Mr. Miller stood there, sniper rifle pointed between Hazel's widened eyes.
"I'm sorry," He repeated, averting his eyes from the three. "You really did feel like a daughter to me. But your father's money was just too good to pass up."
"You traitor!" Ed hollered, taking a step toward the man. Hazel's arm shot out to prevent him from going any farther.
"I see." She said quietly. "I understand."
"What? But Hazel, he-" Ed started.
"I know very well what he's done. But understand, Ed. No one buys drinks at Mr. Miller's bar. No one can. My father is the only one with money in this town, and you and Al are the first outsiders to come here in months." Hazel explained, cutting him off.
"Exactly. Not to mention David's automail isn't free. I'm sorry Hazel, but killing you is the only way for me to get the money for him." Mr. Miller dropped the gun to his side, but still didn't dare to look the girl in the eyes.
"But we know someone who makes automail! She can make David's for really cheap if we just tell her about-" Al started.
"'Really cheap' isn't good enough. I have NO money. I can't afford anything." Mr. Miller said, an almost annoyed tone to his voice.
"But there must be some option other than killing her!" Al pleaded. Mr. Miller paid no attention to him and aimed his rifle at the girl's heart.
"I want to make this as quick and painless as possible for you." He muttered. His grip on the trigger tightened until it finally pulled it. Hazel closed her eyes tightly.
A loud clang sounded and for a second, Hazel thought Ed had defended her again. But when she opened her eyes, she saw Al standing in front of her, arms spread wide.
"I can't just stand by and let you kill her." The boy said, his voiced choked but determined. "I've done a lot of standing by and watching in my life, but I'm done now."
"Alphonse." Ed gasped, shocked at his brother's behavior.
"Ed, get Hazel out of here. I buy you as much time as I can." Al continued, shifting the armor into a fighting stance.
Ed said nothing but nodded, grabbing Hazel's wrist and starting to run. As they got farther away, they could hear Al's armor clanking in the distance, trying to prevent Mr. Miller from going after them.
"Where do we go now?" Ed asked as they dashed through the streets.
"Follow me." Suddenly Hazel was leading the way as they twisted through the dusty town, dashing this way and that until...
"What are we doing here?" Ed asked, looking at the door of Mr. Miller's bar. Hazel didn't answer, but walked inside.
"David?" she called loudly. After a few minutes, the boy appeared in the doorway that led to the living quarters above the bar.
"Hazel?" He asked groggily, rubbing an eye. "What are you doing here?"
"David, I need you to do me a really big favor." She said, walking up to him, kneeling so that they were eye-level and grabbing his shoulders.
MEANWHILE!
"What the hell!" Mr. Miller exclaimed, trying again to get around the giant bulk of metal that was Alphonse Elric.
"I'm not letting you kill my friend!" Al shouted, blocking the man.
"You don't understand boy! I have to! For my son!" Mr. Miller grunted, trying again to get around. He succeeded for a moment, but Al turned around and grabbed his arm, flinging him back around in front of him. He landed face-first into the ground, causing his nose to bleed and his gun to go flying.
"What would you do? If it was for your brother?" Mr. Miller asked, standing up and wiping off the blood that was currently creeping its way onto his upper lip.
"I wouldn't kill anybody. And even if I did, he wouldn't take it. He wouldn't accept anything that involved killing someone in order to obtain it." Al told him, regaining his fighting stance.
"But wouldn't you do anything you could to help him live as normal of a life as possible?" Mr. Miller asked quietly. "I mean, after watching other kids and even adults stare at him like he wasn't even human, knowing you could do nothing about it and could only imagine how he must feel."
"Think about it, please! I know what it's like to not be normal. Wherever I go, I get weird looks because I'm a walking suit of armor. But I'd never want to kill someone to be human again! My brother was faced with that choice once, but he did the right thing!" Al explained, losing his stance.
Mr. Miller said nothing at that.
"Besides, what would David think? He thinks of Hazel like a sister. To know that his own father killed her, just so that he could have a new arm that will only last a few months." Al said, trying to make the man be sympathetic.
The older man looked at the ground.
"I hadn't thought of that." He said quietly. For a moment Al thought he had gotten through, but then he heard the man speak again. "But..."
