Wheee, Update! Enjoy! :3
Warmth. That was the first thing he could identify. It was all around him, pressing gently from each direction, on each sense. If it had been anything else, he would have been panicked and terrified, but this warmth felt so...right. He could feel the light dusting of sunlight across his exposed skin, and something heavier, more solid, on either side of him, anchoring him – he was grateful to this heavy warmth; without it, he feared he would just drift away.
As he lay there, in his indolent half-lucidity, he began to realise that – presently – this warmth was all he knew. He knew that somewhere there was a name, a person, to accompany this consciousness that only barely consumed him, but - for now - it eluded him.
He wondered idly whether he too would just float away if this warmth left him.
Slowly, other things began to filter through to him; the low, baritone murmuring breezing in from somewhere nearby, a trembling clinking noise that came from equally far off.
And then there was the soft, lilting sound of breathing – that one was closest.
He wanted to open his eyes, to endeavour to piece together his disjointed state of awareness, and locate the person that accompanied the calm, even breathing that felt so close, but there was a lethargy that cocooned him - just as firmly as the warmth - that prevented him from doing so.
And so, he continued to do no more than just be, nameless and quietened by the security born from warmth and exhaustion, his breathing in perfect time with the other set of lungs nearby.
He remained like this for what felt like the longest time, feeling out into his surroundings with as many senses as the lethargy would allow, until a shifting sensation next to him roused him from his trance.
He was, all of a sudden, made aware of an abrupt feeling of loss; the warmth either side of him unexpectedly lessened, leaving only one anchoring him to reality. Panic began to flood his mind. What if the other decided to leave too? Would he just cease to be? Become a nameless, formless entity, destined to be forever cold and alone? He felt his breathing pace increase, but struggle as he might, he couldn't manage to open his eyes – for he knew now that he did indeed have eyes, though he still could not remember his name – or move himself in any way.
He was so absorbed in his dread that he barely even registered the sound of a door opening nearby, and was only distracted from his panicked state by the distinctly male voice that then filled the room, despite the owner's attempts to lower the tone.
"He's still asleep then?" the voice was accompanied by a set of footsteps.
"Mm. Not sure if he's woken or not since we last checked in on him. Where's Alphonse?" another voice responded to the first.
"In the kitchen, making everyone breakfast. He's a good kid." There was silence for a few moments, and then,
"Don't make that face, Roy. Ed's a tough one; he'll pull through all this."
Ed.
His name.
He was Edward. Edward Elric. Fullmetal Alchemist.
Inexplicably, the mere knowledge of his name seemed to give him a new found strength, and this time, when he willed his fingers to move, his eyelids to twitch, they did.
"Maes! I think he's waking up!" Mustang's voice had taken on a hopeful edge.
"What?"
"He's moving, look!" Ed tried to tune out the voices, concentrating only on opening his eyes, or even just moving. His hand jerked fitfully and he managed to let out an unintentional moan of frustration; why was he so weak? And Mustang's stupid voice was getting too loud to ignore.
"Edward? Can you hear me?" Ed frowned. Of course he could hear him – the whole house could probably hear him by now!
Finally, after what seemed like an age, he managed to open his eyes. And then wished he hadn't.
Mustang's face was right in front of his, peering at him as though he were some sort of injured animal.
"Gah!" Ed mumbled screwing his eyes shut again. "I wish I was still unconscious. No one wants to wake up to that, Mustang!" Ed imagined Mustang was rolling his eyes.
"Oh ha ha, Ed. It's good to see your sense of humour is still intact. Clearly, while we were all worrying ourselves into an early grave, you were working on the speed of your wit." Opening his eyes again, Ed saw that the disapproval on Mustang's face was vastly overshadowed by relief.
"Nope. Sorry to break this to you, but I'm actually just that quick. Genius, remember?" Roy shook his head, trying to suppress a smile. Ed frowned groggily.
"Wait, how long was I out this time?" he asked hoarsely, his voice gritty from lack of use. Hughes appraised him critically from the corner.
