Speed dates

Honestly, Winry had no idea whatsoever why she was doing this to herself. Why she had let herself be convinced by her friend to take part in something like this…

She always thought that speed dates were only for the really desperate ones. And mind you she didn't really think of herself as that…

Okay, so she hadn't had a boyfriend in her entire eighteen year long life, but what did that matter if she was content even without one? Sure it would be nice to have someone who loved you and who you could talk to about everything and who would care for you and who you could care for and love in return… But it's not as if that was necessary to live a fulfilling life! She could just be happy with her family and friends after all…!

Even though the girl said that, she was still hoping that she could one day have a family of her own with a guy she loved and who she would want to grow old with eventually… So that's how Riza managed to make her come to this speed date meeting in the middle of Central… (And the fact that she swore she met her boyfriend of three months at something like this as well…)

But either way here she was, sitting in a chair in front of… a total weirdo. And she was pretty sure that he wasn't the only one there. In fact the room seemed to be filled with nothing but freaks of some sort or another. But the option of escaping had been taken care of when that creepy host (who looked familiar for some reason she couldn't quite figure out…) said that the door would be locked until the end of the event… and nobody was sure when it would end…

But back to the man at hand…

… If you could call him a man that is…

"And then everything just went BOOOOM! And CRASH! And BANG! And everyone was screaming like WAAAHH! And running around in circles when suddenly that huge thing appeared out of nowhere and just KATHUNKED everything into nothing but colorful dust! … And then I woke up!" The little kid sitting across from her told her excitedly, laughing at the end of his story. He seemed to be no older than maybe 13 years and Winry was really wondering what in the hell he was doing in a place like this… Truth to be told she had no idea what he was talking about either, but that was beside the point.

Thankfully before there was time for any more mindless babbling from the boy the bell rang, signaling that a partner change was scheduled. The blond-haired girl couldn't help but sigh in relief, standing up and bidding the boy farewell.

'Here comes the next one…' The thought appeared in her mind as she sat down with a man around his late thirties following her every movement with his light blue eyes. Truth to be told the action was starting to give her the creeps but she couldn't very well just run away. After all even if he was certainly too old for her taste he could still be interesting to talk to. So she tried to be polite. (He should really try shaving though… That designer stubble didn't really make him look any younger…)

"Well if this isn't a sight to see. Never thought an ol' man like me'd meet a young 'n' pretty gal like ya here, missy. Why're you here anyway? You 'f all people surely ain't got a problem with findin' a guy that appreciates those curves…" Okay, so he was a pervert (and maybe slightly drunk as well judging from his language). That's just perfect. First a little kid that made her feel like a pedophile and now this! She really regretted agreeing to this by now…

"Erm, well, it's not that. I just-" She started to say trying to explain that it wasn't really her choice to end up here.

"Don't worry, missy. I get ya! I'll make this worth yar while, I promise!" Winry just about had enough when he said that, but the hand that was slowly creeping towards hers (as well as the suggestive waggle of his dark eye brows) was giving her enough of a reason to freak out and let her wrench appear from its secret hiding spot in her purse.

After all Mr. Wrench was the only one she could really trust to rein justice upon lechers like this one.

"Hehehe…! So many sexy~ babes~…!" He slurred laughing as his head fell onto the table and stayed there. Harrumphing Winry deliberately ignored the noises the man continued to make in his delusional state.

The time until the bell rang again was spent with checking her looks in her hand mirror since the next guy actually looked to be around her age and even appeared somewhat decent. When the device let out its high ring, she confidently walked towards him. Long, dark red hair, green eyes… With a certain charm that could very well catch her interest.

"Hi! My name's Winry!" She greeted cheerfully, trying to give off a good first impression.

"… Hmph…" So he's the too-cool-to-talk-emo kind of guy… Great… This really appears to proof her right in her assumption that every one of these men were meant to stay single for life. And the same would probably be the case for her as well…

5 minutes sure can be long if you have a guy like this one in front of you, that doesn't talk, doesn't do anything at all except stare at you with his oddly captivating but cold eyes that were sure to make you uncomfortable…

When the bell rang at last, she immediately excused herself to go to the next guy… who looked exactly like the last one…

… What the hell…?

