FMA: 52 Flavours, Prompt 40
Title: Arrant Knaves All
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Theme no.: 40. I want to know how you slept with him, the way you held him./Every crevice through which my shadow may ink itself.
The more I tell you of my happiness, the more unhappy I am./That you are not part of it, that you do not covet it for yourself.
Pairing: Ed/Winry (implied Ling/Ran Fan)
Rating: K+
Summary: People are waiting for them. Winry reminds Greed.
Notes: Written for
52_flavours. Features spoilers from chapter 48 and on, particularly for chapters 55, 56, and 74. Because I’ve wanted to write Greed!Ling for a long long time, and because the last line of this fic popped into my head and I was forced to write it backwards. (Did I mention how mind bogglingly annoying that is?). The title was stolen from Hamlet because… man I love that play. A lot.
It is needless to say, but this is AU out the wazoo. It’ll never happen in canon in a million years, but damn I wish it would.
“He’s waiting for you, you know.” His taunting voice breaks through the darkness that her world has been for much of the last week or so - they only travel at night, and they keep her shut up good and proper in one of the Fuhrer’s cars, traveling in his personal cavalcade as they race back north to Brigg’s. Winry knows that Major General Armstrong is riding in one of the other cars ahead of them, having noticed the way her penetrating gaze flickered over Winry, just for a moment before turning away to her own car, away from the hostage who was riding with the homunculus.
Winry refuses to meet his eye. The man across from her was once a proud prince of Xing, and it breaks Winry’s heart to see how he’s lowered himself in accepting a role as an underling of the homunculi.
“He knows we’re taking you back up to Briggs, and he’ll create the crest we need himself while he waits for you,” he continues, and Winry clenches her jaw to stop herself from retorting. Before she would have never hesitated to banter with Ling - he asked for it, the same way Ed does, but now she’s never sure who’s talking to her, who’s squinting out of which cracked eye. Even if she were assured that it was Ling speaking to her, she still would not respond. She doesn’t trust either one.
He frowns at her now, disappointed that his plaything is not entertaining him as promised, and rubs the back of his neck before leaning forward conspiratorially. “You’re waiting for him as well, aren’t you?”
Her elbow is braced against the ledge of the car door, and her chin is planted in a similar manner, her eyes gazing impassively out the window - a posture of complete apathy that would have been far more convincing if there weren’t thick curtains over the windows and Winry’s hand hadn’t clenched, her nails slowly digging half-moon marks into her cheek.
A slow smile crawls across his face. “Have you gotten anything out of that boy yet? I can’t believe that even he is so focused on his task as to completely ignore a beautiful lady like you, just sitting in front of him.” His voice is low and he is still leaning close to her, his breath hot against her cheek and ear. “Even with the way he looks at you, the way you think of him, nothing’s happened, has it? All those pretty pictures you dream every night are just fantasies, aren’t they?”
Winry’s blinking hard, furious at herself for letting him get to her. She’s always tried not to let her mind wander in that direction - focus on Ed, on Al, on Ed’s automail and Al’s armor, not on any fanciful ideas she might have for the future - but her dreams regularly betray her.
“So you just wait,” he says, and something in his voice shifts. “You wait, and you wait.” Winry’s eyes slide over to him, half-curious and half-fearful of this new change of tone. The look on his face is ever the same, studying her almost lazily out of his right eye, but the voice was almost… touched. It was less of a taunt and more of a plea. “Wait.”
“Ling?” she breathes, hardly knowing what to think.
With a deep sigh the homunculus abruptly withdraws, leaning back into his seat and almost going limp, his arms slack around his waist and his head flopped back against the car seat.
Righteous fury suddenly rose up in Winry. “He has someone waiting for him too!” she suddenly burst indignantly, breathing deeply to quell the hot tears that threaten to well in her eyes. She’s still waiting on Ed’s promise, after all, and she knows Ran Fan is still waiting on Ling’s promise of coming back immortal - though mostly coming back.
Across from her, his eyes remain closed. “You’re right,” he remarks, almost indifferently. “She is waiting for me.”
