Previously:

Edward conceded that point and let his brother help. "We should just put a soap array on the counter," he laughed. "Do you remember when we made that hand shaped thing out of a stick and a towel at Granny's so I could wash my hand on my own?"

"You know she kept that thing don't you?" Winry called from the table as Edward and Alphonse entered from the hall. "Those boys actually made something useful." Winry's imitation of Pinako's voice was almost perfect. "Let's Eat!"

Edward liked the sound of that. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until he'd seen his brother with that stack of sandwiches. His happiness, as he settled back into the chair was only slightly diminished when she added "After lunch, Ed, You're going to have a good long nap."

Date: 10. Dec. 19 – Wednesday
Time: 14:00
Location: Central City – Home of General Roy Mustang

Edward sat in the chair by the window, but at the moment, rather than looking out at the view, or the kids playing in the open park across the street, he was staring at the keys in his hand. The stressful part of the day was behind him now, and he had already taken the "good long nap" Winry had prescribed. He hadn't even argued about it. The flurry of activity and excitement had exhausted him more than he was willing to admit. It had surprised him to be so tired given how many times he had been made to return to his bed and rest. Edward remembered that Winry had woken him at some point for a few minutes for scheduled medication, but he had fallen back to sleep right away. Otherwise he had slept for over two hours, and awakened on his own. In fact, he had awakened alone in the room for the first time in days.

Edward shook the keys, enjoying the sound and weight of the two metal pieces on their ring. Now that the house was really and truly his, he could acknowledge how much stress he had been experiencing during the process. No wonder he had raved about it in his fevers, and worried over it when he was awake but too ill to fully understand the slow passage of time between waking and sleeping. Now he felt lighter, more rested, and if he were honest, had been relieved to hear the doctor tell him he was progressing pretty well. He had believed that he was despite some of the difficulties he'd had, but it was good to have it confirmed.

Though it wasn't really necessary, Edward had gotten himself dressed anyway. If he was going to be able to get up and move around on his own, he didn't want to be in pajamas all day. This time, though his clothes were more ordinary. The cotton shirt had a simple band collar, and he'd rolled the sleeve back on itself a couple of times with the help of his teeth. He had put on a moss colored single breasted waistcoat with a notched collar and plain brown slacks, both of wool. Edward was pretty sure it was tweed. He knew he ought to know, coming from Rizembool. He wasn't that sure. The jacket lay on the foot of the bed that Edward had at least tried to straighten up a bit. He knew he could have done it with only one arm. But with one leg as well, making it entirely, he discovered, was just a bit beyond him at the moment, so he'd come over to sit in the chair and watch the world in relative peace.

A glance out the window brought a little smile to Edward's face. The sun was bright, and for the time of year, the weather looked remarkably fine. Though Edward didn't know the temperature outside, but given that a fair number of people seemed to be out and about, he thought it couldn't be too cold. Some little kids were working on their snow forts again making the inevitable repairs to the barricades that had come apart some since the day before. A group of teenagers had stopped watch. He could hear them calling out to the younger kids, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.

"Brother?" Alphonse peeked in causing Edward to turn. "Oh, you're already up!"

"Yup." Ralph squeezed in past Alphonse's legs, trotting over to sit in front of his man expectantly. "Come on Ralph," he put the keys down and patted his leg. The little hound expertly landed himself there and sprawled bonelessly for petting.

"Come here, Al." He motioned with his head, looking back out the window.

"Are those big kids teasing the little ones?" It amused Edward that Alphonse sounded like he might go down there and straighten them out if they were.

"Nah, I don't think so. I think they're offering advice," Edward chuckled. "Look look look!" he pointed, as the group of older kids split off to join opposite teams. "They're going to help!"

Alphonse laughed outright, his voice, not quite settled, cracking a little. They watched for a bit. "That tall boy is holding a class teaching the littles how to make a good snowball!" This seemed to amuse the younger brother greatly.

The whole thing looked like a merry affair as the improved snowballs began to fly. The brothers watched for a while longer in silence before Edward spoke again. "Hey Al… Do you think we missed out on stuff like this?" he asked, as a brief spark of envy jetted through him.

"Not at all," Alphonse responded, his tone of absolute certainty. "Even after what happened, and even though we were on a serious journey, we had tons of fun too. Remember? We played with other kids. I mean, we had to keep moving forward, but we had fun and played together too."

The spark faded, and Edward let his smile return. "I'm glad," he said. "Sometimes, it's hard to remember anything but chasing trails. First that damned stone, then… Huskisson," Edward spat the name with his distaste. "Then it was a completely different trail trying to figure out how to get back home again." He recognized that Alphonse, when his memories had returned, was physically still a child at the time, and part of his psyche had been as well until his things had become more integrated. He remembered their journey together in a little different perspective than Edward did. It was fresher in his mind. "I guess we even had some fun over on the other side of the gate," he admitted. "We sure got to see a bunch of stuff."

"Most people," Alphonse began, "Even not counting the bad stuff, wouldn't see as much as we have in an entire lifetime."

"Man," Edward breathed. "I wish I could have got my hands on the blueprint of an airplane. Winry would have lost her mind!" Edward had flown in a small airplane ever so briefly. He remembered making some wisecrack at Lang about whether the movie maker could fly it by himself, as if he had been any help. He had only seen pictures of the original flyer, but secretly, that was the blueprint he'd wanted to find for Winry.

"We wouldn't have seen her for a year!" Alphonse laughed.

"Hey, where is she?" Edward wanted to know.

