Winry was silent while she sat on the bench at the railway station.

The railway station in Dublith was almost identical to Resembool, but vastly different from the station in Central, which had seemed big enough to swallow her whole — until she had gone to Yorknew City, and found the world to be so much bigger that she'd ever dreamt it could be.

But that…that was long ago.

If remnants of Yorknew City hadn't followed her home, she may have thought it was a dream. What tracked her down back to her quiet life, however, could only be described as a nightmare to an outsider. She had never felt so brutalized as she had at Hisoka's hands, even though Winry later somberly reflected that perhaps he had been right, that she had been the person in the wrong every time she'd struck first. She still didn't believe it justified the severity he escalated things to from there — there was a brief flash of being on the ground, hands pinned over her head while he was on all fours on top of her body — was an appropriate response either, though.

She and Hisoka had been two perfectly matched serial overreactors in that regard, at least.

Winry closed the book in her lap and leaned her head back. Her mind just seemed to wander too far for her to concentrate. She wondered what Hisoka was doing with Izumi at this moment.

Underneath her feet she felt the ground tremor. Immediately she glanced to the clock that hung on one of the beams of the ramada she sat beneath — it was still too early for the train. The ground shook again, stronger this time, and Winry hastily got to her feet, tucking her book beneath her arm, before jumping down from the platform and running across the tracks.

The far side of the tracks put Winry on the steep side of a cuesta. The drop-off at her feet made her pause — it was at least fifteen feet down. Her hesitation was brief; she focused on amplifying her aura, then leapt. She skidded down the steep embankment, fragments of rock and clouds of dust kicking up around her feet as she struggled to keep her balance, arms out and waving.

She managed to make it to the base upright, but had to pause again to catch her breath. The maneuver had taken more from her than she was used to. The ground beneath Winry's feet suddenly cracked and splintered. She dropped her hands and knees, scrambling to be on one side of the broadening crevice instead of halfway on both.

"I thought I told you to stay out of here!"

Winry blushed hotly at Izumi's reprimand, and beside her Hisoka was crouched on the ground, smirking at Winry.

"I could feel it all the way up on the platform. I thought I should warn you before you damage the tracks," Winry replied, crossing her arms over her chest and turning her nose up into the air ever so slightly.

"Did I interrupt your reading?" Hisoka drawled, and she rolled her eyes in answer.

Winry had never meant to stay in Dublith this long — almost a year had passed already. She found regular work doing automail maintenance, and made herself useful in Izumi's butcher shop, too. Her familiarity with anatomy had increased tenfold — at least with animals. The book beneath her arm was a text that specifically discussed the translation of animal anatomies to those of humans.

Her free time, however, belonged to Hisoka.

They had come to a truce after that incident so long ago, when she'd discovered he had terminated her apprenticeship. She had kept her word about keeping her hands to herself, and in return Hisoka spared her any further compromising situations.

Well. He had tried.

Izumi, Sig, and Hisoka all had unanimously agreed that she needed to learn some level of self-defense, and she'd reluctantly allowed Hisoka to take her on as his seito. The first eight months of learning from him had gone smoothly, until she'd really begun to get the gist of fighting.

Hisoka's defenses were almost impenetrable. She'd already known that from watching him fight Kastro, and she genuinely didn't expect to be able to land a blow on him. By sheer chance, or maybe dumb luck, Winry had managed to catch the magician off-guard and hit his solar plexus. He'd immediately stuck her to the ground, and followed her down to lay one of his playing cards against her throat. His eyes had been faraway and dreamy, tongue peeking out in the corner of his lips.

"Don't—" she had managed to gasp. "Hisoka, you can't—"

She hadn't practiced with him since — by his volition, not hers. Izumi and Sig had taken Hisoka's place, and that had been that. She didn't fear Hisoka the way she had before, but she knew well enough not to take her safety for granted. A voice in the back of her head warned her it would only take a moment for his lever to flip. It was for the best if she studied with Izumi and Sig instead.

Winry had found her wings with Nen while Izumi still crawled; only a couple months ago she had performed the leaf test to learn she was an Emitter. The older woman was the only one who was struggling with her newfound science.

Alchemy came as easily to Hisoka as Nen did to Winry; it was like breathing. She wasn't sure why she'd been so surprised by it. After all, Hisoka's Nen type was a transmuter — it would only make sense that alchemic transmutation also come with ease.

Hisoka with alchemy and Nen, however, was a terrifying combination. He didn't allowed her to be in his vicinity when he sparred against Izumi, but on the scattered occasions she'd been able to get close enough to glimpse him, what he'd wielded had been fearsome to behold.

"That's enough for today anyway," Izumi said, drawing Winry out of her thoughts. "Let's head back."

There was a telegram waiting on the table when they arrived back at the meat shop. Izumi had unfolded the top portion, then held it out to Winry at arms length.

"It's for you." Izumi sat down at the table and waited expectantly, while Hisoka had already vanished upstairs. Winry opened the paper and read the message quietly. "Well?"

"It's from my grandmother," Winry said, glancing up. "She said she received word that Ed is at Briggs, and his automail failed because of climate issues."

"Ugh." Izumi reclined back in her seat, putting her hands behind her head. "Those boys. There's always something. Is he asking for you to go fix it or is he coming here?"

