Ok, while this chapter was being written, I was listening to the song 'Valenti' by 'BoA', it's a pretty good song and I feel it really set to mood for this chapter, well, most of it...the important part anyway (the flashback ;D). There's three different versions if you want to download it, the Korean, Japanese and the English vesion. Of course, I have the English version, because as much as I'd love to , I can speak neither Korean OR Japanese. I can understand a few words when the song plays, but nothing more.

This chapter's a bit longer than the last, but Catilin, you siadyou like that, so at leastI know one person will read. :D Thanks again to all my reviewers, your opinions really mean a lot to me!

Enjoy!

Chapter 12 - Valenti
Al awoke form a deep sleep and rubbed his eyes, it had been a while since he had stayed up that late and his body really wasn't use to it. He looked over to the other side of the room, Ed was no where to be found. How in the world had Ed manage to go to bed later than him and wake up before him; it was something that needed to be looked into right away. Al rose from is bed and headed down the stairs, no one seemed to be up but Gracia and Elicia, she was eating breakfast and getting read to go out and play.

"Good morning Al." Gracia greeted him sweetly, she had a cup of tea warming her hands.

Al smiled and waved a hand at her. "Hey, morning...um, did you see Ed this morning?"

"You're the first one I've heard up...did you guys stay up much later?" Gracia smiled.

Al shook his head. "Oh no, we finally got to bed at about one or two. We have to go out today to get some papers to legaly change Aria's name back to her mother's maiden name." Al walked across the kitchen and poured himself some of the tea that was left in the pot. "You really don't mind having us over do you? I mean...we are eating a lot of your food."

Gracia shook her head. "It's been a while since I've had company, it's a nice change. I told you, you don't have to feel guilty, I don't mind you kids staying as long as you like."

Al smiled. "Thanks Gracia." He could hear footsteps coming down the stairs. "Hmm?" He looked out the kitchen door to see none other than Ed heading down the stairs. "Where were you at? There's no way you got up before I did."

Ed pointed upstairs. "I was in the bathroom Al."

Al aborted 'accusation mode' and sat down at the table. "Oh..." He smiled at his brother who copied his actions and poured himself a cup of tea. "So when are we going?"

Ed sipped the tea, he didn't bother to put milk in it, he just had it plain, milk was evil. "As soon as everyone's up and moving we'll go. It's was only eight in the morning, so there's no rush; the government bureau doesn't close till four."

"I just can't believe I'm reading this!" Aria threw the paper down on the table and laughed. "We were looking so hard for the answer when it was so simple." They had gone over the contract inside and out and exausted two hours of their night on it. It's was amazing what they missed because of skim reading. The clause that said 'My daughter with the full name Aria Renna Heket will be engaged to Felix Crowley; upon the succession of the family business balance to one million cens, she will be arranged to marry the proprietor of said business.' Since the business succeeded Aria was forced to marry him.

Ed smiled. "Yeah, to think, if you just change your last name back to your mom's maiden nam, it'll void the whole thing." The contract said that only with the name 'Heket' that she had to marry, if she was no longer a Heket, she would no longer be in the contract.

Al smirked. "No wonder they were trying to hide this, it was poorly written, that's one heck of a loophole."

Winry picked up the papers. "Maybe it wasn't poorly written...it says here it was written by Felica Hall...You said that was your mother's name."

"Yeah, that's her." Aria said with a smile.

"Maybe this was done on purpose so you could fine your own personal happiness. Your mom must have planned this for you." Winry flipped the sheet over.

Aria nodded. "She must have, she was always a clever woman."

Al smiled wide, soon Aria would no longer belong to that jerk of a husband and she would be able to make her own choices. Ed looked at his younger brother and narrowed his eyes in a comical fashion.

"You're thinking about her aren't you." He smirked.

Al waved hs hands frantically. "Why would I be thinking about Aria? You're not making sence brother."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Who said I was talking about Aria?" Ed caught him. "You're a terrible liar Al...I know you like her, I think it's cute that you like a girl."

Al raised an eyebrow at his older, yet smaller, brother. "Would you be less surprised if I like a boy or something?"

Ed laughed. "That's not what I mea...you don't like a boy do you?" He asked quickly. Al shook his head; Ed sighed. "That's good to hear...but what I mean was that you never showed an open intrest in girls before, you were alwas so shy about the whole thing. I just thought it was nice." Ed seemed to be plaing the part of the big brother now; and for some reason he seemed to be in a strangly good mood.

