A/N: Yeah, ok, I know I'm late again so I'm not going to make a set date for posting because when I get busy I can't keep up with it. Sorry! But school comes first. Oh, I'm so happy the page line was fixed..niiice...anyways..

Disclaimer: don't own FMA!

Ch. 9: Not the One

It would be a week before Ed felt he could once again eat at their usual pub.

Well, Ed really felt he could hold out for say, the rest of his life, but after Al's constant –nagging- persuading, he eventually had to give in. Still, Ed held some hope that the girl wouldn't be there, for it was a bit later in the evening than when they usually showed up for dinner. But, it seemed the blonde's poor luck followed him even here, for as soon as the two entered they caught sight of a blonde blue-eyed girl. Even worse, in Ed's opinion, she remembered them.

"Have you two had enough time to think about your order? It's been about a week I'd say." the other Winry said, blue eyes dancing with laughter.

Al smiled and retorted with, "I'm not sure, we might need to take another week to figure out what we want to drink, right Ed?"

Opting not to reply, Ed grunted and scowled into his menu. His new found strategy of the night was to order, eat as fast as possible and leave. He derived that it was in fact the safest route for him. He just hoped everything went according to plan, which of course, he knew deep down that it wouldn't.

Still, Ed couldn't help but feel slightly proud of the fact that when he ordered his voice stayed even and when the waitress smiled at him he didn't blush (much).

In fact, the meal went smoothly, and it wasn't until the two were ready to leave did they hit snag.

"So how was everything?" the other Winry was saying as the boys were paying for their food.

Al gave an enthusiastic "It was great!" while Ed replied with a short "Fine".

Allowing his attention to rest solely on the counting of bills, Ed left Al to talk to the girl until…

"Oh, do you think you boys could do me a favor? My shift is over now and the other waitress I usually walk home with isn't here tonight. Do you think you could walk with me to my flat? I just don't feel comfortable walking alone."

Ed's head snapped up as Al was answering, "Of course we'll walk you home! We wouldn't want you to walk alone at night anyways, right Ed?"

"Uhh.."

"Thank you so much!" Winry broke in as she rushed away to get her things. "I'll meet you outside in a minute, just let me get my coat…"

Ed waited until they were outside to round on a clueless Alfons.

"What the hell? Do you enjoy torturing me or something?"

Al raised a questioning eyebrow. "How is walking someone home considered torture?"

Frown deepening, Ed whispered heatedly, "I already told you-"

"I know I know," Al began, waving his hand in an efforts to calm the shorter blonde down. "You had a childhood friend named Winry. But hey, you never know, maybe she is that Winry. So what if her hair is a little different? Hair can change color as you age. Didn't you say your hair used to be a darker blonde or something?"

Ed ground his teeth together in annoyance and fisted his good hand in Al's jacket. "You don't understand, she's not-"

"Is everything alright?" asked a feminine voice approaching the two fighting boys.

Pulling away from each other, Al moved towards Winry while Ed followed reluctantly, pointedly looking elsewhere.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Al assured her when she looked skeptically between the two.

Ed found himself at the receiving end of a threatening look from the taller boy and didn't hesitate to return his own scowl.

"Thank you again, for doing this. Its not far, I promise," Winry voiced, leading the way.

"It's no problem, we don't mind." Al replied with a shrug.

Winry raised an eyebrow before looking over her shoulder at Ed who had yet to speak.

"But he doesn't seem too happy about it."

"Him? He's just upset because you remind him of someone."

"Al!"

"Oh?" Winry asked curiously, tilting her head to the side. "Who do I remind him of then?"

"His old girlfriend, her name was Winry too."

"She wasn't my-!"

"You don't say? That's interesting…"

"Well fine, she wasn't his girlfriend, but some childhood friend. Perhaps it's really you?" Al wondered, looking at the blonde girl.

"I told you she's not-"

"No, I didn't live here when I was a child, so it couldn't be. I'm actually new to this city."

Al's face fell slightly, his hopes of finding some connection to Ed's past completely destroyed. "That's too bad."

"I'm sure she misses you too, Edward." Winry voiced sympathetically, turning to look at Ed who continued to trail behind.

Ed shivered reflexively, hearing her say his name. It caused old memories to echo within his head and he didn't like it.

Her voice was too sweet, too kind, the voice of a stranger. It didn't hold the note of familiarity that the Winry he knew did. It was so odd being around the girl. It was Winry's body and Winry's voice without her personality, without her soul. It was alien and strange but because they were so alike physically, he worried he could forget what his Winry.

It had been startling in the beginning, with Alfons, but really he was quite different than his brother. He only knew his brother as a child, and Alfons was a teenager.

"I doubt it." Ed said truthfully, feeling his spirits drop.

The words had flown out of his mouth before he even knew he was speaking. It was as if the guilt and doubts flew from his heart to his tongue in one completely honest moment.

Winry cocked her head to the side as she asked, "Why would that be? You seem like a wonderful person to me."

She said it with sweetness and honesty and Ed felt himself feeling even worse.

Sighing, Ed left it at, "It's complicated."

He had made it painfully clear he would not be talking about the subject any longer so the three slipped into a casual silence. Thankfully, moments later the trio arrived at the apartment building Winry lived in and after graciously thanking them, she disappeared inside Ed and Al finally made their way home.

The boys didn't so much as utter a word to each other as they went to their separate rooms. Clearly the two were still at odds, but Ed wasn't worried. By morning Al would be out of his funk and things would be back to normal. As for himself, well, he was usually in an off mood anyways, so it wasn't anything too abnormal.

