Disclaimer: I do not own FMA
Note: first person from Ed's pov. Last time I did something from Winry's pov so this time I decided to try for Ed's. Sorry if it's OOC at all. I think I made them a little OOC just to get my point across. Also: Nobody edited this, so sorry if there are any mistakes, I was the only one who looked over it.
Is love something that you can see? "I love you," can one ever truly believe those words? How can you be sure of something just by the way it looks or sounds like? Maybe… you can't. Not until you have felt it for yourself.
Is it Raining?
"Is it raining?" That has to be the dumbest question I have ever heard. And yet, everyone always asks it. Every time it rains, everyone always asks that over and over.
I tend to get annoyed when anyone asks me that question. Sometimes, I just can't help but snap and say the obvious. Why don't you just go see?
After all, why do people ask questions that they could easily figure out for themselves if they would just take the time to take two steps and look out a window? It's always pretty obvious if it's raining… right?
See, all of today it had been pouring, and everyone just kept asking me about it at the office. Now that I was still working for the military and living in central after getting back Al's body, most of my time was spent behind a desk doing military paperwork. Which meant a lot of disruptions during the day; especially with the crew Mustang had.
At first I hadn't minded the question too much, but as the day wore on and I was asked it multiple times by the same people… let's just say it had been a long day.
Thank goodness I was home now and wouldn't have to deal with such idiotic people anymore, well at least not until tomorrow. I couldn't help but glare at the rain falling outside the window as it reminded me of the annoying day I had just gone through. I shifted slightly trying to find a comfortable position in the window seat.
Winry had insisted on us buying this house when she had seen the little window seat in the master bedroom that overlooked Central. She had found it just to be too good of an opportunity to pass up.
At first, I had to admit that I wasn't impressed with that reasoning for buying this particular house over all the others we had looked at. However, when we found out that it was within both walking distance of the military headquarters and the new lot Winry had bought to open a new extension of Rockbell automail, we couldn't resist and now for over six months we had been living here.
"Hey there," Winry said smiling as she came in with two steaming cups of coffee, shutting our bedroom door behind her with her foot.
"Hey," I said smiling gently as I moved one of my legs to hang off the window seat and stretching out my other so to make as much room as I could for Winry to sit down by me, knowing that if I didn't she wouldn't give me my coffee.
Smiling she handed me both coffees as she situated herself to be leaning up against me with her legs criss crossed. Then, she carefully took one of the cups back as I wrapped my now free arm around her stomach and pulled her as close.
I couldn't help but breathe a little deeper having her in my arms like this. Safe. I would never let her know how much I truly worried about her. After all, anything could happen. She could get hit by a bus, killed by a serial killer, fall and get a concussion. Sure these things were highly unlikely, but that didn't mean they didn't happen. Perhaps that's why this was my favorite part of the day.
It had sort have become tradition between the two of us to both come home from work and drink coffee on the window seat, typically with me holding her, as we told each other about our day.
Winry placed her arm gently over mine and began fingering the one ring I had on. She liked to play with it as we talked; I think she just liked to remind me that we were married. Sure that day had probably been one of the most nerve wrecking of my life, but really it had been worth it. There was no one that I could have imagined spending the rest of my life with besides Winry.
Sometimes, the whole thing seemed a bit surreal that everything had worked out so perfectly considering how screwed up it had been for so long. I couldn't help but smile slightly at the whole idea. "So how was your day," I asked as Winry continued to play with my ring.
"Uneventful," she said slightly out of it as she twisted my arm slightly so that she could intertwine her fingers with mine. "It was pretty much dead all day in the shop because of the rain," she added relaxing even more into my embrace.
I did the opposite though. At the mention of rain, I couldn't help but tense up slightly as I was reminded once again of the frustrating day I'd had at the office.
"What's wrong?" Winry immediately asked feeling how I had stiffened behind her.
I buried my face in her neck hoping that it might distract her from her question, knowing that if I was to tell her I was irritated with a question she would just laugh at me. Sadly however, this actually worked to my disadvantage.
"Okay, now I really know something is up, you always try to distract me when you're trying to hide something from me," she said leaning away from me slightly so that I couldn't touch her neck so easily.
