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"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange."
Edward Elric
“Jumping like that leaves you vulnerable.”
Edward’s body tumbled across the lawn, kicking up dirt and leaving his clothes stained by the grass, even as he rolled into a crouching position and launched himself back across the space that had opened between him and his opponent.
“It’s not that you should keep your feet on the ground, it’s that flinging yourself into the air relinquishes control, and you don’t gain enough advantage to make the gambit worth it, with the skills you have now.”
Ed’s prosthetic leg slammed down from above, the air rushing past him as he bore down on his opponent from above. She was gone between one blink and the next, though, and an axe kick turned into a divot dug into the muddy earth. Unbalanced by the way his automail twisted to compensate for the friction, Ed found himself unable to do anything as her fists dug into muscle groups along his back and hooked his flesh leg out of the way.
Mud smeared across his face as he found his body driven, aching, into the ground.
He moaned around the mouthful of dirt he’d inadvertently inhaled, and decided it was best to yield. For now.
Whatever it was she did, it didn’t spark the way Alchemy did, even as it stretched across the yard and tugged it back into immaculacy. Trying to dislodge the mud from his coat, Ed joined her on the porch, where Alphonse was drilling penmanship, his large, metal hands leaving his strokes more clumsy and slow than they ever had been before.
The woman who had taken up their training set three glasses before the three of them—plain water for Al, tea for her, and milk for him. She grinned right through his scowl.
“If you don’t like it, maybe you shouldn’t allow yourself to be goaded into a bet, short-stack?”
Eye twitching and painful experience clenching his jaw shut, Ed choked down his milk.
Alphonse carefully dipped a cloth into his water and scrubbed at sections of his armor.
“Are you two set on this plan of yours?”
Grim, Ed nodded to her.
“In that case, I think you should—“
And she was gone.
Pinako Rockbell opened the back door of her house, with news that a military man from Central had been asking after them.
Ed and Al followed her inside, eyes carefully avoiding looking directly at their own shadows.