Loveless Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Soulless ❯ Embodied ( Chapter 2 )

When Alphonse regained consciousness, Winry--no, Yoko--was gone, as was the person introduced as Ritsu-sensei. Only the woman doctor--her name badge read Dr. Ikeda--was there.

He spent the next few hours subjected to a battery of medical tests, some painful, others merely bewildering, and took his first, shaky steps in snug terrycloth hospital slippers.

Most of the nurses and technicians said very little to him beyond, "Take off your clothes," or "Stand over there," but several times, Al overheard quiet comments: "...should have died," "No sign of skull fracture," and "Abnormally fast rate of healing."

All the while, he drank in the sights and sounds around him, trying to figure out what had happened to him. This place seemed very similar to Amestris, but it wasn't any country he recognized. Had the Gate sent him to the other side of the world? Or thrust him into another world entirely?

A thousand questions choked his still-raw throat, but with the fresh memory of Ritsu-sensei's open disbelief, Al asked none of them--who knew what sort of insane asylums these people had? Neither did he protest when Dr. Ikeda continued to call him 'Katashiki-san,' since no one seemed to believe that he was really Alphonse Elric.

Oddest of all were the people--mostly children and teenagers--who had cat-ears and tails. Al saw them while traversing the hospital corridors, but didn't dare ask. Were they chimeras of some kind? What if Kazuo was supposed to know? What further tests would they subject Al to if he asked the wrong questions?

Much to his relief, a quick pat-down of his head revealed that Al's new body wasn't a chimera. He found himself relieved by the discovery--it was hard enough trying to keep up the charade of being Katashiki Kazuo, without factoring animal body parts into the equation.

Al was given a respite from the bewildering parade of medical procedures around noon and escorted back to his hospital room to enjoy a lunch of soup, plain rice, breaded pork cutlets served with a sharply piquant sauce and a salad made from some kind of pickled dark-green vegetables.

It was all delicious, and he savored every mouthful, letting his tongue linger over the varied textures and flavors. Hot, crunchy, salty, tangy--funny, he hadn't remembered eating as being such a sensual experience.

He had finished his meal, and was enjoying a hot cup of what he supposed was tea, though it was pale green and tasted nothing like the astringent brown liquid he remembered, when a couple of boys in their teens entered his room.

"Kaz-senpai!" they greeted him, and Al noticed that one of the boys had ears but the other did not. They seemed to be about the same age and treated each other as equals, so perhaps chimeras were common--and accepted--in this place.

They shyly offered him an elaborate paper bouquet consisting of dozens of tiny folded birds, then pulled up chairs to his bedside, cheerily teasing each other and sharing gossip about people that Kazuo presumably knew at the Seven Moons Academy.

"I'm really glad you're okay, Kaz-senpai," the earless boy remarked during a lull in the conversation. After ten minutes of careful listening and equally careful responses, Al still didn't know either of their names. "We were afraid that Yoko-senpai was going to get you killed on that bike of hers. I've seen how she drives...oh, man! "

The other boy punched his friend in the arm. "Dude! It's not like he could say 'no.' He's her Sentouki, after all. Totally whipped."

Sentouki. Sacrifice. Mulling over the strange terms, Alphonse nearly choked on his tea when Kazuo's memories whispered in his mind: So Hiro finally lost his ears. Wonder who the lucky girl was?

In a flash, Al understood what the ears meant. And why neither he nor Yoko had them. It wasn't fair, really: Alphonse was nearly sixteen, and had never even kissed a girl, much less done anything else. And now he was married, and old--older than Brother. And in a body that was very obviously no longer virgin.

But at least he had a body again. He was grateful for that, really he was. He just wished he'd gotten his own body back, in his own world.

ooOoo

Alphonse finally found himself alone after supper. Dr. Ikeda, apparently pleased with whatever test results she had received, had given him permission to take a bath on his own, with the strict instructions to push the Call button if he felt even the slightest bit dizzy or if his headache returned.

He entered the private bathroom attached to his room, overjoyed to have privacy at last, and turned the taps to begin filling the deep tub. He couldn't wait to soak himself in steaming water, to feel the heat seeping into his bones.

