Despite Everything
By: theunknownvoice
Disclaimer: I own zip.
She stood watching him sleep. It was the world's strangest sight. The man who had killed parents and shattered her world was sleeping in her house.
This was also the man, dare she think of it, who had encouraged her two best friends to join the military. Ed and Al were her brothers in every important fact of the word. She loved them both and this man had placed them in highly dangerous situations.
He had put their lives in jeopardy in order receive some higher level promotion. He hadn't cared if they had come back broken or in a body bag. He was a taker of life, a murder who justified his actions by saying he was ordered to kill. He didn't feel guilt for the deaths he had caused or the shattered survivors who the remnants of those he had taken. He didn't feel pity because pity was not the way of a soldier.
Or so she had thought once upon a time. That was before she had gotten to know the real Roy Mustang instead of the soldier. If you met him on the street you would think he was a tight-tight-lipped-follow-every-order-blindly-womanizing soldier. She wouldn't deny that he was tight lipped. He didn't tell her anything unless he had weighed it out in his mind.
She knew now that he cared about Ed and Al and had in a weird way had become a father figure to them. She knew because of how he had come back into her life.
Ed and Al were gone along with the gate. The world had returned back to normal but for Winry the world would never be normal again. She had lost two of the most important people in her life. Her grandmother had died a few months prior to the gate incident.
Winry had been alone in the world when she heard the knock on the door. To say she was surprised would be an understatement.
Roy Mustang still managed to look somewhat dashing even though he was leaking blood from various gashes and had a huge eye patch. She didn't question why he had come to her. She didn't have time to because he collapsed on her doorstep.
She didn't want to drag him but he was too heavy to carry. Years of playing Ed's and Al's nurse paid off as she scrubbed down his wounds and bandaged him. She was tempted to remove the eye patch to see what lied beneath but she knew better.
She took care of him and during that time she came to care for him like a friend. She had always respected him even after she found out the truth about her parents' death but now she thought him in a more light-hearted manner. He wasn't some cold distant shadow. Instead he was a flesh and blood man who was her friend.
It had been six months since he had first come to her. For a time he went back to the military but he came back after a month.
"I'm tired of fighting," he told her.
She let him stay with her while he tried to forget the war. The battles on the northern end had been brutal and she knew that many countries were threatening the borders.
"Does Lieutenant Hawkeye know where you're at?" she asked him one sunny day.
"Risa wants to stay in the military. She supported my decision to leave and I told where I would be if she needed anything. Same goes for Havoc and the others," he answered.
Time passed and their relationship progressed. It changed about two months after he had come back. It was innocent enough for starters but she doubted that he hadn't planned it.
He slowly had wormed his way into her affections. Maybe it was because she was lonely or maybe it was because they had ties to each other. The ties of blood were strong between them.
He had been a young soldier when the Ishbalan war broke out. She had been young girl eight years old compared to his nineteen. Her world had been automail, dolls, and playing with her closest friends, the brothers Elric.
He had come from a military family. From a young age he had learned alchemy. He had taken the exam and became a state alchemist and joined the military. It was what he supposed to do, what he had been told to do, and he knew no other life but this.
Ishbala was his first combat situation. He hadn't understood war until he took life. He hadn't understood until he saw orphans. The people he killed remained nameless to him until that day came.
He had been in the hospital. These doctors there treated Ishbalan and soldier alike not caring what side they were on. He had been hurt in one of the street skirmishes. It was his own fault for being stupid and not thinking.
Still the doctors bandaged him up.
"How old are you?" Sarah Rockbell asked him.
"Nineteen," he answered.
"That's young to be fighting in a war," her husband said.
Roy just shook his head.
"If you ever need anything come back," Sarah told when he was discharged.
The next time he saw them he put a bullet through both of them.
She could still remember the news reaching her small little corner of the world. Winry had wept and screamed at the news of her parents' deaths. Only a monster could kill those she loved.
Perhaps it was this twisted tie that bound them together or maybe it was the fact that they both cared for the Elric brothers. Winry didn't know and she didn't care. She just knew now that she loved him.
The first time he kissed her she slapped him. Mostly her reaction was because of shock. Things between them were tense for a while but finally she knew the truth.
He was surprised when she kissed him. She was a whirlwind compared to his firestorm. They kept each other interested and they grew to love each other more. It was as if they felt solace in each other.
She touched her abdomen gently. She knew and had known for some time now. She glanced at him as he rolled over in his sleep.
"Winry?" he asked softly waking up.
She smiled as she walked over to him.
"Right here," she answered as she lay down next to him.
"Where'd you go?" he asked his voice slurred from sleep.
"I got thirsty. You missed me?"
"More than you know."
She smiled as she cuddled into him.
If her parents were looking down they might be in shock. She loved him though he was their killer. She loved him though he wasn't perfect. Tomorrow she would tell him not only that she loved him despite everything but that things were changing.
The End