"Just one night. Well, some of the day too, if you want to be precise. How much do you remember, Ed?"
Ed grimaced, trying to think back.
"Uhh..." He dredged up his memories of the past few days, as Roy and Hughes watched him with almost comically identical expressions of concern.
"I remember going out for a walk, after Winry changed my bandages. I went to the graveyard and..." he stopped. "That's it. That's the last thing I can remember." Ed sighed. Although it made him feel guilty, he neglected to tell the two men of the memories he had begun to regain of when he had been missing. He wasn't entirely sure why, but he wanted to keep them to himself, until he could begin to make some sense of them, and more had come back. "Ugh. This whole 'having no memory of various events' is getting tiring." He murmured. He tried to reach up and rub his face with his hand, but to his surprise found it pinned. He turned his head to the side.
"Ah! W-Winry?" Ed's face immediately flushed as he took in the sight of his oldest friend pressed up close to his body, fast asleep with his flesh arm around her. He gaped up at Roy and Hughes, who were both suppressing fits of childish laughter.
"Ha! I knew it would be worth hanging around to see this!" Roy snickered. "I'm surprised it actually took you this long to notice, Ed. You can be quite oblivious sometimes, for a 'genius'."
Ed scowled, his face still entertainingly red.
"Yes, yes. We're all very amused by my awkward situations. Now, which one of you would care to tell me why Winry is sleeping in my bed?" He hissed, trying not to wake her. Roy's expression sobered.
"When you didn't come back from your walk, we went looking for you. You'd been gone for hours, and it was starting to get dark." Roy explained. "We found you passed out in front of your mother's gravestone. You were hypothermic."
Ed closed his eyes briefly, a troubled frown creasing his brow.
"I'm sorry," he murmured. Roy ran a hand through his hair, worried by yet another uncharacteristic apology from Edward.
"No, it's -" Roy began before cutting himself off. Ed appeared to be lost in thought again, barely listening. Roy cleared his throat to catch his attention, choosing to ignore the young man's atypical reaction and continue with his explanation.
"We managed to wake you up, but you were disorientated and not very responsive. After we got you back, I believe Miss. Rockbell's grandmother suggested the sharing of body heat to be an effective way of raising your temperature steadily before putting the I.V in." At this comment Ed glanced at his arm, looking slightly ill. He was relieved to see that someone had removed the I.V already. Hughes smiled a little at his reaction. "She and Al fell asleep in your bed. They were both very worried." Roy finished. Though still a little flushed, Ed's features softened and he looked somewhat less embarrassed.
"Al was here?" He recalled the feeling of warmth disappearing from one side shortly after he woke, realising that this must have been Al getting up. "Where is he now?"
"In the kitchen," Hughes supplied. "I'm surprised one of you didn't wake up earlier; it can't have been comfortable with three of you crammed in there." He mused. Roy smirked.
"Yes, especially with how close Miss. Rockbell is pressed to you -" Roy yelped as Hughes elbowed him in the ribs, and scowled at him reproachfully. Ed's face heated again, and he made a move to slide out of bed.
"U-uh, well..." he lowered his feet to the floor, almost – for once – lost for words. "W-what are you two doing standing over me while I sleep anyway? I expect it from the Lieutenant Colonel over there, but you've got no excuse, you creepy old man!" He spluttered at Roy, desperate for a distraction from his current situation. Not that he found it... unpleasant waking up next to Winry – far from it, in fact. But that didn't mean it wasn't embarrassing to have Hughes and Mustang parading around his bedroom with moronic, smug grins on their faces!
He quickly pushed himself off from the bed only to find his legs didn't want to support him, crumpling beneath him almost immediately. Roy moved forward swiftly to grab him, in order to prevent him from crashing to the floor. Ed's head was spinning from standing (or rather failing to stand) up so fast.
"Ugh," he at clutched Roy's arm for a moment, battling the faint feeling and the vague nausea.
