Here I am, as promised, with Chapter 2 of HIWtHI. I was really excited to upload it, because I think you folks will like it. I worked really hard on getting it perfect, but again I self-edited. This means there are probably punctual or secret agent spelling mistakes, so please tell me if I missed anything. (It's always the Special Agents... ;D)

Disclaimer applies here.

Furthermore... Enjoy the second chapter!

Chapter Two:
Requiem of Father

Sunset was the most beautiful time of the day for Winry. It didn't matter where she was living at that point; she loved watching the sun set over the mountains, though she wasn't as close to the sunset as she used to be when she was living in Resembool.

With the shop being closed and Garfiel most likely asleep in his living quarters upstairs, Winry was free for the rest of the evening. And, since Garfiel and a vast majority of the village went to church as tomorrow was Sunday, there was no work tomorrow. She had her boys all to herself for two days.

Winry sat on a chair set up on a veranda of the living quarters sipping lemon iced tea with a lemon slice on the side. It was a favorite of hers now that she lived further south, considering the days were always ridiculously, well, ridiculous. She took a sip and stared into the horizon, an explosion of red and orange in the sky as the sun got ready for bed.

Now that she thought about it, she should be headed to bed herself; working for two days straight with maybe only two hours total of sleep wasn't good for a talented mechanic like she was.

She and Ed had to share a room, though not necessarily a bed. Unless Ed wanted to take one of the patient beds downstairs, which he didn't because they were flat and often uncomfortable after a long journey. Garfiel was slightly hesitant to let them sleep in the same room, because they both were a little hormonal at 19, but Winry assured she'd keep him in line.

That was enough to send the sparkling mechanic to his bed without any trouble, a few moments later hearing soft snoring right outside his bedroom door.

The veranda door, a glass sliding door with a deep red drape over it to keep it from the naked eye, opened and Alphonse joined her with his own glass of iced tea and raspberries on the bottom. Just like him: preferring the sweet to the tart. "Care for some company? Brother went to your bedroom already, and says he's sorry for the replacement." He rolled his eyes, and Winry let out a quiet giggle.

"The best replacement, if you ask me," she countered, and he sat down beside her.

They sat in a comfortable silence, one only the two of them could share. Winry and Alphonse had always had a sibling relationship, as Winry and Edward had always had something more than that. Alphonse knew and accepted it, putting aside his slight crush on her when they were little and focusing more on the friend/ sibling relationship. He liked it better that way; it made him feel in the loop with his brother and best friend.

"So, how have your Alkehestry studies been? Have you learned a lot?"

Al tensed slightly and looked over with a nervous smile. "Mei has been teaching me a lot of things. She said I'm a quick learner and says she might come west to stay in Amestris for a while so I can teach her some Alchemy. She's coming down with the Emperor in a few weeks so we can form a sort of alliance with them. Brother told me there might be a war if the West doesn't clean up their act. There're some protestors from the West in Central right now giving Fuhrer Grumman a hard time…"

Winry nodded in understanding. "Ed told me about that. But what are they protesting?"

"Beats me," Al shrugged, taking another sip of his sweet iced tea. He sighed as he tasted raspberry. "It could be anything. Brother thinks it's stupid, I don't fully understand it. I guess I'm not really conscious about the violence that's taking place." Al flashed a toothy grin, and Winry nudged him as she stood up, the sun sinking behind a tall building.

"I'm off to get some sleep. If you need anything, don't hesitate to knock on mine and Ed's door, okay? There are leftovers in the fridge, as well as a few extra slices of apple pie. Night, Al."

Winry slipped through the doors and walked through the hallway to hers and Ed's door, where Ed was keeping to himself and most likely keeping his nose in some sort of Alchemy book.

(Just because he couldn't perform the science didn't mean he couldn't learn more about it. Maybe he could even better explain his and Al's new "11-to-1" Principle.)

Al stayed on the veranda, staring now at the stars that twinkled brightly.

Winry walked into the bedroom humming softly. She'd never thought that, in her many years of knowing the eldest Elric, she'd ever have to share a bedroom with him. At least after the age of 15.

When she and he were both younger and the word "commitment" went as far as pinky-promises, they used to have to share a bed when Ed and Al came over to the Rockbell home. This was a lot after the death of Trisha Elric, the boys' late mother, and especially during the time after Ed's auto-mail surgery. Of course, Ed had his own room downstairs in the patient's quarters while Winry slept on the pull-out couch that used to be kept in the workshop (until it started taking up space and had to be sold for more tools).

Ed was sitting on one of the twin-sized beds closer to a bookshelf that looked right out into the street. In his hands he held a leather book with a red casing and golden letters that scribbled the words "Photo Album" in cursive letters on the front. Winry knew that, by the way his eyes were squinting and the way he kept moving the album further from his face, he was having trouble reading the subtitles written on the side, and she skipped over to the bedside to look at him.

He closed the album and looked at her, trying his best to seem irritated at her bubbly behavior. "Can I help you, Winry?"

Winry beamed. "Yes, as a matter of fact. You can help me by wearing the glasses Alphonse told me you had to get. You're hurting your eyes by grimacing at the album like that. Besides, they look just fine on you."

Ed's strangely good behavior depleted when a picture stuck in his mind. "No, they don't. They make me look like him. Like Hohenheim . . ." A scowl etched itself onto his face, and Winry sat down on the bed, sitting cross-legged across from him.

"You look so much more attractive with them on, Ed. And looking like your father isn't necessarily a bad thing; for his age, he was a good-looking man. And Grandma says you act just like him when he was your age, 19. Come on, Edward, perk up!" she tried to add a giggle for emphasis on the first sentence, a compliment, but he was just not hearing it. He glared at her.

"Oh, okay. Now let me see if I have this right…" his voice was sarcastic; she could feel the very venom from his words be absorbed into her. "…the old hag thinks that I'm going to be like my old man? That I'm going to have sex with you before we're even married and then unexpectedly leave to fight for some cause that might get myself killed, and then come back and try to pick up where we left off? Win, leaving is the last thing I'm doing anytime soon. Especially alone with a brat or two."

Winry's smile never faded. She leaned in to kiss his cheek, her warm breath lingering on his skin. "I think what she meant is your absolute love for keeping your loved ones and close friends safe. Edward, you have an insatiable hunger for traveling, which I've accepted and sort of grown on, and love to learn new things. You're never content with "maybe", it's always "yes" or "no". Ed, that's how you remind Grandma and I of your father. So damn touchy." She winked at him, and he opened his arms to let her rest in them, no matter how non-unromantic it made him seem.

"And that's why I'm giving you this."

Before Winry could protest, and much before her mind could comprehend something was slightly making her finger droop, Ed slipped a silver band with a shining diamond onto her finger.

I think this chapter was so full of 'awwwn' that I had to giggle while writing the ending. I hope you had the same reaction? No? Yeah, probably not.

As always, I ask that you review! And maybe you will get a spot on my Review Reply thingy below!

besring: Thank you so much! I'm glad you like my writing style. I've transformed over the course of three years (four, now!) and I suppose it really shows through this story and more to come! XD

ellamariexxx: Thank you so much, darling, for your review! The story will start picking up in a few more chapters. I want to get the "Oh So Happy" out of the way before I, well... get to the actual plot-y type stuff.

Queen NekoChan: This was the most random review... but thank you, I think?

dbzgtfan2004: Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it, EdxWin is my favorite pairing too :)

brit02: Thank you so much! Yeah, I didn't want to build anything up, considering that was already done in Brotherhood/the manga ;)

Next Update: 30 Nov 2010

See you next week!

~Cookie