This my first Fullmetal fanfiction. I've just rewatched the series and couldn't resist! Set about six months after FMA:B finale. Ed is staying with new friends in the West and Winry is making a service call after he damages his automail leg.
Winry wondered down the street, towards the little house at the end of the road. She'd spoken to Ed maybe a handfull of times since he'd left, and none of those times had felt any different to the times before he'd sort of randomly proposed to her at the station. The last time he'd rung, it was to tell her he'd busted his leg and needed her to come out and fix it. He was staying with some new friends he'd made a few months ago, but he hadn't really told Winry all that much about them. She approached the door and knocked lightly.
"Hello? Can I help you?" A young man around her own age answered, he had kind eyes and a gentle face.
"Hi, I'm Winry. I'm -"
"You're here to see Ed." The young man grinned.
"Yeah, he said he's broken his leg," Winry said, unable to stop the "again" from tumbling out.
"I'm Max. Ed's right this way," Max said, motioning for her to come further into the house.
Winry set her gear down and followed Max into a cosy little living room. She felt her heart sink a little at the sight but managed to keep the large smile on her face. Ed was sat snuggled into the corner of a sofa, a young woman practically snuggled into him. He didn't seem to care all that much either, laughing and joking with her as though it was the most natural thing in the world to be that close to someone. Winry wanted to slap herself. She knew she'd got it wrong, she knew she'd misunderstood.
"Hey Ed, Winry's here," Max called, walking past her and into the room. He plopped down on the other sofa next to another guy.
"Winry!" Ed beamed, pushing up with his arms to stand. He wobbled a little and Winry took a step, wanting to support him. The girl on the sofa beat her to it, standing up and slipping an arm around his waist. "I wasn't expecting you till tomorrow!" He hopped over, with help.
Winry was now scowling at him. "I managed to get an early train, I wanted to surprise you."
"Well, I'm surprised." Ed rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, knowing what was about to come.
"So am I," she growled. "You said you'd busted it! You didn't tell me it was this bad! What the hell have you been doing to my precious automail?!" she yelled, pointing indignantly to his prosthetic limb.
"Well, I got in this fight-"
"Another one Ed?!" Winry barked. "I thought you'd stopped with all the fighting!"
"I had!" Ed frowned, irritable at being shouted at again. "But it seems the fighting hasn't stopped with me!"
"That's ridiculous! You're just being the same stubborn jerk you've always been!" Winry snapped.
Ed took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Can you just fix my leg Win? We can fight after. When Macy doesn't have to hold me up and we aren't disturbing everyone else's peace."
"Fine," Winry huffed, folding her arms. "Which room are we headed to? Unless you want to drop your pants here?" She ignored the fierce blush on Macy's face, her heart twisting at the sight of it. Ed didn't seem all that bothered, but then he had dealt with automail limbs for most of his life.
"Ed, are you gonna introduce the rest of us?" Max asked, smirking at the two of them.
"Yeah, sorry," Ed muttered. He cleared his throat. "Everyone, this is Winry, my mechanic."
Winry was sure her heart splintered in two, just hearing those words.
"Winry, you've met Max. This is Macy," Ed nodded towards the girl still snuggled into him and keeping him upright, "then there's Harvey, Jackson, Lisa, Riley and Grace."
Winry forced the smile to remain on her face, refusing to let her stupid tears fall. She gave a half-hearted wave at the group and nodded at each of them in turn.
"It's nice to meet you Winry, Ed's mechanic," Max said pointedly.
Winry forced another smile before heading to the stairs. "Which room Ed?" she called, trying and somewhat failing to keep the hurt out of her voice.
"Second one on the right," he said, frowning as he watched her go. What was up with her now?
Winry walked into the room and made the messy bed. She lay a large white sheet over the top and pulled out a long thin piece of wood from her bag. This would help her keep his leg flat while she was working on it. She set about arranging her tools and matrials, waiting for Ed. She could hear him shuffling up the stairs, Macy's encouraging tone following him. She gripped the wrench in her hand tighter, willing her heart to remain steady and the ache in it to quell. She could cry later. She changed out of her travel clothes and into her oil stained work clothes. Ed opened the door just as she finished tying the bandana around her head.
"Hey, you ready for me?" he asked, giving her a cheeky smile.
Winry rolled her eyes, unable to stay mad at him for long. "Always," she sighed, gesturing to the bed.
Ed hopped over and dropped his pants, not a care in the world. He'd done this so many times in front of her that it was almost second nature now, and he didn't have it in him to ever feel embarrassed.
"Oh my God Ed?! What did you do to it?!" Winry shrieked upon seeing the state of it.
"Uh, do I have to tell you?" Ed grimaced, looking forlornly at her with his large golden eyes.