Okay so if you looked really closely you could see that his hair was a lighter shade of red, but other than that, they could be twins.

"Eh… hi, I'm Winry!" She tried again with the friendly approach, hoping that this one would be the happy-go-lucky counterpart to the last guy.

In the end even though he could talk in complete sentences he was provoked by his "twin" halfway through the conversation and ever since that moment they had been at it, apparently not caring at all that the furniture in the room was getting seriously damaged…

Eventually Winry could move onto the fifth guy. He said that he was 18 just like her, but he appeared to be older… Maybe it was just the really short blue hair and glasses that made him look so mature. She overlooked that fact and found out that he was actually an interesting person. Intelligent, a little smart-aleck maybe, but a nice person all in all. The only thing that kinda bothered her was that he just wouldn't look at her directly.

When she asked him for the reason he just stuttered something about her clothes before exclaiming that said outfit was far too revealing for this season and she should learn to dress properly… She was not going after a damn prude…! (And really what was supposed to be wrong with her favorite top with a little neckline and a black miniskirt as well as a dark jacket in the beginning of autumn?!)

That left her sighing before walking across the café where the event was held to the only other table with a guy and a vacant seat across from it.

He was… special. That much she could tell at a first glance. Unlike the other boys he was neither all too eager to get to know her nor just staring into space as if he just wanted to get this over and done with… He didn't even seem to notice that she had been sitting across from him at all. His face was covered by a thick and complicated-looking book of some sort and all she could see of him was his golden-blond hair that was tied into a braid, falling over the base of his neck. His entire body was slumped across his notebook and papers, his head resting on his arms that were clad in the sleeves of a casual black shirt.

"Erm… are you okay…?" Her voice was soft and careful in case he really was sleeping. (Although she knew that that wasn't what you were supposed to be doing during a speed date, she couldn't blame him. After all he could have his reasons…)

Nevertheless his head and body jerked at the sound of her voice and he seemed so startled that he clambered up from his seemingly uncomfortable position and actually fell back along with the chair, hitting his head on the floor in the process.

"Ouch… " He murmured, rubbing the back of it with his left hand while pushing himself into a sitting position with the other one.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry if I startled you… I was just-" Winry's apology was cut short when the young man slowly cracked his eyes open and actually looked at her. They were a mesmerizing shade of gold, a little darker than his hair, blazing with intensity. The two teenagers both seemed to be in a trance while looking at each other, unable to take their eyes off of their counterpart. Their bodies were frozen where they were, the boy half sitting on the back of his chair on the floor and the girl kneeling beside him.

"Er, don't worry. It was my fault for falling asleep here like this. I should really stop doing that…" His words finally reached her after they had been brought back to reality by a crash from the still not finished fight between the two red-heads that everyone else seemed to be so eager to watch that they actually forgot about the purpose of this event.

Standing up, the two blonds looked at each other awkwardly when Winry noticed something peculiar about the guy in front of her.

"Wow, you're pretty short, aren't you?" Maybe that was the wrong way to start a conversation…

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE COULD BE A FLEA'S DINNER?!" Well, this was unexpected… Though she guessed that it was also a little bit her fault for commenting on something so obvious… But she really was surprised. His face looked like he was around her age (maybe a little older when he wasn't busy screaming and throwing a fit like a spoiled little kid), but he was barely taller than her, maybe one or two inches. And she was not by any means considered tall either.

Well at least now she knew that jokes on his height were pretty much a taboo. And that his temper is not to be underestimated either…

Even though this guy was now officially added to the list of freaks she had come in contact with that day, she didn't find him all that unappealing. His temper had gone as quickly as it had come and now they were both staring at each other once again, rather uncomfortably actually.

"My name's Edward by the way…" Smiling (it seemed only a little forced), he tried to break the ice and get rid of the uneasy feeling inside his stomach, something the girl was more than grateful for, since she had much the same problem.

