(A/N: Yo! Sorry, I took a while to update. I did't have internet for a couple days. So! I'm glad my plan for making Al take the spotlight didn't fail. But, it's time I get to the juicy parts. You know. The thing that EVERYBODY wants. Quote from summary: "EdWin in future chapters." Yeaaahhhhhhhh. Anyhow, enjoy!)
Ed got up from his warm bath and grabbed the closest towel he could find. His long and wet golden hair stuck to his back. He dried his body first, then dried his hair. It was an effortless task but it took time to do so because his hair had gotten longer. When it was wet, it reached up to his mid-back. He knew he needed a haircut, but to get one required asking Winry and Winry liked it when Ed had his hair long.
When he was done drying his hair, he tied the towel around his waist and walked out of the bathroom toward his room to change. Winry appeared out of nowhere, carrying tools in a large box, and she was obviously having trouble carrying it.
"Need any help with that, Winry?" Ed asked her. She shook her head and hadn't noticed that Ed was standing there in a towel.
"No, I'm fine." she said in a strained voice. Sighing, he took the box with one hand and hauled it over his right shoulder while keeping the other hand on his towel. Winry breathed a sigh of relief. When she looked down, she saw a towel that was currently covering Ed up.
"Ed! What the heck are you doing?" she yelled. He looked at the towel and back at Winry. Winry's face was pink and she furrowed her eyebrows together in anger, trying not to show her embarrassment. Seeing as to where the situation had gone, he had no choice but to help her. If he gave her back the box, that would make him look like, well, an ass.
"Look, I'm not exactly happy parading around with only a towel on, but it looked like you needed help, okay? So, hurry up and lead the way. My hair is still kinda wet and it's dripping onto my back now." She rolled her eyes and went through the hallway to the automail shop both her and her grandmother shared. She lead Ed to a desk with other automail parts. Carefully, he placed the box onto the desk without slipping the towel off.
"Thank you for helping me. Now, hurry and put on some damn clothes." she said, turning away from him. Alphonse, hearing what Winry said, stuck his head to see what Ed and Winry were doing. When he saw his brother, he smirked.
"Brother! That is not the proper way to seduce a lady!" Al said to his brother. Ed's turned to glare at his brother, but his brother only tried his hardest to not laugh.
"Shut up, Al!" he spat, turning red. Ed walked quickly out the door, murmuring some things about Al. Al shook his head and looked at Winry. She was focused on the tools inside her box. Actually, she was a little too focused.
"Hey, Winry? You okay?" he asked, walking up to her. When he saw her face, it was super red.
"Winry, you're not embarrassed, are you? I mean, you fix my brother's leg and you have him strip down to his underwear." Saying those words only made Winry turn even redder. Weird, Winry usually isn't fazed by this kinds of things he thought.
"You really love my brother, don't you?" he murmured quietly to her. Winry looked at Al with wide eyes.
"Pshh, no. Ha, ha, what are you saying? Ha, ha!" she said, trying to hide her real feelings. Al gave her a small smile.
"Winry, you're horrible at acting, you know that?" he said. She gave up, and sighed.
"Yeah, I know. Actually, I figured out that the kind of love that I felt for him was different from anybody else a long time ago. But I don't want to tell him. He's the first person I want to give my heart to. But I don't want our love to be some sappy, cheesy romance out of a horrible novel. It's more like, I want to protect his happiness no matter what. But since this is Ed we're talking about, he'll think I'm in love with him because I haven't really experienced love and I just randomly chose him." Al looked at Winry, surprised to hear her real feelings. Suddenly, Al didn't see Winry as that little girl whom he grew up with. No, this was a whole new different person who was looking to the future and beyond, but in order to achieve such lengths, looks at the present in a different way.
"You and Ed really are alike. But at the same time, you have your own individual strengths." Al told her, trying to make sure he didn't say anything that might offend her. She nodded and quietly laughed.
"Ah, love. It really gets you self-conscious, huh?" Winry offered, trying to loosen the mood they had created. Al just shrugged his shoulders, but he was actually thinking about someone far away in Xing.
