FullMetal Alchemist:

Edward Elrics Chronicles

Chapter II

Both of them ate their breakfast silently. Tension was clear and thick in the air around them. They had finished eating breakfast. Ed sat silently pretending to read the newspaper while Winry stood by the sink doing the dishes, both trying to ignore each others presence. Ed stole a look whenever Winry had her back to him, his eyes wildly exploring her from head down to her toes. He hadn't noticed before how she had grew up and tranformed into this beautiful woman standing there not a few metres away from him… he blushed suddenly recalling the awkward dream he had earlier and quickly returned to his newspaper.

"Thanks for bringing me home last night," She said, finally breaking the truce of silence.

"No biggie… how's your cheek?" He asked not making eye contact.

"Oh looking better than yesterday," She answered, trying to sound as relaxed as possible.

He was covering his face with the newspaper, lord knows what he's up to behind there. Right now she's feeling a mixture of both anger and embarrassment. Well… why shouldn't she! Her perverted guy friend had practically imagined her doing things 19 years old shouldn't be doing –or thinking! …Ugh she couldn't even bring herself to think about it any longer than she already is.

"I'll be going out to the market in a while, do you wanna come along?" She asked, throwing away her rage for a moment.

"Oh… it's ok I have plans of my own." He answered from the behind the newspaper.

"If that's so… here take this spare key, cause I think I'll be out a while." She grabbed the grocery basket and headed towards the door, "Ed make sure you'll be back for lunch by 2.00 ok, bye!"

He watched her leave safely before taking off to his own destination.

He gazed down at the two graves in front of him, each one garlanded by a halo of fresh flowers. The wind blew slowly around him smacking his unbraided hair against his back in a slow rhythm. He turned around and walked steadily away.

He smiled to himself, 'See you guys tomorrow.'

He headed back home stopping to plough the garden behind what used to be his house and cleaned it up. He did all this manually, he wanted to take a break from alchemy for a while and besides he could use the exercise. Later he went back to the house and took a shower and headed back out since Winry is still not home yet. He took a walk around the market and met up with a couple of old friends before finally stumbling upon Winry talking to a familiar looking woman.

"Hi ladies!" He greeted.

"Ed!" Winry answered, surprised at the sight of him. "I nearly didn't recognize you without your braid."

Clearly she was in a better mood than she was this morning. He took the heavy basket off of her arm and greeted the woman she was talking to.

Winry introduced her to Ed, "This is Erika Johnston, she just moved here a couple of months ago from Dublith."

"Isn't this world a small place Mr. Elric!" Erika greeted him.

"Fancy meeting you again," Ed said finally recalling the woman from the back of his mind.

"You two know eachother?" Winry asked.

"We've already met before, this is the guy that helped me repair mah washing machine." Erika stated.

"So you're the one who has been stealing all my customers," Winry complained.

Erika glanced at her watch, "I have to go now and pick up mah kids from school, see ya'al real soon!" She said quickly.

They said goodbyes to Erika and were on their way home.

'Ed… a pervert?' Winry said mentally.

He was walking a footstep faster in front of her. She stared at his innocent expression, 'Maybe it's just my imagination… this Ed we're talking about! He's just a friend! He couldn't have had that kind of dream about me… he couldn't… could he?' She thought, a blush suddenly creeping up her cheeks. 'What's wrong with me? Look… this is useless! Right now I'm gonna march up to him and demand the truth from him!' She made up her mind and ran to catch up with his pace.

"Ed…" She said, trying to sound as compose as possible

He turned his head to face her, looking as innocent as always. This irked her a little but she flushed the feeling away.

"What were you dreaming about this morning?" She asked him, directly looking at his face, searching for any change in his facial expression.

His eyebrow raised a little but that's it… his face didn't show any signs of guilt or embarrassment at all.

"Dream?" He thought about it, "I can't remember." He answered simply.

"Oh… that's ok," She said coolly, inside she sighed a big relief… glad that he couldn't remember anything. "You were saying my name in your dream… and I was just curious that's all. You sure you don't remember a thing?" She asked again just confirm.