"Are you alright?" Roy asked, concern layered into his voice. Ed staggered away from him to lean against the dresser. He hated feeling so weak! His muscles felt rubbery and it was taking him a ridiculous amount of energy just to remain upright.
"I'm fine," he murmured faintly. "just been lying around for too long."
"You should take it easy, Ed." Hughes said. "You were in a pretty bad way last night – it's only natural that your body will be fragile." Ed swallowed, and took in a steady, deep breath of air.
"I'm ok," he said, more strongly this time. He looked up to meet anxious and sceptical gazes of the other two. "No, Really. I could definitely do with something to drink though – you said Al was in the kitchen?" Roy nodded.
"He's making breakfast, I believe." Ed straightened up.
"Perfect. I'm starving." He lied. In truth, he still felt awful. His whole body ached, as did his head, and he felt thoroughly sick. Food was currently the last thing on his mind, but a hot drink and warm kitchen to sit down in sounded very appealing right now. He didn't know how long he could stay standing for – it was making him feel horrendous. Plus he didn't want to wake Winry; another (discreet) look at her sleeping face told him that the rest she was currently enjoying was well needed. She was sporting dark shadows beneath her eyes to rival Ed's. He realised with a guilty surge that she too had been suffering for Ed's recent activities; and the guilt was twofold – in addition to the worry and stress his current situation was causing her, and the fact that she had been losing sleep over it, he was doubly guilt ridden by the fact it had taken him this long to comprehend the toll it was taking on her.
He started a slow, limping walk towards the door. He could feel that the automail's damage was worsening with each moment of use whilst in the state it was. The limp was more pronounced now, and he could feel something not right with the way it was moving; a jolt in the usually smooth sliding of the pistons when he brought his foot forward to walk, a odd, but thankfully barely audible grinding squeak when the knee bent and general delayed reactions all over the prosthetic. Normally, despite the abuse he would have gotten from Winry, he would have asked her to take a look at it by now, but with all she'd had to deal with recently he felt it could wait. After all, she'd already had to rebuild one piece of automail for him, and he could still walk...kind of.
As they made their way to the kitchen, Hughes piped up.
"Hey wait a minute! Why can you be unsurprised to find me watching you sleep – which I wasn't doing, I'd like to clarify – and why don't you expect it from Roy? He's the king of weird tendencies!" Roy frowned.
"And I am not an 'old man'! I'm only barely out of my twenties!" he interjected. Ed laughed.
"I find it interesting that you deny being old, but fail to argue with me about the 'creepy' part of that comment." Roy shrugged.
"Well, you've got to pick your battles,"
Hughes chuckled, making Al look up as they all entered the kitchen. He rushed over placing both of his hands on his brother's shoulders.
"Brother! How are you feeling? Should you be up yet? Where's Winry? Do you-" Ed laughed, waving a hand to quiet Al down.
"You always ask too many questions at once Al. I'm ok, just a bit tired. I felt like moving around and seeing what sort of food you were whipping up in here, I've spent way too much time in bed recently. Winry's still asleep – she needs the rest." He ducked out from under Al's grasp in order to move towards the stove and boil the kettle. To his dismay the action, as small as it was, was draining and caused another bout of dizziness, but he made it to the kettle relatively steadily, and began to busy himself making tea. Al hovered around him anxiously, but made no further inquires on his health.
Roy and Maes were seated at the table, murmuring between themselves in their low voices. When Ed sat himself down opposite them, they abruptly ceased their conversation, causing Ed to raise an eyebrow, but he was so exhausted – both mentally and physically – that he couldn't be bothered to quiz them on their suspicious behaviour. Instead he chose to merely sip his tea and sink into the cushions of the chair, ignoring the odd glances they kept shooting him.
After a short while, Pinako clattering into the kitchen with an armful of wires and metal caught everyone's attention.
"Ah, Edward, you're awake. How are you feeling?" She peered through here glasses at him, eyes flicking briefly over the other occupants of the room. Ed grimaced.