"Oh," Alphonse glanced over his shoulder towards the workspace they had set up for Winry in the corner of Edward's room. "You were sleeping really well, so she took the springloader down to Mr. Mustang's lab to work on it."

"I did," Winry said coming in with the limb in question. She paused to acknowledge Ralph's excited greeting with some pets. Your new leg isn't ready for you yet. I'm waiting for some of the parts to arrive. You're not ready for it yet either," She added, "But since you're likely to be cleared for an unpowered leg within the next few days, I wanted to make sure it was in good working order and adjusted for you ahead of time, Ed."

"Are you all finished, Winry?" Alphonse asked.

"Yup."

"Great!" Alphonse hopped up out of his chair. "Just let me get my keys."

"Uh…" Edward pointed his finger accusingly, "Where are you guys going?"

"We're going to look at your house, brother."

"WHAT!?" Edward's temper rose sharply. "Hang on a minute!"

"You don't want to go?" Winry asked sweetly.

"Wait…" Edward bit his lip, confused for a moment "What do you mean?"

"Dr. Sheridan said it would be okay to take you over to your house to look around for a bit." Alphonse beamed at his brother.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Alphonse assured him.

"Only for an hour or so, Ed," Winry warned. "Don't get too excited."

"Ok…" Edward frowned a little, but his mood quickly brightened as an idea struck him. "Hey, let me call Audey before we go. Maybe he can meet us over there."

"Audey?" Winry expression registered confusion.

"My friend, Audey Wright, Winry," Ed elaborated. "You remember him."

"Oh, Mr. Wright?" Winry's brows went up. "I thought he was your student, Ed."

"Well, that also happens to be true. At least for this semester; but he's also a good friend. You don't have to call him 'Mr. Wright'. We're all about the same age. We had coffee and sweets together at that café before you left to get ready for your exam, remember? You and me, and Al and Molly, and Audey and…" he shrugged, "Eh… his date whatever her name was."

"That's not very nice, Brother," Alphonse chided him from where he was tidying up Edward's attempt to make the bed. "Her name was Evelyn."

Edward snorted. "How am I supposed to keep track of every girl he dates? He reminds me of Havoc." He laughed.

Date: 10. Dec. 19 – Wednesday
Time: 14:30
Location: Central City – The Home of Major Edward Elric on Oak Street

"There it is, Winry," Alphonse pointed out the surprisingly ordinary looking white and brown house to her.

"Oh! It looks nice."

"Geeze, Win," Edward piped up from the back seat he was sharing with his crutch and one of Mr. Mustang's folding chairs. "What were you expecting exactly?"

Winry rolled her eyes, "I don't know," she admitted with a laugh. "Maybe I thought the whole thing would be painted red or something."

"Red is a badass color," Edward reminded her. He snickered at the face she made. "Maybe not for an entire house… The roof is red though."

"And so is the door," Alphonse chimed in.

"And that's the right color for a front door," was Edward's response.

Winry couldn't see that from where they were at that moment. The deep porch fronting the entire width of the house cast the front door in shadows. It looked like there was a small round window on either side of the door to the left of that, was big set of windows that she guessed probably looked out from the living room. Winry saw Mr. Wright, Audey, as well. He was already standing on the porch when Alphonse turned the car into the driveway to park behind the old truck Winry assumed belonged to Edward's friend.

Edward was already fidgeting in the back seat. Winry could practically feel the vibration of his excitement at seeing his house. "There's Audey!" He waved at his friend. Winry though if he'd had both legs, Edward would have jumped out of the car before Alphonse even had it parked properly.

Audey waved back at them before shoving his hands back into his pockets and heading towards the car to greet them. "Hey, Ed!" He greeted his friend when Ed popped his door open. Audey opened Winry's door for her first and handed her out before he turned his full attention to Edward. "You want a hand out of there, Ed, or you got it?"

"I got it." Edward handed him his crutch for a minute until he got himself turned and his foot on the ground before he took it back to pull himself up. "You can grab that stupid chair though."

Audey took him at his word, and headed around to the other side of the car to get it, greeting Alphonse as the younger brother was unfolding himself from the driver's seat. "I swear you're taller every time I see you, Al!"

Winry tried so hard not to snicker at Edward's snort.

Alphonse had the grace to blush. "I don't know about that, Audey. I'm not as tall as you."

"Well," Audey clapped a hand on the younger brother's shoulder. "You got more meat on you than I do. I ain't nothing but gangly."

What the hell kind of word is that? Winry rolled her eyes, stopping Edward to pull his knit hat back over his ears and tuck the loose end of his scarf back into his coat while Edward tried to duck away from the unwanted attention.

"Quit, Winry," he told her under his breath.

Winry let him be, but she already had him tucked in to her satisfaction anyway.

"Better to let her fuss," Audey told him fishing the chair out of the back seat with one long arm before he rounded the back of the car. "C'mon. Let's go see your house, huh?" He headed back up the walk to the porch, unfolded Edward's chair and sat on it to wait for the rest of them to get there.

Winry could see why Edward liked the young man, though. She remembered that he was much smarter than this deep rural western accent implied. He also seemed pretty easy going. Where Edward was fiery and sharp, Audey seemed pliable like water. As friends it seemed like their personalities created a good counterbalance.

Edward seemed amused at Audey sitting there with one foot crossed over his knee, waiting for him to hobble his way up to the house. For a moment, he was stymied by the two steps up onto the porch, but at that point, his friend hopped up from the chair and held his hand out for the crutch while Winry tucked herself in tight with her arm around Edward's waist and his arm over her shoulder to give him a boost up first one step and then the next onto the porch. "Hang on a second." He fished in his coat pocket for the keys before he let Winry three-leg him the rest of the way to the door to so he could unlock it himself. "Tada!" he grinned widely and swung the door inward. "Go on in," he told Alphonse and Audey. Once they were in, Winry hopped him up the step into the house and then let him take his crutch back from his friend long enough to come another step or two into the foyer they had come into so she could nudge the door closed behind him with one foot.

