Knowing More Than Recommended
Apologies: Sorry it took so long for this chapter, everybody! I haven't been 100 percent lately; add high school and you just get stress. Extra juicy chapter to make up for it! Enjoy! The overall rating has changed to M, just to be safe. Language, violence, adult content…all that jazz in the future.
This chapter features: Episode 26 "Her Reason." Mustang realizes there's a good chance that the military is involved in covering up Hughes' death. This is confirmed when Mustang gets a visit from General Haruko, who strongly implies not to reopen Hughes' case if he wanted to keep his transfer to Central. Meanwhile, the Elrics and Winry have an adventure in Rush Valley with a girl named Pininya, who wants to prove that her father's automail is of worth. All is well until a familiar face from the past shows up at Ed and Al's hotel room…
-/-/-/-
Kelsey closed the book she'd just finished with dissatisfaction. It ended so cliché, where the trials and obstacles the two characters overcame weren't even realistic. Everything was handed to the guy and girl in the story so that everything clicked. If only life could really be like that.
The train she sat in was bound towards Rush Valley, the mechanic haven for all of the automail junkies. She didn't have much of an interest in mechanics, but did with someone who had mechanical limbs. A small smile graced her lips as she thought of the wonderful fantasy adventures she could have around Edward and Alphonse. Her thoughts came back to reality when her hand touched the military watch in the pocket of her dress. Brandon gave it to her before she left him in Central with Hughes and Mustang.
Brandon could easily perform alchemy. But when he tried to show her the basics, she couldn't even do that! No light came from the poor transmutation circle she had drawn on the floor. Then again, it was all about understanding what you were breaking down and recreating, as any alchemist would have said. She didn't understand a hint of the anything in the books, even when Brandon had tried breaking it down for her, step by step. He, on the other hand, opened the 'Advanced Alchemy' book and was trying new things in a matter of minutes!
She folded her arms and looked at the landscape as it passed by. Her friend could perform alchemy in a pinch but couldn't remember the name of the high school they attended. Yet she remembered everything perfectly and couldn't perform alchemy to save her life. How peculiar.
-/-/-
Greed thought his ideas were the most absolute brilliant in the world. He'd chosen to take chimeras as his henchmen; great choice there because they were more resilient than humans. He'd chosen to open up a bar; that was a wonderful success so far. And now he thought of a simple, yet brilliant idea to keep Kimblee loyal to him while forcing Amy to get over her anxieties of the male variety, both at one time.
It involved a pair of handcuffs.
"Crimson, Amy… Follow me for a second," he coaxed.
He lifted the hand with the oroborus tattoo on it and motioned for them to follow. Kimblee looked at Amy, but she did not look back. Still angry? He shoved his hands in his pocket and went after them. Fine, she could be mad at him. He still had her little music holder thingy, which he could always make into a bomb and give it back… An i…something... iPod! Right.
Greed led them to a part of the structure that no one currently occupied. He stopped in a poorly lit room with two single seats he placed next to each other purposely and pointed at them. They obeyed his silent command to sit, Kimblee on the right.
"So, how would you two describe your relationship?"
Amy's face twisted into instant confusion as she jumped forward in her seat. "What relationship? He annoys the crap out of me and I kick his ass," she said sharply. When the alchemist didn't confirm or deny, only looked over at her, she crossed her arms and looked away for extra effort.
Kimblee chuckled softly.
Greed grinned. This was going to work perfectly, he thought. "So, no one here has a problem if I sleep with Amy," he said to Kimblee.
The bomber raised his eyebrows. "By all means, boss."
She was lost for words at their casual exchange. "Excuse me? Shouldn't you be asking me that? And the answer is 'hell no,' just in case you were wondering."
Greed's amethyst eyes narrowed as his grin grew. "Then, I order you to sleep with me."
Amy's blue eyes snapped to his and searched for some hint of a joke, or other motive. Clearly, he was counting on her to use her 'disobey one order' card right now. The only question was, what order did he have in mind that would come next... and would involve Kimblee?
"The answer is no."
"Too bad. Now, hold out your hands," he commanded smoothly. Kimblee smirked and raised his right arm, while Amy hesitated. Once she did this, Greed was going to do something. Something much worse than simply sleeping with him. "Doll-face, you can either hold out your hand or get the fuck out. You choose." With that, she obeyed.
Two loud clicks echoed in the room. With lightning speed, Greed had pulled something out from his pocket and locked it around each of their wrists. It was a pair of metallic handcuffs, with a meter-long chain connecting both ends. The silence in the room was enough to hear a fly land. Both of their eyes moved from their own wrist, across the chain, until they reach the other person's body. When their eyes connected, the polarized emotions began to show through the shock.
