N/A: Hi! Golden here :D

Here we are in a new edition of the EdWin Week :)

Last year, almost without realizing it, all the one-shots were practically included within the Brotherhood universe and, although I'm more than happy about that beautiful ending of EdWin and the fluff involving my OTP, this time I wanted to try something new so this year there will be a variety of universes plus I tried to put some drama in there. So I hope the crazy ideas of this edition will be to your liking. Although in this first story you won't see so much of this since I couldn't resist to write Ed and Winry as kids hehe.

Before I leave you with the story, I want to thank my sister Flame for helping me again in being the beta for these stories. Thank you so much!

And so without more to say for the moment, let's start with the EdWin Week!

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist is property of Hiromu Arakawa to whom I thank for giving us a fantastic story, amazing characters and beautiful couples

Firsts

Ed was frustrated or maybe angry. Or more likely a combination of both. He raised his head a few inches above the ground so that he could direct a pronounced scowl at the object of his bitter emotions: The automail on his leg.

He had been feeling the weight of his new automail in place of the wooden prosthesis for a week now, and in all that week he had not been able to move it as he had hoped. He had not been able to take a single step and that frustrated him to no end.

He had had the automail on his arm for 2 months. Although he still didn't have the desired agility in his fingers, his new arm had been incorporated into his daily activities almost immediately, gaining more and more mobility but the leg... that was another story.

From the very first moment he had stepped onto the floor with it he felt an intense pain that far surpassed the pain he had felt the first time the automail arm had been attached. Granny Pinako had told him that this was to be expected because the pressure and force required to operate the automail leg was greater so she didn't seem concerned at the lack of progress. But if she wasn't, Ed was and very much so.

He needed to regain his mobility as quickly as possible to become a state alchemist so he could find a way to get Al's body back and if he couldn't get his leg working it would have done no good to have gone through the surgery. There was no way he was going to be accepted into the military if he couldn't even walk on his own.

At such a thought, Ed let out a grunt of frustration. Maybe to Granny, Winry and even Al a week lost in his recovery didn't mean much but to him it was quite the opposite.

When the room fell completely silent after his grunt, Ed was able to notice a noise outside. Focusing his hearing on it, he soon discovered that it was footsteps.

"Great." Ed muttered moodily.

He knew his automail could be noisy especially now that he wasn't in complete control of his movements but now the noise must have doubled as he had fallen out of bed while trying to stand up to force himself to walk.

Ed stood listening intently to the footsteps in the faint hope that if it was Winry or Granny, they were going for a glass of water in the kitchen. The footsteps were too light to be Al's and, as he had pretended to fall asleep until he saw Al leave to look at the stars in the tree behind the house (a habit Al had picked up over the past few weeks), he didn't think Al was aware of what had transpired in the patient room as he had to be sure that Ed had been extremely exhausted after having the automail installed again after letting his body rest for a day without it despite Ed's protests.

Unluckily for Ed, the sound of footsteps was getting a little louder which meant that someone was approaching the patient room. And, said and done, a few seconds later the door opened a few inches carefully until a pair of bright blue eyes had vision of what had happened.

"Ed!" Winry exclaimed as she stepped into the room.

With a grunt, Ed moved to sit on the floor leaving his legs spread, feeling a twinge of pain coming from his left thigh in the process.

Winry knelt beside him, looking at him with concern. "Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?"

Nightmares had become a relatively constant thing for Ed since the human transmutation. They had peaked during the recovery period after the surgery but every so often they would make their presence known again although less and less frequently. When Winry noticed it she was always there to bring him back to reality and did her best to reassure him. Plus what Ed appreciated most was that she never brought it up again. Since most of the time it was Winry who noticed he was having nightmares it had become something of a secret between the two of them.

Although he was grateful for Winry for keeping the secret and for her sincere concern, Ed frowned and turned his face to the opposite side from where she was. "No."

"Then?"

Ed fell silent keeping his face averted.

"Ed." At the lack of response, Winry persisted. "Ed." Annoyed at his stubbornness, Winry grabbed him by the ear.

"Ouch!"

"What happened?"

"Ouch... let me... Ouch! Damn, that hurts, Winry!"

