Inside
By Dan'yu
He would be gone by morning.
She knew it to be so, deep down. In her heart, in her mind, she knew, and still she wanted to deny it. The annoying little voice in the back of her mind reminded her again and again, trying in vain to ingrain into her stubborn will a simple truth. But she refused to listen. She wanted so badly for it not to be true.
She didn't resist as he pulled her to him with a roughness that was so him, arms across her back strong and unyielding as he pinned her against his body, as his lips sought hers.
His kiss was anything but mild or chaste. She opened to the insistent press of his tongue, succumbed to him as he pitched them both backward, sending them crashing into her bed. The mattress protested the addition of their weight as they landed, and then he swept over her, his mouth at her throat hot as a brand, his hands lost between them.
A wild, strange heat coiled in her belly, stoked by his touch and fueled by the desire smoldering in his eyes. She had known those eyes forever, seen every look, every emotion they had to reveal, and every painful secret they maintained to withhold. She knew their fire, their determination, their sorrow, their pride, and their strength. But on this night, they burned with a different fire, a primal, lustful heat like nothing she had ever seen in him before, full of emotions she could never begin to understand. As his mouth descended onto hers once again, all coherent thought flew out the proverbial window.
Emotion and sensation met and clashed, collided to join together in a heat that threatened to overwhelm her. His heat enveloped her, embraced her just as he did. Clothing were peeled away and discarded, thrown away with no second thought given to their destination.
He touched her in ways she had never imagined he would, in places no man ever had. His touch was simultaneously demanding and gentle; tender in a way she never thought he would be. By the first light of morning, there would be no evidence left of him, and yet everywhere he touched, burning her, thrilling her, would mark her as his. Strong and tender, passionate and gentle, he was all the things she had ever known him to be and so many different things she had never felt before.
Two bodies became one, but their hearts were left on the sideline. There was pain, and their bodies went still, and there he was to kiss away her tears, stroking her hair, murmuring broken words she couldn't understand, but welcomed the comfort they offered none the less. And then, the pain was gone, disappearing as a distant memory as the sensation of him inside of her besieged her heart, her thoughts, her body, as they began to move again. In this moment, as bodies became one, two hearts, two souls, submerged together as well.
Something archaic, something primal, in an ancient dance existing since the dawn of time, a rhythm guided by instinct, a mating driven by things they could never say.
Passion, desire, lust, he was all those personified. Erasing any trace of doubt, insecurity, and questions from her head, thrown aside until morning, tossed aside until there was nothing left but him, every sense overwhelmed and filled with him. For years, he had been untouchable, unreachable, and now here he was as his hands curled around hers, as he moved inside her. The faraway look his eyes always held disappeared, and he was there with her, all of him.
As she writhed beneath him, shouted his name again and again, as their world collapsed out from under them, sending them flying. Soul-shaking ecstasy, gravity defying as they crossed the line between fall and flight. His body shuddered and her name spilled from his lips raw and broken, utter oblivion there to meet them as they collapsed together in an entanglement of intertwined limbs and spent passions.
He rolled over onto his back, holding her against him with the utmost care, cradling her with his arm of flesh and blood. His breathing evened out, and within moments she knew he was asleep. In sleep, his face was relaxed and innocent, his golden hair fanned out around his head, taking on an ethereal quality in the luminance of the moon. He was mistaken at times in his youth as a girl at times, this longhaired boy, but she would be right beside him to vehemently deny such an accusation. He was beautiful, yes, but there was nothing feminine about him. His was a masculine beauty and grace, strength and fluid motion that made him who he was.
She could feel the chill of the automail belonging to his artificial limb as their legs carelessly entangled, resting her cheek against the muscled chest. Warmth radiated from him, alluring, intoxicating, lulling her to sleep listening to the steady sound of his heartbeat.
Inside, she would always be able to feel him.
Inside, it was a feeling she would never be able to describe.
Inside, she knew it was all she could do to keep from spilling her heart to him.
Inside, her love for him reached no bounds, always there, always waiting.
Inside, she had always known he would never stay.
Inside, she knew he had obligations he refused to leave behind.
Instead, it was her he chose to leave.
As the rays of the morning's light bathed her room in an amber glow, she awoke to find the place beside her long gone cold.
In his place, she found a single rose resting among the cream colored sheets. It shone with a silvery sheen the color of moonbeams in the morning light spilling through the window, impossible by nature's grace but done so by his alchemic touch.
But still she could not hold back the tears. Alone in the silence of the early morning, no one would hear her sobs.
Every time he left, every time he walked back out of her life, he took away another part of her. For after all, every time he walked away, she might never see him again.
When Edward Elric left her that morning, he took with him Winry's heart. So she knew, was the cost of loving the Fullmetal Alchemist.