Chapter Text
Most people might be scared to find themselves alone at a graveyard as the sun sets, promising an end to the safety of sunlight. But to Winry, Resembool Cemetery is a place she’s become too familiar with too young to be frightened of. Only the faintest ambience of nature could be heard, and the quiet calmed her, not of fear, but of all things — the feeling of butterflies in her stomach, as she contemplated what exactly to say.
“Hi, mom. Hi, dad”.
“I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last visit, I’ve been very busy. Actually, I got an apprenticeship in Rush Valley, you must be happy to hear that, right? I’ll do the Rockbell name proud. But that’s only part of it, it’s even been on hold for a while — I’ll continue soon, it’s just that…”
Gosh, did she even want to get into that now?
“... something came up. It’s a long story, honestly it’s pretty hard to wrap your head around, I’ll tell you all about it another time. I won’t lie — it got very dangerous, and not just for me, but everything turned out well in the end. Speaking of that, it’s actually another thing that’s kept me busy. Remember what I told you about the Elric brothers? Well they’re… they’re back now. Alphonse was just skin and bones, but even then, God, he actually had skin and bones”.
Winry’s voice started shaking — this had been her reality for a while now, yet something about saying it out loud made the emotions hit her all over again. Winry’s always been someone who felt strongly, who laughed a lot and cried a lot, hell, it’s something she prided herself on — still does. But, as unashamed of her strong emotions as she was, with age she’s learned to better handle them when needed. This wasn’t the right time, at least not yet. So she steadied her voice and continued.
“Fixing that has been a lot of work”. She chuckled at her telling word choice. “I find that easier to do with mechanisms, and a good thing there is that they often only require as much time as it takes for you to do all the work. Did you know that you can make an entire automail arm from scratch in as little as 3 days? Just be sure you don’t forget anything, with the all-nighters you’ll need to pull. But human bodies — they need time to heal. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how much effort you put in, it can only be done so fast. But you were the doctors, I suppose you know that better than me, huh?”
“Anyway, back to Al. He spent the first two months at a hospital in Central, a recommendation from a doctor there was a good starting point for the recovery. Granny’s been really good at adding, changing and adapting it as needed. At this point I shouldn’t be surprised at just how knowledgeable she is, but she still impresses me. And between doing the right exercises, regulating his physical activity otherwise, feeding his body mass back up, and carefully, gradually increasing that, not to mention everything that goes towards supporting someone who’s so weak — honestly the hardest part has been stopping himself from pushing too hard. He’s still an Elric, don’t let his polite demeanor and kind face fool you, especially the eyes — he knows how to abuse that. But all that work is paying off, he’s a lot better now”.
“Ed is also back. He wasn’t in as rough a shape, so we put him to work on Al and around the house — only right if we’re housing and feeding him, right? At least, after his arm healed, the one that wasn’t metal anymore. It was a weird experience — not every day that you treat someone with automail getting that limb back. Good to learn new things, but I’m not sure that’s something I’ll ever get to use again. But he didn’t get his leg back, unfortunately. At least he seems at peace with that, and, well, I wouldn’t be entirely honest if I said that some part of me isn’t glad to have something to work on”.
Winry’s face flushed. There was something else that she needed to tell them about, something she had been subconsciously putting off, and she had just run out of ways to delay it any longer. No, she didn’t just need to, she did want to. That was her intention from the start, a big part of why she remembered to visit in the first place. It’s important and her parents really had to know. All that didn’t change the fact that it was embarrassing. But there was no leaving until it was said, she wouldn’t allow herself, nor to be as flustered by the topic as Ed, so she might as well just get it out there already.
“S-speaking of Ed… Mom, dad, there’s something I should tell you about my first client. You see, i-it’s just that umm, well, I… I realized he’s more than just a really close friend to me. I think at some point I might’ve called him ‘like a brother’, but that’s not it either, I was probably just figuring how exactly it is that I felt. And now that things have settled down… well — it turns out he feels that way towards me too”.
She was dreading this moment, and now that it’s over with, the secret let out, no matter how awkwardly, to probably not just Sarah and Yuriy Rockbell, but all the residents of Resembool Cemetery (and hey, if auntie Trisha and mr Hohenheim were listening in, they should also know), she couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s funny, you know? I was so afraid of saying this, I don’t even know why, it’s not like I’d ever get an answer besides silence. And now that I have, I wish that I actually did need to worry about how you’d react. I know the Rockbells and Elrics go back a long way, I wonder if it makes you happy for them to be connected like that? I know mom and auntie Trisha were close friends, I wonder if you ever fantasized about that when you saw us playing together? You had good intuition for things like that, I bet you did. I wonder if dad, trying to be ‘the voice of reason’, told you that ‘you can’t tell who someone will end up with by their behaviour so early’, but liked the idea anyway?”
She could feel her eyes start to burn at the familiar tension of tears building up, and this time she did not fight it.
“I wish you were here. I wish you could’ve gone ‘protective dad’ on Ed, if mostly for the fun of it, since it’s someone both you and I know so well, but you were playful like that. I wish mom could’ve been there to tease me about liking a boy, help pick out a pretty dress, talk about when you were like that with dad”.
Tears were freely flowing.
“I remember granny saying that you shouldn’t cry for loved ones that passed away, because that makes them sad in the next world too. I never could live by that advice. And I remember getting mad at you about it, that if you didn’t want me to cry, then you should’ve been here. I’m sorry about that, but you know what, I’m not sorry about crying. I think it’s better to let it all out. And I’ve come to learn that you don’t only cry when you’re sad”.
“Of course I wish you were here, I always will, but I’ll be fine. I’ve said that to myself before, had to just to get by some days, but this time I feel like I really mean it. I have granny, Den, Al and, yes, Ed. I have people in Rush Valley, and so many others. I have a job I love, people I love. I wish you could’ve seen me, but it’s okay, I know you’re proud of me anyway”.
As the flow stopped, and one of the final tears rolled down her cheek, the corner of her mouth twisted upwards.
“Bye mom, bye dad. I’ll visit again soon, and I’m sure I’ll have a lot to catch you up on. Miss you, but please don’t worry about me. I’m happy, and…”
She stood up
“... wherever you might be, I hope you are too”.