Damn she could read me well. Sighing I knew I was caught and I took a large gulp of my coffee hoping that would give me time to think of some excuse. But I should have known that Winry would catch that too.
"Don't think about it Ed," she said without even needing to look at me to know that I was trying to stall. "Just tell me what happened today that's causing you to get so embarrassed."
Already knowing that she wasn't going to let this go, we both could be as stubborn as mules when we felt like the situation called for it, I gave in and started to explain my day.
"Everyone at the office was just really annoying today," I admitted already knowing what she would ask next.
"How so?" she questioned, just as I expected.
I let my coffee cup rest against my knee as I rested my right arm on my leg. I couldn't help but think of how most people couldn't do this cause they would get burned since my coffee was still pretty hot. Sometimes still having automail had its perks.
"They just kept asking questions," I said once again knowing that Winry was going to pry farther.
"About what?" she asked now leaning back a little more and relaxing against me more. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if her coffee had cooled at all yet.
"They just kept asking me if it was raining outside."
I could tell she smiled at that, don't know how I knew… I just did. "You would get annoyed with that," she said now resting her head back on my shoulder.
Sighing, I tried to explain to her just why it had been so annoying to me. "It's just that the window is right there and if they really wanted to know they could just look out and see for themselves, so why on earth are they bothering me about it?" I said unintentionally squeezing her tighter with my arm.
She began to lightly trail her fingers along my arm and I realized for the first time just how tense I was about something as stupid as people asking a question. "Don't worry about it too much Ed, people are idiots."
It made me happy to hear that she sided with me, even if it was dumb.
"Although I have to point out-" So I thought too soon. She pulled away from me suddenly, and I had to urge to pull her right back and never let her go, but I knew better. After all, Winry may have been my wife, but she was still her and hell if I was going to try and control her life in any way I knew better.
She looked me right in the eye as she said, "This is just for arguments sake okay?" I nodded and she relaxed back against me as she began to explain her thought process.
"Sometimes people need reassurances," she began.
I couldn't help but interrupt her, "For the rain?" I asked incredulously.
"For anything," she said in a way that I was pretty sure that she was smiling again. Always a plus. "People tend to doubt themselves. Plus, a lot of times people ask questions like that because they don't actually believe what is going on outside… you know?"
"Winry, you aren't making any sense," I admitted honestly.
She sighed and tried to explain better. "Haven't you ever looked outside and been not sure if it was raining?"
I wondered if this was some sort of trick question and what exactly Winry would do if I got it wrong.
"Ed, aren't you going to say anything?" she asked suddenly.
I decided truth was the best policy in this case. "Not really sure what to say," yeah that sounded nice, but was the truth. See I was getting better at holding my tongue. She didn't need to know that I was considering the idea that she might have put something "extra" in the coffee.
"I sound like I'm crazy, don't I?"
"Yep," I agreed without thinking. She elbowed me lightly in the stomach with the same arm that she was holding her coffee in. I absentmindedly wondered how she managed to do that without spilling a drop. Must be a girl thing.
"How about I explain this in a different way?"
I held back a smartass comment knowing it would only get me in trouble.
"Have you ever looked outside and thought it looked like it might rain soon, but then looked down at the ground only to see water drops bouncing off the ground?" Winry said before taking another sip of her coffee.
Suddenly it hit me what she was trying to say. I chuckled slightly, "Yeah, you look outside and honestly you can't tell if it's raining, and the only real way to check without going outside is to look at the ground and see if water is making ripples in the puddles and stuff."
"Exactly!" Winry said obviously pleased that I understood her now. "And if you worked on… let's just say the third floor," she said once again elbowing me lightly in the stomach hinting to me.
"Yeah, I know, like I do," I said rolling my eyes at her.
"And from there you can't really see ground. So what would be the only way to check if it was raining outside if you couldn't tell?"
"You would have to stick your hand out the window and feel for yourself," I answered understanding Winry wanted to hear it from me.
"I think I've made my point," she said completely relaxing against me again. I could tell because of the way she slid down a little making her head fit perfectly in the notch in my neck.
I couldn't help but mess with her a little though. "You know there's just one thing wrong with your logic though," I said trying to sound thoughtful.
