Guys, I am SO sorry for this late update! I couldn't figure out how to go from one point of this chapter that took days to know what I should put next! It was pathetic! Well, I figure you guys waited long enough. Here's the chapter!
Seiren paced the room in panic, her breath jagged and her teeth piercing her bottom lip. "How can this be…? It just doesn't add up! Weren't the Rockbell's the most prestigious automail mechanics the Elric's have ever known? How can this be! I'm fairly certain that more people would have asked for this surgery than me…Yes, yes. I can't be mistaken," she murmured desperately.
It was today. Today was the day of the surgery.
The door opened and she immediately recognized the scent that had walked through it. Her eyes narrowed instantly and she grabbed the pocket knife that lied inside her pocket and threw it at him."You inconsiderate dolt! Why in the hell have you not given me the warning that the Rockbell's have not performed the surgery in ten years!" Seiren shouted, her voice changing into an accent of sorts.
Edward yelled in surprise as he ducked away before getting hit with the knife. "What the hell, Cat Ears!"
"Do not 'What the hell' me, mister!" She yelled, poking him in the chest. "Why have you not told me that they had not undergone the surgery in a decade!"
He sweat dropped. "They…haven't?"
"No! Of course not! Why in the world would I be losing my composure if it had not been the case!" She yelled. "You better have a good reason for not telling me this!"
"Um…Well, I didn't know," he said dumbly.
Her eye twitched as she dropped her finger from his chest. "You did not know…" she chuckled softly. "You did not know." The raven haired girl started to go into full blown laughter. "You did not know!" She repeated in a malicious manner.
"W-Why are you laughing…?" he asked nervously.
Seiren stopped immediately. "Why am I laughing, you ask? The answer is simple," she said and then glared at him again. "I am laughing at my own stupidity for thinking that I could go about this nonchalantly without some sort of punishment! This must be it sent down from a deity that I am to die from surgery for all the stupidity I have done in my life!"
Edward growled as he glared at her in return. "You're not going to die, so don't even say it!" he spat out.
Seiren just looked at him with solemn eyes. "How can you be so certain?" she asked, strangely quiet. She looked to the side. "Just imagine if you were in my position. You had recently found out the most fatal surgery you planned on overcoming had not been performed by the surgeon in ten years. You are not even sure that they remember how to perform it. Tell me; can you be so sure of yourself then?"
"Well, I…"
"Just as I thought. You could not. Not even you could stand in the same confidence as before," Seiren said tonelessly. She still refused to look at him. "If even I cannot stand in confidence now, how will you fair being put through such an experiment?"
"Why are you talking like that?" Ed asked, just realizing that Seiren started sounding different.
Seiren flinched as she covered her eyes and turned her back to him, walking to the window of the surgery room. Her right hand was clenched tightly into a fist, her knuckles turning pure white. Immediately Edward felt bad. For a reason why, he didn't know. For some reason that question seemed out of line if Seiren was acting like this. Just as he was about to apologize, she cut him off.
"I'm sorry…" she mumbled, her voice changing back to normal. Or at least not the way she was before. Her voice seemed higher, too. "I shouldn't be yelling at you for this. How the hell were you supposed to know that they hadn't done the surgery that long?" She finally turned to him, an ironic smile on her face. "Why'd you come in here? Need something?"
Ed sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Quit changing the subject. If you're upset about something, you can tell me."
Seiren's cheeks grew a bright shade of pink as she closed her eyes and looked away. "I'm not upset about anything!" she snapped, refusing to look at him.
Ed chuckled, figuring that that was the response he'd get. "I came in here to calm you down. I can hear you mumbling to yourself and pacing the room from all the way downstairs."
Her blush grew brighter. "It was that loud?" she asked sheepishly.
Ed laughed at that as he walked over to where the pocket knife had landed when it was thrown at him. "Hell yeah it was! You were shouting about how you were so dumb to be the only one who asked for the goddamn surgery in ten years." He pulled it out of the wall and de-armed it and threw it in the air and then caught it again. "I thought it was hilarious!"
