INAUDIBLE ECHO

Chapter 1: Walk Through a Valley and What's at the End?

Dammit! The stupid cochlea screw was loose again. She sighed as she banged the palm of her hand against her left ear, trying to disperse that water-in-the-ears feeling that came whenever she didn't take care of her automail for a long time. If she banged enough times it usually went away, but it also left her with a rather annoying headache, and anyone who talked to her sounded muffled and far away, and maybe she should just cut her losses and see a real mechanic instead of pretending her hearing aids were in peak condition. They hadn't worked properly since she'd gotten them, and was too lazy or too poor to have them fixed, usually the latter.

Rush Valley saw tons of foot traffic in its average day, what with almost every resident having an automail attachment of some kind – limbs, organs, even bones – everyone and their brother came to this town for automail or moved there to make it big in the mechanic field. Only problem was, people like her who couldn't afford their metal replacements were left on the unlucky side of the coin, or to put it simply, homeless.

Another empty can clattered on the cobblestone as she rummaged through a metal garbage pail for something to eat; so far she'd found half a loaf of stale bread and a can of expired beans, but she'd learned that the word expired doesn't exist when you're living like a raccoon. Giving the pail a kick she picked up her bread and beans and shoved them into the pockets of her cargo pants, picking a lint clot off of her moldy yellow sweater before strolling back to the main road. Taking the most crowded roads were tedious, but were the quickest way back to her cot in the alley behind Garfiel's. The flamboyant giant that was the best mechanic in town didn't look up as she passed him; too busy working if she had to guess, and climbed the rusty stairs on the side of his shop up to the roof. At the top was a collection of everything she owned. An old awning cover Garfiel had thrown out, put together with some mosquito netting to make a makeshift canopy over her cot, along with a pile of food and clothing beside it.

She ripped into the bread she found with her teeth, wolfing it down in a few bites and dropping the can of beans onto her cot for dinner later. Seeing that everything was exactly how she'd left it, she slid down the railing of the stairs and jumped the last two steps, kicking up dust as she did so. Time to go to work, she mused, wondering who she could pawn out of some cenz today. Maybe if she was lucky enough she'd get enough to buy food for…

"Mrrow!" an adorable voice purred from below her legs. A dusty brown tabby-cat rubbed against her ankles, climbing up her pant leg before resting across her shoulders, pushing its head against the underside of her chin.

"Hey, Pepper, you behaving?" she asked the animal as she scratched it behind its ears, earning happy purrs in return. Pepper had been her faithful pet since she was little, he fared better than her in the meals department, what with all the mice that tried to get into the automail shops, he never went hungry. She lifted the fat cat off her shoulders, dropping him back on the ground before continuing on her way.

"Oh Beryl!" a male yet feminine voice sang, sending a jolt up her spine, the kind you get as a kid when you've been caught doing something you shouldn't be. She smiled nervously at Garfiel, who was looking at her with his normal sparkly expression, only this time it was laced with knowing mirth.

"Yeah… Mr. Garfiel?" she replied, her words slightly slurred from lack of maintenance on her hearing aids, scratching the back of her head and finding a knot in her dust-brown hair. Pepper didn't follow her cautious nature, jumping up onto Garfiel's work-table without fear and purring as he settled down.

For a mechanic he was always weirdly clean, running a hand through his glossy black curls and giving her a wink. "I hope you're not getting into any trouble; boys don't make passes at girls who rob them blind." His cheeky smile combined with his teasing words put an itch on the back of Beryl's neck, and she scratched at it vigorously while avoiding eye contact.

"Trouble? I don't get into trouble… you're only in trouble if you get caught!" she hadn't meant to word it like that, but when she was nervous words always seemed to tumble out of her mouth like vomit.

