So sorry for the wait, life has been getting busy. I now have a beta-reader, Auto-Alchemechanicist, so thanks to her for her work improving my story. I'd also like to thank everyone who reviewed and say thanks for your patience, I am headed into my finally college exams soon so I won't update as much as usual so sorry about that, just bare with me.

Anyway, I think that is enough waiting so back to Ed, Winry and the gang.

Chapter 7

Winry woke up to find herself on her side. Her head didn't rest on Ed's shoulder, but did face his chest. He'd curled himself around her with one arm round her waist and one leg thrown over hers. He was still deeply asleep and for a second Winry cuddled closer to him, smiling contentedly. However, she remembered the conversation he'd promised her. Taking a deep breath she gently slid out from his grip and slowly moved off the bed trying not to bounce the mattress too much. She pulled the blanket off the end of the bed and laid it over him, but she shivered because she was away from his body heat. Without her next to him he'd rolled onto his stomach, still sound asleep.

Winry couldn't help herself from brushing his long, blond hair from his face. Leaning over him she pressed a light kiss on to his temple and then gently picked the band that had held his hair in its braid off the floor and laid it on the pillow next to his head.

The clock on the bedside table informed her it was already 9:15 in the morning and Winry rubbed her forehead. She had a headache. She pulled the clip from her hair, as it had twisted into a painful position and let her hair fall loose around her shoulders. She gently padded out of the room.

Hearing the chink of glasses and the soft murmur of voices downstairs she headed towards them. By the time she entered the bright kitchen she had decided she wouldn't be able to eat. Al greeted her cheerfully.

"Good morning."

"U-huh," Winry answered back pulling out a seat at the breakfast bar.

"We have food, coffee and aspirin. What would you like?" he kept his voice low and soft, sympathetic to her pain.

"Coffee sounds good please. You seem to be fine this morning"

"Yep, the great thing about not drinking alcohol is I don't get hangovers."

"You don't drink?"

"Nope."

"Don't think I will ever again, urk! I'm going to kill Ed for getting me drunk."

"Speaking of Ed, do you know where he is?"

"What makes you think I would know?" Winry said a little too defensively and felt the heat rushing to her cheeks.

"You were the last person I saw him with," Al answered. His tone and look showed he suspected she knew, but he didn't push it. At that moment Roy walked into the kitchen yawning and stretching his arms above his head. He'd discarded his shirt at some point so it was quite a spectacle which made Winry blush even more.

"Al, Winry," Roy acknowledged them with a nod.

"Hey Colonel, Riza said, and I quote, 'When Roy wakes himself from his drunken stupor, tell him that before he can consume food or drink of any kind he must clear up my front room.'" Al gave an apologetic smile as Roy grunted in dissatisfaction and exited the kitchen.

It wasn't long before Riza herself showed up.

"Oh Winry, good morning I wondered what happened to you."

"Oh I... err... fell asleep."

"Do you have some clean clothes with you?" she asked. Winry looked down at her now crumpled dress.

"Yeah, but my bags in Jean's car."

"Well he'll be in the front room."

Winry finished her last dregs of coffee and handed the cup back to Al. "Right, thanks," she said to Riza before heading out the door and pulling her fingers through her messed up hair. Riza followed her.

"You ok?" she asked kindly.

"Well I have a hangover."

"No I mean, with the whole Jean thing. He wasn't a very good date last night."

"Ah well, it was my fault too. Just guess we're better off as friends."

"And Ed?"

"What about him?"

"I saw you with him last night, but now I don't know where he is."

"Upstairs still asleep, I think," Winry said before she could stop herself.

"Huh?"

"Damn. Okay, please don't tell anyone but we were both kind of drunk and we shared a bed last night, in a fully clothed sleep filled way. But he did kiss me again last night."

"So are you two...?"

"No, I mean when he wakes up and finds me he's probably going to tell me he can't again. I just...I don't know. I like him, I do and I think he likes me too, but he won't let himself. I told myself I'd be patient and wait, but he doesn't make it easy. Sorry, you probably don't want to hear this."

"No it's ok. I want to help. First things first, you need to set the record straight with Jean. We can deal with Ed later," Riza smiled at the younger girl. Winry smiled back and noticed how Riza had said we. She wondered if any of her friends from her old school would be that loyal and felt glad she'd joined this particular group of friends.

