It took Edward a little longer to recover from being sick. For a second Winry thought she was going to end up taking him to the hospital. He slept for over 24 hours and finally woke up. He pushes his hair out of his face and sits up.

Winry gasps, "Ed, don't scare me like that!"

"What the hell did I do now?"

"You've slept for over 24 hours, and I thought you were dying!" Winry yells. "Don't scare me and Al like that!"

"I slept for… 24 hours! What!" Ed shrieks. "I don't know how I managed that."

Winry changes the subject. "Anyway, how do you feel? It sounds like your voice is back." She smiles.

Ed didn't even notice his voice was better. He laughs, "Hey, I guess it is. I guess those… neck massages you gave me really helped. Haha." Ed stops laughing and blushes slightly.

Winry giggles. "You were so adorable. You acted like one of Alphonse's cat friends when they get their ears rubbed."

"Stop," Ed mumbles very quietly.

Winry asks, "Sorry, what did you say?"

"Stop," Ed states a little louder.

Winry sighs, "Oh Edward." He stares at her, waiting for more. "You deserve some good treatment once in a while. Enjoy it when it comes. You need to relaaaaaax." She gets behind him and starts rubbing his shoulders. "You feel so tense. It's probably from being sick. I'll give you a massage to ease the tension. By the way, you never told me about how your first day of work was."

Ed sits there, enjoying the massage. "Well, I didn't do much teaching. The kids wanted to know about me, so I told them about myself back when I was known as the Full Metal Alchemist. Some of their parents know who I am and told their kids about me. It was fun remembering some of the journeys."

"I bet you had little girls all over you too saying how cute you are," Winry smiles.

Ed rolls his eyes. "They drove me crazy. I thought I was gonna… hey! How do you know about that!"

"I didn't, but thanks for telling me," Winry grins. Luckily, Ed can't see any of Winry's faces. "You're very handsome, Edward. I bet you had dozens of girls looking at you when you and Al were searching for the stone, and you didn't even know it."

'Girls have called me cute, but handsome? That's even better, I think. Why is she doing this to me? This is torture! But this shoulder rub… ergh it feels so good.' Ed gulps. "Were… were you one of them, Winry?"

"One of what?" she asks.

"One of those girls," Ed replies.

Winry is confused for a second but mentally slaps herself for being so slow. 'Uh oh, what do I say? If I say yes, he'll know I think of him as more than a friend. If I say no, I might hurt his feelings? Or would I? If I say nothing? Oh, what to do!' Ed turns a little, wondering what's taking her so long to respond.

'This is getting boring. What is she up to? Time to have some fun.' Ed sighs heavily, "Well, judging by your long pause, I guess that's a yes." Ed smirks.

Winry snaps out of her thoughts. "What! I never said that."

"Then what were you trying to say?" he asks while turning around to face her. "How about I give you a shoulder rub?" He places his hands on both her shoulders, but she immediately pushes them away.

"I don't want one," she says.

"Why not? You just got done being sick also. You need to relaaaaaaax also," he says soothingly. He crawls closer to her.

She moves back a little. 'What is he doing? Ed's never acted like this before. I think being sick messed up his head.' "I'm fine. I've been fine."

"Then why won't you answer my question?" He asks. She moves back until the headboard of the bed stops her. "Feeling intimidated?"

Winry gives him a strange glare. "I think being sick has made you…". Before she finishes her sentence she reaches both her arms out to push him away. Before she touches him, he claps his hands, grabs her wrists, and pushes them against the headboard. The wood on the headboard extends and covers her hands, holding her there. She doesn't even get to finish the sentence. Her eyes almost bulge out of her head. "Ed… what are you doing!"

Al looks up at the ceiling wondering why there was a flash of alchemy. He yells, "What's going on up there?" Ed and Winry couldn't hear him.

"You don't need to lie. I know the answer is yes. I've always wondered why you wouldn't let me change mechanics, and why it always had to be you. You like to hog me. You want to be my only mechanic." Ed goes on about a lot of things that are starting to hurt Winry's feelings.

"Stop," Winry whimpers. 'Why is he doing this? Tying me up and doing this isn't what I had planned. I feel helpless.'

Ed continues, but Winry finally yells at him. "STOP! Stop it!" A tear spills out of each of her eyes.

Ed's eyes soften. 'Oh no, I went too far. I hurt her feelings. What was I thinking!' Ed claps his hands and undoes the wood tying up her hands. "I'm sorry, Winry. I don't know what I was thinking." 'Like anything I do will make her better.'

Winry rubs her wrists. 'That hurt a little, but I'll just make him pay. What was he doing anyway?' Winry pounces on him, knocking him down on the bed. "That wasn't very nice."

Ed smirks, "You still didn't answer my question." Ed continues smirking, but his face slowly turns red. 'She's on top of me!'

