One Shoe

The young man spouted expletives colorful enough to make a sailor blush. Only, he dared not say them out loud, no, he kept them confined inside his own mind. Edward Elric already tested those waters, having cursed his absent father and gained no response good or bad from the man. To his credit, Van Hohenheim must have read some child psychology manuals as he stood stoic and firm when his sixteen-year-old son told him just exactly, where he could go the day he came to pick them up for Central City.

Ed failed to convince the old bastard how uprooting him and his younger brother from the only life they knew was unfair. He berated the good doctor for waiting until now, after all, Trisha died three years earlier and the boys lived just fine on their own. Unfortunately, Hohenheim and Child Protective Services teamed up against them on that issue and the old man and the government won the battle. It seemed two teenagers raising themselves in rural Amestris was not as an ideal situation as being raised by a successful and financially secure emergency room physician. What Ed didn't know was how their little town of Resembool had rallied to keep the boys in their home when their father first came to get them. He and his brother did know how they always had hot meals either brought to them or invites to eat with their neighbors. They knew that someone was watching over them, fixing the house and making sure they had fuel to keep it warm and toasty in the winter.

"Ed?" Al's voice brought the boy back to the bleak reality that he and his little brother were on the diesel train headed right to Central City so they could now live with their dumb father, a person they didn't even know. And, summer break was about over so they'd be starting high school in a strange place with strange people.

"Hmmm?"

"Do you think Dad is a bad person?" Alphonse always held fast to the belief that something beyond the old man's control tore him from his family, despite the fact that he knew their dad never married their mom and left on his own accord when the love ceased.

"Don't know." He paused for a moment. "There's got to be an angle for him...something for him to gain by taking us in as our guardian." He snorted. "Like I NEED a guardian." He crossed his arms and huffed.

"No, we were happy back home. I miss the old house." Alphonse sighed. "I'm worried what it will be like in Central. I don't like not knowing anyone either."

"You stick close to me, you'll be just fine." Edward tried to reassure his brother, but his voice still carried trepidation.

Winry saw the parking lot lights from the high school coming up fast, she had to slow down to make the left turn, the wheels on her mountain bike whirring pleasantly. She loved riding the trails in the woods behind the school, especially so early in the morning when the dew and fog beat down the summer heat. She hated waking up early, especially on a Saturday morning but this feeling of freedom and the cool mist in the woods on her skin made it worth missing the extra winks. Besides, school started this coming Monday and she'd need to get in as many rides as she could before the weather turned. The girl smiled knowing only frozen mud and snow would keep her from riding the trail she adored.

A bright red blob of color just peaking through the fog caught her eye. As she came closer, Winry realized that it was a car parked beside the curb leading up to the school. She didn't pay it much attention other than to file away the image, make and model: brand new Ford Mustang. She'd make sure to tell Granny, Gramps and Pitt when she got back home. They loved this type of car. Winry loved to drive them, but taking them apart and putting them back together could make a fun weekend too. The girl smiled again, thinking the car probably belonged to some stupid kid who didn't know how to properly appreciate the horsepower under the hood when driving the thing. She pedaled faster, heading off the concrete and into the grass leading to the woods and her beloved trail.

His stomach churned and rolled with sickness, waking him with a start. The boy couldn't remember how he arrived at the high school or why he sat shotgun in his new car, but he remembered stealing the bottle of bourbon from the bastard parent and making Al drive the shiny new red car said bastard presented him with as a truce symbol. The gift only enraged Edward, like the old fart could buy his forgiveness for all the absent years and suddenly ripping the two of them from the only life they knew. Alphonse, being too young to drive, pouted a little when Hohenheim gifted his brother the automobile. This was short lived as bastard-dad handed the boy a wad of cash and a new laptop. Despite not having his license yet, the younger Elric had learned to drive the Renbeck's farm truck so Ed's sweet mustang came as no challenge for him.

"Brother?" Al rubbed his sleepy eyes getting his own liquor head ache. Though he didn't imbibe as much as Edward, the boy took sips of the expensive bourbon as he drove his enraged brother around so the elder could get wasted. When he started to feel the effects, he pulled over at the high school so they could sit and continue drinking safely.

