Fullmetal Exorcist – Chapter 30 – A Drop of Grey
Days passed, and the news of another Noah in the headquarters spread. All the officers within the Silver Shield became stiffer if any of the two Noah passed by with their Exorcists, and then ones that transferred here. It was fine, though, no skirmishes or any sort of commotion regarding the situation. Everyone was told of what was going on, just enough to ease the restlessness.
As for today, there were more sightings of the so-called 14th Noah strolling about the building with the younger Elric brother. It had been going on for at least a majority of the week now, and everyone had been whispering amongst themselves.
"Oh, to be a celebrity," Neah sighed in boredom as he overheard harsh whispers about him. "You're quite the lucky guy, Elric."
"It's nothing much," Alphonse kept walking ahead. "The Order's much more pleasant."
"Oh, really," Neah sarcastically replied.
Lately, everything was at a time-wrenching standstill since their main player of the game was not even awake, and the rest of the week was spent on training, eating, lounging in the libraries, and other useless things. Ocassionally, the Exorcists were sent out on short trips to liberate London of Akuma, but it wasn't really that important compared to what they had in hand.
Alphonse took notice of a granite gargoyle screeching out down at everyone below as they passed an open corridor. For the past few years, he himself had become quite exasperated with his brother's taste for architecture and like for Gothic styles: gargoyles here and there, not to mention a very intimidating dragon sculpture hidden somewhere in the halls. As much as everyone kept urging him to just use alchemy to change the place, Ed thoroughly refused, and Al didn't dare try to make any changes to the building. Speaking of his older brother, he wasn't around for the greater time being, and he was cooped up in their study or his office, working on something. Of course, the fact that Allen had been forced to commit human transmutation was appalling, but they couldn't do anything until he woke up. Not that it stopped Ed from just trying to find out anything else about the matter.
Alphonse then began to wonder what Allen lost. It obviously would not be an arm or a leg, like Ed. Maybe it was eyesight? He wasn't really sure, even when he checked Allen's eyes the other day, which wasn't much. Or perhaps it was voice? That wouldn't be a good thing, but Allen would be able to write something out if he needed to say anything, so that wasn't really a good price. Alphonse continued to delve more on the subject, until his head came into contact with something stone-like. The poor boy staggered backwards, tripping on his own feet before promptly hitting the marble floor with a loud thud.
Neah blinked at the groaning Elric, in deep concern. "Are you all right?"
"Ehehehe…" Al laughed nervously as he pulled himself up. "I'm fine… Just a little bit sore on the forehead."
Neah then stared suspiciously at the stray pillar in the middle of the hallway, puzzled. "What kind of idiot would put a random pillar in the middle of an empty hallway?"
"Oh, my brother…" Alphonse got up to his feet. "He placed it there to teach people to watch where they're going. And possibly to teach people to learn what it's like to be short compared to things that are 'freakishly tall.'"
"Just what kind of person is your brother?" Neah gawked.
"50% genius, and 50% Napoleon complex mixed with idiocy," the younger Elric muttered under his breath and continued along the hall. Neah tried to piece together what Alphonse meant, but gave up on it. By the time he stopped thinking, Al was already on the other side of the hall. Neah broke into a hasty run and waved his arms frantically, shouting for him to wait.
Ed stared blankly at the papers he spent writing something over and over again. He growled at it. Waiting was such an annoying thing to do. He wondered how Winry took it when she had to wait for him to come back after CROW nearly got his neck. Either that or she was the most patient person he ever met. So much to contrast his own lack of patience.
Furthermore, his mind was just filled with worry. What will happen once Allen wakes up? What if the Earl finds him, and then sends Level 4's into headquarters? Sometimes Ed wished he had the ability to foresee the future, but if that was possible, the war would've ended by now. But… what did Allen lose? From a previous mission long ago, he had recalled what someone said about people who performed Human Transmutation, that in compensation for performing such a heinous act, the person would lose what they treasured the most.
"Then what did he lose…?" Ed gritted his teeth. "Unless it's memory, then that would be ridiculous. What a stupid setback."
He closed the lid of the ink jar and set it aside, getting up from his desk and neatly stacking the papers to put in the corner of the desk. He headed for the door, and opened it, heading for the infirmary immediately. It couldn't hurt to check up on his old friend, if that did any good for his lack of patience.
