The Same Coin

Taboo Where You Were

"So I guess we're gal pals now? Meeting up for lunch to gossip?" Machi asked once the waiter had left their table.

"I wouldn't presume you to be my friend," Winry sighed, and she propped her elbow to lean her chin in her palm. Across from her, Machi did the same, glancing around the restaurant with boredom. "So why did you want to see me?"

Her gut said it was something to do with Hisoka. She hadn't crossed Hisoka since she'd stumbled into his path the afternoon prior, thankfully. When she'd returned to work afterward, Dr. Hirano had been red-cheeked and stammering. "How did you survive a year of sleeping with him?" the doctor had asked, and Winry had cursed before telling Dr. Hirano that really wasn't what Hisoka had meant. What an embarrassment.

"You don't waste much time on small talk," was Machi's comment before she flipped open her menu to thumb through it. The expression on her face was of perpetual boredom. "When we're done here, let's go shopping."

"Why would I want to go shopping?"

"Because I'm telling you to."

"You could start by asking my favorite color or my favorite food."

"So what's your favorite color?" Machi countered rhetorically. "Mine is morally grey."

Winry only rolled her eyes, then stared down at the menu in front of her, not really wanting to be here but having to concede that, if nothing else, she was hungry.

"Why are you at Heavens Arena?" Winry asked when Machi continued to ignore her first question.

"It's threefold. The Boss has sent me here with a message for Hisoka, and one for you. Hisoka also has scheduled a rematch against Kastro. Since I'm here anyway, Hisoka's paying me to stick around for the fight. Just in case."

"How did Chrollo know that I was at Heavens Arena when Hisoka didn't?"

"The Boss flagged your travel documents so he'd know if you returned to this side of the sea," Machi said with a casual shrug, as though that were a normal thing for a person to do. "He knew you were coming back before you even got off the ship, although apparently you threw him off when you didn't actually go back to Yorknew City but stayed here instead. So what's this Hatsu you have Hisoka twisted up about?"

The waiter arrived at their table then, and Winry and Machi both ordered Gyudon bowls with tea. They didn't speak again until the tea had been set before them.

"So, the Hatsu," Machi repeated as Winry took a sip. "I assume you've been learning to use Nen since your nodes were opened?"

"I had been figuring it out," Winry admitted. "A lot of it was impromptu — I was in situations where I ended up using it out of instinct, and figured out what I had done afterward."

That last bit wasn't untrue, but she kept the extent of her training close to her chest. She doubted Hisoka had ever told Chrollo about his intentions to go to Amestris. Chrollo was possibly unaware that she'd received the amount of training she had.

"What's your Nen type?"

"I'm a manipulator. What's the message Chrollo sent for me?"

"I'll tell you later while we are shopping. I seldom see Hisoka so visibly irritated, though, so you've got my interest," Machi said, stirring her tea lackadaisically. "Who's this Edward guy?"

Winry felt her face fall before she could hide it. The rhythmic stirring of Machi's spoon faltered.

"He was a childhood friend of mine back in Amestris. He lost an arm and a leg in an accident when he was a child, and I've built him every set of automail he's had since then. He joined the military when he was twelve — we started growing apart as we got older and he began taking my help with his automail for granted, and wouldn't tell me things anymore. We got into an argument about it. I used my Hatsu on him without meaning to, and now he's convinced I'm involved in something terrible. He said I need to leave the country. I can't go back."

"So you do have a Hatsu." Machi gave the slightest nod. "Hisoka is very jealous that you showed it to someone else but refuse to show him. He didn't like that at all. And, insult to injury, he said you were using Zetsu to completely suppress your aura. And you're using Zetsu right now again around me."

"I was and am," Winry agreed. She pushed herself away from the table with a shallow frown. "Nen has only brought me misery. I'd rather just pretend to know nothing about it."

"You said most of your learning was impromptu — in the moment," Machi said. "How would those instances have turned out if you hadn't had Nen?"

That silenced Winry entirely. It was then that their waiter arrived with their food, and the silence prevailed while their dishes were set in front of them.

How would those moments have been different? She wouldn't have been able to protect Hisoka or Ed in the moments it had mattered. She would've been a helpless bystander...the way she had been for most of her life. But thanks to her demonstration, Izumi had agreed to teach Hisoka alchemy. Because of her, Ed had captured Scar alive instead of taking him in dead. Things might have gone completely differently if she hadn't used Nen.

"If you fear your abilities, you won't be able to control them when you do need them," Machi said stoically as she picked up her chopsticks. "Perhaps Nen was taboo where you were from — but you are here now and, as you said yourself, you're staying here. I don't care whether you want to show Hisoka your Hatsu or not. This is your home now. It's time you allowed yourself to be one of us. A Nen user."

They said little else while they ate, giving Winry the time she needed to mull Machi's words over. They weren't friends, and Machi had no reason to advise her at all. The other woman wasn't wrong, however. And Winry was smart enough to realize that. She exhaled, and let her aura resurface.

Machi merely gave her a nod.

"Let's go shopping," Machi said at last when she pushed her bowl aside.

Winry didn't argue, it wasn't worth making a scene. She finished her tea and laid out the money for her meal, then rose to follow Machi.

Fashion on this side of the sea was so different than in Amestris. The styles that the other women wore here — like Machi's uwagi — felt unnatural to her, and uncomfortable to wear. She was also no longer a mechanic, at least in name. There was no reason to continue wearing her overalls here. Instead she wore a pair of olive tobi pants with her old work boots. They bloused out around her hips and thighs, then were tight to her calves. She had on a plain gray tank top, tucked into her pants, and she still wore her bandana over her hair, too.

Machi led her through several stores, and pointed Winry to clusters of clothes. All of it, however, felt too formal. The robes that were traditional here were to the contrary of the kind of woman she was. Machi had rolled her eyes at each refusal. Inside a shop named Metallion, Machi at last tired of Winry's refusal. She'd shoved a pile of clothes into Winry's arms and all but thrust her into the back dressing room to try them on. Winry almost dropped them as she stumbled, and she grumbled a curse before hanging them on a hook on the wall. Then she turned, and sucked in a startled breath.

"Winry-san."