Author's Note
Oof, has it been over two months since I last updated here, too? Honestly so sorry about that! This and chapter eight have been written for a while now, but I've been too preoccupied with proofreading and correcting that I... kind of lost track of time and ended up not updating at all.
But here you go now! And chapter eight should come a lot sooner!
Ed chews me out while we walk up to the front doors. Says he's used to this and that I should have just let him speak. That all he really ever needs to do is flash his watch and say he's with the military and it's a done deal. He doesn't immediately understand why it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. During the whole thing, Alphonse keeps quiet. But it's clear that he understands both my concerns and his brother's.
"You flash that watch, " I start, hand on the cold metal bar of the door. "Then what? They ask you why the military needs to be here. Why I'm here. What do you say then? That I'm here for a ten-year-old girl? And then what?"
Edward huffs and looks down at the ground. He didn't think that far, clearly. Not that I did, either, but the guard gave the impression that honesty would be the better policy, by far and wide.
"That's what I thought, " I mutter, and push through the door into the facility's lobby.
It's as bright and clean as I expect, from my parents' stories. It doesn't smell like antiseptic or disinfectant like most hospitals. It almost smells like firewood, which is unsettling by itself. But it's the lingering, almost background scent of lilacs that makes me wonder. Ed seems to catch onto this too.
"G-good morning!" A cheery, if slightly baffled receptionist, greets us from behind the counter to our right. I guess we do look pretty odd. Alphonse probably stands out the most.
Before I can speak up, Ed's the one who steps forward to place a hand on the counter. When he steps away, his pocket watch is there.
"Sorry for the scare," he starts, toothy grin and all, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I know visiting hours aren't for a bit, but my brother and I need to take this apothecary to see a new patient. If we give you her name, can you tell us where she is?"
The receptionist looks like she could be a mother to all three of us, and maybe that's what does it. Her features smooth out and she looks from Ed to Alphonse behind and finally to me. I manage a small wave if the fingers.
She's waiting for me to speak.
I clear my throat.
"Her name is Claire. She has a heart condition I think I might be able to help with. It's my first job away from my parents." I try to blend my anxiety into sheepishness. It seems to work; the receptionist's while face lights up.
"Claire! Yes! Small thing, about nine, ten years old? Oh, she's a dear!" The woman stands up and walks around the counter to come to meet us. She puts a hand behind my shoulder and guides me along with her. "Come on! I'll show you which room she's in. I really do hope you can help her."
"Is she alright?" Ed keeps his tone as cool as he can manage. He keeps glancing at the receptionist like he expects something to go wrong. Does he see something I don't?
"As good as she can be, sure, " the woman starts, steering me to the left, toward a staircase at the end of the hallway. "but her brother, the older one? I think he's been getting himself into some trouble."
"What kind of trouble?" Alphonse asks this time. If the woman is surprised to hear such a young, tinny voice, she doesn't show it.
"You know, I'm really not sure. I've heard him talking with people in the little boudoir upstairs, but every time I go to check on him he's all alone. And I haven't seen him much lately. Do you know if he's alright? Those kids only really have each other now."
I'm about to ask what she means—does the know about the aunt, the uncle and the cousins? Has she not seen them? Don't they visit?—but the receptionist stops in front of a door and motions all three of us to keep quiet. Probably worried Claire might still be asleep.
I hear the hushed voice of the receptionist and the high, quiet voice of a girl. The woman comes back to the door and motions us in after barely a minute.
"You're lucky," she says brightly. "Claire's been awake for a little bit already. Go on in; I'll go get her attending nurse for her daily checkup."
With that, Ed, Alphonse and I are ushered into the room. The door softly clicks behind us.
Claire's absolutely tiny. She's small and looks frail. The brothers stand awkwardly by the door, not sure what to do. I take a deep breath and take a step forward.
"Hi, Claire. My name is Anna. Your brother Enton sent me," I explain briefly, walking to the foot of the bed to grab the clipboard there. Her chart is excessive; she must've been here at least a month.
"Is he okay?" Claire's voice is small and soft, even as young as she is. I can't help but frown. Does she know?
