Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ I Sense You There ❯ Taste ( Chapter 4 )

Taste

 

Ed sighed contently, a small smile gracing his features. No one in the world could possibly feel as good as he did at this very moment. He was outside, actually outside, for the first time in months. He could feel the grass under his back, the sweet scented breeze blew through his hair, the nostalgic scent of clean laundry, wheat and dung hung in the air, and the sun warmed his entire body, reaffirming Ed's conviction to make things right for himself and his brother.

He had an arm and a leg now, both made of gleaming automail, and while he was still terribly wobbly on his feet and needed a pair of crutches to get around, the young boy felt whole for the first time in almost a year.

Not complete, but whole.

To cap off Ed's perfect moment in time, his head was cushioned quite comfortably on Winry's lap, her fingers brushing through his now shoulder length hair, and a spoon full of melting ice cream in her hand. Closing his eyes, Ed opened his mouth wide, indicating that he was ready for another helping of the sweetly thick confection. Winry took her cue and brought the spoon to Ed's open mouth. His lips wrapped tightly around the utensil, his tongue swirling over the blob of ice cream, making sure that every part of his mouth was touched by the creamy delight before it slid slowly down his parched throat. Releasing the spoon, Ed licked his lips clean before smacking them and making a delighted moan.

“You're such a pig.” Winry teased as she piled with spoon with more chocolate ice cream.

“Just shut up and feed me, woman.” Ed demanded, opening his mouth again. Since his eyes were closed, Winry felt confidant in smiling gently at the boy who was resting in her lap. She hated when he caught her looking at him with fond eyes, and since Ed was no longer on morphine and sleeping at all hours of the day, it was rare that Winry could take a private moment to admire him.

Ever since he had his arm and leg connected, the boy was unstoppable to the point of endangering himself. He still needed to wait for his body to adjust to the automail, for his muscles to regain their strength and learn to accept these new limbs. No matter how many times she told him, however, Ed insisted on pushing his body to the limit, walking up and down the stairs for hours, lifting weights, and even trying to coax Al into sparing with him. It was only when Winry threatened to forbid Al from tending to Den before the younger brother finally agreed to stop relenting to Ed's stubborn will.

Moments such as this, sitting on the hill that overlooked most of the town, no worries to concern them, no Pinako harping at Winry to double check her measurements for an automail commission or lecturing Ed on proper automail maintenance, were very few. Winry treasured them immensely, knowing that days such as this were numbered as Ed's deadline for a full recovery was less than two months away.

As it was a nice day, Ed would normally be going about his own rigorous physical therapy. Today, however, was the young boy's eleventh birthday, and both Winry and Al had banded together to convince Ed that he should take his birthday off and just enjoy a lazy day in Resembool.

Ed's idea of lazy, however, was a little too self-indulgent. He had awaken that morning and, rather than make his way downstairs on his own two legs, had demanded that Al cart him around as if he were a personal donkey made for such services. At breakfast Ed had insisted on having his favorite, mushroom omelets with maple flavored bacon and deep fried dumplings (which, coincidentally, was Winry's least favorite breakfast) before announcing that he wished to spend the day outside on the hill that overlooked all of Resembool. Once again, Al was made the pack mule as Winry collected various items to bring out to the hill including a stack of alchemy journals, a picnic lunch, a crossword puzzle, drinks, and her own journal which tracked her progress with automail design. She had been ready to leave when she spotted the container of ice cream in the ice box. Unable to resist, Winry took the container of sweet chocolate goodness, packed it in a thermos filled with ice and the joined the Elric brothers on their trek to the hill.

Normally, Winry would have slapped Ed upside of the head for being such a demanding ass, but as it was his birthday she decided to make it an exception…she would punish him tomorrow for having been such a demanding ass.

“Winry, this is the best ice cream.” Ed sighed after swallowing another mouthful. “Best birthday gift ever!”

“Ed, you are the weirdest kid.” Winry groaned.

Cracking open one golden eye, Ed regarded his friend critically.

