The never go away feeling

(Disclaimer: I own nothing)

Brace yourselves, guys. This might be harsh.

Chapter 7: "No matter what"

The rest of the day Ed and Rose tried to avoid each other, but sometimes Ed would go near Rose, made sure she was looking at him and smirked. Rose tried to make Ed feel that it was childish to do that, but he wouldn't stop. He would smile, and sit on the couch. When they were about to, and Winry called, she felt that Winry was looking at them. She felt like betraying a friend, but she couldn't help to feel comfort when she thought and relived that moment in her mind, that she was held by Ed. That they had probably kissed uncountable times that moment. Rose was still on the kitchen and they both felt like if they had done some kind of mischief. Ed was about to say something, and in that moment Al entered.

"Hi" Al said closing the door behind him.

Rose tried to distract her mind by doing other things and in that moment she only thought about talking to Al.

"Umm… Hi Al. You want or need something?" she sweetly said.

"No Rose thanks."

Ed watched this very carefully. This was the same thing that happened earlier but vice-versa. That... nah! Rose wouldn't try that. After all, she loves Ed, right? Al gave him the idea once, but it was all a lie, right?" Ed's mind was too tired and just stood up and went to his room.

'I'm going crazy! Rose and Al? My brother and the girl of my dreams? My girl!' he thought, lying on his bed.

Ed got so mad that he stood up and started to punch the walls and pillows. He, without noticing, took his alchemist watch and threw it to the mirror. It broke the mirror and because he didn't want Al nor Rose knowing of that, he took the mirror and hid it in a closet. He then laid down on his bed again and from the energy he wasted throwing things he fell asleep. He dreamed about Rose. He dreamed about when they were in Rose's room. They were kissing and he had lived the moment, so he knew that the phone would ring anytime now…, but it didn't. He thought that it would be the day, even in his dreams, he wanted Rose. Everything was perfect, when he noticed that that guy, the one kissing Rose wasn't him. It was… Al! He woke of that dream… correction… nightmare. In that moment Al entered the room and he realized it was all a nightmare. Ed was sweating, so Al was curious.

"And what the hell happened to you?"

"None of your business" Ed said, standing up and leaving the room.

Al looked at him until he left the room slamming the door.

"What's his problem?"

Ed went bursting into the living room, took his jacket and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Rose said walking towards him.

"What do you care!"

"What the fuck is wrong with you wrong?

"It's Al, right!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about! You and Al have something between you two."

"No!"

"Of course you do!"

"Think whatever you want to think!"

Rose went into the kitchen and poured water into a glass.

"So you do have something between you two!"

"No, we don't… and what if we did? I'm free to do anything I want; you don't own me, so… what do you care?"

"Guess what, orphan… I don't! No one cares about you. No one in Lior needed you, no one cared about you. Both your parents left you. If even they didn't care why should I? You are worthless, Rose! WORTHLESS!"

"Well, I don't care about you! You can just go and drink to death!

"Good, because that's exactly what I'm going to do!"

With that Ed left the house and slammed the door. Rose was so mad that she turned her hands into fists and broke the glass she had in her hand. Half of the glass had pierced her hand deeply, making her bleed.

"Shit!"

She grabbed half of the glass and pulled it out. It was bleeding a lot, so she went into the kitchen and put a paper towel around it and tied a knot.

"What the hell was all that?"

Rose looked at her injured left hand as she felt that it was beating. She felt pain, but after all that she had been through, the deep injury felt like a mere scratch.

"What made us go this far, Ed?"

She couldn't believe the words that came out of her mouth.

"…I don't care about you!" "You can just go and drink to death!"

Those words… she couldn't believe that those words were meant for Ed.

"I can't believe I technically wished him death. But… he didn't have to scream like that to me. He didn't even have a reason" Rose leaned against the counter "But..." she gently closed her eyes "I can't be mad at what he said..."

"No one cares about you. No one in Lior needed you, no one cared about you."

"After all..."

"Both your parents left you. If even they didn't care why should I? You are worthless, Rose! WORTHLESS!"

"...it's the truth."

Meanwhile Ed was walking through a known path, but he couldn't exactly remember when he had been there. He was furious, because he still thought that Rose lied to him. He saw a bar and decided to enter. The bar wasn't too full, because not many people drank in Resembool. He sat on a chair that was facing the counter and with fury punched the counter.

'How could you do this to me Rose?'

Then Ed heard a voice talking to him.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite costumer" the bartender said, cleaning a shot glass.

"What?" he said, raising his face to see who was talking to him.

"You don't remember, do you? Don't you remember? About 5 years ago, you came here, asked for some drinks, got drunk and a pretty girl came and took you home… she even paid your drinks. You were moaning all night about a girl named… umm… Winry, was it?"

