FullMetal Alchemist:

Edward Elrics Chronicles

Winry Rockbell -woke up late again. She sighed desperately at the roaring alarm clock and switches it off with a snap of her finger, it's a new feature she added into her wrench shaped alarm clock. She slumps her head to her knees, 'This is turning into a really bad habit' She though dreadfully. Lately she's been up working till early morning and getting only about 2 to 3 hours of sleep everyday. Early this year Grandma Pinako suffered from a shocking stroke. Everyone didn't expect it since she was a bona fide health freak. Now she's staying at a hospital at Dublith in the south since they don't have a hospital here in the east, only a couple of small hospitals and clinics scattered around and that's only if you are able to find them.

Winry walked into her workshop gathering her tools into her toolbox, while her eyes fix onto the blueprint of an automail she's working on. She toyed with her still damp hair from the bath she had taken not a few minutes ago. Last night she managed to finish the endoskeleton of the automail arm. This automail is different from the norm automail, instead of having a normal exoskeleton of metal and mechanical innards, this automail possesses an endo skeletons while the innards are replaced by Winry's new ingenious creation! Synthetic Myofibril or in normal human language –an artificial muscle.

'Ed's gonna be so happy! This baby only weighs 0.00000003184 ounce per centimeter cubic!' Winry chirped as she twirls her trusty wrench and continued working on Ed's automail.

"Here we go… and that should do it," Winry admired her work from a close 360o angle before finally deciding to stop to go to Erika's house 'coz she had promised to look at her broken washing machine.

'The thing keeps shredding every damned garment I put into it!' Erika complaints, her southern accent still evident even though it's been almost 8 years after she moved.

"Alright Erika I'll be there be there around noon, ok?' Winry said with a smile.

'I hope I'm not late.' She thought to herself as she glanced out the window to see everything pitch black. "Oh GOD WHAT TIME IS IT?" She screamed as she looked at her watch, '9.45 p.m! I'm 10 hours late, Erika is going to kill me!' She thought as she dialed up her number. "Hello?" Came the voice from the line. "Erika, it's me Winry! I'm so sorry I've lost track of time I'm coming over right now…" She rambled on nervously. "It's ok Win, I've got it fix already." Erika said. 'Fixed? By whom? She was the only mechanic in town.' She thought, perplexed. "You sound tired Winry get some rest, see you at the market tomorrow." Erika said and then the line when dead. Winry put down the phone, still puzzled. As she was deep in though, her eyes landed on a hooded figure on window looking straight at her. A loud scream filled the Rockbell resident. Winry jumped and hid behind a table her legs shaking like crazy. She heard loud banging, the 'thing' was banging at her window. The thing wanted to get in!

Outside, Edward Elric sighed desperately as he watched Winry screamed and hid behind the table. It was a cold night and a slight drizzle is starting to come down. 'Come on Winry, open up!'

His nose was feeling a little tingly and within a nanosecond he…

Winry, heard a sneeze and became curious. 'That's weird, ghost don't sneeze.' She said to herself as she grabbed a torchlight and waved it towards the window. A state military uniform became to materialize. She edged slowly towards the window and opens it up.

"Ed…?"

Inside

"Watch where you're throwing that thing!" Ed yelled.

"Why should I?" Winry shot back, picking up a fold-up chair and letting it fly through the air towards Ed who missed it only by a millimeter. "I'm sorry for scaring you, I knocked but no one answered so I went to the window!" Ed tried to explain, dodging a cannon size hammer, "Look at the bright side, Win! I got my automail back in one piece!"

Winry stopped throwing momentarily, "Really?" she said, her face brightened like a fluorescent light.

"Well… sort of," Ed tried to explain and with a nudge the whole automail fell of from its shoulder socket. Hot steam was literally blasting out of Winry's ear.

"I knew I should've just super glued it on," Ed thought.

Winry stood silently in front of the broken automail laid out on her work table sighing as she filled up the order form for the replacements. Right now part of her was really excited because she can test her new prototype on Ed earlier than expected but a part of her was juggling with one question.

'Where's Al?'

Winry glanced from the corner of her eye to Ed who was sitting with his back to her, probably reading that weird undecipherable alchemy book of his. Winry finished filling out the order forms and grabbed a measuring tape and made her way to him. She stood in front of him blocking the light from the reading lamp.

"Hey, you're blocking all the light out." Ed replied, annoyed that someone disturbed his reading session.

"Stand up you Destroyer-of-all-automail-that-is good-in-the-world! I'm making you a new automail, a new leg too." Winry told him.

"Why make a new one? The old one is still working fine! Just connect it back to the socket and I'll be off. I'm kinda in a hurry here." Ed whined digging his face back in his book which he was reading upside down.