Ed shut the door behind him, and locked it. For the many times he told himself not to worry about people intruding his office, he was the paranoid type who had to take every single precaution just so no one steals or mixes up his paperwork, or, if the Colonel was that evil, he'd try to sneak into Ed's office and double his paperwork without him knowing. Only if he was actually awake and critical of his surroundings, he'd notice and give his adopted father a very long talk.
When he was younger, he'd be inclined to just stomp into the man's office and attempt to beat him up. Now that the Fullmetal Alchemist was older, he knew better that Roy would only laugh, and Armstrong would be restraining him as soon as he walked past the door with a small twist of a lip. That wouldn't be much good for him or anyone else in the Shield.
The blonde rounded on the corner just to nearly run into someone taller (oh, how that irritated him). He looked up and saw a full deck of glossed pictures of a young brown haired girl beaming at the camera. He had gone through these before, the one with the pet dog, and birthday picture, and the beach visit…
"Hughes…" Ed growled. "I don't have time to oogle at Elysia."
The owner of the photo deck whined and settled down to attempting to convince him to take back his statement. Ed could only turn on his heel and attempt to head back into his office, regretting that he ever walked out of it at all, but Hughes continued to follow him like a lost puppy. Did he even forget to mention that he could almost see the man wagging that imaginary doggy tail?
"But she's so adorable!" Hughes squealed. "You can never resist her!"
"Yeah…" Ed trailed off as he began to grumble about other things. Hughes smile faded as he watched the boy unlock his office door again.
"Sheesh," Hughes sighed, pocketing his family pictures. "You're like Roy on a bad day."
"He's technically the guy I pick things up from," the alchemist shot back. "Don't forget which bastard decided to adopt me and drag me all over the world."
Ed was already inside the office and was ready to close the door shut when he heard a shriek of pain from the man on the other side. He yanked it back open, and saw that Hughes was jumping up and down excitedly, massaging his nearly squashed right hand, his writing hand, so to speak, if Ed wanted to make this sound more tragic.
"Owowowow," the man groaned, and Ed was none too pleased.
"Did you just try to stop me from closing the door?"
The officer looked up with a fierce nod, and Ed sighed exasperatedly before heading back into the office when a pair of hands grabbed him out. He first began kicking and shouting, but he was let go. He was going to move again, but he was blocked entrance to his own office. Instead, he was looking at a pair of glinting glasses that shouted gravity.
"You should loosen up a bit more," Hughes stated. "At least try to spend more time with your brother and Winry."
Ed wrinkled his nose in response, and folded his arms.
"Why should I when I already do?"
Hughes merely shook his head. Did the boy really get what social meant? Well, considering that Alphonse and Winry were technically the only people his age around here usually, he could never admit that Edward had a gang of true friends…
"I meant, having fun," The lieutenant colonel's glasses glinted. "You know, spending time with each other like best friends usually do. There's Lenalee, Lavi, Road, Kanda… Well, you know…"
"Yeah," Ed snorted flatly. "And then get ambushed by Akuma while playing hide and seek at this time of day? I don't think so."
"Come on, Ed," Hughes sighed. "You're stressed. You won't be able to find anything about Allen if you keep going on like this. Try to blow off some steam."
Ed looked at Hughes quietly, evaluating himself. Yes, he hadn't been really giving himself much rest after the discovery of transmutation circles in the chambers, and he didn't really leave his office in days. That, and he couldn't get anything done within that time… He mentally cursed himself for Hughes being right all the time.
"Fine," Ed gave in. "But I'm just going to see them, and that's all."
"That's great!" Hughes flung his arms to the air. "But you know, at least have fun. Just seeing them isn't 'fun.'"
"Oh, really?" Ed challenged the lieutenant colonel. "Then what do you consider 'fun'?"
"You know, I've never been this interested in tea before," Lenalee smiled at Road who nodded back quietly. They were sitting altogether around a frilly looking table in the front yard, with the flowers well-tended to, as usual. The sun was at a nice angle this time of the day, and there was no wind. Quite decent weather, actually.
The former Noah took a small sip from her teacup before replying. "Well, you know… it's from spending so much time with the Earl, you get to learn quite a lot about it."
"Well, I'm sure you've never heard of this one," Alphonse added, setting his beverage on the table. "It's one of Falman's original ones. You'll never find it elsewhere."
"Really? I guess we should have some more often."
While those three were have a good time chatting amongst themselves, the four boys on the other side of the table weren't as productive. Kanda was calmly eyeing the china cup with indifference, probably preferring something else than a drink of crushed leaves. Neah was unsure whether he should even take the teacup at all. Ed wasn't even paying attention at all, immersing himself in a book, while Lavi, unlike the others was actually drinking the tea, but he didn't find it to be as refreshing as normal water.
