Chapter 7: Get out!
Ed was on one of the school's toilets, vomiting. He really didn't feel good. Just a few hours earlier, he'd for the first time in his life, skipped a class, PE. In this condition, everything he wanted to do, was sleep, but there were no way he'd allow himself to go home, Envy was there, and Envy had twice showed what he wanted to do with Ed, and he didn't want that to happen again.
It was now lunch break, and Ed hadn't been able to keep his lunch, just like he hadn't been able to keep his breakfast, or the supper the day before. It made him feel even worse, and his biggest wish that moment, was to be alone at home. Alone as in: without Envy.
When Ed felt better he turned towards the mirror. It felt strange to not have his braid, but he didn't have any choice; his hair was the only thing that could hide a hickey that Envy put too high. The rest of them, he was able to hide with a polo-necked sweatshirt and the bruises around his wrists were hidden by a pair of gloves.
The warning bell rang, and Ed hurried to his next lesson, chemistry, with Izumi Curtis, his homeroom teacher. During the lesson, nothing really happened but as the lesson ended and everyone started to leave, Izumi said, "Edward Elric, I'd like a word with you." Ed stopped, he guessed that it was about the skipped class.
"Why didn't you attend PE?" He'd been right.
"I…" he stopped, and didn't say anything more than that.
"And another question; why are you acting this strange?" Ed looked up at her, then down again. "Yes, it's shown from miles away that you aren't feeling too well, yet you go to school. Why didn't you stay home this morning?" Ed wondered why he always got the questions he didn't want to answer.
"I… can't stay home," he said quietly.
"Yes you can, and I want you to." Ed couldn't help but to look up into her eyes. Her determined met his feared, something Ed had hoped he could avoid. He looked down into the ground and he said with a weak voice, "Don't send me home… I'd prefer staying in school longer…" He started to mouth a few words, but he didn't know what to say. It wasn't like he could explain to her, he sucked when it came to lying and he couldn't tell the truth, so he had a difficult time when trying to come up with something to say.
"Tell me what happened to you. Why can't you be home Edward?" Her voice sounded different, more worrying, but Ed refused to open his mouth and shook his head instead.
"Does Al know anything?" Once again, Ed shook his head and he looked at his feet. "Is there anyone who knows?" Ed shook his head for the third time. "Ed you really need to talk to someone about this. I'm here for that." Ed didn't even look like he'd heard her, which made her sigh. "If you won't talk to me, talk to Al, he would understand you. It's obvious that you can't take care of this yourself, let someone in, your brother would believe you, even if you see it as something strange." She sighed then said, "Ok, I can't force you to do anything… This time, you won't get detention for skipping PE, but if it happens again, I will. This time I let you go because I see how bad you feel."
'You're wrong,' Ed wanted to say. 'No one knows how bad I feel and no one will ever do.' He didn't say this, it would only make Mrs. Curtis to ask more questions.
He went towards his next, and last lesson for the day and reached the classroom just before the bell rang. He couldn't follow in the lesson, the only thing that went through his mind were things like, 'How can Izumi know this much about me when I don't know a damn shit about her.' He knew that she was teaching Al as well, and that was the reason she even knew who Al was, and probably, he was the one talking about Ed.
Scene change
It had gone three days since Hohenheim had found out the secret of the cat, but he had yet to do anything. He knew that he had to speak with Ed, but he didn't know what he would say and couldn't find the strength to do it. Now he had decided that he would find his son and talk with him, but seeing that his work couldn't wait, Hohenheim had to finish that before he went to see Ed.
"Hohenheim, we need some help here!" Hohenheim looked up at the scientist who'd wake him up from his deep thoughts. He saw that there was a bunch of scientists around the main source of the building's electricity.
Hohenheim looked at the machine before he walked towards it.
"Give it some space so I can look at it," he said and everyone listened, even though there were some guys in the group that looked like they didn't think that Hohenheim could fix it. Hohenheim didn't care about it but looked through the wires he believed was the problem. He soon found that it was one of the wires he had suspected, and he fixed it with the tools that had been placed a few feet away. After that, the machine started again, and lots of surprised looks went across the staff.
"Now, if you excuse, I have other things to do." Hohenheim left the room and the rest of them did so as well, their work was already done, and they had nothing left to do there.
Now, Hohenheim needed to do his work, or else he wouldn't have a chance to talk with Ed this evening, like he'd planned.
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Ed had arrived home a few minutes after Al and Envy had therefore left him alone. Now, a few hours later, Ed was helping Al in the kitchen, preparing the dinner by chopping vegetables. He lifted his eyes towards his younger brother and asked, "Al, why can't you throw the cat out?"
"You promised me a month, it's only gone ten days. Why do you want to throw him out so much?" Al asked, looking into Ed's eyes with a begging glint in them.
