The Ties that Bind
A series of related one-shots that range from Roy finding Ed and Al in Resembool and far, far beyond. Not chronological. EdWin, AlMei, Royai Parental!RoyEdAl Parental!RizaEdAl
The D-Word: Winry
Older Brother 15, Younger Brother 14
Maes liked the morning. He liked the moments of reflection and clarity he had to himself as he sat at the table in the breakfast nook with the morning edition and a cup of strong coffee as warm sunlight poured into the large paned window. This morning was no different, though the sun hadn't yet risen higher than a blushing smudge between buildings.
Shifting his paper from the headlines to the Crime Report. Civilian law enforcement was usually outside his jurisdiction, but it was good to be up to date on the latest serial crimes just in case they bled over into military territory. The clatter of feet on the stairs made him look up and smile. He knew it wasn't Gracia, his wife detested mornings and couldn't be persuaded out of bed before 8:30 unless it was an emergency. Likewise, Elysia wouldn't be up until Gracia woke her up, so that only left one other person.
"Good morning, Winry," he said, folding the paper in half so he could see her pretty, smiling face. "You're up early."
"Oh, good morning, Mr. Hughes!" She giggled, unaccountably chipper for such an early hour, and practically danced into the kitchen still dressed in her comfortable flannel pajamas. "I hope I didn't bother you, but I couldn't bear to sleep any longer. Today's the day Ed and Al are taking me to Rush Valley!"
"You could never be a bother, Winry." He grinned watching her move around the kitchen preparing breakfast with practiced ease as she hummed the same, cheery song Gracia always did when she flittered about the kitchen. Winry looked so peaceful and at home, that Maes couldn't help but think of how much had changed since he first met her three years ago.
That had been a dark day, by anyone's standards. Maes had been neck-deep in a serial murder case that had been picked up by the MPs when the wife of a respected Central Colonel was discovered as one of the victims. He remembered the night Nina Tucker was murdered, and of course, Ed being Ed, had somehow found his way there—that boy had a knack for ending up in places he shouldn't—and of course, Roy being Roy, had managed to screw things up with the kid.
Ed had run off to brood in the rain, but both Roy and Maes had a job to do and couldn't go after him.
"I have Breda trailing him," Roy had said before Maes could ask. "He'll be fine."
"Of course, he will," Maes said, not sure if he believed it, but willing to hope for the best. Turned out Roy was right—smug bastard—and Ed was not only fine the next day—or as fine as one could expect—but more than willing to throw himself into Maes' murder investigation. Maes was hesitant at first, the boy had quit the State Alchemist program just that morning, but when he'd consulted Roy, his friend had just turned toward the window with that damnable blank look on his face, fingers laced together beneath his chin.
"Give him what he wants, Hughes. Ed's not the kind of kid who will be out for long. If he's not back in my office by morning demanding his watch back, I'd be shocked."
So, Maes gave Ed what he asked for and even walked him through the contents as they ate together (or more aptly, Maes stole from Ed's plate) in the mess hall that afternoon until Ed was pulled away to greet a visitor. Maes said his good-byes and went back to work and never expected the frantic call from Roy a few hours later demanding to know if he'd seen Ed recently, knew where he was, had any information at all because Ed and his friend Winry were missing—had been missing since Ed went out to meet his visitor at lunchtime—and with that crazy serial killer on the loose…
With Ed's life on the line, Maes had no choice but to solve the case right now. And he did.
In the aftermath, Roy shuffled Ed and Al away—taking them home, he'd said—which left poor, devastated, near-shattered Winry in Maes' care. He took the girl to his home where Gracia assisted her in taking a bath, brushing out her hair, dressing for bed. Maes made a simple, fool-proof dinner of cold sandwiches and warm soup for dinner, and Winry had picked at it with absolutely no interest.
Gracia was heartsick, Maes could see it on her face, and unable to stand it—or the equally heartsick look on Winry's face—Maes took action.
"Gracia, why don't you go check on Elysia." Maes raised a pointed eyebrow at his wife. "She's probably getting hungry, right?"
"Yes, of course." Gracia rose from the table where she'd been sitting side-by-side with Winry, an arm across the girl's blanket clad shoulders. "I must have lost track of the time."
She reached for Maes as she strode past, her fingers brushing his cheek as she gave him a look that was half-plea half-order. He took her hand, kissed her fingers, and offered a placating grin in return. Satisfied, Gracia left Maes and Winry alone.
Sitting across the table from her, Maes watched Winry swirl her spoon through her soup in slow, haphazard patterns. She said nothing, never looked up, didn't make a single sound outside of the scrape of metal on ceramic.
Maes sighed and pulled off his glasses, passing a hand over his tired eyes. "You and the Elric boys," he muttered, fondness coloring his tone almost amused. "Roy and I sure have our hands full, don't we?"
