Ch 9: Scar Reveal

Rated K+

Characters: Edward, Winry

Timeline: BH/manga

Notes: you guys know that One Scene™ at like volume 20ish when ed and winry reunite in resembool after the time skip and it's like "wtf, he's huge now". Idk what arakawa was on with that one, and while i love smol ed for life, that scene is…something. And also it's never addressed how winry reacts to seeing the scars from when ed, y'know, got freaking impaled, and this would definitely be the scene when she sees it, so i had to do something about that. We all know how much i love my innocent babies, but i like a little romance now and then…so this is probably as romantic as this whump fic is going to get haha. It's not even that whumpy…I think i'm in a mood XD

It should be noted that I changed the scene a little, so instead of going to eat dinner after winry says hi to pinako, she fixes ed's arm first. Enjoy!

Once Winry is positive she's rid her bedroom of all its intruders, she slams the door, whirling furiously back to Edward. He's still sitting there in her chair, holding that stupid sandwich and staring like a deer caught in headlights.

"Edward Elric!" Winry shouts. He saw me almost take my shirt off. Good God. Focus on something else. "Where in the world have you been!? They told me you were missing! You jerk! How dare you show up here!?"

Finally, he sets the sandwich down, holding up his hands in an effort to calm her. "Hey! I've only been here a few days! Where have you been!?"

"Hiding and sneaking around, like a good little hostage! I had to ride in an oil drum to get here! And then I get home, and find you! In my room!"

"I just wanted—"

"'A quiet place to eat your sandwich', I heard you. I don't buy that for one second, Ed, and you know it! You could've gone to your room!"

"I…" He forces his gaze away from hers, blushing slightly. "I just wanted something that reminded me of you. I've been really worried about you. For a long time." He glances back at her, scowling. "I didn't expect you to suddenly appear."

Winry's gaze softens, and she sighs. "I've been really worried about you, too." She crosses her arms. "I'm glad you're here, idiot. I'm just…it's just been a lot."

"I know," he says softly. "I'm still sorry you got so involved."

"Shut it, Edward. I already told you I want to be involved. You and Al are my family." Winry looks at her friend, finally calm enough to take in his appearance. And that's when she notices how different he looks. She hasn't seen him in nearly eight months, since that day in Baschool, and he's changed a lot in that time. She remembers noticing his shoulders being broader the night before he saved her from killing Scar (and that being the moment she realized she may have actually been, somewhat, sort of, falling in love with him). But now, his shoulders are broad; almost like a man's.

He is going to be seventeen in a few months, she thinks.

She looks again, noticing his hair is a little longer and there's more definition in his jawline, and dare she say it, he looks bigger in general, and even though he's wearing a long sleeve shirt, he's definitely much more muscular, and—

Stop it! This isn't the time to be admiring him! she scolds herself. Think about something else!

"Winry?"

Winry snaps out of her reverie, making eye contact with him again.

"Why're you looking at me like that?" Ed asks, almost warily.

"I…" She forces a scowl on her face. "I was just thinking about how much damage you've probably done to my precious automail!"

Ed glances at his metal hand, clenching and unclenching it a couple times. "Uh…I guess? I don't think it's actually damaged, though, for once. It's just…not fitting right." A sudden grin breaks out on his face. "But Granny fixed my leg first thing when I got here. Know why?"

Winry huffs, rolling her eyes in an attempt to keep up her usual bantering reaction. Believe me, Ed, I know why… "Let me guess, you grew another inch?" she quips, having to force herself to act normally.

"Five," he says. "In six months. That was actually why we came here. Me and the chimeras were jumping from town to town, looking for you guys, and I had to keep transmuting the casing like some kind of stilt so my legs would be the same length. But it got to the point I couldn't transmute it anymore without making the metal too thin, so I needed Granny to remake it. She was going to look through your notes and stuff to figure out how to remake my arm, but you're here now, so I guess she doesn't have to."

