Hanging By A Moment

"I'm falling more in love with you" [Follows 100 themes Challenge]

Introduction

She was a small town girl, he was a small town boy thrown into a city world. She fixed him as he faced his battles that he swore to her that she could never be a part of. She fought his battles with him though. Though he pushed her away and feared for her safety in the most opaque way, but she stood by him. She stood by him until the end of his road. The one battle that he faced without her.

She feared for his safety, and when her world was going black he was the last thing on her mind. He was the last utterance on her lips. When she awoke she faced the facts that she was helplessly in love with the boy. She no longer denied it. She sat by the window and waited, waited for him. She waited for him to keep a promise. Two promises. His first promise was to come home and the second to make her cry from happiness. She knew that the second one would happen. She knew when the paper arrived from Central she would cry, because she knew his name would be blasted across the headlines as would his picture. With his cocky smile; the smile she loved so much and yearned to see.

However no paper came. A phone call did though. It was a normal phone call; it told them what they needed to know. It told them that they were coming home in a few days; it told them that Hohenheim had died in the fray. As she listened her eyes misted, however they hadn't made her cry yet. It would take more than a twenty minute phone call from the Xingese girl that they were bringing home with them. It would take him. Or the paper.

For the next three days she paced the house, wringing her hands. Most of the time her grandmother ignored her and just continued working without her assistance. When her grandmother did pay her a small mind, it was to remind her to eat or to stop pacing because she was scaring her grandmother's new students. She would just give her grandmother a blank look and calm down for a few minutes; then she would take back to pacing and watching the clock.

On the fourth day her grandmother was sick of her and sent the girl to Almanso's to get more sheet metal for the older woman's next big project and then check the post box at the train station. The girl strayed at the train station, because a train from Central was pulling in. She held tight onto her hat as the train blew a small puff of air over the station.

It didn't take the train long to unload, Rizembol was not one of the top ten places to visit in their now great country. She looked around quickly and saw a little Xingese girl with a thin gangly, sickly looking boy. She let out a sigh of relief and bit her lip. There was one missing. She shut her eyes and sadly waited for the other two to spot her, it was obvious that the boy she cared for did not want to return to his small hometown. The country boy that had left all those years ago must have grown fond of the city.

A small thump by her feet made her open her eyes to a boy, no a man placing a large suitcase down and two railway employees placing a wooden casket on the other side of him. He looked up at the stunned girl and gave her a weird look and then the cocky smile she had wanted to see days ago, "Not happy to see me?" She smiled and held back small sobs. He rolled his eyes and put down what he was working on. He stood and wrapped one arm around her. "It's okay…we are home…for good." She buried her head into his shoulder.

He had kept his promises. She was happy; she didn't care about anything else in the world. Until she had to lift her head to find out who was snickering at her. Then she turned and saw the other two up close. Then she cried again. The man let out an aggravated sigh began to speak jokingly, "Do you always cry at homecomings?"

She wiped her one eye and began to mutter her response, "No…only when promises are kept and all is right." The man rolled his eyes and unwound himself from the girl. His eyes wandered to his taller brother, who had wrapped a free arm around the small Xingese girl. The small Xingese girl was smiling eagerly waiting to be properly introduced, like a lady should be.

The young Xingese girl let out a huff, "Aren't we going to introduce ourselves?" She looked up at the taller boy and wiggled out of his grasp, a stern look plastered on her face. The younger boy raised his eyebrows in question to her question. She huffed again, "Don't act as if you don't know….!"

The man growled, "We don't know. Just explain." The fierceness in his voice had scared not only the Xingese girl and the girl that had come to greet them. The girl tugged on his jacket and gave him a disapproving look as the Xingese girl just rolled her eyes and ignored his outburst.

"Well in my country, when you have been gone for a long time, we reintroduce ourselves." She smiled and looked at the girl still clinging to the man. The Xingese girl extended a hand and smiled, "Mei Chan, Princess of Xing and you are…?" The girl unattached herself and took Mei's hand.

"Winry Rockbell of Rizembol." They shook and then Mei let go of Winry coaxing the taller boy and the man to do the same. The taller boy caved first and gave Winry a large smile and pulled her into a hug. A bone crushing one for that matter. Winry didn't know that someone so gangly could hug so hard.

"Al…." She gasped, "Alphonse!" The second one was more of a desperate command. He heard her worry and placed her back down. She took a deep gulp of air and gave him a smile. "I've missed your hugs Al."

He scratched the back of his head, "We'll….I've missed…so much, you know?" He leaned back down and pick up Mei's satchel that he had been carrying before. The small panda on it scurried up his arm and perched itself on his shoulder. He stifled a yawn and looked up at the sky. The sky was turning all of the colors of twilight. Al spoke once more, "I'm a little sleepy, is it alright if Mei and I run off?"

Winry nodded, "The house hasn't moved." Al smiled and nodded, taking up Mei's hand and leading her the way away and towards the Rockbell house on the hill. Winry watched the pair dash off and smiled. It was nice seeing something bud from the terror of what had happened. She stiffened as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She brushed the hand off and turned around slowly, facing the man. "Edward Elric."

He chuckled and looked at her sadly, "So much for an introduction." She looked him over for a few seconds trying to fight back the wave of sadness and relief. She fought and fought, but she was loosing. She covered her mouth to muffle a large sob. Then as Edward opened his arms she gave way and she collapsed into his chest. Edward sighed and gave to the embrace, wrapping his damaged Automail around her waist and his real arm around her shoulders. "I'm home and I am okay…I promise."

"I know." Was her muffled answer. He sighed and just thought on how he felt, a wave of relief had rushed over him. He was just so glad that she was safe and sound.

They just stood there, in each others embrace as the sky continued to darken. Edward not knowing what to think or say, he was too conflicted. His mind had wandered to his feelings about the girl in his arms. Then him mind wandered to his life now, it was almost as if he had a complete do over, a reintroduction, a fresh start. What would he do? He looked down at the girl…no…woman in his arms.

And he knew.

She would take center stage.

Authors Note: Hi there, hope you liked the introduction part of my 100 themes challenge that I am doing. I think that the intro is the hardest to write and hopefully all the other chapters will be longer. Please I hope you continue to read my story, it's my first FMA story even though I've been following FMA since the begining of the manga. This is all manga/brotherhood based and it is spoilers galore. So...please continue reading, please review and...have a good day! :]

Sera