Best Friends and True Love 3

Best Friends and True Love

School

Chapter 3

I stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel before opening the door and closing it behind myself.

I didn’t really need a towel to enter my room since it was my own private bathroom, but I never knew when Ed might come in through my window and catch my off guard.

It had never happened before, but I didn’t want to take that chance.

Making sure my window was locked and the curtains were shut, I finished drying off and then got dressed.

It was Monday morning and I had to go to school today. I was a senior. Soon I’d be graduating and off to college.

And then…I might be separated from Ed…

I didn’t want that so I might have to force him to go to the same college as me…

I didn’t care if people found me unusual for it, but I wanted to become a mechanic. I loved to work on cars and other objects.

Ed always called me a “loser machine junkie” but I didn’t really care. He was a science geek in my opinion since he always got the highest grade in a science class.

We were in the same Chemistry class and he must’ve had a hundred in there while I probably had a B.

We walked to school every morning, my, Ed, and Al, at least when it wasn’t cold outside. On those days, however, we went in Ed’s car.

As I closed the front door behind myself, I saw them waiting for me at the bottom of the steps.

“And just where were you yesterday Alphonse?” I asked in a “mother hen” tone.

“Oh, some girl from school asked me to meet her yesterday. She asked me out but I told her no. After that I went home, but Ed wasn’t there and you were gone so I just hung out with dad all day.”

“Look!” I said as I pulled the wrench out of my backpack. “Ed bought this for me yesterday. Do you like it?”

“Gosh I. You make it sound like I bought you a new outfit and you’re showing it off. It’s a wrench, dammit, and you shouldn’t take it to school.”

“Ignore brother,” Al said as he put his hand over Edward’s mouth. “It’s nice, but it looks expensive.”

“It was expensive, but I should be worth it, right Alphonse?”

Al laughed nervously before nodding his head.

“Of course you’re worth it,” he said before offering me his arm. I took it and they walked ahead of Ed.

I looked behind us at Ed and stuck my tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes.

We almost had the same schedule. The majority of our classes were the same so we saw plenty of each other, Ed and I.

As I sat in our first period class, Chemistry, I rubbed my forehead. I was getting a headache from this nonsense.

“I just don’t get it,” I said as I looked at Ed who had already finished his work. “I just suck at this. How in the world do you change this from grams to moles?!”

He laughed at me and grabbed my pencil. “Look,” he said as he pulled the paper closer. “It’s simple.”

“Easy for you to say,” I said as I glared at him. He ignored me.

“Look, this stuff is easy. If you don’t understand this, I know you won’t understand balancing equations when the teacher moves us on to that.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I already know that. I haven’t really understood anything in the class all year.”

“You mean you didn’t understand anything until I helped you, right? And now you have a B so you have nothing to complain about.”

I rolled my eyes again.

“Look here,” he began.

My mind trailed off. I tried to pay attention to what he was saying, really, I did. However, he looked so good today that I began to think about how hot he was yet again.

He hadn’t braided his hair today. Instead, he had it back in a ponytail. Even though yesterday had been really warm, this morning had been strangely cold. He’d worn his favorite red coat, but now he had it laying on the back of his chair.

Since he wasn‘t wearing the coat, I was thinking about the muscles he was hiding underneath the black short sleeved shirt he was wearing.

I loved it when he wore black. Black was definitely a good color for him.

“And then that leaves you with 131.2 moles of Cl, which is chlorine. Did you get that? You’re not listening, are you?”

“Hmm?” I asked faintly.

“Winry,” he said as he waved his hand in front of my face.

“Oh, hi Ed,” I said as I stopped playing with his ponytail, which I had no idea I’d been doing.

“I knew it. Winry, how do you expect to understand this when you don’t pay attention? I’m done helping you.”

I laughed at him and began playing with his ponytail again.

“I just got distracted,” I explained. “It won’t happen next time.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Distracted? Distracted by what?” he asked, curious.

I blushed and looked away. I couldn’t let him know that I’d been distracted my thoughts of him, could I?

