[Re-written - 28/10/13]

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA,if I did I would be the happiest person in the whole world - and I'm not,so...

IN THE DARK

It was a beautiful and cool night in Risembool, everyone was quiet and resting from another tiring and busy day of their lives. In the Rockbell house though, things were slightly different, as a blonde mechanic changed position in her bed for what seemed like the millionth time that night in a futile attempt of allowing sleep to take over. Once she was certain sleep would not be coming anytime soon, she sighed and silently pushed the covers away from her body and sat up in a sitting position, only to shiver slightly at the sudden contact with the colder air on her skin.

Winry looked at the clock only to groan afterwards when she realized that the night was not even half way through yet. She angrily blamed the nightmares for haunting her normally peaceful nights as she decided to head downstairs to find something to occupy herself with, as quietly as possible so as not to wake the other residents of the house.

These nightmares always came the night before her childhood friends left for Central to continue their ever-ending search for a way to return their bodies back to normal. They were rather gruesome and incredibly disturbing, always sending shivers down her spine if she thought about them afterwards during the next days. Almost every night, she'd see the one thing she prayed not to happen whenever she was alone, she'd see them die. Especially Ed, she thought in dismay, it's always Ed. Winry had never believed that all this was fair. It wasn't at all. Ed would give his life for Al, he had proven that many times already, but even so, he always seemed to go through so much pain that Winry had caught herself wondering if all the pain was really worth it. No,it's worth it, she'd correct herself instantly, but even if she did, the thought lingered in the back of her mind as well as the question of what Al's opinion is about his brother's grief.

Two days ago, the Elrics had come for a visit, Ed's automail arm in pieces. Winry, as always, had been angry about the fact that they only returned for repairs, but she couldn't stop the fear from bubbling up inside of her every time she made the necessary adjustments to Ed's automail and she wondered just what the boy had gone through to destroy her precious automail that much. And of course, she thought disappointed, they never utter a word about how or why it happened in the first place, leaving her to let her mind run wild and imagine all those gruesome images in her sleep.

The mechanic shook her head to get the thoughts out of her mind, as she opened the front door to the house and stepped outside, hopeful that the cool breeze would help to clear her mind from her bothering thoughts. She gingerly sat down on one of the front steps and closed her eyes, letting the semi-cold air caress her pale skin. Winry smiled to herself and all of a sudden started humming a song she had heard a few days ago. She was almost halfway through the song, when she suddenly felt childish and stopped. She looked around self-consciously and continued, after convincing herself that no one was there to listen to her. With a boost of confidence, she got up and started dancing, allowing the grass to gently tickle her bare feet. Her white night dress flowed according to her movements as she forced her mind to go back to the happy times and discard everything about the horrible dreams.

Meanwhile, Ed had just woken up for the third time that night, feeling extremely thirsty. He had no idea why he couldn't sleep, he just couldn't. He thought nothing of it however, as he just decided it was from the anticipation of their early departure the next day. Finally, after two days, his automail had been repaired and he and Al could leave with the first train to Central to follow a new, promising lead.

Ed grabbed the covers of his bed and threw them to the ground as he got up slowly so as to avoid getting dizzy and after sighing he yawned and scratched his bare chest as he started his journey to the kitchen for a glass of water. He sleepily opened the fridge and poured some cold water in a random glass. He was about to bring the glass to his lips when something caught his attention from outside. The curious blond stepped closer towards the nearby window and, almost hesitantly, peaked outside, only to vaguely see a figure moving in the dark. The only things he could make out from the moving form were the colours white and yellow, he squinted in order to force his eyes to catch sight of more. It took him some time, but he eventually recognized the figure as Winry.

He walked over to the door and opened it slowly and a little unsurely, since he really wasn't in the mood to be beaten up with a wrench so early in the morning if he accidentally interrupted something private. That's why, he was being extra careful not to be noticed and leaned against the railings that surrounded the front part of the house without letting a noise escape. A smile became evident on his face as he figured that her movements weren't random and that in fact his friend was dancing, humming a tune he couldn't quite put a name to. He subconsciously took a sip from his water, his eyes too busy taking in the girl in front of him, watching as her body swayed and spined delicately, with her eyes closed and a beautiful smile on her face.

He continued watching her for a while until she seemingly finished as she stopped moving, opened her eyes, and before Ed could react she spotted him. Time seemed to have froze as they stared at each other wide eyed, as Ed expected an outburst and a wrench to the head while Winry seemed to be trying to convince herself she was not hallucinating. She blushed when she finally figured that was not the case but couldn't stop the small smile from forming.

"I didn't know I had an audience," she muttered just loud enough for Ed to catch it.

