I practice every day to find some clever
lines to say ,
To make the meaning come through;
But then I think I'll wait until the evening
gets late
And I'm alone with you.
The time is right,
Your perfume fills my head
The stars get red,
And oh the night's so blue…
And then I go and spoil it all
By saying something stupid like
"I love you"
- Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue
A/N: This song just seemed appropriate! Well, a little appropriate at least. Some lines fit this scene perfectly but I won't write the whole song here, else you guys would most likely kill me.
Hence, something simple and - hopefully - cute for an update. It's not a very long chapter, no, but I wanted to write some of the things here badly and... Today it just came gushing out.
So please, enjoy the ride. I have so many ideas in mind that I can barely keep them in order, but I'll try my best! Give me OPINIONS people, opinions. Or, you know, go the simple way around it and just say "I like it" or "I din't like it STFU get off yer keyboard lady". Whichever you'd like. xD
CHAPTER 2 - A Halfway Confession
Previously:
He waited (…). He needed to calm down.
"I, uh, should go back to my room. Good night, Winry."
He sat up and got ready to get out of the bed and leave, but she caught his hand. He sat back down again, his boxer shorts still unable to disguise his body's natural reaction.
"Wait. Just… Do that again. Kiss me again."
"Winry. I don't think I should."
Edward hesitated. She was pleading for another kiss, but he was… Afraid of it?
Nah. The kiss itself didn't worry him – in fact that's exactly what he wanted to do right then, at that moment. But what if the kissing led to something else?
"… Just one more?"
She gave him the hurt fluffy puppy stare. Damn, that's one low blow.
"Fine," he sighed in defeat. "You win. C'mere…"
He outstretched his hand so he could pull her towards him and hold her back as they kissed; an embrace of sorts.
Obviously, considering the distance between them, they'd both have to lean in for the kiss.
The problem was with Winry leaning closer to him; her night gown's cleavage was more revealing than she probably intended it to be, under certain angles.
He was in one of those angles, right now.
Hence when they locked their lips again, all sorts of distressing thoughts were gushing into his mind, speeding like a train absent breaks.
So he gasped mid-kiss – his breathing was becoming once more irregular – and his tongue brushed her lip. She, in turn, caught her own breath and stopped.
It's a natural attraction thing. Only with shy people like them, it acts in reverse – the tension was too much to handle. They hadn't the foggiest about what to do next, so it was best to let the dust settle.
Ed let out a sound that was half a moan, half a groan. This time, he stood up and walked away with no hand to hold him back.
He mumbled her a 'good night' and exited as silently as he had come in, leaving her sitting perplexed on her bed. She had no clue of what to do with herself, so she tried to calm down and not think those terribly inconvenient thoughts about her childhood friend.
Whom she had promised to marry.
And we all know what being married implies… A wedding night.
"Oh, what a headache!" she slumped back into her bed and hid under the covers, as if that would help.
It was so embarrassing. If he only knew what was going on through her mind right now… How could she face him in the morning after those thoughts?
And what was he thinking about? Well, he was the first one to turn a chaste kiss into a… a… a what?
"Oh God. Now I really can't fall asleep."
They woke up early the following day to clean up the mess from the prior evening. Ed and Winry kept to their silence, embarrassed about last night's events.
"You two are awfully quiet this morning. Something wrong?" Pinako asked.
"Headache," her granddaughter lied.
"Hungry," was Ed's excuse.
"Don't tell me you spent the whole night up thinking about those silly villagers! You kids…"
Until they were finished cleaning up and sat down at the table to (finally) eat breakfast, Pinako didn't shut up about how nosy people could get all of a sudden. She gave them quite the speech on how not to over think things and go with the flow of events.
"Ah, Edward," she suddenly remembered something while cleaning the dishes, "didn't you say you wanted some adjustments to you leg? You've been here for two whole days already! Better get that over with soon."
"Damn it. Just now that I needed some fresh air."
