Title: Whiskey Dreams
Author: S J Smith
Rating: Teen
Summary: Ed knows she wouldn't wait forever.
Disclaimer: These are Arakawa's characters, not mine. Drat it.
Note: Written for the LJ comm, Fanfic_Bakeoff, for the prompt 'Foolish'. Also, this would be considered a prequel to "Miss the Girl" but can be read separately.
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It was too much to hope she'd wait for him forever. Edward knew he'd never should have been that foolish or selfish. Winry deserved more, deserved better than an absentee boyfriend, always off to Xing, or the West, lost in dusty libraries, or hammering out treaties with countries Amestris had been at war forever. She deserved someone who'd be there at night, to hold her close, rub her back, compliment her on her cooking. It wasn't like she'd get that often enough from him.
He'd stared at the wedding invitation, the note scribbled hastily on another scrap of paper tucked inside. Winry's curling script, remembered so well from the backs of photographs. Please come, he'd read, it wouldn't be right unless you were here.
Al had been the better man, and gone to the wedding. He'd promised to say…something, Edward wasn't sure what any more. The whiskey he'd been drinking almost steadily for the past few hours, since the time the wedding was scheduled to start, clouded his memories. It didn't stop his imagination, though, and Edward could see her in his mind's eye, how beautiful Winry would look, how she'd smile, and blush, and kiss the man she'd agreed to marry.
"I need another over here," Edward told the bartender. If he drank enough, maybe he'd drown out the images in his head. Maybe he could convince himself it was all just another foolish dream, fueled by amber gold and the slow burn of whiskey pouring down his throat. Nothing could really change it, though. He knew he'd missed his chance, torn it up and thrown it away.
Xing wasn't far enough to go to stop him from feeling like a fool, but at least it wasn't Amestris. As far as Edward was concerned, they couldn't leave soon enough.
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