"Okay," Neah blinked deftly, glancing pointedly at Ed. "Someone, tell me why we're sitting in the middle of a garden with a bunch of picnic baskets?"
"Because I said so," Ed replied deeply. "Apparently, it's Hughes's idea of 'bonding time.'"
"Yeah," Lavi snorted. "That's when one of us decided to have a tea party."
"How did you agree to this, Edward?" Neah raised an eyebrow disbelievingly at the alchemist. The boy didn't answer him and merely flipped to the next page of the book he read. Lavi craned over from his chair to see what he was reading, and Neah was left without any answer. He looked at Kanda, who hadn't really moved from where he sat, and motioned to the platter of food on the table.
"You know," he offered to the swordsman. "You don't have to drink the tea when there's always cake."
"I'm going off to train," Kanda said bluntly before getting up to leave. Lavi noticed that the Exorcist was going away, and the redhead left the table himself to go shouting after the swordsman, hoping that he would slow down so they could go to the training room together and spar for the rest of the day.
"So, the party plan failed?" Neah looked at Ed, but found an empty chair. Road, Alphonse, and Lenalee were still talking, but they were ignoring the 14th entirely. This prompted him to finally take the cup of tea that he hadn't touched since the beginning. Perhaps he should try it, now that he had the chance to.
"Whoa, this is quite nice, actually, but it's cold…"
Winry heard a knock on the door to her workshop when she was just done tracing out her blueprints for the next automail model she was planning. She glanced up from her workbench and saw the certain blonde standing at the door. She beamed at his sudden appearance, tearing off the glasses from her face and pushing her chair away hurriedly. The mechanic made her way around the workshop to meet him, but stopped when he motioned to her that he was holding something that shouldn't be broken.
"Ed," She smiled at him. "You're finally out of the office, like Hughes said."
"Yeah, I am," the alchemist nodded, with a sheepish tone in his words. Winry was about to say something more when a silver tray was thrust into her hands. She looked down and saw a cup of tea, untouched and inviting her to drink it. She recognized Armstrong's prized teacups were being used for this, and she looked up at Ed in astonishment, completely addled as to why he gave her such a thing.
"You were busy," he explained. "So I picked it up for you. I didn't want to stay at that 'bonding time' thing. And you probably wanted to go anyways."
"Oh," she said flatly. "Thanks."
She set the tray down on a nearby table and hurried off to the washing basin in her workshop to wash her hands and face. She came back looking a bit more proper, and picked up the teacup with clean hands. The mechanic really didn't want to tarnish such a pretty teacup, especially if it belonged to the Armstrongs (how did they manage to get permission to use these anyways?). She took a small sip of it and recognized the taste. She looked up at Ed in all seriousness, and pointed at what she had just drunk.
"Is this Falman's?"
"Hughes gave it to us," Ed threw in an excuse, knowing full well he had suggested it himself, but Winry went back to drinking the rest of it. When she was done, she set the cup back on the tray and realized that Ed was still standing there. She took this as a good chance to return the tray to Ed. Head bowed, she looked away from Edward and back to her workbench. Fabrication of the next automail update was still ways away, but she couldn't fall behind. After spending so much time attempting to finish the automail fingers for another Exorcist, she had almost forgotten the crucial planning she needed to ensure Ed had the best automail she could give him.
"Sorry I couldn't join them," she said quietly, but Ed shook his head, and placed a hand on her shoulder to say it was nothing. She noticed that his gloves were exposed, and a small bit of his automail arm was peeking out, and she could clearly see the wear on the metal. Usually she would be bashing him upside the head for just making a mark on it, but it was understandable how he got it, and she herself was too tired to go wasting tirades on the alchemist.
"Well, thanks." She said finally and she slinked back to confines of her workshop. She turned round on the way, and saw the young man shrug while trying to peer over the mountain of metal scraps that would soon become his new automail arm and leg.
"Don't mention it," he said. "I saw the blueprint you were working on. Care to show me more of it?"
Although Ed probably wouldn't want to hear any more of her technical jargon, she beamed up like a lantern and began to sputter out information that could send her flying.
"O-of course!"
Komui paced the wards, carefully inspecting the patients in and about the hospital section of the Shield. The Chief Officer of the Black Order was supposed to know the status of his own men, and he was only trying to be useful now that he was here and Roy was pretty much doing whatever he was supposed to be doing.
