A/N: Yep, that's right! I am posting this on the same day- how lucky are you? Haha, well, it was definitely fun writing this! Please let me know what you think so I can improve; it's the second fanfic I've written. (Though my first one is still incomplete...)

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Must I say again that Full Metal Alchemist belongs to the one and only Hiromu Arakawa when it pains me so much?! Oh hey, that wasn't too bad...

Warning: Some crude language is used in this part of the story. Well, not the really vulgar ones, but they're still swear words nonetheless (and just in case...). You have been warned!

Last Resort

Part Two of the Full Metal Alchemist two-shot

"Winry, could you hand me the wrench on the table over there?" Pinako asked as she twisted a screw into a piece of metal.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Winry snatched the wrench from the table and handed it to her grandmother before resuming her own work of connecting a few wires together. She wasn't working at the pace she usually set herself at; she was moving a bit slower due to her slipping in and out of her thoughts. It was the next day and all she could think about was how the potion would make Ed act. Would he follow her around everywhere and bring her gifts, declaring his love for her any moment he could? She blushed slightly at the thought. Or would he send her seductive looks whenever she happened to lock eyes with him?

She wanted to cackle out loud; Ed would so kill her afterwards! But it'd be worth it- maybe she should get Al to snap some embarrassing photos of him when he becomes all lovey-dovey? Speaking of Al, she had thought of giving him some of the potion too since she had more than one serving of it- all thanks to Tatanya- but then she had realized that he couldn't exactly drink anything in his current form. Ah, well, it'd be more fun to be able to laugh alongside him at Ed.

But there was one problem...when would they be back? Would the potion last that long? Tatanya had said, before she left that is, that the potion would turn black to show that it was no longer good. But how long would that be?

"OUCH!" she shouted out when she accidentally, due to her lack of attention and her clumsiness, poked her finger with the sharp end of a wire. Oh right, forgot to put on gloves. Way to go, Winry. She pouted at her small wound which was beginning to bleed.

"What happened?" Pinako turned around and noticed her finger. "Forgot to put on gloves, eh? Better clean that up."

"Yeah, sorry for startling you," she said before heading out into the kitchen. She turned the sink faucet on cold and stuck her finger underneath, wincing as it stung. The blood kept gushing out for a minute until it suddenly stopped, and Winry dried her finger by wiping it against her cotton pants. She felt something lumpy in her pocket and pulled it out before remembering that it was the potion which she had wanted to put it in the medicine cupboard after having a hard time trying to pry it out of her drawer that morning. Wondering if it smelled like anything, she screwed off the top and took a tentative sniff.

"Arf!" Den came bounding into the kitchen, ready for his lunch. Surprised, Winry let go of the bottle before letting out an 'eep!' and making a grab for it. Luckily, she caught it, but a generous amount still landed onto the floor. To her utter horror, Den stopped beside her, dipped his head, and began licking some of the weird liquid.

"Den, no!" Winry hurriedly jabbed the top back on the bottle and placed it in the desired cupboard and turned back to usher her dog away. She pushed his body with all her might but he had, unfortunately, finished his newfound beverage. He licked his chops and looked up at her, obviously wanting some actual food now. Winry bit her lip, worried about what it might make Den do-considering he was a dog, after all- but shook her head and departed for the pantry. She grabbed the bag with dog food within and poured the appropriate amount into his food bowl then stashed it away.

When she came back, she was shocked to see that Den wasn't at his food bowl. In fact, she couldn't see him anywhere. But that was before she was tackled to the ground by him. "Den?!"

The black dog licked her face repeatedly and then jumped around her. Perplexed, Winry got up and backed away but he followed her with his incessant hopping. He placed his paws on her stomach and tried to jump up and lick her face, but she pushed his head down and tried kicking him away (but not too hard as to not inflict serious pain on him). "Bad boy! Sit! Lay!" he obeyed but crept closer to her then began his hyper jumping all over again. "Beg! Er, get away from me!"

"Winry? What's all that noise?" her grandmother appeared at the doorway and took once glance at Den before sighing. "He probably got near some of the cookies I made last night. How does he get them so easily?" she shook her head and went to the medicine cabinet. "Mr. Johnson will be here any moment; he needs some pain reliever and can't take pills quite so well..." the doorbell chimed throughout the house and Pinako nodded. "Must be him. Now where did that liquid medicine go? Aha!" She pulled out the love potion- Winry gaped at her from where she was- and started towards the door with it.

