Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Impossible! ❯ Gone ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

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Rizenbool - June 27th, 1910

Winry opened the door of their guest room quietly. Morning sun rays peeked from between the gaps of a lime green curtain that hung on the left side of the bed. Soft chirping sounds could be heard from outside the window that faced their front yard.

Soft steady breaths came from the blonde haired boy that was sleeping deeply on the bed. Blanket was pulled up to his chin, hiding the mass of bandages that was covering his wounds. Near the bed stood a wooden chair, a bucket of cold water and a rug on it, a silent proof from his fever that had just broken a couple of hours before dawn.

Winry felt a familiar uneasiness crept up her heart. Something between worry and anxious… or both of them mixed together with the addition of confusion. Whatever the feeling was called, she didn’t like it one bit. The fact that she had been feeling that way for the last four days did not thrilled her at all, and it certainly didn’t help explaining things.

Sighing, she turned her attention to the other person in the room.

Al, now in his big metal body, slumped at the opposite wall facing the bed. Head bowed down, seemed like he was deep in thoughts. Winry knew he did not sleep, because sometimes at nights she sneaked into the room to see how they’re doing. He stayed up day and night beside his brother. And when he was not dealing with Edward’s fever, Al did not make any motions at all. If Winry didn’t know better, she would have thought that he was just an empty giant suit of armor.

‘He IS an empty suit of armor,’

Winry shook he head to dismiss the thought. ‘No!’ she said firmly to her self, ‘Al is Al! His voice is his! His personality is his! He’s just…’

Her eyes trailed back to the bluish armor. ‘He’s just a lot bigger now.’

She bowed her head down in shame. She shouldn’t have thought like that. What would Ed say if he knew….

‘What WOULD he say?’ her conscience snickered sarcastically. ‘It’s not like he had even responded to you!’

Winry shook her head again, this time in annoyance.

True, since he was awaken, Edward had not given her more then a mere glace. Just a disorientated take in of his surroundings the first time he awoke for from a deep sedated sleep two days ago. Then he fixed his eyes on the steel body of Al for a long time, all the guilt he could have written all over his face.

He had not said another word to anyone except Al ever since. And when he did talk, it would be just a flat ‘yes’, ‘no’, and ‘oh’.

He would avoid meeting anyone’s eyes and stare all day long at the white wall in front of him with a blank expression.

When he was sleeping, he kept having nightmares. He kept moaning incoherent phrases and muttering words like ‘okaa-san’, ‘gomenasai’, and his brother’s name.

He was slipping into some state of depression. Winry could see it in his eyes. He had lost his mischievous and arrogant glint that made him the Edward she knew. His golden eyes were now darker… and dull. Almost like his life had escaped him, leaving him like broken doll.

Something inside Edward was eating him alive, and Winry really wanted to fix him.

“Winry?” the weird echo of Alphonse’s voice startled her. She came back down to the earth with a crash.

She gave Al a sheepish smile, “I brought breakfast for Ed.”

“Oh… Thanks, Winry,” Al replied, trying to stand up.

She stopped him promptly, “No, Al! It’s okay. You don’t have to stand up.” She shouldered the door so it’d open wider and slipped into the room with the breakfast tray in her hands. She pushed the door close softly with her back.

Al stood up anyway and took the tray from her hands.

Winry shuffled her feet, “It’s not much… Granny said Ed shouldn’t eat solid food just yet, so I made porridge.”

But Al was staring at a bottle of white liquid that accompanied the bowl of porridge.

Winry waited for him to say something about the milk, but Al remained quiet.

But then again, he had been that way for the last four days. They would sit beside the unconscious boy without passing conversation. They had created some sort of quiet between them. It was not awkward, but the silence was new for both of them that Winry couldn’t help but feel uneasy when she thought about it.

She tired not to sigh in relief. She knew bringing milk was not the best idea in the world; she just didn’t really want to explain. Who knew how a depressed Ed would react if he had seen it.