"Nope." He answered.

'OH MY GOD! I said her name out loud in my dream? ED YOU MORON! What were you thinking! No wonder she hit me with that wrench this morning! She probably thinks of me as sick low-life pervert!' He said mentally kicking himself on the head. He looked over at her from the corner of his eyes, she looks convinced by his lie.

She noticed him watching her, "What?"

"I err… Nothing!" He covered up quickly.

One Month Later

"I care about you…you complete me."

"Oh, I love you more than you could ever imagine…"

"Winry… this is the most…" Ed breathed slowly and glanced at her.

"Boring movie I've seen in my whole life!" Ed whined, "What movie is this?" He said, checking the cassette cover, "Jerry Mcguire? This sucks…can't we watch something like Spiderman or something?"

Winry took out her wrench and he immediately quit whining. "I'm going to get a soda from the fridge, you want one?" Ed asked getting up. She simply waved her head and continued watching the movie with an unbreakable concentration.

He came back with a chilled soda in his hand. His body sprawled out on the couch as he lazily sipped on his soda, the movie had just ended, it was a Saturday night and they were now channel surfing.

"Hey Win," He said, rolling his eyes towards her.

"What?" She asked removing her attention from the television.

"What do you think you'll be doing… Let's say 10 to 20 year from now?" He asked, out of the blue.

She raised her eyebrow and smiled coyly, "Interesting question…where did this come from?" she asked snuggling deeper into the couch, closing the gap between them.

"I don't know… it just came to my mind suddenly… So?" He explained, curious to know her answer.

"Hmm… I'll probably have a small establish business here… or better still! A huge automail business empire! … it'll be soo big you'll see my face on everything! Down to every single milk cartons at the market!" She giggled softly as Ed made a face at the mention of milk, "But one things for sure, I'll be taking care of Grandma Pinako making sure she's really happy… baking apple pies and cookies on weekend and maybe… I'll be married happily to the man I love…" She explained to him with a misty eyed look in her blue eyes.

"Very cute." He responded as he finished the last of his soda.

"Whatever… at least my plan is definitely 100 times better than yours." She shot back, sticking out her tongue.

"I'll be married happily to the man I love," Ed said doing a really bad imitation of Winry, "You're what? 19? ...and you never had a boyfriend!" Ed taunted, trying to drive her wild.

"I do have a boy friend!" Winry said in matter of factly.

"Who?" Ed asked challenging her.

"Why should I tell you?" She said, quirking her eyebrow.

"Because I like you!" Ed said almost too loudly, quickly closing his mouth.

She went mute.

Ed was trying to laugh it off and play it cool but he was a nervous wreck.

Winry managed a small smile, "Very cute." She said teasing him.

His face was tomato red and burning hot from embarrassment.

She cleared her throat and rested her head on top of his shoulder.

"I have two boy friends and that's you and Al. You guys are the best friends any girl could wish for, I've been so blessed to have you guys in my life."

He remained rigid on the outside but inside he sighed in relief knowing Winry was free, single and not crazy in love with another man.

"I like you so much Edward Elric." He heard her whisper in his ear. He felt her face neared him and he was expecting a peck on the cheek but instead he felt the most tender and soft thing brushing against his lip. He stared into her beautiful round eyes, he felt confused. She caressed his face and suddenly she felt his warm lips on top of hers. He was kissing her back tenderly, the sweet taste of the soda he drank earlier transferred into hers.

The moment lasted for so long… every second passing by felt almost like an eternity.

He pulled away, gasping for much needed air as did she. They stared at each other… awkwardly.

"That felt weird." They said in unison.

"Yeah… way weird." Ed added.

"Why… did we do that?" She asked, going slightly berserk at what had happened.

"You tell me… I don't know either!" He said freaking out by the whole situation.

Ed opened his mouth to say something but he just couldn't find anything right to say that wouldn't make the matter more complicated. He was tongue tied…like a really big cat just caught his tongue. He never felt this helpless in a long time.

