Day 21: Breakfast

[stray_shinigami]

Renji wasn't certain how he'd gotten from the room with Sora and Nowe back to his bed. He scrambled up and quickly checked; everything that he'd tucked into his clothes was still there, including the trauma shears and the start of the map. He quickly hid those things wherever they would fit - and not be too obvious. Hopefully Nowe and Sora had been

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[felled_hero]

Hughes never did get sued to just waking up in bed, even when he hadn't gone there himself. He followed his nurse sleepily, rubbing his eyes and dragging his feet. He had heard the intercom. Family visits. He still hadn't recovered from the last one. Could he skip out? He didn't want to go through something like that again...

Well, he'd worry about it later. He shuffled into line and glanced around for either Ed or the twins he'd met last night. They'd been... well, something else. He wanted to try talking to each of them alone.

Seeing no one familiar, the soldier took a seat at an empty table and started in on some eggs. He doubted he'd be alone for long - he never was.

[gun_fire]

Riza woke with a start, nearly sitting up straight before she was even conscious. She could feel her heart beating a mile a minute under her hand, but with a few deep breaths it slowed to a more normal pace

[felled_hero]

Hughes looked up and shook his head, grinning some. "Of course I don't mind, have a seat." He gestured with his fork. "So how'd your night go? I ended up with a couple of kids, not unusual." He chuckled some. He always did end up with the younger crowd, whether he intended it or not. They needed someone to be there for them, and Hughes... well, sometimes he needed to be there for people.

[gun_fire]

It wasn't often that Riza failed in her duties, and she wasn't at all prepared to say that she had. She didn't even have an excuse.

"It's terrible that even children should have to endure this . . . this place." She had no other word for it. She hadn't even come to the firm conclusion that it was real. After all, she was speaking to someone who had already died.

"My night . . . Well, I don't remember falling asleep, sir, but I seem to have spent the night in my room." She sighed quietly, annoyed with herself, but attempting not to show something so unprofessional. "Everyone I've spoken to has warned me about what happens at night, but I had wanted to make use of the time." She pushed at her food with her fork, then left it, looking up again. "You didn't run into any trouble, sir?"

[felled_hero]

Hughes frowned, pushing at his food with his fork as he lsitened. "You don't remember falling asleep? Are you sure you stayed in your room? At night... well, sometimes they..." he cleared his throat.

"Some rats. Took'em out pretty easy, though. Then I hustled the kids into their room - it was their first night and they were real shook up. A couple of brothers, twins, real close." He leaned forward.

"What do you remember about last night?"

[gun_fire]

It was so strange, on top of everything, to watch and listen to the brigadier general as he spoke. She felt for the colonel that he should see him again here, where there didn't seem to be the opportunity to appreciate the fact that his best friend wasn't dead.

'At night... well, sometimes they...'Riza shook her head slightly with a tight frown. "If they took me out of my room, I wasn't aware of it. I don't remember anything concretely after I was taken back for dinner. And then I woke up in bed, with no indication that anything happened at all

[lost_metal]

For the first time in a long time, Ed woke up in a good mood. Admittedly, his chest screamed in pain when he sat up and he was still fairly tired from the alchemy, but the metal was still there!! The makeshift bag was still tied around his waist and the stuff was still in his pockets! He laughed brightly, upon seeing it. Finally, some kind of success. He'd have to find Zack later and ask if the sword had gone back with him too

[felled_hero]

"Well, sometimes you don't know. They do a lot of things while we're knocked out. But if you don't feel any different..." Hughes shrugged. Hawkeye wasn't the type to just pass out from stress, but this place could take anyone the wrong way.

"It's good to see you, too," he said. "You been lokking after Roy for me?" He gave her a small, almost teasing smile. There were few people he'd entrust the other man' safety to - Hawkeye was first on the list.

And then Ed was beside him, and Hughes grinned and reached out to ruffle the teen's hair. "Hey, you. I had an okay night - ran into a couple of friends of yours, redhead twins?"

[gun_fire]

Riza was glad for Ed's interruption. It meant she didn't have to answer to the brigadier general's expectation of her. She'd been doing everything possible to support the colonel, even risking charges of treason and putting her duty to him above her duty to the State, but in the back of her mind she knew it wasn't the same. And she still didn't know exactly how that attempt on the Fuhrer's life had turned out. What had that . . . that Archer managed to do?

But, though she had been caught up in all of that just a little over 24 hours ago, it was very much removed from this place, this time.

