a/n: so it's the first official chapter which is exciting! there was such an overwhelmingly positive response to the prologue on my tumble, so thank you guys so much! i'm so happy that you like it! now i will say, this chapter is on the short side, but we're just getting the ball rolling; there will be loooong chapters in the future, i'm sure. i really hope you all like it!

enjoy!~

Dear Winry,

I know you said that you wanted letters, so here goes.

I've only been here for two days so not much has happened. I'm staying with a guy named Lou. He's some sort of acquaintance of Mustang's, but this guy's actually pretty decent. He runs a little restaurant, and we live in the space above the shop. It's pretty small; my room's the size of a closet but it'll do. (Don't you dare make some sort of short joke about that or the engagement's off!)

Feels kinda weird that just last week… and now we're engaged. It's a good weird though; the very best kind.

Al's been bugging me to finally man up and do it for practically forever; he figured it out a really long time ago. He'll probably freak out once the word gets to him. And when he finds out how I did it. That'll be one that goes down in the history books, huh?

Anyway, Creta's really freaking hot. I don't know how the hell people live like this. I mean, I knew that it would be kinda warm, but I figured it would be like Rush Valley. It's a million times hotter, at least! You probably wouldn't like the heat much, but the food is amazing. There's a lot of fish and spicy meats; it's all really fresh and you'd think it gets boring but they douse it in all these different sauces. I've never even heard of most of the stuff I've eaten!

It's really different from Amestris, here. Not only just the food and the weather, but the entire atmosphere is. The people are kind of loud, but they're all pretty nice, so far. Not a lot of people are familiar with the concept of alchemy, and I have yet to discover a Cretan equivalent. I only just got here, so it isn't like there's a huge rush or anything, but I'm gonna go deeper into town and ask around about it. Thank god there's not a language barrier or anything or this whole thing would be freaking impossible.

Automail's almost completely unheard of, too. I had to roll up my pants yesterday because it was so damn humid out and everyone who saw my leg freaked out. They asked if I was a robot and when I said no, they asked what happened. I just said it was an accident; easier than explaining the whole thing, anyway. They were really amazed by it! They asked me if I built it myself, and I said no way in hell. So I told them all about you, even showed Lou a picture. He says I'm a really lucky guy. I think he's right.

I hope that. It's really weird not. I've been thinking about you. I know it's really fucking mushy but.

I really miss you.

Stay safe. Love,

Ed

—-

The Rockbell's never got much mail. There was the occasional letter from an old pal of Pinako's, a greeting for Winry from a customer or friend in Rush Valley, miscellaneous notes from varying people they'd met, and more recently, messages from Alphonse, all the way from Xing.

Even still, mail was few and far between. At best, perhaps they'd receive a few letters a month. And that's why it was so surprising for Winry to open their mailbox to find an envelope addressed to her in her fiancé's cursive, with his name dotting the return address.

—-

She read the letter - twice; rolling her eyes at his lunatic antics and blushing at his mentions of her and soaking in everything he could tell her about Creta. She examined the two pictures he stuffed into the envelope; one of him and a person she presumed to be Lou, the other of just him, standing in front of the restaurant. He was beaming like a complete idiot in both of them.

"What a dork," she muttered, smiling at the photo. Honestly, she never even expected him to follow through with his promise and write to her.

Well, she didn't really expect such a - shall we say, creative? - proposal; and at the train station, no less.

Jeez, that was only what, a little over a week ago? And it was already so weird without him, or Al, here. The house had the same strange quiet, calmness that hadn't resided there for a number of years. It was just her, Granny, Den, and the occasional customer.

Deep down, part of her actually hoped that Ed would bust his leg up just so he could come back for a few days. She grimaced; but then again, that meant having to deal with all the damage he'd probably inflicted on it. Ed only came back when it got really unmanageable, after all.

And it certainly wouldn't be much of a wedding with a dead, or close-to, groom.

She smirked at the thought. Truth be told, in the very short while she'd been engaged, she'd already given quite a bit of thought about the inevitable wedding, and plenty of the others she'd told had, as well.

Their little engagement had been quite the talk of the town, although it seemed to come as a shock to no one.

"Ed would want to hear all about it, I'm sure," she said, chucking softly. She pursed her lips, swiveling in her chair and checking her clock. About an hour until her next appointment. Her lips pulled up in a grin as she turned back to her desk, grabbing a clean sheet of parchment and her favorite pen.

Plenty of time, she thought as she began her response to Edward.