Garfiel giggled coyly. "Oh I do wish you'd let me fix your hearing aids, too long without maintenance will hurt your ears, my dear." He waved a hand dismissively, knowing Beryl didn't like accepting free tune-ups, a nick she'd had since she started hiding out on his roof. He already let her get away with trespassing, and she didn't want to burden him further by using up his resources without pay. "Anyway, how have you been? Any cute boys in your life? Anyone you like?" he teased, the young girl's cheeks blooming pink as she scratched her cheek.

Garfiel burst into a fit of giggles before she could confirm or deny his question, and Beryl let out a sigh. She adjusted the dial on her left ear, hearing the telltale ring that came whenever she messed with her automail dissipate until it was ignorable. The large man reached into his cash register and slid her a wad of cenz bills across the table. "My last customer left a deliciously generous tip, so buy yourself something pretty, I insist!" his last words cut off any objections she would have had about accepting his generosity. "You can pay me back by accepting a tune up from the next person who offers, no take-backs young lady!"

Beryl laughed, pocketing the money and showing her teeth as she smiled at Garfiel. "Okay, thanks Mr. Garfiel! Come on Pepper," the cat stretched out on the work table before jumping down and following her as she jogged away from the shop.

She pulled up one of the sleeves on her sweater, not noticing the other sleeve falling down her shoulder and showing a strap of her grey tank; the most consistent part of her wardrobe besides her muddy hiking boots. Pepper trotted along beside her as she counted the bills Garfiel had given her, coming to about 1,000 cenz. She grinned at the paper slips; this was enough to buy bread that wasn't stale and beans that weren't expired, maybe even some fruit and meat if she spent it responsibly.

Letting her thoughts wander to things besides food, Beryl thought back to the mechanic's interrogation about whether or not she liked anybody. She was getting to that age after all, when girls who assumedly weren't homeless starting thinking about boys.

"Hm…" she mused out loud. "Someone I like huh?" she did genuinely think about it, but besides Garfiel and Pepper, Beryl didn't really talk to anyone let alone boys her age. "No, I don't think there is anybody…"

She blamed what happened next on her spacing out in a crowded sidewalk. Something big and metal bumped against her shoulder, and when she turned to apologize she was met with something she rarely got to see. It was a guy, well, it seemed like a guy, only he was in a suit of armor four times her size. Her eyes met glowing red dots inside a massive metal helmet, and for two seconds her mind went blank. Is that what people's eyes look like when in armor?

Beryl wouldn't notice until later that two other people were with the big guy, and while she wasn't looking where she was going, she stepped of Pepper's tail. The cat screeched in alarm, darting out into the street to flee from whatever stepped on him, ignoring everything else including Beryl calling for him, the armored guy forgotten.

Everything seemed to slow down in those moments, as Beryl saw the car that was driving down the road, the car that Pepper clearly wasn't seeing as he ran to the middle of the road. Throwing caution into the wind, and ignoring the odd echoing voice in the armor as it called out for her to wait, Beryl dashed after her cat. She scooped him up into her arms and crouched down in the fetal position once she realized she wasn't fast enough to avoid the car.

It was going to hit her.

Two seconds passed, a deafening crash of metal on metal reverberated in her hearing aids, bringing back that unavoidable ringing. Five seconds went by, and Beryl found herself questioning why she wasn't hurt, choosing to slowly open her eyes to see what had happened. Pepper wiggled free of her tight hold, but she hardly noticed amidst the scattered piece of the car around her and the armored guy who had stopped the car in the middle of the street, putting a deep and ugly imprint in the car.

People on the sidewalk were staring, and anther few seconds passed before she realized the vibrating white noise in her ears was actually the big guy trying to speak to her. She turned up the dials on her automail and stared at him, "W-what?" she asked.

A large metal hand extended towards her, "I said, are you alright?" the echo in his voice was nothing compared to how young he sounded, not nearly old enough to be big enough to fit in a suit of armor that big.

A significantly smaller boy with a blond braid cut her off before she could answer, "What in the hell is wrong with you?!" he shouted, flailing his arms and getting in her face. Beryl leaned back slightly, creeped out by how much anger could be packed into such a small guy. "You trying to get yourself killed running into the street like that?!"