"I'm not letting go until you answer me."

Ed tried to pull away from her but Winry was following him with her hand plus Ed was afraid to move his arm and hurt her since he still didn't have full control of his limb.

"I think I know what happened."

"Then get the hell off me!"

"Not until you tell me about it."

"You're a gearhead!" Ed told her, scowling at her. "I tried to walk. Happy?"

Winry let go of his ear and looked at him with a frown as well. "No." She folded her arms. "'Granny and I told you clearly that you were not to walk unsupervised. You're still adjusting to the automail."

"Well it's been a week and this thing doesn't do anything." He grumbled as he slammed a fist into the automail leg.

Winry inhaled deeply trying to remain calm. "Your body is still healing and adjusting. Remember that your nerves can take time to adjust to an unfamiliar object."

"Well it didn't take that long for the arm to show that it was at least heeding me somewhat."

Patience, Winry. Patience. "It's only been a week."

"A whole week wasted on nonsense."

"Edward Elric, stop talking nonsense or I swear I will not take pity on you and I will beat you with all the wrenches that are in the drawer over there." Winry said menacingly as she pointed a finger at a piece of furniture near the door.

Ed flinched noticeably but kept his frown. "You wouldn't."

Winry shot him a challenging look and started to stand up.

"No, no, wait." Ed said as he grabbed one of her wrists with his left hand. "I won't talk anymore."

"Like that's possible." Winry said sarcastically as she finished standing up.

The frown disappeared to give way to a slightly panicked expression "I'll behave. You don't have to go get the wrench."

Winry laughed. "Okay." She gently pulled Ed's hand away so she could extend both hands toward him.

"What?"

"I'm going to help you stand up." She said as she crouched down slightly keeping her hands outstretched towards him.

Ed's frown returned. "I can do it myself."

"Sure can." Winry said as she folded her arms. "Show me."

Ed gave her a defiant look before bringing his shaking automail hand to the ground then doing the same with his left hand. Without tearing his gaze from hers, he slowly propelled himself off the ground managing to get into a squatting position. The effort was beginning to show through the sweat that began to form on Ed's forehead and the boy couldn't help but grimace slightly at the pain the movement was causing him.

"Enough." Winry said squatting down in front of him forcing him to sit up as she placed a hand on his left shoulder.

"I almost had it!"

"More like you almost went face first into the ground."

"No I didn't!"

"Of course you did!"

"I didn't!"

"You did, Edward!"

At Winry's rising tone of voice, they both fell silent and turned to look at the ceiling fearing they would hear footsteps indicating they had awakened Pinako. They stayed in that position for a couple of minutes until they both let out a sigh of relief at the same time.

Winry was the first to speak. "Look what you're making me do."

"I didn't tell you to scream."

Winry directed a frown at him before looking at him seriously. "Ed, enough with the games. This is serious. If you keep forcing yourself like this you're going to end up causing the opposite effect. Your nerves will resent the effort and your automail will take longer to react. That is if you don't cause us to have to take it off again to let your body rest. Besides, the worst thing you can do at this time is to do it without supervision. Granny already told you that, didn't she?"

Ed exhaled heavily. "I know... it's just that this is... frustrating."

"Frustrating? Ed, your surgery was only five months ago! You well know that other patients of my Granny's have needed at least a year after surgery before they started practicing with the automail and that's just talking about one limb. You're doing great."

Ed clenched both hands into fists. "Not good enough."

Winry took his left hand and gently made him release the pressure. "I know you wish this could all go faster but believe me you're progressing with giant strides even if you don't recognize it yourself." She smiled and released his flesh-and-blood hand to take his automail hand, taking care to raise it high enough for Ed's gaze to focus on her. "See?"

Ed let out an involuntary gasp of surprise. Since he'd had the arm he hadn't had enough control to close his hand into a fist. He could move each of his fingers individually and even use his thumb and forefinger for some tasks but, so far, he hadn't been able to do what he had just done. "Wow." Ed let out as, with a look of concentration and a little pain, he released the tension in his hand.

"You should have more faith in yourself like I have in you." Winry said without stopping smiling.

