Don't own Fma. But I have an elaborate scheme to steal it. Ok, so I really don't. Poo on you!

SHORTS!

These shorts randomly take place over a four month period. Ed's birthday is set at the beginning of fall (next chapter I will talk more about this).

Held

By The Gomp

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, all go to hell.

Everyone stared at me expectantly. I gave in and blew out the candles causing the room to suddenly go dark.

Now, if there was one thing I didn't understand about birthday rituals, it was the fact that everyone clap's once you blow out the candles. They acted like it was some form of achievement. Hell, the only thing I was after was the cake itself.

Granny flicked the light switch to brighten the room again. Winry picked up the cake that was in front of me and left the room so she could go cut it. See, if I was a gentleman I would have helped Winry out. But I was still immobile and it totally sucked! What I would do to be able to take a real shower or go to the bathroom on my own once again.

Oh how did I love cake.

Al crawled up the bed and sat at the bottom of it. His brown eyes just blinked at me. I smiled at him. "Heh, you're lucky. You still got some youth." Yup, I was feeling old as hell with my 20 years of age.

Al shrugged his shoulders. "I guess so. Say Granny, when should we give Ed his gifts?" Gifts, Oh I liked gifts! I looked at Granny with pleading eyes. She looked at me with a lack of sympathy.

"I suppose if you want you can get the presents now." Yay! Gifts are always fun and nice.

Al smiled as he jumped off the bed and left the room. I was starting to feel all curious and antsy. I hadn't known that they had actually gotten me presents.

The room fell silent as Granny crawled onto the chair that was next to the bed. Without a word she dug through one of her large pockets and pulled out something. She held out a black jewelry case. I looked at the case surprised. "Granny?"

She bid me to take it. I grabbed the case with my good hand and placed it on my lap. The case had an expensive velvet texture to it. It seemed like something fancy, which was very un-Granny like.

"I've waited a long time for you to turn a proper age. I feel now is a good time to give this to you."

I only looked at her for a moment, unsure of what she meant. Slowly I opened the case. Inside was a golden pocket watch that had a divine shine to it. There was an alchemy array inscribed on the top. "Granny, what is this?"

Granny smiled gently as she ran her aged fingers over the priceless jewelry. "Your father had given this to my husband." My eyes opened wide. Granny never spoke of her late husband, never ever.

"It was around the time I had first met your father. My husband Edgardo and I had previously purchased this house, and your father needed a place to stay. He stayed with us for a few weeks and we had asked for nothing in return, but your father felt it only proper to give compensation for all our generosity. So he gave Edgardo this watch. He said it followed the 'law of equivalent trade'. Since this had been your fathers I think it's only right to give it to you."

I opened the watch to look at the insides. Amazingly it still ticked. There wasn't a scratch on the beautiful interior. The time was set right on the dot.

"Granny..."

Granny shook her head as she closed my hand around the golden time piece. "Ed, this belongs to you. Just one thing..."

"What?"

Granny narrowed her eyes. "Never let Winry see it."

"Huh?" I wasn't expecting that one.

Granny pulled out her pipe and lit it. "Don't be dumb boy, hide the damn thing before she return's. Winry will tear that thing apart if she sees it." Winry's obsession with mechanics… damn her.

I placed the watch back into the case and placed it in the drawer next to the bed.

Shortly afterwards Winry and Al both bounced in together. Winry carrying cake, Al with presents.

Oh how did I love cake and presents.

"Ed, you're not going to get anywhere at the pace your going!"

I growled at Winry. She had no utter clue how hard this was. I held onto the bar with my left hand trying to force my left leg to respond.

"Are you guys positive you connected the nerves right? I don't remember this being so difficult." My voice came out in a groan.

Winry walked in front of me placing her hands on her hips. "Before, you didn't complain as much. This isn't going to be easy. Don't forget your auto-mail is not connected to the same nerves you used prior, you have to relearn everything all over again." I swear that was Winry's favorite line every time we did physical therapy. It was getting annoying.

Al, Winry, and I were down in the basement working on re-teaching me to walk again. You would think for a twenty year old man who was learning to walk for his third time in life it would be much easier. But nooo, life was never easy. It was always so unfair. Well screw you life!

