Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Nights Like This ❯ Nights Like This ( One-Shot )

Nights Like This

By Eilan-san

 

Warning: Spoilers for End of Series

 

oooo

 

Winry smiled softly. Al, even returned to his younger self, was definitely still the Al she'd grown up with.

 

She wandered over to his slumbering form on the couch and brushed his hair out of his eyes and patted the head of the kitten who had snuggled up with him before moving up the stairs to her own bedroom for the night.

 

The cool summer night was quiet and still. Al had returned to Rizenbul from his training with Izumi-san for a brief vacation before he would head to central to take the state alchemy exam. If he passed, he would become one of the youngest state alchemists in history, second only to his brother.

 

Winry sighed. Edward has been missing for two years and his absence weighed heavily on hers. A piece of her had died the day that Al had come home in his ten year old form with no memories of the past four years and without his older brother. It had become blatantly obvious that Edward had sacrificed himself to bring his brother back - something so stupid that only Ed would do it - but Winry refused to believe that he was dead. Ed had simply… disappeared.

 

It was on nights like this that she missed him the most.

 

If she stood close enough to the open windows in her bedroom she could swear she'd see ghosts of her and Ed as children dancing and laughing in the wind. He was always teasing her and pulling her hair, and she would always retaliate with her wrench. And Al would always be watching with a smile when his brother and the girl next door fought, as if he knew what was really going on, but didn't want to say.

 

There were so many memories here. Her first kiss. Ed had brought her a messy bundle of wildflowers on her sixth birthday and had held them out to her with an annoyed look on his face. She'd smiled, happy he'd remembered and before she could realize what was happening, he was shyly kissing her cheek and running away as fast as his legs would carry him.

 

She remembered the day a giant suit of armor had come into her house bearing a bloody boy in his arms begging for her grandmother to help him. How he had spent the next year under her care as she taught him to use automail. How each and every time he'd return during his quest to return his brother to his body with his arm in pieces, she'd scream at him, hit him, but in the end always repairing it, repairing him. His automail arm and leg were her pride and joy - her ultimate gift of herself to him. How proud she felt when he'd declared that she was his mechanic.

 

And then there was the almost kiss the last time she'd seen him. But she'd been too afraid to take that leap.

 

She imagined him - bright blond hair in a braid, his famous red coat and big golden eyes that always seemed to bear a much bigger burden than someone his age should have been carrying. She could almost see him, sitting across from her, reading, as he always did. Sure, he was a little older now, and maybe even a little taller, but he was still the same Edward. He was her boy-next-door, literally, and as much as she loved Al, he would never replace Ed in her heart.

 

Deep down, she knew that she'd never be with another boy. There was only room for him. So, he couldn't be dead. He just couldn't be. The stories don't end that way. And so she would wait.

 

She'd wait forever if she had to - until he came back home. Home to her. Because that was where he belonged.

 

oooo

 

A breeze blew in from the window and his papers fluttered to his feet. He glanced out the window and for a moment, he could have sworn…

 

No. She wasn't there. He shook his head. I'm losing it. But still, there she was, exactly as how he'd pictured her in his daydreams. Tall and beautiful.

 

She was just sitting there, across the street, gazing out the window. At him.

 

He stared wistfully back at his childhood friend. This is a joke. I'm hallucinating. He'd always assumed that he and Winry would end up together. It was just how it was done. But things don't always turn out how you plan them, and his life was certainly no exception.

 

Besides, I'm sure she's found somebody else by now. He sighed and started picking up the papers at his feet.

 

He'd overheard the other students talking about their childhood sweethearts and how they would take them dancing and out to dinner and he'd realized that in his obsession with returning himself and his brother to normal, he'd missed her. He'd wandered off to find his own destiny and when he'd returned his girl-next-door wasn't a girl anymore. Which, quite frankly, scared the crap out of him. All of the sudden, he would get flustered from just being around her. Al would laugh at him and then he'd say something stupid so she would get mad at him and things would return to the way they had been when they'd been growing up. But they never did, in fact they only got worse.

 

The last night he'd been at home, he'd almost kissed her, even though he doubted she knew it at the time. She'd been mad at him for something or other and had been yelling at him and threatening him with her wrench. He'd just stood there, pressed up against the wall of the house and she, oblivious, had stopped yelling a mere inch from his face. He was the first to notice how close she was, terrified of how badly he wanted to close that distance. He'd stuttered and blushed and when she realized exactly how close she was to him, she'd done the same.

 

They'd each retreated to their separate bedrooms, but she had haunted his dreams ever since. And now… if he closed his eyes and tried hard enough he could feel her next to him, hugging him and laughing.

 

He missed her. He missed her a lot. Especially on nights like this. He took a long last look at the imagined figure across the street.

 

He would return to Hagaren. To Al. And to her. And maybe this time… he wouldn't be afraid to close the distance between them.

 

He just hoped she'd be waiting for him.

 

Fin.