Chapter 3
Molly walked into the living room where everyone else still was and she yawned and rubbed her little eyes. Around her shoulder sat a small bag. She immediately walked up to Al and grabbed him by the hand and started tugging him towards the corner. "Come on Uncle Al, it's time for a tea party." Molly said smiling.
"Uh..." Al looked at Kairi who shrugged. Maria walked out of the room. Molly pulled Al to the corner and out of the bag she took some plastic tea cups and a plastic tea pot. She poured the "tea" into a cup and handed it to Al with a huge smile on her face and with a nervous laugh, Al took it. Molly then poured two more cups and ran over carefully and handed one to Kairi and the other to Ed who was still on the ground.
"Thank you." Kairi said playing along.
"Uh...gee thanks...I don't know what to say..." Ed said kind of annoyed still with Kairi for pushing him off the couch. Molly ran back and poured her a cup. Molly "drank" from it and watched as Kairi and Ed did the same, but then she looked at Al, who just held it in his hand.
"Why aren't you drinking your tea? It's tea time." Molly said innocently. Al placed the cup up to his "mouth" and pretended to drink from it.
"Mmmm...that's good tea..." Al said. Maria walked back into the room.
"Ok...there is nothing in the kitchen...what do we do?" Maria whispered to Kairi.
"Don't worry..." Kairi leaned over and pulled one of her bags towards her. She opened up a sack that was next to them and pulled out some bread. "Thankfully, I thought to bring a little food, just in case we ended up with some dimwits that didn't have any food...and we did..."
"Hey!" Ed screamed angrily. "Well, ya know we didn't have to agree to come get you..."
"Let's don't start that again you guys...Molly's in here..." Maria said.
"That didn't stop them before." Al said looking at her. Ed stood up and walked over to the couch across from Kairi and she looked at him. Ed sighed as he threw himself on the couch. For the first time, Kairi noticed something that she didn't notice before.
'His arm...is that...auto mail? I wonder what happened to him...' She then looked over at Al who was still "drinking" tea. 'Was what happened to Ed, what happened to Al too? What are they trying to hide from us?'
"Well..." Al said standing up. "I'm going to look for some more firewood just in case it starts getting cold."
"I'll come with you." Maria said grabbing her coat. The two walked out the door, when the door shut Molly looked at Kairi with a smile.
"Why don't you go play in the bedroom, Molly." Kairi said lovingly. "I need to ask Ed something."
"Ok." Molly skipped happily to the bedroom and Ed looked at her.
"What do you mean 'You need to ask me something?'" Ed asked.
"Exactly what it sounds like..." Kairi said looking down. "Look...I need to ask you a question..."
"Well I got that..."
"What happened...?"
"What do you mean?"
"Al...What happened to him?"
"What do you mean what happened to him? Nothing happened to him!"
"Ed! He's in a freakin giant suit of armor and never takes it off even when he's asleep! Something's going on that you're not telling me about and I wanna know what!"
"It's not important and it's none of your business!" Ed stood up and walked to the coat rack and quickly put it on, hoping that she wouldn't ask about his arm too.
"Why won't you tell me? It's not like I'll tell anyone else."
"I don't wanna talk about it, damn you!" Ed yelled.
"Edward..."
"Look it's none of your business and it's nothing you have to worry about..."
"Please...I just wanna help...If something's going on you can tell me..."
"It's nothing..." Ed sighed knowing that he couldn't hide it from her...but that doesn't mean he'd have to tell her the entire truth. "We just...failed in an experiment and he doesn't want anyone to see him...I really don't wanna talk about it...It's too painful..." Ed started to tear up, but he tried hard to fight it back.
"Edward..." Kairi started to feel bad for him.
--outside a few feet from the house--
Al and Maria walked away from each other each gathering wood when Al saw something. Right in the middle of the snow was a small circle of dirt, the snow was starting to melt away! But that wasn't what Al was looking at. Right in the center of the dirt pile was a flower. The most beautiful flower Al had ever seen. It had a long green stem with a single leaf on it, the white bloom was fully open and it seemed to glow and mezmorize Al. "Wow..." Al said. He looked over at Maria who was humming as she picked up another piece of wood. Al gently picked the flower and slowly walked over to her. "Here...I..I picked this for you..." Al said handing her the flower. Maria looked at the flower for a minute and then looked up at Al and smiled warmly at him. She took it out of his hand and smiled at the flower.
