To be fair, Iris gave him one second, and a half of another. Then she proceeded to kick Edward in his side. He fell to the floor easily, and she comically dusted her shoes off. Al and Winry watched in confusion.
"That feels a little better," she admitted.
Ed groaned from the floor. "What was that for?!" he asked through heavy breaths. He shook and clutched his stomach. Iris sighed and held a hand out.
"Get up. We need to talk. Like, now."
Seeing the hard look in her eyes, Ed nodded and took her hand in his automail one. He tightened his grip, and she winced as he rose up from the floor. When she made a sour face at him, he returned it with an innocent grin.
They let go of each other's hands and Iris walked away, expecting him to follow. Alphonse and Winry didn't know what else to do, so they followed too. Once they were all again standing in front of Edward's hospital room, Iris told the two to wait outside until they were done talking. They hesitantly agreed.
Ed walked in first, and the other was about to enter as well when the younger brother stopped her.
"Iris," he said, putting an oversized gloved hand on her shoulder. "Whatever Brother did, he probably did it for a reason. Hear him out, okay? And, uh, don't kill him."
She scowled and popped her knuckles.
"No promises."
The door shut behind her.
Edward sat on his bed, his slipper shoes already removed, leaving him barefoot. She pulled up a chair next to him, thinking of exactly what to say. There was no easy way to put it, and a tiny bit of her still wanted to beat him to a pulp.
"So, uh..." Ed ran a hand through his bangs nervously. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
She crossed her arms over her chest. "I want to know why you lied to me."
He looked taken aback. "What?"
"You lied to me, Ed." She stood up. "And I want to know why. My own sister is a homunculus, and you didn't bother to tell me? Did you not think it was that important?" She rambled on for a while, pacing around the room and making wild hand gestures to express her anger.
At some point, Ed had stood up as well and tried to stop her movements. "Hey, stop. Iris, quit it!" It took his cold automail grip on her wrist to make her still.
"Hey, would you listen to me for a sec?!" he finally raised his voice in frustration. She grew silent. The hand wrapped firmly around her arm was starting to hurt.
"Edward..." He ignored her quiet protest.
"Look," he stared down at the floor, taking glances up at her. "I'm sorry. I should've said something. I didn't mean to lie to you."
"Then why did you?"
"I..." He didn't know how to answer, so he shut his mouth.
"I can't figure you out, Ed! Did you just not care, or what?!" Her words were becoming explosive again, and he couldn't stand it.
"Of course I cared! What was I supposed to tell you?!"
"The truth! Friends don't lie to each other!"
"Who said we were friends?!" Ed blurted, letting Iris's wrist go and curling his prosthetic fingers into a fist.
He was just so angry! All he really wanted to do was to let her figure it out by herself. He didn't expect her to blow up in his face!
His thoughts left his mind when he looked back at her. When her face fell, he finally realized what he had said.
At his words she drew back, an unmistakable pained look in her eyes. Lately, he's been seeing that feature on people more and more these days, even on himself. He hated it.
"Fine."
Edward wondered how a single, one-syllable word could hold so much emotion against him.
Iris gently cradled her wrist. He noticed the skin was red, and he quickly realized he was the one who had done that.
"Iris, I-" he started, but she glared at him, and he knew to shut up.
"Don't." She opened the door, going to leave. "Just don't." She left. The door slammed behind her.
"Iris, hey!" Winry greeted, rising up from her seat on the bench.
The alchemist didn't bother to reply. She pushed past her, then past Alphonse, and just ran.
"Iris?"
"Wait, Iris!"
They called out for her, but she didn't listen. She didn't know where she was going, she just wanted to get away.
No one went after her.
Iris didn't know whether to feel grateful or disappointed.
She ran. She didn't stop.
•••
Winry didn't really know exactly what to think. She obviously knew they were arguing, with all the yelling (even if the doors were fully closed) and how Iris ran off like that. She just didn't know what about. She wanted answers. And there was only one boy with them.
She jerked the door back open. It hit the wall behind it loudly, most likely making a dent.
"Ed, what'd you do this time?!" she asked, her tone demanding. Quite magically, (and conveniently) a wrench appeared in her hand.
He barely had any time to throw his hands in front of his face in an attempt to defend himself. Yet still, it managed to hit him square in the face.
Surrounded by a small puddle of blood on the floor, Edward twitched and groaned.
"Do you have to do that every time?"
"I wouldn't have to if you stopped messing stuff up! Now, what happened?!"
He didn't answer. He got up off the floor and sat on the bed.
"Brother," Al started with a touch of chastisement in his voice. "Tell us what happened." Ed looked away frowning.
Seeing that his brother wouldn't talk, he turned to Winry.
"Should we go after her?"
"I don't know," she admitted, rubbing the side of her arm, a little nervous. "She could be anywhere by now. And she's a fast runner by the looks of it."
If she was honest, Winry was worried for the girl. Whether it was serious or not, she hated seeing friends fight. It clearly didn't end well on either side.
"I hurt her," he stated, staring down at the tile floor guiltily.
"How, Ed?"
"Her arm... I just - She wouldn't listen to me and I got mad..! Then I said something stupid!"
"What did you tell her?" his brother questioned.
He didn't answer and instead changed the topic. "Winry, can you go find Iris?"
"Huh? But..." She tried to protest, but her concern for her new friend was eating at her. She wanted to know if she was okay and safe.
"Check the rest of the hospital first," Ed explained. "Then surrounding buildings, streets too. She might have gone back to the Hughes', I don't know. Find her, but be careful."
"I will." Winry nodded, determined. She left right then, promising to come back later. When the door completely shut, Edward turned to his brother.
"Al, I need to talk to you."
"What about, brother?"
He didn't really know how to start, so he tried explaining as best he could.
"So at the Fifth Lab, me and Iris ran into these... 'people'. They were actually homunculi."
"Homunculi?!" Al gasped. "I thought those were just a-!"
"-Myth, I know. But they were real, and one of them... one of them Iris claimed was her sister."
"What? Is that even possible?"
"I don't know... But she must have forgotten or repressed the memory, I guess. When she woke up a couple days ago I had to explain everything that happened, but I didn't mention her sister... She must have found out or remembered, because now she's mad at me for it."
"Ed!" his little sibling scolded, "Why didn't you just tell her in the first place?"
"I didn't want her to hear it from me! I wanted her to figure it out on her own. I didn't mean for her to get hurt."
"Well, that plan was foolproof, brother." Al sassed sarcastically.
"Hey! I know that now!" Edward yelled defensively, but his expression didn't last long, and fell instead.
"Then, when she was accusing me, I accidentally said that we weren't friends." His voice was shameful.
"I didn't mean to say it... and now I can't take it back. She ran away before I could even think to correct myself."
He was being completely honest. They were friends - they had been through enough during the point that they met to this moment to say so - but now that he had said that, he wasn't sure.
"Brother..."
"I didn't get to apologize. I just hope we can find her."
