A/N: This is completely unrelated to this chapter, but it SNOWED last night! This means that I have regressed by about 15 years, and literally cheered when I looked out my window this morning. SNOW!
21. Mystique
Ed has been gone for a year, and among the many questions she has (Where did he go? Why did he leave Al? What the hell kind of equivalent exchange was it? Who would want to do this to them? When did Ed's absence become routine?), one particularly sticks out in Winry's mind:
Why hadn't Lyra's plan worked?
Rose's memories are jumbled. The doctors suspected hypnosis, maybe amplified alchemically (wait, what? That's possible? I wish I could ask Ed…). What she does recall is the overarching plan- make Ed fall in love with her, to make something better, easier, to make something more something for Lyra.
This is where Winry gets confused. Rose is beautiful. Dark skin, alluring purple eyes, those lighter highlights around her face and the luscious dark hair that falls down her back, a waist and hips Winry would kill for. She has foreign mystique, which gave Ed something more to learn about, engaging his true passion for study (dork, said the pot to the kettle).
In all seriousness, Rose was perfect for him. Beautiful, mysterious, no true home to miss and therefore not a hindrance to Ed's wanderlust… (Everything that I cou- no, not going there). But it didn't work. As soon as Rose said she loved him (she swore up and down that it was hypnosis), he backed away and denied everything he could. Rose said he hadn't really danced, either; it had been more her whirling around him while he sort of swayed in shock and confusion.
Lyra played her hand perfectly, so why didn't it work?
"Winry, stop talking to yourself, you know the answer anyway."
The wrench falls out of Winry's hand and onto her foot. There's Rose, holding her baby, sitting on the bench exactly where she was five minutes before Winry got lost in her own head.
"Sorry, I'm not used to company in the workshop." She grabs the wrench off the floor, and Rose smiles; she does that a lot. Winry blows the hair out of her eyes.
"Winry, come on, you know why Lyra's plan failed." Winry marvels at Rose's persistence.
"Too blind to see the best thing that could ever happen to him?"
Rose laughs. "Well, yeah, but it wasn't me." She gets up and leaves the workroom to feed the baby. Winry has no idea what the girl is talking about. Ed should have fallen for her, unless he'd already fallen harder for some el-
Bullshit. Ed doesn't meet girls, Winry doesn't even think he sees them as girls. Hell, the only girl he's ever spent much time around, beside Rose, is her. Rose can't possibly mean-
Fuck. Like it would even matter. He still chose to leave, didn't he?
I've really got to stop letting my mind wander.