Hey everyone! Thanks for the reviews. :)

This chapter's kinda short but there's some slight EdWin in it so... yeah. Next chapter will probably be twice as long as this. But don't quote me on it!

Enjoy!

Winry was crying.

Tears falling thick and fast down her face, her blue eyes bloodshot, her peachy skin blotchy. It was rather unbelievable.

So unbelievable in fact that Edward, who was balanced on his toes as he crouched down on the ground, fell flat on his ass. He had no idea what to do or say in this situation. Never in a million years would he suspect that this girl, who always was seemed so strong and bullheaded, to be sobbing and looking so damn vulnerable. It definitely made Ed hold back on telling her how she was a big fat liar.

"Um… a-are you uh, alright?" Ed asked, wide-eyed and completely in the dark on how to treat a crying girl. He had seen Rose cry plenty before but when she did, he tended to either ignore it or not have any clue on how to help. He guessed he was just useless when it came to comforting.

"Do I look alright, you dumbass?" Winry asked through a heavy sob as she wiped her eyes on her bandana.

Although he didn't exactly appreciate being called a dumbass, it showed that there was still some of the Winry he knew inside. It calmed him slightly.

Not knowing what else he could possibly do, Edward just continued to sit next to her and waited for her to calm down. If she wanted to talk, he would try but he had a feeling his inept comforting skills would only get him yelled at. So he waited.

Five minutes passed by before Winry had finally calmed down enough to speak. Ed was relieved when she finally stopped crying but it had taken her a good four minutes to stop the hiccups and small residual sobs. Once she had calmed down, Winry began swishing her bandana around in the slightly murky waters of the pond, cleaning it of its snot and tears.

"So…" Ed said after another moment of thick silence. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah… I guess," Winry mumbled, choosing to focus on her bandana.

"Can I ask why you were so upset?" he asked hesitantly after another awkward pause.

"Well I know you'll probably try and pry it out of my anyhow," Winry sighed.

Winry rung out her bandana and set in on the ground next to her before she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She then put her head on top of her knees, staring out at nothing. Again, Ed thought she looked too vulnerable to be the Winry he had seen, but she was looking better than five minutes ago.

"I'm sorry I was such a complete bitch to you," she mumbled. "You didn't deserve that."

This, Ed had not expected. It was almost as much of a shock to hear her apologize as it was to see her sobbing.

"You mean just now or, you know, the entire time that I've known you?" Ed asked with a grin.

"Just now," Winry said, deadpan. "You deserved what you got back at camp."

"Well I guess I'll accept your apology," Ed said. "Because you were quite the flaming bitch back there."

"Hey! I just apologized for being a complete bitch. Flaming bitch is a few steps above what I'm willing to apologize for. Take it or leave it."

"Alright," he said, grinning again. "So, why were you so upset?"

Winry stared out into the distance for a moment before she turned her head to the left so that he could not see her face.

"I'm worried," she whispered.

"About what?"

"…my parents," Winry said in a voice that was just barely audible.

Edward felt the last bit of hatred for the girl chip away at the sound of her voice. She sounded like a small, terrified girl instead of the loud and strong grown woman she always seemed to be. Not to mention that he could understand worrying about parents; he remembered the terror he felt the day his mother had been killed and he didn't know if she was dead or alive yet.

"They'll be fine," Ed said confidently even though he knew that those words meant little.

"Pff, how can you possibly know?" Winry asked, bringing a hand up to wipe away a stray tear. "They stayed behind when the army was at our tails. They could be…"

Winry buried her face in her knees and squeezed her knees as tightly as she could as a fresh round of tears came around. Ed lifted up his flesh left hand and let it hover over her back for a moment, uncertain, before he set it down. When she didn't seem to mind, he began moving it in a slow, circular motion, something he remembered his own mother doing to him when he or Al was upset.

"Deharl I hab," Winry cried into her knees.

"Huh?" Ed asked quietly.

Winry pulled her face away from her knees and turned towards Ed, showing him once again what a complete mess she looked like.

