The Same Coin

Stop Him

It looked like an automail bomb had went off when Winry walked into her grandmother's house. There were pieces of forearms and wrist joints strewn across a workbench with a cacophony of tools. Nothing had changed here since Winry had first left Resembool for Rush Valley. This was how her grandmother had always worked, and it was a warm memory that sat in stark contrast to the orderliness that was Atelier Garfiel.

She'd almost gone back to Izumi, but she knew that didn't make sense. Izumi wasn't teaching her alchemy. So then she'd almost gone back to Rush Valley, but the thought of facing Garfiel and having that talk — about resuming her apprenticeship after it'd be bought out by Hisoka — had felt too soon.

So she'd come back to the deepest part of her roots.

The scent of mineral oil and metal was familiar and soothing. Everything about this place resonated the comfort she'd been seeking out.

"You aren't coming? I had assumed you would be following. You are a Nen user — you belong elsewhere now."

"I—I can't just leave. This is my home. My family is here, my friends are here, my work is here."

"You are a Nen user."

"I can't just leave Amestris. This is home."

That conversation with Hisoka felt like forever ago, even though it had been only a couple weeks. Standing in this place now, however, she knew in her heart she'd spoken the truth. This is home.

Winry ascended the stairs to her room, careful to avoid the stairs that creaked — only to discover new places to avoid that had developed during her long absence. The world had moved on without a hitch without her here. Just as it would move on for Ed and Al, wherever they were. Al had mentioned going to Liore — she'd wished him the best, and asked him to tell that much to Ed as well when he reunited with his brother again.

The world had moved on without her here. And her world would move on without Ed.

She went to her room without bothering to wake her grandmother. There was no reason to do that, not when in a few hours her grandmother would awaken anyway. For now though she only wanted to change out of her travel-soiled clothes and wash. Her fingers were on the hem of her shirt to lift it up when—

"Ed!" she practically shrieked, yanking her shirt back down.

He sat at her desk eating, gaping openly at her. Winry grabbed a wrench from beside him on the desk and smacked him upside the head with it.

"Hey!"

Woo! That felt good. She'd walked around on pins and needles with Hisoka for so long that she'd forgotten what it felt like to give no quarter. Her heart was racing at the sight of him anyway, and she wanted to hug him tight.

"Ed, you wanna tell me what's going on here? Tell me why you're in my room!"

"I just wanted someplace quiet to eat my sandwich!" he balked, and she glared at him sullenly, forehead creasing.

Then her anger ran suddenly dry.

"I was worried about you," she admitted. Hating that she had worried. Hating that she'd felt such a festering wound from his indifference at Briggs while he'd continued on. Hating that there were so many things she had no answer to, that she knew he would never share.

"I was worried about you, too. I thought Al was with you?"

She shook her head.

"Well, technically I'm a fugitive right now," he said, turning his back on her as his hands balling into fists. "I can't risk anyone seeing me. But I'm in serious need of maintenance and I need to be in peak condition."