Chapter 9

Whatever he'd expected from a legendary gypsy hideout, Ed thought, it hadn't been this.

It was a cavern, under the city, a labyrinth of tunnels and caves, or something like that. There were small fires all around and bright bits of cloths hanging on the walls, and different tunnels leading away from this huge cavern, probably leading to sleeping places.

He gaped at it for a minute, and then turned to Winry, who was smirking just a little. "Not what I expected." he said.

"No," she agreed, "I would think not." She tugged on his arm. "Come on. Granny's anxious to meet you."

She led him to one of the fires, and he was still trying to fit it all together, the high ceilings of the cavern and the many people inside, gypsies and fires and all the chatter and laughter.

"Granny, I'm home!" Winry called, and heads at a fire that was a few groups away turned, and a small girl with thick black braids ran towards them, a black-and-white cat following her.

"Winry! Jie jie!" she said with delight. "You are home!" She threw herself into the older girl's arms, laughing, and Winry spun her around in a circle before putting her down.

"Hello, Mei. This is Ed."

The tiny girl smiled at him, slightly less easily than she had at Winry. "Welcome." she said, pressing her palms together and bowing.

He nodded at her, unsure of what to do in response to the bow.

"Mei.' Winry said gently, "You know we don't bow here. In the West, we shake hands, or wave. I've taught you this."

"You've also taught us," another voice said, "that the way to greet a friend is a kiss on the cheek." Ed turned and saw the boy from China, who picked Mei up and sat her on his shoulders after some maneuvering. "And I don't think you'd wish us to go down the lane kissing people, would you? Anyway, most find it clever and exotic when we bow. They tip us more; why, I'll never know. Hello." he added to Ed. "I'm Ling Yao, this is my half sister, Mei Chang, and Lanfan should be along in a bit, Fu is speaking with her."

"Honestly, she shouldn't try to steal with him there." Mei said, sighing. "She knows that he does not approve."

"It was only some bread." Ling said mildly. "I wish that she would stop, too, but she can't. We need food. And if no one with hire any of us to work, we have to get it when we can."

"True." Mei acknowledged.

"Come on then. Where are Rose and Granny?" Winry said.

"Rose is right here, ma chere." a girl said, covering Winry's eyes for a second. She was the one with pink bangs and darker skin. "So this is Edward, yes? It's a pleasure. Pinkato is by the fire."

"Come on, Ed." Winry said, grabbing his elbow and leading him off. "Sorry about them. None of us are used to guests. You might get mobbed a bit, today."

"It's okay." he muttered. "As long as they don't steal my-shit." He felt at his pocket, but no use, his watch was gone.

"Oh, dear." Winry said. "Lanfan!"

"Yes?" a soft Chinese voice said from behind him.

"Lanfan, you know full well that you aren't to steal from him, he's a guest." Winry said, exasperated. The girl sighed. She was tall and thin, a bit of a hollowness in her cheeks, with black hair and eyes. He hadn't seen her before, she hadn't been at the Festival like the other three.

"Give it back." he said, holding out his hand. She looked at him calmly.

"Why?"

"Why? Because it's mine." he said, irritated.

"You do not deserve it if you do not protect it." she said. "And it is silver. It could feed us, for many weeks."

"Just-just give it back." he said, starting to panic, just a little, because he couldn't lose that watch.

"Lanfan." Winry said. "There will be other pockets to pick. I know you want to help us, and thank you for that. But don't worry. We will get by, we always do."

She sighed, and pulled the watch from her pocket. "Go on then, and keep it." she said, a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"Look, I'd give it to you, okay?" Ed said, annoyed. "But it's...it's my father's. I promised I'd keep it safe."

It wasn't like him to give out information like this, so easily. But there was, again, this feeling of safety with these people. Thieves, maybe, but they'd keep his secrets.

A little bit of her expression changed. "I see. Well, keep your silver." she said, before turning and walking away,her feet silent as though she was a ghost.

