Summary: After the events with Hefferman Edward and Winry end up having that talk about relationship and intimacy that Pinako promised them. A few days later they celebrate Winry's sixteenth birthday and she gets some very nice gifts.
PARAGRAPHBRAKE
Notes: Given the nature of the previous chapter and one of the gifts Winry recieves in this one I have aired on the side of caution and gone through with upgrading to an M rating, lest AO3 come down on me. It is not as overt as "Chapter 3½," but I feel like it by now this story is seriously streching what you can get away with at a T rating, before somebody calls the moderators on you.
PARAGRAPHBRAKE
Samuel Hefferman was tried the next day by the Rush Valley Court. Since it was a civil case it had one judge and three person jury, although in Amestris guilt was not decided by them, but rather if they and judged disagreed about it, the case would automatically be passed to the court of the higher instance. The biggest problem was getting three locals that Hefferman could not claim bias, because he had managed to drag his public image through mud and then covered it with alcohol vomit. Due to the speed, the Resembool trio ended up giving their statements regarding the break-in not to the police, but to the court itself.
"It is not illegal for me to raise my son as I see fit," the man screamed, when he was accused of abusing Paul. He was almost immediately tackled by the bailiff. On one of the guest benches, Axel winced and Paul's younger sister Anne just folded her arms more around herself. The judge closed his eyes and took a loud, calming inhale. "Mr. Hefferman, you will cease causing a disturbance before I find you in contempt of the Court," he firmly proclaimed.
"The prosecution acknowledges that the law allow for corporal punishment of children as a natural party of ensuring the morality of the next generation," the State Prosecutor pointed out, "but the defining trait of such punishment has at its foundation the desire for correction of an individual. As far as I can tell, what you did to Paul had nothing to do with raising a child and all to do with your personal failures – specifically alcoholism and arrogance." "How dare you?!" This time, Hefferman got jumped by two bailiffs.
"I warned you. You are hereby found in contempt of court," the judge declared and slammed his gavel. "Please continue, Mr. Public Prosecutor." "Given to the court is the document regarding the medical examination of 'Paul Hefferman' that was conducted yesterday evening, which in our opinion proves the defender's claim, that his actions were lawful under the right of corporal punishment for a minor, is absolutely indefensible, because no attempt was made to prevent unnecessary physical harm. Nay, it seems physical harm was its sole aim."
All accusation against Mr. Hefferman ended up being upheld by both the judge and the jury. He was sentenced to life in prison, both of his children were declared Ward of the State and the judge specifically invoked the rarely used 'Law to Combat Drunkenness,' original created in the early 19th century to counter the rise in alcoholism after hard liquors became more common, and permanently revoked the man's right to consume anything legally considered as an alcoholic beverage.
The man was utterly furious as police officers and bailiffs dragged him out of the courtroom. "To hell with you, you fucking queer. You corrupted that piece of shit I have for a son, and now you destroyed my life," he screamed at Mr. Garfiel, despite the fact that neither Paul nor Axel had never been with the man for longer than five minutes over any day. "How can somebody become that broken," Alphonse asked with a head wag of disbelief. Edward and Winry didn't say anything for most of the trial. They would spend another night at Mr. Garfiel's house because it ran late.
PARAGRAPHBRAKE
After Ed returned from taking a shower, he found Winry lying on her bed looking at the ceiling with a frown. He sat down on the edge of it at around the level of her waist. "Hey, what are you thinking about?" She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "I'm still thinking about Hefferman. Talking with you has calmed me down, but there is still a lot I want to talk about." "I'm here. Go ahead and ask me anything. I did promise I would be truthful, didn't I," her boyfriend replied and moved his right hand closer to her, but did not touch her just yet.
She sat up on her bed. "I get that a large part of the reason Hefferman turned into such an inexcusable man was that he became an alcohol addict, but this whole experience has filled my head with a load of subject I can't help but think about," she explained. "Like what?" "Did your mom ever hit you?" Edward made a surprised blink and then turned his head away to think about that for a moment. "She did a few times. I always had a stubborn streak, even as a little kid."
