Knowing More Than Recommended
Disclaimer: Last Disclaimer. I don't own FullMetal Alchemist.
Note: It's been a long time since I've updated, I know. I'm having a small problem with consistency since the climax of the school year has come and passed. School's almost out (42 more days or so) and when that final day comes I'll have the entire summer to write!
Bad news, all of the ideas for this story I had typed down were on my laptop, which recently died completely. I'm working on recovering the hard drive so I can figure out where I was headed with this story, and get all of my files back. Until then, these next few chapters are just what I can come up with with the tiny bit of brilliance I still have for this. This is supposed to be a rewrite, so I definitely don't want to fall back into old habits of creating annoying or slutty mary-sues or overusing plot material. (Everybody has those moments.)
This chapter features: Episode 28 "All is One, One is All." To relearn what Izumi taught them when they first met, the boys are sentenced to a month on Yok Island. While recalling their childhood, a mysterious boy watches from the bushes…
-/-/-/-
The house of Izumi made room for one more guest after Brandon arrived. It was an interesting welcome since Izumi and her husband had already seen Brandon once when they were in Central. She questioned Brandon of how he and Kelsey knew Ed and Al.
"You know... those two are traveling everywhere, being the 'hero of the people' and everything. We travel too, and just kept bumping into him, next thing you know, we're following him around," Brandon told her nervously, but believably. Izumi inspected the two of them before showing Brandon to his room, away from the girls, and otherwise gave the young man the hospitality she was offering Winry and Kelsey while Edward and Alphonse were gone.
Morning light sprung up over the horizon for the town of Dublith. Brandon was last to rise in the Curtis home. The brunette walked out into the kitchen wearing the same clothes as yesterday, his hair a mess, and sat down next to Kelsey at the table. Winry walked into the room shortly after, which he was surprised at for some reason and began fixing his hair and checking his breath.
Kelsey easily saw his flustered composure. "Just say 'Good Morning' to her, Brandon," she whispered to the older boy.
Brandon nodded as Winry walked by and grabbed a plate of eggs and ham Sid was serving from the stove. "Good Morning Winry," he said quickly.
Winry smiled and returned the greeting. "Hasn't been long. Are you ready to be Kelsey and I's body guard while Ed is gone?" Her voice sounded like she was challenging him.
He smirked. "Of course."
As they engaged in a witty conversation, Kelsey looked at the both of them expectantly. It could work, she thought nonchalantly. Soon after, Winry finished and excused herself to her room, probably to work around with the automail parts she got from Rush Valley a few days before.
By the later morning, Kelsey could hardly contain her excitement. She skipped instead of walked, and bounced in her seat when she sat down. She couldn't even focus well enough to read! "Hopefully Amy comes over today. Did I mention she's handcuffed to the Crimson Alchemist?"
"Only fifty times," Brandon replied.
"We can discuss our plan when she does get here," Kelsey added hopefully.
Brandon looked at his feet. "Until then... I'm going to check out Izumi's alchemy library..."
A distraught look came to Kelsey's face as he ran off. 'Does he not realize the more he learns, the more he forgets?'
-/-/-
There is always a consequence for an action, no matter what the situation. The after effect of drinking in gallons, Amy discovered this fine morning, was an ace mind-splitting headache. As the young woman rolled over, a pain shot through her brain and fanned out into her dry throat. Water, instead of more tequila, may have benefited her the night before. Thing was, Amy could hold her alcohol so she didn't black out or end up curled over a toilet, but that meant harder drinking, and by de facto a bigger hangover.
With a groan, she pulled her bangs out of her face and rolled back over to the pillow she'd been snuggled up so comfortably on. Except... the pillow was very warm, and more lean than she recalled pillows feeling like. Slowly, in the darkness she ran her hand over sheets and deduced that she rested on Kimblee's bed. However, the other person that was breathing in the room aside from herself wasn't on the floor, as he should have been... his lazy breaths touched her forehead and sent a trail of goosebumps from her ears to her toes. Amy flinched at his proximity and pulled herself down- right up against his chest (presumably where she'd been buried all night), and felt a weight along her back. In the low light, she followed the line of his arm as it wrapped loosely around her waist. Even in his sleep, his hand hooked onto her hip, as if he subconsciously wanted to pin her against him. Delicately, she shifted so that he wasn't touching any part of her, all while careful not to disturb his light sleeping.