"What the hell is all that noise? Ed, what are you doing now?" Al asks himself. He starts walking up the stairs to investigate on his own. Ed and Winry, on the other hand, start wrestling and tickling. Al stops walking when he hears the bedsprings. He makes a disgusted face. "Maybe I shouldn't…". Al's head tells him not to go up, but his body keeps walking.

Ed finally lies on top of Winry, holding her down. "I think you already know the answer, so quit asking," Winry simpers. As soon as she finishes talking, Al opens the door to find them in that position.

Al gasps. "Brother! Winry!"

Winry and Ed both turn their heads in unison towards Alphonse, and they blush a crazy red. Winry shoves Ed off of her; however, he jumps off her at the same time, almost flying off the bed.

"We di-didn't do anything, Al. Don't g-get any ideas," Winry stutters.

"I'm sorry," Al says with a straight face, even though he's laughing his ass off inside his head.

Winry spares a glance at Edward before she gets off the bed. Ed hasn't said anything since Al walked into the room. Before Winry leaves, she says, "Edward, don't ever do this to me again! You've been acting strange ever since you've been sick, and finding the alchemy book, and what you just did. What's wrong with you?" Her voice became louder and louder after every sentence. Finally, she leaves.

Al looks at Ed and taps his foot.

Ed sighs, "We didn't do anything, Al."

"Well, you must've done something, or she wouldn't have said that. What the hell did you do to her?"

"I…" Ed pauses. 'No more lies. I can't do it anymore.' "… said some things I probably shouldn't have. I made her upset. That's all you need to know."

Ed gets off the bed and puts his pants on, but nothing else. Al walks over to him. Before Ed can even think, Al punches him on the side of his face, almost knocking him off balance.

Ed looks at Al bedazzled. "What the hell was that for?" He yells.

Al throws his arms in the air. "You're an idiot! You're the biggest idiot I know! Idiot!"

Ed yells, "Shut up! Don't call me an idiot!" He rubs his cheek, which turned a little pink from the blow.

"You are! You need to control your feelings. You need to quit hurting Winry's feelings. You need to stop lying to yourself and everyone else! It's very obvious Ed, so you don't need to lie. You make yourself look bad."

Ed is pissed. He can't believe his brother punched him in the face and now says this to him. The sad part is Alphonse is right. Edward knows he's right.

"Now, you're going to go apologize to her, and tell her how you really feel," Al commands.

Ed nods and obeys him as if he were Mom. Ed runs out the room to look for Winry. He spots her about to go into her own room. "Winry!"

Winry turns to see who's yelling at her. She turns away and walks into her room. Ed races to her room, and she slams the door on his nose. "Ouch, dammit!" He rubs his nose. 'What is this? Gang Up on Edward and Hurt Him Day?' He twists the doorknob, but she locked it. He bangs on the door. "Dammit Winry, open up!"

"Get the hell away from me," she yells back. Ed can hear her crying through the door. Al walks up next to Ed. Ed claps his hands, but Al places his hand on Ed's shoulder. Ed looks at Al, and Al shakes his head in disapproval. Al walks downstairs to clean up a little, and Ed walks back to his room with his head lowered like a dog.

Al stayed out of their way the rest of the day. Winry stayed locked in her room, and Edward stayed in his room with his head buried in his hands. Ed spent the whole day getting lost in his thoughts. 'Everyone is always right about these kind of things, but why can't I ever realize it? I really am an idiot. Winry probably hates me now. She's probably always hated me. Al and I always left, and we rarely wrote letters or called unless I needed maintenance. Then we left to the other world. She probably hates me for leaving her. How do I… have these feelings for her? I've never felt this way before. She's just our good friend, but I feel like it's more. I just want to hold her and tell her how sorry I am about what I did. And when I did that to her earlier, I don't understand what I was doing. She probably wishes she were still with that Michael guy. Even though I think he treated her bad, what I did was just horrible. I'm a horrible person. All the horrible things I've done in the past.' Just then, he heard Al's voice in his head. 'Don't dwell on the past. Think about your future and what's right in front of you.' 'I kept telling myself that, and so does he. I just can't get it into my head. But I think I need to right now.'

Ed gets off the bed and immediately walks to Winry's door. 'It's probably still locked. I need to talk to her, so I'll do whatever I can to open it.' He turns the doorknob, and to his surprise it's not locked. He quietly and slowly opens the door. The sun is so bright from the sunset that it's blinding him. All he can see is her silhouette staring out the window. He puts his hands above his eyes to lesson the glare. He walks closer to her. Winry just stands there, not bothering to yell at him to go away because she knows he won't listen. She just stares at the sunset and its beauty.

Ed walks up right behind her, and she shivers from his presence. He wraps both his arms around her waist and gently pulls her to himself so that their bodies touch. Winry jumps a little, surprised by his actions. Ed uses his flesh hands to moves some of her hair to the right side of her body, and wraps it back around her waist. He buries his face in the crook of her neck but leaves some room so she can her him speak.

