Cardinal Sin (1) : Rebirth of the Fullmetal Alchemist

27 - My love

Phil slammed both palms hard onto Mustang's desk, making his skin tingle, but he was too shocked and confused to care—somehow these emotions ended up being expressed in a rather rageful manner. "Ed is... he's—there's no way! It's impossible for a man who's died to rise from the grave. This isn't an apocalyptic novel we're living. It's real life and I tell you there's no fucking way a dead man can walk! Who's feeding us this bullshit? I'll give him a piece of my mind for playing with my hopes!"

The distraught young man was startled when a hand was lain on his shoulder. "Philemon, please calm down," said Frederick. "There's no need to get so worked up over this."

"I... I just..." Phil dropped to the floor. By now, he was crying again, losing all traces of his anger as if he had never snapped and gone on yelling as he had. "I just wanted... to have him come back to us!"

In general, Mustang's office was filled with people whirling with different emotions; shock, mainly. There was disbelief and annoyance, too. Most were just still sad that Edward had died and had already deemed his reported revival false news.

If only through the madness that mourning brought forth, some actually believed the news and were ready to prove the claim for themselves. Winry stood slowly from where she had been sobbing on the ground, whipping her tears. She slipped out of the office, gone completely unnoticed by the arguing folk within.

'Edward,' she thought, 'have you really come back to me?'

Her mind was somewhat confused, she stumbled out of the building, but when she was out in the open, her thoughts suddenly rearranged. 'I need to go to the morgue,' she told herself.

And so she went.

Upon arrival, she had no need to go inside the building for there he was, about to set off.

"Edward," said Winry.

He lifted his eyes—piercing red pupils that caught her quite off guard. They seemed so sad.

"Winry. Sorry, but I broke my automail," he said casually.

Tears welled up in her eyes and he threw herself upon him, burying her face into his bare chest. She let out great sobs as her fiance wrapped his own arms around her and brought them to the ground, where he rocked her, glaring at all the strangers who dared approach them.

"You died!"

"Yeah." He said no more than this, but Winry was too busy crying to demand a proper explanation of him.

'I need to get going,' Ed was thinking, running his fingers through the tangled hair of the woman he loved. 'I can't stay here and comfort Winry, even if I want to.'

Ed carefully pulled apart enough from Winry so they could have good looks at each other's faces—he took hers gently in his hands. With his thumbs, he wiped her cheeks of the tears staining them and smiled down at her.

"Edward..."

Tilting his head slightly to the side, he lowered his face, closing his eyes. Some part of Winry knew what was coming, but her mind didn't really acknowledge it and cause her to take action, so, when she was kissed, her eyes were wide open and tears leaked from their corners.

Ed was blushing profusely when it ended, but a grin was spread across his face. Embarrassed, he looked up at the sky and muttered, "Me coming back to life seemed like a good time for a first kiss."

He stood up, setting Winry in a seated position on the ground. All the while, her eyes watched him silently; her grief was obscuring links, and, as a result, she was very confused and not too sure of everything that was going on, although it was truly quite simple.

"I'll be back in a bit, okay?"

And then he went away, leaving Winry all alone again. Just like he had all those years as a dog of the military, which he would become again, she had no doubt.

Because the Fullmetal Alchemist... was back.