Very confused at how they ended up like that, she held her head and concentrated hard to remember what had happened after returning from visiting Kelsey the day before...
"How much had you had to drink?" Kimblee asked casually.
Amy shrugged her shoulders. "Enough, probably. I haven't let myself get drunk in ages, but I can still count to five on one hand, so I think I'm okay." She still sounded sober at that point. Marta probably wasn't mixing the drinks very hard because she knew Amy was going to sleep in the same vicinity as Kimblee.
At some point, the bartender changed to another chimera, so the drinks started getting stronger.
"Have another, then." he offered. She accepted. Obviously Kimblee had intentions of getting her completely wasted. But why, and why had she let him? His coaxing process went on until she could hardly stand. Amy became bored with their drinking game at the bar after too long, and stood up with intent to move to the bathroom. She'd forgotten about the chain, and in her impaired judgement actually managed to trip over their cuffs. Kimblee caught her before her face hit the floor. Well, at least she remembered him looking after her. His fault since he was the one to get her to such an inept state.
"I think it's time for you to turn in."
"What? We haven't even played poker with everyone yet! Wait, hold that thought. I have to pee." She clumsily headed off toward the bathroom again. Kimblee followed close and kept her from running into anything. Amy felt embarrassment rise up as she invoked last night's events. The reason she didn't get drunk often was because of how much a completely ditz she became while under the influence. Easily distracted, loss of motor functions, hard to entertain for long, and not to mention less inhibitions. She felt the heat filling her cheeks and she thought harder to remember what happened before they went to sleep.
She reached for a door handle, but Kimblee grabbed her wrist and yanked for further down the hall. "That's the mutt's room. This is ours." Amy giggled and rolled her eyes as they entered the correct room.
"Silly me! Now, what are we going to do tonight? More alchemy teachings? Blackjack? Oh, strip poker!"
The alchemist raised a brow. "I have a feeling I'll be dead in the morning if I let you go through on that one. What were you drinking, whiskey or vodka?"
"Tequila," she informed happily.
"That explains it. Never fails to make a woman take her clothes off."
"What did you say?" While Kimblee spoke, Amy felt a sudden wave of heat and decided that taking her shirt off was a good idea. Kimblee stared, mildly surprised for a few moments, before laughing.
"I think you're drunk enough for me to tell you a secret." He stripped off his own shirt, something he always did before sleep, and laid down on the sheets of his bed. Amy drew closer. The voice that was usually in the back of her head, screaming at her to stay alert, was muted as her interest peaked over the Crimson alchemist's mysterious secret.
"I love hearing secrets. I'm good at keeping them, too."
The man let a devilish smirk curl his lip upward. "I'm not sure you'll be able to handle this one."
"Out with it, or off with your head!" Amy imitated a throat slicing gesture, then laughed.
"Okay... Bring your ear over here and I'll tell you." He had positioned himself against the wall so the only way for her to get near him was to lay next to him. She set her weight on the sheets and crawled close, but not close enough for Kimblee, who wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed her body into his. The guiding voice in her head that usually would tell her which attack to dish out at this point was still muffled. Amy recalled him speaking in the seductive baritone, but perhaps it was the alcohol messing with her memory? "I figured out the properties of the chain on the second day. I've been regularly separating us when you're asleep, but didn't tell you until now."
Amy looked confused, then looked at the handcuff on each of their hands. "Why come?"
"One reason is that you needed more time to get over your fears, and look at you now, aren't you glad I didn't tell you? My primary reason, however, was so you'd stay with me. You're... interesting. Not to mention entertaining."
Amy didn't register what he just confessed. Instead, her prying eyes continued to inspect the handcuffs, and then her drunken attention opened to the warmth pressed against her. A male body. The last time she'd been pressed against a male... well, it had been a completely different experience. Right now, his gentle hold on her did not raise alarm. In fact, she kind of enjoyed it. With a languid hand, she explored the curve of muscles on his arm wrapped around her... and then his shoulder... the lines in his taut neck... finally she cupped his cheek and rubbed her soft palm against the stubble along his chin. The hairs tickled her skin and she laughed. Kimblee let out a chuckle of his own, which hit her cheeks and raised her attention.
