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Chapter Thirty-Six
Winry breathed in the fresh air as she, Havoc, and Alphonse stepped off the train into her hometown of Rizenbul. The day was exceptionally pretty; the sun was shining high in the sky, and there weren't too many clouds around. She turned around as she heard her First Lieutenant laugh slightly to himself.
"I don't know…maybe it's just me," he said, still chuckling, "but every time I come here it seems to be more and more land than anything else…Do the buildings disappear or something?" He ducked out of the way narrowly as Winry threw a playful slap in his direction, "Well, all I'm saying is that I'm used to cities…you know…those things that have lots of buildings and all…" he joked as he pointed to the empty land in front of him.
"Come on," she joked as she grabbed the soldier by the collar and began to drag him down the stairs to the roadway. He came close to losing his balance when she tugged on him, but quickly regained it and took the bag from her hands. Winry turned her head around to stare at him questioningly, and waited for him to answer as he lit a cigarette.
"The last time I came here and your grandmother saw you carrying your own bags…man…I thought you could be pretty scary at times," he said, slightly shivering for emphasis. His comment caused the woman to let out a loud giggle, and he smiled at her reaction. He knew she had been thinking of Edward the past few days since the anniversary just passed, so he did everything he could to take her mind off of the painful memories. He always tried to comfort her as best he could when she was upset; and he still, to this day, received flak from his other military friends who said he had a crush on the woman. He might have when he first met her, hell he still does that when pretty girls come around him, but things never went beyond a friendship with her. He realized that during their trip when Fury and he had to escort her to Rizenbul to repair her arm. On the train ride there he tried talking to her, but received little response. He had wanted to know more about the fellow soldier they escorted, but she wouldn't open up to him at all. Then, on the same night she had her automail changed, he found her sitting outside by herself. He quietly joined her while he smoked a cigarette, and for a while nothing was said. Then finally she began talking to him. They talked for hours and he then found out about the relationship between her and Edward. He felt sorry for her at first, and hoped he could help her somehow. He knew then that there would never be a chance between him and her, and surprisingly it didn't bother him. They have remained close friends ever since.
"Would you two hurry up?" came the distant voice of Al. The Colonel and her soldier looked around and saw the young man standing further up the road, just then realizing his two fellow travelers were goofing off. "I swear you'd think I was the oldest one in the group or something," he smiled as the two came walking up.
The trio began what would be an hour-long walk to reach Winry's childhood home. The three joked as they talked about the military. In between picking fun at certain fellow officers and each other, Al would describe his efforts to keep the forest growing around Ishbal, and also their ideas currently on keeping Aquroya afloat.
The time passed quickly as they joked around, and soon the top of the Rockbell house could be seen over some of the small surrounding hills. In the distance, Winry could hear the sounds of a child happily playing with a dog. As they came to the top of a hill her suspicions were confirmed as she saw Shay, the orphan Rose took care of, rolling around in the grass with their dog, Riley. The stray chocolate lab joined their family about five years ago, and kept Den company up until his last days, which sadly were about two years ago.
As they began to come closer to the house, Winry could see Rose sitting in one of the chairs on the porch, propped back while reading a book. She was happy Rose decided to stay around and live in the house. Even when she was a state alchemist, Winry constantly worried about her grandmother living by herself in that big house. And now that she's gotten even older it was imperative to have someone there in case an emergency happened. Shay kept the old woman on her toes, though her age never stopped her from disciplining the child.
Riley lolled his head over happily as the ten year-old child continued to rub his belly, but quickly jumped up and ran away from the house towards the people he saw coming down the road. Winry laughed as the dog bounced happily as the new people were coming to visit, and she knelt down to rub his brown head.
"Winry!" she looked up as she heard her name being yelled from the house. Shay ran as fast as his legs would permit and finally stopped within a few feet from the group, "Winry, you're back! Oh, um… I mean," he tried to say professionally as he saluted, "Welcome back, Colonel!" The woman tried not to laugh at the child's display, but found it extremely difficult not to giggle. She quickly saluted back at the child, "At ease, soldier!" The child jumped into her arms, and his size nearly toppled her over. She couldn't believe he had grown so much!
"Shay…what have I told you about tackling our guests?" she heard the distant voice of Rose call over to them. The child whirled around and looked guilty at his behavior and quickly apologized, then grabbed Winry's hand and began to drag her back towards the house.
Havoc leaned over and whispered in Alphonse's ear, causing the young man to laugh, "You'd think he missed her or something, huh?"
Winry sat on the front porch with the other adults after dinner to have a cup of tea and enjoy the evening stars, "It's so good to be back home…There's just only so much I can put up with when I'm in the city." She heard the disagreeing snort coming from Havoc to her side, and playfully hit him on the arm.
