Broken↩️🪭 ✔

Chapter 9

Edward splashed water in the tub as one of the little floating toys went by and he watched it get into a small frenzy by the wave he had made. Riza chuckled and lathered up a rag with a bar of soap.

"Come on now, we need to get you cleaned up."

He was happy to oblige and stood up in the tub as Riza washed him quite extensively. If this had been a fluke in alchemy and Edward had been reduced to a child and she had been tasked with this job, she would feel quite odd doing it. But for some reason, knowing what they had to do and knowing what Edward may have had to go through, Riza didn't feel odd about washing the boy she knew and didn't even blush at washing the private areas. Not that Riza was ashamed either way, but she was familiar with the birds and the bees and it would have been awkward for anyone.

"Alright, I'm going to let the water out and wrap you up in a towel, alright?"

Edward nodded and she grabbed the large towel on the toilet seat. She unfolded it and then wrapped it around Edward so he was warm and she lifted him out of the water. She let the water out of the tub but Edward made a noise and he watched with intensity as the water went down the drain. She let him watch and when it was gone, he looked at her in confusion.

"Where?" he asked.

Riza smiled. "It's gone."

"Gone?" He looked back at the tub and then back to Riza. "Gone..."

He seemed like he was contemplating it and Riza decided it was a good time to go back to the bedroom and get him changed into some clean clothes. She set him on the bed and dried him off when she noticed that he had a lot of scars all over him. Some were fresh, others were healing, and some had healed a long time ago. Crescent shaped ones were littered all up and down his arms and she touched the few that seemed fresh.

"Where did you get these?" she asked softly.

Edward looked at the scars and looked down at the floor.

"Master Tang..."

Riza was happy to be getting somewhere past encrypted words and fear. He seemed to opening up a little now that there wasn't someone always trying to get information from him or causing triggers.

"What made them?" she asked casually, wanting Edward to feel comfortable talking to her.

Edward thought for a moment and then touched Riza's arm. He wrapped his hand around her forearm and squeezed his fingers against it until she felt his fingernails go into her skin. He let go and there were indentions of the same type of marks on her own skin.

"I see... You have a lot of them."

"I don't like it when they try to make me do stuff." He said, looking down a little. "I don't like being touched."

Riza stopped touching him immediately and was at a loss as to what to do.

"I wasn't aware of the touching..."

Edward grabbed her arms quickly.

"No! Don't leave..."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"T-T-Touching... I meant... I meant..." He seemed unsure of how to explain himself. He just decided to point. "There."

Riza looked and then nodded quickly, understand quite well. She smiled and put the towel over his head so she could dry his hair.

"I would never do that."

"I know because you're the one who ran after me."

Riza smiled and rubbed where his hair was to make him dry and then threw the towel to the side. She grabbed the clothing and put it on him and she ran her fingers through his hair a little bit.