Title: Dedication
Author: jordannamorgan
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Characters: Dominic and Winry.
Setting: Post-series, Winry in Rush Valley.
Rating: G.
Length: 397 words.
Summary: His new apprentice was at it again.



At nearly three o’clock in the morning, Dominic awakened to hear a faint scraping of metal on metal, and realized his new apprentice was at it again.

The automail mechanic rose, threw on some clothes, and shuffled out of his bedroom, following the muted sounds to the guest room down the hall. When he knocked, Winry’s rather startled voice called for him to come in. He opened the door to find the still fully-dressed girl looking up at him a bit sheepishly, with a glowing-hot soldering iron in hand.

“I’m sorry if I made any noise that woke you up,” she apologized, her cheeks pink.

“We have surgery to implant Mr. Boel’s port tomorrow,” he reminded her gruffly. “You should be sleeping.”

“Yeah, I… I know. I’ll be fine. I just want to finish soldering these connections first.” She avoided his gaze. “By the way, I’d like to use some of those new alloy gears you just got in. You can take the cost out of my pay, like usual.”

Dominic sighed, and his eyes drifted down to the half-finished automail arm that lay before Winry on the table.

Almost from the day she arrived to work and study as his apprentice, she had spent every free moment crafting that right arm, and the matching left leg that was now propped against the wall. In return for raiding the highest-quality parts in his inventory, she paid back to him every spare cens she earned beyond the cost of her room and board. She would stay up late into the night, obsessing over those prosthetics, adjusting and refining the mechanisms until they were as perfect an imitation of natural limbs as human hands could create.

If only she poured that much of her heart into their work for paying customers, Dominic thought, she could have quickly become lauded as one of the best automail mechanics in Rush Valley.

“…You’re really that sure he’s going to come back,” he mused quietly.

Winry still did not lift her eyes, but her answer was swift and definite, with no trace of hesitation.

“He is. I know he is.”

There was nothing more for Dominic to say to that.

After a long, thoughtful moment, he shrugged and ambled back to his room, where he fell asleep still listening to the sounds of the only means Winry knew to show her fierce devotion.

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2017 Jordanna Morgan