Seiren growled as she glared at him. "Glad that I amused you," she said sarcastically. Ed shrugged as he threw the knife back at her. She caught it effortlessly and looked back at it, an embarrassed expression on her face. "You know I'd never actually hit you with this, right?"
"I know," Ed said reassuringly. She smiled. A blush crawled on his cheeks at the sight of it as he quickly turned around to the door. Something was…odd about her smile though. Ed glanced back at her. Fangs…? Ed thought incredulously. He did a double-take, trying to figure out if he was just seeing things or if that was really true. Unfortunately, Seiren's smile faded.
"Is something wrong?" she asked slowly.
Ed shook his head. "Ah, no. It's nothing," Ed said as he turned around and opened the door.
"Hey, wait! I thought you were here to calm me down!" Seiren said, albeit a bit embarrassed.
"What's to worry about?" Ed asked. "You're way too stubborn to die, anyway."
Seiren growled. "Jerk!" She threw the knife again, and before it could hit him, Ed closed the door so it planted square in the middle of it.
XoXo… Meanwhile ….XoXo
"So is she okay, Brother?" Alphonse asked worriedly.
"Yeah, she's fine, Al," Ed responded, stepping down from the staircase. "She threatened me twice, so she's definitely okay."
Al sweat dropped. "In that case maybe I shouldn't visit her in a while…"
"That might be fore the best. She's pretty pissed off right now," Ed sighed, putting his arms behind his head.
Al shivered. "I'm glad that she's on our side…" Ed went silent. Those were fangs…right? he thought. Al cocked his head to the side. "Is something wrong, Brother?"
"Hey, Al," Ed asked. "Have you ever noticed that Seiren has fangs?"
Al jumped at his brother's bluntness and his eyes widened. He looked around, making sure no one was there. "You noticed too?" he whispered, making sure to keep his voice low. "I thought I was just imagining things for a second. What do you think this means, Brother?"
"How am I supposed to know, Al?" Ed said exasperated. He looked away. "It's not like it looked scary or anything…"
"They were pretty cute, huh?" Al said sneakily.
"Ye- hey, wait a minute!" Ed exclaimed.
"Have you noticed anything else, Brother?" Al asked, changing the subject.
Ed blinked his eyes out of confusion. "Well, no. Why do you ask?"
Al shook his head. "O-Oh, it's, ah, it's nothing…" Al said.
Ed rose an eyebrow. "Whatever you say, Al…"
"Hm? What are you two whispering about!" a thundering voice called from down the corridor. Both Ed and Al paled. They completely forgot he was even there! "ELRIC BROTHERS!" He thundered again. Before they were to get interrogated, they started running off in the other direction, the voice not too far behind. Unfortunately, something caught on the scruffs of their necks and they both were pulled straight into the air. "WHAT ARE YOU TWO BEING SO SECRETIVE ABOUT?"
"M-Major!" Alphonse squeaked, seeing the intimidating man pull him straight off the ground. "W-What're you t-talking about?"
"OH, I THINK YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!" Armstrong blared.
"P-Put me down! What do you think I am, a micro-mini shrimp you could just pull up into the air like he was as small as an ant!" Ed ranted, thrashing in the major's hold.
Armstrong's eyes glinted over in an unreadable expression as he tore off his shirt and flexed his muscles. "YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT YOU FEEL THE NEED TO WHISPER ON ABOUT!"
"What's with all the noise?"
They all froze in place.
"S-Seiren!" Al squeaked, rubbing the back of his head. "W-What are you doing down here?"
"I was going to go fix up some arrows, but then I heard all the ruckus. Is everything o-" Seiren stopped immediately as she caught sight of the scene before her: Edward and Alphonse being propelled up in the air by a shirtless Armstrong. Her expression changed into horror as she sweat dropped. She slowly inched her way back upstairs, not saying a word. She quickened her pace into a sprint and then slammed her door shut.
"THAT TRAITOR!" Ed wailed. "SHE JUST LEFT!"
"A good soldier always knows when to retreat," Armstrong countered, gaining the attention of the Elrics. He put them down. "Now that I have your attention, what were you whispering about?"Ed turned his head. "We don't have to tell you."
