Winry quickly shoved you out of the light, hiding you.
"Stay quiet and out of sight!" She ordered.
"Run girls!" Pinako demanded angrily. Neither you nor Winry moved.
You curled up in the darkness and slowed your breathing as best you could. The echo of stomping came from the stairs, and all of you watched as a dark object appeared in the stairwell. It quickly moved into the shadows in the room, growling as it went.
It nearly touched you as it made its movements around the darkness. You had to quickly move yourself to prevent your discovery.
"You!" The creature yelled. "What are you doing here!?" The creature stared intently at Winry, golden eyes glowing in the darkness.
"I-I'm here to get my grandmother. Sh-she's grown sick here, so if you don't mind we'll just leave and be on our way," Winry's usual calm composure was replaced with one of fear.
"She's not leaving! She's my prisoner! She intruded here, so now she gets to stay here, permanently!"
"Please, there must be some way that you'll let her go!" Winry begged. Her expression changed, an idea popping into her head. "Wait!"
The creature stopped moving and glanced back at her. Winry slowly stepped forward into the lone light in the room.
"Take me instead."
You restrained yourself from screaming in protest to stay hidden. Aunt Pinako, on the other hand, didn't have to worry about stealth.
"No Winry! Don't you dare!" She shouted.
The room was silent as the creature thought it over, weighing his options. From the staircase, you swore you heard the clanking of metal, and hasty whispers of human voices.
'There must be other people here,' you thought. 'Could there be other prisoners like Pinako?'
"Fine," the creature stated reluctantly."But you must not leave the castle grounds, and remain here forever. Do we have a deal?"
Winry thought over the decision, glancing at your hidden form. You shook your head vigorously. She turned back to the creature, and requested, "Come into the light."
Slowly and reluctantly, the creature moved into the light, out of the shadows. His golden eyes were matched by a blonde colored fur. A tattered red coat hung from his shoulders, and similarly tattered black pants were supported by a brown leather belt. You determined he looked like a mix of many animals, possibly a chimera. An automail right arm and left leg glistened in the light. For all his intimidating features, he was surprisingly somewhat short, only a few inches taller than you. You tried to figure out what traits from what animals he appeared to have.
'Horns of a bull, boar tusks, a lion's main, a wolf's legs and tail, and possibly the torso of a bear?' The only thing that appeared human were his eyes.
Winry gasped in horror at the sight. Shrinking back, she fell to her knees towards Aunt Pinako. After only a few seconds, her weak voice echoed through the room.
"Deal," she whimpered.
Pinako's cell, no, cage, door was flung open, and she was pushed out by some unseen force. She was taken away by whatever had pushed her, down to the courtyard outside.
"Winry! (Y/n)! No!" She shouted as she was pulled away.
"Get her back to her town! That's an order!" The creature, or beast, shouted at some moving objects that had slightly entered the room. You looked curiously at them.
'Are those the servants?' You questioned internally, still too stunned to move. You looked back to Winry, who was collapsed fully on the ground. She was crying, her hair sprawled over the floor.
"Brother, do something. You can't just have her cry on the floor," a voice that sounded like a young boy's said.
"I don't know what to do with crying women!" The beast shouted at the source of the noise.
You didn't look to see who he was talking to. You simply walked forward out of the dark and crouched down next to Winry. You wrapped your arms around her in a comforting hug, closing your eyes and rocking back and forth slightly.
"Hey! Who are you!?" The beast shouted. You whipped your head toward him and shot him a deadly glare.
"I'm Winry's friend, she pushed me out of sight before you got here," you stated confidently. Inwardly, you were completely terrified, but it didn't affect your tone at all.
"Get out! I only need one girl to stay here!" The beast shouted.
"Brother, calm down," the young voice from before urged.
"Fullmetal, that is not how you talk to women," a male voice with a somewhat arrogant tone advised.
"I don't care! She's not supposed to be here!"
You rose from your position next to Winry. Strutting forward in a confident manner, you went up to the beast until you were only a few inches away from him. You narrowed your eyes and began speaking your mind to convince him you weren't leaving.
"Listen up, beastie." Winry looked up from the ground, tears still apparent on her face, and the creature looked skeptically at you. "She just gave away her freedom to free her grandmother. She sacrificed her own interests for another's benefit, and I won't let her stay here by herself. I'm either staying here with her, or she's leaving with me. You're either going to deal with neither of us, or both of us. Your choice."
"What makes you think I'm going to listen to you?" He asked you in a bored tone.