The dog had just received the leash and treat.
"How do you both feel about spending every waking moment with one another?"
Amy's face paled. Kimblee's expression held his signature smirk that bordered the line between amusement and cruelty. Before either of them could say anything, Greed continued. "The rules are simple. If either of you kills the other, I will personally make sure the one living suffers the same fate. That means no blowing her up, Kimblee." The bomber scoffed, which made Amy look a little paler. "Also, this metal-I'm-not-telling-you-the-name-of is thousands of degrees resistant and cannot be blown up by your method. So no luck blowing the chain apart. If you can figure out the name and properties of the metals and can transmute it apart, you win, and you're both free. Until then... snuggle up tight, because you're not going anywhere." It was hard to tell who exactly he aimed that last comment for; Amy, who didn't like males in her personal space, or Kimblee, who would surely get annoyed with her eventually.
Her mouth fell open in disbelief. "Is this your idea of a game, Greed?" she asked. Greed shrugged.
"You need to get over the fact that men are in your life, they're going breathe your air and help you make babies. Get over it. And Crimson, I'm sure prison has suppressed many human emotions. So, you need to relearn how to be empathetic. Care about the fact you have an extra 130 lbs or so to keep alive so you stay alive. Easy as that." He was so blunt. "Playing this game is an order, by the way. Just in case that wasn't clear." Before he heard anymore bitching, Greed turned and walked away to leave the pair to their own devices.
Amy was frozen to her seat.
Kimblee stood and tested how much room they had to stand apart from each other. Approximately three feet, he noted.
"This should be fun," he said with an enthusiastic ring in his voice. Just this morning, he'd thought about how bored he'd been lately. Now, he thought of the fun it was going to be being attached to someone so easily frightened and feisty. A smile crept onto his face.
Amy still didn't move, just sat, staring at her feet. "N-no. I won't go through with this. Cut your hand off right n-now," she demanded shakily. Kimblee grinned even wider.
"I'll be happy to cut yours off. Let's go get a knife."
He yanked on the chain to make her get up. Similar to walking a dog, wasn't it? She still didn't budge, just gripped the chain so he didn't tear her arm off. While he was clearly excited, she was not. At all. "I'm not moving until this is off," she told him straight up.
Too damn bad. He wanted to go somewhere else. Kimblee walked over and simply slung her over his shoulder. She kicked and squirmed, but he locked his arms around her legs tighter and tighter until she stopped. Instead, she shouted a colorful palette of insults at him all the way down the hallway. Finally, when he was at the outside the door to the bar area, where public witnesses awaited, she quietly slithered from his arms. "Dear god, no. We are not going out there. I am not some trophy you can just show off-"
"Trophy? Thinking a little highly of yourself, aren't you?" he laughed. She became less shocked and more agitated by the second.
"We can go for a walk or something. We can go wherever you want out of this building if you do not do anything like a jackass!"
He seemed interested in the walk.
"Fair enough," he agreed. He added another tick mark under her name in his mind, which put her one in the lead. The bomber alchemist put his hands in his pockets, which seemed to physically ease her, and let her lead the way to the outside world. He'd been just itching to come out and play.
-/-/-
Brandon stretched his tired muscles, feeling parched for company after sending Kelsey away to Rush Valley to find Edward. He headed toward the hospital talk with Hughes a little more on the 'off-limits' subjects. On the way, a paper boy was selling a few newspapers in the middle of the plaza. Brandon tipped him a coin before happily taking one. Sure enough, he was on the front page in a picture standing next to Hughes and his family at the hospital. Soldier car accident / Everyday heroes save life, read the title. He grinned to himself, and felt proud of his pretty ingenious idea he thought of yesterday with those reporters.
If Amy really was here, he could get a message to her. He may have been taking advantage of the press covering the accident Hughes was in, but it was all he could do.
He glanced over the article, which missed all of the important details and just said how a local had gotten into an accident. Along with the picture of him and Kelsey next to the Hughes', there was a quote from him.
"I knew that waking half the block would get the injured man attention faster than if I'd just told one person. Like my teacher in Dublith taught me, to serve your community is to serve you country," the young hero told us.