Winry keeps her arms folded. What a weirdo. Why is he still so obsessive about height? But…at least he's the same old Ed, no matter how he looks… "Well I've grown a lot, too, so I bet I'm still taller than you."

In response, Edward simply stands, still grinning. And Winry looks up—up!—to meet his eyes. He's at least an inch and a half taller than her, and man, when did he start looking so attractive? Winry has been falling for him for the past year, she'll admit it; but she's never thought he looked so nice before. It makes her heart flutter a little, and she has to forcibly refocus on the situation. He's been missing for more than half a year. He needs his automail adjusted. I can do that. That's what I'm good at. "Well, whatever. You finally grew some. Go lay down so I can look at your arm, alchemy freak."

Edward grins wider in victory, and Winry quickly busies herself collecting her automail equipment so she doesn't have to look at him anymore. She assumes he's going to need the whole port adjusted, given how much he's grown, and she'll have to make the arm from scratch…even if it still works, it probably looks nothing like his real arm anymore. She ties on her work apron, picking up her bin of tools.

When she turns around, he's waiting obediently on the bed, shirt removed and face buried in pillows. Oh God. The first thing she focuses on is his left arm; while he's had a lean, toned figure since leaving for the military, he's never been that muscular. It's like he's spent the last eight months in a gym, for heaven's sakes. She knows males build muscle faster and easier than females, but geez, where was this for the last four years? Yeah, his old automail was much heavier and more straining, but surely replacing it for northern automail wasn't that big of a deal, right?

Edward is my patient. My patient. Stop thinking like this! she tells herself. Except he's never really been just my patient. Not since day one, when we were like brother and sister. And now…not when I have feelings for him. Winry sighs lightly, setting her bin on the side table. She briefly notes his ponytail, out of style from the typical braid he's been sporting since growing his hair out. Then she looks at his right shoulder, which has clearly been under some stress for a while. While his body has been busy trying to grow, it's had a collection of metal pieces trying to prevent that from happening. Realistically, he needs surgery, to adjust all the internal supports to fit his growth spurt. But, also realistically, there's just too much going on in the country to spare that kind of recovery time; she doesn't know what exactly is happening in the military right now, but obviously it's bad enough for her to be held hostage—and for Ed to need to be in action, not recovering from surgery. She traces her gaze over the scars left from his initial automail surgery, reaching out toward his spine—and sees something else. Off on the left side of his abdomen, another definitely not automail related scar catches her eye. It's much too new, and she knows there was nothing there before when she replaced his arm at Briggs. A flash of panic sets in Winry's chest, and she can suddenly no longer see his broad shoulders or muscular physique or soft golden hair—just the new scar, dark and generally circular in shape with a few lines of healed stitches leading around his side, the skin warped from what had to have been a grueling healing process. Whatever made this scar was bad. Really bad.

"Edward!" Winry cries, and his head snaps toward her at the sound. His eyes widen at the panic in her expression.

"What? What happened?" he asks hurriedly.

"What happened?" she repeats. "What happened to you?!" She reaches down, touching his side and feeling the rough scar tissue beneath her fingertips. It's even thicker than the scarring from automail.

Understanding clicks in his eyes, and he smiles slightly, that sheepish smile she knows is always followed up with a "yeah, funny story" when there's nothing remotely funny about it. "Um, remember when I was missing for eight months?"

Winry narrows her eyes through the tears threatening to fall from them, knowing whatever she's about to hear will nearly give her a heart attack. "Yeah, I remember very well."

"Well, it kinda started with falling down a mineshaft. And…" Edward shifts, pushing himself upright and sitting cross-legged. "And getting a metal bar speared through my intestines."

Winry's eyes widen in horror at a matching scar on the front of Ed's abdomen, just as dark and terrible looking as the other. "You…it…" she struggles for words, so horrified by this revelation. "Straight through you?!" She can see the evidence for herself, with the two nearly identical scars on either side of his body, but the thought is so awful she can't do anything but verbalize it. How could this have happened? God, he could've died! And she wouldn't have even known! If he really fell down a mineshaft, what were the chances they even would have found his body? He would've just been missing forever, with no answers as to what happened. And then she—she'd be all alone!