"And Hohenheim?" Ed shook his head. "He was too afraid of hurting us. I can only think of one punishment, and I would have probably forgotten it even happened, if the man hadn't mentioned it to Al, who told me about it later." He got a confused look from his girlfriend. "What punishment was that?" "I got that older child jealousy about mom spending time with Al, so he made me stand in place holding a bucket filled with water. He then pointed out that basically did that with both of us for nine months." Winry gave a hum. "Well, that is certainly an inventive way to get that in someone's head."
"I hope I can come up with stuff like that," he admitted. She zeroed in on that sentiment. Did that mean he was also thinking about the future with children in mind? "It's nice hearing there is some part of him that you want to inherit from him," she pointed out first. He shot her a sad look. "He was a good man, but his life was thrown around by outside forces he could not control. He probably would have been a good father, but that's the thing, it ended being a 'would have been' because of his fear."
"Do you think about being a father one day," she asked, and after the briefest moment of his eyes getting very wide, he looked down with an uncertain look. "Sometimes," he admitted, "but they are not usually pleasant thoughts." "Why not?" "I feel like it is far too much responsibility to take on. I have enough trouble taking care of myself, let alone an infant that is entirely dependent on another person. Whenever I end up thinking about the possibility of fatherhood, I tend to become concerned about not being able to handle it and ending up screwing."
"We are still in our late teens, Ed. There is no reason to think we should be able to take care of ourselves well enough, that we could take that on," she argued. "I know, but a part of me is stuck with a fear of repeating past mistakes. I absolutely adore little kids, but the idea of being responsible for one makes me feel utterly out of my league," he replied. Surprisingly enough, she leaned forward and hugged him. "Huh?" "I recognise your depressive funk, when I see it," she told him.
"Depressive funk?" "That look in your eyes is exactly the same as you had just after you two tried to resurrect your mother. Just as you hate seeing me cry, I hate seeing you like that. Your eyes always end up having this look of death in them, and that feels utterly wrong." She leaned in a kissed him on the cheek, which was the first time since her breakdown yesterday that they did that. "I'm guessing the idea of one day having children is the reason you brought this up," he suggested, and she nodded.
"It's always been a vague thing in mind. A nice idea that never took a particular shape even after we got together. But now that I saw an instance of a parent so badly screwing up myself, I can't help but think about the idea of motherhood," she admitted. "Oh, please, any kid you have will be the luckiest child in the world," her boyfriend asserted in a tone of absolute assurance as he leaned closer to her. "Not only are girls naturally better at it, but you are a master of empathy." She gave a small smile. "Thank you."
"One of the reasons I am not as afraid of the idea of fatherhood is that currently my dreams of the future include a safety net in the form of having a caring partner to help me figure out the more difficult parts," he admitted with a smile. She blushed slightly. "Jumping ahead a bit, aren't we?" "I am just hopeful this will stick. I can't imagine anybody else I want to be with." "But you didn't imagine being with me until a few months ago," she pointed out. "That's true, but I really don't want to need to imagine being with anybody else," he asserted and shuffled closer.
"Despite still being afraid of accidentally walking you into an abusive relationship, I like hearing you say that," she said. "No version of you could possibly be abusive, in my opinion, but regardless of that, my assertion from yesterday still stands. If you explicitly don't want to become like that, then you will not be. A lot of life is based in chaos, but our personalities are in large part ours to command." He shuffled closer and touched her hair with her right hand before sliding it down toward her right cheek. "And I can tell that you really wish to be kind," he whispered and kissed her on the lips. After a moment, her body stopped being as tense.
PARAGRAPHBRAKE
"Granny, do you have a moment to talk," Winry asked three days later as she sat down in a chair opposite from Pinako reading newspapers. She folded them around her right thumb and looked up at her granddaughter. "Incidentally, I do. What do you want to talk about?" "It's not just me. I think I am ready to have a discussion with Edward, but I want to make sure we both have all the knowledge and don't screw things up by accident," she said without making direct eye contact. "Ah, I see. Bring him down."