"OH, I THINK YOU WILL," Armstrong threatened, sparkles dancing in the air and his muscles flexing.
XoXo…XoXo
"Fangs…?" Armstrong asked incredulously while sitting on the couch.
"Yes, fangs," Edward persisted. He leaned on a wall leading into the hallway just in case someone decided to walk in. Both he and Alphonse had just relayed the experiences they had when they saw Seiren's teeth. It was so odd, even Armstrong had a hard time believing.
"Are you sure that you're not just imagining things?"
"If we were imagining it, why would the both of us see it!" Ed snapped.
Armstrong sighed as he stood up. "She's in a very critical state, is now really the time to be suspicious of her?" he asked. "Everyone has their reasons. Maybe you should ask her yourself if you're really that curious."
"We can't just ask her about that!" Al exclaimed suddenly. Both Armstrong and Ed stared at him strangely. Al flinched, sweat dropping. "Um, I mean we can't just go up to her and ask! S-She'll…she'll never tell us!"
Ed looked down. "Al's right…" Al sighed with relief. "We'll ask her after the surgery!"
Al fell. "W-WHAT?"
XoXo… Meanwhile …XoXo
Seiren stumbled woozily into the bathroom, slamming it closed behind her. All of a sudden this dizziness hit her like a ton of bricks on her way to the surgery room. She had no idea what it was, or why it hit right then. Stumbling like she was drunk, she finally made it to the sink after using the wall to guide her somewhat straight through the bathroom. She grasped the sides of the sink and started washing her face, figuring it would help her. Shutting off the water after properly rinsing her face, she started out back to the hallway.
That's when it started.
Her heart fluctuated irregularly, sending her sight into tiny black and red dots littering before her. "N…No…" Seiren only managed to whisper. Her breath started dancing in a cyclone as did her mind, not maintaining focus on what she needed to do. She felt something start to fill her chest, making breathing even more difficult. Her heart started beating all over the place, stopping every few minutes then restarting with two or three beats at one time. She coughed, sending the mass filling her chest to travel upward, creating even harsher breaths and coughs throughout her body.
Seiren coughed violently, thrashing around in the bathroom, throwing herself against wall to wall, her heart palpitating destructively. Her breaths came out jaggedly, trying to inhale oxygen throughout the choking and coughing. She threw her hands to her mouth, shielding the black cherry blood from spewing all over the tiled floor. She shoved herself up, ramming into the sink by accident. She threw her head over the porcelain white, vomiting all the blood that was spewing out from her mouth rapidly. The taste spread warmly over her tongue, then soon freezing over as cold as ice as the blood left her mouth.
Every time she coughed, it sent even more pain to fill her chest. Every time she puked up blood, her insides boiled. Every time she let this happen, she knew what would appear.
The process repeated itself over and over again, leaving Seiren no time to breathe. Wanting to just swallow it down, she threw herself to the floor, binding her throat firmly with her two hands closed so that the excessive bleeding would be blocked. Constricting her throat closed had served its purpose of stopping the vomiting of blood, but in the process had stopped any air from coming through to her lungs. As minutes started to tick by, her face started to turn red, her eyes blood shot and her snow white skin had started to stand out in color from her face. As she felt her lungs begin to shrivel from the lack of oxygen, she simply closed her fists around her neck tighter, making sure that the blood would stay securely in her body.
*Knock, knock
"Seiren?" a voice called from out the doors. Seiren's bloodshot eyes darted to the door, her mouth moving to inhale any sort of oxygen. "Seiren..? It's me, Winry. It's time to ask for your medical records. Can you open the door?" Seiren just stayed thrashing on the ground, refusing to let her hands drop from her throat. "Seiren…? Is everything okay, there?" Finally, Seiren couldn't take it anymore. Her bright hazel eyes, with the little life maintaining within them, started to fade.