She suppressed a giggle looking at his clueless expression. She crawled up onto him and laid her head in his lap. He reached out to push away a few strands of hair that covered her beautiful face. He had never felt so at ease… like she belonged there in his arms. He slowly bends down to kiss her forehead.

'I love you Winry Rockbell'

Winry opened one lazy eyes, she just had the most pleasant slumber in her whole life. She felt warm and fuzzy all around. She opened her eyes fully and in front of her two bright gold orbs stared back at her, observing her.

"Ed, what are you doing?" She asked blushing at the amount of attention he was giving her.

"Nothing." He answered simply.

"Stop staring at me like that!" She said, covering her face with both her hand to try to hide her now reddening face.

Then she felt something cold dancing on her cheek. It was Ed's right hand, his metal fingers sliding along the length of her face. She liked the feeling of the metal on her face, she withdraw her hand from her face and wrapped it around his. She smiled at him.

"How long have you been staring at me like this?" She asked, finally lifting her head to find that she was now in her bedroom, "And… when did you carry me all the way up here?"

"I carried you up here last night and I've been staring at you sleeping since an hour ago. Now get up sleepy head." He said, playfully knocking her head. With a dashing smile he leaned down to kiss her.

"Wait a second!" Winry screamed in panic, placing her hand as a barrier between his lips and her. She pushed him back with all her might, "Ed! Why are you acting all weird? You're creepin me out! You're all nice and… goody-goody."

"I'm in love with you…" Ed crooned, kissing the hand she was using to hold him back passionately.

She felt around for her wrench but she just couldn't find it. 'Lord help me! Ed has gone out of his mind!' She prayed desperately his busy hands away from her.

Suddenly she felt the metal surface… her wrench! Just as she was about to swing the tool at the possessed Ed she was stopped midway to see him standing in front of her with only his boxers on.

She screams in fear as Ed jumped on top of her...

She bolted up from her bed, screaming. Sweat covering her whole face. She looked around to find herself in her bedroom. Alone. She sighed in relief, it was just a horrible nightmare but damned was that nightmare scary… 'Ed…' she thought... remembering the weird dream… almost instantly goosebump appeared all over her arm. She slammed her head into the large pillow, taking really deep breaths trying to calm her nerves.

Just when she felt herself getting better she heard her bathroom door creaked open. She lifted her head from the pillow to see Ed with a toothbrush in his mouth wearing only his boxer shorts walking casually out of her bathroom, "Oh… Hi Winry, Good Morning." He greeted her with a wave, "Slept well?" He asked.

A deafening scream filled the Rockbell residents.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ed yelled, rubbing his ear to try to regain his sense of hearing again.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?" She yelled back throwing every single thing within hands reach at him.

"What the hell are you doing in my room wearing only that?" She yelled, pointing at his boxers. "GET OUT!" She shrieked hurling her wrench into the air.

"My toothpaste ran out! I knocked first but you were asleep so I thought I'd just run in quickly and…" but before he could finish his sentence, her wrench hit him square on his face throwing him back to the floor knocking him unconscious.

The room was silent. She stared at the scene in front of her. Ed… wearing only his boxer with a toothbrush in his hand, was lying unconscious on her bedroom floor.

"Ed?" She called out only to be greeted by the sound of the silent house and birds chirping outside.

'Winry Rockbell…What the hell have you gotten yourself into.' She cursed herself mentally.

He felt something wet sprinkled on his face. His eyes blinked open to Winry wiping her forehead in relief.

"Can you walk?" She questioned him immediately. "Yeah," He answered, Ed tried to get up but his head was throbbing, he pushed back the pain and got up. Winry shoved his toothbrush to him and helped him walk unsteadily out the door in an odd rush.

He turned around to the door to face her, "What just happene–" He asked, only to get a door slammed to his face as an answer. He looked down at himself scratching his head before heading down to his room.

On the other side, Winry leaned her back against the door. She stared at her hands… the hand that just touch his bare back when she help him walk to the door, his lean wiry muscles moving under hands. She screamed out loud and rammed her head into her pillow.

Ed rolled his eyes, hearing her scream again. 'What's up with chicks and screaming…?' He thought, sipping on his coffee.