Chapter 2
As Mustang remained on the ground, rubbing his forehead, the front door opened. A tiny old lady walked out from the house. She was in her sixties, only three feet tall. That would make Ed happy—finally someone in this world made him look taller. The old lady saw Mustang. She leaned down and asked him, "Do you need some ice, boy?"
"No…no, thank you," Mustang replied, trying to be as nice as possible. He pulled himself up, dusted the dirt off his military jacket. The old lady looked up at his face, and asked, "Do you need any automail?"
"Oh, no, not me," Mustang said. The old lady was disappointed. "It's him who needs automail, two actually," Mustang told her while pointing at Ed, hard.
"Automails are not cheap, you know," the old lady replied. "But I can give that to your boy for free if you would take my granddaughter as your wife!"
"Uh, lady, I think we have some misunderstandings here," Mustang said, somewhat blushing. "You see, I am not the one who needs automail. He is the one who needs them. The reason why he is here is that he cannot afford any automail. He is one who is willingly to marry your granddaughter." The old lady did not say a word. "He is twenty years old, very smart and single," Mustang added quickly.
"And you are married?" she asked him.
"Well, you see…I'm…I'm…I'm in a relationship."
"You are in a relationship Colonel?" Havoc asked, not realzing that Mustang was trying to trick the old lady. "I thought you said you could hardly find your type…" Before he could finish, Mustang snapped his finger and fire exploded at him.
"You are this young and you are a colonel?" the old lady asked.
"No, no, no, you see ma'am, the point I'm making is that THIS is Edward Elric. HE needs automail limbs. HE wants to marry your granddaughter. I'M just his escort and future commanding officer. I have no interest in marrying…right now." Mustang was about to say "I have no interest in marrying her", but he thought better of it.
The old lady walked toward Ed, studied his face for a while. "Hmmm, not bad looking. You look like a good boy. So, how did you lose your limbs?"
"It's a long story, Mrs. Rockbell," Ed replied.
"And who is this big guy?" she asked, referring to Al.
"I'm his little brother, Alphonse," the huge armor replied.
"You are his younger brother?"
"It's a long story."
"Well then, it's not important. You are willing to marry my granddaughter, Winry?" she asked Ed.
"Yes ma'am, without a doubt."
"All right then, we'll get you started. Once we are finished, we'll have you and Winry get to know each other."
Havoc gave Ed a "good luck" glimpse.
---x---x---
If one would think that losing a limb is agonizing enough, then one should try reattaching one. It was hell of a painful process. Ed bit his lips, tried hard not to scream. He sweated all over. Mrs. Rockbell was quite impressed. "Even grown men screamed out loud," she told Mustang.
"I am a grown man," Ed shouted, in the mix of agony and anger.
Finally, the process was done. Ed was resting in bed. He wanted to take another good look at Winry, his future wife. Yet, he had to wait till the pain is gone. From what he just saw, Winry was indeed a "shrew". He could understand why other men are so afraid of her. The flying wrenches, wow. She could've killed any man who comes near her. So, what could he do in order to tame her?
Ed was not new to this. When he was a kid, he had met some bullies. Of course, the big bullies always picked on smaller kids. At first, Ed was running away from them. Then, he realized that running away isn't the best solution. So he fought back, taught them to see who Edward Eric really was. It worked. The bullies never dared to pick on him again. Afterwards, Ed acted nice to them, and in turn, those bullies became his bodyguards. From those experiences, Ed knew well enough on how to handle a girl like that: first he would tame her, then he would love her.
After a few hours of sleep, Ed got up and got dressed. First, he had to train his body with Al. He needed to do that, in order to get into shape. Then, he did some stretching and went up to Winry's room.
Before her door stood Havoc. His hand was covering his swollen nose.
"Havoc, what happened?" Ed asked with concern, even though he already guessed the answer.
"Her grandmother asked me to call her down. I opened the door, and she threw a wrench at me, I was able to dodge from that. Yet, when she shut the door right in my face…it hit me right in the nose."
"Havoc, go downstairs. Leave it all to me."
"Think you can handle her?"
"Just watch me," Ed smirked, and knocked on her door. Havoc flew back downstairs like a wind.
Ed knocked on the door over and over again. There was no respond.
"Miss Winry?" he asked. Still, no respond.
"I'm coming in!" he warned. "So if you are naked, better get dressed now!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The door remained shut, yet it sounded like chaos inside. Ed decided that he had it. He clapped his hand together and opened the door with alchemy. There stood Winry Rockbell, throwing every item around.
"Stupid, stupid men!" she said in rage. "Who needs a man? That old hag just want to throw me out of the house!"
Ed just quietly watched her. "Are you done pissing around, Win?"
Winry swiftly turned around. "Who are you calling Win?" she asked. "Don't you have ears? They call me Winry. MY NAME IS WINRY!" With that said, she launched a book at him. Ed dodged from that.
"I like to call you Win. You win all the time, don't you. Win is such a nice name…" Another object launched at him, Ed dodged it again. "Win…like a wind. It's so poetic."
He jumped to her side, and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist. "People can call you whatever they want. But you are my Win."
"Get off me you pervert! I'm not yours, not ever!" Winry kicked him in the thigh, trying to struggle free. Yet, she forgot that Ed had an automail arm, which made him strong.
