Hmmm...this is my shortest chapter thus far in this story. Oh well, hopefully you all still find it interesting anyway, hehe. Sorry for taking so long on it. I had it written for some time, but kept putting off the editing because there was a large chunk where I had forgotten to "show, don't tell!" and I thought it would be hard to fix it. Turns out I was wrong, hehe. That was very easy to fix. So, here it is. Feel free to give me your opinions on it and tell me if I "showed" well enough.
Also, how many of you have heard of NaNoWriMo ((National Novel Writing Month))? It occurs every November where the challenge is to write an entire 50,000 word novel in one month. Well, it's not November, but it just so happens that I found a spinoff site, NaNoCoMo ((National Novel Continuation Month)) that was created to give you more NaNoWriMo when NaNoWriMo wasn't around, hehe, so they basically host the competition every month. It's good for encouragement if you can find a bunch of people to cheer you on, since 50k in a month is quite a challenge, though I did it last year, so I'm sure I can do it again, and I'm going to do it again this year, but FIRST I'm going to finish this story, in September with NaNoCoMo. The reason I'm telling all of you? First, because if I tell a whole bunch of people that I will have this novel's first draft finished by September 30th and then I don't, I'll feel really stupid, and second, because it might delay updates for a while ((though the updates will be quite fast after September, hehe.)) Here's my personal guarantee: If I don't have the rough draft finished by September 30th and don't upload the next chapter by October 3rd saying so, you may personally plot my demise. ((snickers)) Okay, don't literally kill me, but if I don't keep my word, go ahead and make me feel stupid. That'll ensure that I never get lazy about doing what I said I would again.
In any case, hope you enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: Aw, come on, it's nearly five in the morning! I stayed up late to get this chapter to you! You mean I have to do a disclaimer too? ((mumbles))Idon'townFullmetalAlchemist,youhappy?
The door opened and Edward looked up to see who had intruded on his space. It was Al. He should have guessed.
Al pulled a shirt out of the closet. He put it on as he turned toward Edward. "Are you feeling better?"
Edward rolled his eyes. "Yeeeeesss…and I might eat chocolate again some day, but warn me when I'm about to approach its evil side."
Al seemed amused, which didn't surprise Edward. Al was amused at everything. "So does that mean you're feeling good enough to have dinner?"
Dinner…he couldn't recall that word. He hated to admit that he didn't know yet another word, but he wasn't sure how he could pretend to understand. His people learned alien tongues from language samples collected over time, and that meant some common words were left out.
Edward felt his embarrassment increase as he remained silent, hoping to come up with a solution to the problem. Al noticed his reaction. "Is something the matter?"
"Uh…no?"
Al's expression changed to show he didn't believe that. "Seriously, what's the matter?"
Edward's blush increased, and his aura shone brighter. "It's nothing important." Al shook his head. He didn't believe that either. Edward sighed and looked up at Al. "I sometimes don't understand the words you use."
Al chuckled. "So does that mean you don't understand what dinner is?"
Edward shook his head, feeling more embarrassed. Al buttoned his shirt and turned his full attention to Edward. "It's the name of one of our meals. We call them by different names."
"I knew that," said Edward, "but I thought supper happened about now, not dinner." He looked out the window to confirm his suspicions. The sun was indeed going down.
"Supper is another name. Actually, that's the name most of the country people use, but for some reason, our family doesn't. Our parents must have been city folks."
Edward nodded slowly and pretended to understand. It didn't make sense to use different words for the same thing, but he'd go along. Earth people were strange, so he might as well accept that.
"O-kay…then I guess I'll come down for…dinner?"
Al chuckled again, nodded, extended his hand so Edward could take it, and led Edward to the dining room.
Rose was already at the table, and she looked the other way as soon as Edward entered the room. Edward grimaced and looked at the ground. He wanted to befriend her, but he didn't know how. Al patted him on the shoulder. At least someone understood what he was going through.
Al seated him at the table and went into the kitchen to help Winry. He wondered what Earth meals were like. He would have enjoyed this first meal more if he hadn't had to deal with Rose's cold glare.
He sighed and sat back in his seat as he waited for Al and Winry. He wished they hadn't left him alone with Rose, but he knew he was going to have to deal with her at some point.
His toes drew circles on the floor, and he caught a glare from Rose. He stopped moving and tried to hold himself still, but he couldn't do so for long. His anxiety level was too high, so he started drumming his fingers against his knees. At least that didn't make any sound, but doing so caused a rhythm to take over his whole body and his foot tapped along in sync with his fingers. This caused another stare from Rose, and Edward immediately stopped everything he was doing, but it wasn't long before he started again. It was so hard not to fidget when he was nervous.
Al and Winry brought out several dishes of food and Edward breathed a sigh of relief. At least he wouldn't have to behave himself around a cold Rose alone anymore.
