Edward pulled his phone from his pants pocket. He called his prosthetic technician through Facebook Messenger, resolutely ignoring the no cell phone sign on the wall as he pressed the down button on the elevator, because he sure as hell couldn't afford an international call otherwise. While Edward studied chemistry in Japan his childhood friend and former girlfriend Winry Rockbell enrolled in Georgia Institute of Technology to earn her Master's of Science in Prosthetics and Orthotics.

They'd maintained a long distance relationship throughout Ed's undergraduate and master's studies at Oxford. Once upon a time the trio had planed to all convene in Atlanta for the last of their education. Edward would get his Doctorate in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech with Winry, while Alphonse studied medicine at Emory University. A plan that went out the window when Al met Mei Chang.

The two met by happenstance when Mei visited Oxford in her tour of undergraduate programs. Her parents apparently wanted her to be pre-med. Alphonse, who double majored in organic chemistry and pre-med, guided the tour of the science labs that day. In the end she settled on a school in Tokyo for zoology instead. After a thousand and one video chat dates Alphonse decided to follow her there for medical school.

Winry still hadn't forgiven Edward for following Alphonse. The announcement that Ed intended to spend another two to three years abroad hadn't gone over well. They had a massive fight. To make matters worse Alphonse took Winry's side of things. 'Brother,' Alphonse had said, 'You love Winry. You should be with Winry. We're not kids anymore we don't have to do everything together.'

Edward went to Japan.

Winry broke up with him.

At the time, Ed decided he could live with just being friends with Winry, but he wasn't ready to face the world without his brother. Unfortunately, Winry wasn't exactly speaking to him. Or rather they weren't speaking to each other. The breakup was still fresh. Neither of them had sent so much as a message in the last six months.

At least Alphonse and Winry kept in touch.

The only reason Ed had any idea how she was doing in Atlanta was Alphonse relaying scraps of information. The call rang and rang and it was around the fifth ring he realized it was roughly four o'clock in morning on the East Coast. The call picked up. Instead of the sound of Winry's sleepy mumbles he heard her raised voice amidst a cacophony.

"Hello?" Winry answered.

The doors in front of Edward slid open. He started into the empty elevator wondering where Winry Rockbell was at 4AM, and for that matter who she was with, all the while realizing it wasn't any of his business anymore. "Ed?" Winry's tone held a note of worry. The elevator doors started to close. Ed stopped them with one hand. He stepped into the elevator.

"Hey," Edward mashed the button for the lobby. "Sorry. I shouldn't've called so late. I didn't think about time difference." Knowing he had no right to he asked, "Where are you?"

"Hang on a sec."

Edward watched the descending numbers above the door. It made him think about acceleration and deceleration. How really deceleration was the same thing as acceleration only with a negative sign. The same way this conversation would probably be the same as every conversation they'd ever had only with negative connotations. Because if he hadn't screwed things up they would have one of their mock fights instead of an actual fight, and it'd probably be in person.

"Are you still there?" she asked.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pulled the rug out from under you by changing the plan. I should have talked you. I love you and I want to be together. It's just that I don't know how to be 'Ed' when it's always been 'Ed and Al.' I know, I know, it used to be 'Ed and Al and Winry,' but it's never been only 'Ed and Winry.' I picked Al when I should've picked you. Al told me to pick you. I want to fix things. I don't know how to fix them, but I want to try fix what I broke. You have no idea how badly."

That's what Edward Elric wanted to say.

Instead, he said, "Yeah, I'm still here."

The noise on Winry's end had died down.

"Sorry about that I had to step outside. I couldn't hear you," she said.

"Where are you?" Ed asked again.

"I'm at The Varsity."

"Where?"

"The Varsity. It's downtown. The three of us met there after our campus tours and ate hot dogs. You remember," Winry told him.

Edward did remember.

The people taking orders at the counter yelled 'What'll ya have?' The Varsity served standard drive through fare and then some. The menu items might be standard but the staff used kitschy lingo. Potato chips were a 'Bag of Rags'; French fries were 'Strings.' If you wanted a plain hot dog you had to specify a 'Naked Dog.' Ask for a Hot Dog and you wound up with chili and mustard on top, which to be fair turned out to be pretty damn great, but at the end of the day not what Ed ordered.

There were these red and white paper hats with the logo on the side by the soda fountains you could take for souvenirs. Winry made Edward and Alphonse wear them long enough to take a selfie together. Ed's ended up in the trash. Winry kept hers and he thought Al might still have his. In retrospect, he wished he'd kept the stupid paper hat, but he'd never had a habit of accumulating keepsakes. He hadn't needed to what with Winry's digital photo albums and Granny scrapbooking their whole lives.