The comment made Ed feel a strange warmth in his stomach but he decided to ignore the feeling to focus on his hand. After a minute of focusing on it, he closed his hand again and a smile appeared on his face. "This is a piece of cake!"

Winry laughed. "Want to try walking?"

Ed looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to have just scolded me for trying?"

Winry rolled her eyes. "Yeah, mainly for doing it unsupervised. Granny's going to kill me for this, but if you're so eager to do it there's no choice. I'll help you."

Ed pondered her friend's words for a few moments before saying. "It's already very late. You should go to sleep."

"As well as you but I could already tell you don't plan on sleeping so you couldn't use some company." She said as she stood up then held her hands out to him again. "Come on."

"You sure?"

"Of course, let's do this, Ed." Winry told him with a bright smile.

Winry's sincere desire to support him and her reassuring smile made Ed smile and take her hands for support.

It took a few minutes to get Ed fully upright as his automail wobbled under his weight making the boy nervous and hesitant but Winry gave him words of encouragement and pointed out angles and positions that she knew would help him become more stable. All without letting go of his hands at any time.

"Good, now slowly extend your right leg and lower your foot carefully, trying to put your heel first." Ed nodded and extended his leg. "Slow!"

"I'm going slow!"

"No you're not. Slower... uh-huh that's good. Now very carefully repeat the same with your left leg. But slowly, understand?"

"Yes, yes." Ed said, focusing his attention on his automail.

Ed took the step and staggered almost falling in the process but Winry tightened her grip preventing his fall. With an encouraging smile Winry kept encouraging him to walk with a few pauses in between to try to let him rest for a couple of minutes.

Winry had also been there to support him in the first few sessions of using the automail on his arm but on those occasions he had not had as much direct contact with her because with the arm there was no danger of a painful fall and he had stubbornly insisted on doing as much as he could on his own. At each of his sessions he was accompanied by Granny, Al and Winry and, unconsciously, he tried to do the exercises as quickly and even painfully (being constantly scolded for it) as possible to convince the others that he was ready for the automail leg.

However, on this occasion he was pleasantly surprised to find himself enjoying so much having Winry with him supporting him with all her patience and telling him just the words he needed to keep from grunting in frustration every time his foot slipped dangerously. Her simple smile was so infectious that it didn't take Ed long to smile with her and even laugh a little every time he slipped.

Neither of them felt the passage of time.

After an indefinite amount of time, Winry made small talk as she continued to help him and Ed easily kept up with the conversation, losing concentration, without realizing what his legs were doing.

The chatter was so pleasant that Ed paid no mind to the sound of approaching footsteps so he ended up startling slightly at Al's voice.

"Brother, you're walking!"

Recovering from the shock, Ed stopped his movements and looked down at his leg, noticing at that instant that his automail's leg had landed perfectly on the ground without causing him any pain. Surprised he raised his gaze incredulously to Winry's face causing her to giggle.

"You've been walking for a while now and you're not even aware of it."

Ed was quiet for a few seconds as he processed the situation. Slowly a huge grin broke out on his face.

"Why don't you take a few steps by yourself?"

Ed nodded and Winry let go of his hands.

The three friends were silent as Ed began to walk. The first few steps were wobbly due to the fact that he had ended up getting used to having Winry's hands for support instead of doing it alone or having to lean on the wooden bar that was in the room but with said steps he noticed that he didn't have the same pain and wobble that he had felt when he had done it alone, which gave him confidence to keep trying until his steps gained the desired stability.

Ed raised his left fist in the air in victory. "I got it!" He said with obvious joy in his voice.

"That's fantastic, brother!" Al exclaimed gleefully as he finished walking into the room as, from the surprise of what he had seen, he had lingered in the doorway.

"With this I'll be able to travel very soon."

"Rather, you mean you'll be able to travel very soon once you've mastered the exercises and your body has finished adapting to your new limbs." Winry interjected. "We don't want you to hurt yourself by rushing even more than you already have." She said with sincere concern.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah... how specific." He inhaled deeply as he didn't want to focus on the exercises he would have to do with his leg due to the fact that he had learned that the ones for his arm weren't exactly easy. "The point is, this is one more step forward in getting your body back, Al." He said concluding with a smile.

