Ed never lets anyone take too close a look at his automail. "Professional courtesy," he always says, "you want to study it, you gotta ask permission from the mechanic who made it."
Some people think it's an excuse – that Ed is ashamed of having automail, and doesn't want anyone seeing it. Others think it's just to get people off his back – hardly anyone would go all the way out to Rizembool to ask the Rockbells' permission, and nobody likes to be stared at.
The truth is, Ed believes that he's protecting Winry's trade secrets. Because Ed's automail is absolutely flawless.
Ed's body is littered with scars. They come from a myriad of occasions, places, actions. The first scars are probably from his early childhood – everybody has scars from falling down as a child.
The most glaring set of scars are around Ed's automail: thin, spidery white lines that stretch across the right side of his chest, and a fine network of them around his left thigh. Other scars come from Ed's many travels and mishaps, in countless countries and two different worlds.
Winry memorizes all these scars, running over them with gentle fingers in the darkened bedroom while Ed sleeps.
AN: please forgive the blantant ripoff of my own KuroFai fic... it just fit so well with Ed that I couldn't resist :)
