Your leg muscles were burning as you followed behind Winry. After about ten minutes straight of running, you had both slowed to a walk when you realized neither of you had any idea where you were, or where you were going.
"This is why I tried to stop you from running out of the castle. I knew this would happen," you scolded.
"You don't need to rub it in my face! I know it was a bad decision in hindsight, but that Edward guy snapped at me. And it was scary," Winry mumbled the last part.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now. We're stuck out here, whether we regret running away from the castle or not. But I didn't even get to say goodbye to anyone." You suddenly paused in your walking, listening closely to the trees around you.
"Why have you stopped?" Winry asked. She received your shushing as an answer.
You focused on the noises around you, trying to pinpoint their origin. Something was out there, you were sure of it.
What that something could be was worrying you.
"Do you hear something?" You whispered, not wanting to disturb whatever it was.
The sounds of heavy footsteps echoed throughout the woods, and soon you were both aware of what was making them. Wolf howls followed the echoing thumps.
You frantically looked around and, seeing a decent sized branch, rushed over to it and picked it up. Winry took out her own weapon of choice, her trusty wrench.
"Let's try to head back to the castle, it should be safe there," you advised.
Winry nodded, and you both started running as stealthily as you could back towards the structure looming in the distance. Unfortunately, you soon heard a group of wolves running after you. You looked back to see exactly what you had expected to see.
There was no possibility of either of you outrunning them, so with an exchange of glances with Winry, you both stopped and turned to fight.
The first wolf rushed at you, and you shut your eyes and swung your large branch with all your might. Surprisingly, you were able to knock the wind out of the animal, and it turned tail and fled.
You looked down at your rudimentary weapon for half a second, before getting into an attack position once again.
"GAS POWERED STICK! NEVER RUNS OUT OF GAS!" You shouted at the top of your lungs, swinging at the next wolf. Unlike the last one, this wolf avoided the swinging stick, then grabbed it in its mouth. It snapped the branch in half with a single bite.
Your temporary confidence immediately faded, replaced by fear. You ran behind Winry, who was holding her own fairly well until not some, but all of the wolves were focused in her direction. Together you both slowly were backed against a big oak tree.
"I didn't think fleeing from the castle would end up killing us," Winry said as the tree got closer and closer. "Sorry about dragging you out here with me."
"It's okay, Winry. You didn't know there were wolves here. I guess Den scared them enough to keep them away on the way here."
"Still, I didn't think we would go out like this, mauled to death by wolves, probably to have bodies torn to pieces and devoured."
"What a pleasant thought," you said sarcastically, voice a bit shakey.
As the wolves approached, you shut your eyes and Winry prepared to swing the wrench to save your lives.
But before they reached you, there was the sound of a transmutation. An alchemic transmutation to be exact. Before you knew it, a blonde furred creature with what looked like a blade on his arm was slashing at the wolves in front of you.
The sound of another transmutation was heard soon after. You looked in its direction to see a suit of armor fighting with the wolves using alchemy from a distance.
'We're saved!' You thought, moving away slightly from the tree. In your peripheral vision, you barely had time to register a large grayish creature lunging for you with its claws.
Pain suddenly shot up from your arm, and you looked down to see claw marks on your lower left arm. Blood was barely flowing out of it. It was only a light cut, Alphonse had knocked the wolf away as it was scratching you, preventing it from clawing any deeper.
Your (e/c) orbs locked for a split second with Al's red. Then they darted behind him. A wolf was running at him from behind. You opened your mouth to warn him, but the wolf moved too fast.
Alphonse was knocked over with the creature on his back. His helmet rolled away from his body, leaving him open and exposed. He was vulnerable.
"Al!" You shouted, before alchemy from Edward's direction knocked the wolf off of Al's back. The wolf fled, running into the trees. All of the the wolves seemed to have disappeared, now that the brothers had arrived.
Alphonse quickly got up, scrambling to find his helmet. You ran over to it and picked it up. You looked back towards Al, and that's when you noticed it.
'He doesn't have a head. Or, maybe he doesn't have a body at all.'
You stood frozen, shocked and unable to move.
Alphonse suddenly noticed you holding his helmet, and the shocked expression on your face. You knew the truth, there was no changing that fact. He sadly walked over to you and carefully took his head back from you.
You slowly looked up at him, still frozen in shock. He looked upset, or at least, that's what you guessed from his body language.
You both heard a thump from near where Edward and Winry were, and at the same time you both looked towards them.
