damned_institute | Day 40: Greenhouse [Fourth Shift]

Most days, fish and chips (and a cold beer or three) was pretty goddamned high on S.T.'s list of perfect expense-account lunches. Today, the idea of picking at greasy hunks of unidentified bottom-feeder odds-and-ends (politely known as scrod, to the delight of teenagers all across the Northeast) didn't appeal.

He begged off and collapsed into his bed, after using his damp shirt as an excuse to surreptiously check the contents of his closet. Bingo. His nurse watched his little show, unimpressed but (more importantly) unsuspicious. Not that his hairy chest was much of a catch today, pale and sweating from fever. At least she didn't tuck him in.

The intercom woke up up right on schedule, and pulling the sheets back over his head almost won. But a handful of unanswered missives and a vague sense of duty dragged him out to the bulletin, and from there it was easier to stagger over to the greenhouse.

It was warm inside -- a deep, humid warmth that actually penetrated to the aches in more joints and muscles than he could remember the names of. Like a sauna, without the hassle of finding someplace to look that wasn't a mound of pasty middle-management cellulite. Or a sweat lodge, without the opposite hassle of being conscious that he was the only white guy in the room. In fact, besides the nurses in holding patterns, he was the only person in the room.

He located a tray of tomato seedlings going rootbound in their tiny six-packs, and a potting bench whose location was a quick-and-dirty approximation of equidistantly far from anything blooming. He assured his nurse he knew what he was doing, and after a couple of successful repottings, gently sliding the little seedlings out and loosening the tangled roots, she seemed to agree and backed off. It was, by far, the most fucking theraputic thing he'd found in this hellhole so far, and he let himself sink into the rhythm of the task.

[Free!]

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"She probably would have. She'd likely have found the moment unspeakably poetic." Despite himself, Adelheid found himself smiling a little. His sister would have loved the moment, he could almost hear her voice speaking so excitedly to him, feel the warmth of her clinging to his strong arm. It had been weeks since he'd last seen her, and yet, he still hadn't forgotten. That was a relief; he was terrified of the notion that someday he might forget what his own sister was like.

...still, he had to ask, "But why exactly were you transmuting flower petals?"

"I guess it kind of was," Ed said, frowning briefly in thought before grinning. "I was a bit too surprised at the time to pay much attention to how it looked though." He'd been too busy staring at his hands as though they'd just turned into the Philosopher's Stone itself.

"Eh..." He looked just a little embarrassed at the question. "It was an accident. Someone made a huge tower out of stone, it began to fall over and I just acted on instinct. It was the transmutation that made me realise I didn't need an array to perform alchemy. I dunno why petals though, but the cleanup took days."

"You turned a stone tower into petals?" That flew in the face of all the rules that Adelheid had laboriously learned from Edward, and while the smaller boy was by far the better alchemist, Adelheid wasn't sure that he was that good. Or if skill could ever explain turning stone into petals.

Ah well. Adelheid still grinned as he finally turned to look at Edward. It was still kind of odd to have someone he trusted like this, but to be honest, it had become almost comfortable. Just knowing that he and Edward were looking out for each other meant a lot to him. "I wish that Rose and I could have seen it. I've never been able to see what you're truly capable of doing."

Ed nodded, attempting to keep something of a serious expression, but probably not managing it very well. He shrugged helplessly in response to Adel's incredulous tone. "I don't know. It just happened," he said. "I was as surprised by it as anyone else." He'd passed the exam by doing something that just shoudn't have been possible and thus his long career of breaking rules had begun.

He grinned back though when Adel turned to him. "It's like breathing, sometimes, in my own world," he admitted. "I do it without thinking. I wish I could show you some of the stuff. I wish I could see what you can do properly too," he added honestly.

"Probably not as surprised as I would have been," Adelheid answered with a quiet smile, as it was incredible to think of such a thing. Really, the transmutation shouldn't have been possible, but it was just so odd, and Edward said it so honestly, that Adelheid couldn't bring himself to think that the other alchemist was lying. Stretching the truth a little, perhaps, but not lying.

As for the other part? It was true; in his own world, Adelheid could control energy as easily as he blinked an eye, and the limits of his potential still hadn't quite been explored. To think that he didn't have even a fraction of the power that should have been his by right... "I wish the same thing. To be so limited when I've focused my life to that kind of power is rather humiliating."

Ed laughed softly at that and nodded. "I think most people were. And the fact that I did it without an array too..." He shook his head, wondering how much the Fuhrer had had to do with that, considering what he'd turned out to be. But it didn't matter. He'd still passed, he'd still won.

"We need to find a way to get our powers back then," Ed said with some determination. "Then we can show them why they shouldn't have messed with us."

Adelheid had seen Edward doing his alchemy with a clap of his hands... amazingly useful, that, even if it was rather counter-productive in this place. It just took too much energy to be anything other than a last resort. But if it was possible to make use of such power, using it freely...

...well, there was still one sticking point. Adelheid looked at those blood-red roses once more, a shiver crawling up his spine as he did so. "...I wouldn't mind having the powers back, in order to get revenge for what they've done to us. But if I get everything back as they were..." Then so too would his curse return, and with it all of the fears that had been steadily lured to sleep by the power this place exerted over him.

Ed sighed softly, understanding the sentiment behind Adel's words, even though he didn't know all of the details. "Equivalent trade," he said quietly, staring down at his metal fingers sadly. "To get something, you have to give up something else. I gave up my alchemy, my freedom, and got to meet you and Tamaki and everyone else in exchange. But I don't know if there can be an even cost for some of this. Not for going back and what comes with it."

"I'm not sure if this would be the same... life isn't as clear-cut as alchemical exchanges. And sometimes, there are gains without any drawbacks." For Adelheid's world, anyway, such things were commonplace. Flashes of insight, glimpses of power, the ability to gain anything without losing anything in return... yes, the idea of equivalent exchange in life was a little beyond him. Or, rather, it was something he just didn't believe in.

Even still, he quietly added, "I'm honored that you consider all of us an even exchange for what you've lost."

Day 40: Greenhouse [Fourth Shift]

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