Lego: Hello everyone! Unfortunately, Tears of a Lotus is being extremely difficult. In the mean time, I decided to pick up the 100 Themes challenge in order to motivate myself to write. I've decided to post the canon ones I write (no OCs and such) as separate oneshots here on my account to show that I'm actually writing. I hope you enjoy this one! This is meant to be set in a larger context of a crossover that I will not be writing. But I thought it'd be fun.
Disclaimer: The Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, etc, and the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood franchise belongs to Hiromu Arakawa. I own only the story.
Rainbow
One minute they were there. Then they were walking away. They waved over their shoulders, disappearing into the distance. That was the last time she saw them.
Winry stared out the window at the empty lawn. It didn't feel right; they should be there, sparring—just like they always did. But they weren't. And they may never again.
Granny had made multiple calls to the military office where Ed worked, but Colonel Mustang had no news for them. They'd just vanished, almost into thin air, it seemed. Aang and Sokka had volunteered to go look, but that was days ago.
Winry's chest tightened unbearably and tears pricked her eyes. She took in a deep breath, keeping them away through sheer willpower. She forced herself away from the window and wandered into the kitchen. Granny sat at the table, eyes pinned to the wood in front of her. Winry collapsed into a chair beside her.
"They'll come back, Granny." Winry wasn't sure if she'd said it for her grandmother's benefit or her own. But she held tight to those words. She had to believe they were true. Ed always came back. He'd come back this time, too.
"Of course they will," Granny said with a sigh. Then she pushed away from the table, heading off toward the workshop.
Winry wrapped her arms around herself. Her eyes glazed over as her mind rushed back through memories, memories of Ed and Al. So it wasn't until Katara gently called her name that Winry even noticed the waterbender was even there.
"Sorry. Lost in thought." Winry smiled at her friend.
Katara's return smile was warm and comforting, full of understanding. "I have something to show you."
The two stood. Winry followed Katara out the back door of the house. They walked through the vast fields until they came to a small pond. Winry's eyes pricked with tears again; she, Ed, and Al had often played there as children.
Katara knelt at the water's edge and beckoned Winry to join her. She lifted a hand over the small waves. The water bended to her will, rising to form a ball.
"Sometimes when it's storming outside," she said, using both hands to mold the water into a rough cloud shape, "you can't see anything no matter where you look." The cloud-like shape began to lose water in torrents, similar to the fall of rain. "It feels like it just goes on forever and that it'll never stop. You're scared—everyone's scared." The water suddenly stopped falling. Barely anything remained in Katara's original gathering of water.
"But then it stops." Katara offered Winry a smile as she maneuvered the water so the sunshine above them fell through it. "The sun comes out, and it leaves behind beautiful rainbows."
A very small but vibrantly colored rainbow stretched outward from Katara's water.
Winry could no longer hold back her tears. They streamed down her face in rivers. She launched herself forward. Katara caught her and held her, rubbing a hand down Winry's back.
"Aang and Sokka will find them. They'll all come home, and everything will be alright."
Winry believed her. She held tight to those words, that faith. Ed always came home. No matter what, he and Al always came home. And so they would again.