"Is your heat on, Ed?" Winry asked. It was slightly warmer in the house, but not by much.

Edward shrugged. "I dunno. I haven't been inside the house in a month or so," he added a little breathlessly.

Audey set the chair down for Edward, and he sat with only the slightest amount of grumbling. Winry suspected it was because he didn't have the wind to complain about it after the effort of those three hops even with her help.

"The house is wired?" Winry spotted a set of three toggle light switches on the wall by the door where they had entered. Given the rural setting in Rizembool, she had been surprised when she realized that a higher percentage of the houses back home had electric lights than there were in Central. So many of the homes here, including Mr. Mustangs still used gas fixtures for at least part if not all of their lighting. "Is the power on?"

This time Edward nodded. Winry took a guess and flipped the center. It changed position with the fairly solid thunk she had expected from the old fashioned switch and the light in the ceiling fixture came on. The left switch turned on a similar fixture at the turn of the stairs and another at the top of the stairs, and the right didn't seem to do anything. "Huh…"

"That one turns on the front porch lights," Edward told her now that he had recovered a little. He shifted forward on the chair and gestured towards a set of pocket doors to his right. "So, the living room is through there." Winry felt a little surge of satisfaction that it was just where she had predicted. "There's a half bathroom," he pointed at the blank part of the wall in front of him, "Door's off the living room though. Upstairs, obviously," his hand waved toward the stairs on his left that went up three steps to a landing before turning and going up the side of the house, the ceiling following the roofline the rest of the way to the upper floor. He pointed to a sliding door. "That's the coat closet."

"The closet was the powder room originally. They were switched at some point." Alphonse added. "The original blueprint has them reversed, but I think it makes more sense to have the coat closet there."

"Leave your coat on, Ed," Winry warned him. "It's still pretty cold in here."

Edward snorted, but didn't look inclined to do more than loosen his scarf again. "Let's go look at the rest," he reached his hand out for the crutch Audey was holding and got up easily enough.

Winry was relieved to see how quickly he had recovered from the effort he had spent just getting into the house. He might still tire easily, but he was definitely mending. She felt confident that walking around a little bit shouldn't be too taxing for him. Still, she appreciated that Audey had the sense to hook the folding chair over his elbow and carry it around with him as they followed Edward's stumping steps around the house.

The living room was a nice open space with a fireplace on the side wall. A wide archway led back into a decent sized dining room partly open into the kitchen on the right. A bar counter with a couple of old wooden stools partially divided the two rooms. Winry was pretty sure the counter was built over a radiator if the decorative grill work was any indication.

"Hey! Nice back yard, buddy!" Audey observed leading everyone to look out through the sliding glass doors though the covered patio into back garden.

"Yeah, the lot's narrow, but it's deep," Edward supplied. "It's almost half an acre I think; pretty big for a city lot."

"Lookit them big ol' oak trees though," Audey sighed, leaning his long frame against the side of the door. "Must be a hunnert years old."

"Well," Edward rolled his eyes, "That one down there in the corner is a maple," he said. "This one up here in the yard is an oak. It's probably older than that, but it's still in good shape."

"There's squirrels too," Alphonse said with a grin. "I have a feeling that Kitty's going to spend a lot of time parked in front of this door."

"Looks like a nice place to sit in the shade for a picnic in summer," Winry said, liking the way Edward beamed at the praise his house was getting. It wasn't perfect. The house definitely needed some attention here and there. The wallpaper was faded, and peeling in places. It was pretty dated, and didn't really seem like Edward's style either. At the closing though, it almost sounded like Edward was looking forward to putting some work into it. Winry was more than a little impressed that he could see past the imperfections to the potential the house had.

"Come on," Edward drew their attention back inside with a jerk of his head as he started towards a back hallway. "Al, pop those two doors open for me. Will you?"

Alphonse opened a door on their right first. "So this used to all be a garage," he supplied, as they peered into the space. It still had an overhead door on the side the driveway came up on. "This room was the first bay of the garage, but it's been partly converted. I guess it could have been used as a family room, or some kind of recreational room. That door over there leads into the bay that the car will go in."

"For us this one will be more of a work space or lab space," Edward told them. "The floor has been raised level with the rest of the house. I think it's supposed to have radiant heat, but it's in the… floor?"

Alphonse nodded. "And it's electric somehow."

"I have no idea how that can work," Edward admitted.

"Eh…" Audey piped up on this one. "It's kinda new fangled thing. I read about it in Modern Mechanics a while back. You know, ya got three layers for a floor. Sub floor on the bottom, then on top is your hardwood or tile or whatever." He gestured the two layers with his hands and then waggled his thumb in the space between them. "Then y'got this here little space and it's got something like a big ol' 'lectric blanket in there."

"If you say so…" Winry heard Ed laugh at his friend's description before he continued "That other door leads onto the back patio and then the overhead door can still be opened if we're working with something that needs better ventilation."

"Looks to me like a lot of ways to escape," Winry said with a snicker directed at Edward. She received a snort of derision in return.

"Aw! Y'all have a thang you can put one o' them new inside clothes warshin' machines in here, too?" Audey cried pointing out the water inlets and drain built into the wall of the small room at the end of the hall. "Y'all gonna get one?"

