Ed figured that since he and Winry had been on a date, now it was fair game to actually propose. As long as he managed to do so in a way that came across as at least a tiny bit more planned than "so you wanna get married?" Ed still wanted to hide his face behind something every time he remembered that. No. He had to figure out a way to do better than that this time. Winry had put up with enough bad proposals. She deserved to actually get a good one this time.

The problem was that he felt like he never really had enough time alone with Winry to actually work up enough courage to do the damn thing. Every day felt like another squeeze for Winry to get through her automail work while he and Al frantically made plans and compared alchemy notes in preparation for the upcoming trip. Whenever they managed to get a free minute, they would spend it together, with Winry claiming that she had to try and squeeze in every last minute of Elric time she could. Ed couldn't bear to insist on making her spend time with only him and not Al too.

But they were getting even fewer stolen moments of time together now that he and Al had rebuilt their house. There were no more nights where Al went to bed just that little bit earlier than Winry and Ed. Instead, there was always someone saying they should head home before it got too dark, and Ed was stuck going with it. It was one thing, after all, to let Al go to bed in another room without him. It was another thing to purposefully stay at the Rockbell house for another hour.

Unfortunately, his obliviousness was another factor. Winry had once been visiting at their house, then stood up and announced she was tired and needed to go to bed, and did Ed want to walk her home? To which he had laughed and asked if she had somehow forgotten they lived Resembool. It hadn't been until he had been tucking himself into bed that he had realized she had been trying to get some time alone with him, and he nearly screamed in frustration.

So Ed swore to manage his proposal during the short window of time between when he and Al left. There was going to be a week after Al left for the East where Ed was stuck waiting for his own train, which meant he would have a week without Al distracting him. Ed swore that would make the difference and that he would somehow pull off a mind-blowing proposal in that week.

Partly because he was scared of how bad the next accidental proposal would be if he waited until after he got back. He wasn't going to do it over the phone again, he swore to himself.

He even actually made the effort to plan for it, trying to actually come up with something decent to say, even going as far as to write it down. He tried to capture the feeling of what it was like for him whenever they were together, how every time he was with her just made him feel more sure that she was who he needed to be with. He tried to explain how he finally understood what people meant when they referred to someone as their other half, not because they were incomplete without each other, but because they were each coming together and creating something new. How being with her was like bringing her half of himself and combining it with her into something completely new, something that was somehow more than himself or herself alone.

And also something something alchemy, of course. Ed tried to resist it, tried to edit it down after he'd gotten it out, but eventually, he gave up. If Winry wasn't understanding over him slipping a little alchemical metaphor into pretty much everything, then it would end up being a very long marriage indeed.

The only thing he hadn't counted on was apparently, Edward Elric, the mighty Fullmetal Alchemist, was a fucking coward.

He didn't even know what he was so scared of. You've already proposed to her three times, dumbass! What exactly are you so scared of her saying, anyway? 'Sorry, you've used up all your proposals, you can't try again.' She had already practically promised him a yes as long as he actually made an effort! He'd had plenty of practice fucking it up! What was even left to be afraid of, anyway?

Ed found himself making every excuse to be around Winry, hoping that would give him enough time to actually work up the guts to say a nice proposal to her. He still found himself making excuses. He couldn't just propose when she was in the middle of working on automail. Wasn't proposing supposed to be romantic somehow? Dammit, why didn't he make sure to ask Al for advice before he'd gotten on the train?

Now every time Ed thought about actually proposing to Winry on purpose, it felt like he had a weird sort of tingly-floaty feeling in the tips of his fingers and toes. Was that what people meant when they talked about having butterflies? Weren't those little shits supposed to be in his stomach and not his toes?

Somehow, the week that had once seemed like more than enough time for a proposal flew by, and Ed found himself pacing in the living the morning the train was going to leave.

He told himself it was fine. He would find a way to propose on the way. Winry had promised she was going to come over and see him off at the station, so there was going to be a nice, scenic walk on the way over there. That was... Romantic, right? Blowing fields and wildflowers?

Well, whether it was or wasn't romantic, it was going to have to do. It wasn't like he could just make the train wait another day for Ed to get his act together.

It was now or never. Shit or get off the pot.

Eh. Maybe not the best turn of phrase for proposing to the love of your life.

Winry showed up in a casual pink dress with a pair of jeans on underneath, and Ed suddenly felt his resolve fly out of him. She had gotten herself cute and dressed up to see him off. Apparently, she had been so preoccupied with looking cute that she had forgotten it was spring and the weather was still fluctuating, because she was rubbing at goosebumps on her arms.

