The Same Coin

However, She Couldn't

"Damn it, Hisoka. Next time I see him, I'll tear him apart."

Winry's eyes widened at the statement they overheard as they crept through the abandoned building. Perhaps he was concerned she would open her mouth to protest on his behalf — which she'd had no intention of — because he laid the fingers of his left hand across her mouth to silence her. Winry responded by biting his fingertips, glad he hadn't tried to shut her up with his new automail right arm instead. The response had been purely instinctual, and she likely would've broken a tooth.

The installation had gone smoothly, and Hisoka had marveled at his new arm with some wonder before experimenting with his Bungee Gum. He was able to encompass the prosthetic with his aura and wield from it as he had his born appendage, and he commented that the difference between his reflexes was almost imperceptible. Then she had left to pack a satchel and put in her resignation. Winry couldn't fathom being granted further leave after going back to Amestris for weeks to address a "family emergency".

Dr. Hirano had pulled her into an office and demanded to know why, whether Hisoka was the reason behind it, and if she would be returning. Winry had been relieved, at least, to be able to say honestly that she was not leaving because of Hisoka. Even though he would be accompanying her to Yorknew City, she was going because Chrollo wanted her there — and had come to her himself to ask. Had Hisoka requested it, or even Machi, she knew she would have been far more likely to decline.

Chrollo, however, she couldn't refuse.

Dr. Hirano had insisted that she remain instated in her position, but her status be changed to sabbatical for one month. If she did not return at the end of one month, then the good doctor had warned she would be bringing the full force of the law down upon them. Winry had made herself suppress her laugh then. What did Dr. Hirano believe the law could do to people like Hisoka and Chrollo? Whatever — she could maintain her delusions.

When Winry had returned to Hisoka's room, with a bag of clothes over one shoulder and her tool kit in the other, Hisoka had brandished his new right arm in front of her — the automail nowhere to be see. It was his arm, exactly as it had been only two days earlier.

"How did you—" she'd began, grabbing his arm in her hands and turning the limb this way and that to get a better look. Except it didn't feel quite like muscle underneath. Her eyes narrowed and rose to meet Hisoka's impish grin. Her fury bubbled to the surface and surpassed the floodgates, and before she could think she punched him square in the chest before pointing a finger in his face. "What did you do to my beautiful automail?!"

"Is this how you treated your alchemist?" he teased instead of answering. "No wonder he didn't ask you to stay." Winry glared at him, but didn't back down. He shrugged. "I covered it with my texture surprise. It won't do me any good if the others knew about it. Wouldn't you agree?"

Hisoka didn't flinch when she bit him. To the contrary, his brows rose and he tilted his head in the direction of the exit — a blatantly invitation to abandon this little meeting in favor of something less structured. Winry dragged a finger across her throat in an unmistakable gesture, and he smiled dryly.

"Oh dear," he at last drawled in response to the offense that had been murmured, turning slightly so that he was at last visible to the rest of the Troupe around the corner. "That sounds quite gruesome indeed. I'm simply terrified."

"Hisoka! You bastard!" a big man snapped as Hisoka stepped out into the open, and Winry followed his lead.

She didn't recognize the man who had spoken, but her eyes took quick inventory of the room. She saw plenty of faces she had met before; Pakunoda, Nobunaga, Shalnark, Machi— It took her a moment longer to find Chrollo, who lingered back in the shadows.

"Guess you're running a bit late," Shalnark said, his upbeat, enthusiastic tone masking any reservations he may have had.

"I was starting to think you wouldn't show," Machi added. She glared openly at Hisoka in a way that Winry sympathized all too much with.

"Who's this?" the big man demanded. "She's kinda cute." Winry didn't blush. Nobunaga answered before anyone else could.

"I remember you. You went to Heavens Arena with us. You're that mechanic. What are you doing here?"

"This is Winry Rockbell, a mechanic from across the sea. She's come to do us a great favor," Chrollo spoke, his voice barely a whisper, "with regard to our task at hand."

His mere presence seemed to take all the air from the room, and Winry inhaled a deep breath as he stood. Everyone quieted and ceased their movement as Chrollo stepped toward her. His black hair had been slicked back, and he bore the tattoo on his forehead proudly and in the open for all to see. He wore no shirt beneath his coat. He was in so many ways, Winry realized, Hisoka's ideal foil. They were both beautiful but in starkly different ways; while Hisoka seemed to glow, the shadows belonged to Chrollo. Hisoka was the evil that abused until you gave in, while Chrollo's darkness invited you in with promises of everything a person could desire. Chrollo was the man who, upon betrayal, would slit your throat and leave you to die without fanfare. Hisoka, she knew firsthand now, would rip you limb from limb until he was satisfied. Even as far back as their first meeting, Hisoka had frightened her while Chrollo had lulled her so far into false security that if she'd been using a Hatsu, he'd have stolen it from under her nose.

Winry wondered which she would discover herself to be along this new path.

"Winry-san," he said, bowing his head as he approached her.

His arm was outstretched, and in his hand he held a rolled paper. Her forehead creased as she took it from him and opened it, studying the blueprint. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen before, but it was ingenious in design.

"Will this work?" she asked, glancing up at him wide-eyed and amazed.

"Can you build it?"

"It shouldn't be a problem."

"Wonderful." Chrollo took the paper from her hands and turned it over; there was an address written on the back. "Go there. It's where you will be staying until we've finished our business here." He turned slightly to face the rest of the Troupe, the volume of his voice increasing so they all might here. "I will send someone to check in on you often. Should you need anything, for yourself or your project, you will let them know."

The way the rest of the room looked upon her changed. She felt the atmosphere change with it. She was still an outsider to them, even to the ones she had crossed paths with before, but Chrollo's demonstration that he accepted her trumped all else. She would need to show them his trust wasn't misplaced. She slid the paper into her pocket.

"You can go. Leave here taking a different route than you came. We will be in touch. Everything you need for your project is waiting for you."

Winry gave a brief bow.

"I'm on it, Boss."