"God damn-it." Ed swore as he rubbed his head, trying to force the hangover away.

"That bad, huh?" Al chuckled. "You know, if we sought to make Dad worried and mad, I think we're successful."

"Good. What the hell was he thinking getting me a fucking car." Edward mirrored his brother's laughter with his own. "He's supposed to be so smart. He's a dumbass."

"I'm surprised we've not seen any cops. Do you suppose he's looking for us?"

"Who cares." Edward looked over meeting his brother's golden eyes. "Let's just rest off the drunk a bit, and go find some pancakes. You're buying." The boy's smile widened, showing his pointy canines.

"Yeah." Al rested his head back and gazed through the mist, not seeing anything in particular. "We'll face the music after breakfast." After all, what could Hohenheim do that was worse than already turning their lives upside down. "You're probably going to loose your car, though...for a while."

Both boys laughed hysterically at that comment until their throbbing heads forced them to stop.

She wished she could spend more time on her bike, but it had already been forty minutes and she had the Camaro to work on with Gran and Gramps today. As much as the cool woodland trail held her interest, learning how to replace that old engine piqued it more. The muscle car was her baby anyhow, she earned it and if she ever wanted to actually drive it she'd have to get it running somehow. This meant a shorter morning ride. Winry emerged from the forest and pedaled up the hill until her tires met grass, then pavement. She finally came to the brick structure of the school and found that the fog dispersed more since she started. There, by the main entrance, the red mustang sat, only this time, she made out two occupants in the front seat. Curiosity got the better of her, she just had to see who owned the beautiful car. Probably some old guy sleeping off a drunk, but the girl figured she'd zoom by so fast she'd be able to evade any old creeps. Without any further thought, she coasted down the sidewalk of the school and directly toward the parked car. Her bike picked up speed and she pedaled faster.

"Ugh, Al, I have to take a leak." Ed groaned and fiddled with the door handled on the passenger side. "I'm driving, so get out." He bossed his brother gaining a huff in response.

"What if you're still drunk? You better let me drive to the restaurant, Brother."

"I'm fine!" He pushed the handle, the door opening a bit as he yelled. "Just move your ass!" With those final words, he threw the door open with a jerk.

SMASH!

The door slammed back before the boy could exit. Something hard and fast hit it, pushing it back. The brothers looked at each other for a second before they heard soft moaning coming from outside. Alphonse got out of the car first.

"Ed! Get out here, quick!"

Edward dreaded seeing the inevitable. Although neither of them saw a person on a bike, he knew that's what happened – he'd opened his door just as some idiot zoomed past. In other words, he was in deep shit trouble. He trudged out of the car to see just what he expected.

"Fuck." A mangled bicycle lay on the grass, its front wheel bent and unusable. On the hard sidewalk in a pool of blond hair and bright spandex, lay a girl. "You asshole! Look at my car!" Indeed, he only saw the huge dent in the door. The girl's moans of pain made him take pause if only for a moment.

"Brother!" Alphonse corralled him to the body on the sidewalk, the blonde girl now clutched her left eye and struggled to sit upright. "Hey, are you ok?" His voice turned from brash and striking toward his sibling to kind and soft toward the hurt girl. Al knelt down to try and help her up. She couldn't stand and landed back down on her rump.

"What the hell happened?" She garbled as blood fell from a cut in her hairline. Her vision, too was affected and her head felt like someone whacked her with a baseball bat. Winry realized she must have taken the fall on the concrete right at her left orbital area. She wondered if she fractured her skull. It figured. School started Monday and having a nice black eye and stitches sounded just about right.

"You ran right into my car, that's what happened!" Ed paced around them not sure what to do.

"Edward! Stop it!" Al had just enough. "She's hurt!"