"Oh really?" she asked in a tone that I could just see her eyebrow lifting slightly as if to challenge me.
"Yeah, it was pouring today, if someone couldn't tell if it was raining then they had to be blind, and even if they were blind they would have heard it easily with the way it was coming down."
Winry immediately turned around and gave me a playful slap on the chest. I could tell she wasn't really mad though with the way she was smiling. "You're impossible," she said once again sitting back against me as my arm made its way across her stomach to hold her closer.
I only chuckled in response before we both fell into a comfortable silence. It was nice, not having to say anything, and not having to feel like I had to say anything. Still, when Winry suddenly tensed against me, I couldn't help but ask about it slightly worried.
"What's wrong?" I asked hugging her a little around the waist in hopes that it might comfort her a little.
For a moment Winry was silent- I didn't like it. Whatever it was, it was really bothering her. "I just was remembering some things."
Immediately, I felt guilty. Really there was only one thing that made her get like this, and I knew that it was my fault.
There were just so many times that Al and I left her alone, sometimes I wondered how she still managed to trust me so much when I had left her so many times. There were just things about Winry that I don't think I would ever understand. Sometimes I marveled at how she could love me. It was easy to see why I loved her; she had always been there for me.
I remembered the first time I saw her after I had finally gotten Al's body back. It was almost nightfall and the sun was setting filling the sky with a million different colors, although frankly, I couldn't remember any of this, and the only reason I know now, was because Al told me about it later. All I remember seeing was Winry coming out of the house looking as if she was about to cry.
More than anything though, I remember how my body reacted automatically at seeing her. A part of me that was always tensed suddenly felt more relaxed than ever before as I realized I was finally home… to her. But at the same time, my heart seemed to speed up… as corny as that sounded.
It was like I was in battle again, but instead of my body being in overdrive, it was my mind. A million thoughts all filled my head at once and nothing really seemed to make sense. Then when she pretty much tackled me and Al in one big hug, I swear my mind just stopped working all together when I felt her touch.
Sure, the past year I had tried to convince myself that any thoughts to her were strictly friendly, and she would always be like family to me, but after being in the same house as her… there was no denying my true feelings. Not that I didn't try, whenever I was alone I would always argue that no feelings past those of friendship were present in mine and Winry's relationship.
The problem with that was that the moment she would walk in the door, my body reacted automatically and I everything that I might have convinced myself when I was alone, would fly straight out the window and I would have to start all over. At some point, I had just stopped fighting it, not meaning I had suddenly gone to Winry and proclaimed my undying love for her, I just stopped arguing with myself over whether or not I loved her.
Once Al asked me when I fully realized I loved Winry. I told him the truth; there wasn't a specific day, time, or place. Overtime these feelings had just appeared and eventually grown into something more, it was hard to explain.
"Hey Ed?" Winry said suddenly interrupting my thoughts.
"Yeah?" I asked letting go of her for just a second so that I could set my coffee cup on the floor.
Winry held out her own cup and I set it next to mine as she began to ask her question. "Do you remember when we finally got together?"
I knew I was blushing at her question and since I was leaning over putting her coffee cup on the floor, I looked up to find Winry smiling at me. "You're blushing," she said teasing me.
"I am not!" I retorted back automatically even though I knew she was right.
"Yes you are," she laughed and I didn't argue it knowing she was right and that I was just embarrassed. I sat back up and stayed silent deciding it was best to hold my tongue.
Suddenly I felt Winry grab my hands and pull them to wrap them around her. I didn't realize how stiff I had gotten until I felt my body loosen up as she held my arms tightly around her. It was just too right for me to be mad at her. Then again, I'm not sure if I ever was really mad at Winry, I loved her too much to be too angry for long.
"I like it when you blush," Winry admitted to me quietly. "It's a reminder that you love me."
Smirking, I rested my head on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "You don't need reminders because I'm always going to love you."
She sighed, "Yeah I know," she admitted apprehensively, "But it's just…" she paused and thought for a second before continuing. "Do you remember how we got together?" she suddenly asked catching me slightly off guard.
"Yeah?" I said wondering what was up with all the trick questions today.
She then began to tell the story as if I didn't know it already, but I didn't complain liking that I could just listen to her talk for a while.