“Nothing really. You’re right, I need to pay more attention.”

“Oh come on. You can tell me the truth,” he continued.

“Nope. That’s not gonna happen,” I told him as I avoided his gaze.

He would’ve continued to question me, but he was interrupted by our classmate, Noah.

“Hey Ed,” she said in her normal friendly and somewhat desperate tone. “Could you help me out with number five?”

“Yeah,” he told her as he grabbed her paper.”

Noah was nice enough, but she made me mad a lot. She had a crush on Ed, a huge crush, and she talked to him every chance she got.

I got tired of it. Whether he knew it or not, he was mine, and she would never have him! I would make her stop, but Ed didn’t know I was in love with him and since I knew he wasn’t in love with me, it’d only make things worse.

Instead, I grabbed his coat and rolled it up into a ball, burying my face in it and growling slightly under my breath.

Noah was an annoyance. I was jealous, I must admit. I was definitely jealous even though there wasn’t really anything to be jealous of. Still, though, I couldn’t help it.

I needed a nap and his coat would serve as my pillow. With my nose buried in the fabric, I couldn’t help but smell the scent that lingered on it.

‘It smells just like Ed,’ I thought absently as my eyes drifted closed.

Ed always smelled great. I don’t know if it was the soap he used, the cologne he wore, his shampoo, or what, but he always smelled good.

I was happy that I didn’t snore because I was knocked out within a few short seconds.

Ed soon woke me up by yanking on my hair and told me I’d better pay attention as he began to explain the work to me again.

I told him “good luck” before he started, but I paid attention anyway.

I was a good student, honest. I was on the honor roll, in fact. It’s just that sometimes Ed could be distracting without really trying.

By the time he shut his mouth, I did have a better understanding of it and I was able to finally finish my work by myself since he didn’t let me copy down his answers, that goodie two shoes…

And Noah was able to do her own work, thankfully.

When the bell rang, I was the one wearing the coat out of the classroom. It was too big for me, but I didn’t care. I wore his coat many times.

Whenever we got into water fights at his house I sometimes had to wear his clothes, anyway, so the coat wasn’t a big deal…

I grabbed onto his arm and hurried to my locker. His was right next to mine so I wasn’t inconveniencing him.

I got my book and closed my locker, putting the lock back on. Ed, however, had forgotten his combination again.

“Um…Winry,” he said, pointing at his lock. “A little help here?”

“Move aside,” I said as I grabbed the lock and unlocked it easily. “Really now, what would you do without me? You’ll never remember your combination.”

“I’d be lost without you,” he said sarcastically. “By the way, what is my combination?”

“Right twenty three, left two, and right eleven,” I replied as I grabbed his book and shoved it into his arms. “What do I have to do, tattoo it onto your forehead?”

But I loved the fact that he couldn’t remember his combination. I liked opening his locker for him. I felt as if he really needed me, as weird as that might sound.

Whenever I was absent from school he usually had to go to the office and have them tell him his combination or else see if Al remembered it. Sometimes, though, he got lucky and actually remembered it on his own.

As we walked down the hallway we noticed that there was a group of girls standing around Alphonse. Al looked like he wanted to get away, so I decided that I might have to chase them all away with a stick. But in my case, however, the stick would probably be my new shiny wrench.

“Oh no you don’t,” Ed said as he pushed me back. “You’re not going to threaten them.”

“I wasn’t going to threaten them,” I protested. “I was just going to tell them all that I had to speak to Al.”

He obviously wasn’t convinced by my answer since he went to help Al on his own.

“Hey Alphonse,” he said as he made his way through the crowd of girls. “I need to talk to you.”

“Well would you look at that?” Al said quickly, happy to see a way to get away. “It’s been nice talking to you ladies, but my brother needs me.”

I was happy that “operation: save Alphonse” was a success. What I wasn’t happy about, however, was the way that the girls eyes had shifted from gazing at Al to gazing at Ed.