Ed's plate, piled high, reminded Riza of her own food. She finally used her fork for its intended purpose, not wanting to end up skipping breakfast a second time.

"Good morning, Edward," she said pleasantly, not quite interrupting his exchange with the brigadier general.

[lost_metal]

Ed wrinkled his nose as Hughes ruffled his hair--it was something one did to a child --but secretly he was quite pleased. It made him feel cared for, and Hughes had always been his substitute father sort of.

"Morning," he said, smiling at Hawkeye, good mood still with him, even with the pain in his chest.

He frowned, mulling over everyone he'd met. Red-haired twins? Huh... He nodded slowly. "Yeah, I remember them. They know Tamaki. I think they're from the same place. They okay?" If he remembered right, they knew nothing about fighting and would be helpless if left on their own. So many innocents.

[felled_hero]

"Yeah, they mentioned him. They're okay, shaken up and scared, but okay. We ran into some rats, but I took care of them." Hughes nodded and leaned back, seeming relaxed and calm.

"There are too many damn kids running around here who don't know how to take care of themselves. Ed and me and another guy we know were talking about a kind of... defense training thing. For people who don't have any basic fighting skills."

[gun_fire]

Riza nodded thoughtfully as she worked on more of her food. "That would be helpful. Depending on what sort of opposition we're dealing with here, though, no one should be given any false confidence. Perhaps children should be encouraged to stay in their rooms." She frowned, adding, "Though I suppose they're not safe even there. They should be taught at least some protection."

Ed certainly had an appetite. She indulged in a modest smile. "You look like you had a profitable night, Edward." That was far more than she could say for herself.

[lost_metal]

Ed frowned, mulling the idea over. "I don't think they would stay in their rooms," he said. "I know I wouldn't." Admittedly, he wasn't exactly helpless, but if he'd been a normal sixteen year old, he'd still have wanted to move around. "If they stay in their rooms, they'll feel even more helpless and useless." That was one of the worst feeling in the world; to be helpless, unable to do anything to help, even if you wanted to.

He smiled at Hawkeye, shovelling another forkful of food into his mouth and swallowing it before he spoke. "Yeah. I met up with this guy, Zack, from the room next door. We did a raid on the kitchen. Got a good haul of metal and made him a sword." His smile widened, turning slightly smug. "Got shot for it, but I managed to get a good haul of metal stuff. Should make a couple more weapons."

[felled_hero]

"Nah, I don't think they'd stay in either. Kids... they want to do stuff. They think they know what to do, to. I'd rather they did know than run off hal cocked." Hughes inclined his head to Riza. "I don't like the idea of kids here. I don't, it makes me sick. But they are here and we can't always be there to look out for them. So next best thing is teaching them to look out for themselves."

At the mention of Zack, Hughes just nodded. "Good, I'm glad you're able to use your skills. Shot?" His eyebrows raised. "Ah, it was one of those nights. I'm telling you, these people are damn good at the psychological warfare. Hey, if you have the time, could you whip me up a couple more knives?"

[gun_fire]

The brigadier general was speaking to her, but she couldn't quite hear what he was saying. She hadn't heard anything since Ed said he'd been shot.

He'd been shot on his way to the kitchen.

She knew she was interrupting, but she couldn't wait. "Excuse me, Ed," she started, her throat suddenly dry, "Where was it?" She moved her hand to her chest, where he'd been shot in the dream. "Here? And . . . and in the room behind us?"

She tried not to react. Not yet. It couldn't be. It had to be somewhere else, Ed was somewhere else when it happened, and it was just a coincidence. How else could she have woken up in the middle of it? How else could she have believed that what she was doing was the right thing to do?

[lost_metal]

Ed mentally guaged how much metal he had before nodding slowly. "Sure. I should have enough metal left after making Tamaki a weapon and myself something." And knives might be less tiring to make if they were smaller.

He turned to Hawkeye, confused slightly about why she was bothered and how she knew. He nodded, raising a hand to the side of his chest over the automail plate. "Yeah, it hit my automail so it didn't actually go in, just pushed the metal into my flesh." He grimaced, remembering the pain of it. "Zack got hit in the arm, but he hardly even noticed it! He picked me up and dragged me out of there." There was a note of wonder in his voice at that. He might be a genius alchemist, but he was still a sixteen year old boy and Zack had been so cool!

"And yeah, it was in the Sun Room. Someone on the balcony. Dunno how they got the gun though."