Brief
Commentary:
-hums Hero/Heroin- I recently got attached to that song...it's almost as sweet as "Hey There Delilah" in my opinion. It's interesting because generally I dislike bands like Boys Like Girls. -grin- be listening to to it through out the chapter just to keep me going...lol. -head bangs- Anyway, for those of you who were curious about what Ed wanted to talk about...sorry to say, but it isn't anything "dirty." You know who you are. -points finger and grins again- I'm sure he hooks up with skanks in the club every Saturday night. :) He's quite popular. For those of you who don't get it, just pretend not to notice that and read on...reviewing later would be great too, but hey, I'm just a freak, sitting here with a bemused smile on my face, wondering why my nose is green. (Those darn leprechauns...this had better be washable marker.)
I feel like a hero,
and you are my heroin.
Do you know that your love is the sweetest sin? (uh, this has nothing to do with the actual story...)
Reasons
Not For Your Ears
Chapter Sixteen
Winry attempted to shy away from the fierce glare Edward was giving her as she sat down, not wanting to meet his eyes. Making herself as comfortable as possible on a cold, tiled floor, she gazed instead at her hands, folded in her lap. After a few moments of silence, Winry asked quietly,
"What do you want to talk about?"
"How the hell I got here."
"I told you, I found you on the street and-"
"That's not what I meant," he interrupted her sharply. "What I meant was why you actually brought me here."
"Uh, well, you were really badly hurt and I didn't want you to die, so, um-"
Edward raised his voice angrily,
"Why? Why didn't you want me to die? Maybe I wanted to die. Did you ever consider that?"
Winry stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open slightly. Her face was etched with surprise and slight hurt.
"You...you wanted to die?"
"With the life I lead? Sure," he snarled. "So why the hell did you bring me here!"
"I...I didn't know," she choked out, "I just didn't...didn't want you to die."
Edward glared furiously at her, Winry flinching and dropping her eyes back to her lap as his gaze burned holes into her skull.
"You would be dead if I could move right now," he told her, his voice dark and venomous.
She nodded - she understood. Nothing more was said until Winry excused herself to go back to her room. He answered her with some kind of a grunt as she stood to leave the room, his eyes closed and a scowl on his face as Winry began to walk away.
When she had closed her bedroom door behind her and locked it, Winry slumped to the floor for the second time that day, drawing her knees up to hug her legs closer to her face, suppressing small chokes of sadness and even fear. It was true; as much as she hated to admit it...but Edward terrified her easily. His face was so contorted with hatred and anger...maybe it was because she kept imagining him to be like Alphonse, and having him prove her so terribly wrong...
Winry clenched her fists and bit her lip, burrowing her face further into her knees. A stray tear slipped down her cheek, and angrily she brushed it away with her wrist. She refused to cry; not over him, the heartless bastard. Her stomach dropped as she remembered that until his wounds were fully healed, said bastard would be living with her and her grandmother. Suddenly exhausted by the thought, Winry got back onto her feet to wander over to her bed, climbing on top of it and burying her face in her pillow. Because of her lack of sleep the night before, it didn't take long for her to drift off, blonde hair spilling around her face in a messy fashion as her breaths grew longer.
She managed to draw a quick breath, her eyes wide with terror as she raced through the back alleys, clothes in tatters and hair in a tangled mess as it kept whipping into her eyes. She flinched as bullets whistled past her head, their squeal loud and deadly in her ears as the sound of their fire rang out in the background. She knew who wanted her dead - she hadn't seen who nor did she know who it was exactly, but all the same she knew.
As she ran, she tripped over something soft and cold, landing painfully on the ground without having the opportunity to fling her arms out to support herself. Glancing fearfully at the figure behind her, she froze when she recognized who it was.
It was herself...dead and broken, with her mouth open in what had been the last of her cries. She screamed in response to her dead self, and her volume only increased when she realized he had caught up to her, a gun pointed at her skull.
"No," she moaned, even as she kept screaming, "No, please...I don't...I don't want this...please...oh god..."
He paid her no heed, pulling the trigger back with his index finger as he prepared to fire.
"I don't want..."
BANG.
Winry suddenly found herself awake, her body drenched in sweat and her chest heaving. Some how she had turned onto her back, and now she could only stare at the ceiling in bewilderment as the fear wracking her nerves began to subside. Bang. Something had gone 'bang' in her dream (or had it been a nightmare?)...What ever it was, it had jerked her awake and out of her sleep. With a wary glance at her alarm clock, she nearly jumped when she saw that it read 2:38 PM. How long had she been asleep?