"You know, kind of like I've been sleeping in a graveyard." Al shot Ed a reproachful look.
"Hm. Well, you can't be feeling too bad if you're ready to joke about it," Pinako grunted, a twinkle of amusement in her eyes. "As my granddaughter is still sleeping, I'll be checking your injuries for you; I'll wager those bandages are due for a change by now." Ed wrinkled his nose.
"Aww, do we have to do it now Granny? I just woke up, and I have tea..." he trailed off hopefully, but she shook her head sternly.
"Come now, no time like the present. We can do it in here, if you'd prefer it, just sit on the stool over there." She raised her voice slightly as her head disappeared into the cupboard where they kept the medical supplies. Ed sighed and shifted over to the stool by one of the many Rockbell workbenches, slipping his shirt off his shoulders.
His hair, loose from its usual ponytail, tickled the bare skin of his back, so he swept it over one shoulder onto his chest. The bandages on his chest seemed much lighter that before, and he could see some bloodstains over where the burn was. Due to the thinner bandaging, more of his skin was exposed. Ed frowned. There were a lot of scars on his torso that he didn't remember, and faded bruising that looked like it had been inflicted before his return to Risembool. He twisted in an attempt to peer at his back, but the heavy injuries to his body protested, especially the burned gash on his stomach. The skin stretched, pulling agonizingly as he turned and Ed hissed viciously against the pain. Roy looked up at the noise.
"Ed, are you –" he stopped mid sentence, staring at the young man's uncovered back before moving over to stand behind him, paling. Ed jumped as Roy touched his skin lightly. Despite the pressure only being gentle, ache still flared up where the older man was examining.
"General, what are you doing? Trying to up your creepiness points?" he asked, turning more carefully this time to fix Roy with a bemused look. He frowned at Roy's expression. "What? What's wrong?" Roy pursed his lips.
"Your back – it's covered in bruises! And so many scars..." he pushed on Ed's shoulder gently, turning him so he could get a better look. "Fullmetal, these don't look old. They look as though you got them sometime before you re-appeared. The bruises are fading, but some look like they were quite nasty – they would had to have been if they've lasted this long." Ed chewed his lip, furrowing his brow.
"Crap, they're on my back too?" He turned to face Roy, pulling his bandages about to uncover more of the bruises and scars that had been hidden before. "I know I had a lot of scars from the travels Al and I went on, but these definitely aren't from then. I didn't have half of these before, and they still look pink, not white like the older ones. These are barely healed over." He rubbed his hand across his face. "I guess no-one noticed them over the other more pressing injuries," he speculated. Roy sighed, unease clouding his features.
"I know I said this before, but what the hell happened to you over your month spent missing?" he asked, not really expecting an answer. Ed dropped his head a little.
"You're asking me? I'd like to know just as much as all of you." He moaned. He knew he had regained some of his memories –if indeed that was what they were, and not just delusional dreams - but the vast majority of them were still a blank and he couldn't yet recall having any of the injuries inflicted upon him that his body seemed to display. Al came over, abandoning his breakfast to examine his brother's battered body.
"Oh Brother..." he breathed, his gentle eyes cataloguing the various injuries scattered across Ed's back and torso. Ed tilted his head up to face Al.
"Hey, it's ok. I'm back now, after all, and it's not like these won't heal. I'm not really bothered by a few extra scars." He smiled reassuringly at his brother. Al nodded, but the look of worry and upset still remained, marring his young face. Pinako bustled over, distracting them all from their musings over the state of Edward's health. She made no comment on the injuries they had been discussing, and gave no reaction to seeing them save the pursing of her lips. Edward was grateful for this; he could always count on Granny not to make too big a deal over things unless the situation called for it. She always seemed to know when he didn't want to have a fuss made over him.
