DISCLAIMER: Ed Elric, Al Elric, Sergeant Brosh, Lieutenant Ross, etc. © Hiromu Arakawa / Marina © author.

Key:

Normal text - speaking/narration

Italics - thoughts

Ch 17: Thoughts and Words

We returned to the room, hands entwined. Neither Ross nor Al said anything, though Ross raised an eyebrow at how soaked we had gotten. Ed attacked Marcoh's notes with renewed vigor and I smiled in amusement. I started inching my way out of the room. "It looks like I'm not much help here, so I'm just gonna––" One of Ed's arms snaked around my waist and suddenly tugged me into his lap.

"Oh no you don't! You're gonna stay right here, Missy!" I pouted playfully and the short blond kissed me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Several hours later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ugh, I desperately need a break." Ed stretched his arms and pulled me out of the room, leaving Al to think, What does Marina have to do with Brother's break??? We zigzagged through the library until we found an empty room.

"Ed, what's going o––" He silenced me with a kiss, and we made out in the vacant library room. We eventually broke apart from lack of air and Ed nuzzled the crook of my neck. "Mmmmm, Ed……." Myth: Ed is a raging ball of hormones at age 15...........confirmed.

We came back a few minutes later. However, Ed kept coming up with excuses to shirk work and make out with me in various corners of the library. In the middle of one of these 'breaks'––I lost count after four or five––I turned my head away so Ed only kissed my cheek. I looked at him pointedly. "Ed, as much as I'm enjoying these make out sessions, we have to get those notes deciphered. You want to find the philosopher's stone, do you not?"

"Yeah, but we're almost done with them! We can afford to kill ti––" I mock glared at him and he put his hands up in defense. "Okay, okay, we'll go back and finish them." He let me drag him back to the room we had been in……...to find Al distraught.

"No.......no, that can't be right! Brother, can you check my notes?"

Ed double-checked and sank to the floor in despair, papers settling around him. "The devil's research, things that shouldn't be sought after. These are bitter things Dr. Marcoh."

"Ed? What's wrong?" I questioned.

".........You don't want to know, and I don't want to be the one to tell you."

I sighed. "C'mon, I've been with you through a lot, and whatever's troubling you at the moment isn't going to stop me now." I knelt down beside the state alchemist and embraced him gently. In doing so, I happened to catch a glance at one of the papers, and I inhaled sharply. The few lines I read were a wake up call. "The raw material for the Philosopher's Stone is living people! Ed........." I hugged Ed tighter.

"You probably hate me for researching the Philosopher's Stone, despite knowing the price to be paid."

"Edward, I love you and will support you no matter what choice you decide to make, whether it be to research another method of getting your body back, or even to pursue making the Stone." I smiled elegiacally and rested my forehead on his shoulder.

Al began to pick up the scattered notes off the floor. "Brother, let's look at it again from the beginning."

"We've looked at it enough." Ed curled himself into a ball while I was still hugging him.

Al persisted, "But there's a chance that we misread something. Maybe we got it wrong."

"I said I've had enough."

"But what if our code's wrong? Maybe that's not what it says, or maybe we missed some key paragraph, like a loophole or something." The suit of armor offered the collected stack of papers to his older brother. "We should read the whole thing again."

"I said ENOUGH!" Ed suddenly lashed out, hitting me in the nose with his auto-mail arm quite hard. There was an audible crack, I flinched, and his eyes widened in shock at what he had just done. Papers fluttered to the ground once more as Al let go of them in surprise. "Marina, I'm so sorry! It's broken, isn't it?" His question referred to the hurt appendage.

"Y-yeah, I think so. I'm OK, don't worry about it." I laughed shakily. "Haha, this is the second time you've hit my poor nose. What have you got against it, Ed?"

"Something, apparently." He gave me a half-smile and kissed me gently. "Does it hurt? Do you want me to go get you some bandages?" I shook my head in the negative then winced at the pain brought on by the action. "OK, bandages it is then."

The blond was about to get up when our escorts burst into the room, startling the three of us. "Is something wrong?" Ross stared at the amount of blood on the floor, and then at me gingerly pinching my nose, face tilted towards the ceiling. She sighed. "Not again, Marina............"

"Yeah, it happened again." My voice sounded weird, but that was probably because my nose was covered. Brosh couldn't hold in his amusement and snickered. Ross and I both shot him glares. Healing chakra pooled around my hands, and my unfortunate schnoz recovered from the trauma it experienced a few seconds ago.

"Is something wrong?" the female lieutenant reiterated.

"No, it's fine. Go back in the hall. Sorry Marina-chan."

"It's all right." I let go of my nose and gave the sullen blond a smooch.

Ross, however, refused to move. She started gathering up the fallen papers. "So Ed, that's really the end of it?" We all looked at the Lieutenant in astonishment. "You won't regret it then, giving up before you're finished?" Once done collecting the papers on the floor, she moved to the table and continued, "That's interesting. I didn't realize that what you were searching for was so incidental, you'd abandon it this easily."

"Stop going on like you know what you're talking about. You don't know anything." Ed was back in his funk.

Ross finished picking up the papers. "Wrong Ed. I know that what you guys have been searching for is the Philosopher's Stone, and I know it's created by sacrificing human lives." Both brothers gasped at the Lieutenant's statement. "I know it was uncalled for, but I was listening through the door."

"Well, if you eavesdropped, then you must know; it's pointless to chase after it now. Leave us alone."

"You really are a child, aren't you." Ed growled at this, vexed. "You're frightened of it, that all the answers will disappear. You're terrified you might have to admit that everything you've done was wasted effort. Am I wrong?"

The blond buried his face into my shoulder and I hugged him gently. "Ross!" I hissed, "your comments are a little on the harsh side!" To Ed I said, "It's OK to feel lost and not have reasons."

The Lieutenant softened her approach. "Verifying whether Marco's research is the truth or not is worth something in itself, if you ask me. After all, what you're looking for is a lot bigger than you, Al, or Marina." She handed the collected papers to me.

I added, "Why don't you try searching a little longer, but without worries about the final result?"

"Thank you Marina-chan, Lieutenant Ross!" Ed gave me a passionate smooch and reclaimed the notes he had written. "We've had roadblocks and we've conquered them all. I'll be damned if we stop halfway! We'll take this all the way to the finish! Let's do this!" I grinned at his newfound enthusiasm.