Winry's scraping spoon stilled, and Maes slipped his glasses back on to see her watching him with wary, dewy eyes. "I-I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble, Mr. Hughes. And…I never did thank you for rescuing me and Ed, did I?"
"I'm not worried about that, Winry." Maes reached across the table and set his hand atop hers still clutching the spoon. "I'm worried about you. Gracia said you were quiet during your bath, and it's fine if you just need time to think and process what happened, but if you need to talk, I promise I'll listen."
The watery sheen in Winry's eyes intensified. She fought valiantly against the tears, but they welled up anyway, shaking her tiny shoulders with suppressed sobs until they spilled from her eyes and down her face. Her breath hitched, and Winry dropped her spoon to cover her face with both hands as she did her best to muffle her terrified wails. Maes didn't hesitate to slip around the table and into the chair beside her, drawing her into a hug so she could sob against his black pajama shirt.
"I was so scared!" Winry said, clutching his shirt with both hands. "I thought, I thought I was going to die, and then Ed came, and I knew he would die, and he cried—I've never seen Ed cry—and that scared me more than anything because I thought we were dead already and…and…"
The last of her cohesiveness ran out, replaced by hacking sobs, and through it all, Maes held her tightly to his chest, stroked her hair and back, whispered that she was safe now, that he would never let anything happen to her. Eventually, drained completely dry, she fell asleep in his arms and Maes had to shift her carefully into his arms and carry her to the guest room where Gracia had already prepared her a bed.
"The poor dear," Gracia whispered as Maes took the warm washcloth she offered to carefully clean Winry's salty, splotchy face. Her breath hitched slightly, but she stayed asleep. "I can't imagine going through what she did, and at such a young age."
"Yeah," Maes said, pulling the warm duvet up to Winry's chin and brushed a strand of blonde hair away from her face. "But she's a warrior, this one. She'll bounce back and be all the stronger for it."
Even Maes was surprised by how right he was. Winry had woken up late the next morning shy and grateful, almost skittish. She sat at the table with her hands folded on her lap and her head down as Gracia made breakfast and Maes gave Elysia her first bottle of the day, but as Maes and Gracia engaged the girl in talk—asking her about her likes, her hobbies, her home in Resembool—Winry unfolded like a morning glory; turning into a brilliant, vivacious girl with a wide grin and insatiable need for knowledge. Especially about mechanics.
Winry stayed at the Hughes household for almost a week at Maes' insistence. After all, Ed and Al would be on a mission in the East for about that long and didn't she want to see them one more time before heading back to Resembool? Winry had agreed, and Maes took the week off to spend with her and his family. After closing such a brutal murder case, and with plenty of leave racked up, no one could say anything against it even if they wanted to.
Together, the four of them toured Central, and Maes delighted in spoiling Winry with anything and everything that caught her fancy. She tried to protest, and later to disguise her interest, but Maes wasn't Deputy Director of Investigations for nothing. She silently thrilled at his treatment of her, delighted in Gracia's encouraging attention, basked in Elysia's unhesitating acceptance (though the infant was barely three months old, at that point). Not even a full day after meeting the beautiful, intelligent, vivacious girl, Maes couldn't help but consider her family.
"Now, you come back and visit us any time, you hear?" Maes had said on Winry's last day in Central as he stood with her on the train platform. "And I mean it, Winry. Rain or shine, call or no call, middle of the day or middle of the night, you are always welcome in our home."
Touched, Winry had smiled at him and tentatively reached out a hand. "Thank you, Mr. Hughes. And please thank Miss Gracia for me too. I…I had a wonderful time staying with you."
Choked up, Maes grasped Winry's hand and pulled her in for a long, warm embrace. "Don't be a stranger, okay?"
Winry nodded against his chest. "I won't."
After she left, Maes threw himself into figuring out everything there was to know about her. He already knew Winry came from Ed and Al's hometown—Resembool in the southeast—but that was nowhere near enough to satisfy him. He'd already known that Winry was an orphan—Ed had said as much when talking about Winry early on in their acquaintance—but a little digging revealed how she was orphaned, and how early.
"Her parents left for Ishval when she was three?" Maes sat back in his chair at work and pushed up his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. They had never come back, either. According to the report filed by Major Kimblee—psychopath that he was—her parents were murdered by an Ishvalan dissident only a few months before the war ended and everyone was sent home. In all those years they spent on the front lines, Winry had never once seen them and, according to Winry's grandmother Pinako—who of course Maes had called the very night Winry first landed in his custody—if any letters had been sent home, they were lost in transit.
She's practically been an orphan for the last nine years…
Same as Ed and Al, now that he thought about it.
