Previously posted as part of a Multifandom Drabble Collection.
Requester: batmarg
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Pairing: Roy/Winry
Word/Situation: a chance meeting
Mood/Theme: Author's Choice
Approximate Timeline: Post Movie
Other: Slight incorporation of the manga universe. i.e Scar killed her parents, not Roy. Other than that, all anime canon.
Title: Unspoken
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist © Hiromu Arakawa-sama
Rating: K+
Word Count: 500 - exactly!
Summary: It's been years since she's seen him last. (Winry & Roy)
Authors Notes: I had a lot of fun writing this. Roy/Winry remains one of my all time OTPs in any fandom.
It's been years since she's seen him last.
She still wore her hair long back then, falling around her face, wrench in hand and hope that maybe she'd have her happily-ever-ever.
She knows better now. Hindsight has a way of doing that.
He doesn't greet her like the child she's sure he remembers her as.
Hello.
And she tries to keep the trembling from her voice because of who he reminds her of.
Hello.
There is an awkward sort of pause where she's sure they're both thinking of the same person. They don't say the name. Even when he asks her get a cup of coffee and…
Do some catching up.
So she agrees, and doesn't bother to remind him that she never really knew him to begin with.
That sounds nice.
And they don't say the name when she trips over the leg of a chair.
Are you okay?
Or when she cries at her twisted ankle.
It's so typical of me.
Or when he lifts her up and helps her walk to his apartment.
Let me help you.
They doesn't say the name as he wraps her bruised ankle.
Thank you.
Or when he leans in and brushes his lips lightly over hers.
Because you looked like you needed it. He says and leaves her in his living room while he brews some coffee.
"I always knew you'd come back to Central." She says, sipping her coffee, ignoring the fact that Roy Mustang has just kissed her.
"Funny, I didn't think you would." He says, looking over the rim of his mug, white gloves and red array making him look two-toned.
"I couldn't not." She tells him, like it's an answer to the unasked question of why she came back. And he nods, like he understands her unspoken meaning.
"Well, it's nice to see a familiar face."
Everyone else is gone doesn't get said, because they both know it's there… in the space that surrounds them. They knew it better than anyone.
"How long have you lived here?" She asks, trying to speak past the lump that's risen in her throat. How long has it been since he left? is what she really means. Because his absence from this world is the only way she knows how to measure time.
"Years." I don't like to think about it. He tells her without having to say anything more. "You?"
"It seems like forever." Without him.
She smiles here, because the strange pattern they've settled into is almost familiar. So she stays, foot wrapped, and indulging on his hospitality until the sun hangs low in the sky and she is forced to say goodnight.
"Would you come again?" he asks from the door, his hand on her arm to steady her as she teeters and waits for a cab.
"I'd like that." There is no pretense in her words, no hidden meaning, no stretched message he must strain to hear. Just the words she's spoken and a, soft, easy smile.