"Hmm..." Edward sighed, "you're going to make me fall asleep."

"Well, do it then. What's holding you back? No one minds."

"I can't yet. We're still waiting for Al and Luna to come back, remember?"

"Oh, that's right," Winry said with a note of subdued surprise. "How could I have forgotten?"

"Wonder how long it's been since he left..."

"Dunno. I lost track of time."

Ed forced his limbs to move despite his sleepiness. "I'll go downstairs and check the clock."

"I'll come with you. I don't want to be the only person up on the second floor." Another consequence of losing Pinako and Eli was the looming emptiness of the house, despite the fact that technically, six people were living in it. The days were quieter now, and the nights doubly so.

"Don't step on the creaky stair. You'll wake up the girls."

"I know I sometimes do stupid things, but believe it or not, I do know better than to step on the damned creaky stair."

"Oh, don't be sarcastic," said Winry. "I wasn't trying to get on your sour side."

When they got downstairs, Ed went into the living room to look at the grandfather clock and Winry pulled back the blinds in the kitchen to peer out the window.

"It's 11:45," Ed stated. "Didn't Al say he'd be back by 11?"

"I think I see them..." she said, squinting intently at the darkness outside. "Him," she corrected.

"She's not with him?" Ed looked out over her shoulder.

Together they watched Al come up the road, across the yard, and inside. He shook out the umbrella and stowed it in the stand, then slowly removed his jacket with shaking fingers.

"Al, is everything okay?" Winry asked.

"Where is Luna?" Ed asked.

"I don't know," he sighed, answering both. "I looked everywhere I could think of."

"Maybe she left," Ed suggested. "Went back to her parents' house or something. She's really weird, who knows where she might've gone?"

"Went back to her parents' house?" Al repeated weakly. He reached into his shirt and withdrew the cinnamon-scented talisman he wore close to his heart. "D'you reckon she would have left this?"

With that, he left the room and rambled up the stairs slowly as if in a daze.

"What do we do?" Winry asked once he was out of sight.

"I think, if it weren't for the fact that he'd told us he was coming back, Al would've been out all night searching."

"He looked really tired..." Winry noted. "And sad."

"Yeah... Okay, well I'm out," Ed announced, grabbing his own red cloak from the hooks by the door.

Winry grabbed his arm. "Where are you going?"

He gave her a duh-stare. "To the post office. Where do you think?"

"I don't think you should go out searching for her in this rain. I only didn't stop Al from going because he had some idea of where to look."

"What do you suggest?" he asked, still sarcastic.

"We wait until she comes back. That's what—" She cut off suddenly and looked away.

"What?" Ed looked around as if expecting the bogey monster to jump out from a dark corner. "What were you about to say?"

That's what Granny would have done. "Just that... that's... that's what's the best plan."

"Oh really," said Ed. "Grammatical awkwardness isn't your style. Hiding something?" Winry neither confirmed nor denied that something was up, so Edward gave up. "Fine, we'll do it your way."

"Winry," Ed whispered loudly. "You're falling asleep again."

"Huuuuh...? ...Crap!" she exclaimed, sitting up quickly and rubbing her eyes. "I can't believe myself!"

"Why don't you just turn in? It's so late it's early. I don't think anything's gonna happen tonight."

She didn't respond.

"Winry?"

Nothing.

"Winry." He got up and looked at her face.

She had already fallen asleep again.

"Oh, Winry," he sighed. "You try too hard. Even Al went to sleep. And yet you insisted on waiting up." He hoisted her up over his shoulder, ignoring her protests when she fell out of her light, fretful sleep and realized what was going on. "Really, Win, you brought this on yourself."

"Put me down!"

"No."

"Ed, this is completely uncalled for."

"Eh, well, I called for it. So there."

"Damn it, Edward Elric!" She tried and failed to hit him, being suspended at exactly the incorrect angle for the task. "Let me go!"