"Little colder out there than you planned on, Win?" Ed said with a snort as he looked her over. She shot him a glare and stuck out her tongue.

"Oh, shut up, Ed."

He laughed and pushed her in the direction of the front closet. "Just borrow a coat, goofball. I won't tell anyone."

As Winry rummaged through the closet, Ed went upstairs and grabbed his suitcase, mentally rehearsing in his head what he was going to do. Good thing he was actually going to the train station with time to spare for once, so he didn't have to worry about extra time with Winry accidentally making him late. He just had to make sure he waited long enough to get out of the house before he started blurting things out.

Ed thumped down the stairs like an elephant, taking them two at a time. When he got to the bottom, Winry was holding a familiar white hoodie in her hands.

"You're not taking this with you?"

Ed glanced over the hoodie and gave a careless shrug. "Nah."

"But you wore this all the time when you first came home!"

"Okay, so you wear it. Are we heading out, or what?"

"Fine." Winry huffed and pulled on the hoodie. "Oh gosh, Ed, it's really comfy too. Why would you ever stop wearing this?"

Ed snorted and gave her an amused smirk as he held open the front door for her. "Well, if you like it so much, why don't you keep it?"

"What? No! Ed, you love this hoodie, you can't just—"

"Believe it or not, I outgrew it," Ed said with a shrug, not looking at her. He hadn't really thought he was doing much that would actually build muscles, but one day he had gone to put on the hoodie and found it was uncomfortably tight in the shoulders. He hadn't even noticed he was growing without the constant armor by his side to measure himself against.

But even if it was true that he'd outgrown the hoodie, he didn't entirely want to admit that he would have encouraged Winry to take it anyway. It looked much cuter on her than it ever had on him. Plus there was something he kind of liked about her wearing his clothes. It was just... such a normal thing to do. Like they were actually just a normal teenage couple, and damn, he actually kind of loved feeling normal for once.

He needed to actually pull off this proposal before he left. There was no way he'd be able to keep his mouth shut otherwise.

Ed scanned the path as they started walking, trying to figure out if there was any spot that was particularly more scenic than the rest of it. It was just an ordinary Resembool path though, which meant mostly tall grass and an occasional sprig of wildflowers. The way Ed saw it, Resembool was the sort of place that was beautiful for the whole picture, not for the individual little pieces. It was the fact that there was so much countryside, not that it was particularly extravagant countryside.

"I brought you a going away gift," Winry said, snapping Ed out of trying to figure out if the flowering bush by the side of path would count as romantic. He looked over at her, blinking, and Winry reached into the pocket of her jeans. She pressed something small and metal into his hand, and when he looked closer, he realized it was a familiar-looking screw.

"It's from the first arm I ever made for you," she said with a smile. The smile seemed nice on the surface, but also maybe just a touch too saccharine. "I saved it the first time you brought my masterpiece home in shambles. I thought maybe it would help remind you not to do that again."

It was so much more than just another silly jab at him about how he didn't take care of his automail though. It was a little reminder he could carry around in his pocket every day, a little something to remind him of her, of how far he'd come, and how there was someone waiting for him to come home safe.

"Thanks, Win," Ed breathed, and then did the next thing that only seemed logical in that situation and pulled her into his arms for a kiss.

Kissing Winry made him suddenly aware of just how much he was actually going to miss her. He was going to be away from her again, and suddenly there would be no more kisses, no holding hands on a picnic blanket while cloud gazing, not even casual touches brushed over his shoulder when she walked past him. He was going to be alone, really alone for once. Here he had been secretly excited about that for a couple of months, because even though he had grown up long ago, he actually felt like a kid growing up and leaving home for the first time. It felt like some sort of rite of passage. And now it suddenly felt terrifying, too.

"Okay," Ed said, breaking away from Winry with a gasp. "If I kiss you again, I don't think I'm going to be able to leave, so. That was your goodbye kiss."

Winry scrunched her face up at him. "Geez, Ed, you could at least give me a warning."

"Okay." Ed picked his suitcase back up and started walking again, Winry following. "This is your warning, Winry. If you kiss me again, there's no way I'm going to be able to leave."

Winry laughed and tossed her hair. "Would that really be so terrible?"

No way, Ed wanted to answer her, but he bit his tongue. There were still so many things he needed to do. There was still so much about himself he wanted to figure out, now that he had a chance to actually breathe without feeling like an anvil was hanging over his head by a string. There would be time to wait and stall for time later.