"Who knows!" Edward's eyes rolled. "We can clean our clothes with alchemy you know?"

"Whut?" Audey looked doubtfully at him. Winry was beginning to wonder if the man exaggerated his accent on purpose.

"We did it for years when we were travelling," Alphonse laughed. "But I think it's nice when they've been washed and hung out to dry in the sun and breeze."

Edward shrugged. "It's kind of hard on the fabric anyway," he said sounding more like he didn't really care either way. "So, yeah, we'll probably get one. Anyway," he turned and headed back towards the living room. "I'll show you guys the den. "The door used to be in the hall here. You can kind of see the difference in the plaster where they closed it off. I forgot that it's off the living room now."

"This is a pretty nice room, Ed," Winry observed once she flipped the light switch on. "It seems a little warmer in here too." Her hand floated over the radiator, and then rested on it for a moment. "Hmm…"

"What," Edward wanted to know.

"Well, it's not hot, but it's not exactly cold either." She tried the valve, and found that it was open already. It probably felt warmer in this smaller room because the door had been closed. "Normally on a nice day like this, the inside of the house after such a cold stretch would be colder than it is outside, but it's just a bit warmer, and your radiator isn't dead cold, but your boiler isn't doing it's job very well. You're lucky if your pipes haven't frozen."

"I… don't really know much about the heating system," Edward admitted. "There's a boiler in the basement. It looked kind of crappy, but maybe that's normal?" he shrugged at her lopsidedly. "It's not really my field of expertise, you know?"

Winry rolled her eyes. "I can check it out if there's light down there."

"Oh yeah," Edward confirmed. "It's just one big room down there." He pointed out the door at the back of the den.

Winry opened it and peered down the narrow staircase into the darkness. Alphonse reached in past her and flipped on the switch. "Oh, that's better," she said by way of thanking him. "What about you, Ed?"

"I'm not going down there," Edward snorted bouncing his crutch off the floor a couple of times. "Those stairs are way too steep!"

Winry rolled her eyes. "I meant how are you feeling," she said coming back to stare into his face, looking for signs of fatigue. "You getting tired yet?"

"I'm fine!"

"Ok. You go sit in your chair for a while, and I'll go check it out."

"I'll go with you," Alphonse offered.

Winry didn't know what the younger brother could do, but maybe it wouldn't hurt anything to have an extra set of hands. "Ok," She agreed. She gave Edward another stare, "You go sit down for a while, Ed," she ordered before flipping her long ponytail behind her to head down into the basement.

Date: 10. Dec. 19 – Wednesday
Time: 14:47
Location: Central City – The Home of Major Edward Elric on Oak Street

Edward pointed his chin towards the doorway to indicate that Audey should precede him back into the living room. By the time he stumped his own self out there, his friend had already set his little wooden chair by the bench that covered the radiator under the front window. "You know, I could have just sat on the bench," Edward told him.

"Yeah," Audey agreed, "But I'm yer guest, so I'm gonna sit up here. Your ass'll be fine. I bet you ain't hardly 50 kilos with half your limbs off'n you. Besides you'll get more heat off'n the radiator sitting in front of it."

"I'm not cold, Audey," Edward rolled his eyes. "You should see how she's got me bundled up."

"Girls like to take care of their fellas," Audey told him with a chuckle. "You're a smart guy. You oughta be able to figure this stuff out, Ed!"

"Figure what out?" Edward knew he was just pretending ignorance at this point. "Never mind. This little chair is going to break my ass." He complained to change the subject. He could hear Winry and Alphonse talking and the sounds of her tinkering with something metallic.

Audey turned his eyes upwards toward one side of the ceiling for just one moment, and Edward knew that was as expressive coming from his friend as an eye roll from anyone else. "You know," Audey finally spoke again, "You said you wanted to ask a favor?"

"I do," Edward leaned forward on the little chair and dropped his voice conspiratorially.

"Let's go upstairs. There's a little reading nook at the top of the stairs. It even has a little armchair tucked into it. Damned comfortable too." Since the chair had been left behind the second time he'd seen the house, Edward had requested that it stay with the house as part of the contract. It was comfortable, and he wasn't sure it would be easy to find another one that fit as well anyway.

"Oh–no–you–ain't !" Audey at least had the presence of mind to keep his voice low. "That Winry means business," he continued. "You think I don't know she lef' me in charge o' you?"

Edward snorted. "As if!"

"Oh no!? Huh-uh!" Audey shook his head again. "I ain't stupid! Bouncin' up them three little steps up t' the house half kilt you for a minute, Ed. She gonna kick my ass if I let you hop up them stairs. You ain't doing it! No way!"

"Fine!" Edward snapped.

The sharp sounds of a series of "impact adjustments", followed by what sounded like something heavy falling on the stone floor downstairs brought Edward and Audey both to their feet.

Edward wondered if Winry had heard them despite their half whispered dispute. But then she called up from the basement.

"Sorry! It was just the access panel. It didn't want to come off." That was followed by a resumption of more normal sounds.

"Try not to break my house, Winry!" Edward called back, and got an appropriately sarcastic laugh in response. "I guess it's off now," he mumbled quietly.

Edward shrugged and started towards the foyer, his voice secretive again. "I wasn't going to try anyway. You just said I don't weigh much without my arm and leg." He grinned when Audey came up beside him, his expression still uneasy. "No seriously. You might look like a string bean, but you're pretty strong. You can take me up piggy back easy. Heat rises, so it's probably warmer up there anyway. Winry isn't going to care, as long as I didn't try to walk up."

