Day 69: Breakfast

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar scowled, both relieved and angry that he had woken up once again in his own bed. That lanky man who had become his new roommate on the night of his death was sound asleep one bed over.

This was coming to be the new "normal." It was infuriating.

As always, he begrudgingly followed his nurse into the cafeteria and took a seat. He preferred to file in with the majority of the patients in order to avoid sticking out, but no such luck this morning.

Scar stared at his food rather than starting in on it, despite the newly found appetite that had been lost thanks to that blasted sickness. He had a lot to think about. He hadn't managed to find Frank last night. The damn intercom had beaten him to it. And judging by Tsubaki's reaction to him, he had been out for at least a day's time. How many had noticed? Cared? It couldn't have been many.

But it was the few who did whose detection Scar was desperate to avoid.

[Eddyyyy!]

Comments

[fullmetalheart]

Ed woke up with the sound of the intercom, disoriented. One moment, he was with Al, Lloyd, and Murphy, the next not, and he had no idea how he ended up in bed.

The nurse entered the room to get him. "I see you're awake. Come on and get your breakfast."

"Lemme wake up properly, first," he said crankily as he dug the heel of his hand into his eyes in an effort to help wake up. He was soon up and moving.

After getting his food, he found an out of the way spot away from the main crowd that was blocking his view and sat down to dig into breakfast. He had more pancakes than the nurse was happy with, but he had pointed out that he was still a teenager and needed a lot of food.

He tried to survey the crowd for his brother and soon gave it up as a bad job and concentrated on his food instead of anything else going on.

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar glanced up from his food as more people began filing in. He took careful note of each additional patient, looking for his allies for no other reason to make sure that they were still alive after the day he had been gone.

He hadn't even heard whatever had killed him sneaking up behind him. Had it ventured farther into the Institute? Killed more people?

Scar's stormy thoughts were cut off as he saw a stocky blond boy shuffle in with the other patients. Clearly he was seeing things. It couldn't be...

It took the Ishbalan several moments of staring to make sure. By the time he stood up to approach the Fullmetal Alchemist, the boy had already sat down with his food. He swallowed as he approached the table. How would Edward react? How much did he remember? Lust had come here from after Scar's death, yet Scar himself had arrived after she had. What did that mean for Edward?

"They've taken you, too?" What else was he supposed to say? They had never been on good terms.

Not that Scar had ever been on good terms with anyone from back home.

[fullmetalheart]

That was not a voice Ed ever expected to hear again and he sucked in a breath that unfortunately coincided with trying to swallow his food, resulting in him choking for a minute.

Airway cleared, he spun around to stare at Scar with wide eyes. "You're alive," he heard his voice say, not remembering making a conscious decision to say anything.

[envy_the_sinners]

The boy's reaction posed another slight confusion: Which 'resurrection' was he talking about?

"Judging by you relatively calm demeanor, I'm guessing that this is not your first time waking up here." Scar settled into a chair across Edward, watching him carefully.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed nodded. "Second day here. I, uh, didn't handle finding myself here yesterday morning very well."

He took a bite of food. "Lust told me that something got you the night before I woke up here." Have a question answered, Scar.

[envy_the_sinners]

"Nobody does," Scar grumbled, his way of being reassuring. He huffed, slouching back in his chair a bit.

"Something like that." He had never even caught a glimpse of whatever had finished him off. "She explained how things work here, then?" Best not to talk about his death. It was pointless.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed nodded. "Yeah. As much as she could think of." A pause. "I ate her lunch. She didn't want it."

Ed ate more food. He was hungry, dammit. "Anyone I should watch out for?"

[envy_the_sinners]

"Other than the orderlies and the nurses?" Scar shrugged, taking a brief look around the slowly filling cafeteria.

"Not many. For the most part the prisoners are together in just wanting to get the hell out of this place." Though if Edward had gotten his information from Lust, it had probably been biased in the wrong direction. And the boy had asked, so... "The man called Lingormr. He has the ego of a State Alchemist and the power of a dozen. And he's not afraid to use it."

And he enjoyed picking on the particularly hot-tempered. But that didn't need mentioning.

"Beyond him, I have yet to have an issue with another patient. There are a surprising number of... friendly people, here." It was strange, not being preceded by his formidable reputation. More people had smiled at him here than they had in the past several years in Amestris.

[fullmetalheart]

"I already know to look out for them," Ed said in a waspish tone as he remembered the events from his first morning.

He chewed on another mouthful of food thoughtfully as he digested what Scar told him. "I'll keep that in mind."