"I… can't tell you… Please, just understand…" Ed had decided that Envy would leave the house tonight, no matter how much he had to do, how much he had to beg, Envy was getting kicked out. He knew he'd run too long, and he'd been the only one suffering from it. Now he had decided that it would meet its end.
"Then tell me what's happened to you! Please Ed, I'm worried about you, I'm not the only one, but I want to know, Please!" Ed looked down, and refused to look at Al.
"I can't tell you, I've already said that. Just… trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you the truth…" At that time, Envy entered the room in his cat form, and was spotted by both the brothers.
Al was truly shocked, when the small cat was surrounded by a light, and suddenly grew to the size of a human, and the cat disappeared and was replaced by a green haired guy.
"Chibi-san, I told you to tell the truth or shut up. You did neither of it, so I'll let you take the consequences from disobeying me." Envy went towards Ed, and didn't seem to notice the fact that Ed took a few steps backwards. Then he stopped, as if realizing that it was no use, and Envy's hands placed themselves on Ed's shoulders.
When Envy leaned down to kiss Ed but an intense pain shot through his chest, and he slowly looked down, while the grip around Ed's shoulders hardened to remain standing. He saw Ed's hand, holding the knife, entirely buried in his chest. His heart was untouched, but Envy had difficulties to breathe, and he understood that his lung was pierced, but his heart wasn't.
Envy's grip slowly loosened around Ed's shoulders and he fell down on the ground. Ed's legs bent themselves, and he sat down next to Envy, horrified over what he'd done. Envy looked at him, with pain filled eyes.
Ed felt as if it was he who'd gotten the knife in him, and not Envy, and he whispered, "E-Envy… I d-didn't…" he didn't know what to say, so he fell silent, and just looked at Envy, almost hyperventilating.
Al, was now so shocked that he couldn't see anything that happened. First a cat had turned itself to human, and then Ed had stabbed the guy, who seemed to know Ed. The phone started to ring, but neither Al or Ed heard it, one was too shocked, and one was too horrified.
Ed leaned down, and before he understood what he did, he let his lips press against Envy's gentle, but yet lovingly. He had no idea why he did it, he just did.
Without breaking the kiss, Ed looked into Envy's eyes, and watched them become more and more distant and soon, all signs of life in his eyes were nonexistent. For a long time, he continued to stare into his eyes, but he broke the kiss. In the end, he closed Envy's eyes with his fingers.
Scene change
"Miss Rockbell?" Winry turned around when she hear her name being called out.
"Hohenheim?" She said when she recognized the face. "Are you gonna see Ed and Al?"
"Yes, I need to talk with Edward." Winry looked at him with a hopeful look.
"Do you know what's wrong with him?" Hohenheim nodded.
"That's what I think at least. But you wouldn't believe me if I didn't take it from the beginning. As you know, I work as a scientist, and experiment called 332, that would make it possible for us to see how a human brain really worked. If we knew that we thought that it would be possible to manufacture humans. For this experiment we needed a volunteer, a child, on top of that. We found one, but the test went wrong, and he was able to take which form he wanted." Winry interrupted him.
"And what does that has to do with what's wrong with Ed?" She looked a bit confused.
"I was at their house this Monday, and their new cat has the same eye colour as the guy from the experiment." Winry stared at him, and asked, "Are you saying that some freak's pretending to be their cat?" Hohenheim nodded.
"Yes, I think so. He called himself Envy and…" He didn't come further, since Winry yelled, "ENVY!! Then Ed's in real trouble!" She started to run towards Ed and Al's house.
Hohenheim ran after her, but as Hohenheim reached to the door, Winry had already knocked hard on the door waiting for someone to open. When no one did, she knocked harder, but Hohenheim opened the door, and they both walked in. Winry looked pretty uncertain whether she should come in or not, but she did follow Hohenheim, and they called out both Al's and Ed's name, but they didn't get an answer.
They looked through the house, and saw Al in the kitchen before they could see anything else. They called his name but he didn't react, and they took the last steps that allowed them to see the cause of Al's shocked state.
The tall green haired guy with a knife in his chest, and his head was resting in Ed's lap. Ed was looking down in Envy's face, and he looked like he was unaware of where he was, unaware of the fact that he was being watched.
Winry put her hand over her mouth and stared at the scene, almost as shocked as the young teen in the kitchen chair. Hohenheim, on the other hand, managed to get to the telephone and called for an ambulance, and he tried to explain what had happened.
When moving to the phone, he'd lost the sight of what happened in the kitchen, so all he saw was Winry running into the room, yelling, "Ed don't!" The phone dropped to the ground, as Hohenheim hurried into the room. He saw that Ed held the bloody knife that earlier had sat in Envy's chest, and he looked prepared to commit suicide.
Winry tried to loosen his grip around the knife, but he wasn't strong enough, and Hohenheim got forward, and managed to pull the knife out of his hand, and Ed became entirely still, his head bowed and his eyes stopped at Envy's motionless face. Ed looked like he'd given up, as if life no longer mattered to him.