"They're all I have!" Winry sobbed. "I can't loose them! I don't know what I would do without them…"

"Well…" Ed started, having no clue on how he should help her.

Winry unwound her arms from her knees and began wiping away her tears as best as she could.

"I always knew in the back of my head that I could loose them at any moment but I just kinda ignored it," Winry said, he sobs dissipating quickly but her tears seemed to continue with their constant flow. "Easier that way, you know?"

Edward nodded but didn't really know what she meant.

"Well, this is why I'm acting like such a psycho bitch right now," Winry said. "I want to hurry up and get to the safe place as soon as I can so I can see if they're alright or not! Because not knowing really is the worst part…"

When Ed nodded this time, he did actually know what she meant. Waiting was really horrible, tortuous even.

"And that's why I decided to come help them when I was fifteen. Because I was sick of waiting for them. I had already had to wait for them when I was little and I knew I couldn't do it again," Winry said, looking at Ed with her large, bloodshot eyes. "And now I have to do it again…"

Winry seemed to be done talking now and since Ed didn't really have anything to add, he just continued to sit there, rubbing her back as she stopped her crying. After another couple of minutes, Winry seemed to be better again. Ed pulled his hand away, feeling a little awkward about it all, and helped her stand up again. Together, they quietly walked through the jungle. They were close to where Ling and Lan Fan were waiting when a thought came to Ed.

"You know, you can leave us if you really need to," Ed said.

"What?" Winry asked, stopping.

"I understand how you feel right now and if you want, you can just give us some directions to follow and you can go. Because I know that we're… I'm slowing us down."

"No."

"Listen, it's not like I'm gonna get lost or something. I'm not completely useless with a map."

"No," Winry said again.

"Why not?"

"Because…because I wouldn't want to get there and be alone," Winry said quietly before she looked at him and gave the slightest of smiles. "And I wouldn't want to have to wait for even more people as well."

"You would wait?" Ed asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Winry said before she replaced her small smile with her usual cocky one. "And I wouldn't want my good hard work to go missing in the jungle. You have no idea how much time and money I put into those things."

"Right, right," Ed said with a nod. "That's why you'd wait."

"Exactly."

"Oh! And speaking of your hard work…"

They were only about an hour away from East city now; hours ago, they had passed by the eastern town of Youswell where they had gotten their last rations for their trip that they would never finish. Once they had reached actual roads, the truck was able to much faster, only bringing the captives to their fate sooner.

"Well… I guess it'll be nice to see the lights and sounds of Central again," Al sighed during the night as he stared out the back of the truck.

"I've never been there, is it nice?" Russell asked quietly, staring at the faint lights in the distance that could only be East city.

"Yeah. But not in the same way that Resembool is nice," Al said. "It's loud and crowded and everyone runs around like they've got their head cut off. Real hustle and bustle kind of life. But it's interesting."

"…doesn't your dad work in Central?" Fletcher asked quietly after a few minutes of silence.

Al's eyes sprung wide and his heart began to beat rapidly. How could he have forgotten? His father did work in a laboratory in Central, one that worked on secret projects for the military…

"Maybe there's a way…" Al whispered to himself, forgetting everyone else in the truck.

What if they ended up in the lab where his father worked and what if his father saw him there, about to be used as a lab rat? Well he would just have to find a way to break them out, wouldn't he?

"What's up, Al?" Russell asked quietly.

"I'll tell you later," Al mouthed more than said, since his voice was so low. "We may have a way out after all."

The two brother's traveled for several more days, neither sure what they would face when they finally reached their destination. They both continue to hope. They hoped that they would arrive at the right lab by chance and hoped that another child would not be split from their parents by death. Hope was the only thing they could really do anymore. They could only move in their set path and could do little to escape it. They would have to reach their destination and face whatever was at its end.

So when Edward, Winry, Ling, and Lan Fan finally reached their desired safe place and Alphonse, Russell, Fletcher, and Mei reached their completely unsafe place, they stood as strong as they could and moved forwards.

Yeah so, short, but stuff happened.

I'm exhausted from redecorating my room and now I'm gonna go collapse somewhere.

Bye!

-FSK