"Hello?" Edward answered the phone.
"Rockbell residence?" a male voice on the other side asked.
"Yes. Who's talking?"
"It's David Russell, could I talk to Winry?"
That David? He was an old classmate, yes, but where did he come from? And why did he have their phone number? "Hello," he greeted him icily, "I'm Edward. Edward Elric."
"...Elric?" he seemed surprised, "That Elric? What are you doing there?"
Seriously? The first thing that came to his mind was to ask what Edward was doing there? As if that was the weirdest thing. If anything, why that bastard had just called Winry? "I live here!" Ed said.
"Do you live with Winry?"
"Yup," He answered aseptically and a little triumphant.
"C'mon, I didn't know…how are you doing it?" he was trying to be all friendly.
What an obnoxious, two-faced – Ed thought. "Fine, thank you," and he wasn't about to ask him the same; that guy was lucky if Ed just answered him.
"I'm glad. Can I talk to Winry?"
What a stubborn one. "No. Winry cannot answer," he lied. "Bye," it feels like they're back at school.
"Hey Elric, just give her a message from me."
Edward remained silent on the phone and didn't hang up just because he was curious to know where it was going.
"I wanted her to confirm our appointment for Saturday, I'll pick her up at 19. Bye," and he hung up.
The alchemist felt like he was sinking in a swamp. Literally. He stood there and didn't even hang up, as if everything around him had become terribly dark. What he felt was a mixture of anger and disappointment, he didn't even know against who. He felt like he got played and at the same time like he had lost his only grip in the middle of a storm.
"Nii-san?" Alphonse's voice surprised him, "Who was it?"
"Uh...?" Ed just whispered.
"What's up? You're white as a sheet! Is everything ok?
"No. Nothing is ok at all. It was David Russell on the phone and he wanted to talk with Winry."
"Who?" the youngest of the Elrics thought about it for a moment, that name reminded him of something, "Ah, the guy you couldn't stand at school!" Then he realized better, "Why did he call, where does he come out now?"
Fortunately there was Alphonse who could understand him. "That's what I asked myself!" growled his older brother accordingly.
"What did he want from Winry?"
"An appointment, he wanted that she would confirm an appointment," he spat in one breath. "You had to hear him, so bragging, he told me to spite me…the hell I put her on! Bastard!"
"What do you mean, an appointment? When?"
"For Saturday night," he gritted his teeth. "Do you realize? But who he thinks he is?"
Alphonse didn't know what to think, he was as surprised as Ed was. Winry hadn't mentioned it. It was also true that, since they had grown up, she no longer opened up on them as they were kids, but he was convinced that she would have told them something like that.
Unlike Edward, who at that moment looked like a whirlwind made of anger, Al thought about it lucidly but, at the same time, he knew that it would be better to appease his brother's mind first, to prevent his head from exploding. "It seems very strange to me, nii-san." First of all, send the message to Winry as soon as she comes back in." Winry was in fact putting her washing out in the garden, "It's not nice you didn't tell her but, at least, you could always rationalize telling her that you didn't want to bother her."
"Don't even talk about it! I won't tell her anything!"
"Brilliant..." Al wryly commented, "So you'll find that guy out here anyway Saturday."
"Let him try showing up here, that bug!" he threatened angrily.
"Look, Winry will get angry if she finds out you didn't tell her."
"SHE WHAT?" he shrieked in the highest voice he could do, "SHE'S NOT THE ONE WHO GETS TO BE MAD!"
"I know, nii-san, I understand your feelings, but if you think about it, you may have misunderstood, maybe we're worrying for no reason. Maybe Winry doesn't know anything about it. Well, according to you this guy has always had a lot of nerve and he could have organized everything by himself...probably also to annoy you, since surely you have seemed nervous," and he added this last part with the tone of someone who knows his brother so well that he could calmly picture the scene in his mind.
Edward looked at him sideways. He was contemplating the hypothesis that his brother was right and Alphonse had no doubt he would. He had always been a little vain, so the idea that the guy could say those things just to annoy him seemed entirely plausible to him. "In fact, he has always hated me as much as I hated him, the way I answered must have bothered him! What a total dick!"
Al also thought that, to tell the truth, Ed's descriptions, in cases where there was some bitterness, were not so reliable, especially if Winry was involved. Alphonse didn't know this Russell but, objectively, he had to acknowledge that his brother named anyone approaching her as a bastard.
"But honestly..." the elder continued, "If someone had called Mei, what would you have done?"
"I'd go to him and beat him up."
"DAMN, LET'S GO THEN!"
"There is a certain difference, though," said Al.
"What? What would it be?" he was really going out of his way.
"She knows what I feel for her, so she feels obliged to tell me certain things. In other words, I have a little right to know; you don't. I'm sorry if I sound mean, but it's true."
As if it were possible, unlike any other human being who would have been depressed and saddened by agreeing with Alphonse, Ed became even more angry "AAARGH!"
"What happens here?" Winry arrived with a clean towel in her hands.
Alphonse nudged his big brother and Edward, reluctantly, mumbled something…that Winry couldn't understand.
"What do you say?" asked Winry.
"Russell called," he repeated.
"Oh."
OH? Had she answered OH? No surprise? Edward was literally losing his mind.
"And?...What did he want...?" she insisted on, waiting for the rest of the message.
"What did he want..." Ed just whispered mimicking her. "Don't you already know what he wanted?"
That's great. It started very badly – Alphonse thought, feeling guilty for having egged him on with Mei's example.
"How can I know?" the girl answered candidly.