Ed couldn't believe it. That was the place where he got drunk and made Rose get him to the Rockbell house. He looked around and now it was all so familiar.

"So, how many drinks I had that night?"

"Well, to say that you are my favorite costumer, they had to be a lot."

"Well, tonight I'm going to break that record" he said putting some money on the counter.

"I can't say no to a costumer, but if I had the choice I would tell you no. You can't always drown your problems with alcohol. What is it now boy?"

"It's… complicated."

"Come on boy, at my age there's nothing that I wouldn't understand. Come on, tell me. Let's try to stop you from getting drunk. Besides, I haven't had a good story in ages."

"It's something that I can't explain. I just feel pain inside, feel as if I had been betrayed by the two people that I most trust."

"A boy and a girl? Maybe… your brother and that Winry?"

"How do you know that I have a brother?"

"Lucky guess, and because I've been working here for a long time I know all kind of looks there are, and I'm not talking about fashion looks. And the look you have on is heartache. Winry?"

"No, it's not Winry."

"Then who is it?"

"You said you knew looks."

"I said I knew looks, I never said I was psychic."

"It's that girl, the one that found me."

"Rose?"

"You know her? Then why did you call her pretty girl?"

"Well, you have to admit it, she's cute."

"Hey, watch it!"

"Hey, you got it all wrong. An old man like me wouldn't hit on a girl as young as her. I may work on a bar, but it's a pretty decent one. And as I was saying… she came here some times in the past years and had some drinks of her own."

"Rose… drinking? You don't say."

Ed couldn't help to imagine Rose drunk. Rose's humble, but, at the same time, she's feisty, stubborn, aggressive and active.

"Yep, once, she punched a guy that tried to make his moves on her and I haven't seen him come here since that happened… and she wasn't drunk" he said laughing.

"Well, she's the girl. She and my brother are together, both knowing I like her, but Rose doesn't know that Al knows and Al doesn't know that Rose knows."

"You sure they have something between them?

"Well, I have some leads."

"Let me tell you a story. Once there was a young boy that thought that he liked a girl. That girl was going out with another guy, so he got drunk. Then a "pretty girl" came and got him out of the bar and paid for his drinks. She sat him down and…"

"Wait... I thought that we went straight home."

"No, I'm sure she sat you down right there in that bench" he pointed to a bench across the street "She sat you down and talked to you."

"If I only remembered what she said."

"Call me superhero, but I'm a great lip reader"

"Tell me… please."

"Well, as I was saying… she sat him down and said that she cared about that boy, how much he helped her, and how much she loved him."

"Loved me? Maybe it was teen love."

"You'll call me dramatic, but if you want the truth, my word is that those eyes, her eyes, weren't the kind of eyes that show emotions that go so easily."

"So, you think she loves me?"

"It's up to you to define her."

Ed fell in deep thought. He thought about it over and over, until it hit him. He quickly got up and pushed the money towards the guy.

"Thanks!" he said running out the bar.

Ed ran without stop until he got there. He opened the door and wanted to look for Rose to say that he was sorry, really, really sorry, but Rose was sleeping on the couch.

"Rose…" he sighed "...she must have fallen asleep waiting for me."

He walked slowly towards Rose and noticed that one of her pink bangs was covering her face, so he leaned towards her to move it behind her ear. He slid it behind her ear. He saw her with her eyes closed, probably, in a deep sleep. He wanted to kiss her, but he knew it wouldn't be o.k. for him to kiss her without her knowing. He held the temptation and stood up straight. Then saw Rose's injured hand and saw the little pieces of glass on the floor and the glass with blood on the counter. He figured out that Rose had broke the glass when she was mad at him, but if she fell asleep waiting for him then he knew that she wanted to make up. He just kissed her gently on the cheek and went slowly into his room.

The other morning, Rose got up early because she wanted to talk with Winry. She got dressed and marched out of the house. She walked to Winry's house as she thought was she was going to say to her. She walked up the stairway of Winry's house, and when she was about to knock she noticed the door was already open. She pushed the door open to see a guy holding Winry by the neck choking her.

"Let me go! I told you I don't know where they are!" she said, struggling.

Winry stopped talking when she saw Rose enter. Her sudden quiet made the alchemist, Kimbley, notice her presence.

Kimbley let go of Winry and turned to Rose.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

Rose was scared to see the evil grin on that guy's face, but she didn't back out.

"I'm from the State Military and I've come to look for Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric. You friends with them?"

Rose kept quiet looking at him with a menacing face.

"Neglecting to cooperate with the military? Then..."

He hit Rose against the wall and held her the neck. Rose coughed as he choked her.

"Tell me what your name is!"

"That's none of your business" she said, trying to not choke while she talked.

"Tell him your name; he has no business with you!"

"Listen to the blonde one, she's right."

But Rose wouldn't tell him anything.

