ah i haven't posted anything on here in forever sorry

Anyway, I FINALLY got an idea for a Fullmetal Alchemist fic! (It is, like, my favourite thing EVER.) Plus it's EdWin, one of my favourite pairings ever! *w*

/although i kinda don't like like a lot it bc ed is way too dramatic and they blush a lot more than they should and the ending sucks a whole lot of baddy bad bad bad but i needed to write fma and it's fluffy and i am so so so so sorrryy?/ moving on

There are probably a gazillion really embarrassing typos that I didn't notice while editing/rereading like there *always* are so if you see one you don't need to point it out because I have the curse of seeing them as soon as it's published and I'm already dead inside yeah

SO for the actually interesting stuff that you want to know about:

Pairing: Like I already said, EDWIN! (Ed x Winry)

Title: Welcome Home

Summary: Ed returns home unexpectedly from the west. Post brotherhood/manga.

- (bc sometimes the line breaks don't enter I'll fix this later kk ily) -

Winry sipped at her apple juice, sitting on the front step of the porch. Pinako was out to town for the day, picking up groceries and supplies, which left Winry all alone to take care of the customers for the day. She wished the first one would show up already so she could have some sort of human company.

Winry had had enough of solitude; even these two hours of being alone took a toll on her. It felt like each hour was equivalent to the years she'd been waiting and worrying over Ed and Al.

Even though things were better now, though the future was bright, she was still alone. They were still in danger.

She shook her head a bit. "Those crazy boys," she said, petting Den. "They just can't settle down, can they."

She looked out at the horizon. Even though it caused a great deal of grief and stress, she admired that quality in them.

She thought about the childhood days they'd spent together; amazing, how even through all that happened, even if they barely even saw each other throughout so many of their teen years, they were still all so close. And her and Ed, well, she tried not to think about their goodbye before he left, it made her want him to come home too much.

A few minutes later, Den suddenly jumped up, wagging his tail. He barked loudly, over and over. Winry knew that bark. It was the bark of Den recognizing someone they knew.

"Den, who is it?" she asked, though of course she wasn't expecting an answer. "Did Granny come home early?"

Den jumped down the stairs and began running away, down the path that led to the train station and out of Resembool. What was making him so excited?

Winry yelled and ran after him. "Den! Come back here! What are you doing?"

It was after just a few seconds that she saw him - a blond man with a brown waistcoat… Ed…

She stopped in her tracks. "Edward?" She whispered to herself.

As she focused on him, she saw that Ed was limping on his real leg and some wooden stick he was using as a walking stick. When he heard Den's bark, his head popped up, since he had been looking down at the ground. He saw Winry after just a few seconds.

"Hey! Winry!" he waved his free hand up in the air. It was hard to hear him from where she was, but he yelled loudly. "Mind giving me a hand?"

"Depends on what kind of hand you're talking about!" she yelled back. "You might have to ask Al for that kind!" At the last word, she couldn't hold them in any longer and a few tears dropped down her face. She broke into another run, this one faster, because Ed was alive and home and she hadn't seen him for so many months and he's back.

Ed laughed hard at Winry's joke, which made him stumble and fall to the ground. "Ow," he mumbled, rubbing his automail leg.

Winry got to him about a minute later and sat down onto the ground next him. "Oh no," she said. "You can't even get up by yourself? What did you do?"

"I could if I tried, Winry, but frankly, I'm beat."

She sighed. "Fine."

Winry wrapped her arm around Ed's waist - she tried her hardest not to blush but did slightly, anyway - and after counting to three together, they pushed Ed up onto his feet.

"There you go again," he smiled at her, "never failing to help me up."

"Be quiet," she muttered down to her feet, just like she had when they'd fight as kids. But now things were different, now the reasons were different.

She took his briefcase and handed him his not-quite-a-walking stick and they started to go back to the house together. After a few steps, Ed grunted and wrapped his arms around Winry's shoulders for support.

Ed didn't make any conversation, leaving it up to Winry. Where to start? He'd left over six months ago into pretty much completely unexplored land. What question asks about all of that?

She decided to start small. "So… Why'd you come home?"

He didn't even turn his head to her. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, like he was in pain. "I couldn't stay in the west any longer."

"Oh… oh, um, why?"

"Problems."

"Is your leg bothering you?

"Yeah."

She looked down at his legs, the right, human one walking seemingly fine, and the metal one, hidden by his clothes, trailing after it. "How… much… is it bothering you?"

