I had a weird thing happen today. I walked home from school today with Roy in one hand and Robyn in the other. Confused? I'll explain. I play the viola, so back a few years ago when we bought a viola, my dad said I had to name it or it'd be bad luck. At the time, I had no idea what to name it. Then I was introduced to Fullmetal Alchemist, and found that the name "Roy" seemed to fit my viola perfectly. (Not because I love Roy, or think he's adorable - it really does fit well) And Beth and I are working on a silhouette poster for German. Since we were being silly, and we were already tracing it onto purple paper, we named the silhouette Robyn. So I had to walk home from school today with Roy in one hand and Robyn in the other. Roy made my hand fall asleep… XD

As you all know, AdventureAddict does not in any way own any part of Fullmetal Alchemist.

On wit' da show!

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Chapter Twenty – Fading fast

"Brother, I think we need to talk," Al said softly, glancing over at the sleeping Robyn. She had all sorts of wires connected to her, reminding Al a little too vividly of when Ed had gotten his automail. Even so, Robyn looked very peaceful in her sleep.

Ed jerked his head out of his hand and looked up at Al groggily. He was having more and more trouble staying awake. His schedule was currently packed. In the morning he went reluctantly to school, only because Al wanted him to, and then right after school he came to the hospital to visit Robyn. Sometimes Al or Robyn would tell him to do his homework, and sometimes they even helped a little, but most of the time Ed did his homework in the morning before school.

Once visiting hours were over at the hospital, Ed would then go to the Elliotts' house (After he got his memory back, he never called it 'home' again) and study ways to try and cure Robyn's disease until late in the night when he fell asleep on top of his own notes. It went the same way day after day, except on the weekends, when he spent the time he normally spent at school with Robyn instead.

Her father had come back and visited her when he could, but it wasn't very often, since the hospital visiting hours and his work hours rarely ever worked together except on weekends. Ed could tell every time he saw the man that he was hurting deep inside at the thought of losing the only family he had left, but it was his daughter, dammit! Couldn't he take a little time off to spend with his own daughter?

Robyn had lost quite a few organs by now, and it only made Ed rush his research even more, because he knew that even if something miraculously cured her, she wouldn't be able to regain the organs she had all ready lost. First she lost her lungs, (she now had a machine breathing for her) and then a few things that weren't as important, her appendix, her finger and toenails, and then her reproduction system.

"Well, no more PMS," Robyn had joked when the nurses had told her, but Ed saw the shimmer in her eyes that told him how she really felt. She was hurt. Ed knew that. Any woman felt some pang of regret if she lost her ability to have children before she had any.

And then Ed had run out of the room, pretending to be disgusted by what she had just said, but in reality he was giving her some alone time. Girls always seemed to like that sort of stuff, especially when they had a lot of stuff to think about.

"What do you want to talk about, Al?" Ed asked wearily, knowing that the dark circles under his eyes showed up all too well in the light of the hospital. Al was worried about him. Ed was used to that by now though. After years of having no family but each other, they made sure that they worried about the other, maybe sometimes a little more than they should.

"How did we get here Brother?" Al asked as Robyn muttered something incomprehensible in her sleep and rolled over. Ed quickly reached over to make sure that all the multiple wires connected to her were still in the right place. He sighed as she then reached over and grabbed his wrist, finding some comfort in the familiar smooth metal.

"It's a long story Al," Ed sighed as he looked at the soft skin of Robyn's face. "To put it simply, some guy tricked us here so we could kill Robyn's mom because she broke his heart." Al cocked his head, so Ed tried to explain again with a slight roll to his eyes. "You know…" he said slowly, fishing for the right words, "That sick idea that some people get that makes them all 'If I can't have her, then nobody can.' You know what I'm talking about Al?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Al said slowly, but Ed knew that there were still other things on his mind. "So why don't I remember?"

"You were sort of…unconscious, in a way," Ed said slowly. "That guy was really smart. Somehow, he figured out a way to…trap you until I said your name." he looked up at Al with a faint trace of a smile on his lips. "Any other questions?"

Al shook his head and watched as he turned his attention back to the sleeping girl on the bed. Ed carefully took his other hand – the real, flesh one that Robyn wasn't desperately clinging to – and used it to push her sweaty hair out of her eyes. Ed was being so… nice, Al realized with a slight surprise. He had all his memory back, and for once Al hadn't needed to restrain him, remind him to be polite, or any of the other usual stuff he had to do around his brother. And he had some expression on his face that Al could faintly remember seeing him have a long time ago, but not for years.

"Penny for your thoughts, Brother," Al said jerking Ed out of his reverie to look at him. Once again, Al marveled at the strange new look to Ed's face. He wanted to know what Ed was thinking to make him look like that. He desperately wanted to remember when he had last seen his brother wear that expression.

