So, this is a challenge from Freyjadour. We did this whole challenging competition thing, where we had to give each other an event (that most of the fic was centered around) and three objects. He gave me that Ed and Winry get stranded somewhere after some sort of car accident or something (it was pretty open for options) and then I had to include a pencil sharpener, hobo gloves, and silly string.

Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA.

Warning: Completely AU. In the normal world.

Stranded

"Winry! Open up!" Ed shouted at the top of his lungs pounding on her apartment door.

She groaned turning over in bed hoping that this was all just a dream and that Ed wasn't really at her door at freaking five in the morning. Why did her best friend have to be such a morning person? And why did he have some sort of obsession with coming to her apartment and waking her up.

Why couldn't he be just like a normal person and text her? That way she could just ignore him until she actually wanted to get up. Then again, Ed probably knew that, and that probably was precisely why he showed up at her doorstep so often shouting at the top of his lungs. Either that or he just liked that she gave him breakfast for free.

But today was different.

Today was a snow day. Last night it had been posted on the Central University's website as well as a mass email was sent out too all the students telling them that today, Friday, the University would be shut down due to ice on the roads.

Therefore, Winry had decided to sleep in… that is until Edward Elric started pounding on her door.

Of course last night they had been texting about the snow day. It was only natural, since for two years they had been going to Central University and they had never once gotten one.

When Winry had asked him what he planned to do with it, he had texted that they were going on a trip during the now extended weekend. Thinking he was joking, she had just laughed brushing it off and changing the subject to something rather. But now seeing as he was practically knocking down her door so early in the morning she had to wonder, he couldn't have been serious? Could he?

Hearing the lock on her door click, Winry practically leaped from her bed. Running to her bedroom door she slammed it closed, locking it, just in time for Ed to begin pounding on it.

"Winry Wake Up!" he yelled in such a way that she just knew he was smirking.

"Shut up Ed!" she screamed back through the door figuring that if her neighbors were going to be bothered by something like this then they probably would have already spoken up. "I'm already awake thanks to you!"

"Geez someone has their underwear in a knot this morning," Ed said as his voice quieted as he turned around and walked back out to the kitchen of her one bedroom apartment.

Winry blushed at the offhand remark. If only he knew that all she was wearing was underwear and a t-shirt, actually one of his he had left over there at some point, he probably would have blushed as well.

Thus, the reasoning behind her mad dash to the bedroom door, if Ed had managed to catch her in such attire… her cheeks heated up just thinking about it. She would have been mortified, although it might have been worth the whole ordeal just to see Ed's reaction. He was always flustered so easily when it came to girls.

Then again, this was Ed she was thinking about. He didn't seem to hold any feelings for her beyond the tight friendship they had shared their entire lives first growing up as next door neighbors back in Resembool and then proceeding to go on to the same University. Really, it was hard for Winry to think of a time that Ed wasn't there.

Maybe that's why she had fallen in love with him.

Not that he knew she had. Hell, if it had been her choice she wouldn't have. But just as they say, you can't control who you love, and sadly sometime over the last few years she had fallen in love with Edward Elric.

She pondered the fact for the millionth time as she got dressed hoping that Ed wouldn't make too much of a mess while waiting on her.

If someone was to ask exactly when she had fallen in love with the guy, she couldn't have given them any specific time or place. Love didn't work that way. She'd had crushes on boys before, but something about this was different.

Ed had found his way into her heart as one of her best friends at a young age, and from there, their relationship only grew. She had played, worried, smiled, laughed, and grown up alongside him and Al. Hardly a memory didn't contain one of the brothers, and more often than not, Ed was there if it was something important.

If she had to guess when it had started, she might have said as early as junior high when hormones began to fly. She remembered thinking Ed was cute for the first time when he blushed one day. She couldn't even remember what he was blushing about, just that it was cute.

As time had passed, she started noticing the small things about Ed more and more. How despite his smaller height in junior high and elementary school, he had gotten a lot taller by the time he was a Senior in high school, tall enough in fact that she had to start looking up at him. How he managed to work out just enough to keep fit without overdoing it and getting so muscled up that it was gross. How he somehow managed to have a ponytail and not look feminine in the least. But then there were the more subtle things.

How he only smirked with everyone at school, yet when it was just him, her, and Al, he would really smile. How he always was there when she felt down. How despite him having a hard time comforting people, he always managed to cheer her up. How even if he was the biggest idiot in the world at times, she couldn't stay away from him.

How he somehow caused her heart to speed up when it was just them and he did something like put his hand on the small of her back. (Not that he meant it as anything besides as a friend.) That last one hadn't really started happening till college, or that's at least what Winry thought. At this point, so many of the things that had happened with Ed seemed to just blur together and it was hard to keep any of them straight.

It was her first year of college that for the first time in her life she wondered if Ed meant something to her more than just a friend. For weeks, she tried to convince herself that thoughts like that were crazy and her and Ed were practically sister and brother.