~LINE BREAK YO~
"Hello!? Anybody here?!" someone yelled from outside. Winry opened her eyes and saw she had fallen asleep on her desk, trying to organize the automail tools in the box. She sat up, groaning at the pain her neck was giving her. It was most likely a crick. She stretched her neck while she walked outside. The late afternoon sun shone onto the porch. She carefully made her way down to greet the man outside. She stopped dead in her tracks. Make that a very handsome man. His black hair slightly covered his hazel eyes. He was tall, probably as tall as Ed. His expression had a determined look to it but when he smiled at Winry, there was a softness to it. Needless to say, he was very handsome. But she noticed that a part of his left arm was gone.
"Oh! Um, yes? Did you need help with something?" she asked. Just because he didn't have a part of his left arm didn't mean that he necessarily wanted automail. It was better to ask then to assume.
"Yes, actually. I heard from a person in Rush Valley that a Winry Rockbell would be able to help me in creating some automail for my arm. Are you Winry?" he asked. Even his voice was soothing. She nodded and he gave her a big smile.
"Whew! I finally made it here! I got lost a couple of times and it took me a couple extra days to arrive here than I had hoped for. I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself, have I? I'm Connor." he said, extending his right arm out. She walked closer to him and took his arm.
"It's nice to meet you." she said, happily.
"I have to ask, do I need an appointment to get automail? I just dropped by unannounced and I feel a bit bad I did that. If I need an appointment, I don't mind making one and just leaving until the day of my appointment." he said to her.
"No! No, it's fine. You came all this way and I don't feel right just making you leave like that. Tell you what: How about you come back tomorrow so we can start on your automail?" she said. He beamed at her and nodded.
"Thank you so much, Winry. You don't know how much that means to me. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" he said. He quickly gave her the phone number at the hotel he's staying at and left. She felt someone standing behind her.
"I know, Granny. It isn't right to let all my other customer's down like that. But you saw what I saw, right?" Winry said to her grandmother standing on the porch. She was holding the white hoodie Ed gave to her. Winry didn't even notice the cold air around her until she shivered. Pinako handed her the hoodie and Winry quickly put it on. She took a puff of her pipe and exhaled before she spoke.
"Yes, I saw. But you do realize that some people won't be happy about this. That man was about your age. Maybe a little bit older. And it looked like he was smiling a little bit too much at you. Someone might get a bit angry at the young man's kindness." Using her pipe, she pointed at the hoodie Winry was wearing. Ed? she thought to herself.
"What? Ed? C'mon, Granny. He knows that it's just work." she said, laughing. Her grandmother just inhaled another puff and exhaled, looking at her with a serious expression.
"Jealousy can make a person blind, Winry. Have patience with him these next few days. He may be old with knowledge, but he's still a teenage boy with a very determined mind to protect what he cares for the most." she said, making her way back into the house. Winry turned around to see Connor making his way down the road, with only one hand in his pocket.
"Ed won't be jealous. He knows it's work." Winry whispered to herself, trying to convince herself. Everything that was happening lately: the long glances, the slight intentional brushes, that stupid heart-racing moment where she thought she was going to be kissed, the hoodie, and the dance at Al's party, made Winry believe that Ed loved her as a woman. But she didn't want to believe in something that might not be true. If he was going to get jealous, it can't be because he's in love with her. Right?
LINE BREAK NUMERO DOS YO
Connor came by the next day, right after Winry had finished making the last call to the few people she had canceled on. She immediately began to work on his arm, taking measurements and figuring out what type of metal would be best for him. As she worked on him, she began to learn a little bit about his life. He lost his arm in a car accident. The bone that went from his elbow to his hand was completely broken into many, many different places. There was absolutely no way it would ever heal. If it did, he had no chance of using that arm again. So, the doctor's decided just to cut it off. It ruined his career as a piano player at a bar. It was a small bar, but everyone came in for his music. He had thought about getting automail, but only feeling the piano with one hand while he played only felt like he wasn't putting all of his effort into playing.
During the middle of their conversation, Ed walked into the shop.
"Winry, you have any oil? My leg feels kinda stiff." he looked at the man Winry was currently working with. Ed narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah, I do. I think it's in the box." she said, pointing at the box on the floor. Suddenly, Connor stood up.