"Seiren?" Winry's voice began to panic. "Seiren! Open this door, darn it!" Winry bashed into the wooden frame, one after another attempt. Bam. Bam. The distant sound was beginning to fade in Seiren's ears, and she was only limply holding onto life. Winry growled and then bashed into the door once more, making it come crashing down onto the floor. Her eyes went to Seiren and she screamed. Seiren was laying down on the bathroom floor, blood all over the sink and a trail to where she was right now. Her hands were wound around her neck, her face now turning into a deathly gray color.
Winry flew to her side, checking the dying body of Seiren for a sign of her pulse. Her quivering hands sprung to her neck, pressing her two fingers to a small spot on her neck where Seiren's hands wasn't on. She felt the rapid beating of her heart and how its beats formed irregularly, two or three beats missing and then starting up again with three at once. She realized what was happening. Seiren's heart was going through palpitations!
"Seiren, let go!" Winry said tightly, pulling at the raven haired girl's cold hands. When Seiren didn't reply, Winry started prying her hands away with all her strength. "Seiren, you have to let go!" she screamed, and by another few minutes effort she managed to pry one hand away and started working on the other. By the time both of the hands were removed, Winry started checking if she was breathing again.
"W-What's happening?" a voice came shouting along with multiple of thundering footsteps.
"Seiren's dying, that's what!" Winry shouted back.
All three faces of Edward, Alphonse, and Armstrong had froze with fear. "W-What do you mean, she's dying!" Alphonse shrieked. All three pairs of eyes landed on the limp body lying on the ground. "How long has she been like this?"
"By her heart ratings I can say for fifteen minutes she hasn't been breathing," Winry responded, trying to wake the cold girl up. "Come on, Seiren, wake up, alright? Come on!" Winry said frantically, tapping her face and checking her heart beat every few seconds. As time ticked on, her heart started to become weaker and weaker and the sound started to fade from her chest. "No, no!" Winry dipped down, pounding Seiren's chest, trying to restart the heart that started to die. "Where's Granny?"
"She's at the store in town! She won't be back for another hour!" Ed replied.
"THEN GO AND CALL HER OVER HERE!" Winry blared, pumping Seiren's chest with all her strength.
"On it!" Major Armstrong said and darted downstairs.
"S-She's going to make it, right?" Alphonse asked, his voice quivering.
"What the hell are you talking about, Al. Of course she is," Ed said, although his voice started faltering as well.
"Breathe, dang it!" Winry screamed and then pressed her mouth against hers. She came back up and started pounding on Seiren's chest again. All Edward and Alphonse managed to, no, could do was stand back in horror and hope, hope for Truth that Winry would manage to save her. Winry let out a jagged breath and then pressed her mouth against Seiren's again, trying to get her to breathe. She started pressing as hard and fast as she could manage to preserve a heart beat. Seiren's eyes remained dead, the coldness spreading all through her body. Winry checked Seiren's pulse again, sweat trickling down her forehead in panic, hoping that she was still alive. Winry pressed her fingers to her pulse, tears bubbling over her eyes.
There was no pulse.
Winry screamed in terror, tears streaming down her face as she bent over Seiren's cold and dead body. Edward stood frozen, his eyes turning glassy themselves. He shook his head. "No…She…She can't be…" he whispered. Casting his gaze downward, he covered them with his bangs. And while he was trying to figure out her secret, she was strangling herself. Why couldn't he be there to stop her? He growled and shouted in anger, turning and punching the wall next to him endlessly with his flesh hand, bruising and tearing his knuckles, making drops of blood fall on the floor. "YOU DUMBASS! WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU LET US HELP YOU! I THOUGHT YOU WERE STRONGER THAN THIS!"
Alphonse stood in fear, hearing his older brother shout profusely, his childhood friend breaking down into uncontrollable sobs. And then there was him. Unable to cry. Unable to feel the coldness of her body. Unable to feel the pain of hurting himself in place. Is that what he was? A feeling-less void that couldn't do anything when his friend just died in front of him? While he, what? Stood frozen in place and did nothing?
"YOU STUPID GIRL! I THOUGHT I TALKED YOU OUT OF THIS MENTAL STATE OF DYING! I THOUGHT YOU WERE OKAY! THAT YOU DIDN'T NEED TO BE CONSOLED ANYMORE! I THOUGHT YOU WERE STRONGER THAN THIS!
