AM: This chapter was a pain in the ass to get to my beta, so be glad it's even up...
TK: No kidding! It took forever, and in the end, Chelsea had to tell her what was wrong in the chapter, and Minako had to fix it...
AM: It was hell... there were a lot of mistakes... God... The8thSin, I 3 you! you're so nice! I live for cliffhangers, though, and this one's even worse!
TK: Yeah, it's so cruel...
AM: Thank you all my reviewers, I now have more reviews on three chapters than I've ever had on a story with 3 chapters, I LOVE YOU GUYS!
TK: Now to the disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: Eh... nope, not mine...

TK: short sweet and to the point
AM: exactly!

Chapter IV: Trains

The phone rang around seven o'clock the next morning. Roy groaned, and tried his best to ignore it, he was too comfortable in his bed, next to Edward. (1) On the sixth ring, it stopped, and Roy sighed in relief. Finally, he could get back to sleep! However, just as he was about to drift into unconsciousness, the ringing started up again. effectively dashing all the man's hopes of sleeping more.

"Answer the damn phone" muttered a half-asleep Edward.

Roy groaned again, and sat up, reaching for the phone on his bedside table, "Hello?" he murmured into the mouthpiece, half-asleep himself.

"Mustang-san!" a cheerful voice, that could only belong to Alphonse Elric greeted from the other end.

"Oh, hey, Al" the general greeted back, trying to shake off the sleepy feeling, a difficult task without coffee. (2)

"So?" Alphonse asked expectantly, "Did you ask him?"

Roy nodded, then realized he was on the phone, so Al couldn't see him, "Yes" he answered, almost sure of what the next question would be.

"And what did he say?" Al asked, sounding incredibly excited. Roy was so right.

"What do you think?" he asked, Al could practically hear the triumphant smirk in his voice.

Al chuckled on the other side, "Yes," he said, "I knew he would."

"I know you knew" Roy said rolling his eyes.

"Well, drop by here today" Al invited, knowing there were some blonde-haired, blue-eyed things they needed to discuss.(3)

"Okay" Roy said, noticing that Edward had gotten out of bed, and gone into the bathroom.

"'kay, then, bye!"

"Bye, Alphonse" Roy said before hanging up.

"Oh Shit!" Edward exclaimed from the bathroom.

"What's wrong, Love?" Roy asked, genuinely concerned. Edward sounded quite distressed.

"My automail" he said, "I completely forgot, I need to see Winry for some serious repairs."

"Good, since we need to tell her about your return and our engagement, anyway" Roy concluded.

"Oh crap! I completely forgot!" Ed cried, and Roy winced. Had the shorter one forgotten about last night already? "She doesn't know I'm home!"

The older man let out a sigh of relief, "It looks like we'll be taking a trip to Resembool then, eh, Love?" Roy asked.

"I guess so" Edward agreed, coming out of the bathroom, dressed in his usual black ensemble.

Edward and Roy approached the door of the brother's shared apartment. Before Ed could fish the key out of his pocket, Alphonse flew out the door, throwing his arms around his slightly shorter brother's neck. Edward stumbled backward, but tried his hardest to keep his balance. "Congratulations, Nii-san!" he cried as Edward coughed. (4)

"Al, let me breathe!" The shorter blonde choked out. Alphonse was cutting of his air circulation, and he was steadily turning blue.

"Sorry, Nii-san!" The younger Elric exclaimed, releasing his brother from his death grip.

Ed swayed a bit, feeling very dizzy from the lack of air. "So I take it you knew what Roy had planned?"

Al nodded triumphantly, but his face soon grew serious, "But we have to talk about Winry" he informed the two.

"Did you call her?" Roy asked. He knew the blonde girl was always nagging the brothers to call before they dropped by.

Al nodded again, "I also bought 3 train tickets," he said, holding them up. Now that the tickets were bought, they had to go, no backing out now.

Uh... we're rewinding a little:

The phone was ringing loudly, and Winry couldn't concentrate on the automail parts she was working on, anyway. She picked up the receiver, and greeted, "Rockbell Prosthetics,"

"Hey, Winry" Al's cheerful voice greeted.

