A/N: Hello! Well, this is my first hand at writing a FMA fic... Let's hope it goes well. Basically, this was meant to be my entry for Caitlin Glass' birthday contest (she is the voice actress for Winry Rockbell in the English dub). The prompt was what would we give one of her characters that she has portrayed on their 25th birthday. However, due to some complications, this could not be sent by the deadline. But, I thought it was amusing, and decided to post this on here as my birthday gift to Caitlin. Please leave some reviews for me and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I do not in any way own FMA or its characters... but I do own Ephiny and (kinda) Takkun (he's more so taken from my boyfriend).

Dedication: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAITLIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Winry's Birthday Surprise

It was a bright, sunny day in Resembool. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and a nice, gentle breeze was blowing to keep it from being too hot. To put it simply, it was a beautiful day. It was the perfect day for a birthday party.

…Or at least, everyone but the birthday girl herself thought so.

Winry Rockbell was turning twenty-five today and was surrounded by close friends and family, but she couldn't have been less thrilled about her special day. And why shouldn't she be unhappy? It had been years since she had last seen her childhood friends the Elric brothers, and Winry couldn't help but still miss them terribly.

Especially Ed.

Of course she missed Al too. How could she not—he was like a brother to her. But, it was different with Ed, because, well…she loved him. For years, her heart had been devoted to the Full Metal Alchemist, and it still was, even though he had been gone for so many years.

Still, everyone was nice enough to throw her a party, so she figured she'd put a smile on her face for them and enjoy it.

Almost everyone she had known her entire life was there—her grandmother Pinako (of course), Nelly, Rose and her son, Alex Armstrong, Gracia with little Elicia (although, she wasn't quite that little anymore), Shieska, and even Roy and Riza showed up.

When the guests had first arrived that afternoon, they had all sat around the living room, talking about what was going on in their lives since the last time they had all met. Then, Pinako had brought out a lavish birthday cake that must have taken her dear grandmother all morning to decorate.

It was a two-layered, round yellow cake with chocolate frosting. "Happy Birthday Winry" was written on the top in cursive with strawberry icing, and at the base of each candle was a small circle of strawberry frosting. All twenty-five candles were red and lit.

Winry couldn't help but smile faintly at all the effort was putting into her birthday. Even if it didn't fully take away the pain, it did help knowing she had so many people around her that cared about her so much. She was truly lucky to have them in her life.

They all sang "Happy Birthday," with Rose's son having a contest with Elicia over who could belt out the words the loudest. Rose, Gracia, Pinako, and Winry couldn't help but giggle at their antics, finding it cute.

"Make a wish, Winry!" Elicia chimed.

Winry smiled sadly down at the candles. 'What I want I can't have… It's a silly wish… But what the heck, it is MY birthday after all… I wish Alphonse and Edward were here…' she thought as she closed her eyes and blew out the candles.

Just as the guests were about to start clapping and cheering, a knock came at the door. Since she was closest to the door, Riza went and opened it, but nothing could prepare her for what was standing there on the other side.

"Hi everybody!" a cheerful voice chimed.

Everyone froze at the sound of the voice, and Winry slowly lifted up her head and looked over to find…

"ALPHONSE!!!" everyone exclaimed all at once, except for Elicia and Rose's son.

The young automail mechanic leapt to her feet and ran over to the doorway, hugging him tightly. "Al! It's really you!" Winry replied, finally taking a step back, smiling from ear-to-ear, tears of joy shimmering in her blue eyes.

"Happy Birthday Winry!" Al chimed, smiling back as he held a small purple box wrapped with a red ribbon.

"Al…where's your brother?..." Winry asked, a nervous glint to her blue eyes.

"Well…" Al began nervously, his voice trailing off. It was obvious that he was debating on how to deliver the news he had about his older sibling to her.

Winry's blue eyes widened in horror and in understanding. To her surprise, as well the surprise to everyone else, Winry remained calm, though her face was filled with sadness. For Alphonse's sake, she conjured up the weakest of smiles and let him inside her house. She stood off to the side, hugging herself as everyone rushed to Alphonse, asking him all sorts of questions. After everyone had talked with Alphonse for a few minutes, they began cutting the cake, when there was another knock at the door.

"Riza, could you please answer it?" Gracia asked, trying to keep her daughter from smearing icing all over her plate.

With a simple nod, the first lieutenant went over and opened the front door, only to find a young woman close to her own height with long black hair pulled back into a high ponytail with a pink ribbon and blue eyes. She was dressed simply in a pair of dark blue jeans, a black leather trench coat, a loose-fitting black shirt, and black knee-high boots. Riza noticed the mischievous glint to her eyes and the red cloth wrapped around her right hand.

Riza looked to her calmly and seriously. "May I help you?" she asked.

The mysterious woman smiled. "Yes, you can, Miss Hawkeye. I'm looking for Winry Rockbell…" she answered.

The brown-eyed lieutenant was suspicious, but she looked back, making sure she still stood in the doorway, at the blond mechanic. "Winry, there is someone here to see you."

Curious, Winry left Al's side to walk over to the doorway. Riza did step aside for Winry to talk with the mysterious woman, but she stayed over by the door in case the woman decided to try anything funny. Winry looked at the woman, surprised. "Umm… Hello…" she began uncertainly. Just who was this person standing on her doorstep?

