1/24/15 A/N: I started daydreaming about this story line again, so...here's another chapter. :)

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Chapter 2: Masterful Etchings

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The steel on the work table glistened in the bright morning sun. White light reflected from the bends and contours of the metal, particularly from the bends and contours of the demon skulls and dragon tails rolling around the shin plating. One could not mistake the obvious dragon and star of the Amestris military emblazoned below the kneecap either.

The young woman squinted her eyes from the bright light reflecting from the automail leg's garish surface. She thought, "Yeah, that sure is a design by Ed." Winry hoped the client shared her husband's taste or lack thereof. She finished polishing the ornate plating and set the artificial limb in a display box lined with black foam she precisely cut to fit and show off the piece.

"Wow!" Edward sauntered into Winry's area of the shop, munching on a red apple. He donned a now familiar brown leather apron, short-sleeved black tee shirt and his favorite cargo shorts. "I know where THAT should go!" He mumbled, mouth full of fruit. Before she could protest, Ed clamped down on the apple with his teeth and whisked the box off the table.

"Ed!" His wife knew where he was going. Straight to the front window display. She watched as he propped the ornate leg, box and all up in their window for all of Rush Valley to see. He grabbed the apple with his left hand and tore off another chunk and scurried outside to view his handiwork from the street.

"Winry! You should see what it looks like from out here!" He barely kept from choking on apple bits as he yelled. "We need to get a light on it so everyone can see it when it's dark!" Still crunching the remains of his apple, he hurried inside just in time to see his wife's furrowed eyebrows. "What?" He was barely understandable, chewing fast then swallowing. "Are you ashamed of it?"

"Oh, no!" Winry caught a glimpse of hurt in his yellow eyes. "It's just...it's just..."

"Just what?"

Winry didn't know what to say. She thought the leg was tacky and brash. She knew this but dared not utter the words. He'd spent many hours on the designs, any negative comment would surely set off his temper. "It's just...different. Not what I'm used to." Good save.

"Good Lord!" Garfiel's exclamation made the couple jump as he leaned in on the outside of the display window glass. "That's really bad ass, Edward!" He winked and turned to come into the shop.

"Winry hates it." Ed pouted and tossed the apple core into the trash bin. The former alchemist found that working with caustic chemicals required him to secure his long hair – Ed took a page from the Rockbell work uniform handbook and donned a red bandanna while he worked. He quickly ripped off the red cotton cloth and crossed his arms with a huff.

"I do not!"

"Sweetie, it's spectacularly manly...just the thing for that soldier." He leaned in to admire the leg. "Winry's just not used to decorative automail, just let her warm up to the concept of it all." He winked again.

"Hey!" A man tapped on the glass from outside and pointed at the leg. "That's really nice!" He popped his head into the shop. "Can you do decorations on my arm?" Rolling up his sleeve, he revealed a particularly dirty and worn automail right arm.

"Um?" Winry waited, knowing Ed would answer.

"We sure can!" He patted her shoulder and began to brag on her craftsmanship and his artistry. "This woman can make the best automail and I can make it look cool!" He pointed at his chest with his thumb for emphasis.

"I need a new one, can you see me today?"

"Um, we're booked, but I can make you an appointment." Winry scooted around all the men and grabbed the green book in which she kept her own appointments. "Tomorrow at nine am?"

"Perfect!" He tipped his ball cap to her. "Names Gurnesy, see you tomorrow!"

"Winry, dear, I think Edward's artwork is going to make you two very profitable!" Garfiel sashayed to his work area. "Of course, you're my partner, so it goes into the business..." The man just as much giggled as his eyes turned into dollar signs.

Ed's grin spread like a crooked line across his face as his wife sighed in defeat at his already inflated ego. Little did the two know how right Garfiel's words were.

Word spread fast throughout Amestris of this new automail mechanic whose limbs were adorned with masterful etchings. Soon, customers called not only for etchings, but requested jewels be burnished in the metal. Requisitions arrived for new metals such as gold, silver and platinum. Winry and Edward obliged. Within a few months, Atelier Garfiel got the unusual request for an automail finger, one made of gold and adorned with gemstones.

The mechanic groaned at the thought of making such a tiny appendage. It wasn't impossible – just difficult because all of the moving parts had to be re-scaled in miniature. She huffed at the thought of making it from solid gold. Malleable metal would bend and break. Winry knew then, that customer requesting bejeweled automail fingers didn't need them, but they had become status symbols for the wealthy. Garfiel had no problem taking the money from these silly people, but the blonde felt something wrong with the whole thing. After all, automail should exist to help people, not decorate them. Loud stomps of heavy boots, one with the distinctive reverberation of metal shattered her thoughts. A now matched pair of warm arms wrapped around her bare waist and squeezed her from behind.

"Miss me?" Ed kissed her ear and reflected on a time, not so long ago, when he'd embarrass himself whenever he touched Winry.

"Yeah." Her thoughts still bothered her despite her husband's balmy hands holding her still.

