Clarity

By Umi Mikazuki

Disclaimer: All I own is manga number one, some figurines, posters, and other assorted FMA junk. Arakawa-sama gets all the credit.

Summary: He could finally see what had always been there to begin with

"So, you're staying for a week?" Winry picked up a handful of snow and playfully tossed it at Ed. "You could have picked a more exciting place to spend your winter break. There's nothing to do here."

He looked across the fields and brushed the snow off of his jacket, "Yeah, but I figured we could spend longer than two days here for once. This is our home." Grinning, he made a snowball and threw it at the mechanic.

"Hey! That's cold!" she laughed. "Granny was sure quick in getting Al to help make deliveries. It's hard for her to move in deep snow, being as small as she is. Al makes a pretty good snow plow."

The comment made Ed grin, "He was happy to come here. Actually, he was the one that suggested it." His face took on a thoughtful look, "I wonder if Al will fill up with snow like he does sand…"

Winry giggled at the comment, "Must be a real inconvenience…" She looked at him and smiled, "You wanna go by the lake?"

"Yeah, why not?"

They meandered over to the lake and sat at the base of an oak tree. Winry wrapped her arms around her knees stared at Ed with a small smile.

He felt her eyes on him and blushed slightly, "What's with that look?"

She shook her head slightly, "Nothing important. I'm just happy you're here." The mechanic turned her gaze to the frozen water. "Hey. You think it's iced over enough to skate?"

"Probably. But we don't have skates." Ed looked at her pointedly.

Winry just clapped her hands.

He grinned sheepishly.

Ed found some scrap material to use back at the house. They went back to the lake after he transmuted blades onto their shoes, and cautiously got on the ice. Both of them fell several times before getting their balance, but finally managed to stand up.

"Just in case, let's stay on the edge." Ed cautioned.

"Yes, mother." Winry stuck her tongue out at him and grinned. She did a slow figure eight and looked at him, "Well, aren't you going to skate?"

He smiled, "Yeah, yeah. I didn't make these for nothing, after all." Still not quite having his balance yet, he wobbled out and promptly fell on his ass.

The mechanic laughed, "Nice one!" Ed shot her a glare.

Winry skated over and grabbed his hand, helping him up and causing his cheeks to turn pink, "C'mon. We'll help each other out." She kept her grip on him and dragged him a little further out.

"Remember, not too far out." He squeezed her fingers in warning.

"You worry too much. We'll be fine." She chided.

Ed laughed nervously, "You're probably right."

Crrraaaaaaaaack

The ice under their feet broke about twenty feet out, instantly dumping them in the freezing water. Ed's automail made him sink like a rock. Still holding his hand, Winry was dragged down with him. The shock of the water stunned them for several seconds before they came to their senses and let go of each other.

Ed tried in vain to swim to the surface, only managing to get a foot away from the benthos before sinking again. Winry kicked her way to him and began to pull him up, the alchemist helping as best he could. With two people, it was much easier.

Luckily, they came up where the ice had broken. Shivering violently, they hauled themselves onto the ice and lay there, trying to catch their breath. They slowly crawled their way to shore.

"W-we nnnneeed to get back t-to the hous-se…" Ed managed to say. Winry nodded her head in agreement. He transmuted the blades off of their shoes before giving her a weak smile.

They stood up, with each other's help, and began the long trek back to the house.

Once they reached the house, Ed threw several logs in the fireplace and grabbed a match. He dropped the match several times before he could light it, and nearly dropped it on the floor after he did, before depositing it in the fire.

Ed began to think about all he'd heard about treating hypothermia. He knew they needed to get out of their wet clothes, and vaguely remembered something about body heat. 'What was it again?' Then it came back to him. 'No way!'

The best way to treat hypothermia is with direct contact with someone else's skin. In essence, body heat. This meant that they would have to be in a compromising situation.

His face paled, then all the blood returned in a rush. He really, really didn't want to ask her this, but it needed to be done. "W-winry?"

She looked at him, shivering violently. She had already shed her jacket and shoes. "Y-you n-n-need to get into s-some dry c-c-lo-thes, Ed,"

He gulped, not looking her in the eye, "The b-best way t-to treat hyp-pothermia is to u-use body h-heat.

Her face grew hot, "What?" He responded with a nod. She went over her options. It wasn't like she hadn't seen Ed in just his boxers before, but she'd never been in her underwear with him. And the idea of both of them like that... But she knew it had to be done.

Reluctantly, she turned her back and said, "W-we have to." Heavily blushing, she began to take off her shirt. As quickly as he could and with a blush that rivaled hers, Ed grabbed a blanket off the couch and began to strip as well. Once they were down to their skivvies, they sat as close to the fire as they could without burning themselves and Ed wrapped the blanket around them. He kept Winry to his left to avoid contact with his automail as much as possible. They did this all while trying their best not to see anything.

The teens stayed silent, staring at the flames. After a few minutes, their shivering began to subside. "It was k-kinda dumb, what we did." Winry said.

