Fic: Prompt: "Like Ice"

[evil_little_dog]

Melt
by elrickeyblade

Rating: PG

Prompt: “Like Ice”

_________

Nowadays, it was always like ice around Ed.

Always.

Winry knew that all of their friends- the ones whom they had fought and endured with side by side- were baffled by how frigid the air around her and Ed was. She wasn’t ignorant of the furtive looks Riza cast between them; nor did she think Edward was entirely immune to Roy “accidentally” shoving him somewhere near her direction whenever the whole company came together for a friendly gathering.

But she just couldn’t help it. The ease that she once had around Edward simply refused to stay warm, ever since the conclusion of the Elric brothers’ journey had left fewer obstacles between her and them. She felt the ice inside her too, all those unspoken feelings she before had to hold at bay suddenly sinking deeper within her with the desperation of those who never wanted to be found.

Winry set down her wrench and sighed, staring blankly at the half-finished arm on the table before her. She had resigned herself to this, and yet-

“Oh Wiiiiinry!” came the high-pitched call of Garfiel from the workshop below. “You have a special customer, dear!”

“Okay!” she called back, but her voice didn’t betray the icy dread she felt creeping up from her stomach. She really had only one special customer, after all.

‘Don’t panic!’ was the main thought flitting through her head, and she hurriedly went back to attaching plates and screws. If in someway her past self could have seen her in this present, Winry knew she would have been laughing her guts off at the sight of her fumbling fingers. ‘What are you so worked up about? He’s just the same old Ed, dammit!’

Just how had her feelings done this, to make her feel so nervous and flighty whenever Ed was around?

She rubbed her forehead, the smear of grease a comforting rebel against her sudden need to be prim and neat. Ed was just Ed, after all.

Click, said the door, and she didn’t bother turning around. She knew exactly who it was stepping in her room, didn’t she? The heavy clomp of that metal foot was a dead giveaway, so she shouldn’t indulge in needless greetings.

‘Yes, Winry. You can do this. All you have to do is-’

“What, you’re not gonna say hello or anything?”

‘All you have to do is be ice.’

Winry didn’t even spare him a glance, instead focusing on the metal arm that her fingers repeatedly ran over. “Hello, Ed,” she answered, her voice even and chilled.

He seemed to have caught the chill in her voice, for after that there were no other sounds besides the tinkering of her wrench and the rhythmic patterns of their breathing. To her surprise, she found it quite comfortable.

Edward then dissipated their comfort with his own voice, which was laden with wryness gathered from the grains of the desert itself. “Is this a bad time?”

Her fingers stilled, as though melting in puddles from the heat of his scorching tone. She closed her eyes for one brief moment, then, “Another repair, Ed?”

A derisive snort. “What did you think? That I would blow my arm apart just to come see you?” At that, she turned to see him raising his right arm slowly, the dying creak of metal speaking volumes beyond its mangled appearance.

The Winry without ice would have blown up. She would have pounded his wrench into the side of his head, then demanded why he was wearing such an- such an overbearing face like that, with his eyebrow raised and his chin jutted and his arms crossed.

But instead she exhaled and crossed over to him, her wrench tapping against the side of her leg while she stared at him for good measure. He didn’t draw back or move as she drew near, but answered the challenge of her eyes with his own.

What was he wondering? What was he think-

‘Focus, Winry!’

She cleared her throat and gently took his arm in her hands. Just looking at it was enough for her to feel a couple of seconds of the old anger that she used to feel whenever he brought his arm back to her in such a condition. It was scratched and gouged everywhere, the wires leaking out of it in some places. There were even a couple of his fingers that were rendered useless.

Her fingers tightened on the metal. Just what the heck was he doing? Why was he always putting himself through such dangers?

“Getting mad?”

She shot a look up at Edward, who was staring down at her with an expression somewhere between smugness and bored inquiry. Despite herself, she found herself focusing on things that were unnecessary in that moment- the strength of his jaw, the brilliance of his eyes, the deeper tone in his voice-

Her chin trembled, and she clenched her teeth shut before releasing them again. “No. Just thinking of the amount of cash you’ll have to pay me once all this is over.”

