#and now youre just like the rest of us! (Lium)

[bagfullofrot]

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[thegonnagle]

Happy happy birthday to my fellow fangirl, EdWin squad companion and amazing friend @winryofresembool !!🤗🎉 A super long time ago you gave out this sort of prompt to write something based on the topic of Ed‘s leather pants, and I do keep my promises^^ (And if you’re wondering why it turns serious and angsty about halfway through I DON‘T KNOW EITHER)

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful day and a year filled with lots of chocolate (both the cake kind and the EdWin kind xD❤️❤️) 

It was the stupid pants.

More precisely, it was Granny finally forcing the boys to clean out the suitcases that had been sitting in the corner of their room for weeks.

But really, it was stupid, infuriating Edward Elric, who never in his life seemed to throw anything away. Because why in the world would he still have a pair of leather pants at the bottom of his suitcase, when to the best of her knowledge, he hadn’t worn those since they’d split up that day in Briggs?

And maybe she should have known better than saying out loud how small they seemed now, but noone besides that idiot could have somehow twisted that into her calling him short. Which apparently he now had to somehow disprove by putting on clothes that were never ever going to fit-

„Brother, it’s really not necessary“ Al sighed next to her on the bed.

She’d been helping him look through the clothes he’d brought from Central, sorting out the ones he‘d already grown out of. Al had lamented the loss of the first shirts he‘d picked out for himself in more than five years, but honestly, she was glad she’d never seen him in those. It was still scary to look at him sometimes, as if he’d be blown away in the slightest breeze like a dandelion seed-

„I‘ll show you! Just you wait-“ Ed finished pulling up the stupid pants with a grunt, and admittedly, they came up quite short on the ankles.

They were also very tight higher up.

Ed didn’t seem to care though, or was willing to ignore it for the time being as he turned around with a grand flourish. The effect was slightly ruined by his struggle to stay upright.

Winry snorted, and she could hear Al shake his head with a long-suffering sigh, muttering something like „Oh, Brother“.

„What are y‘all laughing for? Shut up, I‘m taller than you-“

He kept wriggling around, apparently trying and failing to pull up the zipper with-

Her tongue caught behind her palate.

It wasn’t like- she’d seen Ed in underwear countless times, hell she’d seen him naked after his surgeries, and it wasn’t something she’d ever given a second thought too-

She knew she loved him of course, had even admitted it out loud to Granny, but there was still something profoundly embarrassing about realizing that your childhood friend had a nice ass. Like really, really nice.

Winry could feel her cheeks grow hot, and bit the inside of her lip, hard.

She forced herself to look away, focusing instead on evading the foot he kept waving around in front of their faces, presumably to show off that he had indeed outgrown the stupid leather pants.

It was a beautiful foot, if she did say so herself, with the new suspension system she’d installed three weeks ago shining through at the heel, smelling slightly of Brautmeier‘s Best Machine Oil, now that the idiot finally remembered to properly take c-

Was that?- Was that actually?

„Edward Elric, why the hell is there a huge dent on your dorsal plate?! What did you do?“

He stopped whatever height-related rant he‘d been yabbering until now, and gulped slightly. Then he narrowed his eyes at her.

„Well if anything it’s your Granny’s fault, that old hag has been a total slavedriver and wouldn’t shut up about the roof leaking in the workshop-“

„Ed you absolute moron, we all told you to take it easy with your arm, and you keep insisting on doing everything on your own-“

She forced herself to take a deep breath and slowly unclenched her fists.

„Well what happened? Did your hand spasm again and you dropped the hammer?“

His eyes widened for a second before turning dark.

„So what if I dropped the hammer? My leg works fine. And you know what? My arm is fine too, I punched the literal incarnation of God in the face with this arm, so I think I can handle a fucking roof-“

She could vaguely hear Al struggling to get off the bed (at what point had she stood up?), telling her and Ed to please calm down, but the blood rushing in her ears seemed to drown out every other sound and if she could just make that bloody idiot see reason for one second-

„Well you obviously can’t handle a fucking roof, not if you’re damaging your automail while y-“

„See this is why I don’t tell you things, you’re always freaking out about the tiniest things! You’re-“

He stopped himself when he saw her blinking away tears, which only made her more angry.

„You’re such an idiot“, she shouted, and cursed her voice for sounding so screechy. She whirled around, and left the door rattling in its hinges on her way out.

Al could sort through the rest of his shirts himself. Hopefully.

Or maybe that stupid brother of his could do something useful for once, that didn’t result in him ruining her automail, and hurting himself, and-

She gripped the wrench in her pocket tightly, and imagined herself giving Ed a good, hard whack on the head.

She turned to the workshop, in need of a distraction, and started with the first thing on this week‘s list, which was measuring and recutting parts for an arm they‘d upgrade in four days.

It was a good arm, an interesting project because she could combine the lighter alloy she worked with at Garfield‘s with her earlier designs-

It was still not quite enough to get her mind to stop thinking about stupid, nerve-racking Edward Elric.

For all of his patience with Al‘s slow recovery, he remained just as reckless and prickly with his own as he had been at eleven.

Maybe it was frustration after they’d beaten all those impossible odds, or maybe he just didn’t want Al to see that the arm he‘d sacrificed himself for wasn’t working perfectly; whatever the reason, Ed‘s arm was a taboo topic and it annoyed her to no end.

The metal grinder was whirring loudly in her ears, and so she didn’t notice the knocking until it was accompanied by a particularly loud clang of metal against metal and Ed‘s irritated voice calling „C‘mon Winry don’t be a bitch, I‘m trying to apologize here.“

She shut the machine off and set her goggles aside.