"Aw, come on. You'll be grateful to get me out of your hair for a bit. Maybe now you'll actually get some work done."

"True," Winry laughed.

He was suddenly grateful that he was planning to propose to her, because even though it was small, he hadn't known Winry was planning on a goodbye gift. Certainly not a gift with such an emotional punch. Alchemy sucker that he was, he still hadn't gotten over the whole "equivalence in everything" problem. Even though he knew it was silly. Even though he kept trying to reteach himself. At least with his proposal, he would have a ring to give—

Ed felt the blood in his veins freeze. The ring. As in, the ring he had forgotten to get. Somewhere along the way, he had forgotten that he wouldn't be able to transmute something awesome on the spot. (Well, he probably should have bought a ring even in that case, considering that Winry probably didn't want an engagement ring with skulls and spikes. But still.)

Who planned a proposal and forgot the ring, anyway?

He was upset enough about the whole thing that even though he tried to stay cheerful for Winry's sake, he found himself pouting and kicking at the dirt all the way to the station, mumbling vague affirmatives as Winry went over care and maintenance instructions he'd heard a million times before.

Just get over yourself and do it anyway.

But without a ring? I'll look stupid!

Yeah, but not as stupid as if you accidentally do it over the phone again.

But this was supposed to be an amazing proposal!

You're not going to get another good chance to do this in months.

Then there was the sound of a train whistle, and Ed nearly jumped out of his skin. The train was here already? But that couldn't be right. That meant he didn't have any time left, certainly not enough time to get over himself and figure out how to pull off a decent proposal without a ring.

"Knowing you, you're probably going to break it within a month and have to come home for maintenance."

Ed sighed. Did she know that he was thinking about how long it would be until he saw her again, how he was hoping it could be shorter somehow? "Yeah, yeah, you're probably right."

Do it anyway. Just do it.

"Well, whenever that does happen, just call me to make an appointment."

So much for feeling like an independent adult going off into the world, Ed felt like he was twelve all over again and leaving home for the first time. He mumbled an affirmative and moved to climb on the train.

Do it do it do it do it do it do it

Ed nearly wanted to scream at the rising crescendo in his head. He had to propose. Now or never! Shit or get off the pot! This wasn't how they were supposed to say goodbye, with him somehow still not sure whether he was supposed to call her his girlfriend or fiancee or what and her telling him to call for an appointment like one of the peasants.

"An appointment?" he muttered.

doitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoit

He turned around to face Winry, and a long minute of silence fell over them as a lump lodged in his throat.

What exactly had he been planning to say, anyway? He had been so busy thinking about how he forgot the damn ring that he couldn't remember the words he had spent so long working on.

"What's wrong?"

He knew Winry was trying to help, but he almost wanted to tell her to be quiet for a minute so he could just think and remember what he had meant to say before he was out of time. Something about her being his other half? He had been embarrassed about alchemy for some reason... Oh right, something about equivalent exchange and... half of... his life... something... Dammit. Maybe if he just started saying something and spoke from the heart, the words would come. That's what Al would say. He took in a shaky breath.

"Listen, Winry," he started, but then the words stopped. Dammit, those were supposed to keep coming once he started, the little assholes.

"Well, what?" Winry said, practically laughing at him. He had to say something before this proposal went badly too. "Just come out and say it."

Ed thought he could feel his brain flickering and spluttering like a dying lightbulb. Crap. He was doomed. He couldn't just start with "marry me!" After all, that was what had gotten him into trouble the last few times. But where else was he supposed to start? He opened and closed his mouth a few times with a couple strangled squeaks coming out, and Ed wondered if he remembered how words worked at all.

Just jump in and start running. Like anything else you've been scared of.

What pose was a person even supposed to do without a ring, anyway? He couldn't very well get on one knee with nothing to present to Winry. On impulse, Ed pointed at her instead. It felt wrong as soon as he did it, but he was in too deep. Too late to go back now.

"Equivalent Exchange!"

The words immediately felt loud and obnoxious and ridiculous and loud as soon as they left his mouth. Dammit. Dammitdammitdammit.

Well. At least he hadn't just said "marry me," right?

But when Winry looked at him with a frown, he suddenly realized it wasn't really much better. He hadn't managed the entire thought that had been in his head, so it just sounded like alchemy nonsense for no reason. Great. You're standing on a train platform pointing at your girlfriend like you're accusing her while yelling about alchemy. Yeah, this was going so much better. He needed to bring it back to the romance. More words. If he could remember how they worked.