While the water was running, he turned to the full-length mirror on the back of the door, where he spent long minutes studying his new body. He had been trying to catch glimpses of it throughout the day, but being shuffled from one medical station to the next, and ordered to breathe, bend, cough, hold still, or urinate on command, he'd rarely had had more than a few seconds to look at those body parts within his field of vision.

Ritsu-sensei had told Al that Kazuo was twenty years old, but it was one thing to hear that and another to see it reflected in the mirror.

Kazuo's face was both strange and familiar--he was still dark blond, still had a slightly-upturned nose and a wide mouth, but Kazuo's eyes were gray where Alphonse's had been hazel, and he was tall--much taller than Brother, and wouldn't his brother hate that when they saw each other again?

Al grinned briefly as he imagined Ed's apoplectic rage at being forced to look up at his younger brother, but the thought brought with it the anxiety about where Ed was, and what he was doing. Had Brother come to this place as well, or were they going to be separated forever?

Blood-soaked clothing, a pool of dark red spreading out from underneath his brother's sprawled body... Kazuo's face in the mirror looked suddenly white, the eyes widening with terror, and with an effort, Al reined in his worries. He hadn't seen anything besides the hospital--who was to say that Brother wasn't out there, somewhere? His transmutation had worked. Al was sure of it. He would start looking for Brother as soon as he was released from this hospital.

Turning his attention back to his mission of self-discovery, he untied the flimsy hospital robe and let it slide off his shoulders.

He was naked underneath, and the mirror revealed he was also a lot hairier than his ten-year-old self had been. Golden stubble glinted on his chin and jaw (which made him cast a nervous look at the razor and shaving cream that had been included in the hospital's toiletries package, as he had only the most general idea of what to do with them), light brown hair tufted under his arms and out of the center of his chest, and (as he had noticed earlier, during the urinate-in-a-cup test) there was more hair around his groin.

There was also an odd tattoo on his hip, a word written in graceful cursive script. He stepped closer and twisted around, trying to read backwards in the mirror.

Soulless.

Soulless? What did that mean? Kazuo's memories stirred and supplied him with an answer, which explained nothing. My true name.

Al traced the letters, which felt numb and slightly raised, like scar tissue, then leaned forward, putting his face close to the mirror, and examined his eyes, his teeth, his ears. He ran his fingertips over the roughness of his jaw, and combed them through his cropped hair. He even stuck out his tongue and wiggled it at the mirror, laughing a little at himself for doing it. It's not as though tongues really differ from person to person!

When he tired of his face, he moved to his chest. Kazuo had the same build as Brother--lean but muscled. He tugged experimentally at the sparse, curling hairs over his breastbone, and gasped as the sudden pain brought tears to his eyes.

Much more sensitive than the hairs on his head!

Al let his hand slide over the soft skin and muscles of his belly, then lower. His cock stirred as his palm brushed it tentatively, and he inhaled sharply as a jolt shot up his spine. Oh, that felt good!

Spurred on by Kazuo's memories, he wrapped his fingers around the rapidly-swelling organ, fascinated by the changes taking place in his new body, and caught up in the building sensations.

Al had seen Brother touching himself furtively on more than one occasion, and had understood, intellectually, about hormones and erections. After all, hadn't they both studied human anatomy intensively in the months leading up to failed transmutation of their mother?

But experiencing it was completely different.

He wanted more, and quickly. He tugged roughly and winced as pleasure turned to sudden pain from over-sensitized nerves.

An unexpected knock at his bathroom door startled him badly. "Kaz?"

It wasn't the nurse. He jumped, his heart pounding, and grabbed frantically for the discarded robe as the door handle turned. He had just managed to tie it around his waist when the door opened and Yoko peeked through the doorway.

"Dr. Ikeda told me you were back to normal, and I thought you might need your wife to wash your back," she said, with a grin that made Alphonse's heart pound even harder. "You worried me, yesterday."

"Wi--Yoko!" She was wearing tight-fitting jeans and a snug t-shirt today, and her hair was pulled up in a familiar ponytail. But she's not Winry, he reminded himself, fiercely.

She surveyed him from head to toe, and Alphonse's skin suddenly felt hot and much too tight, as if it were clothing three sizes too small and might burst at the seams at any moment. "Glad to see me?"

Before he could reply, or even move, she was pressed against him, standing on tip-toes, her arms around his neck (the embrace made somewhat awkward by the heavy cast on her right arm), and he was floating in a cloud of plum blossom scent. Alphonse never dreamed his first kiss would take place in a hospital bathroom, but Yoko's lips against his were soft and insistent.

