Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Remember Me
Winry found herself in the dining room of the Rockbell house. It was a sunny summer morning. The gold sun rays made the inside of the house light up bright gold. A sunny day would usually be enough to brighten Winry's mood. Sadly, there has been something missing for over a year now, or someone.
The Rockbell house has not been the same since Edward vanished. No one challenged Pinako and made her yell at the top of her lungs. No one would get into shouting matches with Winry that would end with a broken door or a wrench being used as a weapon. There has only been an eerily quiet and Winry could hear the floorboards creak.
Winry stumbled to the kitchen aimlessly. The kitchen could give her a few moments of chores to keep her from wondering about Edward's whereabouts. She felt a little relief when she saw a sink full of dishes.
"Hey Winry,"
The engineer snapped her head to her greeter, stunned. She slowly inhaled until she couldn't hold. Her shaky hands covered her mouth; her eyes grew wide as she saw the person who called her.
It was Edward; sitting by the kitchen table with an innocent look on his face, like nothing was wrong. His expression changed when he saw Winry's reaction. "What is it, Winry?"
Winry rushed over to the kitchen table. She banged her hands on the oak wood making Edward jump. "Where were you?!"
Edward leaned back in his chair shocked by the sudden outburst. "I've been here. What do you mean?"
Winry shook her head. "No! You disappeared for over a year! And Al joined the military to find you! And… And…" Her breathing became shaky and tears welded up in her eyes.
Edward stood from his chair with his hands out. "No, Winry. Al and I have been right here since Al got his body back." His voice was soft to help her calm down. "Neither of us is in the military and both of us got new jobs in town, remember? That must have been a bad dream."
Bad dream? Just a bad dream? Could she have dreamt a year of fear and worry? Winry took long breaths to slow down her racing heart. She wiped the tears away and smiled as she examined Edward. He grew taller, clearly more mature, and he was wearing more grown up clothes then his favorite red coat. "Right, a bad dream,"
Winry repeated the words in her head so she would believe them. Maybe it wasn't real. Edward was standing right in front of her, happy and alive. He weakly smiled at her, but he still looked guilty. A slight smell of apples and cinnamon was in the kitchen, but there was no sign of a pie anywhere. Winry noticed the pie pan on top of the small mountain of dishes. "Ed, where's the pie?"
Edward froze in fear, "You didn't make a pie recently."
A weak lie, Winry remembered that she made one last night. She pulled her wrench from the band of her pants and held it up for Edward to see. "Where's the pie, Edward?"
Edward took a step back. "Why do you look so happy to threaten me?"
Because I missed you, idiot. Winry couldn't help smiling. This is one of her favorite things to do with him. Everything will be okay from now on, right?
A loud thump from the other room woke Winry from her sunny dream. She immediately realized that that was the dream. Edward Elric is not in the kitchen gobbling up one of her homemade apple pie. No one had seen him for months.
Her heart started to tighten in her chest. She would do anything to go back to that dream where he was okay, but that wasn't reality. She did everything to keep herself from crying. Alphonse was only down the hall and she did not want to wake him up for this.
The bedroom door slowly opened and a dim light seeped into the room. Then the door rapidly closed, but did not leave a loud slam. It was unlike Al to sneak into her room at night. She sat up to ask what's wrong. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw long gold bangs.
Winry scooted to the side of her bed and cautiously stood to her feet. The intruder was creeping to the window in the room. He did not notice Winry in the shadow of the moonlight until she whispered, "Edward?"
The homunculus turned his attention to Winry. It was already frightened because of his abduction. The blond girl did not look like a threat, but neither did the last guy and he nearly killed him. The homunculus cautiously backed away. He knew he ruined his opportunity of escape.
Winry couldn't believe this is happening. That has to be Edward. No one else has his hair color or his eyes, but he is different. It wasn't the tattoos. He looked terrified of her.
The bedroom door opened again, much faster this time. Before the homunculus could respond, it was stroke in the head by a cast iron skillet. Winry felt nauseous as she watched the blond homunculus fall to the floor. Alphonse stood over him with the skillet. He quickly lifted Edward over his shoulders and harshly said, "I can explain later, but I have to tie him down before he wakes up again."
Alphonse rushed out of Winry's bedroom and into his own. He tossed the homunculus on Edward's bed, clapped and used the fabric in the mattress of make a cocoon around him. Then he anchored the mattress in the metal bed frame.
Winry was already in the bedroom, watching him. She did not know what was going on. She was still in shock that Alphonse hit Edward like that, now he is doing this to him. She couldn't take it anymore, "Al, what's going on?"
The homunculus blinked his eyes open. His eyes went wide when he realized he was bonded. It wailed again, louder this time. He was trying to release itself. The whole bed jolted in every direction and loud scratches was forming on the hardwood floor.
The wailing made Winry's ears bleed and her breathing was thinning every second. She stepped forward to the bed, hoping she could calm him down. Alphonse stretched his arm in front of her, forcing her to stop. He briefly said, "Don't,"
Several minutes went by before the wailing stopped. Al needed to make sure the homunculus couldn't get away from him. He lowered his arm and sighed, relieved. The homunculus stared into space, exhausted from screaming. Winry turned swiftly and darted out of the room. She routinely made her way to the kitchen.
Winry picked up her beloved apple pie; she really did make one last night. A shadow hid her face when she cut a slice and centered it on a plate. She bent down to open a cabinet underneath the sink to grab a container of bug poison. Winry stopped to look at it. It was a white, tasteless powder. It would look harmless on top of the slice of pie.
Her wrist was grabbed and pulled behind her back. Alphonse snatched the poison from her and darkly said, "Don't do it, Winry. That's Edward."
Winry shook her head with a few escaped tears on her cheeks, "No, that thing is a monster."
"He's still my brother," Al argued. He lowered his head in shame "I think he doesn't remember anything and I already tried to kill him so he won't trust me."
Winry was gasped; she momentarily forgot how to exhale. She couldn't imagine Alphonse hurting anyone or anything. Al dropped the poison and picked up the plate. He continued on, "Give him this and you'll see. That's Edward."
Alphonse shoved the plate of pie in her hand. Winry looked at the pie; it was an ordinary pie, her pie. How could that help? She turned around and headed upstairs without arguing. Al followed closely behind her. Winry paused hesitantly at the doorway of the bedroom. Al only handed her a spoon and beckoned her to go in. She walked into the room and carefully approached the bed. The homunculus watched her as she came closer.
"I…" Winry could hardly talk, "I thought you would like this." She held up the pie, so the homunculus could see.
Winry used the spoon to scoop up a small piece. She slowly moved it to Ed's face. An intoxicating scent of apples and cinnamon filled the homunculus's head. He became curious and opened his mouth submissively. Winry was able to slide the spoonful into his mouth easily. Winry and Al watched in disbelief as the homunculus chewed and swallowed the pie.
It gave Winry a pleading look. She snapped out of her daze to feed the homunculus the rest of the apple pie. The homunculus liked the pie and his face softened with the taste in its mouth. Winry swore she saw a faint smile on its face. Winry stared at the floor as she walked to Alphonse. She shamefully admitted to him, "You're right. That's Edward."