Without replying, she ran upstairs, where the brothers were looking over some more old books they had managed to get their hands on. "Ed, can you come down for a moment." "Give me a minute, I need to write down my thought before I forget," he quickly told her. "Is something wrong," he asked. "No. There is just a talk I want to have with you later." "I can just leave," Alphonse immediately offered, but she raised her right hand as her boyfriend turned around to her with a surprised look. "There is a reason I want to have it downstairs," she said.
Edward was surprised to find Pinako sitting opposite to his girlfriend. "Um, you want to talk here?" "Not really, I want to have a discussion, but I want us to not go in it with limited knowledge," she explained with an uncomfortable look. "Huh?" There was a second of quiet before he realised what this was about. "Oh!" He nervously touched the back of his head. "Yeah, we probably should talk about that early," he conceded and sat down. "I will preface this by pointing out that intimacy is a very broad word," the older mechanic began, "It is usually divided into five kinds.
In the kind of relationship you are going for, having two of them be deep is commonly seen as necessary, but the happiest couples have reached a deep level of connection in at least four if not all five. However, do not start taking out rulers and measuring the depth of your connections!" "It would cause us to accidentally back track," Winry guessed. "We don't want that," Ed agreed. "Good. The five intimacies are emotional, intellectual, experiential, spiritual and physical. We will go through them in order, and please note that the last one encompasses far more than sex."
The couple nodded their heads. "The pinnacle of emotional intimacy is freedom of expression of the state of your psyche in all of it component dimensions without fear of condemnation, judgement, disgust and all the other bad reactions. This includes talking about any emotion or thought, be they good or bad. Hope, fear, happiness, trauma, anything that goes through your head, can be shared with your partner. Reaching this stage is one of two considered important for permanent romantic relationships by everyone, for reason I think are obvious."
"What if there is something I am not ready to talk about," Edward asked and got a confused look from his girlfriend before she remembered his avoidance of some topic back in Rush Valley and giving a small nod at realising that. "If you admit that you are not prepared, then that is not a problem in your emotional intimacy, but acknowledgement that you are not prepared to properly address this," Pinako answered. "It means you realise both that there must be a talk and that it must be done properly. It is not something that should be held against you."
The boy let out a breath he'd been holding. "Okay." The midwife continued. "Intellectual intimacy involves sharing knowledge, opinions, ideas and interests. From my own observation, I assume you have made some steps towards achieving that." "Well, we did a bit," Winry admitted. "But, it is not exactly easy to discuss each other's hobbies, when they are both complicated sciences with nearly no overlap," Ed noted.
"Any sort of healthy debate or discussion between partners constitutes a kind of intellectual intimacy," Pinako pointed out, and thought for a moment. "If you feel that you are lacking in this area, then I would suggest that you try to join in the other's hobby. I admit it will be difficult in this instance, but succeeding in this case would bring you both great benefits." They looked at each other. "Automail would probably be easy enough to get involved in, but I don't know I would get Win involved in alchemy," Edward said and rubbed his neck with slight nervousness.
"We can think about that later. You still have your unfinished work upstairs," his girlfriend assured him and gave a nod to her grandmother to continue. "Experiential Intimacy is the easiest one for people in the early stage of a relationship. It is about spending time together doing whatever you wish to do together. The biggest issue is not gaining it, but keeping it. Hence, the ability to balance personal and mutual time is important.
Spiritual intimacy meanwhile is the hardest to have, but also the easiest to maintain, because people usually maintain the beliefs, values or philosophies throughout their life. Alternatively, sometimes being together for a long time causes a couple to slowly align to one another's view, because of the extent they are exposed to them. However, I am of the opinion that intellectual intimacy can cover for lacking spiritual intimacy in certain circumstances. Do you have any questions so far?"
