Title: Patience is a Virtue
Wordcount: 1029
Rating: G/K
Warnings: Aside from the sheer nauseating, disgusting cuteness that is pregnant!Winry...not really anything to warn against.
Notes: Winry knows how to get her work done without giving Ed heart attacks.
He was coming home early this week, Thursday instead of his usual Friday. He claimed that Mustang didn't have much for him to do anymore. She figured he was just handing his report off to whoever happened to be waiting for him the instant he got off the train before hopping on the next train bound for Risembool. The railways had learned him well, but most times, he was just hopping aboard one of the trains carrying nothing more than mail and supplies folks out in the country needed. There were limitations to being self-sufficient, after all. And to Ed's bank account; at least if he hopped onto a freight car, he wouldn't have to pay for a ticket. Freight traveled faster than the passenger lines, anyway.
Winry smiled a little as she set aside the order she was currently working on, a wrist and hand for an army veteran a few miles west in a neighboring village. It wasn't as...trademark...as Ed's arm and leg were (those were her special designs), but it was durable and functional. Just the way Rockbell automail should be. But working on this order, or any other, for that matter, wasn't like working on Ed's automail. As previously stated, those designs were special, tailored specifically to Ed's need for durable, dent-resistant, lightweight limbs. In a way, those designs were like their babies.
She snorted. Not quite, she mused, briefly touching her right hand to her stomach, but almost. She glanced at the clock, then at the calendar right below it before picking up a screwdriver and the mechanical hand she'd been working on. A few more hours til he was home, she reminded herself, and five more months before their baby was due. She'd waited for him to come home for months at a time before; a few hours wouldn't kill her. As for waiting for the baby, it was best to wait.
And on that note, her mind wandered until it settled back on Ed. She'd never expected him to be so happy about being a father. In all honesty, Winry had been expecting him to run away. He was pretty good at that where she was concerned. However, in typical Edward Elric fashion, he'd set his mind on proving her wrong and was doing a pretty good job of it. Okay, so he'd had a panic attack not even a week after she'd given him the news, and he was still beating himself up for past mistakes (he was getting better about that), but that was normal. It was normal for all men, or so Granny said. It was also normal for him to apologize constantly for making her suffer with all the unpleasant aspects of pregnancy. But he wasn't running away. He wasn't up all night doing his research, he was up all night for her, and while she slept, he did everything he could, from cooking, to cleaning, to laundry, just so that Granny wouldn't have to in her old age and so Winry could relax. His free time was devoted to checking old census records for names for their baby.
It was all rather cute, she thought. She also enjoyed the attention, even if his worrying did annoy the hell out of her sometimes. That was just Ed. He hovered. He would always hover.
Going back to where her original train of thought left off, they hadn't had much trouble picking out a girl's name. Ed trusted her woman's intuition (and her intuition told her they were having a girl), but he also knew that Mother Nature could be an unpredictable trickster and do unexpected things. So far, they only had a girl's name picked out: Trisha, after Ed's mother. He'd cautiously run it by her to see what she thought of it in case she wanted to name the baby after her mother. Winry liked the idea though, and told him they could use her mother's name for the baby's middle name.
Picking a boy's name was apparently more difficult. Winry didn't really have a preference. However, she and Ed agreed that no son of theirs would be named for either grandfather (they both thought her dad's name was kind of funny, and Hohenheim was way too much of a mouthful) and Ed was adamant that they not name a son after him. They'd discussed naming a son after Al, but that would more than likely lead to confusion. "Alphonse" would make a good middle name, though, and Al would still be tickled pink.
I'll have to see what Ed thinks, she said to herself as she inspected the hand again. He might like that, too.
She became absorbed in her work again. The steady tick-tock and the relaxing sound of Den's snoring on the other side of the workshop helped her focus. The seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes turned into hours. Whenever Den woke up and bounded out the door, she would set her work aside and go upstairs to wait for Ed. He would pitch a fit and have an aneurysm if he came in through the front door and learned she was downstairs in her workshop. Until then, she would work.
Out of nowhere, Den sat up sharply, whining the way he did when Ed's train was about to pull into the station. After a quick glance at the clock, Winry laughed and went to the cellar door. "Go get him, boy," she ordered. Den didn't need to be told twice. He was gone before she even finished the command. Resting her hand over the barely-noticeable bump, Winry closed the door and headed toward the stairs. It took about twenty minutes at a dead run for Den to reach the station, and then close to an hour for him to escort Ed home. Plenty of time for a nice, hot, relaxing bath.
Ed couldn't yell about that.
16 May 2010
So um...it took me damn near two months to write this...from about 16 March til 15 May. Yeah. I am a laaaaaazy bitch. School needs to get its ass out of my way. It's a pain in the ass. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!