Chapter Ten: Her Apology
So warm… I kept my eyes closed and shifted a little, feeling the sunlight from the window seep into the room. Which would mean that any minute I would have to wake Winry up, then get our arses over to the work room to continue with the reasearch. I was still too sleepy to bother about thinking why I was so warm, or why something incredibly soft was leaning up against me. It wouldn't take me long to find out.
The door swung open without any sign of knocking, and I opened my eyes drowsily. "Sorry about the intrusion but we have been knocking for the past half an hour and it's time you attend to your duties." The female solider said with a loud gasp at the end. So that's what that loud banging noise was. I laughed inwardly, yawning and stretching my arms slightly. That's when I felt it. My hand came into contact with the soft locks of a woman unmistakably, and before I could become surprised the female solider was apologising frequently.
"I'm so sorry I interrupted! Oh my!" She bowed constantly. "Please don't fire me!" She ran out the door slamming it behind her. This caused me to frown in confusion, forgetting about what I had just felt a few seconds ago… until she shifted.
I felt her arch her back and yawn slightly before grabbing onto my arm and clutching it against her chest. My eyes slowly glanced sideways and I gulped too quickly for my health before I almost had a heart attack. She yawned again and opened her eyes a little, smiling at me contently. Did something happen that I didn't remember?
"Morning." She giggled, kissing the top of my shoulder lightly.
"W-w-w-winry…" I stuttered, trying to pull myself away. "What are you doing… there…?" I tried not to yell, almost falling off the bed in my haste to get away from her. She instantly sat up and looked around the room in a dazed state, before she slapped her forehead and sighed.
"Shit I forgot!" She mumbled, as I jumped out of the bed and observed my current attire. I gave her a harsh look, warning her that she had better explain herself before I killed her. I looked around the room to see my clothing thrown in all directions and only looked back at her with fear. Was I drunk or something? What the hell happened here? "Really it's nothing Ed you're jumping to conclusions…" Winry muttered, clinging to her nightgown. I saw her exposed legs and instantly remembered the sensation of her rubbing them against mine during some time I had woken up. I tried to forget how comfortable I had felt and glared back at her with anger.
"ME? JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS! The only ones that will be jumping to conclusions is the whole of the military when I step out there!" I yelled with depression, falling down onto the bed she was supposed to sleep on!
"You looked uncomfortable… so I made you more comfortable, and I must have fallen asleep." She said with hurt in her eyes. "I'm sorry…" She looked down and clutched her nightgown.
"Winry there are some things…" I trailed off, realising I shouldn't finish it.
There was only so far you could go before things got a little to romantic. I sighed and raised myself from the bed to lend her my hand. She apologized again and took my hand to help her stand up. "Idiot." I laughed, patting her on the head. "You don't have to do that okay?" I was completely confused still as to what happened and why she had been so affectionate towards me. But after everything we had been through together I wasn't going to question her on this. "I just don't want to hear the Colonel's long sarcastic remarks again…" I growled with annoyance. "I bet they will throw an engagement party for us or something." Winry looked up at me and frowned.
"She might not tell anyone you know." Winry said with confidence.
"She will." I replied firmly, searching around the room for my clothing. I kept blushing every time I picked up another piece, realising Winry had taken it off. She also seemed to be blushing when she noticed how far she had thrown things around. "Don't you remember anything?" She asked as I pulled my pants up over my boxers.
"Remember what?" I asked in a haste, tightening my belt. There was a silent pause for a minute before I looked up at her with confusion. "What?" I asked again observing her completely shattered face.
"I thought that…" She looked away sadly and left me confused. "Never mind you obviously don't remember." Winry sighed heavily, tying her hair up quickly before putting her bandanna on. She had already sorted her tools which I was grateful for and unlike most girls it didn't take her long to get ready. She was a no nonsense sort of person, I liked that about her.
"Winry what happened last night? Did I do something wrong?" I questened after pulling my black shirt over my head, choosing to ignore my black jacket. Instead I just put my read coat over the top and covered my auto mail with a glove. Even though the military was part of my home, some still didn't know about my past and I wanted to keep it that way.
"No you didn't, don't worry, I'm just being stupid." She walked into the bathroom with her clean work gear in hand to get changed, while I waited for her, placing my boots on my feet.