Alphonse could hear his brother's consistent anger vibrating through the walls as he continued to strike the wall, making his own blood smear against it. Alphonse walked forward.
"YOU DUMBASS! I THOUGHT YOU WERE ABOVE THIS! THAT YOU COULD STAND ON YOUR OWN TWO FEET AND PULL THROUGH! OBVIOUSLY I WAS WRONG! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HEIGHTENED SENSES?"
Alphonse bent down toward Seiren's cold body, running his hand through her matted raven hair. He couldn't even tell if it was soft, rough, or if it felt dead itself. He couldn't. Because he was unable to feel. With a shaking hand, he ran his hand over her face, wiping off leftover blood that was on her mouth. Wait. On her mouth?
"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR STRENGTH? WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR AMAZING SPEED? WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ACUTE SENSE OF SMELL? ALL THAT POWER AND WHAT, YOU THROW IT AWAY BY KILLING YOURSELF?"
Alphonse furrowed his eyebrows, surveying the scene in front of him. Why was there blood coming from her mouth if she had chocked herself to death? He followed the trail leading from Seiren's lips and down the floor to the sink, where a pool of her blood lay. His eyes widened at the realization.
"OUT OF EVERYTHING YOU COULD HAVE DIED FROM, YOU KILL YOURSELF? THAT'S PATHETIC! I THOUGHT YOU HATED COWARDS! BUT THAT'S THE PATH YOU MADE! YOU KILLED YOURSELF! I THOUGHT YOU WERE TOO STUBBORN TO DIE, HUH? WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT? YOU'RE SO STUPID! YOU'RE THE MOST IDIOTIC, INCONSIDERATE, HOT HEADED, SARCASTIC…"
Alphonse darted back Seiren, pounding her chest just like Winry was doing. "Winry! Help me here, please!"
Winry looked up, her eyes swollen and red. "But…B-but Alphonse, she's d-dead! We can't help her!"
Alphonse looked straight into her eyes and grabbed her hands. "Please, Winry. Just trust me," he asked softly, squeezing her hands. "Only you can do this."
Winry's lip quivered from her sobs, but she sucked in a breath and her final tear fell. Her eyes darted from Seiren's body into Al's eyes, and she bit her lip hard. She nodded after a few moments. "Okay. Just tell me what to do."
"Keep doing CPR," Alphonse instructed and Winry followed suit. Alphonse, as quick as he could at the moment, drew a transmutation circle right by Seiren's body. He was determined to save her. He knows it may be impossible, and it probably won't work, but he has to at least try. He can't forgive himself if he doesn't at least do that.
Ed stopped shouting, but he didn't stop punching the wall. By now his hand was severely bloody. The pain was numb to him compared to everything that was happening. He just felt defeated. How could he let another person die? He let another person die and he couldn't do anything to stop it! No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop this from happening. It was like Nina all over again…Except he feels nothing but defeat. He doesn't feel sorrow or anger. Just defeat.
"Brother, I need your help!"
His brother's voice brought him out of his daze and he shifted his attention to Alphonse's determined face. Ed couldn't look him in the eye. "She's dead, Al…There's nothing we can do. We'll bury her later..."
"Brother!" Ed jumped at Al's sudden outburst. "I know it's probably impossible, and it might not work, but…I will save her. I don't care how long it takes, she's going to live!"
"Al, she's- "
"She's not going to die, so don't even say it!" Al shouted, and Ed was surprised to hear his own voice pound in his ears. Was this even Al talking? Or..
"You're not going to die, so don't even say it!" His own words resounded in his head, and Ed's eyes widened at the familiarity in both of their tones. He stared at his brother for a long time in shock, seeing such determination burning within his eyes. He's never seen this happen before. He looked back at Seiren. What was about her that made Alphonse feel this way? Hell, made him feel this way? Why in the hell was it so damn important that she didn't die? Clenching his hands into fists, Ed nodded and walked forward. "What do you need?" Ed asked, kneeling down on the ground next to his brother.