"Do I really want to know?" Winry asked.
"No," he said.
Winry sighed and shook her head. "Then don't tell me. I'd rather you just promise me that you'll come back to me in almost one piece than have to worry about the stupid stuff you're going to get up to."
"I'll always come back to you," Ed said softly. "I promise."
Winry let her eyes lock onto his, trying to read what was in them. Had she misunderstood what happened at the station? Or were they engaged? Man, this guy was so confusing! There was a timid knock on the door, breaking the growing tension. Macy stuck her head around it, looking between the two and clearly more than happy to be interrupting something.
"Hi," she said, her voice a little nervous but her eyes filled with determination. "I was wondering if I could watch you repair Ed's leg? Automail has always fascinated me, and I was hoping I could get a little insight?"
Winry shrugged. "That's up to Ed," she said. "It's his leg."
Ed frowned at the new tension in the room. Macy looked at him with big wide eyes and he smiled. "Sure, why not?"
"Thanks Ed, you're the best," Macy gushed, plopping herself on the bed next to him. She postioned herself far enough down to make it look as though she was watching Winry but not so far down that she couldn't turn and talk to Ed, which she did, the entire time.
Winry grew silent and zoned them out. Ed's laughter and Macy's giggles were too distracting so she chose to focus on her work and just block them out. She had noted, however, that while Macy was trying desperating to flirt with Ed, he wasn't exactly reciprocating. He'd been friendly, and nothing more. She cursed his obliviousness, frustrated that he was either too dumb to see what Macy was doing or too kind to bluntly rebuff her. She was still in turmoil over whether or not their engagement was a real thing or not, and watching him here with Macy wasn't helping her figure that out. Maybe he was just waiting for a chance to tell her that he wasn't interested anymore. Ed would never be the sort of man to cheat on someone, so maybe he was waiting for the right time to break it off with her. They were both still very young after all, and he'd been gone nearly six months.
Her fingers were starting to ache and her back was sore from where she was bent double over Ed's leg. She stretched out and looked up at Ed and his friend. They'd gotten pretty close since she'd started, Macy having wriggled her way up the bed. She was lying on her stomach with her legs in the air as she twirled a strand of hair around her finger. She gazed down at Ed and for a brief moment, Winry wondered if she was going to lean in and kiss him. She also wondered if Ed would let her. She blushed and looked away, yawning pointedly and raising her arms above her head.
"I need a break," she said, barely looking at Ed as she walked out the door.
Ed found himself frowning, his eyes remained on the empty doorway long after Winry had disappeared. What was going on with the girl?
Downstairs, Winry found most of Ed's housemates now cooking their evening meal. She blushed as she interupted them, apologising profusely. They merely shook their heads and smiled at her, offering her a seat at the table. She found herself relaxing along with the warm and welcoming atmosphere, laughing and giggling along with the rest of them. She hadn't realised how long she'd been until she heard Ed huff at the door, his furious gaze fixed on her.
"What the hell Winry?!" he cried. "I've been stuck up there for over an hour!"
She looked in horror at his mangled automail hanging from his knee. "What are doing out of bed?! Do you know how much work it took to get it back to that condition?! You moron!"
"Well you just left me up there!" he argued. "All I could hear was the sound of you lot all having a good time while I wasted away waiting for my mechanic to come back and fix me!" Several of his housemates winced as the words came tumbling out of his mouth.
Winry's angry face faded. There is was again. Mechanic. That's what she was to him. His mechanic. She couldn't ignore his introduction of her. She couldn't ignore the friendly phone calls that had never turned into romantic ones. Or the fact that he hadn't mentioned their moment on the station, or the fact that they hadn't even so much as kissed yet. She was his mechanic.
"I'm coming Ed," she sighed. "I just really needed a break, I didn't realise how long I'd been."
"Win-"
"Come on, back upstairs before I smack you with my wrench." She let her eyes meet his, warning him not to push this. Not to do this now, here. She pointed towards the door and he turned, hopping towards the stairs. Macy was still under his arm, still looking anywhere but at Winry. Winry thanked Ed's friends for the meal and dashed back up the stairs, over taking Ed and leaving him with Macy.
Once back inside Ed's bedroom, she gasped and allowed a few tears to slide down her face. She pressed the heel of her hands against her eyes and breathed in slowly. As she heard Ed approaching she brushed away all evidence of her heartache and sat down, ready to resume the work she was there to do. She smiled as brightly as she could at him as he hobbled through the door. He lay down and obediently repostioned his leg back on the board so she could continue working on him. Macy came and lay back down beside him, resuming whatever conversation they were having before Ed had gotten pissed enough to amble down the stairs with a dismantled limb.
