The Same Coin

The Sun and the Moon (Part II)

"I need to borrow Ms. Rockwell."

Winry and Neil — who, as it turned out, was one of the chief engineers at Briggs — both turned to look to Kimblee, caught entirely off-guard. They had been hovering together over the M1913-A, aka the Crocodile. The premise was simple; it was a jaw with a chainsaw. But they were in the middle of dismantling it and, when Winry turned to face Kimblee, she had grease up past her wrists.

Kimblee's head tilted to one side as he took in the sight of her. "What are you doing?"

"I was letting her take a closer look, sir," Neil said, snapping to attention.

"Any closer and she'll be inside it." Winry blushed. "I'd like you to take a look at something else, if you don't mind."

"Of course. What is it?" asked Neil.

"Not you, Flint. I'm talking to her," Kimblee said.

"Sure," Winry said with a nod, looking around for a grease rag to wipe her hands off on. Neil passed one to her and, after she'd wiped off the worst of it, he pointed her to a sink. There was a bottle of abrasive soap beside it for her to wash with. Kimblee came to stand beside her, leaning against the counter while she scrubbed the grease from the creases of her knuckles.

"It's a personal favor," he said quietly, "if you don't mind."

"What do you need?"

"My watch stopped working." Kimblee drew the watch in question from his pocket and held it up by its chain. She did a double-take at it, blinking.

"Ed has that watch—" Then realization dawned. "You're a State Alchemist?"

Deeper comprehension was only a moment further behind, with Ed's earlier statement about Kimblee on its heels. Do you have any idea what that psychopath did in Ishval? She didn't — she'd been so young then, and wouldn't pretend to have any sort of understanding about what atrocities had accompanied war. But she knew that the State Alchemists sent to Ishval had been the ones to earn them the nickname of Dogs of the Military, and that the State's response to the uprising had been ruthless. Did she have any idea what Kimblee had done in Ishval? No. But she also realized she didn't really care.

"I'm the Crimson Lotus Alchemist," he said as she dried her hands, then gestured for her to follow him.

"Crimson Lotus?"

"I specialize in creating explosions." He held the curtain to the work shop aside for her to exit through ahead of him, followed by the door to the infirmary. Once they were in the hallway alone Kimblee turned his hands over so she could see the transmutation circles on his palms — a sun on one palm, and a moon on the other. Her footsteps faltered.

Her nightmares were filled with the sun and the moon, the shadows and light reaching for each other. Then the night and light met in an eruption of flames.

"Everything alright?"

"Yes," Winry quickly reassured him.

She was far from okay — she could feel her pulse throbbing her skin. Suddenly she found herself wondering the impossible. Did Kimblee know Nen? Had he somehow been the one who had forced her nodes open? That had been well over a year ago, it simply wasn't feasible that he'd done it.

Was it?

"I dropped it on my way to Briggs and it stopped working. I can't go back to Central with it broken," Kimblee was continuing. "You struck me as someone capable of the delicate work it would take to fix it."

"I will definitely try," she answered as he opened the door to an empty meeting room.

Winry entered ahead of him and seated herself at the table. Kimblee leaned out the door and said something to someone, then a man with dark mutton chops entered carrying her tool kit. He set it down on the table.

"I hope you don't mind. I had a feeling you wouldn't back down from a challenge, so I had them fetch your tools ahead of time."

"That's fine."

Her mind wasn't there. Instead she was considering the countless reasons for why it couldn't have been Major Kimblee who had forced open her nodes. She'd been all the way in the Republic of Tentai then, and she hadn't even told Ed, Al, or even Garfiel details about what hotel she would've been staying at. There was no way Kimblee could have known in order to find her—

"Would you like something to drink?" Kimblee asked.

"Tea, please."

Kimblee turned to a soldier in the hallway behind him, who wore a pair of wraparound goggles and had a blonde handlebar mustache.

"Fetch tea for Ms. Rockwell."

"Right away, sir."

He stretched out his hand to her, his State Alchemist pocket watch dangling from his fingertips. Winry gingerly took it from him.

"How long have you been a State Alchemist?" Winry asked.

"You were just a child when I went on my first tour of duty to Ishval — as I said, I'd been part of the squadron that recovered your parents."

"And after that?"

She didn't miss how Kimblee's amber eyes sharpened. A curt wave of his hand sent Mutton Chops from the room, and Kimblee shut the door behind him. They were alone now.

"That's not something I usually talk about," he said bluntly.

"Ed made a comment about things you'd done during the war."

That wasn't a topic she actually cared to discuss, but Winry saw no other way to lead in and find out his whereabouts a year ago. Kimblee scoffed.

"Lots of people make comments about what I did during the war."

"So what did you do?"

Kimblee stepped close to her, removing the distance between them until he looked directly down into her eyes. The expression in his amber irises was a demand, but for what Winry wasn't sure.

"I'll tell you — if you agree to fix my watch, regardless of what you think of me afterward." She nodded her consent to the deal. "During the war things got a little...chaotic. I took out a lot of people who weren't on the kill list. A lot."

There it was — the unspoken demand. He wanted her reaction to the truth, and Winry didn't have it in her to recoil away in horror the way she might have once done. She thought of Scar, and what she would sacrifice to undo the damage he'd caused. The corner of Kimblee's lips turned ever so slightly upward; she'd given him the reaction he'd wanted, without even realizing she was doing it.

Acceptance.

"I went to prison. I was released a few months ago to help exterminate the issue of this Ishvalan," he continued. His voice dropped to a lower, quieter note. "When I find him, should I bring you a trophy?"

Before she could answer, there was a rapt on the door. Kimblee opened it — Handlebars was standing outside the room with a tea tray. They both stepped aside so that he could come in and set it down on the table beside her tool kit, then Kimblee turned to leave. The other soldier, Mutton Chops, joined Handlebars off to one side of the room. Winry reached out and touched Kimblee's wrist before she could think twice about what she was doing, and looked up at him with doe eyes.

"Yes."