Al smiled and then shifted his attention back at the task at hand. "I want you to perform Electricity Alchemy. I haven't gone that far in my studying, but you have. I need you to use it as a cardiac defibrillator on Seiren," Alphonse explained.
Ed flinched. "You want me to shock her in the heart?" Ed yelled in surprise.
"It's the only thing I can think of that will help her right now! Please, hurry! Before it's too late!"
Ed bit his lip as he stared at the transmutation circle. He highly doubted that this would work, especially considering how much time had gone by since her death. But he didn't care.
He clapped his hands, spewing blue electricity around him and then the electricity charging into his hands. He closed his eyes, and, sucking in a breath, pressed them to Seiren's chest. Her body jumped up with the shock, and Ed didn't wait. He clapped his hands again and pressed them to Seiren's chest, making her body jump up from the shock again. Winry checked her pulse, and the shook her head, motioning him to try again. Ed did this again, and Winry checked her pulse again. With tears streaming down her face again, she shook her head no.
"You've tried three times, Ed…She didn't respond to any of them." Winry whimpered, wiping her face from the tears. "…She's gone…"
Alphonse buried his face in his hands. "It…didn't work…I'm useless. It didn't do anything…"
Ed stared at Seiren's dead body with enraged eyes. He kept shaking his head. "No…" he whispered. "No!" Ed shouted and clapped his hands again, pressing them to Seiren's body making her jump lifelessly. "No!" he shouted again, repeating the process over and over. With the final shock, he laid his head down on Seiren's cold shoulder, trembling and softly pounding the floor with his fist. "No…"
Alphonse whimpered. "I-I'm sorry, Ed…It didn't work," Al said, his voice cracking on his last word.
Ed breathed out hotly, getting back up and narrowing his eyes at Seiren's dead body. "YOU IDIOT!" Ed shouted, grabbing her cold body by the collar of her shirt.
"Ed, just calm down!" Al said, grabbing his shoulder.
Ed shook it off, glaring into Seiren's dead hazel eyes. "I thought you were supposed to protect us! I thought that was your job! It was your job to protect us! So why aren't you!" Ed shouted. "Why aren't you?…..You were supposed to be our guard….Now look. You're terrible at this job, you know…Stupid, stupid, stupid…" He put Seiren's body down, staring at her lifeless eyes that were still half open. With grief filled eyes, he shut hers. "You idiot…" Ed murmured. He looked back at her, anger filling his being once more. He lifted up his fist. "YOU IDIOT!" Before his hand could lay contact with her face, he stopped himself. No matter how angry he was at her…He would never have the heart to hit her. Letting his bangs fall over his eyes, he kept his bloody hand over her face, poised to hit her. "You idiot…" As he clenched his fist, more blood dropped from his hand, falling on Seiren's face.
Edward's blood that fell on her face fell down like a tear and into her mouth.
The three teens sat there, motionless and hopeless, scattered around Seiren's dead body. What were they to do? All they could do was wait for Pinako and Armstrong to come back and set up Seiren's funeral. Maybe find a nice place to bury her. That's all they could hope for. What else was there to do besides wait by her side until she leaves forever?
"W-Why…."
Edward looked over at Winry's face, ready to comfort her the best he could. Out of all three of them, she was the one who would be most affected by this. This was the first death she had seen in person. Tears streamed down her face, and her eyes were puffy with tears. But…she wasn't the one who talked.
Abrupt coughing scared the three of them as they all jumped away, trying to figure out where it was coming from. The coughing continued, shaking through her throat and she sat back up, crouching down over the floor with clenched fists. Coughing, blood spewed from her mouth onto the floor. "Why," the voice repeated raspy and irritated, "are all of you crying?"
Her hazel eyes opened again, life slowly igniting like a flame. "You idiots…I'm too stubborn to die."
"Seiren!" Winry shrieked, bounding forward and wrapping her arms around her neck. "D-Don't…ever…s-scare me…like that….e-ever again…!" Winry trembled, crying over and over into Seiren's shoulder, screaming out of relief. Seiren couldn't move as the blond clung desperately onto her small frame for dear life.
