Winry was beginning to feel like a rag doll, being pulled both ways. She sat on an old stone wall with her chin in her hands, watching Ed and Al facing off in the dirt below.

“I’m older!” Ed said, hands balled into fists at his side.

“So what?” Al’s face was scrunched up, and there was a smudge of dirt on his cheek.

“So? So that means Winry’s going to marry me.”

“That doesn’t mean anything!”

They’d been going on like this for a good ten minutes. It had been sort of fun, at first, but now Winry was just bored. She was half tempted to tell them she wasn’t going to marry either of them if they kept it up like this. Who wanted a husband who was always arguing?

“Yes it does,” Ed was insisting. Winry sighed and rolled her eyes, wondering why there weren’t any normal kids to play with around.

“No it doesn’t! It’s up to Winry who she marries, not you!”

Al had said the first sensible thing since the whole thing had started. He’d also finally dragged her into it.

“Well, fine!” Ed turned quickly, kicking up clouds of dust. “You want to marry me instead of stupid old Al, right Winry?”

“Brother, that’s not fair!”

“Both of you just stop it!” Winry hopped off the wall and smoother her dress over her knees like she’d seen her mother do. “You’re both being silly.” But they were boys, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise. “And besides, that’s no way to ask a girl to marry you.”

“No it isn’t,” Al agreed. “You’ve got to get on your knees and have a ring. That’s how it’s done.”

“But it’s just Winry,” Ed protested with a shrug. Winry narrowed her eyes and raised her fist warningly. Just Winry, eh? Well, he’d see how he felt about ‘just Winry’ when she went and married somebody else.

“You’ve still got to do it right!”

“Fine,” Ed gave a great heaving sigh and Winry crossed her arms. “I’ll do it again, then.”

“No fair! You had your chance and you messed up. It’s my turn now!”

Did they really expect her to pick right now? Well, if she wanted them to stop she probably had to. But that was a hard decision! Al was so sweet and kind and nice. But Ed was really cute. It was a bit too much for her eight year old mind to handle.

“Just because you do it right doesn’t mean she’ll say yes,” Ed was grumbling. Winry gathered up her skirt in her hands, twisting the fabric as Al got down on one knee.

“I thought you said you needed a ring,” Winry pointed out, to which Al blushed.

“Well, we can just pretend and I can give you one later. Will you marry me?”

“I don’t see how that’s any better than how I asked,” Ed went on, kicking at rocks with his back turned.

“Um…” Winry sighed and looked from one Elric brother to the other, fully flummoxed at being proposed to. She’d thought they were going to play tag or hide-and-seek, not Who’s Marrying Winry.

“Come on, you’ve gotta make up your mind,” Ed urged. “Me or Al.”

“Eh….”

“Don’t let him pressure you, Winry. It’s okay, you can take your time.”

“Er….” There had to be a simple solution to this. Even if she picked one of them, they’d probably still keep on fighting. Chewing at her bottom lip fervently, Winry turned the problem over and over in her mind. Suddenly, it came to her.

“I know!” she exclaimed, brightening considerably. Both Al and Ed strained forward, eager eyed and anticipating her response. Giggling and grinning, Winry announced her choice.

“I’ll marry both of you!”

“Both of us?” Ed frowned. “You can’t do that.”

“And why not? You’re both my best friends, I can’t pick. So I’ll marry you both.”

“Well… okay,” Ed said, still clearly not too pleased with the idea.

“It’s a fair choice,” Al agreed, pushing himself back up off the ground, dirt now staining the knees of his pants.

“I guess,” Ed went on. “But… which one of us are you going to marry <I>first</I>?”

Winry just sighed, and took off at a run down towards the village. “Whichever one of you can catch me!” she yelled, content in the knowledge that she could outrun them both.