Winry's heart had sunk when she opened her front door to find a military officer waiting for her. Ed died, Al died, they both died, they were betrayed, they were set up... Thoughts whirled through her head as she smiled politely at the large man.
"Hello, sir. What can I do for you?" She tried not to notice the man briefly glance towards her exposed midsection, sighing rather than giving him a disapproving look. Winry was preparing for her knees to buckle under the weight of the terrible news she was sure to be told, and she nonchalantly held onto the door frame to keep herself mildly sturdy.
"I'm looking for a Miss Winry Rockbell?" The blonde cleared her throat, taking in her surroundings. He isn't holding an envelope and he doesn't seem to be delivering any paperwork... This was the only time Winry had ever hoped an officer was coming to her house due to some kind of noise complaint. Anything other than news of death coming to her door. She would rather see a town burn down than hear her two favorite boys having to be put six feet under.
"That's me." Her voice was small and fragile, the complete opposite of her usual self. However, at this moment she was made of glass and egg shells and every other dainty material on the planet. She was a card tower, just a short breath being capable of tumbling her over.
"I'm here on behalf of the Elric brothers. Alphonse wanted to inform you that Edward has been injured..."
"He couldn't come here himself? Typical Elric move..." Winry rolled her eyes, hand moving from the door frame to her hips. The man stopped for a moment, regarding the woman's sudden outburst, and decided to continue.
"Yes, well Edward had to get quite a few stitches along his abdomen, and his automail might need some work as well. He has been in and out of consciousness for a day or so now, so Alphonse didn't want to leave his side just yet. He did, however, want me to escort you back to Central so you could repair Edward's arm."
Winry nearly threw her wrench at the poor, unsuspecting man. Of course he needed his damn automail repaired. If he took care of it like she constantly told him to, they wouldn't run into problems like these. And typical Elric brothers! Only keeping her informed when they needed something fixed. If Ed's arm had been fine, she was willing to bet that they would have never told her Ed had gotten this injured. But, the fact remained that Ed was clearly in some kind of trouble, seeing Al had to call for her, and not Ed himself. Her annoyance turned back into worry and she nodded at the man.
"Let me get a few things together and I'll be ready to go. Please, come inside. I'll make you a quick pot of tea." She waved the man inside, closing the door with her foot and mentally preparing a list of what to pack. "And, please, tell me more about this injury..."
/
Al changed Ed's bandaging with a sigh. He was all stitched up, but some blood was still oozing through somehow.
The two had went to investigate a possible chimera case. A local man had been under suspicion for awhile, and when the neighbors had begun to hear some very strange animal noises coming from the house, the military had decided to do something about it. And that something was forcing Ed and Al to snoop around the man's house without any backup. No one was expecting the man to be too much trouble, and they certainly hadn't expected him to attack in such a vicious way. A machete had managed to cut through Ed's midsection with ease, but the duo managed to stop the man in his tracks with some relatively simple transmutation work. Had less skilled officers been on the case, someone may have gotten killed. Ed and Al were lucky.
Al had noticed Ed seemed to respond somewhat to his own voice, but not Mustang's or Hawkeye's or anyone else in the military. Ed did need some work on his arm, true, but Al had also suspected Ed might respond a little better to the voice of a beautiful, blonde girl they both knew and loved.
That, and Al also missed Winry quite a bit. It had been a rather long time since they had last seen their old friend, and he did feel a tad bad for not keeping her updated on what kind of shenanigans they had been getting themselves into. Al wondered if it was better that she didn't know what they were up to. He knew both he and Ed didn't want Winry worrying over two silly dogs of the military, so the less she knew, the better.
Al looked out the window into the blue, shining sky. He hoped Winry would arrive soon, he wasn't sure how much more of being cooped inside he could handle. And even if he could venture outside, it would be unusually dull and boring without his infamous partner in crime.
/
Winry threw her bags to her traveling buddy, Jean, and proceeded to race inside to find the eldest Elric brother. Jean had received news that Ed had regained consciousness and had seem to be stabilized for quite some time now, and Winry couldn't wait to lecture Ed on how careless and stupid he has been as of late. And how dare he not keep me updated until someone was seriously hurt, she thought, following the directions Jean had given her at the doors, the poor man trailing behind with two full bags of supplies.
Winry sprinted up the stairs, turning left, left and right down the long, white hallways. She passed a few officers along her way, not even sparing a glance to see their baffled faces. She was far too focused on making sure Ed was okay and not being an idiot and seeing why Al would allow him to get into this kind of trouble. Even though he was the younger brother, Winry always found Al keeping his older brother in line and forcing some sense into his tiny, stubborn head.
After a maze worth of turns, Winry found the room she was looking for. She grasped the handle, about to turn it when she froze. What if he was changing? Or bathing? Or disfigured? She released the door knob and decided to knock instead.
"Come in." A familiar, echoing voice spoke. Winry smiled to herself, opening the door. She was next to Ed's bed at once.
"Hi-"
"What did you do?!" Winry shouted, hands already on hips, surveying the damage done to the blonde, bedridden man. Ed sighed, expecting this from her.
