The young mechanic sat quietly in her workroom, a new project sitting in front of her expectantly. In her right hand she held a wrench whilst her left lay on it gently, lovingly. She trailed a finger over the metallic grey finish and her eyes almost teared up with an emotion that she couldn't describe. Perfectly connected fingers joining to the fully functional wrist, elbow and all the way up to the shoulder join. She felt a pang of joy as well as pain in constructing something like this. Winry sighed quietly to herself and choked back the surge. It was a construction which allowed someone she cared about to protect himself...but it was also the one construction which allowed him to go roaming out into those dangerous situations in the first place.
She fell back in her seat and leaned against the backrest. Granted Edward wouldn't be staying at home even if he was missing two limbs, Winry couldn't help but wonder if things would be different if she weren't here to create such appendages for him. The girl put the wrench down besides the arm and looked over to the other side of the table. There lay the other project she had been working on, a top quality leg appendage ready to be attached. Another sigh escaped her quietly and the girl pushed herself up out of the seat, moving out of the room and attempting to put both the items out of her mind.
It had been a few months now since the brothers had left again. Winry had happily seen them off at the train station. She laughed at the memory, even though Al had a human body now, he still grew to be taller than Ed. A quality which the elder brother had despised much to everbody's enjoyment. They had gone to so much trouble to return Al's body to him and it was wonderful to see them together like that. For a few years after, they had both continued their journey in an attempt to return Ed's body completely to him but after many failures they had resigned to the fact that they wouldn't get any further without causing too much pain to all surrounding them. Al had taken up a deskjob assisting Roy to stay close to his brother whilst Ed continued to be a dog of the army.
As Winry walked passed the telephone in the hall, she had to force herself to resist it. As much as she wanted to contact the brothers, it was always out of her jurisdiction to do so. They would return when it was their time to, they always did. Without fail. A smile forced itself over her features. Yes, they always returned to this place, and as much as they said they didn't have a home, this was it. The girl continued her way through the house and into her bedroom where she flopped down onto the bed. Yes, this place held a lot of wonderful memories for the three of them. As she stared up at the roof, she could remember the first memory of them alchemizing something from her. A laugh bubbled from her chest. She had been so afraid that even now she couldn't remember what that gift was to be.
She raised her left hand above her and stared at her fingers, her gaze moving towards an object which adorned one of her fingers. She smiled brightly once more. It had been sudden and it was such a strange event. Whilst she was standing on the train platform, a small black box had come sailling towards her. Winry had been just barely able to catch it in her hands and Ed had signalled for her to not mention it. At least not until the next time they met. Al had winked at her in that moment and it was that motion which made her suspicious. Still she had held herself until the train pulled away from the station.
When she had opened it upon reaching home, it took all of her strength not to dash towards the phone and call the train station to send the brothers back. Tears had filled her eyes and an extraordinary emotion surged through her entire body. They didn't have the most romantic relationship, they didn't even have much time together for the relationship but there had always been something hinted there.
Tears filled her eyes once more as she stared towards the ring which adorned her finger. Staring at the dents and imperfection, the way it managed to just barely fit her finger. The ring was hand-made, painstakingly hand made and not just another one of Ed's alchemic concoctions. How many hours he much have put into this ring and how much effort he must have used. That in itself spoke so much more than any words he may have spoken to her at any time.
Winry Elric...it definitely sounded like something she would like to hear more often.