The EdWin Chronicles

Written By - Stripe

Excerpt 14 - Promise Kept

Edward had heard of insufferable pairs before. He'd even known some before - his teacher and her husband being prime examples. However, somehow, it was all so much worse when one of the members of the pair happened to be his younger brother and his obnoxious new girlfriend.

It had been three years since Alphonse had been released from his armored prison. Everything had gone perfectly - Winry had cried tears of joy, and promptly presented Al with an entire apple pie. The corruptness of the military had been revealed, and Olivier had become Fuhrer, much to Mustang's dismay. Ling had been released from Greed's presence, and Edward had even heard that Xing had a new emperor from the Yao clan. Most everyone had gotten their happy ending.

At first, it didn't seem that way for Mei Chan, the petite Xingian girl who had tried and failed to teach them Rentanasu. She was not going to allow herself to return to her home country without the secret to immortality, and with Ling having such an advantage over her, she wouldn't have stood much of a chance in the first place. So, instead, both Winry and Al had invited her to live in Resembool with them.

Winry claimed that Mei had had an obvious crush on Alphonse from the moment they met and, though Edward had never actually seen it, he supposed that was something of a consolation prize for the girl.

He still felt a little jealous. After all, Winry didn't have enough room in her home for three extra guests, and he and Al had been "asked" to get their own place. Edward had to admit, he'd liked living with Winry just a little bit. Sure, she was loud, and enjoyed bashing his brains in every so often, but it was... oddly relaxing. And then the little girl had to go in and ruin everything.

Then she had started to grow up, and the kindness that Al showed towards her began to shift from the general kindness he showed towards every person on the street to the kind he used when trying to get somebody to like him.

And then they started dating.

Things just went downhill from there.

It had only been two months, and they were supposedly taking it slow - Alphonse had assured Edward they hadn't even kissed yet - but they had already become inseparable.

The moment in time he was currently experiencing was the perfect example. The four of them were sitting in Winry's living room more or less silently, engulfed in their own activities. Winry was sitting in her favorite arm chair, tinkering with some sort of remote control device. Al and his petite little girlfriend were "cuddling" on the couch, faces almost touching. And Edward himself was sitting in a rickety old rocking chair, pretending to read a book on alchemy that he'd already memorized, while stealthily peaking out at the happy couple from behind the book pages. He narrowed his eyes.

Al had promised him years ago that he would not beat Ed to his first kiss. Given, that had been while in the armor, and it would have been difficult for Al to kiss somebody, but as far as Ed was concerned, that still counted. He was not about to let his baby brother beat him.

Embarrassingly, Edward had not yet experienced his first kiss. He supposed the lame romantics would say he was simply waiting for the right girl to come along, but he knew that wasn't the case. The right girl already had come along, he'd just never gotten a chance to kiss her. He wanted to. He really wanted to.

But for as much as he wanted to kiss Winry, he feared her reaction just as much. He had lived through a wrench to the head for busting up her automail - he didn't want to think of what would happen to his head if he forced a kiss onto her. He might die.

So for now, recieving his first kiss was out of the question.

But Al wouldn't break his promise, would he?

Ed stared at Al and Mei intently with jealous gold eyes, watching as their faces slowly turned towards one another, and their lips drew nearer together. He felt his heart race. Al was going to break his promise!

Suddenly, Edward threw his book to the ground and stood up, effectively distracting the two lovers. Mei looked up at him dangerously, like she was about to bite his throat out, where as Al just looked somewhat curious. Winry seemed to caught up in whatever contraption she was working on to notice.

"I'm not going to allow you to break your promise, Al," Edward declared, face determined. Of course, there was a very easy way to solve this problem. But Mei hated him enough already, and his own brother was certainly out of the question. This left Winry.

She would probably attack him with a wrench, but it was nothing he hadn't faced before. And this was all for the greater good!

With his mind made up, Edward strode over to Winry - and now she was looking up at him - leaned over, and kissed her right on the mouth. He braced himself for impact. She had her wrench on hand, and would not be happy that her work had been interrupted. However, he heard her drop her wrench in shock, meaning she'd probably smack him instead, which would have been well-deserved.

But she did something else entirely. Something Edward hadn't accounted for.

She kissed back.

A/N -

Wow. Finally, after about 6 months, I update with a new one-shot. xD Yeah. This was inspired by Ceruleansan's meme on dA, where she mentioned Al couldn't get his first kiss before Ed.

I decided to test this theory.

It isn't the best one-shot, but I hope you liked it anyways. x3

Enjoy!