"Oh! Hey, Alphonse!" she replied, when a question hit her, "Uh, why are you calling?"

"Uh well, would you mind if I dropped by later today?" he asked.

"Of course not! It's always a pleasure to see you!" she said grinning.

"Great!" Al cheered, "Oh, and by the way, you might be surprised." he warned.

Winry frowned, there was Al being vague again. "Okay, Alphonse" she said, "Bye"

"Bye, Winry" Al said, as Winry hung up the phone.

And back to the three:

Edward was fiddling with the engagement ring on his finger. It was a silver band, with a single small ruby embedded in it. Simple, but it still held so many meanings. Red, like the Philosopher's Stone they searched for, for so long. Red, like the blood red jacket Edward still always wore, and red like the embers left over from a fire, like those produced by the Flame Alchemist, the one Edward was going to marry.

Roy chuckled, wrapping an arm around his fiancé's shoulder, "I'm guessing you like it, Love." he said, resting his head on the younger one. Edward nodded. Roy chose well, and he was sure it wasn't coincidence that the ring could mean so many things.

Al fought the urge to sigh dreamily, those two were so cute together, and they cared so much about each other. Of course, Al was the hopeless romantic, he lived for romance, and his secret hope, was to be as happy with a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed, mechanic, as his brother was with Roy. His thoughts soon drifted from the couple in front of him, who he took all the credit for bringing together, to the girl they were going to see. How she wrinkled her nose cutely when she concentrated hard on making automail. How here eyes secretly lit up every time Edward broke his automail, simply because she got to work with it more. The way she handled machinery with so much care, but hit Edward with her wrench almost everytime she found an excuse. And how pretty she was in everything she wore. The last thought caused the blood to rush to his face, he was sure he was beet red now. (5)

Of course, thinking about Winry, led Al to thinking about how she acted around he and Edward. She was never flustered or shy around Ed, but something in her eyes changed. Alphonse always had the gift of reading people like they were open books, so the emotion in those cerulean eyes was... Why didn't he notice before!

"Oh my God!" Al said, causing the two men sitting across from him to look up.

"What's wrong, Al, did you forget something?" Ed asked. Alphonse also had the gift of being scatterbrained, probably because he was always busying himself in other people's affairs, instead of his own.

"Winry's in love with you, Nii-san" the younger Elric answered.

"What?" Edward asked. Winry was always hitting him, and calling him short, how could she be in love with him?

Roy snorted in amusement, "You just noticed this?" he asked.

"What!" the older Elric exclaimed, "You mean it was obvious!" He was feeling dumber by the second.

Roy nodded, "You seriously didn't notice?"

Edward blushed, "Well, no... she's always hitting me, and calling me short. I am not so small I can only be seen by a microscope, by the way," he added.

"Of course you're not, Love" Roy agreed, partially because he had grown a few inches... Alphonse was still taller (6)

"You're damn right" Ed muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and slumping in his seat.

Winry looked eagerly at the clock on the wall. It was 2:40. Al would be here in less than twenty minutes. 'Wonder what the surprise is' she thought, placing some wires that substituted as nerves into a box. Automail was not the main thing on her mind for once. She was about to place the entire new arm design in the box when she heard Den barking outside. The blonde girl made her way to the door and opened it, calling to the old dog, "Den, stop barking at the--" Cerulean optics widened when she saw three people walk up the path.
AM: How's that for a cliffhanger?
TK: You suck, but I know what happens!
AM: Don't worry, though, Chapter 5 is halfway written, so I'll have it up as soon as Chelsea beta reads it (but I won't let her read it 'till tomorrow)
TK: Yeah...
AM: Author comments:

(1) Ho! I didn't write a lemon XP
(2) It is indeed.
(3) Boy if that person isn't obvious...
(4) Anyone seen the first episode of Tsubasa Chronicle? Yeah, when Sakura glomps Syaoran, that's what it's like
(5) Poor innocent little Alphonse (blush)
(6) And Al is what? 18?

AM: So then, review, and I'll see you next time, by the way, MY LJ USERNAME IS asahi(underscore)minako

-Ai (love)

Minako-baka