Warnings and Disclaimers: Any and all characters from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist do not belong to me. I only torture them for some stories. There may be some teenage content in the story but it is very limited. This story is set after the movie which means there are some spoilers and if you have no idea what any of this may be about, then don't come crying to me please. It's not my fault, I warned you -:sheepish grin:-.
Seasons
Spring: Teachers, Students & Everything In Between
Chapter 9
By: RomanceFanFicLover
The night Ed told Winry the reason why he didn't want to go to Central for his "Farewell Party", Ed was pretty sure he was going to die of embarrassment for just telling her. But oh, how he was wrong.
"Y-You don't know how to dance….?" Winry clapped her hand against her mouth to smother her giggles.
Ed remained completely still with his arms crossed angrily across his bare chest, legs crossed "Indian-style" on his bed and his nose turned up into the air in defiance as a fierce blush coated his cheeks.
"I-I'm sorry…It's not funny. I know it's not funny. B-But…" Winry wiped a tear forming in the corner of her eye and swallowed the rest of her laughter. "It's just that, Al knows how to dance, doesn't he?"
Ed's eye twitched involuntarily. "Al…Al what?" Turning his head towards Winry, Ed focused his dark glare on her. "How do you know Al knows how to dance?"
"Before he went through the gate-thing we all went to the Fall Festival- You've heard of it right?" Another twitch of his eye and a shake of the head allowed Winry to continue. "Oh, well Risembool started a festival that happens every fall. Sort of a harvest festival, and there's a night of dancing. So…I saw Al dance….?" Ed's glare darkened and Winry felt nervous.
"Is he a good dancer?" Eye twitch.
"Yes…?" Winry felt very nervous now. Oh how she wished she had her trusty wrench right now.
"Have you dance with him?" Ed's look turned darker and the twitching time doubled.
"No I-" Winry took a step back and bumped into the dresser. Something metal brushed her fingertips and she grabbed it.
"Then how do you know he's a good dancer! Huh! Explain that one!" Ed's grin was part triumphant, part angry and a pinch crazy as he glared at Winry's horror struck and confused face.
Brandishing a silver candleholder, Winry leered at Ed. "Sit down shrimp-boy and listen up!" With a gulp and an 'eep' sound, Ed resettled onto the bed and looked at Winry obediently. "We have two weeks before we have to travel to Central. Every day in that time span I am going to try to teach you to dance."
"What do you mean try! You have that little faith in me!" Ed started to raise off the bed again but with a quick sweeping motion with the candleholder in front of his face brought him back down.
"Got that? Every day. And it adapts to my schedule not your, so be there or be doomed." With another threatening swoosh of the metal weapon she grasped in her right hand, Winry turned and left the room.
Ed flung himself into the bed in relief. He felt dizzy from the fear of getting the design of the candlestick holder embedded into his skull.
"We're starting tomorrow by the way!" Winry shouted before closing her door.
Ed shot up into a sitting position at her voice and flopped back down again at the sound of her door closing. "Shit…I'm whipped."
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The first dance lesson almost made Ed want to immediately back out on the whole idea.
He had sat outside on Winry's porch reading books on casual dancing and formal dancing for six hours straight. Every time he had finished a book a second one was added onto the pile in front of him and Winry just looked at him expectantly.
The second day had now rolled around but it was basically the same thing. Two hours had past and he had already sped through five books.
He watched her from over the top of one of the formal dancing books. When her eyes slid in his direction, his eyes would slide down to the text he was supposed to be reading. Eventually Winry spoke up. "Ed you've been staring at the same page for ten minutes. You're a child prodigy, a genius, and you can't read a page on dancing?"
Ed wrinkled his nose in distaste as Winry raised her eyebrows accusingly. "I never said I couldn't, I just don't want to!" Ed fought the urge to scurry under a rock at the sight of the death glare Winry had directed onto him.
"You're going to learn to dance whether you like it or not. So read." Winry looked away from him, signaling the end of the conversation.
Ed knew she was enjoying this; she had to be. 'She's never this mean. Either she's enjoying this, it's her time of the month or she's got a stick up her ass that needs to be pulled out.'
Winry smirked as Ed continued to glare at her from over the top of his book. She knew she was going a little over the top with the commanding thing but it was just so much fun. Not to mention it was payback for scaring her the night he had told her that he couldn't dance.
