Declaration of unoriginality: I do NOT own the show Full Metal Alchemist... nor can I pronounce the name of the woman who does... I may own the word Alchemizing though... so there! In your face lawyers who could sue me for everything I'm worth even though that only adds up to life insurance and a cat!... and the computer I'm using... possibly a piano... Hmmm, maybe I have more to lose than I thought. So just to stat on the safe side of things, I don't own the word Alchemizing either ...

Chapter 4

Ed opened his eyes drowsily to the sound of soft chuckling. He blinked a few times till his eyes cleared and turned his head to the side to see Pinako with her hands behind her back starring at him with amusement.

As his other senses came back, he realized that he wasn't sitting up any longer like he had been when he had fallen asleep. Instead, he was lying comfortably on his back, with Winry laying half on the couch, and half on him, with her arm and head rested gently on his chest.

He couldn't help the blush that seemed to rush through his entire body, as he tried to look at Pinako innocently.

"Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes, I'll give you two some time to wake up…" With a broad smile on her face, she walked off to the kitchen.

Ed swallowed hard as he looked down at Winry, she seemed peaceful, and her mouth was slightly open as she twitched in the midst of a dream.

He really didn't want to wake her up, but he also didn't have much of a choice, "Winry?" at least he managed a whisper.

Her eyes squinted tighter and she grasped a bit of his shirt in her hand as she fought with her dream, until her body relaxed and she opened her eyes slightly, "Hmmm?"

Ed's blush returned, "We should probably… get up"

Winry cast her eyes around in sleepy confusion, until she fully realized where she was and whom she was using as a pillow. She quickly shuffled to a sitting position and stuttered a response along the lines of her getting cleaned up. She nearly jumped off the couch and scurried to her room.

Ed's sigh quickly turned into a yawn as he slid himself off the couch and went to clean himself up as well. He wasn't all that sure if he would be able stomach breakfast right about now, the butterflies seemed like enough sustenance to last him a while.

Ed's metal fingers tapped the counter with impatience, as his foot followed suit bellow him. His eggs lay prodded in front of him, as he tried to get his mind on something else.

Pinako sighed across the table from him, "Leave her be, she apparently went through something traumatic and we should give her as much space as she needs until she comes to tell us herself."

Sitting beside him Al shuffled his fingers, "She's right… we shouldn't push Winry to tell us anything."

Ed's tapping stopped. Was it that easy to tell that he was about knock down Winry's door and demand she tell him what happened? How was it that neither of them thought any of this was an urgent mater? His thoughts fluttered about for a moment until they finally settled with, would they try to stop me if I did?

Ed stood up quickly, if he didn't get out of the house soon, he was going to go mad with impatience.

"Brother!" Al jumped up and grabbed for Ed, "You shouldn't!"

Ed rolled his eyes, "I'm just going for a walk…"

Al blushed, slightly embarrassed with his actions, "Do you want me to come with you?" he still had a hint of suspicion, and felt it would be safer to keep an eye on his brother.

"No…" he smiled up at Al, "I'll be back in a bit, I just need to think for a little while."

Ed scrapped the stones on the road with his foot, he was standing at the exact place they had found Winry the night before. He looked down the road and squinted his eyes, hoping to see something that would give him any hint of what had happened to Winry. But it was just rolling farmland for as far as he could see. There were a few houses in the distance, but he didn't have time to interrogate all those families at the moment. He sighed; he would just have to talk to Winry… he wondered why that seemed like such an ominous task.

Walking back towards home Ed let his thoughts circle around other things, like him and Winry. He growled, No, he backtracked and decided to start thinking about what he was always thinking about… the philosopher's stone. But that didn't last for long when he started to ask himself why he couldn't think of Winry and him. Even when they had been little he had wanted to marry her… although, so did Al, and they really hadn't understood what the word implied then. But nevertheless, the thought had always been in the back of his mind every time he saw her, along with the question, Would we still be just friends if I wasn't searching for the philosopher's stone? But he liked being her friend; that relationship had worked out for so long, anything else would just be… complicated.