"Well, I saw him earlier this morning. Why do you—"
"He won't tell me anything," she says, cutting me off. She pauses for a second and looks embarrassed about it. I nod at her to continue. "He doesn't tell me anything. He's been saying he's taking care of things but I'm scared. He's been talking to strange people. I don't like them, but he won't say what he's doing."
I turn back to look at the brothers. Ed is looking at the floor like he could burn a hole through it. Does this sound familiar to him?
"What kind of strange people, Claire? Do you know?" I ask, flipping over another page on her chart. More heart rates, blood pressure...
"I don't really know," she answers meekly, wringing her hands in her lap. "I never really see them, but there's at least a man and a woman, I think. I saw the lady walk by my room once. I think she had a tattoo."
I hear both brothers gasps and take a step forward. I'm about to ask what's wrong when I catch something on Claire's chart.
It's a heart murmur. A massive one. There's no way any herbs or distillations could ever help with this, nevermind foxglove. What was Enton doing in the garden, then? Nothing there would be able to help.
"Claire, I need to you remember what that tattoo looked like," Edward asks, clearly trying his hardest to keep calm but completely incapable of keeping all the urgency out of his voice. "Did it look like a curled snake with wings?"
Claire frowns and looks down at the hands in her lap. Her fingers trace patterns on the blanket until her face lights up.
"Yeah, yeah it did!"
Edward's entire body seems to go rigid. I don't need to look back at Alphonse to know he's mirroring the reaction. Ed turns to look at me.
"We'll be upstairs," is all he provides before stalking out of the room. Alphonse follows, but not before casting an obvious and long glance at Claire.
The tension seems to ease from the room as soon as the brothers leave. It's almost a relief; whatever has them on edge is clearly none of my business. It doesn't stop me from staring at the closed door for a few seconds before walking over to the girl's bedside.
"Do you mind if I sit down?" I ask, holding the clipboard to my chest and nodding at the bed. Claire nods. It's softer than I remember hospital beds being.
"How much do you know about your condition?"
When I wander upstairs about a half hour later, after having had a decent discussion with Claire's attending nurse, the brothers aren't there anymore. I ignore the nervous pangs their absence sends through my chest and make my way down to the first floor's reception desk. The receptionist smiles brightly at me.
"There you are! I was wondering what happened when I saw your escorts come back down without you," she says warmly. She puts a stack of papers to the side and crosses her hands on the desk in front of her. "So, what do you think? Is there anything you can do for that poor girl?"
My throat feels tight and my mouth is dry. I try my best at an apologetic smile.
"I don't think so, no," I answer honestly, clutching the strap of my bag with white knuckles. "Surgery would be her best option, but I'd have to ask my teacher if that's even possible. But she'll be fine for a while, as long as she doesn't strain herself too much."
He receptionist nods gravely. The frown doesn't suit her.
"Well, at least she's alright for now. We'll take good care of her, don't you worry."
I mutter some quick thanks and goodbyes. I can see Alphonse's shadow again the front door before stepping out.
Edward looks...strange. I can't tell if he's exceptionally upset, excited or confused. He looks like a mix of all of those and then some.
"Find anything interesting?" I ask, following the brothers' lead as they begin to walk back to the gate.
"Maybe," Alphonse answers, seeming to look up at the sky before looking back down to me. "Did you figure out how to help Claire?"
I shake my head. "No, there isn't anything I can do now, even with what little alchemy I know. One of the valves in her heart doesn't shut at all when blood pumps through," I explain, looking down at my feet. "If someone were able to operate on her, that would be be best thing, but I don't know if that's even possible, or what you'd even do about it."
Edward stops cold in his tracks and turns to look at both his brother and I. He finally narrows his eyes at me.
"So you're saying that no plant could fix whatever's wrong with Claire."
"Um. Well, yeah," I answer, hesitant. "If her murmur was less significant, maybe medication could help. But it's too severe for that. Why? What did you just figure out?"
Ed grins. It looks like someone's just handed him the answers the the entirety of the universe.
"We need to see Enton again," Ed says, completely unhelpfully, and turns back round to walk to the gate. I look up to Alphonse for some kind of explanation, but he shakes his head, apparently just as confused as I am. Or maybe it's just too long of a story to explain while changing down a miniature state alchemist.