"You are mine, Win. It's all up to me." His lips pressed on her cheek.
Winry's elbow hit him in the nose. Ed groaned in pain. Winry took this opportunity and skipped to the window. She opened the window and climbed out to the roof. Then, she climbed down to the ground from the ladder. She ran away from the house as fast as possible.
Ed saw everything from the window. She was running to the lake. Ed left the room and came downstairs. There, he was greeted by Mustang, Al and Havoc.
"How's everything going Ed?" Mustang asked.
"It went well!" Ed ran out of the house. Havoc and Al were astounded.
"What's brother up to?" Al asked. Mustang just shrugged his shoulders.
---x---x---
Stood by the lake, Winry let out a sigh of relief. She got away from him. That pervert! How dare he touch her without her permission like that! Allmen are perverts! A breeze blew by, it made Winry very comfortable and relaxing. It helped her taking her mind off Ed. She spun herself around and lied down on the grass. She looked up at the sun. Just as she thought she could enjoy herself, a figure overshadowed her.
"Trying to escape, honey?" It was Ed.
"Who are you calling 'honey' you shrimp!" Winry hopped to her feet, dashing away from him.
"Don't you call me shrimp, or you'll regret it you mechanic freak!" He chased after her.
"Stop chasing me you bastard! You'll never catch me!"
"Don't underestimate you future husband, sweetheart! I'm a very good runner!"
The two ran around the lake, then up and down the hill, yelling at each other.
"Leave me alone, you creep!" Winry yelled, throwing a rock at him.
"Stop throwing things at me you psycho!" Ed shouted while dodging. Boy, I'm must be very good at dodging, he thought. Just as he was thinking of that, he felt a hard object landed on his head. It was an apple. Ed rubbed his head, with that apple in his hand, he said to her, "Trying to ask me to marry you by throwing this at me? You know in the East, an apple represents an union between a man and a woman."
"Marrying you? Never! I'll never marry a bean like you!"
"I warned you, never call me a bean!" He ran to her like a raged bull. Winry shrieked and ran down the hill as fast as she could. She flew all the way back to her house. Actually, she had no idea where she was running. All she cared about was to get away from Ed. She jumped on the ladder and climbed up to the roof, hiding herself behind the chimney.
Then there was Ed, appeared before the house, trying to catch his breath.
Mustang, Havoc, Al and Mrs. Rockbell came out.
"How did it go?" Mustang asked him.
"I hate to admit it, but I think I lost her!"
"She's up there," Havoc pointed. Winry heard him. She wanted to throw something at him. However, after running away from Ed this entire time, she was too exhausted.
"Winry, what are you doing up there?" her grandmother asked.
"It's none of your business!"
"Of course it's my business! You are my granddaughter!"
"You call me 'granddaughter'? You are trying to throw me out of the house and marry me to this…this…" Before she could finish, she lost her balance. After a few attempts to regain her balance, she fell over the edge of the roof. Quick as ever, Ed clapped his hands together and transmuted the dirt on the ground into a gigantic hand. It caught Winry right before she landed on the ground. Ed climbed up on the gigantic hand and lifted her up in his arms. Too tired to struggle, Winry just let him have it. Realized that she was not fighting back, Ed took this opportunity and kissed her right on the lips. Winry wanted to slap him, but her arms were stressed out. Instead, she sobbed.
"Quit acting, I know you liked it," Ed said to her. He hopped off the gigantic hand, set her down on her feet. He grabbed her arm with his automail limb and twisted it behind her back. Winry winced in pain.
Ed dragged Winry all the way back to the house. Facing Mrs. Rockbell, Mustang, Havoc and Al, he announced, "Miss Winry and I will get married as soon as I returned from Central City as a state alchemist. We will have a wedding right here," he smiled at Winry. Winry looked away.
Ed took out a sapphire ring from his pocket and placed it on Winry's ring finger of her left hand. "This ring is given to me by my deceased mother. She left one for me and one for Al. Now, I'm giving it to you as a promise of this engagement." Ed looked at her deeply in the eyes, Winry made no respond.
"All right then, I trust that you keep your words," Mrs. Rockbell said. "When will you be back?"
"I'll write to you and let you know. It will be soon, Mrs. Rockbell."
"You can call me Aunt Pinako, after all, we all family now," Pinako said to him with a smile. At the same time, Ed released Winry's arm. Rubbing her arm, Winry threw Ed an angry look. Then she ran upstairs to her room.
"I'LL MAKE YOUR LIFE LIKE HELL YOU SHRIMP!"
"Are you sure that things went well between the two of you?" Havoc asked him.
"Yeah, it sounded like she loves you already," Mustang said sarcastically.
"Seems to me you just met your match of your temper, brother," Al joked.
"Don't worry, you'll see. One day, she'll love me, and willing to please me!" Ed said with full confidence. "Come on, let's head back to Central City. I have an alchemy exam to pass!"
---x---x---
As the four were walking away from the house, Winry was watching them from her bedroom. She stared at Ed's backshadow until it became too small to see. She slipped the sapphire ring off her finger. A smile appeared on her face. She held the ring tightly in her palm.
Author's Note: Coming up next, Ed and Winry's wedding.
