Title: Lost
Pairing: ScarxWinry
Rating:PG
Spoilers: Yes, for the manga up to chapter 73
30nights Theme: Find me in the dark
Disclaimer: Hiromu Arakawa owns these guys, not me.
A/N: Well, that took a bit longer to post than expected, apologies. I'm glad that some people are interested in this pairing besides my friend and I, I was a bit worried that I would be unmercifully flamed for it. Heh. But that didn't happen, so I'm glad.

The cave-in had been unexpected, and only Yoki's recognition of the ominous creaking sound the support beams were making had saved them all from being buried. When the man had suddenly started running for a side passage, shouting at them all to run if they wanted to live, they'd all taken his advice and sprinted after him, hearing the roof of the passage collapsing behind them as they ran in panicked disarray. The light had been extinguished in the confusion, and by the time they finally stopped they all had to spend several minutes coughing on account of all the dust they'd breathed before someone brought out the matches and re-lit the lantern.

"Is everyone here?" Scar finally spoke up, looking around and seeing that everyone was...except that he couldn't see Winry anywhere. As soon as he realized that she wasn't there, he felt a cold jolt of fear run through him, although he wasn't entirely sure why, "Where's the girl?"

"She was right next to me when we ran," Mei said uncertainly, looking distressed at the possibility of what might have happened, "You don't think...?"

"She was probably only lost in the confusion, and went down another tunnel by accident," Marcoh cut in, trying to dispel the pall that had fallen over the group, "Someone should take the light and go look for her."

The words were barely out of Marcoh's mouth when Scar grabbed the lantern from Yoki and begun striding back down the tunnel they'd come down, "I'll be back when I've found her, just stay here."

"Ah, wait, the tunnel could collapse even more--"

"All the more reason to hurry and find her," Scar continued walking without even a pause for the warning. Before long, he and the light had disappeared around a corner. He wasn't sure why he was so concerned about the girl's well-being. True, he'd promised to protect her and he certainly didn't want to be responsible for her death, but that didn't explain this feeling of worry. He'd been shut off from everyone for so long, numb to such things as concern and kindness, that he didn't exactly know what to do with them now that they were returning, faint as they were. He didn't want them to return. He hadn't wanted to feel anything ever again. If he could have become completely cold and merciless perhaps the pain would have gone away. A damned monster like him shouldn't be feeling anything anyway. He hadn't simply fallen to the way of the beast, he'd embraced it. Anything to stop the pain of having lost everything.

Then suddenly he'd found himself with companions: Yoki, Mei, even Marcoh as much as Scar hated him. He'd been confronted for the about the one crime he felt guilt for. He'd been told of the thing that had truly started the massacre, and his hatred had been suddenly divided and thrown into question. In his confusion and weakness these emotions had slipped in and settled themselves, and now he could not get rid of them. They'd made him hesitate and be captured, they were making him worry about a girl who hated him.

"Girl!" he called into the darkness, but received no answer. He was glad he'd brought the lantern along before leaving the others; beyond the flickering circle of light was nothing but blackness, darker than a moonless night. He would have gotten lost himself without the light. He called several more times, and even though he strained his ears he could not hear any kind of reply. His worry mounting, images flashed across his mind. The end of a scarf just barely visible beneath a pile of rock, a corpse having been trapped and suffocated by a cloud of dust...he shook his head, trying to banish such thoughts. It wouldn't get him anywhere. But they wormed their way in anyway, and his calls were growing louder.

"Girl! Answer me!" he was nearly all the way back to where the cave-in had happened, and there was still no sign of her. If she hadn't run fast enough, if she'd tripped...it would be his fault. He'd promised to protect her, and he'd have failed. It was his responsibility to have made sure she was with the rest of the group, and he'd been too concerned with getting himself out of there that he hadn't checked to make sure she was too, "Girl! Winry!"

He barely noticed the change from 'girl' to her name, because at that moment he finally found another tunnel she could have gone down. And he only had to go a short ways inside it before he at last heard a faint reply to his calls.

"Scar? Is that you?" her voice seemed far away and echoed in the tunnel, making it impossible to tell exactly how far she was. If the passage branched again before he found her, this would become far more difficult.

"Winry, stay where you are!" he shouted back, striding farther into the tunnel at a quick pace. His worry began to dissipate now that he knew she was alive at least, although some remained. Whether she was all right or not had yet to be seen. Fortunately the tunnel did not branch further, although they both continued to call back and forth as though to reassure themselves that they hadn't just been hearing things.

Finally they found each other, Winry having hurried towards the circle of lantern light as soon as it had come into view, looking relieved. The worried expression on Scar's face went back to his normal frowning one almost immediately, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she walked over to him, smiling somewhat cautiously, "Thanks for coming to look for me. Is everyone else okay?"

"They are fine as well," Scar said, nodding and looking her over briefly to reassure himself that she was actually unharmed before scowling, "Why didn't you stay with the group?"

She frowned back at him, "I got lost in the confusion. It was completely black, Scar, and everyone was panicking. Even after I realized that you were all gone, I had to keep running because I didn't know how big the cave-in would be."

Scar didn't reply, just turned around and began walking back down the passage, "Come on, we need to get back to the others."

Winry pouted indignantly behind him for a few moments before sighing as though he were a completely lost cause and following, not pressing it further. But after a little while she spoke up again, this time sounding far more hesitant, "Scar? When you were shouting...well, were you actually worried?"

Scar was silent for a few long moments before muttering, "I promised that I would protect you, and I intend to keep that promise. If you had been hurt or killed it would have been my fault, as I am responsible for you and for making sure that you remain with the group."

"Oh," Winry fell silent again after that, which Scar had no problems at all with. He didn't want to talk about his concern for her. He barely wanted to even think about it, or what it could mean.

A/N: Oh Scar, you are even more of an angst muffin than your anime counterpart and you need some sense knocked into you. I'm sure Winry will be happy to oblige with her wrench. If he ever goes off on another "I am pus" spiel during the manga, I might have to reach through the computer screen and smack him myself.