Iserlohnn - continued

THE SECRET OF THE KEY

When Edward awakened the next morning he noticed he was no longer connected to an IV and Tenshi was still in his bed asleep. The little Alchemist was still more hair than boy and Edward wondered how that happened. He climbed out of his bed and picked up the hair hiding Tenshi’s face to see if he was really asleep or just resting. His action awakened Tenshi who looked up at him wide-eyed in puzzlement.

“You don’t just need a mechanic you need a barber too!” Edward commented.

Tenshi sat up. All that hair was a weight on his head and neck. “I look like a freak!” he moaned.

“It’s not that bad,” Edward reassured him.

He smiled at Edward and noticed that his Sempai was wearing a lot less bandages than he remembered and his gold eyes were sharp and clear. Tenshi was happy to see Edward was better. He reached out with his one arm to hug him.

As he sat there clutching Edward close he whispered, “I know how to get Al his body back.”

“How?”

“The person who unseals the Key gets seven wishes,” Tenshi said. “And those wishes can be for anything.”

“Unseals the Key?” Edward queried.

Tenshi nodded and began to explain, “We found the Array you would need to draw in order to perform the Unsealing. The Key Holder and the person who is doing the unsealing charge the circle and enter it together. Once inside they…um…”

He trailed off and began turning an interesting shade of crimson.

“They what?” Edward prompted.

Tenshi was staring down at the bed. He

couldn’t look at Edward and tell him what he needed to know. His face felt hot and Tenshi knew he was blushing and knowing his embarrassment was showing was making him even MORE embarrassed.

Edward gently lifted Tenshi’s face by the chin and made him look up. When their eyes met Edward said quietly, “Whatever it is, you can trust me. I won’t say anything to anyone unless you want me to.”

“I do trust you,” Tenshi said wishing he wasn’t sitting there red-faced and armless. “It’s just…I don’t think you would believe me if I told you I never did it before.”

“Did what?”

“You know….”

Edward figured it out for himself. Despite his flirtatious nature and seeming experience Tenshi Hikaru was still a virgin.

“Are you trying to tell me that the Key is unsealed when the two people-”

“Yes,” Tenshi interrupted not needed to hear Edward say it.

Edward sighed heavily. This was going to make things even more interesting than they already were. “Well, we don’t have to worry about that right now. You need to get your arm repaired and something done about all that hair.”

“Your arm needs to get fixed too.”

Edward glanced over at his metallic shoulder, which was bound into place by an ace bandage. He could feel the connections were either loose or nonexistent and knew getting his whole shoulder remounted was going to suck big time. It was the one part of the Auto-mail attachment process he was actually anesthetized for because it involved drilling holes into his bones. Winry was going to be very pissed off at him. She always got mad at him whenever he got into a fight that damaged his Auto-mail. He was going to get an earful when she found out he screwed up the part that was the most complicated to restore.

“Have you called your mechanic yet?”

Edward grinned a little sheepishly. “Not yet. Guess I may as well bite the bullet and call her now before I lose my nerve.”

Tenshi giggled. “Is she really that bad?”

“You have no idea.”

Edward got on the phone and dialed Winry. His mechanic and friend was initially happy to hear Edward but her tone quickly changed when she found out the reason for his call. Edward had to hold the phone out as far as his arm could extend so as not to be deafened by the volume coming from the other end.

“YOU STRIPPED THE SCREWS FROM YOUR SHOULDER?” he heard Winry’s incensed voice declare. “ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF?”

“Ouch,” Tenshi breathed.

“And you wondered why I wasn’t too keen on calling her,” Edward said aside to Tenshi so Winry couldn’t hear.

“Is she going to yell at me too?”

Edward dared to hold the phone close enough to speak into it and said, “Winry I need you to repair a friend’s Auto-mail too. He got his arm cut off by the same creep that stripped my screws. We’ll pay you extra if you could be here by tonight.”

Tenshi couldn’t hear Winry’s reply, which he took to be a good thing.

“Oh, and by the way, I wouldn’t mind getting an upgrade. Maybe that titanium reinforced-” Edward stopped short when he heard the dial tone. He sighed and hung up the receiver. He looked over at Tenshi and said, “She’ll be here tonight. And I’m blowing my monthly budget to get us repaired ASAP.” Edward got up from the bed and grabbed the mug of lukewarm black coffee he had left by his bedside. He took a swig and, really disgusted with the entire situation stated angrily, “What’s worse is that I’m going to be stuck in this fucking hospital another fucking day because of this fucking shoulder!”

