My Heart That's Full Of Love
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA - the manga/anime and it's wonderfully appealing characters are the property of the honorable Hiromu Arakawa. OTOH: it owns ME!
Author's note: This started out as an attempt at what is called a "drabble", but it got a little long. g This piece is inspired by a charming color drawing in the Japanese fan art gallery of the site. (Description: Ed in his Munich clothes, and Winry in her overalls sharing some major "liplock") The title comes from a translation of one lyric from the song "Melissa" (which may be incorrect) which goes "pierce my heart that's full of love." Reviews would please me no end, flamers will be mocked with merciless glee. (big evil grin)
Warning: Some cussing, so it's rated M to be safe. Plus mild movie spoilers. I'm just a hopeless romantic sap who loves the idea of Edward and Winry together and (relatively) happy.
Pairing: Ed and Winry, nothing more explicit than raging hormones.
Central HQ - late summer, 1918
The scene: Two years after the invasion of the Thule Society, Edward and Al have returned to Central, their mission to find and destroy the nuclear bomb complete. Their arrival has coincided with that of Winry Rockbell, who suspects General Mustang of keeping information from her. She sees the newly arrived brothers, and promptly jumps to the wrong conclusions. After giving Ed a royal chewing - out (she forgot to bring a wrench), she is about to storm off. Being a guy, Ed is clueless as what to do next.
"Well, Ed?" Winry angrily demanded "Don't I mean anything to you?"
"Uhhhhh..." Edward Elric didn't know what to say, seeing Winry annoyed usually made his brain short circuit; but seeing Winry angry flooded it with the 'fight or flight' response. In the maelstrom of contradictory emotions, his higher thought processes raised the white flag before going offline and leaving him in the lurch.
The pretty girl - no, pretty, very beautiful young woman glared and fumed at him. Red lights flashed and warning klaxons sounded in his speech center, was he suppposed to SAY something? Yes, you idiot! Like WHAT? Well, insert heavily sarcastic tone here you could tell her you love her! You mean, in public, in front of all these people?
Ed looked over at little brother Alphonse - who was cowering in fear behind Armstrong - so he was about as useful as tits on a bull - but what help could he expect from a 14 year old boy? He was more frightened of Winry than Ed was. The rest of Mustang's command were staying well clear of the situation - they'd rather face the entire Drachman army in full battle mode than Winry Rockbell on the warpath.
Next, Ed tossed a despairing glance at Riza Hawkeye, and Maria Ross; they were women, they could tell him - but no, they leaned on their desks in the ready room and smirked at him. Bitches.
Mustang was smirking too, no surprise there. But he was closest, and with no other place to turn, ( Yeah, like I'd turn to the Bastard Colo - , no General Mustang..) Ed twisted sideways and whispered sotto voce:
Roy! What do I do?
Kiss her, you moron!
Are you nuts! She'll fucking kill me!
You'll never know unless you try, Fullmetal!
But, I don't know how to kiss a girl!
Oh, c'mon Elric! You kissed your mom, right?
Yeah, but that's different!
Not really, you just pucker up, then kiss her on the lips instead of the cheek
Winry - the irresistable force known as Winry Rockbell - doesn't like to be ignored. "Oh, I HATE you, Edward! You can go and find yourself another auto mail mechanic!"
"No, Winry, wait - dammit!" Ed cursed because he'd just slapped his forehead with his hand - his metal right hand , and was momentarily stunned.
Roy hissed again: Follow her, Fullmetal, follow her - NOW!
Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT! Ed grabbed for his coat, and missed. The hell with it! Why was he hauling that around in the heat of an Amestrisan summer? And he limped out the door as fast as he could. The afternoon sun blinded him for a moment, then he saw her, moving fast down the sidewalk.
"Winry! Wait!" He took a step, stumbled, and fell down - hard. Damn leg, it had been damaged from when the Gate spit them out a few feet above the ground. Something inside was dislocated, or broken; he wasn't sure which. Ignoring the nagging pain of a skinned bloody left palm, he got up and performed a limping-skipping version of a pursuit. She disappeared around a corner and Ed's heart skipped a beat. I've lost her.
"Winry!" He called again, "Stop!" His left thigh was starting to ache from the pounding it was taking, his metal hand scraped loudly on stone as he took the corner too sharply, he skidded, stumbled, and nearly fell again.
And she was there. Leaning against the wall and crying. Now his heart twisted. Winry was one of the strongest people he knew. When he gritted his teeth and white-knuckled the sheets during the intial grafting of his first set of automail, she'd been there, lending him the strength he needed to fight the intense pain. It was because of Winry he hadn't cried during the surgeries, which brought even the bravest adults to their knees. Now her tears scared him.
"Winry." He used his tenderest voice, and put his hands on her shoulders; previously only Alphonse had ever seen his softer side. Never before had he let anyone else know he had one. "Don't touch me!" she snapped back, but he refused to let go. It's now or never, Elric. Ed licked his lips; he was terrified, but it was high time he faced his fear. He slipped his arms around her while she fought to free herself; her struggles forced his left arm to slightly loosen it's grip, but not his right arm of auto mail.
