Chapter 4
Chapter 4-the ball finally! I'm super sorry that I haven't updated in a while but I've been SUPER busy.
Also, thanks to Pie Alchemist, Ms. Informed, Devon Marie Darling, ellamariexx, aine, AnimeCookie93, Maybe Nothing Maybe Something, OrpheumZero, and Harryswoman (wow lots this time!) for reviewing!! I super appreciate all the reviews-thanks so much!!! I love reading all the reviews-they always make me smile and they help me continue to write, so thanks!! Thanks also to everyone who favorited, alerted, or read my story so far. I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, or anything related.
The car pulled up to the entrance of a huge dance hall with tons of light and people around it. Winry looked out of the window and felt another twinge of nerves.
Edward and her got out of the car and then he took her arm. Winry smiled at the gesture, and they walked inside like a couple.
"Well Fullmetal, it wasn't so hard, was it?" Winry looked up and saw Colonel Mustang smirking at Edward, who had turned red.
"Shut up." Edward was glaring at him now. "Where is your date anyways? Did she ditch you already?"
Colonel Mustang opened his mouth to answer when a woman with blond hair wearing a very elegant midnight blue dress came up and grabbed his arm.
"Edward, Winry, nice to see you arrived." Said the lady and Winry suddenly realized that it was Riza. Looks like I'm not the only one who went through a makeover to get someone to notice me she thought and smiled. Winry had always thought there was something between Mustang and Riza, and she was pleased to see that they were together.
"Riza you look great!" Winry complimented her.
"Thank you. So do you." Riza replied.
"So Mustang, Riza?" Edward asked.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Riza asked before Mustang could answer.
"Um, nothing, it just seems…" Edward didn't finish his sentence, but they all knew that the ending would be something like "you aren't really his type".
"Um, well, Riza needed a date too and I thought I'd offer to take her so that she wouldn't have to go with a weird guy." Mustang explained quickly.
"Oh really? How nice of you." Ed said sarcastically with an evil smile.
"Uh, yah." Mustang looked worried of what Edward was plotting behind his smile. "Well, I have to go talk to some people. See you two later."
"Bye." Riza glided off with Mustang. No sooner had they left then people who Winry didn't recognize came over to talk to Edward.
Over the next hour or so, Ed and Winry walked around, greeting tons of people. Winry didn't know most of them and mostly just stood there awkwardly while Ed and the other people talked. I never knew Ed knew so many people in the military. She thought, amazed of the amount of people and how they all treated Edward with tons of respect.
Finally, Winry spotted someone she did know through the crowd.
"Major Armstrong!" she called out to him. Edward turned around with a scared look on his face, but it was too late. Major Armstrong had already seen them and was rushing over to talk to them.
"Edward, Winry how nice to see you two. It is always so exquisite to be in the presence of young love!" The Major started going teary-eyed at the thought.
Edward looked uncomfortable and tried to interrupt the Major's speech. "Um Major, we're not-"
Major Armstrong ignored him and continued on. "It is just to wonderful and beautiful for words to describe it! You two must dance together!"
"Dance?" Edward looked nervous now.
"Yes! It is a perfect way to express love! Oh look, a new song is starting now, so dance as homage to your beautiful love!" With that, Armstrong pushed Ed and Winry onto the dance floor.
Edward looked around quickly, probably trying to find an escape, but luckily for Winry people were all around the dance floor and looking at them, so Ed couldn't leave without just about everyone seeing.
Winry sighed internally. "Look Edward, we're going to have to dance anyways." She told him, trying not to sound to excited at the prospect of dancing with him.
"Ya, I guess you're right." Edward turned red and awkwardly put his arm around Winry. She took his other arm, feeling her heartbeat speed up at his touch.
The music started and they started to dance. Winry was pleasantly surprised to find that Edward was a very good dancer.
"Enjoying yourself?" Ed suddenly asked in a whisper.
"Um, yah." Winry answered, surprised by the sudden question.
"Really? I would have thought you would be bored by now." Ed gave her a grin that made her heart stutter.
"Nope, not yet." She replied, looking down.
"Good. I don't want my date to be bored." She looked up again, shocked and pleased that Ed would use the word "date" to refer to her. Her excitement quickly faded though when she saw in Ed's face that he was just teasing her. Of course. She frowned.
"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.
"Nothing." Winry answered quickly, and then changed the subject. "You're a really good dancer! Where did you learn to dance?"
"Nowhere really." Edward turned redder.
"What?" Winry asked, curious about what triggered the blush.