"Well I do like her...but we have to wait till her name is changed before I can..." He stopped in mid sentence.

Ed shifty eyed his little brother. "Before you can what Al?" He leaned over the table and made kissy lips at his brother. "Before you can kiss her again."

Al grabbed onto his brother's lips that were sticking out and held them tight. "Shut up!" He said through gritted teeth. "You're making this more difficult than it needs to be." Al had a furious blush on his face, he squeezed tight.

"Mooowch." Ed gave a muffeled squeak of pain. Aria appeared in the doorway to see the scene unfold.

"I'm not inturupting anything am I?"

Al released his brothers face; Ed rubbed where Al's fingers had clamped down on. "Son of a...Oww..."

"Nothing...nothing at all..." Al blushed as he placed his hands behind his back. "Is Wirny up yet?"

Aria yawned and stretched, Al though she looked so cute doing so. "I could hear her moving, I think she's getting dressed." She sat down at the table and rested her eyes. "I need to get to bed early tonight, I hate losing sleep."

Ed downed the rest of his tea and placed the cup in the sink. "Well that's going to be kind of hard, we're heading back today."

Al's eye's brightened. "Really! I totally forgot."

Gracia smiled. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay longer?"

Ed shook his head. "We do have to be getting back, Winry's grandmother's at home alone, the automail business is probably going to drive her crazy. It's the busy season; I couldn't bare to send just her home alone."

"I understand, feel free to come here and stay whenever you like. Just give me a call first." Gracia said with a smile.

"We've only got the rest of the day in central...what do you guys want to do?" Aria asked as she had her hands resting atop her head.

Ed was the first to speak. "Library?"

Winry gave him a pat on the back. "Come on Ed, have a little more imagination than that." Truth be told, he was using his imagination, what happene last night in the downstairs of the library was pretty imaginative, at least for him. He was hoping for a repeat.

"Hey Winry?" Ed caught her attention, she was going through a few books on the other side of the room. Edward had just finished off going through another entire shelf of books and he wanted to wait till she was done.

"What?" She replaced the last book of the row and turned to face him.

"What do you mean 'What?', you said that you wanted to ask me something 'later on tonight' and well, it's not going to get much later." She blushed, that was true, it was a little after eleven o'clock. "What did you want to ask me?"

Winry walked across the floor, crossing the only isle between the rows of massive bookshelves. "Well...I'm kind of shy about it." Edward seemed confused. "It's...umm..."

"Winry." Ed spoke up. "You know as well as I do that you're the furthest thing from shy, just ask, I'm not going to judge you." Winry smiled. "Let's hear it."

Winry took a deep breath. "Do you think I'm a tom boy?" Ed paused, shocked at the question for a moment, and then proceeded to laugh. Winry bit her bottom lip and tightened her fists, she was ready to take a swing if Ed didn't stop laughing.

"Haha! No, of course not, what makes you say that." This time it was Winry who was shocked, Ed didn't think she was a tom boy? That came as quite a surprise to her.

"Really?" Ed nodded. Winry still didn't seem convinced. "The reason why I ask is..." She hesitated. "Well...when we were kids, we use to play together all the time. Now that we're older, we can't very well go play hide and seek anymore...we're suppose to have matured into young adults."

Ed raised an eyebrow. "I don't quite follow where you're going."

'Of course you don't, why would you?' She thought to herself. "Ed...when we grew up, I thought we would just be more than friends." Winry clasped her hands together in front of her. "I just figured you saw me as one of the guys and you know, not attractive. It's just, you never show me any affection."

Ed sighed, he seemed hurt by what Winry was saying. "I want to make this clear Winry; I don't see you as 'one of the guys', you are really attractive and the reason I don't show you any affection in that way is because I thought...you would just laugh at me."

Winry looked at him cinfused. "Laugh! Why in the world would I laugh?"

Ed placed his hands on his hips. "You know how I am Winry, I thought that if I tried to be romantic, even in the slightest, you get weirded out because I've never acted that way before, ever. Romance isn't my strong suit." He allowed one of his hands to fall loose to his side. "I figured that you'd think that I was joking and just brush me off."

Winry smiled. "I wouldn't have done that." Ed bit his bottom lip, he couldn't believe he was saying such things to her, but it just seemed to flow out like a river; he had no control over the situation. Regardless, it just seemed so natural to say it to her.

