She had finished braiding her hair, and now she was leaning against the wall, nearly asleep. The questions still hadn't been asked, and, though she was determined it wasn't her place to start the conversation, many moments had passed where she nearly had. Each had taken their turn with this action, speaking up and then quieting down, or clearing their throat but saying nothing. The cat had fallen asleep, curled up against her thigh, what felt like hours ago, Edward had situated himself in a cross-legged position, studying notes in his journal, as tough trying to solve a difficult puzzle, and Alphonse watched the cat with intensity, never faltering, but also deep in thought like his brother. It was only when she was moments from sleep that she realized he wasn't only watching the cat.
"Brother." Alphonse called quietly, snapping Edward out of his focused stupor and Valerie away from sleep, but she kept her eyes closed, trying to let her dreams take her. Edward glanced at him, unfocused on the world outside his fast-working mind. "I think she's asleep." Edward blinked twice, taking a moment to change his thought process to focus on what his brother was saying. Finally registering, he glanced at his sister and stood, ready to try and carry his sister, who was taller than him, to her bed. Alphonse interrupted. "They're back. All the memories of when my body was taken away, I remember." This time, it didn't take Edward long to respond.
"What'd you see?!" He nearly shouted. Remembering his sister was sleeping, he lowered his voice.
"Hmm... Well, it was definitely weird." Alphonse paused at this, and Valerie could only assume he was doing some sort of motion with his arms or head. The conversation turned back to serious. "But unfortunately, I didn't find out anything about how to get our bodies back."
"That's OK," Edward comforted. "Besides, it looks like Valerie's somehow fine. Maybe we can ask her tomorrow." There was a long silence after that.
"So I guess we haven't made any progress..." Alphonse muttered, his statement most likely carrying a double meaning.
"No, that's not entirely true. You remember what the Führer told us back in Central? About the unrest amongst the ranks of the military?" Valerie hadn't heard about this. She listened more closely.
"Mm-hm. And it all had something to do with the philosopher's stone and those ouroboros guys. He said he was trying to gather info on them." Ouroboros guys? Did he mean Homunculi?
"Well Greed was obviously connected to them somehow. But if so, why'd the Führer slaughter everyone? If he was trying to figure out what they were up to, why didn't he catch them and make them talk?"
"Yeah, good point. It also seems weird that the Führer himself would lead an attack against such a small group."
"It sure does. No matter how you look at it, none of this adds up. We've been warned. We need to get closer."
"You most certainly do not," Valerie stated, glaring at her brothers and revealing she had been listening. She stood from where she had been sitting, shaking the crate and waking the cat. "Whatever you two have gotten yourselves into, it needs to stop. The Homunculi are not creatures to be messed with." Edward perked up, noticing something in her sentence.
"Homunculi? What're those? All I was talking about were these weird people with the same tattoo." Oh. Crap. Valerie tried to cover up her mistake with a forceful command.
"It doesn't matter. What does matter is that you're messing with something that affects the Fuhrer, so it's obviously bigger than you. How many times have you been injured pursuing this?" His awkward silence answered her question. "Exactly. Too many. You need to know when to stop, Edward."
"But Vallie," he started, the determined light shining in his eyes along with a slight guilt. He needed to do this. "You obviously know something, otherwise you wouldn't have been listening. You're our sister, you should help us with something like this."
"I don't know anything," Valerie declared, but the light in her eyes soon faded, as though she remembered something. "All I know is what our father told me." There was something sad in her voice.
"Vallie, what happened between you and Dad?" Alphonse asked, finally interjecting after finding somewhere to stop the heated conversation. She visibly flinched and clenched her fists, remembering what had happened. She knew she couldn't run from answering him, so she did. First, however, she cleared her mind and unclenched her fists, relaxing.
"He deemed the situation dangerous, and me weak, so he sent me to take care of you. That is all." Her emotionless answer surprised her brothers, her expression before showing so much more boiling on her inside than they had seen from her in almost her entire lifetime. Then again, they hadn't seen much of her as children. However, this shock also stopped the conversation, letting silence flood in once again. Surprisingly, she was the next to speak.
"It's getting late, and we're all tired from what happened today. I suggest we get some rest," she reasoned, grabbing the cat at her side gently and holding it in her arms as she made her way into the house.
"Vallie, just one more question," Alphonse called, waiting until his sister turned to face him before asking. "Why do you have that cat?" Any other question, and Edward would have said it could wait until morning, but his own curiosity as well as his brother's tone restricted him from making such a comment. Valerie glanced down at the cat, as though it could give an answer, but after a moment, she glanced back up at her brothers and shrugged, leaving that as the final answer and returning to the warm bed she had left behind before.
He hadn't had much time to explore the house since he was guarding Valerie, but once she had fallen asleep under the watchful gaze of her unsleeping brother, he deemed her safe and left to explore. He was nearly stopped by her watchful vigil.
