Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of the characters contained within this fanfiction. It is the property of Hiromu Arakawa, Square Enix Co., Ltd.'s and Monthly Shonen Gangan. I simply worship and adore... and sometimes write fic.

Spoilers and setting: A theme challenge I've decided to undertake to keep myself entertained. This is a series of drabbles/short one shots that centers around the relationship between Edward and Winry. They are presented in a non-linear fashion and so jump about in time from theme to theme. There are 50 themes in total and I intend to have approximately five to a chapter. I hope you enjoy!

#01 – Comfort

She acts strong, blasé even, as she attaches the automail and he cries out in pain. She tells him it's not that bad, that he should be used to it by now and goes about cleaning up her wrenches and pliers. Her hair is freed from her bandana while he winces and moans, twisting in an attempt to get comfortable, to ease the biting pain shooting up and down his arm and branching across his chest.

She acts strong but that doesn't stop her pushing the hair back off his sweaty forehead or from pressing her lips to his temple.

#02 - Kiss

She knows his exact measurements and dimensions, has memorised the length of his limbs and the shape of his torso. Intellectually she knows these things and is aware of how his body is shifting and changing as the years go by, but she is still taken aback when she notices how broad his shoulders have become or how much bigger his hand is than hers.

But it is not until the day she has to stand on tiptoe in order to press her lips to his that it finally hits home; he's becoming a man.

#03 - Soft

She's as obsessed as he is really. They're so similar in that way. Alchemy consumes him and he thinks of the world in formulae and equations. She watches the movement of limbs and flexing of muscles, her mind a maelstrom of steel and fibres. When he comes to her with a broken arm and bandages she berates and fumes at him before throwing herself head first into re-building her masterpiece.

He has to bring her food because she will work through lunch. Her days end when she falls asleep over her workbench, hair splayed out around her like summer-ripened wheat. If he wakes her she'll only go back to work so he has taken to picking her up and carrying her to her bedroom. She snuggles against him, whimpering as consciousness begins to drift closer.

He lays her gently on the bed, pulling the covers around her and smiles as she settles back to sleep.

One night she took him by the wrist and whispered to him.

"Stay with me."

He was glad the darkness obscured his furious blush as he pulled back the covers with a trembling hand and settled down beside her.

#04 - Pain

They never really talk about it. It's a subject still painful for all of them even after all these years. Losing a parent is always hard even without the circumstances surrounding the ways in which they lost theirs.

Though it's the happiest day of her life, Winry's heart still aches just a little that it is who Al links arms with her, tells her how radiant she looks and then walks her down the isle.

The sudden bitterness dissolves when she catches sight of Ed standing in front of his military comrades looking nervous and handsome and painfully adorable.

#05 - Potatoes

Ed still refuses to drink milk and so Winry has to find inventive ways of slipping it to him. She borrows cookbooks from friends or buys them on her occasional visits to Central or one of the other larger cities.

She gets frustrated with his stubborn refusal to consume anything dairy. As an automail mechanic she is versed in human anatomy and knows that he must be suffering from a lack of calcium.

Even with his height complex he refuses point blank to even choke down a glass of milk and so Winry disguises it in whatever she can, stew, soup… she even slips a little milk into his fruit juices.

He sits down to lunch, the fingers of his left hand stained with blue ink. She presents him with a plate of mashed potatoes before sitting across from him. He seasons his meal with salt and pepper before he begins wolfing down his meal.

She smiles at him and he glances at her. "What?" It is mumbled around a mouthful.

"You like it?" She beams brightly.

He smiles back, nodding enthusiastically before returning his attention to the mashed potatoes in front of him.

Edited to add: Special thanks to S J Smith for catching typos and tense changes! Thanks!