"I'll give half of my life to you if you give half of yours to me!"

Just like the other times, the words hung in the air for a long moment, much too long, because it gave Ed time to fully realize what he had just said. That... hadn't been exactly what he had planned on saying. Crap. He'd gone and bungled it again. As soon as Winry realized, she was going to yell at him and tease him just like the other times.

"Aw, come on," Winry said with a groan, her posture drooping as she slapped a hand to her forehead. Yep, here came the criticism. "Do you have to treat everything like alchemy? The whole equivalent exchange thing is just nonsense!"

"What'd you say?" Ed snapped. It wasn't exactly what he had been expecting her to say, and his hackles rose instinctively. Insult him, fine, sure, he was a dumbass. But to insult alchemy, the one thing in the world that actually made sense? If Winry thought she could just mock alchemy just because he happened to suck at propos—

"It's nonsense!" Winry groaned, snapping Ed out of his mental rant. She moved her hand from her forehead to her heart. "How about I just give you my whole life?"

This time, it was Winry's words that hung heavily in the air as Ed stared at her with wide eyes.

Her whole life? But that was too much! He didn't deserve that! He felt presumptuous even asking for half of her life, but it had been the only number that had made sense at the time. 50% plus 50% meant 100%, and he knew he felt like there was an entirely new something that existed when he and Winry were together. Something new had to mean 100%, and a hundred split between two people had to mean 50%, right? Yeah, math.

As Ed stared at her in disbelief, Winry seemed to realize what she had said, and a blush spread across her face to match the blush Ed could feel on his own face.

"Uh, maybe not all of it! Ninety? Maybe eighty percent?" Winry stammered and put out her hands like she was trying to tell her own words to stop, come back, please. She turned and started counting on her fingers with a frown. "Seventy... That's not enough. But eighty-five... Yeah! Eighty-five is a good number!"

Ed couldn't hold back the laugh that bubbled up and out of him before he had a chance to stop it. Winry snapped her head to look at him.

"What? Shut up!"

"Sorry, really!" Ed wasn't sure whether it was from the relief of having gotten past the terrifying proposal or if it was just the fact that Winry was casually calculating to what percentage she wanted to defy the laws of the universe, but he couldn't stop laughing. He bent over and clutched at his sides. Maybe it was a little of both, really. Or maybe this was just what love felt like.

"Edward!"

She didn't even realize the significance of what she'd just said, did she? Here Ed had been trying to convince himself to stop seeing everything through Equivalent Exchange for a couple years now, had been trying to mentally argue with himself about how the rule was flawed, and yet he couldn't seem to break past it. But Winry didn't even have to try. She was able to just... bat scientific laws out of the way when they didn't suit her needs. She was just so... Winry.

"You are so incredible!" Ed looked up at her, still chuckling and holding his sides. "You knocked equivalent exchange flat on its butt in just a few words!"

"Uh, and what's that mean?" Winry said, scrunching her face up at him. "Are you making fun of me?"

"Not at all," Ed said before straightening and closing the distance between them. He considered for a moment breaking his earlier vow of not giving her another kiss before he left, because he just wanted to be close to her, for her to know how much he couldn't bear to leave her. But if he kissed her, he would never leave, he told himself. It was already hard enough without kissing her. So he pulled her into a hug instead, putting a hand against the back of her head.

"Thanks for cheering me up," he murmured against her hair. "I'll miss you. Goodbye. For now."

Winry reached around him, putting her hands against his back and pressing herself into him. Ed tried to burn the feeling into his memory, how it felt to hold her so tightly against him, to be able to smell the fruity shampoo she'd used that morning still lingering in her hair. He wasn't sure how long it would be until he got to hug her like that again, and dammit, he was going to make that memory last.

"Come home soon," Winry whispered, and Ed felt the words in his soul.

That was how they were supposed to be saying goodbye, not this nonsense about calling for appointments.

He was sure he spent the ensuing train ride with a silly grin that was probably obvious to everyone. At least, it felt obvious. He was acting like some guy in one of those cheesy love stories, and he couldn't seem to help himself. Maybe it was because a good long hug created dopamine. Or maybe it was because he'd spent so long avoiding simple touches like that so Al wasn't constantly reminded of what he was missing out on. Maybe Ed couldn't stop grinning because he had just been that touch starved for that long.

Or maybe this was just what love felt like.