After a moment, both teenagers wagged their heads. "Okay, then we have reached the one that the word intimacy is often reduced to. Physical Intimacy is in the broadest sense the ability to accept being in physical contact, and anything else is an unnecessary reduction. Hugging, hand holding, cuddling and kissing are just as legitimate instances of it as is love making. And I am using the phrase 'love making' here, because sex is not an act of physical intimacy by itself. It can bring it about, but that is taking a massive gamble. It is much safer to have it exist prior."
"Have you seen many teenage couples screw that up," Edward asked. "Too many, in my opinion. At least you have the buffer of previous friendship to insure some intimacy existed when you got together, but I am very happy you have avoided sex for the time being and not just because of its possible consequences." The furious blushing on the teens' faces was a sight to behold. "I would like to point out that the rate of teen pregnancy is higher than either of you think. One of my annoying jobs is to conceal that fact, because people don't want the stigma."
"What do you mean conceal," Winry asked with a hint of fear in her eyes and voice. "You don't..." "I don't induce termination, because it is against my views. What I am referring to is arranging for example for the girl to move elsewhere for the duration of her pregnancy and then arranging a confidential adoption. There were two instances here in Resembool, though, where a child was kept with a part of their family by pretending the baby was born to their maternal grandparents. If you think about the age gaps, you will be able to narrow it down."
Later they would both do that and identify the children pretending to be their mother's younger siblings correctly, but Pinako continued on. "Now comes the part that almost everyone hates, but needs to be carried out. The discussion about sex." She sighed. "Do you want this to be done like this or do you want to talk to me individually, because the former will be a lot more embarrassing, I would think. You can always inform the other yourself, when you get to talking about that."
"What do you think," Winry asked first. "I feel like we will be able to concentrate better if we do it separately. Do you have any preference for going first or second?" "Not really. Although, if you want to get back to your work, you probably should go first." "This is the last part, right," Ed asked Pinako, and she gave him a nod. "Then I will try to not turn into a tomato first," he said with a small smile. "You will fail," said his girlfriend as she got up to leave. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," he replied with a nervous grin. "Oh, don't worry, I won't either," she pointed out.
PARAGRAPHBRAKE
Winry's birthday was 6 June, but unlike Alphonse she would not get cake, because Edward knew he was not up to making one without her help and doing it with her would be a bit pointless, when it was supposed to be a surprise. Instead, he went for another bouquet of flowers and this time had actually chosen quickly, because he had since had that flower symbolism list written down for his personal use. Without even having breakfast, he left the house, while making sure he would not interact with his girlfriend just yet. Resembool's florist had a lot less flowers on sale.
Eventually, he made a sixteen flower bouquet in place of the sixteen candles of a birthday cake. He split them up four by four. He kept the speedwells and the light pink roses. There was no blue rose, so he swapped it with a white chrysanthemum and finally added in white carnations. He had secretly prepared a vase filled with water in the back of his closet and that was where he hid that bouquet once he was assured she did not see him as he slowly sneaked back inside. Only then did he go down for breakfast.
She was already in the room and clearly preparing another apple pie. "Happy birthday, Win." She ever so slightly jumped. "Ah, thank you, Ed, but please don't sneak around like a ghost," she reprimanded him with a small smile. "Sorry," he said and walked up to her. "How does it feel, finally being sixteen, too?" "Not that much different from what yesterday felt like," she admitted. "Oh dear, we have to fix that right up. After all, a girl's sixteenth birthday is supposed to be a sweet thing." "I'm working on that," she said with a grin and a head wiggle towards that pie.
"Ah, but there are other ways it can be sweet," her boyfriend said and gave her that dope look of an infatuated teenager. "Just a brief one now, you can give me all your sweet touches later," she asked, and he nodded before pressing their lips together again. His left hand went around her waist and the right one went straight for her scalp again. So sue him! He thought his girlfriend had nice hair, and he liked to play with it. While slightly rubbing their noses together, he again curled the ends around his index finger.
The celebrations took place on the patio outside, because this time the weather was actually nice. "Oh, this one is even better," Alphonse proclaimed as he dug into the pie. "Hey, pandering her is my job," his brother stage whispered to him, and he nearly started choking on it as he failed to suppress a snicker. "Now, now, Ed, I gladly accept praise when deserved, and I put a lot of work into this, so it better be an improvement over the last one. Of course, asking you for an honest opinion is pointless."
