So, a friend recommended FMA to me, and of course I started watching it, and now I'm kind of obsessed with it. I am definitely into it enough to have already gotten fanfic ideas, though mostly oneshots, which I will be posting whenever I can. So yeah, this is my first fanfic,and this is all based on the events in Brotherhood (because that was the version I have been watching). Anyway, dear readers, please tell me what you think, and if there's anyone willing to discuss the anime with me, please PM me (I haven't been able to discuss it with the friend that recommended it to me, and I kind of want to get my feels out).

She knew she probably should have expected to see what she was seeing now—it was the middle of the night, after all—but that didn't stop Winry from staring.

She had only stepped out for a moment, after waking up and finding herself with an urgent need to use the restroom, and when she came back, she couldn't help but notice Ed's sleeping form on the bed next to hers, his face half-buried in his pillow, mouth slightly open, automail arm hanging over the side. He must have been too tired to really get ready for bed, because he'd only taken off his coat and gloves. His hair was still in the thick braid he always wore, now bleached almost white by the silvery moonlight.

Winry didn't know why this held her attention—she'd seen him sleeping plenty of times before, when the Elric brothers had been living with her and her grandmother in that period of time after they had been left motherless.

Yet there was something different about watching the boy she'd grown up with sleeping now, and she was pretty sure it had to do with the both of them being older as well as the feelings that were stirring inside her now, which she still couldn't quite fully admit to herself, let alone out loud. It might have also had to do with the fact that he looked so different asleep than how he looked awake, when he had the burden of a reputation as well as concerns about how he and his brother would reverse the damage that had been done as a result of trying to do the one thing alchemy couldn't do. Right now, though, all that seemed to have disappeared, replaced by a peaceful look on his face that made him almost unrecognizable. It made him look young and almost vulnerable, and smaller, somehow.

Winry almost laughed at the thought of Ed's reaction if he'd known what she was thinking just then. It was almost comical, the way he always got so defensive about his height, as if being short was somehow a bad thing. In his mind, it probably was. Sometimes she joked about it just to see his reaction, unable to help herself; she found it kind of adorable, though she never admitted it aloud, knowing he'd probably only be further insulted if she did.

After about a minute, she decided to try and go back to sleep, though she wasn't sure she would be able to, at least not right away. As she lay back, her head accidentally hit something, and a curse slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. She froze, hoping she hadn't unintentionally woken him up, but it was too late. She heard him shifting on his bed and turned just in time to see one golden eye crack open, watching her.

"Winry?" Ed asked sleepily.

She could feel her face heating up, and could only imagine how red her face was right now. "It's nothing," she insisted. "Just bumped my head, is all."

He sat up and stretched, yawning as he did so. After several moments of doing so (in a way that was so languid, yet at the same time ostentacious, that it made Winry wonder if he was doing it on purpose), he said, "Well, don't give yourself brain damage. I mean, what am I supposed to do when my automail breaks and you can't fix it because your brain's all messed up?"

Winry was indignant. "Well, you wouldn't have to worry about that if you didn't keep breaking your automail in the first place," she snapped, falling into what was familiar territory for the both of them. "Seriously, I can't help but wonder if you're doing it on purpose just to annoy me, or if you're seriously that stupid and reckless that you don't know how to not damage them. Just once would I like you to show up for some other reason besides your automail being broken."

Ed snorted. "Well, what else would I come visit for? Your brilliant personality? I mean, I am pretty busy these days. I've got places to go, people to see—it's not like I have enough time for something like that."

"Well, it's nice to know how little you miss us," she said sarcastically. "And, anyway, there's better things that I could be doing with you than just fixing your automail."

That shut him up, though it took Winry a moment (as well as seeing the look of embarrassment on his face) to realize why. When she did, her face flushed again, and she wished more than anything else at that moment that those words hadn't come out of her mouth. Or, at least, that Ed didn't take it the wrong way, but it was obviously too late for that.

"Better things that you could be doing with me?" he repeated slowly. If there was any doubt where his mind went with those words, then there wasn't anymore, not with the tone of voice he'd used.

"Just shut up," she told him, still thinking about it.

The silence stretched between them, and, if anything, it made things just that much worse. Winry idly wondered where Al was, and then immediately felt grateful that it wasn't here. She wasn't entirely sure what Al did with his nights: being in his current state, he didn't sleep at all, so he obviously had to occupy his time somehow. She was just glad that he wasn't here at that moment—he had somehow kept the sense of innocence that his older brother had lost years ago, and what had just come up was anything but innocent, even though she didn't mean it like that.

As if he knew exactly what she were thinking, he asked, "Hey, where's Al?"

Winry shrugged. "I'm sure he's fine," she replied. "Let's just go back to sleep." But she didn't think she could sleep. Somehow the bantering that they had energized her, and judging by the fact that he was still sitting up in bed, making absolutely no move to lay down and go back to sleep, Ed wasn't tired anymore, either. After a few moments she sighed, and rolled back out of bed. "You know what? I'll see if I could go get us a snack."

"Just so long as you don't make me drink milk or something," Ed called out to her as she headed to the door, as if she didn't already know that after all these years. That made her smile, and a witty reply came to mind, one that she couldn't resist using, especially since it had always proven to get a rise out of him.

"Well, Ed, if you're going to continue to insist on not drinking any milk, then you have only yourself to blame for being so short," she teased him.

Winry could barely contain her laughter as she left him among his own sputtering protests, yet again pissed that someone had pushed his buttons, though she personally couldn't help herself, because it never failed to amuse her.