If that was the case, Ed felt like maybe he understood a little bit of the fuss. Maybe not all of it, but there was definitely a really good feeling to loving someone that deeply, not for any particular reason other than because you knew them so deeply that you couldn't help it. You couldn't help but smile when they were happy and break when they were sad, just because you knew that it hurt.

He couldn't explain why he loved Winry other than just... She was Winry. And Winry was an amazing person who deserved the best. But somehow, she figured that Ed counted as part of the best.

And so Ed ended up grinning out the window until the sky went dark and he dozed off.

The screw Winry had given him for a goodbye present quickly became a new fidgeting toy for him. There was just something comforting about turning the small piece of metal over in his fingers and running his thumbnail over the ridges while he was thinking. It helped him stay calm as he found himself navigating trains stations he had never been to before (weird) on his own for the first time (weirder).

He was so distracted by these thoughts that he probably wouldn't have noticed much else if it hadn't been for the young woman getting attacked just outside the train station. Because he could never seem to tune out a cry for help. After all, wasn't trying to stop other people from getting hurt kind of the whole motivation he and Al had for going on this trip in the first place? Although, it wasn't as if there was any sort of mission Ed could be on that would make him able to ignore someone in distress.

Unfortunately, jumping in so impulsively meant jumping in with his instincts, and his instincts said, "use your right arm to block the jackass with a knife, it'll be fine because your arm is made of metal."

He remembered as soon as he felt the hot pain of a knife in his shoulder that he'd made a terrible mistake.

"Ah, shit," Ed hissed, adjusting in the moment to instead kick the man in the gut with his foot. At least that was still metal. The man hit the ground with a solid thud and looked at Ed with a wild expression like he was trying to decide whether he was pissed off to risk his chances with the man who currently had a knife sticking out of his shoulder.

"Look, buddy, I've had a building nearly slice me in half and still gotten up to kick the other guy's ass," Ed's words came out as a growl, more from the fact that he was coping through the pain of a knife in his shoulder, but the tone seemed to also work as an intimidation tactic. "So I would suggest you get out of here."

Ed thanked his lucky stars that the guy was enough of a coward to go running at that. Though most guys who thought they needed to wave a knife around in some woman's face were cowards, specifically the type who would go around constantly talking about how great they would be in a fight but then had no idea what to do when they actually got into one. The biggest danger guys like that posed was their unpredictability, like the fact that Ed currently had a knife in his shoulder. It wouldn't have been hard to win a fight against the guy, but Ed mostly just didn't want the hassle. Especially when getting stabbed was a little more painful than he remembered.

"Okay, which way to the hospital?" Ed said, turning to the young woman. She was somewhere around his age, probably younger, considering how she was a good head shorter than him and looking up at him with big, watery eyes.

"Aren't you going to take that thing out?" Her voice was fast, panicked as she eyed the knife handle at his shoulder. He couldn't really blame her, but he also couldn't entirely remember what it felt like to be panicked at that sort of thing.

"Nah. Bleeds more. Better to wait until someone can—" he swayed a little on his feet and balanced himself against the wall. "Yeah, adrenaline, I know you're there, don't worry. Seriously, hospital?"

Ed was a little proud that he actually managed to not pass out from there, even though the world moved in a little bit of a blur. People were kind of panicky and something in the back of his head told him that was a pretty normal reaction, but he couldn't help but wish they would all just calm down a little bit. There was some nurse at some point who was trying to get him to talk about something, but he couldn't quite figure out what they were trying to get at. He mumbled something about train stations and rings and wives and automail appointments before the world faded to dark. He wasn't sure whether it was from him passing out or some sort of anesthetic.

When he next was conscious, he was in some sort of hospital bed, and his arm was sore. All things considered, he'd had worse, honestly. At least Al and Winry weren't there to sit and lecture him on how he needed to be careful with his arm, how he was just going to lose it again if he wasn't careful. They almost made it sound like his arm was some toy he'd leave in the backyard.

Well, okay, maybe it was a little his fault they thought he saw his arm that way, but still.

He was interrupted out of his thoughts by the sound of the phone on his nightstand table ringing, and he wondered if he'd woken up because he'd heard it ringing or if someone just had incredibly good timing. He stretched his left arm out in order to grab it without moving the still sore right side of his body, holding the receiver beside his face on the pillow.

"'llo?"

"Oh, thank goodness, you're finally awake," Winry voice was rushed and breathy on the other side of the phone. "Do you know how worried I've been? I think you've shaved five years off my life today, mister."

"Win," Ed breathed, his face cracking into a grin. "Wait, how did they know to call you?"