They were looking at him like he was a tasty piece of meat or something. Sure, I imagine that I looked at him like that sometimes when he wasn’t paying attention, but that was okay for me to do. I didn’t like it when they did it.

Some of them I knew and they waved at me. The angry expression on my face shifted to a friendly one as I waved back and said a few nice words to the ones that I knew.

“Winry is so lucky,” I heard one of them say as we walked away. “She’s friends with Ed and Al. She even lives right next door to them!”

“If I lived next door to them, I’d be able to spy on them when they were coming out of the shower, getting dressed,…”

That last sentence was cut off as we turned the corner.

Sure I could do all of that. But I wasn’t some sick stalker…

Al was smart when it came to science, too. The both of them made me sick, yep, but I guess that deathly ill would be more like it.

Fifth period was a free period for me. I didn’t have a class to go to so I usually hung out in the gym and watched Ed and Al, who were in gym class.

Unfortunately, there were many other girls who had the same idea. I tried not to let that get to me since I was enjoying watching Ed playing basketball.

It made my day to see him running around in his gym clothes and dominating the court. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt and a pair of shorts, exactly what he usually wore.

Al passed Ed the ball and he raised his strong arms and shot it into the basket, winning the game.

Okay, with all of my talk about how hot Ed is everything else, you must think that I’m some lovesick puppy or something.

You might even be getting sick of me going on and on about his hotness. In that case, I‘m very sorry.

Anyway, much to my discontent, Noah also liked to spend this period in the gym. I imagine that the expression on her face probably resembled mine and I had no right to get angry since Ed wasn’t my boyfriend, but I couldn’t help it.

Ed and Al’s team ended up winning the game and they all went to the showers. I waited patiently for them to return, making small talk with Noah even though I didn’t like the fact that she liked Ed.

The gym teacher was also the Chemistry teacher. Izumi Curtis was one of the prettiest women I’d ever seen, yet she could also be very brutal.

Though I had to admit that she’d whipped the Elric brothers into pretty good shape.

Noah had been saying something about something and I wasn’t really paying attention to her when Ed and Al came out of the locker room and came to the bleachers.

“Hi Ed,” Noah said as they reached us. “Good game today.”

Okay, I didn’t really hate Noah. I’d always liked her except for when she was all over Ed. I don’t want to sound psycho or anything or hateful so I’ll admit to that. I actually thought she was beautiful and I loved the shade of her skin.

So if that makes me sound less mean, then good.

“Hey Noah,” he said. “Did you finish your Chemistry?”

She nodded.

“Yep. I think I did great on it, all thanks to you.”

“Here,” I said as I grabbed my brush and fixed Al’s hair, which had looked a little wild at the moment.

“Oh, thanks,” he said as he gave me a smile.

A few seconds later, Russell Tringham came over to me and we started talking.

He was a year younger than me, a junior like Alphonse, but we’d always been friends.

Ed looked at us out of the corner of his eyes and I could’ve sworn I saw him glare at Russell. As a matter of fact, I’d caught him glaring at him a couple of times when I we were talking.

I shrugged in confusion.

At the time, I had no idea what the look meant even though it should’ve been obvious. That glare obviously represented jealousy.

Best Friends and True Love 2

Best Friends and True Love
Chapter 2
Ed, Winry, and Vampire Teeth?

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Gay? How could she even suggest that I might be gay?!

I wondered that for what was maybe the hundredth time within the hour since she’d said that. We weren’t doing anything exciting, just hanging out by the big water fountain in the center of town.

It was a nice day. The sun was shining, the sky was clear, and there was a nice breeze. If somebody had said, “Hey Ed, how’s the weather over there?” then I’d reply, “Just fine, how about over there where you are?”

I looked over at Winry. She had her soft hand in the water, waving it around. She didn’t seem to notice me staring at her, so I just continued.

My gaze gradually moved up her arm and to her slender shoulder. From there, I gazed at the delicate skin of her neck.

From there…well, you don’t really need to think to hard to figure that out, right?!

