AN: written for the prompt: Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward+/Winry+Alphonse+Pinako, Spring showers bring floods rather than flowers.
Spring reminds Ed of Teacher, when the rains come crashing down and rising the banks of the river and flooding the fields. There has not been a flood as bad as that year when Teacher had transfigured new river banks and they pleaded for her to teach them alchemy, but there are rains every year, and every year the villagers watch the swell of the river banks, waiting for the rain that pushes them past their bounds.
Ed can't use his alchemy to stop the flood like Teacher did anymore. Instead he joins Granny Pinako and Winry hauling sand bags with the other villagers. If Al is there, he fuses the sandbags into a sandstone wall. But Al is not always there, and as more years pass he is in Xing studying alongside his wife.
When the spring storms come, Ed dons his raincoat and galoshes and joins farmers near the Wanerite farm and heaves bags of sand whether it is day or night, rain clouding his vision and stinging against his palms where the rough burlap bags holding the sand rub his hands raw. Halfway through the storm Winry comes with Granny Pinako's tea spiked with whiskey and hot rolls and heaves sand bags by his side.
As the storm slides away and the sun or stars come out, Winry sits by his side and they watch the sun rise or the stars shine and feel the after storm calm. The grass is always greenest after a storm, the leaves bright as neon against wet-black bark.
When the sun dries the ground, and the river calms, the flowers will bloom, red and blue and yellow across the fields. Granny Pinako will let old Den out to run and smoke on the front porch. Ed will bring wildflowers to their loved ones' graves. And Winry will welcome him home as always, safe until the next floodwater comes.