[envy_the_sinners]

"And don't go out alone at night." Scar didn't care if somebody had already told Edward this. He was doubling that warning.

"You need somebody at your back." His hand unconsciously touched the perfectly healed skin on his throat.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed grimaced. "Yeah, already found that out last night. If there hadn't been three of us, we'd've been fucked."

[envy_the_sinners]

"What happened?" His gaze intensified. There didn't seem to be an outward sign of injury on the boy's body...

[fullmetalheart]

Ed twitched. "A cat called... something. It was pretty damn fixated on Al and tried to drag him into the darkest part of the hallway."

Ed winced as he remembered a bit of the fight. "I tried using your trick to make it let go of both him and Lloyd after it grabbed him too, but uh, it made things worse."

[envy_the_sinners]

"Alphonse? He's here? Is he alright?" Scar's head snapped around as he looked for the younger Elric. He certainly stood out, being the hulking suit of armor that he was. Unable to find him, Scar looked back to Edward. Lust had already told him that he had survived the transmutation, but beyond that...

[fullmetalheart]

"He's okay," Ed said hastily. "He needs a lot of band-aids, and is gonna be twitchy around cats for awhile, but he's okay."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar sat back in his chair and paused for a moment before realizing... bandages?

"So he's returned to his body, then?"

It wasn't fair. Why were they here? Why were either of them here? What caused someone to be taken, anyway? There was no rhyme or reason to it... A dead serial killer, a homunculus, and two alchemist brothers. What did the Landel bastard want with all of them? It couldn't have been a coincidence that they all knew one another at home.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed nodded, switching to happy. "Yeah. He said he was going to try to find Lust this morning since I relayed that she wanted to see him. He's probably found her and is eating breakfast with her somewhere."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar stared at Edward in awe for a long moment before turning his gaze back to the room at large then back down to the table. If he wished to speak with Alphonse, then he would wait until he was finished with Lust.

He would fight that battle later.

"I'm glad," he grumbled, suddenly aware that he had left his food at the other table. Oh, well.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed ate another bite of food. "Did you finish eating already or have you not gotten anything yet?"

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar frowned, embarrassed.

"I forgot it at my table." He took that as a cue to retrieve it, doing his best to keep a low profile as he crossed the steadily filling cafeteria. He returned, setting his tray down and beginning to eat. Only then did he realize how truly hungry he was. Scar hadn't been eating anything decent for several days, thanks to the sickness.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed facepalmed while Scar was gone. How could one forget about their food? But he was back to eating when Scar came back.

"We were pulled from shortly after Lust helped kill Sloth," Ed said after concentrating on his food as a tactful way of saying they were from the same day she died.

[envy_the_sinners]

"I have no idea when that was, nor do I know who 'Sloth' is." Despite having been so deeply involved in the Elrics' story, Scar knew surprisingly little. The only information he had had either been relayed from the Elrics themselves or through Lust, and bot sources were spotty for varying reasons.

But he could make his own connections. 'Sloth' easily could have been another homunculus, and Lust had told him that she had defected from her companions some time after his death. But there was too much that he didn't know.

[fullmetalheart]

"The same day she died," Ed said quietly. "Envy took Al and I chased after him, and left Lust to deal with Wrath on her own. If I had to guess, I'd say that I got pulled from right about the same time."

He took a deep breath and stared down at his food. Ed wasn't sure how hungry he was anymore. "Your brother wasn't the only one to want a loved one back."

[envy_the_sinners]

It took a while for it all to sink in. Lust had been frustratingly hushed about the events following his death, or even details about what led up to it. She had never mentioned names like Envy and Wrath.

He looked back up at Edward. It all hit him at once.

"Then Sloth was... your sin?" He had never taken the chance to consider how the Elric boys had lost their bodies. But now that Edward mentioned it, it all fit. It was a miracle they had both held onto their sanity. Scar cringed when he remembered his brother- the search for the Stone, the war, the transmutation. It had pushed him over the edge. There had been only a brief moment of clarity in his dying minutes. And yet Edward and Alphonse Elric fought. That was why they had joined with the military. Why they had risked their lives. They needed to set it right.

And what had Scar done? Go on a killing spree? Once again, those boys proved how much stronger they were than he was.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed closed his eyes, afraid to see the look on Scar's face.

"We just wanted to see Mom smile again," he whispered. "We didn't know it would go so horribly wrong."

He laughed bitterly. "My arrogance in thinking I knew better than the adults that forbade human transmutation almost got us killed. Both that night, and when Sloth tried to kill us."