Even in her drunken state, when her blue eyes met his golden, she realized she was about to cross a line.
Instinctively, she pulled away and turned away from him. His body remained pressed against hers as she rested her head on his outstretched arm. Exhaustion replaced the alarm almost instantly. Somewhere in her brain, his confession was caught up with her and clicked. "You're an asshole... a real jerk. And you still have my iPod, meanie," Amy told him.
"You lent it to me, idiot."
"You're an idiot."
"You're drunk," Kimblee chuckled. She responded with a yawn and curled her body into itself.
"Go to sleep, jerk."
That was all she recalled. Amy scratched her head, then looked next to her. Kimblee had his face dug into his pillow. He breathed rather annoyingly now; the affects of the alcohol probably caused him to stay asleep even though she'd made so much disturbance already. A very bitter look came to her face and it wasn't from the headache. "I'll teach you to take advantage of me..." she whispered harshly to Kimblee's sleeping form.
First things first. She remembered he admitted he could take the cuffs off, but she didn't recall him telling her what the metal the binds were made fabricated of. The brunette cursed under her breath, than punched Kimblee hard in the stomach.
He groaned, rolled onto the floor and cradled his abdomen. "DAMMIT, WHAT."
"You're an asshole! You've known all along how to undo this bind and you didn't! You're sick and torturous and you better fix this right now before I-"
"You what, Amy? Kill me?" He'd just awoken up, but he was already so alert.
His eyes lowered from her face, where they stopped about chest level... and his suave smirk appeared. Amy glanced down and then turned completely red. How the hell had she forgotten about being shirtless? Still had a bra on, but still. She did a good job hiding her womanly curves with her baggy attire- up until recently, at least. She grabbed the sheet and covered her front.
"Goddamn you! This is all your fault."
"What's the big deal? I've already seen you naked."
Amy's eyes went wide as he admitted that like it was no big deal. "You peeked while we were taking turns showering? I didn't even do that, and I'm the fangirl in this situation! Some fucking gentleman!"
Kimblee laughed out loud. "I never claimed to be a gentleman, silly girl."
The young woman glared murderously as he called her that. Combined with everything else that had just come to light... "I will kill you. No, I take that back. Death would be too easy! I'll..." She didn't have any good idea of what to threaten, so she stuck her leg out from the sheet and kicked his side. He winced and hesitated to hit her back. "I'll keep beating you until you separate us!"
"Is that supposed to scare me. A few sissy hits?" He grabbed her leg as it swung around for another assault. With a squeak, she was easily yanked from the bed and became tangled in the sheets as he pulled her on top of him. Before she got her arms free from the confines of the fabric, he had his arms wrapped around her waist, chest touching chest, her face only inches above his. "What can you do for me that's good enough for me to separate us?"
"You had better not be implying what I think you're implying."
To disprove her accusing scowl, he let go of her middle. Like a cat dangling over water, she sprang up off of his lean body and perched safely up on the bed. She couldn't run too far, because of the chain that connected them at the wrist. Amy growled at him and crossed her arms while mentally stabbing every blunt object she could imagine into him.
"A kiss."
Amy froze. Her menacing thoughts disappeared from the surprise. "Excuse me?"
"A kiss. Being stuck with you I haven't had any sort of sexual encounter in the passed three days. I could pin you down and take what I really want..." His menacing smile shot a cold feeling through her. But, she saw his eyes didn't have that certain glint they sometimes held when he thought of cruel things. Her unease disappeared as his voice lightened. "However, a kiss is all I know you'll give me."
The woman's jaw dropped. Disbelief crossed her features as three impossible thoughts ran through her head. This guy really just said he wanted me and implied that he was going to rape me. Instead, he's asking for a kiss. And he thinks I'll go for this? What a joke! A shrill laughter burst from her mouth and she held her torso in a fit of giggles. It came to a point where her side began hurting more than her head.
