When They don't Come Home

Disclaimer: Characters and setting are the property of Hiromu Arakawa. I'm just borrowing them for a bit of non-profit angst.


Winry kept her mind focused on the details, on the nuts and bolts. Steel was cold, hard and unchanging. Rebuilding Ed's automail limbs was a familiar, comfortable challenge.

She carefully polished the components of each joint so that they would function smoothly. She tested the wires to make sure they wouldn't short or snag when the limb moved. She snugged down the bolts so they wouldn't come loose later.

She didn't think about Ed being carried into the house by the distant blue-uniformed officer who'd tempted him into becoming a dog of the military in the first place. She didn't think about a truly empty suit of armor that was arriving with the rest of Mustang's unit on the train the day after tomorrow. She didn't think about attending yet another funeral for someone who'd meant the world to her.

When Winry completed the last adjustment she'd never been more unhappy to finish a project. Now that the automail was finished she had every reason to go back into the spare bedroom where Ed lay looking more like a broken doll than a living person.

Winry thoroughly cleaned her tools and put everything in her workroom back in its proper place. She considered delaying further but decided against it. Ed's Colonel might come looking for her if she kept putting it off.

Whenever she was near the man an undefined feeling of impending doom seemed to fill the air between them. A choked sob forced it's way out of Winry's throat. There was nothing undefined about the doom Roy Mustang carried with him, he'd taken Ed and Al away from home and now Al wasgone foreverand Ed wanted to be dead.

Winry collected Ed's arm and leg and started determinedly down the hall. The sound of Roy's voice stopped her with her hand on the doorknob.

"Fullmetal, listen to me. You are going to eat," the Colonel said coldly. "I didn't bring an IV with me but you will not be permitted to starve. You will either swallow that or I will shove a tube down your throat and simply pour the food into you. Do you understand me?"

When no explosion of temper followed Winry slumped back against the opposite wall. She slid down to the floor, buried her face against her knees and sobbed.