"Yeah, I kind of have to agree with you, Winry…When I was in Lior, I can't remember nights that were as pretty as this," Rose said dreamily as she stared off into the distance, though she amazingly kept an eye on her child who played in the grass with Riley. Winry could see the other young woman balance both sights at once and chuckled slightly, "How do you do it, Rose? Shay is such a hyper child. I think I would go crazy having to watch him all day and night…"
"How do you think I managed with the three of you when you were children, piped in Pinako, "Edward and Alphonse were mischievous enough by themselves, but throwing you into the picture multiplied things substantially--"
"I was not!" exclaimed the blond-haired woman, "I wasn't really that bad…was I?" she said as she heard the older woman chuckle slightly. She knew her grandmother liked to pick on her still, claiming that even though she had grown into a responsible (well, at least semi-responsible) woman, she would always be her child.
"Well," Pinako sighed as the silence surrounding her began to lull her to sleep. She looked to Winry as she began to slowly stand up from her chair, "Let's go get you measured so I can get started early tomorrow." Winry nodded, then stood to help her grandmother if needed, and they walked into the house and upstairs to the workshop. Winry sat on a nearby chair while the old woman went through one of her toolboxes to retrieve her tape measure.
"Are you sure you want to keep this design?" Asked Pinako as she carefully measured the girl for her replacement limbs, "There has been so much improvement in automail design these past years that it would do you good to keep up with the latest technology, especially if you have to use it a lot in the military…"
Winry looked down towards her grandmother and shook her head, "No, Grams…I've said this many times before. I like this design and I'd like to stick with it." She could see a slight sadness come over the old woman's face, and for a moment thought she may have offended her.
"You want to keep it because it's what Edward wore…isn't it…" came the quiet statement as the woman kept measuring different parts of her current metal arm and leg, then comparing them to measurements of her fleshy limbs. Sadness flashed through Winry's eyes, but was quickly suppressed; she had been better about keeping her emotions in check, "Yeah, Grams…That's the reason…Is it going to be a problem for you? I mean, I know it's an old design and all, but I thought you'd be able to handle it," she said slowly with a smile. She loved to poke fun at her grandmother still when it came to automail. The elder woman had lost some of her vision and moved much more slowly than what Winry remembered, but that never stopped her from piecing together automail.
The statement hit home as Pinako slid her glasses further up her nose and scowled slightly at the younger woman, "No respect for the elderly, I tell you…kids these days…" she muttered, though slightly smiling at her granddaughter's statement. She turned her head sharply when she heard some snickering from the side, and saw Alphonse laughing at the interaction between the two women as he passed by the door on the way to his room. "Don't encourage her, Alphonse!"
Winry lay on the couch a few days later after having her automail limbs replaced. As usual, pain continued to spark throughout her body, but over the years she had become almost numb to the pain. It hurt for the first few hours, but it would eventually fade into a dull, aching feeling. She opened her eyes later after a small nap, to see a child sitting close to her, watching to see if she moved.
"See anything that interests you, Shay?" she weakly laughed. The child was always fascinated when she got her automail changed out; he had a great potential on becoming a mechanic himself as he had helped Pinako as much as he could. The darker-skinned boy blushed as he realized she was looking at him and began to scoot away, but stopped as Winry called out his name.
"Come back here, you," she said playfully as she slowly sat up on the couch. It never took her more than a few hours to get up and moving around after changing out her limbs. Her philosophy was that the sooner you started using them, the sooner the pain would go away, which held true for the past thirteen years. The child meekly crawled back over to the couch she sat on and stared at her automail in awe as she stretched her sore limbs.
Smiling slightly at his antics, she pointed over to a screwdriver on the table and asked him to retrieve it for her. Confused, the child did as he was told, and sat down next to the woman on the couch. "Do you want to see what makes this automail work?" The child looked up, somewhat concerned, but couldn't hide the anticipation behind his eyes.
"Won't it hurt, Winry? I don't want you to do it if it hurts…" he said quietly, though keeping his gaze on the bright metal.
Winry smiled again as she shook her head, "Nah, don't worry, I'm just a little sore. This is nothing compared to some of the stuff I've been through. Here," she said, handing the screwdriver to the child, "Take this, and unscrew these screws here on my arm. Don't worry, I'll be fine…"
And with that she carefully showed the child about the mechanics of her automail. He admitted to her that he had tried to read some of the books she had left behind when she moved to Central, and kind of understood them. He nodded as she pointed out the different positions of the wires that sent the nerve impulses to the body, allowing it to feel some things. Also, the mechanics that moved the joints were very important as well. After Shay's small lesson, Winry had him replace the cover on her arm and gave the child a small hug, and promised him that she would talk to her grandmother to teach him more about being an automail mechanic. She could use the help since Winry moved out, and she believed it would be a valuable experience for the child to learn.