Well, most of the time.
"Winry- for God's sake, girl, settle down!"
"I left the extra screws somewhere, I think in one of the drawers upstairs, but I can't find them- he's gonna need the extra, he's back for repairs every three weeks-"
Pinako just glared, and Winry sat down meekly. "Relax. I know you get excited to show off, but if you run around like that, you'd give the poor man a heart attack. He needs that automail for farming, not fine motor work. The screws down here are fine for extras."
"Yes ma'am," she said agreeably, taking a bite of her toast. "You know best."
"Of course I do."
Winry stared at the door, willing for a knock to sound off the boards. It had been a while since they'd had any real work, so it was only natural for her to be a little anxious, a little excited. She had put her heart and soul into this new leg for the farmer down the road, and she couldn't wait to see his old, weathered face light up when he saw his new appendage. He was always so happy about their work.
"You know, I'm almost out of the eighteen-inch sockets," Pinako observed, rifling through the spares drawer.
"Yeah?" Winry perked up. "I could, um, go get some, you know. Pick up some other stuff..."
"In Central City, right?" She tried to look disapproving, but the glower ended up somewhere between a smirk and a snicker. "I'm sure you could take some time out of your busy schedule to go down on the train..."
"Sure I could!" Winry finished off the rest of her toast. "After he comes by, I can go down and check the train schedule."
"All right, you do that."
Winry leaned back in her chair, beaming at nothing in particular. Going down to Central meant she could see Ed and Al, and maybe even visit some other people. Not to mention the second-greatest shopping in the area. It was a pretty exciting prospect for a regular girl from Resembool.
A thump on the door startled her out of her reverie, and sent her straight into fluttering excitement again. "I'll get it!" Winry chirped, pushing back from the table and darting over. She pulled the handle, pasting on her most welcoming smile. "Hi! We've been waiting for you!"
The answer was a rattling sigh. The farmer stood slumped against the doorframe, chin on his chest.
"...Are you all right?" Winry leaned forward, concerned. Had he just fallen asleep? He was old, after all...
He sighed again, then lifted his head. Sunken eyes stared somewhere beyond her, and then he was lurching forward, a howl ripping from his throat-
She wasn't sure if she screamed. It was all really a mix of motion and adrenaline, a vortex of sound that ended with her flat on her ass on the floor, wrench in hand, and would-be-customer at her feet.
"God," she said numbly, staring at the crimson smear on her glove.
"Move," Pinako said curtly, and she obeyed, nearly tripping over the pipe the woman had dropped on the floor. Winry stabilized herself against the table with her free hand, unable to tear her eyes away from the farmer's crumpled form.
She didn't know quite what Pinako was looking for, but the 'hmph' sounded like she had some idea. "What… what's wrong with him?" Winry ventured, not loosing her grip on the wrench.
"Don't know," the old woman returned sharply. "But he's out for now."
"Just unconscious…" She heaved a sigh of relief.
Pinako remained a few safe feet from the man, staring thoughtfully. "Let's put him outside," she decided suddenly. "In the cow pen down the road."
"In the- what!" Winry gaped. "Why? Shouldn't we take him to the doctor or something?"
"No. Do as I say."
And, when it came right down to it, there was nothing else she could do. No amount of protesting would change her mind, and Winry was the only one of the two with the required upper body strength. So that left her to drag the old man down the steps, wrench within reach, hoping desperately no neighbors would wander by and accuse them of something terrible.
He was curiously light, more than a dead weight should be. He was breathing, which was obviously a good sign, but it was rough and shallow, like someone who was conserving all the energy they had.
Winry eased him over the fence as gently as possible, absurdly relieved that whoever owned this stretch of land had stopped using it for livestock some time ago. Not that a herd of cows would really do much damage to someone if not provoked, but it made her feel better to know he was alone. After arranging him on the softest pile of grass she could find, dealing with more than a little guilt, she boosted herself back over the fence and paused to catch her breath.
The sun was just rising, and Resembool was quiet. People were either sleeping or doing some quiet work around their own property, so the utter silence wasn't strange in the slightest.
She'd regained some sense of normality by the time she made it back to the house. He'd probably just had a little too much to drink the night before, or something like that. That wasn't too out of the ordinary for someone who worked all the time. No, there was a perfectly reasonable explanation. She just hadn't been sleeping a lot lately, with all the automail work.
It was only when Winry opened the door and saw Pinako placing the last of her bags by the door that the sinking feeling of simple wrongness returned.
"Go to Central like we said," Pinako said quietly, puffing at her pipe. "We need those parts."
"But… what if…" What if what, exactly, wasn't on the tip of her tongue.
"What if? Girl, you know I can handle things around here. Get going," she said irritably. "Talk to Ed and Al while you're up there. Make sure they're getting along."
Winry nodded silently and took her bags. It all made sense, on some level. She was planning to go down to the station after the farmer had come for her leg anyway. No reason to change the plans because he'd taken ill.
So she started the long trek to the rail station, conscious of eyes on her back until she turned the corner. The farmer moaned in the field to her right, but she didn't stop to take notice. Once she got far enough away, Pinako would stop watching.
Winry had no way to know that the old woman's thoughts weren't on the long journey she was about to undertake, but rather the makeshift grave she'd dug with her own two hands what seemed forever ago, and the terrible eyes she had hidden within it.