"Yeah." Ed instinctively put his arm around her shoulder. She slowly began to relax against him, putting her head on his shoulder and relishing the warmth.

"I keep thinking about…what if….what if I wasn't able to pull you up? You would have drowned…." Tears formed at the corners of Winry's eyes.

He looked down at her face with a concerned look, "Don't think about it, okay? The fact is that I didn't. Don't worry about what ifs." He pulled her closer to him and turned his gaze back to the fire.

An arm snaking around his waist made Ed jump a little in surprise. The surprise quickly turned into embarrassment when Winry wrapped her other arm around him and buried her face into his neck.

"Win…"

She shook her head slightly, signaling not to talk. He could feel her lips on his collarbone as she spoke, her words muffled, "There's something I've always wanted to tell you, but I've been too afraid of what you'd say…"

"Winry?"

She laughed softly, "Even now, I can't say it. I'm pathetic."

"Come on, you can tell me anything, you know that."

"…"

"Winry." Ed said gently, "It's obviously been bothering you for a while. Won't you feel better if you just get it out?"

Hot tears splashed onto his shoulder. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. She stared at him for a moment, then averted her eyes, tears still running down her cheeks.

"I hate it. I hate it when you act all sweet like this. Because then, I think that you might stay. And then you never do. It hurts when you leave, Ed. It feels like my heart is being crushed…"

All of a sudden, he kissed her. Winry froze, staring at him in shock, her heart pounding. It was short and sweet, but it was enough to make her blush like mad.

Ed was blushing as well. He saw the shock on her face, "I-I'm sorry….I don't…I mean…." Why had he done that! He was just trying to think of how to make her stop crying, and then he just…KISSED her! "I'm sorry, I really am. Winry, say something…"

She averted her gaze from him again, the look on her face unreadable. "Winry?" He looked at their surroundings, making sure her wrench wasn't anywhere near the girl. A yank on his hair brought his attention back to Winry as she smiled and kissed him back.

When they parted, she buried her face in his neck again as he rested his chin on her head, combing his fingers through her hair. Ed sighed and murmured, "I don't leave because I want to. I leave because I have to. Al doesn't deserve to be in that body, a body that can't feel, can't eat, can't sleep. It's my fault he's like that, and I have to find the Stone to fix it. You know that."

"I know. It just hurts so much! The least you could do is send a letter every now and then!"

Ed stayed silent for a moment, looking down at the girl. Finally, he said, "I promise I'll write every week. I'll visit once a month, if my missions don't get in the way. Will that make it easier?"

He felt Winry smile against his collarbone, "Yes it will."

"…was that what you wanted to tell me?"

She picked her head up and kissed him again, "I'm really tired. Let's get some sleep."

They lay down, Winry cuddled against Ed's chest, his arm around her waist. Almost instantly, sleep overtook them.

Pinako and Al walked into the living room two hours later to see the two teens cuddled up against each other under a blanket by the fire. Their clothes were piled by the couch, still wet from the lake.

Al was stunned, embarrassment evident in his voice, "Granny, you don't think they…that they…."

"They have more sense than that. Let them be for the time being, we can ask them what happened later."

Pinako picked up the wet clothes and tossed them into the laundry basket. "Al, get a change of clothes for your brother while I get some for Winry. I'm sure they don't want to explain while in their underwear…"

The smell of beef stew woke Ed and Winry up. At first they both blushed, until they remembered what had happened earlier. Enjoying each other's company, they lay there for a minute.

"Oh, snap!" Winry sat up suddenly.

Ed sat up too, quickly looking away from her barely covered chest, "What's wrong?"

She looked at him like he was crazy, "Granny and Al are back! You know what they'll assume!"

"Shit!" he jumped up, noticing clean, dry clothes on the couch for them both. Hurriedly, they both got dressed, dreading going into the kitchen.

Al was pouring drinks for everybody when Ed and Winry appeared at the doorway. Both of them looked nervous and embarrassed, facing the floor. "Granny, I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't like that."

"You fell into the lake and were trying to keep hypothermia from setting in. Am I right?" Pinako raised an eyebrow and smiled.

They stared at her in shock, "How…what…."

"Your clothes were sopping wet. It wasn't that hard to figure out."

Ed sighed in relief. Winry smiled at him, grabbed his flesh hand, and dragged him to the table to eat.

Al noticed that his brother didn't get flustered from it. Usually, he'd blush at least a little. "Ohhh…" he grinned to himself.

"Hey brother, are you two dating now?"

The question caught Ed completely off guard. His cheeks turned bright red and he stared at the wall, "So what if we are?"

"I knew it! I knew you and Winry would end up together eventually!" Al danced around the room they shared.

Ed kicked him as hard as he could.

"Brother! That was mean!"

Winry sat on the balcony, looking towards the horizon. The door opened and a shadow appeared in front of her. She smiled, "The sky is always so clear in the winter. All those stars…"

Ed sat down next to her, "Yeah. You can't see some of them in the summer, even though they're right there…" he looked at her and smiled.

OMG, isn't it so sweet! I just had to write this once I got the idea!

R&R, please!