"Hey? What's up?" Ed could tell she was perplexed by something. He pulled up a stool and sat next to his wife.

"We have more requests for these gold and silver fingers than arms or legs."

"So? We're getting more money for them. I think Garfiel is going to retire!" He chuckled.

"Yeah, but it's not helping people, Ed." She turned to her husband and took in his incredulous stare. "It's adorning them!" Winry crossed her arms. "That's not why I make automail."

"But..." Before Edward could retort, Mr. Garfiel interrupted. The man, wearing a fluffy pink top, entered the room with flourish.

"Get this kids." He set his hands on his hips, totally not aware he just diffused another argument between the newly-weds. "I heard from Thomas at Perk's metal shop that some ladies in Central are having their ring fingers surgically removed...on purpose!" He raised up his large hand and shook said finger in emphasis. "Just so they can have one of your sparkly ones installed!" He emitted a loud chuckle. "Can you believe that? Going through all that pain for a pretty finger!" The man started laughing. "Well, I don't care, as long as the orders keep coming in."

"That's horrible!" Winry stood up in protest. "My work is not jewelry!" She starred down the two men. "It's supposed to help people walk, to hold books, to be able to work and support their families!" Tears started to well from her eyes as she glared directly into Edward's golden gaze. "Like I helped YOU walk, run, fight, and bring YOUR brother back!" She turned and moved her stool out of the way with such force, it fell to the floor. Winry exited before the two men could utter a word.

"Is it that time of the month?" Garfiel asked honestly.

Edward shrugged. But, her words, her words were true. Winry did help him walk and fight. She made him an arm and a leg, not a flashy finger. He began to realize that these silly people, these idiots cutting their healthy appendages off for the sake of jewelry sort of laughed right at him and his trials. They spat at not only his and Al's fight, but others who struggled for normalcy and independence after losing a limb.

"No more." He almost whispered. "I'm not going to be the one influencing someone to cut off their finger...not for a piece of god-damned jewelry." He stood up to leave.

"But Edward!" Garfiel protested. "If we don't make it, someone else will."

Ed sighed. Garfield spoke the truth. When he and Winry stopped making pretty phalanges, the only reward they'd get for sticking to their morals would be the knowledge that the customer went to another shop. "If they want jewelry...that's what they should get...not automail." He decided then and there to leave the mechanics out of it.

"Win?" Ed slowly opened the door to their shared apartment space over Garfiel's shop. Their employer, having made so much money when Winry returned to his apprenticeship, purchased a more spacious townhouse a few blocks away which allowed the new Mr. and Mrs. Elric to stay rent-free. The former alchemist snarled at the color of the walls and woodwork as he stepped inside and quietly closed the door. Pink. Everything in the entryway-kitchen-living room was some horrid shade of the color and they'd not had time to paint. Winry didn't spend any of her rare free time in the apartment but to sleep or eat, but Ed used the room for his research and he'd about had it with the vomit-inducing color. He tip toed to their room and knocked. "Winry?" Ed didn't wait to get permission to enter their room.

"I know you...you probably think I'm silly." Winry lay on their unmade bed with her back to the door.

"No...that's not what I think at all." Ed couldn't tell from her voice or her body language if she'd been crying. He hoped not. "I actually had an idea...and wanted to run it past you." The young man sat on the edge of their bed and placed his warm, now calloused right hand on her bare hip. He felt her relax the second his skin touched hers.

"What is it?" Winry rolled over to find the loving amber gaze of her husband. She noticed his own sigh as his hand smoothed over her stomach and to her opposite hip as she moved her body to face him. The mechanic smirked – she still caused him shivers and hoped their marriage never outgrew it.

"Uh..." Ed blushed. Damn woman could make his blood boil with lust just by a stupid touch. And, her smile gave sure proof that she knew it too. "Well, um...I think we could still continue to make the automail fingers." He watched her smirk turn to anger. But he jumped in before she could find something to hit him with. "Wait! I mean, let's make them but not real automail...just, like a ring, a finger cover without the automail guts!" He leaned closer. "You know, if they want jewelry let's give them jewelry!"

"Edward." Winry sat up and pat her husband's knee. "I am not a jeweler. I am an automail mechanic. Making some fancy Central City lady a ring will take me away from making automail for someone who needs it to walk."

"You forget." He flashed her his confident smile. "You showed me how to do the metal castings...why don't you let me make the rings so you can focus on real automail?"

"I don't know." She liked having Ed help now that he could do so without breaking or messing things up. The young woman thought for a minute. Now that Ed's research was winding down, he seemed so happy to have an outlet for his special decorative taste. "You'll be happy making these?"

"Yeah, I mean...it's not alchemy, but if you think about it, knowledge of chemistry has come in handy – you know, making the gold and silver alloys..." He leaned in closer until he felt his wife's breath on his face. "And...Alphonse can make the raw materials for us, it's not illegal in Xing." He hovered so close to her pink lips, waiting for her answer.

"Ok, Ed." She smiled in time to feel his warm mouth meld with her own as he pressed the full weight of his body down on her. So much for getting back to work any time soon but at least this time, they already were on their bed.