"It's okay Granny, I'm gonna be here for a few more days, so…"
"Don't leave for tomorrow what you can do today. Go do that now while we're customer free... Winry?"
So now they were alone in Winry's bedroom, because Pinako had shooed them from the workshop. Great. Just what their still-teenager minds, still teeming freshly with last night's events, needed at that moment. Being alone again in the same room.
"Ed."
"Hm? What."
"You don't need to remove your shirt, you know. Just, uh… Just the pants is fine. I'm working on your leg, as far as I recall it."
Not that she'd ever been bothered by seeing him shirtless before, but now the circumstances had changed slightly. Especially today, she didn't want something weird to happen between them.
"Oh, sorry. But it's so hot inside this place, I'm sweating like a damn sinner in church."
The way he phrased this was rather funny, but she merely overlooked that detail.
"Well I'm sure you'll cool down as soon as you stand still! Now go sit on the bed." She replied with a bossy tone, pointing towards said piece of furniture. Then she went to fetch her workbox.
"Fine. I'll just leave it unbuttoned, then." He deadpanned. He removed his pants and dropped them heavily on the wooden floor; then, instead of sitting on the edge of the bed, he lay down and sprawled over it. He cursed the heat under his breath, wondering why was this particular week being so hot.
Winry was stalling, Ed could tell. She kept searching for this or that tool and pretended to have lost her measuring tape – in fact, she was trying to focus on the metal limb and not on the man attached to it.
Finally she started examining his automail.
"Well," she said after about a couple of minutes, "Looks like you've gotten slightly taller. Again. And you should've been taking better care of your leg, it needs oil and proper cleaning. It's got quite a bit of dust in it! Geez…"
Ed merely nodded and closed his eyes while she worked. After a couple more minutes she started making weird sounds, as if something was puzzling her.
"What is it?" he demanded.
"I need to adjust the height… And I need to reinforce your knee a little." She sighed and stretched her hand to grab some metallic instrument that lay in her bed.
"I hope you stop growing like this soon." She mumbled absent-mindeldy while taking another quick look at his leg, now examining his toes.
"Whaaaat? Oh come on," he said, pretending to sound offended, "I love being tall!"
"But having to adjust your leg every few months is so exhausting!" she said theatrically, putting the back of her hand to her forehead as if she would have to go through the worst endeavor in the world.
"I thought you liked tall guys. I do remember you saying you wouldn't marry anyone shorter than you," he replied with a wry smirk, "so the taller I get… The better."
They both blushed. She giggled and bit her lip; automatically her hand flew towards her face with the intent of covering it.
"I already promised, Edo! Stop being silly! I'd keep my promise even if you got back to being a bean."
She stuck her tongue out at him and playfully punched his left arm. They both laughed, and the mechanical maintenance began.
After what seemed like an eternity to Ed, they were done.
He got up, stretched his numb limbs, and moved his leg around a little. She watched him put his pants back on and button up his shirt; there was a thought bothering her…
"Winry. You've been giving me this weird look all morning. What is it?" he finally asked. Her gaze was beginning to bother him somewhat, so he wanted to know what was going through her mind. There was no arguing with that look of his, simultaneously intrigued and stubborn. She'd have to say it.
"Fine," she sighed, "Look… Be honest. Did you drink from Granny's stash last night?"
Silence. An embarrassed, awkward silence and a very weird expression on Ed's face.
"Whaaaat? Me? Nonononononono, of course not!" he stuttered, waving his open hands at her in a dismissing gesture. "Why would you think such a thing?
"You're such a bad liar!" She replied with a smirk, standing up right in front of him with her hands on her hips.
"I knew it! You smelled of menthol last night, so you brushed your teeth!"
"Of course I did! You wouldn't have wanted to – well, I mean, do the you know what if my breath was bad, now would you?" He blushed violently.
She half-ignored him and let out a loud exclamation, "HA! Plus, you didn't have your shirt on, probably because the drink made you feel hot, right? I knew it."
