First FMA Fic! Hope you enjoy :)

*Creo en ti, y en este amor,
que me envuelto indestructible y detuvo mi caida libre*

"Remember to oil it every day."

"...Yeah."

"Be sure to check that the screws are tight too!"

"Mmm."

"Wipe off the water when you get out of the tub."

"Right."

Slightly annoyed, she leaned into him. "Hey, are you listening?" A three second silence covered the two, before Edward finally responded with a bored "...yeah."

"Geez!" Winry whipped her head back, through with trying to have a conversation. The sound of the train coming from a distance took their attention, and Winry stood up, squinting to see the monstrous machine. "Ah, here it comes." She broke their silence, after finally catching a glimpse of the locomotive quickly powering into proximity. Ed still sat on the bench, only this time his eyes were resting on the blonde girl to his side, a clear expression of conflicting emotions washing all over his face. The train was finally at the station, coming to a complete halt and letting out high-pressured steam as it waited for its newest passenger to come on board. It was time to say goodbye.

"Good grief, you're probably going to break it and have to come back again for me to fix it." Her eyes were trained onto the last auto mail limb, his left leg. The boy turned around, waving his hand dismissively, already heading for the entrance of the train.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Her face split into a small but warm smile. "Whenever you need maintenance, be sure to call for an appointment." He kept walking nonchalantly, grumbling another Yeah before stepping in the threshold. To the blonde mechanic's surprise, he halted at the entrance for a while before his head hung low as if pondering something. "Appointment?" He whispered more to himself, various thoughts whirling around his head and then turned to face her. A short pause settled between the two before she finally asked pleasantly. "What?"

He finally opened his mouth. "Winry." The single word was filled with unspoken meaning, which concerned the blonde. She was waiting for him to continue but it seemed that he had clamped his mouth shut again.

"What?" She couldn't help but pester. "Just come out and say it." Edward's expression turned into one of panic. He tried to make phrases, but his throat suddenly felt like a desert; dry as hell and he couldn't even get one word in! He swallowed over and over again, in hopes of reclaiming his voice back. Unfortunately, the longer he took to speak, the blush that was splashed all over his cheeks and the bridge of his nose became redder and redder.

Idiot! Just say it! It's not that hard, just open your goddamn mouth and-

"EQUIVALENT EXCHANGE!" He shouted in a very loud and probably unnecessary tone, his index finger pointing at Winry assertively. "Huh?"

"I'll give you half of my life, if you give me half of yours!" He yelled, his eyes widening with each word he blurted out, and held his breath subconsciously. A fairly uncomfortable silence settled between them, as they both stared into each other. Winry's puzzled expression became one of complete and utter shock, and she opened her mouth slowly, a gasp escaping her lips. She then reacted in a way that he wasn't expecting her to.

"Awe, Geez, why do alchemists have to be like this?" She groaned in exasperation, hanging her head and putting a hand to her forehead as if contemplating the sheer idiocy of his words. Ed was frozen in spot, taken back by her words. "The principle of Equivalent Exchange is all nonsense, isn't it?"

"What did you say!?" He shouted once again, his pointed finger turned accusing. "It's NONSENSE!" Winry emphasized her point matter-of-factly. "Never mind half, I'll give you all of it!" The golden-eyed boy was speechless. There was a pregnant pause. Her eyes widened in surprise, as she took in the implications of her words for the first time and let out embarrassed squeak. Her cheeks started to burn up intensely, and her eyes were wide and fearful

"Ah! Err, ok! Maybe not all of it!" She shot her hands forward, in a subconscious attempt to make her declaration seem much less intimate. Her fingers nervously started counting, first with nine up.

"90 percent- No! 80 percent." She lowered one finger anxiously; her face could compete with a ripe tomato. He lowered his arm, and looked at her trying to make sense of her jumbled mind with awe in his eyes. Her hands were trembling slightly. "70... no, that won't work. Okay 85." Ed had a ridiculous grin plastered on his mouth. Finally, it seemed like the young woman had come to a decision, all with a nervous smile on her face.

"Yeah! I'd be willing to give you that much!" The stifled snickers from Ed were heard and she turned around rapidly, eyes dancing in anger. "WHAT?" Her furious tone caused him to now laugh loudly and obnoxiously for quite a while. Her eyes were narrowed with anger and embarrassment. His hands gripped his stomach. Laughing proving too much for his abdominal. "Sorry!" He piped, before laughing once more, doubling over "ED!"

"Ah, you really are amazing! You turn equivalent exchange on its ear so easily!" Winry's eyes narrowed once more, feeling humiliated. "What do you mean? Are you making fun of me?"

