FMA: Gilded (If)
Ninth chapter of Gilded! First chapter/explanation of this fic can be found here, with links to later parts.
Title: Gilded
Prompt: If
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist (manga/Brotherhood)
Word Count: 225.
Rating: G
Summary: In which Winry ponders the inevitable.
Warnings: SPOILERS through to the end of the manga/Brotherhood.
Author's Notes/Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist and all associated characters, settings, etc., belong to Hiromu Arakawa-san. The only profit I make from this work of fiction is my own satisfaction and, possibly, the enjoyment of others.
With Ed, Winry had always known it was a matter of when, not if.
She had teased both of the Elrics when they were kids - well, Ed was so easy and fun to provoke, and while Al was adorable, she had never wanted to marry him. When she pictured the man she’d marry, he was taller than her, fair-haired and kind, a man who understood automail and understood her.
It wasn’t until she was much older that she found she’d always been picturing an older Ed.
And Ed at sixteen was a lot taller than Ed at six - nicer too (a little bit, anyway - if Ed ever turned into the perfect gentleman overnight she would worry) and much less prone to tantrums. His eyes still tended to glaze over when she gushed over the latest technology from Rush Valley, but he did understand her. Eventually, Winry realized that he always had.
So she wasn’t in the least surprised when Ed, flushed to his hairline and looking at anything but her, asked if she’d like to go out with him - no no no, not go out out, just go with him, to dinner maybe. If she didn’t have plans already. If - if she really wanted to.
And Winry simply smiled and put her arm through his. It had, after all, never been a matter of if.
TBC ( Part 10 - Jagged)