134
by me, with iharthdarth art
why does ispiration always have to come and bite me in the behind when i'm supposed to be studying. for. my finals. GAH.
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Schiezka was picking up a couple of papers from the floor behind her desk when she heard someone come into the library. She assumed it was Winry (since she had already come in three times that afternoon because she refused to hang out with Edward that day. Or ever again. Whatever...), so she just yelled at her to come in and give her one second to fix everything up. She jumped to her feet, though, when the voice that replied was not Winry's. In fact, it was decidedly masculine. And unfamiliar.
"Um, excuse me?"
She looked up to find a very tall, blond-haired man in a military uniform looking back at her. "Ob, hello. I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else, hehe..." she excused herself, sweatdropping a bit.
"That's fine. Though I thought it was a rule not to be loud in libraries," he chuckled, and Schiezka didn't know if he was trying to be amusing or just annoying. Her embarrassment grew, though, because he had caught her in the act. The librarian was the least person you'd expect to be yelling in the library.
"O-oh, I'm sorry, t-that is..." Color was rising to her cheeks and the man laughed even more. Her glasses almost fell off the bridge of her nose when she noticed he was reaching into his pants' pocket and pulling out a cigarette. "Sir! You are not allowed to smoke on school premises..." she exclaimed, eyes open wide, arms flailing around.
He laughed at her again (apparently he found her very funny, she thought with some resentment) and put the cigarette in his mouth. "I'm not going to light it up, don't worry," he assured her, voice muffled by the cig.
"Still, this is a school..." she sighed, figuring that he wouldn't pay attention anyway. People always seemed to think librarians were something of a joke. She sat at her desk, fixing her glasses. "Can I help you with anything?"
"Oh, yeah," he seemed to remember what he was there for. "My name is Second Liutenant Jean Havoc, and I'm looking for a Mr. Edward Elric. Do you know where I could find him?"
Schiezka blinked, going over his words in her head. "Edward?"
"Yes. Do you know him?"
She opened her mouth to answer him, when Winry burst into the library muttering something about not being able to look him in the eye and staying inside the library for the rest of the week until that plane lifted off from the ground and that was about the part where Havoc and Schiezka lost her. They just stared wide-eyed at her, glasses and cigarette hanging from their wide-open mouths, as she paced around the room without even noticing there was someone else there beside her friend.
"Uh, Winry..."
She continued her tirade for a few moments, until Havoc coughed to alert her of his presence. "Miss Rockbell."
She stopped then, noticing him for the first time. "Oh, hello, Liutenant Havoc. What brings you here? I didn't know you and Schiezka knew each other."
He cleared his throat. "Actually, I am looking for Mr. Elric. You wouldn't happen to know where he is, would you?"
This immediately alarmed Winry. What could be so urgent that Mr. Mustang had to send Havoc down here in order to take care of it? She hoped it was nothing bad... "Why? Mr. Mustang hasn't changed his mind about taking Ed to the Federation, has he? Because that would be horrible..." She looked agitatedly at him, hoping it didn't come to worst. That would just crush Ed and Al.
"That's not it, Miss Rockbell. Just some official business," he assured her, and her shoulders sagged in relief. There was more to it; Schiezka knew that buried deep, deep down, that little demon was still telling her that it would be better if Ed and Al just didn't go to Central. But she knew that it wasn't right to feel that way: normal, yes; right, not at all. She was dealing with it, and she was genuinely happy that her friends had gotten this opportunity.
"I was just going to tell the Liutenant that Edward would probably be in the cafeteria," Schiezka offered, moving around her desk to stand closer to the other two.
Winry didn't have to think about it, she knew where he was; after all, she had been avoiding him the whole day. "Yeah, he's in the cafeteria." She sighed, turned away from the two, and hugged herself. Schiezka didn't think she did it in a conscious manner. Her head was down for a second and then she turned back around with a bright-- but rather fake, Schiezka could see-- smile in her face. She wasn't ready to face Edward. "If you want, I can take you there."
"That would be great," Havoc concluded. He took his cigarette out of his mouth with one hand and offered Winry his other arm. She took it and both walked out of the library, Winry with a "See you later, Schiezka!" and Havoc saying goodbye with a nod.
Schiezka just hoped that this week, and all the pain and confusion that it was bringing to Winry, finally made her admit her feelings for Edward. At least to herself.
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at least it would've been worth it if i'd written something good, but nooooo, i had to come up with this piece of garbage! it started off humorous and then i had to bring back the winry angst... i really wanted to drop that out, it was used in the last chapter! but then there'd be no point in havoc and schiezka meeting and it felt kind of off. not to mention that it seems like schiezka spends more time on the floor than actually working. and i started pretty well with mixing dialogue and towards the middle it all became lots of blah blah blah without any organization whatsoever and suddenly towards the end it's all dialogue. argh, how i hate all dialogue!! >.< that's it, i'm going to leave this for now and start studying. for real.
*sigh* if i could get myself away from the computer...