I found myself daydreaming about the warmth. That warmth I hadn't felt in so long. It reminded me of the days I would lie with mum. Or when my brother still had a body to feel with. Winry had reminded me what that warmth felt like. She emerged with a slightly upset look on her face. She hadn't bothered to pull her overalls up, as usual, and held the wrench in her gloved hands. I wondered what had happened last night to make her so upset, but kept the thoughts in my mind. She would only reply with "Nothing" anyway. She picked up her toolbox and trotted out the door after me. Avoiding the staring and pointing on our behalf.
"Ahahahaha Full metal getting it on with a girl in your room I hear not to shabby."
"You two are so sweet together I knew you would get together one day."
"Hey she aint a bad catch Full Metal"
"Full Metal Sir Congratulations!"
"You finally did it Edward! We'll be rooting for you."
I walked through the crowded hallways with Winry practically clinging to with fear. I would be too with all the men coming up to her and calling her an attractive catch. The fact she was clinging to my arm didn't make the situation look any better and finally the chattering and murmuring got to a point where I couldn't take it anymore. I turned around with a tense face.
"SHE'S JUST MY AUTO-MAIL MECHANIC!" I yelled loudly, pointing at the soldier who barged into our room earlier.
"An Auto-mail mechanic with benefits ay? Like sleeping with her… sounds like a pretty good deal to me!" A man called from the back.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" I fumed, entering the locked room and slamming the door behind me. Winry stood in front of the bench clutching the tool box in her hand. Her head down. "Sorry about that Winry, they are all horny losers." I sighed giving her a weak smile, despite the fact it was all her fault!
"I'm sorry, you must be embarrassed that people think you are with me." Winry replied clutching the box tighter than before. I opened my mouth with shock and stared at her. "It's my entire fault."
"Now just wait a second Winry…" I started in an upset tone. But she ignored this and turned away walking over towards the desk. "I…"
"Tonight's a full moon you know?" Winry turned to look at me with a sweet smile adorning her features. I smiled back admiring the way she looked at the machine, the way she put so much effort into the work she did, it always fascinated me. I nodded and stared back at her curiously. "I have something I want to tell you tonight… will you take me to dinner?" She asked softly, pulling part of the engine away from it. She held it up in the light and widened her eyes.
"Take you out?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. She nodded sadly and turned back to her work while I sighed and dropped my coat over the lounge. I gathered some papers together, thinking on her request in doing so. Some time passed by as I flicked through the papers. I took any plans to Winry that she would have thought interesting, and for some time, I had forgotten about her request. It seemed she had also. Her face was twisted in determination as she stared down at plans and tried to understand how parts of the engine fitted together, or how it caused the Zeppelin to fly.
"Hmm hydrogen must be the lifting gas… it only makes sense." She murmured, furrowing her eyebrows.
"That's right hydrogen would do it." I replied. "But it still needed an engine… equivalent to about four 1200 hp engines of our advanced cars in central." I told her. Winry nodded her head and grinned back at me.
"Thanks!" She said holding her thumb up in the air. "Truly are huge things aren't they?" She mumbled turning back to her work.
"So then… when and where?" I asked her, blushing slightly.
"Hmmm you said London right? And as for when… I can't even comprehend this type of technology in this world… maybe hundreds of years." Winry said scratching her head in frustration.
"So you want me to take you to London in a couple hundred of years for dinner?" I laughed, crossing my legs to seal the joke.
"Huh?" Winry turned around with a completely blank look on her face, the paper crumpled in her hand. This only added to my amusement. I began to laugh more as Winry finally realised what I meant and grinned. "Really?" She asked with delight. "I thought you weren't going to since you didn't say anything, I forgot about it I guess." Winry replied shyly.
"Well I am hungry so why not, I can take a friend out to dinner can I not?" I asked her with a reassuring smile.
"Well… but technically you aren't since I asked you." Winry said thoughtfully.
"That's okay you're allowed to ask aren't you?" I said, my rhetorical questions starting to annoy Winry. She replied, even when the question didn't need an answer.
"Well you are supposed to ask me, all women get asked by the man." Winry said placing her hands on her hips.
"But you're not every woman… are you?" I replied, raising my eyebrow with a slight smirk.
"What's up with you today?" Winry blushed, placing her hands behind her back. "You're being really complimentary… even after I slept with you and got the whole military talking."
"I don't really care." I replied with a sigh. "The fact is I am really grateful for all your help on this and I know you don't think I am, so why not take you out? And you asked it's not like I asked… and it's not a date or anything…" I blushed looking away. Why the hell was me accepting her offer so surprising to her?
