Hey people! It's me again with another chapter for Steel and Ice. I was going to put this up during the week but since I've got nothing better to do today...might as well update. Hope you enjoy,

and the usual painful disclaimer, I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist...yet...I will! 'Tis my dream! I just own Amber...

Chapter Three
Fast Friends
Amber

Winry seems to be a great person and God knows I could use a girl pal around my age. She lead us to a guest room that Edward and I have to share, I'm not going to complain but I'm pretty sure that Ed will. I was surprised though when I didn't hear his ramblings once Winry told us that we had to share a room. I put my suitcase underneath the bed and forgot about it for the time being, deicing to take a look around this small town. It seems like a really nice place...

"Amber?" called out a female voice. I looked to my right and saw Winry next to me.

"Yeah?" I asked, taking in my surroundings.

"I'm going to the market to get some food, wanna come with?"

"Sure," I replied while tossing my blazer on the bed. It was warm enough outside so I don't need it. I followed Winry outside and she waved at the boys who were training at a nearby clearing.

"Why aren't you training with them?" was the first thing I heard Winry ask.

"I'll spar with Ed tomorrow, before you check up his automail...right now I'm in no fighting mood," I said as I placed my hands in my pockets. 'Especially with that runt...' I finished in my thoughts.

"You two don't get along...do you?" Winry asked, getting an idea of the situation.

"Pretty much..." I replied.

"You will someday..."

"Maybe..."

"So...do you have any idea why they partnered you two up?"

"Probably because we're around the same age. You see, I'm sixteen and he's just a little over a year younger than me."

"When did you pass the exam?"

"After I heard that Edward passed at twelve, about two weeks later I was asking to take the test so...you can say that Ed gave me the courage to talk about the exam...just don't tell him that, I don't want him to think he has the upper hand on that case..."

"No prob."

"So..." I began, trying to think of something to say. "Any good places to just gaze at the scenery?" I asked finally, after a long silence.

"Yeah, inside the woods there's this little clearing that's great to relax in."

"Sweet."

"Need to escape Ed that fast?"

"Believe me, I wouldn't try...Roy would have my head..."

"Why?"

"He's been annoying me about making sure he's safe since he gets into a lot of trouble...so I'm kinda babysitting..."

"Ed would kill you if he heard that..."

"Tell me about it," I said as we reached the market. Winry brought the ingredients for dinner and a few other extras, just for the heck of it. "I could've said it earlier but I didn't want to get 20 q's by Ed, I'm sorry about your parents Win...they were real close friends to my father for sometime..."

"Really?"

"Yeah...when dad heard about what happened to your parents he was real sad about it..."

"How is he?"

"Well, there's many ways to put it...but to put it in the simplest terms, he's dead."

"What happened?"

"Sin..." I said as a breeze came by. It quickly picked up and undid my bun, letting my hair flow around with it. "My father committed sin..."

"Like Ed and Al?" Winry asked as she pointed out a different route to her house, which we were going to take to lengthen our time to talk.

"Yeah, pretty much..." I said as my hair covered part of my face. I completely ignored it, it wasn't important. "It's hard to think about..."

Ed

"You're doing good brother," Al began as he got up. "But shouldn't you be doing this with Amber? I mean, you two need to be in top shape for anything," he continued.

"And have her complain about breaking a nail?" I snapped, noticing that Amber and Winry were coming back. Winry waved and Amber just nodded at us as they went into the house.

"Brother, could you stop that?" Al began, causing me to snap out of my stream of ugly faces that I was making behind Amber's back.

"As I was saying Al," I continued. "I'm not going to fight her so she can complain about hurting her beautiful face and what not."

"Just ask her," Al argued. "If you're nice to her, she'll be nice."

"Don't think so..." I said as I looked back at the house.

"Yo guys!" called out Amber's voice from a window. "Get in here! Dinner's ready!"

"At least she didn't call me-"

"And shortie, we're sparring tomorrow!"

"Don't call me small!" I yelled back. "I'm gonna break that pretty face and-"

"What did I just tell you brother?" Al said as he covered my mouth and held me back from fighting Amber.

"Fine!" I yelled as I stormed back inside. "I'm taking a shower before dinner!"

"Whatever!" I heard Amber's voice yell from the kitchen.

Amber

"You're terrible..." I heard Winry say as she started serving dinner for all of us. Her grandmother happened to be out of town, or so she told me, so it's just us teens.

"Hey...I just acted on my own this time..." I defended.

"Right," Winry said, dragging the last syllable a little.

"Oh nevermind..." I said as I sat down and started to eat. Winry sat down right beside me and we started to talk about having some "girls only" moments during my stay here.

"You two are getting along well..." Al commented as he came in.

"Yeah!" we cried in unison. Winry and I smiled at each other and I couldn't help but keep that smile for a while longer. In just a couple of hours, I made a great friend...

"Don't yell!" we heard Edward's voice cry as he came downstairs. My smile faded and I continued to eat like nothing was wrong. As soon as I was done, I excused myself from the table and made my way outside to stargaze. The silence in the area was nice and the stars were exceptionally bright. I lay down on the grass and looked at the stars above me with awe. Sometimes I can't help but think about setting myself free from the military, but I promised myself I'd do this for my sake...can't go back on it now.

"You okay Amber?" I heard a voice ask.

"Yeah Winry," I said as the mentioned person sat down next to me. "I'm just tired and feel like gazing up at the sky for a while."

"Then why don't you go to bed?"

"Don't feel like it at all..." I said while yawning. The sky's too beautiful tonight to stay cooped up long. I raised one of my hands and counted the stars that I could, thinking about how I used to do that all the time when I was little.

"So tell me what you think of the Elrics," Winry said bluntly.

"Just don't use it against me and we're good..." I said while sitting up.

"Oh, don't worry, I know some things that you might like to know..." Winry began with a wink. I laughed, knowing that she did have some serious dirt on them since she's known them for years...this is going to be fun.

Edward

At around midnight, the door to the room Amber and I were sharing burst open. I watched with slightly open eyes who had come in and saw that it was Amber. She turned her back to my bed and started to strip off her clothes and put on her pj's, I didn't see anything, not like I'd want to anyway. After a while I heard a creaking noise next to my bed and I figured it was Amber getting into bed. I fully closed my eyes then, thinking up ways of kicking her ass tomorrow morning...

And there I leave you. In the next chapter, Ed and Amber have their fight and Amber finally meets Izumi. Until next time people! Laters!

Laski