Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Eye of the Beholder ❯ Chapter Six ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Eye of the Beholder
 
LadyMad
 
Six
 
When Ariyca woke up the next morning, she was surprised and hurt to find that Ed was gone. He wasn't in the room anywhere like he usually was when she woke up. She took a quick shower, dressed, and headed downstairs to see if that's where he was. On her way to the stairs, she bumped into a girl a few years younger than herself. The girl was pretty but there was something about her that bugged the hell out of Ariyca. The girl kept her head down as she walked downstairs and into the common room where the guests were all eating breakfast.
 
She looked around but didn't see Ed anywhere. Sighing mostly to herself, she walked out of the inn and went around the town looking for him. He must have been hiding because Ariyca spent half the morning looking for him but it proved useless. When she went back to the inn he was sitting at the bar eating. He looked like hell which was the only reason she didn't get on to him about disappearing. She simply sat down next to him and ordered herself a plate.
 
“I don't think you can tag along anymore, Ariyca.” Edward said plainly and calmly as she was waiting for her plate. Ariyca quickly looked at him.
 
“W…what?” Her thin brows came together as she tilted her head to look into his face.
 
“I've got too much on my mind and it wouldn't be fair to you if you tagged along. You'd probably just be ignored.”
 
“But I want to stay with you. I can help you with your problems. I can.”
 
“I appreciate it…but it's best we go our separate ways now.”
 
“Regardless of what I've given you? Ed, you were the first man I've slept with. How can you just turn the other way after knowing that? How can you turn away from me after taking that?”
 
“You willingly gave it, as I recall, and you weren't so nervous about it or scared. You gave it to a complete stranger so don't pull a guilt trip on me.”
 
“So now it's my fault? I gave it to you as than…”
 
“As thanks?” He turned and looked at her harshly. “You gave it to me to thank me for saving you from being raped. That's funny.”
 
“Fuck you. I don't find it so funny. I could be pregnant and you don't care!?”
 
“No because I know it's impossible.”
 
“How?”
 
“Because, when I was fifteen, I nearly died. I joined the military afterward and they said that because of the surgery after the accident, I became sterile. It's impossible for you to be pregnant by me.”
 
“Just like that. You knew that, didn't you? You'd been planning on doing this to me all along, huh?”
 
“No, but it's the best thing for both of us, whether or not you think it is.” He sighed and turned back to his plate. “This is where we both say goodbye.” Angrily, she slammed her fist on the counter and walked away.
 
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Xandyr watched it all. She heard what Edward said to her and felt his sorrow for asking her to leave him. If he hadn't been so sad about it, Xandyr would have been happy. She sat only a few stools down from where he sat. She knew he couldn't actually see her and it hurt her a little bit to know he probably never would. He would never know the one who kept him safe and watched over him. He would never be able to look upon her face or speak to her because she would never be anything more than a shadow to him.
 
He didn't look up as he finished his food and went up to his room. It was most likely to grab his things. Xandyr just stayed on the stool and waited for him to come down. Surely enough he came back down with his things, signed himself from the room, and walked out of the inn. Xandyr waited a bit before getting her own things and signing out. It wasn't too hard to find him. She followed him by sensing. He had a particular aura about him that would catch any angel just walking by. It was a dark angelic aura and it made her mind spin and reel.
 
He walked to the gate of the city and left easily. Xandyr, she just had to blend in with the shadows and sneak out. It would keep mortals' hands off of her. She followed him through the forest, which seemed more like a grove, and out the other side to a train station. They both stood in the rather short line for tickets, Xandyr keeping her distance from him. He'd already began to feel her presence. She really didn't want her shield to no longer work on him. Then the council really would take him from her.
 
Edward got his ticket, paid for it, and walked over to the benches to wait for it. Keeping the city he was going to in mind, Xandyr walked up to the ticket window and glanced at the man on the other side. His hair was pure black with black eyes and white skin with a chiseled face and full lips. He wore all black with a small, silver hoop in his left ear. Xandyr quickly caught on to who he was.
 
“Zaine!” She almost called out. “What are you doing here!?”
 
“Working.” He said calmly. “What are you doing? And don't tell me that you're working. This is just one big vacation to you so don't pretend.”
 
“How can you be working? And how the hell do you know I'm not working!?” He smiled, his face lighting up handsomely.
 