"Oh great I got you all defensive now… lets see... lets just go anywhere, I don't care as long as I'm with you." Winry said with a slight squeal of excitement, turning back to her work. "This type of weight... it could only possibly move at max 190 km per hour… that's slow…" She hummed tapping her screwdriver on the bench.
"There aren't many places to eat around here, it's sort of just experienced a war Winry." I told her blushing over her previous comment.
"Anywhere is fine." She replied digging into the papers.
"Military base?" I asked, my mouth curling upwards just awaiting her reaction.
"THAT'S SO STIFF? THAT'S NOT ROMANTIC AT ALL!" Winry yelled, turning her attention to me. I only burst into a fit of laughter. She jerked with confusion a little and cupped her elbows… she always did that when she was nervous…
"Right right okay, not the military base I'll see what I can do…" I laughed again, grabbing a new pile of papers un-sorted through. I knew I was just saying that to get a reaction out of her. "Honestly I think it's a good idea, I am sick of eating that military crap here anyway…" I said with frustration. Curious as to what she wanted to tell me as well.
"Ed we have only had it a few times…" Winry said rationally. "But I hate staying on a military base… it's just so stiff…" Winry added. I nodded but sighed.
"I'm used to it." I replied, the reason I was sighing over. "Does that make me some stiff military person? Someone who would kill if ordered to… someone who uses energy from beyond the gate for his own personal…" I trailed off, looking away in thought. I heard the welding of Winry come to a halt. She was watching me, observing me like she did in all times I spaced out. She felt bad for me, she felt angry for ever bringing anything up. But worst of all, I now knew that Winry was afraid… afraid to talk around me in fear she would mess me up with just the mention of one little word… and this scared me because it was true.
Night came quickly and Winry had rushed to the room in a haste to get dressed. She laughed with glee while putting her hair up, saying something about she having to look good for me after I complained.
"Why?" I questioned, not fully understanding the way the woman's mind worked, but I was quite sure friends didn't need to be like that around each other. Besides she always looked good anyway. She had just re-applied some light lip-gloss and grinned.
"Because I want to look nice for Ed." She had replied, turning to me with a cheerful smile.
I shrugged, finding the notion some-what testing the boundaries of friendship… but hey, this was Winry we were talking about, apparently now sleeping with me was considered as a nice thing to do. Undressing me without my permission was merely a kind gesture of her friend-ship. I tried my hardest to push the thoughts of recent events out of my mind and watched her beautify herself with a sort of amusement. She had been awfully nice lately… did I do something? I mean usually she would bash my head ten times a day with the wrench but now it was lucky if I got it once.
"Ready!" She exclaimed grabbing her purse.
"Really Winry you don't have to go to so much trouble." I blushed at her appearance and looked away, throwing my coat over my shoulder. "I mean… were only going to some random place you don't have to go looking so good."
"You think I look good?" She asked with a soft smile on her face. Her voice was barely a whisper but I heard it and instantly blushed.
"Well…" I tried to fumble for the words in my head and stuffed my hands into my pockets.
"Don't worry about it." Winry giggled, flipping her hair over her shoulder. She had curled the ends slightly so her hair bounced with her steps. I found myself entranced by the rhythm of her hair as she walked in front of me.
"Hey Ed…" Winry said, turning around with a huge grin on her face. I glanced at her quickly feeling my face suddenly heat at the memories.
"Oh you two are going out together why I must say you look beautiful Winry!"
"Taking her to some romantic spot to make-out hey Ed, not a bad idea!"
"Oh you two I just can't wait till the marriage."
I had walked through the bustling crowd of soldiers that finding amusement in us, with intention to use alchemy on all of them. But Winry just bounced ahead, the comments not fazing her in the slightest. But they fazed me, what bothered me the most was the fact the men were referring to Winry as some sex object while she was present, I didn't like hearing Winry talked about that way. Such as "Me doing her in the hotel room" "Me taking her to some private place to kiss" "Me dating her for her beauty" "Me catching a good fish" "Other men wanting to get their hands on her" I didn't like these comments at all, they offended and hurt me for Winry's sake, she was someone I cared about so much I wasn't going to have her referred to like that.
"Ed you there?" She waved a hand in-front of my face, continuing to walk backwards in front of me as we passed through the silent town in search for some place to enjoy the evening. Or food should I say since I was starving.
"Yeah what?" I asked with annoyance, observing her facial expression. This wasn't the first time she had turned around to ask me stupid questions and I was starting to get annoyed, could she ever be quiet?
