The sight sent shivers down Raine's spine. A loaded gun, pointed straight at her friends chest, and she, powerless to stop it. *No… No, what are you doing?* instead of moving, trying to change directions- anything, Fuery stood, terrified by the sight himself. Under Hawkeye's orders, Raine was situated in a tree, blade in hand, awaiting any poor enemy that happened to pass by. A form of special operations, she supposed. Unfortunately, she was too far away to do anything, to knock the gun out of sure hands, to kill the offender. Her only job was to sit back and watch another friend die. Wasn't that how it always worked? She'd just have to buy more flowers next time she visited the graveyard. It was just another few feet she'd have to walk to make sure that Raine visited everyone she'd lost. One more person to add on her list of regrets. No big deal.
"No… Not again!" before she could even think, before she even heard the ear shattering sound of the gun being fired, Raine was running, jumping. The girl, who seemed to bring death in her wake, was trying to play the winged angel, bathed in white light, the guardian. "KAIN!" his first name? Did she call anyone by their real name? He started, but there was no time to look up. An echoing bang, heart wrenching, stomach churning. That should have been it, the bullet was fired, and then Kain would land on the ground, dead. But it didn't. There was still the sickening sound of tearing flesh, and a cry of pain, but he didn't fall. Instead, the girl who managed to land in front of him at just the right moment collapsed.
There was no time for Kain to thank her, or to even see if Raine was alive. With shaking hands, he lifted his own pistol, pulling back the safety with a click, then another bam. Not as terrifying as the first one, not even close, but for the enemy, it was the end. Dead before he hit the concrete. But Kain couldn't focus on the small victory or even the horror over just having killed someone. He could only focus on the gruesome images that raced through his mind like speeding trains. Raine just took a bullet for him, and it seemed like he couldn't drop to the ground quick enough. What sight was awaiting him? Where did she get shot? Was her heart beating? Lungs pumping air? Was there a hole in her head? God, he almost didn't want to know. "Raine, are you okay? Please… be okay." She couldn't die, she promised she wouldn't. Raine always kept her promises, right? Right?!
But there was no way to express the relief he felt when he saw her, hand over a blood stained section of her leg, smiling with a pained expression on her face. "Didcha get 'im?" The words bounced around in his head a few moments before what had just happened clicked. Raine was sitting there, talking to him. She wasn't dead. 'She's not dead… she's not dead….' The only logical thought that ran through his head. Without thinking, he pulled the injured girl into a tight hug, arms around hers, a hand on the back of her head, chin on her shoulder. Raine stiffened automatically out of habit, before relaxing and returning the embrace.
"Oh, you're alive… I thought you were dead," Kain choked out, not letting go. "Thank you. Thank you… oh, thank you." Who exactly was he thanking? The girl who save his life? The universe for the fact that she hadn't died in the process, the enemy for shooting at the exact moment and not a second more? "I thought he killed you… I thought you were dead…" over and over, right in her ear, his strangled but relieved voice. "I didn't know… I thought you were dead. God… I thought you were dead…." It was an odd time to be hugging, in the middle of a battlefield, with a war raging on around them. Bullets whizzing by their ears, knives slicing the air above their heads, but neither of the two wanted to let go. After what seemed like an eternity, but also a second, Raine pulled back.
"Hey, now, how many times do I have to tell you? I don't die." Raine's voice was softer than usual. Maybe it was the burning pain in her leg, maybe it was the abnormality of the situation, or maybe it was the relief in finally having saved someone. Who knows? But there was also a sense of pride to go along with discomfort of the wound. It meant that the man next to her was still alive; it meant that Kain Fuery was still breathing. She didn't know how scared he'd been when he heard her yelp, or how much he dreaded looking down, fearing what he would see. Raine didn't know that the fear of losing someone goes both ways. She didn't know how overwhelming the terror of seeing her crashing out of the tree was, didn't know how amazing it felt to look down and see her grinning. Raine had no idea. But Kain did, and he couldn't stop smiling. "But are you okay?"
Same old Evans, making sure that everyone else was okay before she and her ridiculous impulse decisions were. Fuery couldn't help but laugh in a way that could hardly less than insane. "Me? Raine, I'm fine. But you're not." 'You know that time she said she'd take a bullet for me? She wasn't kidding.' "We need to get you some help, your leg-." she placed a hand over his mouth, quickly shutting him up.
"I don't need a doctor, or a nurse, or an alchemist for that matter. I'll be fine. Just help me up." Stupid, stubborn girl, that's what Raine Evans was. But instead of protesting, Fuery quickly placed one hand under her back and one in her auto-mail palm, pulling her onto her feet. Raine wouldn't last long, not like that, and he knew it. The second Kain stopped holding her up; she stumbled forward, almost losing her balance with a gasp of pain. "I'm fine! You don't have to hold my hand like I'm a toddler!"
"You're /not/ fine, Raine! You just got shot; this isn't one of those wounds that you can just walk off! Look," carefully, Fuery wrapped one arm around Raine's shoulder and the other one across her abdomen, holding her upright. "You can't even walk. Please, I'm just trying to get you some help."
With an unhappy sigh, Raine finally nodded a frown on her face. "Fine. Okay, I'll go to someone for help." Did Kain Fuery really just convince Raine Evans to get help? No, that's not possible. Even he blinked in surprise at the lack of argument; but there was no point in dwelling on the small victory. No, there was still a fight to be won and a small window of time to do it.