"I'm Winry. It's nice to meet you…!" She replied smiling. Finally someone who actually had some manners (if only partly but it was better than nothing!) and he didn't look half-bad either… "So what were you doing before you fell asleep here?" She asked interested in what could've made him so exhausted he could sleep through all the ruckus in the café.

"Oh, eh, I've just been doing some research…" And so they got wound up in a conversation that would far exceed the five minutes time limit partners usually have, but who cared about stupid rules like that anyway?

As it turned out Edward was already in Central University, his major being Chemistry although he was eighteen just like her. (He skipped a few grades since he seemed to be some kind of genius. Thankfully he wasn't one of those obviously arrogant and haughty geniuses, but more of a playfully mocking guy… She liked that about him…) It seemed he could go on about his studies for hours and although Winry didn't really understand much of anything he was talking about, she was just enjoying the enthusiasm he showed when talking about it. He was also quite funny, as he even commented on how she probably wouldn't be able to tell if he told her complete shit. As much as the girl tried to look offended, she had to admit laughing that he was right. (It hadn't really been Ed's intention to take part in the speed dating either, but he was simply asleep when they announced the event and so he was mistaken for one of the participants…)

When they came across the subject of what she would be doing once she left high school in summer, she described just as happily that she wanted to help in the development of better prostheses for people who lost their limbs. The mix between medical use and technology was just what she had been looking for when searching for her dream job, only to find it upon her dog needing an artificial limb a few years back. While she was babbling about, Ed (as he had offered her to call him, since 'Edward' sounded so formal) just listened to her, nodding every once in a while to let her know that he was paying attention. (Aside from the occasional "geek" or "machine junkie" that is… She had called him "chemistry freak" several times too though, so now they were even.) All the while the happy smiles never left either of the two's faces.

It felt as if they had already known each other for years, judging by how easily they could talk to each other about pretty much everything…

So maybe it really wasn't such a bad idea to let Riza hale her to her favorite café for this "useless waste of time" as Winry would have called it only a few hours earlier…

(Even if Winry couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't just a coincidence when Ed told her about his roommate Roy, who just so happened to be named just like Riza's boyfriend…)

Later, the "host" snuck out of the café via the backdoor where a certain blonde was waiting for him in the shadows.

"So how did it go, Roy?" She asked as he took off the fake mustache and wig. In return Roy signaled her to look back into the establishment through the little window in the door, looking quite pleased with himself.

When she did, Riza couldn't help but smile at how the two teenagers inside were still talking animatedly, all smiles, same as before. The only change that had seemingly taken place in the last three hours was the noticeable lack of space between them. Winry had leant over, propping her elbows on the small table, while Edward was (again) sprawled out over it, tired from a long day in university (which Roy was sure had just been brightened a whole lot…!). But that didn't stop their conversation in the least.

No, Winry even found enough courage to ruffle his hair laughing when Ed had yawned rather cutely in her eyes. This earned her a surprised look at first but soon, the man just grinned again, closing his eyes in pure content.

"Told you they were perfect for each other!" Riza told her boyfriend knowingly, before kissing him chastely for the trouble he's been through, finding all those other guys willing to take part in a fake speed date meeting.

As she glanced inside one last time to witness Ed leaning over the table to place a shy kiss on Winry's cheek, Riza decided that it was time to let them have their privacy and proceeded with dragging Roy away by the collar.

She wanted five minutes of her own… or possibly more…

Thank you very much for reading my first Fullmetal Alchemist story ever! It seems like this is my latest obsession, so maybe there will be more about these two from me in the future!

Actually this just came to mind a few days ago and I just had to write it down... So I'm sorry if the idea is silly or anything! Also I'm not too sure whether Ed and Winry are OOC or not... They seem a bit awkward... I'm sorry if they are!

Also, this one-shot is dedicated to the wonderful Telitah as an apology as well as a 'thank you' for always being there for me! :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading! I would really appreciate it if you took the time to tell me what you think about this!

And last but not least: I don't own anything! Seriously, even the ideas belong to the plot bunnies higing underneath my bed!

PS: Anyone who can tell me who the other five participants in the speed date are will get a yummy virtual cookie! Hint: They're from a series of video games. (But no cheating! XD)