"All right, everyone back up a little. Let me get in there to change Edward's bandages." The small woman waved back Roy and Al and set to work unravelling the thin bandages that criss-crossed over Ed's chest. This time, the gauze was only partially stuck to the wound, and peeled off with relative ease, thought it still hurt like hell. He gritted his teeth, willing himself to keep his composure until she was done. Al watched his brother, his features still heavy with anxiety. He never could fool Al when he was in pain. Still, it was short lived, as soon Pinako had managed to remove all of the bandages, leaving the vicious wound on his torso exposed. Ed sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of it. Though not as raw as the last time he'd seen it, the burned-over gash was a mess. The skin was weeping, and bleeding in places, and the burn itself looked just about as painful as it got. Al and Roy were joined by Maes – who had not yet seen the extent of Ed's injuries firsthand - as they watched grimly. Pinako sucked in a breath sharply through her teeth.
"Looks like that one's going to pain you for some time, shorty." She murmured, gently wiping around the wound, trying to clean it without causing him too much suffering. Ed scowled.
"Who're you calling short, you microscopic old hag?" he snapped, jerking around to glare at her. Clearly he hadn't learned from that last time he'd tried this particular movement, a gasp of pain forced from his lips as he agonisingly strained the angry wound on his torso. Pinako grasped him firmly by the shoulders.
"Keep still, you foolish boy. You're going to tear that thing right back open!" Breathless from the pain radiating from his abused injuries, Ed found himself unable to piece together a comeback, so instead just let the old woman push him back carefully and begin to re-bind his body. His head was beginning to ache unbearably alongside his muscles. As Hughes had highlighted earlier, he shouldn't really have been surprised by how utterly crap he felt, given what he'd been putting his body through recently, but having the luxury of expecting the pain he was feeling didn't make it any less intense.
Once he had regained his composure, he straightened back to his original position in order to allow Pinako better access to his torso as she worked on getting the tension in the bandaging right. He looked down at his chest, morosely examining one of the barely healed scars. What was most frustrating wasn't the fact he was covered in new scars, it was that he couldn't remember how he'd... gotten them? A sudden flash of memory hit him, and he jolted upright – this time ignoring the spike of pain and letting the alarmed muttering at his reaction become merely background noise in favour of concentrating on his revelation. His dreams, or rather memories, from the graveyard floated to the forefront of his mind – he remembered surprise, 'a pair of arms hooking underneath his own, holding him fast and lifting his feet from the ground.'
He remembered pain as 'claws pierced his shoulders.' His eyes glazed over as he retreated deeper into his memories, oblivious to the concern of the others in the room.
He remembered alarm as those same claws 'pressed deeper into the backs of his shoulders, and Ed could feel warm liquid seeping into his shirt, spreading darkly and alarmingly quickly across his chest.' If those memories had been the real thing, then surely the marks from those claws would still remain?
Abruptly, Ed was startled from his musings by someone shaking him firmly. He blinked and jumped again as Roy's face filled his field of vision –the older man was knelt in front of him, hands on either shoulder, barely masked worry creasing his features.
"Gah!" he flinched backwards, startled, causing him to lose his balance on the stool. His arm wind milled comically, before he toppled over completely, crashing to the floor. Clearly only having one limb attached to his torso wasn't doing wonders for his agility.
"Uuu..." Ed curled in on himself, cringing at the fresh pain his exertion had caused.
"What the hell, Mustang!" He glared upwards at the surprised looking General. "That's the second time today I've opened my eyes to find your stupid face about an inch away from mine! I mean, honestly, I'm starting to wonder if it's your mission in life to be considered as creepy as possible! And -"
"Brother!" Ed's rant was cut off by Alphonse's indignant but somewhat worried sounding interjection. "Calm down! The General was just trying check if you were OK!"
"What?" Ed forgot his irritation, his expression turning instead to confusion. "I'm fine! Well, as fine as I was a few seconds ago, anyway." He looked up at the various faces around him, noting the looks of doubt and apprehension that were being aimed his way. "What? Why are you all looking at me like that?"
Hughes cleared his throat.