"I'm assuming you must have told them we were married, because they called here asking if I knew 'Edward Elric's wife,'" Winry said with a heavy sigh. "You know how my heart jumped into my throat when I heard that? I was worried you might have a secret family or something—"

"Winry, I would never—!"

"—and then I actually realized that they were probably talking about me because you probably just put your foot in your mouth yet again," she said with a laugh. Ed smiled against the phone and let her laugh the couple shades louder than she normally did, pretending he hadn't heard the little crack in her voice as she ranted at him.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, Win," he said in a soft tone, and her laugh cut off with a choked sound.

"I know you're not used to that arm still, but getting stabbed, Ed?"

"I know. I'm sorry."

"And for the record, you don't get to just go around calling me your wife when we're not even properly engaged yet!"

There was a long moment of silence as Ed frowned into the phone, rearranging himself so he was in more of a sitting position. "What? You're going to take away your yes just because I got stabbed?"

"What yes?"

"You know," Ed waved with his right hand and immediately regretted it, holding it back to his chest with a wince. "I asked you to marry me, and you said eighty-five percent."

There was another long beat of silence, and Ed almost worried that the phone had cut off. But just as he was opening his mouth to ask if she was still there, her voice cut through the phone.

"That was your grand planned proposal?"

"Well," Ed coughed and looked up at the ceiling. "Yes?"

"How was I even supposed to know you were proposing? You didn't have a ring and you just yelled alchemy nonsense at me!"

"Wait, you didn't know that was a proposal?"

"No, Ed, I didn't know that was a proposal," Winry sighed, the sound clipping through the phone. "I thought you were just being your usual dorky, sappy self and getting all sentimental over leaving."

"Oh."

Another long minute passed as Ed frowned and tried to think what to do. Winry seemed more serious than she had the other times. Did that mean that he had fucked up beyond return this time? Had he finally gone so far with his mistakes that he wouldn't be able to recover?

"Ed, can you promise to tell me the truth on something?" Winry said into the silence. Her voice was soft, but it echoed through Ed's ears like she was using a microphone. "You're not... You're not just proposing because you think we're required to get married or something, right?"

"What? No, Winry, hell no, that's not why I propose at all!"

"Well, then can you explain why you're doing it like that? Because... Because it kind of looks like you don't care about trying."

"No, no, Win, fuck no," Ed groaned and went to run his free hand through his hair before the pain in his shoulder made him stop. He wasn't even sure if he knew how to explain what exactly what was happening in his brain every time he proposed, but Winry was questioning if he even really cared, and he couldn't have that. He had to try and explain it, somehow.

"It's like..." he sighed and hung his head. "It's like, sometimes we have these nice moments, and I'm just enjoying being with you, and then I look over at you. And you're always just so... happy. And beautiful. And it's like... I just remember how much I love you, and then I think, 'yeah, I want to do this forever.' And then my brain figures the best way to do that is just to get you to marry me right then and there."

There was another long moment of silence as Ed sat and waited for her reaction. When he heard a sniffle from the other side of the phone, he jumped, suddenly panicked. "Shit, Winry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"No, Ed," Winry said, and he could hear her collecting herself. "That was just... so sweet. Still, it's kind of weird to be engaged when we haven't even been on a date."

"What? Yes, we have."

Winry's sighed wasn't even surprised, just resigned. "What are you talking about, Ed?"

"Aw, come on, it was a really nice date! I took you to the cherry tree and we had a picnic—"

"I didn't know that was a date! I thought that was just a family picnic that Al wasn't able to attend!" Winry huffed against the phone, and Ed let out a nervous chuckle. "Ed, you do realize that it generally helps to actually let your date know you're taking them on a date."

"Alright, then I'll fix it." Ed frowned and licked his lips. He was going to figure out this secret dating code someday, somehow. He wasn't sure how, but he would figure it out somehow. "As soon as I see you again, I'm taking you on a date. A date you know is a date. And then I'll do a proposal that's actually good this time."

"Ed, it's fine," Winry said with a laugh. "You don't have to—"

"I want to. Please, Winry. I mean, 85% is only a B anyway. I'm sure I'm capable of an A if I try harder."

"That's not really how it works," Winry said, still laughing. "But fine. Whenever you're ready to call it good enough and move on to actually getting married, you let me know."

Ed decided not to point out that this sounded like another proposal, and it almost sounded like she was saying yes. He didn't want her questioning yet again if that was it, if that was the proposal he was going to deal with. He was going to do something better. Something actually memorable. Proposal number... How many had he done by now, anyway? Five? Well, proposal number six would be better. Amazing, even. He was going to get the sixth one right.

