If the weather could be threatened into submission, it surely would have shrunk back in fear of Ed's baleful gaze. Sitting stiffly in a chair pulled over to the window, Ed cursed under his breath. The damp had soaked into his arm...no, not his arm. His goddamned automail port.

The irritation had woken him from a sound slumber, prompting him to strip his shirt off to inspect himself. Ed had expected to see some mangled debris hanging from his shoulder, but he'd noted that the skin around the port was only tense and slightly swollen, crowding the cold steel. It wasn't a sharp pain, but more of a dull, persistent ache, like a mouth full of tooth ache. Ed cursed himself for being bothered by such a minor distraction, as he had slept through much worse than a weather-sore arm before.

"Fuckin' rain." He mumbled, standing from his chair and walking to the other side of the room. It was a damn good thing he didn't need to worry about a sore leg, as well...he'd just have to hang himself there in his room if that was the case. Upon reaching the far side of the room, he spun on his heel and stalked back to the window, casting a disgusted look upon the rain-soaked plains of Resembool. Sure, the muddy after effects of spring storms had been fun when he was little, but that had been an eternity ago.

Ed continued his irritated pacing, unconsciously increasing his pace and the foulness of the expletives that dribbled from his tightly drawn lips as time went on. It was right after Ed had written a new chapter in Humanity's Potty Mouth Encyclopedia that he heard a sleepy voice from his doorway.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Ed turned around to see Winry standing in his doorway. Rubbing at one eye with a drowsily curled fist, she peered at him with the other.

"Couldn't sleep." He answered gruffly.

"So this is what you do when you can't sleep? Run across your room?" Winry giggled. Ed could feel the corners of his mouth turn up, but not in his characteristic cocky snarl. A giggling Winry was infectious, and Ed had spent a lot of time kicking himself over not having realized that sooner. Ever since Ed had fulfilled his promise to Al (and to Winry, for that matter), he had been taking turns kicking himself for not realizing things and enjoying said things.

"Yeah. I guess it is." Ed chuckled, rubbing at the back of his head sheepishly.

Winry crossed the room, stopping at the window Ed had been maligning previously. "It's really coming down out there." She mused, hand framing her chin thoughtfully.

"Does she have any idea how gorgeous she is?" Ed thought to himself, bemused. Even in a tattered old t-shirt, she was more appealing to Ed than any other woman he'd seen in Amestris.

Ignoring his silence, Winry asked Ed nonchalantly "How are you handling Al sleeping in the other room?" Her azure eyes spied Ed through a thick haze of long, wispy eyelashes.

Ed snorted. "I'm fine. He's a big boy, Winry." Al had tentatively broached the subject of taking up a separate bedroom from Ed when he regained strength. Maybe Ed was a LITTLE put off by it at first, they'd been together pretty much every single day for their entire lives. But it made sense. Al was growing up. It had only been uncomfortable when the Old Hag had quipped about "hormones" and "boyish urges". Sick Old Hag.

"So, why are you still awake then?" Winry turned to face him, leaning against the window. Years of living a life that was one missed detail away from ending, Ed noticed the bumps that spread to her arm at the cold contact of the glass behind her. "We both know you sleep like a rock. A dead rock."

"Rocks can't die, automail geek." Ed grinned.

"Don't change the subject, jackass." Winry's voice was casual, but her face betrayed her, eyebrows rising just a bit in interest.

Ed rubbed at his sore arm a bit, grimacing, not in pain, but in resignation. "My arm's a li'l achey. No big deal."

Winry was on him in a flash. Ed's imagination kicked into overdrive, images of her hopping into his arms and wrapping soft, slim legs around his waist, the imagined sensation of soft lips on his own chapped ones.

Ed was almost relieved when she began inspecting his arm. ALMOST. She ran her skilled, lithe fingers over the casing, poking and prodding at his elbow joint.

Apparently he had passed her inspection, because she looked up -"UP!" Ed thought with a flash of pride-at him, blinking in mild confusion.

"Nothing's wrong with it, dummy." she stated mildly.

Ed could feel his eye twitch in irritation. "I KNOW there's nothing WRONG with it. I'm fine." Ed mumbled testily, shaking his arm out of her grasp and taking a step back. Winry's eyes narrowed, scanning his face. Another thing Ed had gotten good at during his journeys was keeping an excellent poker face, but Winry knew better...he was an awful poker player.

"Your port." Winry said pointedly, gesturing at his shoulder with a nod of her head. "The humidity is mucking it all up. Is it bad?"

"No. Not really. No."

"Liar." She laughed. "Sit on the bed."

"Why?" Ed was suspicious. Where was this going? He grinned a bit, filing away the image of Winry straddling his lap after pushing him down on the bed into the back of his head for future use. The grin disappeared, and he mentally cursed Colonel Asshat for seemingly rubbing off on him.

"Just do it. Mechanic's orders!" Winry chirped.

Ed sat down wearily on the edge of his bed, consciously forcing himself to not roll his achey shoulder. Ed jumped as Winry kneeled on the bed and walked on her knees until she was behind him.

"Winry what the hell-" Ed strained his neck to look back at her.

"Shut up I'm trying to help you!" Winry cut him off. Was she...blushing? Maybe? Ed told himself it was just the light, although that made NO sense.

Ed faced forward, tensing as he felt her hand on his shoulder, right above the port.

"Yeah...you're really tensed up here, Ed." She poked a particularly tight knob of flesh and Ed hissed between his teeth.

"Thanks, Winry. I hadn't known until you started poking me like a damned animal." She smacked him lightly across the back of the head, and Ed cringed.

"I'm trying to help you!"

"Then help me if you're gonna help me!"