"It's nothing Al," Ed murmured softly and then turned back to Robyn. Al watched enviously as his golden eyes swept over the pale figure, and saw him squeeze her hand gently. This wasn't fair! Al was supposed to be the only one he looked at like that! After all, he was his younger brother, the one he had sacrificed his arm for to make sure he was okay! Al was the only one that Ed was allowed to treat like that!

No, Al told himself, shaking the thoughts out of his head. Thinking thoughts like that was mean-spirited and selfish. If his brother wanted to treat more people nicely, then good for him, right? That meant that Al didn't have to keep him on as tight of a leash. Al knew that his brother was a wonderful person, and he had always wanted other people to be able to see that.

"She's strong, isn't she?" Ed said softly, looking at the steady beat of her heart being projected onto the screen above her. Now Al recognized the look on his older brother's face. It was hope. "I bet if she and her brother had been studying alchemy like us, then they would have tried to bring their mom back too. Except-" Ed said slowly, and then stopped, lost in his thoughts.

"Except she's the younger one, and either wouldn't exist or wouldn't have a body if that happened," Al finished, looking down at his hand. And even if Luke had tried to bring her back, who knew if he would have been lucky enough to have something like his armor to bind Robyn's soul to. "But that didn't happen, Brother," Al added, trying to get his own thoughts out of his head. He didn't want to think about what could have happened if his armor hadn't been in the room that day.

"I'm glad," Ed said softly. "She doesn't deserve this," he added, looking down at the automail hand clutched in Robyn's pale one. "She's too good for all of this. She deserves better than the life we've chosen."

"She doesn't deserve to die!" he finished, jerking his hands away from Robyn to hold them to his aching head.

"Neither do you," Al said softly, as Robyn's hands blindly groped around to try and find Ed again. Ed glanced over at Al, and then got up and walked out of the room. Al sighed and pulled his chair in closer to Robyn's bed.

"Ed…" Robyn muttered before her reaching hands finally grabbed Al's large hand.

"Brother just needed to calm down," Al assured her, patting the back of her sweaty hand with his free one. "I just hope that he doesn't destroy anything in the process."

T-H-I-S--I-S--A--D-I-V-I-D-I-N-G--L-I-N-E

Ed stormed out of the elevator, not having the slightest clue where he was going. He couldn't stand seeing Robyn like that anymore. Her tiny pale body lying on that bed with arms that looked like twigs. He wished he could just make her better. He didn't even know what he was doing wrong with his research.

"Excuse me! Sir?" Ed turned back to look at the welcoming desk he had just passed by. "You're a friend of Robyn Davenport's, right?"

Robyn shrugged, "It's just that…we're friends, aren't we?"

Ed smiled, "Yeah, we're friends."

"Yeah, we're friends," Ed repeated softly to himself, remembering that day in Chemistry months ago.

"Well, ever since her case was broadcast on TV, we've been getting a lot of flowers and stuff from people who want to wish her good luck. We would like to send them up to her room, but there's just so much stuff…"

"What kind of stuff did people send her?" Ed asked worriedly. He called Robyn his 'friend,' and he hadn't gotten her anything! People who didn't even know her were sending her stuff!

"Well, there's tons of flowers, and teddy bears and balloons…" the woman sighed, ticking things off on her fingers. Ed was already racing down the hall towards the gift shop. He had some money from the Elliotts, and he would use it to get her the same stuff her 'adoring fans' were getting her.

Ed slid into the gift shop, his shoes squeaking on the clean tile floors. There was so much stuff. Flowers, stuffed animals of many different species, cards, balloons, and even shirts were on sale in there. Ed looked over it all quickly, and then grabbed a poinsettia, (They were the flower for December) a very soft and cuddly teddy bear, and a band-aid shaped balloon that said the traditional "Get Well Soon" on it. The people that had seen her on TV had sent all those things, and now he had one of each, so that made him better than them, right?

No. This was stupid. He wasn't going to go running into Robyn's room with all this stuff in his arms. He put all the stuff back on the shelves and turned to go, but then he looked back one last time. He should get something. He'd look like a jerk if he didn't get her something.

Funny, he'd never worried about looking like a jerk before. Running around calling Mustang a bastard, his father a bastard, never listening to what people told him to do, and then catching the first train out of the city once he'd finished what he'd planned to do. People probably thought he was a real good-for-nothing bastard himself. He sighed softly and walked up to the counter.

"Um, you wouldn't happen to have any stuff with vampires, would you?" he asked. The woman at the cash register looked at him like he was insane. "That's what I thought. Um, how about pirates? No. Uh…skulls and crossbones? Rock music? Electric guitars? Maybe some black roses?"

The woman kept looking at Ed like he was crazy. "Why would you want any of that stuff for someone in the hospital?" she asked.

"Because that's what she likes!" Ed groaned, and then walked out of the shop.

