The Price of Life [Fullmetal Alchemist]

Chapter Eight

The Philosopher's Stone

all this ｂａｄｂｌｏｏｄ here,
won't you let it ｄｒｙ~?¿
-baｓtille.

•

The rest of the week passed by fairly quickly for Sonia. After the day she woke up, she only had to stay for one more night. It was a relief to her; she never liked hospitals too much, and she was already sick of hospital food after one meal.

After that, she was officially released from the hospital, but Roy made sure she was getting as much bed rest as he and the doctor deemed necessary. During all this downtime, she wondered about a lot of things.

Sonia was told by Roy that the man who had tried to kill her was the same man who succeeded in killing Tucker and Nina. She missed Nina dearly. They had a strong connection despite the little time they had spent together. Honestly, she spent more time playing with her than researching with Ed and Al.

Then her mind drifted to those brothers. She was glad they were safe and had extra protection with Armstrong accompanying them. Now she just wondered when they would get back.

It had been a week since she last saw them, and if she was being honest, she missed the temperamental Fullmetal Alchemist and his sweet-as-sugar younger brother. So, when news came around that they were back in the city, it brightened up her day.

Roy had finally let her get out of the house and get back to work, but only giving her desk work that was usually given to another one of his subordinates.

"But I want some real work," she had complained.

"This is real work," he had shot back. "Right now I am your commanding officer, and you'll do what I say."

If anyone had listened, they could hear Sonia mocking him under her breath while skimming through the files she was given.

Slow work days were the worst, and her stomach was starting to give her pains again. If she let her mind linger on it for too long, she could feel that knife enter her and slice her open still. Her hands would tremble and she would feel extremely dizzy. She needed a distraction, and not just some boring paperwork that was probably overdue. So when Edward and Alphonse came bursting into Mustang's office, she was glad to have finally found her distraction.

Now, it was funny how things worked out. Roy told the Elrics that they were never to interact with Sonia again. Once Sonia was told that, the older brother never heard the last of it. She was so angry with him, and she wanted to knock his teeth out right then and there when he had told her in the hospital. Eventually Roy was just sick and tired of her yelling and told her she could do whatever she waned. He constantly has to remind himself that she's still only a 15 year old, and not just some person he had command over.

'She's still a kid.' He would remind himself, over and over.

Seeing Ed and Al for the first time in a while, Sonia didn't know whether she wanted to hug them or let them suffer her painful wrath, because the last time she had seen Edward, he was on the pavement about to be killed, and his little brother had a front row seat. She was practically fuming, but so relieved at the same time. Before she could say anything, they beat her to it. It was better that way; she didn't know what to say first.

"Sonia!" they both yelled, surprise in their tone.

"We, uh, didn't know you were out of the hospital already..!" They tried to start a conversation, but it felt a little awkward.

Sonia chuckled. "Uh, yeah! I got out a while ago, but I... weren't you here for something?" she tried to go a different direction.

"Yeah, we just wanted to tell the Colonel that we were back."