy. So he stopped short when he heard a very song-like feminine voice call out, “ Taisa-sama!” and a delicate hand reach out and clutch loosely to his sleeve.

His head turned, and his deep mocha eyes looked straight down into the pretty indigo eyes of Katarin. “ Katarin-san…you….” He said softly.

Releasing her grip on his sleeve, the girl backed away her gaze locked on him and she let out a soft, “Mm-hmm…” as her reply.

“Don’t follow me…” he sighed and looked straight at her with a very serious look upon his face. “It’s not worth it….”

“I know….” She started to say but she stuttered slightly, not having been able to actually talk seriously with him in a long time. “I know…you’re not the person you used to be…. But that still doesn’t mean I don’t care about you…”

“If you knew what I turned into, you wouldn’t be saying that at all.” Roy replied in a quiet stern tone, his eyes lowering.

Katarin looked at him with a very pleading glimmer shimmering in her cyan-tinted eyes. “Please…listen to what I have to say…”

“Go ahead…I’m listening.” Mustang sighed, glowering a bit. He really didn’t have time for her to chastise him.

“You left home a little over thirteen years ago, promising to one day return a success. It was not long after you received your letter accepting you to be able to take your State Alchemist exam. From that point, until the day you left you shut yourself off from the world including me….” She began to explain.

“I had a lot of preparing to do…Especially since I knew I would have to train farther with someone in Central…” Roy interrupted softly.

“The point is, you promised to return and you never did. And even when Iserlohnn was in terrible crisis, when Kimbley attacked and I sent you that disk, you still didn’t go home. You sent a bunch of others - young people and rookies - in your place. That was what upset Grandmother so. She counted and your assistance in the future especially after you got accepted as a State Alchemist. But it was like, you had forgotten about us….or chose to permanently shut us away….I want to know, what changed you? What happened?” Katarin asked him trying to fight back the few tears that weld up in her eyes.

Mustang bit his lip and hung his head low as one lone tear beaded and dropped from his eye and splashed on the floor below. “Years ago…I was in a war…” he replied, his voice very low and slightly wavery.

“Ishbal…” she whispered softly and he nodded.

“I saw such terrible things…Did such horrid actions I dare not speak of even until this day…” he continued.

“Murdering the Rockbells…” she said, her voice cracking a bit and her voice softened. “I read it in a military file while I was doing research on the war…”

“So you must understand…After that…Why I couldn’t go back…It would’ve brought such shame, to Obaba and to you.” Roy told her and let out a sigh.

Katarin held up a finger and caught the fresh tears that beaded in his eyes ready to fall then placed a loving hand on his shoulder. “You would have never brought shame to us Roy. Never. What you did, it was all under Military orders. I’m sure, if it had been up to you, none of that would’ve happened….which is why you’re working so hard now to make it to the top. So you can prevent things like that from happening again.” She told him and a small smile formed on her face.

Roy nodded his response and sighed softly. “Yes…Exactly so…”

“It’s because you are who you are, and what you aspire to be that we love you so much. That Grandmother and I…I love you….” Her voice lowered to a soft whisper as she finished the statement and he looked up at her when she said this.

“Obaba always told me I was the young son she never had…but I never knew you felt that way about me…” he replied softly and placed his hand on top of hers and held it.

“Of course I did! Especially after how you treated me…. Because I was the princess and an important person in society, most of the other children wanted nothing to do with me out of fear and mostly ignored me…. But one person actually reached out a hand, and wanted to be with me…It was you, Roy…You were the little boy who aspired to be so much and wanted to be my Prince…” she said to him and lowered her gaze.

“But you said, not that long ago…Your future Prince is someone else, not me….” Roy intervened, looking intently at her.

“That may be true….But that still doesn’t mean my feelings for you don’t remain. Like I said, my future prince barely even notices me for who I am now….and won’t for quite a while…. So why should I bother chasing a rising sun when it would be better to wait until it reaches its high point in the sky?” Katarin explained to him, blinking a few times.

Roy’s eyes flashed as distant memories of them together went through his mind. He gazed at her longingly for a moment before removing her hand from his shoulder and leaned in, pinning her up against a wall, his face very close to hers. “I know the bond we have cannot be broken, and even when our fate paths fork in the road of life we will still have that bond…cause what’s inside cannot be torn apart…” He closed the distance between them then and placed a soft, gentle kiss on her lips. A deep rosy blush flushed her normally pale cheeks and she closed her eyes, returning the kiss. Roy pulled back a bit, looking at her deeply and smiled. She flashed him a smile as well.

“So…” she said, changing the subject, “What was this Edo said, about you ‘trying to rape someone when they’re asleep’?”

“Well…” his eyes shifted a bit and he murmured sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. “You know, how I said I changed…right?”

Katarin grinned deviously at him and giggled. “Now, I guess you’re an old pervert who thinks with his lower head instead of the one on his shoulders…”

“Why you…” he started to mumble but was stopped as she patted him on the arm.

“It’s okay, I don’t care what you are now. As long as you remember the boy you used to be, and those memories remind in your mind and your heart forever, I know you’ll be alright.” She told him then slid her hand down and took his hand in her own. “It’s getting late, we should get back to the room, the others might worry and think dirty thoughts…You know how Edo’s mind can get sometimes…We don’t want him storming down the halls thinking you kidnapped me.” She giggled and motioned down the hallway.

“Yes,” Mustang replied, smiling at her and stroked her hand with his thumb. “Let’s go back.”

They both walked back, down the corridor to the hospital room then, hand in hand. She had succeeded in calming Roy down, and now they were both ready to face what had yet to come. Whether they were to be together or not, they were both strong enough to face whatever challenges came their way.
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MORE TO COME SOON!!