He looked at her, staring at the floor, she looked so helpless; he couldn't help himself, he just had to take her in his arms. With a slight hesitation, not very noticiable though, he approached her closly and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her head to his shoulder. 'Please don't laugh...don't even snicker...just-.' He thought to himself, but the though was cut short; she reached her arms up and wrapped them around his neck. They stood there, in the embrace, it felt so right.

"I told you I wouldn't laugh." She squeezed him tight, not too tight, just tight enough so that she knew he wouldn't slip away from her again. He loosened his grip on her and took half a step back. He took his automail hand and placed it on her face and rubbed her cheek. The automail slid over her skin so smothly, she did a fine job on restoring his lost limbs, he figured she'd appreciate it a little more.

"Winry...I..." He swallowed hard. His face then began to grow hot and red, the blush he could feel crept all over his cheeks, neck and even a little in his shoulders. Winry's eye lids lowered as Edward came closer. Then, after a long painstaink pause, he touched his lips against her's, the second they touched he almost drew back, he felt as thoug he had recieved an electric shock. But then, it becam natural and Winry sunk into his arms and sweet embrace.

They just stood there, kissing and holding one another. Soon there after, Winry's knees gave out and she slowly sank down to the floor, with Ed still present on her lips. He kissed her as though someone was going to take her away from him. He lay his body atop of hers, not breaking the kiss for even a second.

Ed snaped back to reality. "So what do you guys have in mind?" They all thought quietly.

Al looked up at the rest of them. "I think there's something going on in the town square tonight. Let's see." He looked aorund for a second when someting caught his eye. "Ah. Here we go." He walked over to a local cafe and the rest folowed. Searching th bulliton board that was postd out front he looked carefully. "Right here." The poster said that there indeed was something going on tonight.

"What's this?" Ed pulled the poster off the wall and read allowed. "The last friday of June we'll be holding a community bonfire in Central Square, all are welcome, from 6-12, fun food and drink." He took a random pin off the board and stuck the paper back up. "Sounds good to me."

Winry smiled. "Yeah, it does sound like it would be fun."

"I agree, let's do that." Aria chimed in. "Well...what are we going to do till then?"

Al pointed off in the direction that they were facing. "We still have to get those papers, that'll eat up some time."

"What do you mean two months!" Ed screamed at the lady behind the desk. "We can't wait that long!" Ed was given the fun task of trying to convince the bureau that they needed the papers sooner than two months. "You tell me who I need to talk to! I need those papers within a week."

The lady behind the desk raised her hands in defence. "I really can't allow that, there's been a back log for people who want to change their name, I really can't do much of anything for you." She pulled out a form from her desk. "I can however get the papers delivered right to your house if you like."

Ed gritted his teeth and took the form. "Fine." He went back over to where everyone was sitting and handed the paper to Aria. "I'm sorry, it's the best they can do."

Aria nodded. "It's ok Ed, you tried." In some instances Ed's position in the military helped them in these kinds of situations, but not this time, it was beyond anyone's power. "I'll be in Resembool, so I doubt Felix will come searching for me." She filled it out and handed it back to him. "Thanks." She smiled sweetly.

He headed back over to the desk and placed the form in front of the woman. "Here..."

He seemed a little disheartened. The woman smiled at him. "I did forget to mention something, if I place a rush on it and state that it's for a military issue, theyshould take you sooner."

Ed smiled. "You'd do that?" She nodded. "Great, how long would it take then?"

She thought to herself for a moment. "It only rushes the delivery, that would only cut off a week or two, but from what you're telling me, every second counts." Ed nodded. "Well then I'll do that right away Sir."

"Thank you." He once more smiled at the woman and then turned and went back to everyone. "She said if she puts a rush on it, it'll get her at the most, two weeks sooner, but we can only hope."

Aria smiled wide. "Really? That's great!" She stood up and looed at everyone. "Well, there's no point of sitting here, let's get going." With all that out of the way, they headed out to kill a little more time before the big bonfire.

Yet another chapter done and out of the way. If you guys aren't busy, you shold give my new fic a read, it's only a comedy one, but still, worth a read. It's called "Get it right!", it's in script form (PROPER script form) so it's easy and short to read. And Aria's in it, so to those of you who like Aria, you can enjoy her there too.

Chapter 13 - Edward is acosted by missionaries! Later on, the four friends enjoy their time at the bonfire. And who's this they see together? Who's that with Roy?

See you soon:P