They arrived at the station late that afternoon.
Edward was a unique sight- the one empty blue arm of his military uniform blew in the breeze, his other casted arm slinging his dilapidated backpack over his shoulder and picking up his briefcase in the other hand. His blond hair was in a high ponytail, and while the kid still looked exhausted, he cast a glance down at Roy's coat that was still sitting on the bench, looking like he wanted to pick it up- before he was turning and looking away, allowing Roy to pick up his own coat and bag and heading for the station.
Havoc was there waiting for them, a cigarette dangling from his lips. He smiled at the sight of them, though there was a hint of worry in his eyes. "Hey there Boss. Chief. Good to see you, though you look like you've seen better days."
"Yeah, that's what they tell me." Ed muttered, voice lack luster.
The three men- yes, they were all men, now, he realized- fell into step, Havoc on the left, Ed in the middle, and Roy on the right.
Havoc made idle chatter with them before they were settling into the car, heading towards headquarters.
Ed was quiet in the backseat, rummaging around in his combat backpack but staying quiet otherwise.
Roy caught Havoc glancing at he kid occasionally in the rear view mirror, and he quietly caught the man's eyes, shaking his head slightly. Havoc got the message and nodded. "He understood the unspoken message- don't prod the kid too far.
They arrived at headquarters. heading for the front door.
"Yeah, Chief, your mechanic and brother are already here. They're waiting upstairs."
"Joy. Winry is gonna give me hell over my arm." Ed grumbled. "I'll catch up. I have to take a leak and enjoy my last few minutes before she throws a wrench at me."
"Alright. Don't goof off for too long." Havoc smiled slightly.
Ed ducked into the lavatory of the men's room, pulling a cigarette and lighter from his backpack and settling in the stall, relishing his five minute smoke. He'd been craving one all day, and even smelling Havoc's cigarette in the car had made his fingers twitch with need. But now he had one, and he closed his eyes, savoring the crisp burn in his lungs and throat, smiling as he felt his nerves settling out.
He ditched his cigarette, smirking at the pleasant aftertaste on his breath and washing his hands quickly before he was ducking upstairs, heading into the main office.
Something metal came hurtling at him as soon as he'd entered the room, and he dropped his briefcase, reaching up and catching it pout of instinct. The world narrowed for a brief second- the only thing he could register was that he had to catch it.
He was in Central, he reminded himself. He was in the office. IT was okay. That was what he told himself. The office had gone quiet, and he looked across the room to see Mustang, managing to pull himself back to the moment. Yes, he was safe. He looked back to what'd been thrown at hikm./ It was a wrench.
He looked across the room, blinking in surprise.
"Huh. You caught it. That's never happened before." Winry said softly, almost as though she was surprised. "But that still doesn't change the fact that you ruined my finest automail!"
"What did you do, Ed!?" Al clamored over, peering at his brother anxiously. "And where did you get that uniform? You never wear a uniform. Where did you get those bars on your chest? YOU GOT PROMOTED!? I can't beleive you're a Leutienant Colonel. Ed! What on Earth happened!?"
"Yeah. I did." Ed let his hand holding the wrench drop to his side- he found himself staring at the floor.
"What!? Let me see!" Winry clamored over, snagging her wrench back from his fingers and peering at the rank pins on his chest curiously. "Huh. That's nice." she took the wrench and slammed him on the head with it.
"But it doesn't change the fact that you ruined my auto mail!" she drew back to hit him again, but Ed had already moved, catching her wrist mid-swing and stepping forward, pinning her to the wall will his body and holding her hand above her head.
Ed's eyes had gone glassy again, his breathing had picked up, eyes wide, and Winry looked at him, wide eyed. "...Ed?"
And just like that, Ed's eyes focused back in and he was back. "Don't swing that wrench at me again." he said, voice cold, gaze icy. He let go of Winry's hand and stepped back, masking his expression with annoyance. "And quit shouting, will you? It's annoying.".
Winry held her wrench closer to her chest, looking surprised. "...okay. Where's your arm, anyways, Ed?"
"It's ruined. There's nothing you can savage from it, really..."
"What do you mean? The Colonel said he had it in his briefcase." Furey spoke up.
