My, it's been a long time since I've done a Fullmetal fic. My writing group suggested a prompt – the word 'loss' – and for us all to respond to it, and Celecia suggested an FMA fanfiction, so this is what I ended up with. Nothing more to say, really. Please review.
-----------------
Winry knew that it could never last. The waves of time would bring him to her and back again, but not for long.
Those eyes he bears wear a sense of that familiar detachment, and at the same time they're all too painfully distant to recall. Sometimes, when lost in musings, they'll betray thought of turning back. There is no homeland for him to fall back against. He can only move forward now.
The past scars him, flawing him in all of his perfection. He knows of the blistering white pain birthed from defiance, and challenges it, welcoming the knowledge that he's alive enough to watch another day pass.
Error brings resistance, and loss brings pain; and through that, chance to amend. Adolescence brought foolish desire to believe when he knew that he couldn't.
Sometimes the roads would lend a favor and place each other in sight, but it would never last long. His duty and their childhood are separate stories, and he has the chore of reclaiming to weight his choice.
And though the odds are against another visit she continues to wait, because even hellfire needs a place to come home to.