"No, I'm not." He stood from his doubled over position, and took a step closer to her beautiful face. A heart-warming smile was present in the former pipsqueak's face as he now towered over Winry, but only by a few arm raised up to caress the soft hair on the back of her head, and Winry froze in terror. 'Oh God, what is he doing?' His other arm circled around her back, and- Oof! She felt her body squished against his own as Edward enveloped her in a tight hug. Her eyes widened. Oh. It was just a hug... The initial twinge of disappointment quickly faded away as she melted into his embrace. "You cheered me up. Thanks. I'm off." He said swiftly, but with kindness in his voice. She returned his embrace, arms linking together in the back as she took in his touch, his scent. All if it.

She was going to miss him.

"Mm-hm! Come back soon!" She replied cheerfully.

He was now in his train, already on his way to West. For studying. Research. The combination of Alkahestry and Alchemy was very advanced in that area. One journey ended, and now another one begins. It seemed like that was his calling at times, but he knew he couldn't live like this forever. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life as a traveling nomad, no. What he wanted, who he wanted, was currently waving him goodbye.

'Come back soon!' He replayed her words in his head. He knew that the type of research that he was studying would take at least a couple years. Maybe four or five. It could even be six years. 'I swear, Win. I'll come back home... Sooner than you know. '

His eyes closed, as he nodded off to sleep.

It was going to be a long trip.

.

.

.

"Granny! I'm back!"

Winry slammed the front door with her foot a little harshly. She couldn't use her hands since both of them were occupied with large boxes of auto mail equipment that she had bought from Rush Valley.

It had been exactly one year since the day Ed left to West and studied alchemy more extensively. Throughout all the time, Winry had surprisingly been very busy. She had been in her house, at her auto mail workshop for about two months when Garfield called her to tell her that in Rush Valley everyone missed her greatly, and was begged to come back until she finally gave in. For the last remaining eight months, she had been in Rush Valley as THE mechanic, earning herself the title of one of the most amazing auto mail engineers ever existed... and one of the youngest too! Sooner or later, she got homesick and decided to bid the town goodbye. She would be returning to her dear home that was Resembool. And she was finally here! After taking a few steps, the heavy boxes were proving too much for her, as she stumbled a bit and everything came crashing down in an avalanche.

Whack!

A large metal wrench that came out of one particular box had collided with her head on the impact, much to a similar fashion in how she would throw her trusty wrench at Edward's noggin. "OW!" She rubbed her throbbing head in agony. "...So that is how it feels like..." She grumbled, lying there in pain, imagining Ed laughing his ass off.

She removed her hand from the sore spot on her head, and was shocked to see crimson liquid staining the skin, and lining her entire palm. Winry double checked with the other hand, resting it slightly on the painful spot and quickly withdrawing it to see it. Just as she suspected, there was blood all over it. "I didn't think I hit myself that bad." She muttered as she stood up shakily, making a lot more tools and raw metal material hit the floor in a loud clatter. The mess could be cleaned up later. "Granny?" She called out again, but was met with silence.

She entered the kitchen and started rummaging the drawers until she found what she was looking for. The white washcloth was put under the faucet and dampened before being placed at the blonde girl's bleeding wound. Winry then exited the kitchen and started to go upstairs, still in search for her grandmother. The Rockbell household felt eerily quiet and it was a bit unsettling for the mechanic. She went to her grandma's room opened to see that it was empty. She checked the auto mail shop. Nothing. Her room. Again, nothing. The only room left in the house was the guest room. Why the hell would Granny be there? Nevertheless, Winry walked up to the mahogany door and opened it. Empty!

Huh. That's strange.

Winry knocked on the two bathrooms in the house to no avail. There was nobody there. The girl pondered to herself where the heck her granny might have gotten herself into. She walked herself downstairs again, and plopped down her comfortable brown couch in the living, her head was really starting to hurt. "Maybe I should lie down for a while..." She said to herself, and looked upstairs, to where her room was. Ugh. Too far away.

'I'll just stay here.' As her head touched the cushion, the gauze substitute fell over with a slight thud to the wooden floor beneath her. "Damn." The cloth was more red than white with her blood. She didn't feel dizzy or anything so she stood up quickly and went to the bathroom to wash her face, since it was getting covered with blood. She knew what to do, just apply enough pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding. Winry looked at the cut with the bathroom mirror, and saw that though it bleed a lot, it wasn't a deep cut. It wouldn't need stitches.

A noise was heard downstairs.

She was immediately silent, alert.

It sounded like the front door opening. Someone was in the house. Winry sighed in relief. That was probably her granny. With a fresh washcloth pressed up firmly on the top of her head, stopping the incessant bleeding, she ran downstairs, her jaw almost hit the floor when she saw the person that standing there inside her home. In her stupor, she dropped the cloth to the floor. A blanket of silence covered the two.

"Edward?"

The blonde man gave her a smile that made shivers run down her spine.

"I'm back, Winry. And I'm staying for good."

*Yo le pregunte a un pastor, del Amor y el me dijo,
que se lo entregara a Dios*