From that moment forward, Maes had decided to give Winry as strong a sense of family normalcy as he could manage at a distance, and Gracia had wholeheartedly agreed. They called her once a week to talk, sent presents for her birthday and Wintertide, Summer's Eve, the Harvest Festival and any other holiday Maes could makeup. He insisted Winry come to Central when if she ever needed rare parts for her automail shop and he, Gracia, and Elysia visited Resembool every year for their annual Sheep Festival in spring. It was a long trip, but the absolute delight on Winry's face when they appeared that first time had been more than worth it.
"You okay, Mr. Hughes?" Winry asked as she set a plate on the table in front of him. The steaming omelet smelled amazing, even if it wasn't quite as professional looking as the ones Gracia made. Still, it was more than enough to make him tear up, and of course, Maes had to disguise just how affected he was but gushing over it.
"Oh, wow, Winry! This looks amazing! As expected, of course. You did learn from my wife, after all!"
Winry giggled as Maes dug in and wow was it good! Grinning delightedly, Maes chomped away on his breakfast while Winry busied herself making more food for the rest of the family. He listened with rapt attention as she talked about how excited she was to finally visit Rush Valley, about everything she intended to do while she was there, all the skills and techniques she hoped to learn and perfect.
"That sounds splendid, Winry," Maes said once they'd finished eating. He stood to wash the dishes and insisted Winry stay seated when she tried to help. She'd done the cooking, after all; it was only fair that he did the cleaning. "Just make sure you check in every now and then, all right? And if any boy so much as looks in your direction…" He trailed off with a growl, wringing the dishtowel in his hands like the neck of whatever pervert kid would surely fall for his beautiful little girl.
"Relax, Daddy," Winry said around a bite of omelet. "Boys are the last thing on my mind, right now. I—"
She froze, her hand almost touching the glass of orange juice she'd been reaching for. Maes did his best to remember how to breathe and told himself it didn't matter what she said, if she took it back, if she didn't mean it, if she promised to never say it again…
After a long, tense silence, Winry peeked at him from the corner of her eyes, and Maes did his best to act normal as he tossed her an encouraging grin.
"And you?"
Winry's lips turned up in a shy smile as her hand closed around her glass of juice and pulled it closer. "I'm much more excited about the engineers I'll meet down there. Can you even imagine how much they must know about automail? Ahhh, I can't wait!"
The rest of the morning was more of the same with Gracia stumbling in at exactly 8:30 to drop a kiss on Winry's head with a bleary good morning before offering Maes the same, except his kiss was, naturally, on the mouth. Elysia was more awake than her mother and gleefully scrambled onto her Sissy's lap to eat the omelet Winry had made for her. Much of Winry's earlier excited rambling was repeated, but Maes didn't mind hearing it again in the least.
Once everyone had eaten and dressed for the day, Maes knew he'd put off work for as long as he could.
"I'll see you tonight, hon," Maes said as they bid farewell at the door. "And Winry, you better be safe, understand?"
"Of course!" Winry grinned. "I'll make sure to call as soon as the boys and I arrive."
"Sounds good." Kneeling down to Elysia's level, Maes made exaggerated kissing sounds. "Time for bye-bye! Daddy's gotta go to work, now!"
"Daddy," Elysia said, her hands clasped adorably. "Come early, today, okay?"
"Hm, well, I can try," he said, same as almost every day. "But Daddy has a bunch of important work that needs to be done." Reaching out, he massaged his daughter's cheeks with both hands. "But I promise I'll do it as fast as possible!"
Elysia giggled at his attention, her hands to her cheeks the second he let go. Smiling at her, Maes stood as Gracia reminded him it was time to head out and turned to Winry.
"Let us know if you need anything while you're down south, okay? And tell the boys I said good-bye."
"I will, and…" She glanced at Gracia and Elysia for a brief moment, her cheeks turning a darker and darker pink before looking back at Maes. "H-have a good day at work, Dad."
Surprise crossed Gracia's face before it resolved into a gentle, knowing smile. Unable to help himself, Hughes pulled Winry into his arms for a suffocating hug.
"You take care of yourself, baby girl. Okay?"
Winry nodded against his chest. "Okay."
Maes held himself together admirably as he made his way downstairs, but the moment he was alone in his car, he broke.
"She called me Daddy!" Maes squealed and pounded the steering wheel before a sudden thought occurred and he shot upright. "I have to tell Roy about this right away!"
His resolve set, Maes drove to work with giddy thoughts of annoying his best friend with tales of his darling girls. All three of them.
Kaliea: So here we have one of the first major deviations from Brotherhood cannon by mixing in both the original anime and my personal headcannon. Hopefully, it's not too much of a stretch because if the original anime had continued along the Brotherhood timeline, I honestly can't imagine that Winry wouldn't have been strongarmed into the Hughes family - willingly, of course. Plus, I'm a huge sucker for daddy/daughter fluff :D
Thanks for reading!