Remembering Nina
Nina Tucker?
The armored boy raised his head at the question. Of course he remembered Nina Tucker…Nina. How in life was he supposed to forget Nina?
His first impression of her was of a strong girl. Not every kid acts like she when seeing a big armor walking around her house. Most kids were usually scared because Alphonse's temporary body, probably because it was something they had never seen before and if they had, they probably thought it was some sort of guardian or a very serious person that wanted nothing to do with playing and only cared about their job. But no, not her, she approached him as a friend. He didn't know why at first but they boy had felt in several occasions the penetrating eyes of the people that feared him because they thought he was a war man and that he was here to hurt them. Nobody ever said anything to him, but he that's how he felt it.
And then she invited him to play.
When was the last time he had played with anyone else? It must have been years ago. Let's see. His mother died about three years ago, after that he and his brother were determined to bring her back so they spent every free time they got trying to decipher his father's notes on human transmutation…and practically decipher everything that was on the books that once belonged to their father. It was a real hard work that consumed every free minute they got. And their schedules got even busier when they got themselves a teacher, so…no time for playing.
After mom returns to us we will have plenty of time to play…the three of us.
Human transmutation came next, along with its consequences and its losses. With Edward being in automail recovery and Alphonse still trying to adjust himself to his new body, playing was the last thing the brothers had in mind. In just a few years, they had gone through a lot so it felt like they weren't kids anymore. But they were, and right then when Nina invited him to play with her, he remembered it.
He remembered what it was to feel like a kid again, and for that he would be eternally grateful to Nina. Because despite everything that has happened, the hell they both went through, he still had it in him, his inner child.
Later he learned more about her, her mom had left her and her father two years ago and his then his father had to work the double to be able to provide food and shelter to his daughter, so that meant working all the day, assuming it only got worse when he got his state qualification, leaving her alone in a gigantic mansion. Did Mr. Tucker ever play with her? Did he understand how alone she felt? She was just a child. But the way she talked about him meant that despite the very little time that he spent with her she still loved him…probably because he never left, like her mother did.
But still…It will never make up for what he did.
When watching his brother beat Mr. Tucker for putting a end to Nina's life as she knew it, and the only thing he was able to do is say "I'm sorry" and "Everything is going to be okay" like that was going to make her feel better. He wondered if she could understand her back then…Did you Nina? Did you understand my words?
I don't know what to do to make everything the way it was. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
"Yes, I remember her" it was all he answered, and then he dropped his head they way it was before. Nothing else needed to be said that day.