Gratefully plopping down on his bed, Ed crossed his good arm behind his head, and stared up at the cracked ceiling. He hated the moments he wasn't able to work, because those were the moments when he would have to remember.

Oh, how much easier it would have been for him to lose his previous memories upon arriving in this world; to just forget and live for himself only.

Frowning, Ed wondered if he could even do that.

Live for himself?

Most of his life was spent for his family. When he was a child, his only desire was to keep his mother happy and watch out for his little brother. Then his mother died and he had worked to bring her back.

The one moment he had been selfish in life had destroyed everything.

After that he lived to get Al's body back. From the beginning he hadn't really cared about what happened to himself, but he had told Al he was working for the both of them so he wouldn't worry. Now, he still wasn't able to just settle because of his desire to make sure his brother was alright.

He was sure Winry would watch out for him, but knowing his brother, Ed knew he'd be working to get him back just like he was working to go back, even if it wasn't what he wanted Al to do.

Sighing, Ed closed his eyes and turned to the side. He had been having strange dreams lately, or at least he was pretty certain he had been. As soon as he woke, the dreams would scatter and disappear almost completely from his mind, leaving him remembering only small pieces of what they had been about. He did know they all seemed to revolve around a strange dragon creature and many times Winry, but he certainly didn't know what to make of that.

With a heavy heart and fatigued mind, Ed finally allowed himself to be pulled into a sound sleep.

------

The next morning Ed found himself alone in the apartment. Because it was Saturday, the lab was closed, but Alfons had an aerodynamics convention in another city and would be gone the whole day. But, not-so-luckily for Ed, he hadn't neglected to leave behind a list of things for Ed to purchase at the market.

This would be the reason Ed found himself trudging home, his arms full of groceries with his patented scowl firmly in place.

"Why is it Al always has a convention on shopping days?" Ed was mumbling to himself as he walked past an alleyway. "Sneaky little-"

"Get away from me!"

Ed's head shot up and his heart rate quickened after hearing the panicked yell. Dropping his groceries to the ground, Ed backtracked towards the sound. What he found was a trio of dirty looking teenagers crowding around a frightened girl who they had cornered in the alley.

"Get the hell away from her!" Ed yelled automatically, rushing towards the nearest boy, his arm pulled back ready to let the punches fly. Apparently though, the boys had had enough and instead of staying to fight, hastened away down the alley leaving Ed staring disbelievingly at their backs.

"Well that was easy," he deadpanned and looked to the girl who effectively made his jaw drop.

"Luckily," the alternate Winry agreed with a smile. "Thank you so much though Edward! You really saved me!"

That said, the girl promptly threw her arms around the shocked blonde in a grateful embrace.

"N-no problem," Ed stuttered before stepping out of the embrace, while his face betrayed him with a blush.

Not Winry, Not Winry…, his mind droned over and over, as if saying it would make him feel any less awkward than he already was.

"Oh, but it was very brave of you! Please, there must be some way I could repay you."

She placed a hand on his arm and the chanting in his mind became louder.

"No, don't worry about it," Ed said in what he thought was a polite voice. "I have to get going, I dropped my groceries a ways off." He indicated with a jab from his thumb and turned to leave but was stopped.

"Oh! I could help you with those perhaps?" Winry moved in front of him in the direction he had indicated and all Ed could do was follow.

Picking up one of the bags, Winry waited as Ed picked up the last two.

"Well…thanks," he offered, as the two began walking.

Winry offered a warm smile. "You're welcome of course. Oh, but where is Alfons today?"

"He's at a science convention for the day. While I'm left to do the shopping…" Ed explained, his voice betraying is disdain.

Winry giggled. "Alfons gets to have all the fun I take it."

"Yeah, I guess." Ed replied, shifting the bags in his good arm to a more comfortable position. Winry watched him with interest and Ed raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Oh, it's nothing….Just that…you get along very well with only one arm."

"I've had plenty of practice." Ed replied nonchalantly while shrugging his shoulders.

Winry nodded in understanding and asked tentatively, "I see…um, was it always like that or…?"

Ed hesitated a moment before replying, "I was born with two arms, if that's what you were wondering. I lost it when I was a kid by making a stupid mistake."

It was a line he was used to giving out. He liked to use it because it was the truth without revealing too much about his past.

"I'm sorry." Winry said softly, and Ed knew she really meant it by the sadness in her eyes.

"Don't be." Ed shrugged again and gestured towards the bag she held. "Here, this is the place so I'll take that."

"Oh! Here you are," she started, handing it to him. "Well thank you again. Take care Edward."

He nodded and the girl turned and left and Ed was finally able let out a sigh of relief.

Heading up the steps, Ed shuffled the bags around so he could fish his key out of his pocket. Sticking it into the door, he found that oddly it was unlocked.

I know I locked the door when I left…, he thought, his face tightening in apprehension as he put the bags down and pushed the door open.

A voice greeted him from the sitting room and Ed froze.

"Ah, you're finally home Ed. You know it's not polite to keep your company waiting so long."

A/N: Yes, a shorter chapter this time, and maybe next time too. The bigger plot is happening in Amestris at the moment, but Ed is important too so we'll just have to deal with short chapters for now, hehe. Please review! I need reviews to stay motivated, seriously.

Next Chapter: Equations: Ed has a visitor who brings dire news that affects both his fate, the fate of Earth, and the fate of Amestris combined.

--Miss Soupy