Chapter 2 - French Toast

Emma slowly opened her eyes. Her head hurt, like it had hit the concrete of the sidewalk. She looked around at her surroundings. She had been put into a small twin sized bed in a tiny, what seemed to be a guest room. She couldn't help but wonder where she was. Being as there were no windows in the room, she wasn't able to see the outside area to maybe give her some sort of clue to this question.

"I must have tripped." she said to herself, "Yeah. That's it! I tripped and dreamed up the whole Gate thing. The old man didn't know where I lived and took me to his house until I woke up." Her stomach made a terrible grumbling noise suddenly. "Well, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I raided his kitchen. Even if he did mind, 'Hunger get what hunger want!"

Emma walked down the stairs quickly, but quietly not wanting to wake anyone else in the house. The kitchen looke oddly familiar. She brushed it off and looked around for the ingrediants for French Toast: Eggs, bread, cinnannimon, milk, and butter. Surprisingly, for not having a left arm for only three weeks, she had adapted to life without it very well. As she cooked, the wonderful smell suffused the house. She made a big plate of toast, just incase the old man wanted any.

She herself was about to dig into the fruits of her labor when a clunking of metel reached her ear. She looked up at the doorway and say a large, suit of armor, with a feather protruding off the helmet. She recognized the armor immdiantly. At the sight of eachother, they screamed for a few seconds.

"Brother! Winry! Grandma Pinako!" Alphonse yelled, running back through the arch he'd come in from. "She's awake!"

He ran back and bowed in greeting. Emma just sat there, trying her best to hold back a fangirl scream. 'Must not glomp. Must NOT glomp." she screamed in her head.

"Hi!" Al said, in that adorible voice Emma loved so much. "My name is Alphose Elric. Most people just call me Al, though."

"It's nice to meet you..." Emma finally managed to say. "I'm Emma Laurencen..."

At that moment Edward, Winry, and Pinako came sliding in. This time Emma had to restrain herself from her yelling, "Ed, say 'Roy Mustang looks dead sexy in a minishirt!"

"It's good to see you're doing better." Winry said, "I'm Winry Rockbell. That's my grandma, Pinako."

"And I'm Edward Elric." Ed added in.

"Everyone, this is Emma!" All said to the others. "Emma, did you make all this breakfast?" he added, seeing the mountain of toast in front of her. Emma nodded.

"And with one arm?" Edward asked.

"What's that supposed to mean, shrimp?" Emma burst. All, Winry and Pinako exchanged and 'Uh-oh.' looks.

"WHO YOU CALLING AN EATABLE, TINY SHELLFISH!!?" Ed yelled, "Besides I'm taller than you are, so HA!!"

He was right. Ed was taller than her by only a inch. She she used her not-a-comeback comeback. "Yeah, well, RAWRTASTICISHISM!" Everyone looked at her puzzled and Emma just stood there beaming proudly. Edward took a wiff of the air and piled some toast on his plate. Ed stuffed his face, cramming two slices in his mouth at a time.

"Hey, this is good! What is it?" Ed asked with his mouth full.

"French Toast." she answered quickly.

"What's in it?"

"Well, you soak the bread in a mixture of eggs, cinninnmon and milk--"

"Milk..." Ed immediantly stopped eating.

"Yes, milk."

"GROSS!!!" Ed ran back upstairs to the bathroom. Winry and Al laughed.

"Sorry, Ed has... milk issues." Winry said.

"Yeah, I know." Emma said, then realizing what she had said she covered her mouth.

"How, did you know?" Pinako asked suspiciously.

"Ummmm...." Emma studdered, "From his reaction, j-just now. That's how." she laughed nervously. Ed came back into the room and all was forgotten.

"YOu know, those weren't that bad. If you hadn't said there was milk, I'd have kept eating." Ed said blankly.

"Well, thanks...?" Emma said, awkwardly, trying to cross her arms. Winry noticed her discomfort and jumped at the opportunity for a sale.

"Hey, i could make you an arm!" She said happily a twinkle forming in her eye as she thought about it. "I need to work on joint functions anyway. Yours would be the perfect chance to practice."

"Wait, you mean automail?" Emma said, almost excitedly. Then she remembered the oath she had sworn after her accident: to never get a prosthetic. "No, I can't. It's my own fault I lost my arm, and I don't deserve to get it back in anyway."

Ed knocked her on the head. She looked up at him surprisedly. "Don't talk stupid." he said, not even making eye contact with her. "Automail helps out alot. I hightly recigmend it." He smiled that toothy grin she had seen so many times before.

