The young man in question turned at the sound of his voice andsmiled when he saw Winry Rockbell, standing there with her hands on her hips, shouting his name at the top of her voice.
Rolling his eyes good-naturedly, Ed walked over to her, "What it is Winry?" Stopping beside her, he gently pushed one ofthe girl'sarms down, "You don't need to look so fierce."
Winry laughed at him, "Yes I do!" She paused to push him back playfully, "If I didn't, you'd never listen to me." Now taking on a business-like air, she tapped his right arm, "I need to go over this."
"Winry," Ed moaned, "you've done that twice already since we've been home!" He flapped his auto-mail arm to emphasize his next point, "And both times you found nothing wrong with it!"
Sticking her lower lip out, Winry pouted, "Ed, you can never be too sure!"
Ed glared at the girl for a minute before sighing, and then decided to give in to her moping. "Fine," he said as he started to walk toward the front steps of her home, "but this is the last time!"
With a gleeful shout, Winry ran and caught up with him, "Don't bet on that!"
Three Days Later
"Aunt Pinako," Alphonse Elric started to ask as he stood by the window in her home, watching her granddaughter chase Ed around the yard for the umpteenth time that week, "why is Winry so-"
"Obsessed with Ed's arm?" the old lady finished his question for him. "Al, she feels responsible for it," Pinako sighed, getting up from her seat at the table to take care of her lunch dishes. "After everything that's happened," she said, pausing to look him straight in the eye sockets of his armor, "you should know that."
"Right," the young boy whispered, "I knew that."
"I should hope so." With a quick flick of her bony wrist, Pinako threw the small spoon she was still holding on to at Al. It hit the back of his head with a soft thunk, "Next time, don't ask stupid questions."
Al reached his large, gauntleted hand up to rub the spot where the spoon had hit, "Yes, Aunt Pinako." He returned to staring out the window and noticed that Winry had Ed pinned down and was sitting on his back.
Stifling a laugh, Ed's younger brother left Pinako and walked outside to see exactly what was going on between those two. Reaching the bottom of the steps, he heard their voices clearly.
"Winry, get off me!"
Now Al did laugh, as he knew his brother's voice and could tell by his tone he was upset. "Probably because he got pinned by a girl," Al thought out loud. "If onlyEd wasn't so competitive all the time."
"Not until you let me look at that arm!" The voice was feminine yet still quite loud and commanding; it was definitely Winry's, "After falling like that, you could have damaged it somehow!"
"Falling? What are you talking about?" Ed was still trying to get out from under the girl, but wasn't having much luck, "I didn't fall anywhere, you pushed me down the stairs!" After a few moments, he executed a sharp turn sideways and finally dislodged Winry.
Ed stood up quickly so she wouldn't have the opportunity to sit on him again. It was at this moment that Al finished his trek across the lawn, and now he was standing behind Winry. Reaching down, he pickedthe girlup and set her back on her feet. "Ed," Al said reprovingly, "that wasn't nice." Now ignoring his brother, Al turned his attention to Winry, "Are you okay?"
As Winry nodded her head in answer to the question, Ed took a different approach, "Al!"
Looking back at his brother, Al had to laugh; Ed's face was turning a ruddy shade of purple, "How could you say that, you overgrown piece of scrap metal?" Ed continued his rant, "How was I not being nice? She's the one who was sitting on me!"
"Still," Al told him, laughing in the process, "that's no reason to dump her on the ground."
"Al…" Ed's voice was getting dangerously low.
"See Ed," Winry started to laugh along with Al, "I told you, you're mean to me. With you being so short and all, you think you'd have more respect for people."
This was enough to make Ed explode angrily and start shouting, "Short!" He pointed at Winry, "Who are you to be calling me someone so small even an ant couldn't see me if I were right below it?"
After watching Winry for a moment to see her reaction he turned his wrath on Al, "You! Where do you get off laughing at me like that? You're my younger brother, and size doesn't mean anything!"
"Edward Elric!"
Ed was stopped in mid-rant by Pinako Rockbell's stern voice. "Stop right there," she told him. "You may think you have rights as a State Alchemist, but you're still a child and in this house, you will stay calm."
Ed glared at her and muttered, "Whatever, you crazy old bat."
Although Ed had taken pains to keep his voice down, Pinako still heard him. Grabbing the wrench Winry carried stuck in the pocket of her pants; the lady hit Ed in the small of his back with it.
Although she didn't use enough force to do any serious damage, Pinako did manage to knock him down. As Ed fell, Winry's grandma turned to her and said, "Sit on him again. I'll help you tend to that arm."
"Thank you, Grandma," Winry said as she happily complied with the command.
Although he found it hard to get a whole breath in with Winry on top of him, Ed did manage to get out the words, "Damn you all."
Pinako gave him an evil smile, "After you."
OOO
That night, as the Elric Brothers lay in the guest room of the Rockbell home, Al started to talk to his brother. "You've been really quiet since this afternoon," he said to Ed. "Are you still moping?"
Ed didn't answer Al for a long time, but when he finally did all that came out was, "No. I've just been thinking, that's all."
"About what?"