But every time he came around and smiled at her making her feel the heat rise to her cheeks and when he would touch her so lightly and yet it would make shivers go up her spine… she knew there was no denying it. However small it was, she felt something for Edward Elric that was beyond friendship.

From there, she only began to look more into it as she speculated if it wasn't just a crush. Just like she had tried to reject the idea of her crushing on Ed, she tried to refuse the idea that maybe it wasn't just a crush, but something more. She didn't like the idea figuring that something like this would just break their friendship; something she couldn't handle.

So she shoved all ideas along those lines to the back of her head. Too bad they refused to stay there. Once again she found with time, this wasn't something that she could just ignore.

Eventually, she gave up. She was in love with him, and he thought of her just as a friend.

"What the hell are you doing in there Winry?!" Ed shouted from her small kitchen. It sounded like he was rummaging around in her cabinets, probably looking for something to eat knowing him.

"Just getting dressed!" she shouted back cringing slightly at the volume of her voice. She was definately going to get complaints from her neighbors about this later.

"Oh what's this?" she heard him say to himself.

She froze. He wasn't doing what she thought he was doing… was he?

"Winry, you sure have a lot of tools," he called out.

Winry damned Ed as she threw on a shirt trying to get out to the kitchen table where all her mechanic tools were sitting. She had been keeping them in her room, but Ed had insisted that she move them out because she wasn't getting enough sleep with them in the same room. He was probably right, but it wasn't her fault that she would wake up in the middle of the night with an idea and the urge to tinker around with something.

Bursting out into the kitchen at top speed, Winry caught Ed smirking at her not anywhere near her tools. "Wow, think that's a new record Win," he said playfully.

She glared. "You suck," she said before brushing past him ignoring how the bit of shoulder that had brushed against his own suddenly felt hot. She opened the refrigerator pulling out three eggs without thinking. "You want two, right?" she asked politely.

"Uh-huh," he said obviously not concentrating on her words. She didn't really care still trying to get her mind to focus properly this early.

"What the hell is all this stuff anyway," he asked surprising her. She turned around only to find him doing exactly what he had been threatening to do earlier, touch her tools.

"Ed!" she yelled. It was a wonder she didn't lose her voice with how much she shouted when he was around.

"What?" he asked as if he didn't know, although he was obviously smirking at her.

"Put that down," she demanded storming over to him and stomping her feet indignantly.

"What the hell is it supposed to be anyway," Ed questioned curiously as he lifted the item far above his head, far out of Winry's reach. She frowned at him thinking he was just joking with her, but surprised when he asked again. "I mean, what kind of tool is this," he asked.

It was a square item with a small hole in it, but besides that it was completely plain. Ed couldn't even begin to imagine how Winry used the thing.

He was caught off guard when she started to giggle. "Ed," she gasped between laughs, "Are you serious?" When he just scrunched his eyes in confusion she took that as a cue to let him in on the joke. "That's a pencil sharpener!"

"How did you manage to talk me into this again?" Winry asked all bundled up in the front seat of Ed's car as he finally turned the damn thing on.

It was an hour later, and after a quick breakfast, Winry laughing some more at Ed, and a rush packing job on Winry's part, they were both in Ed's car ready to go to… God knows where. "Because you are curious," he said smirking at her.

She humphed at him crossing her arms and trying not to shiver. "Geez Ed, would you turn on the heater already."

"It will be cold if I turn it on this soon after turning on the car," he replied honestly; he knew that it was going make Winry annoyed, but he couldn't help it. Winry and him arguing about something was typical. At times he wondered if it was normal for best friends to fight like they did, but then again, nothing about Winry seemed very typical to him.

She was by no means a typical girl, instead opting to buy machinery and tools with all her money rather than clothes and jewelry. She could probably take most guys her age in an arm wrestling match (of course not him) with the way she worked with tools all day. But it wasn't as if she was some kind of tomboy. The way she dressed, in mostly skirts, and the way she would squeal over the smallest things, were as girly as they could be. It was like she was the two opposite extremes of the spectrum.

Maybe that's why he never understood her, and maybe that's why he was pretty sure that he was in love with her. Too bad he couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't tell her, that would be awkward as hell especially when she wouldn't ever think of you in the same way.

Just as he expected, Winry got irritated. "You suck," she simply said pouting.

That was the second time she had said that today. He grinned in turn knowing that he had just won the battle, but the war was far from over… if it ever ended between the two of them. Probably not, it was too much fun, as annoying as it got sometimes.

"So where are we going?" Winry asked exasperated.

She wasn't going to give up very easily was she, "It's still a surprise just like I told you back at the apartment," Ed answered nonchalantly.