Riza led Winry to the room the boys were clearing up. As they reached the partially open door Riza put her finger to her lips. They softly pushed the door open further until she could see the guys with rubbish bags picking up cans and so on. Roy, however, was sitting in a chair with his eyes closed. Riza picked up a nearby can. None of the people who saw her said a word as she took aim and launched the empty can at Roy's head. It hit him accurately and he jumped up, rubbing his head and looked wildly around.

"Who did that?" he said angrily before he caught sight of Riza standing by the door scowling at him.

"Don't sit on your ass and let everyone else do the work. Get moving. Jean, Winry needs her clothes out your car."

"Ah right, here," Havoc fished in his pocket and held out his keys to Riza.

"She'll need someone to show her the way to the car."

"Why can't y-"

"Jean," Riza's voice was not to be argued with.

"Okay," he gave in, but still looked at Roy who nodded at him before he left, passing the bag he was holding to Breda.

******

Winry and Havoc walked to the car in awkward silence. Riza had left them to it. Havoc handed Winry her bag.

"Hey, I'm sorry about last night. I guess I neglected you a bit."

"No, well, yeah, you did, but I mean it doesn't matter. I guess we should just stay friends."

"Wait don't I get another chance."

"No. We won't ever be anything more than friends."

"Does this have anything to do with Ed?"

"Is it that obvious?" Winry asked slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, guess I was kidding myself you'd get over him so quickly."

"I wish I could. He's going to keep pulling me in and then throwing me out."

"Come on, you're a great girl, smart, funny and cute. He'll get some sense into him."

"I doubt it, but thanks."

"I could knock some sense into him."

"Please don't."

"Heh, yeah, on second thought he'd probably flatten me," he said, making Winry and himself laugh.

"Right well I'm going to take a shower and get changed now," Winry said before disappearing back into the house.

******

Edward woke up slowly, stretched his legs out, and rolled onto his back. The pain where his belt buckle had dug into him drew him out of his sleep. Memories came back and he remembered lying on the bed with Winry. The only problem was that she wasn't here anymore. He sat up, making the blanket fall off from him, and his loose hair fell over his shoulders. There hadn't been a cover over him when he fell asleep and his hair had still been in its braid. He pulled his fingers through his hair, to see if the band was tangled into it. Then he saw it on the pillow, snatched it up, and pulled his hair into a pony tail.

He climbed off the bed and patted at his trouser pockets. Where were his car keys? He remembered Al stealing them off him the night before, claiming they were safer in the hands of the non-drinker. So he had to find Al to get his clean clothes out of the truck. That is if Al hadn't done that already.

******

When Ed had retrieved his clothes from Al, who had got them out of the truck already, he headed off to take a shower. He listened outside the bathroom door for a second and heard no sound, so he turned the handle and entered the room. A small scream broke the silence as he found himself face to face with Winry, who was only wearing her underwear. She snatched up a towel and wrapped it round her before snatching a bottle of something and throwing it at Ed, who came back to his senses in time to duck and slip back out the room with a mumbled apology.

"Never pegged you for a peeping Tom, Elric," Roy said as he strode down the hall, his hair still wet from his own shower.

"Oh, shut it Mustang," Ed shot back.

Roy just laughed and said, "The en-suit in the master bedroom is free."

"Whatever," Ed said which was close enough to a thank you between them.

******

By lunch time they'd managed to clear up the debris from the party, leaving the afternoon for fun. Roy had lit the barbeque and then wandered off, leaving the cooking to Havoc and Falman. Everyone sat out on the patio, or lawn, or were in the pool. Rose lay stretched out by the pool in a bikini, sunglasses pulled over her face, her already tanned skin becoming browner under the sunlight. Winry sat at the edge of the pool, her feet dangling in. Winry hadn't brought any swimwear with her, so she wore denim shorts and a blue checked shirt, which was tied up under her bust. Al was in the pool, but rested his arms on the side next to Winry so he could talk to her. Ed was with Havoc at the barbeque getting over the last of his embarrassed fury when he'd found out Roy had told everyone he'd walked in on Winry in the shower.

"So Winry and I are just staying friends," Havoc said to him.

"That's nice," Ed replied feigning disinterest.

"I think she likes someone else," Havoc hinted.

"Really?" Ed continues with the same tone.

"Oh, come on, man, she's hot and she's totally into you. What's your problem?"

"You're really shallow, you know that right?"

"That's not the point. Do you like her?"

"She's a good friend."

"That's not what I'm asking; now just answer the damn question."

"Alright, yes, I like her, no point denying it now. But it's more complicated than that."

"Is it really? Just go over and talk to her."

"You've changed you're tune; I thought you liked her."

"Not as much as you do, now go," Ed sighed and made his way to Winry.

