Title: Ordered Lives (Formerly entitled "He Came Back")
Author: meroe
Pairings: EdWin
Summary: At 25, Ed and Al made a heroic attempt to come back. It was just not the perfect homecoming they imagined.
Disclaimer: If I own it, Winry's not gonna be sad.
A/N: I redid the prologue and this chapter. I hope it made it better. It's just minor changes, grammar and stuff. Oh, and in reading this fic, please make two assumptions. One, poor Winry finally learned how to move on. And two,though I knew it's highly unlikely (what with that closing gates and stuff), Ed and Al willed to return back and found a way to do so.
That said, please enjoy!
Ordered Lives
Reunion
The countryside was just, so countryside with its parching heat. He never thought too much of this heat, but it occasionally plagued Resembool. It was the time of the year when they would run to the river and have swimming races. Of course, Winry was a perennial loser. After lunch, they would pick the favorite tree. He'd fall asleep reading his alchemy, Al would lay drifting to wonderland, and she, well she would just pat Den and pretend to sleep.
That was a good many years ago. Seventeen. Four was gone with their broken journey as a State Alchemist. Another two in Munich alone. Five in Munich with Al, and with so many alter personalities of people he knew back in Amestris.
His body went rigid. How many years had it been? Five? No. Seven. Seven years since he made his 'heroic' decision to remain in the Other World. Seven years since she last fitted his automail, which took two loving years of hope and calculation to be of exact size. It wasn't of much help. In Germany, he and Al devised a method of extending the metal by adding a few scraps at the joint. He made a mess out of it in the first night, and decided to leave it alone. But the much dreamed-of centimeters came and he could no longer ignore the gap of his height. It's inconvenient forever shuffling to his right leg when he wants to be taller and to the left when he's already tired.
So Al and Ed studied his limb's technology diligently. After a few months, they made a decent job out of it. Well, almost decent. It squeaked every so often, at inopportune moments when he was with a date, and every night when he had finished his alterations to it, he would sigh heavily and his brother would just stare.
It was then that the thought sank heavily. Edward, whether romantically or for practical reasons, cannot live normally without his mechanic, but they decided to put a distance between their worlds no amount of her devotion could cross.
Then, one winter night, it happened.
----
Ed slumped on a bench in the university square, watching lazily as couples drifted by. He wished he had that same kind of luck Alphonse had, he seemed to find love wherever he looked for it. And he does wish metals grow too. "I wish I don't grow that much," he absentmindedly rubbed his leg. "NOOOO! ITSNOTGOODATALLIHAVETOGROWUPBUTWHYTHEHELLDOESTHISPIECEOF—
"What the—," a passerby said shocked. People are capable of fast speech only when they feel an overriding emotion, and the milk-hater had just exhibited an overly nurtured frustration about his height.
He snorted and turned his head to the other direction. He looked again at his arm. "This arm, I wish Winry made something adjustable for me, seeing that it would take long before I come for repairs," he abruptly stopped. Murmuring nonsense was just not so manly, and he was a masochist at that. He knew Winry had, but he stopped again. It was painful thinking about anything that has to do with that world. The feeling of loss became worse with time, seeing many alter-personas of people he once knew. Eventually he came to associate home with pain, so he avoided thoughts of it at all costs.
"Amazing," she heard her voice in the distance. He was not quite sure what impressed her, his natural charisma or his metal arm that he had unwittingly exposed. And when he looked at her, the memory of that night was dazed.
--
Alphonse became her friend. She was quite nice and he saw her many times in the university. Ironically, she was more into science than mechanics. But she often came to the brothers' workshop, because people you want to avoid just keep on showing when you don't want them to. For the older Elric though, he wants nothing to do with it, in the start at least. Winry Fulbright was only impressed by his arm; Winry Rockbell loved it.
But because she saw it, she qualified for a trusted position to keep Edward's metal arm secret.
When Ed accepted that he can no longer see Winry Rockbell, not even in the character of Winry Fulbright, he came at terms with his feelings. No, he accepted it long ago during his automail self-repair nights. He started thinking about her ever since he was sixteen and trapped alone in a world he wants nothing to do with. After Alphonse followed him, there was another journey. Still, he keeps holding on to that mutual agreement of her always waiting, just waiting for their return. Even though he knew, deep down, they would never be.
Coming back, that is.
Meanwhile, Al did not understand what's bothering his brother when he knew how much Ed missed having Winry around. Ms. Fulbright was the next best thing. Was it the fact that Winry had a boyfriend? It was. When Edward saw them kissing, no matter how much Al reminded him it was not their Winry, and even if she was he should not be jealous of his best friend finding love, Ed was rabid as if robbed of a property that was rightfully his.
And then the genius of Alphonse pieced together a puzzle that took him three years to understand. His brother was purposely failing relationships, because none matched up to the Winry he wants. And also, Ed was possessive. The thought of his Winry looking at other men, in the arms of another man, kissing him, making love with him and bearing his children had put murderous thoughts in Edward's head.
To put it simply, they came back. After three more years of trying hard.
----
Which puts us at Resembool seven years after the Elrics disappeared. Edward made his steady ascent to the hill. He left Al at central to deal with possible inquiries about their reappearance. He have to buy his brother some time. Edward will head home earlier; he has important things to attend to.
Edward knew he was pushing his luck by telling her now. He was not even sure if Winry had waited. She would be twenty-five and might have been married with a child. But he came home for it. This was their final try.
He stood around one hundred feet from their yard. An elderly Den did not even greet him. He smiled and patted the head of the geriatric dog, which earned him a lick of recognition. "Missed me, didn't you?" Ed played with his paw. The dog moved its head sideways and managed to wag its tail.
He looked around the house. Any foreboding thoughts were dispersed by overflowing emotions of yearning for that large yellow house on top of a hill. So how should he go about this? Relax. Sure the wind was dry and the house quieter. Auntie Pinako, he is guessing she had already died. He heard the sound of a welding machine and decided Winry must be at the backyard. He walked around in his usual fashion, when he saw an unfamiliar boy running around with a kite.
"Oh mister," the boy said rather surprised.
"What?" Rosé heard her boy stop laughing and looked from her laundry pile. What? She squinted her eyes, it must be playing tricks. The image did not go away and she went into an absurd shade of red and put down her basket.
"Ed," she muttered first as if the man standing there was an illusion. When Edward smiled, she covered her mouth. "Edward you came back!" And Rosé ran to him. He laughed coolly and hugged her back.
"Who came back?" a young girl, of maybe two or three, curiously asked. The noise was new to her, hearing Aunt Rosé scream so loud. Edward looked at her and saw her unmistakably yellow hair, when a sudden feeling flooded his senses.
"Oh," Rosé said, recovering from her excitement. She looked at the child Edward was looking at. She smiled.
"Trisha," she motioned for the girl. "Come and greet Mr. Edward Elric. He is an old friend of your mom. Tell her he came back."
"OK!" the child beamed happily and ran inside. That was when they noticed the welding machine had already stopped.
Edward stood frozen in his spot. He knew he was pushing his luck, but then he didn't actually count on not being lucky.
A/N: WOot. Did you like it?If you still wanna know what happens next, kindly REVIEW...
BTW, this chapter is not edited and all, but it's still dedicated to:
LonelyLord,
Loki-The-Chocobo,
Yami and Ryoko, and
Shiro-chan
for reviewing the story! Thanks so much! And since I'm grateful for the review, here's another one!
Edit: I know the girl was named Melissa in my first post, but that was a mistake. In all other chapters, she was named Trisha. I thought about it before I figured out most authors also named the daughter Trisha. Only, mine's not Ed's.