A submission of mine for the transmutefluff fma fic/art exchange on livejournal.
For junodog.
Winry raised an eyebrow.
Edward Elric was behaving strangely. She had expected him to explode the moment she told him they were awaiting a new shipment of automail parts so work on his arm would be postponed. When there was no outburst of how he didn't have all the time in the world and that he didn't want to be stuck in a backwater town for an undetermined but long amount of time, Winry found herself very nonplussed.
He just took it in stride, nodding acceptingly at the statement as though it had happened before and he was ready to wait it out. As she gave him a funny look, clearly anticipating more of a reaction from him, he tried to cover his lack of enthusiasm by sighing deeply in what he thought was a disappointed manner.
It just wasn't like Edward at all.
Tomorrow
Edward and Alphonse had been making a habit out of coming in for maintenance every three months, a fact that disturbed Winry to no end. She could still recall when he just showed up one day out of the blue with no automail arm after having been gone for four years. The next time she had seen him was when she went to visit him at the hospital in Central, after which he accompanied her to Rush Valley where she took on an apprenticeship with Atelier Garfiel. But after that, a trend had begun to form with him showing up on her doorstep far too often. He had occasionally stopped by for repairs every so often for the past several years, but now, she anxiously awaited what new trouble he was getting into to drag him to her so often. It would have been different if it was for small jobs like a dent or a loose screw (Winry restrained herself from laughing at the easy connections she could make between Edward and his automail), but Edward managed to surprise her unpleasantly each time.
"Hello Winry!" he said pleasurably the first time. He and Al had shown up rather unexpectedly (like they always did) and Winry had greeted him cheerily. Then he held up his arm that lacked its protective plating with wires streaming everywhere and no thumb joint to be seen, and what was left of his limb was bruised, dented, beaten, and blemished into the sorriest lump of scrap she would refuse to believe was something she had once crafted with her perfectly wonderful and experienced and creative hands and she lost control, as usual, having some heavy-duty wrenches and painful bars of steel at her disposal to render Edward unrecognizable.
"Hey Winry," he said casually the second time, strolling into the shop with his hands in his pockets. She glared at him suspiciously, to which he took offense. When he asked if she trusted him, she outright glared at him, demanding that he tell her what he had done this time. Edward sheepishly took his hands out of his pockets and exposed his hands, revealing an automail wrist with no hand attached—the hand was in the palm of his flesh one, flopping helplessly around. Winry surprised herself with her own strength as she smacked Ed so hard he flew out the window.
The third time, Edward couldn't even manage a greeting before Winry's wrath befell him. It was understandable, seeing as how she had seen him approaching the house, or rather, had seen Alphonse approaching the house carrying an Edward incapable of walking. What remained of his automail leg was tied to Alphonse's armor for easy carriage, a painfully conspicuous place for it that Winry could spot from a mile away, which is just what she did. Immense rage filled her to the brim, driving Winry out in a race to meet them and Edward down the path of carnage and pain.
So when Winry heard familiar hollow footsteps on the porch and an incessant rapping at the front door one cheerful and sunny morning, she found the largest, heaviest pipe of metal in her workshop and marched maniacally to the front of the house.
"Well hello there, Winry!" chirped a positively jovial Edward as the door creaked open forebodingly. The toothy grin spreading across his face served to confirm Winry's suspicions.
A high-pitched squeal escaped the terrified Alphonse looking on helplessly as his older brother went spiraling into the air. Edward's face landed painfully on the top step of the porch, after which his body tipped over and rolled in tortuous angles down the stairs onto the lawn.
"Agh! What the hell was that for?" Edward barked as he recovered from his fall remarkably fast. The red, bloody imprint of a metallic block was swelling across his anger-streaked face as he hoisted himself off the grass to face his rampant childhood friend.
"Edward Elric!" Winry fell into her generic rant. "You had better tell me what you did to my precious automail this time in the next five seconds or I swear your bank account won't be the only thing that cries today!"
Edward growled, jumping to his feet and wearing his most murderous glare. "Who told you I broke it?" he screamed.
Winry would let him comment no further. "Your sorry ass when you showed up at my house! Why else would you follow me all the way back home?"
