FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, GOLDEN EYES

By Born of Starlight

Oh, my God, I'm sooo sorry! I've been so super busy that it's not even funny! School play, going...ah, crap, I've got like, zero of my lines memorized! Too many of them...! So, that's how that's going... Um... I GOT MY LETTER! Yeah, um, what that means, I'm officially "in" the Rotary program. I'll be leaving the country in August! I'd really, really like to go to Japan, but I don't know yet, if I'll get to. What am I forgetting? Oh. Yeah. That...

Korin...well, honestly, it's really going to look bad for a while, look like Ed and Korin are going to fall in love, blah blah blah, but here's the catch. Yeah, it's...not going to work out. Korin's heart, already taken. So, eventually, not in this fic but eventually, Korin will end it. SO PLEASE BARE WITH ME! It's nothing long term, but it was necessary to the plot. So there's my case. If you feel like disputing it, just you go ahead. (.) I love arguments!

Disclaimer? What disclaimer? I've nothing to disclaim. :sees angry copyrights holders rushing at her in a violent mob: OH! That disclaimer...! Yeah, I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Of course, my delusions tell me otherwise, but...well, they're delusions, after all... I'm not supposed to listen to delusions anymore. Therapist said so. Hang on. I've never been to a therapist! Great! Now I've got delusions of therapists! Things just keep getting better and better...! On top of all that, I've got a song stuck in my head, which just happens to be in Ancient Romanian!

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Chapter 6

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She was singing quietly to herself when the thick door creaked open. She ignored it, as well as the steady, painful throbbing in her chest.

"People see me/ I'm a challenge/ to your balance/ I'm over your heads/ how I confound you/ and astound you--"

Cool fingers covered her mouth. Two metal fingers tucked themselves under her chin and forced her to look up.

"You do owe us an explanation, don't you think?"

With a dry laugh, Korin turned her face away. "Do you really want to be seen talking to a murderer?" She couldn't meet his eyes.

Edward sighed and sat down on the wooden floor next to her. "Technically speaking I'm a murderer too…" His eyes were hard. "In my case though, they consider the death an 'aid to the military'…"

"They sent you in here to question me. Didn't they.

Ed didn't bother to reply. He knew that she already knew the answer. He looked at the red-head sitting next to him. "So…who'd you kill?"

Korin's lip trembled, and a slightly hysterical giggle escaped her. "Oh, Edward, if you only knew…!"

Once again he placed his fingers under her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. Korin had never noticed how deep his eyes seemed, though maybe that was because they hadn't spent much time together… She knew that if things kept going the way they were headed, she would find herself irretrievably lost in those golden depths. She also knew that she mustn't let that happen.

"Who?" Ed's whisper was soft, but firm.

Korin drew her knees up to her chest. She shuddered slightly at the unfamiliar feel of metal beneath her black pants.

"Korin, if you don't say, they'll use force." There was a quiet warning in Ed's voice.

"Maybe I know that, Ed. Maybe I'm trying to prove something to myself…"

"Like what?"

"Like proving that I'm still human."

"Why wouldn't you be human, Korin?"

"Because…I knew I just couldn't kill somebody, so I had to improvise."

Ed didn't know where the conversation was heading. If he had, he might have stopped right then. "Korin, I need to know how you found a way to make the stone without killing anyone. And I thought you said you were a murderer?"

"I am, Edward. I did, in a way, kill someone."

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Outside the holding cell, Mustang was getting impatient. He was just about to go in the cell himself, but Riza put a restraining hand on his arm.

"Let Edward handle this, Sir. You can't tell me you haven't seen the way he looks at her…they need to work this out, just the two of them."

"But that girl is talking in circles! Fullmetal doesn't have enough experience interrogating people!"

"I don't believe either of them really thinks of this as an interrogation, Colonel. Leave them to it." Roy tried to argue some more, but Riza put a slightly callused hand over his mouth and glared at him.

"Just listen, okay, Colonel?"

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The two teens were sitting in the semidarkness looking at the stone. It almost seemed to have its own inner light, but it was a strange light that tried to hide away from the world.

"Korin, please just tell me the truth…"

Korin ran a delicate finger over the surface of her creation. "This is the second thin I ever did with alchemy…" Ed's eyes widened. "It was entirely fair for you to accuse me of knowing nothing about alchemy; I don't."

"How did you make the stone, Korin. What did you use in place of the human life? If you found a way to do it without killing --"

"I didn't! I didn't find a way, Ed! I did kill someone!"

"THEN WHO DID YOU KILL?"

"ME! ME, OKAY? I KILLED MYSELF!"

Ed's thoughts froze. He could do no more than stare at the girl next to him, stare at the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I--" His voice cracked with something very like pity. "I don't understand."

Korin turned haunting eyes to him. The alchemic circles on them were glowing silver blue. "I lost my soul, Ed. That was the price. I'm as good as dead."

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Heh. Right. Yes, this will be explained, and yes, Al is in the next chapter. Um... Other than that? PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! God, Fluff is really not what I like to write. I like angst-filled stories with lots of fight scenes and anguish! I'm told this is called "Teen Angst" and will eventually go away. Who ever said I want it to go away?

Delightfully Wicked: :grins: Glad to know I'm not the only one who skips out on homework. And for all that, I'm still passing all my classes: 101 in English. (See, Mom, I told you fanfiction was worth while!) Lol. Oh, and guess what! I'm going to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tomorrow. Gah...! So...tempting...but...must refrain from...writing...CROSSOVER! I don't know if you like Harry Potter, but as I was reading the sixth book I kept having to correct my self: "'said Edward'---I mean HARRY!" Lol. The parallels are astounding.