"Winry? Win? Hey Winry?!" Ed nearly had to yell to get her attention.
"Huh?" Winry looked up from his leg, frowning at him.
"God, you're such a gearhead," Ed chuckled.
"Alchemy freak," she muttered, glaring at him.
"I was telling Macy about that time you pulled three all-nighters just to get me up and running again," Ed said. "You were amazing."
Winry looked at Macy who was now the one forcing a smile. "I was only doing my job," she said with a shrug.
"Yeah, but three all-nighters, Win, I don't know how you did it," Ed gushed.
"It was for you," she mumbled softly, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks. That explaination alone was enough to tell him exactly how she felt about him.
Ed gaped at her. He was just about to say something when Macy started up an entirely different conversation and Winry went back to working like nothing had happened. Ed couldn't work out what was going on. Were they a couple or weren't they? And why was Winry being so weird? He carried on chatting away to Macy, stealing glances at his (hopefully) future-wife. Eventually, he'd had enough of guessing.
"Hey Mace, you couldn't grab me a quick drink, could you?" he asked.
"Of course Ed, anything for you!" She smiled and jumped off the bed, dashing to the door without even thinking about asking Winry if she'd like anything.
"Ed?" Winry started, not realising that Ed had sent Macy away specifically so they could talk. She wanted to make the most of it before the girl came back.
"What's up Winry?" Ed asked, allowing her to take the lead.
"About what happened, at the station, before you left..." Winry said, stumbling over her words. She just wanted to know where she stood, but she wasn't sure how to go about that.
"What about it?" Ed frowned, not really liking her tone of voice. Was she going to back out on him?
"Well, I was just wondering...what did it all mean?" she asked softly, looking up to meet his gaze.
"Huh?" Ed frowned. "What did it all mean? I thought it was obvious?"
Winry sighed. "Well, so did I. And then, I don't know, I started wondering if we were on the same page...if maybe I'd misunderstood or something..."
"What?" Ed looked a little panicked.
Winry shook her head. "I just...Ed...I don't want to end up looking the fool..." she whispered.
"Why on earth would you look the fool?" he asked.
Before Winry had chance to answer him, in walked Macy with the drink Ed had asked for. Winry quickly ducked her head and went back to working as Macy passed Ed the drink. She skipped back around the bed and lay down with him again, moving ever so slightly closer than she had been last time. And the penny finally dropped.
Ed thanked Macy and took a large gulp of his drink. He looked down at Winry who was busying herself with his leg and thought back to every interaction he'd had with her since she walked through the door not four hours ago. He wanted to kick himself, he couldn't believe he'd been that dense. He couldn't blame her for questioning her sanity, he was so angry at himself for being such a jerk. Since he'd proposed to her, he'd never really changed the way he was with her. He loved what they had and he hadn't felt the need, and he'd also never really had the time to give in to the physical need. So he still argued with her, he still wound her up and he still called her his mechanic. His mechanic! He was so stupid. What sort of idiot introduces his fiancee to a group of friends as his mechanic?! The same sort of idiot who snuggled another woman up under his arm, even if it was to stop himself falling over.
If she'd been jealous, he'd have laughed it off and called her cute. But she wasn't jealous, she was uncertain. She was unsure. She didn't know what she was seeing and how to read it. And to be perfectly honest, Ed had let Macy get away with being that little bit too close but for no other reason than it was easier than upsetting her and he knew Winry wasn't the jealous type. Macy knew he was engaged and he loved someone else, and Ed knew she still saw it as a bit of a challenge but he'd never talked to her about it. Her behaviour had never crossed the line, so he didn't think it was worth the fall out. Except now he'd be lucky if Winry still wanted to marry him at all.
He let out a long and low sigh, feeling like a total fool. He smirked to himself, thinking of what Winry had said just minutes before.
"What's up Ed?" Macy asked, frowning at him in concern.
"Huh?" Ed looked over at her and shook his head. "Oh, nothing. Just realised what an idiot I've been."
"An idiot?" Macy repeated, still not sure where this was going.
"Yeah," he said with a nod. "Could you do me a favour? Can you give us a minute?" He gestured with his head towards Winry, who was so ingrossed in her work again that she was oblivious to the conversation Ed was now having with Macy.
"Oh," Macy said, looking down at Winry. She looked at little disappointed. "She's the one, isn't she?"
"Little bit, yeah," Ed sighed.
"You're right, you have been an idiot," Macy said. "Next time you tell someone you're engaged, it might be a plan to mention that it's to the mechanic you won't stop talking about." She chuckled and shook her head. "The poor woman probably hates me..."
"Nah, she's not like that. She doesn't hold grudges," Ed said with a smile.
