A Little Overenthusiastic [Transformers G1/Fullmetal Alchemist; English]

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

Title: A Little Overenthusiastic
Rating: PG
Genre: Friendship / humour
Characters: Winry, Wheeljack, Ratchet, and I guess Grimlock sort of counts.
Words: 1298
Summary: Wheeljack and Ratchet own an automail shop. Winry loves to visit.
Warnings: Mentions of blood and wounds. It's an automail shop, after all.
Notes: Written for dayofindulgence. Not only a human AU, but a human AU in a crossover 'verse! If that's not indulgent, I don't know what is. :P



The large, ugly dog just wouldn't stop barking. It threw himself against the fence so hard that it shook and rattled. It was a good thing that it was too strong (and reinforced too often) to give out. Winry wasn't afraid, because she was used to dogs, and also because she had been here many times already. Still, she stood a few steps away from the fence, just in case.

"It's me, Grimlock. Remember?" she said, trying in vain to make it calm down. But, always, the dog acted as if she was a perfect stranger. She suspected that it simply enjoyed breaking things and making a fuss.

"Coming, coming," said a tired voice from the inside of the building. A middle-aged man in an old army coat crossed the small distance towards the gate, all the while muttering about how that dog always managed to get itself loose and he didn't even know why they bothered anymore. However, when he saw who was standing at the door, he managed to smile a little in spite of the situation.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Ratchet!"

"Hello, Winry," he said, as he managed to get a hold of Grimlock and put its chain back on at last. "Boss sent you on an errand again?"

"Yes, but I'm also here to visit!" she replied. "I brought apple pie."

"Well, you know that's always welcome here!"

He opened the gate and they made their way towards the building, ignoring the still barking dog. There was another man inside, leaning over a messy work table with an expression that somehow managed to be a mix of focus and distraction.

"Leave that, 'Jack," Ratchet said as he closed the door behind him. "We have a visit."

"Ah, Winry!" He looked up and beamed at her, but didn't let go of his tools. "I'm not stopping anything, then. She's gonna want to see this. Take a look at this alloy!"

"Can't it wait a few minutes? She's just arrived-"

"… actually, I've got some shards stuck in my wrist."

He waved his hand to show the damage, a sheepish grin on his face. Ratchet groaned in frustration, but Winry just left the apple pie on the nearest surface and approached his work table.

"All right, let me see!"

True enough, several shards of metal had made their way into the delicate joints. Wheeljack's left arm wasn't just automail; it was practically a whole toolbox, and a work of art. Winry thought it was admirable work. She also thought that no one except the eccentric mechanic would ever want to use something like that. As practical as it seemed to have many instruments in one, being so complex meant that it tended to break easily.

Of course, it also helped that Wheeljack's habits weren't exactly the safest; she had to agree with Ratchet there. The man was a creative genius, yes, but he was also the most accident prone person she had ever seen. You could call it a good day as long as he didn't manage to make something explode. It was lucky for him that he had teamed up with a doctor – he needed one way too often.

"How did you even manage to get these here?" she asked, as she struggled to extract one of the pieces with minimum damage to the wiring around it. "Really, you should be more careful…"

"Careful?" Ratchet snorted. "You are talking to the man who thought it would be a good idea to adopt an injured mutt and give it a steel jaw."

"And he's a great guardian!" Wheeljack said, jumping to Grimlock's defense as usual. "Can't argue with that. Also, you helped."

"Well, of course! It was wounded! Probably from a fight, too. With that temper…"

"Aww, come on, just admit you like him-"

"There, that was the last one!" Winry interrupted, just before Ratchet could reply (probably with something not very nice, knowing his usual grumpy mood). Wheeljack rotated his wrist tentatively and grinned at her.

"Perfect! You're a wonder," he said. "Didn't even leave the tiniest shard in."

She blushed a little, but her smile betrayed just how proud she was of her work.

"Oh, I have practice! I've got this friend who ruins his automail constantly…"

"Well, he's lucky to have such a great mechanic!" he told her, and she could tell from his cheerful tone that it was honest praise. "Time to return the favour, now. What is it you need?"

Winry searched a bit in her purse and gave him the list that Mr. Garfield had written for her. There were several special tools and alloys that could only be found in this shop; Wheeljack was… a little particular, yes, but he was an expert. He gave the list a quick look, then started rummaging the shelves to find its contents.

In the meantime, Winry cut the apple pie at last and served Ratchet a large piece. He deserved it for his patience, really. She knew that he liked her, but sometimes, when he heard her talk to the mechanic and they started to get excited about something, he got such a resigned look… And, if she was honest to herself, she couldn't really blame him. She supposed she could get a little overenthusiastic, too.

They had barely managed to begin with some small talk when Wheeljack emerged from the shelves again, waving an oddly shaped instrument.

"Hey, Winry! Did I show you this one already? You can change its shape depending on what you need it to do, look-"

"Ooooh, that is gorgeous!" she exclaimed, and she could practically feel her own eyes shining. "Let me see, let me see!"

"Don't encourage him," Ratchet warned her. "He managed to make the prototype explode when he was building it. How that happened is still beyond me."

"Aww, don't be such a spoilsport. We won't do anything dangerous!"

"You always say that," the doctor sighed. "You know what, go ahead, do whatever you want. But if you blow up your other arm with your little experiments, I'm not fixing it."

"Yeah, yeah, heard that one before."

Winry, however, didn't take that warning as lightly as Wheeljack had. She blinked a couple of times, confused.

"… huh? But I thought-" She stopped herself from continuing, realizing that she had said that aloud. True, she didn't know much about her friends or their past – she didn't even know their real names, since everyone called them by their nicknames only. But she had always assumed that the mechanic had been wounded during his time in the army. It made sense; they both had been soldiers, she knew as much.

"You thought it was a battle wound?" Wheeljack finished for her. He didn't seem upset in the least. "Well, not quite. Funny story…"

"It wasn't funny," Ratchet interrupted, with a grim look. "Trust me. I was there."

"Well, not at the time of course, but in retrospect-"

"I had to clean up."

"Um… I don't really think I want to know, anyway," Winry sighed. It was a good thing that she was used to wounds and blood; otherwise she'd be going slightly greenish thanks to the mental images alone. Ratchet shook his head and sighed.

"We better go back to that pie. It's a much better prospect. And you," he added, turning to his friend, "hurry with that list or we won't leave you any."

"Fine, fine, I'll behave. Sir," Wheeljack replied with a mock salute.

But he mouthed Show you later and winked, just as soon as Ratchet had turned around. Winry gave him a thumbs up and grinned, and then went back to her apple pie as if nothing had happened. It looked like she'd go home with a few extra notes again, after all.