"Why don't you go back to sleep?" he suggested.

"Not a chance in hell," she snarled.

"Fine, then would you at least do the world a favor and suffer in silence?"

She pouted. "You can be such a jackass sometimes."

"I'm lovable," he said nonchalantly as he pushed her door open with his foot. "You'll have forgiven me by morning."

"How do you figure?" she asked, still grouchy.

"I know you too well," he said simply.

"In other words, you think I'm predictable."

"Far from it. But don't ask leading questions like that. I'm too tired to have a fight." He stopped and stood in front of her bed.

"Are you gonna put me down now or what? The blood's rushing to my head."

"Well, are you going to run off as soon as I do?"

"You won't find that out until you let me go," she responded ambiguously.

"Then I guess I'll have to take my chances," he said finally, putting her gently down on the mattress. When he moved to leave, Winry caught his arm and held him back.

"Where are you going?"

"My own room," he said in a 'duh' tone.

"What's so great about there?"

"... That's... where I sleep..." He had no idea where she was going with this.

"Well, why don't you sleep here?" When all he did was stare at her blankly, she elaborated: "With me."

"Sleep... with... you?" he repeated. The words did not seem to make sense in that order. "Why?"

Because if you're here, maybe it's you I'll dream about instead of Granny. "Does absolutely everything have to have a reason with you?"

"Not everything, but this certainly does. What if someone else found out?"

"Have it your way then," she said suddenly, rolling over and closing her eyes. "Just get out."

"I... well... okay? I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings..."

"I said get out!"

Night descended painfully for Meta, as it always did. She had no idea what was going on outside this room, of course, but she suspected something was wrong when Luna didn't come to ask for a story. The sudden, jarring change in routine made it worse.

She waited for hours, but no one ever came.

Perhaps it was stupid, but eventually she decided that maybe she would be able to sleep through the night without telling a story... Eli had died almost three weeks ago now. It wasn't like he had passed yesterday. Maybe it would work out okay...

Wrong.

After dreaming vividly of blood and fire, Meta jumped out of bed and tripped her way across the room, staring at the bed as if it was filled with snakes (a second ago, it had been).

After her heartbeat calmed down some, she wiped the tears away and a thought occurred to her: Could the alcohol have been as bad as she remembered it?

Yes, it was, said Eli. Don't do it again.

"Stop talking to me!" she whisper-screamed, running out of her room and through the kitchen toward the living room. "You're..."

What are you doing?

She opened the cabinet. "Not..."

You idiot!

She grabbed one of the bottles; she didn't know which one it was. "Here..."

Stop!

She couldn't unscrew the cap fast enough. "ANY-..."

No!

"-MORE!"

META!

She drank as much of the horrible liquid as she could swallow. To her great surprise, Eli's screams stopped suddenly, and she was alone.

That night, for the second night in a row, Winry woke up screaming. And for the second night in a row, she found that she had woken a concerned Elric. However, unlike that first night, the Elric brother who had come to her side was the elder one.

"Are you alright?" he asked when he realized that she was awake.

"Mm-hmm..." she said sleepily, rubbing the tears out of her eyes.

"Okay... well... good." He stood up.

And here she'd been expecting him to linger; what was she thinking?

"Well, um... good night," Ed said awkwardly.

"Wait."

He froze immediately, as if he had been expecting her to stop him. "What?"

"Please, don't go."

Ed sighed.

"Don't leave me again."

He flinched.

Winry bit her lip and mentally begged him to agree. Finally, he gave in and slid under the blanket next to her.

"But only just this once," he qualified as she made herself comfortable against him.

No response.

She was already asleep.

Is the fact that these chapters lately are all angsty starting to grate on your nerves? They are on mine. Admittedly, I've been fluffing them up, but the truth is that right now, every one of my characters is under a LOT of stress, and everything is starting to fall apart in earnest. Are you getting nervous about what's happening with Luna?