#ler!winry

Now, don’t get her wrong when she says she’s glad to have the Elrics back.

Really, she was!

But God, those boys…

Ever since they had gotten their bodies back, the amount of yelling and shouting that Winry has had to endure increased tenfold. She hears them at almost all hours of the day, and even at odd hours of the night.

Excited rambling about alchemy, Alphonse yelling just to feel the vibrations in his vocal chords, Edward trying to out-yell him just for fun, it was so much she thought her eardrums might burst!

However, all those screams and yells sounded so happy, so unashamedly filled with content and relief, like the heaviest weight had been lifted off their shoulders as they try to regain all the lost years of their childhood. So she never complained too much about it.

Except maybe today.

Because it sounds like somebody is getting killed upstairs and now she’s curious.

That crazy noise had been going on for a solid twenty minutes, if she had to guess. It was a miracle whoever was screaming like that hadn’t lost his voice yet. However, there was only one man in this house that Winry knew could pull off such a feat.

“EDWARD!!” She shouted over the rambunctious screams. “The hell are you screaming about up there!?” She climbed the stairs, sweat dropping as the screaming started to fluctuate in pitch.

Actually, now that she listened more intently…

It wasn’t just screaming.

He was laughing.

Winry stopped in her tracks as the shrieky laughter finally became more clear to her. It sounded so foreign, she hadn’t heard that kind of screaming-laughter from him in years. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t noticed it right away, why she hadn’t clued in on why that shrieking sounded different compared to the other times.

And the only time he ever laughed so hysterically, so loudly and so desperately that it mimicked the cries of a man running from the Reaper itself was…was…no way.

Winry hurriedly follows the laughter to its source, grabbing the doorknob and twisting it, prying the door wide open. The volume seemed to double without the muffling of the door.

And right there, was exactly what she expected.

Alphonse’ giggling was completely drowned out by the way his older brother squirmed and thrashed and laughed maniacally, trapped underneath him. Tears pooled in his eyes with the hottest blush to date sporting his entire face, even down past his neck and up to his ears. Alphonse’ hands were pinned under his arms, right at the junction of his ribs and underarm if she had to guess.

Quite a sweet spot for the other, really. She would know.

“Oh! Winry, hi!” She has to walk closer just to be able to hear Alphonse over his brother’s wordless pleas for mercy, mercy that he does not seem willing to give. “Been a while, huh? I just couldn’t help myself, sorry!”

She rolled her eyes as Edward yelped when Alphonse wiggled a hand out to start clawing at his tummy, immediately causing the former-military boy to burst into fits of screaming and giggling like a schoolgirl, his own vocals unable to decide on which to stick with.

And, well, if that wasn’t the most adorable thing she’s seen from him in so long…

“How did you even manage this in the first place?” Winry asks over the sound of Edward’s dire hyena-like cries, and Alphonse playfully sticks his tongue out. “He trusts me too much, is all!”

Okay, very fair point. Who wouldn’t trust Alphonse?

She watched in amusement, and a slight dash of concern, as Alphonse wiggled his fingers down to Edward’s hips, hoping for that other spot to tickle just as much. And, by the way Edward’s metal leg shot up like a knee-jerking response, she could safely say that was precisely the case.

“WIHIHIHIHINRY!!!” Winry raised a single eyebrow at Edward as he called for her in desperation, trying and miserably failing to claw Alphonse’s hands off of him. “HEHEHEHELP ME, PLEHEHEHEASE!!”

It was hard to resist the urge to smile, so she didn’t try to hide it this time, laughing softly to herself at the way Edward vigorously shook his head, as if that would actually do something in his situation.

“You know, I remember when we were little kids and he’d be so blunt in just asking me to tickle him until he couldn't think anymore.” Alphonse reminisced happily, turning his quick skittering into deep, methodical massaging against Edward’s hip dips, causing the older brother to let out a loud gasp at the starchly different sensation, letting out loud, hearty laughter, yet thankfully not as loud as before, lest he want to break some eardrums with the sheer height of his voice.

Winry smiled with Alphonse, rolling her eyes slightly as she sat on the edge of the bed, unable to help herself as she poked around Edward’s ribs, causing the boy to jolt and squirm. “Yeah, I remember that, too. I think it was about how he wanted to ‘turn off his brain’ or something like that.”

“SHAHAHAHAT UHUHUP!!!” It was funny how flustered Edward could get, especially as they talked about him like he wasn’t even there, despite Alphonse tickling him to literal pieces, and Winry seconds away from joining the fray.

