Hello again. Just a quick message: I may not be able to finish tomorrow's chapter on time as I have a school event which I must attend. If all goes well, you'll get the chapter tomorrow as usual, but don't be too surprised if you get it on wednesday instead. I'm sorry about that, but it's out of my control.

I own nothing.

Chapter Fourteen: On the Run

Edward rolled his right shoulder, the heavy metal arm clanking as it was pulled around. Winry said that it should stimulate the nerve connectors, and that gradually, he would be able to move more and more of the metal limbs.

Winry had also said not to try it for at least a week and to take it slowly- but Edward was doing anything but.

As soon as he got the chance, he had started the exercises she'd told him to try, lifting his left leg up and watching the shining steel limb follow it, jerking his shoulder and making the arm clink loudly at the elbow. Envy found the constant tink-tink of metal on metal infuriating, but said nothing, knowing that Ed would ignore him, and not having the heart to put his half-brother down when he finally had hope. Al scolded Ed for overworking himself, but Ed just scowled at him, and insisted he would be fine. Hoenheim tried to insist that Ed stop- but Ed was still not well-disposed towards his father, and being told to stop only made him more determined to continue.

Clunk. Envy grit his teeth. Clunk.

Envy shut his eyes, and began to count, slowly. One, two, three, four, five...

Clunk.

Envy growled and began searching through his bag for his CD player, slipping the headphones into his ears and turning up the volume as much as possible to drown out the clanking noise.

They were in a hired car- Hoenheim's would be recognised, as would Envy's- and driving as quickly as possible away from their old home. Hoenheim's plan was simple: Run away, change names, start new life somewhere. Somehow Envy doubted it would be that easy, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

Edward lifted his automail up with his right arm, carefully flexing the joints as Winry had instructed him to. He knew he wouldn't be able to move it yet, but the more he stimulated the wire nerves within the prosthetic, the sooner it would adapt to his body, and the sooner he'd be able to move it. It was surprisingly heavy, but he found it pretty easy to ignore. Less easy to overlook was the slight pain that he still felt deep within him, an icy ache throughout his body left over from the surgery, or the twinge every time his automail shifted in the ports. Nonetheless, he continued to move it, hoping to beat Winry's estimated rehab time of one and a half years.

Alphonse had fallen asleep, and the car was full of an awkward silence, interrupted only by the tinny music coming from Envy's headphones, the low hum of the engine and the clink of Edward's automail.

It was night time when Hoenheim pulled up outside a hotel. He opened the boot of the car and pulled out Edward's wheelchair, engine removed, seat carefully folded in on itself. Once he had set up the chair, he pulled the engine out too, and carefully reattached it. Winry and Pinako had designed the removable engine purely for this purpose: to make it collapsible so that it could be transported in a car.

Wheelchair fully constructed, he opened the car door and lifted his son out and into the chair, wrapping the blanket around the blonde boy in such a way as to hide the two metal limbs from view. To any observer, Edward would appear to be a perfectly ordinary, albeit disabled, boy. Envy followed him out of the car and stretched his aching muscles: long car journeys always left him cramped and tired.

Hoenheim frowned a little at the sleeping Alphonse, and then, with a sigh, carefully lifted him, trying not to wake him. With difficulty, he managed to lock the car door without waking the dozing child, and signalled to Envy to grab their suitcases. The smaller bags were hung from the handles of Ed's wheelchair, and they made their way into the lobby of the hotel without any further incident.

They communicated to the receptionist through whispers and mime, Alphonse occasionally shifting or muttering in his sleep, and were directed to a room on the first floor. Edward managed to keep his temper in check and even gave a convincingly sweet smile when he was called 'a little cutie' by the young brown-haired woman, knowing that yelling at her would only get them kicked out and they'd end up having to spend the night in the car- not an appealing prospect.

Once they reached their room, Hoenheim tucked Al into bed disturbing him as little as possible, and helped Edward get changed without tangling his clothes around his metal limbs. Edward hauled himself into bed on his own, refusing any further help from his father, and wriggled uncomfortably until he found a position where he would not have to lie on his automail. Envy changed quickly and got into bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

Hoenheim stayed awake, sitting by the door to their room. He had agreed to take the first watch that night, just in case they had been followed.

But eventually, Hoenheim yawned, and shut his eyes, drifting into a dreamless doze. Nobody came to interrupt the slumbering Elrics, and they slept on, unaware that they had, indeed, been followed.