Kimblee's flat expression didn't change, he might have even gotten a little more pissed off. Amy stopped, trying to decipher his expression. "You were serious."
"Very serious." Her heart leapt into her throat as he pounced quickly and hooked his hands behind her knees. Before she could flee from a compromising position, he forced apart her knees and placed himself between them. His chest pressed against hers once again and she squirmed, the onset of her panic attack beginning to signal in her breaths. They grew shorter and more labored. He locked his arms around her waist again, just hard enough to get the job done, not enough to hurt her.
She did everything she could to suppress the memories of that night. Somewhere far off (yet at the same time, in her own ears), she heard the tearing of her expensive prom dress, her own pleas for her date to stop! The calm orders of a handsome voice drew her out of that dark part of her mind.
"Calm down. Breath." There was a pressure on her eyes. After hearing his commands, she realized that she'd been pushing her palms over her eyes, as if trying to shield her from a sight that existed in her mind. "Think. If I honestly wanted to take advantage of you, I would have done it last night when you were less resistant." He made a very fair point, and she paused to search his face for deceit. An amused smile was all she could find.
"H-how can I keep you at your word? Maybe you like them to fight back!"
He chuckled lightly. "What goes on in that head of yours? You come with all of this knowledge attached, but you truly don't know much about me aside from the skewed image the public has set on me. Or, you do know, but refuse to acknowledge it. I can assure you, I'm not the kind of man who has to take by force to get what I want. Don't you think I would have done that by now if I intended to?"
His face was close enough for Amy to see the slight dryness to his pink lips.
Again she searched his face. In his golden eyes, she found a brilliant interest. For her. She closed her eyes and turned her head away from him.
"Why on earth would you want something like that from me? It's so... cliche."
"Cliche? It's just a kiss, stop being a little girl about it."
That hit a nerve in Amy. She snapped her neck around and met his piercing eyes head on. "I'm not a little girl."
"Prove it." Kimblee provoked.
Knowing well she would regret this but continued anyway, she leaned forward to plant the request he wanted. He brought his hands up to her cheeks and held her into place, probably so he could deepen the kiss as his leisure. This freed her from being trapped against him, which let the panic subside long enough for her to actually enjoy the feeling of his lips covering hers. Amy didn't know what she'd been expecting... perhaps a dangerous explosion, as the man was known for, but instead she felt an uncharacteristic gentleness. His lips were soft, maybe even softer than her own, and his palms against her face were warm and almost comforting. She knew the tattoos on his hands could end her life with a simple clap, but that drop of danger almost... excited her. A gasp escaped as he deepened the kiss, and he took advantage of her parted mouth to slip his tongue inside. This onslaught caused her to jerk back, but he held onto her head and pushed further. She could feel him smirking against her lips all while she struggled until he released her; when she could breath again the binding was no longer around her wrist.
She looked at the look of total triumph on his face and then averted her eyes.
He had tasted...
Sweet. Like the dangerous taste of a delicious dessert that would stop your heart if you gave in and took a bite.
"I hate you so much," she breathed, face a crimson red, before grabbing her shirt and running from the room to shower. Shower very very well.
After the shower and before she ran into Kimblee or anyone else around the Devil's Nest again, she headed out to Izumi's place across town with a cup of coffee in hand to help the headache.
-/-/-
Without Amy and Kimblee together, the Devil's Nest was only mildly dramatic. Law and Dorochet played chess in the corner, Marta relaxed on the top part of a couch opposite of Greed, where two women fancied his body as he sat. Kimblee, without Amy to annoy, was messing around at the bar by making liquid explode without breaking glasses, although he could just fix those afterwards.
There was a misguided mood set over the chimeras in the Devil's Nest. An uneasy sway came over them and Greed in the room when the door opened and two figures wearing black similar to Greed's clothes walked in as if they owned the place and everybody in it.
A very curvy woman and a short, plump man walked around the table to face Greed while inspecting the lobby of the bar. "So this is the hideout of the great Greed," Lust's seductive voice said dangerously, eyes locking with Greed's own violet. The oroborus tattoo on her chest was identical to the one on Greed's hand- it immediately gave her away.
