Just a little one-shot that popped into my head. Manga spoilers, of course. Enjoy!
Winry had learned long ago that an automail mechanic's brain never stopped working. It didn't matter if she was eating, sleeping, in the middle of a bath- her mind was always, on some level, thinking about automail. And you never knew when (or where) an idea would hit. Winry, when she'd been younger, had been certain that she wouldn't forget a good idea. After all, if it was good, then it would stick with you, right? That mentality had lasted until an idea for internal wiring had come to her in the middle of the night and then couldn't remember it in the morning. As a result, the Rockbell house had notepads and spare sheets of paper everywhere. The kitchen, the bathroom, the spare bedrooms, even the closest had a small stack of scrap paper just in case.
And so, when Winry and Ed moved into their own place, she made a point of making sure every room was stocked with enough pens and paper. Ed hadn't complained until she'd half-lunged out of the tub when the two were taking a bath to get an idea down on paper. Nothing involving the two of them was ever graceful, and she'd accidentally kicked Ed in the shin and splashed him in the face with soapy water.
"Win!" he whined, spitting out a mouthful of water. "Calm down!"
She scowled, but didn't look up from her sketch. Water had dripped onto the paper, but so far it hadn't smudged the ink. "I've been trying to figure out this new thumb joint for weeks, Ed! I'm not going to risk forgetting it!" He'd sighed dramatically and slid several inches further into the tub.
After that, there hadn't been any other incidents until their third anniversary.
Alphonse had surprised them with a reservation to one of Central's fanciest restaurants, and he'd practically chased them out of the house and into a cab. While fine dining wasn't something either of them particularly enjoyed (Winry didn't understand where there were so many forks and Ed absolutely hated wearing a suit) but neither one was going to turn down a free meal.
They were halfway through the main course when Winry froze, her fork halfway to her mouth. In her mind, she could see the new arm design she'd been working on finally come together. The joints, the new contouring for the forearm and the changes to the shoulder plating- it was beautiful. And she needed to get it written down. Right now.
She grabbed her purse and began rummaging, her meal forgotten. Ed had stopped eating and was watching her, one eyebrow raised in question.
"Win, what're you doing?"
Winry pulled out a pen, but came up empty for paper. No spare tissues or even old receipts. She couldn't believe it. She went for her napkin, but it was cloth, and she didn't want them to get thrown out because she'd ruined the restaurant's embroidered napkins.
That still left her without something to write on. Winry made a face and looked back to the table, as if a notepad had been sitting there the whole time and she'd managed to miss it. Her fingers were burning with the need to get the new schematics out, but-
Her eyes snapped up to meet Ed's. "Give me your arm," she said, pointing to his right arm.
"But I'm eating!"
"You're ambidextrous, use your left!"
Ed grunted after a pause and offered his arm as he continued his meal.
Winry pushed up the sleeve of his shirt and jacket to his elbow and uncapped the pen with her teeth. Finger joints first, she decided, as she started sketching around his knuckles. Ed took it in stride, probably used to years of her tinkering on his automail.
By the time their waiter arrived at their table for refills, Winry had almost made her way up to Ed's elbow and Ed was eating off of Winry's plate. The three of them stared awkwardly at each other before the waiter cleared his throat. "More wine?" he asked hesitantly, holding out the bottle to display the label. Ed stopped eating long enough to get his glass refilled. Winry declined, too busy trying to decide on the angle of a screw.
Ed had ordered desert when Winry finally ran out of room. She frowned, the new shoulder design still itching to be put down on paper. "I need your shoulder," she said, pausing from her sketching long enough to take a bite of some of the cake on the table.
"I'm not taking my shirt off in the middle of the restaurant," Ed replied, lifting his arm to examine her work. He made a noise of approval as he looked over the wrist design.
Winry tapped her fork against the plate. "What about in the bathroom?" she asked, nodding to the alcove to the side of their table.
Ed blinked, looked in the direction she'd indicated, then shrugged. "Okay."
Five minutes later, the two of them had slipped into the bathroom, locked the door, and got to work. Ed on the toilet seat, idly picking at his teeth as Winry went back to finishing her design. It was quiet, both of them drowsy from food and drink.
"Okay," Winry said, breaking the silence. "I'm done." She straightened up, readjusting her dress as she did so. Ed yawned and stood, pulling his shirt and jacket back on. "Don't smudge it!" Winry added. She wasn't about to let all that work go to waste.
"How long d'you think we were in here?"
"Probably not too long."
They were wrong. Their waiter was standing at their table, looking very confused and like he most certainly didn't know what to do. When they approached, he let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, there you are! We didn't know what had happened; we were going to call the police!"
Ed sighed and Winry bit down on her lip. "No, no that's fine," Ed said. "We were, uh-"
"Leaving. We were getting ready to leave. Can you call us a cab?"
The front door burst open and pulled Al's attention from his book. Ed and Winry's voices reached Al before they actually made it into the room. "Ed, go to the workshop and take off your shirt! I need to get that design copied!"
"Can I get something to eat first?"
"We just ate!"
"Like half an hour ago!"
Al looked up from the couch, confusion written on his face. "What happened, are you two okay?" It was almost midnight. Surely whatever Ed managed to do to his automail could wait until the morning?
Ed made his way past the living room, already stripping out of his clothes as he passed. "It's all good, Al, can you put the kids down for the night?"
"They're already asleep," Al replied as Ed tossed his coat and tie onto a chair.
"Great!" Winry appeared, kicking off her heels as she pushed after Ed into the workshop. "Thanks for everything! Ed, get the blueprint paper from the top shelf."
"Yeah, ok-" The door clattered shut behind them, muffling their voices. Al sighed, picking up his book and settling back on the couch.