Brief
Commentary:
For all those who are upset that Edward has not been making an appearance (in every chapter??), fear not! He will definitely be in...the next one. Lawl. I'm going to be mauled, aren't I? Tee hee. Catch me if you can! -skips away- Anyway, here's chapter eleven.
Reasons
Not For Your Ears
Chapter Eleven
After they had all eaten and conversed, the mood in the house lightened significantly from sullen to slightly hopeful. At first, Alphonse and Winry were hesitant to leave, concerned that their friend and her mother might suffer a relapse. However, they were shooed off, Mary insisting that the both of them would be fine. Alphonse had also remembered that the car would be waiting for them, so with a few hurried good byes, a couple of "Thank you"s, and "No problem"s, the two left. Mary couldn't help but smile at her daughter.
"Paninya, you have nice friends."
Paninya only grinned and playfully hit her mother's upper-arm.
"Guess so."
The trip to drop Winry off at her apartment was also spent in silence, although both Alphonse and herself kept sneaking glances at the other, blushing and looking away when their eyes met. However, they were reassured by the satisfied smiles that had appeared on the other's face, and the glancing cooled off after a few minutes.
"I'm really glad we could help them," Winry began quietly.
Alphonse nodded, still staring out his window.
"You think Pan will show up at school tomorrow?"
"Dunno," he shrugged his shoulders. "Hope so."
"Heh...me too, then."
They lapsed once again into silence, listening to the sounds of the vehicle's tires rolling over gravel and pavement alike, refusing to look at the other. It was met with much relieved tension when the car pulled up at her apartment. She could hardly make out the concerned face of her grandmother peering out a window as she climbed out of the car, book bag in tow, and began to walk towards the staircase. Winry waved without turning around to say good bye to Alphonse, and proceeded to leap up the stairs, pretending not to hear as the car pulled away and left. And pretending that she didn't care if Alphonse had waved back or not. Shrugging this off, she smiled as she reached her level and strode quickly over to the door designating the rooms she and Pinako lived in. Opening it, she was greeted by the sight of an impatient grandmother, smoking her pipe and tapping her foot expectantly.
"Hi, Baa-chan."
"You said you would be home early? After what happened last night?"
"I can explain, Baa-chan." Here Winry made some sort of strangled noise.
"Do tell."
"My friend, Paninya; you remember her, right?"
"I believe I've seen her around a few times."
"Her...her father was murdered last night. So I went to visit her, because she didn't show up at school today."
Pinako flinched, before regaining her composure.
"I appreciate the fact that you went to comfort your friend," she said slowly. "but could you have at least called? Look outside, Winry, it's dark."
"Baa-chan, I am outside. Could I please come in? It's cold..."
Her grandmother twitched, sighed, then nodded, allowing her granddaughter to step into the small foyer and shutting the door behind her.
"I'm sorry I didn't call," Winry bowed her head. "I was afraid that..."
She trailed off.
"Winry?" Pinako pressed. "Afraid of what?"
"It's nothing, Baa-chan," Winry shook her head. "Honest. I have some homework to do, so I need to go work on it."
With a quick turn of her head, the blonde-haired girl quickly ran off to her room, leaving her grandmother to emit an exasperated sigh. Glaring after her, Pinako muttered,
"Damned cagey thing...when will I ever be able to know what the hell is going on?"
Winry found herself in a similar position from the second night she had spent in the city. Her homework had been completed this time at 12:02 AM, according to her alarm clock, but she still was unable to sleep, even as she was curled up in her sheets. However, this time there was a reason. Unpleasant thoughts plagued her mind, thoughts filled with guilt, blood and tears. An image of the man, Scar, flickered in her mind's eye, and she shuddered, clutching a pillow closer to her body. He was still after her, as far as she knew...and she wouldn't be the only one in danger. Her grandmother might also be in his line of fire. Perhaps even Alphonse and Paninya too. And...she bit her lip as she remembered Edward's condition. He might be killed, too.
Inwardly she scolded herself. Who the hell cared about Edward?! Winry let out a huff and buried her face angrily into her pillow, grumbling incoherently. He had accused her of lying, practically strangled her, dangled her several feet in the air only to drop her, thrown her to the ground, given her a bruise on her wrist, called her a bitch, smoked, had gorgeous eyes and a hot body, protected her from Scar, wounded Scar, fended him off, kept her from running away and increasing her chances of getting shot, and she had to admit that even his smoker smell was actually a little sexy- Winry banged her head violently against her head board as she realized she was listing all of the bastard's good traits.
"Dammit!" she growled as she smacked her nose a little too hard, blood beginning to drip onto her upper lip. "That hurt!"
