A/N: Hey all! So I know a while back now when I posted the first chapter of this story I thought that it would end up being a one-shot. Well, inspiration stuck and now I've written what will most definitely be the second and last chapter of this story, which takes place the last few days before Ed hops on the train westward in the last scene of Brotherhood. I hope you guys enjoy it and leave comments!

Under the Same Roof: Chapter 2

The clink, clink, clink of Winry's hammer on steel reverberated through the workshop with a constant rhythm. Ed was sitting comfortably on a chair, waiting for Winry to finish tinkering with his automail leg. Throughout the two years he'd been back in Resembool living with Winry and Granny, he'd come to spend quite a bit of time in this workshop, as Winry seemed to have become even fussier about maintaining his automail limb in tip-top condition.

Truth be told, the clinking, which he had come to associate with Winry, made him feel calm, even almost at peace. Ed closed his eyes and tilted his head back against the wall, letting his mind drift off.

"Hey! Don't you go napping on me back there Edward Elric!" came Winry's voice from her workbench. She hadn't even looked up from her tinkering. Ed opened his eyes, sat up straight, and groaned his displeasure.

"You know full well your prosthetics need to be in optimal condition before you head off to wherever you're off to," Winry's voice sounded half annoyed, half resigned.

"For the hundredth time, I'm heading west to Creta to study their forms of alchemy," Ed recounted. "And Al headed off east to Xing to study alkahestry with Mei."

"Even now that you aren't able to perform alchemy, you're still just as obsessed with that dismal science as ever," Winry said crossly.

Ed snapped forward in his chair. "Dismal science?" he exclaimed, his gaze boring into Winry.

"Dismal science!" she echoed back at him, meeting his gaze with reciprocated intensity.

Ed ground his teeth in frustration. They were not having this argument again. He broke off from their staring contest and crossed his arms in front of his chest, his face feeling hot. Winry's clinking started back up again, an angry look on her face as well.

After two years of living together under the same roof, the three childhood friends were once again parting ways, but this time, Ed wouldn't have Al by his side. This realization had hit him full force when he and Winry had gone with Al to the train station to see him off along with his chimera bodyguards, Zampano and Jerso. This would be the first time Ed and Al would be apart for an extended period of time. It would be months, years even maybe, before they'd see each other again. Ed almost couldn't handle himself seeing Al head off into the world without him. He had been close to undergoing an emotional breakdown right there on the platform.

Al, on the other hand, had seemed almost eager to explore the world on his own volition The dapper young man never took anything his older brother had done for him for granted, but Al now felt the need to discover himself and find his own way after residing in his brother's shadow for so long. Winry understood Al's motivations and wished him a heartfelt and happy goodbye.

Taking a deep breath, Ed steeled himself against the tumult of emotions swirling within him. He put a hand on Al's shoulder and pulled him into a tight hug. "Take care of yourself out there, Alphonse," Ed said, his tone gravely. "Come back to us safely."

Al chuckled within Ed's embrace, returning it in kind. "Honestly, I'm more worried about you, Brother, since you can no longer use alchemy…" Al's voice trailed off, not wanting to continue on the subject of Ed's eternal sacrifice on his account.

Ed's trademark ear-to-ear grin blossomed across his face. He obviously didn't regret what he had done for Al one bit, even if Al himself felt compunction and a bit of shame over that particular act on Ed's part. "I'd do it all over again if I had to," said Ed. He punched Al lightly on the shoulder. "Plus, you always lose to me now when we spar," he added, throwing a few shadow punches in the air.

"Not too surprising considering Al no longer has the size advantage on you and his muscles just recently recovered from the accumulated atrophy," Winry chastised, wrapping her arm around Ed and putting him in a neck hold. Al held back his snickers as Ed struggled against Winry. The platform echoed with Ed's yelps of 'Unhand me, woman!' as the whistle of the steam engine cut through the air.

Ed was awoken from his recollections of Al's departure two days ago by Winry's excited exclamation of "There! Good as new!" Straightening in his chair, Ed groaned aloud; he'd never get used to what was coming next. He stuck out the stump that was his left leg, allowing Winry access to the connection hub that was attached above where his knee should have been. She got to work reconnecting the automail limb to Ed's leg. As she was about to rewire his nerve endings to the sensor arrays, Ed winced in preparation of the pain he knew was about to come.

"You're such a baby," Winry said, rolling her eyes at him. There was a hiss of pneumatics as the prosthetic limb was reattached. "There, you're good to go," she said, patting the shining metallic kneecap. "Go on, give it a whirl."

Opening his eyes gingerly, Ed put his automail leg through some experimental movements and flexes. It felt lighter than ever! He could hardly even feel the weight discrepancy between his metallic leg and his normal leg. "It barely hurt this time when you reconnected the nerve clusters," he noted tentatively.

"That's 'cause I'm great at what I do," Winry replied, her tone sounding almost cocky. She walked out the door of her workshop, slipping the green bandana she wore off of her hair and letting it fall to her waist in all its golden splendor. "Lunch will be ready in an hour," she added.

Was it just his imagination, or did Winry seem to shimmer as she let her hair tumble? Ed blinked. "Oh my gosh, what am I thinking about?" he shouted, pulling at his hair, a rather crazed expression on his face. His face felt red and warm. Thankfully, Winry had already gone into the house and hadn't heard his tirade. I need some time to clear my head, he thought. Usually, his go-to option whenever he was feeling like this would be to spar with Al, but that wasn't possible right now. Time to go for a run then.

The rest of the day flew by in the blink of an eye, and now Ed was lying in bed, trying to get some shut eye before he was due to catch the early morning train bound west for Creta. His pre-lunch run had only served to jumble his thoughts more than they had been originally. Now, lying in bed, he had too many deliberations thundering through his head, each one vying for his attention and keeping him awake. He wanted to catch some shut-eye before his long journey in the morning, but his brain just would not allow him to do so. The fact that he would be gone again for an extended period of time, that he wouldn't be back for many months or even years, did not sit well with him. Once again, Winry would be far away and distant. Compared to when he and Al were on their quest to reclaim their bodies, this time his absence would be more final, more distant than any previous time.

Living with Winry in such close proximity was different this time around. They both felt it; an underlying level of emotional angst that permeated the interactions between the two childhood friends. Now he knew why it had been there and what it meant. Realizing this had brought something very fundamental to the forefront of his mind. It was something that wouldn't sit well with him if he didn't get it off his shoulders before he left. Why didn't I see this before? Why now? Right before I'm about to leave. And yet, it wasn't a totally new realization. It actually felt right. Deep down in his soul, he had known all along that things were going to turn out like this, that these emotions that had been roiling within him since forever now would eventually come to a boil.

I need to tell her, he thought resolutely. Before I get on that train. His tiny voice of self-doubt uttered its displeasure, its abject terror. His heart, however, screamed out 'Finally! Go for it Ed!' A smile curled its way onto his face, his eyes slowly closing, sleep beginning to cloud his mind. How hard could it be? he reassured himself. After all, it's just the law of equivalent exchange, right?

Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Hiromu Arakawa. I do not own any of the characters in this story.