"Wait, Grandma, that's not-" Winry exclaimed but Pinako cut her off.

"You should try to get Den back outside; he can eat his food there. Wouldn't want him bugging the customers again, eh?" The she disappeared behind the door.

Winry groaned and made another kick at Den, which he obliviously dodged. The stupid dog had fallen in love with her! Gathering all her strength, she knocked the dog down onto the ground and held him still so he wouldn't get back up. He struggled against her hold but otherwise looked unaffected in anyway.

"Hey, Winry! The old hag said you were in-" the voice stopped abruptly.

Winry glanced up only to see Ed with an odd expression on his face with Al behind him, squirming a bit. She inwardly groaned. They just had to come now?!

"Um, what are you doing...?" his golden eyes peered at Den then to her gawking face back and forth. "Talk about animal abuse."

Winry shot up at that and flushed deeply. "I wasn't abusing him! He just got so hyper so I trying to hold him down!" she glared at him. "What are you doing here anyway?"

He made a sheepish face and held up his right arm- or at least, what was left of it. About five inches of his automail was left starting from his shoulder, though a few screws were loose. The metal at the bottom were all meshed with a couple of wires hanging out helplessly. Ed scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. "Yeah...we had a little, um, accident?"

Once Winry had picked her jaw up from the ground, she shot him the most deadly glare she could muster- Den was nowhere to be seen (smart dog), Ed inched back, and Al, she observed, had deemed it safer to exit the room- then opened her mouth.

Even she couldn't make sense of all the words which escaped her mouth in a high pitch, though she had a feeling that enough cuss words and insults were thrown in there to prove her point.

"-I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! ALL THAT HARD WORK AND, AND, YOU IDIOT! DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH TIME I PUT IN TO THAT DAMN THING? I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW-"

"Um, Winry? Is that dude flirting with your grandmother?"

"-BUT YOU NEVER EVEN LEARN, YOU ARROGANT, NO GOOD, SON OF A- what?" Winry gave his a quizzical look and peeked out of the door with him. Sure enough, the man- 'Mr. Johnson', was it?- was saying some cheesy pick-up lines to her grandmother, who in turn was blushing and...giggling? "Oh no!"

There on the table beside them was the love potion with only one serving left in it. Without a second thought, Winry dashed out and seized the bottle. Oh well, at least the guy was having too much fun to really pay attention to the pain in his leg...she made her way back to the kitchen, ignoring Ed's and Al's questioning expressions. "Don't ask."

They both shrugged and began to follow her into the workroom but she stopped them. "I'll be right out with the tools." She glowered at Ed. "And don't think I'm still not mad at you." She huffed and left them to their own devices.

She sighed the moment they wandered off. No, she wasn't so depressed because of the broken automail Ed was sporting, but now she only had once chance to give the potion to Ed and make sure that he actually drank it. What if she messed up again? No, I'm going to do it right this time! Let's see...I'll just force him to drink the darn thing and tell him that it's supposed to help deal with the pain. Otherwise he'll be suspicious.

She nodded her approval of her own plan and went to retrieve the love potion. She poured some pomegranate juice and mixed the last serving of the potion in before marching into the living room. Al was outside, most likely playing with Den (she could hear the clanking of his body outside), Grandma Pinako was still flirting with Mr. Johnson (she grimaced at that), while Ed was lounging lazily on the couch, occasionally shooting disgusted faces at the pair in the corner. She thrust the drink at him. "Here."

He frowned. "It's not poisoned, is it?" he joked lightly though the simple question still made her shift nervously.

"No..."

"Then what is it?"

"Just drink it! I swear it's not milk or anything harmful- just pomegranate juice!"

He still gave the drink a cautious look but drank it anyway. When he finished, he made another disgusted face. "You sure that was pomegranate juice? It had a nasty taste to it." He shot her an accusing stare.

Winry rolled her eyes. "I added a little bit of pain reliever, just in case, okay?"

"Oh," Ed said intelligently before snorting. "I've been through worse pain; I don't need pain relievers."

"Sure, you don't," she muttered but Ed apparently heard it for he glared at her. She shrugged lightly and sat down beside him, waiting impatiently for the next five minutes to pass. Glancing at the clock, she noticed that two minutes had already passed.

Three...

Four....

Five....

She whipped around at Ed, watching intently. He raised his eyebrow at her. "What?"

