Roy called Ed up the next day and proceeded to summon him to work without a question about his health. He sent him to investigate the bodies with the coroner; sensitive as the man was, he failed to acknowledge the look of distress on the younger boy's face and how he shook violently more and more every time he went to the morgue.
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"This one didn't work either, sempai." He cowered, fearing his master's wrath.
"I didn't actually expect her too…" he replied, much to his surprise. "We need that girl. She's the only one who would work… The key to this is virginity. The girl must be a virgin and have some level of intellectuality."
"Should I get her tonight?"
"No… they're getting suspicious. We must be patient. We must wait for the right time. I'm in a cheerful mood, perhaps we'll wait until after the holidays, give them a bit of… joy before we take her."
"Hai, sempai. B-b-but… you will help me restore her after you complete your task, won't you? You'll help me restore my Nina?"
"Of course… Tucker. You have my word. Now get rid of the body."
---
Winry stayed Central for a month, deciding to leave right before Christmas. Ed and Al were to go home to Rizenbul with her for the holidays. During that month at Central, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The murders stopped and Roy ceased to summon Ed to the morgue, regardless of how he always same out pale and how his eyes shown with a mad light.
Each night, when he went to bed, he would stare at the wall until it blurred. Winry would tiptoe from her bed across the room to his and wrapped her arms around him until he stopped trembling. They would fall asleep like that, in the safety of each other's embraces.
Ed felt a change when he woke up to Winry's smile each day. He noticed this more and more as the holidays drew closer. He actually felt… happy. Whenever he was with Winry, his heart felt lighter and he could think of nothing but her. He had nearly forgotten how it felt like to be happy. There were the fleeting memories of okasan, Hughes, Nina and Alexander but this felt different. They had all made him happy in their own way; okasan as she was, Hughes as an annoying favorite uncle, Nina as a sister and Alexander as a faithful companion. Winry made him happier than any of them, with the exception of okasan and Al had.
Perhaps it was love. It wasn't as though he had never loved before. He had loved his okasan, and Al, and of course, Nina, who captured their hearts. But each of these loves had brought him so much pain as he lost them one by one and the near loss of Al. These thoughts continued to torment him every waking and sleeping hour.
Winry, unlike the others, was consistent. She was always there and always would be; he couldn't explain why but he felt sure of this.
Whenever Al was out, they would steal kisses and occasionally touch but nothing ever went further than that. It left him slightly frustrated but he had no desire to push her into doing something she didn't want to do. He cared for her too much. He would just have to endure the cold showers.
Once, when Al was in the library, she had pushed him on the sofa and pressed her lips against his. When her tongue touched his, he suddenly noticed the way she was straddling him. As she pressed against him, he felt as though his pants had shrunk. He was blushing furiously when he pulled away, breathless. He wanted her. He had to run to the bathroom for another cold shower to refrain from throwing Winry on the floor and taking her then and there.
As Christmas approached, he began to wonder about what present to get for Winry. Normally, he and Al ignored holidays, claiming they were "major companies' ways of scamming consumers." This year was different. Winry was there. And he loved her…
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Really short because of school, holiday shopping, and that whole deal. I hope to get the next chapter up by Christmas, which is actually a Christmas chap. I had to use "sempai" as the killer's title because I don't want to give away his name yet, but I will soon enough. I do hope I used the title correctly… Review please.