As his thoughts got more complicated Ed hardly realized that he had already made it back home until he was nearly on the porch. When he noticed that nobody had seen him coming home, he let a mischievous grin take over his face and darken his eyes. He slowly tiptoed his way around the house until he was under Winry's window (a/n ok, I'm just going to assume that all the bedrooms are upstairs… don't be offended if this is not your opinion

With a clap of his hands he managed to make a few small stairs reaching up to one of the walls of her bedroom. And with another clap, he made a small door. He heard a startled scream from inside before he knocked. Why knock down a door, when you can just make your own?

"E-Ed?" Winry's voice sounded uncertain.

He frowned, wondering if this was really the best idea, "Can I come in?"

She ground her teeth, "Ed! Just because you waltzed up here and made yourself a door, doesn't mean I'm going to let you in. I don't feel like talking!"

From where he was standing, she sounded up to the challenge, he was just happy to hear that she was her normal snappy self. He could deal with snappy; fragile and wounded were the difficult emotions to handle.

"Then you don't have to talk, I can, and you can… mime!" (a/n were there mimes in the 19teen century?)

Ed could hear slight laughter from behind the door followed by a saddened "No…"

Damn… he could have sworn he had her with that one.

Well at least he tried. Ed opened his created door and shuffled in quietly.

"Ed!"

He held up his hands to stop her from beating him to a pulp, "you can kill me later, but you have to listen to me now…"

Winry sat in a tangled heap of blankets, leaning against the wall as she sat on her bed. She didn't say anything, nor did she make a move for the wrench she had lying on her bed stand table. Ed took that as a good sign.

"When someone finds you covered in blood, exhausted and bruised—"

Winry lifted her hand up to hold her wounded arm; she was hoping that he hadn't seen that.

"You can't just leave them hanging and tell them nothing!"

Winry swallowed and looked down, "I'm sorry Ed… but I can't tell you anything."

He was speechless for a moment, "What do you mean you can't tell me anything?"

She looked up at him, "I mean that I can't tell you anything!"

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to lose my arm!"

"What?"

Winry's eyes widened as she realized what she had said. That wasn't good, if she couldn't keep her mouth shut about that, what else would she let slip to him?

Ed walked over to her bed and sat down, "Tell me what happened." It wasn't a question.

She looked down again, she couldn't look at him… his eyes would make her tell him. But she couldn't just say nothing. "He said he would take my arm if I told anyone…"

Ed frowned, he didn't like the sound of that, "Nobody's going to take your arm, I wouldn't let anyone come close enough to do it. What happened?"

She couldn't help but smile, as much as that was comforting, it wasn't comforting enough, "I know you wouldn't, but you can't be here forever… you'll be leaving again soon, and how will you be able to protect me then?"

"If you tell me, I'll make it so I wont have to protect you"

Just as Winry was about to say something there was a knock on her other door.

"Brother, I know you're in there. Auntie and I could hear you two yelling…"

"And stop alchemizing my house!" Pinako shouted up the stairs

Ed rubbed the back of his neck, "Eh-heh"

Dinner came and went with a tension that everyone seemed to share with the same amount of detest, but just the same, no one was up for arguing with it. Ed had already been scolded enough to keep him from trying to question Winry further, and Winry was embarrassed enough with her own behavior that she couldn't say a word to anyone. How could she explain that she couldn't tell them anything?

After dinner, Ed wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep; Winry tossed in her bed from nervous worries, but she knew she couldn't very well ask Ed to sleep with her again… just the thought turned her red and kept her mind on other things for a while. Al couldn't sleep because of worries about Winry, and all Ed could think about was Winry and… NO. All he could think about was how angry Roy was going to be with his little "over-stay" at home; while Pinako couldn't sleep because of arthritis. Den on the other hand, was deep in dreams of being a complete auto-mail dog. Cats scurried from the sound of his footsteps, and squirrels in trees were no longer a matter now that he had a machine gun tail. But that was a completely unrelated matter. (a/n sorry, I couldn't resist . )

A/n hmmm, not too long of a chapter, eh? sighs too bad. And so far... you're thinking... what exactly?