And so begins my newest story, which I finally settled for naming Sea Glass Memories!

I adore this one; it's one of my favorites I've done. I got the idea for this story on July 20th, 2011 when I was reading the book Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, because it talks about the beach a lot in it and about sea glass, which really fascinated me. They talk about the rarity of red sea glass, and I thought, "Hey, Ed's color is red!" And so, as I was lying in bed that night, I began working on this story in my head some, even though I wasn't finished with the book. I finished the book the next day and began work on this, and I finished writing and editing on the 22nd. Also, the city in this story in the southeast of Amestris, Barom Reachea (I pronounce the ch like ck) was named after a Cambodian king, Ponhea Yat, better known as Barom Reachea II (it's not a real place in the FMA universe, and neither is Felsina Beach; I created them both).

This story is set in the Brotherhood/manga universe, as I have Trisha's death occurring a lot earlier, Alphonse's hair and eyes are gold, and Winry's parents are still alive. I don't own anything: characters, plot, etc. Hiromu Arakawa does, and Sarah Ockler owns Twenty Boy Summer, where I got my inspiration to write this from.

StarKatt427


Edward watched her, silently leaning back in the shade of the cabin they were renting, arms crossed loosely over his chest and ocean wind whipping his hair around his face, the taste of sea salt on his lips and skin and in his nose as he breathed. She walked on the edge of the water, the cool blue clearness lapping at her toes as she ambled across wet sand, the bottom of her white sundress soaked from the waves and stuck to her calves. Her hair was loose, wild in the wind and almost bleached white in the bright morning sun, blowing over her shoulder as she knelt down, inspecting something she'd just found buried in the sand. He watched her lift it up, fingers nimble and long as they gently cradled the object. Her face was caught up in a bright smile as her palm closed around her treasure, and then she was jogging over toward him, her feet kicking up loose sand.

"Ed, look!" Winry hollered out before she was even near him, still closer to the ocean. He sighed, amused, then moved from the beam his back had been pressed against and walked the rest of the way to meet her, trying to contain a smile at her enthusiasm. Hands shoved in his short's pockets, he stood in front of her, waiting for her catch her breath, even though she had barely been running.

"What's up?" he asked, the sun warming his back through his thin shirt, grainy sand warm under his bare feet and between his toes.

"Look what I found!" Winry held out her hand, and Edward looked down at the brightly colored, jaggedly shaped object resting in the center of her palm. It was small, almost as long as Winry's pinky finger, and shaped somewhat like a square. He already knew it was sea glass, something Winry had immediately taken to hunting along the shore, and while he was glad she'd found something to keep her busy, he was beginning to get tired of her bringing handfuls of the glass to show him, colors varying from kelly green to sea blue to clear.

"It's almost like magic," she had said their first day there, three pieces of green sea glass in her hand, all different shades.

"There's no such thing as magic," Edward, ever logical and scientific, had replied.

"I know that. Still, it's amazing, isn't it? This glass can come from anywhere in the world, crossing thousands of miles of ocean just to get to one place. It's really beautiful."

Edward had brushed her off, rolling his eyes fondly, before lifting her up and tossing her in the churning shallows, her squealing as she'd resurfaced, then pulling him in after her, and what had been just the two of them goofing off in the water soon took to land and became something slow and gentle that kept them occupied for a very long time.

But as Ed looked down at the sea glass Winry now held, he realized maybe it was beautiful and magic, the way it was created. This piece was different, and Ed felt himself become fascinated by the little object, his eyes going slightly wide.

"It's red," Winry sad, grinning as she watched Ed stare at the glass, brushing some of her hair away from her face. "It's really rare."

"Huh," he murmured, still looking down at the red sea glass in her hand. It was a bright red, flecked with darker crimson and burgundy and scarlet, but also streaked with paler tones of vermillion and orange-red; if the sun hit it a certain way, Edward could swear he could see pink. He looked back up at Winry, feeling himself smile as she grinned at him, her blue eyes brilliant and brighter than any star. "It's pretty," he said truthfully, looking once more at the sea glass she held. It really was a treasure.

She laughed, light as air, like wind chimes in the breeze. Reaching out, Winry grabbed his wrist, pulling a hand from his pocket, and he let her, wondering what she was up to. Once she was holding his hand, she turned her other hand over, the one with the sea glass, and lightly dropped it onto his palm. "Here," she said, still smiling. "It's for you."

"Wait, but you just said it was rare?" Ed asked, confused. He tried to give it back to her, but she put her hands behind her back, eyes twinkling. "Don't you want it?"

"I have plenty," Winry replied, slowly beginning to back up, still facing him. "I like the blues and greens better anyway. Besides," she said, stopping in her tracks and looking up at him, almost shy. "Red's your color."

Before Edward could even think of anything to say to that, Winry was gone, walking back down toward the waves, her hands still locked behind her. Ed looked down at the glass in his hand, so small and solid. He curled his fingers over, holding it, a steady weight in his hand.

He looked back up at his wife of four days as she searched for more of the ocean's riches, her face visible only when she turned a certain way. Her eyes were curious, eager, alive.

Smiling, Edward gripped the little piece of smooth glass and walked back to his shady spot, resuming his earlier action of watching her.