"W-Winry…Everything's fine now, you don't need to cry anymore," Seiren said, albeit a bit panicked over the excessive crying. "U-Um…There, there…? Shhhh, everything's fine…." She cooed, trying to calm the girl down some.
"Seiren, you're okay!" Alphonse cried, flinging himself over to Seiren and hugging her tightly as well. "You're okay, you're okay!" he repeated over and over again, annoying Seiren to no end.
She sighed exasperatedly. "I'm fine, guys. Really! There's no need to be so worried!" Seiren yelled over the crying and constant blubbering of the two that wouldn't let her move. Sighing again, she looked up at the only one who wasn't pinning her down by a hug. Edward stood motionless with his bangs framing over his eyes and he hasn't said a thing in ages. As soon as Seiren saw his bloody hand, she bit her lip.
Finally, Winry and Alphonse let go, their faces stained with tears. "I'm so glad that you're alive!" they said in unison. She just sighed in reply.
"I don't die easily. It'll take a lot more than a little bit of choking and my heart stopping for me to die," Seiren said as she stood up. She closed her eyes, not wanting to look at the scene in front of her. "And you." Ed flinched. "Why the hell are you just standing there? Come on, let's go patch up your hand. Before it gets infected or something."
"You…you're alive…." he repeated softly, not looking at her as she walked toward him.
"Of course I am," she answered simply and picked up his left hand. As soon as she did, she bit her lip and her eyebrows furrowed in what seemed like pain. She squeezed his hand in her tight fist, making Ed wince at how tightly she was. She coughed again, and held her breath as she bit off her own bandages around her hand and started to wrap it awkwardly with the only hand she had left. The adrenaline rush she had had faded and she couldn't move her left hand anymore for anything and it was incredibly sore. "You idiot," she said after she was done. "You can't go around punching yourself bloody. No matter what the situation, don't hurt yourself over-"
"You died!" Ed snarled, wrenching his hand from her grasp. "You mean you're just going to act like it never happened?"
Seiren breathed in, staring him in the eyes as she answered back in his tone. "Whether I die or not, I don't want you hurting yourself over something that happened to me!" she yelled back, in the same ferocity he had. When Ed's eyes didn't soften, she simply sighed and returned to her initial intonation. "You said it yourself…I'm an idiot, and more importantly, terrible at my job…" she sighed, pushing back her hair from her face. "I'm not perfect. I tried stopping the blood flow from my body so I wouldn't die from blood loss but ended up accidentally killing myself by suffocation…Worst idea I've had by far-"
"I can't believe how nonchalantly you're going about this!" Ed shouted, pushing her into the wall. Seiren gasped as her back hit the tile and Ed's hands pin her from moving away. "You mean out of everything that's happened right now, you weren't the least bit scared? You didn't go through any pain? You nearly killed yourself! We were so close to losing you, Seiren!"
Seiren growled, poking him in the chest. "You don't think I know that!" she yelled back. "You don't think I know that you were worried about me? You don't think I know that you, Winry, and Alphonse nearly broke your necks trying to save me? You don't think I care?" she yelled, tears welling up in her eyes. Immediately Ed's eyes widened at her show of emotion in a long time. "Well, I do! I do know and it kills me inside knowing that I -!"
She looked down, shaking her head and putting her hand to her face. "Knowing that I…" She shook her head as she wiped away her tears that almost fell. "Never mind. Forget it," she said and pushed Ed out of the way. She bent down and patted Al's head, and putting a hand over Winry's shoulder. "I'll start cleaning this mess up. Tell Miss Pinako that I was just coughing up blood and wouldn't stop so you guys got really worried. Winry started doing CPR because I started choking on the blood and that you need a blood transfusion because of the amount of blood I've lost. Tell her my blood type is B positive."
"Wait, what?" Winry asked, standing back up.
"That's the story you sell to both Major Armstrong and Miss Pinako. This stays between me, you, Alphonse, and Fullmetal. No one can know about this, okay?" Seiren said, grabbing a washcloth and started scrubbing the blood from the sink. "If they find out, it'll just cause more problems. I don't want to be a burden more than I was a few minutes ago…"
"O-Okay," Winry said uneasily. Before she walked out the door, she looked back at Seiren and fidgeted with her sleeves. "Um…Seiren- "
"I'm really okay, Winry. You don't need to ask," she answered back instantly.