Another minute passed but nothing had happened yet. "Nothing." She averted her gaze and worried her lip. Why wasn't the potion taking effect? Shouldn't he be in love with her by now? Over the next few minutes, she kept stealing glances at him until he finally let out an exasperated sigh.

"Will you quit looking at me already? Is there something on my face?!" He began touching his face but still gave her a fierce look.

"N-No, it's nothing! I just..." she trailed off. "Why isn't it working?!"

"Why isn't what working? Did you put something else in my drink?!"

Oops, I said that out loud? "What makes you think that?" she looked away, trying her best to put on a peeved and hurt expression.

Ed jabbed a finger in her face. "I know you did! Don't you know not to lie to the master of lying himself?"

Winry made an indignant sound. "W-What?! I'm not-" she stopped at the dubious look on Ed. "Erm..."

"I KNEW it!" he shouted. "What was it??"

By then, they had attracted the attention of Pinako, Mr. Johnson, and Al who had peeked into the house. But they all scattered away once Ed glared daggers at each of them.

"Okay, I might have put a little something in your drink- but it won't kill you! And you deserved it!" Winry defended.

"Deserved it?! What the hell does that mean?!" he shouted back at her.

Winry growled. "You're always leaving right in the morning without letting me say goodbye! How am I supposed to know when I'll ever see you again?! One minute you're here and the next- poof! You're gone! And you never even give me one chance to say how much you mean to me! Do you know how worried I get, thinking that you guys might never return?! What am I supposed to do then?!" her shouting was losing its loudness and soon she sounded as if she was purely asking the questions, her voice almost a whisper. "What will I do if you leave me too? What then? Huh? I won't be able to live with myself if...if..." she trailed off and lowered her head. She could feel the tears threatening to overflow and she let them, not caring how pathetic she must have sounded, or looked for that matter, at the moment. She buried her face in her hands, as heart-wrenching sobs fought their way out of her mouth and racked her frame.

"Winry..." Ed's shoulders slumped as a sad, understanding look dawned his features. He approached her slowly, his blond braid swishing back and forth, and put his arms around her. "We're not going to die; we'll take care of ourselves, okay? You know me, I'm too stubborn to die."

Winry sniffed and held onto his black jacket, hunching over a little to bury her tear-stained face into his upper chest near his collarbone. He, in response, tightened his hold on her. "I'm sorry I keep making you cry...if you want, I'll, uh, leave a longer letter by your bed...?"

She laughed lightly at that while sniffing, and she pulled back to face him. She rubbed her eyes as she spoke, "I'm sorry, too. I'm always complaining and getting on your nerves."

Ed loosened his hold on her but left his hands on her shoulders. "Nah, it's my fault. But you do get annoying." He flashed her a grin.

Winry playfully glared at him and slapped his upper arm. "Jerk." She sniffed again and fiddled with her fingers in embarrassment "And you don't have to write longer letters. I just wanted to be able to say goodbye face-to-face. Guess I have to get up earlier, huh? And don't -" she said at his disapproving face, "-even talk about how you don't want me to wake up since I 'need my beauty sleep' and 'you're so concerned about me'." She made the appropriate quotations with her fingers.

He blushed. "It's not because I'm concerned about you or anything!" He looked away.

Winry smiled. "Sure..."

"Anyway," Ed began, wanting to change the topic. He gave Winry a suspicious look. "what did you put in my drink?"

This time Winry blushed. She lowered her head again and mumbled something incomprehensible. Ed raised his eyebrow. "Come again?"

"Alovepotion."

"A what?"

"A LOVE POTION!" oops.

The look on Ed's face gave her mixed feelings. Part of her was smug and liked the fact that Ed was stumped- that meant her plan had worked. The other part of her, though, felt like running away before he exploded with rage.

"A freaking LOVE POTION?!" Yeah, she should have run while she had the chance.

"Well, it was part of your punishment and since Al can't drink it and you're really the person I was most angry with at the moment, I slipped some in!"

"Did you think this was funny?!"

"At the time, yes!"

"You stupid, psychotic-"

"Don't blame this on me! It was your fault in the first place- you even agreed! Besides, it didn't even work...!"

"How do you know?!"

"Does it look like you're in love with me?! If it worked, you would be showering me with roses and whatnot right about now!"

"Oh, so you're saying that the only way I could possibly be in love with you would be if I was the perfect gentleman?! I can't be in love with you and still act the way I always do?!"

Neither person said anything after that statement. Ed seemed like her wanted to go drown somewhere whereas different emotions passed Winry's face. First mild confusion, next surprise, then disbelief. She took a while before gathering enough courage. "Are...are you saying that you're in love with me...?"

