AN: I do not own them.
BTW, so sorry that Ed seems to be injured in almost every one of my fics. Don't mean for that to happen. He's just so accident prone. I mean, the guy lost and arm and a leg for crying out loud. Bad stuff is bound to happen to him! This event occurs straight after the battle of the 5th Laboratory.
Thanks for all the great reviews so far!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Am I real?
An empty suit of armour sat on the clean hospital floor, contemplating life. His life. For one, how can a suit of armour, like himself, be able to walk around freely, think for itself and care for others? In fact, how is it possible that an armoured suit was able to contemplate life in the first place? The answer is… it can't. It's not possible.
The clump of soul and steel stared at the ground. Well, stare… scrap metal can't really stare, now can it? In any case, his metal helmet was pointed towards the floor.
It can't be true… Barry the Chopper couldn't have been right… could he?
He must've been lying. There was no other way. The brother that Alfonse Elric held so dear would never do this to him. Edward Elric would never have trapped his little brother in this lonely prison. That is to say, if he had a little brother to begin with…
Did I ever actually exist?
Alfonse looked up at the bed where his older brother lay. He had taken a real beating from the Slicer brothers, followed almost directly by the homunculi.
What was it that brother was so scared to tell me?
The suit of armour was so lost in thought that he didn't hear Winry enter the room. Only after she passed his line of view did he realise that he wasn't the only one watching over Edward at that point. Al didn't really acknowledge that she was there though. Instead his gaze met the floor once more.
She checked if Edward was still sleeping (as a rock, as usual…) then went and sat next to her metallic friend on the floor. She hugged her legs, rested her chin on her knees and tried to follow Alfonse's gaze, wondering what he found so interesting about the floor. The blonde girl sighed when the clean, creamy-white marble turned out to be disappointingly boring.
Does she know?
"Al, are you alright?" she asked in an unusually hushed tone for the notorious Ms Rockbell.
"Wh-what do you mean, Winry?" Alfonse replied turning his gaze from the floor to the young lady sitting by his side. Winry could always see straight through the brothers Elric. Whether or not they told her what had happened, she always knew when something was wrong with the siblings. It frustrated her that they left her in the dark more often than not.
"Don't kid around with me, Alfonse Elric. I wasn't born yesterday, you know," she looked up at him with a concerned face that she never really revealed to the two boys. She never showed them when she was worried (usually a slam on the head with a wrench signified concern in the not-so ancient language of Winrish).
She must know…
If she already knew the truth, Al figured that there was reason to keep this from her. Al looked stared at Winry for a moment, unsure of how to put his thoughts into words. The longer he took to think though, the more worried Winry seemed to get. Al didn't want that…
"Winry… how much do you know?" he asked in as natural a tone as he could, although she could hear his voice shaking. Winry furrowed her brows.
"What do you mean exactly, Al?" she answered, unsure what to make of such an odd question.
"You remember when we were kids, right?"
"Um… yeah. Of course I do." Winry didn't like where this was going.
"The fights, Mom's cakes, when Den lost his leg, our first transmutation?"
Winry giggled. "Yeah, that transmutation scared the living daylights outta me. I could never play with that doll, I was so traumatised!"
"I was there, right?"
Winry's giggles died down immediately. Her eyes widened with shock.
She does know…
"You… were there," she said very carefully. She broke eye contact, unable to bear to be the one to have to tell Al the truth whilst Edward got to sleep soundly as this was unravelling.
"Are you sure?" Alfonse sensed something was not quite right with this conversation.
"I… I have a picture of us all together, with me holding the doll," Winry stated hesitantly, though she didn't look up at him.
The large tin man sighed. That made a little more sense. It was hard to trick with a photo…
Unless…
"How can you prove that that was me? How do I know that you're all not trying to trick me?" he said, deep down wishing that he had never asked her that.
Winry took her eyes off of the floor again and looked at him with an angered expression. "Prove to me that that's NOT you in the picture!"
"Ok then, why don't I have ANY recollection of the year after mother died? In fact, why don't I recall Mom dying at all?"
Winry was stunned, thoroughly regretting ever opening her mouth at all when she entered the room. How was she going to dodge this one? Alfonse looked down at the girl, whose eyes were threatening to tear. Moments passed without a word…
Why doesn't she answer?
"Because you passed away a week before Mom died," a young man's voice called out from the bed. Edward sat up and stared at his brother with an expression that cannot be put into words.
"The truth is, Al, you did indeed exist… but part of you just… doesn't… anymore…"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Chapter up soon!