"Wait, wait wait wait. Enton was arrested! How are we even going to see him?"
The gates open in front of us. The guard woman leans out through her small hidden door to wave at us. Ed's the only one who doesn't wave back.
"You leave that to me," the older brother says. When I catch up to him, there's something devious to his expression. He doesn't tear his eyes away from the horizon.
"Okay, but that literally doesn't explain anything," I say, looking back and forth between the brothers. "I feel like there's a lot I don't know here. What aren't you telling me?"
Alphonse has the decency to at least sound a little bit apologetic and nervous. Edward just frowns, stuffs his hands in his coat's pockets and keeps resolutely stalking forward.
"Um, well," the younger brother starts, looking at Ed in the apparent hope of getting some kind of approval. There's none to be found. Alphonse seems to take that as a go-ahead. "There's this group of people we've seen before, that's why brother was asking about the tattoo. All of them so far seem to have it. They call themselves homunculi, and they've—"
What.
"Woah wait." I grab Alphonse's arm to stop him and make him turn around. Ed stops a few steps in front of us, but again, his eyes seem glued to the road ahead. "Sorry, just—okay. Alright, I'll keep my questions for when you're done, go ahead."
Alphonse starts walking again, slowly, until I catch back up. I have the distinct feeling this is going to be a difficult conversation to wrap my mind around.
"Right, well. We've met a few of them so far. There's one called Envy, and I'm pretty sure he's a shapeshifter. Then there's Lust; she can extend her fingers into spikes. There's Greed, who can turn his entire body into the ultimate shield, and Gluttony can eat literally anything." Alphonse counts them all on his fingers. It's almost endearing; he's looking up to the sky like it'll help him remember.
Does that work? Even in a hollow armour body? How is it that there's still some kind of habitual muscle memory without actual muscle? And why are all the homunculi named after religious sins anyways?
"Oh! Right, I forgot the most important part. They don't seem to be able to die at all."
That stops me in my tracks. I quickly recover; if I delay us any more than necessary, it feels like Ed's going to yell at me again. I pick up the pace to catch up again.
"Alright. Okay. So, assuming homunculi are a thing, everything you said after that makes complete sense," I start, staring at Ed's heels in front of me. "But I'm really, really wanting to know how a homunculus is even a thing. No one's even been able to successfully create one, ever."
"That's what we thought at first, too," Alphonse answers, turning his head to look down at me. "It's a little more believable when you're fighting against one, I guess."
"You fought them?!"
"It's not like we had much of a choice," Ed answers bitterly, turning his head just enough for me to see one golden eye. "Trust me, I want nothing more than to sit 'em down and interrogate them, or whoever their Father is."
The emphasis on the word "father" isn't lost on me, but it's a question for another time.
"So you're not kidding," I say quietly after a while. "Someone's successfully created a human—more than one. Fully functional, essentially immortal humans with crazy abilities. That's what you're saying."
Edwar shrugs ahead and Alphonse hums in confirmation.
"This... this changes everything, though!" I can feel excitement bubbling up my throat. "Whoever made them can probably help you, right? Maybe you can reverse—!"
"It's not that easy, Anna" Ed interrupts. His voice sounds strained; it's enough to kill my enthusiasm almost instantly. "Those homunculi, they aren't—they're not human, not really. And whoever made them definitely doesn't want anything to do with us."
"Brother..."
Somehow, Alphonse manages to convey dismay and sadness with barely any movement, and only his voice. I exhale sharply through my nose.
"Okay. Sorry, well. Alright, maybe not whoever made the homunculi. But the fact that it was done at all, that's something, right? I mean, even just for me, that means that there's so much more I can do, medically, than what I've seen so far. It might not be a lead, but at least it's hope, right..?"
I look up to the armoured brother for some kind of reassurance.
"Yeah, yeah you're right, Anna," Alphonse says, sounding cheerier wth every word. "If something like that is possible, there's gotta be a way for us to make things right again, for the both of us."
I don't miss the hint of a smile that crosses Ed's face.