"Thanks." he said, stuffing the watch back into his pocket, and Winry walked over to her grandmother, and he followed her.

"Granny, this is Ed."

"I see." The old woman was short and squat, with graying hair and tiny circular glasses, and a knowing smile as she smoked her pipe. "You have your father's eyes, boy."

"Yes." Ed said. "I do. You knew him?"

"Yes, I did. Your mother, too. Trisha." the woman said, nodding once, slowly.

"Can you tell me about them?" He knew he sounded strange, desperate, but he didn't care. Here was someone who'd known them, his mother and father, someone who could tell him about them and maybe about his brother, and she looked like she knew a million stories. And he wanted to have all the pieces, a million little bits of his father and mother and maybe it would help him find his mother and brother.

The old woman smiled. "Sit down, boy. Have I got some stories for you."

They talked for a long, long time. Winry watched them from across the room where she was sitting with Rose and Tobias, mostly discussing their upcoming wedding but also sneaking glances at Ed and Granny. Rose, of course, noticed, and seemed to be laughing the whole time.

Finally, someone from the other side of the rooms started playing his guitar. Soon, drums and tambourines and other instruments joined, until the cavern was filled with sound. Winry tilted her head back and closed her eyes, and felt her hands being caught up by someone.

She opened them to see Ling, grinning at her. "Come on then, La Esmeralda!" he cried, and the gypsies laughed. Everyone loved a good joke. When something came along like this, a nickname that bothered someone, no one would ever let it go.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, gypsies of all ages!" Ling shouted. "Winry Rockbell, the greatest dancer in the Court of Miracles!"

He then caught up her hands again and danced with her, laughing the whole time, and she went along, and soon there were others dancing with them. She spun and dipped and twirled and bent, and lost herself in the music, laughing, and then Ling passed her to Mei, and started to dance with Lanfan, and then Mei passed her on to Rose who danced with her for a while and then left her standing alone to dance with Tobias.

It had been strategic, the way Rose had done it. She'd left her standing right next to Granny and Ed.

"Want to dance?" she said brightly, holding out a hand. He looked at her skeptically.

"What, are you crazy?"

"No. Come on, it's easy." she insisted, grinning at him. She took his hands and pulled him to his feet, and started to lead him over to where everyone was dancing. She knew he didn't want to, but she'd get him to dance anyway-it was fun, sometimes, to irritate him about these little things.

He grumbled something obscene under his breath and she took his hand and placed it at her waist, and caught his other hand in hers. She put her free hand on his shoulder and spun.

He was clumsy at it, and the first few minutes were filled with his complaints and threats to leave-"I swear, Winry, I will find out where this place is and tell Cornello all about it"-but she just laughed and shook her head at him, and said cheerfully, "You can't come and have dinner with gypsies without dancing a bit, Ed!"

"Yes, you can. I was about to do just that-"

"But I stopped you."

"Who says I wanted to dance in the first place?"

"Despite your threats, you haven't left yet." she said, as he spun her around once. "There, see, you're getting the hang of it!"

He steps on her toe on purpose, and she glares at him. "Ed."

He mutters something about 'deserved it', but then looks away, half smirking. She glares at him, trying to force his attention back to her.

"Stop laughing!" she says.

"Why?" he says, his smirk going wider.

She hits him on top of his head with her fist. "That's why!"

"Owww!" he groans. "God, woman! You're so violent!"

"You deserved it!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Sometimes he hated her, Ed decided. But even though she'd hit him, he couldn't be angry. It was how she was, and though he hated it, he couldn't bring himself to hate her, and even though she'd forced him to dance, she'd quite matter-of-factly informed him that someone would get him dancing at some point, and it might as well be her instead of some girl who liked his face and wanted to get married, which she'd thought he'd hate more than dancing with her, and-

Stop.

He was being an idiot, rambling on in his head like he was nervous or something, which was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous, it was just Winry, with her blonde hair and blue eyes and smile and-

Hydrogen Helium Lithium Beryllium Boron Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen stop it stop it stop. It's just Winry.