"I remember how you guys finally came home after so long and it was the weirdest thing because it was two guys walking up to the front door and not a big suit of armor in sight." I smiled at the memory. "I couldn't even believe that Al was all back to normal, and then there was you," she admitted slyly.
I mentally cringed thinking that she was going to make some sort of jibe about my height back then, after all, I had been a bit shorter back then.
"You were… just so…" she struggled for the right words. I personally had no idea what she was trying to say and couldn't help but jump in.
"Handsome, hot, good looking?" I speculated smirking.
If I had to guess, Winry was probably rolling her eyes at me at the moment, and then she lightly elbowed me in the ribs, I really needed to change our positions so she couldn't do that anymore. She twisted herself around to look me in the eyes. An air of seriousness fell over us and slowly my smirk fell from my face.
"You were happy," she said as a gentle smile worked its way onto her face. I could see that tears were starting to fill her eyes and I didn't like it even if they were supposedly tears of joy. It just didn't seem right.
She turned around, probably to hide the tears that she knew I didn't like, and continued to talk. "I'd seen you happy before Ed, but that moment… it was like you were finally complete."
I had to admit that she was right, of all the parts of my life that stuck out as something very important, that was in the top five. "I honestly was sure that you couldn't have automail and be that happy, I thought you had your entire body back too," she confessed a little sheepishly.
"I don't need my body back as long as Al has his back," I admitted even though I already knew that she knew.
"Al might argue with you about that," Winry said giggling slightly obviously thinking of the one of the few things that Al and I actually had argued over after we had gotten back to Resembool.
"He understands now," I said reminding her that we had finally agreed that living life to the fullest took priority over me getting my limbs back. Plus, it's not like I didn't have the best automail mechanic in the world constantly wanting to upgrade and fix my automail.
"Well, that wasn't the only thing that you and him argued about when you got back," Winry said reminding me of what we had been talking about, and thus getting back to the story of how exactly we had gotten together.
I felt my face start to heat up and couldn't help but curse myself silently for being able to blush about something like this even though Winry and I were married now. Winry started again, "I went to go get you guys for breakfast one morning and surprisingly Al wasn't in his room."
She was smiling as she remembered, well at least someone is getting some enjoyment out of this story I thought dreading what came next in it. "Walking up to your room, I started to hear voices and realized that you guys were actually arguing. Of course, at the moment I couldn't hear what both of you were saying-"
I cut her off, "So you decided to stay quiet and snoop in on us," I said with obvious disapproval.
"Not snooping!" She immediately retaliated.
Laughing, I asked, "Then what exactly were you doing?"
She was frowning, I could tell because she was staying silent, not even bothering to hit me over the head with a wrench or something. "Fine, I was snooping," she declared giving up on the idea of what she did was justified.
"But aren't you glad I overheard?" she said reminding me that if she hadn't then we probably wouldn't be where we are today, married.
"Of course, but you know I would have told you eventually," I said resting my chin on her shoulder.
"Sure sure," she said and before I could react, she continued with the story. "Well, it seemed that Al was shouting at you to just tell me. And that made me even more curious. But all my questions were answered when finally you snapped and just shouted at Al that you weren't going to tell me that you loved me. Well, at least not yet."
"Do you know what my first thoughts were after I heard that Ed?" Winry asked me as she once again began to play with my wedding ring.
"What?" I asked grabbing her hand with mine and intertwining our fingers.
"No way," she answered nonchalantly.
"As in, 'No way, I love him and he loves me too'?" I asked.
"No. No way, as in 'No way he loves me'."
I froze, this was the first time I had ever heard this from Winry. I knew that she had overheard me and Al yelling that day, I just thought that she had been overwhelmed by hearing that I loved her. "You didn't believe me?" I asked incredulously.
"Yeah," she said as she examined my real hand as if it was my automail one and she was doing a checkup. "I just couldn't believe that you loved me. I had fallen in love with you… I don't know, a lot earlier, and I was always telling myself that you would never feel the same about me so that I wouldn't get a broken heart."
"So basically you had convinced yourself I was never going to love you?" I questioned raising an eyebrow at her even though she wasn't looking at me, because she appeared to still be examining my hand.