She didn’t miss the bewildered look that had flashed through his eyes at that statement, but he covered it up with a cough into his fist. “Whatever. Money isn’t really much of a problem.”

“I know that,” she answered as she turned away. She went back to her table to gather the tools necessary for the lengthy repair that was sure to come. “Just sit over there,” she ordered as she pointed at a straight-backed chair in a corner of the room.

“Huh? You’re gonna fix my automail right now?” His voice came out surprised, as though he didn’t expect such a thing of her, and for a moment Winry found herself feeling a tiny slimmer of reproach.

She retorted to cover her guilt, her voice coming out stronger than she expected. “Well, I can’t let any automail of mine go around looking like that any longer. Do you want the repair, or not?”

He glared at her for that remark, but eventually went and seated himself in the chair indicated. When she came over to disconnect his arm, his eyes were closed, as though he were sleeping.

It was only then that Winry could see the dark circles under his eyes and the thinner appearance of his cheeks, and she felt the old worry within her bubbling up to the surface. No matter the things between them, she still loved him.

Even when she was too much of a coward to let him know that.

She inhaled sharply at that, and his eyes flew open to face hers. They were still that same fierce gold, the gold she had come to adore and love so much, the gold she often saw in dreams during nights of fitful sleep. They were always like that, searing and painful to look at and yet as beautiful as the sun.

And, just like ice, Winry could feel herself melting.

She leaned back suddenly, her insides juggling with each other and her fingers trembling. He just watched her with a blank expression on his face, and Winry frowned and turned her attention back to his arm. It took only a few moments for her to disconnect it, and when she was done she moved back to her worktable and laid a cloth over the other arm already there.

“Who’s that for?” Ed asked behind her, and she almost jumped from the startling his sudden question gave her- as well as his sudden presence near her back. How did he get there so fast?

“A customer who lives in Dublith,” she answered, and the surprised gasp she heard strangely flattered her.

“Dublith?” Ed asked, incredulous, before regaining his calm demeanor. “So you take orders from other towns now?”

Winry nodded once. “Mm-hm. But not too many of them. Mr. Garfiel is afraid that I’ll be overloaded too much if customers found that I would accept orders from other towns.”

“Of course you’ll be overloaded. Your automail’s the best,” Edward retorted, his voice gruff. “If too many customers found out, you’d get so many orders that this whole room would be nothing but a mountain of the stuff.”

She had heard before of how often he would praise her automail- Al was a big chatterbox when he wanted to be- but she couldn’t exactly remember hearing his compliment in person. It was strange, how warm a simple compliment from him felt to her icy insides.

“I- I see,” she stuttered, and immediately she berated herself for it. This is just Ed, she thought furiously. Just Ed.

“So is that it, then? You’re just gonna stay in Rush Valley apprenticed to Mr. Garfiel?”

She faced him at that, surprise flooding from the contours of her face and the blueness of her eyes, a blue that was so different from the ice she tried her best to imitate. He was staring down at her again, his question repeated in his eyes, and not for the first time Winry marveled at how tall he had grown.

“What do you mean, Ed?” Her voice was quiet, as though tired. And in a way she was- tired of all that had come between them, and of all that had never been said.

He sighed and glanced away. “It’s nothing.”

She probably should have dropped it right there, but her tiredness was affecting her in strange ways. “Ed?” she asked, coming closer to him. “Is…is something wrong?”

He shifted his eyes back to hers, and one glimpse of them made Winry feel as though she should be reeling instead of standing still.

‘What- what is he doing?’

That thought came a second too late, as right before then he made a sudden motion with his head, bending down in one swift motion to press his lips against hers. They held there a bit longer, still yet sweet, before he moved away with eyes so wide that Winry was sure that the whole thing hadn’t been planned from the start.

He backed away, swallowing, before turning sharply around and stuttering, “I- I’ll be downstairs with Garfiel.”

She didn’t answer, and he closed the door behind him.

When nothing but silence pervaded the room, she held a hand to her mouth. Remembering the things she had not noticed before- a hint of red on his cheeks, a trembling jaw, shifty eyes- her lips curved into a smile.

Deep in her heart, the ice was melting.