"You obviously don't know women," Macy scoffed.
"No, but I know Winry," Ed sighed lovingly. And he did. She'd worked hand in hand with the man that killed her own parents. If she didn't hate Scar, she wasn't going to hate Macy. Especially when it was Ed's fault things had gone down this way.
"Right, well, I'll leave you to it," Macy said, sliding off the bed and walking softly to the door. She shut it gently behind her.
Ed groaned again, not sure how to fix the mess he'd made. He decided to just watch Winry for a little while. He hadn't been able to watch her work properly in a really long time, and he loved watching her work. The concentration, her fierce determination and the passion in her eyes just made her all the more stunning to Ed. He found himself mesmerized by her.
Winry suddenly felt eyes on her and looked up. Unbeknown to her, Ed had been watching her for nearly half an hour already, but she'd only just noticed.
"What?" she frowned. He was looking at her so intensely, she couldn't work out why. "Where's Macy?"
"She left about a half hour ago," Ed murmured.
"Oh," Winry said. "Why?"
"Because I asked her to."
"Why?"
"So I could do this..." He leant forward, gently grabbed Winry's arm and pulled her towards him. His other hand came to meet her, snaking around the back of her neck so his fingers could comb through her hair. His lips met hers, the hand that grabbed her let go and wound it's way around her waist, effectively pulling her into him. Winry didn't even have time to gasp or squeal in shock. She found her arms looping around Ed's neck and a contented little sigh escaped her lips. Ed used this to his advantage, slipping his tongue through to meet hers and finding that the passion she held for his automail was the same sort of passion she held for him.
"Are you sure now?" Ed murmured as he broke their kiss.
Winry nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
"I'm gonna marry you one day, Winry Rockbell, and it's going to take more than my questionable intelligence to stop me," he said.
Winry sighed and pressed her forehead against his. "Ed, you're a genius."
"That is very much debatable if you weren't sure how I felt about you," he said.
"I said you were a genius, I never said anything about you not being a man," she snickered.
"I love you," Ed laughed.
"I love you too Ed," Winry murmured.
"I told them all that I was engaged. And I told them all about my amazing mechanic. I never told them you were one in the same person," Ed explained. "And I've never really seen the need to change how I am with you, because it's us..."
"I know," Winry sighed. "I suppose because nothing really changed, I wondered if I'd understood you right. I love how we are, how we've always been. But I don't want to marry you as a friend Ed, or as your mechanic..."
"I don't really want to marry you as friend either Win," Ed chuckled. "And the thing is, I've always introduced you as my mechanic, but I need you to know that it's not a throwaway title. Without you, without my mechanic, I wouldn't have been able to walk again or practice alchemy. Without you, I wouldn't have got Al's body back and I wouldn't have my real arm. Because without you Winry, I don't know what I'd do and I certainly wouldn't be the man I am today, not without you being my mechanic. To me, its about the highest honour there is."
Winry, tears in her eyes, rushed back in and kissed him again. She stayed kissing him for a really long time. "I really like the kissing."
"Me too," Ed mumbled against her lips. "Maybe you could finish my leg and we could see what else you really like doing?"
"Hell yes," Winry said, pulling herself away from Ed before she lost all self-control.
Ed laughed and lay back to watch her work. He watched the way she bit her lip and the way she frowned in concentration. He watched the way her muscles moved and her fingers worked with such dexterity it was art, her bright eyes and her perfect smile when something went right. Finally she was done and it was all Ed could do to pull her back down with him, crashing her lips into his.
Winry moaned and sighed as she gave in, wanting nothing more than to just be with the man she loved. She broke off a little, panting as he kissed his way along her jaw and down her neck.
"Ed, I've never done this before," she murmured in his ear.
Ed simply smiled at her and kissed her soft and slow. "Well, that makes two of us."
Winry wanted to say she was surprised, but to be honest she wasn't. Ed hadn't ever really shown any interest in other girls since she'd known him, and they'd never really had the time for it to get that physical, not to mention that they'd been dancing around it before he'd yelled out a proposal and she'd made her counteroffer.
Before Winry could over think what he'd said, Ed recaptured her lips and kissed her like he'd never kissed her before. He kissed her with so much passion and hunger and pure desire that it left her breathless and like putty in his hands. He spent the next few hours exploring their new found physical relationship alongside the one woman in the world he trusted more than anyone. Together they loved like they'd never loved another. Ed curled himself around Winry at the end of the night, pulling their exhausted bodies back together but this time for sleep instead of sex. His arm snaked around her waist, pressing her bare back against his bare chest. He nuzzled his nose into her neck and kissed her softly.
"Night gearhead," he murmured.
"Night alchemy freak," she murmured back.