Chapter Text
Winry had always been in touch with her emotions, so even after a revelation as monumental as the one on that train from Central, she did not let it turn her world upside down. Back in Rush Valley she still had clients, friends, mountains of work and just as much to learn. Nothing about that had changed - she had a full, satisfying life to dive headfirst into. Her feelings for a certain short blond friend did nothing to stop her from settling into the routine of automail apprenticeship that, as exhausting as it could be, was even more rewarding.
Yet Winry had also always felt strongly and passionately. So during the times of hard-won rest, when there was no work to occupy her mind with, nothing to distract her from dwelling, it was so overwhelming it felt like being on fire. A fire needs fuel to burn, and she was just realizing how much this one was fed until it finally ignited. Her mind raced through every brush of hands, every dessert they had shared, every tease and playful argument they enjoyed having more than they liked to let on. Thought of the fireworks they had watched, of the boy at school he had punched because he had made her cry (the resulting fight allowed her temper that’s as strong as her tears time to flare up, and the book she threw being what left the biggest bruise on the boy). To how they had played together on a rare snow day in Resembool, the giant snowman he and Al had transmuted (in his sense of style, gaudy yet endearing because it’s so him). How he liked transmuting dolls and other gifts for her. The sleepless nights as she had watched over him, delirious from pain and guilt on the hospital bed, the fierce determination that had got him through that pain and more, that he always, always showed when it came to people close to him. The events of the days directly before her departure may have contributed the most, causing her to finally realize, but it had been building for a long time.
It’s that last thought that managed to calm her down. There was no sudden change, this had already been true for a while. It was not a raging inferno, but a steady, gentle flame, what once felt like burning had shifted into the comforting warmth of a nearby bonfire. It made sense to her now, why on the train that day, watching the Elric house burn was among the things she thought of.