"Why don't you take a break Ed? You have been doing this for two hours now."

I eyed my brother who was sitting on the basement stairs. He looked extremely bored. Trust me, I knew how he felt.

"I can't quit until Winry says its time to." I shot pleading eyes at the blonde haired fruit cake.

She eyed me with irritation. "I don't think so. You're the one whose been ranting and raving about recovering in a six month time. You're already behind schedule."

I sighed. I really wanted to get the whole process over with; the only way to do that was to push myself.

I grabbed onto the bar more tightly, willing my leg to respond. I could get a little joint movement at the knee, but not in a fluid movement. Auto-mail was never easy to adjust to, especially considering the weight difference from natural limbs to metal ones.

I concentrated on the feel of my auto-mail leg. I tried to imagine the flow of my real limbs, even though I was heading on my tenth year without them. I imagined the natural muscles, the freedom of bendable joints, and the motion of circulation with blood flow. If I just tried and imagined that that was how auto-mail felt, it made the world a lot easier.

My stump lifted the dead weight of the metal connected to it. I hissed out as the metal pulled at my skin at the connecter pallets, it felt like the skin wanted to tear.

"Good Ed, force your knee to bend."

I tried to imagine the motion of my knee, the joint bending at the right time so my foot could catch the ground. But instead, my knee responded way to slow. I couldn't keep balance and I headed for a direct nose dive towards the floor. However, Winry luckily caught me just in time. I gave a loud sigh of relief.

"Ed, you're not concentrating hard enough!"

I pushed myself away from Winry. She was really pushing my buttons. "You have no clue how hard this is! I am concentrating; it just feels like my nerves are responding slowly."

"Your not use to exercising these nerves. You need to concentrate more on the feel. You have to train these nerves to respond, they aren't going to do it on their own. It's just not going to be easy." Ahh, this totally sucked. I thought that was what I was doing! Man, this was so much easier my first time around.

I grabbed the bar again. Time to try all over again.

And again.

I took a large bite out of the apple, feeling the delicious fruit playing over my taste buds. Outside snow danced its way from the sky, covering the farm lands with a white fantasy.

"Do you want anything else?"

Winry sat in the chair beside the bed. She had her elbows on her knees with her chin in her hands. She was watching me eat; I didn't see what was so fascinating with the process. "Naa, I'm good. Thanks though."

Winry nodded as she kept watching me. Silence filled the room; I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. "Ehh, so umm, what are your plans for today?"

Winry sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "I don't know. Winter is always a slow season for the auto-mail business so it's not like I can do anything with that. Maybe when Al gets home I'll force him to play a game with me."

"How about you play a game with me instead of just staring at me?"

Winry shot me a dirty look. What! I was only stating the truth.

"You are a sore loser when it comes to games. I don't know if that would be such a good idea." I was not a sore loser. Just very competitive.

"Let's play go-fish, it's a simple game. I think there are some cards in the closet. And because you like me so much you will get them for me." Ok, really I was still having a hard ass time walking on my own, but we could pretend that I was just being lazy.

Winry dug through the closet until she found a set of cards. She sat back down in the chair and began to skim through and count them to make sure they were all there. She then turned a threatening gaze at me. "If you cheat, I'll beat you up." You want to know what sucked? If Winry really wanted to she could kick my ass in the current state I was in, it seemed so wrong.

"Winry, I'm not going to cheat. Give me more credit than that."

Her eyes narrowed. "As a kid you use to cheat all the time with card games. So how can I trust you?" Sad thing was she was right, tee, heh.

"I promise I won't cheat, Edward Elric's honor." Winry rolled her eyes as she passed me some cards.

I spread my cards out; I had no matches, what a stinker. Winry however, had a match. I involuntarily squeezed my own cards tightly. I hated it when people got a head start.

"Winry, you start."

She looked at her cards in concentration. "Hmm, do you have any jacks?"

Oh, she was good. I bit my lip tempted to say no, but I had given her my honor. I handed her the card. Winry smiled as she placed the match pair on the bed. I stared at the two jacks willing them to die.

"What about fives?"

Ahah! "Go fish." She picked up another card to add to her hand.

