Story: Home
Chapter 2: His Call
Disclaimers: I do not own anything Fullmetal Alchemist-credit goes to the amazing Hiromu Arakawa-aside from these random moments that pop into my head just to satisfy my thirst for more FMA.
"Hello?" Winry yawned.
"Win?"
"Ed? Why are you calling? What's wrong? Did your automail-what did you do to my automail?"
Ed laughed and pressed the receiver closer. All he had wanted to do was hear her voice again. For the last two years, he had heard it all day, every day. Now he finally was starting to realize how much leaving had affected Winry. His chest literally ached when he thought of her, but couldn't see her.
"Nothing's wrong."
"Then why are you calling?" she asked, confused.
I wanted to hear your voice, he wanted to say. "I'm in one piece and wanted to let you know I arrived okay. No fights, no broken automail."
Silence filled the receiver. He smirked. Winry was as unsure what to say next as Ed was. He had fought himself for over an hour about calling or not. He really did want to talk to her, but at the same time, he knew he was setting himself up for failure, setting her up for disappointment, if he didn't call often enough.
"I'm glad," Winry finally said. "Thanks for calling."
"Yeah."
There was some scuffling on Winry's side and Ed heard muffled voices. Winry's was in the mix but he couldn't understand what was being said. Den barked a couple times, too. Scratchy sounds filled his ear for another split second.
"Sorry about that. Customers at the door."
"If you're busy, I can-"
"No, no. Gran's handling it."
"Oh. Okay."
"So...have you talked to Al yet?"
Ed scoffed. "No, I just got here. He's too busy with May anyhow."
Winry giggled in agreement. "I think they're cute together."
"Yeah," Ed murmured.
He listened to her slow breathing and closed his eyes. Did he really miss Resembool this much? Had he missed it this much before, but didn't realize it because he was so focused on his goal?
"Well-" Ed started.
"So-" Winry began at the same time.
"You first," they both said. More silence filled the receiver. Ed tried to remember how many phone calls he had made to Resembool that hadn't involved repairing his automail. When was the last time he and Winry had just...talked...on the phone? After two years of chatting every five minutes, they hadn't required the use of a phone.
"Thanks for calling. Again." Winry cleared her throat. He smiled and imagined a blush creeping across her face.
"Yeah. I'll talk to you later."
"Mmm. Okay."
"Okay. Uh, bye."
"Bye, Ed," she murmured.
Ed listened intently. Was she going to hang up first? Was she actually going to hang up on him? He waited for the inevitable click.
It didn't come. He heard a door in the background. Winry was waiting, too, and he was not going to hang up on her. He'd never hear the end of it.
"Win, hang up the phone."
"I'm getting there!" she snapped. "You could hang up first, you know."
"You'd call me back and chew me out for hanging up on you!"
"I would not! You said bye first, so you should hang up first!"
"Why don't we just hang up at the same time?"
"Like that'll work," she complained.
"On three. One, two-"
He heard a snicker and then click. His mouth dropped open and he looked at the receiver in his hand.
"She actually hung up on me," he muttered. His fingers automatically reached to call her back and yell at her, but he stopped. He gently put the phone down and sighed. At least the last thing he heard was her laughter...in a way. He grinned and flopped down on the bed. Ed held his right hand in the air and marvelled at how far he and Al had come in so little time. Granted, their childhood had been obliterated by their mistake, but they had grown up with good people at their sides.
He closed his eyes and imagined Winry's face as she hung up on him. Smirk, narrowed eyes. He laughed once. He wasn't going to call her for a week. See how she liked that.