The blue haired man passed by a certain ward and stopped, and he leaned backwards to look through the ward more closely. The lone figure lay unmoving on the sheets and hadn't really changed his position since the day he was recovered from the castle. Allen was looking much better now, with most of the bandages removed and everyone could see his face much more clearly than ever before at a distance. He was starting to recognize the childlike face everyone at the Order used to adore.
"Still asleep," Komui whispered to himself, with a faint dissatisfaction in his voice. Just as much as anyone else, he strongly wished Allen would stop making people worry so much, and everyone's hairs would stop going as white as his. But Allen was Allen. He had always been prone to trouble ever since he was taken in as Cross's apprentice.
He was about to leave when he heard the rustling of sheets, and he froze when he heard a low sound, a sound that came from a person's lips.
A moan… What was that…?
Komui darted back into the hospital ward, eyes searching for that moan coming from the room. He had heard that voice. It was so familiar, like he hadn't heard it for years… Where are you?
A stirring of the patient under the sheets caught his eyes, and he walked in slowly, hoping the Matron or Alphonse didn't see him, and he peered over the covers. A white haired boy opened his hazy eyes slowly, seeing familiar purple irises, which focused into the shape of a blue haired man in a white coat, decorated with golden chains.
"Allen?" The man asked.
The silver eyes scanned the room seeing bright white walls that blinded his vision. He moved his mouth speak, but nothing came out, leave him thoroughly surprised. His head felt groggy and he wasn't sure on how he would recover from this, whatever he's feeling right now.
"Those people back there did quite a number on you," the man explained, reaching out to stroke the boy's hair. "You won't be speaking for a while, Allen."
Allen was confused. Was this man… crying…? It must be some reunion, like he's met this person before… Why, yes, he looked so familiar… But his name… Stupid sore throat, Allen cursed.
The man left immediately, and was shouting outside.
"Everyone! He's awake!" Allen heard the voices gasp and cheer, and he heard many footsteps filing into the room. He saw the man return, with a redhead with a green headband, a man with overly long blue hair (for some reason, he could tell he didn't like the man). Then a black haired man with cobalt eyes came in along with a woman with a pinned up hairdo. Next were a man with a funny mustache, and rather bizarre eyes, and a man with blonde braided hair, and two dots on his forehead. Finally, a boy with a blonde ponytail and golden eyes strolled in, clearly not happy with what was happening.
Allen wanted to shrink back into his sheet to avoid the intense glare of the boy, until the furrowed eyes slackened, and a tight grin reversed the grimace.
"Welcome back, Allen," He said. Allen… that was his name?
He heard the rush of footsteps, and he saw four people rushing into the room. Another blonde boy, two people with gray hair and pale skin, and a girl with dark green hair tied into two pigtails. The last girl was utterly shocked at who was sitting wide awake in the room, and she ran over and hugged him.
"Allen!" She cried, and a puzzled Allen hugged back awkwardly, noticing that she was streaming tears, which prompted him to do the same.
"Lena… Lee…?" He croaked, earning the surprise from the blonde with the grim face.
"Look!" The redhead laughed, his single eye twinkling. "He remembers Lenalee!"
He then noticed the tallest dark-haired person with pale skin, and golden eyes.
"N…Neah…" He muttered, and the man smiled in response. Allen then turned to the rest of the crew, with a confused expression. Their faces were still smiling, happy that he was returned to them.
A/N: Sorry… cheesy chapter name… Well, something just to alert people that this story isn't really dead, but just put on hold for a while. But thank you for being encouraging, and such, and I'm happy to say that I will be motivated to update this to the very end, once I find the space for it (glares menacingly at my clearly booked schedule, which includes sleep). Also, I'm seemingly going around in circles without much progress in this chapter (too much fluff and teacups…)
And yes, I'm aware I'm probably constantly switching up military positions for each person like effin' crazy (I'm in need of a beta to just go over this entire story and edit all the mistakes in there, btw). I really wanted to start picking up my habit of putting meat into my chapters for this story like I have been doing for my more recently updated stories, but time persists, and I couldn't... T_T
Sadly, and shamefully, I've figured out the end (of course), but I can't seem to fill the middle yet, including that nagging thing about what poor Allen lost from Human Transmutation (I figured it'd be voice, but then I thought up of something that would make that useless XO)… I think I depend on my readers far too much than I should….
Also, Merry Christmas, everyone. And my update is my present to all of you out there, and Allen finally opening his eyes for a moment (just a moment, but it counts).