It looked like an automail bomb had went off when Winry walked into her grandmother's house. There were pieces of forearms and wrist joints strewn across a workbench with a cacophony of tools. Nothing had changed here since Winry had first left Resembool for Rush Valley. This was how her grandmother had always worked, and it was a warm memory that sat in stark contrast to the orderliness that was Atelier Garfiel.

She'd almost gone back to Izumi, but she knew that didn't make sense. Izumi wasn't teaching her alchemy. So then she'd almost gone back to Rush Valley, but the thought of facing Garfiel and having that talk — about resuming her apprenticeship after it'd be bought out by Hisoka — had felt too soon.

So she'd come back to the deepest part of her roots.

The scent of mineral oil and metal was familiar and soothing. Everything about this place resonated the comfort she'd been seeking out.

"You aren't coming? 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."

"I can't just leave Amestris. This is home."

That conversation with Hisoka felt like forever ago, even though it had been only a couple weeks. Standing in this place now, however, she knew in her heart she'd spoken the truth. This is home.

Winry ascended the stairs to her room, careful to avoid the stairs that creaked — only to discover new places to avoid that had developed during her long absence. The world had moved on without a hitch without her here. Just as it would move on for Ed and Al, wherever they were. Al had mentioned going to Liore — she'd wished him the best, and asked him to tell that much to Ed as well when he reunited with his brother again.

The world had moved on without her here. And her world would move on without Ed.

She went to her room without bothering to wake her grandmother. There was no reason to do that, not when in a few hours her grandmother would awaken anyway. For now though she only wanted to change out of her travel-soiled clothes and wash. Her fingers were on the hem of her shirt to lift it up when—

"Ed!" she practically shrieked, yanking her shirt back down.

He sat at her desk eating, gaping openly at her. Winry grabbed a wrench from beside him on the desk and smacked him upside the head with it.

"Hey!"

Woo! That felt good. She'd walked around on pins and needles with Hisoka for so long that she'd forgotten what it felt like to give no quarter. Her heart was racing at the sight of him anyway, and she wanted to hug him tight.

"Ed, you wanna tell me what's going on here? Tell me why you're in my room!"

"I just wanted someplace quiet to eat my sandwich!" he balked, and she glared at him sullenly, forehead creasing.

Then her anger ran suddenly dry.

"I was worried about you," she admitted. Hating that she had worried. Hating that she'd felt such a festering wound from his indifference at Briggs while he'd continued on. Hating that there were so many things she had no answer to, that she knew he would never share.

"I was worried about you, too. I thought Al was with you?"

She shook her head.

"Well, technically I'm a fugitive right now," he said, turning his back on her as his hands balling into fists. "I can't risk anyone seeing me. But I'm in serious need of maintenance and I need to be in peak condition."

A fugitive? What had he done now?!

"Winry?" she heard. She looked past Ed to see her grandmother in the doorway. "Welcome home."

"Hey granny. I hope you weren't worried. I missed you."

Her grandmother's eyes moved to Ed, then back to her.

"I wasn't comfortable tinkering with your work anyway. Head on downstairs and get to it."

Winry felt her cheeks darken and warm, and her grandmother gave her what she could only regard as a playful smile before walking away. Except her face was red for an entirely different reason than her grandmother presumed.

Here they were. Again. With Ed treating her as his personal on-call automail mechanic and little else. Meanwhile she'd gone weak in the knees at the sight of him, despite all that. She seethed in silence. She hated that she couldn't find it in herself to give a voice to her hurt and anger, but she felt like it might her hurt even more if she did.

So instead she went downstairs to the workshop with him. He knew the routine, and laid himself down on the exam table while she gathered the tools she'd need. She realized, fuming even deeper, that her bag of tools that she'd taken north was probably lost forever in Baschool.

They didn't speak as she worked. It was hours later, as she cleaned up, that Ed finally spoke up.

"Listen," he said softly. She almost didn't hear him over the gentle clanking of her tools against each other.

"What is it?"

"I want you to take Granny and Den, and leave the country for awhile."

Winry whirled around on him, leveling her wrench on him again. He managed to cover his head with his automail arm this time, though — he'd expected her reaction. How dare he? How dare he come to her home, expecting her to drop everything to help him yet again after what she'd been dragged into at Briggs, then tell her she needs to leave?

"I'm not running away! You can't just send us off like that!"

"Catastrophe is coming to Amestris! I'm going to do everything I can to stop it, but there's a chance it might not work!" Ed shouted back as he leapt off her table.

"What won't work?" she yelled back, slamming her wrench down on the table beside her. "You keep acting like you're trying to protect me but you won't ever tell me what from, Ed! All I ever know is that you're trying to get your bodies back and will do whatever it takes to make that happen!"

He turned away from her, grabbing his jacket from where it laid beneath the exam table. "Winry. You make it sound like it's easy."

"Listen to me!" she begged.

"Winry! You just don't know when to shut up, do you?"

"Edward!"

She reached out to grab his wrist to stop him from leaving — if he left, she didn't know what she would do. She just wanted him to stop. But she missed his wrist and her hand touched his hip instead.

Ed gasped aloud in unmasked surprise as his automail leg suddenly stopped moving. Winry heard the suddenly silence as every actuator, motor, and gear stilled in its motion, locking up. He braced himself with one hand so that he wouldn't fall, but whipped around to look at her.

"What did you do!"

"I—I—" she stammered at first, not knowing what to say, before blurting, "I can fix it!"

Winry pressed her palm against his automail and focused her Nen into unlocking all its moving bits and pieces, her eyes suddenly bleary with tears. Ed took a long step away from her, stumbling slightly as his mobility returned.

"What was that?" he demanded.

"I don't know how to explain, Ed—"

"What — was — that?" he repeated through gritted teeth.

"Ed, please!"

"Is this why you were with Izumi?" His statement left her breathless and at a loss for words. "You think I didn't hear that Kimblee's soldiers had to go get you from Dublith? Is this what you were doing there with her?"

"No—"

"You went to Izumi to learn alchemy? For what, Winry? To bring your parents back?" he accused. Winry felt all the blood draining from her face. Her legs went out from under her and her knees folded so she sat hard on the floor. She didn't notice she was weeping.

"Ed, no…"

"So you saw the Gate of Truth too, didn't you know? And did you think I didn't notice that little demonstration of yours with Scar? Did you believe he was the only one who noticed?" Ed yanked the door open, looking back at her one last time with only disdain that made her clutch a hand to her chest. She sobbed, struggling to breathe.

"Ed—"

"You can't imagine what you've done, Winry. Get out of Amestris. And never come back."