"When the hell did you come back here anyways?! You could have told us!"
"I had better things to do than to track you down! Besides, you obviously have a knack for finding me when you bust your limbs apart! What is it this time?"
"NOTHING! It's not broken!"
Winry paused, blinking incredulously. Edward took off his coat and pulled back his sleeve, revealing an arm that was shining like new. Winry raised an eyebrow, to which Edward sighed, took off his left boot and rolled up the leg of his pants covering the spotless automail leg. He flicked his synthetic fingers against the shin with a resounding ping! for good measure.
If even stronger suspicion had not just welled up inside Winry, she would have been embarrassed.
"How could this happen?" It was the first time ever that Winry had not used the question in a rhetorical fashion. She was truly at a loss.
"Maybe it shrunk," Edward suggested offhandedly with a shrug. Winry gave him a look.
"Automail doesn't shrink, Edward," Winry stated as though it was a waste of her time to even fathom the notion, "especially not my automail."
Still, no matter how long Edward held his arms out for her, the more obvious and horrifying the situation became.
Winry checked the suspension. When that produced no results, she checked all of the locks. After that, it was the flexors and contractors, the tension, and even the wiring, but nothing added up. Everything was operating perfectly, the pieces stretched to their maximum length.
Yet Edward's automail arm was still shorter than his real arm by at least a hand.
Did I get the proportions wrong? a mortified Winry wondered. She had just fixed the arm up a little over two months ago, and now, she had discovered her first major mistake as a mechanic (not including that one time she forgot to put in a screw).
Winry sighed in agony. She didn't have the parts she needed for this job at hand. Most of her equipment she had left in Rush Valley, and her grandmother had just finished all of her orders for the month. The house was lacking the proper tools and pieces.
"Well, Ed, Granny's new shipment of materials and things are coming in tomorrow, so I can't work on this until…" she began to explain, anticipating the interruption at any given second. Edward was looking thoughtful, trying to piece together the meaning behind Winry's words. Winry continued for as long as she was able. "Your arm is all stretched out, so there's not much I can do about it at the moment. You'll just have to put up with it for now," Winry finished.
"Hmm…" Edward mumbled in contemplation after nodding at her statement.
"Where's Auntie Pinako, Winry?" Alphonse asked. "I haven't seen her around."
"Oh," Winry realized. "Yeah, Granny's at a physical therapy session."
"The old hag finally wearing down?" Edward quipped in excitement. Winry shook her head.
"No, you idiot, she's helping a client learn to operate his automail. She just installed it the other day."
Edward looked disappointed. Then, his face lit up like a light.
"How often does she have these appointments?"
Winry raised an eyebrow. "Give me a break, Ed. You remember what it's like yourself. She's over there every morning."
The expression on Edward's face was unreadable.
"She'll be back sometime around 1 o'clock, I'm guessing. In the meantime, I can get us some lunch," Winry offered, reattaching the protective plate on Edward's forearm. Edward failed to snap out of his reverie at the mention of food, something Winry caught immediately.
Come to think of it, he's been way too quiet, Winry thought.
"Are you okay?" she wondered, tapping his shoulder to get his attention. "You're not complaining or anything."
"Hm?" Edward responded. "Complaining about what?'
"Well, usually you're so eager to run off to your next destination. You haven't mentioned once about how you're going to be sick of sitting around and doing nothing by tomorrow."
Edward rubbed the back of his head with his real hand sheepishly. "Oh, yeah, well…I guess that is going to suck by the time it gets to it…"
Winry took note of this half-assed attempt to cover something up. "Whatever. What do you want to eat?"
Is Ed sick or something?
Hours later found Edward slouched in his chair groaning as Pinako entered the house. "Well," she sang. "Look who decided to drop by!"
"Hi Auntie!" Alphonse greeted enthusiastically. Pinako returned the gesture kindly enough before she set her sights on the eldest of the Elric brothers.
"So shrimp, what is it this time?" she asked provokingly. Edward growled, turning in his chair to snarl at her.
"I'm not a shrimp!" he screamed.
"Sure thing, guppy. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Winry was the next to groan and shrink behind the table. Since Edward was too busy fuming, Alphonse took it upon himself to answer the question.
