Chapter Text
"Doesn't look like anyone's home,” said one of the men carrying the water tank behind the Rockbell house. As they reached a stop, another gentleman lifted the lid, “We are here now, Miss Winry.” A draft of chilly air swept inside the vessel, particularly cool given how hot it had gotten on their short journey from the train station to her house.
Winry climbed out of the tank. Early spring in Resembool was cooler than she had remembered, but after spending several weeks in hot and dry Liore, she must have become less accustomed to it. She was glad she was finally home. Her adventures have been a lot: Central City, Rush Valley, Briggs, Bascool, and, lately, Liore. No longer a prisoner nor stranger, being home in Resembool was a familiarity that she had duly missed.
She walked through the back door and into the darkened basement. “Mmmm, still smells like home" she breathed, relieved. Accompanied by her new body guards, Mick and Liam, she gestured for them to follow her. The men poked their heads into the front workroom. "Woah, It seems as if an automail bomb went off" Mick exclaimed curiously.
"Try not to touch the work in progress" Winry sighed. She was tired and slowly made her ways upstairs. She decided she would accompany them around the property later, in the meanwhile she headed towards her room to change her clothes. Winry opened the door to her bedroom and in an automated fashion headed straight towards her wardrobe. Despite the sunny late afternoon, the room was dim, but she hadn’t really noticed. Grabbing some clothes and tossing them on the bed, she shook off her jacket.
"It's gotten so dusty in here" she murmured to herself as she started to pull her tank top off. In the corner of her eye, a shadow of a figure caught her attention. Her heart stopped in her chest. A million thoughts went through her mind. Paused, she could not breathe. Edward was sitting in a chair only a few meters away from her. His mouth agape, staring in shock back at her. She felt her stomach clutch and gave into her instinct to scream. The scream rang out expressing all of her surprise, frustration and embarrassment.
In no time, the men who had escorted her to the house burst through the bedroom door pointing their guns in the air. "Hey! What's the matter here?" One shouted.
Edward tried unsuccessfully to find the words to explain the situation. Winry hadn’t stopped shrieking.
“When did Edward Elric get here?” the other inquired.
This was awful.
Two more gun safetys made a clicking sound and behind Winry’s guards were a pair of even larger guys she had never seen before. Suddenly, Den growled and one of the large men in the back started howling.
"What the hell is going on up here?" Asked a tall Xingese man from the hallway.
“Ling?” Winry asked. Awesome. Ling was here too.
What the hell, thought Winry. It was too much. After traveling and being away for months, she wanted one second of alone time. Instead, there were more men shoved into her tiny room than she had been around for weeks. And she was for sure Ed had caught a glimpse of her naked upper body -- without permission.
As the grown men rabbled around her, Winry leaned close to Ed, peering at the men in the doorway “Ok, Ed, you wanna tell me what’s going on here?”
Ed was even more confused but couldn’t help himself, “looks like a cautionary tale about guns.”
"Don't be a smart ass. Tell me why you are in my room," Winry growled.
This is not what Ed wanted to discuss. Racing thoughts invaded his mind; he couldn’t admit to the truth that he was in Winry’s room because he missed her. He had commandeered it when they first arrived as a way to protect her space from the chimeras and Greed, the latter who was currently inhabiting Ling’s body. For him, her room was comforting and familiar. He hadn’t realized just yet how deeply he needed her presence around him - all he had registered that this was the spot he enjoyed most in the house.
But why tell her that? She wouldn’t understand and would absolutely lord this over his head forever. He rolled his eyes, “I just wanted someplace private to eat my sandwich.”
That. Was. It. Winry had enough. How humiliating. “Get out of my room" shouted Winry, as she kicked the grown men through the door and into the hallway. She turned back and glared at Ed, wrench in hand.
Ed panicked. Surely, through no fault of his own, he was next.
She straightened her shoulder and admitted sadly “I was worried about you.”
Of course, Ed thought to himself. She always worried, maybe she wasn’t as angry as she was relieved. And if Winry worried about anything, he surmised, it was most likely pertained to her precious automail grafted onto his body. He figured he’d fight fire with fire, and mumbled, “I was worried about you too.” He hoped to change the subject and make the whole situation less awkward, “I thought Al was with you?"
“He's at the train station right now. He's with Miles. The train's gonna leave soon, you might be able to make it if you hurry" suggested Winry. She knew he wasn’t here waiting for her. It was his brother who was the most important person to him and it had been too long since they had seen one another.
What a great way to exit. Ed stood up quickly and started making his way towards the door but stopped immediately. It…probably wasn’t such a good idea. Briefly he had almost forgotten why the curtains were closed and why he was holed up in the shadows: exposure was his worst problem right now and he needed to be wise about his appearance in public.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Asked Winry as he paused. “Don’t you wanna see him?”
“Well, technically, I'm a fugitive right now. I can't risk anyone seeing me.”
"But still…" Winry commented. She knew how much Ed wanted to see him. She wanted him out of her room, far away from this humiliating moment, even if she had to seal him into the water tank she just came out of herself.
"Winry? Welcome home,” interrupted Granny Pinako, standing at the entrance to the room. The commotion was more of a surprise than seeing these two together - although the blushes between them were a new development, albeit one she suspected for some time now.
"Hey Granny, I hope you weren't worried. I missed you,” Winry rushed to hug her. Pinako hadn’t a worry, she had always trusted these kids. She never doubted them; they always had excellent intentions and made wise-ish decisions. Growing up as orphans, she saw the three of them rely on each other and mature more quickly than anyone their age.
Responding to her beloved granddaughter, Pinako relayed her own feelings to Winry and encouraged her to come downstairs to introduce the newest set of hooligans. Ed tagged along with her, so happy to be removed from that room and all the competing feelings it had wrought in the last few minutes.