This is just based on an rp I did a while abck. Nothing much...don't expect too many updates.

Also, this is just a side-note, Winry now has her hair dyed red at the ends.

Winry finished hanging the sheets and clothes up to dry and gazed off at the sun setting behind the mountains. She sighed and shoved her hands in the pockets of her denim shorts. "Another day gone by." she muttered, her tone a bit saddened. She had been waiting for the return of someone for some time now...and was starting to think it would never come.

"Winry! Time to come inside!" Pinako called out from the porch, getting up from her chair. "Coming grandma!" Winry called back over her shoulder. She looked down at the black dog by her side and smiled faintly. "Come on Den. Let's go now." Den whined up and the two went inside.

Seeing as his hearing was considerably more heightened than a human's, Den probably would have heard his feet as they scuffed up the dirt path before Winry or Pinako. Had Pinako been taller, she may have seen the crown of his mussed and matted golden head on the horizon. He wasn't much taller-- if at all. Edward Elric didn't seem to grow very fast. He was, however, rather frayed around the edges. His hair was dulled with dirt and a recent lack of care, his face drawn up in an emotionless mask that still managed to express his wear.

He paused, amber eyes looking up in time to catch a flutter of sun kissed blonde hair disappear into an all-too-familiar front door. Had the ends been fringed with crimson? His face remained blank, and he convinced himself that, come what may, he was going home. He may not live much longer beyond the front porch-- one could only take so many blows to the head --but he would get there.

He had an unspoken promise to keep. If there was one thing he was dependable for, it was keeping promises.

Den turned back to the door sharply and let out a gruff bark. "What is it boy?" Winry asked, leaning out of her room. Pinako looked over to the window from her desk and pulled the pipe out of her mouth, smiling. "Looks like we got ourselves a visitor." she said with a slight chuckle.

Winry glanced to the window and her eyes lit up. She rushed to the door and flung it open, leaving her wench behind unlike usual. "Edward!" she cried out, running towards him, her crimson-ended hair fanning out behind her. It had grown longer and now went past her hips.

He blamed his initial silence on the knot in his stomach leaping into his throat and making breathing a little difficult. He missed her. He would never admit it, not to her face. Edward was too proud for sentimental things like that. But God, he missed her.

Winry had always been his best friend, had always been there. When he had been bleeding and dieing in his brother's metal arms, Winry had been the first to spring from the table to do something, not his surrogate grandmother. In Pinako's defense, the woman was probably too startled to do anything, in her old age. Every time he had come home sans an arm or in varying stages of disarray, she had always been there to fix him, most times with a smile and some friendly banter. She had always been there for him to lean on, to come home to. She had never failed him.

He wished he could say the same.

"...Hey," he greeted simply, stopping mid-stride and shifting his weight to his good leg, tilting his head enough to let one side of his bangs fall into his face. His trademark lopsided grin painted itself onto his face. "...Long time no see."

Winry froze a few feet in front of him, tears swelling in her eyes. It had been three years since she had last saw him. She remembered the day he left vividly. The alchemist named Mustang had come to their door with a blond-haired female named Riza. They had spoken of another war along the border of Ishbal and had Edward go along. The war raged on for many years, and Winry had waited at the gate of their house for his return everyday.

"Where have you been!" she demanded, running over to him and throwing her arms around his necks, tears streaming down her cheeks.

His ever-present suitcase slipped out of his fingers, falling to the ground and onto its side. It stayed there, forgotten. He couldn't bring himself to embrace her; not yet. He let his arms dangle at his sides, closing his eyes. He didn't answer her demand right at first, just standing there instead, taking a moment to bask in her warmth.

Letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, he raised his arms to take her shoulders and dislodge her from his neck.

"...you knew where I was, Win." His voice was low, almost dark. He neglected to tack on the final syllable of her name. Releasing her shoulders, he took a step backward. He still had to look up to meet her eyes. Damnit. He did so, only briefly. "...I'm a dog to the military, and they needed me." He could figure what her response to that may be, and cast his eyes to the dirt at their feet.

Winry wiped her eyes and took a step back, a pain shooting through her heart since Ed had pushed her away. He had changed alot over the course of years, she could already tell. "Three years..." she started, her head down and fist clenched. "Three years you left me here alone! I thought you were dead!" she yelled at him, the tears still streaming.

Her feelings were a mixture of hatred and sadness, and her heart was caught in the middle. She had been bottling up her feelings for years now and found her chance.

"I love you Edward! And I always have!" she blurted out.

A glimmer of the old Edward sparked its way to the surface, and he snapped his eyes to her, angry. "Do you think I wanted to join a war!" His voice cracked, the way it always did when he tried to talk too loudly.

Of course, her next statement did all sorts of things to screw up his brain. Inhaling to reply, he paused, mouth working silently. He didn't know if he should take her words seriously or not. Instead, he closed his mouth again, and simply regarded her with silence. His eyes stung suddenly. He ignored it.

Winry whimpered slightly and she placed her hand over her heart, it felt as if it was truly breaking. "So this is what war does...It kills the hearts of the ones fighting in it...so they're never the same if they do return." she said coldly before turning from Ed and running off behind the house, crying.

Den whined and watched her run by, Pinako at her side. "Seems like some things have changed." she said with a sigh, rubbing the dog's ears.