these inconvenient fireworks

Characters: Edward Elric, Winry Rockbell

Summary: She can make him forget.

He was distracted and this was something he did not appreciate at all.

"Winry…" he sighed. "Could you please stop arguing with Mei over Alphonse favourite food? I am trying to work here, okay?"

She rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Excuse me, Edward, but this is still my house," she snapped as she turned back at their guest. "As I said, it is very important to make sure that Al gets enough nutrients because, well, you have seen how thin he was. On another note, how are Ling and Lan Fan?"

There, she was doing it again, this hair-flip-thing she had never done when she had been still a tomboy. It was extremely distracting but he would sure as hell not that it to her because she would never stop gloating about it then. So he clenched his jaw and kept working as good as he could with the permanent distraction that was Winry Rockbell.

He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the merry chatter about Lan Fan and Ling who had left the Imperial Court to travel more and more. He had been surprised, he could admit as much, to hear that the greedy prince had had enough common sense not to insist on being emperor when he had been hardly able to control his own council but that Ling was not discovering the entire world was slightly confusing as well because this meant that there were often places where he could not count on getting his favourite food in the amount he usually devoured.

And once more, Winry chuckled.

The thin thread of his patience snapped and he got up and passed her as he marched outside. On one hand, he was thankful for her ability to distract him because there were so many things that confused him and drove him crazy – like the questions why the colonel had invited him to his wedding with the lieutenant or how it had been possible that Major Miles' mysterious wife was about as scary as the Major General and his master combined (and how the poor man could stand this).

He sighed as he leaned against a tree and wondered why he felt so bothered by the upcoming wedding. He liked the lieutenant because she was nice and he could tolerate the colonel. He had also expected this to happen for months if not for years because it had been obvious to everyone but the lieutenant that the colonel totally had the hots for her.

"Ed?"

He flinched as he turned his head. "Winry," he stated drily. "Are you coming to the wedding too?"

"Of course," she replied, sounding slightly insulted. "Miss Riza invited me personally … remember how I got my invitation about a week before you got yours?"

He nodded and made the mental note to give the colonel a good yelling for this move. "Yeah," he said with a sigh. "So, um, are we going there together? I mean, like a date?"

She pursed her lips. "As long as you haven't another girlfriend you forgot to mention, I'd say so, yes," she shrugged. "Was that what have been brooding about?"

"Maybe."

Yes.