Ed wandered into the living room, yawning. He jumped when he saw Winry sitting at her work table, arms crossed.
"What are you still doing up?" he raised his eyebrows.
"All packed?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
Winry scowled at him. "No, you're not. " She threw a bottle of polish at him and he caught it in surprise. "You need this for maintenance. Were you seriously going to leave it behind? Are you planning to take care of my automail at all?"
Ed rolled his eyes. "It was an oversight, okay."
"Sure."
They glared at each other for a minute. It was Ed who broke the gaze first, looking down at his feet grumpily.
"So when are you two leaving tomorrow?" Winry asked.
"Early."
"How early?"
"I'm getting up around four. You don't have to get up, you know. I don't like goodbyes."
"Goodbyes are part of leaving a place. If you can't handle a goodbye, you aren't ready to go off on your own."
Ed snorted. "Who are you to decide when I can go off on my own? Acting like you're my…" he trailed off.
Another awkward silence.
Winry bit her lip. Now or never. "Should I come with you?"
Ed stared at her. "What?"
"I'm worried you won't take care of your automail if I'm not there to maintenance it!" Winry snapped
Ed laughed. "You're obsessed. Machine freak." He turned away from her and began to walk back to his room.
"Ed."
He stopped, stiffening at the tone of her voice. She stood up, bracing her hands on her worktable, staring directly at his back.
"I'm serious. I-"
I'm afraid the second your backs vanish from my sight, you'll never come back.
She couldn't say it.
"I'm afraid you and Al will do something crazy! You do crazy things when I'm not around!" Things that tear you apart and next thing I know you're on my doorstep covered in blood and I can't recognize either of you anymore- "You'll probably piss off the Fuhrer or something, and next thing you know you'll have gotten arrested and they'll be dragging me and Granny to jail to bail you out!"
"Ha, you two are too cheap to be relied on for that!"
Stop trying to laugh this off.
"Someone has to clean up after you."
"This is our business, don't butt in! I don't need a babysitter!" Ed spun around.
"I think you obviously do!" Winry spat.
Her eyes were burning a little. Tears of anger, obviously, it had to be. She closed her eyes to hold them back She couldn't cry in front of him right now, he'd just make fun of her like always.
"Winry…"
His voice sounded different, softer.
"You really don't want to throw your life away for us. We're going to be traveling all the time. You wouldn't be able to really work on automail. There's no mechanics in the central areas. Are you really going to leave behind the clients you have here?"
"They're not really my clients. Granny made their automail, not me. You're…you're my first…" Winry couldn't open her eyes, she felt like all the tears would spill out.
"Yeah, and Granny needs you. You're really going to leave her alone?"
Winry's felt like she'd swallowed a rock, the lump in her throat was so painful. She sat down hard in her chair, eyes still closed. Like Ed could talk about leaving people alone. But it hurt to imagine Granny in this empty house. And…Granny could die too, if Winry took her eyes off her.
"This isn't your burden to bear, anyway," Ed sighed.
Like hell it's not.
"Do whatever you want, then," Winry muttered, slowly opening her eyes. She looked directly at him, her gaze stony.
Once again, he was broke eye contact. He turned, leaving her to stare at his back. "Look, if I have any problems with the automail, I'll come and see you about it."
"You'll have to."
"His shoulders slumped a little. "Well, I'm going to bed. Good night."
"Night," she sighed. "Look… The automail…Don't wait until it's completely broken. Call ahead if anything's weird with it."
"Sure. I'll do that." He shuffled off.
"Liar," she said when he was out of earshot.
The word seemed to echo around the room. The house felt emptier already. She sighed, picked up a screwdriver and set to work.
He's right, anyway. Who wants to go somewhere where there's no mechanics.