Better Together

A/N: After almost a year, I'm finally picking this story back up. I just really lost my inspiration for this, but I think I'm getting it back. I'm really sorry guys, but this is why I'm terrible with multi-chapter stories. ): But I still want to tell this story, so I'm going to try to keep at it!

Chapter 4: "But I can try for your heart"

After dinner, Ed and Winry didn't speak much, even though they both had so much that they wanted to say to each other, but they didn't know where or how to start. As the night went on, Ed decided that he couldn't keep this up - he had to talk to her and finally lay it all out on the line. He was nervous, but he refused to allow this rift that was developing between them to widen.

Winry was sitting at her desk in her bedroom, looking over some blueprints with only a small lamp giving off any light when she heard a knock at her door. She jumped slightly, but she called to whoever it was to come in. It was Ed.

"Winry," he said as he entered her room and closed the door behind him. "I... want to talk to you."

"About what?" she asked nonchalantly. She had a feeling she knew what this would be about, but she decided to feign ignorance. She had tried to talk to Ed about their relationship, but he insisted on remaining vague, so in her mind, the ball was in his court now.

"About you leaving!" he exclaimed as if she should have immediately known that.

"Ed, what about it?" she questioned with a hint of anger in her voice. "You basically said it yourself that you didn't want a real commitment with me anytime soon, so why does it matter?"

"Because...," he began as he sat down on the edge of her bed and sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Because that's not entirely true. I... want to be with you, Winry!"

Silence fell between them as Winry tried to process what he had just said. Suddenly, she stood up from her desk and moved to sit beside him. "Then, why did you tell me that earlier?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know," he replied, looking down at his hands that were resting in his lap. "You make me nervous, alright? I can't explain it. It's like I don't know what to say to you sometimes."

Winry gently placed her hand on his knee, causing Ed to lift his eyes to meet hers. "You should just say how you feel. We should both do that."

Ed wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed it tightly, never breaking their eye contact. "You're right. So, tell me then, how do you really feel?" he questioned with a small smile.

Instead, she frowned slightly at him. "You first."

He chuckled a bit at that. Of course, he should have seen that one coming. Well, he wasn't going to back down, not anymore. "Fine," he said as he turned to face her. "I want you to do what makes you happy, and if that means taking that job in Rush Valley, then I won't stop you. But honestly, I don't want you to. I know that's selfish of me, but I don't care! I've been away from you for too much of my life, and I don't want to be away from you anymore. I meant what I said at the train station, and I'm ready to give you half of my life.

There, ya happy?" he finished after a few seconds of silence as he felt a slight blush creeping onto his cheeks, and he turned his head away from her.

"Ed...," Winry whispered as she tried to sort her thoughts and think of a decent response. She knew that now it was her turn to share her feelings, and she hated to admit it, but she was sometimes just as bad as Edward when it came to this sort of thing. Still unsure of what to say, Winry did what felt most natural to her in this moment: she clenched her fist and landed a hard punch right to his shoulder.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" he exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder. It really hadn't been that painful, but it was still unexpected.

"Ed! Why didn't you just tell me all of that in the first place? Instead, I've been going crazy wondering if you really felt the same way as me, and now I know that you do, and it's just annoying because you could have saved me a lot of stress!"

"Wait a minute, what about you? You could have just spoken up too, you know! I've been worrying, too. I thought the reason you took the job was because you didn't want to be with me!"

"No!" She paused to heave a sigh of both annoyance and relief in order to calm her nerves. "You really are dense when it comes to girls."

"No, you just make things unnecessarily difficult."

"Well, you certainly don't help the matter," she replied with a scowl which deepened when she heard Ed chuckling at her.

"So, are you going to open up to me, or are you just going to keep yelling?" he teased.

She jokingly rolled her eyes, and she couldn't stop the small smile that was creeping onto her face. As much as she enjoyed giving Ed a hard time, she really was happy to have heard those words from him. "Of course I want to be with you. I only took the job because I thought that maybe you still wanted to do your own thing for a while. I don't know; that seems stupid now. I guess I was just kind of mad, actually."

"...At me?"

"No," she answered with a sigh as she laid back on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. "It's just that Al and Mei seem like they're the perfect couple, and I've been... in love with you for so long, and I just want us to be perfect, too."

"Well, they're not perfect, and we're not going to be either," Ed stated matter-of-factly. "We're all human. But I do know that I'm better when I'm with you than when I'm not."

Winry eyed him for a minute before smiling. "Yeah, I am, too. Ed... I don't want to move to Rush Valley now."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. But I think I should at least go visit for a little while. Mr. Garfiel told me that many of my customers really miss me, and some are in desperate need of upgrades. I should help out, even if it's just for a short time."

