Hi people. Now it's like this: I'm not going to update next week. I'm going to be in London between June 25th and July 2nd, so no computers.
Sorry, but that's life. It's summer. Enjoy this chapter 'til then.
Dying Not To Hurt You
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of the Fullmetal Alchemist characters in any way. I only own Patricia, her father, her mother, Belle, Sean and Loraine Lewis and my plot.
Chapter twenty-five: Very Handsome Awkward
And then she woke up.
She slowly and safely opened her eyes. Her head ached and she felt the disgusting smell of old alcohol on her.
'Aw, shit,' she thought. She had really done it. She'd gotten drunk.
She moaned and sat up, which was a big mistake. Her leg hurt, her head hurt, even her stomach hurt a little.
The bed she now sat on was a little smaller than she was used to, and it was surrounded by a bone white drapery.
She couldn't remember how she'd gotten there, but she assumed that she'd gone in there when she still was a little… let's just call it 'influenced'. She didn't even know where she was. Nothing was familiar, nothing at all.
The drapery was lifted aside and Edward peeked in.
"Are you awake?" he asked.
Patricia nodded. "Yeah."
"Erm, do you want breakfast or something?"
"Sounds great," she said. "Thanks."
He smiled. "Just wait a sec." He disappeared again.
That's right. It was Edward's and Alphonse's motel room. No. It couldn't be she thought while pinching her cheek.
Oh yes, it is. Right.
She slowly touched her head, and to her not so big surprise she didn't have that much of a hangover. She'd had a severe hangover once in her life, 15 years old. That was times.
"'Paaaatriciaaaa! My little baby honey! How aaare you?!' Robyn screamed while reeling to the sink with an empty beer can in his hand.
'GREAT! I JUST PUKED! Give me vodka and Red Bull please!'"
She smiled at the memory. One of the first times she'd drunk, the second or the third, maybe. She laughed a little while the drapery was opened once again an Edward approached with a tray full of breakfast things.
"I didn't know what you wanted, so I took it all."
Aw.
"Thanks."
She took coffee and a toast while Edward took five bacon slices and three boiled eggs.
"So…" Edward exclaimed after a while of silence.
"So…?"
"What you said last night…"
"I said a hell of lot things last night. What I remember."
"That part about Hughes."
"Oh. "
"Tell me again. It still feels a bit unreal"
"Well." She took a deep breath. "Brigadier General Hughes is deceased."
Silence.
"Why did you come all the way here just to tell us that?"
Oh shit. She knew that he was going to be pissed.
'Lie' the small little voice in her head told her. Why was her head always smarter then her brain?
"Well… Um, I was going… to a mission and thought I'd see you and tell you!"
She said all that while smiling her nicest smile. Edward raised an eyebrow.
Okay, scratch that thing about her head. They were both dumb.
"Putain*. Okay, well, truth? I wanted you two to know," she confessed.
He raised the other eyebrow.
"It's true!"
"Yeah, yeah, I believe you. It's just that…" He went silent.
"It's just… what?"
"…I shouldn't have dragged him into this mess."
"What do you mean? You haven't--"
"I did it, or Al and I did it, we dragged him into this fucking mess." He put his head in his hands and sighed. "Do you know what happened?"
"Erm, well, I only know that he was found in a phone booth near the Military Headquarters, shot. Nothing more. Sorry." Patricia leaned forward, put her arm on the small nightstand and leaned her head in it.
After a short, tense silence Edward said: "What are you doing here, anyways?"
"What?" Patricia said, surprised.
"I mean, how did you wind up here?"
"Erm, I… I was sent here on a mission."
"Who sent you? On the so-called 'mission' I mean."
"You're not gonna like this," she whispered. "Erm, well… I don't really want to tell you," she said out loud.
"So? You're gonna have to tell me anyways."
"Erm… Colonel Must--"
"Colonel Bastard sent you?"
"Well, technically that's true, but it all started with me worrying for you and your brother and, well, I wanted to tell you, or at least have him to send someone to tell you, and, well, he made it a mission and sent me."
"Hm," he answered after a moment. "There's not much to do about that now. Too bad, I wanted to send you home again, but I guess you're stuck with me for a while now." He sighed.
"Huh?" She had no idea whatsoever what he was talking about.
"Your leg. I'm gonna take you to an automail engineer that I know."
"N-no… I… I just want…"
"Sean? Right. As if that would happen. He's dead too, I've been told."
Patricia felt the tears rise in her eyes. Right, he was dead too. She drew a hasty breath and her nose betrayed her by letting out that unmistakable sound which meant 'beware: crying teen' or something.
Edward looked at her. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"
"'S okay, I guess. I just knew him for four months, and I haven't seen him in six, so I'll be alright. Promise."
"But let's go back to the leg-question. How do you wanna do, wanna go an engineer in Rush Valley, here in East or will you come and see Winry?"
"Winry? Wasn't that the girl before, back when I met you boys?"
"Yeah, I believe that's her."
"She seems like a nice girl."
Edward nodded slowly. "Yeah, she's a nice girl."
"You like her?"
"W-what? N-no! I mean, friend-like her not… well… erm, I, we're kinda like childhood friends, not like that."
"'S okay, it was just a simple question!" she laughed.
"Ah. Sorry, I guess I'm kinda touchy about the subject. Al and I… well, we sort of fought over her when we were kids."
Patricia laughed. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. It's not funny."
"Yes it is!"
"No it's not!"
"Yes it is!"
"No it's not!"
"Yes it is! And don't say it's not, because it is."
"…No it's not!"
"Well, positive: it seems like you're in a better mood now."
"Better mood?" Edward said and furrowed his eyebrows.
"Yes. You acted like you were mad or something before. I was worried I had done something wrong, but I could get you smiling, so… what's your problem?"
"Sorry. I never wanted you to see that."
"Well, that's sweet, but you didn't answer my question."
"And I won't. You don't need to know."
"Yes I do! I mean, please, tell me?" Patricia smiled unsurely.
"God… Okay, I let him into something he never should've seen in the first place."
"Hm. Do I have any chance at knowing what it was?"
"No. We need to get going. Train's leaving in an hour."
He rushed out of the alcove and the curtain moved back and forth after him.
'What did I do wrong?'
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*Putain is French for 'fuck'.
Song of the day: Pretty Handsome Awkward – The Used