"Are you sure you're alright kiddo? You've been sat there spacing out for a good few minutes now."
Al nodded.
"Yeah, it was kind of weird Ed; your eyes glazed over and everything." He said softly.
Roy snorted, muttering, "And you call me creepy," earning an elbow in the ribs from Hughes. He spluttered, glaring at his friend before offering a hand out to the young man on the floor.
"What were you thinking so hard about anyway? It's a bit out of character for you, isn't it?" he jibed, trying to keep the mood light. Ed ignored Roy's dig, his eyes widening .
"Oh yeah!" He swept his hair off his back once more turning his back to his brother. "Al, check the back of my shoulders would you? Are there any marks on them, close to the top?" Al raised an eyebrow, but obliged anyway, stepping closer to Ed to get a better look.
Al sucked a breath in between his teeth.
"Ed, what are these?" Ed tossed his head impatiently.
"I don't know Al, I can't see them!" he sighed. "Well, what's there?"
Al tutted at his brother's edgy remark, but carried on examining him all the same.
"You've got some weird, new-looking scars on your flesh shoulder – kind of like puncture marks in a curved line. There's about five of them, evenly spaced. They look like they were pretty deep. But that's not it though," he hesitated. Ed craned his neck to look at his younger brother. He looked troubled.
"It's your other shoulder. The metal, in the same place as on your flesh shoulder, it looks like... well, it looks like something cut into that too. The marks are identical to the ones on your left shoulder, but they're gouged into the metal!"
Ed flipped his hair back over his shoulder and sat back down on the stool, chewing his lip. Now he knew for certain that his memories were just that – memories, not just dreams conjured from his turbulent state of mind; there was no way those marks could be a coincidence and they just proved what he'd known all along. The month he'd spent doing God-knows-what, the month that was absent from his own mind - it was returning to him. Kine, the girl, even the chimeras, they were all real! He just needed to remember the end of the sick little story his month had become, playing out inside his head. He needed to know what had happened in that cave, where Kine was now and, most importantly, whether or not he needed to go back there.
After a few seconds of silence, Roy waved a hand in the air.
"So, uh, care to tell us what that was about, Fullmetal?" Ed sighed. He hadn't wanted to talk to anyone properly about what he had remembered so far because he hadn't been sure if they were memories, but even now that he was, he was reluctant. He had wanted to remember everything alone first – make sense of what he was piecing together before he told the others, but he could see now that keeping all this to himself was rapidly becoming a smaller option. It would be difficult to explain away his strange actions, especially as they had gotten stranger as of late. Making a snap decision, he rose to his feet and took a step forward, ignoring the tremor in his automail leg as he did so. The three adults and Al exchanged glances, clearly fearing for the young alchemist's sanity.
"Right, just a second..." Ed strode purposefully towards the hallway, moving as smoothly and quickly as his injuries and damaged automail would allow him to. Behind him Al's cry of;
"Brother, what are you doing?" mingled with Roy's shout of;
"Fullmetal, Where the hell do you think you're going?" to create an amusing sound of protest.
"Just wait there a minute," he called over his shoulder, "I just need to get something."
Ed made his way into the bedroom where Winry was still sleeping soundly and limped over to the bed. He hated to wake her when she looked so peaceful, but it was a necessary crime.
"Win, wake up" he said loudly, shaking her. She screwed up her face, making a sort of mewling sound, but did not wake. Smirking, Ed leant his face closer to hers and blew softly into her ear – a technique that had never failed to wake her up during their childhood, and usually presented amusing results... especially when he had practiced it during school as she slept behind her books on her desk. He stepped backward just in time to avoid behind smashed in the face by Winry's forehead as she sat bolt upright.
"Yaaah!" she gasped looking around her in bleary-eyed surprise. "Whaa?" Her confused expression changed rapidly to one of murderous annoyance as her gaze fell on Ed, who was merely stood there enjoying her reaction with an obnoxious smile on his face.
