Arisa pov:
I began to get frantic searching for the chimera through the dark streets and alleys – being a mouse chimera, I could only guess that he would find solace in a place where he couldn't be seen or found. But even if he did hide, what good would it do? Perhaps he would be out of sight of the military but he wouldn't be able to find food or shelter. If he came out into the open, either the military or common folk who only feared and loathed chimera would hurt him.
The only person who could help him now was me.
"Ah, dammit, I don't even know his name to call out for him," I muttered when I stopped a moment to look around. I had been searching for him for half an hour to no avail.
Turning around, I walked backwards while eying the route I had taken to come here. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I bumped into someone suddenly. But I was quick to relax upon seeing Envy.
"You're still here?" I asked.
"Why are you looking for the creature?" he questioned, frowning and folding his arms over his chest.
"Don't address him as if he's some animal. He's a person too, you know?" I retorted as he fell in pace beside me.
"He is an animal, a disgusting creature," Envy sneered and I stopped walking.
Facing him with a frown of my own, I said, "Envy, what do you have against chimera? People call them monsters just the way the call homunculi monsters. You out of all people must know how it feels to be called that."
"So what if humans call them monsters? They are monsters. We're different!"
"How?" My sharp question stunned him momentarily. It angered him too and he was quick to grab my shoulders and shove me against the nearest wall.
"Because we are replicas of humans who actually existed! That thing is not even a full human!"
"Homunculi may be replicas of the humans they were before, but they are artificial, created by alchemy. Scientifically, it means homunculi aren't even partially human. But chimera are at least partially human and that boy is a combination of a human and a mouse, a combination of two, real, existing creatures of this world. The only reason why he's a chimera is because someone used alchemy on him forcefully. Homunculi and chimera are similar in that way, aren't they?"
This was a difficult topic to talk about for both me and Envy, especially more for the latter since I knew how Envy felt about humans mistreating homunculi for their differences.
Envy clenched his jaw and turned away from me in anger. "What's the point in talking to you about this anyway? You're a human too so you would obviously support your kind first."
Sighing softly, I stepped to stand in front of him. He didn't pull away when I reached to hold his hands in mine and shifted his gaze to our hands while I spoke. "Please, Envy, I know you understand. You didn't want to be lonely and you wanted someone to treat you right, didn't you? As a friend, a comrade, and giving you an important place in their life. I'm sure chimeras feel that way too. Besides, you know me better than that, right? After everything we spoke about and everything that has happened between us, would you still say I would support humans who shun others so cruelly?"
His glare faltered when he met my eyes. Still, not wishing to give up, he scoffed. There was apparent embarrassment in his expression though, that made me chuckle. With a shake of my head, I cupped his cheeks to kiss him with mild hesitation. Such gestures and the very concept of love were still new to me and territory I was slowly exploring but I had always been the bold type. It was in my blood. So, even though I was mildly nervous, I wanted to experience my feelings to the fullest while making Envy happy.
Envy tensed for only a moment before pushing me back by the shoulders and slamming me against the wall to kiss me back properly. The force he had used hurt not just my shoulders but my back too. His kiss was unexpectedly forceful and he had pressed himself up against me. His desperation was clear, his desire for me to love him as I did and receive honest, unbiased feelings despite all odds was somewhat heartwarming.
And I was definitely not complaining about how we were flush against each other.
Almost involuntarily, I lifted my arms to wrap them around his torso gently. He tensed again at that but soon relaxed into the kiss. The hair on the base of my neck stood, and I suppressed a tremble in response to my fast beating heart.
Tilting his head and parting his lips more, he deepened the kiss and it sent a whole new wave of overwhelming sparks through me. I had opened my eyes in mild surprise but smiled slightly into the kiss noticing that Envy had his eyes still shut tightly. Parting my lips a little too, I caressed him as much as I could.
It was a moment before I felt something warm against my lips. He had licked me and it felt oddly pleasant. I copied him and he shuddered before pressing himself harder against me. I was beginning to feel squished between him and that hard wall, and rather breathless because of the kiss too.
I was glad when he broke the kiss but he didn't let me go and only lowered his head to my shoulder in an almost-embrace. His hands were on the wall on either side of me. I rested my chin on his shoulder waiting a little impatiently until he was calm enough to let me go – I was anxious to find the chimera yet I couldn't bring myself to interrupt Envy. I didn't want him to get angry at me again or think I was pushing him away.
When he finally shifted away from me, I dropped my arms to the side. He was scowling but the expression in his eyes said otherwise. I smiled at that and asked, "Now are you alright with me looking for the chimera?"
He gave me no response as he walked away. I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything either as I turned to head into another alley to look for the chimera.