Winry almost choked on her laughter. Ed, the fullmetal alchemist, the child prodigy, the genius could not dance. And, he asked Winry Rockbell for help. Well, technically he didn't ask it was more like it was forced onto him but he was objecting…that much.
Her giggling was uncontrollable this time and she doubled over in laughter on the pile of books she was sitting on. Winry gasped as she felt a book slip out from under her and the entire tower fell. It was Ed's turn to laugh now.
He stopped short as she came back up from the avalanche of books incredibly angered. Ed blinked at her as she glared at the wall in front of her pointlessly. Ed snickered softly and Winry's evil stare landed on him. Shivering involuntarily, Ed looked away quickly.
"You." Ed looked back at Winry's disgruntled face and pointed at himself innocently. "Yes, you. Come with me. You're carrying our patio set up from the basement." With a huff Winry stood up and kicked one of the books into the bushes beside the patio before going into the house.
"Why!"
"Consider it training. Hurry up; I have a wrench in my pocket."
Ed swallowed the growing uneasiness and stood up to follow her. Yes, Ed did certainly not like these dance lessons so far.
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It was now into the second week of the dance lessons and they had only started working on actual dancing and not just the technique. Their dance floor was the grass in front of the Rockbell home and a small tape player was their source of music.
Ed found his gold eyes to be locked onto the blue eyes that hovered above him, music floating in the air around them.
"Ed…" Said person nodded. "You're heavy." With that said, Winry proceeded to drop Ed ungracefully.
"Ow…" was all Ed muttered as he rubbed his now-sore head. "See? We could have avoided this if you didn't insist on taking the lead. There was no need to dip me…" Ed continued to grumble his complaints under his breath while Winry stared into space, deep in thought.
"I know what's wrong!" Winry exclaimed jubilantly as Ed looked up at her with interest. She turned around to face him, her eyes sparkling because of her new discovery. "You should take the lead! That way this wouldn't happen so much!"
Ed's jaw dropped as he simply sat there, looking at her numbly before flopping back into the grass and groaning in annoyance. Winry wrinkled her nose in concentration and turned her back to him again, focusing her mind on what she should teach him next.
"Winry…you're not helping me by just standing there." Winry shushed him angrily and continued her staring contest with the tree in front of her. "Winry…" Another loud shushing sound was his only answer.
Muttering curses under his breath, Ed got up and dusted the dirt from his pants before marching up to Winry's back and tapping her on the shoulder. Another shushing sound and a 'shoo' hand signal brought back Ed's eye twitch.
"Winry Rockbell…" Ed smirked as she turned to him, but it soon fled his face when she spoke.
"Ed, I'm trying to think here!" Her hair slapped him in the face as she spun back around.
Growling, Ed grabbed her right hand with his left and spun her around. Her shocked expression calmed his growl and he brought his right arm around her waist, pulling her lightly to him but leaving a respectable six or seven inches between them.
"Ed, what are you doing?" her voice was only a whisper as she questioned him.
Ed struggled with the urge to whisper back, "This is how they do it in the movies right?"
Winry was at a loss for words at Ed's sudden actions but nodded and placed her left hand on his shoulder. "Yep, like this."
Waiting for the right beat, Ed took the lead and clumsily began dancing with the mechanic. He winced the couple times that he stepped on her feet but she didn't say anything and just moved her feet to a different position.
In ten minutes, Ed had the dance memorized and was gracefully guiding Winry across her yard in a formal slow dance.
On a return to the opposite side of the backyard the music stopped and Ed began to notice that they had attracted a small crowd. "Hey Win…?" A soft humming sound was Ed's answer. "Who are these people…?" Ed asked nervously. He was feeling extremely self-conscious with one arm wrapped around the girl he was previously dancing with.
"Neighbors…I think." Winry dropped her hand from Ed's shoulder as he stepped away from her and let go of her hand and waist.
Soft clapping started at one end of the line of viewers, then erupted into a full applaud. "What the hell!" was Ed's thank you to the attention and Winry fought the urge to also yell. None of their audience moved. "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!" Quickly, Ed alchemized a metal hammer from the ground. That certainly sent the crowd scurrying back to their homes.
Ed smirked victoriously and turned his grin towards Winry's bemused expression. "What's wrong?" He watched as Winry slowly tore her eyes away from the horizon.
"What time is it, Ed?" He fumbled for his pocket watch and checked the time.