I’d known her since I was thirteen. She was my best friend. She understood me better than anybody else, right?

She’d been there for me for so long.

If I were to try to come up with one single word to describe Winry Rockbell, what would it be? Beautiful, it’d definitely be the word beautiful.

It was unusually warm and the heat obviously getting to her since she’d started to sweat slightly.

I just couldn’t tear my gaze away from the dampness of her skin. She wiped her forehead with her dry hand and took the other out of the water.

“It’s hot out today. I mean, it’s nice weather, just hot, though. Do you want to go somewhere else?”

“Hmm?” I asked, not really paying attention to her words. She’d started to look at me and that was when I snapped out of it and looked away, not really wanting her to catch me staring.

“Ed, are you okay?” she asked.

I laughed nervously.

“Yep, I’m fine, just fine. No need to worry about me!”

She looked at me suspiciously before shrugging and putting her hand on my forehead, the wet hand.

It was cool against my heated skin, soothing. Even her hand was beautiful.

“So do you want to?” she asked.

“Want to what?”

She sighed.

“I knew it. You weren’t listening before. I asked you if you wanted to go somewhere else since it’s so hot here. Just look at us, we’re both sweating.”

I nodded faintly. I still didn’t really hear what she was saying, but I responded anyway.

She stood up and grabbed my hand, dragging me away from that place. We ended up in an arcade, which thankfully, had air conditioning.

After beating her for the fifteenth time at a fighting game, I grabbed the tickets I’d won.

“No fair Ed. You must be cheating every time. Nobody can beat me that many times like that.”

I smiled.

“You’re right Win, nobody can except for me.”

She pouted and looked away.

“Come on,” I said. “I’ll take the tickets I won by beating you and get you a prize.”

She seemed to agree to that and followed me to the counter. She looked at the prizes under the glass and for some strange reason she selected the plastic vampire teeth.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yep,” she replied.

I shrugged before telling the woman behind the counter to get the teeth.

She giggled as I placed them in her hand and gave the woman the tickets.

“Here I,” she said as she put the teeth up to my mouth. “I wanted these so that you could wear them.”

“What? Oh hell no,” I replied as I pushed them away.

She grinned.

“Oh come on Ed. I think that a guy with fangs is hot. You never know…maybe they’ll help you get a girlfriend.”

I blushed before glaring at her.

She offered me the teeth again.

“Please? For me?” she said.

How could I say no to that face?

Sighing, I grabbed the teeth and stuck them in my mouth. She clapped happily before flashing me that victorious grin of hers.

I didn’t want help finding a girlfriend. I could get one easily if I wanted to, but I didn’t. The only girl I wanted, I couldn’t have, right? And she had no clue about how I felt about her.

The first thing I thought about Winry Rockbell the first time I saw her through that window was that she was pretty.

But pretty had one day turned into beautiful.

I didn’t know when it happened, but I’d fallen in love with her, with Winry. She was the only girlfriend I wanted and she didn’t know it.

And she might not ever know…

I thought I looked ridiculous with the fake teeth in my mouth and they irritated my real teeth.

“This sucks,” I said gloomily as I readjusted the wretched plastic.

She shocked me when she grabbed the teeth out of my mouth and stuck them into her own.

“That can’t be sanitary. Now all of my spit is in your mouth,” I said quickly.

She shrugged.

“You brush your teeth, you floss, you have no girlfriend so you haven’t been kissing anybody, and your mouth hasn’t been any other place that it shouldn’t be so what do I have to worry about? Besides, if this grosses you out, then what will you do when you get married?”

I rolled my eyes.

“I could get kissed if I wanted to,” I said defensively. “And what do you mean my mouth hasn’t been any places that it shouldn’t?”

This time she rolled her eyes.

“Just use your imagination, buddy,” she told me.

I raised my eyebrows and looked away.

Sometimes she said the strangest, most disturbing things to me that I doubted she would say to anybody else.

“So,” she began. “How do they look?”

She smiled with the teeth.

I thought she looked just as ridiculous as I had, but even so, she still looked beautiful.

