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Welcome to Hell: Chapter Seven

Books and Breakfast

As soon as the sun came up the next morning Edward woke Alphonse. It had been a long night of reading for him. He hadn't had much light to read by, not wanting to disturb his slumbering brother, and now his eyes hurt. He needed caffeine in a bad way.

"Brother?" Alphonse sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes and yawning. His hair was sticking up in every direction.

"Man, Al. That's quite the bedhead you've got there."

"Hm?" Alphonse felt the top of his head. "Oh. It's sticking up all funny"

"Sleep well?"

Al's face scrunched up in confusion. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "I had a really hard time getting to sleep because it felt really weird. I don't remember what sleeping was like before, but I don't think I dreamed about anything. Is that okay?"

"Totally normal," he assured his little brother. "One step at a time, Al."

His brother noticed the stack of books. "Edward, did you stay up all night reading those?"

"Don't look at me like that. I'm fine, great actually." His body betrayed him then with a long yawn. "Come on Al, we did this all the time. I learned a lot about this world. Magic is an underground thing here. Most people don't know it exists at all."

"Well then I'd better catch up" Al reached for a book but couldn't quite grab it. Ed handed it to him with a smile. "I'll see if anyone is up. You need breakfast."

"Make sure you eat something too this time." Al muttered before losing himself in a book titled The History of Magics for the Novice.

Before leaving the room, Ed checked his appearance in the small mirror above the dresser. His hair was still pretty messy, but all of his automail was covered. As he clomped down the stairs he pulled his hair out of the tangled braid and let the golden locks fall down around his shoulders. He would bother with taming it later.

Dawn was up and rifling around in the kitchen when Edward peeked in. "Oh!" She gave a start when she saw him. "Um, good morning Edward." She glanced down at her pajamas, pink with kittens on them, and blushed. "Did you sleep well?"

"Ed."

"Huh?" She fidgeted with the coffee pot as she tried to pour some of its contents into a mug.

"Call me Ed."

"Okay, um, Ed." She nearly knocked over her mug and squeaked when a little hot coffee spilled on her finger.

Cocking an eyebrow at her behavior, he chalked it up to being a girl. "And actually I didn't sleep, too bust reading."

"All night?" She handed the coffee pot and a mug to him before filling her own with sugar and cream.

Ed poured the steaming liquid into the mug before replying. "I have a lot to catch up on. There's so much I don't know about this world."

"So how many did you read? Book I mean." She took a large gulp of her coffee.

"All of them. About ten in total I guess." Ed shrugged and downed the mug of coffee straight black. That was exactly what he needed. The heat and caffeine shocked him into a warm state.

"Ten books?" Dawn cried in astonishment.

"Yeah. I'm a fast reader." Ed helped himself to a second cup. "What do we have in the way of food around here?"

"I was gonna make some toast. We also have some apples. There's also some milk and cereal."

"Blech! Milk is gross." Grabbing up a couple of apples and a second mug of coffee for his brother, he started to head out of the kitchen. He had too large of a load though, and nearly dropped everything.

"Here, let me help." Dawn offered. She took an apple and a mug from him. He nodded his thanks and they headed up the stairs.

"Why do you wear gloves inside?" Dawn wondered aloud in the stairwell. "It's just that no one wears glove anymore, like ever."

"They're part of the uniform." Edward stalled. "I just feel better with them on." That wasn't going to be enough for her, was it? "I… I also have a scar. On my right hand. There was an… accident. No. A mistake. I made a mistake. Alchemy can be really dangerous. Anyway it's pretty shocking and I just don't take them off, okay?"

He could tell that he had really just made things worse. Now she wanted to see the scar, the curiosity was clear on her face. Too bad for her. These people had no right to know about his past sins, and he had no right to know theirs. She would just have to suffer with her curiosity.

The two of them found Al a good way into the first book. Ed snatched it away, replacing it with an apple and a mug of coffee.

"I think that maybe I could try walking today. I feel much stronger than yesterday."

"Are you sure, Al? It might be tough to walk again. You should take all the time you need to get stronger, starting with getting enough rest."

"Agh! This tastes horrible!" Choking on his coffee, Al took a big bite of his apple to wash out the bitterness coating his tongue.

"Gah! Sorry, Al! I made it black without really thinking about it."

The doorbell rang and Dawn rushed to answer it.

Ed wasted none of their alone time, speaking in a hushed tone. "Is your body really all right? It's stable? Your soul bonded to your body properly?"

"Yes. What about you?"

"Still the Fullmetal Alchemist, little brother."

"That's not fair! We-"

"No time," Ed urged. "I'm working on a new theory based on my work with your blood seal, Giles' books, and what Spike told me. If I'm right about this there might be a way to-"

His words came to an abrupt halt when the door handle turned open with a click. In came Giles with a large stack of books.

"I-I hope this isn't too overwhelming, but I brought some more volumes," with a grunt he placed them on the nightstand and readjusted his glasses. "For you to peruse, if you would like."

"Great. I already finished the others. Did you bring any of those Watchers Journal things?" Ed bounded over to the stack.

"Yes actually- pardon. Did you say finished? As in, finished?"

"As in finished." Picking up the volume in question he headed back to his seat on the bed. His apple went untouched as he dived into the book. While absorbing the contents of the volume he was only barely aware of the things in the room around him. Giles voicing his surprise, probably at how fast he read. Alphonse explaining.

The Elrics took speed reading to a whole new level. He thought it might have something to do with hereditary traits from their bastard of a father as well as a "gift" from the Gate. Ed could read several lines of text at the same time and internalize and comprehend them in moments. It always freaked people out, but he found it surprisingly handy. Oh. The Watcher was trying to talk to him. Oops.

"Hm? Sorry."

"I was asking for your opinion on the works you've read so far."

"Very interesting. I don't think it's a coincidence we were sent to a Hellmouth."

"I was thinking the same thing." Giles agreed with scholarly excitement, once again pushing up his glasses. "We are standing on a hub of mystical energy. There is a good chance you were drawn here by unknown forces."

"Let's just hope the homunculus was drawn here too." Edward sighed.

"Can you tell me a bit more about these homunculi? Anything that could be helpful?"

"For starters, it's next to impossible to kill them." Ed took Al's discarded mug and downed the contents. He could understand why Al disliked it. When he was little Alphonse had always like sweet things. Ed always drank it black because it was easier that way, just a quick way to shoot his system full of caffeine. "They have an undetermined number of lives stored inside of them. You have to kill them hundreds or possibly thousands of times before they actually die. They also regenerate very quickly. We've never been able to fully kill one, but we know that it's possible. I almost had one once."

"Well that's… not what I was hoping to hear." Giles admitted. "So these homunculi are really that powerful?"

"Yeah. We are lucky they are split up. That will make things easier."

They discussed battle strategies for a while. Giles and Edward got along quite well. They fell into a deep conversation regarding the contents of the books Ed had read the previous night. Al tuned them out in favor of his own reading. The hours flew by, and before they knew it they had gone through twenty two books.