"Hang on. I know you. You're the Fullmetal Alchemist!" he said, smiling. Ed, upon hearing his old state military name, gave a very proud smile.
"Finally, someone recognized me!" Ed said. They shook hands, smiling like idiots. Connor looked at both of Ed's arms and frowned.
"I thought one of your arms was made of automail." he asked, confused. Winry saw a glimmer of sadness pass through Ed's eyes. He gave a half-smile while he rubbed the back of his head.
"Yeah. But, not anymore. I still have my automail leg, though." he said, lifting up his pants and knocking on his metal leg. Connor nodded as if he understood and sat back down.
"I gotta get back to work, Ed. Don't slam the door on your way out, okay? You have a habit of doing that." Winry said. Ed just made a face at her, taking the oil pump with him.
"Hey Winry, has anyone ever told you that you look really pretty?" Connor suddenly asked. Ed whipped his head around, his eyes narrowed and a frown on his face. Winry didn't look convinced.
"Ha, ha. Very funny, Connor. No need to compliment a lady just to get a discount. That's what a ladies man does." she said, finishing recording the measurements she took on his arm.
"No, I'm serious. I'm surprised you don't have a boyfriend yet." he said. Ed rolled his eyes angrily, walked out the room, and slammed the door.
"Dammit, Ed! I told you not to slam the door!" she yelled. Connor tilted his head, smiling at her. She smiled back but only because he was a customer.
The next few days, Ed saw more and more from Connor. He kept flirting with Winry (although she was oblivious about that) whenever he was around. It annoyed him and he felt his temper rise a little more. He was obviously doing it on purpose but it still bothered Ed. Ed walked around the house, murmuring to himself about "that stupid Connor." Al was beginning to grow tired of his useless murmuring.
"Okay, Brother. What's wrong now?" Al asked, annoyed. Ed heaved a sigh and sat down on the sofa.
"It's that guy. He loves to flirt with Winry in front of me. He's so stupid." Ed said. Al looked at his brother with disbelief. Here was the guy who had kicked people's butts, solved Dr. Marco's notes, traveled so much and met so many people, yet he was bothered about one guy. ONE.
"Listen, Brother. It's just Winry's work. Besides, she doesn't flirt back. She hasn't even noticed that Connor's flirting with her." Al said, trying to reassure his brother.
"I don't care. He's super annoying and I want to punch him." Ed said. Al rolled his eyes.
Once Connor left, Ed decided to confront Winry about this.
"Winry, what's taking you so long in finishing his automail?" he asked, annoyed. She gave him a look.
"It's the first time he's getting automail, Ed. I had to tell him about how much it'll hurt when we connect his nerves to the automail, and he got kind of nervous. So, the past few days, I've been trying to ease him into that stage. I'll do that tomorrow. Then, he'll have a couple days to get used to the automail and he'll be on his way." she said.
"Finally!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air to make a point. Suddenly, Winry got angry.
"What's your problem, Ed? All you've been doing the whole entire time Connor's been here is complaining about him. He's not a bad guy." she yelled. He glared at her.
"You're my problem, Winry. You're so dense and you don't even notice that he's flirting with you!" he yelled.
"Fliriting!? I'm doing his automail, Ed. I'm only making conversation." she argued back.
"Yeah?! Making googly eyes at him isn't having a conversation. It's fawning over him!" he yelled.
"I am not fawining over him!"
"Yes, you are!"
"Dammit, Ed! Why are you so angry?" she yelled.
"Because I'm jealous, damn it! I'm the one who thinks your pretty, not him! But you don't ever notice that! You're sometimes all I ever think about and you don't see that!" he yelled loudly. Suddenly, it got quiet. Ed stared at her, wide eyed, at what he had just confessed. Winry's heart was galloping inside her chest. Does he really mean that? Does that mean that he actually-
"Go to sleep! It's eleven o'clock at night and I'm tired! Stop yelling like maniacs!" Al yelled from his room. Winry and Ed just stared at each other, unsure of what to do or say next.
(A/N: Yes, I did really just leave it like that. I really freaking love how I ended it. It's just so...suspenseful! By it, I mean the chapter. Not the story. Reviews?)