DISCLAIMER: Nope.
SUMMARY: Star bright... star light... so many wishes wished and tonight one had become true.
WORDCOUNT: 367
FEEDBACK: Yes, please?

Written for Sharon. Prompt: masks.

STAR BRIGHT
by Leni

She leaned back onto his chest and studied the star-glittered sky.

Ed didn't make a sound and she was oddly grateful for it. This moment was for them. Only them. A stolen hour, snatched away from their real lives. Here, no dangers had ever existed or could dream to exist. Here, the world hadn't tilted off its axis seven years ago. Here, not even their beloved family mattered and it was just him and her. Edward and Winry.

She thought she liked the sound of that. For a second she felt tempted to glance backwards, smile at him, maybe even steal a kiss and let another be stolen back. But she didn't. Instead she continued counting stars.

Winry knew that, if she asked, Ed would know which stars formed constellations and what their names were. When they were little, they would play connect-the-dots at night. Horses, cats and trees for her. Alchemist symbols for him. But tonight she didn't feel like drawing on the sky. Let the stars be stars, she thinks. Pretty white candles that accompany them through the night without ever burning them. Star bright... star light... so many wishes wished and tonight one had become true.

She was still thinking about stars and warmth and too few nights like this, when suddenly his fingers moved to entwine with hers. Metal fingers, no cloth of his gloves in-between.

They'd gotten so far. She was the only one Ed would touch purposely with his automail limbs. Winry smiled, even though he couldn't see her, and made herself even more comfortable on her very favourite spot.

He was smiling, too. She knew that as surely as she knew every millimiter of the hand touching her. She could picture his face, and he was not the child she'd grown up with; he was not the boy atoning for a mistake he'd already paid too much for; he was not even the teasing brother he could be when Al was around.

When she closed her eyes, all masks dropped and she saw Edward as he was. Brave, scared, guilty and innocent and in love with her. Just as she was in love with him.

She squeezed his fingers and felt a soft kiss fall on her head.

...and still no words were needed.

The End
01/11/06