A/N: Breaaaak.

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. Just a pair of seasick crabs and a homely-looking squid that I feel too sorry to eat.

Vague Perspective/The Birthday Present

Winry hated alchemy.

Or rather, was simply afraid of it. Being young, she was scared, and hated what it could do. It was on her fifth birthday, that she realized its potential, its power. And she feared it. On top of that, her two best friends, two inseparable brothers, took it up as a hobby. Noses in books of the so-called "art" all day long, hardly ever looking up whenever she came to their house to play. And it made her feel left out as much as bothered. She could never understand why they loved alchemy so much. If not for their father, who turned out to be an expertise in the field, they probably wouldn't be as prodigious as the one they took after. But it was in their blood, in their genetic makeup to be alchemists.

She wasn't afraid of alchemy at first. Winry just wondered what the two boys liked about it, what they find fascinating. She was too young to understand, but they seemed to know what they were doing. But whatever piquing curiosity she had for their intentions was thrown out the window, ever since the day she turned five.

There they were, standing in the living room. A circle she'd never seen anywhere but in the countless books on alchemy he and Al had been reading since toddlers. A birthday present for Winry, they said. She was skeptical. What kind of present was something less than enjoyable like an alchemy circle? It wasn't even artistic.

…At least, on some level.

But what they did afterwards made her wish that the circle was her gift from them.

Winry could never forget; that bright light, the glow of the room. The swirling mass of charcoal-black matter rising from the floor, and taking shape in the most unnatural way. And her hold on her puppy Den tightened. She'd been awed at first. But her wonderment was quickly replaced by terror, watching the transmutation take place before her. How could she not be scared? It felt wrong, it felt awful. It was worse than the Boogie Man.

So she really couldn't blame herself for being a crybaby, as she cried out in fear and fell to the floor on her knees, crying. She wanted them to stop. Stop before they got any further. In her head, a wild idea had emerged; an idea that something awful was going to happen to her friends too if they completed the process. The first thing that came to her head, ergo, was to cry. Divert their attention from that twisted accumulation they called her present.

But it had been finished. Where the mass lay at the center of the circle, a cloth doll with red locks and wearing a little blue dress was in its place. It just lay there, innocently. And neither of the two brothers were hurt at all. So the guilt that came afterwards overwhelmed her. Winry was ashamed of herself, for thinking that they might have gone wrong with their present to her.

What made it worse was when their mother came over to apologize. Winry just sat there in her chair, quiet and still in shock. Her guilt only grew, hearing Trisha Elric making an apology. She shouldn't have to beg for contrition. The brothers didn't do anything wrong. They were just trying to make something for her. And she ruined their surprise. And broke their spirits. Their mother's admiration for her two sons cheered them up. But Winry couldn't tell them sorry herself. Childishly, she thought it wouldn't matter to them. For other reasons, she didn't want to have anything to do with their alchemy ever again.

But then, that night…

-Cricketeer loves to pwn her chapters with a nice, big, "WAKA!"-

Winry heard tapping. Sleepily, she lifted her head from her pillow and looked at her bedside clock. It was 9:15. Confused and a little wary, she turned her head to the closed window after one particular tap. Her round azure eyes caught sight of a small hand tapping a finger on the glass.

She squealed loudly, thinking it was a monster in the form of a child her age. Then she heard a familiar, "Winry…!" from outside. And she gave a start.

"Ed…?"

Hastily, the little girl moved from her bed to the window, and undid the safety latch to open it. Lifting her window open, she poked her head to see him sitting on one of the branches of the tree beside the Rockbell home.

"Ed? What are you doing here?" she asked, still shocked to see him out at this time of the night.

He didn't say anything at first. Ed sat there for some seconds, before presenting her something from behind his back.

The doll.

Winry gasped, frightened, and she backed away from the window, from him. It.

"Wh-wh-wh-why do you have that?" she squeaked.

Ed looked put-out(and annoyed) by her reaction. "It's your gift from me and Al, dummy! What do you think I came out here for?"

"Don't give it to me!" Winry hissed, trying to keep her voice down in case her parents and Pinako heard them. "I don't want it!"

"What do you mean you don't want it? Do you know how hard we worked on this for you?"

"I said I don't WANT IT!" Winry retorted furiously.

She half-expected him to yell back angrily. Instead, he stared at her with a foreign look in his eyes. Was that hurt?

But the look was soon gone, and it was replaced with a disgruntled face.

"Fine." he bit crossly under his breath. "Happy birthday."

Before she had a chance to say anything, Ed moved away from her, and back down the tree. Somehow miraculously, reaching the ground without a scratch. Winry watched him leave and step onto the road towards his own home. For a while, she just stood there, watching him go. And felt saddened. She hadn't meant to make it harder. Wordlessly, she closed her window and crawled under the warm covers of her bed, sniffling a bit before she fell asleep.

But the next morning, on her way home from school(for once, without the two), Winry had made up her mind to go visit the Elrics and apologize for yesterday. She knew it was going to be easy to do that with Trisha, and she knew Al was sweet and forgiving.

But the eldest brother was whom she was having trouble finding the right words for. He surprised her. Winry had really expected him to lose his head and thrust that…thing…in her face, telling her how stupid and selfish she was after all their effort to make her happy.

She just didn't get it. Didn't get their scary, scary, scary hobby.

Winry crossed the stone bridge. Then something in the water caught her eye, and she froze.

The little girl backpedaled and dashed to the riverbank, where she found it.

She was afraid to touch it. It still brought horrible memories to her. But she was still stunned to see the doll there, thrown away and abandoned. And she knew who left it there.

Winry's heart tightened. Ed's face, that hurt face of that night floated to her mind's eye…

"Fine. Happy birthday."

Reason stood up to speak for her as she reached into the water for the doll. It was caked in mud, the dress soiled badly along with its red curly hair. Even the beady black eyes lost its dark shine, dulled by the flow of the riverbed mire. Winry was hesitant, but her hands finally enclosed on the little rag doll. She pulled it out to inspect. And her heart broke, looking at it. It was like she'd upset their present too.

The urge to cry rising in her throat, Winry held the doll close to her chest and wept to herself, sitting by the riverbank below the stone bridge. She held it tightly, not caring that her pink dress got soiled too, or when her cheeks were covered with mud and wet tears.

She never told them about it. She was still afraid of alchemy. She feared what it could do. And letting Ed know that she was sorry didn't feel like the biggest thing on her to-do list right now. Or any other given day. The look he gave her put her out. No way was an apology going to come from her when he'd just stand there and be stubbornly unmerciful.

But every night, she held the doll close to her in sleep, thinking of the Elric brothers.

Thinking of him.

Ten years later…

She slept with a wrench beside her, and cuddled the doll in her sleep, whispering, "Goodnight, you two."

FIN

A/N: Nnnnnnn…corny. Thoughts please.

As I once said before, much thanks to ibshafer-san for inspiring me with her creative wording.

Dibs on who Winry referred to by saying, "Goodnight, you two." Not that simple. Don't have to think hard. Common sense please? Irrational sense? Insane sense? ESP? Intuition? Alien foil hats? Anybody? XD