"So let me get this straight, we get a snow day because of all the ice on the roads, so no school. And instead of staying at home, where it's warm, I let you drag me out of the house, into your car, so you could drive me, might I add on dangerous roads, to an unknown destination."

"Yep that's pretty much it," Ed grinned.

Winry thought for a second before speaking again. "I don't know which of us the bigger idiot is; you for planning this or me for going along with it."

Ed laughed and after a moment Winry joined in. Sure, this whole thing was ridiculous and stupid, but somehow she wasn't worried. Everything with Ed always seemed to work out in the end some way or another.

After their laughter had subsided, the two settled into a comfortable silence. Ed hummed softly along with the radio as he concentrated on driving. But the silence from Winry was bothering him.

Somehow, he had expected her to get on to him more or at least talk to him. Since they had just been laughing together, he had figured that she wasn't really mad at him, but maybe he had assumed wrong. After all, she could be kinda stubborn at times.

Hell, she was as stubborn as he was, and he knew that he could hold a grudge like no other.

Maybe, he could tell her that she could turn on the heat. If he was telling her good news she couldn't be too mad at him right? "It's probably warm enough to turn on the heater now."

She didn't say anything. Was she really that mad at him? And if she was, why had she agreed to this in the first place. Then again, Winry was weird like that.

He took a quick glance over at her, betting that he was going to find her glaring back, but was surprised that she didn't even have her eyes open. It seemed that during the time that they had been silent, she had drifted back off to sleep.

Ed chuckled lightly and turned down the radio not wanting her to wake up because of it. He didn't blame her for going back to sleep. Hell, he would be asleep right now if he hadn't wanted to surprise Winry so bad.

Smiling to himself, he concentrated on keeping the car in control as he flew over the icy roads.

She was stiff. She wasn't even fully awake and yet she could already tell she must have slept in an awkward position because her neck ached. She shifted trying to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, the small hum of the car moving and the soft music seemed to buzz in her ears just loud enough to annoy her and effectively keep her awake.

Pealing open her eyes and looking at Ed, she cringed at the big grin that he flashed her. Him being this happy while she was still so tired, it should be illegal.

"Morning sunshine," he said chuckling at her.

"Go away," was all she managed slightly muffled as she attempted to bury her face in the back of her seat. However, it didn't work very well and just managed to muse her hair even more than it was before.

Ed being Ed, he had to comment on it knowing that now that Winry's eyes had opened once, she wasn't going to back to sleep anytime soon. "Your hair looks like a bird's nest."

She lifted her head just enough to glare at Ed. She didn't let him say another word, "Shut it," she demanded slowly sitting up in her seat. He almost spoke back to her, but when she glared at him again before he could, he decided that at the moment, perhaps it would be better to just keep his mouth shut.

Knowing that Ed had gotten her hints, Winry ignored him as she flipped down the sun blocker thing on her side of the car. For once she wondered what the name of that of that thing was, visor? ... Anyway, all she knew was that there was a mirror on the inside of it that she could use to try and fix her hair.

Looking in it she mentally cringed. Her hair was tangled in such a mess that had it been anyone but Ed in the car with her, she would have been embarrassed. Funny, she mused, that even though she was 99% sure she was in love with Ed, she wasn't embarrassed in the least when he saw her like this. She knew he didn't care. After all, he had seen her through thick and thin. He had seen her through the worst times in her life. If he was gonna think badly of her just because of her hair, then he wouldn't still be around.

She smiled to herself as she took a quick peek at Ed. He was gripping the steering wheel lightly with his gloved hands and she couldn't help but notice how he looked the most relaxed than he had for a while. College life was hard, and Ed went full out on everything. That just was the kind of person he was, but it worried her. Lack of sleep was an often reoccurrence with Ed. If she wasn't there to knock some sense into him every once in a while she wondered if he would have died from sleep depression.

Wow… that was a morbid thought.

"What are you smiling about?" he asked seeing her staring at him and smiling. It didn't look like she was mad at him, but hell you never really could be sure.

Winry didn't care that she had been caught staring at him. She just stared back smiling, which automatically made him grin at her as well. "Nothing," she said waving him off. He might have pressed her for more information if she hadn't continued on. "Hey do you know where my hairbrush is?"

"In your bag," he said being a smartass.

She just rolled her eyes at him. "No duh Sherlock. But where exactly is my bag I mean I was half asleep when I got in the car." She took a quick glance at the back seat hoping that he might have set it there, but only found trash and crap piled up. She frowned, on second thought, she hoped he hadn't put it there.

"It's in the trunk," he said hoping that Winry wouldn't be too upset about not getting her hairbrush for a few hours. They were about halfway to their destination and with any luck she would be willing to wait that long to get it.

"Ughh!"

Crap, he was gonna need some sort of plan to calm her down. Racking his brain for any sort of help he thankfully was able to actually remember something helpful. "But there should be a hairbrush in the door pocket."

