Darish shifted his eyes from the men being taken away to Lettie. Even though she struggled to support the weight of her much bigger brother, she hadn’t let out even a peep in complaint. Darish gently stroked his sister’s head.
“Thank you.”
Lettie’s eyes went wide, and as Darish broke into a smile when he met her gaze, Lettie also started to beam, full of glee. Seeing his sister’s smile from up close after such a long time going without it, Darish recalled again just how many times he had made her cry.
He murmured to himself, “What was I thinking?”
Several automail users and mechanics assisted the military police by carrying out mountains of documents from the shop that would serve as proof of coerced sales and broken laws. Just as those people wearing automail had come running to his rescue using their automail bodies, Darish wished he could run to his little sister’s aid when she was in danger. That thought was firm in Darish’s mind.
“I’m going to start putting real thought into my leg from now on,” Darish told Winry. His expression was filled with anticipation and hope for his new leg. His expression was so bright that Winry practically had to squint to look at him.
“So I was thinking,” Darish continued, seeming to have some trouble finding the words. “Could I ask you to talk to me about my leg?”
Winry blinked in surprise for a moment, but then a smile bloomed on her face.
“Of course you can! I would be happy to, if you’ll have me!” Winry immediately agreed, incredibly happy that she once again would be Darish’s mechanic. She wanted to develop her skills while also never losing sight of her clients’ wishes. She felt grateful to Darish for helping her realize that, and wanted to do everything she could for him. With that in her mind, she looked up at the moon and braced herself by taking a deep breath.
But then, her breath stilled in her lungs.
“What’s wrong?” Darish asked when he saw Winry’s expression had frozen. He gave her a questioning look.
“I might be out of a job.”
“Why?” Darish asked, giving a puzzled look in response to Winry’s declaration.
“Because,” Winry faltered. She had been told not to go near the shady businesses, but had broken that rule. She’d even shaken off her colleagues when they tried to stop her, and she’d forced her way out of Atelier Garfiel. After all the mistakes she’d made at work, and the trouble she’d caused, it was only natural she would be fired for not obeying the instructions of the studio’s owner.
Just as Winry murmured “What am I gonna do?” she received a smack to the back of her head.
“What’s this now, Winry, dear?” Garfiel had come to stand directly behind her at some point. He deftly re-curled his sideburns, which had frayed during the fight, while he looked down at Winry. “Didn’t I just say you were my darling apprentice?”
“But I didn’t listen to you and I messed up so much.”
She knew she would continue to make mistakes, like ones from the night before, as she attempted to become the engineer she sought to be, and she would probably cause Garfiel trouble every time.
“Listen here. I tried to give you this talk in front of the shop,” Garfiel sighed as he placed one hand on his hip. “And this applies to the parts you paid for too. You don’t need to worry about things like that. You’re the apprentice and I’m your teacher. I’m supposed to smooth things over when you make a mistake.”
Garfiel tapped the end of Winry’s nose as she looked up at him.
“Sure, you’ll probably make even bigger mistakes in the future and you’ll probably cause a lot of problems that you won’t be able to fix by yourself. But, I’m here to accept all of that—the whole package deal. So don’t worry about it. Learn your fill in this town, make mistakes, and grow.”
“Mr. Garfiel!”
Winry was jubilant as her eyes welled up with tears upon hearing those genuine words from her teacher. Finally Winry truly understood what Dominic had said when he had told her, “But you’re not alone, are you, girl?” There were people looking after her and they were understanding to a degree she couldn’t even begin to imagine.
“And also, there are tons of clients who want a mechanic like you,” Garfiel said, and moved his large body aside so she could see just who some of the clients who had participated in the brawl were.
“Hey, Winry!” Pollack raised his hand to her. “I just got myself punched, so my eye’s on the fritz. Could you take a quick look? I appreciate how thorough you are with your maintenance.”
“Could you take a look at mine too?! Looks like I’ve lost my screw right here!” Another man next to Pollack lifted up his grubby automail leg. “I’d also love it if you could lighten this for me, so could you do a consult?”
“Sounds nice. Maybe I’ll ask Winry to look at mine too. The mechanic I normally go to has got the skills, but we just don’t see eye to eye.”
Folks showed her their broken automail, pointing things out and telling her their requests, one after another.
“See?” Garfiel grinned and winked. “Now stop fretting that you’re going to be fired and take responsibility for the automail that broke during today’s commotion. Fix up these clients. That sound good to you?”
“Okay!”
Winry wiped away her tears of gratitude toward Garfiel with his big heart and the customers who insisted she look at their automail. Then she dashed off toward the clients with a spring in her step.