Alistair tried to relax on this drizzly and dark Sunday morning, taking his breakfast in his den as usual. His thoughts were never far from Evie and he did his best to live. However, this living took its toll on the once vivacious alchemist. His hair turned gray shortly after the failed transmutation and he now suffered a cough that never quite dissipates. The middle aged man vowed to find a way to restore his wife but living in the same dreary home where she vanished remained painful.

"Your paper, sir." James brought his employer's Sunday paper and coffee in on a silver tray, he gently set it down on the well-worn mahogany table beside Alistair who nodded in thanks.

"Amelie is preparing a fine roast for supper." The old butler sensed the alchemist's melancholy and hoped some fine food would cheer him.

"That sounds wonderful." Alistair picked up the paper and his inattention cued James it was his time to leave him be. The alchemist feigned indifference as his most loyal servant exited, leaving him alone with his misery, coffee and South City Times. His gray eyes scanned the front page and seeing nothing of note, continued on to the lifestyle section of the newspaper. There, in the center of the page was a featured article and a photograph of a familiar face. "Former Fullmetal Alchemist's Metal Creations Cause Stir in High Society."The black and white photograph above the text clearly showed a stunningly photogenic young couple, the young man with his right hand resting on his wife's shoulder.- a real, flesh and blood right hand. Instinctively, the alchemist clutched the red broach on his tie and the idea flew into his brain as if Evie herself spoke it.

"Oh, lovebirds!" Mr. Garfiel's sing-song voice carried into the work room where Winry was busy soldering delicate wiring in an arm and Edward was working at their new crucible melting gold. He smiled as Ed's body stiffened when he heard him teasing. "You have mail." Garfiel waltzed in the room and set a beige parchment envelope down on the desk next to Ed.

"Uh, thanks." The former alchemist couldn't help his nervousness around Garfiel. He didn't care a rat's ass who the old guy spent his nights with, but he knew Winry's boss liked to pretend to flirt with him on purpose...at least he hoped he was pretending. Ed turned the envelope in his hand to see the ornate red wax seal, flipped it and read the return address, Alistair Crombard. "Crombard?" Why was that name familiar?

"What is it?" Win pushed back her ugly magnifying glasses so they rested on her head and she could see the distance to her husband's shining golden eyes.

"Um, not sure..." Crombard? He knew that name but his brain wasn't going to relinquish the knowledge just yet. He opened the envelope and pulled out a letter made of the same paper but with the elegant ink script of an alchemist. "Oh yeah, Alistair!" He read the letter out loud.

To Master Edward Elric,

I was pleasantly surprised to come across a newspaper article in the South City Times regarding your successful entrepreneurship into fine automail. It also mentioned your lovely wife and her equally fruitful utilitarian automail career.

The reason I am writing is to request the discrete services of both yourself and your spouse. My manservant, James is in terrible need of a new automail leg. However, it is of utmost importance that the new limb be constructed and fitted by someone I trust.

Because of the sensitive nature of my request I deem it fit that the rest I must relay to you in person. I will be arriving Wednesday on the noon train in Rush Valley to seek your consult. I pray you make time to hear me. Also, I do hope you remember me and the time you and your brother spent researching the library here.

Your humble servant,

Alistair Crombard.

"He called me MASTER!" Edward chuckled.

"Ed, it's just a polite term used in correspondence." Winry playfully smacked the crown of his blonde head knocking his ponytail askew.

"I know!" He stuck out his tongue, and attempted to right his hair.

The mechanic motioned for the letter and her musing husband handed it over. "At least Wednesday isn't going to be too busy. You alright with hearing the man out?" She scanned the script as she spoke. "You remember him, right?"

"Yeah. Al and I spent a few days with him when we were traveling. He had some good books and research notes on the philosopher's stone, but in the end, we really didn't learn anything from him." He thought a bit and scrunched his nose. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to see him. He's loaded from what I remember. You'd be up to making a leg?"

"Are you joking?" Winry batted the folded letter on her husband's head. "I can make a leg in my sleep...got LOTS of practice because you break yours ALL the time."

"Well, get used to it." Edwards Cheshire-cat grin cut through the air between them. "Looks like we're in for lots of new business thanks to that article."

Alistair hated riding coach, but it was the only train to Rush Valley. James read his newspaper and tried to keep silent. Both men knew the true reason for visiting the Rockbell-Elrics, yet it could not be helped if they were to save Evie. The ride only took an hour and before long, the two gentlemen strolled alongside the "riff raff" of Rush Valley. It didn't take too long before the denizens of the town noticed James' slightly off gait and they began soliciting him for automail upgrades.

"Do you need an adjustment?"

"Don't listen to him, I can do it for a better price!"

"Come to my shop, it's the best in Rush Valley!"

The two men ignored the pests as they both had the address for their destination memorized. Before long, they stood in front of Atelier Garfiel. Alistair placed his hand on Jame's shoulder, a small gesture to give the old man courage, then he opened the door.