"Thank you...it's the best gift anyone has ever given me." Al laughed nervously. After a second of akwardness, Al walked away blushing a bit and continued to look for wood. Maria smiled at him as she walked away towards another piece she saw. She gently put the flower in her beautiful brown hair to use it as decoration.
"I think we've got enough pieces for now don't you think? I mean we won't be staying here long right?" Al said trying to forget that he just did that embarrassing gesture. Maria smiled and nodded. The two walked into the house to see Kairi and Ed still talking. "Look brother, we found a lot of wood, it must have fallen off the house or some...what's wrong?" Al saw tears stream down Ed's face. "Brother?" Without looking at him he started to walk out of the room.
"Wait, I'm not done talking with you yet..." Kairi said still filled with questions.
"Yeah? Well I am..." Ed said walking out of the room and Kairi sighed.
"Brother!" Al ran after her hoping to maybe cheer him up and dropping all the wood he had collected onto the ground.
"What was that all about?" Maria asked.
"Nothing..." Kairi sighed again as she helped her sister pick up the pieces of wood that Al dropped. Molly walked back into the room.
"Maria you're back!"
"Yup!" Maria said smiling.
"And you brought fire things!" Molly said as she skipped over to the middle of the room where they put the wood. After a minute of silence, Molly looked toward the closet door that was behind her in wonder. She walked up to it and looked at it.
"What's wrong Molly?" Kairi asked smiling. "You leave your doll in there or something?"
"I think I heard a dog!" Molly said smiling.
"What?"
"I heard a scratchy noise." Kairi looked at Maria who shrugged.
"Just to be safe...Molly come over here and let me look..." Molly ran over to Maria and hugged her, still glad she was back and had someone to play with her again. Kairi walked slowly towards the door with an angry look on her face. She gently placed her left ear against the door and listened quietly. Molly was right...she heard some kind of scratching noise...but it didn't sound like a dog...it sounded like..."Maria..."
"Yeah?" Kairi was quiet for a second just to make sure that's what she heard.
"Go get Edward..." Maria shrugged and walked out of the room. Kairi listened quietly until Maria walked back into the room with Ed and Al.
"What up?" Ed said looking at her.
"Come here and listen to this." Kairi said. Ed walked up to the door and they listened quietly.
"It sounds like...digging..." Kairi looked at Ed.
"You don't think..."
"Only one way to find out." Ed said smiling as he pushed Kairi behind him again and gently and slowly opened the door. The door immediately swung open and out jumped two men.
"Knock knock..." One man said.
"Where'd they come from?" Kairi asked.
"They must have dug a tunnel from outside the house...This way they can surprise us...and boy did they." Ed said angrily standing in front of her. Al ran to Maria and Molly and pushed them out of the way so they wouldn't get hurt.
"What do we do?" Kairi asked.
"You do nothing but stay back and try not to die." Ed clapped his hands and ran his left hand over his right arm turning it into his sword. Ed jumped towards one man leaving the other for Al. Al ran towards him and knocked him off his feet.
"Now look...I don't want to hurt you..." Al said.
"Yeah? Well I do." The man jumped at Al with a huge knife that he had pulled out of his jacket. The other man who was fighting Ed, grabbed a pole that was on the floor and started using it to defend himself from Ed's swings with his sword.
'I can't just stand here and do nothing...' Kairi thought. The man finally tripped Ed up and knocked him to the ground. As soon as he got the chance, the man jabbed the pole into Ed's stomach making him groan.
"Not so tough now are ya tough guy?" The man said smiling. The man threw his arm back ready to jab at him again, but this time at his neck.
"Brother!" Al yelled when he saw him.
"Don't even think about it!" Kairi said as she punched him hard in the back, making him fall over. Kairi held out her hand towards Ed.
"Wow...thanks..." Ed said.
"There..." Kairi started. "Now we're even..." The man immediately stood up and Ed pushed Kairi out of the way as the man swung his pole at Ed, thankfully giving him just enough time to duck.
"Oh, too slow." Ed said smiling. The man who was fighting Al finally figured out that fighting him head on wasn't going to do anything. Al finally threw the man off of him and the man immediately crouched down on the ground and drew a transmutation circle as fast as he could. He touched it and it glowed and a huge block fell from the roof and hit Al, causing him to fall to the ground. Al tried to push himself up to get it off of him, but it was too strong and too heavy. As soon as Al was out of the way, he turned to Maria and Molly.
"Maria! Run!" Al yelled. Maria couldn't move, she was frozen in fear. Kairi saw him go after them and immediately sprang to her feet.
