Declaimer: Ah… the world is a happy place. Another movie may or may not be coming out; I don't own this (I've finished it though!), and I have a great job… but that's a completely unrelated subject…

Eighth Bit.

"I'm sorry…" Winry whispered.

"For what?" Edward smiled forgivingly.

Winry shook her head, "I can't stay with you,"

His smile dropped, "What? Why?"

"You love me… don't you?"

He smiled I grabbed her hands across the dinner table; they had decided to go out to one of her favorite restaurants for the third night in a row, "Of course I love you!"

She sighed and couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes, "You don't though. You love someone that's been forgotten."

"That doesn't matter! You're still you, and I love any part of you,"

Winry liked the words, but they didn't change anything, "even if that's true. I don't think…" She swallowed, "I don't think I can love you." She couldn't even take being around him, even though he was all she had; she couldn't take the fact that he loved her for all the things and moments she couldn't remember.

Edward's smile fell completely into a frown and he pulled his hands away from hers, "But, haven't I made you happy?"

She finally worked up the courage to look at him, and it nearly broke her heart, "I don't even know you!"

"Yes, yes you do! You just have to remember,"

"I need to find my memories on my own. Maybe one day, I'll find them and I'll come back to you. But I think… I think for a while I need to make new memories." She didn't even want to remember anymore, she just wanted to have a new life.

Edward nodded, secure in the fact that she would come back one day.

Winry stood, "Thank you for everything you've done for me," her eyes smiled sadly "I wish I could be the person you remember."

"I love you,"

"And I'll remember that." She cast him one last mournful glance before turning and walking out of the restaurant into a narrow moonlit street.

As she walked and listened to the soft sound of her feet, she let herself cry in the deserted pathway. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Now she was alone in a town she couldn't remember, she had no money, and she couldn't even remember her last name. What was she supposed to accomplish by leaving Edward? She figured it was freedom… the freedom to not have to remember anything. She just wanted to be who she was right now; she didn't want to become the person she had been, even though she didn't even know who that was.

She stopped and leaned against a stone building, letting herself crumble to the ground. She needed to think.

She burst into tears; everything was wrong!

A door slammed somewhere down the street, startling her out of her sobs. She listened intently, grateful for the distraction.

"I don't even like bread!" a voice yelled

A window creaked open, "And don't expect to get paid for your work!"

"Well don't expect me to be a customer any time in the future!"

The window slammed somehow louder than the door.

Winry tried to peer around the corner to see what was going on, but only heard angered grumbling.

She curled back in on herself and sniffed, why was she even bothering? It wasn't any of her business.

Winry tried to shake her head of the tears, and decided she needed to keep moving, if she didn't, she just might not be able to get up.

She started wandering through the streets aimlessly, she just needed to do something to clear her mind, and walking seemed to be doing the trick. Up one street, down another, through a narrow alley, she started to anticipate where she would end up.

The street opened up to a grassy field, speckled by trees here and there. Her shoulders fell forward, and her emotions came back… a cemetery; she should have guessed. She walked into it nonetheless, if this is where her path took her, she was going to stay the night. She was as good as dead anyways, it would be nice company.

Through the pathways of small crumbling headstones Winry headed towards an inviting tree. When she reached it, she slid down the trunk and propped her arms up on her knees. This was a nice cemetery, not what you'd expect. With the bright moon overhead, it lit everything up, and made it almost festive. The night was warm, calming, welcoming… so why was she still so sad?

A few more tears slid down her cheeks; well, tonight would just have to be a night of mourning.

Ed walked down the dark street with his jacket over his shoulder; he was not having a good day.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose as his headache throbbed, what was he going to do now? He was broke, hungry, and plagued by useless feelings that only made is situation worse.

Where else could he get a job? His options were running out.

He fished around in his pockets and brought out enough money for a few meals, and he decided eating was more important than sleeping in a comfortable bed. At least the night was warm enough. He would just spend it where he had spent the first night with Al and Noah. The thought made him smile, it almost sounded better than an Inn.

Ed weaved around the tombstones trying to catch names as he passed; he wanted to sleep with someone who sounded like a nice person, or maybe someone who was lonely. He started trying to pick out dates, if the person had died young; maybe they might want more company than the older ones… or was it the other way around? He sighed; this was stupid.

His ears perked up as he heard someone cough and hiccup a small cry. Okay… that was a little scary. But he had to be practical. He started looking for someone else who might be in the cemetery with him.

After walking around for a few minutes without any luck, he finally saw a small figured sitting against a tree, trying to hide sobs in her arm.

