Open Up

Oh man, this is my last day of finals until break so that means I can update this story more than I have been. Yipee! I hope you all like this chapter.

Typical Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, but I do own Cecelia.

Over the next few days, Cecelia's good mood slowly deteriorated because of Ed's absence. She missed waking up next to him and hearing his silly jokes and seeing him with his nose stuffed in a book. As she walked around the apartment still in her pajamas; despite it being three in the afternoon, Al decided to intervene.

"You know Cecelia, just because Ed's away right now doesn't mean you should act like a slob."

She looked up from her bowl of porridge. "Oh hush, what do you know?"

"That if you exclude the times you've had to work; you've been in your pajamas since Ed's been gone."

"You're right, I'm pathetic." she groaned.

Al walked over to the table and patted her shoulder. "You're not pathetic you're just…eager to see brother again and you've forgotten to groom yourself."

Cecelia rolled her eyes. "You're so sweet." she said sarcastically.

She stood and put her dirty dish in the kitchen sink before retreating to hers and Ed's bedroom. She pulled out a fresh change of clothes and went into the bathroom to wash up. 'Man this water feels good' she thought as the hot water slid down her body in the shower. Cecelia washed her hair and her body thoroughly and shaved her legs which had gotten a little unruly. After she was all dry and clean, she dressed in a yellow shirt with white shorts and braided her hair into a nice side pony tail.

"How do I look?" she asked Al when she stepped out of the bathroom.

"Much better, you look good in yellow Cecelia." he complimented.

"You're such a charmer Alphonse."

"Oh, while you were in the shower Ellie called you, she said they needed you down at the bar as soon as possible. Apparently someone is sick."

Cecelia smacked her forehead and groaned. Today was one of her nights off and she planned on spending the night brainstorming ideas for a new book, but if she needed to go in to work then she'd do it. She pulled on her work shoes, gave Al a quick hug, and ran out the door. About ten minutes later she ended up at the bar and when Ellie saw her, she pulled Cecelia over to the counter.

"So who's sick?" she asked.

"Catherine is, she has some sort of stomach virus."

"Ugh that must be crummy, I hate stomach aches."

Cecelia and Ellie ended up chatting the day away while they worked their shifts. Usually they didn't get to chat much because Madame Christmas would be harking at them, but the older woman didn't seem to mind this time. By the time Cecelia's shift ended around ten, she was tired with aching feet. She usually didn't work seven hour shifts and the one tonight had been the first one in at least three months that she'd had to work. She dragged her feet as she walked home and it took her longer than usual to get home. When she arrived, there was a little note on the door from Al.

Hi Cecelia! Ed came home today so if you're reading this note then we are out eating dinner.

We'll bring you home something, I promise.

Love, Al

She frowned.

"That's not fair, I want to go out to dinner." she whined as she stepped inside, but her frown fell when she noticed the change in the apartment.

There were tall candles lining the counters and the light from their flames lit the room nicely. On the floor there was a trail of dark red rose pedals leading towards the back room. Cecelia scratched her head.

"What the heck is this?" she asked as she started following the trail which led to the bathroom which was decorated as well.

Only two candles were on the bathroom counter, but the bathroom was small so it was enough to light the room. There were also rose petals on the ground. The bath tub was filled with steaming water with rose petals floating on top. The whole room smelled of roses and strawberries. Cecelia shrugged before stripping off her clothes and carefully sliding into the steaming water.

"I'm just going to assume this was done for me since they left and had dinner without me."

Ed and Al waited eagerly in Al's room for Cecelia to come home from work. The older Elric brother arrived back in Central around five and quickly explained his plan for proposing to Cecelia to his younger brother. He'd called the bar earlier that day and spoke to Ellie, convincing her to call Cecelia in for work so he could decorate the apartment. Around the time Cecelia usually came home, Ed drew a bath and made it all nice. He'd tied the ring around the neck of the rubber duck that was in the bath using a silver ribbon. When he heard the front door open, his heart started thumping loudly from anticipation and Al had to sit in front of his bedroom door so Ed wouldn't ruin the surprise. When they heard the door to the bathroom shut, Ed was finally allowed to leave the room.

"Good luck brother, I'd love to stay up with you to celebrate but I have a meeting about an open lot very early in the morning." Al whispered before retiring for the night.

Ed nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets when he was alone. It felt like time had stopped as he waited for Cecelia to come out, but after waiting what felt like twenty years, he finally heard a loud squeal from the bathroom. Just as he got down on one knee, the door swung open revealing a clearly distraught Cecelia in only a little towel. Now isn't the time to have perverted thoughts. She flung herself down into his arms and instead of hearing cries of joy, Ed heard a loud sob. …does she really not want to marry me?

"Cecelia what's wrong?" he managed to ask, hoping he'd successfully masked his disappointment.

"I-I-I was in the bath and I s-s-saw a big…big…s-spider!"

"You're kidding right?" he asked, pulling her up off the ground.

She frowned and crossed her arms over her barely covered chest. "You know how much I hate spiders."

"But Cecelia it's just a little bug, it's not going to hurt you."

"You're right, it would have killed me."

Ed patted her head and stepped into the bathroom which now had a wet floor due to Cecelia's flailing around. He leaned over and plucked the rubber duck out of the water and returned to Cecelia, drying it off on his shirt as he went. He got down on one knee and the angry look on her face quickly melted away.

"I know that we've only known each other for about six months, but I know that you're the one for me. So...

Cecelia Marie Wheelright, will you marry me?"

Dun Dun Dun