"And your limbs, brother. Don't forget that."

"Yeah." Ed smiled hugely and looked at his friend. "Thanks, Winry."

Winry was surprised. She knew that, although he wasn't exactly the best at expressing his feelings, Ed was someone who was grateful but usually his thanks came in the form of actions and gestures and he rarely expressed it as directly as he did now. His smile and eyes shone so brightly that the idea of supporting him in any way she could, became even more present in the blonde's mind. Ed's recovery process had been extremely strenuous so exhaustion diluted her joy but she would do everything she could to be able to continue to help that smile to become more and more present in their lives.

With those thoughts in mind, Winry reciprocated his smile. "You're welcome. Although you really have nothing to be thankful for"

"Sure I do. See now I can do this." Without waiting for the warning Winry wanted to give him, Ed gave a little jump that concluded in a resounding fall hurting not only his butt but what little pride he had regained during his walk.

Concerned, Winry walked over to him and squatted down but seeing him with his typical scowl directed at his automail and with the tips of his ears reddening she realized he must be all right so she finally settled on laughing at the situation being followed almost immediately by Al.

"It's not funny." Ed grumbled as his face grew flushed now.

At this, Winry and Al's laughter intensified so in the end Ed had no choice but to laugh with them. When he had first fallen down he had been filled with frustration but now that negative feeling was gone allowing him to enjoy the joy of the moment.

Pinako put on her robe and left her room somewhat grumpily. Although she was obviously grateful for the work, she and Winry were facing a peak season of automail and prosthetic orders as well as a continuous stream of maintenance requests. Plus the stress of the consequences that the human transmutation had left in its wake on Ed and Al had not completely gone away, which weighed on her every so often especially when she saw Ed overexerting himself. She wasn't exactly happy with her decision to try to join the military but she was willing to do her best to help him and Al achieve their goal of getting their bodies back.

However, all those worries were taking their toll on her especially considering that she was no longer as young as she would have liked to be. Thus, being abruptly awakened at 4:30 in the morning by the noise of her grandchildren was not very welcome to her when she really needed a good night's sleep.

They must be having a sleepover. In her grumpiness she couldn't help a slight smile. She would have preferred a different time but she couldn't help but appreciate the moments when her grandchildren were allowed to behave like the children they were.

Pinako approached the room, noticing that the door was open. No way I didn't hear your ruckus, brats.

Putting on her best stern grandmother face, Pinako approached the door and stopped there when she saw the image that greeted her and was still accompanied by the laughter that had awakened her in the first place.

Ed was getting to his feet on his own albeit wobbly as Al hovered around him trying to help him at the same time as he and Winry joked with him. Ed grumbled but ended up laughing almost immediately which took away from the seriousness of the scowls he was trying to direct at them.

Despite the loudness of their laughter, the children were trying to speak quietly (at least, that's something) so Pinako couldn't quite make out their mumbling amidst their laughter although her ears managed to catch the exact moment when Winry said 'little' or perhaps it was Ed's reaction that made her realize what her granddaughter had said as Ed, still with slightly wobbly steps but walking on his own, began to chase her around the room as she stuck her tongue out at him. She well knew that Ed hated being called little but on this occasion, surprisingly, he didn't seem really annoyed if anything he was just playing along as he and Winry had huge grins on their faces while Al's red eyes seemed to glow even more brightly than usual.

The room wasn't that big but, fortunately for the kids, it was relatively uncluttered due to the habits of tidiness that Pinako had followed all her life as a mechanic and had endeavored to pass on to her granddaughter. Winry hadn't quite incorporated the habit completely but at least enough to keep sharp objects off the floor of what had become the children's play area.

Seeing that Al was making use of his new height to keep out of reach of both blondes the little ball of bandages that both children were fighting over to throw at the other, Pinako sighed and with a smile walked away from the room.

With what she had seen, Ed was undoubtedly making significant progress in his recovery and at the same time was allowing himself to enjoy the good times in life alongside Al and Winry and that is what had her the happiest. It would have been great to have Winry's support throughout the morning and afternoon but she had decided that her granddaughter had more than earned a day of rest in the midst of so many busy days.