To Wait A Lifetime | FMA | G

[Mellie]

To Wait a Lifetime
By: Mellie
Rating: G Word Count: 640
Character: Winry
Warnings: End of show spoilers/my own speculations.
Notes: This was written for FMA500 challenge #7: Expectations. (written a little while back)


She expected him to come back. It was what she did. No matter where he was, or how far he had gone, she always expected him to come home. It was how she could survive the months of not being able to see him, hear his voice. Those times were the darkest she had to endure; the longest seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months. But, then, there came a new separation.

Al had returned, but Ed was nowhere to be found. What more, Al had returned in his body not the armor his soul had been tied to. After hearing random pieces, something clicked in her mind: He was not coming back this time. This time their hollow good byes were the last words they would share, that was the last time she would see his infamous braid, the last time she would work on his auto-mail and be close to him.

Every time the thought crossed her mind, she had to fight back the tears that bit into the back of her eyes. Her cheeks tingled with unshed emotion, but she refused to cry tears for the man that would never see them. Instead, she put on a smile and walked through the day fighting the wayward thoughts of him.

It was easier with Al out training. He was like a younger image of Ed, only their personalities truly separating them. It tore her heart to have the one she loved as a brother standing before her while the man who had captured her heart was gone. She knew she was greedy and she should be glad that Al was human again. But he was the constant reminder of the brother she didn?t have.

In the years that followed Ed?s disappearance, Winry had held onto the desperate hope that Ed would return. She would see his cocky grin coming up the walk. Then, she would smack him before embracing him in a hug that asked him to never leave her side. As the years passed, her hope grew wan. All she could do was have that fragment of faith in the bottom of her heart.

Eventually, her mind forgot what he looked like. And knowing this, her heart began to break. He was quickly becoming a fading memory of her broken past. And the past she tried to bury in her work. By twenty, she was the world?s youngest and most sought after auto-mail specialist for her intricate work. Every now and then, men with tied-back blonde hair would enter, and in those times she felt something twinge in the back of her mind. The lost memories were what surprised her at inopportune times during a particularly difficult nerve to auto-mail connection.

She got upset with the phantasm she allowed him to be. He could be anywhere with her at any given time given the right remembrance. The times when he haunted her the most were when Al made the occasional stop to the shop she had established in Resembool. Over the years, it wasn?t so hard to see him, the resemblance with Ed slowly easing out of his innocent features.

Al was still researching how to bring Ed back, and in more recent years, he was becoming more confident that he could do it as well. Winry often asked Al not to tell her the recent updates, but kept the reason deep in her heart. Something in his eyes told him he knew otherwise. And that something seemed to drive him just as hard as his own personal reasons.

In her heart, Ed would always be her first and only. He kept her going, even in her lowest times. The faded memories could still visit her dreams, and often did. With those, she could go on waiting. Waiting a lifetime wouldn?t be so bad. For him, she could wait forever.

[end]

[bookworm]

Oh, that is so sad. But it could happen. Though I don't want it to happen that way, but it could. I'm going to be optimistic here. But yeah, it would be sad that the memories will still be there, but blurred. I can relate to that.

[Leia Avenrose]

Aww... :/ That's quite the depressing little piece you've gone and written. Made me tear up, wow. It's rare for a story nowadays to do that to me. Great job. I want more. More, more, more! Hurry, write some more. *nudges with a wet noodle*

[LittleRooster]

OMFG!! that was so awsome!!!!