I have a paperback heart

dog-eared and creased

by the world,

the colors are faded

and the spine is worn

but I'm glad to see

it's finally in

good hands.

-unknown

"Good God woman, what the hell is blinding me over here?!" Garfiel exclaimed over brunch as he picked up my left hand for closer inspection. When he and Rebecca asked how I was doing over mimosas and eggs benedict, I had told them that I was feeling much better and things with Ed were fantastic. I hadn't yet mentioned that we were engaged. Their mouths dropped open in shock as they gazed at the 4 carat square cut canary diamond perched on a band of white gold, and I beamed happily and blushed. It had been a week, but it still didn't feel real.

"Christ, did he give you the Hope Diamond?" Rebecca laughed. "It's gorgeous. But is it…?"

I nodded enthusiastically. "It is. We're getting married."

They both shrieked comically, earning stares from the brunchers around us and Garfiel instantly leapt from his seat exclaiming, "Bartender, I'm gonna need more mimosa's over here. The hottest piece of man on the planet is officially off the market which means I'm 'bout to get knee-walkin' drunk."

"Its 10am!" I giggled to Rebecca as Garfiel bee-lined for the bar.

"It doesn't matter." She responded with a grin as she gazed at my ring. "Garfiel's always had a big gay crush on Ed, always fantasized that he'd miraculously switch teams over night."

He returned to our high top a moment later with more drinks and slid back into his chair. "Baby I'm so happy for you. That man is luckier than a mouse in a cheese shop to have you. Where is he anyway?" He said, motioning to the empty chair beside me. As if on cue I heard a smooth voice from the front of the bar telling the likely awestruck seating hostess that his friends were already here. A moment later he was there, receiving congratulatory hugs from Garfiel and Rebecca before turning to me.

"Hey." He said as he pecked me on the cheek and slid into the chair next to me. "Sorry I'm late. Had to stop at Internal Affairs and touch bases with Hughes. This court-marshaling is about to get ugly, Lust is trying to deny she did anything wrong." We all rolled our collective eyes as Ed snagged a bite of potato off my plate. I scooted it closer for him to finish my food and tried not to think to much about Lust and how she nearly ruined my relationship and almost got myself and my fiancee killed. Ed must've noticed me become suddenly rigid because he took my hand on the table and slid his thumb over my knuckles as more food showed up.

"Oh thank God," Said Garfiel as he took his second helping of eggs benedict. "Excuse me while I make myself a food baby."

"Roy and Riza want us at their place tonight for dinner." Ed said as we left Lillie's Irish Victorian Bar and stepped out onto 17th st. "They're serving steak so I'm going with or without you." I smiled and nodded as he took my hand and we made our way towards Union Square. Garfiel and Rebecca had left earlier to head out for a spa day, which I was secretly thankful for because with all the court-marshaling craziness going on, I hadn't had time to talk to Ed about the wedding. The sun was shining brilliantly as we strolled through the open market, and I thought back to the way my life used to be, how fearful I was of ever leaving the house and how Ed had to practically drag me here kicking and screaming. I was so thankful he did. I stopped at a booth to run my fingers over the amethyst bundles of fresh lavender and breathe in the calming scent before looking up at Edward.

"What about the spring?" I asked as I hooked my arm with his and we kept walking.

"What about it?"

"For the wedding?" I said. He paused mid-stride and turned to me with a contemplative look on his face.

"That all depends. Where do you want to get married?"

"Here of course. If that's okay with you."

"Here?" He asked with raised brows. "We could go anywhere. Seriously. Are you sure you don't wanna go to St. Martin? Luxembourg? How about a castle in Ireland? Spend my money Winry." I smiled and shook my head.

"You've already spent enough on me." I said, wagging my ring finger for emphasis. I may not be a jeweler, but the ring box said Cartier and I was no fool. The ring must've been equal to a down payment on Manhattan real estate.

"Babe, I give two-thirds of my income to charity because I just don't need that much money. Nobody does. Give me a reason to actually spend some cash." He said, lacing fingers with mine.

"Um, your rent is how much?" I asked, attempting to prove my point that he was already spending enough and I didn't care about having a big expensive wedding.

"$4200."

"And how much was your car?"

"A lot. My car was a lot." He said coyly, dancing around the fact that he drove an Aston Martin.

"Exactly. I don't mind seeing you spoil yourself because you work your ass off for it, but don't feel like you should be spoiling me." I reasoned. "The ring is beyond beautiful and I love it, please don't feel like you need to spend a ton on the wedding after what you spent on the ring."

He gave a casual, non-committal shrug as he picked up a candle off a vendor's table to give it a sniff and mumbled, "65k isn't that much-"

"-You spent what? 65 WHAT?" I balked with a punch to his shoulder in shock that instantly resulted in my pained yelp as I shook out my hand and held my fingers. I'd forgotten his shoulder was metal. He laughed and took my injured hand between his own and gently massaged it as he said,

"Winry, I know you don't care about money. I don't care about it either, believe me. But don't think I'm about to go destitute by getting you that ring and throwing us the wedding of the century …if that's what you want." I honestly didn't care about having a massive wedding, but I knew Ed was far more grandiose than I and I knew there would be an awful lot of military personnel clamoring to see the 'untamable wolf' get hitched. He wouldn't be presenting big options if he wanted a small event.