He frowned when he saw her, he knew who she was. He shook his head, just a reflection he repeated to himself unconvincingly; he couldn't just leave her there alone though.

He walked up to her with a sigh, and looked to the sky, as if hoping it would tell him why he was bothering, "Are you okay?"

Winry started and let her eyes shoot up to Ed's face. Her heart started to race, her eyes widened. That was an interesting feeling… like the mixture of fear and curiosity.

"Sorry… I just heard you crying and I thought you might…" He stopped, "Never mind, I'll leave you alone."

Her hand shot up, "Wait!" she stood up so she could come level to his eyes, and starred at them for a long moment, trying to pick them out of the shadows.

Thump

Thump

She put a hand to her chest.

Suddenly it felt like she was being pulled backwards through a very small hole. Her mind raced and tried to get a hold of a lifetime's worth of memories. They hit hard and fast and left her panting, "Oh god!" it hurt, everything hurt! Her head spun, her eyes crossed, everything was upside down and backwards. Everything smelled wrong, felt wrong, looked wrong, and as she grasped where she was and how she had gotten there, she fought of the need to faint; she teetered forward.

Ed grabbed her shoulders to keep her from falling, "You don't look to good, do you live near by?"

Winry looked up, and started crying a different kind of tear, letting out so much bottled up emotion she had no place for it, "Ed?"

She could almost hear his heart stop.

"What?" his voice quivered.

Her whole body shook, she felt like exploding with happiness, it came so fast she couldn't hold it in. She tackled him and held on as they both stumbled to the ground.

"Ed!" She kissed his cheek, "Ed… Ed… Ed…. Ed." Between each mumbled 'Ed' she kissed another part of his face. She wasn't going to waste these overflowing emotions on a reserved hug.

Ed was too shocked to move, his mind was having problems processing what was happening. Finally he blinked, looked up at Winry, and opened and shut his mouth a few times, "Wi---nrY?" He chocked.

She bit her lip and nodded, "Winry Rockbell," she let the name wash over her, and closed her eyes, yes… that was right.

Headache gone, Ed took a moment to grasp what was going on. How, in any world, was that possible? His thoughts cackled, who the hell cared?

He lifted his automail hand up, weaved it through Winry's hair, and pulled himself up to kiss her as if she would melt away at any moment.

He opened his eyes slowly a moment later after the kiss; would she still be there?

A few of her tears splashed down coolly onto his cheek, still there.

He smiled, rolled over, placed his hands on either side of her, and leaned down to kiss her stronger this time.

Winry gasped and laughed, now this was a greeting.

He looked down at her as his whole world imploded around him until it didn't exist anymore, and started to hurriedly rebuild itself around this new and wonderful experience.

"How…" he sighed, "Did you get here?"

She wiped away a few warm tears and puffed out a laugh at the world, "I'll tell you once you get off me… you're… kind of heavy."

He smirked and rolled to the side.

Well now he was too far away. Winry rolled over and half onto his chest, "I think…" She closed her eyes, "I think I died."

"It's far too late for you two to leave now, you might as well stay the night. We have an extra room upstairs if you like."

Al and Noah sat around a small fire, having finished dinner only a little while ago. They looked to each other with the question, Al decided to answer it "You've already been so kind we couldn't really imagine taking advantage of it more."

Noah looked down with sigh; it was going to be a long night.

Mary caught the sigh, "Your clothes aren't even completely dry yet, and staying the night won't make a bit of difference to John and I."

Her husband nodded with a smile.

Al looked to Noah and saw her look, "in that case, we would love to stay."

She clasped her hands, "Wonderful! I'll just go up and set up the room…" She jumped out of her chair and hurried up the small flight of stairs to the second story.

A few minutes later she called them up.

Mary glowed in the room, "Hope you like it," She swished her way passed the two of them and pushed them through the door, "Good night." She closed the door behind them.

They booth blushed when they saw the single bed. To cover the tension though, Al quickly picked up where they had left off.

They rolled over the bed and off the other side, laughing.

"Okay, okay" Noah gasped, "We should sleep."

Al pouted, "Fine…"

She shook her head with amusement and gave him one more kiss before jumping into the bed.

Mary and John both looked up when they heard the thump of two bodies hitting the floor.

John rolled his eyes while Mary smiled joyfully, "They seem like a sweet couple."

"Don't you two know it's unlucky to sleep with the dead?" A rasped voice crocked waking Ed and Winry up to a harshly bright morning.

Winry tried to close her eyes and will the man away. It didn't work.

"Nope… no good at all. Messes with the digestion."

