Draped in Wires
by. Poisoned Scarle

Theme 017: Broom Closet

They leaned closer into the door, almost pressing their ears against the wood and were relieved to hear nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, there was absolutely no sound coming from within the room. Winry leaned off of the door, whispering: "Do you think they fell asleep?"

"Possibly," Ed shrugged, stepping back. "Al isn't the type to break rules so I doubt they're doing anything that can infringe on that old bats Golden Rule!" He rolled his eyes at the thought of the pathetic rule. As if a midget hag like her would be able to incapacitate someone like him if he did happen to break her rule...

"Granny's just worried, Ed," Winry mumbled, irately. "Al is still a guy and they've been in Mei's room for an hour already!"

"So? What can he do in an hour, Winry, seriously?" Ed snorted. "Al might be a guy but he's the most respectful guy I know. He borders on gay sometimes!"

"ED!"

"What? He knows it!" Ed snickered. Winry's glare grew harsher. "I was kidding! It's a running gag we have going on, Winry, jeez!"

"It's still not funny!" she hissed. "Alphonse is really sensitive to that type of mockery, Ed! He spent nearly half his life in a suit of armor, that comes with it's own set of self-esteem issues!"

Ed's eyes hardened. "I know that. It's a joke for a reason, you know."

"That's such a heavy joke to lay on someone like Al!"

"He started it first!" Ed cried incredulously. "If he doesn't like the joke then he should've never said it in the first place!"

"You should know better than to—!"

"Brother?" a sleep-clouded voice called from the other side of the bedroom door. "Is that you?"

Winry's eyes grew wide. "He can't know we were checking up on him! He'll get mad!" she whispered frantically. It would not be the first time they had been caught eavesdropping on the boy's lighthearted conversations with the Xingese girl and the last time they did it, they had gotten caught by one annoyed Alphonse Elric.

"Quick—your room!" Ed pointed to the door, about to grab her wrist to stash her inside.

"No! The hinges squeak! He'll know!"

"But—!"

"Ed...?" Al's voice was closer this time. He was nearing the door now.

"The closet!" Winry whispered in a rush, grabbing Edward by his forearm and shoving open the closet door. She shoved him inside and closed the door behind her, just barely glimpsing the yawning face of Al before she enclosed them in darkness.

"Is something wrong?" They heard Mei yawn. "Alphonse-sama?"

"I thought I heard Ed out here..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah...but I guess I was hearing things. There's no one here."

They heard the door close with a soft click, hearing the pairs light chatter as they discussed how funny it was that they had fallen asleep while studying a few Alkahestry tomes Mei had brought over from Xing. Needless to say, Winry would probably not check on the boy a third time as she was convinced that, if anyone would break the rules around the house, it would most likely be Edward.

The broom closet they had locked themselves inside of was not as small as she had first anticipated it would be. It was large enough that they had a good foot of space between them and she could stand straight without bumping into a top shelf and spread her feet without hitting a bucket or box. It was dark but she was sure there was a light switch dangling somewhere...

Waving those thoughts off, Winry reached for the door, wrapping her hand around the knob when she heard no more noise from outside. "I think they're gone now," she sighed in relief. "Hey, Ed, you alright?" The man had gone strangely silent. "Sorry for shoving you in a closet. I didn't hurt you did I?"

"Uh, no," was his subdued reply.

"Good, then let's get out of here!"

Edward reached forward and gripped her hand, preventing her from opening the closet as she had intended. In that instant, her heart leaped to her throat. She suddenly became aware that she had unintentionally pushed them into the exact wrong place to push two hormonal adults in. The closet suddenly seemed as intimidating as it did thrilling and Winry didn't know how to discern those two sensations from each other when Ed's hand merely tightened around her own on the knob, body far too close to her own.

"E-Ed?" she whispered, swallowing down her nerves.

"Not yet. Can't you hear them? They're about to leave in a few seconds!" Ed whispered, his breath brushing the shell of her ear.

"They..are?" she asked, confused that he was able to hear so clearly. Then again, her heart was pounding in her ears so that might justify why she had difficulty hearing...

"Yeah, listen!"

Winry stiffly leaned closer into the door, listening to some shuffling before, finally, she heard the door creak open and she heard Mei and Alphonse walk into the hallway.

"Are you sure it was Ed-kun and Winry-chan?"

"Yeah, I'm positive but they're not here.."

"Perhaps they locked themselves in the closet!" Mei giggled.

They both stiffened.

Al just laughed with her. "They'd never do that! Nothing good comes from being trapped in a closet with the person you like!"

"But it would a way for them to admit it to themselves, right?" Mei deviously suggested.

"Yeah, you're right. But how will we ever get them into a closet? We'd have to knock them out or something!"

"Yes, but then they'd be happy together! It's so cute! Winry-chan has been waiting for Ed-kun to admit his feelings for such a long time.." They heard Mei sigh dreamily as she imagined a cliche and romantic scene between the two.

"No kidding! Brother has liked her since we were five! I really hope one of the two mans up.."

Mei spoke up, confidently: "I think Winry-chan will!"

"I think Ed will!" Al said, firmly; not giving up his faith in his older brother.

"It has been years – he will obviously not be the first to do it!"

"Just give it time, Mei! I know my brother and I know he's just biding his time for...whatever."

The bickering young adults made their way down the staircase and Winry secretly wanted to thrust Mei into a laundry chute for saying something so private out in open. She ignored the fact that both young adults were oblivious to their presence in the closet as she wrapped a shaky hand around the doorknob again, face hot.

