No Time Coming
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Winry loves Edward, but she doesn't wait. She goes off to Rush Valley, learns mechanics in leaps and jumps, and is now the most wanted automail mechanic in the city.
She loves him, and is prepared to be his lifelong mechanic in case he doesn't get his limbs back. She loves him, and will do anything to help him get them back.
Winry loves Edward, and knows Edward loves Alphonse above all. She understands, because she cares for Alphonse just as much.
Winry knows better than to wait for Edward.
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Winry waits, Edward knows, for Al to get his body back. For Ed's demons to be gone. For them to finally be free.
Winry waits, he knows, because she goes off to Rush Valley and learns mechanics in leaps and jumps and becomes the most wanted automail mechanic in the city, but she comes to Central in a day's notice and is always back in Rizenbul in time for their rare visits.
And it is not fair, not after these torturous years, not in the face of the danger ahead, so he tells her, "Do not wait."
Winry is testing a joint on his artificial arm, and he cannot sense the touch of her fingers, but he feels it by habit and can tell when she pauses. She looks at him to confirm his meaning, and Edward returns the look just long enough for her to understand, because he is not good at eye contacts that are not hostile.
Winry lets out a breath, and Edward glances to see her smiling. "I don't," she says, "so you stop waiting, Edward."
He stares at her as she drips a precise drop of oil on a hinge, realizing just then that of course Winry has watched him more than he has watched her, has seen through that it is Edward who's been waiting -- waiting for Winry to give up on him maybe, waiting for all these to be over before he deigns to be happy.
He rakes his hair with his free hand. "Yeah," he says, and Winry sees the smile finally.
She finishes the repair and makes him promise to take better care of the automail, whose new parts she can only get in Rush Valley so don't he dare come back two months from now in wrecks, metal or flesh.
Winry doesn't need any other promise than that one. Winry gives Edward her presence and her time and never any promise either.
Winry loves Edward, and she doesn't wait.
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