"Hey, idiot," Envy called, making me halt and twitch in mild annoyance. However, his next words brought a small smile onto my face. "You're going the wrong way! He's on that side."
Looking at him, he was pointing to an alley while scowling and looking anywhere but at me. It made me laugh, all the more because he seemed like quite a soft-heart on the inside. He loved killing and enjoyed making humans suffer, but when it came to things he liked or wanted, he was comically soft.
"Thank you, Envy," I said before following the path he had pointed to.
Sure enough, at the very end of the dark alley was the trembling silhouette of the chimera. His whimpers sounded like soft squeaks of a mouse and he had his hands on his head, his ears down and twitching, and his tail wrapped around him. Upon hearing my approaching footsteps, he tensed and raised his head quickly to look at me with wide, frightened eyes. Shrieking, she pushed against the ground with his heels to press himself as much as possible against the wall.
His state roused anger and sadness in me. He was hysteric, scurrying from wall to wall of the dead-end alley while glancing at me every now and then with squeaks of desperation. I held both hands up to show him that I was unarmed and meant him no harm.
"It's okay, it's okay," I cooed. "You don't have to be scared. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help."
My words did not help. It did not lessen his fright nor did it reduce his tears and trembling. I felt a twinge in my heart. I knew that the only thing I could do now was give him space and time to calm down and trust me enough so I could help him. Thinking so, I sat down on my knees slowly, without any sudden movements that could startle him more. Having noticed that, the chimera stopped scurrying about and eyed me curiously and cautiously, not as panicked as before.
I removed my hat and glasses and kept them aside, and unzipped my jacket a bit too so my face was better visible. My appearance must have made him wary more than he was – with only my eyes visible, I must have looked threatening.
I regarded the chimera with a soft smile while I spoke, "I'm going sit here and wait until you come to me yourself, okay?"
He flinched but remained where he was, still and observing. To make sure he didn't feel any sort of pressure from me, I shifted my gaze to the walls and the sky and at anything that wasn't him. I was, however, alert of every movement he made.
It was almost an hour before he had inched towards me. He had come close enough to sniff me and retreat to the wall – he did so several times and I only smiled at him each time. My waiting finally paid off when he approached close enough to look over my face curiously. I lifted a hand and he flinched but waited tensely without moving away from me. He cringed and cowered when I placed my hand on his head gently.
Noticing that I had no intention of hurting him, he relaxed and leaned into my touch. I caressed him a few times until he trusted me enough to snuggle into an embrace with his arms wrapped around my neck. Wrapping my arms around him elicited a content hum from him.
I couldn't let anyone hurt him anymore...he was an innocent child and deserved so much more than the abuse he had been put through. His innocence and the softness of his embrace made me wish to protect him no matter what.
When he broke the embrace, he sat comfortably on his knees in front of me with his tail swishing about. His big, doe-eyes watched me curiously. Smiling at that, I took off my jacket and put it over his bare shoulders. He seemed surprised and tensed but soon held the jacket closer around his frame with a shiver. I'm sure the lingering warmth in the jacket felt good.
"Do you have a name?" I asked, caressing his head and ears gently again.
He thought for a moment, looking into my eyes as if searching for something, then said, "Stupid creature."
I paused caressing him, stunned that he had thought that insult was his name. I recalled that the thief had addressed him with that insult but to think he had used it to the extent of making this boy think that was his name was baffling. How much could he have misused this pure child?
"No," I said, "form now on, your name is Leo. And you're going to be with me from now on. I will take care of you, Leo."
Though he was a mouse chimera, the golden hair and round ears sort of reminded me of a lion.
"Leo," he mumbled softly and I nodded in affirmation.
As I stood, I gathered him into my arms. It was a bit of a strain to carry him because my still-healing bruise throbbed but I knew he needed to rest. I could bear with the strain. He wrapped his arms around my neck and rested his cheek on my shoulder and made himself comfortable.
"Leo," he mumbled again then giggled. "Leo happy! Happy!"
"My name is Arisa. A-ri-sa," I said, noticing that his speech had been impaired by the transmutation. Well, it was fine as long as he could communicate basic words.
"Ari...Ari sama! Leo like Ari sama!" he chimed as I brought my jacket hood over his head.
I chuckled and shook my head and began to head back to the headquarters. I patted his back and listened to his incoherent mumbling the whole way.
I was dreading to face the freaked out Col. Mustang, considering how long I had been out here. It was a surprise that there already wasn't a search party sent out to find me. However, it seemed that the colonel wasn't the only one worried about me. Several people I knew in the headquarters rushed to me with worried expressions on their faces.