T-H-I-S--I-S--A--D-I-V-I-D-I-N-G--L-I-N-E

"Robyn?" Kari asked, slowly walking into the room with a bouquet of flowers cradled in her left arm. Seeing the small black haired figure on the bed, she then rushed in, putting the flowers on the nightstand next to Robyn's bed.

"Oh Robyn, I saw it on the news, and I'm so sorry," Kari said quickly. Robyn smiled weakly at her.

"It's not your fault I got this stupid disease," she assured her.

"No, not that," Kari said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry about before. I was a bitch," she said bluntly. She then turned to look at Al briefly. "I guess he really does look like Alphonse Elric," she said to Robyn. "I don't know why I couldn't see it before. And the little blond kid? You said his name was Edward, right? Where'd he go?"

"I don't know," Robyn sighed. "He went off about an hour ago to calm down. I have no clue where he went."

"So he's really your older brother?" Kari asked Al excitedly.

"Uhh…" Al said slowly, but Kari had already turned back to Robyn.

"But I don't understand," she said slowly. "How did they… well, get here?"

"We lived in Japan for a while," a voice said from the doorway, and everyone turned to see Ed standing there, holding a plastic bag in one hand. "We met Hiromu Arakawa before she wrote FMA, and she based the two main characters off of us."

"So can you speak Japanese?" Kari asked, excitedly clapping her hands together.

"Umm…" Ed mentally kicked himself. He hadn't thought that far.

"Nii-san!" Al cut in quickly, saving Ed from embarrassment. Ed looked over and smiled gratefully at his younger brother, who gave him the thumbs-up sign. Good thing Al had watched the Japanese version of the first four episodes and gleaned at least one word from them.

"Aww, that's so cute!" Kari cooed. Even Robyn managed a small smile. "They really are the Elric brothers. That's so cool!" she then turned back to look at Robyn. "I'm really sorry Robyn!" she said, holding her arms out for a hug. Robyn gratefully hugged her, glad to have her best friend back. Even though deep down she wished that Ed had told her the truth, and that she would actually believe it. Not believe it because Robyn was sick and she didn't want to upset her.

"So what's in the bag?" Robyn asked Ed when she and Kari broke apart.

"Just stuff," Ed said, putting the bad on her bed. "I thought your room was a little plain." Robyn dug curiously into the bag, and then suddenly squealed in delight.

"You brought my whole manga collection!" she cried happily, pulling out a fistful of books that included Black Cat, Fruits Basket and (of course) Fullmetal Alchemist. She quickly reached in and pulled out more and more handfuls, babbling as she looked at the familiar titles. "I wouldn't even like Fruits Basket if it weren't for Kari here. Normally that kind of thing is too girly for me, but-Oh," she stopped suddenly, pulling out something other than books. It was the old picture of her and Luke that she had thrown at Ed once, except Ed had put in a new pane of glass.

"Thank you," she said softly, putting it on the last clear spot on her nightstand. Still feeling some weight in the bag, she reached in again and pulled out a brand new sketchbook along with a handful of drawings from her door.

"Ed…I…" she said softly, looking up at him.

"I hope you don't mind that I totally cleaned off your door," Ed said, nervously scratching the back of his head.

"Naw, it will brighten this place up," Robyn said with a smile, and Ed smiled back. "Besides, I can hang them back up again. But don't tell me how you managed to get in my house to get them in the first place. I don't want to know," she said, making Ed blush slightly.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving," Kari said with a smile. "You wouldn't mind if I took them out for lunch, would you Robbie?"

"No," Robyn said with a smile, flipping through the familiar pages of her manga. "You guys have fun."

"Wait, I…" Ed protested, but his pleas were quickly lost as Kari dragged out the door. Al looked uncertainly between Kari and Robyn, and then quickly hurried after his brother. Robyn smiled to herself and turned the page. But it quickly faded away as a nurse holding a needle walked into her room.

"It's time for a little painkiller," the nurse said, ignoring the sweat pouring down Robyn's face.

"HELL NO! GET AWAY FROM ME, LADY! I HATE NEEDLES! FORGET THE PAINKILLERS! I'LL TOUGH IT OUT!" Ed smiled as he heard Robyn's screams down the hall. So much for rest and relaxation for the other patients.

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Well, I guess I'll cut it off there. I was originally going to make it longer and include them going to the restaurant, but I want to post this soon. And I need to go to bed soon, but I want to post this tomorrow morning, so…gah! Oh, and Kai was right. The little heartbeat line is green, not red. Maybe poor little Edo is just colorblind. Hee. Now send some reviews my way and the next chap will come out faster. No, this isn't blackmail, it's…um…negotiating. Yes, negotiating. NOW HIT THAT BUTTON! And any ideas you guys have right now are very welcome (Not that they ever weren't) since I'm a little brain-dead. But I will persevere and write the next chap!