Hopefully Amy would understand the message in the second sentence and find Kelsey or himself in Dublith, after they got there. He crossed his fingers and tucked the paper under his shoulder, then picked up his pace to the hospital. Colonel Mustang arrived a few short minutes after him, after Hughes and Brandon had played a game of 'keep you off the subject-keep you on the subject,' where they would switch topics too fast to discuss one important item. Brandon knew Hughes did that on purpose to keep him from talking about Lab Five or Military corruptions. When Mustang requested a presentation, Brandon did not leave right away. He looked at both of the soldiers, giving a sign of respect to each.
"I would just like to say before I leave… Please watch yourselves. There is corruption in the military, and they won't hesitate to make you silent." The young man's voice was collected and serious. Both Hughes and Roy looked at each other, before nodding to Brandon, knowing, even though he was a kid and civilian, he was right. There was uneasy silence as Brandon turned as headed for the door.
Right as he was grabbing for the handle, it slammed open. "WHERE ARE THE ELRICS?"
Brandon nearly fell over from shock, since he stood right there in the face of the doorway. The person shouting was obviously a tall woman with a strong voice. The young man glanced up...
None other than Izumi and Sig Curtis stood in the doorway of Hughes' hospital room. Hawkeye was behind the pair, apologizing to Mustang for letting them slip past. Roy and Maes had nearly jumped out of their skins but resumed their calm demeanor as any soldier would.
The Colonel was interested in who this couple was because Ed was under his jurisdiction, and he too wanted to know where the Elrics were headed.
"What business would you have with the Elric brothers?"
Izumi shot a glare to the raven-haired man. Brandon grabbed hold of the door and stood up straight and tall, which was still not enough to tower over Izumi. "R-rush Valley…" he managed to spit out, after he was finished being terrified of her. "They're in Rush Valley with a friend of mine." Telling her was the best way to avoid any violence, such as Izumi whoopin' some ass or Riza shooting somebody.
Izumi calmed instantly and gave Brandon a glowing smile. "Thank you, young man," she said with gratitude, before she turned acutely with her husband and left.
-/-/-
A walk defined by Zolf J. Kimblee was not just strolling around and enjoying the outside.
A walk defined by Kimblee meant starting a small panic attack in whatever part of the neighborhood they were in.
Once they exited the Devil's Nest and marched up the stairs to street level, Amy assumed he wanted to blow up everything that his eyes fell on. Therefore, she freaked out for the first few blocks. After she saw that he kept his hands sheathed in his pockets, she calmed down. But it was after she relaxed that he revealed those arrays on his palms and gravitated towards stray animals and small children. Amy honestly couldn't tell whether he had intent to kill or was just messing with her, but she didn't want to take any chances.
She grabbed hold of the chain and yanked him away from the kids playing ball. She pulled on his arm to keep him from petting a passing woman's little dog. And later on, she had to completely wrap her arms around his middle and pick him up in order to drag him away from a stray cat. Kimblee probably found it amusing to see her push and pull around someone a good 70 lbs more than herself. Every time an explosion was avoided, in Amy's mind, he seemed very amused.
Well, at least somebody was having fun.
Finally, he dropped the act (Amy hoped it was just an act) and they walked side by side like two normal, civilized people. Well, as normal as they could while handcuffed together. Most people they passed didn't really notice the chain connecting them, but the ones who did gave confused, repulsed or astonished looks. Amy couldn't help but feel embarrassed, even though those people were complete strangers.
"This is tortue." Amy muttered. As another person they passed by gasped, she fluffed her bangs out so they covered half of her face. She contemplated taking down her ponytail in order to hide more of her face, but decided against it.
Kimblee looked smug. "If you want to think of it as that."
Amy inspected the chain closely. "Do you know what kind of material this is yet? It's been fun, but it's time to end this nonsense. Don't you think?" She tried to sound like she was bored with the entire 'game,' which hopefully would cause him to become bored.
Kimblee didn't buy it, though. He noticed how much being chained down drew dexterity and alarm out of her.
"All I know is that Greed wasn't lying. I can't make it explode," he explained. She noticed disappointment on his face. Suddenly, if a brilliant idea occurred to him, he grinned sadistically at Amy. She shuddered.
"You're not going to…blow me up if you can't figure it out, right?"
He simply shrugged again, which made her shudder even more.
A gust of wind blew each of their ponytails over their shoulders. Kimblee reached up and caught a page of a newspaper before it hit his face. He glanced at what was printed on it- nothing that immediately interested him- before he tossed it into the dying breeze. However, Amy had seen the side opposite of him and something caught her eye. She flung herself after the paper as if her life depended on it and managed to snag the edge before the wind picked up again.
She glanced at the page, rubbed her eyes, and read over it again. As far as Kimblee could tell, it was just a front page of the Central Times.