He made the fake 'pretending to be hurt' motion of putting his left hand on his chest. "I would never lie to you, I gave you my promise," he said with a slight smile that showed he had bits of the pie stuck in his teeth. "Also, before giving me your gift, please make sure you don't also give me a bit of that pie," she said and gave him a toothy smile that showed the same. "Get a room," Alphonse immediately declared and closed his eyes as he pretended to shiver. "Hey," Winry argued and slapped his thigh. "This is my birthday, so I get to make an unsubtle proposition for kisses."
"As if they were needed," both brothers said at the same time. Edward said it with a smug grin and Al with a deadpan look. Winry burst out laughing as they gave each other looks that were slowly morphing into smiles. "Sorry, if we are making you uncomfortable or jealous," Ed said, but his brother gave a dismissive wave of the hand. "Honestly, I am happy for you. Don't feel like I have a right to impose anything on your relationship. Your public displays don't even annoy me that much, I just feel the need to tease you for them."
"That is normal," Pinako said as she came outside with a gift-wrapped box. "Uh, for me," cooed Winry. "Of course," her grandmother said and handed it to her. Away flew the ribbons and the box was opened to reveal another item of clothing. "Is that a dress," Alphonse asked as the birthday girl picked up the coat hanger it was on. It was a light orange wool dress. "That is lovely," she declared and stood up to see it hanging down. She rotated it around to see more of it.
"It's for a friend in another village, she is an excellent seamstress," her grandmother explained. "Oh, she definitely is. Even though it is my birthday, I do feel like I am being spoiled just a bit more than necessary." "Spoiling you is the point of today," her boyfriend reminded her. He also thought that he was being spoiled himself, since he would get to see her in that. "It is lovely to touch," she continued as she inspected her new clothes in detail. It would soon take a proud of place among the collection in her closet.
PARAGRAPHBRAKE
While Winry was busy checking out how her dress looked on her in the mirror she had, Edward slipped into his room to get the bouquet alongside the vase. "Absolutely stunning," he said as he entered her room. "Is it," she teased, but did not look away from the mirror. He slowly walked to her without bothering to hide the flowers this time. She kept turning back and forth to check out every possible way the fabric could look on her. "The one wearing the garment often has a great effect on that, admittedly," he added with a smile, and walked up to her at an angle.
After a moment, she finally noticed the flowers. "Oh! So that's why you wear out before breakfast, huh?" "Dammit! I thought I managed to sneak past you," he said with a not insignificant amount of annoyance. She clicked her tongue and made a no-no gesture with her right hand's index finger. "You can't sneak one past me that easily, Ed," she said as she came closer and took the bouquet. "There are some new ones in this one," she pointed out. "There are. White carnations and chrysanthemums symbolise sweetness, innocence and pure love."
She smiled and smelled them. "Given what I admitted, I would somewhat question the second part, but thank you," she told him. "If you want to go by that definition, then I don't think you will find anyone, who is both in a romantic relationship and innocent. Unless puppy love can be considered, I guess, and even then it might take some time to find an innocent person." She put the vase on the small chest of drawers next to the door. "Something tells me this is not the only gift that you brought along," she added with a tone of pretend wonder as she closed the door to her room.
"Whatever gave it away," her boyfriend said with a smug smile as he stepped towards her. "Feminine instinct," she deadpanned, and he snickered before taking her right hand and pulling her away from the door. She followed through without protest, and he intentionally pulled a bit too much, so she flopped on his chest and he could kiss her on the forehead. Immediately, his arm went to the back of her neck. "Not the place I was expecting you to start," she giggled. He let it go after a second and helped her stand up straight before leaning his head forward so their noses touched.
He took her waist with his left hand. "There has to be some change every once in a while. I like kissing your lips, but there is more to you than that." She noticed a brief hick as he remembered another instance, when that phrase had been used to describe his girlfriend. He quickly got over that with just a brief closing of the eyes and a slight inhale. "I like the slight tickling, too," she admitted. "Good, at least I won't have to shave as much," he declared and put a kiss on the tip of her nose.
