* -- MEANT TO GIVE LIFE !

~wheeeeee

   the night was quiet enough that not so long ago, it would have caused him to tense up & be wary of dangers—but he was beginning to learn, to ingrain within himself, that that part of his life was over. under the night sky, where it was dark enough for them to see the stars overhead ( central’s always been too big, too loud, & the streetlights alone were enough to block out the view ), the gentle breeze & the sound of crickets were the only things that accompanied them.

   she’d wanted to climb to the roof in order to stargaze, and it’d only taken a little persuasion for him to agree ( there were stars in her eyes, too, & he’d much prefer to look at those ). they were sitting together, & she’d been close enough to touch the entire time; but they barely did, hands loosely held in the space between them. he didn’t mind, though—he was content enough with just her presence, here, & the sound of her voice. automail, it was something she loved to bits & yet another thing he adored about her; even if he didn’t understand all of the complicated jargon, he enjoyed listening to her talk about something she was passionate about ( & besides, she did the exact same for him when he spouted off about alchemy ). as the topic shifted, though, so did the tone of the conversation, leading to his honest words. confession made, and, after a few brief moments of silence that seemed like forever, & she was leaning closer to him, head resting on his shoulder in a way that made his heart skip. ed squeezed her hand in response.

   “so am i.” funny, how he’d have been too embarrassed to say the words before, but now they come as easily as breathing. he turned his head slightly so he could press a kiss to her hair. “i love you too, ya big sap.” he said as the wind, this time a little chillier, whistled past them. “hey, you cold?”

@buildlife.

THEY’VE GROWN, IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. winry feels this in the relaxed, comfortable auras they exude now, in each other’s presence and literally in the way that she has to prop herself up on the heel of her hand and crane her neck up to return a kiss of her own — it lands just a few inches above the slope of his jaw, and she smiles into it too. 

“ speak for yourself, ‘cause you’re the sap. ” she says, tone teasing but without any real bite. there’s something reverently special about being in love with your best friend — conversations can jump from tooth-aching sweetness to poking fun at each other, and it stays easy and natural all the while. winry lets his i love you too sit and bloom into a little explosion of warmth in her chest, then promptly files it away into the slowly but surely growing pile of outward, explicit words of affection from him that she keeps somewhere in the forefront of her heart. she’ll never get tired of hearing it, the words i love you ( and neither will she get tired of saying it ) — winry thinks she could be eighty five and have lived her whole life to its fullest ( she just knows they’ll get there, to that point in their lives that being ancient and happy and complete becomes the new normal ) and even then, she wouldn’t tire of hearing it, especially coming from ed. 

THINGS THAT WILL TAKE WINRY ROCKBELL’S BREATH AWAY— the itemized list is as follows: new automail designs she’s never seen before; seeing alphonse back in his body for the first time; the picture of her dad that she keeps tucked in her bedside drawer and that she loves because he looked so much like her; the first time she heard the lecoulte baby cry all the way back in rush valley; snow in resembool; the way granny can make a clean, straight cut with a scalpel look as if it’s the easiest thing in the world.

oh, and ed’s funny, endearing way of catching her off-guard with the fewest, simplest of words. 

he manages to do so now, as they’re sitting knees-to-chest on the roof, supposedly stargazing. she’d been going off on a tangent, the way she always managed to — it was another sign that life was going back to normal, that their conversations were no longer peppered with quiet fear for the other’s safety spoken over the phone or briefly in person before ed had to go again. the exact words she said, winry couldn’t remember ( in part because her mind is all too preoccupied with the realization that edward’s eyes are such a rich shade of amber, rich enough to make her think that it could be her newest favourite colour ), but it had something to do with an offhand joke about how he better not leave her again, which apparently prompted him to say that. 

winry realizes she hasn’t said anything back and reels because the last thing she wants is for him to interpret the silence as awkwardness, even though they were probably way past that stage already. they just know, but it never hurt anyone to say it out loud.

“ i know i am, ” she bumps her shoulder against his and scoots just a little closer. winry puts her head on his shoulder and breathes in, smells his shampoo and laundry detergent and maybe just a touch of cinnamon from the last apple pie he’d torn through at dinner. THIS IS HOME, winry decides. “ i’m right where i need to be. ”

STUBBORN AS THEY COME, winry wonders what kind of higher power decided that they could exist on this earth at the very same time and in such close proximity and in such a life that allows for so much injury. she knows better than to take an i’m fine from edward elric — over the years, winry’s found that if he has to justify his fine-ness, there’s at least a ninety percent chance ( and that’s a generous room for error, thank you very much ) that he’s embarked on another death-defying stunt and barely managed to escape.

this is a standoff she’s been in one too many times in her life, over everything from skinned knees on the playground and who pushed who accusations to outright life-threatening situations, and the latter always seemed to be in abundance nowadays. winry knows he’s not going to cave, but she still stands her ground. if there was someone who could out-stubborn the boy who’s got a bone to pick with the entire universe, it was going to be winry rockbell. 

she’s not exactly fine either but she also knows that a gash and bruise is nothing compared to what ed’s likely to have sustained. her first instinct is to worry about him, and it’s only heightened because now she doesn’t just get to hear about the aftermath and details in a choppy phone call from miles and miles away. winry has the sleeve of her jacket pressed against the upper right side of her face, trying and failing not to draw his attention to the wound under it.