When they emerged from the portal, they both had to catch their breath. They hadn’t really had a chance once they had left the gate as they had just gone right to the portal. Both of them sat back down on the stone wall. Natalie put her hands together before putting them down so when she did a small pillar appeared. It startled her causing her to almost fall backwards off the wall.
“Well we know you got your ability to do alchemy complete with the part about not needing the circle,” Edward said as he went over to the little pillar. He clapped his hands together and put them on the misshapen little pillar, restoring it back to the stones it had originally been. “Seems I have mine back too.” He took a deep breath and looked at Natalie, his expression grateful. “Thank you,” he said softly.
Natalie smiled at him. “You’re welcome, but now it seems I really do need an alchemy teacher.”
He couldn’t help but to laugh. “Seems so, but how am I going to explain this to Al? You made me promise not to tell anyone, even him.”
Natalie hadn’t thought about that. “Um, well alright, I think it might be alright if we tell him but I can’t go through all that again to prove it to him too.”
“I don’t think we’ll have to. Al is a little more trusting than I am and I’m pretty sure that if I tell him it’s the truth he’ll be alright with it. You may have to show him that little transformation trick of yours though.”
“That won’t be a problem. I have an idea for how to show him the portals too, you know, just in case.”
Edward looked at her a bit confused. “But you just said…”
Natalie couldn’t help but to chuckle. “I can use those portals within a world too. I don’t have to travel to a different world to make them work.”
“Why didn’t you just do that to show me then?” That’s when he remembered that she had promised to tell him why she was willing to go through all of this for him. He was just getting ready to ask when he saw her put her hand to her chest. He instantly thought something was wrong but before he could do or say anything. She was wrapped up in that bright light again. When it faded she was back in her pajamas. “You know, a little warning before you do that might be nice.”
Natalie laughed. “Sorry.”
Edward stood up and turned to look at her. “You didn’t answer my question. Why did you go through all that if you didn’t have to?” You did promise to tell me why you were willing to pay that price too…”
Natalie sighed. “Well I knew if I was going to prove to you that you could trust me, I had to do something that might put my life at risk.”
“Why would you do something so reckless!?” Edward asked, his voice filled with a mixture of concern and anger.
Getting up, Natalie glared at him intensely. If looks could kill, her crimson eyes would have pierced directly through him. He had clearly made her angry. “Why did you always do it Edward? Why didn’t you run when Alphonse told you to back when you faced Scar for the first time? Why were you so willing to die as long as he let Alphonse go?”
Edward back peddled a bit feeling a bit embarrassed. He remembered full well why he’d always done it. It was just strange to think that now the tables were turned on him and by this girl no less. She really did know quite a bit about what had happened to them back then.
“Yeah, sometimes we have to do reckless things alright?” She was still a little angry so she turned away from him. She actually felt like she wanted to cry again. This was rough. She wanted to tell him the real reason why she’d done all this. It was clear he hadn’t registered it when she’d said it earlier.
Edward just stood there. Why did girls have to be like this? Winry had acted like this a lot too. He sighed and took a step towards her to put his hand on her shoulder. “Look, I didn’t mean to get angry at you. I just don’t understand Natalie. We were strangers until this afternoon.”
Natalie turned back around, her eyes filled with tears. When he’d put his hand on her that had been enough, the final straw. She couldn’t hold the tears back anymore and they’d started to stream down her cheeks. It took Edward by surprise and he clearly didn’t know how to react. She saw that it made him uneasy but she didn’t care, she didn’t bother to wipe the tears away. “That may be true, at least in the sense that we didn’t actually physically meet until this afternoon but you have to remember Edward, I’ve known you for a lot longer.”
“Ed…”
“What?”
“Just call me Ed OK? After all of this, I don’t think you need to be so formal anymore.”
“OK… Ed…” she said, blushing behind her still tear moistened cheeks.
“But that still leaves me at a big disadvantage here. You know an awful lot more about me than I know about you.”
“Well you know the biggest secret about me, that should count for something. And besides, now I have to stay here longer anyway, you still need to teach me about alchemy still. You haven’t changed your mind about that have you?”
Edward shook his head. “No I haven’t changed my mind. I owe you for giving me my own alchemy back don’t I?”
Natalie sighed and shook her own head. “You don’t owe me Ed. I did it because I wanted to, not because I thought I was going to get anything from you. I never wanted anything from you. Remember, I was originally just planning to meet you and then leave.”
He wasn’t sure why but he suddenly felt the urge to hug her and did. “I’m grateful that you changed your mind.”
Natalie hesitated for a moment before she finally put her arms around him, returning the hug. She rested her head against his shoulder as she did and closed her eyes. Suddenly she felt really tired. “I’m actually the one who’s grateful, because you changed yours,” she replied softly.
After a moment more, they finally let go. Natalie’s cheeks were bright red and Edward’s hadn’t escaped a bit flushing either.
“You still haven’t kept your promise though.” He said, grinning at her a bit. “We DID make it back alive you know.”
Natalie bit at her lower lip a bit. Clearly he still didn’t get it; he could be so dense sometimes. That was alright though; she didn’t need him to get it completely just yet.
“You know, it’s late so how about this, if you want to really know why I did all of this, think about this. Remember how you felt about Winry once up a time and then you’ll have my reason.” She then kissed him on the cheek and headed back inside. “Good night Ed…” It had been a long night and it was long past time to get some rest. She knew if he thought about it enough, he’d get it eventually and that’s all she wanted, nothing more.
Edward stood there as Natalie walked away. Thankfully she hadn’t seen him blush after she’d kissed his cheek. At first he’d had no clue what she’d done that little stunt either. One more thing about her he didn’t get right away. It wouldn’t be until later that night, once he too had gone to bed, that he’d realize the truth about the entire series of events. He hadn’t been able to sleep so he turned over the night’s events in his mind along with that last thing she’d said to him. The answer came to him just before his body made him drift off to sleep. How could he have missed it? Natalie was in love with him.
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