"Like a kabob," he replies, much too lightly. It pisses her off, the lack of care he has for his life.

"Ed! You could've died!" Winry cries, trying to make him realize the gravity of the situation.

And it seems like he does. His smile fades, eyes growing dark. "I know. Believe me, I know. I should've died, Winry. By all laws of nature. But…but I couldn't. I couldn't let you and Alphonse down like that… So, I…" he trails off.

"What?" she asks, even though she has a sinking feeling. How could he possibly have made it to a hospital in time? He was impaled, in a mineshaft, a hundred feet underground. He couldn't have survived…unless he did something crazy.

"I did something rash," he replies.

"When don't you do something rash?" she counters. "You're notorious for it. What did you do this time that was so rash it saved your sorry butt?"

Edward fiddles nervously with the hem of his pant-leg. "If I tell you, you have to promise not to get mad."

"You know I can't promise that."

"I mean it, Winry! I did it because it was the only way not to die!" He glares at her, golden eyes like liquid fire. "You really can't be mad at me for this."

Winry takes a deep breath, looking at the scars again, and remembering that if he hadn't done whatever it is he did, he would not be here right now. "Fine. Okay. I'm not going to be mad."

Ed nods a little, averting his gaze. "I used my life force like a philosopher's stone to close the wound."

Winry blinks. "You…what?"

"I used part of my own life in equivalent exchange to fix a mortal wound. Because, by all accounts, I should have died, I took off a bit of my future life to stay alive in that moment."

Still in disbelief, Winry asks, "But…What does that mean? You 'took off a bit of your future life'? Isn't that so…so reckless?"

Ed's voice rises to match her own anger. "It was that or die! I literally had no other options! I mean, yeah, the chimera were there too, but do you really think we could get to a hospital in time?"

"No…" Winry trails off. "But…do you know how much time you 'took off'?"

He goes back to playing with his pant-leg. "Not really…It could be a couple years…or a couple decades. But I had to do it. There's too many people counting on me for me to die in such a stupid way…"

Winry has no retort for that; she can't imagine what she'd do if Edward died. "So…how'd you do it?" she asks, the medical curiosity in her peaking. "You just did a little alchemy, and poof, all fixed?"

Ed scratches his head. "Again, not really. I pretty much just stopped the bleeding and rejoined enough organs to avoid sepsis. The chimera still had to find a hospital, because my alchemy wasn't going to last long." He lightly touches the front scar. "I'm not an anatomical expert like gearheads like you. The doctors said I barely escaped losing a good chunk of my colon given it was torn right in half…But they did some emergency surgery and I totally followed their orders about recovery."

"Edward…" Winry scolds. "Why can't you ever follow a doctor's orders?"

"The same reason I did automail rehabilitation in a year," he replies, grinning again.

A small smile pulls at the corners of Winry's mouth as well, and she playfully pushes Ed's shoulder. "Right. Now lay down so I can work on said automail."

Ed twitches as if to follow her request, but remains upright. "So…you're really not mad?"

"Oh, I'm absolutely devastated," Winry replies, clenching her fists and glowering at her friend. "You know how I feel about you and Al messing with your lives like this. But…you're also right…There was nothing else you could've done. And…I would rather have a little less time with you in the end instead of no more time at all…" She feels her face heat up, and she clutches fistfuls of her apron. Just say it. "I…I love you too much to lose you now."

She sees Edward's eyes widen a little in surprise, and while he doesn't respond directly, a miniscule nod of the head as he turns to lay down says everything she needs.

I love you too.

My apologies for the hiatus! Finals really got the best of me; I was writing so much academic literature I couldn't even think about writing anything else...but I'm on winter break now so I'm planning on cranking out the rest of these prompts before the new semester! Then we'll see what happens next ;)