"Shit," she murmured, rubbing her eyes and climbing off of her bed to walk briskly out of her room. Edward was bound to irritable since he hadn't eaten yet...her pace slowed as she remembered the conversation they had had earlier that day. Sucking in a breath, Winry straightened her posture and walked more stiffly out into the kitchen/family room, pointedly ignoring anything in the direction of the couch, where Edward was still sulking, she was sure.
Winry was slightly surprised to find her grandmother in the kitchen, working on their lunches already, but shrugged it off as she went to sit down at the table again. Whatever was being prepared, it smelled suspiciously like it contained bread, roast beef, provolone cheese, and tomatoes. Pinako acknowledged her presence with a nod of her head.
"You must've been pretty tired - you were out for seven hours or so."
"R-really?"
She nodded.
"You kept muttering something - I couldn't hear properly. You have a dream?"
"I think so; can't remember anything," she admitted.
"Ah," was all Pinako said. After a few minutes of the quiet chopping of her knife, she announced, "Well, food's ready."
Lunch, consisting of roast beef sandwiches, was eaten in silence, the only audible sound being Edward's frantic chewing - her grandmother had been correct in saying that he was suffering malnutrition. Winry stared at him for a few minutes in awe, as the rather large sandwich that had been prepared for him was going down his throat in rather large bites. Within the first 60 seconds, half of it was gone, already in his stomach.
"Winry," Pinako, noticing her staring, gently reprimanded her, "it's not polite to watch people when they're eating...no matter how disgusting they may be eating it."
It earned the elderly woman a glare from the golden-haired teenager, which she ignored as she took another bite for herself. Her appetite having been lost on account of Edward's hasty scarfing, Winry asked to be excused to her room for a second time. As if suddenly remembering something, her grandmother said,
"School would've let out half an hour ago - you going to call someone for your assignments?"
"Oh...yeah," she blinked, and glanced over at the phone. "I guess I should."
Padding across the tiled floor, her hand reached for said electrical appliance, when at that moment, a polite knock sounded on the apartment door, quickly drawing her attention to the foyer. With a helpless shrug, Winry shuffled towards it, twisting the knob and pulling the door open to reveal the cheerful yet slightly concerned face of Alphonse. Her heart skipped more beats than was healthy, and she felt her stomach twist in dread. Wanting nothing more to allow the wooden floor to swallow her, Winry forced a grin and said,
"Um, hi Alphonse. What's up?"
"I have the homework and books you need for tomorrow," he informed her happily, although his eyes expressed his worry. "You were reported absent because of sickness - are you okay?"
Inwardly groaning at her grandmother's excuse, she nodded quickly and said,
"Yeah, but I'm fine now - anyway, um, can I have the assignments now? Baa-chan and I have to go some where really soon and we're kind of in a hurry, so could you, uh..."
She felt her face burn red at her rushing, but Alphonse seemed un-phased by her strange behavior; he merely smiled kindly and said,
"Of course, Winry."
Giving her a small pile of papers and books (oddly, there hadn't been a large homework load that day), he turned to leave before he stopped short, his gaze set just over Winry's shoulder. His posture was frozen; the only thing that had changed was the disappearance of his smile. After several long seconds, he opened his mouth to speak.
"Winry."
She flinched at his icy tone, almost afraid to look him in the eyes. However, she did, and nearly toppled backwards from the strongest emotion etched onto his face; hatred. Alphonse's jaw was clenched tightly, his eyes narrowed and cold as they glittered with his anger. He radiated coldness, looking as lethal as Scar as he stood there, frozen in the doorway. His gentle hands were now in fists, as he glared at what ever was behind her. Winry had a pretty good idea of what it was.
"Y-yes, Al?" she managed, her voice barely a squeak.
"May I ask," he said curtly. "why my dearest Nii-san is lying on your couch, in your apartment?"
Oh...fuck, was all Winry could manage out of her brain.
Bwa ha ha ha ha...review or die (jk!). XD Some how 'Hero/Heroin' got changed to 'Speed Over Beethoven.' Don't ask how. Youtube is crazy like that. -creepy smile- Oh, speaking of reviews, I never got to thank you all for over 50 of those magical things. THANKS. :D -hums-
I need your love, to save my life
I need you while my piano gently weeps
Listen to Beethoven
