Writer's Block
Disclaimer: Ed Elric is the creation of the incredibly talented Hiromu Arakawa. I hope she forgives me someday.
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She stared at the blank text block on the screen. She had been doing that now for nearly an hour, and yet the block was still empty. Maybe I should type 'It was a dark and stormy night' in there. At least there would be something.
She half giggled. Then took a deep breath, hung her head in defeat, and let the breath out, half sobbing in the process.
She heard the clink of a plate being placed on the computer desk behind her, followed by the squeak of a chair. She choose to ignore both, to instead stare at the computer keyboard in the hopes that it would somehow do the typing for her.
For some reason, she could smell chocolate in the room. That was not so easy to ignore.
"You are being entirely too hard on yourself. Take a break. Go get some sleep."
The voice was not who she expected. Or at least one she had not heard in a long time.
"Oh, that's rich, coming from you." She was trying for sarcasm, but in her current state was not sure she was getting it right. Because it was feeling a whole lot more like anger. "You never do that for yourself, Mr. I-Don't-EVER-Need-A-Break. And by the way, where have you been?" She spun her chair around to look at him.
Ed was making a point of ignoring her, and was instead intent on oiling the joints in his right hand. He looked up at her for a brief moment, went back to his work. "You do know I have other clients besides you. I realize your writing has suffered somewhat recently, but you've actually started working on your own ideas despite my lack of help. That's good. I would also add that it's about time. But tonight you obviously need a break." He stopped working for a moment, looked up and frowned at her. "And I did take breaks once in a while."
"Ones that didn't involve a hospital stay or automail repair? Or both?"
He went back to working on his hand, but now he was grinning. "OK, you've got me there. Still, you are not me. I'm a fictional character and part-time muse. You are not. You need rest. And then, when you are thinking a little more clearly, the writing will come back to you."
She took another deep breath, let it out, reached over and shut down the computer. "There. Happy now?"
"No. Go get some rest. And no playing "Guitar Hero" tonight either." He looked at his hand for a moment, flexed his fingers. "Think I got all the joints oiled finally. Time to work on the elbow." He stood up as if to leave, then reached behind the chair and grabbed a plate that was sitting on the desk.
A plate of brownies.
"Where did you get those?"
He grinned at her again. "They are a gift from a friend. She thought I needed them."
And he was gone.
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AN: The original version of this was published in my now defunct blog. (so if it looks familiar to anyone, that would be why) It has been somewhat rewritten for this site.
And Jaya…thanks for the brownies. :)