"I-I think we should get going," Winry cleared her throat of it's hoarseness. "Granny's probably wondering what we're doing by now..."

His hand stopped her once again and Winry shut her eyes in an attempt to calm her racing heart. "What is...it?" she asked, tentatively, as his hand removed her own from the knob. The closet seemed to close in on her, grow smaller, the longer they stood in the silence of it. His hand was still holding hers as it fell by her side and she briefly thought that perhaps putting off oiling the hinges was a wise choice after all.

"Win..ry, I just.." he began slowly, unsure of how this would pan out in the end. He had no plan, no protocol to follow this time around, and that was when he realized just how military-oriented his life actually was. He always had some sort of plan, no matter how much he abandoned them for his own 'in the moment' ideas, a schedule of sorts even if things took a turn for the worst, but now as he stood behind Winry, his hand still clutching her own, he was at a loss with how to admit the feelings that teetered at the tip of his tongue

Plan, he thought to himself. I need...do I even need a plan? I thought I was just going to go out and say it! The bar tenders words came rushing back to him in those few seconds of silence. He was in a closet with the girl from his childhood, the girl he liked for longer than one would believe, holding her hand and standing behind her. Somehow, this had all came to be with a simple old grandmother's concerns for leaving a young boy and a young girl stuck in a room upstairs, unattended. But now that he thought about it...

She should have been more concerned about us, he found himself thinking. Al would never...do something THIS weird...

"Edward?" Winry whispered, dragging him out of his reverie. He noticed the tremor in her words, the thick emotion of uncertainty and, he was sure, hopefulness in her tone. His brother had told him time and time again that there was nothing to be worried about, nothing to fear, but the sheer thought of being looked down upon by her, of staring into pitying, uncomfortable, eyes due to his confession, was enough to allow him to silence his emotions; stifle them until they began to brim and overflow, just as he felt they were doing in that moment when her hand tightened around his own in assurance.

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you," he mumbled, words a jumble of vowels and syllables. He felt his cheeks heat. Even he didn't understand what he had just said! "I mean, I just wanted to tell you..." He sighed sharply when the words wouldn't come out. "That...I-I..."

Her hand tightened on his and she began to turn—

"No! Don't!" he quickly stopped her, turning her backside to him again. "It's harder...when you're looking at me..." he admitted softly, dropping his gaze to the floor. He could see nothing, nothing but the light coming from the crack of the door, and he saw that it was just that small crack of light that made it all the harder on him.

Things were easier to spit out and say under the cover of darkness, he realized, and he shut his eyes and counted to ten in his head. The darkness helped calm his racing heart, helped ease the heat on his face, and he whispered, very softly, almost too low for Winry to catch: "I've—liked you for a long time now, Winry..."

It was easier, with his eyes closed and stuck in a closet that offered minimal light, but it was still nerve wracking and he could still feel his nerves threaten to fry when she did nothing but stand there in front of him.

"Ed?" Her voice made him flinch, stand stiff, and his hand pulled away from hers. She grabbed it before it could get any farther and he opened his eyes slowly to look into sparkling sky blue. He quickly flashed his eyes away from them, her silence killing him, but he found that silence wasn't so bad when he felt her suddenly lunge toward him and envelop him in a tight hug.

So tight, in fact, that he had some trouble breathing with the way her arms viced around him. "W-Winry?" he wheezed. "This is..nice and all..but could you loosen up a bit?" He heard a soft giggle and he sighed in relief when he felt air properly flow into his lungs. "So..."

"What took you so long?" she murmured instead, making him flush pink. Everyone seemed to be telling him that, or some derivative of that, lately... "If I knew that the dark helped you sort out your feelings then I would've shoved us in a closet a long time ago!"

"Hey, this isn't as easy as it looks, alright?" Ed huffed, muttering: "And you still haven't really given me the OK, you know..."

"Okay for what?" she asked, innocently.

"You know what!"

"Nope!" Winry sang. "I really have no clue what you're talking about! Some of us aren't geniuses like you!"

Ed ignored the comment. "You're making this really hard, you know that?"

Winry laughed, nuzzling her cheek into his shoulder blade. "I hugged you, don't you think that says it all?"

"For all I know, this could be some weird girl tactic to let a guy down easy!" Ed replied snappishly, aware that his arms had somehow become nonexistent between the time of his confession and now, as they refused to lift and properly wrap around the girl who was snuggling to him in a way that made him dangerously hopeful.

"It's not," she softly said, listening to his heart pound in his chest. "I..." The way he had phrased his feelings did not settle well with her. He hadn't said love, he had said like and she wondered if throwing out the first L word would be too soon for him. Edward had always been rather austere and detached, someone who did not easily fit in with the rest of society, so she decided to take it easy for now and say: "I really, really like you too."

Perhaps the two adverbs would tip him off.

Unsurprisingly, they didn't, but she did feel his arms magically regain mobility and wrap around her. One arm wound around her waist and his hand cradled her head to his chest, his rehabilitated right arm crushing her to him and making her sigh contently.

She could honestly say it was about time.

A/N: This was my real update. The last one was more for comical reasons, and fulfilling a promise I made to a certain reviewer, so now it begins to heat up between our favourite couple! I recently went through these one-shots and noticed that they lacked development so I added around 8 more one-shots to smoothen everything up. So instead of the 42 I had...I now have 50. I have hit the half-point mark and can, firmly, say that this will become a 100 themes collection XD

I am sorry if I made you think otherwise x.x

Review!

Scarlett.