"Pretty much," she acknowledged as she started to twist my ring around my finger with her other hand that was free.
"Wait, so when did you change your mind?" I inquired now wondering how I didn't know something as big as this sooner.
She snickered under her breath a little before answering, "Don't worry, I'll get there in a sec, anyways where was I in the story?"
"You just heard me say I loved you," I said wanting now for her to hurry up and start answering my questions. I had never really been known for patience.
"Oh yeah, so basically after hearing that, I snuck away from the door for two reasons. First being that I was sort of afraid of what else you might say, and the second being that of course I didn't want to get caught." After that she stopped and I waited for her to continue but was surprised to hear what she said next.
"You know, you have big hands," she said holding her hand up to mine which was indeed a bit bigger.
"Huh?" I said once again proving to her how articulate her husband was.
"I was just noticing how big your hands are, that's it," she said as she let her fingers intertwine once again with mine one by one.
"Boy Winry, you are slow, you made automail for my right hand for how many years and are just now noticing how big my hands are," I commented amused.
"Do you want me to go get my wrench Ed?" she asked leaning forward slightly so that she could look over her shoulder at me without breaking apart our hands.
"Like you could," I said wrapping my automail arm around her tightly so that she couldn't get up.
For a moment Winry started to struggle, "Aren't you going to finish telling the story anyway?" I reminded her.
She paused and must have decided that she would get me back later, I would have to be on the lookout, and she continued. "After that, the next few days I started watching you closer."
"Wow, that sounds creepy," I said trying to suppress a grin and failing miserably.
"You know what I mean," she said probably rolling her eyes again. "Anyway, I had started hoping that maybe you did love me, and I just had missed all the signs of it. Yet at the same time I kept trying to convince myself not to get my hopes up and that I had just misheard you or something." For a moment both of us were silent and for the first time I realized just how much trouble had been involved for Winry when we got together.
"You sound a bit crazy," I said trying to lighten the mood.
I think it worked pretty well because next thing I knew I had to let go of her with my right hand so that I could catch her elbow before it dug into my ribs like so many times before.
Winry whipped her head around effectively slapping me with her blonde ponytail, unbeknownst to her, and gave me a look of 'did you really just do that,' before settling on sticking out her tongue at me and turning back around to continue.
"So I started to notice little things that you did, like how we would fight all the time, but your eyes never were really mad at me, they sometimes just looked like it was all fun for you."
"It is fun for me," I said chuckling to myself, "It's fun to see you all riled up."
"Same goes for you shorty," Winry replied right back.
I stiffened automatically at the word. "I'm not short!" I whispered fiercely.
"Not anymore," Winry turning her head to smirk at me.
Not having a very good comeback, since it was in fact true, I began to mummer under my breath, "Well I'm a lot taller now and I know I wasn't exactly the tallest guy back then but seriously now I'm taller than you and…" but soon enough I trailed off realizing I was just ranting.
"Why don't you just keep telling the story," I said figuring that might put me in a better mood, or at least distract me from the fact of my height just a couple years ago.
"You just want a distraction," she said obviously amused. Damn it, she knew me well.
"Winry!" I exclaimed hoping she could take a hint.
"Okay okay, where was I?"
"You were watching me," I said turning the tables and now teasing her.
"Ed?" she asked sweetly suddenly.
"Yeah?" I said once again trying to rest my chin on her shoulder.
"Do you want me to finish the story or not?!" she exclaimed just loud enough for me to get the point.
"Sorry," I chucked, "you started it though."
"Whatever," she said before finally continuing. "So I started noticing some other stuff too, like how you got whenever I was with a male customer."
I knew immediately what she was talking about, but I decided to play dumb thinking she might just keep going, probably not one of my brightest plans. "What are you talking about?"
"You know that you were jealous," she said and I could see that she was grinning from the corner of my eye.
"What makes you think I was jealous?" I asked figuring she couldn't prove it.
"I saw you!" she laughed.
"What exactly did you see?" now I was just curious.
She tried to cover up her sniggers but failed as I heard little giggles between each word she said. "You scowled at all the guys. It was so cute."
"Cute?" I questioned not believing.
