Heavy ch 10

By Suzi a.k.a. KatsyKat

Last Chapter: ""Never better, Al." He Ed said as he clapped his brother on the arm and started up the stairs. "Never Better." He repeated, liking how true the words felt."

Once the trio reached the kitchen, Winry flew into action. Within minutes she had prepared a thermos of coffee for herself and prepared sandwiches to bring with them. The brothers looked on helplessly. Neither knew how to offer help to their friend who was so obviously used to accomplishing the menial tasks unaided.

Al started towards her twice, only to have her almost trip over him both times on her way to collect needed items.

It was when the oblivious woman caught Ed shuffling for the third time that Winry even noticed they were simply standing there watching her. Her eyes rose to meet Ed's as he asked awkwardly.

"Is… there anything you… we could help with?"

Winry bit her lip to keep back the smile. She knew he'd only think she was teasing him if she let loose with the huge grin that threatened to burst from her face. His request warmed her unexpectedly, and a fleeting thought of how quickly she could get used to this new and improved side of Ed ran through her mind before she struggled to find something to give them to do.

The task was made trickier as she'd already finished preparing everything to take. She couldn't give him anything menial… lest she face his ire. Surely there was something left he was capable of doing. Something she was planning on doing until he interrupted her train of thought... Suddenly it occurred to her.

"If you could grab a couple baskets to carry the pears back in." Winry waved toward her nightgown. "That would give me time to change." The baskets should be…" her eyes glazed over and rose upward as if searching for something far off in the sky, beyond even the ceiling she seemed to be looking through. A thoughtful expression took over her features as she brought both her hands up over her mouth and nose and inhaled slowly.

The image in front of Ed's eyes faded suddenly to a much-younger Winry doing the exact same thing. Her sundress was yellow with purple flowers on it. Her short hair was done into two spiky pigtails with braided purple yarn dangling from the base.

Her parents… proving that Winry (and Ed, himself) must have been very young indeed… were demanding she return the stethoscope she had taken earlier and she was trying to remember where she put it. She had lost track with the Elrics for most of the afternoon, and Ed could feel the crawling feeling of unease as her parents sternly lectured the young girl (and inadvertently her friend who stood next to her) about taking responsible when borrowing other's things.

After a few moments of breathing slow – Winry's face lit up and she turned an abrupt about-face and took off running to the living room. She found the stethoscope in the cushions of the couch where she'd used it on Den earlier.

Once her parents had gone, Ed had asked the young girl what that was all about.

Winry, misreading his question, launched into a tirade almost word for word what her parents had just iterated about responsibility in regards to things that did not belong to you and the difference between tools and toys.

"Not that!" Ed exclaimed, cutting her short. His face red at the insinuation that he didn't hear the same lecture she just did. "Why'd you cover your face like this?" He asked wide-eyed as he brought his hands up over his own mouth and nose in a mimic of her action.

A light blush covered Winry's cheeks as she stuttered around an explanation.

"Well… did you know that when you get excited you tend to breathe harder?" She started by asking.

Ed nodded slowly, although he'd never thought about it before.

"Well – that's cause your body is filling your blood with oxygen in case you need use energy to run away or fight. But… the problem is that with so much oxygen in your blood – if you're trying to remember something… all the excitement does is push what you're trying to think about away and make you want to do something."

"Like what?" Ed asked.

"…Well… Like I sometimes tap my foot or move my thumbs around real fast. And it makes me forget even more!" Winry said excitingly before calming down and continuing in a knowledgeable voice for one so young, "Also, getting too excited about it can make you breathe really fast and hyperven-nilate!"

"What's that?" Ed's curiosity overtook his embarrassment of not knowing the word his friend had used.

"It's where you pass out from too much oxygen in your body!"

"You can have too much oxygen?"

"Uh-huh!"

"I always thought oxygen was good for you..." Ed trailed off with a frown.

"Granny says that too much of anything is bad." Winry said seriously.

"And you sometimes do that?" Ed asked, more than concerned. "Pass out?"

"Oh-no-no-no!" Winry assured him, her small hands waving in front of her. "But I've read in some of my parents books that they take people who were in shock and breathing really fast a paper bag to breathe into… that lets the carbon diox-id build up and keeps them relaxed instead of passing out. So…" Young Winry looked at the toe of her slip on shoes, suddenly nervous, "I tried it one time in school when I was freaked out about a question on a test that I knew I knew, you know?"

Ed wasn't sure but nodded anyway. Winry barely acknowledged his agreement and continued on.

"I HATE when that happens." She stomped her foot, "And the more I thought about how I KNEW the answer the more upset I was. When the time was almost up I knew I had to calm down or I'd never be able to think. I didn't have a paper bag, so I used my hands."

As Winry continued to explain her uncertainty faded and what Ed dubbed her 'know-it-all tone' of voice could be heard.

"And I remembered it!" She finished her story with her bright blue eyes shining. Proud of her reasoning, and most of all of the fact that it helped her remember.

"That's nice." Ed said, happy but jealous. Winry read a lot of her parents' books and she was so smart. Mom told him and Al that they shouldn't disturb his fathers books and he couldn't help but wonder if he read them if he would sound as smart as his friend did.

The memory snapped back into real life as Al bumped him hard on the shoulder. He jerked from his vision to the much older, taller and more beautiful… (wait where'd THAT thought come from?) girl that was once again standing there, in her nightgown – with her hands covering her mouth and nose and her breathing slowly as if meditating.

"Good Morning." Al whispered, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Ed, ducked his head, knowing his younger brother thought he was just mindlessly ogling their friend. The older boy also knew that denying it – no matter how true his explanation – would only fuel his brother's conviction of Ed's guilt. Especially after the recent basement incident.

Besides... Ed had just thought about how much cuter she was than when they were kids. Wasn't that close enough to Al's train of thought?

Ed had never heard about anything about Winry's 'method for remembering' before or since, but it made a certain sense to him. Even with his slightly matured thought process. So he took it as something that was semi-superstitious with a child's logic and more importantly, belief, behind it.

Finally, after what was only a few seconds Winry removed her hands from her face, a grin threatening to surface.

"The baskets should be somewhere in the closet under the stairs, I think." Winry said, after focusing her gaze back on the brothers.

"Ok." Al chimed immediately grabbing his brothers arm to jerk him out of his still semi-daze, pulling him twoards the closet. "We'll get them."

"Just be sure to open the door slowly." Winry cautioned as she turned from the boys and practically skipped up the stairs to change.

tbc…

A/N: Ah yea – delays delays. bows my apologies for them. I'm loving the telling of this story and all these things keep popping up to keep the storyline going…(hurray!) but it's a little on the slow side right now (boo!).

I HOPE I didn't slaughter this "memory" scene too badly. I don't feel like I'm very good at writing them as kids, but this exploded in my mind and I had to TRY it. Maybe I've lost touch with my inner child or something. Because other than inserting some 'rugrat' vocabulary (yes that was on purpose) I'm wholly unsatisfied with this. (It's PART of the reason for the delay.) I think I made Winry seem way too much older. shrug But it's done anyway – I can't keep it hidden on my computer and expect any feedback now can I? PLEASE do feel free to give me any pointers that may help me clean this up.

And overall, I hope you enjoyed this update and promise there will be more action and fluff to come!

THANKS, so much, for reading!