"No, that's not what I was going to say," the blond said. Seiren didn't stop scrubbing the sink free from blood. Winry took her silence as her opportunity. "I was going to ask…why were you coughing up blood?"
The raven haired girl's hands stopped moving. For a few minutes, they all stood in silence as the question still stood unanswered. Covering her eyes with her hair, Seiren started scrubbing again. In a low voice, she only whispered, "It was something in the past. So just forget it.'
XoXo…. LATER ….XoXo
"So where is she?" Pinako asked as she burst through the door with Armstrong right behind her.
"Oh, she's fine, Granny," Winry said quietly.
"But, you said that she was -" Pinako stammered.
"I'm sorry, I just overreacted," Winry said, cutting the older woman off. "She was just coughing up a lot of blood and I didn't know what to do. It really scared me and I thought that she was dying. But she's fine now," she added quickly. "She started choking so I did CPR on her."
"Oh," Pinako said blinking her eyes. "Well, that's very intelligent of you to do, Winry."
"Thank you," the blond said quietly. "Um, but she did lose a lot of blood, so she might need a transfusion. Her blood type is B positive."
"I see," Pinako said. "I'll make sure if there was anymore damage done to her. Where is she?"
"She's in the bathroom. She wanted to clean up the mess she made. She didn't let anyone help her," Winry responded immediately.
"Okay, I'll just go on up. Thank you for taking care of that situation, dear," the old woman said and started her way upstairs.
Armstrong stayed silent as he stared at the three teens before him, seeing the somber and dejected expressions on their faces. They were all strangely quiet, all looking about the same way at the ground. The Major shook his head and looked at all them. "You were lying, weren't you?" he asked.
They were silent.
"That was the story Seiren told you tell Pinako and myself to cover up what really happened." He sighed. "You have to understand she did that to protect all of you. The last thing she wishes is for anyone to be dragged down under along with her."
Finally Edward couldn't take it anymore. For the past minutes, he was trying to keep his temper under control. He thought he could accept the fact that Seiren wasn't coming any closer to telling him anything, and that there was definitely something that she was hiding. But he just couldn't bring himself to forgive her for what she just did. Well, now those thought just flew out the window. He was pissed, no two ways around it.
"She could have at least trusted us to tell us what the fuck was happening!" Edward exclaimed loudly.
"Edward-" Armstrong started again.
"NO! If she wanted to protect us that fucking badly, she should let us in so we know," he snapped, blinded by anger. "She can't die and then come back and expect us to be okay with it!"
"Edward, hold on," Armstrong implored, trying to stop him. But he was too late and he slipped by and slammed the front door loudly, causing the house to shake a little.
Winry whimpered and Al sighed deeply. "I should have figured Brother would be angry," Al said softly. He was mad at Seiren too, not for the fact she wasn't telling him what was bothering her, but the fact she thought of her death as if it were nothing. He was relieved to see that she was okay, but something was deeply off about her. There was definitely something she was hiding, and a reason behind why she coughs up blood. This was the first time he'd seen her look so dejected. He had been putting all the pieces together in his mind, but he couldn't find a proper cause to everything. There was something about the Nina and Scar incident that triggered something different to come over Seiren. And something must be a plausible reason for her having heightened abilities, he just didn't know what. That fanged half smile of hers was something else of interest, as well. But what clicked in his head that something wasn't right was that one saying she said. 'It was something in the past.'
Something was behind those hazel eyes of hers.
And so I have opened a plot twist. ^-^ Now I DEFINITELY have more ideas for the story! Sorry for making y'all wait for so long... Anyway, i'm sorry for going off of Seiren's POV for this long, but since this is the secretive part of ehr coming out I didn't want her thoughts to lead too much on waht I ahve in store to reveal. But there's a question I have to ask about my writing technique.
Do I dwell too much on detail?
Until Next Chap! =:D