"I looked outside when you sent Pinako back to the village. Den followed her. If you send me back, I can have our dog lead us back here. And I could also bring people from the town. Angry people," you smirked. Your mind started flowing with more ideas, and you made an assumption that he potentially would take your next bait. "And, if there's anyone else you'd want to have a girlfriend, I'd be here as a potential candidate."
The beast had a serious expression on his face. He turned away, considering, then mumbled, "Fine, but I don't like you."
You heard the young voice from before murmur something, but you couldn't tell what they said. It obviously pissed off the creature, because he suddenly shouted at you, rather than the source, "AND DON'T CALL ME SHORT!"
"I-I never said you were short," you replied quietly.
'But I did think it.'
You slowly walked back over to Winry, kneeling down to talk to her.
"Winry? You okay?" You asked gently.
Winry looked up at you with a shocked facial expression. "(Y/n), did you just give up your freedom so I wouldn't be alone?"
"Yeah, so?"
Winry suddenly pulled out her wrench and flung it towards you. You narrowly avoided the metallic object, hearing it whistle past your head.
"W-what was that for!?"
"You idiot! Only one of us had to stay here! Now we're both stuck here!"
"Well at least we're stuck together!" You shouted back.
"Um, ladies," the beast tried to intervene.
"What!?" You both yelled in sync, shooting him looks that could kill.
"I'll, show you to your rooms." He turned and started walking down the staircase. As he went down, you heard a metal clanking following after him.
You and Winry hurriedly got up, not wanting to remain any longer in that dreaded room.
When all of you had gotten down from the tower, you fell into a lineup. Winry and the beast were ahead of you, with yourself walking behind them slightly, someone in armor walking next to you.
You held a bored expression and stared directly forward, eavesdropping on the people ahead of you's conversation.
"You're allowed to go anywhere in the castle, since it's your home now. Except the west wing-"
"What's in the west wing?" You interjected.
The beast turned on you and shouted, "It's forbidden!"
After he turned back around, you made a mocking face, earning a chuckle from the armor next to you. You turned to look at the chuckle's source. When you looked at the armor, it quickly darted its glowing red orbs toward the ground.
'Apparently he was staring at me,' you thought. Noticing the armor looked familiar, you realized it had been the one you saw on display before. At least, you had thought he had been on display, but in reality had been trying to hide in plain sight. You blushed slightly, remembering how silly you must have looked, trying and failing to be stealthy. And shouting at the floor. And talking to yourself.
"My name is Edward, by the way. Please refer to me as such," the now named beast stated.
"Whatever you say, beastie," Winry responded sarcastically. Both of you still weren't too keen on the whole 'stuck in a castle until we die' thing.
An awkward silence surrounded all of you. Finally the beast said, "This is the part where you tell us your names."
"I'm Winry, that's (Y/n)," Winry stated flatly.
"Good, now we all know each other. The suit of armor is my little brother, Alphonse."
"N-nice to meet you," Alphonse said nervously. "Y-you can call me Al if you want to."
Never before had you thought of armor as 'cute'. When the voice echoing inside sounded like a little boy, however, there wasn't really any other way to describe it.
'Don't glomp, don't glomp, don't glomp, DO NOT GLOMP.'
"Nice to meet you, too," Winry answered.
You remained in your 'strong and silent' mode, simply nodding slightly and humming to show you understood.
(A/N- Mori-senpai much?)
"Here you are, these are your rooms," Edward said. Your room was across a hallway from Winry's. They were similarly decorated, a large wardrobe in the corner, a queen size bed covered with pillows, and blankets piled up as well. You made a mental note to build a fort later.
You heard unfamiliar whisperings from near Edward as you walked into your room and Winry into hers. You looked back, but all you saw was a candelabra near the somewhat small beast.
"You will, join me for dinner," he paused, then shouted the rest. "That's not a request!" He ran back down the hall.
"Wait! Brother!" Alphonse sighed, running after his older brother. "Ed!"
"Well this'll be an interesting new experience. I'm gonna go try on all the fancy dresses and be FABULOUS!" You called to Winry.
"Since when have you liked wearing dresses?"
"Since we moved into a castle. I'm gonna be fancy as HECK!" You shouted, running back into your own room. You were honestly just trying to find a way to entertain yourself. There was no way you and Winry were going to be going to dinner with that, thing.
Maybe if he had asked nicely, or if you were sure his younger brother was going to be there to keep him in check.
You weren't looking forward to Edward's reaction at you two's rejection.