Al and Winry placed the dishes on the table and sat in their places. Earlier that day, Edward would have reached for the food without thinking first, but he didn't dare do so now. He had learned quickly that his ways were different from the ways of Earth, and he didn't want to make more of a fool of himself than he already had.
Winry smiled and passed a dish to him, but he didn't know what to do, so he waited. She caught on and got out of her seat and went over to him.
She reached a large spoon into some white glop in the bowl and placed that spoonful of white glop on his plate. She passed the rest of the glop to Al.
"What is this stuff?" said Edward, poking nervously at the glop with his finger.
"Mashed potatoes," said Winry. "You eat that with your silverware." She gestured toward the fork, spoon, and knife that were on the table. "I would recommend a spoon for eating mashed potatoes. It's a little easier." She picked up the spoon and showed him, then returned it to where it had been.
Winry grabbed another dish and brought it over to where Edward was. "This is steak." She grabbed something that looked like a large fork with only two prongs and poked it into one of the things on the dish, then dropped the thing onto his plate.
"Use your fork and knife for this one. Stab the fork into it like this," she demonstrated the process for him, "and cut off a bite-sized piece with your knife."
Edward nodded. It seemed an efficient method of keeping hands clean. He watched everyone eat for a few minutes before he picked up his own utensils.
It didn't take long to learn how to use them, but it was very strange. In spite of the advanced technology of his people compared with that of Earth, his people ate with their fingers. His planet was so dusty, nobody cared if they dirtied their fingers, since they could clean up afterward. Earth people seemed a bit snooty about cleanliness, but he didn't mind. He would willingly adapt to their ways of cleanliness if he could gain the lush vegetation of their planet.
For the first few minutes, Al and Winry tried to lighten the situation by joking with each other, but the tension between Rose and Edward was too great, and the meal was finished in silence.
As soon as he finished the last bite of his meal, Edward pushed his plate away, stood up, and turned to leave. "Thank you, that was very good." Before anyone could protest, he had left the room.
He was only halfway up the stairs when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Al looking at him with concerned eyes.
"Something's bothering you. What's wrong?"
Edward shook his head and put on a fake smile as he tried to ascend the stairs again, but Al grabbed his hand. "You can't fool me; something is bothering you."
Edward sighed. "It's the first day I've been here. There are so many changes to make."
Al nodded and released Edward's hand. Edward didn't want to explain about his nightmare or about how much Rose's actions hurt, so he was glad Al had believed that excuse.
He climbed the rest of the way and went into his room, closing the door to be alone in his thoughts.
Edward heard footsteps outside the door and groaned. Al wouldn't leave him alone, would he? He wanted some time to mope about how hard this task was turning out to be, but Al was making that difficult.
The door opened, and Al entered the room. "Are you okay, Edward?" he asked.
Edward nodded, but Al wasn't believing him anymore. He would have to find ways to distract Al so he would stop asking questions.
He pointed to a white and black thing on the wall. "What's that?"
Al turned to where Edward was pointing and smiled. "That's a clock. It helps us track time.
"Why do you need a machine to track time? Doesn't your sun do that for you?"
Al shrugged and sat down on his bed, facing Edward. "The sun isn't as precise. Using a clock, we can keep track of time down to the minute, the second, and even during the night."
Edward raised an eyebrow. "Why do you need to keep that much track? One is generally only awake during the day, or at least, my people are. The sun does a good job of telling you what time it is during the daytime, and at nighttime you're supposed to be asleep."
Al shrugged. "I guess I had never thought about it. It's a habit we humans have. We've become addicted to the preciseness of the clock.
"That seems inconsiderate," said Edward, "The sun is working hard for you, and you're ignoring his efforts."
"His?" Al said, repeating Edward's choice of pronoun. "The sun doesn't feel anything. It couldn't care less if we ignored it."
"You have no idea what it's like to wake up every morning and hear your sun weeping because she is about to die and us with her."
"So you're telling me that you were able to tell what your sun was feeling?"
"I can tell what anything is feeling," said Edward.
"So does that mean you're…empathic?" said Al.
"Rose said it was called 'telepathic'."
"No, no…" Al smiled amusedly and shook his head. "Telepathy is when you can read others' thoughts. Empathy is reading others' feelings."
Edward made a noise of annoyance out of the corner of his mouth. This was very stupid. Why did humans have to come up with different words for the same thing? "They sound similar to me."
Al shook his head once again and his face grew more serious, though still playful. "No, they're completely different. On one hand, you're feeling what everybody else feels, and on the other hand, you're thinking what everybody else thinks."
Edward rolled his eyes. "They go hand in hand, you can't have one without the other."
Al was silent for several moments before his eyes opened wide. "Are you telling me you're both empathic and telepathic?"