"Ed's automail needs adjusting," he said conversationally. It wasn't as if it hadn't happened before.
"I see." Pinako gave Winry a strange look, clearly confused at her granddaughter's whimpering. "Well, as always, you're welcome to stick around."
"Don't worry, we intend to," Edward said through bared teeth. "We have to wait for the new shipment anyways."
Pinako took a draw from her pipe in contemplation. "Oh that's right. I had the steel on backorder."
"Dropping the ball, aren't you?" Edward shot. Pinako let out the smoke she had inhaled, giving Edward a straight look.
"Don't worry, kid," she soothed, heading for the back of the house. "I'm sure we don't have wait for that shipment. I'll just use the small scraps I have lying around. I'm sure that would cover your tiny limbs."
"Who are you calling so small that he-WHOA!" Edward's chair toppled over.
A thump was heard overhead, followed by a string of loud, unintelligible curses. Winry glanced up indifferently.
"Ed's up," she said simply. Alphonse looked up at her. If he had a face, it would have clearly read, Figured that one out already, thanks.
Winry glanced out the window to see the sun rising high, indicating it was around noon. She put the last of the dishes she was washing away and wiped off her hands.
"So Al, how have things been?" she asked, taking a seat by him.
"Pretty good, I guess. We've done some good around Central recently."
"Really? That's good." Winry stood up to grab a glass of water. "Why don't you tell me about it?"
"Well, there was this one burglar who kept sneaking into women's houses at night."
"Oh please tell me you caught him."
"Yeah, don't worry," Alphonse laughed. "He wasn't around for very long either. A week, maybe. I guess it was amusing when we caught him…"
"Really? What happened?" Winry took a sip from her glass as footsteps began thundering down the stairs.
"He had snuck into Lieutenant Hawkeye's apartment," Alphonse recalled. Winry spat out the water in her mouth in shock. "Yeah, she chased him out with a gun. We just happened to be walking by so…"
Edward jumped the last two or three steps and stopped the conversation with a proud exclamation of, "I'm hungry!"
"Ed," Winry chided, turning her head to the interruption. "You're perfectly capable of getting some…getting some…"
It was something that shouldn't have bothered Winry at all. She had seen Edward shirtless many, many times (in fact, she had seen him as such the day before). But Edward didn't usually walk around the house wearing just his less-than-modest pants. At least, not to her knowledge did he.
Winry pointed dumbly at the pantry, words failing her. Edward accepted the invitation.
"Did that seem a little odd to you?" Winry whispered in Alphonse's direction when she was sure Edward was out of earshot. To her surprise, Alphonse was no where to be seen. She blushed and was about to stand up to leave the room, but Edward stopped her.
"Winry, do you have any milk?"
Winry froze again, eyes widening in shock. "What?!" Did Edward just ask for milk?
"Just kidding!" Edward was grinning from ear to ear as he sat down at the table. Winry held a hand to her chest, wondering if she was going to pass out. "You should see the look on your face!" he laughed, taking a bite of the cereal he had found.
"What…what are…when did you…?" Winry had lost the ability to move her legs and was forced to sit with Edward at the table, convinced that some terrible prank on her was under way.
It was even stranger when Edward seemed unaware his chest was bare. The whole day he strutted around only half decent. Winry tried to convince herself that it was no big deal, that she had seen Edward's chest countless times, that she was aware he worked out regularly, and that she really never should have fallen in love with this idiot.
It didn't work.
Things became awkward later that day when Winry received the shock of her life. Even if her face flushed when her hand accidentally brushed his, even if she couldn't stop fidgeting whenever they both shared the couch together, even if she couldn't shake those indiscernible looks he kept flashing her, nothing could have prepared her for this.
Winry knocked on Edward's door, unsure of whether to prompt him down to dinner or to take his temperature, when the door creaked open, having not been properly closed. She caught sight of Edward's elevator shoes thrown haphazardly on the floor. Something seemed off about them; if Winry didn't know better, she would have thought the boots were…
"Yeah?" Edward asked, opening the door all the way. He was halfway through buttoning the nice shirt he was wearing (finally), giving her an inquisitive look. Winry gawked at him.