Finally Edward seemed to lose his mysterious, cold act. His voice got higher from nervousness like it always did when something was up, and a blush took over a good portion of his face. "A… a lot…"

"Edward! I told you to make an appointment beforehand if you needed repairs! I have a customer coming in less than an hour!"

"Well- I- I didn't have access to a phone!"

"There are phones everywhere these days!"

"I didn't have time to go look for a phone!"

"How quickly did you need to leave?!"

Edward looked away, still blushing. "I had to go as soon as I broke it."

"Why?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

A few years ago, Winry would have been hurt at that, but after that one conversation she'd had with Mr. Hughes…

The memory of him hit her like a dagger in her chest. She decided to just drop the argument for now. She put her arm back around Ed's waist and said, softly, "Come on. Let's just go home."

"Okay. I'd like that."

—

They walked in silence all the way back to the house, which was sort of Ed's house, too. It had taken them forever, since Ed could barely walk, and after a few minutes Den ran ahead on his own.

Winry opened the door and dropped Ed's briefcase onto the table. She rubbed the arm that had been holding it; it was surprisingly heavy.

Ed sighed and stumbled his way onto the couch, lying down on it. "Finally. My leg is killing me."

Winry's face was soft with concern as she sat down next to Ed. She rolled his left leg's pant up to the knee and saw the only half it was intact; what wasn't missing of it was falling off, damaged, or in the wrong place.

"What did you do?" Winry laughed; she knew she shouldn't be, but she didn't want to yell at him just yet, and plus, the automail was so messed up it was like Ed had tried to find the best way to annoy her.

Ed looked away for a second. Winry was scared that he'd say he didn't want to talk about it again, but she really needed to know. Ed had obviously been in some kind of trouble, because not even an idiot like him could mess himself up this bad by accident.

The former alchemist took a deep breath. "I got in a fight last night-"

"What? I thought you were traveling to learn, not put yourself in danger! Do you know how much I have to worry about you without thinking you could be getting yourself-"

"I didn't mean to, Winry! Things had been going so well, and I'd learned a lot, but things between Amestris and the western countries are still so bad… I tried to keep my nationality a secret, but somehow it got out… I was just about to go to sleep and I was reading over some notes I'd taken, when some guys just banged down my door and attacked me! They called me evil and 'Amestrian scum' and stuff like that. I couldn't fight them without my automail, and I was two seconds from getting killed when my assistant Nicholas came in. He'd called the police and they were there in a few minutes. Once they got to my room, they took the guys away. Nicholas told me to get out, away from here, and go back to Amestris for a few weeks… there were more to come until they eventually beat me. I grabbed all my stuff and Nicholas drove me to the train station. I was on a train a few hours later. And now… here I am."

Winry leaned back against the couch in shock. Ed had just gone through all this? And he'd be going back out there in just a few weeks… but she knew she couldn't tell him to stay.

"Ed…" she didn't know what to say. After a couple minutes, she smiled and said, "Amazing how you got away with nothing but a broken leg."

Ed laughed under his breath. "Oh no, Winry, I'm bruised all over."

"I wish you wouldn't hurt yourself so much."

"Well, that's life, isn't it?"

"Yeah." There was a few moments of silence between the two. "Have you heard from Al yet?"

"Oh yeah, a lot. Letters monthly. He's loving Xing. Alkahestry amazes him - and Mei seems to too! Not one letter I've gotten without him saying something nice about her. Ling is the emperor now, and apparently there are tons of different species of cats there. I think he likes it better than Amestris!"

Winry laughed with Ed at his story. "Will he leave us and never come back, you think?" she joked.

"I wouldn't be surprised! But he said he'd come back in a couple months to visit and see how things are going. Al thinks it could take him over a decade to learn everything he wants to know."

"Won't you two ever stay calm?"

"Aw, Winry, we both know you'd never stick with us if we did that."

They made eye contact for a few seconds. Ed stuck out his hand, and Winry got the message and took it. That farewell felt like it had happened in a old dream, not just a few months ago, not the last time she had seen him… It was odd, acting this way around Ed, even if it wasn't the first time. They'd already had their fair share of moments, but now that they were… together, it was a whole new level of… she didn't know. Awkwardness. Affection.

He rubbed his thumb against her hand. "I've missed you." His voice was soft and quiet.

"Me too," she said, though she knew that it 'I missed you' didn't cover what she'd felt. She could tell, from the way Ed had talked, that he was thinking that as well.

She eventually pulled her hand away. "My customer is going to be here soon. I'd better go get ready for him."

"Mind passing me my briefcase? I'll have to study as much as I can to make up for the next few weeks."