"Miss Arisa! Are you alright?"
"Where had you gone?!"
"We were worried that you got hurt or something worst happened!"
"You're alright, aren't you?"
Leo tensed and tightened his arms around me, his trembling having returned. His tail that had been swishing around until now was wrapped tightly around my waist. He was whimpering softly as well and it made me wonder just how much abuse he had suffered because of humans to be so frightened upon just hearing someone speak.
"I'm fine. It just took me a while to find the chimera. Thank you for worrying about me," I said with a chaste bow.
"This is the chimera from the case?" one asked, finally noticing Leo in my arms. His expression turned to disgust after I nodded and he muttered, "Disgusting filth."
Leo flinched again and I clenched my jaw in annoyance. I said nothing though and gave a chaste bow to the general who was still eyeing Leo with narrow eyes and a frown. "General, I need to report to Col. Mustang now. I'm sure my team is worried."
He met my eyes, his gaze relaxing to a pleasant smile. "Ah, yes, you should do that. It's almost morning and they've been waiting anxiously in the office all night. If you didn't turn up in another half hour, I'm certain the colonel would have sent out a search party."
With another bow, I excused myself while patting Leo's back in reassurance that I would not let anyone hurt him. "Don't worry, Leo. I promise I won't let anyone hurt you."
His trembling eased a bit making me smile.
When I reached my office, I was bombarded by a million questions, especially from Lt. Havoc. Everyone was very worried because I hadn't turned up for almost three hours after the thief case was solved. They kept asking me if I was hurt or if I ran into some trouble or if I was tired because of no proper sleep for two days in a row. I had answered them patiently saying that everything was fine and it just took me a little time to find the chimera.
"You nearly gave all of us a panic attack there, Arisa. I'm just glad that you're unharmed," said the colonel, leaning back in his chair with a relieved sigh.
With an amused huff, I said, "C'mon, Colonel, you underestimate my skills. I mean, when fending off Scar was pretty easy for me, I don't think a chimera would pose a threat."
"That's true, I suppose, but chimera have abilities other than alchemy," he pointed. I shook my head with an amused smile still in place. The colonel always acted so high and mighty but when it came down to his comrades, he was quite the worry wart. It was comical but also heartwarming.
"So, is that the chimera in the theft case?" he added, glancing at Leo.
"Yes, he's a mouse chimera. I saw him transform from a mouse to a human when he was helping the thief."
"I see. Very well, we'll have to send him to the research department. They're researching transmutation of perfect chimera and this one will be a good addition to the specimens."
I clenched my jaw at the colonel's words. He seemed to be just like everyone else, thinking of chimera and homunculi as monsters, animals with no feelings or emotions, and just specimens to use for research. I only sighed though, and let Leo down to stand on his own. He didn't turn around and only wrapped his arms around my waist, pressing himself as close as possible to me. I placed my hands on his shoulders while eyeing the colonel.
"Actually, Colonel, I was wondering if I could take care of him."
He raised a brow, glancing at Leo once before looking back to me. "Take care of him? Now why would you want to take care of a chimera?"
Looking down at Leo with a slight frown, I said, "He's just a kid and I don't want him to become a specimen for the military's research and suffer."
"Well, you're still a kid too," Lt. Havoc mused in a bored tone. I met his eyes, my brow twitching.
"I'm sixteen."
"Still makes you a kid," he replied, shrugging.
Shaking my head, I looked back to the colonel. "Anyway, the point is that I don't think it's a good idea locking him up as a research specimen. I know that it's important for the military to research perfect chimera but this kid has been though abuse long enough. He's terrified of humans. He took a whole hour just to believe that I wasn't going to hurt him and just approach me. I felt really uncomfortable seeing how scared he was and I don't want him to get hurt again. Because I know what it feels like."
"But having a thing like that live with you-" I glared at Lt. Hawkeye before she could complete her sentence, rendering her silent in surprise. I could feel the curious gazes of the others in the room as well, in surprise my sudden change in demeanor.
"Thing?" I hissed sharply. "This is a human we are talking about. Everyone always calls them disgusting and filthy just because they are part animal but have any of you thought for even a moment about how much it must be hurting them? They didn't become chimera because they wanted to. Humans create chimera from other humans, whether it be helpless children, innocent civilians or prisoners. They don't take part in the experiment because they want to. They become chimera because don't have a choice!"
My voice was an octave higher now, obvious anger visible in my tone and expression. Many soldiers outside the office had stopped by the door to see what the commotion was all about. I could hear them whispering, saying that I shouldn't be speaking to my superior in such a way, but I didn't care. I hated when people were abused for being different, especially when it was someone else's fault, and I didn't care who I had to speak up against to get that point through their thick skulls.
