Ch. 4, Worn Out.

"Stop picking on me, would you?"

Edward veered for the back of the sofa in the living room, ducking his head just in time to avoid getting hit by a silky and very feminine and flowery looking cloth.

Or it should be a cloth, if that was a shirt top than he was a seven foot blue eyed woman.

…Which of course he wasn't!

Although the seven foot part would have been acceptable.

In addition to coming back with Den, Winry had also brought along a number of her wardrobe with her, and had stopped at a Laundromat on the way back, so with the garb of colors that promoted everything lady like, Edward felt quite out of place in his environment.

"I just asked you to help me fold clothes, and you act like I'm killing you by poking a little fun?" Winry folded a pair of her shorts and sat them atop a pile of others before smirking at him. "Seriously though, you are acting as if women's clothing scares you."

"That isn't it!" he said, looking at the pile with distain like it was the last thing he wanted to look at. "I just don't want to touch underwear is all!"

"Ahhh, you mean these?" Winry hummed, picking at the pile before displaying the aforementioned piece of garment. A black string thing with nary a cloth that looked like it would cover anything smaller than a pocket watch.

His face bloomed rosy red and he fully hid behind the sofa. "That's not funny at all!"

She responded with mirthful laughter, letting an evil thought trickle to her mind. She acted on it by flinging the small article of clothing behind Edward's safe zone, in turn earning a yelp of shock and a pair of devil mean amber orbs trained on her like she was his worst enemy.

"You'll pay for that!"

"Oh really?" The words barely slipped from her mouth before he brought his hands together and set the room in a flash of jolting aqua light.

What was visible after the illumination had been reduced to static electricity was a pile of clothing that looked remarkably familiar…

Almost like the clothing Edward wore twenty four seven.

Completely replacing the clothes she had been folding earlier!

"Wh-what did you do?" Winry dug into the pile, tossing aside black pants and black tanks and discovering nothing that even resembled color or what she owned beforehand.

"I eliminated the problem!" Edward stated, like he'd just done the most single handedly good thing on the face of the planet.

Winry adopted Edward's devil glare in a tenfold fashion, holding up a pair of shine catching black pants with shaky hands. "How could you! I had a lot of my favorite clothes in here!" she dropped the garment and turned for a drawer in the room, in which Edward promptly ran away fast since said drawer was the tome for a few size ranged tools, I.e. death's scythe in the form of wrenches.

Winry engaged her biggest one and took off in the direction he went only to trip over the pants she dropped.

"Damn him that little-…" She muttered before breathing in and out deeply.

While on the floor, Winry was able to cool herself down enough to assess the real situation. She sat up to look at the pile of Edward mimic garb. He seemed awfully desperate to exchange something uncomfortable with something he was use to seeing often. Which wasn't women's underwear so naturally…

Picking up the pants and looking at a tank she grinned in a fashion that would rival Envy's most evil scheming grin.

"Let's just see how comfortable he is when I try these on for a change."

"Chief,"

Roy looked up from his papers, and back down again. The last thing he wanted to listen to was the second lieutenant rant raving about some girl that either dumped or dated him.

Which to his surprise was neither.

"We got back reports from the stationed alchemist in Briggs," Havoc said, dropping a parcel to the desk that looked as if it had seen better days. "Turns out there's more going on up there than what's been told."

Gingerly as if the papers would crumble under his touch, Roy picked up the tied bundle of papers, untying the string he set them down and some photos slid out from between the sheets, as if safeguarding them had been priority one.

The photos ranged from blurry to nearly distinguishable, one clearly showing a line of military transport vehicles lined up in front of the gates that served as the entrance into Briggs territory.

"Has he been contacting the spy since these were received?"

Havoc looked dread ridden for a few seconds. "That's just the problem, Mustang." He pulled out a cig from his pocket and let it hang loosely from his lips without lighting it. "Someone was sent out to get progress from the alchemist and he found no one there."

Roy looked up alarmed. If their alchemist wasn't there this meant either he was out patrolling or something must have happened.

Havoc had even worse news. "To top it off the guy we sent out there found a note dated four days ago that he and the spy were going out to patrol a suspicious cavern near the outskirts of Briggs."

Four days…

Roy sighed deeply. This wasn't good. Yet if they'd been intercepted wouldn't the military there have tried to confiscate the files Roy now had littering his desk?

Something wasn't adding up, and it sent chills down his spine.

"Why- why are the hell you wearing those!"

Edward gaped like a fish plucked from it's living place to endure oxygen filled shores. Winry had entered the kitchen, not in the shorts and midriff top she had on yesterday or something else that displayed Winry-apparel, but in a black tank top tucked in long black pants that caught the shine from the window outside.

