To Take a Life Chapter Eight

It's safe to say that I got about thirty minutes of sleep that first night of my mission. And though the room was completely silent the entire time, I knew I wasn't the only one that stayed up. I sighed, turning on my side. Sunlight flooded the room through the window. I gazed around the room sleepily before I made contact with a pair of glowing golden eyes.

Edward Elric sat up, leaning against the wall that the bed was up against. We stared at each other for a few silent seconds before he broke contact.

I won't lie; he was pretty hard to read.

I could see something there, some sort of hidden emotion, but there was no telling what the child State Alchemist was thinking under that head of golden hair.

"Morning, Al," he said as he hopped out of bed and over to a suitcase in the corner of the room. Alphonse, the one that wore the stupid seven foot suit of armor, stood up. "Good morning, Brother!" he turned to face me. "Did you sleep well, Nem?"

I flinched, but nodded enthusiastically, even managing to fake a little smile. "Uh huh! Like a baby."

"Have you ever seen a baby?" Edward asked without turning to face me, pulling on what looked like the same long sleeve black shirt as yesterday, "They wake up every two hours."

I glared at him. "Sorry, I didn't know I was talking to a baby expert."

"It doesn't take an expert to know that babies don't sleep for very long." He retorted, now wearing the same red coat over his black shirt.

"Alphonse didn't ask me if I slept long, he asked me if I slept well." I snapped back impatiently, standing up and running my fingers through my knotted hair as a form of brushing it.

Edward opened his mouth to reply, but then closed it, frowning.

"Hah," I said triumphantly, "I guess I won that one."

"Maybe this time," he grumbled, braiding his hair messily and sticking his feet into his boots. He pulled a pair of white gloves onto each of his hands and finally seemed to be finished.

I stared at him. "Do you wear all of those layers so that people don't know you have automail?"

Edward blinked slowly, thinking about his answer. "You ask a lot of questions, you know? Come on, let's go to Mustang and see what our next assignment is, Al."

I didn't say anything else, but to myself, I noted that he avoided giving me a direct yes or no answer. Obviously, there was something touchy about his automail, presumably involving how he got it. My curiosity grew.

"What about Nem, Brother?" Alphonse reminded. I smiled. I liked this Alphonse kid. I was glad he wasn't the Elric that I would be killing.

"We'll take her with us to say her goodbyes." He shrugged, opening the door. My smile melted into a frown, but I didn't respond, quickly slipping into my own shoes and following the two brothers out.

The hallways were just as identical and confusing as they had been last night. I followed blindly, but the Elrics seemed to know where they were going without speaking, so I took advantage of the silence to shift through my thoughts.

Edward and Alphonse had told me that they were fifteen and fourteen years old. Why would kids tie themselves up with the military? I wrinkled my nose at the thought.

I supposed there are a few valid reasons. One was that Edward was probably bored and arrogant, and decided to boast about his oh so wonderful alchemic abilities. Being reckless, he probably thought he'd join the military as a State Alchemist so he could brag to all of his friends about how cool he was.

To me, this seemed most likely.

Another scenario was that maybe the Elrics were poor and their parents didn't bring in enough on their own, so Edward put his talents to use so he could rake in some extra money to get bread on the table.

I didn't like this scenario one bit. It made him seem too…modest.

Of course, I had yet to learn that Edward's reason for joining the military had to be the most pure, wholesome, modest one out there.

I found myself drawn back to the physique of the brothers. The automail intrigued me. I looked down at my own hands as I walked slightly behind Edward and Alphonse, bending my fingers. I wondered how it would feel to have automail. Of course, Dante had conveniently forgotten to mention his automail, I recalled bitterly. There was a lot she seemed to leave out, like the fact the Fullmetal Alchemist was hardly older than me, or that he had a brother that worked alongside him.

I pursed my lips. This was proving more difficult than I anticipated.

After what seemed like ages, we stopped in front of the same door we were in front of yesterday. Or maybe it was a different one. I wouldn't know.

Edward strode in boldly without as much as a knock. I heard Alphonse's sigh rattle through his armor, and he followed his older brother. Without much of a choice, I went in after him.

