@Chiyo: Wow, this is a really good fanfic! I need to go back and read it from the beginning. I wish we knew what Winry's been doing this whole time, haven't seen her in more than 10 chapters now.

@Chiyo - Lovely writing, as usual!! Enjoyed this chapter every much!!

Thank-you Tombow and kkg22104. I have now begun the process of editing older chapters for my writing has somewhat improved since I first started writing. Plus we now have Brotherhood to follow which had recently reached the point I started at.

I also had it suggested to me to try a new chapter, simply guessing what Winry's been up to rather than wait for her to re-appear. Good idea or not?

No spoilers beyond Chapter 84 and so far this is just me making it up. Winry is once again left behind to wait for The Promised Day and the Elric's safe return. Will she cope?




She opened one heavy eye to the violent morning sun pouring through her window. Though she awoke in familiar surroundings she was ill at ease, having only fallen asleep in the early hours. Long into the night she had stared at the ceiling, willing her mind to close down and let her rest.

Edward had been out of sight for five minutes before she had finally turned away and re-entered the house, closing the door behind her. In a desperate bid to busy her hands Winry had first cleaned up her own mess, and ended up clearing the whole house. It was during this manic cleaning spree she had discovered a discarded jumper sat at the foot of her bed. There was no question of the owner. Without changing into her nightwear she had buried her face in that black cloth and lain on her bed. The tears had at least remained at bay for the time being.

Still with the jumper clenched securely to her chest she trudged her way downstairs to find her Grandmother sat at the table with a hot drink in her hand. There was a lone cup opposite her, waiting to be scooped up by Winry’s grateful hands.

‘What time is it?’ Winry sighed, rubbing her eyes.

‘It has gone eleven already. I thought you might need the rest. I have never seen the place so tidy,’ Pinako replied, smiling.

‘Most of the mess was made by me, or at least by the men who were keeping an eye on me.’

‘Or by Edward and the group that were with him,’ Pinako added, keeping a close eye on her Granddaughter to gauge her reaction. Winry’s face remained still but Pinako was sure she saw the girls grip on the shirt tighten.

Pinako had first met Hohenheim when she was in her late twenties. She had been almost completely bowled over by the handsome stranger who had waltzed into her world. Apart from his dashing good looks and his charm, he was also impossibly gentle and kind. They could talk long into the night on many subjects that were of no significance. Somehow he seemed to make everything he said sound wise.

He had also vanished just as quickly, only to reappear some twenty years later. In his face he seemed to have aged barely five years but in his manner he was an older gentleman. In that time Pinako had given her heart to another and had her son. She was never meant to be with Hohenheim and she knew this more than ever when he fell in love with Trisha. She was too old by that time to have retained her crush on him but a small piece of her heart was dedicated to him. It was she who had introduced Hohenheim to Trisha and couldn’t have been happier when they had announced that Trisha was carrying a baby. She had Sara spent hours moaning and laughing over their swelling stomachs.

Winry had arrived a few months before Edward. Both of them announced their presence into the world with gusto. For a while in fact, they were only ever quiet when they were together. The first time Pinako saw her Granddaughter really smile was while she watched Edward play. It was hard to believe that had all started with a mechanic watching a blonde haired stranger walk in and out of her life.

Here she was, over four decades since that first meeting seeing the same look in her Granddaughter’s eyes. It was the look of the forlorn and the lost, the confused and the hurt. What Pinako had believed only a harmless crush had morphed into an entirely new monster.

‘Is there much work to do?’ Winry asked, sitting down and finally taking a reviving sip of sweet tea. It was at this point she finally took notice that she had the black material tangled around her fingers. Subtly as she could she placed it on the table as if it were a rag she would use for polishing.

‘No more than usual. Winry, about last night…’

‘Well usually we always have small but steady repairs to do. I’ve learnt so much in my time away Grandma. We don’t have all the technology I had in Rush Valley but I can do without it just as well. I know I shouldn’t be so vain but I’m really an excellent mechanic.’

‘Winry…’

‘Already late in the day anyway so I better get go…’

‘Winry!’

Winry’s words faltered and with down turned eyes she fell silent. She feared looking up at her Grandmother in case her eyes gave away what she wouldn’t dare say.

Pinako sighed, ‘I heard you fight last night. I think it must have been the shortest fight there has ever been between you two. Is there anything I should know?’

A noise escaped Winry’s throat that was somewhere between a sob and a laugh, ‘He knows he can’t win.’

Before Pinako could inquire any further Winry darted back up the stairs, calling behind her some poor excuse about needing to wash before she did anything else. The old woman sighed and gathered up the cup left behind, choosing to ignore the black jumper left behind by that wayward young man.

PART 2

Just in time here is part two of my little story. Please take heed that there are spoilers for chapter 104 abound. I would also ask you to please take a look at a piece of artwork that helped inspired me. fma-apple pie by the artist na-na-o



Lying in the bath took her back to the few days before when she had first met Rose. To think that she let envy get the better of her was now laughable. No matter how beautiful Rose might have been, Ed would never have noticed her in a greater context then just being another human being. Perhaps what had really upset Winry was exactly that knowledge. What chance did she have of being anything more than a human being to him if a beautiful stranger in need of rescuer did nothing for him? She sunk deeper into the water. Her own selfish thoughts made her feel dirty and inhuman. People she knew, people she loved, where out there at that very moment risking their lives to so that she may comfortably bathe.

"Winry," came her Grandmother's voice from behind the door, "does this shirt need washing?"

"No!" Winry cried, "well, I don't know!"

"You were sat in one of those water tanks wearing it. You spent all night cleaning wearing it."