Winry yanked the book off his hand and turned it at a 180o angle and place it back in his hand. Ed realized his error and fling the book onto the table, "Ok… ok you win." Ed said standing up stubbornly, mouthing something silently as he did so. Winry just smiled in triumph and pulled out the tape and started taking measurement. "Let's see… leg… 48….22… now arm." She mumbled to herself scribbling the measurement on a notepad. When she reached out to measure his arm, she had a hard time reaching it. "Ed stop standing on your toes, you're making it hard for me to take your measure…" Her voice trailed and she quickly looked down at his feet, "Wait! You're not standing on your toes!" She said with disbelief.

Ed removed his attention from the suddenly interesting ceiling to her, "Of course I'm not standing on my toes… why would I want to…" Ed looked down at Winry, he took a step back and puts a hand on top of Winry's head, "You're short…" He said, trying to digest the sentence, "Then that would make me… taller than you!" Ed stated proudly, patting Winry on the head.

Winry pushed his hand away from her head, "Shut up and bent down a little so I can take your measurement!" Winry said, glaring at him. Ed smiled coyly, "What?" He asked, "Don't tell me your mad just because I'm –what a foot taller than you now?"

"Oh please Ed that's the least of my concern." Winry said as she finished taking the measurement, rolling the tape back neatly. Ed sat back on the couch and continued reading his book.

"Hey, Ed you hungry?" Winry asked.

"Well it depends on what's for dinner." He said from behind his book.

"Curry, Rice and Sweet Potato with Cinnamon sauce… nothing with milk." She yelled from the kitchen.

"Not bad, I think I'll have some." He said making a bee line for the kitchen.

Ed sat on the dinner table with his head still glued to the book as she warmed up the dinner.

"How's grandma?" Ed asked. Winry looked at him wide eyed. "Well you finally started a conversation with me, I thought I was living alone in this house." She complained, "She's fine but she's still not that well. She still can't walk around and stuff."

"Oh… anyway are you gonna leave me armless until you finish my new automail?" Ed asked, motioning to his right arm.

"That's my plan!" She said with an evil glint in her eye.

"Whatever…" He replied coolly and returned his attention to his book.

She served dinner and they continued their conversation over dinner.

3.00 a.m.

Ed woke up, his face felt numb from the pressure of pressing against the book for… he had no idea how long. He must have dozed off while reading on the couch. He rose from the couch to find himself covered with a warm blanket. He looked around the house to see everything pitch black except for the workshop. He glides himself stealthfully into the workshop, "Winry?" He called out, but nobody seemed to answer back. He ventured around to finally find her sitting on her workbench, body slumped over something on the table. He sat himself on the bench next to her, gazing at her sleeping form. He waved his hand in front of her face, she was knocked out unconscious.

"Hey Winry… I have something to say… the reason I came home this time is to tell you about a bad news. I can read from your face that you're expecting this news from me. I was never that good at keeping secrets from you, you seem to read me to well. All that time you saw me reading my Alchemy book which you always complained never to understand, I was really secretly watching you. Watching for any chances to finally break the news to you, but every chance I saw I just let it pass by cause I just couldn't find the courage to tell you. I wish I could just spit it out to you…but I just can't! There's still a part of me that's still won't accept the fact that I won't be able to see…"

His eyes flashed open as he felt a pair of soft hands on top of his. He quickly retreated pulling his hand back but he couldn't she was holding onto it tightly. "Ed please!"

"Winry let go of my hand." He said coldly, his voice changed dramatically from his normal tone sending goosebumps down her spine. However she decided to hold on to his hand and confront him, she just couldn't let him having to always put and act in front of her. "It's Al isn't it he's… he's gone."

"He's not GONE!" He yelled.

She felt a sharp pain on her face, she opened her eyes and saw Ed's guilt ridden face. She raised her hand to her face and felt a stinging pain. Warm blood trickled from her mouth onto Ed's finished automail arm that sat on her work table. She untied her bandana and wiped the blood from her mouth. Ed stood rigidly, staring at her.

"Winry… I didn't mean…" He tried to voice out but she shushed him and smiled reassuringly.

"It's ok Ed, I kinda asked for it." She said.

He tried to move closer but she backed away until she came to the wall. He pushed her hand gently away, revealing the cut lip. He lifted her chin a little and put his lip on the corner of hers where it was cut, sucking on it gently to stop the bleeding. She tried to protest and pull away but he held her still. He was so gentle and soft, slowly the pain started to ease away. She could feel the bleeding ceasing and he tenderly pulled away. She felt light headed and wobbly just as she thought she would collapse, she felt herself being lifted up …and the last thing she remembered was having a piggy back with her face against Ed's short braid.