Before she has a chance to push him away, he says, "I know I'm the last person you want to see, but please listen to me before you push me away."

Winry frowns, but doesn't say a word. Ed figures she'll unwillingly listen and continues to hold on to her.

"Winry, I'm sorry about earlier. I know sorry isn't enough for everything I've done to you, and you deserve so much more than to just hear me say that. What I did was wrong. I should have never said most of those things. I should have never done that to you. I myself don't understand what I did. I think my feelings got out of control. I promise you I won't ever do that again, and I'll never treat you badly ever again. You've done so much for Al and I, but mostly me. You're such a good person, and we treated you unfairly sometimes. I know these words won't mean anything, but I really am sorry." It took Ed a lot of courage to say that to her. He stops talking because he almost starts to cry, but he tries to hold it in for a bit longer. Winry is speechless. She figured Ed would give her an apology sooner or later, but to actually say all of this to her meant a lot. Ed is the type to keep everything inside and not let anybody know how he is really feeling, and him opening up to Winry like this makes her feel very special.

Ed has more to say, even though he knows how hard it will be, but he needs to tell her. He wants to tell her. "Winry… I…". He stops and almost loses his breath. 'No, you have to tell her. Just spill it all out.' "I have these feelings for you. I've had them ever since I crossed the Gate and thought I was never coming back. At first I didn't understand them, but now I'm beginning to. I've never felt like this towards a girl… err… woman before except you. I think I… I…". He stops. Winry wonders why he stopped, but her neck feels a little wet. She realizes that Ed is crying.

Winry cracks a little smile. 'Wow. I can't believe what he just said to me. I… feel like I want to cry too. He admitted he has feelings for me! He likes me more than just being his friend and mechanic. I know this really came from his heart. I've never seen him cry like this before…'. He thoughts trail off as she comes back to reality. He is holding her so close and tight that she's having trouble breathing. Also the fact that she's so flustered because of what he said.

'I couldn't hold it in. I can't believe I told her that. I can't stop crying. I don't know if I'm happy, relieved, angry, upset, or what. I haven't felt like this or cried like this since… since… Nina…'. He can't stop crying. He feels like he just let everything out of his system.

Winry says, "Ed, you're cutting off my circulation." She grabs his hands and pulls his arms off of her so she can turn around to face him. She continues holding his hands and looks up at him.

"Sorry," he says through his sob.

"I've never seen you cry like this before. This is not like you, but I'm almost happy you're crying. I'm sorry I slammed the door on your nose," she smiles sadly.

"It's ok. I got hit in the face worse today anyway," he says as he wipes his tears away. He points to his cheek. Winry examines it.

"What the heck did you do?"

Ed laughs a little. "Al socked me right in the face just like when we were kids! It kinda hurt this time though. Heh."

Winry lifts herself onto her tiptoes and kisses Ed's slightly red cheek. It didn't really help him though. It just turns redder. Winry smiles.

'I feel like such a baby crying in front of Winry. I couldn't even finish what I was going to say, but now that I think about it I'm glad I didn't. I think I was going to tell her I… love her! How do I know I love her! LOVE! She hasn't even said a response to what I told her. Maybe she just sees me as one of her automail patients and a friend but nothing else.' Ed gulps, "Winry? About what I said… I want to know if you feel the same way. If not…". 'If not… will I feel any different? Do I even know my own feelings?'

Winry looks up at him, her eyes watering with happiness. "Edward Elric, I've been wanting you to open up to me like this ever since I met you. You have no idea how happy I am. Promise me one thing though. You and Al aren't going to leave again, are you? I don't know what I'll do."

Ed smiles, "Al and I don't want to leave again. Not after everything we've been through. Now we can live normal, happy lives."

"I know this sounds crazy coming from me, but you're okay with having automail for the rest of your life? I know you'd love to have real limbs, but automail is just so…".

Ed interrupts her, "I'm glad that Al has his whole body back. That's enough to make me happy. I can grin and bear it." Ed pulls her into an embrace so fast that she almost bangs her head into his. She wraps her arms around his neck as he comforts his chin on top of her head.

"The world is always a better place when you're happy, Edward," Winry tells him. The room is still lit with the sunset, but instead of one sad silhouette, there are two content ones.

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Want to know something horrible? School starts in a week! I thought about ending the story with this chapter! However, there is still some stuff left I want to put in here, so there are only going to be maybe 3ish chapters left. I don't know how long it will take me to update during the school year, but I want to finish this story. I want to start on the RoseXHavoc fanfiction all planned in my head. I really liked this chapter, so I hope y'all do too. The next chapter though I really can't wait to write. It will have the most EdxWin love out of all the chapters. So look forward to it! Wish me luck on my driving test tomorrow to get my license! (I need it oO)