Free Falling

Chapter 8: Lean on Me

"Why the hell did you run off!?" He yelled at me. I kept a calm face even though inside, I was pissing my pants. I simply sighed.

"I wanted to go for a walk. I was gonna come back." It old him. It was the truth but, I never specified when I was going to come back. Ed looked like he was about to blow a gasket.

"I told you to stay with Winry and Al!" Man, for someone so small he had a pair of lungs...

"Actually, you didn't. You told them to watch me which I took offensively, making me want to walk it off!"I started out calm but now I was gonna blow a gasket too. I hated when people did shit like this!

"Walk it off!? What the hell does that mean!?"

"It means, I go for a walk to get my anger out, before I pop off someone's head!"

Ed clenched his fists and attempted to hit me but I caught his fist, in the palm of my hand.

"If you haven't forgotten Edward," I said through clenched teeth. "I was beaten my whole life. I know how to fight back." I twisted his arm to the side, casually throwing him at a wall with a pissed off look on my face.

I walked away. Scratch that. I ran away from him. As fast as I could. Tears began to well in my eyes and I wiped them away with the sleeve of my shirt. The nerve he had! He doesn't know what it's like to be alone every second of everyday!

He had a loving mother! I never had that! I had no friends! No family that loved me! I was beaten, until I was purple and blue for god sakes! He didn't have that! I know he didn't because this isn't supposed to be real! This is a television show back in my world! The other side of the fricking gate!

He doesn't have the right to do that to me! Treating me like I'm three! I've had to provide for myself my whole life! Even after his mother died, he had Winry! Granny Pinako! Den! People around him to help him through it!

I have no one! I've never had anyone! No one that loved me! No one who cared about me! Who would kiss my bruises I would get from playing soccer with other kids! I got my bruises from my parents!

He doesn't know the pain I've felt! Physically, mentally and emotionally!

I stopped my speech on my head when I came to a small cliff. I sat down; out of breath and crying. Crying because he was so insensitive about my life before I came here. Before he found me. I used to look up too him and pretend I had his strength to get through anything.

But now? Now I know he's a heartless jerk who doesn't think about what emotions he's toying with in other people. Now I loved Winry after I hated her in the show for so long.

I wasn't going with him anymore. I was leaving. As soon as possible. I wiped the tears from my eyes with the sleeve of my sweater.

"Are you okay Anna?" Jay asked; peaking his nose through a small hole in the zipper of my bag.

"Yeah. Just be quiet for now. I don't want to seem crazy." I told him.

"Okay." Was all he said. I still don't understand how I can talk to a flipping dog. I mean, Ed can't speak to animals. Neither can Izumi. I wonder if you have to be from the other side of the gate to be able to talk to animals.

I'll have to do research on it later.

"Anna." Dammit Edward! Leave me the hell alone!

"What the hell do you want Edward?" I growled not facing him. He sighed and sat next to me. I shifted my body to the side to look away from him.

"Look, I'm sor-" I cut him off.

"You're what? Sorry? Sorry for being a complete and utter dumbass jerk who didn't think about how I felt? Yeah save it. I've heard it all before so many times I've lost track." I said harshly. He stayed silent. I didn't move. He didn't move.

After a few minutes, I heard shuffling and arms wrapped around me in an awkward kind of way from behind. My gaze flew up from the ground to the blue sky in front of me. Ed was hugging me. I'm gonna have a flip attack.

"I know I was a dumbass jerk. I had no right to say and do what I did." He said quietly into my ear. I pulled his arms off me and stood up, slinging my bag carfully over my shoulder. A puppy was in it. I couldn't swing it around carelessly.

Anyways, I started to walk away slowly. I stopped a few feet away.

"You know Ed, most kids got their bruises and cuts from playing soccer with their friends. I got mine from my parents. You have a mom and dad that love you right? I've never had that." I explained. I had to be careful of what I said. Couldn't say had. I had to say have.

"Actually, my dad was an ass who left us when we were young. And my mom is dead." He told me. I already knew it but it crushed my soul everything I heard it.

"You had a mom that loved you at least right? When you were younger?"

"Yeah."

"And you have Winry. Who else do you have? Oh there's Al. Anyone else?"

"Winry's grandmother. Granny Pinako. Our teacher. Friends and neighbors that helped us with her death." He listed them off.

"That's what I thought." I turned to him with tears in my eyes. His eyes widened at them. "If you were to die, people would come to your funeral. Cry for you. Mourn over their loss. Me? My family would have a party to celebrate my death. I've never had anyone to help me through anything. You have." I turned again and wiped my cheeks of tears before walking again. I shoved my hands into my pockets again and closed my eyes slightly while I walked.

I felt Ed's gaze on me as I slowly turned the corner. And then it hit me. Why we hated each other so much. We were exactly alike. Stubborn. Short tempered. Hurt. In pain. Refuses to speak about things unless we have too.

"Anna!" I turned my head to see Ed running up too me. I turned my whole body to face him and he barreled at me. Then hugged me. Again. I want much taller then he was so it wasn't... awkward. Well, more awkward then it would have been.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I was stupid and carless and angry and worried all at once. And I took it out on you when I should have 'walked it off'." He explained hugging me closer before continuing.

"You've gone through more then I have, you don't have someone to lean on. I have more then one. So now, I'll be that person you can lean on."

For the first I'm in my life, I felt safe. In the arms of Edward Elric. In a world that shouldn't exist. For the first time, I knew what it was liked to be hugged. Hugged with meaning. And for the first time, I hugged someone back.

I was safe where I was.

Safe.

In the arms of Edward Elric.

Who would have thought?