Chapter Text
Edward Elric, the youngest hockey player on team Amestris, had always considered himself a good skater. Ever since learning to skate and starting to play hockey with kids of his age, he was always a couple of steps ahead of them. Not even the prosthetic arm he got after a severe accident when he was 11 slowed him down, and he eventually made it to the national team as the youngest skater team Amestris had ever had. Sometimes his brother had to stop him from spending too much time at the ice rinks, though, because he had gotten frost bites more than once in the past, but Ed never complained about them. It was his fault the accident had happened (or so he thought), so he had decided he would carry the consequences without complaints.
Because Ed was so focused on getting forward in his career, he rarely followed other sports or paid attention to other athletes. If he had done so, he would probably have noticed a blonde haired, blue eyed figure skater from his country far before the Olympic games where they both were competing.
One day, after the morning practice, Ed and a couple of his teammates, Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes, were debating what they should do before the lunch that wouldn’t take place for another hour. Snowboarding had piqued Ed’s interest, but the other two decided they’d like to see figure skating at the nearby arena. Maes’ soon-to-be wife Gracia was on the figure skating team, and Ed knew her friend, a hockey player Riza Hawkeye, would likely be watching her practice too, trying to get some tips. The young man swore Riza and Roy had something going on, even though they never admitted it out loud. They would exchange sneaky looks every once in a while, and a couple of times Ed had seen their fingers brush against each other in a way that looked like it was no accident.
However, when the hockey players made it to figure skating arena, Ed stopped caring about his teammates or their women. On the ice was a young woman, about his age, he estimated, wearing a deep blue, short dress (how the figure skaters could perform in so few clothes, Ed would never understand), her blonde hair on a neat bun aside from the tresses that framed her face. She was beautiful, Ed admitted that much, but to his surprise he realized that he wasn’t fixated on her face, or the dress, or not even her well toned legs. Instead, he was amazed by her graceful, well practiced moves. How could a girl that small (he cringed at the word his brain had picked) slide on the ice so fast? How could she spin like that without getting her head all messed up? What about those jumps? Turns? Everything? Even her simply skating forward made Ed feel like he still had a lot to learn. She looked so focused and determined, like there was nothing else but the ice in her small world. Ed decided that he needed to meet this girl, even if it was just for some skating lessons.
“Hey? Guys?” He pointed towards the ice. “Who is this girl?”
“What, you don’t know her? She’s only the most talented figure skater Amestris has seen in years! After my Gracia, of course,” Hughes exclaimed, waving his hands with disbelief.
“I can see that she’s good, but who. is. she?” Ed repeated his question, slighty frustrated.
“Winry Rockbell. Same age as you. Lives in Rush Valley, but I think she has roots in your hometown. She also won the nationals for the third time in a row this winter. I heard from Gracia that she has interesting hobbies, she namely wants to be a mechanic once she’s done with her skating career,” Maes responded and waved to his fiancée who was skating towards the locker room.
The name Rockbell sounded for some reason familiar to Ed, but he couldn't figure out why. “Really? What kind of mechanics, exactly?” He found himself interested in that detail.
“I don’t know, all kinds? Although I think Gracia said something about her interest in automails once… Wait a minute, are you thinking…?”
“I’M NOT THINKING ABOUT ANYTHING!” Ed denied immediately. He covered his face in his hands, trying to hide how flustered he was, but his attempt failed badly. Roy snickered at him on the background.
“Uhm. Do you, maybe, think Gracia could introduce us to her?” He asked after a while, embarrassment audible in his voice. “I mean… I’dliketogetsomeskatingtipsfromher!”
“I don’t think that will be an issue! But don’t think about hitting on her, I’m fairly sure she’s seeing someone already,” Maes teased even though he knew that Winry was single. Pushing Ed’s buttons was Roy and his favorite pastime.
“And why exactly would I care about that?” Ed growled, but that made both Hughes and Mustang laugh even more.
“Because I have never seen you look at a girl like that before. I know that expression. It’s the same one I have when I look at my Gracia.”
“Shut up.” Ed turned dramatically to leave, but Gracia decided to show up in that moment, and the young hockey player knew it was too late to back off now.
“My beautiful fiancé! I missed you!” Maes yelled and pulled the woman into an embrace.
“Maes, you can calm down. I saw you yesterday.” Gracia answered, but seemed pretty happy about the attention she got.
“Hey, Edward here wants to meet our future champ!” Hughes let Gracia go, and pointed towards the girl who was still on the ice. “Do you think you could ask her to join us at lunch?”
“I think she’s already doing the final elements of her performance, shouldn’t take her too long to finish. I’ll see what I can do,” Gracia winked at Ed who blushed brightly. The boy turned his attention back to the ice and saw Winry lift her leg above her head from behind and starting to spin. It went on for a long while, and Ed didn’t even realize he was holding his breath until she finally stopped and had her eyes focused on the group. Acknowledging their presence, she waved her hand slightly and continued her routine until she did the final move and bowed to her audience just like she would do in a real situation.
“Hey, Winry!” Gracia yelled at the girl who skated towards her friend, smiling happily. For some reason Ed felt a little bit dizzy watching her smile, as if he had been the one spinning on the ice. He didn’t understand what was wrong with him.
“Gracia! What’s up?” Winry asked curiously.
“I’d like you to meet a couple of friends! This of course is my fiancé, Maes, and here are his teammates Roy Mustang and Edward Elric.”
Winry inhaled sharply when she heard the latter name and saw the golden eyes. Ed found himself interested in his shoes suddenly, so he didn’t notice that her cheeks turned red as she recognized him.
“Edward? I heard that you made it to the national team, but I wasn’t expecting… hi! Do you… do you remember me?”
“What? How would I remember you?” Ed asked, confused.
“We used to play together when we were toddlers! You, me and Al! That was before you guys moved away, and my parents… you know… and then I and Granny moved to Rush Valley because of her business.”
“Oh… Fuck… sorry… I mean… that was you?! I do remember that girl, but I never made the connection… You have grown… quite a bit… since then.” Ed laughed awkwardly, but his laughter made Winry relax and she gave him that bright smile again.
“I could say the same about you. Ever since I heard we’d both be competing at the Olympics I wanted to meet you, but I wasn’t expecting you to walk right here,” she giggled.
Maes decided to push things forward a bit, and commended: “You know, Ed wanted to ask you some skating tips.”
“You do?” Winry asked, her mouth forming a little ‘o’ as she turned her attention back to Ed.
“Uh, yeah.” Ed rubbed the back of his neck and nodded slightly.
“That’s kinda funny because I remember that when we were like 4 and learning to skate together, you were very loud and clear about the fact that you wouldn’t take any advice from me. I guess some things do change!”
“Now that you mention it, I remember that too, and actually, it was only because you pushed me into the snow face forward!”
“Well, /I/ only did it because you and your brother had tied my skate laces together, so I fell instantly when I hit the ice!”
“This can’t be anything but a beginning of a beautiful love story,” Maes whispered to Gracia who shook her head.
“Are you so sure about that?” Gracia whispered back.
“Well, just look at them.” Maes gestured towards them. "They are like us when we were young."
The two childhood friends were already laughing at their memories when Maes said that.
Eventually Ed gained enough confidence to ask Winry if she could come see the hockey team’s practice the next day and show them how she skated so effortlessly. Winry blushed at the compliment, but even though her face felt hot, she had goosebumps on her arms. She realized she should to go to change into warmer clothes, but she promised she’d meet the others at the lunch after that.
Ed grinned widely all the way to the restaurant, noticing that he was already looking forward to the upcoming practice and the lunch.