He was pretty sure those were his clothes, but he was already wearing his clothes so how-

Edward slapped his forehead, recalling a certain altercation yesterday that involved a teasing female and an idea to teach said female a lesson.

It looked as if his lesson backfired on him severely.

"What's wrong, Ed?" Winry asked with a note of mirth in her voice, like she was ignorant to what was bothering him. "I'm just wearing my clothes, is something wrong with that?"

Well, he couldn't argue with her there. They may have looked like his clothes but they technically were hers.

"Y'know what," she said, hands on her waist and striking a risqué pose. "I think I like wearing these."

Maybe if he changed them back on her; no too risky. He'd transmuted them so haphazardly that she could wind up in nothing but disarranged clothing on her person.

"…I feel pretty sexy in these actually."

Edward looked away with a flash of embarrassment, did she have to use such vocabulary? She could have just said she looked good in them.

Which she did, to his surprise; but like hell he'd admit that he may have actually done her a favor.

Right now he'd have been more comfortable with the underwear than seeing her like she currently was.

"Alright, I get it." Edward said, hands up in front of him in defeat. "I'm sorry I warped your wardrobe, if you put what you had on yesterday and give me a minute I'll change your clothes back."

She looked at him with curiosity, or fake curiosity. In either case she was nearly making it convincing that he had said something taboo.

"Why would I want you to do that for? I like these thank you very much." she said.

"What?"

"I think I'll go for a walk, I need some fresh air." She continued, picking up her purse from the table and walking out the door, leaving Edward staring at the spot she stood in as if he'd just dreamt the whole thing.

"what the hell…" He mouthed quietly.

Alphonse stood in between a bakery and a deli, his every instinct telling him this wasn't a good idea. No matter how much he felt he had to do this, it wasn't right. Yet he couldn't pull himself from the responsibility of needing to carry this out. It was something he had to do; consequences or none.

He stepped forward a few paces, the whole while telling himself it was for a good cause, he was doing something right.

It was the right thing to do.

It was the right thing to do.

It was the right thing to-

"Alphonse? What are you doing in there?"

Alphonse jumped, turning around sharply to see Lieutenant Hawkeye watching him with a look of perplexity.

"Oh, H-hi there Lieutenant!" He said a bit too loudly.

Riza blinked at him, and what he was holding.

"What's with the cat?" she finally asked. Alphonse stammered a bit, as if a certain someone of short but extremely authoritative behavior would show up and berate him. "I-it was; I mean-"

"It's alright, Alphonse." Riza said holding out a hand to stop his hum and haw. "I won't say anything to your brother."

He sighed in relief, setting the brown and white kitten on his shoulder before speaking. "What brings you this way, Lieutenant Hawkeye?"

Riza laughed. "No need to be so formal, Alphonse. Its my day off." Alphonse noticed that the Lieutenant was indeed out of uniform. Her hair was down and she was clothed in a simple white turtleneck sweater and a knee high black skirt.

"Actually I was headed for your place." Alphonse looked down and would have tried for curious if he could have, so he voiced his thoughts. "Oh?" Was this another gift thing? After Havoc; Edward had been approached by Fuery and Breda, offering a box of picture frames and a Xinganese vase; followed by Falman shortly after, who'd left Edward with a large dictionary.

Only Hawkeye didn't look like she had anything.

"I wanted to speak to Winry," Riza explained. Alphonse nodded. "I think she's home, I seen her there earlier anyway, I don't think she's busy-"

"Alphonse?"

He heard a new voice, it was distant so he couldn't tell who it was.

When he looked over, a non existent heart jumped to his equally non existent throat; or his soul was just rocked by what he saw.

Edward was down the road coming toward them, except both his arms were flesh. Al rushed forward with a mental list of fast questions until he noticed a flaw with this vision.

He was certain Edward's hair wasn't that long, he never carried a purse, and his brother; deifying the physics that made Edward a brother in the first place, looked as if he'd gained a few pounds in his chest.

"W-Winry?" he gawked.

Winry stopped in front of him, "What are you doing here, Al? I thought Alicia wanted to see you."

"Winry… Why are you wearing my brother's clothes?" Alphonse said changing the subject, almost afraid she'd left Edward wandering around half-naked somewhere.

"Actually, their my clothes; I'll explain later." she said, catching the instinctive feeling that Alphonse was extremely bewildered.

Winry noticed Hawkeye standing there waiting patiently. "Oh, Hello, Mrs. Hawkeye," Winry said bowing quickly. "Hello, dear." Riza replied. "I was wondering if the two of us could talk, just some girl to girl chit chat if that's alright with you," Riza explained, a gaze in her sharp redwood eyes leading to tell tale signs it was something only Winry would understand.

"Alright; Al could you go back to the house and distract your brother for a few minutes?"