"Six o'clock..." He continued to watch as her confusion melted into horror. "What's wrong?"
"Those were my automail clients!" Winry was sure she was going to faint.
Morning rolled around and Winry still hadn't awoken from her shock-induced 'sleep'.
Ed sat on the couch in the living room, staring at his metal foot and his flesh foot, moving one and then the other. "Winry…!" He called over his shoulder for the sixth time that morning.
"Squirt, calling her at random times isn't going to wake her up." Pinako commented coolly.
"I know that!" Ed shot back at her, glaring at her back as she worked on a customer's automail.
"Then why are you doing it?" Another cool and collected comment.
"Because I thought I heard something…" Ed muttered defensively, intensifying his glare. Pinako turned around and stared at him for a while. "What!" Her gaze drifted towards the stairs, then snapped back to him. Stairs…Ed, stairs…Ed, stairs… "Alright! I'll go wake her up!"
Trudging up the stairs and dragging himself to Winry's bedroom door, Ed hesitated as he raised his fist to knock. "This is ridiculous; she can wake up on her own time." Ed turned his back to the door and was about to stalk away when a loud creak came from behind him, he turned in time to see Winry hurrying out her door and straight into him.
In a writhing mass of limbs Ed groaned in pain at the sudden collision of his head on the wall and Winry whimpered in response to the pain that greeted her late morning waking.
"Ed…?" Winry looked up at Ed's glowing face. "Ed?" Winry felt her face glow as well. "What are you doing here! Get off me!" Before giving him a chance to get off her, Winry pulled out one of her ever present tools and jabbed Ed in his side.
"Ow! What the hell, it was your fault and I'm not even on you!" Ed pinched Winry's arm in return.
"My fault! Who told you to just stand in front of my room!" A punch this time.
"Who told you to come catapulting out of your room!" Lemon-blonde hair was firmly tugged in come back.
"Well you shouldn't have been there!" A golden braid was yanked in the opposite direction of the lemon-blonde hair.
"And you shouldn't have run out like that!" His hand grabbed her forearm, squeezing the muscle painfully.
"This is your fault!" her unoccupied hand found his throat and pinched the sensitive muscle there.
"Yours!"
"Yours!"
"Both! Stop bickering and come down for breakfast!" Two blonde heads snapped in the direction of the cranky voice. "You're causing a commotion, so eat and get out! I need peace and quiet while I'm working and you two scared away the customers yesterday. You're lucky I'm even feeding you!"
Ed and Winry stayed still for a while before looking at each other and jumping away in opposite directions. Glares are exchanged and the slamming of a door and the marching of angry feet echo into the house.
Pinako looked up from the stove. "Why is every morning like this, Al? Why can't Ed be more civilized like you?" She sighed and lifted the frying pan from the stove.
"I ask myself that question every day, Auntie." Al sighed dramatically as he put down the newspaper and reached for the bacon Pinako had just placed on the table.
"I'M RIGHT HERE YOU KNOW!" Ed shouted; braid flailing with his arms in the wake of his irritation.
"We know." The synchronized sigh smothered the alchemist's reply to the comments and he sat down angrily.
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"Ah! Ed, get off my foot!"
"Sorry, it's not my fault. Maybe if you actually taught me to dance…" Ed said haughtily.
Growling under her breath Winry yanked her foot out form under his and nursed it quietly. "You're heavy for a tiny guy."
"WHAT!" His nostrils flared as he glared down at her angrily. "That's going too far, machine freak!"
"Speak for yourself alchemy geek," was Winry's sweet response.
Locked in a death glare, Ed and Winry didn't notice Al approaching them until he spoke. "What happened to the dance lessons?" He asked innocently, looking from one to the other.
"She can't teach!"
"He's un-teachable!"
Glares were once again exchanged and Al sighed. He needed to motivate his brother to try not to argue. Nothing particular came to mind at first, and he simply stood there watching the two go at each other's throats. 'They seem to have a lot of tension with each other…' Al thought absently. Maybe they needed just a little more tension until they finally gave in…?
"Okay brother, I'll dance with Winry for an example and you watch." Burying his evil grin deep into the celebrating confines of his mind, Al offered his hand to Winry gracefully.
Al blotted out the quiet snarling Ed was emitting as he grasped Winry's hand. He also ignored the warning look that was thrown his way as he walked around Winry to be in a position where he could wrap his other arm around her waist.
