Due Date Ch.4 EdWin

Ed had a face splitting smile on his face when going into work the next morning, earning shocked stares from almost everyone there. The usual face he had on was one of reluctance, and it was an honest expression, he’d much rather be surrounded by the hills of Resembool, than the tall buildings and ongoing traffic of Central. But today was different, he had just found out that he was soon going to be a father, and it felt like there was nothing that could get in the way of him right now. It was like his usual feeling, but much, much stronger.

He made his rounds throughout the building, taking about three hours out of his six hour day, until he finally made a stop at the Colonel bastard’s, now called Fuhrer bastard’s, office.

“Ah, Fullmetal.” Roy noted Ed’s presence as he walked in, “Do you have those reports I need?” he looked up from his paper work and saw a smug faced Ed standing in front of him. “Alright, what’s with the face?”

“Hehe.” Ed crossed his arms and the look of supreme superiority crossed his face, “I, am going to be a father!”

Roy’s facial expression didn’t move one bit, “What the hell are you talking about Fullmetal?”

Ed sighed and put his fingers to his forehead, acting like he was talking to a five year old who didn’t understand his math, “I said, I am going to be a father!”

A few silent seconds passed before Roy spoke again, “Who on earth would marry you, and have your children?”

“I’m already married, you bastard!!!!” Ed exploded at the Fuhrer bastard’s statement, “You were even there!”

“Oh, that’s right, that’s right.” He acted like he just recalled the event.

“Hmph, why am I even telling you this?” a comedic evil expression came onto his face, “I don’t see you becoming a father. Oh wait; you’re not even married are you?”

“What’d you say pipsqueak?!” This time it was Roy’s turn to explode.

“I said,” Ed began speaking again as he easily dodged the fire that was now bursting towards him, “Why don’t you go over to Hawkeye, and tell her how you feel, you wimp!”

“The hell Fullmetal?! What’s that gotta do with you?!” Roy was becoming increasingly frustrated with how easily his flames were being dodged at the moment.

“Nothin really,” Ed tried to shrug as he was averting the flames, “I’m just suggesting that you do it soon.”

Roy stopped snapping his fingers at this statement, “What do you mean?”

Yes, I’ve got him!; Ed thought evilly “I’m just saying, you never know when someone might snatch her up!” Ed went over to the couch and made himself comfortable, propping his legs up on the table and placing his hands behind his head, “At least I was man enough to tell Winry how I felt.”

“M-man enough?”

“Yup, that’s right! I swallowed my pride and threw myself out there!” Ed recalled how he conveyed his feelings at the train station that day.

“Threw yourself?”

“That’s right!” Ed was feeling completely superior at the moment, overjoyed at the fact that he wasn’t the one being messed with for once, “I didn’t know what the answer in return would be, but I just had to say it or there was no way I could continue to call myself a man!”

Roy blocked out Ed’s smug laughter as he began thinking. Throw myself out there? Can’t call myself a man unless I do?  Swallow my pride? “Shit! Why is this so complicated?” He accidentally said the last part aloud, extremely embarrassed that he did so.

Ed sighed and stopped laughing, feeling strangely sympathetic for the Fuhrer bastard, “Alright, I’m only going to say this once. You got it?!”

Once it looked like he had gained Roy’s attention he began to speak again, “Alright, I’m only saying this because you look exactly like I did about a year and a half ago. I was running myself down with thinking about why I couldn’t tell Winry anything, and about why it was so hard to say just three simple words.” Ed laughed thinking about his next statement, “Actually, I had already told myself that I wasn’t going to tell her until after I got back from the West, but of course that plan backfired, and I’m grateful it did.”

“Now, here is another thing you have to think about. If you even remotely think that she may return your feelings, you have to think about her happiness too. This is what Winry told me, “if you don’t say it to her first, or even show slight interest in her, then she’ll assume that you aren’t interested and she won’t say anything either.” You just have to swallow your pride and say it, whether she returns your feelings or not is something to think about after you’ve said it, not before.” Ed finished with a sigh, remembering that he spent an entire month trying to tell Winry every time he saw here. I’m just surprised she didn’t get freaked out and run away every time.

Roy was speechless; shocked that Fullmetal was capable of saying things like that. “Wow, Fullmetal,” he began laughing at the fact that he had just been lectured by a not so small anymore pipsqueak, “I’m surprised you can say such sappy things.”

Ed was about to retort but Roy stopped him, beginning to speak before he did, “In any case, about what you told me before, I’m happy for you, and for Winry. Just don’t screw the kid up with your personality alright.”

“Shut the hell up bastard.” Ed walked out of the Fuhrer bastards office with a smile on his face, having just been reminded of the fact that he’ll soon be a father.

He let his mind drift, as it always does when he comes into work, to the hills of Resembool, and to Winry. I wonder what she’s doing.

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Back at home, Winry was living up to the dream of pregnancy life. She was sitting in a rocking chair, her hair pulled back into a slightly messy bun, and she was knitting her little heart away, enjoying the day thoroughly. If only that were the real case. In reality, she was lying on the front porch, her hair sprawled all around her face and instead of knitting her heart away, she was sweating it away. What the hell, she thought about that little scenario she imagined, I don’t own a rocking chair, and I don’t even know how to knit!

She looked out to the view the location of their house had given her, and squinted her eyes. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, and the dirt ground was reflecting the sun’s rays relentlessly. Even the birds knew to stay out of the sun at a time like this. What can I do to cool down? She thought this desperately.

Inside of the house was no better than it was outside, and she had already tried sticking her head in the freezer. And to top it all off, there was absolutely nothing for her to do. She had already filled all her automail orders for the entire week, and by some horrid coincidence, she was running low on materials to begin a new piece.

