Hello everyone!

Sorry this is a bit late, I've been busy with a bunch of school stuff lately. Why is it that when you only have a week of school left, teachers seem to give you more work than they gave you in the last two months? It pisses me off to no end. But, I've also been busy with my new addiction of Claymore-which I recommend to anyone in needing of a fix of blood and bad-assed chicks.

But enough rambling; here's a new chapter and I hope you enjoy.

Edward took another drink of his beer and stared around at the dimly lit room. About an hour after her crying fit, Rose had procured alcoholic drinks for everyone and then proceed to throw a kind of dance party of sorts. That is, after she had milked plenty of sympathy out of Roy and Jean to stop her maybe-fake crying and wailing. It felt like hours had passed by to Ed when it really could have only been an hour but this was understandable for he was not really having as much fun as he supposed he should have.

His younger brother was getting along perfectly with his friends and he was having a great time; Ed had to admit it was quite endearing to watch him stumble and giggle around for it appeared that he was as much as a light weight as Winry and Sheska. Fletcher seemed to have bonded wonderfully with Maes, who he was now playing a round of beer-pong with. Russell on the other hand seemed to have gotten a bit toofriendly with Riza and caused a quick, childish fight between him and Roy. In all reality, Ed would have been having the time of his life if it weren't for a certain teenaged girl who appeared incapable of leaving his side for more than three minutes at a time.

"Edddwaaaaardd!" Rose often yelled in Ed's ear in a sing-song voice whenever Ed had stopped paying attention to her for more than five seconds; Edward had winced so much because of it this that he was sure that his face would be frozen like it for the rest of his life.

"Yeah?" Ed would always respond, putting as much annoyance into his voice as humanly possible.

"You stopped talking!" Rose giggle in an almost child-like voice that made him cringe even more.

Ed glanced down at the arms that were wrapped tightly around his left arm with disdain. Rose, however, did not appear to notice this in the dim lighting and continued to swing his arms back and forth slightly. No matter how many times he made excuses for her to let go of his arm and no matter how hard Ed tried to hide from her, Rose always found her way back to him. The only other times Ed found relief from her presence was whenever Roy or Jean appeared to whisk her away for a dance that always seem to go back so quickly.

"Sooo," she kept saying whenever Ed fell silent. "Are you havin' fun?"

Rose had already asked this at least three times and every time she asked, Ed gave her the same answer.

"I'm alright."

"That's great! Do you need another drink?"

Rose had asked this question at least four times and every time she asked, Ed had always seemed to have found that he had guzzled down his drink and indeed asked her for another. He had to remember to stop after his most recent refill when he had felt the ground shift slightly after moving too fast.

"No. I'm good for now."

"Alright!"

Rose continued to smile and giggle at him even after he had fallen silent. He could tell that she was not acting like this because of the alcohol and that worried him. Then, when he was expecting to be reproached upon for falling silent for move than thirty seconds or for making her do all the talking, Rose asked him a question that caught him completely off guard.

"Can you help me with something?"

"Huh?"

"I need your help. I just remember that I needed to ask someone," Rose said before she began to sniff and her eyes began to water. "I was going to ask Alphonse or Russell but I got side tracked with…with talking about…about…Kain."

Ed, again, was not sure if these tears were real; he would have to ask Al later if he knew if this Kain ever existed. While Rose sobbed on his arm, Ed stared around the room, hoping like Hell that the others were too busy having a good time to notice the ridiculousness of the situation. Ed turned his head when he felt a pair of eyes, practically burning holes into his head. But when he turned in the direction, all he saw was Winry, seemingly deep in conversation with Riza.

"E-Edward…" Rose said in such a pitiful voice Ed had to believe she was at least milking this slightly.

"Yeah?" Ed asked, turning his attention back to Rose.

"C-could you help me with that thing…now?"

"Uh, sure. What do you need?"

"Oh, it's in my bedroom," Rose said with her solemn expression on her face but Ed could have sworn he saw a flicker of something else in her eyes.

While Ed has some reservations about going into a girl's bedroom, especially one that he had just met and had spent the past hours annoying the crap out of him, Ed nodded and let Rose follow him down a small hallway and into another beautiful and extravagant room.

Rose had a wood-framed, king-sized bed with a canopy of luxurious red silk and matching bed spread. The walls were painted a dark violet color and all of the furniture was made out of dark, mahogany wood. The dark crimson carpeting under his feet was plush and in this room she had an identical technological set up with another plasma television and large stereo system. Ed was pretty sure the door in the corner led to a walk in closet for he saw no hint of a closet in the room. She had no chandelier in her but Ed saw two ornate lamps on either side of the large window that, like the other room, took up almost an entire wall.

"So," Ed asked as he turned to Rose, "what did you need help fixing?"

Rose took a large and quick step towards Ed, filling up most of the space between them before she said, with a look on her face that was the complete opposite from the forlorn expression she had moments ago, "My rut."

"…what?" Ed asked, completely confounded.

"My dating rut, silly," Rose said in almost a whisper as she inched closer.

"W-what?" Ed stuttered, his mind unable to process the news as fast as it was coming. "Ouff."

Rose had just thrown her arms around Edward's neck and wrapped them tightly and securely. Ed's face felt as if it had gone up in flames and he was determined to look anywhere but at her. She was much, much too close for Ed's liking and she appeared to be moving closer with every second the ticked by.

"I think you're really sexy Edward," Rose purred.

