A/N: NGL, my team won, there might be a boy on the horizon, I'm seeing Star Wars in 3D tomorrow (say what you will about the plot, but 3D PODRACING), and I'm a little buzzed (and didn't have to drive home). All in all, a good night (week). Happy weekend.
61. Intuition
If one thing outside of alchemy truly frightened Ed, it was the Curtises' kitchen. On some intuitive level, he knew they had it down to a science, but he still dove for cover when he saw flying cutlery. Wrenches he could handle, but Teacher's projectiles were sharpened to perfection.
It wasn't until many years later that Ed understood how Teacher and her husband managed to not kill each other. He'd been spending more time away from Central (previously neglected vacation time from his and Al's quest, now that they'd finished) and visiting Rush Valley; with automail being the major interest, he could escape the Fullmetal persona. Earning his keep in Winry's workshop, however, had its perils. Winry's temper knew no bounds when she was nearing completion on a new piece. Even her mentor avoided her when she pulled frequent all-nighters. Ed found himself becoming her all-purpose assistant on his visits; he also found that Garfiel was encouraging Winry's projects to fall around the times when Ed would be there.
One such night, Winry was hard at work. She had Ed tweaking the alloys with some alchemic adjustments, while she fine tuned the wiring. She called for a tool on his side of the room, and he backhanded it to her. She caught it without looking up. A moment later, she called for something else, and he again tossed it to her. Before long, they had a rain of tools sailing back and forth in the small workshop, neither missing a beat, when Ed suddenly remembered Sig Curtis catching a knife in his fingers. Ed hadn't realized he'd gotten that close to Winry on an intuitive level, and the moment he stopped to think, he was beaned on the head with a spanner.
"Pay attention, short stuff!" Winry shouted.
"Who're you calling so small that-"
Clank. That one was clearly on purpose.
"…Yes, ma'am."