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Theme no.: 40. I want to know how you slept with him, the way you held him./Every crevice through which my shadow may ink itself.
The more I tell you of my happiness, the more unhappy I am./That you are not part of it, that you do not covet it for yourself.
Pairing: Ed/Winry (implied Ling/Ran Fan)
Rating: K+
Summary: People are waiting for them. Winry reminds Greed.
Notes: Written for
52_flavours. Features spoilers from chapter 48 and on, particularly for chapters 55, 56, and 74. Because I’ve wanted to write Greed!Ling for a long long time, and because the last line of this fic popped into my head and I was forced to write it backwards. (Did I mention how mind bogglingly annoying that is?). The title was stolen from Hamlet because… man I love that play. A lot.
It is needless to say, but this is AU out the wazoo. It’ll never happen in canon in a million years, but damn I wish it would.
“He’s waiting for you, you know.” His taunting voice breaks through the darkness that her world has been for much of the last week or so - they only travel at night, and they keep her shut up good and proper in one of the Fuhrer’s cars, traveling in his personal cavalcade as they race back north to Brigg’s. Winry knows that Major General Armstrong is riding in one of the other cars ahead of them, having noticed the way her penetrating gaze flickered over Winry, just for a moment before turning away to her own car, away from the hostage who was riding with the homunculus.
Winry refuses to meet his eye. The man across from her was once a proud prince of Xing, and it breaks Winry’s heart to see how he’s lowered himself in accepting a role as an underling of the homunculi.
“He knows we’re taking you back up to Briggs, and he’ll create the crest we need himself while he waits for you,” he continues, and Winry clenches her jaw to stop herself from retorting. Before she would have never hesitated to banter with Ling - he asked for it, the same way Ed does, but now she’s never sure who’s talking to her, who’s squinting out of which cracked eye. Even if she were assured that it was Ling speaking to her, she still would not respond. She doesn’t trust either one.
He frowns at her now, disappointed that his plaything is not entertaining him as promised, and rubs the back of his neck before leaning forward conspiratorially. “You’re waiting for him as well, aren’t you?”
Her elbow is braced against the ledge of the car door, and her chin is planted in a similar manner, her eyes gazing impassively out the window - a posture of complete apathy that would have been far more convincing if there weren’t thick curtains over the windows and Winry’s hand hadn’t clenched, her nails slowly digging half-moon marks into her cheek.
A slow smile crawls across his face. “Have you gotten anything out of that boy yet? I can’t believe that even he is so focused on his task as to completely ignore a beautiful lady like you, just sitting in front of him.” His voice is low and he is still leaning close to her, his breath hot against her cheek and ear. “Even with the way he looks at you, the way you think of him, nothing’s happened, has it? All those pretty pictures you dream every night are just fantasies, aren’t they?”
Winry’s blinking hard, furious at herself for letting him get to her. She’s always tried not to let her mind wander in that direction - focus on Ed, on Al, on Ed’s automail and Al’s armor, not on any fanciful ideas she might have for the future - but her dreams regularly betray her.
“So you just wait,” he says, and something in his voice shifts. “You wait, and you wait.” Winry’s eyes slide over to him, half-curious and half-fearful of this new change of tone. The look on his face is ever the same, studying her almost lazily out of his right eye, but the voice was almost… touched. It was less of a taunt and more of a plea. “Wait.”
“Ling?” she breathes, hardly knowing what to think.
With a deep sigh the homunculus abruptly withdraws, leaning back into his seat and almost going limp, his arms slack around his waist and his head flopped back against the car seat.
Righteous fury suddenly rose up in Winry. “He has someone waiting for him too!” she suddenly burst indignantly, breathing deeply to quell the hot tears that threaten to well in her eyes. She’s still waiting on Ed’s promise, after all, and she knows Ran Fan is still waiting on Ling’s promise of coming back immortal - though mostly coming back.
Across from her, his eyes remain closed. “You’re right,” he remarks, almost indifferently. “She is waiting for me.”