The Same Coin

Prepared To Be Rid

Winry glanced out the peephole before opening the door, and a muscular man she recognized from the hideout ducked inside. He was as tall as Hisoka with short blonde hair, and a strong jawline. His eyes were beady.

"Boss said you needed help," he stated plainly, looking her up and down only once before glancing around the room. Welding equipment and tools were scattered around the room, and there were scorch marks on the wall. She had pulled the nails so that she could roll up the carpet, and she had propped it up in a corner away from where she was working. She had covered the wide, out-ward swinging double doors that led to a patio with boards. In the center of the room she had several bars already welded. The man smiled in what she could only interpret as approval. "I'm Phinks."

"I just need a second set of hands," Winry answered as she shut and locked it behind him. "I'm Winry."

"I've heard about you," he acknowledged.

He didn't wait for her to tell him what to do, he was already shrugging out of his tracksuit jacket. He wore a white sleeveless shirt underneath. Winry tossed a pair of welding gloves in his direction, and he snatched them out of the air with one hand without blinking to pull them on.

"What's this errand that the Boss has you working on?" he asked.

"I'm building an aerial device," she explained, handing him the paper Chrollo had given to her.

"A hot air balloon?" Phinks said with curiosity. "You've never heard of these before?"

"There aren't flying machines where I'm from. The first time I saw one was when I met Chrollo flying from Maycape to Yorknew City awhile ago. I'm building the framework right now out of these hollow metal bars, but it looks like Chrollo overlooked clamps when he got the supplies together, so I need someone to hold these."

"I can do that."

She tossed him a helmet and he pulled it on, then they got to work. It had taken longer for him to get there than it did for her to finish welding the framework for the hot air balloon together. As they worked, though, Phinks questioned her intermittenly.

"Where are you from?"

"Amestris."

"Chrollo said you're a mechanic?"

"I design and build automail — mechanical prosthetic limbs. They're common in Amestris."

"So you come from a place with mechanical prosthetics, but nothing that flies? Sounds kind of backward. What's your deal with Hisoka?"

That she hadn't been sure how to answer at first. For a moment what they were to each other felt too complex to cut down to bite size. Then she wondered why it had always seemed that way, when in the end it was exceedingly simple.

"He taught me to use Nen," she said, "but he's a bit deranged."

Phinks had laughed aloud at that.

"I never took Hisoka for the mentor type," Phinks chuckled. "And yeah. That's Hisoka. sometimes I wonder what the Boss keeps him around for. He's unreliable and untrustworthy ever since he joined two years ago."

Winry had nothing to say to that. She had a good idea of why Hisoka had been unreliable; he'd spent a great deal of that time in Amestris with her. She had wondered plenty of times whether Chrollo knew what Hisoka did when he was left to his own devices but, for the first time, she found herself debating whether she should tell Chrollo.

She'd realized long ago that Chrollo was a wolf she would rather have on her side, but most of that time she'd viewed Chrollo and Hisoka as being on the same side. It was only recently that she'd realized was Hisoka's motivations were with regard to Chrollo, and learned that Chrollo was suspicious of that much. What would she happen if she told him that Hisoka had gone to Amestris to learn alchemy, and that now he had an automail arm? Would Chrollo kill her for having enabled Hisoka? Or would he protect her from Hisoka, because Hisoka would surely kill her if she revealed his secrets. Their secrets, because she was a part of them, too.

If she had to choose someone's corner to be in, who was it wiser to back? Hisoka Morow or Chrollo Lucilfer?

Phinks was a sufficient assistant for the task at hand. They finished the basket frame in short order, and made equally quick work of assembling the basket before attaching the balloon and a gas labeled as propane. She commented to Phinks that in Amestris they likely would have used butane instead. He'd found that amusing.

They finished with time to spare before the deadline, and were playing cards when someone knocked.

Winry opened the door, and Chrollo gazed down at her expressionlessly from the other side of the jamb. Behind him stood most of the Troupe. She stood aside to let them in. Chrollo kept the introductions brief. Machi, Pakunoda, Nobunaga, and Shalnark she already knew. Feitan, Uvogin, Shizuku, and Franklin bowed their heads as they were named.

"Is it finished?" Chrollo asked, and Winry nodded. "Well done."

"How do we operate it?" Shalnark said.

"Like this—" Winry turned to see Nobunaga pointing to something, but Uvogin brushed him aside saying, "No, you're doing it wrong. You—"

A hand touched her elbow. She didn't have to look to know it was Chrollo. She let him draw her away from the others, and he pressed something into her hand. Winry glanced down to see an envelope, and knew it was money. She was smart enough not to object, instead sliding it into her pocket.

"You did well," he acknowledged. "I'd like for you to remain here until I tell you to go elsewhere. If you have no objections."

"So you can kill me at your convenience now that I've served my purpose?" Winry said with a quiet, uncomfortable laugh, her earlier concerns nibbling at the back of her mind.

His forehead creased and his dark brows furrowed. "Is that what you believe?"

"If you believed it was necessary, yes. Without hesitation."

At that, Chrollo smiled.

"If it were necessary, but we are both fortunate it isn't. Machi told me what she's seen you do — you have great potential. I'm not prepared to be rid of you yet." She bit the insides of her cheeks when he tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, still smiling. "But if anyone is going to kill you, Winry Rockbell, I want to be the one to have that honor."

Her knees went weak.

"Are we ready, Boss?" Shalnark asked. Chrollo nodded.

They took down the boards blocking the doors to the patio, and together they carried the basket and balloon outside to where a truck was waiting, then loaded it onto the flatbed before covering it with a tarp. Feitan, Machi, Nobunaga, Uvogin, and Shizuku were piling into a car.

"Can I have these?"

Winry turned to see Shalnark behind her, holding the deck of cards she and Phinks had been playing with while they waited.

"Ah — sure," she conceded, and he beamed before tucked them in his pocket and heading off to the car, leaving only Pakunoda, Phinks, and Chrollo behind.

"I will be in touch," Chrollo told her, putting his hands in the pocket. "Stay here. I may need you yet."