The restaurant was a beautiful and expensive place. The waiters all had posh accents, and they wore smart uniforms to match. The tables all wore white, stainless, table cloths; which were adorned with napkins in the shapes of roses, one candle for each table, giving off a warm romantic glow.

It was a beautiful place that gave off an incredible romantic vibe that seemed to pulse throughout the room. It was the perfect place to ask a girl out to on a date, which was probably one of the reasons as to why Edward felt so confused as he wondered why Winry had invited him to such an awkward kind of place.

'So what was it you wanted to talk to me about Winry?" he asked her, trying desperately to make sense of their current location.

'Well I thought we could celebrate your new job' she said beaming 'Things will be a lot better for you guys now you have a steady job; I've been worried about you ever since they abolished the state alchemist programme'

'Oh that's it? I was sort of thinking because of the way we'd gotten so dressed up and all that...' he began to say, but trailed off as he realised the embarrassing implications "Well I was wondering why Al wasn't invited" he added on the spot, in an attempt to save himself.

'Well Al has school tomorrow, so I thought he probably wouldn't want to say up late" she smiled, with a little laugh.

'It is weird seeing him going to school now…' Ed murmured 'Though personally I don't see the point, Al's years ahead of those other kids in his school" he stated proudly.

'Maybe in the sciences Ed, but you can't deny the fact that he's probably the same as them when it comes to more ordinary things like History and Geography' she said 'And me and you probably aren't much better since we both quit school when we were quite young"

He leaned his chin on his fist grumpily 'Well it was normal back then! Before they made that stupid law about all kids under 17 having to go to school'

'I know, we only just barely escaped that new rule didn't we?' she joked, 'though it would have been funny to see the great 'fullmetal alchemist' wear a school uniform'

'Errugh' he muttered as he put his head in his hand 'Don't remind me. It's bad enough having to see Al wear that thing everyday' he complained; while waving his free hand about to illustrate his irritation.

'Ed, you better stop acting like an idiot, a fancy waiter is coming our way with something that looks very illegal' she winked.

Sure enough, a waiter soon arrived, following her announcement, carrying a bottle of wine with him.

'You can't be serious Winry…'

She laughed again after asking the waiter to pour them to glasses 'Once I told them who you were they were more than willing to give a bottle to two minors, I bet for them, just having you visit this place will increase their business'

She handed him his glass which he took a sip of dubiously, she guessed, from the disgusted look on his face, that he still hadn't matured enough to enjoy the taste of alcohol.

'You know you'll never get used to it if you never try it' she chuckled as she took a tentative sip of her own 'Ok. Now we have to make a toast!' she announced.

'Why?' asked Ed, now pretty fed up with the weirdness of the situation.

'Because that's what friends do when they're celebrating!' she said gleefully as she lifted her glass.

'Now, I want to make a toast to Ed and his new job in public relations! May he never get himself a job which allows him to stay close to home! Oh and to new beginnings such as the one that will hopefully be starting tonight!' they then clinked their glasses together, though rather awkwardly.

'Um, are you okay Winry?' Ed asked her after he'd taken another foul swig of his drink.

'No, I'm fine, why?' she asked.

He said nothing, deciding not to mention her rather bitter tone.

'So what do you think of this place anyway Ed?" she asked him, sounding eager to know of his opinion.

'Well I thought it was quite classy until they served us…that' he said, motioning towards the bottle, 'anyway how much do I owe you in that regard? I bet it cost you a lot to bribe someone in this snobby restaurant. I mean what were you even thinking bringing me to a place like this?'

Her face looked flushed as she struggled for an answer 'I was trying to do something nice for you obviously!' she muttered angrily so as not to gain the waiters attention ' I find it annoying that you're being so ungrateful when I put in so much effort! You idiot!'

'Oh come on Winry, just spit it out, this has to be about something a little more important than me just getting a job'

'You know some people would hate you for that attitude' she commented.

'Whatever; just tell me what this is about!'

She turned her head away from him angrily 'There's no way I'll be able to do that now under these circumstances- you've totally ruined the mood!'

'What mood? The dangerous one of committing a crime?'

Sighing irritably, for a moment she didn't say anything 'Look, I think for now we should just leave, if things are going to be like this, I'll just tell you about it another time'

'Tell me about what Winry? If it's important then I think you should tell me now!' he demanded.

'No way' she answered stubbornly 'If it worked out then this would be a horrible situation to look back on!'

'Um…What?' he asked, now thoroughly confused.

She took another sip of her drink then as she tried to muster some self-confidence 'Well you see Edward I wanted to ask you something and tell you something at the same time' she said, knowing he was too stupid to understand the full implications of these words.