The waltz began and Ed scowled at the dancing couple. He didn't want to watch, but he couldn't tear his eyes away. 'I'm going to rip Al's hands off for dancing with her. I'm going to gouge out his eyes for looking at her. No, I changed my mind; I'm going to simply murder him.'
Finally finding the strength to look away, Ed stared at the grass below him instead. The grass looked extremely interesting all of a sudden, he had noticed. A heavy hand on his shoulder caused Ed to look up questioningly, but his expression soon changed to one of intent to kill.
Al chuckled nervously, "Brother, that's going to happen if you don't learn to dance. Someone else will ask Winry to dance and she'll probably accept." He grinned encouragingly at his brother.
"Hey, Al?" Ed grinned up at Al.
"Yes brother?"
"Thanks…but…I'm going to murder you anyways."
Winry watched in confusion as Ed chased Al around the house screaming "stop running and it won't be so bad when I get to you" while Al shouted back "put down the wrench and I'll think about it" over his shoulder.
"Why does he have my wrench…?" She thought aloud and continued to watch the transition between the two. "ED! Don't dent my wrench!"
"Stop screeching like a banshee then!" Ed roared at her as he flailed the wrench around crazily as he turned the corner around the house.
"What did you call me!" Winry joined into the chase. "Come back here micro-boy!"
"Who are you calling a tiny bug that escapes the wrath of a shoe because he's so small that he fits in the grooves and can't get squashed!" Ed bellowed in anger as the chase reversed with Winry running form Ed, Ed chasing Winry and Al chasing Ed, trying to get him to stop chasing Winry.
Pinako watched from the balcony in amusement. "Some things never change" she laughed into the growing darkness.
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Winry stirred from her sleep at the sound of soft music drifting upstairs from the living room. Rubbing the remnants of sleep from her eyes, she dragged her legs from her sheets and travel towards the source of the sound.
"Ed…?" She mumbled, still not really sure whether or not she was really asleep due to the sight in front of her.
Ed was listening to waltzing music as he sat on the floor, surrounded by the books on dancing that he had refused to read the week before. He still hadn't noticed her, so Winry decided to just watch.
She was partially happy that he wasn't noticing her presence for two reasons; she could watch him act naturally, and it showed that he was comfortable enough in her home that he could let his guard down completely.
A cough tickled her throat and Winry struggled with it in silence until she decided coughing would be inevitable. She backed up a few steps, ruffled her hair, lowered her eyelids and coughed before stepping back into the doorway. "Ed…?" she mumbled, louder than the first time when she actually had been still groggy with sleep. "What are you doing up?"
For a second, Ed looked as thought he were going to try to cover up all the books and turn off the music before she noticed, but instead he nodded towards the books and murmured, "Studying" before turning his head back to the texts in the book.
"I thought you said that it would be better if you actually danced."
"I thought you said I was un-teachable anyways."
Winry looked at the back of Ed's head for a moment before snorting in reply and scuffling over to the kitchen. Ed watched her pass by and disappear into the kitchen before returning to the paragraph he had been reading.
Winry reappeared with a tall glass of milk occupying her hands and her mouth firmly clamped onto the edge of the glass as she gulped it down. Ed grimaced as he eyed the glass and closed the book he had been studying from.
"What's wrong?" Winry gurgled out from behind the glass.
"I can't concentrate with that devil-liquid near me." Ed grumbled stubbornly as he put the books away.
Winry choked on her drink and came up sputtering for air before she rushed into the kitchen again. When she re-emerged, the glass was nowhere in sight and she rubbed her throat slowly.
"Told you it was the devil-liquid from hell..." Ed muttered nonchalantly as he tapped his foot to the music.
With a pout on her face, Winry moved towards the couch Ed was currently occupying. "Dance with me."
"What?"
"Dance with me."
"Why?"
"Dance. With. Me."
With a sigh, Ed got up and grabbed her hand; he wasn't going to get another answer besides that until he did what she said. Once he had given in, Winry gestured for him to follow her as she unlocked the front door and stepped out into the cool night air. Her thin, white nightgown fluttered around her legs playfully in the wind and she smiled at him gently before retaking his hand into hers.
Their arms fell into pace and their mind's swam with the music. Ed wasn't sure what to do; he didn't know the waltz very well and that was the music that was playing.
Seeing his discomfort, Winry squeezed his shoulder gently to get his attention and began with the simple 1, 2, 3 rhythm of the dance. He was looking at his feet in concentration and kept fumbling whenever they turned or reversed.