“What the hell kind of thing is that to say to the birthday boy?” he demanded.

“Ed,” Winry began as she held another scoop of ice cream before his face, “every time I try to get you to drink milk you nearly have an aneurism, but I give you chocolate ice cream, two milk products, and you look like your face is gonna split with all that smiling. It makes no sense to like ice cream and chocolate when you can't even stomach their main ingredient.”

Rolling his one open eye, Ed snatched the spoon from Winry's hand, stuck it in his mouth and made a grand production of licking the spoon clean.

“You are so gross.” Winry said sardonically, a disgusted grin playing upon her lips. Shoving the spoon back into her hands, Ed stretched his shoulders and back muscles, readjusting his head on Winry's lap before fixing his face into a stern expression and taking a deep breath.

Winry knew this expression.

She was in for one of Ed's famous insufferable lectures on the evils of milk.

“First of all, it is presumptuous to claim that milk is the main ingredient in either ice cream or chocolate. Ice cream has a variety of components including ten percent milkfat which doesn't have to include dairy, approximately sixteen percent of sweeteners which could be either sucrose or syrup, twelve percent of non-fat solids derived from milk, one percent egg yolk and fifty-two percent water and air.

“As for chocolate, it's made up of over fifty percent cacao powder, two percent vanilla, one percent of lecithin, thirty percent sugar, and the rest is made up of milk fats and solids.

“So you see, Winry, the ratio of non-milk products far outweighs the ratio of that disgusting blanche bovine secretion.”

“You're such a nerd.” Winry groaned once Ed's tirade on milk was over. He gave her a hard, irritated stare before deciding against fighting with her in favor of turning his attention towards the fields before him.

“Hey! Where'd Al go?” Ed asked worriedly.

“Relax, over-protective big brother, Al went to the neighbor's. Their cat had another litter and Al just wanted to play with them.” Winry explained, helping herself to a small spoonful of the chocolate ice cream.

It really was deliciously soothing sliding down the throat.

“Just great. Now I'll have a bunch of stupid kittens in my bed by the time we get back to the house. Why'd you let him go, Winry? You know he'll just try and keep them.”

“No he won't.” Winry insisted as a mother might to a whining child. “The kittens are too young to be taken away from their mother and Al knows that. He just wants to play with them for a while. There's no harm in it, Ed.”

“Yeah, no harm until he's sneaking the little beasts into my bed.” Ed mumbled as he crossed his arms.

He tried to hide his startled jump when his cold metal arm pressed against the skin of his chest. It was taking a great deal of getting used to having automail and it was not all about relearning mobility. Both limbs were heavier than his flesh ones, causing the muscles around the automail to work hard and often left Ed with a tender body. He knew he was pushing himself, but he only had a limited amount of time to recover before catching that train that would take him to his chosen fate.

Winry didn't like his strenuous training, constantly lecturing him on taking it slow and allowing his body to adjust and accept his new limbs. Ed's simple retort had been that his damn body would accept whatever he told it to accept and that Winry needed to keep her nagging mouth shut.

They seemed to be fighting more and more as the day of Ed's departure came closer and closer. While he and Winry had always been vulnerable to spats and arguments, Ed sensed that something in their normal banter had changed, though he couldn't say what.

“Do you want some more?” Winry asked as she reached for the tub of ice cream.

Ed didn't answer, he merely opened his mouth and waited for Winry to deposit the ice cream in his mouth.

“Anything else, your highness?” she asked sarcastically.

“Well…you could massage my foot.”

“Forget it, I am not touching your nasty foot.” Winry declared.

“Just what the hell's wrong with my foot?” Ed demanded.

“Besides those gross little hairs on each toe, your feet are the size of a giant's. I don't know how a shrimp like you could have such big feet. Maybe you're in for a growth spurt.”

“Who the hell are you calling so small that an ant would need a magnifying glass to see him right under its nose?!” Ed demanded uproariously as he sat up from Winry's lap so he could yell in her face properly.