He threw the coffee cup at the wall with such force that it shattered shards of ceramic flying all over the room. At the same time he tossed the cup Alphonse and Hughes were entering the room. They both narrowly missed getting hit by flying porcelain.

“Ed, what’s wrong?” Alphonse asked as he watched his brother fume.

“What’s wrong?” Edward repeated rounding on his brother. Tenshi could swear Edward’s gold eyes were glowing he was so angry. “Do you want the short list or the long?”

“Ed, calm down,” Hughes said approaching Edward slowly.

Edward turned his molten gaze on Hughes. “You’re the intelligence expert. You saw that thing. Tell me how to kill it. Tell me what to do because I am fresh out of ideas!”

“I know you are used to going it alone but this is one situation you can’t deal with on your own,” Hughes told him. “I don’t know how to fight that thing either but a way will be found to destroy it. WE will find the answer and TOGETHER we will beat this creature before it can hurt Tenshi, your brother or anyone else. Understand?”

As he made his last statement the Lieutenant Colonel had his hands on Edward’s shoulders and was face to face with him. Hughes’s calm presence was enough to diffuse the bomb ready to explode inside Edward. He visibly relaxed and allowed Hughes to lead him back to his bed.

Edward climbed into bed remarking, “I need a drink.”

Hughes smirked. “You really are an old man in a kid’s body.”

Edward grinned. “Yeah since I signed on here I’ve been aging in dog years.”

Tenshi peered out from behind the curtain of hair and suggested quietly, “You could wish that thing away….”

Edward shot a look at the lilac-eyed boy. “No,” he told Tenshi. “I know what you told me about the Key Holder. But what you didn’t tell me was what the equivalent exchange is for these wishes.”

Tenshi looked away. “There isn’t one…. unless the wish made is a selfish wish.”

“Then what happens?”

“It depends.”

“Worst case scenario,” Edward demanded.

“The Key Holder…. dies.”

Edward closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

“What’s he talking about?” Hughes asked confused.

“The power of the Divines,” Alphonse said. “For the Gate to be opened and its power harnessed to do your will you need all Seven of the Divines and the Gate Keeper. To just unlock The Gate, you only need the Key Holder. The one who commands the Key Holder and the Gate Keeper has the power to rule two worlds, ours and the one that lies beyond The Gate.”

“Which is exactly what the White-Haired Man wants!” Edward surmised.

“What’s all this about wishes?” Hughes asked Alphonse since he seemed to be the expert right now.

“The Key Holder can give the one that unseals the Key seven wishes, like a genie in a bottle. Only in this case if you wish for the wrong thing you can kill the genie.”

“But what is the wrong thing?” Hughes wanted to know.

“According to what I read, any wish that isn’t pure of heart will destroy the Key Holder,” Alphonse explained. “Which I guess means if you wish to be rich or powerful or anything like that it would be a bad thing.”

Edward looked up at his brother and asked, “Did you read how the Key is unsealed.”

If Alphonse had been physically capable of blushing he would have been beet red. “Um…yeah…I read about that,” he stammered.

Edward grinning mischievously. “So I see.”

“That’s not funny Ed!” Alphonse said beginning to get angry.

“Relax, Al. I just was making sure you got the whole story.”

“What is the whole story?” Hughes wanted to know.

“Well, you see-” Edward began his face starting to go pink.

“SHUT UP ED!” Alphonse and Tenshi said in unison.

Edward laughed. “Sorry, Hughes. You are going to have to read that book yourself.”

Hughes quickly figured out what the big mystery was and chuckled softly to himself. This is what I get working with a bunch of teenagers! They can’t even SAY the word sex without turning seven shades of crimson! He had to keep from laughing, especially at Edward. The Fullmetal Alchemist could engage creatures that would make an ordinary man’s hair turn white but he couldn’t talk about having sex without blushing like a schoolboy. The incongruity of the situation amused Hughes to no end.

“Fine, I’ll read the book. In the meantime you three stay here. Security has been beefed up and there will be guards stationed at your door,” Hughes told them.

“Make sure they all know to let Winry in,” Edward said. “She’s my mechanic.”

Hughes nodded. “Will do, Ed.”