The three of them had fun that day, though the area where they looked at apartments seemed a little sketchy. Having lived most of her life in the middle of nowhere where everything closed at nine Winry thought it was neat the local chain of grocery stores were open 24 hours. Not to mention all their sale items were ten for ten. You could get ten boxes of popsicles for ten dollars at two in the morning if you wanted.

'Sure, if you want to get murdered in a grocery store parking lot at two in the morning,' he'd quipped. To which the landlord showing them a two bedroom apartment replied, 'Nah, they tore down the Murder Kroger. Moved The Masquerade, too. Adaptive reuse my ass. Goddamn gentrification, amiright?'

Winry Rockbell was apparently undeterred by the possibility of being murdered in a parking garage.

"You're getting burgers at four in the morning?" Ed asked incredulously.

"Did you need something?" She snapped back.

Edward bit his tongue. The elevator opened into the lobby. He took a deep breath and exited the elevator.

"How's school going?" He changed the subject toward the reason for his call.

Silence.

"Winry?" Ed checked to see if she was still on the line.

"I'm here. School is going well. Actually, I'm with my study group. Midterms are coming up. We got kicked out of the library for being too loud."

"That sounds about right," Edward joked without thought.

And Winry laughed.

Ed stopped outside of the entrance to the hospital to the side of the sliding doors. He hadn't heard her laugh in forever. Even before they broke up he hadn't heard her laugh in a long time. Different schedules and time zones made it difficult to carve out time to have a conversation. Winry wrote lengthy emails but Edward's replies were few and far between. He blamed his research and his teaching schedule and the classes he himself had to take.

Eventually, Edward Elric realized he only had himself to blame for the deterioration of their relationship.

It took the end of said relationship for him to see it.

"I am not loud," Winry exclaimed.

"I'm sorry. I had to move the phone to my other ear because my eardrum burst. What was that?"

"Oh shut up! You're such a jerk," Winry said.

He couldn't be sure but almost she sounded fond.

"Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Oh?"

"I don't know if Al told you about the train accident that happened this week, but one of my students ended up losing her an arm," he continued.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Winry sympathized.

"Yeah. The thing is she does kyudo. Japanese archery. It's sort of her thing. She got a scholarship and everything. I'm gonna help her catch up on her school work, but I wanted to ask about prosthetics. I know if there's anyone who can figure out a way to get her back into the sport it's you."

Silence. Again. Edward pulled the phone away from his ear to make sure the call hadn't cut out. He put the phone back to his ear.

"Winry?"

"Thanks, Ed. It's nice of you to say," she said it so softly he had to strain to hear her.

Edward flushed and looked at his feet. He scuffed his shoe against the pavement and leaned back against the wall behind him. Looking up at the strip of sky between the buildings he stared at the grapefruit colored clouds. Sunset swept daytime into night in increments. He wondered if she was also looking at the sky.

"Yeah. Well, it's true," Ed muttered.

"It's good to hear your voice."

Edward blinked in surprise.

"It is?"

"Of course it is, dummy. I swear, you're the dumbest genius I've ever met."

"Meet a lot of geniuses do you?" Ed quipped.

"I guess not!"

Winry had him laughing this time.

"Let me do some research. I know more about specialized prosthetics for runners than anything else. Which arm did she lose and how far up was the amputation? What's her name by the way?" inquired Winry.

"Lan Fan Mori. Left arm all the way up to her shoulder," he responded

"Shoulder disarticulation? Not shoulder disarticulation and forequarter?"

"Nope. She's still got her scapula and clavicle," Ed confirmed.

He might not be a biologist but he studied enough human anatomy to know what she was talking about. Talking science was a lot easier than talking about his feelings. Edward didn't think she'd want to hear them at this point anyway. Too little too late.

"I'll let you know what I find but I'm thinking myoelectric."

"Not body powered? Aren't those expensive?" Ed ventured.

"First, I need to learn about kyudo. Second, I need to figure out exactly how to meet her articulation needs. Third, we figure out the financials. One step at a time," she said.

"Right."

"I'll talk to you soon. Okay?" Winry questioned.

"Okay. Bye, Winry."

"Bye, Ed. Don't be a stranger."

"Yeah," Edward nodded even though she couldn't see him. He hung up and headed home, feeling a little lighter than he had before he heard her voice.

"Are you mad at me?"

Lan Fan looked at her little sister. Naomi stood on the threshold with one foot in the door and her hand on the frame. She swung her school bag at her side. Lan Fan couldn't summon up the same level of anger she felt when Naomi first showed up with Edward Elric. After all, it looked like some good would come from it. Besides, arguments with Naomi always ended in tears. Naomi's not Lan Fan's but all the same she didn't want to fight.

And so she simply sighed.

"I'm not mad but please stop showing up unannounced. Just… send a text message. We both know you know how," Lan Fan gave her a pointed look.