"Well, I guess it wasn't exactly cute at the time cause I was so confused by the whole situation that I didn't really know what to think of it, but now it's adorable," she admitted still laughing slightly.
I frowned, how could she find it amusing when I was practically in pain seeing her with other guys as they flirted with her and looked at her like a piece of meat.
"Oh Ed, don't get mad," she said, catching me by surprise, even though I should have known she would realize I was getting upset. "I get jealous too whenever I see some girl throwing themselves at you."
I scoffed at her, "Girls don't throw themselves at me."
"Not that you notice," she said under her breath so lightly that I was sure it wasn't meant for my ears. It seemed that she got just as jealous as me.
"Winry, you know I would never go for anyone but you," I said giving her a small squeeze hoping it would reassure her even though she shouldn't need it. I just didn't like seeing her upset ever; she'd had to go through so much already, now she deserved to have a much happier carefree life. Or that's at least what I reasoned.
She sighed which I took as a good sign, and I prompted her to continue. "So anything else you noticed about me back then?" I asked as much for my own sake as hers.
"Well, not so much about you, but more so about me," she confessed carefully.
Not quite sure what she meant I stayed silent and let her continue. "So many times I would look over at you just to catch you looking back at me." She took a deep breath and continued, "At first you would blush and look away, but as it kept happening it's like you grew in confidence or something because next thing I knew you started grinning at me every time it happened which actually made me blush and look away."
I smiled remembering just how often that had happened to us. It seemed like to me during that time between when Al and I had come home and when Winry and I had finally gotten together, every time I looked at her she caught me. "Yeah, I always got caught by you and then looked away, at least at first."
"What made you stop," Winry asked curiously.
I lifted my head slightly off of Winry's shoulder and looked up thinking hard. "I'm not really sure," I answered honestly. "But I think I just figured if you were going to catch me all the time anyway then I might as well smile at you when it happened, if that makes any sense," I added scratching the back of my neck unsure if she understood what I was trying to say.
I looked down and found Winry smiling slightly which automatically made me feel better. "I know what you mean," she said.
I grinned at that. For a moment both of us kept quiet and just smiled at one another, as much as I liked talking to Winry, I enjoyed the moments that words weren't needed. It was nice. But silence gave me the chance to think and I suddenly realized something.
"Wait a sec, that was all stuff about me and you said that there was something else you noticed about you?" I said furrowing my eyebrows in confusion.
"Oh, I guess I never really finished what I was saying," she said before resting back against me so that we were in our original position with her back to my chest. "It was my reaction to that smile that I really noticed."
She closed her eyes and brought her hands up away from mine and clasped them right over her heart as she continued. "My cheeks would feel like they were on fire and my heart…" she paused and I leaning forward I chuckled slightly seeing that at the moment her cheeks had turned a bright pink as she was lost in her memory, "it would start pounding so loud that I was sure everyone would notice."
"Me too," I admitted knowing exactly what she was talking about.
"I know."
"What?" I said puzzled as to how she might know something like that.
Opening her eyes she let her arms fall back down to rest against mine that were holding her tight, and she let her head fall back and rest against me completely. "One sec, I'll get to that part in a minute."
I groaned in response. "Why can't you tell me now?" I complained.
"Because it's not important to the story yet," she answered back so confidently that I couldn't object. "Just one question to keep the story going," she said catching me by surprise.
Although, really I should be used to her like this, and I couldn't help but wonder why I wasn't. Then again, I'm not really sure if I would want to be able to calculate every one of Winry's actions and words, the fact that I didn't know what might happen next with her was one of the things I loved most about her. "Shoot," I said giving her the go ahead.
"How did you take it, having your heart beat so hard, I mean I felt like I couldn't hold it in any more and just had to tell you how I felt about you." she asked looking down.
For a moment, I thought about her question and stayed silent. It was hard to answer. "It was hard, but really telling you scared me a lot more than ever feeling like I just had to tell you how much I loved you."
"The Fullmetal Alchemist admitting to being afraid of something," Winry said lightening the mood once again.
"Hey hey, you're a lot scarier than any Homunculus I've ever fought," I said chuckling along with her.
"I'm going to take that as a compliment," she said laughing slightly back at me.
"As you should, so why did that have anything to do with the next part of the story?" I asked prompting her again.