I stared at the six cards in my hand. I had a queen, king, ten, seven, three, and an ace. Which to choose… "Do you have any sevens?" Lucky number seven.

"Go fish." Ok, so maybe not so lucky. I picked up a nine.

"Do you have any three's?" Damn her! I threw my three card at Winry. She caught it before it fell to the floor, lifting an eloquent eyebrow at me.

I looked at her sheepishly. "Opps, it fell out of my hands. Sorry."

"I see." She didn't seem to be buying it.

Heh, yeah, must learn to stay calm, it was just a stupid card game... right?

Winry thought for a moment before she spoke. "How about any aces?"

"……."

Winry sighed. "Edward, do you have an ace?" I eyed my ace card. If she got my ace… no, I wouldn't allow it. But- but... I promised.

I chucked the ace card which mysteriously hit Winry square in the forehead. She growled at me. "Edward, what was that for!"

"It was an accident, relax." Winry's face was turning red, becoming a scary female on the loose. She then took a deep breath to try and help relax herself.

She was defiantly cheating, I could tell. There was no way Winry was that good.

"Ok, how about... hmm, do you have any six's?" Ok, maybe she wasn't cheating.

Wahahaha! I spoke with my most snooty voice. "Go fish." Winry groaned at me as she picked up another card.

Ok, I had to make this one count. "Winry, do you have any kings?"

"Go fish." That bitch! I planned to take her down and throw her in a ditch.

"Ed, are you ok? You seem a little flustered."

I ignored her comment and picked up another card. I blinked a few times as I looked at my new card, allowing realization to dawn on me. Wahaha, it was a six! That meant she had a six. I was set to succeed.

"Ask away Winry."

"Do you have any six's."

"I'm done."

"Huh?"

"I QUIT! You're a cheater, I don't play with cheaters!"

Winry looked at me absolutely appalled. "Edward, it's a stupid card game and I'm not cheating. Now give me your six."

I threw my cards at her.

Ha, I refuse to play with a cheater.

The door creaked open which surprised me. It was late at night and I thought I was the only one still awake. Proves me wrong.

Al poked his head through the doorway, shooting me with a questioning look. I took off my reading glasses and placed them on the bed stand along with my book. I bid him to come in. "What's up?"

Al sat down on the bottom of my bed cross-legged. He was wearing his pajamas and had a tired daze to him. "I wasn't ready to sleep just yet."

"Well, you look tired to me."

My brother shook his head as a loud yawn escaped from his mouth. I only lifted an eyebrow at him.

"I don't have school tomorrow so I don't have to sleep."

I sighed as I bid Al to come lay next to me. I pushed myself more to the right as he crawled up the left side of the bed. His body curled up next to me. I pulled the bed sheets around him and wrapped my left arm over his shoulders trying to make things more comfortable.

"You should really go to sleep Al."

Al shook his head as another yawn escaped. "I hate sleeping by myself. We used to always sleep in the same room."

I laughed at him. Most teens would die for their own room; it was nice to know I was wanted. "I'll tell you what; whenever you want you can sleep in my room. You're always welcome." Al smiled as he curled more into me.

Now, if Al and I ever would have slept like this when we were younger I would have been extremely mentally disturbed. But for some reason now it felt so right, so comforting. He was my little brother and there was a bond there that no one could break.

"Ed, do you ever plan to go back to the military?"

I sighed. I brushed some hair out of Al's eyes and kissed him on the forehead in a parent like manner. "Yea right, be stuck with crappy Mustang? Naa, I much rather be here with you guys. My military days are over."

"Good, I don't want you going back. A couple kids in school say their parents who are in the military have been sent to Central recently, the military is calling everyone back. I don't want you to go away." Shit. I held my brother closer.

Rizenpool never received much information about Central since it was right by the borderlines of Aerugo. We received more news on Aerugo than on Central or Amestris; it had always been that way. So for months now I had received almost no news about Xing's advancements. All I could do was pray that something hadn't gone wrong.

A yawn escaped my own lips. I guess the warm atmosphere was starting to make me tired. I turned towards the bed stand and dimmed the oil lamp. It caste a very soft glow over the room.

