Title: Bookmarks
Genre: General/Romance
Pairing: Fuery x Schiezka (I know, very unusual.)
Summary: Fuery finds bookmarks being mysteriously left in the books he's been reading. Do they mean anything?
Warnings: Nothing really. Apart from unusual het pairing, nothing.
Disclaimer: Don't own.

Bookmarks

Kain Fuery entered the library. Few knew he liked reading. He visited the local library at least once every week and lost himself in the world of books. His favourite kind of book was romance. He only had one girlfriend before, and that girl ditched him exactly that morning. It was his first girlfriend, and the relationship between them hadn't even lasted for a week. He felt so upset now. He needed a good book to help him forget his unhappiness for a while. To be honest, he was actually a little jealous of his superior office, Roy Mustang, who seemed to change girlfriends once a day. Or maybe even more frequently.

He went over to the romance fiction bookshelves and found the book he had been reading the last time he visited the library. Kain did not like to borrow books. A long time ago, he used to borrow books that he could not finish reading at the library, but he was so careless that he kept losing those books and was fined by the library. The penalty plus the money he lost at bets with Havoc and Falman made him really poor, so he stopped borrowing books. He sat down at his favourite place, a comfy little couch near the romance fiction bookshelves, and flipped the pages of the book to find the page he had stopped at the last time. He was shocked to find a bookmark there, a plain brown bookmark with words hand-written on it neatly with white ink. He read the words.

A young man lay weeping quietly under the trees, and everything around him seemed dark even though the sun was shining brightly.

He frowned at it. Who had placed this bookmark here and forgot to take it away when he or she left? What was more, the person had marked the page where he had stopped reading. What a strange coincidence. He shook the thought away and began to read, holding the bookmark in his hand.

About an hour later, the young man thought it was time to leave, and he looked at the bookmark, wondering what to do with it. In the end, he pocketed it and put the book back to where he had found it. Then he left the library.

---

Fuery came to the library in search of the wonderful book that he had been reading during the last visit. He badly needed to read now. It was probably the saddest day in his life. His mother had died. He had cried for almost the whole morning and afternoon. Now he needed something to make him feel better, if only for a short time.

Fuery gasped as he opened the book at the page he had stopped. There was another bookmark, of the same brown colour, marking that page. The words were different this time though.

Suddenly dark clouds gathered. As if to make things worse for the poor young man, it started raining heavily.

It can't be a coincidence, Fuery thought, it's happened two times already. I wonder if this would happen the next time too. He stared at the bookmark for a long while before starting to read. After reading, he pocketed the bookmark again. He had a feeling that these bookmarks would soon mean more to him.

---

Every time Fuery went to the library to read the book, there would be a bookmark on the page he had stopped reading. It was a really thick book, so he knew there were many bookmarks to come. He was looking forward to each of his visits even more eagerly than before now. He had begun to develop a secret admiration for whoever may be writing this, even though he did not even know if the anonymous person was male or female. And as time passed, a story began to form...

The heavens had no pity on him, and very soon he was soaked, with both his tears and the skies'. In the pouring rain, a bird appeared, flying down to him. He stared at the bird. It was a beautiful bird, with pure white feathers. He could not name the bird; he had never seen it before in his whole life. The mere sight of the bird washed away his sorrows. If birds could smile, this bird was certainly doing so. Smiling so gently and sweetly at him, as if she was his guardian angel. He could not help but smile back at the bird. The bird flew around his head, and he felt a lovely feeling seeping through him, warming him up. It was happiness, something he had not felt for a long time. He looked up at the bird gratefully. To his utmost surprise, the bird spoke, "I will light up your life for you, but there is only a short time before I would become human again, and once I am back in that form, you will no longer like me." The young man let out a gasp. This bird had been human! How could such a wonderful creature be human? Then the bird started to turn a different colour. On the tip of the bird's feathers appeared a yellowish tinge, and it spread through each feather, turning each feather from snow white to canary yellow, then to golden, then to bright orange, then to orangish red. By this time it seemed as if the bird was in flames. The young man could only look at this amazing change and gape. He admired the bird. It was still beautiful, not matter what colour it was. As the bird turned into a fire-like colour, the young man felt the atmosphere around him change completely. The sun was shining once more, and from everywhere small birds appeared and sang their pleasant songs of spring. He thanked the bird. The bird managed a weak, sad smile at him, then said, "I must leave now. I do not wish you to see me in my human form." But the young man shook his head and refused to let the bird leave. The bird struggled in his hands, but he held on tight. Then suddenly the bird was transforming. The young man dropped the bird, frightened. It was taking a shape of a human girl slowly. The half-human, half-bird creature was trying to run away from him, but could not do so since her legs were not fully formed yet. Her legs were the last to shape properly. The man looked at the girl. So different was this girl from the bird that he felt it could not be possible that they were the same thing. He felt the sudden urge to run away from this ugly girl, but his mind commanded him not to. For this was the girl which had saved him from his dark life. He looked at the girl and smiled. For them, it would be a happy ending...

When Fuery visited the library again, he came earlier this time. He usually went to the library at around three o'clock. But today he went there at two o'clock, and as he approached the romance fiction bookshelves, he saw a brown-haired girl standing there, near the place where his book was put, writing something. He walked up to the girl as quietly as he could, and saw that she was writing on a small plain brown piece of paper. She was the girl who had made his bookmarks! The girl looked at the finished bookmark, gave a satisfied nod, and slipped it into the book. She placed the book carefully back to its place. Fuery had frozen to the spot, so he forgot to make a run for it when the girl did that. The girl turned, and saw him. She turned pale, and dashed away before he had time to react. She looked oddly familiar, but Fuery could not remember where he had seen her. He walked over to the book and pulled out the bookmark.

But for many others, the man would have run away without even turning to look back, not even once...

He immediately pocketed it and ran in the direction the girl had disappeared. He ran out of the library and, for the path leaving the library was straight, saw the girl far down the path, leaning against a tree and panting. The girl did not seem to have spotted him. And then something clicked in his mind. He recognized the girl. He had seen her several times at the headquarters. Her name was Schiezka or something.

He ran over. The girl spotted him as he got near, panicked and started running at once again. "No, wait! Wait for me, Schiezka!" he yelled, but the girl would not turn back. Something in his mind was saying that it was actually the girl of the story who would turn away and never look back, but he ignored it. He would make the girl come back. He had to. Why? He tried to think of why he wanted the girl to stay as he ran after her. What was it? Oh yes, he loved the girl. But... No, there's no time for hesitation, it's now or never, he thought, for the path was soon leading out to the crowded main streets of Central, and he would lose the girl in seconds. He summoned every drop of courage in him, it was hard, for he was a timid and shy person, and yelled.

"I-I LOVE YOU, SCHIEZKA!"

That was enough to make the girl turn back at once to see Kain Fuery with his head bowed, trying to hide his furious blushing. It was lucky no one else was on that path at that time, or he would have probably died of embarrassment on the spot. The girl hesitated for a while, then began to walk over to him slowly, with a smile spreading on her face. "Kain," she said as she came to him with her own face bright red as well, "I love you too." Kain looked up, and both of smiled at each other, and it seemed like that smile, so joyous and warm, could last forever.

For them, it would be a happy ending too...

The End

A/N: Thanks to crazykitsune17 for writing a drabble with this pairing. I would never have thought of this pairing otherwise. Liked it?