"I want to pay for tonight." Winry said softly clutching her purse in her hand nervously.
"Winry don't be stupid, I have nothing to spend all my money on anyway." I replied with a small smile, putting my coat on instantly when I noticed a small light on the corner of the street. A strangely delicious smell was coming from there. She opened her mouth as if she was about to complain, but I grabbed her hand and began running instantly. She let out a shocked squeal and shouted something about not being able to run in the shoes. I just grinned insanely, becoming overly happy for some reason and ran inside the small private food place.
Winry glanced around the fairly limited space. It was small but cosy and there were not so many people dining. Winry clapped her hands together with glee. "It's perfect!" She exclaimed, finding a comfortable seat in the corner and waving at me. I went up to the waiter to let her know we were here. I rolled my eyes at Winry and turned to the woman. "What type of food you got here… we just want something simple like rice." I said, leaning my elbow on the counter.
"Yes well we don't have much other than rice, I'm afraid it's just me and my husband running this place so people can come enjoy the night out, two bowls of rice coming up full metal Sir." She grinned, writing it down on paper. I looked at her with curiosity and frowned.
"Sorry but is there something about me that gives away my title?" I looked down at myself and although I wasn't wearing my black coat I was wearing my read one with my gloves… it's not like my auto-mail was viewable.
"Yes well it's very obvious, not to be rude or anything you're not very large." I screwed my face up at this comment, but calmed once she went on. "Your costume also, and your very handsome I have heard with eyes that burn with determination, also your long golden hair tied into a plait was a big giveaway."
"C-costume!" I asked with infuriation. "SMALL!" I yelled even louder. "Just remember who is paying you! It's not a costume!" I muttered under my breath.
"Is that your wife to be I have heard so much about?" I looked at her with confusion not fully understanding the question before she cocked her head in Winry's direction. I instantly blushed, and raised my hands shouting words of denial.
"She's just my auto-mail mechanic" I said with exhaustion. resting my head on the bench. "I seriously don't know why I bother anymore; maybe I should just let the whole world think we are together… I mean why does everyone think we are so god-damn together? Is it just me because I can't see how we look together at all!" I said with argument as the woman slaved over the stove in front of me. I handed her the cost for the meal and sighed.
"Is that so? You aren't together? But my I would say you two do look awfully together… she looks extremely happy to be here with you…" The woman trailed off. I widened my eyes and turned my head to see Winry grinning at me and beckoning for me to come to her with her hands. I turned back to the woman with a defeated look on my face and nodded.
"Yeah she does… I wonder why…" I scratched my chin thoughtfully and shrugged, I wasn't going to start trying to understand Winry, I have given up in that department along time ago.
"If you don't mind me saying, you seem very blind to the obvious… but I can see what that woman wants…" She winked at me and turned her back leaving me to stand and wonder.
"What do you mean by what she wants?" I said dangerously low pointing at her in annoyance.
"ED! HURRY UP!"
I turned around and tensed my face in apology to Winry who was growing impatient. I started to walk over to her. "Two bowls of rice." I told her relaxing into the chair. "We didn't get anywhere today… I wonder if…" I glanced outside the window to the stars peacefully. Al and I… we used to gaze up at the stars like this…
"Ed can we please not talk about that type of stuff tonight…" Winry asked with some slight desperation in her voice. I caught onto her drift of thought and nodded with an apology.
The night was fairly awkward and silent. We ate our rice in silence, simply lost within our own thoughts. Neither of us were going to bother saying aloud. Then it started… Winry was constantly tapping her fingers on the table… then she was wringing her hands together or fiddling with the napkins and tearing them to shreds. I watched her cautiously asking for another bowl, while she just sat there, hands in her lap, her head looking down and making no eye contact with me whatsoever.
"Winry?" I questioned with confusion, holding my chopsticks above my bowl while waiting for her to reply.
She looked up at me and managed to throw me a very forced and nervous smile. Her eyes filled with what seemed to be anxiety. Then within seconds she was playing with the chopsticks. I stared at her blankly for a little while longer and put my bowl down. "Do you feel sick?" I asked leaning over the table to collect the many pieces of shredded napkin all over the table.
"I'm nervous." She replied with a quiet stutter. "Do you think we could get out of here?" She asked, looking up with sadness in her eyes. I glanced between her and the bowl of unfinished rice with longing in my eyes, but the sudden pain and suffering in hers was enough for me to comply.
"Sure let's get out of here then." I called over the woman to thank her for the meal.
Saturn stars