“I didn't say anything like that!” Winry yelled right back. “And if I did, I would have said that you are so small that a single-celled bacteria would have to look under the rug to be able to find you!”

“That doesn't even make sense!” Ed countered.

“And neither do you! Hearing things that haven't been said. Honestly Ed, I think you're losing your marbles. Better watch out or all of that alchemy is going to leak out of your ear.” Winry teased matter-of-factly.

“Wha…” Ed sighed as he looked at his friend with narrowed, confused eyes.

“Just lie back down.” Winry commanded as she used the palm of her hand to push on Ed's forehead and force him back onto her lap. “Have some more ice cream…it'll shut you up.”

Before Ed could counter, Winry had stuffed another spoonful of ice cream into Ed's open mouth. Lately, Ed's appetite had amplified so that he was often eating twice as much as usual. Not that Winry was really complaining as the extra nourishment returned the weight Ed had lost all those months he had been enduring surgery, but now the only way to get Ed to shut up was to stuff his mouth with something.

Several long quiet minutes had passed before both Ed and Winry had cooled from their argument. Soon, Winry was carefully spooning chocolate ice cream into Ed's mouth while trailing her fingers through his long hair. While she had laughed at first, Winry had to admit that long hair suited Ed, at least if he wore it up.

“Hey Ed? Ever thought of wearing your hair in a braid?” she asked. Cracking open one eye, Ed gave her a wary look that clearly stated that he did not wish to get into another fight over his hair. “I'm not saying cut it,” she assured, “I'm just suggesting you wear it up more. I mean, you wear it in a ponytail sometimes, but I think a braid might look better. Would you like me to make one?”

Ed took time to consider Winry's offer. After deciding that she wasn't teasing him nor was she trying to trick him, Ed nodded his consent.

“Great. I'll do it now. Here, sit up.” Winry instructed as she pushed Ed's shoulders until he was sitting in front of her. Realizing he had no choice in the matter, Ed waited as Winry got comfortable behind him. “Hold the spoon.”

Taking the spoon she had shoved into his hand so that she could run both hands through his hair, Ed decided it was best not to waste perfectly good ice cream and leaned to his left to capture the tub of the delicious sweet treat. Placing it in his lap, Ed began to devour what was left of the chocolate ice cream. He didn't understand why he was so hungry most of the time, but it seemed that eating had suddenly become a compulsion. Pinako had said it was his body trying to regain the weight he had lost months ago, but Ed wasn't so sure. In any case, eating the ice cream distracted him from how nice Winry's fingers playing in his hair felt.

That embarrassing blush began to creep up his neck again, and Ed shoveled more ice cream into his mouth to cool his flushed skin.

It was just Winry! There was no need to be blushing like an idiot. It's not like she was Carmen Smithstone, the very cute brunette who had developed much earlier than her peers, or Betsy Johnston who always wore really short skirts. Winry was just so…not like Carmen or Betsy. She was slim to the point of being gangly, was completely flat-chested, had long awkward legs, and there was almost always a smudge of grease on her somewhere. Ed had always known that Winry would take up Pinako's profession, and after she had helped to design and construct his automail, Ed had a sure feeling that Winry would soon become his personal mechanic.

But that was all she would be…a mechanic.

The girl was so un-cute, so demanding and boyish, that getting a crush on her would be the worst thing that Ed could ever do. Besides, admitting he might like Winry would completely end their friendship, not to mention possibly hurt Al. After all, Al couldn't be with a girl the way he was now, as an empty suit of armor, and if Ed tried…well, it would upset his brother, he just knew it!

Even Winry, who he didn't like, wasn't worth hurting his little brother, even if she was being nice to him, her fingers feeling like a soft caress as they played with his hair.

That thought caused that blush to return with a vengeance.

Scraping the last bit of ice cream from the tub, Ed took great delight in letting the ice cream melt on his tongue, enjoying the sensation of the cool sweetness running down his throat in time with Winry's gentle practiced weaving of his hair.

In that moment, Ed decided that he would always have chocolate ice cream on his birthday.