Naomi was the reason their mother instigated the no phones at the table rule in the Mori household. More than once Mayu Mori had taken her phone away for the offense of liking instagram posts under the table.

"Okay!" Naomi beamed.

Her rose gold curls bounced as she bounded over to the bed. She looked like a commercial for hair color. Lan Fan thought, 'She should be in commercials.' Naomi Mori had all the makings of a model. If she set her mind to it she could become on idol.

"I'll make it up to you," said Naomi.

"You don't have to-" Lan Fan started to protest.

"I want to make it up to you," Naomi said as she unpacked a set of hair brushes and makeup from her school bag.

"Naomi, I told you I don't want to be in one of your transformation videos," Lan Fan raised her voice slightly. She wasn't angry before but she was getting angry now.

"No video or pictures," Naomi promised. To prove it she turned her phone off and put it away. "I want to do something to make you feel a little better. This is what I do best."

Lan Fan searched her sister's face. Naomi looked like she might've been crying earlier in the day. The injured archer didn't think a makeover would make her feel any better, but she had the sense it might make her sweet sister feel some better.

"I suppose I could use some help with my hair," Lan Fan relented.

Naomi's smile sparkled.

"I've been saying that for years!"

Lan Fan rolled her eyes. Naomi giggled. Though Lan Fan had a bath that afternoon the first thing Naomi insisted on was washing her hair. Naomi wheeled the doctor's stool into the bathroom, and had Lan Fan sit with her back to the sink. Turning on the tap she tested the water on her wrist until she had it at a suitable temperature.

"Head back," Naomi instructed.

Lan Fan relaxed while her little sister washed her hair. The feeling of Naomi's nails on her scalp felt nice. Unfortunately, hospital shampoo wasn't up to Naomi Mori's standards. She made up for it by conditioning Lan Fan's hair twice. Once satisfied with the softness of her sister's hair she patted away the excess moisture with a towel.

First, she carefully combed out the tangles. Next she set to drying Lan Fan's long hair with a round brush and the dinky hospital issue hair dryer. Despite the less than decent drying apparatus Naomi seemed more or less happy with the results of her work. Lan Fan didn't have an opinion as Naomi forbid her from looking in the mirror.

The injured archer didn't much care how it looked. Having her hair clean and brushed felt nice. She'd already decided to let Naomi have her fun as long as she put Lan Fan's hair in a bun afterward. On day two of this disaster Lan Fan had figured out putting her hair in a proper bun without help would take some serious practice.

"So," Naomi said after they maneuvered Lan Fan and her sidekick the I.V. stand back to the hospital bed. She stood beside the bed with her makeup spread out on the table for ease of access. "Tell me about Ling Yao."

"I don't know anything about him," Lan Fan stated.

"Really? You don't know anything about him?" Naomi laced her words with sarcasm. "You know his name."

"Naomi," Lan Fan sighed in exasperation.

"Tell me one thing about him," Naomi cajoled. "Something I don't already know." She cleaned Lan Fan's face with a cleansing cloth before applying a light moisturizer.

Lan Fan thought about everything she knew about Ling, while Naomi brushed mineral foundation onto her face with a kabuki brush. Considering Naomi and Kana were the ones to fill Lan Fan in on the events immediately following the crash her siblings probably knew more than she did. Lan Fan had even learned Ling's last name from Naomi.

'Ling Yao,' Lan Fan thought. 'Probably not hafu then.'

"His favorite color is yellow," Lan Fan said. Of course, Ling's favorite color was an educated guess. "I think his favorite color is yellow."

"It doesn't count if you don't know for sure. Try again."

Lan Fan waited for Naomi to finish applying tinted balm to her lips before speaking.

"He asked me to have coffee with him," she confessed.

Instantly, Lan Fan wished she hadn't said anything about the coffee date.

"I knew it! He wants to be your boyfriend," Naomi gasped.

"He doesn't want to be my boyfriend," Lan Fan denied. "He asked me to have coffee with him before."

Though Lan Fan meant before the train accident she couldn't say the rest of the sentence. She couldn't talk about what happened. Lan Fan didn't think she'd ever be able to talk about the accident. There was a lot she couldn't remember. Not that she wanted to remember anything that happened, but what she could remember she did not want to talk about. Ever. Lan Fan measured her life in before and after the crash. The guy from the train was part of the before.

No matter how much she wanted to go back to the perfect moment before her world turned upside down it was impossible.

Only Lan Fan's arbitrary measurement of time didn't account for Ling Yao's sudden appearance in her doorway with two bags of takeout in hand. Over her sister's shoulder she stared at the handsome man wearing jeans and a blazer over ones of those silly t-shirts that made her smile every time.

"Hi! I hope you don't mind I brought dinner."