Winry went from poking to rubbing, using her fingertips to rub the tense muscles of Ed's shoulder. Ed relaxed slightly, enjoying the massage. Warm, strong fingers kneaded sore muscles, soothed rigid tendons. He had to admit, he wasn't used to the contact...normally anyone touching him was trying to knock his head from his shoulders.

Ed closed his eyes slightly, letting thought drift out of his head in favor of memorizing the caring and maybe even affectionate touch of his oldest friend. Winry must have decided that fingertips weren't enough, as she began working the tendon of his trapezius muscle. Interestingly, her other hand crept up and rubbed the other side of his neck...he only had one automail arm, so maybe that wasn't so necessary...but he sure as hell wasn't going to complain.

"Jeez Ed...you really ARE tense..." He heard her mumble. Ed had known Winry since before he could remember, and thus he was fairly certain he could picture her face even through his lidded eyes. Eyes narrowed slightly in concentration, a bit of pink tongue trapped between her lips. No doubt Winry did the latter out of habit and it wasn't conscious...that or she liked to torture Ed with the unbearable endearment he felt towards her when she was doing it.

Her skilled hands worked their way to the back of his neck, kneading the muscles over his shoulder blades. Ed was glad he had been keeping up on his exercise since he'd been back, and he was hoping Winry was enjoying the taut, sinewy musculature of his back. It was now that Ed could feel her soft breath on the back of his neck, giving rise to the tiny hairs on the back of his neck, as well as other bits of him.

Luckily, Edward was a man of ironclad willpower, and he forced those other bits to relax.

"Hey Ed, would you mind if I sat a little closer?" Winry asked, her mouth right next to his ear. Maybe his willpower was less ironclad than he thought, as his lower regions weren't obeying orders, not with Winry so close.

"Y-yeah, sure." Stammered Ed who was ferociously fighting for control of himself.

"If you're uncomfortable-" she began before Ed piped up.

"No! It's...nice. It feels good." He tilted his head back and to the side, flashing a grin.

"Heh...whatever you say, Ed." She chuckled. Ed faced forward again as Winry settled down from her knees. Ed was successfully shoring up the defenses the rebellious hormones had punched in the castle walls of his self-control, but the tides turned once again as Winry spread her legs out, resting one on either side of Ed.

Ed gulped, and the insurrection busted down the walls to his throne room and held him at gun point. The moonlight glinting off her creamy white legs provided JUST the distraction that was needed. Ed dimly recognized that the rain must have stopped if the moon was shining.

GOD. They looked so...soft. Ed wanted to touch them, run steel and flesh fingers alike up and down their length, committing each and every centimeter to memory.

Years down the road Ed would admit to Winry that this was the start of his leg fetish.

Winry's soothing touch resumed as she replaced her hands, working the tight, broad planes of his shoulders. Outwardly, he practically groaned at the mollifying abilities of Winry's spectacularly skilled hands. Inwardly (and lower) Ed was a smoldering, seething cauldron of emotion. Of desire. Of...lust? No, lust was a dark thing, a SIN...not that Ed was a religious person, but such a dark thing didn't describe his feelings toward Winry. Hell, Lust was just an inhuman monster to him anyways. Beating down his not-so-pure thoughts, Ed forced himself to relax.

Winry's rough, slightly callused thumbs worked the tightly wound muscles adjacent to his spine. Warmth spread through his body as the last traces of any tension dissipated.

Ed felt himself leaning back into Winry as he grew more and more relaxed under her care. Fingers brushed hair away, rubbed intently at stubborn knots.

However, Winry seemed to be getting a bit playful. Tracing circles every now and again, raking her nails gently against already soothed patches of muscle, and was she breathing a bit heavier than need be on his neck?

Ed didn't believe in an afterlife, nor a god, but he was in heaven. He found himself drifting off, and fought to keep awake, fought to keep enjoying what was arguably the most intimate thing Ed had ever experienced with another human being.

"Ed! You're smushing me!" Winry giggled. Ed had indeed been leaning way back against Winry, and she had pushed him back up gently.

"Oh...heh. Sorry, Win. Guess I was just really comfy." Ed chuckled nervously, diverting his blushing visage.

"Guess that means you're good to go to sleep then, huh?" She asked, raking her fingernails playfully up and down his spine.

Ed was disappointed at the massage coming to an end, but he hid it well. "Feels a lot better, Winry, thanks. If you wanna go to bed you can."

Winry playfully tugged at his braid and sat beside him. "You're welcome, Ed. Just...let me know if starts acting up again. Okay?" She smiled at him.

"Yeah...I will. Thanks again." Ed smiled back. Contagious, contagious Winry.

Winry pushed herself off the bed and moved to leave. As she walked past Ed, she stopped and turned to face him. Leaning down, she planted a soft kiss on his arm, right where warm, relaxed flesh met cold, unrelenting steel.
She smiled at him again, and silently left the room.

Ed flopped back on his bed, touching his fingers where Winry's lips had brushed. Marveling at the softness and warmth of her touch, Ed decided that he wished it rained more often.

(A/N sorry this took so long, guys! I've been busy, sick, etc etc etc. blah. Anyways, I'm reasonably happy with the outcome here, I think I balanced some humor with some fluff, and even some sexual tension. At least on Ed's side! I actually considered writing this from Winry's perspective but decidethreat would be a mistake as most of the insight would be left out. Though, I suppose I could've written about an excited Winrrubbing down the object of her affection? Haha

I highly recommend you check out Velveteens' 100 theme challenge, as her work is stupendous. Great stuff, ranging from K+ to M.

On a slightly but not really related note, my next two themes will lean heavily towards the...citrusy side. In short, one will be tame, the other will be a bit spicier. tasteful, I assure you, but...spicy. Haha

A new chapter for Thin, White Lines will be up next, so stay tuned guys!)