"Uh," she said intelligently, "Granny made some…some dinner, if you want, I mean…"
They drifted into a strange silence in which they both waited for Edward to finish dressing properly.
"Thanks," he said, straightening the folds of his garment. Winry looked him up and down, noticing his sense of fashion for the day had done a complete one-eighty. He was wearing what were probably the nicest clothes he owned (Winry wasn't even aware he had a button-down shirt).
Edward spotted her out of the corner of his eye, grinning a little at her bewildered expression.
"I was going to go visit Mom," he explained softly. There were no traces of sadness or regret in his voice, another thing that befuddled Winry. Edward was being so odd; she thought she had him figured out from his intense passion and emotion down to his little idiosyncrasies and obnoxious behavior, but at every turn he decided to be a little more quirky than she was prepared for.
The next one took the cake.
"Wanna come with me?"
A single moment in time seemed to find the world spinning out of control. Winry's knees wobbled once, her jaw slacked, her mouth opening into a tiny, gaping hole. The doorframe became her hand's crutch as for one second she lost track of which way was up. Who are you and what have you done with Edward Elric?
"Ah…" Winry was at a complete loss for words. Edward did not seem to wait for answer. In fact, he seemed entirely unaware of what he had just offered. He ran his fingers through his hair and quickly tied it up into a lazy tail.
"I guess I'll be eating dinner first, though," he said good-naturedly. Winry barely registered stepping aside to allow him past as he trotted down the stairs and into the waiting kitchen.
Winry forgot to tell him she would be going to town to pick up the shipment while Edward was eating dinner.
Two hours had passed since dinner was through for Pinako Rockbell and the two Elric brothers. Winry had not returned from town, which was to be expected since it way a good hour's walk from the Rockbell residence to get to the train station. Edward sat in satisfaction on the couch, taking a short after-dinner nap. Alphonse was positioned around the coffee table, looking through old photo albums.
Edward awoke at the distant rumble of thunder. A light drizzling of water could be heard overhead every so often on the roof. It was hypnotic, nearly soothing Edward back into a sleep-filled stupor. He lethargically began counting all the breams across the ceiling when Pinako shuffled to the window, taking a draw from her pipe.
"Mm, that's not good," she groaned. "It's fixing to pour."
Edward looked over to her, unsure of what was so tragic about rain. Pinako rolled her eyes in exasperation, clearly believing she had been expecting too much of Edward in terms of thinking. "The raw metal could rust if it gets wet, kiddo. Hopefully Winry'll get back soon."
The oldest Elric glanced out the window, observing the gray-streaked sky and the small instances of lightning in the distance. His severed joints were aching with the moisture in the air, causing him to grimace.
He hopped up from his spot, strolling over to the coat rack and picking off two shiny yellow coats. Pinako bit the end of her pipe as he threw on his shoes.
"And what do you think you're doing?"
Edward pulled a jacket around his torso, slipping the hood over his head and his arms through the sleeves. He hid how put off he was since his raincoat from when he was eleven-years-old still fit him at seventeen.
"Gonna go help her out," he said gruffly. It was the obvious answer he didn't feel like rubbing in his surrogate grandmother's face just then (he could do that later). He threw open the front door with a careless, "Be back in a few."
Pinako had been right. Slowly but surely, the rain started coming down harder and harder, a thing which peeved Edward to no end. Had he tied his hair back properly, it would not have been so matted to his face, blinding him peripherally. The sludge the dirt road had become served as a pool of suction only Edward's large boots could fight, but he could barely imagine what it was like for a loaded cart.
Fifteen minutes had passed and the rain was undeniably a storm. Wind was whistling through the trees and lightning crashed through the sky every few seconds. The country's random weather had Edward reminiscing about his childhood when he spotted a brown speck in the distance. Sure enough, Winry's cart slowly became visible as steadily as the sinking feeling in Edward's stomach expanded.
Winry was drenched, laughing at herself in embarrassment as she tried futilely to shove the stuck cart out of a ditch filled with mud. The fact that Edward had arrived to save the day did well to contribute to her foul mood.
"Need a hand?" he hollered over the thunder with a smirk. Winry didn't see it, her own hair obstructing her view.
"Maybe so, cowboy," she quipped. Edward's grin widened.
