Pills and Buttons

Button Box

Luna went to visit Ed after Roy had left, having received her hairbrush and was promised a shower the next morning. A shorter blonde was sitting beside Ed, talking quietly to the comatosed body.

"Mustang's really worried about you, so is Winry and Riza. I was about to have a heart attack when the Major told me they found you." He sniffled, turning his head when Luna tapped her knuckles on the wood of the door. "Who are you?"

"Luna. I'm an alchemist too. I was in the basement with him." She drug the brush through her hair, picking out the last tangles and making it a smooth wave of wine colored hair once again. "I was forced to listen to him scream as my father tried to embalm his body alive. I worked with all the chemicals. I wouldn't let him." Alphonse looked sick at the thought of embalmment. He shuttered, standing. He was no more than 5'5", Luna was 5'2". She hated being short.

"Well, thank you for keeping my brother alive." He told her his name, shook her left hand. It was automail covered in living skin. "Did you make a skin sleeve?"

"Yeah, I did. Used color pigments from my own skin and used some other odds and ends to make something strong enough." She peeled down the top of her sleeve, which was about mid upper arm. "I tried to make muscles, but it didn't work. I was a newbie when I did attempt this. Twelve. It was my entry to become a state alchemist." Alphonse nodded, feeling the skin and shuttering.

"That's cool! I think Ed might like some of that." Luna nodded, running a hand through her hair and pulling it back. "I just wonder what he's thinking. What happened to him?"

Luna rose a brow. "You sure you wanna know?"

Al nodded.

"Pull up a seat and get ready to listen."

==========

Alphonse had his jaw hung open by the time Luna finished her story, feeling a bit sick to his stomach. He shook his head, trying to clear his headspace. "Why did you do that to him?"

"It wasn't my choice. I would have been electrocuted and be dead by now. So would he." She waves an arm in Edwards' direction, snarling like a dog. "I know you're upset, trust me I know, but don't ask me why I do things. I was trying to slow the process so Armstrong could find us." Her emerald eyes were piercing, pricked with tears. "Would you prefer to have two fantastic and dead alchemists on your hands? Or one slightly sane and one comatosed one?" Luna swiped at her eyes, running her fingers through her hair and starting to fishtail braid it. She needed to calm down.

Alphonse shook his head, standing and walking to a box set beside Ed. He reached in and took something out, striding back over to her. "Do you know what this is?" It was a silver button, the symbol of state alchemists on the front and four holes in the corner.

"A button from my uniform. I told him to keep it." She pulled a torn piece of red fabric from her pocket and tied off her braid. "A promise piece." Luna held the button, gently setting it on the table. "I told him I would want it back when we both made it out. He never believed me." Al snorted, smiling a bit.

"That's Ed for you." He picked the button up, taking it back over to the box it belonged in. "Tough as nails but untrusting."

"Tougher than nails to be half embalmed. Trust me, that is Hell's flames burning you numb then pealing the skin away and squeezing lemon juice into the red wounds." She shutters in memory, exhausted by the memory of all the chemicals she sent through his blood. Something to thicken his organs, to slow his heart, to preserve his brain, make his eyes shut down... she included that list (which was two pages front and back) with her report. Riza would come by when it was day light, or Roy would. It was midnight after all. Or that's what she figured...

"Okay, the word embalm is off limits around me. It's creepy to think about." Al stuck out his tongue, laughing lightly with Luna.

"Alright, as long as you don't tell anyone I was here. I'm supposed to be in my room, awaiting some new automail parts. I have a mechanic that had to design me some automail ribs. Got to give him an award or something." She bid him goodnight, slipping next door and lying on her cold sheets. She really did want a hot shower right now...

Alphonse hung his head, growing tired. He pulled a blanket from the closet, pulling it over his legs as he sat back in his chair beside Ed's bed. His hair was unbraided, courtesy of the nurses who washed out the blood. It was soft and untangled, golden waves behind his head. It needed a trim, it was nearly at mid back. His lips were parted in a silent snore as he breathed, his lungs learning to control the muscles of the diaphragm again.

"I think you would like Luna. She's real pretty and nice but kind of stubborn." He laughs a bit, smiling sadly. "Like you." He rests his forehead on the bed, sighing before closing his eyes. He was asleep a few moments later.