“Oh come on, Brother! You really enjoyed it back then, what changed?” Alphonse asked, even if he knew that nothing at all actually changed. If anything, Edward just grew to be more embarrassed about it, over the years.

Edward had long since given up trying to catch Alphonse’s hands, instead trying his hardest to curl away from the other and hide his face in his arms, clearly flustered out of his mind.

And you know what? Winry just had to join in.

Edward let out an honest to god squeal when Winry skittered her nails up his back with rapid speed, arching harshly as he flailed his arms back. But she’d like to make sure he doesn’t get away just yet.

“THIHIHIHIS ISN’T FAAHAHAHAIR!!! GUHUHUYS-PLEEEEAHAHAHASE!!!” Edward cried, twisting this way and that and yet failing miserably to get away from either of them. With Winry’s quick fingers scuttling all across his upper body working in tandem with Alphonse’s deep ministrations lower down, they drove Edward up the wall far too quickly.

All the poor blonde could do was laugh his heart out, babbling nonsense and, as he usually would be, completely incomprehensible to anyone but himself. He thrashed so violently that Alphonse actually struggled to stay right where he was, laughing at the way he’d get jostled and tossed about, just barely staying in place.

“NAHAHAHAHAHAO, AL-AL, ALPHOHOHONSE!!! WIHIHINRY, NAHAHAHA-” Edward cackled and shrieked bloody murder, letting out an abrupt snort when Winry massaged both thumbs into his belly button.

That was just about what had killed him.

The scream he let out was brutal, almost all of Resembool must have heard him, even. Alphonse winced, scrunching his shoulders to cover his ears as Winry withdrew her own hands to protect her drums.

Alphonse replaced her thumbs with his own, eager to get to that state of mind he knew Edward still had in him, even with all this absolutely devilish screaming he did. Edward wriggled and bounced and practically convulsed, snorting between laughs, banging his head against the bed repeatedly with his yelling and cackling.

His smile was so wobbly, yet so bright and full of life, like the sun shining upon everything around them…

But for the love of God, Winry was this close to digging her own ears out!

It was definitely hilarious though.

Alphonse laughed as he finally got jostled off of Edward and knelt to the floor beside the bed, yet he was stuck to his brother like glue, tickling anywhere on his stomach he could reach, sending Edward into a tornado of disorientation, squirming this way and that as Alphonse dragged him closer to the edge of the bed.

“COME ON!!” Alphonse cheered, a little too enthusiastic about this that Winry just had to laugh. “YOU’RE ALMOST THERE, I BELIEVE IN YOU BROTHER!!!” She downright wheezed, leaning forward as she herself laughed at the sheer hilarity of the situation.

“STAHAHAHAHAHAHA-NAHAHA-EHEHEHEAHAHAHA-” Edward couldn’t even make up words anymore. If this were a cartoon, his ears would be blowing steam and his eyes would be dizzy spirals, with how out of it he looked.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND-we’re done!” The moment Alphonse removed his hands, Edward completely fell off of the bed with a loud thud, gasping so dramatically that Winry thought for one worrying second that it would be the last breath he’d ever take.

She leaned over the side to look at the brothers, Alphonse sitting there giggling his ass off as Edward lay next to him, looking as if he just transcended to a whole other astral plane of existence. He was so limp he almost looked like liquid, hardly able to move a muscle.

“Brother-brother are you okay?” Alphonse muffled his laughter behind his hand as Edward couldn’t respond for minutes, just gulping down all the air that he could. Yeah, no, he doesn’t even look like he can speak for at least the next hour.

“He’s down for the count, Alphonse.” Winry hummed with a teasing little smile of her own as Alphonse sat up straighter. He chuckled, seeming victorious in his grin as he carefully scooped up his brother, setting him back down onto the bed.

Winry graciously took it upon herself to grab one of the pillows to place under his head, his body pulled onto the bed like a ragdoll.

She can't help getting a good look at him as he finally settles down, his face lit up like fire, his smile wobbly and exhausted. Eyes filled with tears both shed and unshed, cheeks tinted in those mirthful tear marks. His hair was a mess of liquid gold spread out on the pillow, and he looked truly astonishing in this moment.

"I missed this." Alphonse quietly admitted, comfortably laying his head against Edward's side. The older Elric brother physically relaxed at the weight, and she couldn't help thinking how cute they both looked together.

"Well then," Winry began with a smile. "We'll just have to do this more often."

And if she didn't hear a single complaint from Edward?