Edward had collapsed on the ground, fur scratched and stained red in places the wolves had broken through his attacks. Bite marks showed on his left shoulder, the non-automail arm.
"Brother!" Alphonse shouted, rushing over to him, with you quickly following behind.
Al ended up having to carry Edward back to the castle. Winry and you followed silently behind, deciding it would be better if you went back rather than get lost in the forest again.
***
Winry was sitting on the ground, dipping a rag in a bowl of hot water. She was attempting to clean Ed's wounds, but wasn't having much success.
Meanwhile, Alphonse was silently using a similar process to clean the cut on your arm. It was a somewhat awkward silence, things being a bit weird for both of you since you discovered Al's little secret. You were both just listening to Edward and Winry's interaction.
The servants were watching all this from a safe distance away, knowing Ed would likely react negatively to the stinging sensation of cleaning wounds.
"Don't do that," Winry advised Ed, who was trying to lick the injury. His animal instincts were gonna give him an infection at some point.
After some coaxing, Edward let Winry see the wound. She slowly moved the wet rag towards the bloody area.
"This might sting a little," she said, and before he could move away she pressed the cloth down.
Ed quickly pulled his arm away, roaring in pain.
"That hurts!"
"Well it wouldn't hurt so much if you didn't move!" Winry snapped back.
"Well if you hadn't run off into the forest I wouldn't be like this!"
"Well if you hadn't scared me I wouldn't have run off!"
"Well if you hadn't been in the west wing I wouldn't have scared you!"
"Well you should learn to control your temper!"
"Oh snap!" You interrupted the torrent of shouting. They both snapped their faces towards you, and you shrunk back a little. "Okay, shutting up now."
The 'controlling your temper' comment seemed to stop the flurry of shouts, and the servants all came a bit closer.
"Now hold still," Winry carefully took Ed's arm again and placed the rag on it again. This time Edward only winced like crazy, but he was looking off to the side so as not to snap at her.
"By the way, thank you. For saving our lives."
Edward gave Winry a curious look, before speaking again.
"You're welcome."
After Ed's wounds were cared for, Edward and Winry both went back to their rooms.
You and Al were the only ones still up, even the servants had gone to bed. Your arm was bandaged up where it had been clawed, but you both remained where you were.
'Should I ask about him not having a body, or should I let him bring it up?' You thought silently.
Alphonse was worrying about similar things.
'Should I tell her about it, or should I let her ask first? Oh, who am I kidding? She's probably scared of me now.'
Eventually you gathered enough courage to ask your questions, but you still stuttered when you asked them.
"D-do you not have a body?"
Al looked up from his kneeling position to you, surprised you had said anything. He nodded, armor clinking as he moved.
"I-is it alchemy?" You further questioned.
"Y-yeah," he said, removing his helmet and leaning forward so you could see into him. "See that blood seal? That's where my soul is bonded to this armor."
You remained silent for a few seconds, before you smiled.
"That's so cool!"
Alphonse perked up, further surprised.
"Y-you think it's cool?"
"Well, yeah. I've never seen alchemy like it before. Can you eat or sleep at all?"
Al looked down towards the ground sadly, placing his head back on.
"N-no, but I also can't get worn out, or hungry, or thirsty. But I really miss being able to eat and drink and sleep. And feel."
You gave him a sympathetic look, before deciding what needed to be done.
"So, you can't feel this?" You moved forward and wrapped your arms around him in a hug. He slowly hugged back, before answering your question.
"Unfortunately, no."
You stayed hugging for a bit longer than you had originally intended. Eventually you separated, your face blushing a slight pink.
"W-would you mind," you paused, considering if you should really ask your question or not.
"Telling you how I got like this?" Alphonse guessed.
You nodded, smiling and looking him straight in the eyes.
He proceeded to tell you the story of how him and Ed had tried to bring back their dead mother. How he had lost his entire body in the attempt. How his brother had lost a leg and been transformed into his current state, then given up an arm to put Al's soul in the armor he was now.
The entire time, you listened intently. Rather than telling him that they were foolish for trying to bring someone back from the dead, you simply felt sorry for them. They had been so young, so unknowing. You honestly didn't blame them.
You were familiar to the feeling of loss.
While you were listening, two of the servants, unknown to you, were watching from the doorway.
"Do you really think she could fall in love with him in his current state?" Riza asked, looking down at the little rag-doll next to her.
"I know bookworms. If any girl can fall for a soul-bound suit of armor, it's her," Sheska said, smiling at the two of you.