I like this one. I like it—EXCEPT! Except, I think both Edward and Winry are too quiet. And Winry's all immature and shit and it's annoying. But it wouldn't work if they were obnoxious and loud and normal. And the dialogue is cheesey. So nyeh.

By the way, there are three footnotes in this fic, thus making the closing A/N almost as long as the story itself. Uheirjiaitsrhvnythttdsgdhj

Let's Live Forever

"It's dead," Winry said emotionlessly. Her expressionless eyes were glued to the road in front of her.

Ed shrugged. "So what? It's just a squirrel." He adjusted the strap of his backpack and glanced down the road toward the school building. "We're gonna be late, you know."

Winry's gaze didn't stray an inch away from the animal's tail, still moving in the gentle breeze. "It looks cold," she said.

"No, it doesn't," Ed said bluntly. "It's dead." He paused. "Are you cold?"

"No," said Winry. "I have a jacket."

"But you're not wearing it."

"So?" said Winry. "I still have it." She hugged her faded pink jacket closer to her chest.

"But you're not wearing it."

"How do you think it died?" Winry asked, ignoring Ed completely.

"The jacket?"

"No," said Winry. "The squirrel. How did it die?"

"I don't know," Ed said with an indifferent shrug. "Maybe it fell out of a tree."

A small frown played its way across Winry's face. "Why did it die, though? I've seen squirrels fall out of trees and live before."

"Well, this one didn't."

"But why?"

Ed stared at her. "Don't be stupid, Winry," he said unsympathetically. "Everything dies."

"Except us," said Winry matter-of-factly. "We don't die."

"We will someday," said Ed. He poked the squirrel with his foot. "And then we'll get buried and become part of the earth again so that the plants can grow, and then the animals eat the plants and it keeps going. I read about it in an alchemy book (1)."

"We're gonna be plants?" Winry said.

"Sort of," said Ed. "And the squirrel will, too."

The two of them gave one last look to the squirrel—to its mangled limbs, its fluttering tail, its wide, blank eyes and the light puddle of pinkish blood that framed its broken form— before heading off toward the school building.

They walked in silence, broken only by wind chimes and autumn leaves crunching beneath their feet. Ed shoved his hands in his pockets and began kicking a pebble down the road (2) to entertain himself; he hated it when Winry was boring.

"Death is weird," Winry said suddenly. "It doesn't really feel real until it happens, y'know?" (3)

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know," said Winry. "It's just weird."

They fell back into silence as they neared the gate into the empty schoolyard—everyone had already arrived and made their way inside. Ed tried to burn a hole through the side of Winry's head with his eyes so that he could see what she was thinking before her mind was clouded by math and reading and science, but it didn't work.

She sighed. "Ed?" she said.

"What?"

"Let's live forever."

Eh... Now that I'm done, I can't say that I like it as much.

(1) Although it is common knowledge that Ed and Al learned this during their training, I think that it's perfectly reasonable to assume that it was at least mentioned in an alchemy book that they read prior to their time on the island.

(2) This makes Ed attractive. Don't get it? Har. You fail. READ MORE.

(3) This takes place after Winry's parents left for Ishbal, but before they died.