Disclaimer: I do not own FMA

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA

Sorry for the short chapter but it didn't work with me combining it to another so I promise to get the next chapter up really soon. Enjoy.

Chapter 26

Why on earth did I agree to do this? It was New Years Eve and Winry definitely didn't want to go out and party. She just wanted to stay home and work on her automail, maybe even go to bed early, but she had already agreed to go out with Edward for the night.

Actually, she wouldn't have felt too bad telling Ed that she wanted to stay home but after he had convinced her to go to this party that Mustang had been talking about Ella had come by and talked forever about how happy she was that Winry wouldn't be staying home for the holiday. Somehow she just didn't have the heart to tell Ella that she was planning on telling Ed no. Little did she know, that Ella actually had planned to guilt her all along into going.

So now she was waiting by her door for Ed to show up and take her to some random party that she didn't want to go to. Winry sighed and looked at the door just waiting for Ed to come though it.

It's not like I don't want to spend time with Ed. She knew her feelings and knew that she was crushing on Ed. But I just don't want to go out tonight, even if it is with Ed.

There was two knocks on the door and upon opening it, Winry found Ed on the other side smiling at her. She couldn't help but smile back.

"Ready?" he asked politely.

"Yeah" she answered trying to look happy about it, but once again her happiness didn't reach her eyes and Ed couldn't help but notice.

They both turned and started walking side by side, although Ed was slightly in front leading the way. "Where is this party anyway," Winry asked trying to keep her mind distracted.

"Some old rich neighborhood, I know where it is so we won't get lost," Ed said trying not to worry Winry.

"Okay" she replied back quietly.

For the rest of the walk there, the two stayed pretty quiet, which unfortunately was giving Winry time to think, until she started hearing music that although was soft at first, it steadily got louder and louder interrupting Winry's thoughts.

Ed too could hear the music and it wasn't long before Winry and him realized just where the blaring music was coming from, their destination. A moment passed as Winry and Ed just stood in front of the huge mansion-like house.

It was bigger than most of the houses that either of them had seen, with a huge front yard and probably an even larger backyard. It had way too many cars parked in front of it, and there was tons of trash all over the yard. Not only that, but compared to the rest of the street, it seemed almost like a star in the dark with how many lights were on in and outside the house compared to the rest of the street.

Carefully the two headed inside not quite sure what they might encounter there.

The moment Winry stepped inside she started to get swept away by the mass of people moving around in there. Thankfully Ed was quick enough to grab her wrist before she got too far away from him.

In order not to get pushed around by the many people who seemed to fill up every possible space, Ed pulled Winry near to him and held on tight to her hand with his. Normally Winry might have blushed at them holding hands but she knew better than to think that he was doing it for his own sake, he was doing it to keep her from getting separated from him.

Well at least he cares enough to keep me from harms way. Winry sighed. All this pounding music was already giving her a headache and the smell of alcohol in the air wasn't helping much either.

"Come on" Ed said pulling Winry behind him. She didn't know where they were going but at the moment she was just happy to get out of that room.

It wasn't too long before the two of them stumbled outside where it was less crowded but still had tons of people wearing practically nothing walking around. Both blushed at the indecency of everyone around of them. It was a huge backyard but only the area near the house seemed to have anyone in it, probably because that was the pool area.

Gently Ed started pulling Winry towards the back part of the yard, he still held her hand although she probably wouldn't have gotten pulled away from him out here. The back of the yard was a huge garden that no one seemed the least bit interested in, probably because it was much too overdone, but Winry, on the other hand, was thrilled to see that was where Ed and her were heading.

They still were walking in silence but it wasn't uncomfortable whatsoever. The night was only slightly chilly, a warm front had come though a few days ago making it very comfortable outside.

As the two walked farther and farther from the party less and less people were around and the music started to fade slightly as the garden seemed to become more like a park in that the trail they were on became more worn and there was more grass than flowers. The owner of the house obviously didn't feel the need to keep it quite as overdone as the section closer to the house. In Ed's opinion it looked much better.

Just as they thought that they had reached far enough to be away from that mess of a party, giggling and rustling from a nearby bush was heard and one could only guess what was happening there. With only one look at each other, Ed and Winry headed a little farther away from the house and that particular area.

Soon they were far enough away that the lights of the party were faded and like a light glow on everything around them, and the blare of music seemed to have faded into background music.

They finally let go of one another's hands and took a seat under a large tree slightly off of the old and overgrown path. For a moment both just closed their eyes and let their minds wander feeling more relaxed than they had since they had shown up at the party.

"Sorry Winry for the party not being that great." Ed apologized feeling like he should have not invited Winry to come somewhere like that, but in his defense, he hadn't known that it was going to be that crazy.

He had called Mustang just a few days ago to ask for the address of the party he had talked so enthusiastically about at a few of the alchemy team practices. It had taken a lot of teasing but Ed had finally gotten the address from Mustang.

"It's okay Ed," Winry said relaxing back onto the tree some more, "I really didn't feel like partying that much anyway, and this is really nice."

Ed let himself smile a little, "It is."

Once again the two were surrounded by silence and once again it wasn't forced or stressed at all, it was just nice. They listened to the sounds around them, the crickets chirping, the soft breeze whooshing the trees, the deep breaths of each another, and the soft music still coming from the house.

Winry didn't know how long they were sitting there but after a while her throat was starting to become dry and she really wanted something to drink. She started to ask Ed if he would come with her back up to the house while she got a drink, but when she looked over at him, it seemed that he had fallen asleep.

She giggled slightly at him but decided against waking him up. She would rather let him sleep for a while and surprise him with a drink from the house. She knew that he wouldn't want her to go by herself to the party even if it was just for a moment to get refreshments, but she was a big girl and she could take care of herself. She would be back shortly. He wouldn't even know that she was gone until she came back.

Quite stealthily she got up barely rustling the grass and headed off toward the house at a run not wanting to chance Ed waking up while she was gone.

Another kind of short chapter but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. So how many of you people are saying "Stupid Winry stupid Winry, you should have just woken up Ed." Yeah this arc is a little more cliché but I figured that it wouldn't hurt too much. I'm still trying to keep this a little more original.

You guys really don't have to review this chapter if you don't want to. I mean nothing really happened except me setting up some stuff. I don't care if I get that many reviews on this one. I'll try to update this week sometime, I don't know when.

Keep writing

FFG- Jo