On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Three French Hens

Winry shrieked, and Ed cackled wickedly.

"Brother!" Al said, trying to reprimand the older boy, but unable to suppress his own giggles. "Change it back!" he managed between bouts of laughter.

Ed shook his head smugly. "Not until she answers the question," he insisted, folding his arms across his chest.

"Edward Elric!" a seven year old Winry yelled, her face becoming redder, standing straight up, her face inches from him. Good, she was still taller. "You change it back this instant, or I'll-"

One of his gold eyebrows quirked up. "Or you'll what?" he teased. "You have no weapon."

She looked down at the solid object in her hand. Not in its proper form, of course, but it would do. She whacked him firmly on the forehead with it, and grinned as he howled.

"Ow!"

Then she slapped she younger brother on the back of the head, for good measure.

"Hey!" Al protested. "I didn't do anything!"

She narrowed her eyes. "You were laughing," she informed him, then turned her head and let out another piercing yell. "Momma! Trisha! Ed's being mean!"

Her mother's voice floated from the next room. "Settle down, you three. Can't we leave you alone for five minutes?"

Winry put her hands on her hips, glaring at the brothers. "Yeah, Ed, grow up."

Just then a shadow fell across the three children, and Ed looked up to look down, and yelped. It was Granny.

She picked up the metal bullfrog in her wrinkled hand, turning it over, her expression amused. "What's this? You boys gave my granddaughter a toad for Christmas?"

Ed snickered and Al looked down at his feet. "Not exactly," said Al.

"Make him change it back!" the little girl insisted, just as Trisha was poking her head out of the kitchen.

"Come have some hot chocolate, you three, and then you can see what's in your stockings," she said, her eyes dancing merrily. Her gaze landed on her older son. "Ed, I'm sure I didn't hear Winry right. She didn't say you were being mean, did she?"

Before she could get an answer, they were crowding past her, grabbing for mugs, waiting impatiently for them to be filled.

"Aunt Sara, Uncle Richard, where are the marshmallows?" Ed asked once his mug was full of steaming chocolate.

"Ed! Don't be so rude!" Al chided, but Winry had caught the idea.

"Momma, can we have marshmallows too?" she asked, her eyes shining.

Ed rubbed his hands together. "I know, gimme some chalk, and I'll transmute them, out of-"

The bag of marshmallows landed in front of them on the table, and a stern voice behind them said, "There is no need for alchemy in the kitchen, Edward. Just enjoy what's here." Pinako plopped a marshmallow into her own mug, and sat down, content with a pipe in one hand and a hot drink in the other.

While the children sat happily at the table, swinging their legs and poking at the foam the melted candies had made in their cups, the parents crept out into the living room to hang the stockings.

"Ed's gonna get a lump of coal," Winry teased between gulps.

The boy frowned. "Am not, you are!" he countered. "Besides, even if I did, I'd just transmute it. I'd make it a diamond."

"A diamond?" she echoed.

Al was nodding. "That's right!" he piped up. "Nature makes diamonds out of coal, and alchemists can do the same thing!" His brother had explained what he knew of the process a few days earlier, and it made him feel very smart to be explaining it to Winry, even if he was certain that Ed had never successfully transmuted anything into a diamond.

Winry just scoffed. "What would you do with a diamond, Ed?" she said scornfully, thinking to herself that there were surely much more desirable things to obtain from the world than sparkling stones, such as sleek metal and perfectly fit gears…

Ed set his chin on his hand and shrugged, tilting his head. "I dunno," he said. Then he gave her one of his winning smiles. "Give it to you, probably. Isn't that how boys ask girls to marry them?"

Her jaw dropped and she ran from the room.

Ed stared after her for a moment, and then jumped up. "C'mon, Al, Winry's getting to open her stocking before us!"

When it came time for the Elrics to leave the Rockbell house for the evening, hands were held and warm sentiments were exchanged.

"The food was wonderful, Sara, Pinako. Next year we'll do this at our house," said Trisha.

"It was a delight to have you here," said Richard.

"It was so wonderful to watch the children play together," Sara said, smiling down at her daughter.

"Merry Christmas Ed! Merry Christmas Al!" Winry called out as they made their way down the front porch.

"Merry Christmas, Winry," the brothers said in unison, waving their mittened hands.

After Pinako had shut the door, Ed suddenly frowned. "Uh oh," he said, and Al looked over at him.

"What's wrong, Brother?"

"I forgot to turn Winry's wrench back to a wrench!" he wailed. "She's never gonna forgive me!" His eyes widened in horror. "Al, she's gonna kill me!"

Al just shrugged. "I changed it back for her while you were looking in your stocking," he said simply. "Maybe she'll remember it later, and find it, and then she won't be mad at you anymore."

His older brother's eyes still held a shade of panic. "You changed it back?" he repeated, smacking his forehead. "Al, now she's gonna pick you!"

"You said you'd give her a diamond," Al protested. "She's gonna pick you, Ed."

In the warm glow of the fireplace in the Rockbell living room, Winry sat at her mother's feet, leaning her head on her knee and staring at the flames.

"Did you have a nice time tonight?" her mother asked gently.

"Oh yes, it was the most perfect Christmas Eve ever!" she said happily, sitting up. She showed her mother the restored wrench. "Look, momma, I got my wrench back!"

Her mother smiled. She would have, of course, loved for her daughter to show an interest in medicine, but it seemed her mind was purely mechanical, and that was all right too.

Her father chuckled from his armchair. "You didn't let the boys tease you too much, did you?" he asked pleasantly.

Little Winry wrinkled her nose. "They kept bothering me about stuff. They said I had to pick one of them."

Her mother raised her eyebrows. "Pick one for what?" she asked her daughter.

She twisted around on the floor, showing her mother her disgusted expression. "Pick one to marry," she said. "Boys are so dumb."

She didn't understand why the three adults in the room were laughing at her.

Two turtledoves

And a partridge in a pear tree