Smiling, she started back up, "Unlike someone else, I couldn't take it. I just had to tell you for fear that if I didn't my heart was going to burst or something. Plus, I had practically seen how much you cared for me, as well as heard you yell out loud already that you loved me, and I just had to make sure that there was no possible way you actually had feelings for me."
Winry took a deep breath and kept on with the tale, "So one night after dinner I decided I had to tell you after you had grinned so mischievously at dinner causing me to almost miss my mouth as I ate."
I coughed suddenly trying to cover up a laugh, albeit not very well. Winry probably noticed, but must have chosen to ignore it and just go on instead. "I started looking for you and finally found you sitting in the front yard leaning against a tree in deep thought."
"Yeah," I agreed remembering that moment, "the moment I saw you I stood up. It was like… we both knew something was going to happen," I felt my cheeks heat up slightly at revealing such personal thoughts.
"Don't be embarrassed Ed," I heard Winry say, and I looked at her only to find that she had tilted up her head just enough to look me in the face, "I know exactly what you are talking about."
I buried my face in her neck as I pulled her closer, it may have been a little repetitive but it still felt nice so I didn't really care. "What happened next?" I asked whispering ever so lightly in her ear, it didn't matter that I already knew.
"I tripped," she said squirming slightly in my embrace, probably because she was a bit ticklish on her neck.
"And?" I prompted her.
"You caught me in your arms," she said dramatically laughing as she pulled away from me so that I couldn't touch her neck so easily. I laughed at her antics before she pressed on with the story. "You know, I wouldn't have fallen that day. I just was stumbling over my feet."
"How do you know for sure?" I asked knowing she couldn't prove it.
"I just do," she said stubbornly. If she had been standing up, I'm sure she would have put one of her hands on her hip.
"Whatever," I said pulling her back against me again. "So what happened next?" I then asked not really wanting to get sidetracked anymore.
"Well, as cliché as it sounds, we were kind of close and my eyes locked with yours."
"You're right," I interrupted, "it does sound cliché."
"Shut up." It was only a moment before she went back to being serious. "You know I could have sworn in that moment that I could see the love you had for me in your eyes, and you know what?"
"What?"
"I still couldn't believe that you loved me," she said as she started to look down.
I was starting to get a little annoyed with her, "Why the hell not?!" I exclaimed not understanding.
"Ed," Winry said in a tone that told me to calm down. I realized just how tense I was and tried to relax. She tried to explain her reasoning. "I had been telling myself for years that you didn't like me like that… no matter how much evidence I was shown, two weeks was not enough to change my mind."
"I should tell you though," Winry added as an afterthought. "There was a moment that I did believe and got kind of caught up in the moment."
Remembering, I grabbed her hand and pulled her around to face me. Now she was sitting on the window seat facing me. I grabbed her left hand with my right as I took over, "I remember what happened next, you put your hand up to my cheek," I said smirking as I pulled her hand up and placed it between my other hand and my face.
Winry flushed slightly; it was funny how even though we had been married for about half a year, certain things still made us blush. Well, at least it was funny to me when Winry blushed. "Then your other hand went here," I said as I reached for her right hand with my left.
She had already started moving though, and her hand found my chest, right over my heart, before I could help her. "There," she said smiling as she stared at her hand over my heart.
"Can you feel my heart?" I asked partially hopeful and partially embarrassed, although why I had no idea.
She looked up from my chest and looked me in the eyes and leaned forward as she answered, "Yeah," so quietly I wondered if I had just imagined it.
"This is what I was talking about," she said stopping her face mere inches from my own. "I can feel your heart pounding right now, and that day…" she trailed off, either distracted by how close we were, or not really needing words to explain it to me.
"I know, it was pounding harder than ever before," I said remembering how nervous I had been. "Do you remember what you said next?" I asked knowing, but wanting her to say it.
"I said that I had overheard you and Al talking," she stopped for a seceond, "and you saying that you loved me." We both smiled at that part and Winry continued. "And then I paused before I asked, did you mean it?"
We both grinned at what happened next, "You know, I kind of took that as a challenge… that's why I kissed you, to prove that I loved you."