"Well, don't you remember? We used to dance together when we were younger."
"Oh yah, I remember now." Winry smiled as she thought back to those times before everything changed. She remembered her mother teaching her, Ed, and Al how to dance one rainy afternoon, and dancing together with Edward in her house while her dad played the piano. If only that never changed. She thought sadly.
The music ended, and Edward led her off the dance floor. "Hey, do you want to go outside before someone else makes us dance? They have some drinks there I think." Edward asked her.
"Sure, let's go!" Winry followed Ed as he weaved his way through the people, calling out some greetings as he went. Eventually they reached some open French doors and went through them out into the warm night onto a balcony. They There was a big table surrounded by people, which Winry assumed had the drinks. As they made their way towards the table, Winry suddenly spotted Armstrong in the crowd.
"Oh crap!" She heard Edward say next to her. "Armstrong. Let's make a run for it!" He grabbed her hand and raced off, down some stairs that led to the garden.
Does he really not want to dance with me so much? Wondered Winry as she ran beside him. What is so bad about me?
Finally, Ed stopped at a bench set into a hedge. "I think we lost him!" he said, and when he turned to Winry, he looked so happy that Winry couldn't help but smile at him, though she felt hurt inside.
They both sat down on the bench, and they sat in silence for a while, admiring the garden or, in Winry's case, enjoying the company she was in.
"Hey, sorry about that." Edward suddenly said.
"What?" asked Winry.
"Well, running from Armstrong. It's not that I think he'll make me dance with you again, it's just that his stories bore me to tears." Ed grinned.
Winry beamed. He doesn't not want to dance with me! She thought, and she felt so unbelievably happy.
"And also, I'm sorry about making you go through with all this. You know, everyone thinking we're a couple and stuff." He continued.
Winry felt her good mood shatter in an instant. "No problem." She said quietly.
"I mean, no-one understands that we're just good friends and that I just really needed to take someone."
Winry felt his words slam into her as if he had punched her. Just friends she thought, just friends is how he will always see me. He will never notice me, no matter what I look like. Winry felt angry, felt anger boiling up inside of her at him, at the fact that he could never notice her.
"There must be some-one else in our situation, but no-one can ever understand that we are just friends."
Winry could feel her anger growing, and she just wanted to scream and shout and rage at him. Shut up Edward! She thought. Shut up, shut up, shut up!
"I mean really, other people took their friends to the ball, but everyone thinks that we are a couple, no matter how many times I tell them that we are just frie-"
"Edward, SHUT UP!" Winry was shocked to see that she was speaking out loud, not in her thoughts, but once she started, she just couldn't stop. "You're an idiot! How can you not notice? You just keep going on with 'just friends' and 'I just needed to take someone', without even noticing me. Look at me, I'm here, I'm right in front of you, and you just can't notice! I spent more money on this stupid dress then what I'll spend in like a year and now I'm in debt just to make you notice, but no, you just don't notice! You never will notice and you're just an idiot and I can't believe it, I just can't believe that you don't notice me ever. And I love you, but you're just too busy to ever notice so you just never see me as more then just a stupid friend and you just break my heart and you still don't notice. I'm an idiot too, because I actually though that you would notice me and you never will and you just see us as friends and you won't ever notice me, ever. How can you not notice me? I'm right here, notice me. LOOK MY WAY AND NOTICE ME FOR ONCE!"
Winry stopped and looked at Edward, who stared back at her shocked. All of a sudden, Winry realized what she had just said, how she had just said everything in her mind, how it had all just come out and that Edward knew.
"Winry, I…" He started to say something, but stopped.
Winry felt tears start running down her cheeks as he stared at her. "I don't want to hear it Edward. I just really don't want to hear anything you have to say. Whatever it is, it will just hurt me more." With that, Winry turned and ran from him, her tears smudging her makeup that she had worked so hard to put on.
She ran up the steps to the balcony and into the ballroom. People stared at her, but Winry didn't care. She just wanted to get out of the stupid place now. A few people called her name, but she just ran by, not even noticing who was calling to her. She dodged past people and eventually made it to the door. The valet standing at the door stared at her just like everyone else, but she ran passed him too and she went out through into the night. Winry didn't stop running for a long time, not until she had run all the way to Gracia's house, and she was back alone in her room.
Gasp!! Well, the ball was a disaster for Winry but what will happen next?
Please review!! I really want to know if you guys liked this chapter! It was hard to write so I would super appreciate any comments you have for this chapter!! So if you want me to continue writing this, then please review!!!