"I can't believe it…" she mumbled. Kimblee saw the headline.
"What, that people don't know how to drive?"
She ignored him. Her entire body shook with an emotion the alchemist couldn't pinpoint. He looked at her questioningly. "Brandon and Kelsey are here. Is this a dream?" A huge smile broke across her face- something he had never seen on her. Now the bomber was confused. Scraps of paper made her extremely happy?
So many things raced through her mind. The article was written about a car accident in Central two days ago. The picture next to the words depicted the Hughes family- the entire Hughes family, Maes included- but also Kelsey and Brandon. They stood ghost-like in the corner, as if they'd stepped into the picture last second. It brought her pure happiness to see their smiling faces. Her friends were alive, and here with her! As she read his quote, she immediately knew what Brandon was trying to tell her. 'So they're coming to Dublith with Izumi… You're a genius, Brandon!' she thought.
All this time she thought she was here alone. How could she have doubted?
"Kimblee, we're going for another walk tomorrow!" she said with a ring of happiness in her voice. She continued down the sidewalk, almost skipping as she went.
Kimblee looked as confused as ever. And he wanted answers so he wouldn't have to be puzzled by it later. He yanked on the chain, which abruptly stopped the woman from her skipping and happy-go-lucky business. She winced as he grabbed her handcuff and held her in one place. "What the hell just happened?" he spat, pretty annoyed at not being informed. "You haven't smiled like that even once since you've been here. Now suddenly you're humming and skipping?"
Amy froze for two separate reasons. For one, the irritation in his tone, and two, the closeness suddenly between them. She could see the individual hairs that made his eyebrows. She took a step back before answering. "I… I found who I've been looking for. Or, I didn't even know they were here, or I would have looked for them harder." She tried not to sound startled. As she continued, she gained more confidence. "My friends are here and we're going to find them tomorrow." When she finished, she ripped her hand out of his and yanked the chain to make Kimblee follow her. "Now, it's getting late. We need to head back."
After he got his answer, he walked beside her at a subdued pace. His hands found their way back into his pockets. "You know, the earlier we go back, the more time you get to spend alone with me in my room." He smirked at how he worded his phrase, and her reaction.
"Hell no." They continued down an alternate street, which would take them the long way back.
-/-/-
It was late afternoon when Kelsey arrived in the valley of all mechanic and automail needs, Rush Valley. It wasn't hard to find Edward and Alphonse in a place like this since she knew they would be where ever all of the action was. When those two traveled, Ed always managed to stir up some kind of trouble and make lots of "friends."
However, it would have been easier to find the brothers if she wasn't so easily distracted. Rush Valley offered many priceless items and interesting designs of not only automail, but machinery that looked like it could be from the 40's or 50's back in her world. She concluded that Amestris was several decades behind her time, as far as the industrial age was concerned.
Nightfall came quicker than she expected. The small girl began to get more worried with each passing second. What if she couldn't find them and someone bigger and stronger found her? She had no one here to protect her like she was used to. Why hadn't she wanted to wait until Brandon was ready to leave again?
Through all of her worrying, she looked up and saw Alphonse about a block away.
A grin appeared on her face as she quickly headed over and shouted his name. "Al! Over here!" He turned toward her and she saw how much he was shaking. "I followed you guys here because I wanted to join you all-"
The suit of amour cut her off nervously by taking her hand and dragging her down a different street. "It's nice to see you again, Kelsey. It's been a couple days, hasn't it? We have to go find my brother and tell him who I just saw!" Al's voice sounded flustered. Kelsey followed behind him in a run.
"O-okay…" the girl huffed.
The two of them ran a few blocks before Al ran reached the motel he, Ed and Winry stayed in. "Brother! You'll never guess who's here!"
Kelsey jumped inside the room with a smile, but she was not who Al was talking about. Behind Alphonse, a very large man appeared. Instead of excitement, Ed's face paled completely. "Oh no… If he's here… that means…"
Kelsey and Winry looked at each other, both on the confused side. Kelsey let her mind register what was going on. She'd seen these episodes! The man at the door was Sig, Izumi's husband, which meant Izumi had come to find her pupils here in Rush Valley! And beat the living tar out of them… The thought was justified as Ed ran for the window. As soon as he opened it to escape, something strong kicked him back inside.
"You are so predictable, Edward," called a calm, yet strong womanly voice. She crawled inside the room and stood up tall, her hand on hip.
Kelsey gasped as she saw Mrs. Izumi for the first time. Ed's pale face did not regain its color. "H-hello teacher…"