"Don't you dare hurt my sisters!" Kairi punched him in the back, not making him fall down, but enough to get his attention away from his sisters an onto her. The man immediately turned around and puched her in the face making her fly back a few feet and hit the ground.
"Kairi!" Ed yelled still struggling with the other man. Kairi pushed herself up and fought back. She punched him once and then missed. He jabbed at her and she flipped backwards and landed on her feet.
"Woah." Ed and Al said.
"I'm not as defenseless as you think..." Kairi said smiling. As Ed was looking at her, the man he was fighting punched him back, but this time he didn't fall down.
"Too bad what you lack in height doesn't help in your fighting, I guess you're just short." The man laughed. Ed's eyes turned black and he got angrier by the second.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT!" Ed yelled as he angrily clapped his hands and hit the ground. Out from beneath him grew a huge cannon and he immediately pulled the string causing a cannon ball to shoot out and hit right next to him. The cannon might have missed him but the impact from the cannon shot him out the window. Kairi and her guy were going at it, sometimes they missed and sometimes they got their target. Though she didn't want to, she knew she had to, to save her sisters and herself. She kicked him hard causing him to fly back. Kairi immediately started to draw a transmutation circle on one of the pieces of wood that Al and Maria had found for wood. She touched it and it glowed and it turned into a large sword. She grabbed it and punched the man to the ground and while closing her eyes, she jabbed the sword in his stomach, killing him instantly. Luckily, Maria knew what she was about to do and covered Molly's eyes. Kairi breathed heavily and she looked at her sisters...who were safe...She sighed with relief. Ed walked over to the window that the man was shot out of and watched as the man ran away, he then turned to Kairi. "Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" Maria walked over to Al who was still under the large block. She drew a transmutation circle on it and touched it and it glowed. The block slowly dissentagrated back into the ceiling. Maria helped Al up and she smiled at him and they both laughed.
"Well...it's about bed time..." Kairi said turning to Molly. Molly grabbed Al's hand and tugged him towards the bedroom.
"Come tuck me in, Uncle Al..."
"Uh...ok..." Al followed Molly to the bed room and Maria followed them.
"We need to leave tomorrow, Ed." Kairi said.
"Yeah, you're probably right...that guy probably is going to tell the rest of his men where we are...I'll get rid of this guy." Ed said as he threw the man that Kairi killed over his shoulder and walked out the door. Kairi walked back into the bedroom. Maria had already laid down in the bed under the window and Molly was in the bed next to the door. Al had just finished tucking Molly in and just as he was about to stand up, Molly stopped him.
"Good night..." Molly pulled him close and gently kissed him on his "cheek." Molly then snuggled back into her covers and Al looked at her.
"She really loves you, ya know." Kairi said. Al stood up and looked at her.
"Yeah..." Al laughed. Al walked over to the wall that he had slept by the night before and Kairi got into the other bed.
"Good night Al..."
"Good night." Al sighed and closed his eyes.
--a few hours later--
Kairi sat up quickly from bed and gasped. She looked around the room, everyone but Ed was asleep. Ed was sitting, leaning against Kairi's bed, looking out the window above Maria. Kairi slowly climbed out of bed and sat next to him. "Hi..." Kairi said quietly.
"Hi..." Ed said back. "What's wrong? Bad dream?"
"The same one I've had since my parents death...every time it wakes me up..." Ed smiled and they both looked up at the window. "It looks like the...snow's melting...winter's finally over..."
"Yeah..."
"Look...I'm really sorry..."
"Sorry? For what?"
"Getting you and Al into all this trouble."
"Eh..it's nothing we're not used to..." They were quiet for a minute...
"Ed?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks...for helping me and my sisters...it's nice to see somebody helping us out..."
"Hey, don't worry about it..." While Ed was looking up at the window again, Kairi's eyes were fixed on his auto mail arm.
"I really wish I could help..." Ed looked at her with confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"Whatever happened to you and Al...your arm and his body...whatever it was...it seemed to take a lot from you...and I wish I could help..." Ignoring her he looked back up at the window hoping that she would forget about it. Kairi looked at him and smiled and looked back at the ground. She then looked over at Al and looked at his body. "I really do..." Ed looked at her through the corner of his eye. "Well...I guess if you don't want to talk about it...there's no sense in me going on about it. Goodnight Edward..." Kairi climbed back into bed.
"Goodnight...Kairi..." Ed looked back up at the window.
Wow that was long...sorry about that...I got a little carried away...haha...-sigh-