Disclaimer: … Already stated in first chapter…

A/N: I think I've decided to make these chapters longer and maybe a bit less melancholy now, but I'll start that next chapter… But it wouldn't be a FMA story if you didn't have some sad and sorrowful secret (which will be revealed soon). I don't look at the series in that way, mind, but there are a few episodes that are tear jerkers! But, anyway, I'll try to make the chapters longer ;3

Chapter Five: Wishful Thinking

Winry let a smile creep it's way along her frown and let out a genuine giggle from Den's continuous licking of her face and then pulled away from him distractedly. She let her smile fall eventually and stared at the door before heaving a tired sigh through her nose as she swiped at her cheeks.

"Ugh…" she commented at the saliva Den had left behind to stick to her cheek. What am I crying for? she thought as she washed her face. Maybe it was desperation to understand or maybe what he had said… But she hadn't really let anything else he had said through his anger get to her before that clouded her mind the most. It really ached at her more than usual…

While she dried her face, she glanced at the door again before wondering if she should follow. Her younger self would have ran after him without a second thought or waited up for him to return and then yelling at him when he finally did. But, three years had deteriorated her younger behavior and filled in the vacant interim with maturity. He needed some space of his own and she understood for she wanted her own as well.

She let her eyes flicker momentarily to the clock that hung on the wall; 7:13. He'd be okay, but she did worry fleetingly of the current condition he was in without his auto-mail arm but halted the thought as Pinako emerged from the workroom. Pinako stared at her a moment before switching her pipe to the other side of her mouth and searching the room with her unwavering gaze.

"It's almost finished, but it still needs it's exterior plates and connecting core reattached." she said and it took Winry a moment to realize she was referring to Ed's auto-mail arm and nodded. "We'll finish tomorrow morning and connect it tomorrow afternoon, if Ed's up to it." she took her pipe out of her mouth and held it in front of her mouth, waiting for Winry's opinion.

Winry nodded again and halfheartedly smiled of tomorrow's course of agendas. "Until then," Pinako placed the pipe back into her mouth and crossed her arms behind her, "it's time to rest up because more than one of us will need it." Pinako advised almost wisely and Winry arched a brow at her sudden choice of words. For a odd reason, Winry felt that she was giving acknowledgment to the recent event that had occurred between Ed and herself and gave a furtive glance at the front door,.

Pinako turned to the kitchen, grabbed a rag and began to wipe away grease from her fingers as she walked up the stairs without another word. As soon as Pinako's footsteps were gone from the stairs hollow echo, Winry turned her attention to the door. If she followed Ed, she didn't necessarily have to bring up the subject of their fight, she could advise him to go to bed just as Pinako had to her. She could do that…

Swiping at a stray hair that lingered above her nose to tickle it tauntingly, she grasped the door handle and opened the door before the crisp night air danced on her bare shoulders.

Winry searched for him almost in a stupid daze, not really knowing where to begin searching and began to curse at him for making her look like some mindless idiot. She grumbled loudly at her situation and sat herself lazily onto a large wooden crate next to a large tree that she hadn't noticed before and found herself wondering how it had gotten there before giving it a mental shrug. She had spent, what she felt, almost a hour searching for him and, which hadn't seemed so hard when her house settled at the top of a large hill overlooking a vast portion of the surrounding area. A blonde person with a large white shirt and black shorts shouldn't be that hard to catch eye of…

"Maybe, it's because he's so small…" she muttered to herself and looked around feverishly; expecting him to come running out of nowhere to yell at her about her degrading comment, but it didn't come. Her brows began to sag in wonder and concern and she got up from her seat on the wooden crate.

Ed gripped the tree branch as hard as he could with his flesh hand as he contained himself of her nonchalant remark. In the position he was now in within the tree branches, he could pounce on her and get his ever-growing need to prove her wrong, but he resisted, for she may have her wrench. He had his left arm clinging to the branch above him and his legs wrapped around the branch he sat on, just above Winry's form. She began to get up and Ed let himself push her remark to the back of his mind as he realized his legs were shifting too far over to the left and with only one hand, it became suddenly very difficult to hold on. The branch that was strangled by his hand was too big to wrap his whole fingers around and the tilting of his lower body due to gravity was making the realization that the ground beneath his branch was hard was more apparent.

He struggled to keep from tilting any further and the more he did so, the more his body seemed to be inclined to hit the ground. Winry was still beneath him and, as she began to walk away reluctantly, his metal caught a large portion of bark. The flake of wood emitted a loud crack as several other fragments caught a hold of the metal limb and popped as well while one single portion of bark was torn from the branch and fell onto Winry's shoulder, who let out a "Eeep!"

Crap…

Winry looked around avidly for the source of her sudden increase in heart rate and finally looked up. She put her hands on her hips and didn't even move her hand to retrieve her wrench from her pocket, for it wasn't there, and stared at the figure of a Ed that looked like he had just been caught doing something wrong. He gave a nervous grin and his grip on the branch slipped as he fell from the branch like a brick; landing on his back which caused him to gasp from the wind that escaped his lungs. It was a funny sight and rare, but she looked down at the wooden crate that was close to breaking his fall, then back at him accusingly.

"So it was you who put this here…" she commented as she made her way over to the subject of her accusation. Ed took a few moments to recollect the lost air and gasped at her,

"Why… does it… matter…?"

"It doesn't, but it just caught my attention." she shrugged as she knelt next to him and helped him up. As he regained his poise, he looked over at her and answered monotonously,

"I had a hard time getting up there with only one arm, so I had to transmute something to help." he said simply and almost in a matter-a-fact tone that made her arch a brow.

