Chapter 2: Steel

"Hey chief, I'm here to drive you over to the Hughes place, right?" Havoc said a few minutes later, and lighting a cigarette.

"Thank you, Havoc. We really appreciate this, right Ed?" Al responded in his usual polite manner.

"…huh? Umm, yea. Thanks a lot, Havoc…" Edward seemed lost in his own thoughts

"How could he not see that? He should've…" Edward pondered this thought as he picked up the last box.

"Eh…" Havoc took a long drag from his cigarette, "No problem. But we gotta hurry; I have a ton of paperwork to do before Flamey will let me go home…and I got a date tonight, so let's go!" Havoc took another drag before getting in the car and put out his cigarette and started the car.

"Oh, alright…let's go, Al." Edward was still preoccupied about the Colonel not meeting his gaze.

As the brothers and Havoc drove along, Edward was silent for most of the ride, until Havoc interrupted his thoughts.

"Hey Metal-head, I was wondering why haven't they changed your code name yet?" Havoc reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a silver lighter.

"Why would they?" Edward asked. "It would actually make more sense, now that all my arms and legs are automail. Jeez…I can still hear Winry bragging about "her best work ever…" She wouldn't let me live this down, no matter what…" Edward said with an odd tone in his voice. That made him think about when he went to Resembool to install automail on his left arm and right leg. He never told anyone what happened then…

"Dammit Winry! Calm down! All I need is my arm and leg done! It's just like last time!" Edward said in an annoyed voice, he didn't ride in a train for 6 hours by himself in a wheelchair just to see her blubber.

"Bu-but your arm…what happened?" Winry was still crying over the fact that her childhood friend returned without a left arm or right leg.

"I'll tell you later. Right now, you have to get started on me before my arm and leg start to completely heal shut." Edward was about to start moving when Winry went around and pushed him in.

"Alright then. Let's get started, I've been coming up with new designs, and I have a prototype that I want to try out!" Her tears were completely forgotten, and the usual gear head was back to normal.

The Rockbell house was a mess, to say the least. Edward was surprised that she was able to navigate his wheelchair through the clutter of tools, bits of metal, and some scrapped automail limbs. He knew that Winry was a pack-rat, but he was still amazed by her life style. A few minutes later, they were in the only clean room, but it was sterilized as well, seeing that the operation was going to be there.

"Alright, Ed. I've been developing this new type of automail for a while. The material is really light, but extremely more durable and stronger than your last one…

They both remembered the disastrous outcome of his lightened version of his arm, and how Ed nearly died because of it.

"Yeah…anyways, your leg is going to be the same material. Its bullet-proof, its heat resistance can last over 12,000 Celsius, and I added a special weapon to the leg. It wouldn't really work on the arm for you, since you use alchemy on it a lot." Winry added, with a sort of crazed look in her eyes.

"What kind of weapon did you put? It better not malfunction or anything!" Edward was all too familiar with her "secret weapons" that she was known to embed in automail limbs.

"Here, I'll show you!" Winry grinned as she showed him his soon to be right leg.

"All you need to know that if you're in a tight pinch just squeeze the sides of your knee!" She squeezed the knee and a little button popped out of the front of the knee

"Hey…what does it do?" Edward looked curiously to the button and was about to press it when Winry whacked him with the thigh side of the leg.

"STUPID ASS! What do you think you're doing! When you press this button, your leg detaches from the knee down, and launches at whatever you're pointing it at! But once you do that, you need to take cover quick, cuz your leg will explode a few seconds after it detaches!" Winry quickly reset the device, giving a sigh of relief.

"Oww! How was I supposed to know that it's a missile! And besides, what makes you think that the explosives won't go off if I'm fighting someone! If I kick 'em hard enough, my leg will explode!" Ed was frantically trying to convince her that a missile for a leg was not that appealing.

"Stupid! Jeeze, give me some credit! The missile is 100 full proof! It won't go off from a few bangs and stuff!" She banged the leg on the floor as Ed yelped and fell out of the surgical bed. "I got the idea from Paninya. Her leg had a missile launcher in it, so I figured that it would be ok to do that with the bottom half of the leg…I mean, seeing that you can make yourself a new one outta scrap metal or something." Winry said as she hoisted Ed back on the bed.

"Alright…fine. Just hurry up, I'm starving…" Edward did not eat today; he knew the pain that he would go through would probably make him sick.

A few hours later, Edward was standing up and walking around the house, flexing his new arm and doing some basic sword alchemy to it.

"Alright! Thanks, Winry. It feels fine and runs real smooth." Ed clapped his hands together, and returned his arm back to its normal state.

"No prob, Ed. Sit down, dinner's ready!" Winry called out from the kitchen and came out with a stew for them.

"Winry this…tastes terrible." Edward said as soon as he took a bite.

"Shut up! I don't normally cook, so take what you can get! And besides, it would taste better if you drank some milk!" Winry turned a shade of pink and threw a carton at milk at FullMetal, and he barely caught it before she threw a glass at him.

"Dammit Winry! You say I have a temper, look at you! Throwing things all over the place and making legs with bombs in them! I'm going to bed; I'll see you in the morning." Ed stormed off up the stairs, slamming the door shut to her guest room.

"Fine…I don't need you. You didn't even want automail in the first place…" Winry mumbled as she picked up the plates.

A while later, FullMetal was sitting in the guest room's balcony, deep in thought. He stared absentmindedly at the stars, unknowingly trying to crack his knuckles.

"Did I make the right choice? Did…did I really have to give up the rest…of me?" Edward lifted his new left arm, and raised it in front of him.

"I better apologize to Winry…I shouldn't have snapped like that…" He stood up, walked to his door and opened it to see her in front of his door.

"Oh, Winry. I was just going to apologize to you…" He started blushing; she was wearing a thin night gown, her lingerie was clearly visible and he tried to stop looking at her body, so he looked into her eyes. He was surprised to see tears in them.

"I-I'm sorry Ed…I should've not yelled at you like that…" She started to sob a little and rushed over to him, and pulled him close to her.

"I didn't mean those things…I'm sorry I was so mean…" Her voice was breaking and her blue eyes were shining with tears now.

"Hey, don't cry…I'm sorry I snapped at you…" He was hugging her, and realized how he couldn't feel her with his arms.

"I-it's just that…I haven't seen you in so long, Ed…I missed you…" Winry looked into his golden eyes, feeling the touch of his cold steel arms around her body.

"I know…I missed you too... I really did. I just wi-" Edward eyes widened as her tongue slid into his mouth, her eyes clamped shut as he continued to feel her sliding in his mouth.

He was in shock for a few seconds, but soon he closed his eyes, started to feel her tongue with his own, feeling her warm body against his chest, her arms around his neck, his around her hips… But the only thing that was going through his mind at that moment was

Fire or Steel?