"Wh- huh? That's ridiculous. I didn't drin –"
"Too late, Ed. I noticed the bottle. The lid wasn't on right and the liquid was beneath the label mark. It wasn't granny, sooo…"
Ack. She won that argument.
He growled with the annoyance of the whole situation. The only reason he'd had a cup (okay, two) of Granny's special brew was because he thought it might help him calm down his nerves before heading into Winry's room.
"Fine. I had like one swig of it. No big deal." He murmured, annoyed. "I was nervous." He added reluctantly.
"Kyaaa, how sweet!" she giggled and cooed like a little teenager. Ed didn't show much of a taste for drinks, so he'd just had one to calm down his nerves. That's why he was so… willing last night.
This kind of caught him unaware. She thought it was sweet? She wasn't pissed or anything that he'd needed to take a sip of happy-juice before he managed the resolve to kiss her?
She hesitated whether to hug him or not before shooing him out of her room; but somehow her shyness violently took over her and she decided not to. That would have to wait for some other time... For now, she settled with teasing him with implied jokes till the end of the day.
Finally, it was Saturday. It had been warm all day, sunny outside, fresh under the shade of the trees.
Party night in Risembool.
The day wasn't even over and already you could hear music being played, people laughing, and the smell of barbecue filled the air. Tonight, people would not dine at home but at the town's main plaza.
"Oh Winry, what a lovely dress!" her friends complimented her constantly about her white backless dress. The same one she'd worn the day Ed gave her the ring.
"Thank you! I bought it last week." She said, smiling. She was always smiling today. She knew very well that the villagers were partially just there for the sake of the party, but of course there was also some celebration to be done.
She spent the evening listening to how wonderful it was for a young couple to get engaged; how everyone was surprised because they always thought Edward would never be the type to settle down; how, speaking of couples, some of the women had met their husbands; and how great the wine tasted.
Regarding Edward she overheard a few comments here and there about how some women doubted he could really just settle in one place.
"It's probably a genetic defect…" Winry had heard one of the women whisper. But she couldn't give a damn about them. All she cared about was Edward, and she knew travelling was a part of him. She accepted that a long time ago.
Somehow her own grandmother convinced her to drink almost a full cup of wine. She didn't like it much, but social duties demanded so. It would have been rude to decline.
After a long time of being apart – caught up by conversations with the other villagers in different places – Edward and Winry finally met up near one of the snacks tables.
"So," she asked casually, "How have the conversations been like?"
"Ah, well, not usually my type of conversations… And let's leave it at that."
He shuddered, recalling how some of the older and bolder men tried to talk to him about the many great things about women; some of them had rather crude things to say, in fact. Some weird jokes he'd rather not have heard, let alone reproduce, and weird commentaries. They kept saying he was now "appropriate" for this kind of manly chatter, since he was about to get married himself.
She threw him a quizzical look, to which he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Let's just say sometimes women are right when they say men are –"
They were both startled when someone jumped in front of them, out of the blue. It was a young man in his early twenties, Samuel, a talented guitarist and known for being a heartbreaker.
Edward never liked the way he approached Winry.
"Aha! You two, you need to share a dance!" He blasted this out casually as if a dance was just like brushing your hair in the morning.
Edward's face paled to the point he looked pretty much like a ghost. With an acute anemia.
NO, he immediately belched out; well that would be great!, she instinctively squealed. They stared at each other – one mortified and the other disappointed.
"Dancing isn't my strong-suit." He corrected meekly.
Samuel was about to produce a "Shall we dance then?" directed to her, but Winry's cold blue gaze cut him off. So he just settled for a "Fine, suit yourself."
She told Ed she wasn't mad. She didn't want him feeling embarrassed or anything in front of so many people.
He smiled thankfully and nodded. Next thing she knew it, he had a hold of her hand and was guiding her away from the crowd. Not many people noticed them leaving, but those who did were tactful enough not to say anything.
Just comments about the springtime of life that every young person seems to not take enough advantage of and those kinds of things; as usually expected from old people who are no longer enchanted by life.