But… that exactly what she hoped to get from him, a reaction. She wanted the scornful and averse look Edward always had when he came face to face with his least favorable drink. She wanted him to glare at the milk with hatred and his usual narrowing eyes. She wanted to see emotion again in his pool of gold.

“… Al?”

Her heart jumped at the sound of his sleepy voice. She and Al turned their attention to the stirring blonde boy.

“Nii-san, you’re up!” Al greeted with a cheerful tone, “Look, Winry brought you breakfast!” He lifted the tray of food so his brother could see the meal.

Her heart was beating fast with hope as she watched Edward’s eyes opened slowly and his gaze fell upon the bottle of milk.

He stared at the white liquid for a long time.

Winry tried with all her might not to clasp her hands together and hope.

Then finally, he gave a reaction, “… oh.”

Her face fell. She couldn’t even begin to describe the disappointment that overwhelmed her heart.

Winry fisted her hands until it was shaking. Her head bowed down so it hid her clenched eye lids, tears of frustration threatening to fall.

The other two occupants in the room didn’t seem to notice her sudden change of mood. Al had set the tray down the floor and try to help his brother to sit up, “You should eat, nii-san. You need energy to heal.”

Ed just stared at the solid wall in front of him. “I’m not hungry,” he replied flatly.

No ‘thank you’s.

No glare.

Not even acknowledging that she was there.

Winry wanted so bad to reach the bottle of milk and cracked it down his blonde head. She wanted to slap him, to shout at him… anything to get her a reaction.

“IDIOT!” she didn’t even realized that she had shouted her frustration out loud.

She stormed out the room, leaving the door open.

She didn’t hear Al calling her name in concern, she didn’t care.

She ran down the hall, through the front door, across their grassy front yard, beyond their wooden fences,until she came face to face with a large birch tree that stood a distance from her home.

She slammed her body to its large trunk and held on for dear life.

They used to meet there, below the shady tree. That way she didn’t have to walk all the way to their house, and they didn’t have to pick her up from hers. It was their convergence point, the cross-road between the two of their house, their sanctuary.

She let out a choked sob, but did not let her tears fall. She didn’t want to cry. She’d cry too much on her own for the last four nights.

Edward’s dull eyes crossed her line of vision. Her heart clenched painfully in sorrow.

Gone. He was gone. The spark in his life was gone. Her best friend was slipping away and she didn’t know how to prevent it from happening.

She dropped to her knees, still hugging the tree. Her breath ragged as she whimpered her sadness and frustration.

No, she would not cry.

She had to think clearly! She had to be herself! She had to fix things like she always tried to do!

But… how can she fix things if she didn’t know what was wrong in the first place? None of the brothers had spoken to her about what had been going on, and she’s too afraid to ask.

She felt so helpless.

Winry was always the optimistic one between the three of them, the traits her parents had put so much effort developing into her.

They’ve always taught her that a doctor should be the one who gave hope to her patients, telling them that everything will be fine in the end. That’s why a doctor had to have her own source of hope… an ever flowing spring of hope that no matter how worse the situation was, she would always find a way to make it better.

But Winry could not see what Edward needed to pull himself together. She could not see how everything was going to be alright in the end.

Right then, she really wished her parents were there to help her.

Oooo TBC oooO

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A/N: Sorry for the short chapter. I really tired to make it longer, but in the end I stick to the original one. ;p I want to say (so bad) that it was because I’ll be facing the National Exam this week, but that will be a lie. :3 Tee hee. I’m a kind of person who seeks more work if there’re a lot of things to do that I don’t like. ;P
I caught a flu. Gawd, how I hate it! I kept coughing and sneezing... my body's temperature won't stay put. -Sob-
Thank you for the wonderful reviews! I love you all! I’m so glad that this story was accepted so well. Please tell me more of what you thought of this fic, what you wanted to see, and also your feelings towards the HagaRen characters. I love comments!

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