Winry rested her chin on her palm, elbow on the arm of her chair, as she watched Izumi and Sig playing cards. They'd been playing Rummy, but had switched to War after both of them had drawn knives on each other before deciding to kiss and make up. Now they were both leaning forward over the table between them, brows furrowed, their stares alternating between the cards in their hands and the cards on the table.

She was on the verge of dozing off. There was a blanket draped around her, and a fire warmed the room against the chill that came over Southern Amestris at night. It was comfortable. Sleep was wrapping its arms around her.

Hisoka had opened Izumi's nodes shortly after dawn. Most of the morning had been him working with Izumi, talking her through closing them off again. Winry hadn't realized to what degree Nen really did come to her naturally until she had watched Izumi struggle for hours with what had taken her minutes. Although Ed didn't speak much of his time with Izumi, when he did discuss her it had always been with such high regard. As though she were capable of anything. It was disconcerting to watch the woman flail. Even now, she focused her aura into her eyes to watch Izumi, and she could see the woman's aura wisping away into the air.

The afternoon had been for Hisoka. Izumi had given him a book and told him to read it, then went back to the butcher shop to work. Winry hadn't even known where he'd gone off to until Izumi had sent her to feed the chickens at dinnertime, when she found him outstretched on a limb of the tree in the backyard, reading. He had glanced down at her, made that "Hmh" noise, then returned his gaze to the book.

"Damn Joker," Izumi snapped.

"The Jester is king," Sig said.

Winry opened her eyes as Sig chuckled, and Izumi leaned away from the card game, turning her nose up.

"What happened?" Winry asked.

"I laid out the Jester," he explained. "And the Jester beats all other cards."

She had realized the obvious significance of Hisoka leaving her the Jester card from his deck back in Central, when the Fuhrer had come to see her. She was aware that it was his calling card — what it represented. But with this new information, she wondered if her deduction had been too shallow.

The Jester is King.

"How did you get involved with a man like that?" Izumi asked as she shuffled the cards again, the cards clicking heavily in her fingers while she did. Her eyes watched Winry with suspicion.

"She saved two hundred lives," Hisoka said abruptly, and Winry's head tilted back to see him standing behind her chair, leaning on it with his arms folded across the top rail. "She has a special power when it comes to machines."

Chilling. He was chilling in the most absolute. She didn't hear him enter, walk across the room, or take up residence behind her. Neither had Izumi given any indication she'd seen him do it either. If he ever wanted her dead, it would be merely when he found it convenient — not when he found the opportunity. His hair was wet and his face clean, and it wasn't any less disconcerting to see him like that now than it had been the first time. Hisoka didn't play a persona with how he dressed, or in his mannerisms. It was exactly who his true self was.

"How did you do that? Does Ed know?" Izumi demanded, and Winry's face grew hot.

"I didn't tell Ed, and please don't you tell him either. I didn't say anything to him because I knew he'd worry and interfere—"

"There was a mechanical failure with the airship we were on. Winry repaired the ship, and saved many lives." Hisoka poked the top of her head with one finger. "Mine included. And my...boss."

"An airship?"

"You've never heard of them? You have to go on one! They fly, and are powered by—" Winry began, but Sig gave the slightest shake of his head, effectively derailing her. She lowered her eyes in embarrassment. "Please don't tell Ed or Al."

"Hmh. I decided to keep an eye on her after that, and it's good I did. As I explained to you earlier, having ones nodes opened and left open is extremely dangerous — someone had done it to her, and I noticed her aura leaking." Winry wanted to hit him upside the head for the tone of his voice, the way he said it. "I decided to teach her how to close them. She's a natural."

"Are you going to tell the boys about Nen?" Izumi asked.

"No!" Izumi's brows lowered. Winry flushed even brighter at her outburst. "They have enough on their plate without having to worry about me, and I'm fine."

"You don't think they should know?"

"They keep their mouths shut — they never tell me what's going on. I don't see why there should be a different standard for me."

"There shouldn't be," Hisoka agreed.

Izumi pursed her lips but nodded. "I know what you mean. I won't tell them." She looked back over her shoulder at the clock on the wall. "It's time we go to bed, hon." Sig swept the cards up into his hand, then touched the small of Izumi's back. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Winry said, bowing her head. Hisoka merely nodded as the couple left the room.

Silence lingered between them for several long minutes. Then—

"Do you want me to kill them?"

Winry twisted in the chair to look up at him, lips parted in horror at his suggestion. He stood towering over her, head tilted and watching the doorway with narrowed eyes.

"Why would I want you to do that?!"

"They made you feel badly about something that excited you," he explained, and his broad shoulders rolled as he shrugged.

"Y-You'd kill them over just that?"

"I would kill them over lesser things," Hisoka admitted with a sigh. "Though this would make it feel more worthwhile."

"You need her to learn alchemy though."

He shrugged again. "I could find someone else. So, shall I kill them, mink?"

"No!"

