Hellos from the planet happy! It's good to see you guys are enjoying this. My electricity was out most of the day cause of the hurricane T_T so I decided to finish this up. Gotta love generators!

I had originally intended to put this scene in the last chapter of TBA but deicided against it, however I still wanted you guys to see it. This part takes place at the end of TBA during the month the Elrics are resting up in Resembool.

(-Winry-)

"It's so boring!" Winry whined as she slumped over her worktable. For once, all of her orders had been completed with time to spare. Usually, she would have been ecstatic with that. Not now. She had absolutely nothing left to do! All of her projects were either done or put on hold until new parts came in, all the chores had been completed, and the house was completely empty besides herself. Her grandmother was visiting Charlotte down the street and the boys had gone to the market for groceries.

"If only I had something left to tinker with," she huffed, her breath blowing her bangs away from her face. She had searched the house from top to bottom but hadn't found a single thing to work on…well, besides Ed and Al's room. But that would be an invasion of their privacy to go snooping around in there, right? ….Then again, they were out for the moment.

With a sneaky grin, Winry crept through the house silently(which was unnecessary since everyone was out but she was in stealth mode regardless). She went upstairs and found the door to the boys' bedroom wide open. A gleam entered her eyes as she knew just what to search for. Edward hadn't been wearing his State Alchemist watch ever since him and Al came here two weeks ago so it should be around the room somewhere. And it's not like he needed it anyway, right? He had Al's body back and didn't need to stay in the military anymore. It would be a waste of a perfectly good pocket watch if he just left it lying around collecting dust. So she would make it her duty to put it to good use and take it apart!

Winry opened the bottom drawer of the desk and squealed with delight at what she found inside. It definitely wasn't anything remotely resembling a pocket watch but it was like nothing she'd ever scene! The metal rod had tiny levers scattered up and down its body that when she pressed down on them they'd open and close the many holes. What was Ed doing with something like this? She had no idea what it was but she was gonna find out by taking it apart!

She carefully disassembled the contraption by hand, leaving it in three separate parts. It seemed to be made to come apart as such and she puzzled over the purpose for it. Was it to clean the inside? Add or take away parts more easily? To improve performance?

Winry examined the pieces, surprised to find that the inside was mostly hollow. It just made her all the more curious to figure out what this thing was supposed to do.

Suddenly, Winry was knocked roughly away from the desk.

"Don't touch that!"

"E-Edward?!" Winry gasped, alarmed at his abrupt appearance and how aggressive he was being.

"What the hell do you think you're doing in here Winry?!" Ed shouted at her, his voice increasing as he continued to furiously berate her. "We're gone for half an hour and you can't keep your hands from going through our room?!"

Winry was speechless for a moment at his ferocity but it's not like she hadn't dealt with an angry Ed before. She gritted her teeth and began to yell back, "What about you? Hiding things, just like in the past. What is that thing anyway?"

Ed's eyes flared with heat that would make even the sun wither and it took Winry aback. She wasn't even aware that she had taken a step back as she listened to Ed reply in a low, threatening tone, "It has nothing to do with you and you should learn not to go snooping through other people's business. Don't ever mess with it again." He spun around and stepped over to the desk where the disassembled rod still laid. "Just get out."

Winry blinked dazedly but found her voice and began shakily, "Ed…"

"I SAID GET OUT!" he roared.

Winry ran out of there as fast as she could, nearly stumbling as she closed the door behind her and ran down the stairs. She was met with Al's worried stare from the kitchen doorway.

"I heard yelling. What's going on?"

With a hand to her chest to keep her heart from leaping out, she said guiltily, "I think I just did something really bad."

Al cocked his head to the side and nudged her arm, "Winry? What is it?"

She swallowed and answered in a rush, "I've never seen Ed so…livid. I know I shouldn't have been in there but I thought I could find Ed's pocket watch since it didn't look like he needed it anymore but then I found that weird metal rod thing instead and I pulled it apart and he came in yelling at me which I'm not even sure why he was so upset because I hadn't even really taken it apart yet but-"

"Winry?" Al asked, stopping her stream of words.

"Yeah?"

An anxiousness filled his luminous gray eyes, "When you say 'metal rod' you don't mean the one in the bottom desk drawer, do you?"

