Warning: There's some blood and gore in this chapter, so if you can't handle that/don't like that you might want to stop reading.
Chapter 3 : The Cat Came Back
It was one very disgruntled Edward Elric that woke up the next day. Why, you ask? Well it might have had something to do with the restless sleep from the last night or it might have just been because he'd apparently forgotten to close his curtains and now the sun was shining in his eyes, but what it really all came down to was the black cat curled up in his lap.
Not having noticed the extra weight on his chest the sleep-dazed alchemist had sat up only to be roughly have his consciousness cleared by the feel of 18 razor sharp claws digging into his flesh. Apparently the kitten wasn't really a morning person either.
After Ed had finally managed to pull the little monster and it's way too sharp to be normal claws away from his person, he'd promptly made his way to his, now conveniently, opened window and threw the damn thing out of it. Normally he might not have been so rough with the little thing but he really wasn't in that great a mood, besides a cat always lands on their feet anyway and else the beast probably still had some nine lives left anyways.
Feeling a lot better now that the stupid menace had finally been dealt with Ed cheerfully set about his morning routine, brushing his teeth, braiding his hair and pulling on his clothes, after he had dealt with the scratch marks his nighttime visitor had left him with.
Still in quite a good mood he made his way to the mess hall. He looked around and quickly spotted Al en Winry, who was staying for a while to make sure he didn't mess up his automail again, and made his way over. They talked a bit for a while about menial things. How were things in Risembool going? Had they seen Mustang's newest hole-through-his-hair-haircut? (Courtesy of lieutenant Hawkeye of course).
On and on it went, until midway through the meal Ed felt something brushing the pants of his flesh leg. Thinking he had just imagined things he continued talking and when nothing happened again he just brushed it off as Winry stretching her legs or something. Right at that moment the weird brushing feeling happened again, and again and again.
Not being able to ignore it now Ed looked under the table, ignoring the weird looks his friend and brother were sending him. What he found there made him cry out in dismay.
Startled Al en Winry chanced a look under the table as well, what they saw was nothing like what they expected. There staring up at them with wide purple eyes was a black kitten. The little animal was the picture of innocence as it shrunk in on itself at seeing the big scary humans looking at it. All in all there was only one word to describe it,
"SO CUTE!" Winry yelled, immediately reaching out and grabbing the poor thing. "Oh look how cute he is." She gushed, holding the kitten out to Al so he could get a better look at the cat as well.
Alphonse felt a sweatdrop coming up when he saw the normally tomboyish mechanic acting like a little girl. He had to admit though, the kitty really was a cute one. It wouldn't be for long though if Winry kept choking the nine lives out of it like she was now.
"Ehm, Win?" He stated hesitatingly, "I think you're choking it."
Winry looked down on the little cat in her grasp and gasped as she saw she was, indeed, choking it. "Oh god, I'm so sorry." She said and immediately loosened her grip on the poor animal. That was all the kitten needed before hastily scrambling out of her arms.
"Wait!" Winry and Al scrambled after it, afraid the little thing would run away and get lost in the many hallways of Central headquarters.
They needn't have worried though because the cat immediately made its way over the prone form of the fullmetal alchemist, who still laid there from when he had scrambled out of his seat and away from the kitten that was now, once again, resting on his lap, purring contently.
This seemed to snap the small alchemist out of his stupor and he immediately righted himself, hissing when this caused him to once again become acquainted with the claws of the devil cat resting in his lap.
"Fuck! Get off of me, you devil cat!" He yelled out, trying to pull the cat of his lap once more. The cat however, would have none of that, and simply sunk it's way too long claws further into his flesh and Ed could've sworn he saw the cat smirk.
"Edward!" Winry yelled, obviously concerned for the poor kitty cat her friend was abusing. "Let go of that poor cat at once!"
"You tell this monster to let go of me!" Ed yelled back, still struggling with the 'poor cat' in his lap.
"Brother! It's not a monster! It's just scared." Al admonished and gently picked up the kitten. As soon as Al touched it the hissing monster turned into a perfectly innocent kitten once again and it looked up at Al with those big purple-gold orbs. Looking for all the world like the perfect picture of a sad and fluffy animal.
"Awww." Al and Winry immediately started cooing over the tiny black cat.
"See Ed? You just startled it, the poor thing." Winry said, playing with the soft pads of the kittens paws.
"Startled it? Startled it?! That thing is stalking me!" Obviously Ed was not as easily calmed as the cat.
"What do you mean, stalking you?" Al wondered.
"That's the same cat I saw yesterday when I was walking around Central." Ed stated, calming a bit now that it seemed that someone was finally listening to him. "And this morning when I woke up it was lying on my bed! I threw it out the window, but now it's back again! It must be stalking me!"