"What do you mean but!" Al asked shocked, "You mean you'd still kill Hazel if it meant your own son hating you forever?"
"That's not it. You just don't get it, obviously. But then again, you are just a kid. Maybe you haven't realized yet, but the world revolves around money. I don't just need it for my son's automail. We need it for other things like food and stock for the bar."
Al was silent. That man was persistent. It was almost like he wanted to kill Hazel.
"Look, as soon my brother and I leave this town, we're going to report everything we've found here. Hazel's stepfather is going to be arrested and you probably will too. Unless of course you change your mind." Al told the man. Mr. Miller opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by a faint cry.
"Daddy!" Came a boy's voice. As it got closer, Mr. Miller recognized the voice as his own son's.
"David? What are you doing out here? It's late, I thought you were asleep!" The man called out. The boy continued running as fast as his little legs could carry him until he stopped in front of his father.
"D-daddy..." The boy stuttered quietly before looking his father in the face. Mr. Miller saw that there were tears streaming down the boy's face.
"David? What's wrong son?" Mr. Miller went to hug him, but the boy pulled away.
"Daddy, please don't hurt Hazel." He said.
"What? What ever gave you that idea?" Mr. Miller asked in the most comforting tone he could.
"We did." Mr. Miller looked up at the two voices that had spoken in unison and saw Ed and Hazel standing there, breathing heavily. Apparently, David could still run despite the fact that he had just been asleep a few minutes earlier.
Mr. Miller stared at the two teenagers, lost for words. Hazel, who was supposed to be dead already, was standing there, completely vulnerable to a bullet. But then again, there was his son, staring up at him with pleading eyes. Not to mention the two boys who seemed to be willing to lay down their lives for her.
Why? Thought the man. Why do those boys care about her so much? They just met today. What could possibly have happened that would make them devote themselves to her? And as for David... He looked down at his son who was still staring up at him.
"Daddy... please." The boy said quietly. The kid looked too pathetic.
"If you really think of Hazel as your daughter, Mr. Miller, how could you even consider hurting her?" Al asked.
The man thought about it in the seemingly endless silence that followed. Like a daughter. David was his son, Hazel was his daughter. He could never hurt David and he could never hurt Hazel.
"Don't worry David. I'm not going to hurt Hazel." He told his son with a smile while kneeling down.
"Yay!" David exclaimed, throwing his arms around his father's neck.
"Come on, let's go home." Mr. Miller said, picking up his son. He walked a few steps and turned back to look at the teens. "Well, are you three coming or not?"
Ed, Al, and Hazel looked at each other and followed. After walking a while, they finally reached the bar. The teens sat down at the bar and waited while Mr. Miller went upstairs to tuck his son in for the second time that night.
"Could he have possibly gotten a change of heart just like that?" Ed whispered to the other two.
"You never know." Hazel whispered back. "Maybe Al actually got to him."
"Hey!" Al sounded offended. The other two quickly shushed him.
"Still, just in case, don't let your guard down." Ed warned. The other two nodded. A few minutes later, Mr. Miller was back. He walked behind the bar and looked at the three.
"I want to thank you." He said. Ed, Al, and Hazel looked at him confusedly. "I almost made a horrible mistake. I don't think I would've been able to live with myself if I had killed Hazel. Not to mention I'd be locked up. What would my son have done in that case? Anyway, thanks again. Ed and Hazel because you brought my son to me. You knew that I would never do anything bad in front of him. And Al, you made me realize what exactly I was doing. You reminded me that I do think of Hazel as a daughter, and as I looked at my real son, I realized that if I could never hurt him, I could never hurt her."
The teenagers looked at the man wide-eyed. He had never spoken like that before. It was weird.
"Th-thank you, Mr. Miller. For changing your mind." Hazel said quietly, not looking him in the eye.
"Okay, off to bed now." Mr. Miller said. "You kids have had a long day."
The three nodded and made their way upstairs for a well deserved sleep.
I hate this chapter, I really do :stabs it with a plastic spork:. And I really should've given Mr. Miller a first name when I had the chance :sigh: The next chapter is the last one and then I start on the sequel! Which will actually have alchemy in it!
I haven't given up on my other stories, I just put them aside so I could finish this one as quickly as possible!