"I dunno, Ed, ol' boy," Audey sounded doubtful. "That girl's 'bout as much steel and fire as you, man. I got no wish to get on her bad side."

Edward squelched a snicker. He had to admit he liked Audey's description of Winry, and then he realized that was probably what attracted him to her. She could keep up with his temper and hard head. "You won't." He gave a little snort of laughter. "She'd know I talked you into it anyway." He exaggerated a long suffering sigh. "She'll probably be glad since there's a better chair up there, and if it's warmer that's in our favor too."

"Huh!" Audey huffed at him stepping ahead to the foot of the stairs. "Well, come on then. I see how it's gonna be." He dropped to one knee, presenting his back to Edward. "Gimme that stick and climb on then. You're gonna fight that girl if she comes after me though," he warned as Edward locked himself around his friend's back and they started up the stairs. "Aw geeze, Ed! Ease up a little bit. Yer gonna squeeze the life outta me 'fore we even get up there. I ain't gonna drop you, so you don't have to hold on for dear life. I got you."

"Sorry," Edward laughed. "Al thought I wasn't holding on tight enough when he brought me downstairs earlier." He lightened his grip as requested.

As expected, Audey carried him up easily and set him down in front of the little blue chair at the top of the stairs. "What's on your mind?"

"You know the movers are coming tomorrow, right?"

"Sure. And I'm still planning to help out."

"Thanks," Edward said. "I think Al's going to be there, but obviously there's not much point in my being there. I hate that so much that I'd just loose my temper." He frowned ruefully at what he knew was the truth, even if he liked to think he had grown out of it. "Winry probably wouldn't stand for it anyway. I have to get this bullshit fixed," he patted his empty shoulder gingerly, "as soon as I'm strong enough again. As much as I don't want to admit it, I know that. If something happened to set me back again, I'll never hear the end of it."

"You ain't kiddin' ol' boy," Audey's finger pointed at him for a moment in warning. "You been looking like hell for weeks. An' what'd I tell you back a couple–three weeks ago? You better get it dealt with and over! That's what I said, an' I ain't even a doctor or nothin'."

"I was, Audey," Edward grumbled. "I just wanted Winry to finish her degree first." He changed the subject abruptly. "Don't sidetrack me. That's not what I wanted to talk about."

"Okay?"

"I want you to check up on the rest of the boys in class," Edward told him. "Mid-terms are coming up and some of them are not going to do well as they are. We have to figure out a way to get them up to speed, fast. This damned storm hasn't done them any favors."

The two of them talked about it briefly and Audey came up with an idea that Edward agreed to. He didn't tell Audey that it was the same plan he had in mind.

"Now," Audey told him pointing at the chair. "That's a pretty nice little chair ya got there. Sit your ass in it while I go get th'other one fer m'self."

Ten seconds after Audey trotted down the stairs, Edward heard Winry's voice, not from the basement, but from the living room. "What the hell did he put you up to?" she demanded.

"Scheisse!" Edward muttered under his breath.

"Oh, nothin' ma'am," he heard Audey say brightly as they came into the foyer. Gods he sounded like Al when he found a stray cat and didn't want anyone to know about it. "Jus' a little piggy back ride."

"I'm fine, Winry," Edward called down. He turned to look over the railing down into the foyer. Good thing he had sat in the chair when he had. He could see Winry standing just inside his line of sight with her hands on her hips and a wrench in her right hand. "I had Audey bring me up here so I could show him the chair I bought with the house."

"Edward Elric, you were supposed to be resting." Audey looked relieved that Edward had intervened in his behalf. His friend sidled away from Winry and started up with the other chair.

"I am resting," he called back. "In my chair. Better than I could the bastard's little folding chair. Come up and see!"

"You should be nicer to Chairman Mustang! He's letting you live in his house right now, you know," Winry advised him as she stepped closer, pointing at him with that damned wrench. Come to think of it, why hadn't he noticed the tool belt slung around her hips earlier today? "Ed!" she barked.

"Sure… sure. I'll be nice," Edward scoffed. "Come up here!"

"Give me a minute," she told him, dropping her arm and twirling the wrench in her fingers before settling it in a pocket of her belt. She still looked annoyed, but Edward guessed since she could see the chair and that he was sitting in it, she was satisfied with that. "I can't fix your boiler right now. Not completely, but I think I found a workaround that should get it working at least a little better for a while. I'm going to try it, and we'll be up in a few minutes. Have your co-conspirator here make sure the radiator valves are all the way open up there, and you stay in that chair and rest until I get up there to talk to you about it."

Edward sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Don't be all day. I'm tired of resting already."

"Pshh!" Winry turned on her heel, her ponytail lashing out behind her as she strode out of his field of vision muttering to herself.

Edward stared after her for a long moment, his brain momentarily overtaken by the swing of her hips and the swish of her long hair, even though the sound of her footsteps was already descending the basement stairs underneath him. He shook himself a little when he heard Audey return from checking the radiators and sit on the little wooden chair.

"Dude…" his friend said seriously, "you got it bad. You better tell that girl how you feel 'fore it's too late."

"What?" Edward felt his cheeks redden. "The hell're you talking about, Audey?"

"Nothin' t'all," Audey let his eyes wander around the ceiling, but the cheeky grin did nothing to reduce Edward's blush.

Date: 10. Dec. 19 – Wednesday
Time: 15:04
Location: Central City – The Home of Major Edward Elric on Oak Street

Alphonse came up to the main floor first, on Winry's instructions to check all the valves there. "Ok, Winry," He called down through the wood floor. "Everything's good up here." He heard her muffled acknowledgement, and headed on up the stairs to join the others.

