A/N: Fast update! It's quite short, but I hope y'all still enjoy :)

Chapter 6 – The Client

"I guess. We're locker mates." Edward heard her say with a disinterested shrug. He was quite surprised with her lack of emotions after seeing him here. He expected her to deny him as a client.

"I can check him up before I go home." She supplied with her back on him, already heading back to the workshop. Maybe her boss Pete wouldn't let her do something like that, so she had no choice with him. Edward frowned and glared at his leg. Was he going to owe her two debts now?

This is all your fucking fault, leg.

"Hey."

He looked up and saw that she was already inside the workshop, impatiently beckoning him to join her. Standing up then wobbling slightly with his left pant leg Edward nodded to Pete before making his way towards the entrance.

Winry was already busy setting up her tools in a line when he reached the workbench. He surveyed his eyes around the spacious room filled with tools and workbenches like the one Winry has. The way the tables were lined up gave Edward the impression of a corporate office. He gave Winry's grease-stained skin a side-glance. Being covered in grease was the uniform here, he supposed.

"Take your pants off." She ordered nonchalantly. Edward stared at her with bewilderment.

"What?" He blurted out with his face flamed with mortification. Winry rolled her eyes and glared at him like he was some annoying little kid.

"I need to see your leg, so take your damn pants off." She sighed, regretting that she said that in a wrong tone. Well, it was Friday so she wasn't really supposed to work today and it was getting late.

"Now, don't get cranky on our customer, little miss." Pete reprimanded lightly from another room. It sounded like he was in the basement.

Edward gulped and went about removing his pants. It was a really good thing that he always preferred boxers over briefs. He sat down with his black boxers, doing his best to relax his nerves.

Winry sat across him and unclipped a bendable platform from her worktable. Once it was stretched out between him, she gestured him to place his automail leg. He halted for a second before he raised his leg and carefully placed it in front of Winry.

"You've never had automail maintenance before, haven't you?" She started as she began to inspect the outer plate of his metal leg.

"How would you know something like that?" She was just full of surprises, wasn't she? First she figured out his leg, now she concluded that he was utterly inexperienced with automail maintenance?

Winry was careful this time. She didn't want to touch any more private spots like what she did before. "If you were doing this every month, you wouldn't be hesitant about taking your pants off." She saw his dismayed glare at the tools on her table.

"Just saying." She said with a shrug while turning his leg to the right to get a better view.

"I've taken care of it myself ever since I got it." He admitted all of a sudden.

"Well, you actually did a good job at it. The outer plates are in good shape considering the fact that you haven't had it maintained for four years." She informed him with a gentle smile. She remembered that, huh?

"Can you move the fingers?" Edward confirmed with a wiggle of his metal toes.

"Does it hurt when you move it?"

"Not particularly," Winry frowned at his vague answer.

Edward sighed. "It started to hurt a little the day when you found out about my leg." Oh, so that what's the cast was all about.

Winry nodded. "Nerve connections must have been damaged. But you were already limping before it started to hurt, right?" She noticed the redness along the line where automail and flesh met. It could only mean one thing.

"Yeah, I guess." Edward searched her concentrated face as she leaned closer to his leg. He took another gulp in his throat. With that fucking tube top, she's too damn close.

"Can you put your other leg on the table, please?" Edward did the request as she reached out for a measuring tape.

"Are you the only girl working here?" Winry removed her eyes from the automail to give him her full attention for the unusual question.

"As far as I know, yes. Mind if I ask why?" She asked back in a sarcastic tone. Ed growled and turned away his gaze then said something under his breath.

"What? You're looking for other female mechanics to suit your taste better?" She teased with a chuckle.

Edward was about to shout his mind about how freaking indecent her 'working clothes' were but who the hell cares about her? Absolutely not him. He clamped his mouth shut.

Looking back at his legs, the difference was already noticeable just having them side by side. "No wonder you're limping so bad." She measured up the difference and put it on paper.

"You've grown six inches, beansprout. Your automail couldn't keep up." Winry announced.

Edward blinked and looked at his legs. She was right. The difference was so palpable that he must be a total idiot for not noticing it for himself.

"Six inches…" He grew that much and is still not taller than his little brother. Well, that's a little depressing.

Then he noticed something from what Winry said.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BEANSPROUT?!" He raged at her from his seat, looking completely helpless with his legs on her hands that she laughed at him heartily. Is this what Schezka's been talking about when she said Edward picking a fight about his height?

"Stop laughing you…you…" He stammered for an insult with Winry waiting for him expectantly.

"You what?" She challenged with a triumphant look.

"You…unsexy and uncute grease monkey!" He finally completed. It both surprised and angered Winry that she took a good hold of her trusty wrench.

"What…did you say?" She growled with a dark voice.

"You heard me, machine junkie." He added with a smirk towards her. That's what she gets for calling him a beansprout, which is not a valid insult anymore! He almost regretted saying anything when he saw a wrench swinging closer to his head.

He regretted it completely when it already bashed him across the head. Winry was breathing hard, slowly feeling a little better after seeing him half-conscious now. She couldn't really understand why, but that really ticked her off that she had to smack him to regain calmness once again.