Winry flushed and could only mutter a groaned yes. She was sixteen and had adopted a new comfort blanket. So protective over it was she in such a short space of time, logic had died a swift death. She clenched her fists under the water and barely flinched and she pushed her nails into a newly developing callous. She sat in that state until long after the water had turned cold and the pain in her hands was numb.

********

"Grandma, do we have any apples?"

Pinako looked up from her work, "Apples? I think so, but they might be too bitter to eat."

"I don't plan to eat them raw. Would they be okay in a pie?"

"I should think so, when did you learn to cook apple pie?"

Winry looked up at her Grandmother, "it was months ago now. I need to get better though, it needs to be…perfect."

Pinako decided better than to ask this time.

********

Her hands were rested on either side of a rolling pin, which she had been using to flatten the pastry for the lid of her pie. It was the third time she had put a pie together and yet she still wasn't happy. In a flash she had gone from master chef at work to novice. Everything Gracier had taught her had blown away on the breeze and she stared at the half completed pie with anger and despair. Her eyes burned as if she were running a high fever. It was the tears she was not letting fall that torched her eyes in a bid to be freed.

Pinako heard an almighty crash and ran to the kitchen. Winry stood staring at the broken plate with a hand clasped over her mouth. Her shoulders trembled as she watched her Grandmother retrieve the rolling pin and the pieces of crockery from the floor.

'I never liked that plate anyway. Not sure why we had it on the wall,' Pinako said in a quiet voice.

'I…I…I don't know…how it happened,' Winry gasped, hand still clutched tightly over her gaping mouth.

'You are all worked up Winry,' sighed Pinako, 'Go back to bed for a while and settle yourself in. You have been on the move for too long and your body is too active to be stood in the kitchen…'

'But I have to get the pie right! I have to make it now because…because…'

Pinako finally stood back up and placed the evidence on the table. Looking at her Granddaughter broke her heart. Winry's eyes scrunched up as tight as her fists but not one tear fell. She had once found crying such a release for her sorrow and frustrations.

'I promised I wouldn't cry…' Winry choked, her words barely audible.

'That's it Winry. I won't have this. You haven't been focused since Edward left and are you suggesting you won't be until he gets back? What am I to do? It is as if you never came back and I am to go on working alone!'

Winry just stood staring ahead with glassy eyes. Unsure whether or not her Granddaughter, Pinako pointed a figure skyward to indicate Winry was to head to her room. Much as she hated to treat her this way, this was not the time to tip toe around teenage emotions.

'Go and get your head together. Forget the boy. Do not believe him when he says he will be coming back. He is more like his Father than he knows.'

She didn't cry. She didn't scream. Winry's face morphed in to a complete blank and she left the room in silence. Whatever Pinako expected it had been anything but immediate acceptance. She wanted the tears and she wanted the screaming, anything to snap her Granddaughter out of this love lorn daze. What Pinako had said, she did truly believe. It was easier for Winry if she didn't find out the hard way that those with Golden Eyes are inevitably wanderers.

********

She thought it was the smell of iron. The stronger it became the more she was aware it was twinned with the unmistakable smell of the organic. Blood, yes she knew it well. Her eyes began to swim as the crimson liquid seemed to ooze around her feet, crawling along the ground in silence. The warmth of it nauseated Winry as she walked carefully forward. Just ahead she was aware of a mass on the floor. It wheezed and gasped for air with a pitch no human was capable of. She wanted to escape but her legs carried her forward. She wanted to close her eyes but they stared ahead until the mass came in to focus.

She screamed and fell backward into the sea of red. She retched as she tried to get to her feet. Her weak legs would not obey and she began to crawl in a desperate bid to get away. Looking behind her to make sure the monster did not move her hand landed on a new surface. It was soft and wet. Looking down she saw she was on top of a giant eye. In it's iris she saw her reflection. She was not a sixteen-year-old girl but a young boy, with golden eyes and golden hair.

Her eyes finally snapped open and she sat bolt upright. Gasping for air and soaked with cold sweat, but in her own bed in her own village. Her body shook and her eyes darted across the floor, illogically searching for the monster that had stolen her dream.

It had been over two days since Edward had left. After the harsh but painfully true words of her Grandmother, Winry had got back to her regular life without another word. Customers were fairly regular and when she wasn't working on anyone directly she applied her new found skills to work in progress. But no matter how much she occupied her thoughts during the day, she couldn't escape her dreams at night. She knew what the monster was, and in a strange way she could accept that as part of her dreams for it brought her closer to him.

No, the dream that hurt the most had come the night before. He was there beside her, now the handsome adult, with their child in his arms. The sun shone brightly upon their happy world as Alphonse approached, now too a man with a warm right hand and a family awaiting him.

Everything she had to accept was almost certainly an impossibility.

********

Washed, smiling and without a word she ate her breakfast and prepared for the day. Careful not to make it obvious she cast her eyes around for the lost black jumper. She suspected Grandmother Pinako had hidden it but she dare not ask.

They were working on a customer when a distant rumble disturbed the relative peace. It grew louder, like an approaching stampede, and the ground began to tremble in earnest. She knew it, the reason Edward had told her to leave had arrived, the Promised Day.

Her heart stalled in her chest, like taking a faltering step in the dark. It hit her again harder and she fell to the ground, much as she had in her nightmare. The red sea foamed in front of her eyes and she felt a great eye upon her. It was everywhere and yet no-where, pulling at her very soul, persuading it to let go of it's mortal casing.

Her Grandmothers voice called her from a distant shore, but neither woman could be reached anymore. Amongst the ever increasing darkness Winry was aware of a golden light radiating the only warmth left in the world. She reached out with her last ounce of strength and uttered one final sound with her last breath.

"E…d…"