A submission of mine for the transmutefluff fma fic/art exchange on livejournal.
For meepers369.

One Overcast Day
HikamiTZ

Little Edward Elric, at nine years old, rarely learned more than a new word in a week. The same could be said for his younger eight-year-old brother Alphonse and, perhaps, for Winry Rockbell, the girl who was the same age as Edward and lived down the street. So it was with youthful vigor that Edward brandished his new vocabulary before his brother and neighbor as a particularly proud knight brandished his polished steel.

"Overcast," Ed stated as plain as day.

"What's an 'overcast?'" Al asked curiously.

"Oh, I know!" Winry perked up, "I saw my parents do that once! Isn't that when you take a big white ribbon and tie up your arm?"

"Hey, yeah!" Al agreed. "I remember that!"

"No, dummy!" Ed interjected before the new tangent was followed and he lost their attention. "That's an arm cast. An overcast is lots of clouds!"

"What? Who told you that?" Winry asked.

"My mom says!" Ed argued. "You said, 'Gee, it's really cloudy today!' so that means it's an overcast! It's true!"

"Well, I'm going to ask Granny," Winry reasoned, clearly not believing the older Elric.

"But if Mom says…" Al began, a look of intense thought etching onto his face.

"Yeah! If Mom says it's so than it is!" Ed proclaimed, chest puffing out.

"But you're not a mom!" Winry realized in excitement. "Granny's a mom. She's my dad's mom. So she would have to know everything if she's the mom of a dad! We can ask her!"

"Nuh-uh!" Ed fought. "It only works if she's the mom of a mom!"

"Why can't it work for dads? My dad knows lots!!"

"Because my mom says so, so she's right!"

"But you would have to be a mom to be right, and you can't be a mom 'cause you're a boy!"

"That means I'm a dad, so I'm right!"

"Nuh-uh! You're not a dad!"

"Am too!"

"No you're not, Brother," Al tried to explain. "Dads have to marry moms, and you're not married!"

Ed huffed in response, determined to have his way. "Well then I'll get married!"

"Oh yeah?" Winry smirked. "Who you gonna get married to?"

The challenge was on. Ed narrowed his eyes, thinking his answer through very thoroughly.

"You!" he finally decided, jabbing a finger in Winry's chest.

Al and Winry blinked, both taken aback.

"Me?!" Winry exclaimed, flabbergasted. "You can't marry me!"

"Yes I can!" Ed persisted. "You're a girl, and you're my friend, so it has to be you!"

Al's face contorted into panic. "No! She's my friend, too! I wanna marry Winry!"

Winry put her hands on her hips, obviously unimpressed. "I don't wanna marry you! You're not nearly the kind of guy I'm looking for!"

The challenge continued.

"What kind of guy are you looking for then?" Ed asked fiercely.

Winry smiled, happy to indulge. "The man I marry will be a lot nicer and taller than you! And he'll be able to protect me from bad guys, too!"

Ed stepped back, furious that Winry would mention his height and insulted that he met none of the qualifications by Winry's standards. He continued his efforts to prove himself. "I can protect you!"

Winry laughed. "Yeah, right!"

Ed glared. "I can beat up Al! I'll show you!"

"No you can't! You never can beat me!" Al cried angrily.

"Can too!"

"Can not!"

"Can too!"

"Puh-lease, Ed," Winry sighed. "I bet you can't even beat me up!"

Ed growled. "I bet I can!"

"I'd like to see you try!"

Al's eyes widened in utter shock as Ed sprung forward, fist raised in the air. Before anyone could react, Ed's punch hit Winry's cheek, sending her reeling back. An awkward silence rose among the three of them as, slowly but surely, tears welled up in the nine-year-old girl's eyes.

Winry dashed away, leaving a furious Al and mortified Ed behind.

It was the first time Edward had ever made Winry cry.

"I wanted to see you," a fourteen-year-old Al explained to Princess Mei of Xing. Al and Ed had been searching for the younger girl in hopes of learning the secrets of rentanjutsu, Xing's alchemy.

"You wanted to see me?" Mei gasped in surprise, picturing a wonderful day in the snowy mountains skiing with her beloved crush, Alphonse Elric. It was like a dream come true.

"That's right!" another voice agreed. "I wanted to see you too, little girl!" Mei turned around to come face to face with Al's older and much scarier brother, Edward. To her, the evil intent written on Ed's face was evident.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed. "What do you want?!"

"What does it matter?" Edward growled impatiently. "Just come with us!"

"Oh my, are you after me too?" Mei cried. "It's so tragic! Two brothers fighting over love!!"

Ed blinked as Al opened his chest plate, allowing Winry out of his armor. "What?"

"Well if you want me, you must fight Alphonse-sama!" Mei proclaimed. "Then you must fight me!"

The idea of fighting a girl (other than his teacher) slowed Ed down considerably as he recalled the time when a younger Winry had provoked him into such rash action. Ed hated making Winry cry so much so that he had promised Winry's next tears would be tears of joy and happiness. He didn't want to make another stupid mistake like that again. He didn't want to make another girl cry.

His hesitation proved long enough for Mei to forget him entirely as she spotted Winry falling from the inside of Al's armor and flipped her lid.

"Alphonse-sama!" Mei gasped a second time. "Who is this woman?"

"What?" Al froze.

"How cruel! How could you be with this woman when you already have me?!"

"Wh-what? No! That's not…" Al stuttered, trying to explain himself out of a situation he shouldn't have had to explain himself out of.

Edward and Winry locked eyes momentarily as the scene before them progressed, both entirely nonplussed at exactly what was going on.

Never mind that they had experience similarly awkward events in their "love lives" ever since they were nine years old.