Title: The Manner of Giving
Rating: K
Day/Theme: July 1: Doused his flare of rebellion
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Character/Pairing: Ed/Winry
Summary: She's familiar with Ed and his "souvenirs"
A/N: Written for
31_days. Hey, this is still my end-all OTP. End of series but no spoilers.
In her defense, she’s kind of trained by this point; it’s almost pure muscle memory when Ed comes home from a short trip with one of those tiny velvet boxes she’s more than familiar with. She takes a moment to admire the earrings, then immediately looks at him suspiciously.
“What’d you break Ed?” she asks, her eyes narrowing. “The knee joint? Sand in the casing? Broken toes?”
“What?” His eyes go wide, panicking at such direct questions. “No! I took great care of it! Better than usual!”
“Uh huh.” She rolls her eyes and drops to her knees to inspect the leg for herself. “You don’t even take the right polishing… oil…”
Her voice trails off when Ed holds out his hand, the little tin flat in the palm of his hand. There’s an annoyed look on his face. His automail is gleaming in the sunlight steaming through the window. It looks pristine, right out of the case, exactly as it had when he’d kissed her goodbye less than a week ago.
Winry frowns, confused. “So the earrings…?”
“I missed you?” He’s actually pouting as he crosses his arms and glares at her. “Although now I’m wondering why.”
She ignores the insult. There’s something rather uplifting about that fact, and it inspires an emotion in her chest that’s still too new to put a name to. Ed’s been the only one to ever inspire it within her, and they haven’t been whatever they are long enough for her to figure it out yet. Never the less, she jumps to her feet, presses a kiss to his cheek, and scoops up the earrings. “They’re beautiful! I’m going to put them in now!”
Ed’s blushing when she turns her back to him. There’s a vague notion in her mind that maybe he’s feeling the same way she is; she’s out of the room and halfway down the hall before he breaks out of his daze and shouts after her, “Don’t you dare punch anymore holes in your ears!”