Winry nodded mutely, causing Al to groan and cover his eyes.

"What is it, Al?" She asked to what was wrong as well as why the metal rod was so special.

With a sigh, Al leaned his back against the wall and spoke, "The metal rod you found was actually a musical instrument called a flute…and it belonged to…her."

Winry didn't understand at first but when she did it all shattered. She wanted to cry and hit herself for doing such a stupid, thoughtless thing. No wonder Ed had been so angry! He had seen her taking apart one of the very last things Taylor had left behind. He had never showed it to her or mentioned it before because it had been too painful, too personal. And Winry had trampled right over the boundaries and hurt Ed in the most unforgiving way.

"I didn't know," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. She knew it was a lousy excuse but couldn't keep herself from saying it.

Al patted her shoulder tenderly, "There's no way you could have. Brother doesn't ever talk about her but I know he misses her, more than the rest of us even. So when he saw the flute in pieces he panicked because he was afraid of losing even more of her."

Winry wiped at her eyes and turned back towards the staircase, "I should go apologize to him."

"No, don't," Al stopped her. "Just give him time to calm down. He'll want to be alone right now."

She glanced back up the stairs but reluctantly obeyed him.

(-Winry-)

Ed didn't come down for lunch. Nor did he show at supper. Pinako gave the two present teens wary glances but wisely asked no questions. The atmosphere in the house was tense and Winry was suffocating from it. The guilt had set anchor inside of her and made it hard to breathe until finally Winry couldn't take it anymore.

She walked up the staircase that everyone had been avoiding all day. The door was still closed as she had left it and she hesitated before knocking. There was no answer. Maybe he's sleeping? she asked herself hopefully. Then she shook her head. It would do no good to procrastinate this. She needed to do this now.

Winry knocked again and when she still heard nothing she called through the door and said she was coming in, waiting a moment in case she was met with a refusal. There was none so she went in.

He was practically in the same spot she had left him, only now he was sitting at the desk. The flute lay on the desk in it's original state and his fingers were lightly resting upon the metal. He gave her no acknowledgement but she knew that he had heard her come in. Ed continued to gaze downward, seeming enraptured by the way the moonlight reflected off of the flute's surface.

Winry remained by the door, afraid to venture further into the lion's den. She took a deep breath and said with as much honesty and regret she could put in her voice, "Ed, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't know that… But still, you were right. I had no business going through your things or even being in your room. It was wrong of me to and it won't happen again."

She had said her piece and that was that. If Ed could forgive her then she would be relieved but she would understand if he couldn't. All that was left to do was give him some space so she would leave him here to think it over.

"I miss it."

Her hand paused on the doorknob, body frozen in its act of closing the door. It had been barely above a whisper but Winry's ears had clearly registered Ed's voice. It surprised her that he had spoken at all. And what he said…was he really confiding in her? She held her breath in case he said more.

Ed's fingers gently rolled the flute over the wood of the desk, back and forth in a hypnotic movement. She couldn't see his face to gauge his expression, however, his tone held a wistful bitterness as he spoke. "I never cared for music but now I…miss it. There was barely a day that went by that she didn't play and when she did I wouldn't outwardly show it but I was listening to every sound. I never told her how beautiful it sounded…"

Winry herself hadn't ever heard Taylor play but if Ed was saying it was beautiful then it surely was. His voice held such fondness when he spoke of her, it made Winry remember how Ed and Taylor were whenever together. It was obvious how much they cared for each other but…Winry just had to ask.

"Did you love her?"

The flute's motions stopped and he became utterly still, the only reaction he gave her. He said not a word but his silence spoke monuments.

"Never mind," Winry said with a sad smile. She left the room, closing the door softly behind her.

A serious/sad scene this time. I chose to do this from Winry's point of view for the simplicity of it. Winry has a similar standpoint on things as the readers do as in she can't really imagine what Ed's going through right now so all of his emotions and thoughts are left to speculation. It makes you wonder just how much Ed's feeling, how much sorrow and regret. That's why this is one of my favorite scenes.

I don't really know how many more scenes I'm gonna do. I've got two more at least though so be looking forward to those.

Song of the day: "I'm Still Short" by Moosebutter (aka Ed's unofficial themesong)