The sun was up, lighting up the tiny town. Her ears were greeted by the sound of the animals as they busied themselves getting ready to greet the new day. The sound of glass breaking startled her waking her up fully, she jumped from her bed and rushed to the kitchen to find Ed struggling to sweep the broken glass shards into the dust dispenser which was constantly sliding all over the place with his one good hand.

She held the dust dispenser put and Ed quickly swept all the shards into it.

"Thanks," He said as he puts the broom and dust dispenser away. He returned to the table with a… something that she presumed is breakfast.

"How's your lip?" He asked his guilt ridden face still evident.

She almost forgot about what had happened last night, "Oh its fine… is this for me?" She asked motioning to the thing in front of her.

"Yeah… but it didn't turn out like I expected it to be… I'll make you something else." He said reaching to throw the stuff but she stopped him midway, "You went to so much trouble to make it and I'm gonna eat it… before that let me go and brush my teeth first." She said, disappearing quickly before he could stop her.

Later in the workshop

She had just finished connecting his new automail and he was mentally exhausted. He didn't scream nowadays he was tired of screaming, it didn't really help relief the pain… all he got is a sore throat. Once the pain has settled down he started testing it out.

"Wow, this thing is really amazing!" He said amazed by how light it is.

"You can praise me later, take it easy now and don't go wrecking it anytime soon." She reminded him.

"I won't. I'm on a 2 month suspension from the military." He said casually.

"You're suspended? For what?" She said in shock.

"The military found out about my human transmutation incident, they obliterate me from the face of the earth at first but considering on my," Ed said making a quotation mark with his finger, "Excellent service to the military I got away."

"How's the Colonel, Lt. Liza and Mejar Armstrong?" She asked.

"It's President Mustang now… they're all doing fine." He said sitting down next to her.

"Remind me to congratulate him, when I see him." She said laughing.

"Ed… about Al," She brought up suddenly.

Ed shift uneasily beside her, "Did you now that Mustang seriously trying to implement a new code that states that all female personnel must wear short skirt to work?"

He was trying to change the subject, it was all too clear.

"He's never gone, Ed." She said calmly, putting her hand on top of his heart. "Can't you feel that? He's here… he's everywhere. I'm no genius in Alchemy but wasn't it you who told me that we are one and one is us? The key principle of Alchemy..."

He flashed back to the night at the No Man's Island with Al, he got up and ran out of the house leaving Winry dumbfounded.

Later that day

It was getting dark, she had searched for him at all over town with no luck. 'Where could've he gone to?' She said, worry weighing heavily in her heart. Everyone was giving her weird looks staring at her bruised lip and purple stained cheeks. She had to admit it she has never been soo chickened out by anyone before, that cold voice and the force he let out on her last night was almost otherworldly. It scared her. 'But…' She recalled, 'After that he was so nice… it's almost exciting.' She felt herself blush. 'Snapped out of it Winry Rockbell! Stop having dirty thoughts about your bestfriend! Focus on finding Ed first, get him home and help him get over Al's death.' She lectured herself.

Help him get over Al's death

Those words just won't stop repeating itself in her head.

"Al really is gone isn't he?" She whispered to herself.

She tried to fight the urge to cry but she just couldn't, she fell down onto her knees and cried. Memories of when they were younger flooded into her head.

'Oh Al… help me get through to your brother, he's in so much pain it hurts to see him like that.' She prayed silently.

She wiped her tears and looked around her. It was already dark but the full moon illuminates the oak tree not far in front of her. She walks towards it, slowly the outline of a stone came into view. It's a grave… this is Mrs. Elric grave. To her surprise someone was lying on top of it in a fetal like position and she knew that someone almost immediately…

She knelt down beside him taking his head and placing it gently on her lap. He stirred a little.

Beside them a new stone was laid down she squinted her eyes to read it in the dark night.

Alphonse 'Al' Elric

Beloved son, brother and friend.

"Mother?" He whispered slowly his forehead creasing as he rose from her lap.

Tears ran down her face.

"Winry?" He said pulling his friend into a hug. "Why are you crying silly?" He asked, trying to calm her.

She didn't say anything… she just sobbed and sobbed until she couldn't remember what happened next.

Somehow magically Ed had managed to get her to the safety of her bed for the second time. And this time it didn't include any slapping. She listened for any noise from the kitchen, 'Weird… I can't hear anything.'

She climbed out of her bed and ventured around the house, "Ed?" She called out. Now she was starting to panic, 'Where is he?'

She pushed open the guest room to see Ed sleeping soundly in the warm bed. She sighed in relief and smiled to see how cute her friend looked when he's asleep.

"Hmmmm… Winry…" Ed called in his sleep, his face red.

Winry disappeared through the door and returned with a super large sized wrench, face blushing.

"WAKE UP YOU MORON!" She yelled.