Hallo again my dear readers!

Disclaimers: see chapter 1.

Chapter 10 Mixed Feelings

Although the anxiousness of finally seeing his brother again was eating Ed from inside, he also felt a great deal of relief in being back to Risembool. During their search for the Philosopher's Stone, the times Ed and Al had visited Risembool was usually to get automails repaired. However, it was also in Risembool that they didn't have to face terrorists, homunculi, insane state alchemists or serial killers. Risembool had always marked a sanctuary to them, a place where the evils of the world would not reach.

And to see that now, three years later, Risembool was still as it had always been, filled Edward Elric with gratitude.

"How's the automails?"

Edward raised his head to see Winry standing on the doorway. The sun had set and Ed was quite ready to sleep, since past couple of days hadn't been the best ones for his sleep. He stretched his metallic arm and foot, that Winry had arranged to him, surprisingly fast.

"Wonderful. You always make the best ones" he said sincerely.

Winry smiled and there was a silence between them. "Ed, can I ask you something?"

"Um, okay" he said tiredly. Winry and Pinako had bombed him with questions the whole day and he really wasn't up to more. Especially Winry had been curious about the technology of the other world.

"Can I come with you?" she asked.

Edward raised an eyebrow.

Winry huffed. "To Lior of course. I mean, you're leaving to see Al, aren't you? I too haven't seen him in a while and I thought…" she trailed off.

"You want to come and see Al?" Ed asked.

"Yes" Winry said. "And I…wouldn't mind spending some time with you, since you're back and all" she continued, blushing a little as she said so.

Edward stared her face, drinking the sight in. "O-okay, I mean sure. Of course you can come. The more the merrier, right" he stammered. Since when had he stammered?

Winry's smile broadened. Her usual excited self came forward. "Okay! I'll be ready by the morning!" she said. Then she suddenly walked closer to Ed and touched his cheek, feeling the hair that he hadn't shaved there. "You're certainly not a kid anymore" she said and then walked out, smiling.

Edward's mind was suddenly blank and overloaded at the same time. He had missed Winry so much that it had hurt, yet now that she was standing right in front of him he found himself to be confused and incapable of saying anything clever.

Edward had come to terms with the fact that he cared Winry, maybe even more than a friend or brother would. He had just never truly taken any time to consider these feelings he had for her. There hadn't been any time for that when he was searching the Stone and there hadn't been any hope to that when he was in the other world.

But now, when there was nothing to hold back, he found himself puzzled. For as brilliant as Edward was in alchemy and science, he knew next to nothing of how to sort these feelings out. The simple idea of actually wanting to share feelings with someone else had been so absurd before that he hadn't given it a thought. Yet now that he felt his face burning from Winry's touch he felt longing.

Or maybe it's just hormones and unsatisfied needs. After all I am 19 and never even kissed a girl in my life. What's so special about it anyway? Two people touch each others with their lips. I mean it doesn't sound that incredible. Surely there must be more to it if I would kiss Winry's lips…Winry's lips…

And Edward knew he was going straight to hell. This is going to be a long night again.

The day following, Lior:

Edward thanked the heavens someone had finally build a railways to Lior. He remembered how he and Al had to cross the desert to get there the first time around, and how Al's armour body had kept sinking in the sand over and over again.

As Edward and Winry stepped out from the train, Ed had to admit that unlike Central and other places he had seen, Lior certainly had changed. But then again Lior had been all but wiped out of the map when Frank Archer had leaded his men to town to find Scar. The new Lior looked pretty much the same except there were some very noticeable changes. The houses and buildings seemed to be much more luxurious looking now, with fancy decorations.

And Ed couldn't help but notice the amount of statues of a bald man showing his huge muscles.

"Of all the people military could have sent to re-construct Lior…" Edward muttered.

"Wow! Why didn't you ever tell me Lior is such a splendid place, Edward? I could have come to try my business here a long time ago then!" Winry exclaimed, looking around her like a little kid in a candy shop.

"It wasn't like this back then" Edward tried to explain but Winry wasn't listening.

"Oh, I wonder if they have automail shops here. Or just any mechanic related shops? I need to see how different they are than the ones in Central" she babbled.

Edward watched her with a mix of amusement and irritation. Mechanic geek, what on Earth was I on about last night?

"Hey, Fullmetal!" they heard someone shout from ahead. Two people were running towards them. Although neither wore military uniforms, Edward did recognise them at once. Both of them had done a lot for him and Al.

"For a moment I thought my eyes were playing tricks to me, but it really is you, Fullmetal sir" Denny Brosh said, smiling his usual easy smile.

His partner, Maria Ross, seemed to be unable to speak first, but then she smiled. "It's good to see you again, sir" she said.

"It's good to see you too" Edward said and meant every word. It had been Maria and Denny that had helped him and Al during the whole 5'Th laboratory incident and then even helped him to start to trust people. He still remembered how she had fist smacked him to make him realise things and then apologised in fear of martial court. "And cut out the whole title thing. I'm not officially back on duty".

"Still, better safe than sorry" Denny smirked.

"Is Miss Rockbell with you?" Maria asked, little confused when seeing that the said Miss Rockbell was currently watching display windows of the shops, ignoring them totally.

"She's just little obsessed at the moment, she'll come back to earth eventually. So, I take it you're here with Armstrong" Ed said.

"Yep, have been for couple of months now. The city is about as good as it can just get. Of course military's part is a shown of apology for what happened to this city" Maria said.

"And how do people react to military's presence here?"

"It was hell first. Prejudice, distrust and bad memories didn't really help the thing. However, when Major Armstrong came and started using his alchemy to rebuild the city much faster than planned, people have started to be friendlier towards us. Even so that they choose not to comment on those statues of himself that he makes" Denny explained.

"Well, I guess things are better than…is that Rosé?"

By a chance Edward saw Rosé Thomas amongst the crowds. It seemed she was taking care of little children around her. She was smiling brightly. Good, last time I saw her she was a mess. A young mother, with her city destroyed and being manipulated by Dante. Not to mention who knows what happened to her before that. But now Rosé seemed to be more like how Ed had first met her: a lively young woman with a bright smile.

Ed was about to go greet her when something caught his attention. Close to Rosé, also it seemed taking care of the children, was a young boy. He had his back turned to Ed, so Ed didn't see his face. However, he did saw blonde hair and a red coat he knew perfectly well. He had worn that coat for years.

Almost like sleepwalking Ed walked to the boy and put his hand to his shoulder. Boy turned around and Ed saw his. Older than Al had been before loosing his body, yet younger than what Alfons Heiderich was.

"Al…"

To be continued…

Irena, S J Smith, mcgthatsme and Iniysa, thank you sooooooooooo much for your reviews and support.

Also thank you to my new readers: TheLoneOtter and Sonia120462, thank you for the reviews. I'm glad you like the story and I hope to hear from you in the future more.

Also, to all Ed/Win fans. There will be more coming later on. I just thought I should reunite the brothers first.

Till the next time!