"Ed." He still didn't look up. "Ed." He nodded, his head still down. "Head up." He obeyed and made eye contact with her. "Good!" She smiled proudly at her 'student'.
He smiled in return and the dance clumsily continued, Ed's eyes still traveling to his shoes. Ed decided to focus his eyes on Winry's feet instead, and tried to copy her movements but stopped altogether when he realized she wasn't wearing any shoes or socks, even in the cold and moist night air.
"Winry." She hummed a response and looked up at him. "Go inside, right now." His tone was angry, although he didn't mean it to be, and he ruined the mood of the entire night.
"What?" Gruff disappointment shone through her voice as she looked at him through confused sapphire eyes. "Why?"
"You're going to get sick. I don't want you to get sick." Ed stated firmly before gently pulling her arm towards the door. "We can dance inside."
"But it's so nice outside Ed…!" Winry whined as he began to walk up the porch steps. She was heavily disappointed that he had broken out of the trance he was in; he had looked so determined, yet peaceful in his concentration.
"Nice! It's cold outside, and you only have that scrap of material on…in public!" Winry yanked her arm away from him and looked at him defiantly. Now he had gone and done it! Ed groaned inwardly as he turned around to face her scowling face.
"What's that supposed to mean!" she huffed haughtily, her cheeks flushed from the cool air.
"Winry-"
"Don't 'Winry' me, what's that supposed to mean? Are you implying something about the way I dress? Since when did you start caring about me anyways?" Winry wasn't sure why she was getting angry, or why she was raising her voice, or why tears were starting to rise in her eyes, they just did.
She felt stressed all of a sudden and her throat clenched in an attempt not to cry. She looked away from him, pretending to scowl into the darkness. But Ed knew better.
"Look Winry-"
"I said don't 'Winry' me."
"Look…Miss." He looked at her pointedly but she turned further away from him. "It's cold outside and I don't want you getting sick before the party in Central. Nothing more, alright?" Winry knew he had mean to say it in a comforting way, but the way he had said "nothing more, alright?" hurt her.
"Alright… I'm just going to…to stay out here a little longer." She knew her voice had shook, she had tried her best to keep it even but her tears finally broke to the surface in objection. She heard him step towards her, but her heart called out to her, telling her she needed to know something. Know why her heart was starting to ache at the thought of Central.
"Winry I-"
"Ed? Can I ask you a serious question?"
Ed nodded before realizing she couldn't see him, and grunted in response; the only sound he managed to get around the sudden lump in his throat.
"When we go back to Central…are you going to come back home with us afterwards? Or are you going to travel again? And if you do, are you going to take Al? Would you take me? Can you even tell me or were you planning to just suddenly leave like before? Will you actually write? How long will you be gone? Will you come for automail repairs? Are you going to fight? Are you-?" Winry squeaked in surprise as a strong arm wrapped around her waist.
'Is he really going to hold me? Is he going to tell me how he feels? Is he-?'
Suddenly, Ed hoisted her up and planted her firmly over his shoulder. Winry was caught between sighing in disappointment and laughing at her own stupidity. "Ed! Put me down! I thought we were supposed to go inside!" Ed brought them inside, but only long enough to grab his coat and close the door. "Ed! Where are we going?" Winry cried out laughing at her own expense as his coat was thrown onto her roughly.
"Around."
"Like this!" She looked over her shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of his face instead o the moving ground. "ED! Don't ignore me!"
He stopped walking and stood in silence. "Hey, Win…?"
"Yes?"
"Hold on." Ed began to spin around slowly, but picked up speed at the sound of Winry's delighted laughter. He only stopped when she pounded her fists into his back, choking on her laughter. The action was meant to distract Winry from her question but he could hardly contain his laughter himself and kept walking to his original destination.
Several minutes later, Winry found herself in a tree overlooking the whole town of Risembool. She looked at the scene wide-eyed before connecting the length of her sight with the height needed to see that far and she squealed in fear.
"Ed!" She glanced around, he had disappeared. "Ed…!" She called out, a little more fearfully this time.
"Stop screeching, you're going to wake up the neighborhood screaming my name like that."
Winry stared at him in disbelief. "What!"
Ed almost fell out of the tree, "I didn't mean it that way!" His face was horror-stricken but his eyes danced in amusement.