Ed tried to roll over but couldn't since Winry was still on top of him, "Don't you know it's unlucky to wake the resting while they're with the dead?" he growled.

The man quickly ushered himself away, knowing that you didn't want to mess with a guy with a tone of voice like that this early in the morning.

Winry laughed quietly through a smile, "That wasn't too nice."

Ed smirked, "You didn't want him hanging around, did you?"

Winry was quiet.

Ed put some more effort into rolling over to reverse the role of who was on top of whom, "Did you?" he asked again playfully.

She squirmed and gave up, "No…" she kept herself from smiling.

"Good." Ed beamed, "Now what do you think we should do today?"

They had stayed up until the wee hours of the night filling each other in on everything that had happened in the time they hadn't seen each other, and Ed had had to spend even more time trying to explain to Winry where she was now. He had to get her to understand that it was a little more complicated than simply being dead.

She tried to shrug, but it was difficult given her position, "anything… it doesn't matter." She thought for a moment, "Are there any mechanics shops around here?"

Ed tried to keep from rolling his eyes. Leave it to Winry to get going right where she had left off.

Al was looking very intently down the dusty dirt road they were walking on; they had to be getting close.

"I'm telling you, we should have taken a right at that last intersection."

"But it was south-east, I distinctly heard that man say south-east."

"I didn't hear an east." Noah folded her arms.

Al squinted into the distance and saw the road dip into a town, "HA! There it is."

Noah gaped.

He nudged her a little with his arm, "Don't look so surprised Mrs. Connelly."

"I wasn't surprised!"

"Uh-huh." Al sniggered

"That was just a look of relief. It's about time we got there." She covered smoothly.

Al decided not to comment.

Noah looked up and smiled, "And Mr. Connelly?"

"Hmmm?"

"We're going south."

Al's head shot up, "the trail must have turned a little."

"Uh-huh."

"The sea doesn't look as blue here…" Winry commented sadly.

Ed closed his eyes and imagined the ocean of their world; it always seemed to sparkle "You get used to it."

They sat together on a stone-wall, looking out over the rooftops that sloped down and into the coast.

"Color isn't such a horrible sacrifice." In truth, she was really just happy to be where she was and whom she was with to care much about the muted and dreary colors.

Winry leaned her head onto Ed's shoulder, "Do you think I could still be a mechanic here?"

Ed shrugged, hiding the joy of his dreams playing out, "I don't think anyone is ready yet for auto-mail, but you might be able to keep yourself busy with other things."

Winry brought up her left hand and turned it over to trace her palm. Oddly enough, it felt like she was missing her hand.

Ed watched her out of the corner of his eye and smiled, "the real thing not good enough for you?" he teased

"Hmm?"

Ed lifted a finger I tapped her palm.

"Oh… just missing it I guess."

"Miss not having a hand?" He quirked a brow

Winry put her hand down and smiled at Ed's eyes "I had just gotten attached to it,"

Hehehe, she loves me . , and then he decided to go back to the last subject, "You'll probably find a job faster than me," He picked at the stone; "I hope you don't mind going without bread for a while…"

Winry's face knotted up in confusion, "Wha—" she stopped to think, and then she laughed, "You worked at the bakery?"

"Yeah…"

"I think I heard you getting fired."

Figures.

Ed decided to keep the subject on track, "You could work with Noah for a while. She would probably love to teach you some of her songs." In fact, she had tried to teach Al and him a few… but after a while, she learned it was better that they didn't know them at all.

"Noah…" Winry whispered to herself, "You said she was like Rose? What did you call her?"

"A Reflection."

"It's so odd… to think that everyone has a twin in another world." She curled her fingers through her own hair, and played over the memory of what she had done to her own Reflection. Had she really killed someone? She pushed the thought away, not ready to face her guilt yet.

Ed seemed to make up his mind about something, and jumped down from the wall, "I think Al and Noah should be coming back today, would you feel up to waiting on the outside of town for them?"

Winry slid off the wall as well, slightly more reserved, "That's only if everything went alright… and wouldn't they be coming on the train?"

Ed closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I have a feeling everything worked out, and if that means anything, they probably didn't have enough money for a train."

She smiled with Ed's mood, he seemed to be glowing, "feeling psychic?"

His teeth glinted with a smile, "Maybe…"

"Let's go then, we don't want to miss them."

"Is it just me, or is it getting further away?" Noah questioned the road,

"I wasn't going to mention anything… I thought it might just be a point of perspective or something." Al took a glance around them, making sure the landscape wasn't curving in any odd ways.

"We are getting closer though… aren't we?"