Winry rose to her feet to face him, wrapping the blanket around her as she did. The flames in the fireplace made shadows flicker in the crevices and ravines of Hisoka's face. He looked so cold — so disconnected. He was a murderer, and she knew it. He'd said in not so few words that if he wanted to kill Izumi he would, regardless of the reason. Hisoka stepped around the armchair, and Winry dug her heels into the ground to prevent herself from backing away. She raised her chin as he cut the distance between them down to inches. Only then did she notice how he was dressed. He wore gray linen pants with a white linen shirt, with the top button left undone — Amestrian clothes. No shoes.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, having a moment of déjà vu as she gestured to his clothing.

Hisoka smiled, and the movement of his lips let the shadows pool deeper around his face. He looked so sinister. "You tell me."

She hesitated just a moment too long, and he wrapped a hand around her throat. Winry inhaled sharply, instinctively shutting her eyes, but he didn't squeeze. She felt his breath on her ear.

"You tell me. Why."

"It's a mask — you want them to think you're normal." Winry opened her eyes as his hand released her and fell back to his side. "You'll let them think that Hisoka the Magician is the guise, and that this is who you really are."

"Don't you believe so?" he asked.

"No. It's the other way around." Winry forced herself to meet his amber eyes. "I don't want you to kill them. And I'm leaving tomorrow anyway."

"Leaving?" His brows rose high. "We aren't done here."

Winry laughed. Really laughed, smiling and feeling herself glow from the inside in honest amusement at his response.

"We? I agreed to bring you here — to introduce you. I've done that, my side of our agreement has been fulfilled. I'm going back to Rush Valley. To my job."

"I see." Hisoka tapped a finger against his chin. "Garfiel didn't explain to you then."

"Explain what?" He only closed his eyes and shook his head, turning away slightly. Winry just couldn't stop herself. She shoved him. He took a half step back, but only because she'd caught him off-guard. Hisoka blinked. "Explain what?" she demanded again.

"You've been released from your apprenticeship. I paid for the cost of your training thus far, and for an additional year — to be completed after I'm done with you."

Winry slapped him. The sound of her open palm striking him sounded like a thunderclap. Then she stepped forward, pushing him again; she gained another half step of ground before he dug his heels in. Then she struck him again.

"How could you!" she sobbed. Everything was blurry. Tears filled her eyes and it was suddenly so hard to breathe. "How dare you! You had no right!" Hisoka seized both her wrists as she drew her arm back to hit him again, overpowering her to force her hands down. "You had no right!"

"Stop, Winry—"

The low growl he spoke her name in was a warning, but it fell on deaf ears. The anger inside her was too great. Winry tried to yank her hands from his grip to no avail then resorted to kicking him instead and, when that failed, she gathered her aura and lashed out as hard as she could at him.

She began to shriek but his hand clamped down over her mouth, while he swept her legs out from beneath her with a single kick. Winry crashed to the ground, but he followed her down, catching himself on his knees and elbows over her. The fall knocked the wind out of her — Hisoka seized the opportunity to grab both her wrists again.

"Let go of me! How could you! My apprenticeship! Who do you think you are!"

"Stop," he hissed.

Winry raised her head off the ground and bit down on his forearm so hard that she tasted blood. Hisoka's grip only grew tighter. She lashed out with Ren again, and rolled violently at the same time, twisting her wrists out of his grasp. He was quicker though. Before she could scrambled out from beneath him, he had a hand around her throat, forcing her head up and back toward him until her spine arced and sang with agony. His other hand was on her waist. On her skin. Winry swallowed down her cry of pain when she felt his hot, ragged breaths on her shoulder. She suddenly became aware of something pressing against her back — her eyes widened. Then, somehow even worse, she felt the weight of his bloodlust settling on her. Smothering her. Trapping her.

"Don't—"

"I need—" His voice…He didn't even sound human. Winry trembled as fresh adrenaline punched through her. "I need you—"

"Hisoka, please don't—" she gasped out, and his grip tightened.

"I need you…to go upstairs," he hissed, "and lock the door. Lock your window." He let go of her painfully slow, loosening one finger at a time. She kept her breathing shallow. "I want to hurt you—"

She was free of his grasp then, and Winry inched herself out from beneath him. She could feel her heart pounding against her ribcage as she dared a glance back at him. His eyes were rolled far back in the sockets, lids flickering, with his tongue in the corner of his mouth. He was breathing just as hard as she was.

He whispered, "Go."

For the first time, she second-guessed whether she should actually leave. What would he do if she left him alone like this? Would he go out and find someone to kill? Would he kill Izumi? She hesitated, then reached out and lightly touched his shoulder.

His head whipped around like a viper, seizing her wrist with one hand while his teeth snapped shut on her arm. Winry bit her lip to keep from screaming from the agony. Hisoka's amber eyes flew open, locking with hers, and blood — her blood — trickled from around his lips. Her knees were on the verge of giving out, and her free hand shook violently as she touched his cheek.

"Hisoka, let go," she ordered, channeling the last of her strength and resilience into those words.

His maw opened.

Winry yanked her arm away from him, clutching it tight to her chest. It was wet with her blood. She didn't dare take her eyes off him as she backed away slowly, one painstaking inch at a time. He watched her like a feral animal, tracking her every movement. Finally she stepped into the hallway, then crept up the stairs.

She glanced at her bedroom door, then to Izumi and Sig's. The time it took her to contemplate and decide was short — Winry sat down outside their door, resting her back against it.

Downstairs she heard the door to the shop open and shut.

Then silence.