"He's too worried about his stupid car to care." Winry finally stood up and wobbled a bit before Al's hand on her shoulder steadied her. Thinking about almost being killed and the little blond moron only worried about the dent her now mangled bike made on the car door caused anger to grow wildly inside her. Her mangled bike. The girl caught blurry sight of her second baby splayed out dead as a door nail on the grass beside the sidewalk. The bicycle's front tire was bent unnaturally as was her frame. "Son of a bitch!" Winry broke from Alphonse's helping hands and staggered over to her broken bike. She didn't make it far before everything started spinning. "You little twerp! Why didn't you watch before opening the door!" Her one good eye stared a hole in the center of Edward's head.

"Just who the fuck are you calling little! And, YOU weren't watching where YOU were going either!" Ed pointed at her as he shouted.

Whack!

The shoe sailed through the air and hit the young man square on the face, knocking him back a step. He never even saw the girl slip it off her foot.

"Dumb jerk!" Winry tried to right her body after throwing her left shoe at the asshole who destroyed her bike. However, the spinning world caught up with her and she no longer could stand. Things went fuzzy then blue and she was out. The girl fell right into Edward, who caught her before she injured the other side of her face. He held onto her as a little girl would hold a spider for the first time, all the while glaring at his brother until he finally let her body come softly to the concrete sidewalk.

"Let's bail!" He almost made it to the car before his brother's hand firmly on the back of his t-shirt collar caused his body to spring backward, swinging him around until they met eye to golden eye. Al's stern face told him that they were not going to leave the girl there.

"I think we need to call Dad."

"God, Al. I'm in so much fucking trouble!" Two things, well, THREE things came to his mind. One, he and his brother were out all night in the new car. Two, said new car now had a huge dent. Three, he may or may not have killed a girl.

"Ed...just get the cell phone and call him, please?" Al knelt to the concrete and made sure Winry was breathing, finding that she was just out cold, he waited until his brother returned from the car holding his iphone. Edward fidgeted with the display and held the phone to his ear.

"Hey." The boy's voice carried great trepidation, not knowing what to expect. "Dad...we've got a problem."

Seven-forty in the morning on a Saturday was a terrible time to wait in Central City Hospital's Emergency room. Not that it was all that crowded, but because his head throbbed from a wicked hangover and his stomach growled in protest of being empty. Edward shifted his butt from left to right cheek in the suspiciously hard vinyl seat as his brother snored softly beside him. After a while of this, a pretty brunette nurse exited the beige-wood double doors and motioned to the two to follow her. Edward smacked Alphonse's head to rouse him and the two followed her back to a long row of emergency room patient cubes until stopping and motioned them to enter one.

"Dad?" Alphonse tried to smile as he met the golden but bespectacled eyes of Van Hohenheim staring hard and stern back at his idiot boys. The blond girl sat upright on a bed, a bandage wrapped around her head.

"Boys." Van's voice carried with it both lecture and disappointment. "This is Winry Rockbell." He turned to glare specifically at Edward. "Both she and you are lucky she only has a concussion. I think you owe her an apology." The girl smiled evilly at Edward.

"What?" Ed tried not to pounce. "She ran into my car door!"

"You opened it!" Winry exploded but fell back to nurse her sore head.

"Whatever!" Edward's own head pounded with all the yelling.

"I don't care what or how it happened, it ended up with someone sustaining a head wound. Say you're sorry, Edward."

"Fine...I'm sorry you don't know how to watch where you're going and hit my door."

Whack!

"Ow!" Edward hollered as his own brother kicked him hard in the shin marking and end to the bickering. "Ok, ok." He rubbed his leg and smirked at Al. "Winry, I'm really sorry I...I...caused you to wreck, I'm sorry you got hurt."

"I think that's as good as I'm going to get." She smiled and let Van help her down from the bed.

"Let me also apologize for my sons...it's been, well a challenge for us all recently." He didn't want to elaborate more on bringing the boys to Central City and their resistance to both the move and to him. "I have to finish my shift but think they are able to drive you home...please let them because it will be a good LONG while before they will be driving that car or any car." His cold glare froze both his sons in their shoes.

"Um...no...no thank you. It's not really far, I'll just walk." Winry started to leave but Van's authoritative voice stopped her.

