Disappointment (Part 1 - The Book)

[Central City]

After the Ishvalan rebels were captured by Roy with the help of the Xingese guests, Ling, and his companions were safely dropped at their hotel. Later, when the leader of the Ishvalan group was interrogated, he revealed that the attack was just a part of a big sinister plan. Meanwhile, Mei had gone to meet the Elric brothers, unaware about the attack on her half-brother.

Alphonse, Winry, Mei, and Xiao-Mei were in the hotel where the Elric brothers were staying for some days. They were sitting on the sofa, having some snacks and talking about their life after the events of promise day. Mei was sitting too close to Alphonse, holding his arm, because of which Alphonse was a bit uncomfortable. "Oh Alphonse, I missed you so much," Mei held Al's arm more tightly.

Alphonse was looking at Winry, who was trying to contain her laugh. Alphonse wanted to get out of that awkward situation, but it was a well-known fact that he was incapable of being rude to anyone, so he was stuck in that awkward situation, unable to decide what to do. And then suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and Alphonse stood up quickly, pulling his arm from Mei's grasp and said, "I think its brother."

Alphonse was finally very happy getting out of that awkward situation. And when he looked toward Winry, he could clearly see her trying hard to control her laugh. "Yes, yes, it should be Ed," Winry said while suppressing her laugh.

Meanwhile, Mei couldn't help but notice Winry. "What is so funny Winry?" Mei asked rhetorically and continued, "For your information, Alphonse and I are a couple."

As soon as Winry heard that, she couldn't hold her laugh anymore and burst into laughter, whereas Alphonse's face went all red like a tomato. He quickly rushed toward the door and opened it. And as expected, Ed was standing there holding a book. He was wearing his favorite red cloak as usual. When he saw Al attending the door, he greeted by saying, "Hey Al," and then informed, "Sorry I took some time at a pawn shop buying this book."

He showed the book to Al which had a brown cover and BH written on it at the lower right corner. Al just looked at the book, but didn't pay much attention and replied with his signature innocent smile, "It's alright brother."

Ed noticed that Al was blushing for some reason, and Winry was laughing out loudly inside. So he asked, "What happened Al? Why is your face appearing red? And why is Winry laughing so loud?"

Because of Ed's questions, Al was startled and stood stiff before replying. "Mei is here," Al stuttered.

"Do you mean the female shrimp with that strange little cat?" Ed joked with a low voice.

"That's a panda brother," Al rectified.

"Alright, panda," Ed said while walking inside the room where others were sitting. He saw Winry, Mei and Xiao-Mei were sitting on the sofa having some snacks. When Winry saw Ed, she stopped laughing and Mei greeted him by saying, "Hello Edward."

"Hey Mei, are Ling and Lan Fan also here?" Ed inquired.

"No, they had a meeting with General Mustang, so they couldn't come," Mei informed.

"I see…well, it's good to see you, Mei," Ed smiled.

When Ed only greeted Mei, Xiao-Mei glared at Ed, because of which Ed had to pay some attention to Xiao-Mei as well. "You too …aaa…hmmm," Ed scratched his head to remember the panda's name, but he was unable to remember it. Fortunately, Al came to the rescue and reminded, "Its Xiao-Mei brother," by whispering.

"Yes, It's good to see you too Xiao-Mei," Ed finished off his sentence.

Xiao-Mei got happy when Ed greeted her and went back to eat snacks. Ed and Al then sat on the sofa, joining the others. Ed put the book he brought, on the small table in front of the sofa. Winry looked at the book and picked it up. She opened the book and saw the first page, where she could see the title of the book and a signature at the right corner of the book. Winry read the title of the book while everyone was resting on the sofa or having snacks. "'The Knight' …Is it some fairy tale book?" Winry questioned.

Ed looked at Winry and answered, "I read the first page, and it seems like a fairy tale. But, then I noticed the signature on the first page."

Winry flipped back to the first page and looked at the signature made with black ink. "Whose signature is that?" Winry asked.

Al carefully looked at the signature and said while remembering something, "I think I have seen this signature somewhere."

"It's the autograph of our dear General Mustang," Ed smiled and continued, "And by autograph, I mean the signature which he uses for his fans, especially lady friends."

Winry again looked at the signature. She then noticed the big 'R' and an 'M' beside it, which was shaped like a heart. "Now I see it," Winry said.

Soon after that, Al and Mei also looked at the signature and noticed Roy's initials. "And I thought, he loved his Lieutenant," Mei commented.

"Well…he still does," Al said with a shrewd voice and narrowed eyebrows.

Meanwhile, Ed said, "However, I am still trying to figure out, how THIS book ended up in a pawn shop."

Everyone looked at Ed curiously. "What do you mean?" Winry asked while putting the book back on the table.

"Once I went to Mustang's house when we were posted in Eastern Command. There I found this book in his bookshelf. When I asked him to let me borrow the book, he straight up refused. He told me to take any other book, but not this book," Ed explained.

"But, why would he refuse to lend a fairy tale book?" Winry questioned.

"He didn't give me a proper reason for that. He just told me that the book was given to him by someone special," Ed answered.

"Brother, do you think this book could not be just a fairy tale book? I mean it could be something more… like it could be hiding some alchemical formulas just like Dr. Marcoh's cooking recipe notes," Al said.

"You might be correct Al. But, if this book would have been so important then why did he sell it to a pawn shop?" Ed responded.

"Maybe it's not an alchemical note after all. It could just be a gift from someone," Winry said.

"Why don't we find out?" Ed smirked with clear excitement in his face.

"I think you should take it to General Mustang first. He can tell you instantly if this contains any alchemy stuff or not. After all it belonged to him," Winry advised.

"Maybe you are right," Ed sighed, letting all his excitement diminish and continued, "I will meet Mustang tomorrow then."

In the meantime, Al was holding the book in his hands and carefully looking at the book cover. So, Ed asked, "What happened Al? What are you thinking?"

"Do we happen to know anyone with their first name starting with the letter B and last name starting with the letter H?" Al enquired.

"I guess you're talking about the two letters on the cover," Ed said.

"Yes," Al replied.

"I also thought about that, but I couldn't remember anyone fitting that criteria," Ed informed.

While Al and Ed were busy figuring out the mystery behind that book, Mei and Xiao-Mei were bored and were lying on the sofa. And then suddenly, Mei interrupted with a bored voice, "Wasn't General Mustang's Lieutenant's last name, Hawkeye? Maybe the B stands for some person related to her."

Ed and Al were surprised after listening to Mei. They were looking at her with widened eyes, which made Mei blush. "Did I say something terrible?" Mei asked with a forced smile.

Soon after she asked the question, she saw a huge smile appearing on the face of the Elric brothers. "You are a genius Mei," Al shouted.

Mei started blushing and went speechless when she heard Al's praise. She kept on repeating, "Alphonse thinks I am a genius," in her mind while covering her face with her hands out of shyness.

Meanwhile, Al and Ed again went back to uncover the mystery of that book without paying much attention to Mei, who was in her dream world now. "I remember Major Hawkeye's father was an alchemist, but I don't know much about him," Ed informed.

"Maybe General Mustang got this book from her, now that we know they had a son together," Al added.

In the meantime, Winry got irritated and yelled, "You two can just ask General Mustang tomorrow."

To which Ed replied calmly, "There is no fun in-," but before he could complete his sentence, they heard a huge explosion and everyone stood up. "What was that?" Winry said.

All of them then rushed to the window to find out what was going on. When they gazed out of the window, they saw the building which was next to their hotel was demolished.