"Just go over there and throw her to the ground if she's pissing you off so much," Riza sighed exasperatedly into her plastic cup of alcohol.

"I can't do that!" Winry growled as she tried to picture what face Rose would make id Winry hit her with a wrench.

For almost the entire party, Winry and Riza stood near the other side of Rose's apartment, trash-talking her while, in Winry's case, glaring while she clung to Ed like he was her only life line. Once or twice Winry was sure Ed caught her glaring at Rose but either he didn't notice or he didn't care; she hoped it was the second option. Every few minutes, Riza would let out a small sigh and say that she should just confront Rose about it, because she alone was Winry's only friend who was one-hundred percent sure about her feelings when it came to Ed.

"I mean…what if Ed wants her to be there-hanging on him," Winry mumbled sadly. "Then I'd just look like a bitch and I'm sure he'd be mad at me…"

"And since when have you ever cared about being a bitch?" Riza asked jokingly.

"Riza," Winry groaned. "I'm serious!"

"I know, I know-sorry."

"I don't know how you do it," she muttered while slumping against the nearby wall.

"What do you mean?"

"How you manage to keep your head whenever you see Roy going out with all those girls! How can you stand it?"

"Not so loud!" Riza hissed, her face a brilliant red color. "I don't want any of them hearing that!"

"Right, sorry," Winry said, trying her best to suppress a grin at her usually composed friend's embarrassment. "But how do you do it?"

"I don't know really…" Riza said before she took another sip of her drink. "I guess I just tell myself that he's not actually looking for a relationship in any of the girls and take solace in the fact that she'll be gone in a few days."

"How is that supposed to help me? How do I know that Ed doesn't want a relationship with that, that-slut! How am I supposed to know when Ed is so…uncertain around me?"

Riza looked over at the other two teens. She was sure that Ed did not in fact want Rose like that by the expressions on his face, but she could never be sure. Riza then turned back and stared at her friend for a few moments; her clear hazel eyes giving Winry the odd sensation of x-raying her mind before she let a small frown fall on her face and spoke.

"You can't. You just have to…" Riza trailed off before let out another loud sigh; when she opened her mouth again, everything came as a rush to Winry's confused and slightly drunk brain. "You should understand that in every serious relationship, you need trust right? Well right now, you and Ed are in a different kind of relationship-but it's still a serious one, so you need to trust each other. He probably trusts you to not go and-I don't know-go grind on Russell if you drank too much, right? So you should trust him to not go and make out with that slut, okay?"

"…what?" Winry said after a moment. She wasn't sure if it was the alcohol, her anger over Rise, or a mixture of both but something was clouding her brain.

"Just…you have to trust each other. Even if you two aren't in the desired type of relationship, you're in one. So...you just need to believe and trust that he won't do anything," Riza said slower.

"I guess you're right…" Winry said before she gave Riza a radiant smile and threw her arms around Riza's neck. "Thanks."

"No problem. Now how about you go and enjoy the rest of the party and ignore that stupid slut."

"Right!" Winry exclaimed.

But just as Winry turned around, she froze. There, right in front of her own, perfectly functioning eyes, she saw Ed and Rose heading to what Winry was sure was her bedroom. It felt as if her heart had stopped but then began beating rapidly to make up for the lost time and the bottom of her stomach had run out of the apartment in fear.

"No…

Ed didn't even look like he was being forced to go. Rose wasn't dragging him, he didn't look upset or annoyed, he just looked…like Ed and this is probably what made Winry feel so horrible.

Then, ignoring the words that were coming from Riza along with the comforting hand she had placed on her shoulder, Winry set forth after the two, down the hall and listened against the bedroom door…waiting.

"W-what?" Ed asked, hoping that he misunderstood something while heat flooded to his face.

"I said that I think you're sexy…don't you agree?" Rose whispered while twirling a lock of his hair around her slender pointer fingers.

"I…"

"Oh, you're so modest…that's so-cute!" Rose giggled before she leaned in closer to him.

Ed let out a small gasp when he felt her warm lips on the side of his face. She had kissed him…and he didn't even try to stop her.

"Aww…you're so red," Rose whispered, stroking one of Ed's inflamed cheeks with one of her hands.

As she came in closer again, Ed shook his head like a dog trying to get rid of water from its ears but once his mind began to clear again, her soft lips had pressed against his face again but this time, it was much closer to his own lips.

"Edward, you're being awfully rude," Rose pouted slightly. "When a lady wants to kiss you…you should let her."

She was kissing him. Her lips pressed firmly on his and with her arms wrapped securely around his own neck he had little chance at escaping. But then, her arms unwrapped from around his neck. Ed made a move to escape when Rose placed her hands on his chest and gave him a firm push.

"Ahh!"

Soft. Expecting the hard floor, Ed seemed to have landed on something particularly soft and comfortable. Looking up, he saw a large canopy and realization hit him like a ton of bricks as Rose placed herself on top of him again. He was in her bed…

SLAM!

Ed picked his head as far as Rose's body would allow him and saw, to his horror, Winry. Standing there like a statute, staring at them with a blank and unreadable expression on her face that made Edward's insides freeze up.

Oooh, someone's in trouble...but who will Winry blame? And how will Winry react? Please tell me your thoughts because I'm still not quite sure how I should have her react.

But, I hope you all liked this chapter and didn't notice too many grammar/spelling mistakes because I didn't have time to check over this one too much. :)

-FSK