With an angry snarl, the blonde-haired adolescent groped for her tissue box on her nightstand, muttering curses under her breath as she found them. Snatching a tissue from its cardboard container, she held it to her nose until the bleeding subsided several minutes later.
Blushing hotly as she remembered her previous thoughts, Winry let out another huff and pulled the sheets up over her head, hoping desperately that she could just fall asleep already. Unfortunately that was not to occur until a grueling thirty minutes later, when, at last, exhausted from her confusing thoughts, Winry drifted off. The dream wasn't much better, unluckily for her. It turned out to be a reenactment of the night previous, albeit a more twisted version.
Fear. Hysteria. Desperation. Terror. Anxiety. Panic. Blood.
"Stop screaming," a voice whispered hoarsely in her ear. "Shut up. Don't move."
A round of bullets. A hiss as one bit into his flesh. She tried to scream again, but she found it too hard to breathe. A roiling stench of corpses entered her nose, and she felt that she might retch.
There was another long round of gunfire, the last bullet making a soft 'thunk' sound as it met the back of his skull. With a guttural groan, his body fell still on top of her, and his hands loosened from her throat.
She screamed. Cried. Shouted. Raged. Sobbed. Wept. Felt his life drain away on top of her, his blood dying her crisp white uniform a dark crimson. As she attempted to crawl out from underneath his body, she heard foot steps. They were loud.
Fearfully, she looked up, to see a faceless man point a gun at her forehead. She felt tears fall from her eyes as she began to beg for her life.
"Please don't kill me. Please, please, please. Don't...don't kill me, please. I don't want to die. Don't want to. No, no. Please...please, please don't kill me..."
The figure stepped into the light, to reveal the torn-looking face of Alphonse, his dirty-golden hair shining dimly in the street light. Tears streaked down his own cheeks as the gun he held shook in his hand.
"How could you..." he whispered. "How could you, Winry..."
"I'm sorry," she apologized fervently. "I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it. Honest. I didn't. Please...I'm so sorry...don't kill me, please, I'm sorry."
He fired the gun.
Winry woke up with a startled gasp, her body drenched in sweat as she began to realize that she was no longer outside on the street, with a dead Edward Elric lying on top of her, and a hysterical Alphonse pointing a gun at her. With a glance at her clock, she realized that it would be time for her to wake up in twenty minutes. Feeling a few stray tears escape her, Winry wiped them away and climbed out of bed to wash her face.
When she reached the bathroom, she realized with much relief that the nightmare was beginning to fade from her mind - she couldn't even remember who it was that had died. Opening the door and crossing over to the sink, she turned the cold water tap and began to splash her face, hoping to clear away the sweat and refresh herself. From the clock on the wall, she still had a while until she needed to begin getting ready. With a glance at the shower, she decided that it would be best to clean herself up entirely. It would feel good, and she would be clean. Shutting off the sink, the blonde-haired adolescent proceeded to walk across the small bathroom to the shower, twisting the knob so that it was set on relatively hot water.
Waiting a few minutes, Winry pulled off her night clothes and underthings before stepping inside, letting out a long sigh as the warm water met the skin on her back, and almost felt ready to fall back asleep. She stood, leaning against the tiled wall, for some time (she hadn't bothered to keep track), before she decided it would be best to start washing. Applying her shampoo and conditioner was a relatively quick process, but Winry decided to take it more slowly as she began to scrub at her body with the pineapple-scented body wash Pinako had bought for her recently. It wasn't until she heard the low din of her alarm clock going off that she decided it would be best to step out and get dressed.
It was roughly 7:18 AM when Winry walked into the kitchen, dressed and with her wet hair done up in a bun. Not surprised to find Pinako there, already making breakfast, she pulled out a seat and sat down at the small kitchen table. Noting her granddaughter's presence, Pinako asked without turning to look at her,
"I heard the shower running earlier. You hungry for pancakes today?"
Winry made an 'uh huh' sound in response.
The pancakes were ready a few minutes later, Winry eating as quickly as possible before deciding it was time to leave.
"Will you be taking your bike today?" her grandmother asked calmly as she put the dirty plates and silver ware into the cramped dishwasher. She nodded.
"I've been mooching off of the bus a lot lately; I'll get fat if I'm not careful."
Pinako grinned.
"That's what I call sensible. See you this afternoon, Winry. For fuck's sake, don't come home late again!"
"Later, Baa-chan," she rolled her eyes and waved as she walked out the door.
Well, technically he did appear...lol, when I scrolled back up to make sure there were no typos (that I could see), Pinako's "Damned cagey thing" line said "Damned cagey thEnter your away message here.ing" XDD