Winry froze and slowly turned her head to face Ed. "Ed?"

"Yeah?" he asked nervously.

"You know that's really gay," she just couldn't resist saying.

However, he just smirked at her, unfazed. "It's not mine anyway, it's yours."

"What is one of my brushes doing in your car and why didn't you give it back to me sooner," Winry immediately demanded slightly irritated by Ed's lack of reaction.

Because I kept forgetting and I figured that it gave me an excuse to talk to you if anything ever happened between us, Ed thought being his normal pessimistic self. After being best friends with Winry for years he still managed to worry that she was going to wake up one day and forget all about him and move on with some other guy. It was surprising that she hadn't already done so.

Especially because their schedules had been so different this year that he was lucky to see her twice a week, besides at breakfast, he figured that didn't count… why, he didn't know. Sure, they texted all the time, but was that really enough for them to stay best friends? Not knowing made him anxious and nervous.

"Because I kept forgetting," he answered figuring there was no reason to tell her what was going on in his head.

"Whatever," Winry said shrugging before beginning to dig in the side pocket.

God there was a lot of crap in there that Ed really needed to clean out. Maps and random papers and notes from classes were all stuffed together in no particular order. She made a mental note that when they got back to school she was going to make Ed clean his whole car out, it was just ridiculous.

Yanking a few papers out that had been jammed in hard; Winry was surprised when something foreign went hurling towards her face. Since it was black and looked like it had some kind of legs, Winry reacted as she deemed appropriate.

She screamed throwing up her arms trying to block off her face from the spider before it could attack her. Winry's flailing about and screaming impacted Ed making him jerk the steering wheel in surprise.

Had it been a normal day, he would have only swerved slightly on the road before regaining control.

As it was, the small veer caused the car to hit a small patch of ice, and before he knew it, the car was entirely out of control and it swerved drastically.

And then it was over. In an instant, they had slammed into the ditch on the side of the road.

Once again, they probably would have been able to pull back onto the road had it not been for the snow that had piled on top of the hood of the car effectively rooting it in place. They weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Neither spoke a word as they took deep breaths trying to get their heart rates back to normal and tried to gather their thoughts.

Finally, Ed spoke with his voice tense, "What the hell was that?!" he said commanding Winry to explain.

Winry, unfortunately, didn't appreciate his tone. "What do you mean, what the hell, you were the one that lost control of the car," she replied back glaring at him. By no means was she the least bit tired anymore.

"Only because you screamed and surprised me!" he immediately retorted back.

"There was a spider in the car and it jumped at me, it's your vehicle, you should keep it clean."

She might have had a point, but that didn't matter to him. All that mattered was that she was wrong and he was right, and this was not his fault… for once. Noticing something at Winry's feet he laughed although it was dry and obviously more annoyed than actually amused. He pointed to the object and asked, "That the scary spider?"

Winry didn't even look, as she squealed and immediately pulled her feet up onto the seat with her. Ed just laughed wickedly as she watched the object on the floor… it never moved.

With a closer look, she realized just what Ed was laughing at and immediately got mad. It wasn't a spider at all. It was just some sort of fuzz ball thing. How she had even mistaken it for any sort of bug was beyond her.

She huffed in annoyance. "Well, this is still your fault!" she exclaimed trying to figure out how.

Ed had been slightly amused with the entire situation. Yes, he had just crashed his car off the road, but the fact that it had been because Winry had screamed because she thought she saw a spider, well that had kinda made the whole thing worth it.

But now, she was blaming him, and he wasn't too happy about that. "It is not my fault," he said as his voice got louder.

"Yes it is!" she screamed back right away.

Ed was about to retaliate back, but she didn't give him a chance too. She didn't understand why, but suddenly she was mad. Maybe it was because she was embarrassed, maybe it was because he had laughed at her, or maybe it was because as much as she wasn't one to get scared of silly things, crashing into a ditch had her a little shaken up. Whatever the reason, she was mad and she sure as hell wasn't going to be the one blamed for this little mess.

"If you had just kept your car clean than none of this would have happened," she said fiercely.

Okay, yes he had to admit that was true, but seriously. "Well, you shouldn't have gotten scared by a freaking fuzzball!" he yelled back.

Winry blushed slightly. She knew he was right, and she didn't like it. Spotting something she found another reason to blame him. "Well, you shouldn't be driving with your gloves on; you probably let the steering wheel slip from your grasp because of it."

"What!" he was pissed. He clenched his fists feeling the fabric between his fingers. "Well, it's your fault that I'm even wearing gloves."

"What kind of logic is that?!" Winry asked in such a tone that it was implied that she definitely thought he was an idiot.

"Good logic," he snapped back. "This car isn't exactly that good Winry!"

She was confused now. But now it was her turn to get cut off as Ed continued his little rant. "When I put up the air really high, or I guess the heat in this case, it's kinda loud. I didn't want to wake you up with something so stupid so I just put on some gloves cause I got cold, geez!"