"Where do you think you're going?" Alphonse asked the shady cat harshly, to intimidate, yet softly, to not awaken his sister. The cat turned back to him and gave as much of a shrug as it could, as a cat, leaving through the cracked door, knowing he wouldn't follow. As far as the young alchemist saw, the farther the creature was from his sister, the better. Once he had left the room, he trotted around the house, finding a kitchen, a dining area, another bedroom with two sleeping figures (most likely the couple who owned the house), a small living area with the other alchemist curled up and sleeping on the couch, a small shop area, and not much else. Finding he wasn't content with just searching this house, he found a cracked window and used it to make his escape, noting the physical details of the meat shop before exploring the town, noting details like the positions of train stations, bars, gambling dens, and other illegal institutions as well as shops selling foods or clothes. He noted these locations not for his own sake, but for the sake of the one he left sleeping. After his brief walk through town as a cat, he decided on taking a new form, deciding to use the one which held a certain meaning to him.
"Hey, Envy," she called to him, ignoring his protest that his name was not Envy, but something else and continuing what she intended to say to the only person she'd had contact with during her two years of confinement. "Don't you think it would be nice to have your own name and appearance?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked incredulously. She asked such weird questions, he shouldn't be surprised, but she still shocked him sometimes. She giggled in response, but it turned into a chuckle, then a laugh, then a sort of cackle, before slowly fading back down the scale.
"Sorry. I got caught up in the laugh there," she explained, making no sense. Then, she continued her original thought. "Since, even if you die, you "Father" can replace you with a new Envy, the name is really more of a title, right? And your appearance with the black hair and tattoo are what every other homunculus wears, right? So it's sort of like a uniform. So wouldn't it be nice to have a name and an appearance all for yourself?" Her questions made sense, but he felt a sense of foreboding, almost as if, if he took this suggestion, Father would somehow disapprove. However, with the way she looked at him he knew he couldn't say no.
"Alright," he sighed, "why don't you try to think of a name?" Her face lit up as she tried to think, testing many verbally before asking him.
"Dieter?"
"No."
"Bergen?"
"No."
"Cagnoaldo?"
"No."
"Ildefonso?"
"Where do you get some of these names?
"Calros?"
"No."
"Schaden?"
"Seriously, that just sounds ridiculous."
"Eh? I really liked that one..." She looked downtrodden, but he would absolutely NOT let her call him Schaden. However, she perked up quickly. "How about Neid?"
"It's better than Schaden..." he muttered to himself, but she obviously heard him. "Alright, alright. I'll take Neid as a name," he decided, only wanting to appease the girl. The name had been chosen quickly, but the appearance took longer, each minor detail important to the girl. Though at first he was reluctant to transform for her, he admitted she knew who he really was and transformed to appease her, letting her see who he really was. In the end, he had long black hair tied to the side, pale skin, and dark eyes. He had an overall graceful appearance with a figure that wasn't exactly masculine or feminine, fitting to his ambiguous personality. He wore inconspicuous clothes, claiming he had to look normal in a crowd. Though his face was fair, it looked more Xingese than Amestrian, and he knew he wouldn't use this form often. However, she seemed pleased, and he was fine with that. Not that he cared whether she was happy or liked how he looked.
Even now, as he walked through the streets of Dublith in his "own" form, he didn't know whether or not he had loved Valerie then, putting up with her every whim if only to make her stop being so annoying. As he glanced in a store, he noticed a dress he thought she'd like. It was long and formal, full-length arms and a high collar covering everything from just above the collarbone to the feet. It would be worn with flat shoes or shoes with a small heel. It was colored a dark, but not navy, blue with black lace running along the edges of the collar, sleeves, and skirt. A small pendant, which appeared to open like a locket, rested on the chest, its forest green contrasting yet completing the dress in an odd fashion. "That would look so nice..." he muttered. He soon realized he must have looked strange and turned away from the elegant display, returning to his cat form, to the meat shop, to her room under the watchful eye of her brother, to her side, and to sleep, where he dreamt of a ball, her dancing in the dress with the green pendant and a green feather clip pulling her hair behind her ear on one side. He only woke up sad from his dream knowing he couldn't give that to her. Ever.
She woke up and smelled the roses. Well, if roses, smelled like bacon, but it had been a long time since she had smelled either. Still, the always recognizable smell of a good breakfast made her wake from her light, morning sleep, as well as the sudden absence of the warm cat snuggled by her side. She glanced around the room, noticing Alphonse had left his post by her bed in favor of the cheerful sounds of the kitchen, even if he couldn't eat the food. She stood, letting her small blankets fall to the bed in a messy heap, and made her way to kitchen, following her nose and growling stomach. There she found an odd scene. A thin woman, so thin she looked sickly, sat at a wooden dining table stroking a black cat. Valerie's oldest brother was laying on the floor, what appeared to be transmuted wood sticking out of the floor to make contact with his stomach. A large man, more muscle than bone, was holding a spatula delicately, cooking bacon strips on the stove with tender care. Finally, her brother, in his suit of armor, sat across from the thin woman, glaring at the cat as though it had caused a massacre. Which it probably had. In short, the scene would have been odd to anyone outside this messed up family, but to Valerie, it was just another morning. She smiled lightly at her conscious brother, taking a seat next to him. Then, the questions finally began.
Hey, guys! Sorryabout my sudden, announced hiatus, but I'm back, and just in time for the new HxH! In case you didn't hear, Hunter x Hunter IS coming off of hiatus, finally, so we fans should be getting new chapters soon!
In case you didn't notice, this isn't a new chapter, but an edit to the old chapter. Sorry to disappoint... BUT I do have an actual new chapter, andit should be out soon, so see you then!