Once he hung up with Winry, he actually had a doctor come in and explain that he'd had a nasty stab wound they'd needed to stitch up, and by the way, had he been aware there was a screw embedded in his shoulder? Apparently, the stubborn little guy that had held on even after the automail was gone, the screw that had been too much of a hassle to remove had ended up deciding to just come out on its own. It had even helped block the knife from going too close to his more vital organs. Ed didn't really normally like believing in signs, but there was something poetic about the one piece of Winry's work that had been left on him being the thing that saved him from getting more hurt. He asked if they'd let him keep the screw, and it was handed to him in a small bag.

He knew that the next time he proposed, he needed a ring. And he wasn't entirely ready to give up on the idea of a custom-made ring just because he couldn't do alchemy anymore. And maybe if he picked two sentimental pieces of metal to fuse into one and then split into two rings, maybe if he time to learn more about metalworking, this thing that was so important to Winry... Well, then maybe that would actually be a proposal that would get his true feelings across.

So once he was out of the hospital and back to researching alchemy, he used some of his spare time to hunt down a metalworker who'd be willing to teach him how to make a ring.

The hardest part was managing to find a way to keep his mouth shut about the entire thing. Well, mostly shut, at least. There were supposedly tricks to figure out someone's ring size without them knowing, but Ed didn't want to wait until he went back home to actually make the ring for Winry, and he figured that since she already knew he was planning to propose again, then it wouldn't really matter if she knew he was doing something ring related. At least then she knew he was actually getting a ring of some sort this time around.

Still, all she knew was that he needed her ring size, but he otherwise managed to not let any extra details slip. Or accidental proposals while he listened to her laughing over the phone. He felt he deserved a medal or something, considering he caught himself in the middle of saying something that was suspiciously proposal-like once. And he still somehow managed to recover. He felt like a genius for that one. State alchemist certification be damned, the true test was whether he could avoid another awkward proposal.

When he finally decided to head home for at least an extended break, he decided to just go straight to Rush Valley. Al was still in Xing, and Winry was at the Rush Valley shop instead off hanging around in Resembool. And if Al wasn't home, then there was really only one other person Ed could feel himself getting pulled towards.

He knew he was in the right place when she was still waiting at the train station for him after his train had gotten delayed, even though it was one in the morning. But that was somehow where they always ended up, staying up when the rest of the world was asleep, existing in a world that was only the two of them. She ran to him as soon as he caught her eye, and he ran too, meeting her halfway and swinging her in a circle as he hugged her.

"So how about that date I promised you?" he whispered against her ear as she buried her face against his neck, and she laughed.

"Ed! Everywhere is closed!"

"There's got to be someplace still open," he said, picking her up and slightly slinging her over his shoulder, grabbing his suitcase with his other hand. "And I'm absolutely starved, so I'm going to find it."

"Alright fine, I'll help you, just put me down!" Winry said, laughing and wiggling her legs.

It turned out that there was actually a place still open that wasn't a bar. One place. A tiny little diner made from an old train car and not far from the train station, probably because it was a convenient place to catch the people who'd had delayed trains just like Ed and were looking to kill an hour or two.

The diner wasn't the sort of place that would have normally stuck out in Ed's mind, but there was something different about it when it was the warm spot of finally having Winry there after months of only being able to hear her through the phone. Nothing about the place was particularly special necessarily, but Ed knew he'd never seen a room get lit up by Winry's smile in quite the same way again. This was exactly what all those ridiculous songs talked about when they talked about being young and in love, when it was so easy to see a life with her stretching out ahead of him. When all he wanted to do was stall for another hour just so he could crack another joke and see her laugh, so he could keep listening to her talk about everything he had missed while he was away.

He managed to drag her to her feet to dance to a song on the radio and she laughed at him. Somehow he had managed to transform into the type of boyfriend who was spontaneous and joyful, who laughed loudly and often and jumped to his feet to dance because it meant he could dance with her. And... He didn't hate that he had become that person. Because it meant he finally had room to breathe.

"Oh no, my earring!" Winry said, clapping her hands up to one ear, and Ed caught the glint of a gold hoop bouncing under a table. He dove for it before she had a chance, and it wasn't until he was on his knees with a metal circle clutched between his fingers that he realized this was exactly the moment where he would have proposed in the past, feeling so full of life and love.