Al tried out a few different ways of looking at the town they were approaching, "If you turn your head a little to the right and look at out the corner of your eye, you can almost see a few windows…"

Noah tried without success, "Maybe we should just keep going without thinking about it,"

"Yeah." Al agreed.

Winry sifted the dirt into a small pile with her feet, "I'm guessing we'll be here for a while?"

Ed was lying down in a patch of grass with his hands behind his head, "it's not so bad…"

After she brought the pile to a peak she smashed it, "It would be better if I had a stick."

Ed opened one eye, "For what?"

"To draw in the dirt with," you could never get bored with a good stick.

A wide smile took over Ed's face, but Winry didn't notice. He slowly lifted himself up behind her and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back down with him.

She eeped and struggled playfully.

Ed kissed her nose and she went still.

"Do you think Al would be mad if we lived in a house without him?" Ed looked to his sides suspiciously as if Al was listening, it was purely for show though, and to make Winry laugh more.

She straightened her face to force an overly serious look; "We would need money for that dear…" a smile broke through.

Ed tried to look stern as well, "Of course,"

"Get a room!" someone snickered as they passed by in the road.

Ed looked up and his eyes widened.

"Ed!" Al coughed, his eyes drifted to the person lying on top of his brother, "WINRY?"

Ed tried to get up as quickly as he could with Winry working on the same thing.

"Ed! I thought we agreed tha—"

Winry lunged at Al to hug him, "I missed you Al."

Al stood frozen and shocked. Once Winry pulled away and smiled, Al woke up to what was going on, "This is… this is actually Winry?" he rasped.

Ed nodded.

"How?"

Ed rubbed the back of his neck, "It's a long story…"

Noah slowly edged her way over to Winry and held out a hand to brush against her arm. She drew a sharp breath, "impossible… you're not even in your own body."

Winry stood gaping at Noah.

Noah brought her hand away from Winry and reached out to Ed. She smiled broadly, happier than she had been in a long time, "you're not missing anything."

Ed blushed; "I'm sorry…" he looked down.

Noah smirked up at Al, who returned the look, "You don't have to worry about that. I'm whole as well." She smiled with amusement, "Isn't that right Mr. Connelly?"

Al pulled off a perfect rich English man look, somewhat arrogant, barely polite, and made sure to add the extra touch of turning up his nose to who he was talking to "I believe so Mrs. Connelly," If only his accent was as good as his impersonation.

Nonetheless, both Noah and Al broke out laughing.

Ed and Winry exchanged a look.

"Don't look at me…" Ed held up his hands, "I've never seen Noah joke."

Al and Noah sobered.

"What she's trying to say is that we've found what we've been looking for."

"What I'm trying to say," Noah corrected, "Along with what Al said. Is that this world just might start feeling like home finally."

Winry sighed. Everything was moving so fast, but it all felt right, "Home…" she smiled into Ed's eyes, "That sounds nice…"

Winry Miller sat on a train heading towards a town called Resembool. After searching long and hard she had discovered that the only living relative she had left was an old woman who lived alone outside of town in the middle of farmlands. After waking up in the hospital, she had been told that her name was Winry Rockbell… but she had decided she couldn't take a name she couldn't remember. Instead she had decided to name herself Bell until her memories returned.

She starred out the window and watched a dozen different hills flash by. Did she want to remember? She could just start a new life, and everything would be fine. But she didn't feel right though, everything around her felt wrong. But she figured she would get used to it again, she had lived with it before, hadn't she? She thought that maybe if she remembered, everything would feel right again.

"Fancy meeting you again…" A man sat down in the cabin across from her and smirked, "Did you find the guy you were looking for?"

Bell frowned, "I'm sorry… but how do I know you?"

He sighed, "Forgotten so easily? I shouldn't be surprised, you didn't seem all that happy with me before you left."

Bell heaved a long breath, preparing herself for a shortened version of a speech she had worked out a few days ago, "I'm sorry, I recently had an accident, and lost most of my memory. If I knew you, I don't anymore," she looked down sadly.

"Oh dear! We're going to have to fix that, aren't we?" He leaned over to shake her hand, "I'm Edward Densing, and you are?"

She smiled, "Bell."

"Just Bell?"

"For now…"

Edward smiled and nodded, trying to be understanding, "Well… do you mind if I join you?"

Bell smiled, "No… I need more people in my life right now. I feel like I've lost a lot of people I never knew."

Edward got up to sit next to her, "Well, if it makes a difference, I feel like I know you." He scratched the back of his head, he wasn't used to odd feelings like that.

She smiled into his eyes, "I think it does…"

A/N SOOooooo... What'd ya think?