"Well… I still wanna get married here." I said. "We met here. New York gave you a new life, and you gave me a new life in turn. This is our home." He slung an arm around my shoulders and nodded as we continued downtown.

"Okay," He agreed. "We'll do it here. But on one condition. I get to pay for your dress, no matter the cost."

"I'm not getting a dress." I said, turning to him. "Why spend all that money on something I'll wear one time, when I already have a perfectly good dress?" He sent me a look of confusion.

"What dress?"

"My little white one. The one you like."

He stared back at me blankly before a sly grin crept over his features. "You can NOT get married in that thing."

"Why not?" I asked, slightly offended. He pulled me flush against him, smoothing his hands across my back and pouring his eyes over me.

"Because thats a very dirty little dress, and it makes me want to do very dirty little things to you." He murmured. My face flushed and he grinned wickedly again. "But then again…"

He leaned close and pressed his lips to mine before hovering just near my ear and whispering, "Maybe you'll convince me. Put it on. …Wear me down."

Well, okay then.

"Relax your shoulders." He said behind me, placing a warm hand on my hip. "Whenever you're ready." I lined up my shot and fired off another round into my target. A moment later I pushed the button on the wall and my sheet crossed the room towards us for Ed to pluck from its clip on the line.

"You're either not listening, or not concentrating. Maybe both." He said, examining the holes. "You hit your target three times, but you're still missing the areas I told you to focus on."

I pulled the plugs from my ears to hang over my shoulders and snatched the paper target from him.

"What're you talking about? These are great shots Ed."

"They're shots in the head and chest. That's not where I told you to shoot. I want you aiming for smaller spots. Hit his elbow. Hit his ear." He said.

"You're right, threatening to shoot my attacker's earring off is definitely the way to go." I said with a dramatic eye roll. He clearly didn't like my cavalier attitude because he grabbed me by the chin to look back at him and glared at me.

"YOU KEEP KILLING YOUR TARGET."

Edward had given me explicit instructions over the time I'd been training with Riza to not make kill shots. He already wasn't thrilled with me gun-training in the first place, but he was a realist and understood that I would need to become practiced with a fire arm if I ever hoped to keep up with him and stay safe from his enemies.

"So you hit him in the face. Whoop-de-fucking-do. That's not what I told you to do, Winry! Bring your attacker down by hitting non-vital spots. Shoot the hands, the feet, the shoulders. Shoot him in the ass for fuck's sake I don't care, but DO NOT KILL HIM!"

I swatted his hand away and yelled back, "I've got half a mind to lodge a bullet in YOUR ass Ed!" I set down my gun and moved to storm past him when he caught my elbow.

"I'm sorry." He said. I shot him a dangerous look over my shoulder.

"You need to chill out. I'm still learning you know."

"You aren't a novice anymore." He said as I turned back to him with folded arms and heaps of attitude. "You know your way around a firearm now, and it's an immense responsibility. I'm begging you to take me seriously here."

"Of course I take this seriously!" I defended. "It's a gun!"

"It's a weapon that kills people. I don't want you killing people. I don't want your hands stained," He said, suddenly becoming somber as his gaze fell. "I don't want you dealing with the shit I deal with. You should never know what it's like to take a life. How horrible it actually is."

He had me there. Ed's life was still a complicated mess in spite of the normalcy we were trying so hard to cultivate together. He had dramatically reduced the number of missions he was sent on, but the trouble with that was when he was called in to take care of the targets others couldn't handle, it was never an easy mission and it always forced stress and nightmares to come home with him.

"Ed, I pray that I'll never ever have to use any of these skills, but until I do I have no way of knowing how I'll react in a situation. Sure I'd like to believe I'd remind calm and level-headed and take nice clean shots to the knees like a good girl, but if I had to guess I'd probably just start shooting wildly, screaming my head off, or calling you pretending to order pizza like the last time I had to deal with someone on my own." This brought a small, wrought smile to his face.

"Obviously I want you to do whatever you have to do to protect yourself; your safety is the only thing I care about. But if you can become comfortable with picking off smaller, non life-threatening spots on an enemy I'd feel a lot better. Remember, the enemy may not always be looking to kill you. The enemy might be asking for your phone number so when that happens I want you to shoot him in the foot."

I smiled and shook my head as he gathered me in his arms.

"Ready to try again?" He asked. I nodded, and broke our embrace to replace my earplugs and move into position. I felt him behind me with his hands on my shoulders to relax me and my back skimming over his hard body. I raised my gun toward the new target poised at the back of the room as his voice filled my ear again.

"Relax your shoulders. Focus. Squeeze the trigger, don't pull."

I hit the elbow, the ear, and the groin. Just to send a message.

A/N: Thank you all for giving your time and attention to this story, as well as my others. The outpouring of kindness I've gotten from readers on this site is nothing short of mind-blowing and I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you all for your supportive comments about this AU I've created, everytime I start to wonder if people are becoming bored with it or if it's become too self-indulgent and should I continue, some wonderful soul pops up and tells me they hope I keep going. What a beautiful thing to hear. I am currently brainstorming smaller one-shots for Illuminate, to detail more of Ed's POV during Perfect Blood, as well as his teenage years in the Academy. I hope to write several of them before uploading instead of writing each chapter as I go, so that next time I'll be able to update more frequently. It's the least I can do for all the lovely people who've taken time to read, review, and even go as far as to write glowing recommendations of Perfect Blood on other websites. Thank you all, be back soon.

-C.