Alphonse realized their talk was private, so he nodded before walking back toward the suburbs.

"Oh, and tell Ed that cat was something I picked up."

"Y-yeah okay!" he replied, remembering the kitten and catching it just before it slipped from his shoulder.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

Winry and Riza sat across from each other at a table in front of a small café. "I came to speak to you about Edward." Winry blinked. Edward? What did he have to do with a girl to girl talk? A nervous twitch hit Winry's jaw. Did Mrs. Hawkeye find out about their set up?

"I just think it's rather early for the both of you to consider marriage, but I thought I'd get this out of the way just in case."

Winry was all ears. If it was Hawkeye it must be something important.

Riza looked at her seriously. "Has Edward told you what he's done?"

Winry gaped at the woman. Told her what? What did he do?

"No need to look startled," Riza said quickly. "I just mean has he ever told you about the things he does at the military." Winry paused, her response dead in her throat. She looked down at the tea in front of her, it's shiny clear ocher contents reflecting the dismal look in her features.

"No," she said at last. "H-he never tells me anything."

"For good reason, I suppose."

Winry looked up at Riza.

"Some of the things he's done in the past were rather dangerous." She spooned a sift of sugar in her cup before continuing. "Some of which he's had no choice but to keep secret, but the thing is," Riza fixed her gaze in Winry's cerulean orbs. "Not many of them constitute to secrecy, but there has been times he'd come back with something out of alignment."

Winry knew this; she'd witnessed the mysterious damages herself in the past.

"Just recently his younger brother mentioned he had been complaining of aches in his metal shoulder when he thought no one was around,"

Winry crossed her legs, just what was the lieutenant trying to say?

Riza sighed, as if afraid to say what she had come to tell her. "I stumbled across him in the library before you came last week, he was looking up information in a book on automail assembly."

Winry was a bright girl, but it took a short while before she understood what Riza was getting at.

"Wait, you don't mean Ed has been-"

"I'm not accusing him of anything, he has been known to dabble in things out of curiosity. Except he seemed quite unsettled when I seen what he'd been reading."

Winry palmed her forehead with disdain. Had Edward been trying to avoid seeing her and taking care of his own repairs? Why would he do that?

"Why…?" Winry whispered. Riza looked sympathetic, but could only offer what she believed was the case. "If what you said about him not telling you what he does on assignments is true, then he may have been looking for a way to keep you from knowing every time."

How could he do this? Winry couldn't let it go. Did Edward not trust her anymore or something?

"…Just to keep you safe I'm guessing."

Winry's inner reverie broke. "K-keep me safe?"

"Like I said, he does dangerous things. So if I'm right he was looking into repairing on his own to keep you safe if ever a past assignment came back to haunt him," she looked up seriously. "…or people he loves."

Winry blushed and looked back at her tea. It made sense that Edward would be so bold as to try anything to keep others ignorant.

People he loves… Why did those words make her shiver? She gripped her shirt in attempt to quell her heart, and gazed down at the fabric. She'd forgotten she was wearing the clothing Edward transmuted to look like his own. It felt rather strange to be wearing them now.

"Are you feeling alright?" Riza's voice broke through. Winry shook the cobwebs from her mind. This was no time to be in a daze over something as silly as clothes. "I-I'm fine."

"In either case it's probably best you don't tell him I told you this." Riza stated. Winry nodded. "Although I suppose you may not have to worry about it later, seeing as the both of you are getting married, maybe he'll open up to you more."

Winry looked at her tea again, if only to avert her own attention and spooned more sugar than necessary into her cup.

"Speaking of which have you two spoken about when your planning the wedding?" Winry dropped her spoon. "Oh, well we decided sometime next spring so there could be fresh flowers when…"

Winry and Riza went into conversation about flowers and arrangements and Edward's look alike clothes and his secret were momentarily forgotten for awhile.

"Hey!"

Edward and Alphonse looked up from the books they were reading at the kitchen table. Winry walked toward Edward holding a pile of black clothes, which she unceremoniously dropped at his feet. On her person was the outfit she had on yesterday.

"I want you to change them back, every last one." she said. Her eyes were set in suggestion that she would be very angry if he got a single thread wrong.

"Um, okay." Edward said eyeing the pile. Did she really have to do this in the kitchen of all places?

"If you screw up I'll make damn sure you do all the laundry from now on!" Edward winced.

(fear the underwear! Fear the underwear! XD)

"Oh, and later I want you in the living room." Edward blinked at her. "Why?" "Because it's been weeks since you had any maintenance done on your automail!" She snapped. With a red face she turned and stormed away, going up the stairs.

"What was all that about?" Alphonse asked curiously. "She looked angry."

Edward scratched the back of his head. "Beats me…"

TBC.