Ed's entire face turned red. "I never-!" he didn't appear to be able to continue. Instead, he faced a different direction, looking anywhere but at her. "Damn..."

"You DO!" Winry exclaimed. She wanted to jump for joy, squeeze him to death, and smother him with kisses, but she couldn't move. The thought rolled around in her head. The Edward Elric actually loved her- Winry Rockbell, of all people! "Oh my gosh..."

His face turned a darker shade of red, if that was even possible. "W-Well, it's not like I control my emotions, damnit!" he instantly scowled when she started laughing. "What?! This isn't funny!"

"I can't believe you really love me!" she was laughing so hard that she found it amazing that she could still talk. "All this time...I thought...!"

"Thought what??"

"I never would have thought that you loved me back!"

The shocked expression took dominance over Ed's face once more. "You love me, too?"

Winry stilled. "I thought you already knew that..."

"No!"

"Oh." Her face promptly burst out in flames- not literally, mind you- and she stuttered for a little bit. "O-Oh." Glancing sheepishly at him, she said, "Well, um, I do..."

"O-Oh." It was his turn to stutter stupidly.

An awkward silence stretched over room again during which they both willed their faces to turn their normal color and cleared their throats. They were both sitting back down now, and Winry shifted a little closer to him. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Um...aren't you going to kiss me?"

So much for trying to keep his cheeks for reddening. "Wha...what?"

She pouted. "Well, you know, this is a romantic moment...and well, er, I always wanted to..."

"But I don't have to kiss you, right?"

She flared up. "It was just a suggestion! I just thought it'd be nice, okay?! If you don't want to then just say-" unfortunately (or fortunately, seeing as she enjoyed it), she never got to finish her rant due to a certain, unexpected pair of lips. She closed her eyes and kissed back with equal passion. It wasn't a whole making out type of kiss, but a sweet, chaste one- one that spoke their feelings sincerely.

After a while, they pulled back for some air, both of their faces flushed from the pleasurable, intimate activity. It was Ed who spoke first, blushing as he did so. "That was to shut you up, just so you know."

Normally, Winry would have bristled at a comment like that, but this time, she didn't care one bit. She just giggled and leaned her head against his shoulder, glad when he didn't pull back. "Right," she said and he snorted.

She sighed contentedly. If only we could stay like this forever...

***

A strip of light brushed against her closed eyelids, seeming to taunt her and urge her to wake up. She tried to swat it away but that was the negative thing about sunlight- if couldn't be turned on or off with just one finger. So she obediently sat up and rubbed her eyes before taking in her surroundings. Her bedroom was the same as always- clean on one side and a tad bit messy on the other. She made to move and grab a few clothes for the day but caught sight of a folded white paper. Now why would that be there...?

Her eyes grew wide and she lunged at it. Ed had told her last night (after they shared a few more kisses) that he would write longer letters anyway, just to make her feel better. She smiled fondly at the memory and began reading the message contained within the letter.

Thanks for fixing my arm again, Win! I know, I said that I'd writer longer letters but we're running late as it is so we're leaving early again. Well, old habits break hard anyway, right?

Love you,

Ed

She ran to her window and looked out. Sure enough, there were Ed and Al, many yards away from the Rockbell residence. Hurriedly opening the window, she yelled at the top of her lungs, "EDWARD ELRIC! I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME!"

Suddenly, one of the faraway figures, no doubt Ed, began accelerating down the trail at top speed. The other figure (obviously Al) followed after it so as not to be left behind. Despite her disappointment that the letter was super short, Winry couldn't help but smile genuinely. Of course, she would always still worry over the two brothers, but she was satisfied knowing that they knew how she truly felt now- especially Ed.

She walked back over to her bed and plopped down with the smile still on her face.

So it wasn't necessarily that the potion didn't work...Ed was just in love with me (and vice versa) the whole time.

Hmm...maybe she should get revenge on him more often?

----

A/N: Wow, this ended up being fluffier and mushier than I expected! Haha, well hope you liked this! I kind of made Tatanya like Noa(h) (I've seen her name spelled both ways...) from the Full Metal Alchemist Movie who could look into a person's mind by touching them, if you hadn't noticed. I'm sorry that I didn't really describe fully the characters; I figured this was long enough without the extra paragraphs and whatnot.

Happy Belated New Year, everyone!!

-Hatsuya