Unfairness
Character: Winry
Rating: Worksafe
Note: Hughes spoiler, end of the series if you catch it, and lots of Winry thinking. Enjoy.
It was unfair. In so many ways it was unfair. It always hurt to see them go, to see them turning their backs and walking away. She knew that they couldn’t understand how she felt, that they didn’t realize how very badly their departure always wounded.
She was afraid for them. She kept waiting for the day that there would be a call, and she would find out that one or the other had gone missing, that Edward might be dead, that something went wrong… She knew it would never come. Even if they did vanish, or something did happen, why would the military tell her? What reason had she to be involved in the affairs of the military?
No, it wouldn’t be like before. She’d find out because someone else told her, she’d find out second hand and without warning. That’s how she found out about Hughes. He’d been a nice man, and she’d become very fond of him. She’d desperately wanted him to taste the pie that Gracia had been teaching her to make, but it wasn’t to be so.
She didn’t want to just walk up to Central Headquarters one day to find her trip had been in vain. She died a little every time someone called to tell her Edward was in the hospital. They were her brothers, if not in blood, then at least in the fact that she knew them, was close to them, and she took care of them. Yet they hid things from her…
When something was wrong, they didn’t tell. When they were being stupid, they made sure she didn’t know. When they wanted a home… they still didn’t come back to stay with them. They still didn’t admit where home was even when it was right in front of them.
The years had brought new people into their lives, good people, yes… People she never might have met before, yes, but-
When someone knocked on the door, it broke her thoughts. Her hands got suddenly clumsy, fumbling a screw, and she could have smacked herself over being so distracted. Hearing no footsteps, she sighed, deciding she needed a break anyway. Her worry was making her absentminded, and if she didn’t pause, she’d likely really screw up, then she’d have to start over.
Padding downstairs, she swung open the door, expecting some customer with a problem- just because Edward totally destroyed his on a regular basis didn’t mean the other customers were without accident- but that was not what she received. Instead she found herself looking down instead of up, and the world tilted on its axis.
“Al?” There was no Edward in sight.