Really charming. She thought.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, woman! You could've killed me!" He berated back at her with a huge lump on his forehead.

"Say something like that again and I'll hit you hard enough to make that happen!" She shouted back at his face with snarl.

"KIDS! Stop fighting! Uncle Pete is a little busy here and your shouts are already disturbing the hibernating bears up at Fort Briggs!" A loud voice from down below cut their heated argument like a sharp knife.

With one last glare, the two teens broke their gazed off.

"Anyway…this might need a replacement so you have to wear a temporary leg first while I work on it. I'll disassemble it now for a little bit before removing it off you so I can get a better idea of what nerves are damaged.

Edward gave a silent agreement. "Just, don't poke around too much."

"Don't worry, this won't hurt." Winry assured and proceeded to unscrew the first bolt.

"…how long will it take for the new leg? And how much?" Edward inquired.

"With my work schedule, it'll take about a month. And the price…well we can talk that out with Pete." She assured with a smile.

"Don't worry. The replacement leg isn't that bad. You may not move it much like your automail leg, but it will be definitely better than a hurting leg." She added as she continued to work on the bolt.

"Thanks." Ed muttered, his eyes on his hands. There, he finally said it.

"Sure." Winry simply answered and with that a comfortable silence fell, with Winry tinkering around and Edward silently watching her deft hands work their way inside his metal leg.

The silence was short-lived when Winry suddenly stood up from her stool. She was looking at the screws in her gloved hands.

"This…"

Edward gave her a look of concern. "Is there something wrong?"

"These screws…who was the mechanic who installed this leg to you?" Winry asked out of the blue. Edward knotted his brows for an answer. "I…I actually don't remember. It was my father who talked to the mechanic."

Winry inspected the inner workings of his leg and gasped. This layout, this design…even the weight of the automail. She held the leg in one hand and gauged the weight. There's no doubt about it.

"What's happening?" Edward tried to cut off her through her own world but she was still in a daze from whatever she discovered.

"I know this design." She told him, who only gave her a more confused expression.

"Pete!" She shouted and walked away from the workbench.

"What is it, sweet pea?" Pete shouted from downstairs.

"Could you come here for a second?" Winry was suppressing herself from yelling too much. This is not his fault. It's her stubborn grandmother's fault.

After waiting for Pete's footsteps to reach her, Winry strode back to her table and picked up Edward's foreleg plate and showed it to her boss.

"This is Rockbell's." Edward heard her stern voice from behind him that he was almost tempted to turn his head. Rockbell's…isn't she a Rockbell? Winry Rockbell, right?

"Winry, I thought you-"

"You didn't tell me that I'll be working on a Lightweight model." She said in a desperate voice.

"I thought you already knew since you two know each other and you were familiar with the blueprint." Pete reasoned out, not clearly seeing the problem.

Winry let out a heavy sigh. "It was my first time seeing it. My grandmother hid it from me for four years." She told him quite bitterly.

"Ah, damn. I didn't know. I'm sorry about that, Winny." He consoled with a pat on her head. "But I'm sure she was going to tell you soon. You just found out about it a little bit earlier than she expected."

Winry snorted. "Yeah, right. Anyway…I couldn't work on this by myself. If it's only repairs I could manage, but creating a whole new Lightweight model leg from scratch…I think I might have to need my grandmother's help."

Pete nodded in agreement. "I understand…but isn't your grandmother all the way back in Riseembool?"

"Yeah…I'm going to talk to the client about that." She looked at Edward's braided blond hair and sighed.

"Alright, I'll leave you to that. Sorry 'bout not telling you." Pete apologized and went back to the staircase outside the workshop.

"It's not your fault. Sorry about disturbing you, though."

"It's no problem, sweet pea. Just holler when something comes up again." He said with a pointed look at the teenaged boy sitting by her workbench, who apparently doesn't have pants right now. So, he thought that something happened. Winry shook her head and headed back to the table. Pete has always been the protective father she never had.

"Hey, sorry about that." She greeted Ed who gave her a questioning look, clearly waiting for her explanation.

"It's as you have heard. I can't make you a new leg. Unless…" Winry left her sentence hanging and gazed down at her hands.

"Unless what?" Edward urged for more answers.

"We go to Riseembool, which is a three-day ride from here, and have my grandmother help me build this leg of yours."

When she dared to look back up at him, his expression was already of shock.

"Don't look so shocked. Never in my life would I expect that you were going to be the client I was looking for."

"No shit." Edward agreed. Couldn't this be any more coincidental?

"Now, before you make a decision, would you do me a favor and let me take this baby apart? I wouldn't charge you any service fee if you let me." Winry approached him with an evil glint in her eyes that scared Edward off of his pants, even when he was already out of them. He was practically restrained, he didn't have any choice.

Oh well, at least my leg won't be hurting tomorrow. And it'll be for free.

A/N: Just imagine how Edward would regret that later on the next chapter. *evil laugh*

Sorry for the short chapter. Next one's going to be little longer.