Title:Things Aren't Always What They Seem
Author: littlechemist01
Word Count: 494, cutting it close
Rating: Teen-ish
Pairings: C'mon guys, I can't help it, am a sucker Ed/Win fan. Seriously, Winry-centric to Ed and Winry
Summary There's more to smoke than it just being a thick gas. It can come and disappear; and sometimes devestate. But in this instance it becomes amazing. Oh and I don't own a thing, all stuff belongs to Arawaka and junk...you can decide if it's sappy, I think it's a little angsty.
Winry hated the smell of smoke; every kind. Whether it was her granny's pipe at home, Havoc's cigarette or Mustang's cigar when she visited Central; it didn't matter she hated the smell of smoke, period. She even hated it when she blew out a candle and the smoke would rise, it's sooty scent, thick and lingering. Perhaps, she came to loath the scent when who two childhood friends abruptly burned down their home. The smell of charred wood and smoke seemed to fill the air for days afterwords. And somehow Winry had never forgotten the damn odor. She could only imagine all the smoke that surrounded Edward and Alphonse while on their journey. After all, they were stationed with the man that blew her parents to pieces because he was ordered as a chained dog. She forgave him for that, Roy Mustang was indeed a great man. He had promised her the brothers would be protected and return home (maybe not always in one piece) but returned.
And maybe she merely hated smoke because it mimicked her current relationship with the brothers; significantly Edward. Smoke is something, a gas more precise, that is seen with the eye; though it is not always felt. Her and Edward were just that; of course, they would physically see one another. Yet they never felt anything more than just deep friendship. Or at least that what she thought about the older Elric. He never really 'saw' anything but smoke between her and him. And he never felt anything, nothing; hard a stone. A stubborn rock that would never budge from determination and will.
Well, that's what she convinced herself. And as it may be, smoke can disappear, and amazingly, quite quickly. And rocks, they can overturn just from a rumble of thunder. Edward was not much different. And this smoke vanished so quickly one day, Winry hardly had time to register; because he never gave her the chance. She couldn't place exactly what she had been doing at the time. She knew she was running a drill, and looked like hell. But for the life of her she couldn't remember where he came from. All she remembered, was the drill turning off; with out her even touching it and a pair of mismatched hands grabbing her shoulders and turning her around. She remembered she tried to scream, but the scream never came. Because she felt the warmest set of lips she had ever felt and the only set of lips she had felt. Her eyes remained wide behind her goggles, and all she could see was golden blond. A moment later the goggles were pulled from her face and her backside hit the counter top, hard. To say he was dirty was an understatement. His black clothes were coated with a grey dust, like soot.
And he smelled like thick, black and pungent smoke. Perhaps after all, she would come to love smoke; because it was finally gone.