“Weird, you look weird,” I told her with a grin.

She hit my arm lightly and walked ahead of me, poking her head out of the door and looking down the street.

As we stepped out onto the street, an old couple that was passing by said “Oh what a cute young couple. They look perfect together.”

I had immediately blushed. I didn’t get the chance to see if Winry was blushing too since I immediately looked in the opposite direction!

Couple? Did they look like a couple? And not only that, but we looked perfect together? I wished that was true.

We avoided looking at each other as we walked down the street. I’d done my best to avoid the local hardware shop, but to no avail.

Winry was stronger than she looked and even though I was stronger than her and could have easily resisted, I let her drag me inside.

The store’s owner, Pinako Rockbell, greeted us as we entered.

“Winry and Ed. Out again today, are you?”

“Hi grandma,” Winry said as she stepped up to the counter.

“I see you got rid of the stool. Nice stairs,” I teased.

Pinako glared at me. She’d been standing on a stool so that she could see above the counter. But that wasn’t convenient enough so she’d had some stairs installed instead.

“Keep it up Ed and I’ll have to knock you back down to your old height,” she said as she picked up the wrench she had sitting on display in front of the window.

Winry knocked me lightly on the arm and grabbed the wrench out of her hand.

“Speaking of this,” Winry said as she examined the item. “I saw this in the window and this is why I came inside! How about giving your one and only granddaughter an early birthday present?”

Pinako had an amused look on her face as she laughed at Winry.

“I don’t think so, kid. Buy something or else get out, just like all my other customers.”

“Please grandma? Just this once? I absolutely must have this! It’s so shiny and pretty, yet strong and reliable at the same time!”

Pinako shook her head.

“Sorry. No can do.”

Winry turned toward me, her last resort, with fake tears in her eyes.

“Don’t cry to me. I’m not buying it for you,” I told her with a stern expression on my face.

“But Eddie!” she cried as she put on her version of the “sad puppy dog face”.

‘Eddie?’ I thought. ‘Damn, she’s using that puppy dog face again….’

“I’ll love you forever,” she said as she continued to make that face.

I sighed and hung my head low before nodding.

‘If only you would love me forever,’ I thought as I pulled out my wallet and handed over the money. ‘Especially since she asked me for the most expensive on in the whole store…’

“Yay!” Winry said as Pinako stuck the money in the cash register. “You’re the best Ed.”

“Yeah, I better be after what you just cost me,” I said with a scowl on my face, the same scowl I’d been wearing the day we met.

“Don’t scowl. You wouldn’t like it if that look got stuck on your face, would you?”

“Ah, what the hell, I’m over it. Lets just go now,” I said as I grabbed her hand and left the store.

We reached her house and were standing at the front door of the Rockbell residence.

“It’s the last day of my weekend and I just got dragged all around town and cheated out of a chunk of my money,” I complained.

Winry rolled her eyes and then turned around to face me.

“But Ed,” she said in a soft tone. “Wasn’t it worth it to see me happy?”

She smiled at me before she opened the door and disappeared behind it, closing it in my face.

“That smile of hers made it worth it,” I whispered to myself before I cut across the lawn and went straight to my house.

Closing the door behind me, I was walking by the living room when I heard my father’s voice.

“That you Ed?” Hohenheim asked from his seat on the couch.

I entered the room and stood in the doorway.

“Nope, it’s just some random guy off of the street that looks like me,” I joked.

Hohenheim had to work a lot of the time, but he always made time for his family it seemed.

I sat down next to him and thanked the heavens for whoever it was that invented the air conditioner.

“It’s hot out there today, isn’t it?” Hohenheim asked as he changed the channel on the television.

“Yeah. And the fact that Winry pulled me all the way around town all day didn’t make it any less hot. Plus, she ended up making me spend half the money in my wallet on her, all for a stupid wrench.”

Hohenheim laughed.

“She made you spend the money? Yeah, sure” he said sarcastically. “You just couldn’t resist her woman charms, could you?”

