~*~ Winry
I was up before Ed, so I walked down to his room and peaked in. Al was waiting for him to wake up. I wasn't going to go in, but he was thrashing in his sleep again, not as violently as the other morning though. I stepped in. "Is he having another nightmare?"
Al glanced at me, not seeming surprised that I'd walked in. "No. It's the same one. It's always the same one."
I nodded and left, sensing that Al didn't want me there. I leaned against the wall outside of the room and listened as Edward woke up. "I'm so sorry, Alphonse."
"Brother, why won't you admit that you like Winry?"
"WHA-WHAT? What're you talking about, don't be ridiculous, Al."
"When I came up here, you were sleeping and you've always had one dream and it's always been a nightmare. But last night, you said 'Winry.'"
I put my hand over my mouth to cover the gasp. I turned to see Ed in the doorway. His hair was down and he'd put his pants on, but hadn't gotten to his shirt yet. He looked upset. "Since when do you eavesdrop?"
I changed the subject. "So what we talked about last night." He somehow frowned even more. "Does that mean I can do this?" I walked up close to him, kissed him on the cheek, and hugged him tightly. His back was warm beneath my cold hands. His right arm was also cold where it rested on top of my arm since I slipped my arms under his to hug him, but he wasn't hugging me back. I took a step back to see his face, but I didn't want to release my hug just yet.
His face was serious as he blushed. "No, Winry. You can't do that." He closed his eyes and broke my grip on him. He walked back into the room. I glanced inside to see him go back to his bed and pull the sheets over his head. What was he thinking?
~*~ Edward
What the hell was she thinking? It's not like I've even properly asked her to be my girlfriend yet. Did I want to ask her that though? Damn it, of course I did. That's Winry Rockbell. The girl I grew up with. The girl who was always taller than me (until now). The girl who I could always rely on because she knew everything about me, even if I didn't tell her. Just like now, she knew I liked her, though I didn't tell her. She knew that that hug was the best thing I've ever felt. But she didn't seem to know she was changing from childhood friend to…to what, lover? Whatever it was…it was too fast. I wasn't ready for that. I'm always travelling. Al and I are leaving tomorrow morning. We were just staying in one place for his birthday. Once it's over, we're leaving. And now Winry's introduced a new pain to travelling. That's why I've been trying to avoid this.
I got up to take care of something that needed to be done by this afternoon. I made my way downstairs. "Hey Pinako."
"Hello. Miss Izumi said to let you know she went out to the town with her husband."
"Alright, can I ask you something?"
She smirked. "Is it about your height limit?"
"How do you feel about cats?"
Pinako remained shocked that I hadn't freaked out about the height joke. I was kind of shocked too. I'm not usually so calm. Though I guess it was more of extreme focus on one matter than calm. "Cats, huh? Well I prefer dogs, but I have nothing against cats. Why?"
I shrugged. "You know Al's always wanted a cat. We can't take it around with us, so before I got him one, I was gonna ask if you would mind letting the cat stay here."
She was silent for a moment. "This is for Alphonse." I nodded. "He wants a cat."
"He would love to have a cat."
"You want the cat to say here."
"I would love the cat to stay here."
"Then Al can have a cat and the cat can stay here."
I turned and took a long walk to a box we'd found on the way here. It sickened me to see there was still purring coming from the box that had been there for days now. There was one, skeleton of a kitten left in the box. I knew Al would love it and love taking care of it. I picked it up. "You're with me now." I plopped him on my shoulder and walked back to the house, hands in my pockets. I stuffed the cat in my pocket and found a box upstairs. I used one of my ripped up cloaks to transmute a ribbon and tied it around the box. I walked downstairs and handed him the box. "This is from me and Winry. That's why we've been hanging out and whispering so much."
Winry looked concerned that I'd made up an excuse, but glad that I'd said the present was from both of us because Al had opened Winry's maintenance present and noticed him lying. The box meowed and Al's eyes went wide. "Am I hearing things?" He ripped the box in half and the small, weak kitten seemed to smile at Al. "A KITTEN. I HAVE A KITTEN. THANK YOU BIG BROTHER. THANK YOU WINRY. I'M SORRY I EVER SUSPECTED ANYTHING BAD OF YOU. THIS IS SO WONDERFUL. WHAT SHOULD I NAME YOU?" The cat was the color of sand. Al didn't seem to remember, but it was the same color his hair had been when he had a human body.
"How about you name him 'Touto.' That way you can say 'Oh, Touto' and it's like Otouto." That was what I thought of when I saw the color of his fur. A younger brother.
"BROTHER YOU'RE SO SMART. OH, TOUTO! I'LL BE THE BEST NII-SAN YOU'VE EVER HAD!"
We left Al to try to teach Den and Touto to get along. It didn't take much. Both animals were very relaxed. I think Touto was happy to have a home and food. And I was happy to have someone to sneak my milk to. I should've gotten Al a cat a long time ago.
Winry sat down beside me on the porch. "I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't think through that."
I sighed. "I don't want to start something just to watch it end. I'm leaving in the morning. I don't know when I'm coming back." I mentally added 'if I ever come back' but she didn't need to hear that.
She nodded. "I understand…We won't start anything."
"Hm…"
She cocked her head. "What?"
I shook my head. "You don't understand."
She looked a little upset. "What do you mean?"
"You said we won't start anything. Well, Winry, we already have."
I got up and went back to my room. I'd gotten up late so the day was pretty much over already. Al stayed outside playing with his kitten literally all night. He was trying not to think that he'd have to leave it in the morning. Winry followed me up to my room. She sat on Al's bed and I sat on mine. I lied down and she moved to sit on the edge of my bed next to me. I pulled her next to me like I had the other night. I wrapped my arms around her as I finally gave in to my feelings. I'd let my hair down and taken my shirt off for the night so feeling her arms against my bare back was a little more than comforting. I brought my face close to hers so our noses were touching. I could feel her breath against my lips. She moved her neck to bring our lips closer but still not touching. Neither of us wanted to seal the deal quite yet. I laughed, but didn't move away. "This is so weird."
I couldn't see her lips, but I saw her eyes smile. "I was thinking that, too." She had her hands on my chest. I pulled her arms around to my back, put one of my hands on her lower back to pull her even closer to me and one of my hands on the back of her neck. I closed the space between our lips and closed my eyes.
It was just a lip to lip kiss that lasted about 5 seconds. I pulled away and looked at the girl I'd have to meet all over again. Everything was going to be different now. She rolled over. My arms were still around her. Her back touched my chest and I held onto her hands with mine. We were both asleep within seconds.
