The next day, as promised, Eternity and Aria returned with games, cards, and other various things.
"We told you we'd be back," Eternity told them with a grin. She pulled out a deck of new cards. "Anyone up for war?"
"Where'd you get all this?" Ed finally asked hours later, when they were in the middle of a game of Taboo.
"You gave it to us, remember?" Aria told him. "Right before you two left." Roy nodded his confirmation. Suddenly the door opened, and everyone turned to see Winry standing hesitantly in the doorway.
"Winry! Hi!" Eternity said cheerfully, scooting to the side to make room for her. "Come play Taboo. You can be on our team." Winry sat down in between Ed and Eternity, looking wary.
"How do you play?" She asked. Soon the strangeness of the day before was forgotten in the rush to guess words in the game, and the remaining visiting hours passed quickly. Eternity, Aria, and Winry set a pattern over the weeks that followed; Eternity and Aria would come as soon as it opened, and Winry would come on the days she could. She not only had to find transportation to the hospital, she had to pay the bills of the inn she was staying at. It was only natural she couldn't spend all of her free time visiting the two guys. Eternity and Aria, on the other hand, didn't have anything to hamper them. They lived quite close to the hospital (which really annoyed Aria when she found out that they could've walked faster than driven that first day), and they didn't have any bills to pay.
"Did you know that tomorrow is the first day we all met?" Eternity told the two guys before Winry arrived one day. "And then, a week after that is Christmas. We completely forgot about it last year."
"Christmas?" Roy asked. He seemed interested in learning all he could about the girls' world.
"Christmas is a holiday," Aria informed him. "It's supposed to be for the birth of Jesus Christ, but since Eternity and I are atheists, for us it's just a gift-giving holiday. Basically on December 25th everyone gives gifts to all their friends."
"Sounds interesting." Ed commented, throwing down a card.
"I think I might actually celebrate it this year," Eternity replied with a smile. "I have to pay you two back eventually, anyway."
"Another thing to pay for," Roy commented dryly.
"You don't have to get us anything," Aria assured him. "You've already done so much for us, you don't have to do more." Winry arrived, and the discussion was put aside until later.