"Al, why did you tell her?" He shot his brother a disapproving look, darting out of the way of Winry's fist.
"I'm glad he told me! You two tell me nothing until one of you is in grave danger!" Winry felt her eyes beginning to sting. Whenever she was truly angry, her eyes teared up. She couldn't help it, and she never knew why it happened, but it pissed her off even more and made the situation ten times worse. No one takes a crying, angry girl seriously.
"Uh... I'm gunna go for a walk. Bye, brother! See ya, Winry!" Al waved goodbye to the two, disappearing through the door in a millisecond. Ed faced the steaming girl, gritting his teeth.
"You're bleeding..." Winry's expression changed from anger to shock. She had been too busy berating him to notice his shirtless, bandaged torso.
"Well, yeah. I had a lot of stitches." Ed lifted up part of the bandage to reveal countless stitches in his bruised skin. Winry knew he must have suffered a pretty decent wound in order to receive such a countless number of stitches. "And I guess it really isn't entirely healed yet."
"I'll fix it up for you." Winry carefully took a roll of bandages and scissors from the nightstand next to Ed. He nodded to her and she began unwrapping the bandages already stained a deep red. She sighed as she began to clean off his bloodied skin.
"Why do you have to do this to me?" She asked aloud, looking into Ed's golden eyes. He blinked.
"I'm not doing this to you. I was just-"
"You could bring me with you. I could help, you know I could. I hate not knowing what you two are up to, you make me worried sick-"
"We're not putting you in danger. At least I'm certainly not. You have a great job and you're a great automail technician, I can't steal you away from all of your loving customers."
"You're more important than them." She spoke, looking back down to the used bandages. She cut a new strip and began dressing Ed's wounds.
"I'm not going to hog you to myself, Winry." Ed looked up at the white, tiled ceiling. He had tried counting the number of tiles whenever he regained consciousness, finding nothing better to do while being stuck in the dreary room. It was entirely white with some metal finishings, reminding him all too much of a mental ward.
"I wish you would."
Ed couldn't tell exactly what Winry meant by those words, but he emitted a long sigh. Winry couldn't know what they were up to, it wasn't safe for her. He didn't know who would use blackmail to get an edge over the two brothers, and he didn't need Winry getting involved in their hijinks and problems.
"Your customers need you more than I do."
"Oh, so you don't need me?" Winry cocked an eyebrow, scissors ready in hand. Ed snorted.
"I need you alive. And if you were with us twenty-four/seven I don't know if you would remain that way."
"I don't care."
"I do." Ed looked into Winry's eyes as the mechanic froze. She understood what he was trying to say, but it wasn't fair to her. Always being left behind and forgotten. Always being protected and treated like a helpless damsel in distress. She was sick of it. She was more than capable of raising a little hell.
"I can help you. I can help the both of you! Why can't you just trust me? Am I not good enough for you or something?"
"Winry, that's not what this is about-"
"Then what is this about?" Winry could feel the stinging in her eyes once again. She hated seeing him injured almost as much as she hated feeling useless and dumb. Clearly she was kidding herself thinking she could be of any assistance to two men involved in the military. She was just a silly childhood friend, picked up to play with only to be neglected for weeks on end. Rinse and repeat.
"I can't lose you. I would never forgive myself. You're too important to me." Now this was Winry's turn to snort.
"Hardly. I'm just a dumb, silly childhood friend to you, that's why you never-" Her sentence was cut off by Ed's lips forcing his way onto hers. Winry froze for a moment before melting into the kiss.
"You're not a dumb childhood friend." Ed nearly growled, pulling Winry closer to him to meet him for another kiss. "And I'm not good enough for you." He whispered into her ear, sending shivers down her spine. Winry leaned in ever further when she felt Ed's tongue run along her bottom lip, and she immediately granted him permission to enter her mouth. Winry was now sitting on the bed next to Ed, and she stopped short as soon as she ran her fingers down his bare torso.
"Ed!" She nearly cried. "Your stitches!"
"Don't care." He answered, pulling her on top of his lap, only her purple capris and leather between the growing bulge in Ed's pants. Is this really happening? She wondered, combing her fingers through his soft, silky hair.
Winry had played similar scenarios out in her head countless times before. They had begun when she was just a girl, and had ended in a very innocent, short kiss. As she grew older and more mature, her day dreams had grown longer and more explicit as the days passed. She couldn't count on her hands the number of sex dreams she had starring Ed and herself, and she wondered briefly if this was indeed reality. She decided that it was when she felt his hot tongue along her earlobe, and her body was riddled with chills yet again.
"What if Jean comes..." Winry began as Ed trailed kisses along her neck and collarbones.
"Al will distract him." He replied, his gaze dropping to her breasts only contained by a tiny, black bandeau. Reality somehow hit him as he realized what exactly he was doing.
"Fuck. Winry... Are you sure you want to do this with me? I didn't mean to force you into this situation-" He was interrupted by Winry pushing him on his back on top of the pile of pillow below him. She gave him a coy smile.
"I can fix your arm in a bit. For now, I'm going to make sure you don't forget me next time you and Al get yourself into trouble." She spoke, undoing the buttons and zippers on his pants with a grin.