„Sorry, I didn‘t hear you. Come in.“

The door opened and closed while she began to clear her work table.

She could see him shift his weight from one foot to the other out of the corner of her eye.

„I‘m sorry for yelling at you. I didn’t mean that- what I said. I‘m sorry.“

„It’s okay. I guess I overreacted a bit.“

„Would you- would you consider fixing my leg? I mean, it still works and all, but it ain‘t that pretty I guess-“

Winry gestured to the chair next to her. „Sit down, take off your pants, you know the- wait“.

She threw the screwdriver into the closest drawer (even if that one was for measuring instruments, technically-well nevermind) and hated, hated how her breath hitched in her throat.

„Why in the world are you still wearing those damn pants?“

His face turned red and he looked away. „I- couldn’t get them off“, he mumbled, waving vaguely with his right hand for emphasis. Oh.

„And Al refused to help me! He said it was my own stupid fault, and that I should go beg for your mercy or whatever-“

„Of course I‘ll help you! Just uhh- can you hold up your boxers if I pull?“

„Umm- yeah sure.“ His cheeks were flaming when she knelt down in front of him, his eyes fixated on the anatomy posters on the wall.

„Okay, so I‘ll just-“

„Uhuh.“

„Right.“ She could feel her ears growing hot, and bit her lip. Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself, you‘ve helped your patients with this a thousand times. The fact that this is Ed should make it easier, if anything.

By the times she‘d managed to peel the pants off down to knee height, her lip was bleeding, and Ed‘s forehead was covered in sweat. Also he seemed to be mumbling something incoherent.

„Look, the hardest part is done. I think it’s easiest for the rest if you sit down, Ed. Ed?“

„-lium, Calcium, Scandium-“

„ED!“ She added a slight punch to his side for good measure, and he blinked at her.

„Uhh yeah.“ They hobbled over to the chair together, her supporting his shoulder.

„Why did you put them on anyway? I mean-“ Ed sat down with a grunt,and she rolled her eyes.

„I mean, you know that you‘ve grown since last year. You knew that these pants wouldn’t fit you. So why-“ she finally managed to pull the last piece over his feet, and threw the damn thing on his lap.

„Why did you do it?“

He leant back on the chair, crossing his arms behind his head and avoiding her eyes.

„I guess I had to prove to myself that I really can’t be the Fullmetal alchemist anymore“, he answered finally, his mouth pulled into a crooked smile.

„Because your pants are now too short?“ She raised her eyebrows.

„Well, I always made them myself, so it actually- ugh I don’t know, damnit Winry, they were a part of it too, my pants, my jacket, my boots, my coat- never got that one back from Mrs. Bradley now that I think about it-

I know it’s kinda pathetic, but I guess I had to really see it again-“

„It’s not pathetic“, she replied, careful to keep her voice neutral, and hopefully keep her face from pulling into any weird grimaces.

„Well I obviously can’t wear them anymore, so maybe I should give them to some kid in the village, someone who can appreciate my edgy-“

„ I don’t know, or you could keep them for your kids someday.“

Damnit, why had she said that? Her head was spinning as if she’d just gotten off of Rush Valleys most terrible rollercoaster, and Ed‘s face was rapidly approaching tomato colour.

„Win-ry“, he choked, and this clearly was a discussion for later, way, way into the future-

„Forget I said that! What I meant to say-“ was there something she’d meant to say? Well, she had better think of something fast-

„Don’t call yourself pathetic. Please. You gave up something really important to you, even if we got Al back. If I had to give up automail- I guess I would feel very lost for a while.“

„But I‘m not lost! After all those years I‘m finally back home, right, this is everything we wanted, and I‘m happy, I am, it’s just-“

He was breathing hard, fingers clenched around his knees so tight the knuckles shone white.

Their eyes met, for a second, and then he looked away again, lips pressed into a thin line.

„I guess I never imagined myself becoming this useless“.

„Ed you’re not-“

„I know, I know. And I‘d do it all again, obviously, because in exchange I got Al, and my friends, and y-“

His ears turned red again. He raised up his right arm, clenching and unclenching his hand, and she caught herself waiting for the familiar click-click-click of her first automail.

„It’s just, I started alchemy when I was five. First it was just fun, and then Mom liked it, and then I thought I had to get her back, and then I had to get Al‘s body-

Point is, I‘m not good at anything else. I don’t know anything besides alchemy, I can’t even figure out how to fix a stupid roof-“

„Will you shut up about the damn roof? I‘ll fix it tomorrow, if it bothers you that much-“

„More like it bothers Granny that much“, she heard him mutter-

„-and about the alchemy thing, I guess you just have to decide what you want to do with your life now. Not your mom, not what you have to do.“

She touched his jaw lightly, crouching down to meet his eyes.

„Just because you can’t do physical transmutations anymore doesn’t mean you stop being an alchemy freak though.“

His eyebrow twitched. Then the corner of his mouth.

„That’s rich coming from you. Damn gearhead.“

„Speaking of“, she lifted herself back up, „I still have to fix that foot of yours. You’re a walking disgrace to Rockbell automail right now.“

He snorted, probably about to spout some smartass remark, but she sent him a withering glare.

He wisely decided to shut up.

„Thank you, Win“, he mumbled amidst the clanking of her hammer.

„Seriously. I owe you one.“

You could wear those pants again. Get Al to adjust the size-

Out loud, she said: „Don’t worry about it. We’re all home now. That’s what counts. We have time to figure things out, right?“