Edward rubbed the back of his head. "If those are your words for it, then yes, but you should use one word. It doesn't make sense to describe it with two different words when they go hand in hand."
"So," said Al, breaking through Edward's thoughts once again, "Can you tell me what I'm thinking right now?"
Edward smiled. Now he was getting somewhere. He stood up to walk over to where Al was. Al looked startled and said, "What are you doing?"
Edward shrugged. "I have to touch you. It's more accurate."
"O…kay…" said Al, and he scooted over to make room on his bed for Edward.
Edward sat down, put his hands on Al's shoulders, and closed his eyes. A moment later, the familiar images and feelings began to flash through Edward's mind. Edward felt jittery, but he knew the feeling wasn't coming from inside him, so it had to have been from Al. That wasn't something Edward had expected, but he could understand it if someone had never had their mind probed before.
Edward concentrated on the center of his forehead until he felt his connection reach out and press into Al's mind. Edward felt a jolt at the sudden connection, almost as if he wasn't welcome there, though he knew Al had given him permission to do this. Curiosity overcame him, and he probed deeper to find the feelings that might have caused such a reaction. Al was nervous about Edward being in their home because he didn't know how to take care of him or if their plan would work fully. He was also nervous about Rose and her treatment of Edward. Edward could have guessed those thoughts without probing, so he dug deeper to find hidden thoughts that would cause Al to react the way he had. Al tensed under Edward's doing so, but Edward pressed forward anyway. Al had given him permission to do this, so he was going to see it through.
An image of a woman entered his mind, Al's mother. Probing deeper, he saw the woman on her deathbed. That explained why he hadn't been introduced to her. He discovered several other deaths that had been significant: Winry's parents dying, and her beloved grandmother, whose death had been fairly recent. That was why Al and Winry were living together nowadays. They hadn't had an easy life.
Edward heard his nickname echoed through Al's mind. It was always strange to hear the person he probed think so strongly about him, but it was especially odd to hear the name "EDWARD!" ricochet through someone's mind. He answered to that name, but this was the only place people called him that.
Edward followed the echoes, hoping Al would lead him to the source of the trouble. No one called out someone's name like that under ordinary circumstances. An image flashed into Edward's mind of Al picking something up and holding it to his ear and mouth, a communication device. Edward's name continued to echo in the background, when the word "SPY" joined it.
Spy?
Another image followed the first, this one of himself speaking to his leaders, and his leaders returning to Earth and shedding human blood. Another word joined the cacophony in the background. "BETRAYAL"
Spy? Betrayal? Me?
Edward abruptly broke the connection and leaned back to look at Al. Now he understood why humans had issues with their minds being probed, if they harbored deep fears like that. He never would have guessed such a thing from someone like Al, but there were many things about humans he didn't yet understand.
"Al, relax." Edward squeezed Al's shoulders and tried to offer a reassuring smile, though he wasn't sure if it helped. "I'm not here to spy on your race and help my people take over yours." Al tensed, so Edward knew his words sunk home. Al hadn't expected his telepathic reading to be so accurate.
"Are you afraid of Rose turning me in?" Edward hadn't bothered to probe deep enough to answer his own question because the feelings had gotten so intense, but it was a logical assumption after what he had just seen. He could see how this would have bad repercussions on Al and Winry for taking care of him.
Al didn't seem to want to answer, but his body betrayed him and he nodded slowly. "That would be a problem," said Edward, and he sighed as he lowered his eyes and released Al's shoulders, "But I don't think she plans to do that. There were no such intentions in her mind when I probed her."
"You probed Rose's mind?" Al raised his eyebrows while Edward hung his head and laughed.
"Yeah, I did. I didn't realize it was impolite in human society without permission. She was not amused."
"That explains her coldness," said Al with a shake of his head. "Most people have some secrets that they want to stay buried, and they don't like someone digging them up."
"I can see why." A few minutes prior, he wouldn't have understood at all, but after his experiment with Al, he was beginning to understand the human condition.
"Well," said Al, "You've probed my mind, and it didn't hurt me." Al stood up. "I'll talk with Rose. Maybe I can convince her there's nothing to be afraid of."
Al would be lying to Rose if he told her there was nothing to fear, knowing just how much Al was afraid of Edward but was too polite to say, but if that was what it would take for peace, so be it. He turned his gaze to the floor. "I wish I could let you probe my mind so you could see I was harmless."
Al smiled a sad smile. "I wish we could too. It would help a lot." Edward nodded in silence, and Al left the room, shutting the door behind him. This trip was not turning out to be what he had thought it would be. He needed to find some place where he could go and think.
There you go, hope you liked that, but feel free to tell me your thoughts if you have any, and please wish me luck for both NaNoCoMo and NaNoWriMo, because I'll surely need it, hehe. See you all soon!