'Well if you wanted to ask me for a favour you should have just said rather than going through all of this!'

'Yeah Ed, because if I wanted a favour I'd really invite you out to the most romantic place in central' she told him in a non-committal like fashion, seeming to have gotten bored with see-sawing around her purpose.

'What!?' he asked again, shock now evident in his eyes, 'you don't mean this is supposed to be a date or something stupid like that!?'

'You know with every word you speak, you're just realising another fear I had associated with what might happen tonight' she said, sighing again unhappily.

'It's just weird that's all..." he mumbled as he dug his hands deep within his pockets 'I thought it was usually the guys job to ask the girl out on a date…' he said stiffly as he tried to appear nonchalant.

'Urgh! And you're being full of yourself again! I would have told you this was a date if this was a date' she flushed as she tried to get out the right words to explain.

'Yeah you're right' he said with a pained smile 'You don't like short guys do you?'

'Ed? Haven't you even realised yet?' she asked, wondering if he still hadn't figured out that he was taller than her yet.

'Realised what?'

'That I've already paid for the bill' she told him, pointing at the man she'd just paid who was happily walking away from the table; 'Its time for us to go'

'Fine' he said, grumpily admitting defeat, he got up and they both walked outside together.

Once they were outside Winry spoke again 'this didn't go as I planned…' she murmured.

'What were you expecting then?'

'I don't know…To have a fancy dinner and then tell you and then for you to hopefully say yes- but instead you just had to make things difficult…' she moaned angrily.

'Look whose being difficult! You're the one who still hasn't even told me what this is yet!'

'I like you' she quickly spluttered.

'You what?' he asked, though this time it was less of a question and more of a statement of disbelief.

'I said it once and I'm not saying it again, I've suspected that you might like me back for a while as well but I also knew that even if you did you'd never have the guts to tell me so I thought I'd try confessing myself' she said quickly-too afraid that if she stopped she'd never be able to finish. He face glowing bright red as she struggled to get the words out.

Ed didn't say anything; he just stood in a strange trance as he tried to digest what she'd just said. She decided that if she ever wanted an answer than she would probably need to say something to wake him up.

'Ed, you're taller than me and have been for over a year' suddenly he snapped back into life and stood closely in front of her so he could directly measure.

'You're right…' he said in wonderment, looking truly amazed 'I'm taller than you!' he said excitedly.

'Edward…' she complained as she tried to get him out of this new daze.

'Oh sorry Winry I-err…' words failed him as he remembered what they'd just been talking about 'I'm taller than you!'

'Yeah, we just established that Ed' she said impatiently.

He scratched his neck nervously as he tried to explain 'It's just that I never thought Winry would like me because of my height' he said, with a cute awkward smile 'I was afraid you wouldn't like me back if I ever asked' he added, blushing as he let out the embarrassing line.

'Ok, well we both like each other then?' she asked, still a little doubtful.

'I guess so…'

'So you wanna take me home?' she asked tentatively as she slowly stretched her hand towards his.

'No way Winry! I have to go home and tell Al that I'm taller than you' he said excitedly as he skipped off; leaving Winry in a state of utter disbelief, in a way she sort of wondered whether Ed was really even ready for this.

While Winry pondered Edward's maturity, the man himself walked down the road in another kind of disbelief. Inside of his he repeated the phrase 'Winry just said she liked me!' over and over again like a teenage school girl. It was strange and exciting all at the same time. Winry liked him back! After all these years he finally knew! Now he just had to find out what he was actually going to do about it…

A/N: Hey well this is like a test chapter, I guess. And just as a warning these guys are going to progress very, very slowly for people who like stuff 'happening'. Well who knows maybe I'll try and develop things faster than usual since I have put them together right from the get go... Look at me writing another story when I still haven't finished any of my other ones... I'm not going to be likely to update this regularly as another heads up. Err well please comment at the lack of interaction between these two charcters as well as all the mistakes which I KNOW I've made.

EDIT:The use of quotation marks, also called inverted commas, is very slightly complicated by the fact that there are two types: single quotes (` ') and double quotes (" "). As a general rule, British usage has in the past usually preferred single quotes for ordinary use, but double quotes are now increasingly common; American usage has always preferred double quotes. As we shall see below, the use of double quotes in fact offers several advantages, and this is the usage I recommend here.

-From informatics(at)sussex(dot)ac(dot)uk (I got asked about this by someone so I thought I'd just make it clear right here for anyone else who might be confused) Yeah, I'm a limey ^^