"YOU DID WHAT?!" Winry's screech could be heard all through Central and Al silently thanked the gods that the hall was empty, all of the former occupants having left the moment Winry first started yelling. They all knew how dangerous the mechanic could be when angered.
Ed noticing his mistake immediately started scrambling for an excuse, "but Win! The thing scratched me! And it's not like my window's that high up anyway! And, and-"
"Don't you but Win me! How could you do that to a cute little thing like this! I mean look at those eyes, isn't this just the cutest kitten you have ever seen." At the end she degraded into cooing once more and held out the poor cat to Ed.
Knowing better than not to listen Ed looked the cat in the eyes and suppressed a curse. The damn thing was laughing at him! Those odd purple-gold eyes had an enormously smug look in them and if a cat could smirk, well, this would be it.
"Well?" Winry asked him sweetly, "it's cute right?" When Ed didn't immediately answer her look turned more threatening, "I said, isn't that right, Ed?" She growled out.
"Yeah, it's real cute." Ed stammered out, suddenly a vindictive look took over his golden features, "a real angel."
"An angel! I like that, it'll be your name from now on." Winry said turning to the kitten. A kitten that was definitely giving Ed the evil eye now, not that anyone else noticed of course, Ed thought glumly.
"It fits." Alphonse said, "Can we keep it, nii-san?" he asked, trying out his very own kitty eyes on his grumbling brother.
"No." the answer was short, obviously Ed was trying very hard not to add more to that and get himself killed by the volatile mechanic.
"But it must be lonely, why else would it be following you around?" Alphonse turned the begging up a notch.
"I said NO Al. We're not keeping it."
"But brotheeer," Al whined, "we can't just put it back out on the street either, it'll die!"
Ed grumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like 'and that would be a problem, why?' but one glare from Winry and he shut up quickly. Looking between the glaring mechanic and his hopeful brother Ed finally relented,
"Oh fine, we'll find somewhere for the beast to stay, but we won't be keeping it."
"Okay." Al looked a bit down, but he knew they couldn't keep a pet so he wasn't too down about it. At least they would find little angel a nice home. "Thank you nii-san."
"Yeah, yeah, it's fine." Ed waved it off. "Now are you all done? I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible."
A couple hours later and they had finally found someone who wanted to take the cat in, and was actually allowed to do so by Al and Winry. Ed would've personally liked to put the little monster with the first person who'd agreed, but the other two insisted he go to the best person possible.
So, now, after two hours of dragging themselves through central they had finally found someone they all approved of.
The person in question was a young girl named Mia. Mia was seven years old and lived with her parents and younger brother Michael in one of the better parts of central. The parents had agreed to make sure the kitten would be well cared for and the children absolutely loved 'little angel' as the cat had come to be known.
The little angel itself though, seemed to be a bit reluctant to leave the three, and especially Ed, behind. But after lots of gentle coaching on the part of Mia and her parents and a couple fishsticks, finally relented.
A good riddance as far as Ed was concerned.
As they left behind the cozy house of Mia and her parents no one noticed the menacing look in Angels glowing eyes.
Mia crawled back frantically, coming to a violent stop as she finally hit the wall of the living room. Tears blurred her sight, but she was too scared to wipe them away. Afraid the monster in the room would notice her if she moved.
Casting a frightened look around the blood splattered room her eyes fell on the bodies of her parents and she couldn't suppress a scared whimper from leaving her throat.
In the ominous glow of the moonlight she could just make out the black void of her mother's hollow eye sockets staring back at her, blood still gurgling loudly from her slashed throat and seeping slowly from the gashes littering the rest of her body. The dark silhouette of her murderer still standing over her, watching.
Only when the last drop of the life giving liquid left her body did they turn to Mia. Slowly but surely they made their way over with an almost feline grace. The moonlight caught their eyes and they flashed a startling violet in the darkened room.
"A-angel?" Mia whispered, horrified.
The figure's lips tilted upwards in a mocking smirk and he shook his head, dark green tresses flowing with the movement.
The man stepped closer still and Mia clawed at the wall behind her, desperate to get some more space between her and the crazed madman before her.
"Angel," he said slowly, deliberately, "how I hate that name."
"There is only one angel in this world, little girl," the man came ever closer, voice lowering like he was telling her some secret, "and he's mine."
And with one clawed hand he ended her life.
AN/ Hey everyone and welcome back! I hope the wait wasn't too long, but I've got another story up that takes precedence and school's being a bitch as well...So I was thinking I'd try and update this every other week that way I'll update this one one week and then changing the next. (though I'll try to update more often of course).
Anyway comments are always welcome of course (especially about that last scene, it's my first time trying something like that and I'd like to know what everyone thinks). and a big thank you to everyone who reviewed, faved and alerted! It's great to see people like this :)
See you next time! xXx~4ever