"I can't let you do that. You need to go home and rest, you need someone to check on you hourly too." He handed her the discharge papers with instructions on home care for a concussion. "I can call someone to pick you up."

"No!" She pleaded with him and none of them knew why she just didn't let the boys take her home. She sighed in defeat. "Alright, they can take me home...and I have my grandmother to check on me."

"Great...then follow us." Ed motioned to the door, not missing his father crossing his arms as if to tell him more punishment was in store for them when he got home. The boy started to sweat.

A minute later and the trio found Ed's not so perfect car in the hospital garage, the giant dent marring the otherwise exquisiteness that once was. Edward dug into his pants pocket for his keys and unlocked the doors. Alphonse, being a gentleman, pushed back the passenger seat and squished himself in the tiny backseat space so Winry could ride shotgun. This kind act didn't go unnoticed by the girl.

"Really?" She turned to Edward. "You should let you're brother drive, he's bigger than you and is all scrunched up back there." Alphonse gulped in response.

"Do you wanna ride in the trunk with your bike?" Ed grumbled but held back, he just wanted to drop off this girl and enjoy his last ride in the car.

"Hmmph." Winry also bit her tongue. She also just wanted to crash back home and hoped Gran would still let her at least observe them working on her Camaro, but doubted it now that she was injured.

"So, are you gonna tell me where to take you or want me to guess and drive around Central for hours?" Suddenly, the latter didn't seem so bad to him, at least he'd not have to face his Dad and get to drive longer.

"Right...um..." The girl knew there was no way out of it, the doctor's son's were going to see where she lived and the of that made her sicker than her throbbing head. "Do you know where the industrial section of Central City is?"

"Yeah?" Edward started the car and drove out of the garage.

"Head there and I'll tell you where to turn." She buckled her seat belt.

After a few minutes, the three found themselves parked in front of a small yellow house dwarfed by dark, smoke-stained brick buildings. The train track ran across the street from the house which only cemented the strangeness of the dwelling in this bleak industrial section of town. The home may have been in an ugly area, but it was neat and clean, rather shining yellow in the sea of gray. Adjacent to the house was a cinder-block garage with three car bays. A large sign, as bright as the house itself, hung high over the middle of the structure and read, "Rockbell Auto." The whole back lot of the garage section was hemmed in with a high, worn privacy fence.

"This is me." Winry opened the damaged passenger door and painfully exited the car. She held back the seat so Alphonse could also get out and take her place in the front. She shut the door and scrutinized the dent. "You know, I could fix that, if you want."

"Really?" Edward's gloom suddenly turned cheerful thinking about his car pristine once again.

"Well, it'll cost you...not doing it for free." She smirked.

"You caused it!"

"No, you did!"

"Ok, let's stop this." Al, the voice of reason piped up. "You know, I don't think I ever introduced myself." He leaned through the open window and extended his hand. "I'm Alphonse Elric...and you probably already heard from Dad that this..." He thumbed at his grumpy brother. "Is my older brother Edward." Winry shook his hand.

"I would have figured you the older one."

"Hey!" Ed answered.

"Brother is really sorry you got hurt. We hope to see you around, okay?" The boy's incredible smile melted any anger left in the girl and she smiled back.

"Sure." She turned and walked toward the house, wobbling wearing one shoe and one green hospital sock.. The boys waited until she was safe inside and drove away.

"Making a date?" Edward chided.

"Maybe." Al daydreamed a bit until they were miles away and reached the gate to their community. He watched as Ed punched in the code and the iron gate swung open and his brother drove through. They passed multimillion dollar estates until coming upon their own driveway and gate. It was only after they entered and found the beat-up car parked safely in the garage did he remember. "Oh no!"

"What?"

"Her bike is in the trunk."

"Yeah, well, maybe we can do something about that." A sly smile crept across Ed's face, one Al had grown to know and fear. "Some sort of equivalent exchange?"

Alphonse hoped he would approve of whatever numskull plan Edward's brain manufactured.