A brief silence fell between them after that, so Winry spoke up again. "You can come with me if you want."

Ed looked at her, contemplating her suggestion. "Eh, I don't know. You know I'm not a huge fan of that town." Ed joined her in laying back onto her bed and crossed his arms behind his head.

"I know," she said, turning to face him and giggling as she recalled some of the incidents Ed had gotten into while there.

Ed tilted his head to look at the figure laying next to him. Winry had closed her eyes, and it suddenly dawned on him that she was wearing only her semi-sheer white nightgown.

And that they were alone in her bedroom. On her bed. In the middle of the night. Suddenly, Ed felt his nerves beginning to resurface. Ed felt his pulse quicken as he continued to let his eyes linger on Winry. He wanted badly to kiss her - something he never usually had a problem doing, but there was something about being here with her in this way that left him pondering whether he should do it or not. At that moment, Winry opened her eyes to look at him, and that's when Ed made up his mind. Propping himself up on one elbow, he leaned into her and softly pressed his lips against hers. Winry reciprocated the kiss, and when Ed began pulling away, she leaned up to meet his lips again.

Ed was surprised at her gesture, but he didn't pull away. She wanted more - he did, too, and her action was the push he needed. He kissed her back but this time it was more firm, and he reached one hand up to caress her cheek. Winry slowly laid her head back down on the bed, pulling Ed down with her and never breaking their kiss. Planting one hand beside her head, he leaned over her, his long hair falling around their faces. Winry parted her lips slightly, and Ed slid his tongue across her bottom lip before tasting the inside her mouth and feeling Winry's tongue meet his. After several more seconds of feverish kissing, they finally parted, but Ed remained leaning over her, and even though their lips had parted, their eyes hadn't.

Winry reached one hand up and ran her fingers through Ed's hair and smiled warmly at him. He had never kissed her quite like that before, but she didn't mind. In fact, she loved it. She honestly couldn't wait to do more with him, but she knew that they weren't quite ready yet. "I love you, Ed," she said softly.

He smiled back at her before replying, "I love you, too, Win." He gave her another quick kiss before laying back down beside her.

His thoughts returned to the issue of Winry leaving for Rush Valley, even if it wasn't a permanent move. He could just stay here and wait for her to return - it's not like a couple of weeks would be that big of a deal. But, the more he thought about it, the more he started entertaining her offer of coming along with her. It might be nice to get away with her for a little while. They'd never really gone anywhere together since Al had gotten his body back. Besides, he didn't have much else to do, and this would definitely give them more opportunities to be alone together. He wasn't quite sure if that was a good idea or not - he had had a hard enough time breaking off their kiss moments ago; he wasn't sure what would happen if they really were all alone with each other. But he didn't care; he wanted as much of her as she was willing to give. He was going to marry her.

Thinking of marriage, Ed remembered something very important that he had in his pocket. He wasn't sure why he had brought it in here with him; he just figured that maybe he should try keeping it with him in case the time was right. And as they lay there together, it suddenly felt right. They had just come clean about their true feelings for each other, so why not make it official finally?

Ed sat up and reached into his pocket, his hand fumbling as his nerves were getting to him again. But as he grasped the small box, he turned to look at her only to see that her eyes were closed again and her breathing had slowed. She was asleep.

He groaned inwardly as he laid back down beside her, but then he noticed her hand resting beside her head. He lightly traced his fingers over hers as a thought hit him. Maybe he hadn't missed his chance after all.

Winry awoke the next morning, blinking as she tried to adjust her eyes to the bright sunlight that was pouring through her window, and she suddenly remembered what had transpired the night before. She smiled as she heard Ed's words repeating in her mind. She was so happy - a little sad that now she would be leaving for a short time, but she knew it would be alright. She had work to do, after all.

She stretched and yawned as she sat up in her bed, but when she ran her fingers through her hair, she felt something snag a few strands of hair. She immediately pulled her hand out of her hair, not caring that a couple of strands were pulled out in the process, and her breath hitched in her throat as she laid eyes on the culprit.

It was a ring. A gorgeous, but simple ring.

Her heart was racing as she jumped out of bed and ran down the hallway into Edward's room that he shared with Al. Not pausing to knock, she swung the door open only to be surprised for the second time that morning.

"Ed! Why are you packing a bag?" she asked a bit frantically.

He turned to face her, a huge grin on his face. "I'm going with you! To Rush Valley."

Winry simply stared at him for a moment before racing over to him and practically jumping into his arms. Ed pulled her into a tight embrace as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I love it," she whispered, referring to the ring.

Ed knew what she meant, and he couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face. "Good."

A/N: Again, I'm really sorry about the super-long hiatus, but I'm hoping I can get this story back on track because I really want to finish it. Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reading; please review! :)