"He wanted you to confirm your app..." he stumbled over the last word as if he had suddenly lost his breath. "He said you have to confirm that you can meet him," he decided to change course.
"Ah, does he still need it?" was Winry's comment at that point.
Alphonse's eyes widened, Edward was now a creature of fire and ice at the same time: the head wrapped in flames and clenched granite fists.
Attempting to mask his feelings, he inhaled deeply and opened the fridge with unnaturally casual air. "Oh, have you met other times before?" he asked in a whisper. And then 'he still need' what?
"Sure!"
Only Alphonse, from his perspective, could see the smoke coming out of his brother's bubbling head – Or was it his soul abandoning him?
"And when would this appointment be anyway?" the blonde girl continued.
Edward was too wrapped up in his anger, so Alphonse, that looked like one who knows what he's doing, replied: "Saturday at 7 pm, he will come and get you."
TRAITOR! – Ed screamed mentally, sticking him with his eyes.
"Ok, great, thanks." she started to leave while Edward felt himself falling on his own knees but, suddenly, she exclaimed, "Saturday night…? But I don't work on Saturday night!"
Alphonse, looking pleased, had a sip of his coffee, satisfied because he was right.
"Oh no! Is he still hang up on that?" the girl rolled her eyes.
"What are you talking about?" Ed immediately reawakened, showing his claws. "Do you know what all this means?"
Winry turned to him, "He's my client."
"Really? I didn't realize that," he commented sarcastically. "And what is it that he misses? A leg? An arm? A foot? His head?..." and he decided to stop there so as to keep it clean.
"He doesn't lack a thing. His cat is my client, actually."
"Awww," Alphonse's heart was softened.
Immediately Edward glared at him again. "And what does this have to do with Saturday night?"
"Ed," the girl addressed him directly, "I don't understand why you're making such a big deal, I know you never really liked him but he's still my client."
"A customer to whom you give your phone number."
Okay, now he's acting like a jealous boyfriend – Alphonse thought, wondering if he was the only one in that kitchen who had noticed it.
"Well, if I did it, maybe I needed to do it," but then, believing that her explanation could sound ambiguous, she added, "I've known him for a long time, he's a friend...he's not exactly a customer like any other."
Winry... – That last sentence echoed in Ed's head like a time bomb. He thought that was the description that belonged to him alone. But perhaps he had never been her favorite client, the special one, as he thought. And then he became very demoralized. Even in this case, however, the fact of being cast down didn't have the same effect on Ed that it would have on anyone else, but made him more aggressive than a grizzly.
"That bastard is your friend? But if he's always been obnoxious!"
"Ed, you were always the one who was picking fights with him because you detested him."
"Of course, because he was a stupid asshole!"
"Not with me, he has always been kind."
"Oh, please…I wonder why," he muttered in a low voice.
"Do not grumble please, you know I cannot stand it, and anyway thank you for telling me, now I'll call him back."
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? – Ed felt the urgency to stop her immediately, so, as soon as Winry grabbed the phone, he placed his hand on hers and put it back into place. "What do you want to tell him?"
Winry, astonished, answered him with all the calm that she managed to recover, "That the appointment will obviously be during the day if he needs it, and that he misunderstood me."
But Edward didn't seem to subside and, although he was trying to hide it, Al didn't fall for it, understanding perfectly where he was getting at. "Misunderstood you?"
Two words to start apocalypse.
"Well...you know...he tried to regain confidence by remembering when we were children...As soon as he saw me, he hugged me-"
"Oh, he has also become a pervert! Not that I'm surprised, really," he interrupted her.
Winry ignored him, "Then, he kept coming and sometimes he didn't really need it...When I saw that it went too far, I made him realize that I'm not interested but it seems he didn't understand. "
"Went too far?" Edward took a deep breath, always pretending to be calm. Winry thought all his hatred was clearly and entirely addressed to that guy, so it didn't seem strange to her at all.
"The usual stuff...you know."
"Um...no, really, I don't know…and you, Al, do you know?" he played dumb bringing his brother into that but he was clearly provocative.
"You're kidding me, Ed, what's it, you don't think a nice guy can flirt with me?"
"That idiot is nice?" he focused only and solely on that word and not on the fact that Winry was about to take offense seriously. When the problem was that Edward thought it could totally happen. That was precisely why he was flipping out.
"Oh, you know what I mean, and here's a news flash: yes, it's possible, he brought me flowers, he asked me out, asked me out to dinner..."
"Pfft, flowers? What a loser!" he laughed nervously. He was so mad with jealousy that he would have strangled him willingly with his own hands.
"Evidently I deserve them, even if you can find it ridiculous or impossible! He likes me and also a lot! Maybe I should reconsider him!"
"Yes, go ahead, he will also be a depraved jerk but, hey, after so many hours of work you can go out with someone who doesn't need spare parts!"
It was a moment. Winry clenched her jaw, her eyes got big and slapped him in the face.
Then she stood with her head down. When she raised up her head, through the tears that spilled out of her eyes, she saw Ed massaging his cheek. Did I ever make you think you're a burden to me...? she wanted to tell him. But, instead, she whispered, with a lump in her throat, "You're right, maybe I should."
Winry was sure now, Edward didn't really care about her, not the way she wanted. She had to stop expecting something from him. That was what – in addition to the sadness of his statement – made her cry even louder, to the point that she had to run away to avoid doing it in front of him.
Alphonse was so sorry and went after her, "Winry..."
"Leave me alone, Al..."
After she left, Alphonse was face to face with his older brother, "Nii-san, that was completely off the rails. Winry didn't deserve it."
Edward found himself alone, wondering if he had deserved it in a way.