The Same Coin

To Be Encompassed

"Illumi," Winry rasped, wrapping her hands around his forearm, ready to use her Hatsu against him but hoping he wouldn't take this that far.

"What are you doing breaking into Hisoka's quarters?"

"Put—me—down."

Illumi paused before lowering her to the ground, his grip on her throat loosening only so slightly but it was enough for her to suck in a quick breath. Enough for the growing darkness on the edge of her vision to ebb.

"I'm here for my equipment," she said. "My crates of automail equipment are here."

Illumi paused then, turning to look over his shoulder. Looming in the shadows of Hisoka's suite hulked the crates in question. There was a prolonged moment where Illumi evaluated them carefully.

"Thank you," Winry added on, "for warning me about Chrollo's Hatsu."

The man's big eyes roved back to her, widening further.

"Did Chrollo attempt to—"

"I don't know for sure. He claimed his Nen was restricted by a Judgement Chain, but I used what you told me to avoid the requirements for his Hatsu."

Illumi let her go.

"All you want are the crates?"

"Yes."

Despite all he'd done in Amestris, he had never struck her as the particularly helpful sort. But he assisted in lifting each crate up onto the trolley, and opened the door again when she returned with it empty. With his abbreviated assistance, it took less time than it would have if she had had to do it alone. As she pushed the trolley with the final crate toward the door, Winry paused to look back over her shoulder.

"Is Hisoka still helping Chrollo?" she asked.

Illumi nodded. "Yes. He is on Greed Island as we speak."

She wanted to ask where Greed Island was, but the answer wouldn't matter. Hisoka wasn't here and, it was likely why he hadn't returned her phone calls, too. As for why that possibility hadn't occurred to her before this, she wasn't sure what had dulled her to that potential, but in hindsight she felt like an idiot for not realizing the correlation sooner.

She tilted her head forward in goodbye, and let the door shut behind her as the trolley followed her out of Hisoka's suite. All in all, the task had been less troublesome than she'd initially anticipated. The sheer volume of crates was almost overwhelming. Winry stood back and stared at them — her entire life from Amestris, boxed up and ready to be encompassed by the life she was preparing to build here instead.

"What are you doing down here?" Buccaneer's voice spoke up from behind her. "Looks like there are more now than there were this afternoon."

"There are," Winry affirmed. "I was able to get the other crates from my—" Another hiccup in her speech. Why was it so hard to address Hisoka as a friend still? "—friend."

"So this is everything then?" Winry nodded. Buccaneer's hand fell on her shoulder. "Then come back to bed."

She let him guide her to the elevator, then to her quarters. The Captain didn't sit down on his cot. Winry stood back, watching, as he sat on hers instead. The lights of the city behind him, outlining the breadth of his silhouette, were reminiscent of when she had found him waiting for her that first night. Except tonight she could see the lights gleaming on his destroyed automail. She still needed to fix that for him.

He held out his hand to her, and she thought of Kimblee.

Her dreams of him hadn't abated, but they were no longer frightening. His voice whispering in her ear, "Shoutings of agony are like lullabies for me,"before the Sun and the Moon collided again in an array of fire and ash.

Buccaneer was a good person. Better than she.

She ignored his outstretched hand as she sat beside him, her fingertips pushing him to lay back on the bed. Then she laid beside him, resting her head in the crook of his automail arm and savoring the coolness of the metal against her cheek. And Buccaneer, a good person — better than she — only rested his chin on the top of her head.

If she had chosen to go to Buccaneer's room instead of Kimblee's that night at Brigg's, then perhaps she would have been in a room with him in North City now instead of this room in Heavens Arena. And that realization was too much to bear.

So she closed her eyes, and locked the thought away instead.