The Bloody Alchemist

The Sun Can Fuck Right Off

"You bet, wanna go see 'em?"

Cecelia nodded with a wide smile.

Before the two took off, Jean bought her a bouquet of radiant purple Statice. "Remembrance," she thought.

"For you and Gracia when you go see her," He explained.

Jean opened the door to Mustang's office and loudly said: "Look who's finally come to visit!"

Cecelia quickly found herself swarmed with friends she hadn't seen in a long time. She made meaningless small talk with Fuery and Breda and met the new soldiers under Mustang's control. She held the bouquet Jean bought her closely as she reminisced with the people she hadn't seen in forever. She couldn't stop smiling until Breda said, "I'm sorry about Maes, I know he was like a father to you."

"What?" she asked, causing the entire room to go silent. Everyone backed away from her, realizing nobody had told her the horrible truth. Cecelia could hardly stand as Jean explained Hughes death. Cecelia's body moved for her. Her feet sprinting out of the room, her hands dropping the bouquet of memories. She heard Breda and Fuery and Jean call out her name, but her feet moved faster than their words.

She turned corner after corner, tears blurring and blinding her vision as they soaked and burned her face. She turned down a corridor and slammed face first into a tall man. She didn't bother apologizing, she sidestepped out of his way and started to run again until he grabbed her wrist, causing her body to lunge forwards from her stopped momentum.

A voice called her but her ears could hardly comprehend. "Cecelia!" the Colonel yelled.

She looked down, unwilling to let her superior officer see her cry. She did her best to wipe her tears away and asked, "Who killed him?"

Mustang dropped her wrist and spoke. "I'm trying to find that out right now." Cecelia breathed heavily, she didn't know how to reply. She needed to see Gracia and Elicia, she had dropped her memories and the Statice Jean had bought her. "I have a question for you."

Cecelia looked over her shoulder, Hawkeye had been standing next to Mustang quietly. "What is it?" she asked, venom coating her voice, her eyes redder than the roses pulsing through her veins.

"Do you know anything about the fifth laboratory?"

Her fingers balled into tight fists. "The Elrics told me about it. About what they found there. How Hughes was helping them." Cecelia swallowed the lump growing in her throat. "You think his death had to do with that?"

Roy hummed a yes. They stood in silence until Roy put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you going to be alright?" Cecelia's eyes watered again and her shoulders shook as shakey breaths filled her lungs.

"Yeah." She walked away from his hand, going to the exit. Her feet slowly sped her pace until she was back in a full sprint. Cecelia didn't realize where she was running until her legs stopped in front of the Hughes' apartment complex. She panted and though her feet had run here, now she could hardly move. But she forced her feet up the steps to Gracia's door. She knocked lightly on the door and Gracia opened. Seeing her almost adopted daughter red in the face with tears streaming freer than a river caused Gracia's motherly instincts to kick in, pulling the young child into a tight hug. And in her arms, Cecelia broke down bawling like a newborn baby.

Winry held Elicia and Cecelia sat stiffly in a chair, looking down at her lap. Ed and Al walked in at one point after Gracia answered the door. "Winry," he mumbled when he saw the two girls, "Cecelia." She never looked up. Ed had said he needed to tell the lot of them something they didn't know. He explained Hughes finding out about the philosophers stone and how he helped Ed and Al. Cecelia's hands tightened into fists.