"And it worked," she said while smiling before leaning forward just a little more as she guided my face with her hand, and then pressed her soft lips to mine.
I ran my hands down her arms and found the small of her back so that I could pull her closer to me. At the same time I felt her hand make its way up my chest and to my neck, making my heart, if possible, beat even harder.
We both broke away breathing hard but smiling all the same. Neither of us said a word as we rested our foreheads against each other. I couldn't help but draw small circles on Winry's back as she played with my ponytail absentmindedly.
Feeling her light breath on my mouth, I wasn't able to control myself and leaned forward to catch her in another kiss. She made a small squeak, and I grinned knowing that I had surprised her. I tried to pull her even closer to me, but she resisted making me almost break the kiss and ask what the matter was… almost.
Instead, I found myself leaning back slightly and realized that she had somehow managed to get on her knees and was leaning over me as we kissed. She was the one to break apart, and I leaned forward to try and follow, but she was too quick. I frowned not liking this change.
She just smirked at me, and leaned forward to whisper in my ear, "Just be patient."
But I didn't want to be patient, and so I took advantage of the situation with her whispering in my ear, and began to kiss her neck wanting to see her reaction.
At first she gasped in surprise, and then she started to pull away, but I wasn't going to have any of that. Don't get me wrong, I love talking to Winry… but there are other activities that I liked to do with her too.
I brought one of my hands up to the back of her head to keep her from pulling away as I continued to kiss her neck. I grinned when she gasped my name. But then she pulled away apparently tired of my games, and kissed me hard on the mouth, not that I was complaining.
When we broke for air, Winry moved her hands to my shoulders as she gracefully began to shift positions. I watched her carefully as she spoke, "I was going to do this earlier, but you just couldn't wait."
"Could you blame me?" I said smirking.
Finally, when she settled, she was sitting in my lap straddling my body, with her legs wrapped around my back. She then proceeded to wrap her arms around my neck and kiss me once lightly before resting her head on my shoulder.
"I like this position," I said suggestively as I tried to pull her even closer with my hands on her back.
Without even looking up, Winry flicked me once on the side of the head while saying, "Oh shut up Ed; don't ruin the moment."
Figuring I could get lucky later tonight, I did what she wanted and kept my mouth shut as I rested my head against hers.
I'm not sure how long we stayed like that in silence just holding onto each other, feeling the other against us. I almost thought I could feel her heart beating against my own, but honestly it could have just been my own beating so fast.
Thoughts of our previous conversation filtered through my brain and I found myself with a question. "Hey Winry?" I asked softly.
"Hmmm?" she murmured against my neck.
"Were you trying to prove something to me by reminding me of that memory?"
She pulled back from me slightly and immediately I regretted asking it. Winry raised one eyebrow at me and tilted her head to the side in slight confusion as she answered, "No, I was just feeling nostalgic because of the rain."
"What did you think I was trying to prove," she then asked as an afterthought.
"Don't worry about it. It's dumb," I said trying to brush it off as nothing.
"Edward," she said warningly.
I gave in, "Okay okay, I just thought you were trying to prove that 'Is it raining?' wasn't really such a dumb question after all."
When Winry still looked bewildered, I realized that I would have to explain it farther. "Look, there just were a lot of connections between the points you made on the question and then the memory."
I continued knowing that she would want examples. "Like how you told me people need reassurances and then back then you also needed to be reassured that I loved you, even though you really shouldn't have."
Seeing Winry smile, I kept at it figuring I was making sense. "And then the whole thing about having to feel it for yourself to believe it." I looked straight into her brilliant blue eyes as I said, "You didn't believe I really loved you until I kissed you… making you feel it for yourself," I trailed off at the end suddenly self conscious that I sounded like some sort of hopeless romantic.
"Ed," she said smiling, "You think too much," but then she kissed me, so I wasn't really sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Whatever," I said before kissing her back.
This was a challenge sent to me by the The Moon Writers. I thank them for the challenge since it got me thinking a lot since I didn't just want to do a typical EdxWinry fic. This is actually at little more abstract in my opinion than most of my stuff. Just something fun and new for me to try.
Challenge: I had to include coffee, a sunset, and rain at some point in the fic. Everything else was completely up to me.
Hope you enjoyed.