Disclaimer: I don't own FMA.
We'll stay golden
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Winry likes to keep her hair long although it does often get in her way of work. Everyday, she tenderly strokes that smooth straight river of gold flowing down her back and remembers the times she has had, good and bad.
She has always had it that way after all… before Ed and Al burnt down their house, before Al lost his body and Ed his arm and leg, before Van Hohenheim left and before her mum and dad never came back.
The past did matter.
Ed on the other hand keeps his hair long because, well, he doesn't have the time and energy to bother about it and it is easier after all to just let it grow out. He's a busy person and life for him is a mad dash to the finishing line with many more things to worry and fret about then hair. It annoying though how people mistake him sometimes, for Winry's little brother.
Life is a bitter test for a five year old as are the bloodstains on his golden crown, a sad remnant of the forbidden deed and a start for the many trouble filled nights that haunt him endlessly. A little boy should not be thrust into the manipulating world when he's no more that young child who tried his hardest to please his mother.
No doubt the sole reason Ed still goes back to is to get his arm or leg or both fixed, whichever that gets smashed up into bits first. Selfish maybe but this dependence is something that keeps Winry going, keeps her willing to stand tall and still face the world. One can hardly blame her for every girl in the world deserves to be needed.
And then there was once a long time ago when Ed and Al used alchemy to turn a pile of dust into a beautiful doll. That scared her, but what is that when she sees him using the same power to smash cars and break buildings.
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but whoever who said that failed to mention the pain and agony that comes along as well. The not knowing and the knowing about the on-goings in the battlefield, the anguish that's floods the rivers and the fear that haunts the skies form a ceaseless choppy sea and treacherous winds. Like a lighthouse where the lights go on and off, on and off, on and off, providing snatches of sights but never the whole picture, staying safe at home while Ed and Al are somewhere out there risking their necks worries Winry to no end. But there is nothing she can do. Nothing and more nothing.
Yet little does Ed know, the truth is every minute he works to return to the past, is every minute he forsakes the present.
Winry laughs to herself sometimes when she finds herself still able to see the top of Ed's head after all these years. But after seeing the serious and confident way he promises her the next time she cries, it will be tears of joy, she cannot help but know that someday soon enough, Ed will tower over her and protect her from whatever life throws at her and she'll be there for him, as his, and not his mechanic.
Ed knows very well though, it is more of his promise to himself than a promise to her.
It is the day before Ed leaves this time with the chance that he may never come back. With solemn eyes Ed says he has to pay his respects to his mother and heads off by himself down that familiar pathway. Melancholic it maybe, in spite of this, as Winry sees he's back from afar, with the glorious evening sun reflecting off that head of yellow, and the surroundings seemingly much more heartening, she wonders how things will turn out when she sums up the courage to open her heart. What if he didn't feel the same way?
There is no turning back now but it is clear in his last look, the determined set in his jaw, the sharp purpose in his eyes and the hasty steps he takes that there is no need for Winry to doubt the bond they share.
And then he leaves.
Peace is difficult and elusive. Nevertheless it still comes in the end and the flowers bloom where blood was once spilled and the trees grow back tall and sturdy.
Every beginning has an ending and every ending brings about a new beginning.
As Ed gently strokes her long yellow hair, what message his eyes tell Winry is nothing anyone else can work out. Maybe there will come a time when Ed has to go and save the world once again, and Winry has to stay at home because there is no way Ed will hear of putting her into danger. But that is something to think about some other day in another lifetime because right now the world is still and silent for them who see nothing except each other. They sit together watching the sunset as a single eagle circles the orange sky.
And they both think, 'even then, we'll stay golden.'
-END-
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