So when he turned to give the earring to Winry, he turned on one knee, holding the earring up with a triumphant smirk.

"While I'm down here, I suppose I may as well ask for my lovely lady's hand, huh?"

"Oh, and course I accept, noble sir!" Winry said with a laugh, plucking the earring from between his fingers and sliding it on her ring finger. It was way too big for her finger and the clasp stuck out awkwardly, but she and Ed both laughed, holding tightly to each other.

He told himself that she knew he was joking, that she was just playing along with the joke. She knew it wasn't the actual proposal he had planned on. Because if she hadn't been joking, she would have been rolling her eyes at yet another terrible proposal, not just going along with his ridiculous antics.

He managed to keep the rings secret while also carrying them around in his pocket every day, trying to crack the code of what would actually make a decent proposal. He didn't really want to propose to Winry while Al was still so far away. Ironic, considering he had once sworn he wouldn't be able to do it while Al was there to distract him. But there had to be some sort of advice his little brother would be able to give on how to actually manage a good proposal. After all, Al had been the one who had actually given him a good idea for a date, if he just hadn't bungled it by not making it clear to Winry that he meant it to be a date.

In the meantime, Ed managed to keep himself busy by helping around the shop, and found that he actually didn't hate that either. There was something soothing to the kind of satisfaction that came from helping Winry get through the long list of clients that had looked impossible in the morning. There were also small moments that made him feel oddly useful, like the single mom who would come with her young daughter, Lucy, in tow. Of course Ed couldn't help but have a soft spot for a single mom, and he ended up offering to babysit while Lucy's mom got her leg readjusted. Eventually, what had started as one favor had turned into weekly tea party dates. Ed didn't have the heart to even pretend he was upset about the arrangement.

Then came the day where Lucy decided that she didn't want to play tea party, she wanted to play wedding. Or at least, she wanted to play wedding coordinator and tell Ed and Winry everything they had to do before they were "allowed" to get married. Ed found himself wondering how a six-year-old somehow knew these rules better than him. Was there just some class he'd missed out on as a kid that taught things like "you can't get married until you've promised to love each other forever?"

"Winry," he murmured, squeezing her hands in his as he looked into her eyes. Winry was grinning at him, a piece of white tissue paper sitting on her head as an impromptu veil. He couldn't help but grin back. "I promise to love you forever. And ever and ever."

"I promise to love you forever and ever, Ed," she said, biting back a small giggle. Ed wasn't sure how exactly Lucy had managed to convince Winry to put down her work long enough to play, but he made a mental note to give her an extra cookie at their next tea party. He owed her.

"Okay, now you just give each other rings and you're married!" Lucy said, coming in and holding her hands up as if she was making a grand announcement. Her face suddenly twisted into a frown, and she shook her head. "Oh, no, I forgot the rings. I guess you have to get divorced now."

"Uh, wait," Ed said, feeling something inside him lurch just at the concept. Even if it was just a silly make-believe game from the mind of a kid. He couldn't help it. Somehow he just got sucked into games when he played with little kids, and he couldn't bear to see the game not go as they planned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small box he'd been taking everywhere.

"I have some rings, we don't have to get divorced."

Lucy immediately went back to grinning from ear to ear, while Winry stared at the box with wide eyes.

"Ed. Is that...?" she whispered. He caught her eye and grinned at her.

"Yeah, I made them," he said as he slid the ring on her finger. "From the bolts of my first and last automail arm, so we can always remember how far we've come. And because you're my first and last."

"Ed," Winry breathed, tears springing to her eyes as she slid the matching ring on him. As soon as it was on his finger, she was throwing herself into his arms and giving him a deep kiss. Ed grinned against her. Okay, so it wasn't exactly how he had planned to show her the rings, and he wasn't willing to count it as a proposal if he hadn't actually asked anything. But it was better. Winry responding to him with tears and a kiss seemed like he was on the right track.

As he kissed Winry, he was distantly aware of Lucy in the background whooping and shouting, "Yay! You're married!"

He would get it right somehow. Eventually.

Do you ever have a chapter written, but then you don't like it, so you add a scene, but then you don't like it, so you take it back out, but then you still don't like it, so you add it back in, but then you still— Yeah, that was this chapter. Eventually, I just decided to say it was good enough and post it anyway.

But we got the canon proposal for 503! Whoo! That was kind of the scene that inspired this entire oneshot, really. Because it was way too fun to show the FULL level of panic that was in Ed's head through that. Hopefully I also managed to make other pieces fit together decently so it all worked.

Proposal count: 7