Winry was silent. Of all the things he could have said, she hadn't been expecting that. Although, she supposed, she should have known. He was always like that, looking out for her without even letting her know. At times he over protectiveness could get a little annoying, but most the time she just found it adorable.

So, now that she knew it really was her fault… she didn't know what to say. Sorry? Yes, she was, but somehow saying that seemed lame.

Ed could feel the awkwardness increasing between the two of them. He suddenly wished that he had kept that last comment to himself, even if it was the truth. "I'm gonna see how bad it is," he said coming up with an excuse to escape this uncomfortable situation.

He opened the door and Winry immediately tensed up at feeling the cold wind hit her face. He stopped before he was all the way out the door though and without turning to face her asked quietly, "Winry… you're not hurt right?"

Once again, Winry was caught off guard, but this time she actually answered back. "I'm fine, I might be a little sore from the impact but it was just snow that we crashed into so I should be fine."

She could see him nodding before he stood up and closed the door behind him. It was just like that idiot to catch her off guard like that, and for the second time too. One second they were fighting, and the next he was worried about her or trying to protect her in some stupid way.

She tried to look outside and watch him as he looked over the damage to the car. Unfortunately, the windows had managed to fog up in his absence and with the snow piled up high enough on the windshield effectively blocking off the front window, Winry had no idea what he was doing out there.

Suddenly she realized that all that trouble and she still hadn't found the hairbrush. Normally she wouldn't have worried about her looks at a time like this, but seeing as she was so pissed at herself at the moment she started digging in the side pocket once again trying to find the hairbrush.

When she finally found it, she attacked her hair with it not caring how much it hurt as she untangled it. She almost felt like she deserved it, no matter how silly it seemed. When she had finished, she found herself not knowing what to do. So she sat there silent and gripping the handle of the brush hard enough that she wondered absentmindedly if she could break it.

A second later, she jumped slightly when he opened the door and hurried back in the still warm car.

Opting to stay silent, Winry simply waited for Ed to tell her what he had found outside. That is, if he wasn't too mad at her. He had every right to be, since in the end, it seemed that it really was her fault, looking at Ed now though, she could see that he wasn't blaming her.

Yes, he had blamed her at first, but walking by himself outside had gotten him thinking, and just like always, he placed the blame on his own shoulders. He should have kept his car cleaner, he shouldn't have worn gloves while driving, he shouldn't have ever brought Winry on this trip, he should have… done something else, anything else. Because it wasn't good news that he had to tell her.

He looked over at her. She didn't seem to be mad at him anymore, maybe their separation even if it had only been for a few minutes had been good for both of them. Just to cool their heads.

She wasn't even looking at him, instead she was gripping the handle of the hairbrush in her lap and staring at it. For the first time since he had gotten back in the car he noticed that her hair was no longer tangled, she must have found the brush and fixed it while he had been outside he reasoned. Then he new that she had indeed found the brush seeing as she was clutching on to it, knuckles white. He wondered if she was might even feel bad at yelling at him, even though he probably deserved it. He had no idea how close to the truth he was.

"Good news is that the car seems to have suffered no serious damage, really just a few scratches from the impact," Ed saying avoiding the bad news as long as possible as he turned back on the car before it could get too cold in there.

Much to his disappointment she didn't look up at him to answer. "So how long until we are on the road again?"

"Not sure," he said truthfully but trying to avoid the subject.

Winry, despite feeling a bit down, recognized that he was leaving something out though. She always could tell when he was lying, or in this case just not saying the whole truth. "Ed," she said with a tone that clearly said tell me everything.

"Do you have your phone with you?" he asked instead, although it wasn't just a stall for time.

She narrowed her eyes at him, but decided to go ahead and answer his question before pressing him for more information. She checked her purse quickly and was disappointed to see that her cell wasn't anywhere to be found. Thinking back to that morning, she realized that she probably had just left it charging in her hurry to pack.

"I think I left it back at my apartment," she answered sighing.

"Damn," was all he said.

"Why," she asked not going to take any more crap from him. Who cared if the crash was her fault, what was Edward hiding from her?

He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "The snow pretty much buried the car to the point that we aren't going to be able to get out of this ditch without a tow truck." He waited in silence for a second as he let that soak in.

"Your cell?" she asked a moment later.

"Is a piece of crap that doesn't have service anywhere," he said obviously annoyed.

"So you're saying basically we are stuck here until someone finds us?" she asked still trying to process exactly what this meant.

"Something like that."

They sat in silence facing forward and refusing to look at each other. Neither knew what to say and quite frankly they were both a little afraid that once they started talking they might start arguing… again.

It wasn't as if either of them was afraid to argue; after all, arguing daily was normal for them. It's just that those disagreements tended to be stupid, or one of them messing with the other. Nothing bad came of those.

