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Chapter Six

Winry

As they were walking back, Al remembered something.

"Oh, God! Ed! Winry!" Exclaimed Al.

"Oh, shit! I forgot all about her!" said Ed slapping himself in the head.

"What is the military going to tell her when they can't find us?"

"What are they going to tell Mustang! He's going to kill me!"

As they met the group, Kagome walked up to them. "Where were you guys? And what's wrong?"

"Winry and Mustang are going to kill me!" Ed exclaimed.

"Who are Winry and Mustang?"

"Well, Winry is Ed's girlfriend and…." Ed interrupter him.

"SHE IS NOT!"

"Is too!"

"NO!"

"Yeah!"

"Liar!"

"I'm not lying." Al reassured them.

"You are to, so shut up Al!" Ed was fuming.

"Anyways, who is she and who is Mustang?" Kagome reiterated

Ed took the chance to talk now "Winry is our friend from our hometown, Resembool, and Mustang is the colonel of the military I serve under." Ed was proud of his descriptions, especially because it didn't classify Winry with the words; love, girlfriend, lover, hottie, ect. And it didn't classify Mustang with the words; asshole, jackass, annoyance, I want to kill him, dumbass, ect.

"So, she is his girlfriend, then." Added Kagome brightly, Al giggled madly as Ed started spazzing.

"SHE'S NOT MY FICKING GIRLFRIEND! BUT I DO LOV…." He had said too much 'damn it'.

"What was that Ed did you just say that you loved her?" asked Al sarcastically.

"SHUT UP!"

"AWW, Eddie has a girlfriend!" Al exclaimed with glee.

"Really?" Shippo asked and started hopping around singing with Al's same glee "Eddie has a girlfriend, Eddie has a girlfriend!"

"SHUT UP, FOX, I'LL KILL YOU! AL YOU'RE NEXT AFTER I'M DONE WITH THIS FURBALL!" Shouted Ed as he chased after Shippo, who was still singing.

"Brother! Don't hurt him!"

"DOES KILLING CLASSIFY AS HURTING!" Ed asked sarcastically.

"Yes!" Al answered dumbly. "I kinda' wish Ed had rosary like Inuyasha's."

"Don't ever wish that!" Inuyasha declared from across camp, "I would only wish this damn thing on a few people." He found himself telling Koga to sit and imagining him going face first into the ground. He burst out laughing, causing everyone to stare at him skeptically.

"Is he going to be okay?" Al asked

"I highly doubt it." Replied Miroku, who had been flirting with Sango for hours, and it seemed to be working.

"SHUT UP, Monk!" spat Inuyasha from across camp.

"What? I didn't say anything!" replied Miroku curiously, making Sango giggle madly

Shippo, then, dove behind Miroku, causing Ed to take Miroku out and fall into a pail of water.

"Now look what you made me do, you stupid fox!" Exclaimed Ed as he lunged for Shippo, falling over into the dirt, causing it to stick to him.

"And now I'm covered in mud!"

"Will you kindly get off me!" Miroku, who was under Ed and Shippo, was tired of waiting, and grabbed Shippo by the tail, and Ed by the collar, and stood up angrily.

"LET GO OF ME SO I CAN KILL THAT FOX!"

"Not until you calm down!"

"Thank you. Miroku is right, Brother. You gotta calm down!"

"I love you, Miroku!" Shippo was weeping while he was hanging upside down by his tail.

"I'll only calm down if this damn lecher lets me down and you all will let me go for a walk without following." Ed replied flatly

"I am a man of the cloth!" Miroku was completely offended by Ed's comment.

"Why do you want to go alone?" Al's voice was completely full of concern.

"Yeah and you're a lecher, too! How many 'men of the cloth' do you know that are lechers?"

"Well, there's Mushin (A/N; Miroku's foster father), my father was, and according to him, so was my grandfather." Miroku replied with a smirk.

"Brother?" Al was still being ignored, intentionally.

"Man! The monks here are tainted! Where we are from…though there aren't many monks…they can't get within a foot of the member of the opposite sex without blushing madly!" Ed said rolling his eyes.

"Brother! You will not ignore me! Now that we know the homunculi are here, you have to be more careful! Now that the Colonel and Major Armstrong aren't here to protect you!"

"I DON'T NEED TO BE PROTECTED! I'M NOT A LITTLE KID!"

"You may not think so, but we're not adults either! And sometimes, you do need to be protected! How many times have the major, the colonel, and I saved you?"

"And how many times have I saved you?"

"Sacrifice doesn't count as saving!"

"AND WHAT DOES IT COUNT AS!"

"Not what you think it does, you for me? That's not equivalent exchange!"

"Why isn't it?" Ed was thrown off by his last statement. It completely confused him.

"I don't have flesh; you are fully capable of going anywhere unnoticed, fitting in, while all eyes are on me when we travel… How many times have you seen a 6 foot tall set of armor just walking around…other than in Lab 5? No, I'll answer that for you, never! I can't fit in anywhere!" Al started to walk away, leaving Miroku and Shippo stunned, but Ed broke free of the distracted Monk's grasp.

"You fit in fine with me!" Ed revealed his automail arm, "I'm metal, too! Without this overcoat and these gloves, I wouldn't fit in either. You're my little brother, and you'll never be an outcast with me around, okay! And besides, when we get the Philosopher's stone, you'll be an average little boy again!"

"You'll be the first 'average little boy', brother! Stress on the Little!" Al bolted from the scene.

"Get back here, you weird-ass metal outcast!" Ed teased.

"Never, you pintsized freak!"

"WHAT THE HELL, QUIT IT WITH THE SHORT JOKES, DAMNIT!"