"Well, you won't have to worry about that tomorrow; Grandma and I are almost finished with your arm and you'll have it back then. I think we'll work on your leg also by then." She looked over at the horizon and noticed that the sun was just loosing it's clinging grip on the clouds as stars began to pepper the darkening sky. "How's that injury?" she asked suddenly and Ed glanced down at the bandage that ran his collarbone. He really didn't remember how his auto-mail had twisted like it had, for it was a strong metal, but turned back to her without giving the wondering question another thought in his mind.

"S'alright, it hurt this morning, but that's all."

"I'll probably have to change the bandage tonight and see how it's healing." with that, she stood and brushed off her legs before motioning toward the house. She'd ask about what he had meant by 'everything' another time…

oooooooooooo

"Damn it, Winry, that hurts!"

"Oh, stop being sucha baby! You've been through auto-mail surgery and your making a fuss over this?" Winry snapped at his whiny yell and grabbed at his shoulders as he attempted to crawl away. "I'm almost done."

"You said that almost fifty stitches ago." Ed grumbled before he winced again as she pulled at another stitch in his flesh. "And it's not exactly like you're being gentle…"

"You don't even have that many." Winry said distractedly as she leaned over his stitches and plucked a stitch particularly hard at his last comment, thus earning another flinch as she spoke, "I'm surprised they're even ready to be pulled- stop moving!" she slapped at his left arm and Ed stuck his tongue out at her bowed head.

"Are you done yet?" Ed asked grumpily as he tried to incline his head over her hands to look at her work before she slapped harder on his arm again.

"Almo-"

"Argh! Winry!" she hurriedly placed a wet towel over his bleeding wound and slapped his arm again.

"Well, you did it to yourself! If you'd quit moving, I wouldn't have slipped." she stated and lifted the towel slightly to see the damage. "It seems okay…" she placed her hand gingerly on the wound to see it better and received a wince in return. "Sorry- There's just one last stitch…" she finally took up the recent disregarded utensil and finally pulled it free from Ed's collarbone. "There, I just need to put some disinfectant on it before I bandage it again."

She did so, and bandaged it as Ed stared at her hands as they worked as if expecting them to cause harm. She packed away the aid box while Ed stared blankly at the stitching in the couch where he sat. She knew he was thinking, but of what, she really couldn't tell…

"I think," he muttered so suddenly, that Winry held her breath so as to hear what he was saying, "I'm gonna leave after I get my auto-mail fixed." Winry had made to join him on the couch, but stopped dead in her tracks at his words.

"Oh…" she hung her head and sighed numbly like she stood. A sudden awkward silence and tension crept it's way over their spines and throughout the whole room as they sat in silence. Finally, he spoke again,

"I want to see Al again." he said austerely and she intertwined her fingers together behind her back as she nodded understandingly, yet reluctantly. She knew he'd eventually leave for him, she just chose to make herself believe that she could pursue him to say. But it was wishful thinking, after all. Ed looked up to meet her gaze which he had tried to avoid in the beginning of the 'conversation', but found she couldn't yet make her own gaze to touch his and he sighed while locking his gaze on the couch's fabric again.

She took in a clean breath and looked at him finally, smiling,

"I understand…" she said, making him look up so quick, his neck popped and she couldn't contain a smile from the look that passed his face from his neck's loud popping. He grabbed at the back of his neck and opened his mouth to say something but was interjected by Winry, "but we need to get some rest if we're going to finish both your leg and arm and reattach them all in one day."

"My leg? But aren't you going to wait to do that the next day? I mean, you haven't started on my leg or anything, have you?" Ed asked, arching a brow.

"We've already started on your leg… In fact, all that needs to be done is to finish the exterior portions. That's why I took measurements; to accommodate your size."

"Well, how come you said that you'd work on my leg after reattaching my arm?" he asked.

"I didn't say that, I said that we'd work on it."

"Same thing."

"No it's not; when I said that, I meant we'd work on finishing it and reattaching it at the same time as your arm."

"How come you didn't just say that?" Ed asked grumpily, glaring at her.

"You didn't ask."

A/N: Next chapter will be longer, I promise!

Mustang24: Glad you liked the last chapter, but I don't think I liked this chapter as much as I should… But I'll let you guys decide whether it's worth reviewing or not.

Black-Angel-001: I took what you said about the chapters being short to heart and I'm planning on making them longer, promise. But, as far as my summary, I looked and I didn't put 'What's wrong with Al?' I said, 'What's wrong with Ed?' and what happened to Al…Not that what happened had to be bad. ;3

Blue Raindrop: Don't fear, Ed and everyone will cheer up, but they still have problems and issues of their own to deal with before any happiness really comes around. I felt like putting in awkwardness and everything was appropriate because of the secrets that Ed still has and Winry doesn't quite know where to press in conversation. She doesn't know where soft spots are yet. I have to say, I'm looking forward to the movie as well! I'm really glad that the recommendations went to good use!

Zirra Nova: Yes, he is, but that's what I love about his character! ;3

Hiei44: In truth, Ed knows that she does mean well, but he tends to think that so not to hurt anyone, he has to push them away, which in turn turns to anger or frustration. I hoped to lighten the atmosphere a bit with the scene with Den and Ed and the story in all will as well. But, it has to get worse before it gets better…

EdxWinry: I'm glad you thought so and I hope you like this chapter as much as this last one.

Fireblazie: When I thought up this story, I wanted to do something different so as to reel more people in. Not to mention, I found it more fun to start with a mystery and climax and then go back a fill in all the blanks so that everything fell into their places accordingly. Hope you like! ;3

C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only: Thanks for the review and hope you like this chapter!