"Oh good. Let me see it!" Winry was bounding over to Mustang, looking excited.
"No! I'm telling you, that arm is totally messed up! T-there's nothing to salvage, really..." Ed looked desperate and stressed, and everyone looked at him, uncertain.
"Nonsense. I'm a top notch mechanic, Ed, I'm sure I can find something to..." Winry trained, off, flipping open the briefcase and staring at what was inside in horror.
The remains of Ed's automail arm were there in all it's glory- it was badly damaged, several outside metal plates missing, guts and wiring exposed to light. With extensive maintenance, it could've been fixed. But Winry's eyes were locked on the end of the arm, where the hand had been transmuted into Ed's signature blade, which was stained with a dull rusty copper of dried blood.
She looked over at Ed, who was still staring at the floor.
She glanced back at the arm, hands wobbling for a minute, before she quickly shut the case. "You're right, nothing I can fix. I'll have to make you a completely new arm." she acquiesced.
Ed let out a breath, looking up. "Right. Okay- when do we start?"
"As soon as we can. One of grandma's old apprentices has a shop three blocks from here, they said I can use the equipment..."
"Right. Yeah, you and Al head down there- I'll be there in a few minutes, I have to settle some paperwork. I've been gone longer than I planned." Ed lied fluently.
Winry hesitated a little- she could probably tell he was lying, but she nodded anyways. "Okay."
"Wait. Brother, aren't you going to tell us what happened?" Al asked, sounding confused.
"Not now, Al. He'll have plenty of time to tell us while we're measuring for his arm." Winry reached over, grabbing a gauntlet hand. "Come on- you can show me around on the way there.".
They hurried out of the room, and Ed was glad for it. The office slowly settled back into its regular hum, and Ed sat at his chair, sifting through a few pieces of paperwork idly. Really, he just needed a break from people. He'd only just gotten here, but he was already exhausted at keeping up the charade of talking to others.
He just had to push through, he told himself- that was all he needed to do. Yeah, he'd been in the hospital for a few days- he probably just needed to get used to it all again.
"Fullmetal." Ed looked up to see Mustang standing in front of his desk. "What do you want me to do with your old arm?" the man was speaking quietly, and his eyes were soft- a concern Ed wasn't used to seeing was written in his eyes, and he was caught off guard for a moment.
He paused.
"I don't care. As long as I never have to see the damn thing again." He narrowed his eyes, remembering the surprise on Winry's face when she'd seen the dried blood all over his blade. She probably hated him, now, was probably upset he'd used the tool she gave him to kill someone.
He abruptly stood, nearly knocking his chair over in the process, and headed for the door, hands reflexively going into his pockets.
He found his pack of cigs in his pocket and breathed a sigh of relief- he'd just had one, but talking to people made him crave another, and he greedily enjoyed one in the back of an alley before he was heading to the auto mail shop where Winry and his brother were waiting.
BREAK
"So you stopped an invasion? All by yourself?" Al looked at his brother like he always did- with admiration- as Winry measured his port and prepared to start his new arm.
"No. I wasn't alone. I had a team of guys with me, I was in charge..."
"How many of them are there? Can I meet them sometime? Are they cool, were they nice to you?"
"Y-yeah- they were good friends. I liked them. I... they're stationed real far away, so I doubt you'll ever get to meet them."
"Ah. That's a shame." Al looked disappointed. "So- what did you do to stop the invasion, brother? Build a large wall or something?"
"I... I built some walls, yes. It helped, I guess. We blew up the weapons supply and, uh, they got the message."
"You must've done a good job. They promoted you, after all. You're the same rank as Mr. Hughes, now! How'd you get so hurt, though? How did you break your arm?"
"Got caught in a blast." Ed fixated on watching Winry take her measurements- the repetitive way she did it was soothing, something to latch onto.
"No more questions, Al. I had a long train ride, okay? I'm tired."
"Alright. I have to go feed the cats anyways..." Alphonse made a habit of feeding the alley cats on a street corner frequently, and he hurriedly clomped out of the room.
Winry continued measuring in silence for a few minutes, before she was gathering her parts and arranging them on her workbench carefully.
"Edward- you're not telling me everything, are you?"