"Heh, sorry but… I really needed to get away from that crowd. It's so late already." He emphasized his point by taking a look at his wrist-watch under the weak light produced by the half-moon. "And... we've barely been with each other tonight." He added afterwards, in a hurried phrase as if he had to be cautious with those kinds of words.
She didn't quite know what to say about that, so she let out a small an embarrassed sigh before touching his arm with her hand in comprehension.
They kept on walking about in silence until they reached a more quiet place, where they sort of nestled underneath a tree. They could see the lights from the bonfire and street lamps that lit the plaza and they clearly heard the music and laughter coming from the crowd. But somehow now it felt better, to be farther away from all that mess and left alone with each other to admire the tranquility of the night.
If they were to 'celebrate' their commitment, they'd like to do it as alone as possible - at least for now.
"The stars," she mumbled absent-mindedly after a few minutes. "The sky looks really beautiful tonight."
He took one glance upwards: half the starry sky was hidden behind the many leaves of the young tree, but it still looked, indeed, very beautiful.
Oh no, he thought. Speaking of beautiful, Alphonse had said something about how Ed should compliment Winry's physical appearance. Women liked that, Alphonse had said. His little brother was suddenly very knowing in that area...
Truthfully, Ed really wanted to speak to her about how he felt. But he was (perhaps irrationally) afraid of saying anything near the line of "I love you" ... What did that mean exactly, after all? He did love her, he guessed, but what was it that he felt exactly? He couldn't pinpoint love; he couldn't pinpoint if the love she had for him was the same he had for her so... He doesn't want to spoil anything, hence it's best to keep things simple.
So he turned his gaze slowly upon her. Sure he noticed the fine details, but which ones should he praise? All of them? And with what words? He didn't want to sound cheesy. Hell no!
He loved her thick and long eyelashes and the color of her eyes. The glossy pink of her lips, especially when they were moist. The color of her hair and how soft it looked, all tidy and smoothe. The eyes again: they had an adorable shape. Her chin. Her neck – he enjoyed is fantasies about kissing it.
A blush crept upon his face. And the more he admired her, the heavier his blush got. The dress didn't have a huge cleavage but… It was tight, and revealing enough to allow his mind to wonder about dangerous places.
"Time to pump the breaks," he thought, blinking his eyes madly as if to shake the eventual thoughts off.
She unglued her eyes from the starry sky after she heard him let out a long, unintentional sigh.
"What?" She was afraid that he might be bored or something.
But he wasn't. It was the force of sheer awkwardness and shyness altogether that robbed them both from the right words needed to break that silence.
"I… I like your dress. It's pretty." He pointed out lamely, using up every ounce of his guts to get that out of his system.
"Thank you. I'm glad." She added in her mind, "I bought it just for you."
She had oddly bought it just a few days before Ed called announcing his arrival – a strange coincidence.
Think, Edward Elric. What else did Al say? Winry's got pretty hair and pretty eyes. Golden as the morning sun and as blue as the deepest ocean – something like that. So Ed took another gulp of internal courage.
"Your eyes are blue. A- and you've got - uh, hair. It's – eheh – yellow."
... That had to be one of the dumbest, dumbest things he'd ever recall saying. Ever. He already knew it was dumb before he was halfway through saying it.
Winry just stared at him for a few seconds before bursting out into muffled laughter, her palm desperately trying to conceal her reaction.
All he could muster was to let out a small whimper in defeat. He eventually frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, staring irritably into the dark night. Well, he couldn't blame her for her reaction, so he mentally kicked himself a hundred times instead.
"I can't believe… haha! That you of all people… Hee! Hahaha, would try something like that! Thee heee!" She teased him between fits of giggles – and poked at him like a little child happy to find the other kid's weak spot, just for provocations' sake.
"Fine fine, enough already." He mumbled. She was getting a bit breathless, and honestly there was no real need to make so much fun of him.
"I'm sorry." She finally managed to say in an even breath. "But that was just so darn cute."
