"I have a favor to ask of you, Winry-san," Chrollo said. The expression in his eyes was deceptive and soft. "If you say no, I will understand."

She deeply doubted that.

"Yes?" she asked.

"For my match with Hisoka, I have specific abilities I intend to use. But to have yours would be a boon..." He gave her a kind smile. "May I borrow your ability?"

"Borrow my ability?" Winry asked, her tone brimming with wonder.

His question had caught her off-guard, but once it had been asked she realized it was not completely unexpected. She'd known someplace in the depth of her gut that it should eventually come to this — that she would be forced to choose, clearly and concisely, between Hisoka Morow and Chrollo Lucilfer. She had balanced her life between these two men for years now, and she supposed it had always been a question of not if, but when, time would run out.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

Hisoka the Magician, or Chrollo Lucilfer.

He reached out and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear casually. If he was put off by her hesitation to answer, it didn't show.

"Yes. I can borrow abilities for a short duration of time if I so choose," he explained. "It would not be a permanent arrangement. But you would be without your Hatsu while I have it."

She mulled over the idea in her head. She hadn't forgotten all else that had happened over the last few weeks...The trust he had shown her by involving her in their plot in Yorknew City — and letting her leave with the loot. He was looking at her to take Uvogin's place in the Troupe. He had entrusted her with the secrets of his Nen ability.

"The plan after the match," Chrollo continued while she continued to chew on his request, "would be that after the match with Hisoka, we will induct you into the Troupe. After that is done, we will leave for the Dark Continent — the Troupe together."

He knew the right words.

We.

The Troupe.

Together.

But then...there was Hisoka.

Hisoka had some inexplicable hold over her, and he had held it since their first meeting when he laid his playing card against her vulnerable throat. He was a Devourer. He consumed all in his path and left only waste and refuse behind him, and still hungered for more. She was somehow still caught up in his whirlwind — she hadn't been left in the aftermath. Not yet.

Even if he would not acknowledge it as such, if this was not friendship...then what was? It was toxic. It dragged one under the water to drown. It made a nest in the throat to choke. It was violent and poisonous, and it somehow felt more authentic than even her friendship with Edward had been. Her gut was making its voice heard, and the feeling was visceral.

"Chrollo-san," she whispered at last. "I'm sorry, but I cannot."

His expression didn't change, and for a moment she feared she had been too quiet for him to hear. Then he gave the slightest inclination of his head in acknowledgement. The tightness in her chest didn't alleviate.

"I understand," he said at last. "I cannot say that your answer is unexpected, but I felt I had to ask."

"I'm honored that you think so highly of me, but I cannot give what you ask of me."

"Winry—" Chrollo reached out, touching her jaw softly. "Only realize that an infatuation with Hisoka is a love affair with the worst aspects of humanity."

"I know that, perhaps better than most," Winry said, the smallest smile teasing at the corner of her lips.

And Chrollo was so far from wrong. In fact, he had said it with devastating succinctness. Hisoka was chaos. He existed for his own amusement and lived to fulfill his own desires, and whether he cared about someone else's depended entirely on how entwined they were with his own private goals.

This was her leap of faith.

Winry and Chrollo parted ways when the airship landed, and she dwelled on it for only a moment before taking out her phone.

"Yes, mechanic?" Hisoka's singsong voice answered after the third ring.

It was her last opportunity to change her mind. She could hang up and call Chrollo, and agree to let him use her Hatsu. Or even just hang up, and let the fight unfold as it may — without her involvement at all. Winry closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath.

"How soon can you be at my home?"