It was the fights like what had just occurred that were bad. When they full fledged yelled at one another and ended up saying things that they didn't really mean.

"So what now?" Winry asked looking over at Ed not being able to take the silence any longer.

She was caught by surprise when he flashed her a grin. She couldn't help but smile back. And suddenly it was if they had never fought in the first place. They didn't have to apologize now, if ever, although both still felt slightly guilty.

"We talk until someone comes," he simply said. Somehow they both knew it wasn't going to be that bad.

"It was a freaking pencil sharpener Ed," Winry laughed as she teased him about that morning.

"Well how was I supposed to know that you had a pencil sharpener with your other tools, I mean why would you even need one there," he asked chuckling at himself but trying to redeem his actions for not being quite as stupid as she was making them out to be.

The last few hours they had just talked reminiscing over the last few years every since they had gotten to college and how much their lives had changed and yet it hadn't been bad at all.

"I have to make sketches for the designs I make on anything Ed," Winry said as if it was obvious.

"Of course," he said before yawning. Lack of sleep had started to catch up with him again. Winry wondered if he had been getting less sleep than he had told her in his texts to her. She looked over at the back seat, full of crap, before an idea hit her.

Without warning Ed, she suddenly opened her car door with such force that it flew open banging into a pile of snow. Thankfully Ed didn't seem to notice, after all, he was too preoccupied with the fact that Winry had the door open in the first place.

"Winry!" he yelled practically jumping from his seat, but before he could do anything, she had flashed him a quick smile before slamming the door shut behind her. He couldn't move. Winry jumping out of the car like that… it was weird and frankly he didn't know what to really do about it.

What was she planning? What was she thinking? Did she want him to go after her or something?

He reached for his own door handle, but before he could so much as pull, the back door swung open and Winry quickly pushed some of the junk aside and climbed into the back seat closing the door behind her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ed exclaimed, although he was just happy that he wasn't going to have to go after her in the snow.

"What the hell is all this stuff?" Winry asked ignoring Ed's question as she started picking up the random crap from the back and throwing it to the front.

"Hey hey!" Ed exclaimed suddenly a little embarrassed at all the stuff that had managed to pile up in his back seat. It wasn't that he was a messy person by nature; he just tended to throw stuff back there and forget about it since he hardly ever gave people rides anywhere.

She just kept at it though, picking up an empty beer bottle and raising an eyebrow at Ed.

"Probably Mustangs or something," he said flustered.

"Suuure," she said sarcastically as she tossed it in the front seat along with the other junk in the back.

"It is!" Ed protested, albeit halfheartedly.

Winry just rolled her eyes as she kept throwing things into the front seat. Ed couldn't help but watch her half amazed by everything she did, and half confounded with the fact he found it so amazing.

Finding something interesting she stopped and held it up saying in disbelief, "Really Ed, Silly String?"

"Hey be careful with that, I need it to get back at Al," he said taking it from Winry and setting it nicely on the floor on the driver's side of the car.

"For what?"

Remembering how the last time he had seen his brother and how Al had profusely encouraged him to ask out Winry, Ed blushed just thinking about it. "Al was just being annoying last time I saw him so I'm just getting him back."

Knowing Ed and recognizing his blush, Winry knew there was more to the story but figured she shouldn't bug him too much about it at the moment. Maybe later when they got saved or something, so instead she just nodded and proceeded to throw some old chemistry papers up to the front.

At the rate that she was throwing things, it didn't take long for the back seat to get completely clear and with a small sigh, she turned to Ed was staring at her. She might have blushed, but since she had wanted to catch his eye she just patted the seat next to her, inviting him to join her.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Ed made sure that the car doors were unlocked so he could keep on the car, before he quickly stepped outside to get back in right away but this time next to Winry. "Lie down," she immediately said not giving him the chance to question what she was planning.

He started to move his feet up on the seat as he leaned back against the door, but when Winry shook her head at him, he froze. "With your head the other way idiot," she said patting her lap as if to show him exactly where to put his head.

A light blush graced her cheeks, but Ed didn't notice. As it was, he was having a hard enough time believing what she had just told him to do. Slowly he moved placing his head in her lap and stretching out his legs as much as he could on top of the seat.

Looking up at Winry like this was different than what he was used to. It was strange, but the closeness of it all… it was nice, although confusing.

"You looked like you were gonna fall asleep," Winry said smiling sweetly down at him.

Well if he had been, he certainly wasn't anymore. Being like this with Winry was making his mind race and he wondered if perhaps, just maybe, she could like him in some way besides as his best friend. After all, did friends let friends rest their heads in their lap… he didn't think so.

Then again… this was Winry. The girl he had known since he was practically in diapers. Anything she did with him couldn't be too far read into.

"So," Winry started, "silly string for Al, guess that means we were going to Resembool."