"Edward Elric, how many times have I told you to quit waking me up with that dumb trick of yours?" she yelled with an impulse borne from years of being awoken by this method, each time by the same person. Her anger, however, was short lived and she soon slipped back into confusion once more.
"Wait, what time is it? What's going on?" Ed's smile lessened slightly as he remembered what he'd come in here to wake her up for.
"Oh, right. Come with me. I need to explain something to the others that's going to involve me going into something I'd rather tell you all together. I think you should all be there, plus I'm too lazy to explain it more than once." He tugged at her wrist lightly, and she automatically slid her feet to the floor as he guided her off the bed. Winry looked up into his eyes. They were not the eyes of someone who wanted to tell anybody anything; he looked reluctant and troubled.
"E-Ed?" Winry's voice caught slightly, "You're scaring me. What's this about?"
Edward smiled encouragingly and slipped his hand into hers, leading her towards the kitchen. Winry blushed.
"Don't worry, I just want to talk to you all at the same time."
Everyone in the kitchen was still stood pretty much where he had left them (except for Al, who had been on the verge of going to find his brother as he re-entered the room) when he returned towing a thoroughly confused, and still sleepy, Winry behind him. Roy raised an eyebrow.
"I'm going to assume that when you said 'I just need to get something'," he air quoted Ed's previous statement, "this was the 'something' you were referring to?"
Winry whacked Ed on the back of his head.
"Hey what was that for?" he whined. Winry scowled.
"Don't refer to me as a 'something'!" she huffed indignantly. Ed pouted, rubbing his head. Al threw his hands up in the air.
"Look, as amusing as all this is, is someone going to explain what's going on here or not?" he cried out in exasperation. Winry shrugged.
"Don't look at me I'm just as clueless as you lot." She jerked a thumb at Ed. "He just woke me up and dragged me in here, muttering nonsense about explaining himself." Ed rolled his eyes.
"Alright, Alright!" He made his way over to the table, perching himself on the edge and closing his eyes briefly to gather his thoughts. Five sets of eyes fixed themselves upon him in silent expectance.
"I think," he said slowly, flicking his gaze over each perplexed face,
"It's time I told you all the truth about how much I've actually remembered."
Yes, yes. I'm aware of my horribly clichéd habit of leaving things with a cliff-hanger, haha. I apologise for corny dramatic devices! X3
Anyway, there is another, long-overdue and slightly too short update for you all! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even if it wasn't massively eventful! Ah, sorry for any typos, by the way! I do proof read, I just always seem to miss something! :p
Oh! I mentioned before that I was rewriting the earlier chapters - well, so far I have rewritten the first and second chapter, making the quality of writing (hopefully, haha) match the newest as I go. Once I have caught up with the current chapter, I will replace all of the old chapters with the new rewritten ones. The plot will remain essentially the same, but the writing will just be better. But yeah, I haven uploaded them yet; I will do that when they are all rewritten! :)
Again, I apologise for how long it's been since my last update – I hope there are still people reading out there! :)
I actually have a better idea of where I'm going with this now, so (ahh, I know I always say this, but bear with me!) hopefully I'll be updating again quite soon! I'll put update info on my FF profile, at the bottom, so if there's a date there I'll try to stick to it! ^^
Anywho, the next chapter is likely to be more eventful, and hopefully a bit longer too, so I hope that's something to look forward to! (Guh, I always end up chattering on for too long in these weird little after-chapter notes!)
Ah, just before I go; I read every single review I receive, no matter how short or long, and I cherish and take each one to heart, so thank you very much to all those that have reviewed, whether it's just been once or you're a regular to my (slowly updated – eerk! Thanks for the dedication in reading this you guys!) fic!
Criticism, love and support are all welcomed! If you liked it, let me know! I love reading what you all think of my writing, be it bad or good! Heehee, I need to know what to improve on!
Thanks again for reading guys! I'll be back soon with a new chapter! (and sorry to ramble so much at the end each time!) ^^'