"Looks like I arrived just in the knick of time!" he responded sarcastically, jumping over the side of the cart and down into the ditch with her. The wheel was half-buried, refusing to let the cart move an inch. Edward's lack of leverage due to his shortened arm was not helping any.
"Here," he screamed, throwing the other jacket to Winry. She caught it, pleased to have even the slightest bit of protection from the rain. Edward tore off his own jacket, peering into the cart. The cover was damp, doing its best to hold back the water, but Edward noticed the build-up of runoff liquid in the corners, gradually filling the cart. Eventually, they would reach the equipment. Edward threw his own jacket over the cover and clapped his hands.
Winry shielded her eyes as the blinding light of alchemy engulfed the cart. The raincoat was melded into the cover, stretching it out far enough to protect all crevices with the addition of the raincoat's material to ward away the storm. Edward smirked in triumph, quickly soaking to the core.
"Try to hold up the cart!" he called. Both he and Winry pressed their backs against the side as he clapped his palms together a second time and reached to touch the ground. The mud sloshed and whirled away at the transmutation, giving the duo about 2 seconds to hoist the cart out of the mud and onto the sturdiest part of the road.
Winry pulled herself out of the sludge, her legs dripping in the natural grime. Edward was in a worse situation. He was waist-deep in the muck, his automail leg surely ruined where his pants and boots couldn't protect his limbs. His mechanical fist dug itself into the dirt and he hoisted himself up. Winry tried to help him the rest of the way, but he actually had it under control. By the time she made it over to lend her help, Edward was climbing to his feet, enveloped in a thick layer of filth.
"Fun," he said dryly, and Winry had to giggle.
The rain had barely let up by the time they had pulled the cart within a reasonable distance of the house. Winry was exhausted already, hoping Edward didn't notice as she relaxed on her end of the pushing. If Edward noticed, he didn't comment.
Winry turned around, realizing that the cart wasn't moving anymore. Edward had stopped. Winry squinted to see what he had turned to.
They were passing the graveyard.
Winry wasn't sure, but she could sworn she heard Edward softly say, "Come on."
He walked through the rain, seemingly unfazed by his surroundings. Winry was unsure if she would be intruding on anything if she followed, but she soon gave in.
As she suspected, they arrived at the grave of Trisha Elric. Winry glanced uncertainly in the direction of the markers labeled Urey Rockbell and Sara Rockbell. She supposed she might have understood Edward's feelings a long time ago, if only a little, but Edward was certainly changing. He seemed almost indifferent, at the moment.
"Edward," Winry said, unsure of whether it was a question. Edward looked up curiously, smiling after a moment of silence.
"It's nothing," he assured her. "Ready to head back?"
It didn't seem like "nothing" to Winry. Since when was Edward so cold about his mother? But Edward put his hand on Winry's shoulder comfortingly and turned back. And then he sneezed.
"That'd be like you to get a cold," Winry pointed out, remembering Edward currently was wearing no jacket.
Edward rubbed his nose. "Yeah, maybe."
"I'll make you some soup when we get back," she offered.
"No thanks." He waved her off. Winry stood very still, at first wondering why Edward would deny food, when she apprehended his true meaning, his declination of her aid.
"Thanks," she said, not really knowing why it was the only thing she could think of. Edward paused, still smiling.
"For the cart?" he asked, turning back to her. She nodded. "Not a problem. You help me out all the time anyways."
To Edward, it was the understatement of the century. Winry thought maybe that was a moment of revelation, a time in which she might have realized Edward enjoyed helping her, whether his pride would allow him to admit it or not. It was Winry who always helped him out, who made him food and put her home up for them to return to, who replaced Edward's limbs and looked after Alphonse's armor, who treated them like humans and gave them love.
But Edward didn't want Winry's help anymore. He wanted to be the one to help her now.
Winry's eyes fell, focusing now on the mud-soaked boots of her companion. Her eyes lit up.
"Your boots are uneven," she pointed out. Indeed, one sole was raised higher than the other (it had to have been Edward's work). Edward's leg must have been too short as well. Winry smiled in comprehension. "You've grown!"
Edward smirked a final time. "Glad you finally noticed."
Winry smacked him over the head.