023 - final. Video with a variety of locks, unhackable to Envy.

[gonnabe1st]

Comments

1/?

[truthinfortune]

[She's just staring at the screen. Re-reading the words again and again. Trying to make sense of them. Shock. Disbelief.]

Mello, you... you can't...

2/?

[truthinfortune]

[She bites her lip. Can't stop the tears from sliding down her cheeks.]

Is this what you were trying to tell us...? What you were trying to prepare us for...?

3/3

[truthinfortune]

You were the best big brother I could have asked for... So then why... why did you have to--?

[Whatever else she might have said has been subsumed by her broken sobs.]

[Actionspam]

[cyberelric]

[Edward knows, his eyes are lightly tinged red, his cheeks damp, but he's under control of himself. He knocks on her door.]

[Actionspam]

[truthinfortune]

[Her head turns toward the door. She scrubs at her cheeks, but it's a futile gesture. The tears continue to flow, unabated.]

C-Come in...

[Actionspam]

[cyberelric]

[Ed enters and crosses the room to her side.]

Hey...[He speaks softly and hesitantly puts a hand on her shoulder.]

[Actionspam]

[truthinfortune]

[She places her hand atop Ed's and squeezes it. She stares blankly ahead at her computer screen, tears blurring her vision. Though the words are distorted, she recites them within her mind once again.]

He's... He's gone, Ed. He's gone and... I'm left behind once again...

[Why? First her parents, and now Mello... Why must the people she care for so deeply be snatched away from her in such a cruel fashion?]

[Actionspam]

[cyberelric]

I know. [Ed whispers softly and squeezes her hand back.]

[He swallows a little, last time Winry talked to him but Naoto wasn't rambling. He wasn't sure what to do, at first.]

You're not alone, Naoto. [He decides finally.] Behind...but not alone.

[Actionspam]

[truthinfortune]

[He was right. And Naoto wasn't the only one who was left being left behind, was she? Even knowing that simple fact didn't lessen the pain in the slightest...]

[Suddenly, Naoto tears her hand away and stands, her chair tumbling to the floor. She throws herself against Edward, fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt, and presses her face into his shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably.]

He lied to me! He lied! He said... he said not to believe in Fate! But he... and now he's--!

[The rest of her words are lost in wracking sobs.]

[Actionspam]

[cyberelric]

[He wasn't trying to take the focus off of her he just wanted her to know he was there.]

I know. [Ed says softly, hugging her a little, gently. He doesn't mind her crying all over him. It's good for her.]

[Actionspam]

[truthinfortune]

[Her entire body shudders with the force of her sobs. Knees shaking, barely able to support her weight. There are too many emotions at war within her. Anger. Betrayal. Sorrow. Hate. Grief. Love. Loss. Too many to name. It feels like she's drowning. Can't breathe. She hasn't felt this incredibly overwhelmed by her own emotions since the day her parents died. She'd cried for two weeks straight back then. How long would she cry for her brother?]

I... I want him back, Edward... [a hiccup] I know I... shouldn't be wishing for... for that. But I... God help me, I do! I want... I want this all to be just a bad dream...

[Actionspam]

[cyberelric]

[She doesn't have to support her weight, Ed will hold her up. His arms tense as she falters, to do just that. He wouldn't dream of letting his sister fall.]

There isn't anything wrong with wanting it. [Ed murmurs against her hair.] You can want that...you can love him so much you want him back but...but you just have to remember he can't come back. The d- [He swallows the rest of it, he can't say it, not yet. He's not completely unaffected after all.]

[Actionspam]

[truthinfortune]

[She knows what he's about to say. The dead can never come back to life. And there is a horribly irony to those words, which Ed has often recited like a mantra. For the person held within his arms once died at the hands of a goddess... and was resurrected by the grace of a god. And despite Mello's religious iconography, in the end, he no longer placed his faith in a higher power. No. There would be no mercy from God. Mello would never return to this world. Not like Naoto.]

It hurts, though... [softly] I always end up wanting the things that I can never have...

[Her fingers tighten against his shirt, digging into his skin. She is thankful for Edward being here, supporting her, both in a physical and emotional sense.]

[Little brother coming home?]

[ironysoul]

[Feel free to join in the spam!]

[truthinfortune]

[If Al decided to walk into the room at that moment, Naoto wouldn't even have noticed. Her face is pressed against Ed's shoulder, and she's too overcome with emotion to notice much else.]

[Winry might come too.]

[ironysoul]

[Well, and Al is very quiet for a giant suit of armor. Poor Naoto. Naoto sandwich time, even if Al can't feel.]