"For me to go there," she said — with relief.

What would have happened if Ed had arrived here in Dublith and found her with Hisoka? She'd never told Ed about everything that had transpired and everyone she had met across the sea, and he'd be alarmed at minimum if he arrived at his mentor's house and found the magician here. Winry couldn't imagine Hisoka being bothered by Ed's presence, but Ed had a way of always finding a fight.

She wasn't sure if Ed would even be able to beat Hisoka and his Nen-alchemy abilities anyway.

"Are you going?" Izumi asked. "If you want to go you can, we won't stop you. Sig and I ran this shop just fine before you and it'll go just as smoothly after you leave."

"I…I don't think I am," Winry whispered.

This was just the latest example of Ed taking her for granted. It had been like this ever since he'd become a State Alchemist. He'd go months without speaking to her, then show up and expect her to clear her scheduled to do a rush order. Expecting her to go to Briggs, however, was a new low for Ed. He didn't generally expect her to go to him. All his State Alchemist status was clearly going to his head.

"You think he'll be alright?" Izumi asked.

"Yes." Winry folded the telegram in half and tucked it away in her clothes. "Briggs would definitely have their own mechanic. He's not the first person with automail going to Brigg, and he won't be the last. I doubt he really needs me."

# # #

"It's for the best that you go."

Winry's head jerked up with surprise at Izumi's words. She wasn't sure how Izumi had heard her walking through the hallway as she went to get a drink, but the damaged was done now. Her lips parted to respond, but then she heard Hisoka answer from inside the sitting room.

"Hmh. I have business to attend to elsewhere anyway," Hisoka said.

"Ed will eventually learn that Winry isn't in Rush Valley, and he'll want to know what she's doing here with me. The sooner I send her back to Rush Valley, the better. Ed never talked about Winry much, but his younger brother Alphonse did — Al made Ed's feelings about Winry clear. I'm not interested in anything happening here on account of it." Hisoka didn't respond. "How soon can you leave?"

"I can be gone before dawn."

"What about Winry?" Izumi asked.

"What about her?"

Winry bit her lip to silence the sound she was about to make at the pure indifference in Hisoka's voice. She wasn't foolish enough to think that they were friends, but he would be so calloused that he would leave without a word?

"She'll be furious if you don't tell her goodbye."

"She already knows," Hisoka drawled instead. "She's been eavesdropping in the hall."

Izumi made a surprise sound, and reluctantly Winry stepped into the sitting room then gave Izumi a small bow.

"I hadn't meant to listen," she admitted. "I was walking by and heard you talking…" Winry turned to Hisoka. "What 'business' are you leaving for?"

Izumi rose to her feet and waved a hand at them. "I'm going to bed. I don't want to know and make myself an accessory."

Winry sat down in the chair Izumi had abandoned.

"So where are you going?"

"I'm leaving to attend the 287th Hunter Exam," Hisoka said, and Winry blinked.

"They are allowing you back? Even after what happened last year?" she asked with surprise. She hadn't forgotten why Hisoka had told her he'd been failed the last time he had attempted it — that he had attempted to kill one of the Examiners.

"They are." Hisoka smiled, shutting his eyes. "Isn't that delightful?"

"I suppose. But you need to leave so soon?"

"Izumi is correct in her deduction regarding how your alchemist would react to your current situation. While I don't care, if she doesn't want to be involved in it then that's that."

Winry stood up, lacing her fingers together tightly in front of her and she bent at the waist, giving him a bow.

"Then that's that," she agreed, too angry to say anything else. "Thank you for your training, Hisoka Morow. I hope you have a safe journey back across the sea."

"You aren't coming?" Winry stared at him blankly. "I had assumed you would be following. You are a Nen user — you belong elsewhere now."

"I—I can't just leave. This is my home. My family is here, my friends are here, my work is here."

"You are a Nen user," Hisoka replied, as though that fact on its own was a sufficient argument against everything she'd said.

Winry's lower lip trembled. "I can't just leave Amestris. This is home."

He simply nodded then and waved his hand in dismissal. Winry gave another bow then ducked out of the room before she did or said something rash and hasty.

She didn't know when he left — he didn't come to say goodbye — but the following morning Izumi came to her room and told him that he had gone. And that someone else was downstairs for her.

She surprised herself at how immense and immediate her relief was that Hisoka was gone. She should've known that Ed would come here to swap out his automail for something more appropriate — and Ed would have been hostile toward Hisoka, at minimum. It was for Ed's own safety that Hisoka should leave. Even Izumi had realized that.

Winry followed Izumi back downstairs to the sitting room, and her usually sardonic greeting for Ed died on her lips when she saw it wasn't Ed there after all.

"Ms. Rockbell?" a stranger asked. He was dressed in the bright cobalt uniform of the military. Winry nodded. "I am Second Lieutenant Bismuth. Your grandmother in Resembool said she would send a telegram informing you of what happened to the Fullmetal Alchemist's automail."

"She did," Winry admitted with a nod. "I assumed that there would be someone at Briggs who'd be able to handle that for him though?"

"There is, but the Fullmetal Alchemist was adamant than you are his personal mechanic and that you come perform the work yourself," Second Lieutenant Bismuth said. "So I've been sent here by Major Kimblee to escort you to Briggs."