“Because, the thoughts running through your head make me think that you wish you weren't working.”
 
“Shut up. Give me a ticket to the place Edward Elric is going.”
 
“You mean the good-looking blond man who really needs to liven up?” He asked with a huge smile and half of a laugh.
 
“Very funny. Yes, him.” Zaine slid a ticket through the hole in the glass and took the paper money Xandyr handed over. His eyes slipped to Edward.
 
“You know, angels may not be allowed to sleep with mortals…but I'm not an angel.” Xandyr rolled her eyes and walked away. She sat on the bench down from Edward but didn't say anything to him. From behind the `cloak' she wore, she looked at him. She knew he noticed someone sitting there because his eyes occasionally slipped to her. He never saw anything but a shadowed figure in a heavy black cloak but he did notice someone.
 
The train arrived a short time afterward but the ride wasn't too exciting. Neither she nor Edward spoke to anyone on the train and he still hadn't actually noticed her. She sat quietly in a seat across from him. Xandyr noticed his eyes once again slipping to her every so-often. It was like not knowing who was under the cloak was driving him insane. Maybe he would see her after all.
 
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Ed walked off the train and looked around. It was one of the towns he'd been to with Al when he was still an alchemist. Nearly eight years of not being the Fullmetal Alchemist…and of not having his brother. The town brought back so many memories of how the older alchemist tried to bring back a lost love he'd never really lost. Ed would never forget that. He sighed raggedly and looked around. No one would remember him. It had been too long and he'd changed too much for them to recognize after around eight years. He didn't care. It was one step closer to home and it flooded his mind with memories. Since no one around here would remember him, this was the perfect place. His journey would end here.
 
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Xandyr had found it odd that he hadn't registered in a hotel yet. That was usually the first thing he did. After they'd gotten off the train, she would have lost him had it not been for his aura. Now, she was several paces behind him just following him through town. The sun was setting and he had yet to find a suitable inn for the night. This was odd. What caught her attention even more was that he went into a drug store and came out, putting a small, white bottle with a label on it in his coat pocket and walked off. It looked like a pill bottle.
 
“He doesn't take pills.” Xandyr said more to herself. Her heart began racing as possibilities for his strange behavior ran through her mind. She dismissed the most out-front one, trying to control herself once again. He began to walk from the city toward the small forests and meadows just outside of town. That way ran a river that the kids of the town had played and fished at for years. She'd gotten it from his past records. Her heartbeat took a gentle plunge when she saw him walk into a diner. Sighing in relief, she went inside and took a seat.
 
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He sat down at a small table near the bar and waited for a waitress. When the waitress appeared in a white and sky-blue dress with apron he rattled off a simple beer and paid her what she asked. She then walked away and came back a moment later with a pint of beer. Downing it quickly, he rose from the table and looked over in the far corner to see the same cloaked figure. He smiled, for once not trying to look into the depths of darkness within the hood. Right before he turned away he saw a glimmer of green from within the shadows. Ed ignored it as he walked out and away from the town.
 
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Her heart skipped a beat as he stared right into her eyes and then turned away from her and walked out the door. A waitress had just walked up to her when Xandyr jumped to her feet and darted out the door after him. She ran outside of the town and looked around for him in the darkness.
 
“Edward!” She screamed, her voicing ring through the forest and back to her ears. When she breathed out, a cloud of steam came from her lips and disappeared. “Edward!” She screamed again. The sound of running water caught her attention and suddenly it all came together. “Oh no.” She whispered to herself.
 
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Edward stood on the bridge over-looking the river. He took the bottle of sleeping pills from his coat, opened it and swallowed half of the bottle's contents in two gulps. He put the cap back on and slipped the bottle into his pants pocket.
 
“Al, Mom, I'm sorry.” He whispered to the night sky before climbing on to the rail of the bridge and falling in. Tears suddenly streamed down his face and he plunged into the running river. Just before he hit, he heard a loud scream. His mind ran through his entire life before completely shutting down. Right before he fell asleep, he took a large breath, letting water spill into his lungs. Tears squeezed out from his eyes at the pain of the water in his lungs and his eyes closed, his body going limp. His words rang through his mind `I'm sorry…'
 
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A/N: Wow, dramatic, huh. Well, tell me what you think. Thanks for all the reviews.