Title: Gypsies
Day/Theme: February 4 // Sun-kissed
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Character/Pairing: Winry, Ed, Al
A/N: Different style than usual, but I don't hate it that much. Slightly AU as it is set post-series.
Summary: They always had to move, like roving gypsies, because it is too much a part of them for it to disappear just like that.
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It takes three years for Winry to see them again. Three years of nuts and wrenches and the steady thunking of her hammer. Her store is never closed, the customers streaming in and out like a steady tide, and she thinks her grandma would be proud of her.
Ed appears one day, arm loosely hanging over his shoulder, a dark bag in his hand. He walks, slow steps without any lagging, and she almost doesn't recognize the boy beside him.
(Al looks young, too young, to be the boy she should have known, the boy she missed seeing growing up. His skin look stretched, like butter spread too thin over bread. His shoulders jut out like awkward wings and she can count his ribs.)
She greets them as usual, a wrench thrown at Ed for coming so late and a hug given to Al. Ed says nothing and she pretends to not notice he still has her automail, tucked safely in a bag to be returned. Instead she gives him a tearful hug and invites them over for dinner.
Ed's hair is sun-kissed, she notices as they talk, bright and bleached till she could see streaks forming. He might as well be the sun for her, those past three years she spent almost like a hermit. All she can remember of those years are the bruises on her hands and the darkness of her work-shop.
They decline to stay, just as she expected. There are places to go, people to visit before they can settle down. She tries to act surprised, but really, she knew it all along. Ever since they burned their house down, Ed and Al didn't know how to stay in one place. They can't remember what it feels like to stop moving, it is too ingrained in their blood after all that time for them to just stop.
(She isn't home for them, has never been enough for them to stay still. She almost screams Stop! but that would mean a far more gentle let-down and she doesn't know if she can take that.)
A smile, a wave, a (false) promise to stay next time, and they disappear into the crowds.
She, for her part, vanishes in the workshop and tries not to stare at the abandoned arm and leg.
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