"Hey, Brother," Edward greeted him. "What's the news?"

"Winry will have to explain it. I didn't quite understand what she was doing. I mostly just held her pen light for her," he laughed. "She'll be up in a minute, though."

"Pretty nice little reading spot, huh?" Edward said, patting the arm of the chair.

Alphonse hated to admit it, but he hadn't actually remembered the little space from the time he had looked at the house with his brother before. "It's a nice chair, and lots of light comes in that window too." Not to mention the light at the top of the stairs was in a good place as well. "It's a little warmer up here."

Edward shrugged. "Heat rises."

"Well it should be rising a little more now," Winry said from the foyer as she started up the stairs. When she reached the top, Audey immediately got up and offered her the little wooden chair so she could sit in front of Edward. Once she was seated, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and just observed quietly for the most part. Alphonse had a feeling Audey didn't miss much, even if he didn't comment on everything.

Alphonse watched too as Winry studied his brother's face, probably looking for signs of fatigue, though to him, Edward looked like he was feeling better than he had for quite some time. Alphonse was impressed with how long he put up with her stare, but eventually Edward got tired of being examined.

"So? What's the score, Win?" Edward wanted to know.

"You know, you have a really old cast iron boiler down there," Winry began.

"Yes yes. It's ancient. It was probably here before the house." Edward rolled his eyes.

"It's kind of cool, Brother," He interjected. Actually, it would have been pretty cool if the boiler had been there before the house, he thought. Of course that was silly, but it amused him to picture it.

"Cool looking," Winry clarified. "It's not very efficient. The system was set to minimal output. It makes sense since the house was empty. But the basement was nice and warm, which means a fair amount of the energy is going to waste down there. Were any of the valves closed up here?"

"Nope," Audey answered. "Some of them were only part way open, not wide open, but not a one was locked all the way down."

"So…" Winry seemed to consider her words. "Here's the thing. It would make sense to have the valves open in the water rooms to keep the pipes from freezing if the house isn't winterized. The way this system is set up, they have to either be open all the way or closed all the way. Mr. Mustang supposedly has thermal sensing valves that you can adjust to control the temperature. Of course, you've experienced how well that's working in your room. It's either boiling or cold. My room is fine, so it's not his system. The valve in your room is just bad."

"My room is ok too," Alphonse offered.

"Our apartment has regular valves as far as I know," Edward told her.

"That's probably true. Thermal sensing is a new type that isn't that common. I don't know exactly how they work. Somehow the valve pops open and closed based on the temperature when the boiler is running its cycle and the amount of pressure on the control from where you have the valve screw set to keep the temperature in the room more constant." It sounded more like a question, Winry's voice rising at the end of her statement. One of her eyebrows went up for a moment as she tried to work it out.

"I reckon it's some kind of metal spring that reacts different when it's under pressure than when it's not," Audey offered. "You turn the crank clock ways and it puts pressure on the spring, so it activates the valve at a lower temperature, but still closes at the end of the cycle." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm not actually sure. I'm just thinking about a kind of valve in a car engine that does something like that that if it's water cooled."

"Some metal alloys expand and contract more than others in hot and cold conditions," Winry mused curiously. She looked like she planned to investigate that, but not now. She must have noticed Edward's eyes starting to glaze over as he fidgeted with his crutch. "That said, I'd replace these valves as soon as you can with the new type. At present, all the radiators are open because I just want to see if all the rooms warm up enough. Normally, I'd suggest closing them in the rooms you're not using, so we'll close them again when we leave and just leave the water rooms open so the pipes don't freeze."

"So, what did you do?" Edward questioned. "It seems like it's getting warmer up here.

"Obviously, I turned up the system output." Winry shrugged, "but Ed, that boiler isn't in good shape. The heat exchanger is probably obsolete, and the pressure valve is releasing too much, which is wasting steam. I can't fix that." She touched her chin thoughtfully. "Though I guess it would be worse if it wasn't releasing enough. At least it's not going to blow up, but I don't know if you can even get parts for something that old. I don't think it's ever going to get up to a comfortable temperature in here. We all still have coats on. You're bound to wake up one morning real soon with the whole house cold. It's kind of inevitable. You need to have someone with more knowledge safety check it too, just to be sure."

Alphonse saw the mild disappointment in his brother's expression. He was pretty sure it had more to do with the realization that even if he might be well enough to leave Mr. Mustang's house now, he was going to have to wait a little longer. "It's not all bad news, Brother."

"Yeah?" Edward brightened a little.

"Sure," Winry continued. "You have a couple of choices. You could replace the boiler with one that's more modern and probably save a lot of money in the long run just in improved efficiency. But while I was down there, I also noticed that the house has been set up pretty recently to receive Central Steam services. There's meters and everything. It's kind of weird that it hasn't been hooked into the system."

"Maybe that guy that owned the house before Mr. Piper inherited it was planning to get rid of that old boiler, and just go on the city services," Alphonse suggested.

"Probably," Edward agreed.

"Do you know if their steam is reliable?"

"Oh yeah," Alphonse nodded. "We've never had any problems."

"We have steam service at our apartment," Edward added. "It's pretty affordable."

"In that case," Winry said, "if it were me, I'd just have them finish the job. It just needs the final connection made from the meters into the main system and the boiler is taken out of the loop. You'd probably pay less for the steam service than you'd pay for fuel even with a new boiler. You can keep the damn thing down there for its 'coolness' for all I care. It might be more trouble than it's worth getting it out of the basement anyway. I'll tell you something else I found out too."

"Which is?" Edward prompted.