Ed seemed relieved when the said outburst did not come and he chuckled quietly, "Sorry, I just didn't bother to stop you. You seemed so peaceful," he replied, half lying since he had actually been too afraid to stop her.

Winry's blush turned from a slight pink to a light red as she moved closer to Edward, "So, what are you doing here so late at night?" she asked, looking at him, curiosity evident in her blue orbs.

"Couldn't sleep," he sighed and paused, "You?"

Winry turned her gaze to the ground, her smile fading, making Ed want to bang his head on the nearest wall for making her remember something sad and possibly frightening, seemingly a nightmare. He had to fix this.

"It's ok if you don't want to talk about it," he blurted out, hopeful to send the bad memories away again.

Winry looked up at him and smiled sadly, "Sorry" she said, her voice not above a whisper.

Ed smiled amiably, "It's ok" he assured, his voice as low as her's had been a second ago. She still looked kind of down though and Ed was currently contemplating on a way to cheer her up when a thought suddenly crossed his mind. Normally, he would never do anything like that, especially in public or he'd definitely die from the humiliation, but now, he thought, it was just him and Winry and he knew from experience that Winry wouldn't judge him for anything and that gave him the necessary confidence to set his glass on the floor and approach the blonde mechanic, only to pause a few steps away from her and offer her a hand which she responded to with a puzzled expression.

He grinned playfully at her confused expression and grabbed her hand as he pulled her against his chest, his other hand making its way to her waist. Winry got the message right away and put her left hand on his shoulder while she rested her head on his chest. Closing her eyes, she listened to his steady heartbeat as they started moving slowly. They swayed like that in silence for a moment until Ed let go of her hand and let it fall to her waist with his other one. Winry then wrapped both her arms around Edward's neck, her head still on his chest.

"I had a nightmare," she whispered suddenly, as if afraid that someone other than him would hear.

"What about? " Ed asked, happy that she was now willing to open up to him.

She looked up at him a little with a sad expression and before answering she rested her forehead on his shoulder, "About you."

They stopped moving.

Ed sighed, "I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm always hurting you one way or another."

He felt Winry shake her head against his shoulder, "It's not your fault," she said, her eyes filling with hot tears as they resumed their previous task and started moving slowly again.

"So, what happened?" Ed asked, oblivious to the tears she was holding in.

There were a few seconds of silence until she spoke, "You never came back," she reluctantly replied, her voice cracking as the tears were now flowing freely down her cheeks. Ed felt her tears and after sighing, he lifted his left hand to stroke her hair carefully.

"You know I'll always come back, there's no way I'm gonna leave you, kay?" he whispered in her ear, as gently as he could.

She nodded, "I know but..." she trailed off, her voice suddenly getting caught in her throat,"...what if you d-die?" she choked out.

"Hey, don't think about things like that," he said a little too roughly for his liking as Winry started to sob uncontrollably.

He continued stroking her hair with his left hand while his right one was now on her back, pulling her even closer to him, if that was even possible. Winry lowered her left hand to rest on his bare chest.

"I-I know, b-but it's hard not to think about it," she said between sobs.

Ed closed his eyes and sighed, blushing as he pulled her into a tight, comforting hug, the whole 'dancing' idea completely forgotten.

"Winry, I promise you," he started saying, sounding confident. His tone made Winry look up at him, her blue, teary eyes shining in the darkness as she waited patiently to hear the rest of his sentence.

"I promise you that I'll come back to you. I'll never leave you."

She gave him a small, weary smile and Ed lifted his left hand to each of her cheeks and wiped the tears away. He let his hand rest on her right cheek while he stroked it slightly with his thumb. Winry closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of his hand and brought hers to rest on top of his.

"Thank you," she whispered, opening her eyes again to stare into his gold ones.

"For what?" Ed asked while flashing her one of his usual grins, "I should be thanking you," he paused, his grin turning into a small, genuine smile Winry hadn't seen in a long time,"for always being there."

A/N

Hey everyone! I'm here with some cute EdWin fluff! EdWin in my OTP,seriously. I love this couple.
Anyway,When i was on holidays (about 2 weeks ago),I couldn't sleep one night and this story just came to me like...BAM and after that night the idea wouldn't leave my mind so I decided to write it! This follows the story of Brotherhood even though there are no signs of it doing so.I want to say that Ed does keep his promise to Winry about not leaving her,kay? Oh and also,Ed's a few inches taller than Winry in this fic,I didn't want him too short *laughs* I'm not sure if Ed's OOC since he often has difficulties with comforting Winry,but I hope you just enjoy the fic xD