Greed smirked and kicked his feet up on the table in front of him. He set his arms around the two uneasy women sitting at his sides. "Well, hello there...It's been awhile, Gluttony," he said to the plump man, who grinned in return. "I take it you're the new Lust, babe. Not too shabby for the old woman."
Lust was not amused, and glared just slightly under her thick, dark hair. She glanced around at all of the hostility she caused from the chimeras simply by standing in her place. "Leave us," she ordered them. Of course they did not listen to her, only to Greed's command. He motioned for the chimera and the women to leave, but kept Kimblee at the bar.
"What would this pleasant meeting be about, Lust?"
The woman threw her hair out of her face, smiling at Greed. "The Master, of course. We all want to make sure you're on the right side, is all."
Greed smirked as well. He knew where this was headed; he would pledge allegiance to Dante again and the other homunculus would share information with him. "If you mean I won't get in her way, then of course I'm on the right side."
Lust sighed, satisfied with his answer. Envy had told her he would answer like this, and that what he just said would be a yes. "Good. I'm sure you've heard of the Elric boys." Greed nodded. "They're off limits to you and your... minions. The Master needs them for her bidding and if you wish to get in the way, well, you already know what'll happen to you. Greed doesn't like to be sealed, I'm guessing?"
Greed frowned now, poking his unique shades up over his eyes with his middle finger. "Anything else?"
Lust didn't answer and stepped across from Greed to over by the bar. She glanced at Kimblee, who smirked back with a rather sinister expression in his eyes. He knew she wasn't human underneath that hot body and that sickened him, but he held back all temptations about seeing how many times she and the plump one could rejuvenate like Greed before they died completely.
"There is one more thing." She said, holding the door open for Gluttony. "The master wants to know if you've run across someone with the identity Amy Teller. You own the place, you must have seen hundreds of people come in and out of here."
Kimblee's sinister expression faltered just a hint, but Greed's frown did not change. "What's in it for me, if I do come across somebody with that identity?"
Lust chuckled, Envy had told her this was a code for 'No,' but to humor him anyway. "Just a good word on your part to the master."
Kimblee was rather expressionless at the bar, watching the two. Greed stood and walked over to her, reached his arm over her and leaned her closer against the door. "Sorry sexy. But unless she was a stripper with a false name, I haven't seen her."
Dissatisfied, Lust ignored his slick attempt to get closer to her and promptly removed herself from the bar, following Gluttony. "We'll keep in touch, Greed."
After they were out of his sight, Greed looked over at Kimblee still mortified at the bar. "Go find her and bring her back here. She can't go out by herself anymore, got it?"
Kimblee said nothing in reply, only went out the door to fetch the girl. Were those sinister figures like Greed the reason she wanted protection at the Devil's Nest, when they'd first found her? She could had easily left him and the bar behind before Greed bound them together... if she didn't need something from them all. Something her little friends didn't offer...
-/-/-
Envy leaned over a desk with a morbid grin on his face, facing Dante as she sipped a hot cup of tea. "The news about our Greed?" she asked him.
"Lust tells me he will cooperate, or at least stay out of our way. She said the threat was very clear and worked." Dante seemed pleased. "He also tells he's never seen that 'Amy Teller,' and Sloth mentioned that there were no records about any sort of Teller anywhere."
The old woman now had a thoughtful sigh. She glanced at the Calculus book on the edge of the desk. "I have a feeling that this Amy has brought us gifts from beyond the gate, Envy. It is very important that we find her."
Envy smirked, flicking his long green hair around as he cracked his neck. "And once we do?"
Dante looked up darkly at Envy. "We keep her alive. Perhaps a body from beyond the gate is what the philosopher's stone can sustain, at least longer than this..." She lifted the sleeve of her shirt just slightly to expose the rotting flesh, then covered it again.
Envy stood, looking over as the young servant Lyra passed by the room with a few towels, walking around the mansion to finish her duties. "Suppose that fresh one over there will have to do this round, Dante," he teased.
"Tell the others to keep investigating while the Elric brothers are at a stand still. Now leave me, Envy. You've become a nuisance."