FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, GOLDEN EYES

By Born of Starlight

I'm so tired...! I really don't feel like talking right now. It was all I could do to type up this chapter. I'm suffering from lack of coffee. I've only had one cup today. That was HOURS ago. I need more. I think I'll go watch Naruto in nine minutes. Only good show on Toonami...

Disclaimer: I don't own it...blah, blah, blah...Not making money from it...blah, blah, blah...Hiromu Arakawa's property...

That works, right?

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Chapter 10

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Edward Elric had changed. Just four months ago, he had been a temperamental shrimp. And while he was still short, he no longer lost his temper when someone made a jab about his height. Now he lost his temper at everything else, instead.

Al was worried about his brother. He'd been like that ever since she had vanished without explanation. He knew his brother was frustrated.

And Ed took his frustration out on Colonel Mustang.

"You BASTARD! The report's written just fine! You want it typed out, do it yourself!" He slammed the office door behind him and stormed off to his quarters. Once there, the rage vanished.

Ed leaned against the wall, sinking slowly down to the floor. His fingers were running over the surface of the Philosopher's Stone. The stupid thing could so much, but it couldn't bring Korin back.

He laughed at the irony. "And here I thought the stone could grant wishes…"

Al stuck his head through the door a few hours later.

"Brother? The colonel is looking for you. He sent a message, and--"

"I'm not doing anything that bastard wants me to do, Al. I'm sick of following orders! He's probably the one who sent Korin away…"

"But, Brother, it sounded important. You have to go!" Ed looked ready to refuse again. "He is your commanding officer, Brother…"

Ed let out an angry howl and lurched to his feet. "Fine, Al, I'm going!" He stormed his way out of the room, gold braid flying behind.

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"What the HELL do you want now, Bastard?"

"Please lower your voice, Fullmetal." Roy inclined his head slightly towards the low couch in his office. Ed looked to the indicated piece of furniture --

-- And choked.

Korin stood slowly, her face grim. Her left arm was bandaged, and her whole body seemed tense. Her every line spoke of the hardships she must have been through, but she managed a small smile before her tears broke free and she sobbed into Ed's shoulder.

Neither teen noticed when Mustang left his office, closing the door behind him.

"I couldn't find a way, Ed! I looked, I followed leads! Now one has even heard of something like this ever having happened before…!"

Ed felt strange…there had been times he had wanted to just what Korin was doing now, cry into someone's shoulder, but couldn't. He patted her back awkwardly, feeling slightly lost.

"Korin, what were you looking for?" His usually forceful voice was gentle.

Her voice shook, and her eyes were sparkling with tears. "I wanted to get it back…"

There was something about Korin… Ed couldn't put his finger on it, but she was…different. Maybe "new" was the word.

Korin pulled away, wiping at her eyes. She smiled apologetically at him. "I just wanted to be human again…apparently that's asking too much…"

Oh. Now he knew what she'd been looking for.

For a while, the two teenagers just stood there, silently. They both seemed fasinated with their shoes.

Ed was the first to break the silence. "You could have just asked me to help, you know," he said, and grinned. "I've got a lot of experience looking for abstract information!"

Finally, Korin smiled for real.

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Night found them once more in the library. Hidden somewhere behind towers of dusty old books were two teenagers desperately trying to find some hint that Korin wasn't the first person to loose their soul because of alchemy.

No luck.

Korin flopped backwards. "I give up!" she muttered. Ed knew she wasn't serious.

He sighed and pulled down another book. "You can't give up yet, Korin. We haven't read all the books in the library yet!"

Korin rolled her eyes and opened the next book.

Nothing.

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He could feel something hard and square pressing into his back, and something round and soft resting against his shoulder. His eyes blinked open.

A book still open in her lap, Korin's head was on his shoulder.

Edward froze.

Korin's fingers flipped to the last page of the book, and she set it aside. She pulled down another volume. Ed leaned down and looked at her face. Her eyes were closed, her lips just barely parted -- sound asleep.

She turned a page.

Ed's hand seemed to have a mind of its own. Gently, his fingers stroked Korin's cheekbone.

Suddenly a phrase in the book caught his eye.

"Korin, this is it!" He jumped to his feet, snatching the book as he stood.

Korin was awake instantly and on her feet as well. "Seriously? You found it?"

"No, actually, you did."

As they read the paragraph though, heir faces fell. The information was anything but heartening…

According to the author, the loss of a soul had only been recorded twice. Ever. Both times the alchemists had died shortly after. The only reason for the deaths -- so far as anyone could tell -- was the bodies had nothing to keep them going, to sustain them.

Korin's face was pale. "How long did they live…?" she asked.

Ed flipped through the next couple pages. He swallowed the lump he could feel rising hin his throat. "Six months."

She had just over a month left to live.

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Delightfully Wicked: Lol. Delightfully Wicked, I was watching FMA when I received your review. (Yeah, I was online at the time.) You don't have a heart? Ah, well. I only have half a soul. I guess we're even.

BlackMercifulFaerie: Yay! That's my favorite pairing as well. It's the pairing I go searching for whenever I can't find any here at I've got about four fics for that paring, that I just haven't posted yet. Maybe I will, when this story is finished. I have no idea why the hell I wrote Ed/OC, because I despise original character pairings. Granted, it's not a permanent pairing. Korin's profile doesn't allow for it to be. (Her profile is ten pages long, by the way…)

1. I know, now, about the human transmutation being illegal. I didn't at the time though -- I had only seen about two episodes! You'll notice, though, that Ed never really thinks of Al as if he's different (Okay, except when Al mentions it). He's really concerned with Al not blaming himself. Al does feel a little guilty, though. That's just the kind of person Al is. Anyway, what Ed lost? Not much. It wouldn't have been a matter of replacing something completely gone -- more like fixing something that was broken. When Al fixes the radio in the first episode he proves that just fixing something doesn't cost a whole lot. Hence the wave of dizziness. Also, it really had to be Ed to perform the transmutation, don't you agree? He's the only one who didn't use circles, and you really wouldn't want to draw circles directly onto her irises! That would hurt! Lol.

2. I've heard of the "phantom limb" thing before, but I didn't think that every amputee experiences it. Korin doesn't really, at least not all the time. Also, Korin was perfectly aware that her limbs were gone, she just didn't want to admit it to herself. She's denying the obvious. () Ed says to her "I think you know perfectly well why you can't feel your toes," to which she replies "Just shut up, okay!" She really doesn't want to hear it. She'd much rather sit there pretending everything is still intact. Denial.

3. 5'5"? I wasn't ever able to find the height in feet, though I looked. I found it in centimeters once, and when I converted it, it came out to be about 5'1". That's the height I was thinking of as I wrote it. Which, damn it, is still taller than me. By ¼ an inch! What went wrong in my genetics…?

I really appreciated such a long review, by the way. It made my day. You pointed out some valuable things, and caused me to dig back out my notes and figure out why I did things the way I did. There are the reasons, and I hope it clears some things up.