I've been thinking about Winry, Ed's mind said, Winry. How beautiful she is, how sweet she is, and how wonderfully annoying she can be. I've been thinking about her all night, every night, for the longest time. His thoughts paused for a moment; Not like I'm going to tell you that though.
So, in response to Al's question, all Ed said was, "Nothing, really. It's no big deal."
Al knew that Ed was lying to him, but he wasn't going to push. Smiling to himself, he just nodded and said, "I see." With that, Al closed his eyes, and allowed himself to rest.
Ed looked over at his brother to see what he was doing, and then sighed quietly seeing that he had fallen asleep. Before rolling back over with the intention of going to sleep as well, a single, whisperedname crossed his lips, "Winry."
Al stifled a chuckle at hearing that; he hadn't been completely asleep.
Same Time, Different Room
"Grandma?"
Pinako walked over to the table in her kitchen and sat beside Winry at the sound of her title. Watching her granddaughter, the old woman knew there was something she wanted to ask, but she needed a little push to get going.
"What is it, Winry?" Pulling a spoon out of her pocket, Pinako started to polish it with rapid strokes of the cloth as she waited for the answer to her query, "Come on girl, I haven't got all night."
Winry was carefully studying the wood grain in the table, and made sure to keep her eyes down. "Grandma, this is a hypothetical question and all," she started to say, "but if I like a certain guy, yet don't know if he feels the same way about me, what do I do?"
God, how could I just have asked her what to do about my feelings for Ed? Winry asked herself. Stupid! She's going to know who you're talking about! She's going to know! Why did you ask her? Oh well, Winry heaved an inner sigh. Grandma wouldn't say anything embarrassing to me, and I can trust what she does say. This is probably best.
Pinako knew it wasn't a hypothetical question, and she did know Winry was talking about Ed, but she wasn't going to say anything about that aloud. It would be better for them both if she just treated it like a real hypothetical question. "Well," Pinako paused to suck on her pipe for a moment in thought, "I'm not the best one to ask for romance advice, but if this situation was real and I was you, I would go talk to the boy in question."
She set her pipe down, "That is the best thing you can do."
Winry knew her grandmother was right, and she nodded her head in agreement. Turning to look at the clock behind her, Winry gasped when she saw what time it was. "I didn't know it was so late! Ed and Al must already be asleep, and I should be too!"
Getting up from the table quickly, Winry hugged Pinako goodnight before running to her room and changing. Lying down in her bed, Winry allowed one word to escape her lips as she closed her eyes, "Ed…"
OOO
The morning dawned, and its first light fell upon Winry, who was already up and about. The sun rays filtered through the window in her shop to bathe the automail engineer in watery radiance.
Wiping her hand across her brow, the girl then stuck her wrench in her back pocket. Turing around, she reclined against her workbench, and then grabbed a bottle of water from its edge.
"I hope he likes it," she said to herself after she took a drink. Finishing her water, Winry picked up the small piece of metal she had spent the last four hours crafting. It was small, only about twice the size of her thumb, but it was made of the best material Winry had.
Running the charm through her fingers, Winry sighed. She wasn't quite sure how Ed would react when she gave it to him, because she didn't know exactly how he felt, but she knew she had to give it to him anyway.
Charm clasped in her hand, Winry walked out to the kitchen and sat at the table, where she waited through the rest of the early morning. As she sat there, Winry thought about all the feelings she'd had for Ed, and how one way or the other, they were going to come out this morning.
Winry turned slightly when she heard footsteps on the stairs. She saw the hem of Ed's red coat swing into view, followed by the rest of him. Now her throat tightened a bit, and her hand increased its grip on the charm.
Winry relax, she told herself, you can do this. Standing up, she went and greeted Ed at the bottom of the steps. The alchemist looked a bit surprised to see her, but he smiled all the same.
"Ed," Winry started to say, "can you and I talk?"
In all truth, Ed had been planning to ask Winry that exact same thing. "Of course," he told her. The two of them walked back to the table and sat next to each other, their chairs suspiciously close.
"Um…" fiddling with the charm in her hand, Winry couldn't figure out how to put what she wanted to say into words. She didn't really need to though, because when Ed saw her playing around with something, he gently took hold of her hands and opened her clenched fingers.
There, resting in her palm he saw it, a little metal pendant in the shape of a dove, the symbol for peace and love. Looking at it in wonder, he began to contemplate why Winry had it.
Then he heard her words. "I made it," she told him, "for you." Taking one of his hands in hers, she turned it until it was palm up and then dropped the little dove into it, "I thought maybe you could keep it, if you wanted to."
Ed looked up at Winry, amazement in his eyes. Pushing back the side of his coat, Ed carefully tucked the dove into his pocket, making sure it would be safe. "Thank you Win'," he said to her, "this means a lot to me."
"I thought maybe it would just be a good luck thing or something like that…" Winry said, her voice drawing off when she realized she was babbling. Blushing slightly, she looked down at the table.
"You don't have to explain it to me," Ed said. Reaching down with his left hand, he gently pushed up on Winry's chin, lifting her head. When they were eye to eye, he leaned in closer to her, and then stopped, as if unsure weather or not to finish his move.
He didn't have to worry about it though, as Winry met him the rest of the way. Their lips pressed together and for a moment, the two of them breathed as one.
I hope you liked it! Review please!
Sull