"No, I'm not." Ed agreed.
"Why not. You know you can talk to me, Ed, I won;t judge you..."
"Winry, some things shouldn't be talked about. Like the night Al and I got to be the way we are."
"I know you won't talk about that, Ed, but you don't have to carry all this alone..."
"No, I don't. But I don't want to talk about it, okay? After being under gunfire for so long, I've grown to liker the silence. Can we... can we just be quiet for a little while?"
"Alright." Winry agreed, though she didn't look happy. For a long while, the only sound was the clanking of metal parts and bolts in the trays as she set up her work area.
Ed appreciated the quiet.
He would just rest his eyes for a few minutes...
Hands. Hands were on him, grabbing his shoulders, shaking him and gripping him hard. "Are you with me, Ed?" Patrick was screaming at him over the whistling of mortar shells, trying to bring him back from wherever he'd retreated to inside himself, he had to move...
Ed twisted, trying to pull free from the grip. "Pat... I'm good, Pat, I'm focused, I... I can fight..."
"Ed?"
That wasn't Pat's voice. It was...
"Winry?"
"You fell asleep on the medical table, Ed. I was just trying to get some measurements without waking you up, but you started talking and squirming. I didn't mean to wake you."
"Nah, it's alright..." He ran a hand through his hair, blinking in surprise. "What time is it?"
"You've been asleep for five hours. It's almost eight at night."
"Wow. I must've been more tired than I thought." Ed admitted.
"That's what you get for the crazy hours you keep." Winry smiled, heading back over to her table- Ed could see she'd gotten the general scaffold of an automail arm nearly completely assembled- There was still a lot of work to do, but she'd certainly made a lot of progress.
"Edward- who's Pat? Was she one of your nurses at the field hospital?" Winry was frowning slightly.
"Pat? What- no. Patrick was one of the men in my squad. He's... he's probably my best friend, to be honest with you. I owe him my life." Ed smiled slightly at the memory. "He had my back the whole way through. He got shot in the arm, and he just kept going, he didn't even care. He's about as dumb as I am. And when I needed it, he really came through in the clutch. I owe him a lot."
"Oh." Winry smiled slightly, eyes brightening a bit. "I'm glad you have friends you can count on."
"Yeah, me too. Say- you wanna head back to the dorms and grab something to eat? It's been awhile, it's getting late."
"Just half an hour more. I'm nearly through with the scaffolding, I want to get it done before I go to bed tonight. From there, it should just be two days of nonstop work to get this finished for you."
"Fine. We'll stick around a little later, you crazy gearhead."
"Alchemy obsessed midget."
"Crazy wrench throwing lady!"
They got takeout from a local Xingese place and walked back to the dorms, finding Al already there, along with a lot of cats he'd rescued.
"Seriously Al!?" Ed groaned, frustrated by the dozen cats everywhere.
"They have no home, brother!" Al said sadly.
"Yeah, well, they don't need a home, they're cats! Any they're never gonna find a home if we keep running a kitty homeless shelter here!"
Winry sighed, grabbing her takeout container and smiling, flopping on the neatly made bed that was clearly Al's. "Somethings never change. You two always argue."
Ed and Al didn't even hear her, continuing to bicker. They reached the agreement the cats could stay the night- only because it'd started to rain- and if any of them touched Ed's books, they were out pronto.
Ed slammed a dozen containers of food as usual, and fell asleep by the lamplight trying to devour an alchemy book.
Al strode over and turned off the lamp. "Would you like another blanket, Winry? I don't have many, because I don't sleep or get cold or use a bed..." Al offered.
"No thanks, Al. I'm fine." Winry gave him a tired smile, grinning. "Thanks for letting me use your bed, Al."
"I don't really use it anyways." Al said, though Winry could tell by his voice he was smiling.
"Yeah, well- this is fun. It reminds me of when we'd have sleepovers when we were children."
"Yeah, it does." Al said, reminiscing.
"Someday soon you'll get your body back too, and then we can all go camping in the back yard just like old times." Winry gave a yawn. Al agreed eagerly, before he picked up the book Ed had been reading, sitting quietly in the corner and finishing it off while everyone else slept.