Mei had left to do some shopping in town, and Alphonse had gone into work around the same time as Ed did.  So, this turn of events had left her completely alone, with only an empty house as her company.

Then she suddenly got an idea, “Ah! That’s it!” She sprang up from her recent lying down position and ran into the house, “I’ll go to the lake!” She yelled into her empty home and began to collect her things and change into her bathing suit, completely forgetting about how the lake didn’t work for her the first time she had gone to cool down.

Once she had gathered everything she needed, she grabbed a piece of paper and quickly scrawled some writing on it, leaving a note for Mei and Ed in case one of them came back before she did. She wrote, “We’ll be down at the lake for a little while to cool off! It is seriously too hot around here. Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon!!” When done writing, she left a little smiley face on the corner of the page.

“Alright then!” She began speaking to herself and the baby, “Let’s head on down to the lake!”

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The walk there was the same as ever, a long but enjoyable one. The lake was located about ten minutes into the forest of Resembool; it was a huge clearing with a decent sized lake in the middle. She had gone to the lake since she was little, when her parents were still alive they would take her almost every other day, with an accompaniment of Ed and Al of course. 

She looked up to the ceiling of leaves above her, smiling at the thought of being the one who gets to take her child to the lake now. “I’ll take you through here all the time baby! If you’re a girl, I’ll get you the cutest little swimsuit out there, and if you’re a boy, I’ll get you the handsomest one!” Her hand migrated to her stomach that had begun to round off, signaling that the baby was getting bigger.

Another smile crossed her face as she entered the clearing, and saw the sparkling blue water ahead of her. She jogged over to the bed of water, set her things down, and began removing her cover up clothes, revealing a bikini top and bottom. She walked over to the threshold of water and dipped her toe into it, “Yes! It feels great!”  She quickly tied her hair up and ran right in, splashing the lovely feeling water all over herself, feeling her over heating body cool down almost immediately.

“Oh man,” she sighed as she began floating on top of the water, “This feels wonderful.”

This floating continued on for about an hour’s time. Her body felt completely relaxed, relaxed to the point where she was about to fall asleep. Ah, this isn’t good. If I continue on like this, I’ll end up falling asleep in the water. God knows I’ll never live that one down.

Slowly, she turned her body around to where her stomach was in the water, and began swimming back to the firm ground.  When her feet finally touched land, she walked out of the water, and to her belongings she had brought with her. She rummaged through her bag for a towel and a water bottle, suddenly feeling oddly thirsty. She downed the entire bottle before she laid her oversized towel down on the soft pillowy grass.

 She lay down on her shade covered towel, and admired the sky. It was just beginning to turn a soft orange color, indicating that the sun was beginning to move to the other side of the earth.  She moved her eyes from the sky and towards the water that was now turning a deep blue. The sun no longer made the water dance with its reflection, instead the water danced with the wind, slowly moving in ripples down the path the wind directed, and soon the water would dance with the moon.

Winry yawned, and turned over to lie on her stomach, giving up on staying awake. She hid her face inside her arms, and began to doze off slowly, knowing that Ed or Mei would come and get her soon enough.

Back at the empty house, about a mile away, the note that she wrote to Mei or Ed was lying beneath the couch, having fallen off the table when she ran past it. She fell asleep not knowing that no one would see the note that she left, and not knowing that storm clouds were beginning to brew.

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It was about six in the evening when Ed finally got home, the sun was almost completely down and the wind was quickly picking up. “It looks like a storms coming.” Ed thought out loud to himself.

“That’s right.” A stranger who was getting off the train replied to his spoken thought, “It’s supposed be the worse we’ve seen all year.”

Ed looked at the man running off, worse one of the year? Just the regular storms are bad. Quickly, he began running too, deciding that he’d better get home before he was caught up in it.

He made it home in about ten minutes, his running capabilities making it an easy endeavor. “Hey Winry! I’m home!” He yelled out into the house, but there was no reply.

All the lights were off, and there was no movement going on whatsoever. “Hello? Winry?!” There was still no reply.

Suddenly the front door opened and Mei appeared in the hallway, looking tired and out of breath. “Mei?” Ed questioned, “Where’s Winry? Is she with you?””

“N-no.” Mei spoke while trying to catch her breath, “I came back from shopping for Winry about an hour and a half ago, and when I came back she wasn’t here.” Mei’s panting still hadn’t subsided, making it increasingly hard for her to talk. “I went back into town to see if she had gone there looking for me, but she was nowhere to be found! Then I heard people talking about an upcoming storm, so I began looking for her all over and still nothing.” Mei began tearing up from worry as she was speaking.

“Did she say anything to you?” Ed grabbed Mei’s arm and helped her up from her squatting position on the floor, also becoming increasingly worried. “Did she say she was going anywhere?”

Mei stopped for a second; her thoughts were scrambled from her previous panicking. “No she didn’t say anything about going somewhere; the only words that she kept saying were “it’s way too hot”

It’s way too hot? She was saying that a few days ago! Damn it. What did she do then? She was fanning herself, and then she made me fan her, but then what? “AH! The lake!” It clicked in Ed’s head. When she had said those words before; she had gone off to the lake suddenly.

“I’m going to check by the lake Mei! Just wait here!” Ed stopped when he made it outside. The storm clouds were coming in fast and the sun was barely giving off any light at all. Damn it, I don’t have much time until it starts.

Thinking only about Winry’s and the baby’s safety, he ran out into the open field, quickly making his way into the forest that they always went to as children, disregarding the sickening pain that was that was beginning to take over the flesh part of his automail leg.

He called out into the forest when he reached it, “Winry!” From what he could hear, there was no reply.