"Not going in the pool?" he asked standing behind her.

"No," She tipped her head back so she could see him. "You?"

"Well I wouldn't want to leave you on your own."

"Don't be stupid and just go."

"If you say so," Ed replied with a wicked grin before yanking his shirt off over his head, so he was left standing in his long baggy swim shorts. "Ouch," he said rubbing his eye.

"You ok?" Winry stood up.

"Yep," He grinned again, wrapped his arms round her, lifted her up, and then jumped into the pool, taking Winry with him.

Winry and Ed surfaced at the same time.

"You are so dead," Winry said scowling at him.

"Oh yeah, you got to catch me first," Ed grinned and swam away having Winry on his tail. Ed reached the opposite corner of the pool, twisted round and was about to head off again when Winry caught him up, cornering him.

"You're fast," he said

"Yeah, I know. Guess it's a good thing I can swim seeing as I was dragged into the water."

"Oh come on, it's not like I'd let you drown," Ed flicked water at Winry who flicked some back at him. It wasn't long before they were messing around like children.

"Hey kids, time to eat," Roy called out to them. Ed was out of the pool as quick as lightning, but had an afterthought and stayed by the edge to help Winry out of the pool.

******

After lunch, they changed out of there swimwear, except for Winry who was given some spare clothes by Riza (who threw a withering glare at Ed which had little effect as he wasn't looking).

As Winry stepped out of Riza's room in the fresh clothes, she saw Ed coming down the corridor, back in his t-shirt and trousers. He gestured to her and she went to meet him.

"About last night," he started.

"Look, I'm sorry about what I said. It wasn't my place."

"No, it's ok. I mean you're right, sort of. But I erm...," Ed's sentence trailed off.

"You know your speech last time was a lot better. Look, forget it ok, I transferred to Central so I could get into a good college, not to find a boyfriend. I don't need a complicated relationship." With that Winry walked away, but all the while mentally kicking herself for that dumb line. She wanted to turn around, but her pride wouldn't let her. Ed watched Winry walk away wanting to run after and stop her, but his pride also got the better of him.

*******

The next week at school, Winry and Ed pretended to the whole world and themselves that everything was fine. Even within their own circle of friends, most people thought they were okay. Only Al, who knew his brother too well to not know when something was wrong, and Riza, who was just incredibly observant, really knew what was going on.

No matter what Al said to Ed he wouldn't let go of his stubborn pride but finally by Friday Al's words were beginning to wear Ed down and a small flyer and some casually spoken words finally gave him a new determination.

*******

Ed closed his locker door a little harder than was called for, but most of the people with lockers near his were used to it. However, the small brunette who'd been about to talk to him took a nervous step back towards two friends. All three held bundles of flyers. Ed turned to look at them.

"What?" he asked rudely.

"Err nothing," The brunette answered. She was obviously a first year. However, a second year who shared some classes with Ed stepped forward.

"Ed you could start to be a little nicer."

"I'm fine how I am, thanks. Now if you have nothing to say, stop bothering me."

"Actually, I have got something to say," and she shoved one of her flyers into his hands. He glanced down; it was advertising the spring dance.

"Do I look like I want to go to a lame school dance?" Ed said holding the flyer for the girl to take back, but didn't.

" You've always gone before, so why not this year?" This was true, usually because every time they had a dance, Roy decided to drag everyone with him, though he only went to show off some new girlfriend. He'd had Riza for the last couple of dances, though. Ed sighed. He was going to be dragged to this one as well and he hated school dances.

"Then, I don't need an flyer. I don't get why you girls get so giddy about dances anyway."

"Oh come on Ed, it's every girl's dream to go to a school dance, especially with a gorgeous guy," her voice turned slightly suggestive at the end and Ed realised she was hinting. He looked at her.

"Well I hope you find some guy to take you, then," he said shooting the poor girl down, though she hadn't really expected anything else and didn't really care much as he wandered off down the hall, taking the flyer with him.

Ed looked at it, repeating the girl's words in his head. 'It's every girl's dream to go to a school dance….' He hated school dances, but then he'd always just spent the evening in a stifling hall, wearing warm clothes, listening to bad music, and watching couples dance. The most fun he'd ever had was watching Havoc trying to chat with a girl when her boyfriend showed up. But still, maybe if he had a date, then it wouldn't be so bad. He eagerly rushed off to class, to try to catch Winry before the class started and mentally sighed. What the hell had happened to the Edward Elric who was always late to class and never so much as contemplated a date?

Thanks for reading, please review. XD