Fanfic: Telephone (Fullmetal Alchemist)

[nebroadwe]

Title: Drabbles: Telephone
Fandom: FMA (manga version)
Character(s): Winry
Pairing: very early, one-sided(?) Winry/Ed
Rating: G
Word Count: 300
Warnings: Implicit spoilers for chapters 56 and 64.
A/N: Three drabbles about Winry that bunnied earlier today as I was thinking about my in-progress fic "Errands of the Eye" (aka "Winry and Paninya go to the movies"), which is by-golly going to get finished someday! Consider this a kind of preview. These drabbles are only my second sidling approach to romance; concrit welcomed with the ringing of bells and the freedom of the city. Crossposted from nebroadwe to Höllenbeck (i.e. hagaren_manga, fm_alchemist, fullservicefma, fma_het, fma_writers, fma_fiction, winrylovers and ed_winry).
Dedication: For tobu_ishi, master of the romantic drabble.

---

Dial Tone

Automail is a noisy business. Every competent engineer learns to sift sounds of order (or incipient disorder) from cacophony. Winry knows she's competent, but lately her ears trick her: she hears the telephone bell in the overtones of drills and saws, screaming as they bite into steel, in their motors' burring whine and even in the forge's hiss and clang. One morning she woke trying to answer her alarm clock, which was just embarrassing. Garfiel worries her about tinnitus when not teasing her about absence's effects.

Sometimes she wishes they hadn't called. Mostly, she wonders whether to call him back.

≈
Voice Message

Sensation is automail's Philosopher's Stone. Engineering makes the lame leap like a stag; why shouldn't it give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf? So Winry sketches the human ear: the tympana, the ossicles, the petrous labyrinth. Do sounds, she wonders, ever get lost in there, never reaching the vestibulocochlear nerve? Is that why she still hears his words (Are you all right?) as clear and puzzling as they were that day -- and as warming?

She snorts and crumples the sketch, ignoring her own blush. I hear what you said, Edward Elric. Why can't I hear what you meant?

≈
Disconnected

Winry stares at the disassembled knee on her workbench, but sees the wall by the telephone and the calendar with its picture of snow-streaked mountains brooding over an autumn forest. That's that. They're off again. Next time they call, it'll be because Ed's leg's too short or his elbow's seized up or ...

She won't think about "or". Ed's disregard for her masterworks is enough to make a dedicated engineer weep, but at least the repair bills pay her apprenticeship fees. And he'll always need his mechanic, her mind whispers.

The next time the telephone rings, she lets Garfiel answer it.

[Disclaimers: Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) was created by Arakawa Hiromu and is serialized monthly in Shonen Gangan (Square Enix). Copyright for this property is held by Arakawa Hiromu and Square Enix. All rights reserved.]

Comments

[goldensniper.livejournal.com]

I must agree with the others, you are awesome at writing these small Fics!
Please continue the good work. =D

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! My heart's really in the longer stuff -- ask me about my post-manga Al-in-Xing story, which looks more and more possible the more I write, despite being novel-length -- but the nice thing about the short forms (besides the writing exercise) is that they get done faster. Nothing eggs me on like accomplishment. :-)

[light-rises.livejournal.com]

Xing? Post-manga? AL? BZUH?!

*cough* That is to say, you have my interest.



It may or may not be worth noting that I recall having a similar reaction (particularly the "Al" and "BZUH" parts) to your mention of a possible post-movie WWII thriller/romance. Apparently, my radar for finding -- or at least hoping for -- good Al-centric stories has been unusually strong as of late. XD;;;

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Xing? Post-manga? AL? BZUH?!

Oh, dear. I don't want to raise hopes, because the Al-in-Xing story has a late plot hole I haven't yet figured out how to resolve and in general intimidates me on grounds of length (I've never yet managed to complete a novel-length piece). Then there's all the research issues (which start with architecture, costume, food, science and music and just ramify out in all directions. Yiigh.). But I do find myself coming back to the idea in my leisure moments. It starts with the backstory proposition that the price Ed pays to restore himself and Al is his ability to perform alchemy. Al, on the other hand, retains his alchemical talents, and has become fascinated by Xing's rentanjutsu. The brothers have a clash of PTSDs -- Ed flailing around a little, trying to figure out what to do with his life now and trying not to be jealous of Al; Al wanting to practice alchemy but uneasily aware of how much it hurts his brother to watch, coping with the psychological aftermath of his own ordeal and trying not to "act sick" around his brother, lest Ed lose what sense of victory he has -- so Al decides the best thing he can do is leave for a while. He pulls some strings, acquires permission to study abroad, gets his Xingese up to speed at a Central University course for aspiring diplomats, and heads off for one of the Empire's moderately-sized cities to apprentice himself to a master there.

But when the story actually begins, a year or so into his apprenticeship, Al's having trouble. He seems happy enough, wandering through the market, greeting people, enjoying the early spring weather, but all is not well. He's hit a wall in his comprehension of rentanjutsu and his progress has stalled. He's also having screaming nightmares that upset the equilibrium of the entire household; they're kind to him about it, but it shames him and it's starting to grate on everyone's nerves. Meanwhile, the master of the house has called his youngest daughter, Meizhi, home from her studies at the Imperial Academy of Music and she's furious. All she's ever wanted to be is a court musician, despite her middle-class family's disapproval (court musicians don't have the best moral reputation) and only the support of her eldest brother, a magistrate with court connections through his wife, has enabled her to pursue her dream. But she can't ignore her father's summons, and now he introduces her to Al, explaining that she will play for him at night so that he can sleep properly. Cue appalled looks from the two youngsters ... neither of whom have any idea what this therapeutic alliance is going to precipitate them into. Because the Empire is preparing for its Grand Census and the cut-throat politics of that event reach every corner of Xingese society ...

And now I sound like a blurb writer. :-) I've made all kinds of plot notes for this story and acted entire scenes out in my head (including the big action sequence that culminates in a low-speed chase through the sewers), but I haven't actually written anything down yet. I'm not sure I ever will. But every now and then I page another book on Qing-era China from the University's Museum library and take another page of cultural notes, so who knows?

Peace!

[light-rises.livejournal.com]

And now I sound like a blurb writer. :-)

*laughs* Just a tad, maybe, but it's a very intriguing blurb nonetheless. I agree about the ambitiousness of the project though, now that I know more about it -- so much to juggle all at once (hooray for political intrigue and authors who deal with post-restoration!Al and Ed to the effect that all isn't sunshine and flowers...and is that a David/King Saul parallel I see there?), and the research...*boggles* Needless to say, I can understand if this story never comes to fruition.

...Alternatively, I may very well be among the first to "squee" if I ever see a chapter of this surface online. So... *crosses fingers* XD