My brother's voice came out in a whisper. "Ed, do you miss mom?"

I smirked as I placed my head on top of his. Al made one nice pillow.

"Of course I do."

"I miss her too."

"I know Al, just try and sleep."

Authors notes:

Ok, so I was working on chapter 6 (which is now chapter 7) when I realized that there was a HUGE time gap. I just couldn't allow four months to pass without some closure to the time between. I had fun writing these stories and they aren't totally pointless. I got a few specs of plot advancement. My next chapter should be out shortly after this because it is already 75 percent done. Thanks for reading!

Questions you might have.

1. Edgardo!

Haha, Edgardo is an Old English name that means prosperous warrior. Originally I wanted to find Winry's fathers name and use that for Granny's husband but I couldn't find it anywhere. So I went through an English baby name site and my eyes stopped at Edgardo. My roommate got kind of scared because I couldn't stop laughing at the name (sorry if your name is Edgardo) so I knew it was a winner. Also, if you want to add dynamic to your imagination you can pretend Ed was named after Granny's late husband. That's only if you want to of course.

2. Go Fish!

I just have to say one thing. I LOVE GO FISH! And I am horribly competitive when it comes to games. I have a tendency to scream and yell when I'm beginning to lose. I guess that's why my friends never play with me.. Tee heh.

3. How close can two brothers be?

I have a very distant relationship with my siblings so have no clue how close siblings would act. I am hoping I didn't make Ed and Al's relationship sound more like a romance. That wasn't what I was aiming for.

4. The location of Rizenpool!

Gomp has made a very bad mistake, which she did not discover till much later. Rizenpool in the series is actually located north rather than south. I cant fix this problem now since I am so far along in the fic and the location of Rizenpool does play a role in my story. So, I apologize for my flaw! I never realized that in the third episode Alphonse actually say's the location. Me sorry!

SoulOmenspride- We will see if problems form later or not. But as a whole, the brothers do love each other. I love the brotherly bond the series carry's. I am sure if one of my siblings put me in a suit of armor they would throw me in a junk yard or sell me on ebay, not sure which XD. I have really enjoyed getting to know you through live journal! I got more live journal snippets to post so keep a eye out.

Alpha no Kaze- Awe! Thanks for the awesome compliments. It means a lot. I thank Gundam Wing fan fiction for inspiration with the pain scenes. When I was 13/14 I became obsessed with that series and for like two and half years I constantly read GW fics (heck I still do, just not at a constant) and I guarantee you that 75 of those fics have mind numbing, physiologically damaging , pee your pants dramatic scenes. I guess some of them have rubbed off on me and have given me some inspiration. Anyways, thanks!Lame jokes defiantly are the best. I think I drive my roommate mildly insane from my horrible sense of humor. I am glad you enjoy the fic, I aim to please (well more for myself but I love it when people like my stuff!). Its funny cause I still think about that marrying line with Ed and Winry. In the back of my head I still question if its too out of character. But I'm happy you can see Ed saying that. It helps me relax somewhat. Thanks!

Maria- Lame jokes defiantly are the best. I think I drive my roommate mildly insane from my horrible sense of humor. I am glad you enjoy the fic, I aim to please (well more for myself but I love it when people like my stuff!). Its funny cause I still think about that marrying line with Ed and Winry. In the back of my head I still question if its too out of character. But I'm happy you can see Ed saying that. It helps me relax somewhat. Thanks!

SamuraiSirius- Yea, Eddy poo spilled his guts to Granny. He spilled all of it. In the manga Edhas alot of trust with Granny so thats why I had him tell her.ButEd didn't tell anything to Winry (I'm not sure if I made that clear at all). Ed is a stubborn old goat but that's why we all desire him.. well at least I do. If it wasn't for Ed's stubbornness than the tv series would have never been as good. So lets all celebrate Ed's beautiful body, ego, and noble tough ass personality. With out Ed, who else would I waste countless hours writing about?

Sorceress-Fox- Well I'm not going to spill anything about Ed and the military, but we will be starting to talk more about the military not this coming chapter but hopefully the following. Ross is cool and sooner or later you will be seeing some of her. Thanks!