Heart In The Armor (Alphonse X Reader)

And How Much I Care About You

~(Y/N)'s POV~

I wake up in a hospital room, with a very weird feeling in my back and chest, I look down to see my armpits to my waist covered in bandages, then I cover myself up with a hospital gown I found. I see a curtain on the other side of the room. I start to walk over to it but after a few steps, collapse. "Hello?"

I hear Ed's voice from the other side, I grab the curtain and open it to see Ed without an arm, and a new stitch on his face. "What the hell did you do?" He looks at me in confusion, and I see Al equally confused in the corner, in a box with his helmet on top of it. Then see the same doctor from last time walk in.

"Ok, well you three got yourselves into something, haven't you? Well, I'm not going to ask about the box, but the boy will be out today, but, the girl will need a few days to recover. Knowing you idiots, you will want to go somewhere else, keep her on break for a few days, will you? Her spine was dislocated, and a rib was broken, so we had to add in connectors, so stay in central." She walks out of the room.

So, I laugh, but instantly hold my chest in pain. "Well, you heard what she said, let's go, we wouldn't find anything about the Philosopher's Stone in a hospital, will we?" I look around the room and find a wheelchair, "Ed, put Alphonse in the wheelchair." He does so, very carefully, and struggling at the same time to do so. I quickly close the curtain and change into my street clothes. Then I start walking, very slowly, to the Headquarters.

When we finally get there, I'm awaited by a very angry Ross, Brotch, and Mustang. I sigh and walk over to them, Mustang starts lecturing me.

"What where you thinking? They could've been killed! Your life is now before theirs, don't forget that." He looks down at me, and I stare at the ground and look for an answer. "Well? What do you have to say for your actions?" I look back at Ed and Al, Ed looks like his head is about to fly off in anger, I give them both a reassuring smile, and turn back to him.

"What is the cost of a human soul, Mustang."

"What are you getting a-"

"Every human is worth the same, body or not, it's us who decide what that soul is worth to a person, if you think about it, everyone is worthless, because everyone's the same, even what a human body is made of, basically pocket change." I look back up, staring right at him. "So, all of these lives are of equal worth, Mustang."

"Papa! What's that stuff you do with those.... circles?" I try to pronounce the word. I'm currently three, and my father came home for a while.

"Well, pumpkin, it's called alchemy." He said, sitting down next to me on the couch.

"Al.... alchemy?"

"Well... say I have a sandwich, and I have the ingredients to a sandwich. Since it's an equal value, I can turn it into a sandwich or out of a sandwich." He said, as he got up to get something. He came back with a rock and a piece of chalk. "Now say I have a rock. I want to make this rock into something, but it's still a rock, it can go back to its physical form." He started drawing onto the rock, and it turned into a stone flower. He gave it to me.

"Show me more, Papa!"

I incidentally spit out his name, then walk past him, Mustang being in shock, Ross and Brosh surprised. I didn't care, I slowly walked passed them confidently, feeling on top of everything.

When I get to the library, I see Sheska with a pile of paper, and excitingly walks over to us. "I have Dr.Marcoh's research!" She puts the papers on the table. I look at them.

"It's just.. cooking recipes?" I look around at the other notes, they're all the same.

"No.. Alchemists like to put their research in plain sight. So, it makes sense, remember Dr.Marcoh saying 'the truth within the truth?' This could be what he means." Ed said, looking at the recipes with a smirk on his face. "Then we'll have to de-code all of this research!" He exclaimed. Ed sat down as Sheska walked away. And we began looking.

And so, that started the week and a half of absolute hell.

~Third Person POV~

The trio have been sitting in the library, without sleep and living on bits of food, for days. Brosh and Ross would occasionally check in on them, but they where always to focused to look back up. Armstrong and Hughes came to visit now and then, but they couldn't get them to stop researching on the stone.

Until one day, when the short blonde boy threw a book into a wall.

"Ed, what are you doing?" (Y/N) said without looking up for a second. Then took a second to read over her notes, and felt a wave of dread hit her. "Oh my....." She looks back down, in shock, Alphonse slowly sees what happened.

"Who would do such a thing?...." Al muttered.

Footsteps echoed in the library of Brosh and Ross. "Is everything ok in here? I heard something was thrown." Brotch said, looking around the messy room. "The stone..... it's.....

The stone is made of live humans!"