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 looked sheepish. "Lloyd and I were still hungry." Then he hastily moved on. "And the cure for the monster-making illness can be found in the greenhouse, which is why we were going there."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar's mouth fell slightly open. For a seasoned fighter, Edward was starting to sound like a clueless child.

"You risked yours and your brother's lives because you were hungry?" What kind of priorities were those?

And the cure... Scar mellowed out at its mention. He had heard whispers of a solution, one safer than surgery. It hardly mattered to him, anymore. He was cured, or close to it. And Frank...

Well, if Frank turned up, he would go from there. But he had yet to appear at breakfast.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed sighed. "Has anyone told you how automail works? And for the record, Lloyd said he didn't get much to eat for supper."

[envy_the_sinners]

"I do not care to know how automail works. Somebody your size should be able to get away with the portions they give us. And you ate two lunches."

How could he have been so reckless? He had be warned, had he not?

[fullmetalheart]

"Actually, due to the way it works, I need twice as much to eat as most people that aren't automails do. There's a reason I ate six pancakes this morning and would have eaten more if the nurse let me," Ed snapped. "And don't call me small!"

[envy_the_sinners]

"That's completely besides the point. You cannot afford to be so reckless. Only leave your room at night for what is necessary."

[fullmetalheart]

Ed folded his arms over his chest and slumped back in his chair to sulk. "I needed that food. And we were planning to do more than just the kitchen."

[envy_the_sinners]

"I know you were, calm down." It was rare that Scar actually told somebody to calm down. But it was about time Edward grew up a little bit. Not to mention the fact that the nurses might sedate him if he were to act up too much.

[fullmetalheart]

"It didn't matter where we go going, anyway. We got attacked in the section of hall right in front of the Sun Room," Ed grumbled, settling down a little.

He still remembered his first morning and he felt no desire to repeat it anytime soon. If nothing else, because his brother might slap him upside the head for getting sedated two days in a row.

[envy_the_sinners]

"It is uncommon that the main hallway is guarded at all... never mind by something deadly." Though, Scar shouldn't be surprised. He had never heard of monsters getting into the M-A hall, either, and yet he had been ambushed by several.

"They're moving closer to the patient rooms, then." That was bad. The rooms were supposed to be safe. What if they broke through completely?

[fullmetalheart]

Ed bit his lip. "Isn't that where we're supposed to not need to worry about stuff getting us?"

[envy_the_sinners]

"Until now, the rooms have always been safe. But I was killed in the M-A hall, which is only one hall over from the dorm hallways." His fingers tightened around his fork.

"If the trend continues, we're as good as dead."

[fullmetalheart]

"...Fuck. Not good." Ed rubbed at his forehead. "I'm going to hope that the one in the hallway you were in was an aberration, because I have no idea what the hell to do if they do move closer."

Then he scowled. "I wish they didn't fuck with my alchemy. My attack on last night's monster shouldn't have taken that much out of me."

[envy_the_sinners]

"But if it is the common trend, we need to rethink our options." Strolling about at night was not going to cut it, anymore. This sickness was starting to look like a distraction from something more sinister.

But what?

"You're damn lucky you can still effectively use it." Scar was all but powerless, here.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed grimaced. "Anything major is out. I might have been able to do what I did last night a couple more times that night, but I wouldn't bet on it. And if I could, I probably would have been useless after."

[envy_the_sinners]

"Then use it conservatively. It might save your own energy, as well."

No more 'emergency' kitchen visits, then.

[fullmetalheart]

"Believe me, I wasn't expecting to need to blow up a monster's arm to make it let go of Lloyd's throat," Ed said drily. "I'm fully intending to save transmutations of that scale for emergencies."

[envy_the_sinners]

"So what kind of creature was it, then?" Scar ought to make some sort of mental profile of what he was up against. Especially if it was making its way into the main hall.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed scratched at the back of his neck. Due to the dark, he didn't get a very good look, not to mention the whole being preoccupied with it attacking Al thing.

"It basically looked human, although creepy, once it revealed itself. Or herself, I suppose since it looked female. There was also lots of hair that it used to trap Al with."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar frowned, stabbing at his pancakes.

"Did it have ghost-like qualities? Or something else...?"

[fullmetalheart]

"We were kinda distracted by--" Ed cut off with a shiver as he felt what seemed to be an extremely cold hand clamp down on his arm. "What the hell?"

Ed looked down at his arm and didn't see anything. That is, nothing beyond the claw-marks that formed in his arm that proceeded to have blood well up.

[envy_the_sinners]

"The hell-" Scar cursed almost in unison with Edward. Those marks hadn't been there only a moment ago.

"Patients have never been attacked in the day time before." He glanced around the cafeteria, but nobody else seemed to be experiencing anything similar. Back to Edward. He looked closely at the new wounds.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed stared down at his arm and watched a trickle of blood make its way to the table. "I don't believe this."

[envy_the_sinners]

"You don't feel as if you've been poisoned, do you?"

[fullmetalheart]

Ed gave Scar a confused look. "Why would I?"