“What?!” I said quickly. “What “womanly charms”?”

Dad gave me a look that accused me of playing dumb.

“Oh come on Ed. Winry’s grown up. I’ve noticed, you’ve noticed, everybody’s noticed. So what did she do? Give you a kiss on the cheek…or…something more?”

I took a cushion off of the couch and threw it at his head and headed toward the door.

“No! She didn’t…we didn’t…uh, I am not discussing this with you. Get your mind out of the gutter dad.”

“You’re not a kid anymore Ed. Trisha and I never know what you’re up to,” he called behind me as I hurried upstairs. “When I was your age, I…”

I didn’t get the chance to hear the rest of his sentence since I slammed my door shut behind me, effectively ending the conversation.

Best Friends and True Love 1

New Neighbors and Best Friends

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Disclaimer: I don't own FMA or any of the characters because if I did, Ed and Winry would be together forever. This disclaimer applies to this chapter and all of the others...So...here's the story. I hope you like it!

OoOoOoOoOoO

The house was silent except for the sounds of his mother making breakfast in the kitchen. He was still asleep as I quietly opened the door and entered his room.

Smiling slightly, I sat down on his bed and looked at his sleeping face, pushing his blonde bangs aside. He looked so young when he was asleep, as young as he was the first day we met.

Edward always slept without a shirt, for as long as I could remember he always had. Yet there was something about the way he had “changed” over the years.

We were eighteen now, all grown up, right? Um…At least he was eighteen. I was still seventeen…Well the sight of his bare, grown up chest was enough to make me blush for looking yet be unable to look away.

To put it straight, he was hot. I had to admit that he totally was. His picture must’ve been in the dictionary next to the definition of “hot”.

I had known Ed since the day his family had moved in next door. We were both thirteen at the time. Even way back then, he was pretty cute. But since then, obviously, cute had shifted to hot.

His legs were long. He was about three inches taller than me. When had he gotten so tall? The day we’d first met, he was slightly shorter than me.

On that warm day in June, I had woken up to the sound of a truck and the ruckus of furniture being moved into the house next door.

Going to my window, I opened the curtains and let the bright light pour into my room. I had to shield my eyes from it momentarily until my eyes finally adjusted.

But when I uncovered my eyes, the sight of a cute boy standing on a branch of the tree in front of my window shocked the crap out of me!

When he turned his head and looked at me, I closed the curtains and placed my hand over my chest in an attempt to keep my heart from jumping out of it.

He’d scared me, sure, but I’d also immediately thought he was cute.

So what was a cute boy doing in the tree in front of my room? I had to find this out. I had every intention of opening the window and asking him this as I pulled back the curtains, but he was gone.

‘Maybe it’s for the best. After all, I don’t think I should question this guy while I’m wearing the clothes I wear to bed…’

I got dressed as quickly as I could and pulled my hair back into a ponytail before I went to brush my teeth.

As I spit out the toothpaste and grabbed the mouthwash, I heard my mother calling my name.

“Winry!” she said as she came up the stairs. “Oh, there you are. We have some new neighbors and I think we should go over there and welcome them to the neighborhood.”

“That explains the truck and the furniture,” I said after I spit out the mouthwash, too.

‘It also explains the boy who has in the tree,’ I secretly added in my thoughts.

As I went downstairs, I heard my mom in the kitchen. She had her head stuck into the refrigerator and she was getting ready to pull something out.

I watched her as she grabbed the chocolate cake she’d baked last night and had insisted be saved for desert after dinner tonight.

At least, that was back when we were actually a family, back when my parents were home and my mom cooked dinner every night. Yeah, that didn't last that long.

“Mom, what are you doing with the cake?” I asked, grabbing a knife just in case I’d be able to get her to leave the room so I could cut it.

She put the cake onto one of her best plates and took the knife out of my hand before she put the knife back in the drawer I’d gotten it from.

“These people just moved in and I want to make them feel at home so I’m giving them the cake,” she explained as she left the room.

