I don't own FMA

Theme: Choke

She'd never thought of Ed as a normal teenager, not once, until now, and being able to finally put him into that category, even if only for one single reason, made her happier than anything metal ever could.

It happened during a train ride.

With Ed asleep, and Al wondering the train at night, she didn't know what to do, but she couldn't get to sleep, and she if she didn't know Ed, she'd have assumed he was dead with the way he didn't even stir at the jerky movements of the locomotive maneuvering on the tracks.

Not only was the train uncomfortable, but it was getting warm. It was half boredom and half annoyance that led her to give her hair the same style as Ed's. That way it wouldn't create an uncomfortable bump when she rested her head against the back of the seat, nor would it swing back and forth across her neck with the motion of the train. That in itself, made the train ride a bit more endurable than before, and not long after Al rejoined her, she was able to catch a fragment of sleep.

Upon waking, she found Ed was still asleep, but Al mentioned their station was fast approaching.

Ed opened his eyes to the all to familiar surroundings of a train, but as his gaze traveled across his companions they locked on Winry. There was something strange about her, and he blinked, wondering if he was still asleep.

"What?" Winry finally asked after a few minutes of his peculiar behavior.

"Nothing," he answered as he scratched the side of his head. When he brought his hand away from his head, a rather large chunk of hair pulled out of the braid he wore it in, and he grumbled to himself.

Winry frowned at Ed's words, ones she was sure were a swear of some sort, and ran her hands through her hair. She'd forgotten about the side effect of sleeping on a braid – wavy hair. She was staring at the curly bits of her hair when a flash of light brought her attention to Ed, and this time he was the one to wonder at her behavior as she erupted into a fit of laughter that caused her to choke on air.

When she calmed herself down Ed was staring at her with a raised brow, half of his hair straight, the other half in waves of gold.

A set of blue eyes and a pair of yellow ones peered across the four foot space between them, one concerned, the other glassed over from giddiness.

"What?" Ed huffed when she started to laugh again.

"Your hair," she answered.

"Well yours looks weird, too," he barked as he put his hand together to straighten the second half of his hair.

Looking back on the situation, Winry knew that if she hadn't been so amused she would have thrown a wrench at him, but even his reply led her into hysterics.

His hair was braided again, by the time she had her breathing back to normal. "Al," she began, "I didn't know your brother cared about his hair so much."

"I don't," Ed growled.

"Yes you do," she argued. "Look, I can wait until we get off the train to fix mine, but you even went and used alchemy to fix yours. You're even worse than most girls," she accused.

"Am not!" he yelled.

Their argument ended with Ed storming out of their compartment to find out how much longer it would be until they reached their station.

"What are you smiling about?" Alphonse asked her once they were alone.

"Sometimes, it isn't so hard to remember we're still kids," she answered, stretching to give him a pat on the top of his helmet.

A.N.- Inspired by some fartart on livejournal by sicarius66. Doesn't take place during any particular time of the story, but could fit ether anime or manga verse, somehow. Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reviewing: Maggie's Revenge, KatsyKat, Took-Baggins, Legendary Chimera, Beifa, ehxhfdl14, Should be sleeping, animelvr8, Yun Min, MegaSliferSlacker7, and ElricKeyblade.