"Happy birthday Winry!" Rayne exclaimed saving her gift for after everyone else ad left. She quickly led Winry up to her bedroom and closed the door.
"Okay Winry," she said, "turn around three times and make a wish…whatever your heart desires."
Winry began to spin around as Rayne clapped her hands and…
"True to the Heart"
It was Edward and Alphonse's last remaining night in their hometown of Risembool. Once again, they had been forced to make an unannounced visit to the house of their childhood friend and mechanic, Winry Rockbell for the fact that Edward had yet again broken his well-built automail. The days had passed by as days normally did during the Elric's short, unexpected, and spaced out visits. The two elder teenagers spent a majority of their time locked in vast yet pointless arguments in which the youngest of the three, Alphonse, would pray for an end.
Al sighed as he helped Pinako tidy the kitchen; the voices of Edward and Winry still clearly heard from the upper floor of the Rockbell home. Pinako looked up at the looming armor and, as if reading his mind, guided him to a more quiet resting place as the his brother and Pinako's granddaughter continued with their never-ending battle.
"You're just a stupid automail mechanic!! What do you know?!?"
"At least I don't burry my nose in those pointless alchemy books all the time!!!!!"
"Automail otaku!!!!"
"Alchemy freak!!!!"
"You know, if you wouldn't waste your life on something so stupid, you might be useful!!!" Ed yelled cruelly, releasing every emotion that he has kept bottled up for at least a year. He would never be able to understand why Winry was so obsessed with the pointless knowledge of automail. It was the only thing that she ever talked about, read about, and practiced, and even taught. He was so sick of it.
'At least I have a good reason for my determination in the fields of alchemy,' he thought to himself, still refusing to admit his love for the science as an obsession itself. Lost in his own thoughts, Edward hadn't realized that the screaming had ceased. He looked up at Winry to rub it in her face that he had finally won the argument when he was stopped by an odd sight. Winry stood before him, looking off into the distance with a dark sparkle in her deep sapphire orbs and a clenched fist at her side.
She continued staring at the ground for at least five minutes or so before making direct eye contact with Edward. The moment their line of vision connected, it was as if the whole world had ceased its spinning. Everything around the two halted. The world around them seemed to warm up, thawing their cold hearts. Neither of them moved, blinked, or even breathed for what seemed like eternity.
Winry was the first to break the amazing connection between the two by quickly averting her eyes to the cold floor below her. Whatever had just been in occurrence was amazing and indescribable. For once in her life, Winry felt like Ed might actually have realized how much Pinako and Winry herself cared about the reckless brothers. She thought that maybe; just maybe; this would be the time that they decided to stay. Winry spent every moment thinking about them; praying they were alive and yet the only thing Edward even cared about when he returned to Risembool was repairing his shattered automail and getting out the door faster than the last visit. Winry had hoped that this time was different; that Ed would just leave well enough alone and decide to settle down in Risembool once more…like old times.
Yet somehow, Winry knew that all of these thoughts were in vain. Edward had a promise to keep, and he was in no way about to break it. What made Winry the angriest, though, was not that he left to keep his promises. It was that he broke one of the promises by leaving. Winry had finally gained enough anger boiling within her to spit out the words that had been on her mind for quite some time.
"You…shouldn't be talking," she hissed at him, "You're the one who's so buried in your stupid alchemy that you can't even see what's standing in front of you…" she finished with clenched teeth before nonchantily shoving him out of the way and making her way to the door. Ed decided to let her go, fed up with her ways.
"Who cares about her anyways?" he murmured angrily.