v. I don't shine if you don't shine
Rating: K
Genre: HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY also sap
Notes: Manga series end spoilers. Not even going to mention how late (and depressingly short) this is. Nope. Nevermind that I just did. Anyway, this is the last one! Still needs a lot of work but I'm sick of it sitting on my hard drive so I post regardless. As always, concrit makes me love you, in a completely writer-reader appropriate way.

For those of you who celebrate Easter, hope you had a good one! For those of you who don't celebrate, hope your ordinary April day was a good one! Thanks for reading :)

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And when they return home to her they return home on the heels of spring, returning with the light and new life and the green in the hills of Resembool. They return to her in birdsong, in sunshine and warmth and blue skies after rain. Everything slowly comes back to life, in a great circle, an unending flow, Ed tells her, of life from death, light from dark, hope from pain. Light always returns in the spring, no matter how long and hard the winter; he tells her, "I will always come home to you." (And that's what he's always done.) There are flowers growing from the wreckage of the Elric family home and Winry feels she understands.

For all that the years have changed, there are constants: spring always returns, and so does Ed. With each return he's a little older, a little wiser, a little more mature (but not by much.) Somewhere along the line they walk together he grew tall (and she will never live it down;) his shoulders are broad and strong and on them he carries their future. She's not afraid, anymore, of the sight of his back vanishing into the unknown distance between Resembool and the horizon, because Edward Elric is as unstoppable as any force of nature, as certain as the sun rising in the morning. Somewhere between October and war, Edward Elric grew up.

She tells him, "I will always give you a home to come back to." (And that's what she's always done.)

April is miles, years away from the little boy bleeding to death on her living room floor, but that boy never died, never left her: he is here by her side exchanging vows they have known all along, finally happy, finally smiling, grown and strong and proud, and she holds that there is nothing that can't be fixed by enough patience, love, and proper upkeep.

And as long as the sun still rises in the morning they rise with it, together.

-end

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Lyric credits:

i. blazing like rebel diamonds cut out of the sun – Read My Mind by The Killers
ii. but the seasons will still go round and round (季節はそれでも巡り巡ってく) -LET IT OUT by Fukuhara Miho (福原美穂)
iii. wear my soul and call me a liar – I Dare You by Shinedown
iv. in a castle dark – If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot
v. I don't shine if you don't shine – Read My Mind by The Killers

I own nothing but the CDs. No capital moneys were made from this fan endeavor :B

Also, from the first chapter: "much too young to be dying this way" is a line in the poem "August from My Desk" by Roland Flint. I'd forgotten I'd heard it before when I used it. Is this big enough that I should credit? Dunno, but crediting anyway. Not mine!