The room looked exactly the same as it did last night. The colonel was still sitting at his desk, behind a towering pile of paperwork that didn't seem to be any smaller. The only difference was that this time, he appeared to be sleeping.

Edward cleared his throat loudly. Colonel Mustang opened one eye. "Can I help you?"

Edward began to reply, but Mustang's eyes fell on me, cutting him off before he could even start. "Good morning, ah, Nem?"

"That's my name." I nodded begrudgingly, "Good morning to you, as well."

"Before I give you any type of assignment, which is undoubtedly why you're here, why don't you boys escort Nem back to her home? I'm sure that she feels safe now." The colonel addressed the boys now.

My eyes widened. How would I get out of this one? There was no good reason for me to stay any longer, but I couldn't just walk away. This wasn't going very well at all.

"Well," I swallowed, "Actually…I….uhm…"

Edward and Mustang stared at me blankly. "I…" my face went pink under their gaze. I gave up, not saying anything and fixing my gaze on my feet. Giving me one last strange look, Edward turned away from me to face Mustang.

"Do you have any leads that Al and I should know about?" he asked.

"I thought it was your job to look for the Stone?" asked Mustang sweetly.

"The Philosopher's Stone?" I interjected without thinking, looking back up. I remembered Envy had mentioned something about Edward not wanting to make the Stone for Dante. Maybe that was why she wanted him dead.

"How do you know what that is?" demanded Edward. "You said you weren't an alchemist."

"I-I'm not!" I said quickly, panicking, "I just…the man from yesterday said something about it!" I invented, "I don't know what it is, you just said 'stone' and it reminded me!"

"You didn't mention that he said something about the Philosopher's Stone last night!" Edward exclaimed. I cringed away from his shouting. "Calm down, Ed!" Alphonse said.

"I didn't think it was important!" I defended myself.

"It seems awfully coincidental that you would just happen to hear something about the Stone from this attacker," Edward put air-quotations around the word 'attacker', "And then end up here, with us!"

I put my hands on my hips and huffed impatiently. "Well it's not like I knew you would run into me!" I spat back, "I don't just sit around in alleyways and wait for shrimps like you to come and rescue me!"

"I—you—and—Don't call me a shrimp!" Edward finally shouted, his entire face going red from either anger or embarrassment. Possibly a combination of both.

Colonel Mustang stared at me for a few seconds, and then said, "Fullmetal, why don't you go back home for a few days. Get your automail looked at, relax, and then when you come back, I'll have a new assignment ready for you."

"Go…home?" Edward looked surprised, "You mean…to Risembool?"

"What about Nem?" Alphonse inquired. "Take her with you." suggested the colonel. I gaped at him, unable to believe my good luck. Yes! This was perfect! Edward would be away from all the protection of the military, and it would be a piece of cake to kill him and run off before anyone noticed the difference!

"Take her with…I thought we were bringing her home and then that would be the end of it?" Edward reminded, staring back and forth between the colonel and me. I scowled. Hopefully when we were back home, Mama Elric would remind little Eddy of his manners.

"I don't think that's advisable, anymore." Mustang shook his head, "Obviously, the homunculi want something from her. Who better to protect her from them then the Fullmetal Alchemist, who's fought the homunculi and lived to tell the tale?"

I was quick to keep an impressed look from making its way to my face. Edward had fought the homunculi? Interesting. I'd like to see him go up against Envy. He wouldn't stand a chance.

"That's irrelevant!" Edward stammered, "We don't even know this girl!"

"I'm right here, you know," I muttered irritably.

"Well then," said Mustang with a crisp smile, "I'm sure you'll get to know her in Risembool."

"But…!" Edward began. "That's final." Mustang turned back to his paperwork, signaling that he was done talking to the Elrics.

I was ecstatic. This couldn't have gone better. Little did I know that the second the three of us stepped out of Mustang's office, the colonel picked up his phone and quickly dialed a number.

"I need you to look into something for me." He said quietly, "I don't have a last name. Just look for the name 'Nem' in every file you have. Birth records, hospital visits, school enlistments, anything you have. Call me when you find something."

Mustang listened to the voice on the other end for a second, and then hung up.