"Edward!" Icy blue eyes, shiny teardrops clinging to the lashes, glared up at him. Gently, very gently - and keeping a wary eye on her teeth - Edward cupped her chin - did I know her chin was perfectly sized to fit in the palm of my hand? - and nervously pressed slightly puckered lips to hers for a moment.
"What are you doing?" Winry now suddenly calmer, her eyes appraising.
"Trying to kiss you, but I'm - I'm not doing it right, am I?"
Winry believed in showing by example. "No, you idiot, like this!" She grabbed his chin and tilted his head slightly, then kissed him back, very lightly, ending the kiss with a gentle suck of his lower lip. She repeated, a bit harder, and a bit longer. And then a third time. Oho! So that's how it's done!
Ed was considered an alchemical genius (he was a child prodigy after all), but despite not being very quick on the uptake when it came to the opposite sex, he was still a fast learner. Now he was a bit taller than Winry, he braced himself, changed the grip of his right arm, and lifted her up a fraction. "Don't pucker up so tight", she instructed "loosen your lips a bit, now open them slightly, annnddd mmmmm."
Did women always make those little throat sounds? Oh, he liked that. He put his left hand around the back of her neck and tangled the fingers in her silky blonde hair. Winry reciprocated by wrapping her arms around his neck, and kissing him harder. Her tongue slipped between his lips, finding his tongue. The effect on him was as if he'd just stuck a finger in an electrical outlet. Except this jolt was far more pleasant.
Oh yes, indeed, Edward considered that he preferred Winry's lessons to those of Izumi-sensei's. The relationship between teacher and student had been brutal; he usually ended up laying bruised and battered on the ground because he'd somehow displeased Sensei. His memory prodded him: Um, you usually ended up that way when you somehow displeased Winry too. Ed told his memory to shut up. Now then, the relationship between childhood friends who just realized they loved each other...
No, wait, back up a bit. Winry had always known she'd loved Edward; he was the one who just realized this. He had denied, and denied, and continued to deny his feelings for her. Edward had used every excuse in the book: he had to find the Philosopher's Stone and restore Al's body, he had to get to the bottom of the homunculi's military conspiracy, he had to go back to the machine world to destroy that array, he had to track down that damn nuclear bomb. Well, he'd achieved all his goals, so now he had no more excuses.
If he was truly a human being, it meant he was a feeling being, an emotional (other than guilt and anger) being, a loving being, a sexual being. O.K. then, he was done denying. He tightened his grip on her hair, opened his mouth a little wider, and held Winry a little closer...
The heat both were feeling now had nothing to do with a late afternoon sun beating down on them. Ed could feel all of her, all her wonderful curves through his clothes, but that may have been because he was now leaning against her, using the wall to help support them because his left leg - where it met the automail - had become quite sore. For her part, Winry was wondering why Ed was wearing so many clothes, were those machine worlders afraid of skin or something? These didn't even fit him well, he was too thin.
They briefly broke lip contact with a light sucking sound - Ed not wanting to let go of Winry's lower lip - but just long enough to tilt their heads the other way and continue kissing and making up. She saw enough to know his face was red, and he knew her face was red too. After all these years, I'm finally kissing Edward, and in public too! I'm a shameless hussy, I should be mortified - but I'm not. As if to underscore this, as a lone truck rattled by, the driver leaned out the window and yelled "Hey you two! Get a room!" But he was grinning as he said it, what a story he'd have when he delivered supplies to the HQ kitchens.
The truck had already turned the corner when a stray thought raised it's hand in Edward's brain. That sounds like a good idea, getting a room, I mean. Edward's cerebral cortex promised to consider it - once he was done kissing Winry. If he ever got done kissing Winry.
Back in the ready room, there'd been dead silence as they heard Edward's awkward pursuit, and his fading cries of "Winry!" Alphonse peeked out from behind Armstrong, What if Brother falls down again? He started forward, only to be brought up with a startled "Urk!" when Armstrong took a firm grip of his ponytail, while at the same time he issued a stern rebuke: "Alphonse Elric, let your brother handle this himself!"
Havoc clapped his hands together with a loud "Well, who wants to take my bet he'll go down in flames!" Hawkeye and Ross glared at him - this was young love, and he was daring to wager on it? But Mustang pulled a 10 zeni note out of his pocket and declared, "I'll take that bet! I say he'll pull it off."
His men - Broch, Breda, Fuery, Falman, and Havoc - grinned evilly. Mustang's lost it! This'll be the easiest bet we've ever won! Zeni notes flew - Armstrong was the only one who bet with the General. Both reflected Havoc's grin back at him. You are SO toasted. He just didn't know it yet.
Fin.
Author's note: Hmmm, not drabblish enough, it turned out more like a long one shot-ish piece. Just call it four consecutive drabbles then! LOL. I kept thinking "Just one more paragraph, just one more, it doesn't sound done yet!"