Every Visit Counts | FMA

Chapter 8

What Could've Happened

Your POV

[Resembool, Amestris, you and Ed are 12]

You felt like such a freaking idiot. What was wrong with you? How could you yell at Edward that way, and just watch as he ran? The look upon his face never once left your head.

Where could he have gone? Even as you asked yourself this, you knew exactly where he ran off to. The graveyard.

But if you went, would it be running straight into something private? He was most likely paying a visit to his mother, at her final resting place. You just couldn't show up, and take away the privacy he'd most likely want.

You knew you needed to go after him, but you also knew that he despised showing weakness. Espeicallly to you. Though, he seemed to let loose around you, too. 

You just couldn't decide. Finally, you went after him. Straight for the silent, and otherwise deserted graveyard. What you saw, broke your heart into a thousand pieces. Honestly, you felt as if you could never put them back together again. 

Edward, was standing before his mother. Tears streaking his cheeks. He was uttering words that you knew all too well. Guilt. Regret. Pain. Every emotion, packed into every word.

"M-mom...I know, I've killed you...the second time," he sniffs. "B-but if-if you could please...forgive me, and watch over me. Help me to not hurt everyone. I know it's selfish of me to ask...b-but mom...I-I need you." He hiccups. "I just want my mom."

His voice was cracking, and you felt tears well up in your eyes. He was hurting. And when he was hurting, you hurt with him. He just wants his mother, yet that's the one thing he can't have. Once someone is dead, you can't get them back.

"E-Edo." You used the nickname that was only shared between the two of you as children. He whips around to see you, and all traces of emotion- even tears- were gone. You crumple completely, and pull him to a hug. He gasps in surprise.

"I-I thought you were mad," he grunts, trying to hide the traces of emotion in his voice but only failing to do so. You hug tighter, and marvel at how much he's shaped up since he last left. You could feel a lot of muscle.

"I could never stay mad at you," you whisper, voice shaking. "Never, ever." He sniffs, and finally hugs you back. Holding you close to him, and packing the words that he couldn't say in the gesture.

I'm so sorry.

You could feel them, and didn't have to hear them. Edward doesn't stop hugging you, and you oblige. You couldn't help but notice the smallest of details with him.

I think he's grown an inch or two, you think distractedly. And his hair's gotten so long. He also feels so warm, and his muscles are so toned.

These changes didn't matter to you, though the cool of his automail was new. Seeing the metallic limbs on him was admittably strange to you, yet that didn't stop you from hugging him. And it didn't change the way he was so comforting to you in life, or how the scent of him was just so safe.

When you pull away, you were close enough to see those light, adorable freckles dotting his nose. Close enough to see every golden fleck in those bright eyes of his. Close enough, to see that small curl of his lip. The smirk that he always gave you.

"You seemed to have gotten over whatever it was that I did this time to piss you off, pretty fast," he grins. "Sometimes, I wonder if your moods are worse than Winry's."

"Don't compare her and I," you sniff shakily, not being on very good terms with Winry. Even though you looked up to her, and wanted to be like her in some ways, you just couldn't seem to get her to like you. Edward sensed the tensity in the air, and dropped it.

"Do you know where Al went?" he asks, looking around as if his brother would appear out of nowhere. How hard was it to find a 7 foot suit of armor, anyways? Then again, Alphonse has always been good at hide and seek as a child.

"He ran off," you shrug, unable to provide much of an answer. "You upset him pretty badly, I hope you know."

"Yeah yeah yeah," Edward brushes you off. "I'm only worried because...it looks like it's going to rain, and we don't want him outside if it does."

"Why?" you wonder aloud, forgetting the circumstances just for one moment. Edward looks at you with his winning 'duh' face.

"His blood seal..." he states, as if this were the most obvious thing in the entire world. "We don't want it to wash off, now, do we?" You blush slightly at the fact that you forgot.

"I'm sorry, I'm not used to one of my childhood friends being a suit of armor," you speak sarcastically. "We better find him, then. If he could get hurt in the rain."

To you, it was sort of sad. How much Alphonse enjoyed the rain as a boy, yet, he couldn't enjoy the drops now. Come to think of it, Edward couldn't either. His automail would hurt too much, and it would be terrible for him to start aching. 

"Today's a bad day for rain," you frown to yourself, beginning to walk in search of the younger Elric Brother. Edward nods in agreement, and starts to wince a bit, clutching his right shoulder. You wince a bit as well, because he looked to be in so much pain.

As you continue to walk, the rain began to fall from the sky. Edward groans to himself, and you pray that Alphonse was smart enough to at least be under a tree. The worry was clear in the air around Ed. He just kept looking around, hair whipping and coming out of its braid.

"Edward!" you shout, pointing to a tree as he fell to the ground in pain. He was clutching his shoulder, and whimpering in pain. It was all so sudden; you couldn't see it coming. Fear clotted your mind as he let out one more spasm of pain, then blacked out.

You were stuck, in the middle of nowhere. Edward, passed out, as you both got hit with rain. You couldn't leave him, yet you couldn't just stand here, either.

Because, you were afraid of being out in the rain.