Winry's POV. Set directly before the Promised Day, when Ed, GreedLing, Darius and Heinkel meet up at the Rockbell residence.
The tension in the air is palpable, but Ed barely stirs as he sits back and she disconnects the wiring of his arm, his face unusually grave.
It's odd - they've usually been so much more comfortable, before. But, now, he can't even meet her eyes. Wordlessly, Winry continues and hopes that this rift - if that is what it could be called - won't grow.
She should probably replace his arm soon, she thinks. Or, at least in another month or two. (Though, for once, she's afraid of thinking too far ahead.) All she can do is adjust it, for now. The metal gleams in the lamp light. His shoulders are wider, and his left arm longer, and she can't seem to keep up with the pace he is changing at.
Stitch marks and a new, ugly, pink scar track along the left side of his abdomen - a matching stretch of scar tissue on his back. Inwardly she winces, breath hitching as she considers the damage and what could have caused such an injury - and she wonders if this is partly the reason as to why he's been missing for months.
Winry pushes it all away.
Instead, she finishes unscrewing the bolts from the deltoid area and talks of her own journey. Of Liore and the sections of the town being rebuilt, and the people working together.
Ed shoots her a grateful glance. Glad for her voice filling the silence? Or more, perhaps, for her own silence over certain things?
Maybe, someday, he will be able to tell her.