"Didn't you even notice you had chillers?" she asked.

"Uh?"

"You have passive chillers in almost every room, Ed right above your radiators."

"Ng! I'm not a machine junky, Winry! I don't even know what that means!"

Winry huffed and rolled her eyes. "Come on. You've rested long enough. Show us your rooms up here, and I'll show you your chillers."

Alphonse almost laughed at how fast his brother popped himself up out of his chair.

"Well?" Edward nodded towards the front of the house. "Come on!" Once everyone back up a step to let him by he headed in that direction. "This is the master bedroom," he announced with no small amount of pride. Since the second of the house right under the roofline, Edward's room was under the large shed dormer in the front of the house.

"It's big!" Winry sounded impressed. "Nice view too!" She added, looking out the wide bank of windows. The radiator under the window was the same style as most of the others wide, and squat. "It's nice to have radiators shaped like this," she observed. "I really like these bench covers." She sat for a moment and held her hand over the ornate grill in front of it. "Feels like there's more heat coming out of the radiator now."

"So what's this chilly thing you're talking about, Winry?" Ed asked.

"Chiller," Winry pointed over her head.

"You mean that bulkhead?" Edward didn't seem impressed. Then he seemed to notice that a section of it also had grillwork that matched the front of the radiator bench below. "Wait, I thought that was just decorative. What the hell is that?"

"Is it another kind of radiator?" Alphonse wanted to know.

Winry got up and stood on the bench. Reaching over her head she was barely just tall enough to reach a latch that Alphonse had never noticed, and given Edward's surprised eyes, as the grate swung down on hidden hinges, he hadn't either. The hatch revealed what really did look a little bit like a radiator, except the configuration was completely different from the one below it.

"How can a radiator make it cooler?" Edward sounded doubtful

"It's a passive chiller, but it's still heat exchange principle," Winry explained. "Just in reverse, it exchanges the heat out of the room with cold instead of exchanging the cold with heat."

Edward shook his head. Alphonse didn't understand either.

Winry tried again. "Come on, you guys… It's equivalent exchange. This should be easy for you. Your radiator takes the colder air near the floor out of the room, and expends heat energy turn the steam into water that runs back down to the boiler and the exchange makes the air warm to increase the room temperature. See? The warm air rises and the cool air falls and that keeps it circulating."

"Hnn," Edward hummed his understanding. "Ok, I get that, but how can a radiator make it cooler?" He repeated.

"With frigid water, Ed!" Winry let her statement hang to see if Ed would put it together. For a moment, his brow furrowed as he thought about it.

"Oh… I think I get it," he said thoughtfully, staring up at the special radiator. "So in that case, warm air up there at the ceiling would, hit the cold radiator, and cool off, and then fall again. Seems like the air would be circulating the opposite direction too."

"I guess it would, with the chiller where it is," Winry agreed, closing the hatch above her and hopping down off the bench. "That doesn't make any difference in how it works really. I mean I guess if you had a fan running, you'd want it to enhance the natural circulation, rather than blowing against it. I don't know if that really matters that much or not. It's not like I'm an expert on this stuff. I only know the basic functions because my shop here has a similar setup."

"That's kind of cool!"

Winry snorted at his joke and added an eye roll. "The point of this whole conversation is that Central Steam also provides frigid water, and you have the plumbing in place for it."

"That's right!" Alphonse said, smacking the base of his fist into his other hand in realization. "I forgot! There're two meters, and two separate sets of pipes. One for steam…"

"The red lever," Winry supplied.

"And one for frigid water!"

"The blue lever!" Winry gave Alphonse a slap on the shoulder in congratulations. "And that one is already tied into the chiller circuit. You guys will just have to add the service if you want to use it this summer."

"Nice!" Edward grinned. "Bonus chair, cooling system. Kinda nice to get a little extra into the deal."

"Y'all talkin' extry…" Winry realized that Audey had wandered off at some point in the conversation and she wondered why he was poking his head out of what she had assumed was a closet, but could now see led to a master bathroom. "Ed! Why is your shower so flippin' extry giant sized?"

Edward's grin widened. "Oh yeah! You guys gotta come and see this!" He led the way through the door. "Master bathroom!" he announced.

Winry glanced at Alphonse who shrugged, grinning pretty broadly himself, as he gestured Winry to go ahead of him. They entered what seemed like a fairly normal sized bathroom on the opposite side of the house from the stairs. The sink and vanity were along the outer wall of the room, a pocket door to her right turned out to be a small separate room for the toilet.

"Win!" Edward got her attention from the door on the left. "Wait'll you see this thing." He practically pushed her into the room that contained a dressing area as well as the shower itself.

"What the– Ed! Why is this so big?" Winry practically yelled when she saw it. Alphonse and Audey were standing in the shower, and now laughing at her reaction.

"I dunno!" Edward laughed at her too, "Because it can be?"

"It must be two meters wide, Ed!" Winry cried.

"Eh," Edward glanced inside obviously pretending to measure it visually. "It's really only about a meter and a half by a meter and a quarter."

"That's ginormous!" Winry yelled at him "And it has three shower heads! WHY?"

"I didn't design it, Winry!" Edward laughed even harder. "But it must be nice, right?"

"I guess so…" The laughter was contagious and now Winry was giggling as well.

"Besides, it backs up to Al's room. If it was any smaller, His room would end up with an awkward shape."

"Geeze!" Winry rolled her eyes. "You could fit fifteen people in there."

"Probably not very comfortably," Alphonse observed, stepping out of the big fixture, still giggling.