“What?!” I said as I followed her.

“You heard me. I can always bake us another cake, anyway.”

I glared at the back of her head as she opened the door. Dang it, I’d wanted that cake! But at least she’d said she would back another one…

The house to the right of ours was the one being moved into. I wondered what kind of people they were and what this mysterious boy was like.

My mother didn’t hesitate as she walked onto the porch and rang the doorbell. The door was open since the movers were still bringing things inside.

“Come up here,” she told me as she saw me standing on the bottom step.

Sighing, I hurried to her side and waited to meet the newcomers.

“Oh, hello,” A beautiful woman with long brown hair said as she came to the door.

She smiled at the both of us. She looked friendly, likeable, and welcoming.

“I’m sorry to intrude like this, but I’m Sara Rockbell and this is my daughter Winry. We live next door and we just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood. We even brought you a cake,” she said, holding out the cake for the lady to take.

The woman gladly took it and smiled again.

“Thank you so much. I’m Trisha Elric. Would you like to come in?” she asked.

I automatically thought no, but of course my mom said, “Yes, we’d love to.”

Mrs. Elric led us to the living room to wait for her while she sat the cake down in the kitchen. At least they’d gotten the furniture moved into the living room so we didn’t have to sit on the floor or stand.

“So, Winry,” she addressed me. “Would you like a piece of the cake?”

I was obviously going to accept her generous offer, but of course my mom had to rain on my parade. She sent me a look that clearly told me to decline.

“No, I’m fine for now. We brought the cake for you to eat, not us,” I said with a smile on my face.

‘Cake snatchers,’ I thought as I looked at my mom.

My mother, who seemed pleased with my response, directed her attention to Mrs. Elric again.

“So, Mrs. Elric, you’re married, right? Do you have children?”

“Please call me Trisha. I am married. My husband started his new job today so he left the house up to me. And yes, I do have children.”

At that moment, the boy I’d seen before entered the room.

“Hey mom, I need…” he started, but trailed off as he saw us sitting there.

“Edward, these are our neighbors. This is Sara Rockbell and her daughter Winry.”

“Nice to meet you Edward,” my mother said as she smiled warmly at him.

“Likewise,” he said to her as he stared at me.

Yep, he was definitely the boy who had been standing in the tree. No doubt about that.

He was so cute, in my opinion. From the long blonde hair to the scowl on his face even to his slightly unusual height, he was cute.

I realized I’d been staring so I looked away.

“Sara, would you like a little tour of the house?” Mrs. Elric asked my mom, who nodded.

“That would be nice,” she commented.

Mrs. Elric turned to her son. “Edward, please stay here and keep Winry company. You might just make your first friend here today.”

With that said, she led my mother away and left me all alone with this stranger.

I sat on the couch with my hands folded in my lap. I glanced over at the boy named Edward who was sitting in a chair nearby.

He turned his head and looked at me and I looked away.

When I felt his gaze on me, I looked at him again, but this time he was the one to look away. I sighed.

It was as silent as a grave in the room so I finally got tired of it and decided to break the ice.

“So, Edward, you just moved to Resembool, right?”

“Call me Ed,” he said. “We just moved here today.”

This time when I looked at him, he looked at me and didn’t look away. I felt as if I’d finally made some progress.

He looked at me with those beautiful golden eyes of his and my heart began to beat faster. I’d never seen eyes like his before, golden like the sun.

“So, Ed, why were you in the tree in front of my room earlier?” I asked, finally asking him the question I’d been waiting to.

He blinked a couple of times as if he was confused and then a look of understanding reached his face.

“Oh, so you were the girl looking through the window. Nice pajamas by the way.”

I blushed, partly from embarrassment and partly from anger that he was mocking my pajamas.

“Brother, that’s not nice,” I heard another boy’s voice as he entered the room.

He was taller than Ed, but as it turned out he was a year younger.

“I’m Winry Rockbell,” I said as I stood up and offered him my hand. “I live right next door.”