A bright grin formed on the woman's face. "Wow! THE Winry Rockbell!" she chimed in an excited, somewhat high-pitched voice. "Wow! This is… This is just amazing! To FINALLY get to MEET you!..."

"Do I know you?..." Winry interjected nervously.

"Huh?" the woman asked suddenly before her question fully dawned on her. "Oh right! How rude of me!" she exclaimed and paused for a moment to clear her throat. "I'm Ephiny, one of your biggest fans! You are just so awesome, and I just can't believe that I'm finally standing face-to-face with the great—"

At that time, a young man (whom stood a few inches above Roy) walked up onto the porch and placed a hand on Ephiny's shoulder. He was dressed in a navy blue muscle-shirt, a black leather vest, and faded blue jeans, and his short, brown curly hair was neatly combed, with his dark blue eyes shimmering with kindness. "Now sweetheart, calm down, we don't want to scare her," he replied, interrupting Ephiny's fan-crazed rant.

"You're right, Takkun," Ephiny agreed, calming herself down with a deep breath before smiling at Winry once more. "You see, Winry—can I call you Winry?" The blond mechanic nodded, though still a little confused as to who they were and what they were doing here. "We've come here to congratulate you on your birthday!"

"That's very kind of you," Winry began, fixing to ask how they knew her when she was interrupted by Takkun.

"You need to hurry… IT is getting antsy," he told Ephiny.

"Oh well! IT can wait a little longer!" she retorted to her male companion before turning back to Winry with a wide grin. "Winry Rockbell, we have gotten you what you've ALWAYS wanted!..." she began and raised her hand to reveal that the 'red cloth' was actually part of a red silk rope. She tugged on it quite hard, and Winry was startled when she heard a yelp. However, Ephiny paid no mind to the cry and pulled and tugged on the rope a couple of more times before something was pulled up on the porch with everyone.

Winry had received many wonderful—and some times odd—gifts in her life, but nothing could compare to…

"EDWARD ELRIC!!!" Ephiny finished, showing off the Full Metal Alchemist who was tied up with the red silk rope she was holding and with a big red bow over his mouth.

"Oh my God…" she whispered, her blue eyes widening in shock and filling with tears of joy and relief. "Edward, is that?..."

"Mhmph," came the muffled reply of the missing alchemist.

Almost literally shoving Ephiny to the other side of the porch, Winry ran to him and embraced him tightly, crying, whispering his name over and over again. Everyone had heard the commotion and decided to peak out to see what was going on. Though happy and shocked to see the Full Metal Alchemist standing there, they could not bring it up to themselves to interrupt their reunion. And even Ed, who was annoyed about being tied up and having a degrading bow still on his mouth, faintly smiled (or at least tried to). Finally, Winry pulled began and quickly began to untie her present.

Everyone was welcomed inside, and after everyone had said their "his" to Ed and had their cake, Winry looked over at Alphonse with a slight glare to her eye. "Why didn't you say he was with you?!" she demanded.

Alphonse flinched slightly. "Well, Ephiny and Takkun wanted it to be a surprise!... And besides, Takkun threatened me if I DID tell anyone!" he answered quickly.

Instantly, Ephiny glared at him. "What did you threaten him with?..." she growled.

Takkun chuckled nervously. "Oh, it was nothing really!" he replied, hoping to calm down his girlfriend and save himself from her wrath.

"It wasn't nothing!" Alphonse cried. "He threatened to put me back in that armor!"

"Takkun…" Ephiny growled, glaring viciously at him. Both Roy and Ed silently gulped. They knew that look, having received many times from their respective girls.

"Okay! Okay! I'm sorry!" Takkun quickly apologized, and he seemed to relax when Ephiny settled back into her seat.

"I have a question…" Roy spoke up. "How is it that you two were able to bring them back here?"

All eyes turned to face Ephiny and Takkun, curious to hear their answer. For a moment, the two stared silently at one another, before Ephiny cleared her throat and decided to answer.

"Well, it's really quite simple… You got to love the powers of authors!" she began with a sheepish smile. "Really, we're just the deus ex machine—we're the impossibly simple solution that comes near the end of a play to solve the conflict."

"All we did was just swipe a dimensional portal device, went back in our time, grabbed them, and went here to drop them off," Takkun finished.

Ed wrapped his arm around Winry, and she leaned in slightly to his touch, glad to just finally have her shrimp back home. "Thank you, both of you…" she began. "This is the best birthday gift I've ever received."

"How can we repay you?" Ed asked curiously.

Ephiny smiled brightly and opened her mouth to speak when Takkun covered her mouth with his hand and smiled sheepishly to the couple on the couch. "Just have a long, happy life together," he answered.

"Well, we should be heading off… Take care you guys," Ephiny replied, after Takkun finally released her, and stood up along with her boyfriend.

"Where are you guys going?" Alphonse asked.

"Oh, you know, go back to our world…" Ephiny began. "There's a couple of Full Metal Alchemist fics I have to work on anyway."

"Same here," Takkun added.

Everyone waved them off, and with that, Ephiny and Takkun stepped out the door and opened the portal to take them back home, leaving the others to finish out Winry's birthday party joyfully.

END