"My Car!" another man cried, causing the two guys and Beryl to cringe slightly. That's right, that armored dude destroyed some guy's car in keeping it from squashing her…

The boy with the braid was now attempting to calm the car-owner down by offering to fix any damage, he did so by clapping his hands together and touching the front bumper of the car in a flash of bright blue light. Beryl had to blink a few times to figure out he'd fixed the car using alchemy, a common practice, but one she'd never bothered to learn.

Pushing herself to her feet, she brushed the dust off of her already dirty pants and simply walked away from the boy who'd saved her life. The loud one seemed to have qualms about this, shouting at her about so and so. "Hey! Don't walk away from me! We're not done here!"

"Wait! Are you sure you're not hurt?" the armored one called, sounding more concerned than his companion.

Beryl sighed and gave them a thumbs-up, "Don't worry about it, no harm done." She was almost rid of the weirdos when someone else grabbed her arm, firmly but not painfully.

A girl not much older than herself beamed at her with sparkling blue eyes, "I'm sorry, please don't think this is too forward but… can I please look at your automail?!" the girl pleaded, expression glowing with awe and curiosity.

So she's a mechanic too?

Almost everyone in town knew something or other about automail, and only the mechanics and engineers got this excited about it, meh, what's the harm?

"Uh, sure?"

The girl squealed excitedly, finding a couple stools seemingly out of nowhere and sitting Beryl down in one of them while she, in a scarily literal sense, picked her brain.

The blond boy interrupted once more, "Winry, we don't have time to make googly eyes at every rust bucket we pass! We need to find Paninya, Remember?!" Rust bucket?

However, the name Paninya sounded familiar, the poor sucker must have gotten his pockets cleaned when he wasn't looking; another unlucky addition to Rush Valley's normal hospitality. The blond girl, Winry, made a face. "Then go on without me, you don't need me to help look for your certification watch, you know what it looks like."

"I have half a mind to just leave you here! See how much you like this dump after that!" the boy pouted, his scowl deepening.

The guy in the armor scrambled to try and calm the little psycho down. "Brother! That's not polite!"

From what Beryl had gathered in the chaos that was playing out in front of her, the angry one and the armored guy were brothers, and the angry one got his watch stolen by Paninya. The Winry girl had said it was a certification watch, and Beryl had seen him use alchemy, he was young, possibly her age, but the signs pointed to him being a state alchemist. The girl looked like she knew a thing or two about automail given how giddily she was playing with her hearing aids, and they obviously weren't from around town.

Beryl's lips twitched upwards; maybe this was a blessing in disguise.

"Paninya stole your watch, huh?" she spoke up, interrupting the arguing between brothers.

The angry one pouted, "Yeah, my pocket watch, I can't do much without it and we lost her in the crowd earlier."

Beryl crossed her arms behind her head, "I'm not surprised, these people get excited about new automail, and out-of-townies like you practically have a red sign on your foreheads," she snickered, earning a scowl in return.

The other two of the trio did not share in his irritation, rather, Winry leaned forward curiously, "I take it you know about Paninya? Do you think you could show us where she lives? We can't really get around without Ed's watch," she smiled kindly, gesturing to the angry one, Ed, at least now he had a name.

In truth, Beryl didn't know squat about anyone in town other than herself and Garfiel, but if Ed the alchemist and his band of weirdos had any sort of sized wallet to show for it, and she played her cards right, she could get a lot more than bread for her next meal.

"Yeah, I know her, I can show you where she's currently squatting if you like." She watched their expressions light up. "But you have to do something for me first." Their faces deflated, and Beryl pointed to her ears. "My automail hasn't seen the best of days lately, if one were to be nice enough to repair them, then I'd be super grateful."

The blond girl practically exploded with glee, and Beryl gave the brothers a wink and a thumbs-up. "Throw in a meal for the road and we have a deal, whadya say?"