After that, he went to her left side, but instead of the cheek kiss she expected, he kissed her earlobe instead. Immediately, she was covered in goose bumps, but he promptly went for the other side. "Ed, that..." Wait, it felt good? "What," he asked with a tone that was starting to get a bit sensual. "Felt nice," she said with a tone that made it sound like a question. "Great, that means I'm doing this right," he said and continued. Their bodies kept getting closer and closer to each other.
This time came the two cheeks kisses, and he turned her around so they were standing in parallel with her bed. "How long is this list of kisses," she asked with a slight exhale. "Very long," he said avidly, and the goose bumps that had receded came right back. Edward realised he could hear his heartbeat in his ears and his body was starting to react in other ways, but he was not even close to done. "Do you want to sit down," he asked. "If you want, then sure." They sat down on the edge of the mattress.
Next up came the lips, but he made it brief and did not linger there for long. They had done that plenty of times. He swallowed a bit and hoped she would be okay with the next one. Despite planning this, he still flushed a bit as he kissed the right side of her lower jaw. The slightest moan she gave at that went down through him like he was a lightning rod. She was starting to tense up a bit too. Then came the other side of her lower jaw. "That one's new," she more exhaled than said. Her pupils were dilated when he looked up, and he guessed his were too.
Since she did not complain, he went for the next one. She had thought he was going for her ear again, but instead he kissed her lower and more in line with her jaw. She exhaled in surprise, and he felt a small pulse of her jugular vein before letting go. As he went around, he looked in her eyes and saw a look that mixed excitement and slight concern. But Winry still had not said she wanted him to stop. He's too good at this, she thought in panic as she felt herself start losing it. Next up was the chin.
Her temporary relief from kissing in sensitive places was short-lived as she was so out of it, when his right hand's thumb applied the slightest bit of pressure she tilted her head up. He then kissed her Adam's apple. "Fuck," she groaned, and he looked up in concern. "Too much?" "Maybe," she admitted and swallowed. "But I kind of want to continue." "Are you sure?" They were both breathing faster than usual. "Yeah," she said without admitting she wanted to see a bit of how far he would dare to go.
He kissed her neck proper, but then changed the way he did it. Once he was on the right side of it, he started making a trail of kisses down toward the shoulder. "Interesting," she began before giving a slight moan, "technique." He swapped around and did it the same thing on the left side. He stopped and after a few seconds of staying in place she asked him. "Is that your whole list?" "Not even close," he admitted as he panted. "But that is how far I'm willing to risk going today."
"Why?" "Because all the other places are under your new dress," he said with an unintentionally sultry voice. They both swallowed and looked at each other before looking away at the same time. "I... see," she said and tried to calm herself down. "Could we go for the classic instead," she suggested. "Of course," he said, and immediately went back to her lips. They both felt warm after less than ten seconds. She put her own arms around his back and as the dizziness got to them, they ended up lying down on her bed with their legs hanging over the edge of it.
Losing all concern for the world outside their partner, they started letting their tongues wonder about. This time it went beyond just licking the other lips, and they ended up touching them together. That should feel weird, but actually feels kind of good, they both thought. After a moment, they noticed that their bodies had reacted a lot and suddenly broke apart. They were breathing so hard, their airways wheezed like they had an asthma attack. "Too much," Edward said. "Yeah," Winry agreed.
They just kept looking at each other's eyes as they slowly calmed down. Both felt uncomfortable in the clothes they were wearing. He would end up washing his underwear to get rid of a stain, and she would be ironing her new dress for half an hour to get the wrinkles out. "But also wonderful, right," he asked. "Yeah. Too wonderful. Too...," she replied before stuttering on the letter S. "Too sensual." She took a breath. "Also, I want to possibly try that on you," she admitted. "I wouldn't be against that," he told her. "But not now. Or I swear my blood will actually start to boil."