Now he blushed and fiddled with his thumbs, his mortification now reduced to some feeling that he couldn't quite lay his finger on.
Now it was her time to be bold. But she was no longer as quite and shy as she had once been; as he still is.
"You know, I love those eyes of yours. I don't think I've ever met anyone with eyes like that."
As if on cue, he shifted his sight from far into the horizon directly to her face, lips slightly parted in a silent gasp and pupils diminished out of mild surprise. It was supposed to be the other way around, not the girl telling the guy how cute he was!
"And your hair makes me jealous sometimes." She paused to let out a nervous sigh. "I love the way you smile, even when you're making fun of me or being plain silly."
She finished it off with another nervous giggle, as soft as she could. She kind of felt like she had air trapped somewhere within her body and couldn't quite find the way to let it out.
She still didn't have enough courage for the small details though. Like how sometimes his gaze made her feel like she was entirely made of pudding, giving her the odd sensation of wobbling about like a bubble instead of actually walking. How she wished a hundred times over that she would have the courage to run her hand freely through his hair. How his cocky grin, even when it infuriated her, always made him look like the most kissable person in the world.
No, those confessions were too deep and intimate to be revealed. At least, anytime soon. And let us leave out other considerations about certain other body parts – his smooth skin and strong muscles, plump flesh hardened with the effort of constant training. The muscles in his arm that stood out when he flexed his arm behind his head made her go absolutely wild – a rather improper feeling which she tried to discharge each time it occurred.
But even with her cheeks so flushed and face so hot, as soon as a sudden blow of wind hit her bare skin she shivered and became covered in goosebumps. She flew her arms around her torso and pressed her legs closer together instinctively; obviously the night was getting a bit too cold than she'd want it to. Why hadn't she brought a jacket or something from home?
In an almost automatic move, Edward undressed his summer jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders and arms. He let his hands linger there for a moment – a silent gesture of tenderness – before removing them and staring back into the invisible horizon.
"You're lovely." Was all he could mutter, almost imperceptibly. Embarassed to no end, of course, because these kinds of things were never easy for him. This spurred a funny reaction...
The tingling started in her thumbs, spread through her hands and arms, and eventually it took over of all of her body, slowly. A funny tingling caused by who knows what; how the subconscious brain is able to provoke such a reaction on the body is yet one of the mysteries related to love that don't quite have an explanation.
The tingling was so strong around her thumbs and forearms that it almost felt like it was some external force maneuvering her body, moving her hand so it would wrap itself around Edward's. When his fingers entwined with hers – and now he had the exact same tingling sensation she did – and squeezed her hand softly, her one reaction was to move as close as she could and simply lay her head on his shoulder.
The breathing of both of them was quite irregular at this point.
"I feel like I've eaten a box full of butterflies." He chuckled.
"So that makes two of us." She replied, now pressing her nose against his neck and breathing in slowly. He reacted to the shivers provoked by her actions by moving his shoulder blades slightly, as if he could shake the shivers off.
He half-turned his head to look at her and said, in his defense, "I only drank half a cup of wine, mind you. I tossed the rest away when no one was looking," before he tilted his head and let his lips press upon hers.
She shifted into a more comfortable position, arms now fully swung around his neck – while his hands clumsily held her waist – "Ah, but I had a full glass of it…"
The sounds of the party were now mere echoes in the distance. The air was no longer cool, but seemed as warm as it had been during the day. They needed only the dim light provided by the moon to find each other's heart and embrace it; no guidance other than awakening instincts were needed to lock lips once more.
Aaah, okay. Second chapter done with. I'ms till thinking about how (and what) the next one will be. xD
I crammed a quote in there from a recent movie, kudos if you can find it! :D In fact, feel free to ask a request if you manage to pinpoint the quote. Request being something I can write, of course... If you want.
Well, thanks for the support you guys. Hope this chapter was anywhere near as likeable as the first one. I sure don't wanna disappoint anyone.
-Nef
