#fma pal

"Ziggs, what the fuck is that?" Emma asks as she comes to a stop in the doorway of the living room.

Blinking slowly, Ziggs holds up their blunt. "Uh, joint?"

"No- Ziggy, the fucking rat on your shoulder!"

"Oh!" Ziggs breaks out into a wide grin. "Yeah, that's Kush. He's a bro. Don't worry, he's not a random rat I found, I got him at a pet store."

Emma lets out a sigh of relief. She moves around to sit on the couch. "...why a rat?"

"Cause they get a bad rap." Ziggs passes the joint before booping Kush's nose

"When I get home from this godforsaken mission," John mumbles around his cigarette as he reloads his firearm, "I'm going to kiss my husband, eat a good home-cooked meal, and taking a fucking bubble bath."

Xander glances up from the radar he's examining. "Oh yeah?"

Vehemently, John nods. "Yep. Might even use some bath salts too. Or, hell, maybe I'll go to one of those frivolous stores and get a bath bomb. Let myself be covered in glitter."

Setting down his rifle, he blows smoke from the corner of his mouth. "First though, we gotta make it out of here."

Dr. Gerald Monroe spins around in his chair. "Miss Chambers, right? What can I help you with?"

"Zoey," She corrects him boredly as she taps at her phone screen. "I wanted to get a consultation for a nose job."

Raising an eyebrow, Dr. Monroe lowers his glasses slightly. "Oh really now? Wanting something smaller?"

Nodding, Zoey pops the gum she's chewing. "Something to make me look better. Something to make me look like a leading lady."

"Well, we can certainly do that, Zoey," Dr. Monroe assures her as he flips open a folder to start jotting down notes. "No worries."

River hums happily to himself as he digs in his sandbox in the backyard. His plastic shovel hits something hard, making him frown.

He shoves his hand through the sand, pulling out the offending object that impeded his shoveling efforts.

When his hand emerges from the sand, there is what is unmistakably a bone clenched in his fist.

An unholy shriek leaves him as he drops the bone. Tears stream down his face as he races back into the house.

"Mommy!" He cries loudly.

He's in too much of a frenzy to notice his brothers snickering as he races past.

Liz Cunningham sobs quietly as she sits in her wheelchair. She stares out of the window of the hotel she and her husband are staying in in Clivesdale.

They had no choice but to move back. They were evicted from their apartment. And that came right after she got attacked.

The attack that paralyzed her, that put her in this chair in the first place. Not that the HFPD did anything about it.

She wipes her tears miserably. Thankfully, her husband was able to find a new job in Clivesdale quickly. Now they just have to find a new home.

"So you've played Dorothy in a production of Wizard of Oz," Sam says one night while he and Zoey lie in her bed. His hand slowly caresses her back. "Who do you think I would get cast as?"

Zoey hums as she considers him. "Probably the Scarecrow," She says thoughtfully. She reaches up and taps his forehead. "Cause you don't have a brain."

Rubbing his forehead, Sam replies with a grin, "So what I'm hearing is, I'd be Fieryo in a production of Wicked."

"Well what I'm actually saying is you're a fucking idiot," Zoey giggles softly before kissing him.

-

Ted takes another swig of whiskey from the bottle as he watches the football game on TV.

No one calling, no one visiting, no one to spend time with.

That's fine. It suits him perfectly.

He takes another long drink, cursing as the team he's rooting for fumbles the ball.

For a split second, he swears he sees red hair out of the corner of his eye.

When he turns, though, there's no one there.

Why would there be, he thinks bitterly. The one person he thought cared about him fucked off to Clivesdale with another man.

Ted does his best to ignore the gaping emptiness in his chest.

He tries everything to fill it, from women to alcohol to work.

Nothing helps. It never has.

"What's wrong, Ted?" Charlotte asks one night, stroking his shoulder.

He shrugs off the touch, not liking how it makes his skin crawl. "Nothing," he says shortly. He climbs out of bed and begins getting dressed.

His chest always aches, yearning to be filled with something he can't find.

He's thought about it, going to Clivesdale to find Jenny.