"If you ask me, I think that people who think creating a perfect chimera as a great achievement are disgusting and filthy. You all think so high and mighty of yourselves when you succeed in creating a perfect chimera but have you ever imagined how it would be if you were the ones going through the kind of abuse they go through? Why don't you look at this child for a moment and imagine what you would be feeling if you were in his place?"
I removed the jacket from Leo's trembling frame and he tensed, pressing his face into my stomach more. Gasps echoed through the room at the sight of the bruises and scratches on Leo's back, including the fresh ones he had received today. It was definitely a gory sight to see.
Leo whimpered and I placed a hand on his head while saying, "I won't let him be taken by crazy, merciless researchers. I will protect him. He's staying with me."
Covering Leo with my jacket, I picked him up again. I didn't stall and swiftly walked out of the office disregarding the fact the colonel was calling out to me to stop. I shoved past the other soldiers who were still watching me in surprise and whispering amongst themselves. Exiting the headquarters, I headed straight to my house, fuming the whole way at how inconsiderate and coldhearted everyone was, including the colonel and Lt. Hawkeye.
Well, they were all a part of the military. It was no real surprise that they all thought in the same way.
Finally in my house, I lowered Leo onto my bed gently. He let go of me to look around but immediately squeaked in fright and jumped off the bed. He scurried to a corner as far away from the bed as possible and cowered with his head in his hands.
"S-sorry! Leo sorry! Leo won't ever sit on Ari sama's bed again!"
I was baffled and enraged at the fact that he had been treated like a slave, eating only when his master gave him food and not permitting him to be anywhere close to a bed. He must have some very unpleasant memories of what that thief had done to him for sitting on his bed.
Laughing softly, I sat down on my bed. He opened his eyes at that and watched me in surprise while I patted the spot next to me. "Come, sit here, Leo. You don't have to be afraid anymore because I won't hurt you like that man. I said I would protect you, remember? From now on, you don't have to be scared of anything or anyone and we'll be sleeping on the bed together and eating together too."
He cocked his head to the side adorably, curiosity coming to his expression. "Ari sama not angry?"
I shook my head with another smile as I stood and walked to the kitchen. "No. You must be hungry. Why don't we eat something before we sleep?"
He nodded hesitantly and remained sitting where he was while watching as I whipped up something quick for dinner. I set the table and then looked to Leo to find him eyeing the food hungrily. He squeaked in surprise when I picked him up and sat him on one of the chairs before taking a seat myself. I had placed some thick books on his chair so that he would be sitting at the right height. I served food for both of us and he stared at his in awe.
"This food for Leo? No leftovers?" My heart twinged yet again at his question.
"No," I said with a shake of my head. "No leftovers. Both of us will eat fresh food every day."
He cheered ecstatically before wolfing down the food. Despite eating fast and being a chimera and a child, he was neat. He spilt no food, even after having two servings – which I had to say was alright because he was hesitant – but had a few crumbs stuck on his chin when he was done. I wiped them off gently and he was rather cheerful about that.
Cleaning up the table and dishes, I then changed into comfortable nightwear. It was six in the morning though and I was eager to get some shut eye to compensate for staying up the entire night. But before that, Leo's wounds had to be tended to.
Having got the medical box, I ushered Leo to sit on the bed in front of me with his back to me. Gently, I said, "This may burn a little, Leo, but don't move, alright?"
He nodded whilst looking back at me curiously but tensed and winced when I cleaned his wounds. He remained still as I had asked but it seemed to be out of fear than anything else.
When the wounds were clean enough, I applied an antiseptic cream and wrapped his torso with bandages. I also treated the scratches on his feet – I assumed it was because he had always been barefooted. I'm sure that they hurt a lot, but he was very strong at heart for his age, taking the pain without complaining. Then again, I doubt he had had any other choice. If he had complained, he would have been abused more.
With his wounds taken care of, I helped him into one of my shirts. It was very big for him, and hung loosely off one shoulder like a night dress. I would have to buy him some new, clean clothes and shoes later today but this would do for now.
I ushered Leo towards the wall on the bed and layed down next to him. Pulling him down to sleep as well, I brought the blanket over us. He relaxed at that and curled up. I snuggled into the pillow with a tired sigh though opened one eye when Leo shifted closer to me and curled up against me. I smiled, patting his head once before closing my eyes again.
It was mere seconds before I was graced with pleasant sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Yay! Leo finally has a home now! :') I really don't like it when people are judged based on their appearance or what they have. Its not right, is it?
Now Arisa has a new friend! Yay! And isn't he just adorable?! <3
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