"You okay, Ed?" she said with concern, and he swallowed once, quick.

"Fine, yeah, I'm fine."

"You looked really far away." she says. "Are you still worried about them, your mom and brother?"

She's wrong, but he grabs onto her reason quickly, and their feet stop moving. She's still got her arms around him, and he tries not to notice. Stop it it's just Winry.

"Yeah. If they're not here, I don't know where to go." He pauses, looks up at her. "What do you think I should do?"

Her expression is one of perfect shock, and he raises his eyebrows at her. "What?"

"You've never asked me for my opinion before." she teases, and they start moving again, smoothly, and he seems why everyone says she's the best dancer in the Court. She's good. Damn good, actually.

"Yeah, I have." he argues, and she laughs, shaking her head.

"No, you haven't."

"Just answer the question." he grumbles, and her smile fades a little as she thinks.

"Well," she says, and then tilts her head to the side, thoughtful. "I don't know. My parents are dead; I know that, and so I've never had to look for them. But I have Granny, and you're all alone-well, except for me, of course-and if I didn't have a mother or father or Granny I think I'd go mad. So I think that you should keep going. It doesn't matter how long it takes, so long as you find them, and when you do you can burst in and tell your mother and brother that you've looked for them everywhere, all the corners of the globe..."

"The globe doesn't have corners, idiot, it's round."

She hits him again, on the shoulder, with the palm of her hand. "It's an expression! God, Ed, you know what I mean..." she trails off, looking at him in a long-suffering way, and he shakes his head at her.

"I just think you shouldn't give up." she says. "But..."

"But what?"

"...You could stay here. Be a gypsy. You were born one, after all, and no one would think your eyes were odd here, and..." She waves the hand that has been resting on his shoulder as they dance. The movements are automatic now, even though he notes in the back of his head that they aren't truly dancing anymore, just moving in small circles as they talk. "And you'd be safe. And I don't want you to go."

His feet stop and she stumbles. Her face goes red and she starts talking fast.

"I mean, you're one of my friends now, and I want to see you find you brother and everything and your mother but I'd miss you, I mean, if you left, because you're my friend and I wouldn't know whether you were okay, and-stop laughing!"

He can't help it. She smacks him again.

"Jerk!" she huffs, but there's a tiny smile at the corners of her mouth.

"Sorry." he mutters, but he isn't really, and she can tell.

"I guess you'd never stay here, not if you could find them." she says, and they're still stopped, not dancing anymore but they still have their arms around each other and he wonders if she notices.

"Probably not." he admits, and she looks resigned.

"I thought so. But," she adds, "we may find them yet."

He gives her a half smile. True, they might, but he's beginning to think that they won't.

He slips out of the gypsy hideout the next morning, Winry covering his eyes again, her fingers lingering on his skin in a way that seems accidental. (It isn't of course, but only she knows that.)

She look at him hard in the shadows of the alley and then hugs him goodbye. "I may not see you for a while." she says. "They've increased the guards. Rose is scared."

"You're gonna do what Rose tells you?" he says, raising an eyebrow, and she can feel his slight scathing.

"Yes." she says simply. "You don't know how afraid she was when she thought I died in the fire. Now, she is still scared. She thinks it's a mistake, helping you."

"Used to that." he mutters. "No one wanted to help out the beggar boy back home. Good thing Armstrong and Izumi helped me out, or I'd be gone, for sure."

She bites her lip. "I'm glad they did, too."

A slightly awkward silence follows, and finally he coughs, and she looks away.

"Stay safe." he says finally, and she nods.

"And you, as well."

A/N: Yay! Next chapter's up! Hope you like it, loves. I wanted to make it Christmassy, but the setting's summer/spring, so no dice.

Please R&R! I always appreciate it! And thanks to the anonymous reviewers, too! Love you guys!

I don't own.

Much love, Ninjee