The Barn

S J Smith

Word Count: 250

Disclaimer: Arakawa Hiromu and I are just like sisters – NOT.

Rating: K

Characters: Rezembool kids

Summary: The barn knows all the secrets

Series: Manga/FMA: B with a side step into Makoto Inoue's Under the Faraway Sky novel to include another Rezembool kid.

Warning: N/A

A.N.: Thanks to D. M. Evans for the first readthrough.

The barn was big and airy, though some people – some adults – would say it was dilapidated and about to fall down. The kids in Rezembool knew it was safe. Barns, after all, were built to last and as long as it wasn't leaning, like old man Haversham's barn, it was safe to play in. For the kids, it was a club house and a pirate ship (when they were older, someone would invariably ask, "Remember when Ed made Pitt walk the plank?" making everyone laugh), the hideout, the one place the adults never went.

So many secrets that barn held – Winry's first kiss (from Pitt, and she punched him afterward); the heart Alphonse scraped on the boards with a nail (but never finished writing in any names); the very first alchemic transmutation Edward did away from home (showing off to the crowd). Everyone knew the big kids sneaked down there to smooch and do other things and that the adults were always saying something about it needing to come down but that never happened.

No one was sure how the barn caught fire but it burned to the ground one night, leaving behind countless lost marbles, some farming tools, rusted beyond repair, and a couple of horseshoes that had hung on the walls. None of the adults cared – nothing of value had been destroyed. The kids knew better.

Eventually, the secrets the barn knew drifted away, except for one –

When he found out, Ed punched Pitt for kissing Winry first.