"I reckon two people is best," Audey observed with a smirk. "Oof!" Winry didn't miss that he earned an elbow in the stomach from Edward for that somewhat off color remark.

"C'mon! Let's look at my room next!" Alphonse was bouncing on his toes. "It's almost as big as Ed's," he said. "I don't have my own bathroom with a giant shower, though."

"I told you, Al, you can use my shower any time you want to," Edward told him. "Except when I'm sleeping."

The group proceeded into the upper hallway again. Edward pointed out the linen closet. They poked their heads into the main bathroom, which was a single room. It was a bit smaller than Edward's three part bathroom, but it had bathtub that was the normal length but looked a little wider than average as well.

"Al's got a nice view of the back yard," Edward observed as they came into the other big bedroom.

"I told him I'd be happy in the small bedroom," Alphonse shrugged. "This is a lot of space."

"Nah…" Edward shook his head. "You were supposed to have the whole apartment for yourself, Al."

"I don't regret that brother," Alphonse reminded him. "Who knows, maybe I'll buy a house myself once you're settled and well again."

Edward's sour expression cleared a little, clearly mollified by his little brother's reassurance. "Well… The last thing to see is the little bedroom. It's big enough for a couple of desks if we want to use it as an office, or we might set it up as a small guest room."

"It's smaller," Winry observed, "but I think it's big enough that you could probably do both. Put a wall bed in on this inner wall, and a nice big desk by the back window to share. I mean, it seems like you're more likely to keep most of your reference material in that big back room downstairs, right?"

"Yeah, you're right Winry." Alphonse agreed. "Don't you think brother?"

"That's true. And if we found we needed as quieter space to study or whatever, we could always section off a space for that."

"Well, you two can decide that stuff later," Winry broke in before the two of them could get too involved in that conversation. "Right now, it's time to head back to Mr. Mustang's place."

"Aw…" Edward started to grouse

Winry didn't let him go any farther than his initial grumble. "We've been here well over an hour now, and Dr. Sheridan said only an hour or so. "I'm going to run down to the basement and make sure the boiler is still running okay while you two decide how you're going to get Ed downstairs again.

"I'm not tired, Winry."

"And I'm not arguing about it, Ed!" She responded firmly. "It's time for you to have a rest in a properly warm house."

"Fine…" Edward grumbled

Winry made sure all the radiators were in order, and headed to the basement for a final check on the boiler. By the time she came up again, everyone was downstairs in the foyer. She had heard them coming down the stairs, and though she couldn't be sure, she guessed by Alphonse's fussing that Audey had carried Edward back down. Someone had already got Edward's hat back on his head properly and his scarf tucked in. Winry guessed that was Alphonse, as Audey already looked ready to leave, and Alphonse was still buttoning his own coat.

"Hey, Audey. Hang on a second before you take off." Edward balanced his weight in the forearm brace of his crutch, and he reached awkwardly into his coat pocket for an envelope which he handed to his friend. "Al and I made maps of the house and where we want our furniture and stuff," he explained. "He has a copy too, of course, but since you're helping out, maybe between the two of you, the movers will get everything in the right places."

"I'm sure they'll do fine, brother," Alphonse said. "They came with a good recommendation."

"That's probably true. And it's not like we have a lot of stuff in the first place. Still, while I'm out of commission it'd be nice if you don't have to move a bunch of stuff around to get it right. You watch them load and unload your piano. The tuner says it has to acclimate for a couple of weeks before she can tune it."

"Don't worry, brother. She said it shouldn't go out of tune much more than it is as long as it doesn't have a rough ride over. They're bringing a small truck to move it by itself. It'll be the first thing out, and first thing into the new house, and I'm riding with the driver. Alphonse grinned at his brother. "I'll make sure we don't hit any potholes."

"We got this, Ed," Audey assured him, his hand on the door knob.

"I'm counting on you, tomorrow, Audey."

"You got it, buddy." Audey gave Edward a slap on his good shoulder. "I gotta go, y'all. I'm taking Barbie out again. She wants to do some shopping before dinner."

"Oh yeah!" Alphonse grinned as Audey opened the door and with a wave, headed to his truck. "I forgot to tell you earlier, but I'm just going to drop you two off at the Chairman's house. Molly and I have a date too."

Winry wondered about the strange look Edward gave her just then, but she shrugged it off and followed everyone else out the door. He was a weirdo anyway, so who knew what was on his mind at any point in time.

Note: Whoo! Another big chapter. Over 9000 words. I had to stop and research several times, because apparently Winry knows stuff I don't about radiant heating. lol. Well, I didn't. Now I know that stuff too. Fun times. I also realized that before I could write this chapter, I was going to have to build Edward's house myself. (Well, at least design it.) I'll eventually have to furnish it too, so I have a reference to where things are in the house. Right now it's just empty. Well... except for one chair. You'll see. I included the drawings I did of the house over on AO3 if you want to see them.

Note: Next up: Chapter 18 - (I don't know what to call it yet O_o Tentatively titled it "What if?"). This chapter might have some adultish behavior in it. Also, since Edward got to introduce his friend Audey, I might introduce Alphonse's girlfriend, Molly at least briefly. If I do, I'll have to decide what kind of movie they went to see before dinner so they can chat about it. We'll see. lol. I'll be honest. Since I work in retail, the holidays are going to be SUPER DUPER busy for me. I don't expect to publish Chapter 18 until the end of December.

As always, enjoy. Comments always welcome and wanted. Find something weird, please tell me so I can fix it.

I found (and fixed) a couple of places where I accidentally shifted point of view from the POV character of a section to someone else, so I'd always appreciate being told if you find something like that so I can fix it.