He's leaving. Again. She hasn't seen him for months—he could have been hurt, he could have been dead, she has no idea what he's been up to—and he doesn't have the common decency to pay her a visit for more than a couple of hours? If it were anyone else, she would beat them into next month with every power tool in her possession.

He is lucky. He generally gets away with a few whacks on the head with a wrench. She can never bring herself to hurt him any more than that because she knows what he's been through, and what he's still going through.

However, the power tool option is looking rather nice as he strides away into the darkness with two total strangers and one possessed (?) friend.

"Oh—hey!" He pauses in the act of walking away, digs in his pocket and pulls out a handful of small objects. "I've got something I have to give you." She is puzzled. Since when has he ever given her anything? "…Here." He deposits them in her palm. "You gave them to me back at Briggs, remember, but I never got the chance to give them back to you." This little speech finished, he stares fiercely at her left foot as if daring it to answer.

"Ed—my earrings!" And there they are: the two little hoops and four silver studs gleaming dully in the light from the front stoop. "I can't believe you still had them," she says half-teasingly. "I was expecting you to lose them within the first five minutes."

"WHAT?" he snarls, his face flushing an angry red. She smiles—even though he acts so serious and cold he's still the same Ed. "When have I ever done something like that?!"

"All the time, when we were kids!" He lets out an angry huff, and Winry shakes her head. "I'm just kidding, Ed, relax!" Her smile slips just a notch and becomes slightly sad. "Thanks for remembering something this little when you're running around trying to save the country…"

Ed's face, having just returned to a normal shade, goes red again. "It's nothing!" he sputters hastily, once again looking down and becoming very interested in a tuft of grass near his toe. "I—just forget it, seriously, it was nothi…"

"Hey, runt! Get a move on!" Greed shouts from near the fence. "Hiding first, foreplay later!"

Ed is so busy shouting incoherently at the homunculus that he almost doesn't notice Winry putting something in his hand. "AND SCREW YOU, YOU LOUSY SON OF A—huh?" He looks down and sees that Winry has returned two of the earrings to him—one hoop and one stud. "What? I didn't break them or anything!"

"I know," she replies. "Keep them for now."

"But, but—" he babbles, staring at the pieces of jewelry. "I'm gonna be doing—I'll be busy with—I—what if…I'm gonna lose them," he finishes lamely.

"You'd better not!" Winry orders. "I'll be working on that pie for you—but if you don't get your dumb butt back here and give me back those earrings, you're not going to get a single slice. Hear me?"

He nods solemnly and puts them back in his pocket. "I'll keep them safe for you," he promises.

"You'd better!" she replies, but there is no bite in her words. "Give those guys a good kick in the ass for me."

Ed rolls his eyes and nods again. "Violent woman." He turns to follow Greed and the chimeras down the road.

"And, Ed—" she calls after him. But when he looks at her, the words she meant to say shrivel up in her mouth and scurry away to the secret corner of her heart where she usually keeps them. "Thank you," she mutters instead, feeling kind of stupid.

"Forget it," he repeats, trudging down the path.

But she won't forget the way he flushed when he spoke to her. And she won't forget the promise between them. And she hopes that with the earrings to remind him, he'll remember that someone is waiting for him, and he'll remember to come home safe.

A/N: Short? Yes. Fluffy? Yup. Super, super rough? Yeah. But I like it, so you get it.