He made a longing sound deep in his throat and kissed her back, feeling selfish and ashamed for not protesting, because he wasn't Kazuo and he shouldn't be pretending that he was. But she was the one familiar thing in this strange place, looking and sounding so much like Winry, and she tasted wonderful, like ripe summer apricots, velvety and sweet and sun-warmed.

The part of him that was still thinking rationally led him to try and twist his lower body away from her, horrified at the thought that she might realize what was going on below his waist. She chuckled as he moved, and deliberately draped herself around him, her hips pressing against his groin in a way that made him dizzy.

She felt so wonderful, soft and curvy, and her tongue was in his mouth now, and he was nearly overcome with the urge to just rub himself against her. He wanted to, wanted this more than anything he'd ever wanted, but--

"I'm so glad you woke up." Her mouth moved lower, placing kisses on his chin, his throat, his collarbone. "When I saw you in that bed, with all those tubes and needles sticking in you..."

Al panted for air, feeling as if he were the center of an immense transmutation, energies flowing through him from each point of contact. He felt completely powerful and utterly helpless at the same time.

"God, Kaz," she murmured between kisses. "I wanted to die when the doctors told me I'd lost you. I should never have let you ride with me--" Her left hand slipped under the loose robe, slid down his ribcage, and curled around his waist, pulling him even closer. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! We'll buy a second helmet. No, we'll buy a real car--we'll find the money, somehow. Thank God, thank God you woke up!"

"Yoko," Alphonse managed to choke out. He tried to step back. "There's something I have to tell you--"

Her fingers tightened around his hips. She looked up at him, a mischievous gleam in her large blue eyes. "You can tell me later. But for now--" she gave him a slow, predatory smile. "I order you to stand still."

The Soulless tattoo over Al's hip sprang to life and burned, and he suddenly and inexplicably lost all will to move.

To his consternation and shameful excitement, Yoko's fingers slid forward, making the muscles in his belly tighten and shudder at the contact, and hooked around the sash of his robe. She tugged at it, hampered by being one-handed, and Al realized what she intended.

I'm being seduced! What should I do?

For a moment, he was tempted to do nothing. His new body was screaming for him to obey her, to yield to what they both wanted. It would feel so good, so intense...so wrong.

The sash slithered free, and with a gasp, Alphonse grabbed the edges of his robe and held them together. He had to make her understand! Bad enough that he seemed to have stolen her husband's body, but he couldn't deceive her like this, and allow her to continue...

"Kaaaaz," Yoko protested, with a giggle. She held up the thin sash and waved it roguishly at him. "Don't make me use this. Unless, of course, you want me to tie you up? Is that it?" She stepped closer, pressing her breasts against his arm, and began to loop one end around his right wrist. Her voice dropped to a husky whisper. "I order you to--"

"Yoko-san, please." It took every ounce of willpower that Alphonse possessed to turn his head away from another one of her wonderful kisses. "Please, don't."

"What--?" To his relief, she stopped what she was doing. Frowning, she looked up at him. "Yoko-san? Kaz, don't tell me that you still think you're--"

"I'm sorry," Al said hastily. He wanted to step back, to put more distance between him, but some strange spell seemed to be rooting his feet to the cold tiles of the bathroom floor. The mark over his hip was burning fiercely now. "But I really am Alphonse Elric. It wouldn't be right if we--if I let you..." He stumbled to a halt.

"You're blushing." She tapped his cheek, and he flinched. The look on her face changed to horror. "You really believe you're not Kazuo?"

"No, Yoko-san," Alphonse replied miserably. "I'm very sorry. I have some of his memories, but I think...I think Kazuo-san is...gone." He whispered the last word.

"No." She shook her head, and Al saw tears welling in her eyes. "Kaz--no, it can't be! Dr. Ikeda told me you were going to be all right!"

Yoko turned and fled, slamming the bathroom door behind her.

Whatever spell had kept him immobile vanished abruptly.

Alphonse sat down heavily on the edge of the tub, and put his head in his hands. His body throbbed with fierce frustration, keeping time with the renewed pounding ache in his head. I'm cursed. Nothing that Brother or I have ever done has turned out right.