He shook my hand and smiled at me, the same smile his mother had worn.

“I’m Alphonse Elric. The rude one in the chair is my older brother Edward.”

“He’s older?” I asked in disbelief. “But he’s shorter than you…”

I obviously shouldn’t have said that since Ed jumped out of his chair and raised his fist angrily

“Who are you calling a tiny little pipsqueak who can’t reach the doorknob without standing on books?!” he said as Alphonse rushed to his side to restrain him.

Normally people would have been a little scared at this, but I merely laughed for some reason.

That made him more angry, but I knew that he wasn’t going to do anything to hurt me.

“Nice pipsqueak,” I said with a giggle as I patted him on his head.

It was on that day that I’d met Edward Elric. Of course I’d upset him, but he’d gotten over it within five minutes and we became friends from there.

But somewhere along the way, I had realized, I’d ended up falling in love with him. He had always been there for me, right beside me, so how could I not fall for him.

Plus, there was the fact that I thought he was hot. But it wasn’t only that. He was kind, smart, loyal, determined, sweet, thoughtful, and more.

When I thought about it, he was the complete package. And how could I not fall in love with that?

But I was his friend, his best friend, right? I couldn’t just tell him all of this, right? I always kept my feelings bottled up inside. Except, of course, for the times when he couldn’t see me, like right now. When he was asleep, he couldn’t see the look I wore on my face as I gazed at him, as I wished I could tell him how I felt.

It was times like this that I truly treasured.

He appeared to be waking up. I sat there and watched him as he opened those brilliant golden eyes slightly before closing them again and rubbing them.

From there he yawned and then stretched. As he stretched, I could see his muscles even better. I schooled my features and waited for him to notice me.

He blinked a couple of times and then looked over at me before jumping back in shock.

I laughed at his surprise.

“Morning Ed,” I said as I waved at him.

“And just how long have you been here?” he asked as he hopped out of bed and grabbed a shirt out of his drawer.

Before he put his shirt on, he’d only been wearing a pair of boxers. Luckily his back was turned so he didn’t see me shamelessly ogling him.

His pants were the next thing he put on and then he went to his closet to unearth his shoes and socks. From time to time I would surprise Ed by coming to his room before he woke up.

One reason was that I liked to watch him sleep. The other reason is that I loved watching him get dressed. I know I must sound like some crazed fan girl right now or some stalker, but I assure you that I’m neither.

I can’t help how my mind works, honestly.

Many times I wished that Edward would just leave his hair down all day, but I watched him as he brushed his hair quickly and braided it as he usually did.

The braid was hot, sure, but I thought having his hair down would make him even more hot.

I stood up as he turned around to look at me.

“Don’t they feed you at your own house?” he asked me as I followed him to the kitchen and sat next to him at the table.

I ignored his comment and watched his mother enter the room.

“Good morning,” she said to the both of us.

She leaned down and Ed planted a kiss on her cheek before looking over at my amused expression.

“So where’s Alphonse?” I asked as I looked at his empty chair.

“Al? Oh, he had said something to me about going to meet a girl today,” Edward explained.

Alphonse was cute, caring, and nice. He’d instantly become rather popular at school., so it didn’t surprise me that there were so many girls with crushes on him.

“Al seems to have no problems finding girlfriends, but you’re another story Ed,” I said.

He seemed to be ignoring me.

“So what’s wrong? You’re smart, cute, and popular. No, wait. I finally get it. You…you’re gay, aren’t you?!”

I had been teasing, but he’d obviously been disturbed by my comment since he chocked on his orange juice and it had even shot out of his nose.

When he began coughing, I hit him lightly on the back to help him out.

When he’d finally regained his composure, he turned to look at me with a look of disbelief on his handsome face.

“What the….?! I’m not gay, you got that?!”

I smiled. Winry one point today, Edward zero.

I knew that Ed wasn’t gay, he knew he wasn’t gay, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have a little fun with him and say that he might be gay.

And besides, even if he was actually gay, he’d still be hot.

And…I’d still love him.