She sighed into the light wind as she took in the scenic view she had from the height she was at. Another question popped into her head and she whipped around to face Ed frantically. "Ed, how'd we get up here!"
Looking up at her through the branches, Ed smirked with one of those 'it's my little secret' looks. "I don't know. Be careful you don't fall, twisting around like that. We're pretty damn high up."
"You're part monkey."
"What!"
"You're part monkey, you have to be."
"What are you rambling about!"
"I said you're part monkey. You're always leaping around all over the place and now you climb trees like it's nothing. You're a monkey."
"No I'm not, I'm athletic and built. Don't call me a tiny animal!"
"Monkeys aren't all tiny you moron, stop stereotyping things you don't know about!"
They glared at each other through the branches again in a silent staring contest until Ed sighed in defeat and looked away. "Most of them are…" He muttered stubbornly, but Winry ignored him.
"What do you think is going to happen at the party in Central?" she asked dreamily.
"Don't know, maybe a few speeches and some dancing. A lot of alcohol probably." Winry turned to look at him, an excited glint in her eyes. "I'll be damned if I let you have any though."
Winry pouted, "Why?"
"Because! I don't need my mechanic drunk. What if I break my automail kicking the Colonel's ass? Then what? Huh?"
Winry stared at him for a second then looked away quickly, but not quick enough for Ed not to catch the faint glimmer of hurt shining in her eyes.
"And…" She looked back at him dully, as if he was suddenly boring her. "I don't want anything to…" Ed looked up at her helplessly. He couldn't say 'my best friend' because he considered her more, and he couldn't say 'the woman I love' because she'd just laugh at him.
"To…?" Winry urged him on, curiously.
"T-To…to…to…" Ed stuttered feebly, he felt like an idiot.
"I love the tune you're singing but I'd like you to finish your sentence." She grinned down at him like a fox and laughed lightly when he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Forget it…" he avoided her eyes, hoping she'd let the conversation drop. He looked back a moment later when he heard shuffling and leaves rustling. "Winry!" He watched in terror as she attempted to climb down to the branch he was on.
Winry ignored his shocked yelp as she tried very hard not to break her neck, but not grant him a glimpse of the blue panties she had on under the nightgown. She almost screamed at the strange sensation of being lifted as she expected to fall as Ed hoisted her up onto the branch again and settled in behind her. She clutched to the tree branch; obviously from fear.
"Do you want to get down?" She shook her head in a negative. He watched her as she stayed frozen on the branch. "Do you need to pee?"
"What?" She half turned to him, a light flush coating her cheeks in her annoyance. "Don't be ridiculous."
"How? Most people do pee you know." He smiled slyly and continued to watch her clutch to the bark of the tree. Minutes ticked away as she stayed like that. "Are you tired?"
"A little." She murmured softly, and Ed noticed that she was starting to sway slightly.
"Don't fall asleep like that you idiot!" he exclaimed as she swayed farther off to the side. She nodded her head, but he wasn't exactly sure is she had heard him or if she was falling asleep. "Come on, let's go." He reached out to wrap his hand around her arm when her voice stopped him.
"Ed…?" Winry mumbled, and continued after a second's pause. "Can we stay up here? Just for a while longer?" She nodded to herself, as though agreeing to her own idea. She turned and smiled lightly at him as she waited for his decision.
After a moment, Ed nodded and pulled her flush against his chest. "Sit here so you don't fall." He knew it was sort of obvious, but he decided to say it anyways. She had to understand that he didn't want to be close to her, that it was for her protection. He also had to make himself understand that, and it helped when it was said aloud.
Her head fell back onto his shoulder and she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Yeah, thanks. You're the most important person in the world to me, you know?"
They sat like that in silence for awhile until Ed demanded that they return home so that she could sleep properly. When they arrived home, and Winry was safe in her bed, Ed stayed up in bed thinking; he knew they had gotten closer, and he knew that he loved her. But what he didn't know was if he wanted to love her. He sighed in self-pity before trying once more to drift into sleep. The questions she had asked ran through his head over and over and over until his mind shut down from exhaustion, allowing his body the rest it so dearly needed.
He couldn't answer her questions and he couldn't answer his own questions. What kind of a genius was he?
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A/N: Well, you didn't see it, but I hope you tried to imagine it. I hope you enjoyed! Reviews are always appreciated and always read gratefully.
Xoxoxoxo!