And with that he was gone.

The moment Hughes was out of earshot Tenshi smacked Edward saying, “You PROMISED you wouldn’t tell anyone!”

“I didn’t tell anyone!”

“You were going to!”

“Hughes isn’t just anyone Tenshi. He’s the one that got us our safe house. He’s one of the few people in Central we can trust!” Edward stated.

“You think he wouldn’t try to get the Key for himself?” Tenshi challenged.

“No, he wouldn’t.”

The finality of Edward’s declaration stopped Tenshi short. After a long silence he whispered, “You really believe that.”

“I do.”

“Is there…anyone else you trust that much?”

“Winry,” Edward said. “She’s been like a sister to me and Al. And maybe the Colonel.”

“I’m not so sure about him Ed,” Alphonse broke in. “He has made it plain he wants to be Furher. And he hasn’t been above using us as his means of getting there.”

“Making us do his dirty work is one thing. Risking Tenshi’s life is another,” Edward said in the Colonel’s defense. “And if what the book said is true the Colonel’s wishing to be Furher could probably kill Tenshi. I don’t think he wants it badly enough to kill for it.”

“Are you certain?”

Edward didn’t respond because he couldn’t. His brother’s question made him wonder just how well he knew Roy Mustang. Just because they were sleeping together didn’t mean they knew each other all that well. He would like to think Roy had the decency not to take advantage of Tenshi but he couldn’t be sure. The Colonel was ambitious and that was a fact Edward couldn’t overlook. But would he kill for it?

“Edo-Sempai, the Colonel doesn’t need to know this,” Tenshi said. “Not now anyway. When he needs to know then we’ll tell him.”

Edward absently played with a stray strand of Tenshi’s hair that had found its way onto the edge of his bed. “Okay,” he agreed. “Mustang stays need to know for now.”

Tenshi reached out and clutched the hand that was playing with his hair. “When the time comes…would you-”

“Not now,” Edward interrupted sharply. “We’ll deal with this later. Right now we both need to get repaired and go someplace where we can plan our next move.” Tenshi looked downcast and Edward added in a gentler tone, “I know you don’t want just anybody to perform the unsealing and I know why you want me to be the one to do it. But for us to perform this Ritual now would be wrong because we would be doing it for selfish reasons. We would be doing what we want for ourselves, not what is best for our friends, Amestris and Iserlohnn. Do you understand?”

Tenshi nodded solemnly slowly releasing Edward’s hand. He looked up at his friend saying, “I was right to choose you. You are the only one who could make a wish that was truly pure of heart.”

Edward smiled at him. “When the time comes we will work together to make things right,” he promised. “For Al, you, me and maybe even Amestris and Iserlohnn. But we’ll do the right thing at the right time Tenshi.”

Tenshi’s expression brightened. It would be worth the wait to have Edward be the one to perform the Ritual. Edward had been the one from the beginning who believed in him, cared about him and made him believe there were still good people left in the world.

“So you are really going to do this Ed?” Alphonse asked a little surprised. “I mean…do you know how…?”

“Al!” Edward cried shocked. “I can’t believe you are asking me that!”

“Asking you what? If you know about…you know…”

“Al, trust me. I know how to insert Tab A into Slot B. Okay?”

“How can you be so sure? It’s not like you’ve done it before.” Alphonse stated.

Edward was stopped dead in his tracks. His brother didn’t know he had lost his virginity months ago and that he was involved with somebody well known to them both. Tenshi noticed the hesitation but he had promised Edward he wouldn’t say anything to anyone about Edward’s relationship with the Colonel. Edward and Tenshi exchanged a look. Tenshi bit his lip nervously but said nothing. Edward sighed.

“Look, we’ll figure it out when the time comes,” Edward replied keeping his tone matter-of-fact. He looked up at his brother adding lightly, “I mean, how hard can it be?”

“This isn’t like memorizing how to create an Array Ed. You’re dealing with people’s feelings. It’s like…sharing your soul…” Alphonse endeavored to explain but was getting too embarrassed to continue with the thought.

“Al, it’ll work out,” Edward promised. “I won’t let you down.”

“I know.”

The conversation on that subject ended there. To pass the time while they waited for Winry Edward showed his brother and Tenshi the Arrays he had created and the three boys enjoyed doing what they loved best: learning about Alchemy.
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This is STILL a work in progress. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!! THANKS!!