Ed paused, crap she had figured him out. But figuring that it was too late now to take back what he said and since they were sorta stranded… it didn't really matter if she knew their destination.

"Yeah, I wanted to surprise you, sorry it's not turning out the way I planned it." He closed his eyes not being able to stare at Winry any longer without feeling self conscious.

She looked down at him staring at his closed eyes wishing he would open them and she might be able to get some kind of hint at what exactly he had been planning. Now she only had one question. "Why?"

His eyes popped open, "Huh?"

"Why did you want us to go on this trip?" she asked already knowing what he was going to say.

"Figured you might enjoy going home for a while, that you might be homesick."

While Ed had always been a good liar, when it came to Winry, she could just always tell. Therefore, "You're lying," she said without hesitation.

Seeing the determination in her eyes and feeling weird from being so close to Winry for the first time in a long time, Ed knew he was going to have to tell her. He could only hope that it wasn't too awkward.

"I missed you," and this time it was Winry's turn to be confused, so he continued. "We're both always busy and I don't know, but I thought that it might be kinda nice to just get to spend some time just us two. I mean besides having breakfast together, it's just not the same as when we used to spend almost the entire day together."

Watching Winry for a reaction, he was surprised when she didn't say or do anything. She just looked really deep in thought and he wondered if she was okay. But then she pulled a typical Winry and caught him by surprise when she suddenly grabbed his gloved hand and started looking at it very closely.

"You know, when we get back to School I'm buying you some of those hobo gloves so you can't ever let the car slip from your grasp again, okay?" She asked then looking him straight in the eyes.

He was silent for a moment before he started to chuckle. She joined in as well giggling while explaining to him the benefits of hobo gloves over normal ones, all of which were mildly ridiculous.

She didn't know what to think. It had been hours since Ed had confessed to wanting to spend some time together quote 'just us two,' and still she had no idea of what to think of it. She knew what she wanted to believe, and then there was what she probably should believe that he just wanted to hang out with her as a friend. Always as a friend.

So she had done the only thing she could think to do… change the subject, and to hobo gloves none the less, what was wrong with her?! At least he had laughed.

Softly she ran her fingers through his hair. About an hour ago he had managed to finally fall asleep and that had meant time for her to think.

Honestly, two things were bothering her. First off, she had never actually apologized to him about blaming him for the crash, and even though she knew he didn't expect her to, she wanted to. Then secondly, she still had no idea of what he really thought about her.

Looking down at him with his head in her lap fast asleep… well he was just too cute. She wouldn't say he looked like an angel or something cheesy out of a romantic novel, but she had to admit he looked relaxed, which good for him. Ed worried too much as it was.

Then she just couldn't resist, she had already been running her fingers through his hair for the past hour trying to relax him enough so that he could fall asleep, so when she cupped his face lightly with her other hand, it shouldn't have mattered that much.

But something about touching him like that… it was too intimate for what their relationship was.

Still, thinking about what he had said earlier she couldn't help but smile to herself. It was sweet, even if it wasn't in the way she wanted it.

It was then that she realized how close her face had suddenly gotten to Ed's. At some point she had started leaning down and tilting her head so that her face was over his. She froze only inches away from his face knowing what she was doing was wrong, and yet not wanting to stop. So instead she just froze where she was not willing to pull away but not able to finish off the act she had started.

Suddenly she felt a hand on the back of her neck and Ed's eyes popped open.

She was doomed.

Immediately she tried to pull away, but she felt Ed's hold on her tighten keeping her from getting away. His golden eyes pierced into her blue and she felt like her heart had just gone berserk. Where his hand was on her neck felt like it was on fire, and yet it somehow was a pleasant sensation at the same time. Their breaths mingled, warm.

"Winry? What were you just doing?" Ed asked sounding slightly breathless.

"I'm not sure," she admitted just as short of breath.

"Well. I don't know either.." he trailed off leaning up just barely at the same time that she leaned down.

And their lips touched, slowly and uncertainly at first, but when neither pulled away, it became deeper. Neither of them was able to think straight, and all Ed really knew was that he wanted to be able to kiss her easier. He managed to sit up slightly before breaking away for a split second to get in a better position to really kiss her.

But that second was all Winry needed. As Ed leaned in to continue what they had previously been doing she leaned away and put a finger to his lips to stop him. Of course, that was a mistake, because now her hand just wanted to touch his face and holding him back from her seemed like the stupidest thing to ever do.

Problem was, it was too random. Them just kissing like that, it was… something. Good, too generic, Great, still too normal, Amazing, that's about right. But that wasn't the word she was going for here. Yes it was amazing, but it was also… confusing.

Was this just a kind of heat of the moment thing, or was this something Ed really wanted to do as badly as her? She had to know.

"I'm sorry," he suddenly blurted out through her finger. She stared at him not sure what to say or do.