Ed responded by getting in her face with a mad glare, "Listen, you dusty street rat..." He began, steam practically blowing from his nose like a pissed off bull.

"Brother!"

Winry's demeanor changed from a child in a sweets' shop to the devil as she hit the alchemist with a deadly punch to the head. "Don't be so rude Ed! It's only fair, besides... I just have to take another look at that automail!" She dissolved into a flurry of questions about her hearing aids, like who made them and how had they combined the mechanical parts to her nerves without the use of surgery, even if to Beryl it all sounded like gibberish.

The armored guy made what sounded like an exasperated sigh, while Angry-Ed was taking deep breaths and trying not to wring Beryl's neck. He probably would have if Winry didn't look so happy over bits of metal in the girl's ears.

He groaned loudly. "Fine! Show us where Paninya lives and we'll buy you food... street rat." He muttered that last bit under his breath.

"Nope! Food first, then Paninya."

That scowl reappeared on his face, and his gloved hand formed a tight fist, but Beryl was undeterred. "Fine..." He extended his hand and gripped hers tighter than what was considered polite, and she winced slightly from how strong he was. Nonetheless they shook on it and their deal was set in stone.

Despite not feeling as hungry as she usually was, Beryl had torn into the food presented to her like a ravenous wolf. The angry alchemist had gone all out, buying much more food than what was considered a standard meal; he must've been pretty popular to have such money at his disposal and not even bat an eye. Chicken bones and plates of bread and fruit were being cleaned faster than the waitress could bring them, she ripped another hunk of meat from its leg as she noticed the trio staring at her with a mix of annoyance and curiosity.

"Want some?" she asked through mouthful of food.

Ed sucked his teeth, "No thanks… when was the last you ate anything?" he seemed genuinely considerate for a moment, before going back to his scowling.

Beryl swallowed, using the sleeve of her sweater to wipe the juices of the chicken and fruit from her face. "So how's a state alchemist lose track of his watch anyway?" she asked, dodging the boy's question and choosing instead to sate her own need for answers.

"Don't dodge the question!" he barked, shaking his fists. The armored boy ignored Ed's empty bickering, cocking his head – or – helmet, why was he wearing a whole suit of armor in the middle of the day anyway? A question for later.

His weird red eyes looked at her, "How did you know he was a state alchemist?"

Beryl used her fingers to pull a bit of meat off the bone, leaning down to drop it on the floor for Pepper as she'd been doing since the first course came. "I saw him fix that guy's car with alchemy, and state alchemists carry around a pocket watch for identification right? I kinda figured," she explained as she popped a fat red grape into her mouth, almost purring as she felt the skin break and spill vibrant juice across her tongue.

"Oh yeah…" the Winry girl muttered, "We never got your name!"

She twirled her one dust brown braid around her finger, pushing away the plate of fruit stems and bare bones, full and satisfied, Beryl figured a name didn't do much harm.

"Beryl Desiree, a pleasure," she flashed a smile and a wink, to the amusement of Winry and the armored guy and opposite to mister state alchemist.

The shorter one crossed his arms across his chest, not making any move to return the polite favor until Winry roughly elbowed him in the rib, he sneered before jabbing a thumb to his chest. Beryl vaguely remembered feeling a metal pinch on her hand when she shook his, making her wonder just why he was visiting Rush Valley in the first place.

"My name is Edward Elric, and I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist."

This, is an experiment, I bingewatched this entire series in the span of two days, and then came the fanfictions and the art and just UHHHHHHH I can't. I read a story called Insomniacs, perhaps you've heard of it, and I was inspired! This will be Al x OC, but it won't be as prominent as it was in Insomniacs, nothing against that story its just my preference. Al and Beryl are both 14 after all, so waaaaaay down the line there'll be some fluff and drama but not much else. And yes, Beryl is deaf. So when I develop her more and get a plan straight, i'll keep this going. I hope you like it, chao!