The Edward Elric Guide to Keeping Cool

"It's too hot!" Ed whined. "Stupid automail- why couldn't she have built a fan into it or something?" Though he was missing both his arm and his leg due to having busted both of them, the late summer heat was still relentless.

Try though he did, nothing was working! He could not swim without half his limbs, and they weighed him down if they were attached. There was no wind, so even the shade was too hot. Pinako had told them to ration the ice, and woe to he who drew the ire of Pinako Rockbell.

At his wit's end, Ed had shed everything but his boxers, and was seriously considering cutting his hair so that it would not stick to the back of his neck. He wondered how in the world Winry dealt with her mass of hair…

An image of Winry in her customary black bandeau popped into Ed's head. It was all too easy to imagine…

"Dammit, no!" he cried, now certain that he was blushing. Since when had Winry been so attractive?

She is not, Ed- get a grip he mentally berated himself.

"Ed?" Winry called. "I need a measurement for your leg again! I can't find my notepad!"

Noooo…. Ed moaned mentally. He shook his head in an attempt to cool down. As it was, he hoped Winry would not notice anything off about him.

SCENE

Thankfully, she was too absorbed in her work to notice.

"Ed, I know it's hot in the workshop, but can you please not fidget like that?" Winry complained. To give him an incentive, she added, "The sooner you're done, the sooner you can leave."

He managed to keep still for the amount of time that Winry needed, but just barely. Still unused to the leg-on-lend, he nearly fell over rushing out the door.

If he had cared to look, however, he would have noticed that as Winry watched him leave, she blushed slightly. If he had cared to look, Winry's hands had had the tiniest of shakes as she measured. If he had cared to look, there was one corner of the worktable that was spotless, save for his picture.

Try though he might to deny it, something had changed.

WITH ED

"I don't get it! Why now?" Ed wondered aloud. "Why all of a sudden? It's never been like this before… has it?" He thought back to being ten, nine, back to six, when he and Al had first fought over who would marry Winry. He had been rather sore about winning, and the rejection to both of them had not helped. "Damn it, it has! Did she ever notice? What if… I never thought it was like that, but it is. Way to go, genius."

"Um, Brother? Who are you talking to?" Al asked. "There's nobody here."

"I know, Al. Is there a law against thinking aloud or something? I bet that the Colonel thought it up!" Ed was trying to cover his tracks, and he knew he was failing miserably. This was the absolute worst excuse he had thought of in a while.

Al knew it, too. "It's about Winry, isn't it?" If he could have smiled slyly, he would have.

"N-no!" Ed tried to control his blush. "I was thinking about the way that one array works-"

"Brother, you don't need a circle," Al reminded him.

Ed froze, thinking of another excuse that might possibly help. "But you do," he muttered lamely.

Al sighed "Brother, I don't need help. Just admit it. Not to me- to Winry."

"Al, it's not like that!" Ed explained hurriedly.

Twisting Ed's words back on him, Al quipped, "But it is. Way to go, genius," and left Ed sputtering incoherent excuses.

LATER

"Ugh- it's just too hot in the shop. Ed, I've got to stop or the heat'll kill me," Winry explained. "I'll make it up to you sometime, I swear."

Ed lay in the grass near where Winry had come to sit. He turned to half-glare at her lazily. "You try having automail in hot weather. I guarantee you wouldn't be whining about working in a shop."

Winry smiled softly. "Still haven't found a way to cool down?"

"Not unless you've built fans into my automail," Ed hinted.

"I may be good, Ed, but I'm not that good," Winry chided.

Ed sighed and moved his arm in search of some cooler grass upon which to lay it. Instead, his hand hit something soft and warm. It took him a minute to realize that it was Winry's hand. Only a second later did the thought jolt all of the afternoon's memories.

Winry showed no sign of discomfort with the position. She did not even say anything. It almost made Ed nervous.

She didknow, dammit! he cursed mentally. As much as Winry could be a pain, he did not like to make it worse. He preferred her happy, and not just because it meant he would not get clobbered with a wrench…

Neither moved for nearly fifteen minutes. Finally, Winry slid her hand out from under Ed's and stood. "I guess I should, um, get back to work on your arm and leg."

"Yeah… thanks…" Ed murmured. Suddenly, he missed the warmth.

The coolness that settled over him was not pleasant. It made him feel like he was missing something, and that the only remedy was to say something to her…

TWO MORNINGS LATER

Winry had pulled an all-nighter on Ed's leg and had gone to sleep before Pinako had even connected it.

Even through the pain, Ed could not help but smile at the sight of Winry asleep on the couch.

Thinking back to the feeling in his hand after Winry had left the other night, Ed realized that there were worse things than being too warm…

A/N: Ah, the first installment of THE EDWARD ELRIC GUIDE TO LIFE. If any of you, any of you at all have read "The Roy Mustang Guide to Life", also by yours truly, you know kind of how this is going to go. If you haven't, it's basically just one-shots that could stand alone, but they are interconnected, especially toward the end. Well, and this is EdWin. The RMGTL is Royai. Um, yeah…

These ones are going to be separate from the themes of the RMGTL. Already, including this one and the end, I have eight thought up.

I'll try to update every few days, but it could be as long as a week between some of them. Just so you know.