"Fine..." she said turning to Winry. "I'll give it a shot. But I don't know how I'll pay you. ALl i have it... foreign money."

"Oh, it's not charge, young lady. No charger." Said Pinako with a smile.

****************************************
"Oh, my God!" Emma yelled out as they began conecting the nerves. She expected pain, but nothing like this.

"Hold still, Em!" Winry yelled back. "I'm almost done." She connected the last wire. Emma gave a sigh of relief as they finished. It was finally over. She passed out from when it was finished. Winry and Pinako took her to the guest room again, where she had woken up that morning. When she finally woke, Edward was the first to greet her.

"See? Wasn't too bad, was it?" he said with a smile.

"Buzz off..." Emma mumbled tiredly.

He laughed. "It's pretty painful, huh?" he added holding his own automail up. He looked down. "So how'd it happen?"

She looked to him. "Accident... a man was driving drunk and he ran into me. My arm got caught in the engine belt and..." she looked away, rolling to the other side.

"At least you have a good reason." he said in his comforting voice. "I lost my arm and lag for stupid and selfish reasons."

"I've got a guess..." Emma mumbled to herself.

"And that would be?"

"Emma broke out in a sweat. Did she tell him the truth or lie? "Well, from the look of it, you attemped a human alchemy..."

"Ed froze, "So, you knew..."

"I kind of figured..." Emma said, hoping they wouldn't be questioning. "Edward smirked. You must be a pretty shilled alchemist to have figured it out."

Emma sat up. She was starting to feel much better. "No. I've never done alchemy before in my life--" She stopped, remembering that she had passed through the door and it's ability to bestow the knowledge of alchemy. She smiled. She bend her arm at the elbow or her new automail. "Geez, how do you lug this stuff around all the time...?" she complained.

He laughed. "I guess it just takes some time to get used to it." he said. There was a knock on the door and Al walked in, clunking with each step.

"Brother, I brought you some dinner." he said, then he looked over to see that Emma was awake already. "Oh, hello."

"Hey, Al." she said perkily. She was such a sucker for his innocent voice inside the huge armor.

"Thanks, Al." Edward said, a bit of disappointment in his voice, it seemed. He stood and added, "I'll go grab Emma some food." He left.

Al shook his head. "He's so stubborn. I kept telling him to go rest, but he won't listen to me." he turned back to Emma and took a seat in the chair by the bad. "Pinako said the procedure went well."

"That's good to hear." She said, propping herself up against the hadboard. "How long has Ed been here?"

Al shrugged. "Since you got out of the operation. So... that would be since lunch. He's been really worried."

"Oh..." Emma said, trying to hide the embarrassment in her voice. She had always been a bit of and Edward fangirl. This was almost to much for her to handle. Edward Elric, sitting at her bedside for hours.

"Hey, Emma?" Al's voice broke her thoughts. She looked up at him. "I heard you two talking. So you know what I am."

She nodded. "You're a soul connected to the armor with a bloodseal." she explained briefly of her knowledge. "I'm sure Edward drew it for you."

"Yes, he did." Al said, his voice going squeeky like it usually did. "It's hard to believe that you're not an alchemist."

She looked up at him and laughed. "Well, I would be willing to learn." she said happily, "I'm sure i'd catch on fast, if you guys would teach me." she tried not to hint that she'd seen the door. She figured she'd also be able to do a tranmutation with her hands.

Al's giggle indicated that he was smiling. "That would be great! But we have to travel back to Central soon." he looked down disappointed at first. His head popped up suddenly with a thought, "Hey, you can come with up!"

Edward was in the doorway as his brother said this, holding a plate of food. He quickly dropped it at the thought. He walked over and grabbed Al's feather, dragging him out of the room. He slammed the door behind him, but it bounced and stayed open just enought for Emma to hear.

"Al, she can't come!" Ed's voice said, "It's too dangerous for her in her current condition."

"Brother, please! She wants to learn Alchemy. We could teach her!" Al's protest was squeeky.

"No, Al!"

"Don't you think it would be nice to have different company, other than just eachother?"

"That's not the point, Al!" Emma was just outside the door now, pearing through the crack in the door.

"Brother, why do you always have to push people away?" Al's voice sounded like he would have cried. Emma felt sick to her stomach just at the sight of the quarrel.

Ed looked out of the corner of his eye and his caught her's. She cringed at she pushed open the door. "Get packing..." he mumbled. "We leave for Cenral tomarrow morning." He stuck his hands in his pockets and walked away, not even looking back to see the surprised looks on Al and Emma's faces.

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