Title: What's Best for You
Rating: K
Character/Pairing: Winry, Elric Brothers (plus a little teeny Winry/Ed)
Summary: Winry receives advice.
A/N: Written for the LJ writing comm 31_days, theme: Commitment is a sin unto one's self. Manga-verse
Master Garfield worries after her and she knows it. It seems odd that he, an older male, would be considered an expert in how teenage girls ought to act, and yet he's forever offering his insights and advice into parts of her life that have nothing to do with automail.
"You should go out," he says to her, constantly baffled by the way she rebuffs dates. Rush Valley is crawling with men, and more than one refuse to be seen by any other than Winry Rockbell, and the ones who can't bring themselves to defect from their own mechanic still hang around the shop. It's not that Winry doesn't like the young men who ask her out: it's that none of the young men are the right one; the one whose eyes flash at her while they bicker.
"You should go out and experience more things," he insists, amazed by her disinterest in going anywhere but to the shop and back to her home in Risembool. She's young and she has talent and she should, in theory, be able to set up shop wherever she wants and therefore open herself to a bevy of sights and sounds and experiences that most people would murder to get to. It's not that Winry isn't interested in going to new places and experiencing new things: it's that she's waiting for the day that the one who can't right now comes to her, full restored and able to go and experience those things with her.
"You work too much," he always adds, and this statement is his favorite of all. Winry is constantly working with automail: improving her designs and experimenting with new alloys and combinations and anything that she thinks might make the life of her clients easier. It's not that Winry doesn't occasionally wish to take a break: it's that she knows she must work as hard as she can while the ones who need her are still depending on her.
And Winry smiles and nods and shakes off Master Garfield, waiting for the day when she can actually take his advice.
Originally posted 12/25/2007