He grabbed her hand holding it in both of his as he continued. "I'm sorry for blaming you for the crash earlier, I'm sorry for catching you by surprise with that kiss…" he had to tell her though, if he didn't, he knew things would go back to normal and Winry just being his best friend wasn't what he wanted. "But, I'm not sorry for the kiss. I've wanted to do that for a long time." He dropped her hand and looked away embarrassed.

He had just put his heart on the line for Winry, but of all the girls he knew, she was worth it, or that's at least what he was hoping.

"Good," she said making his head whip back around to stare at her as she smiled brilliantly. "I'm sorry for the blaming earlier too, but I'm not sorry for the kiss because I probably have wanted to do it longer than you."

"Yeah right," he said as his competitive nature set in as he scooted closer to Winry.

"Yeah," she jested back, "I know that I've liked you longer than you've liked me."

"No, I've liked you longer," he said getting into the argument, wait were they really fighting about something like this?

She just rolled his eyes teasing him. "Fine, how can I prove I've wanted this more and for longer?" he asked eyes blazing.

They were leaning closer again unable to deny how much they wanted to touch. Then Ed placed his hand on her cheek before sliding it to the back of her neck, she felt her breath become more ragged and jumbled. Quietly she answered him. "Why don't you show me."

Then they were kissing again for the second time, this time taking it deeper and longer seeing how they were better positioned this time and knew that they both wanted this. Neither knew how much time proceeded before they pulled away from one another breathless once again.

"So what exactly are you getting back at Al for?" Winry asked groggily.

It was morning but still dark outside and they had spent the night both were lying down together, as much as they could with the small seat, with Winry's back to Ed's chest and with his arms wrapped tightly around her to keep her from falling off the seat.

Although, Winry knew he just wanted to hold her. But for his pride's sake she kept her mouth shut about it.

"He kept teasing me last time I was home," Ed said even sleepier than Winry.

"About?"

Ed didn't respond. Not because he was embarrassed, but because he had fallen back asleep. A quick jab to the ribs fixed that. "What?!" he exclaimed surprised yet still half asleep.

"What was Al teasing you about?" Winry asked smiling to herself.

Ed buried his head in her hair inhaling slowly as he pulled her even tighter in his arms. "You," he admitted sheepishly.

"Really," she squealed.

"Yeah, he was always bugging me about asking you out," he admitted thoughtfully and much more awake now.

"Guess you don't have to worry about that anymore," she said hugging Ed's arms tightly. "But why the silly string?"

Ed shrugged, "I didn't want to really hurt him or anything, but he doesn't like the smell of silly string so I thought it would just annoy him a little if I sprayed him with the stuff when I came home."

Winry just shook her head in amusement.

For a moment they just laid there in silence enjoying the closeness. Besides being stranded in the middle of nowhere, life was pretty good.

However, the silence wasn't long lasting seeing how about twenty or so minutes after being fully awake and more or less zoning out, a few taps on the window startled them. Looking outside they found a black haired man with glasses smiling down at them.

Ed opened the door and the guy spoke. "Hey there kids, need a ride into town? You look like you got stranded or something," he said cheerfully.

The two looked at one another before Ed agreed with, "If it's not too much trouble."

"Of course not, though you might want to get some stuff together really quick to take with you just in case your car can't be pulled out of the snow anytime soon," he added still smiling brightly

"Good idea Mr…" Ed prompted as Winry pulled some of the bare essentials out of the trunk and started placing them in a smaller bag.

"Maes Hughes," the man said smiling.

"I'm Ed and this is Winry," Ed said gesturing to Winry. "We'll only take a second to get everything together."

"That's fine, take your time," Hughes said smiling brightly. While Ed and Winry quickly gathered up what they needed, Hughes walked around the car examining just how well they had gotten stuck. "You guys sure got yourselves in to one big mess," he commented.

"Yeah," Ed agreed nonchalantly, "At least it was still able to run last night, although it's probably gonna take a tow truck or something to pull the car out from all that snow."

Hughes whistled noticing how some of the snow almost seemed to have frozen over the car overnight. "I'll say."

"Okay, we're ready," Winry said slamming the trunk shut. "Just show us the way, and thanks again for this."

"Really it's no problem," Hughes said waving off the last comment as he headed back towards the road where his car was parked. "I just feel bad for you guys, I mean stranded in a car all night in this weather; heater or not that must have sucked."

Winry suddenly felt a hand grab hers, and she looked up to see Ed looking down at her grinning, "I don't know," he said, "It wasn't too bad."

She smiled back and gave his hand a little squeeze. "Not bad at all," she agreed.

IMPORTANT! This was a challenge between me and Freyjadour and we are posting our fics (his is FF8) at the same time and then seeing who can get the most reviews in a week, seven days to be exact. So please review. Plus I love hearing feedback of any type.

Oh and you should read his too just because it's fun. Later!