"Do it for Ed!"

That came to Kimbley's notice. He now knew that she did know Ed and Al.

"So you do know Ed."

"Thanks for the tip, and tell Ed that if he wants his girl back, that I'll be waiting for him, but she may not be alive if he doesn't hurry" he turned to face her.

He took Rose and ran. Winry figured the mistake she had done and went running to Rose's house. When she got there she hit the door like crazy so Ed would listen.

"ED! Open the fucking door! It's me, Winry!"

"Winry, what's…?"

"Rose got kidnapped by Kimbley" she interrupted catching her breath.

"WHAT?"

"Go, he said something about an alley. I'll tell Al."

Ed ran as fast as his legs permitted him to. He didn't know what he would do if his Rose would get hurt, more than she already was.

"Rose, please be o.k."

He thought that it was taking too long, so he did alchemy in the floor and made the floor carry him to a ceiling. He jumped from ceiling to ceiling to see which alley was the one that that asshole had her trapped. He kept jumping until he jumped over one that had two persons in it. He stopped and jumped off the ceiling to the ground making Kimbley stop from choking Rose.

"Let her go! Your business is with me."

"No can do Ed. I can't take the chance of her telling the Military about this, can I?" he said dropping Rose ant turning to face him.

"What do you mean? The Military's…"

"Clueless about what I'm doing here. They just wanted me to ask you guys to go back. Now, back to business…"

Kimbley ran towards Ed with a knife and tried to slash it through Ed, but luckily he avoided it. Ed transformed his right hand into a blade. He tried to slash it through him, but, he avoided it. In his try to hurt Kimbley, he fell. Ed was on the floor and just when Kimbley was about to pierce the knife through him…

"ROSE!" she screamed standing up.

The scream caught their attention. Kimbley looked at Rose with a smirk, as he got closer to her, leaving Ed on the floor.

"What did you say?

"Rose, my name. Didn't you want to know?"

"Rose… Kimbley, the guy that's going to kill you" a smirk crossed his lips.

"Kimbley… Rose, the girl that's not afraid of you."

"Rose, you idiot, run!" Ed screamed.

Rose stood there fighting her knowing that she was going to die.

"Rose, run!"

"No! Ed… I want to know if there's more to my life and I can't figure it out if you die!" she said closing her eyes.

Tears were starting to fall from Rose's eyes. Ed was stunned; for the first time in along time, he saw Rose cry.

"Rose…" Ed murmured.

"Isn't that sweet?"

It started to rain. Winry and Al finally got there, but it was too late; Kimbley already had Rose, grabbing her neck, about to perform alchemy.

Kimbley laughed at the pain he knew that Rose was suffering.

"Whatever you do, I'm going to kill you."

Rose spat his face.

"Bite me!"

"You shouldn't have done that."

Kimbley threw Rose against the wall, so hard that she started to bleed from the back of her head, making her unconscious.

"Rose!"

Kimbley turned around to face Ed.

"That's what happens when you underestimate me. Take this as a warning."

And with that he ran away. Ed quickly dragged himself to Rose. He put her head on his knees and tried to wake her up.

"Rose? Rose? Please, wake up" he said shaking her gently.

Tears started to come out of Ed's eyes. He wanted to die. He knew what was happening; he was losing his Rose.

"Rose! ROSE, DON'T LEAVE ME! STAY WITH ME! ROSE, PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T GO!" he screamed; pain, suffering, anguish, distress could be heard in his voice.

Ed's eyes looked like the Niagara Falls from all the tears that were coming out of him. He held Rose close to him, to make her stay with him. Ed was crying like when a little boy loses his first pet, but in Ed's case, the pain wasn't going to go away. Al and Winry could only watch. Winry started to drop tears from her eyes, from seeing that painful image. Al hugged her, and started to do the same. Ed wasn't going to get over this one. This death was going to leave s big empty space in Ed's heart.

Ed tried to repeat those words; the words that always made them continue and beat everything.

"ROSE! ROSE, WALK FORWARD!"

But this time… it didn't work.

Ed had a noticeable pain and suffering gaze in his eyes.

"ROSE!"

He looked at her side and he saw the collar he had given him. It was now broken, by the struggle between Kimbelee and Rose. He gently put his forehead against hers. He waited for some answer from her, but nothing happened.

Rose's sight was all dark; she could only see darkness. Rose just heard Ed's voice screaming at her to stay alive, but she couldn't. She tried to open her eyes and say something to him, but she didn't control her body anymore. Ed held her hand, with what he gained hope, because she squeezed him a little, but it didn't last long because Rose… lost all strength. Rose could only see dark, and now she heard Ed's voice, but fading away because her life was ending, her soul was being sucked away from her body, while the rain fell on Ed's face washing away Rose's blood and Ed's tears.