She gave him the briefcase. "Don't expect to get much done the next few days. Pinako and I will need the entire story of everything that's happened before you get any time to yourself.

"I just can't have a break, can I?"

"Nope," she smiled, and left the room to go get changed and prepare for the day.

Winry tried to be with Ed as much as she could that day, but it wasn't until six o'clock, when the last customer left, that she finally could talk to him again. She plopped down on the couch where Ed hadn't gotten up from all day - which was incredibly surprising for her - and took a breath, when suddenly Pinako came home, carrying a bunch of bags.

"Well, the pipsqueak finally decided to return to us!"

"PINAKO I AM NOT A MICROSCOPIC DUST BUNNY YOU HALF A PARTICLE."

"STOP USING FOR FANCY SCIENCE WORDS TO TRY AND INSULT ME YOU COCKY RUNT."

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO SMALL I COULD FIT UNDER THE DOOR."

"GUYS!" Winry screamed them, but Granny and Ed's constant height insults at each other made her feel at home. "Are you done already?"

"I guess," Ed muttered. "But I have grown a ton, Pinako. I'm almost as tall as Al."

"How is that boy, anyway?"

"He's fine," Ed sighed.

Winry giggled. "'Fine' might be a bit of an understatement."

Ed's stomach growled, and Pinako asked, "Well, I guess we'll have to have something special tonight for a welcome back!"

"I'll have anything as long as it's filling."

"Stew it is!" Winry exclaimed, taking the bags from Pinako.

The two started getting the meal ready. Ed took a piece of paper and began writing extremely quickly and obviously messily. A couple minutes later he yawned, and Winry called to him, "Ed, have you slept at all since last night?"

"Nope. Couldn't sleep on the train and I was too busy reading and writing to Al during the day."

Winry muttered, "For someone who used to spend half his life sleeping…" and continued cooking.

About forty minutes later, Pinako set the pot of stew on the dinner table. "Ed!" Winry called, but he didn't answer.

"Ed?" She said again, to herself. She walked to him and was only mildly surprised to find him passed out on the couch with papers sprawled all over his chest. She smiled and blushed, and walked back to the dinner table. She put some stew in a bowl and brought it to Ed.

She tapped his shoulder a few times. "Hey, wake up, sleepy head."

"…Hm?"

"You fell asleep. I brought you dinner."

Ed furrowed his eyebrows and squeezed his eyelids, then rubbed and finally opened them. He grunted and put the papers in his briefcase with no order at all.

Winry sat down next to him and handed him the soup. He took a couple sips, and when she didn't leave, he took a spoonful and fed it to her. They both froze immediately, then Ed pulled the spoon back and put it back in the stew. He didn't know why he did it; he'd just done it without thought, on impulse.

"Sorry…"

"No, no, it's fine…" she said, blushing madly and smiling to herself. A moment later she realized she'd said that aloud and immediately blushed harder. She scratched the back of her head out of embarrassment.

"W-w-w-w-well… not really… I didn't mean that! I just didn't want to make you feel bad! I just… um…" she tried to sound angry but her voice and expression failed her. "Hey! Why'd you do that! That was so… so… so…"
Ed tilted his head back for a second and laughed, then leaned in and gave Winry a quick kiss.

Not hard or anything, just soft and lightly and so cutely, Winry thought. He pulled away quicker than she'd wanted him to.

"Sorry, I'm tired," Ed said, finally making eye contact for one of the first times that day, his eyes joking and his smile suddenly making Winry want to giggle.

She gave him that same kiss back, making it as quick as possible for payback.

Ed's stomach growled again, always ruining the moment. He took another sip of the stew.

"I'll fix your leg up tomorrow so that it'll be easier for you to walk. But we'll have to take it off. There's too much damage for me to fix it still attached."

"Not like I can walk very well with it, anyway. I think I sprained my ankle fighting last night."

"You think?"

"It's sprained."

"What else did you decide to not tell me?!"

"Nothing. That's it."

"Okay, more importantly: why didn't you tell me?"

Ed shrugged, obviously hiding his emotions. "I didn't want to make you worry more than you had to."

"Ed, if you're anywhere but here I'm going to worry about you. You can't help but get into trouble."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, it's fine," she said. "I love that about you."

Winry realized her word choice but didn't try to take it back, for the first time. She got up from the couch and took Ed's now-empty bowl back to the kitchen.

"Go to sleep," she said. "You need it."

Ed groaned in complaint but closed his eyes anyway.

In the kitchen, Pinako sighed from her seat, "I was hoping to have tall grandchildren."

"Granny!"