"Katherine, where did you put father's beginning alchemy notes when you last had them?" The android called out loud, his voice echoing off the large vats in the lab.
"I told you, I put it back in his desk! It's a dark purple notebook with a red alchemic circle on it!" The young black haired daughter called back, already annoyed at Shu's constant questions.
"... Where in his desk? I've already searched for it four times!"
"Ugh! Do I have to show it to you?" Katherine replied, with even more annoyance than usual. Her voice growing in volume with each word, as she too approached the desk. "It's right in this drawer, under this folder!" The Homunculus dragged out the drawer as if in a rage, scooped up the folder, and...
"... Where under the folder?" Shu posed the question, with what one could guess was a smirk of sorts. The android still hadn't gotten the hang of facial expressions.
"Just-just give me one moment! I placed it here!" The girl pushed off, digging through the rest of the desk. It obviously wasn't there.
"You don't think Father took the notebook with him when he went out last time, do you?" He asked his sister, whom already gave up looking for it once he said that.
"Father doing alchemy again? I doubt it. He hasn't started up his studies again in, what, eight years? Why now? I obviously just misplaced it!" The homunculus argued, almost literally tearing through the desk.
"... Ever since Eve... right?"
Katherine stopped, and the two stood in utter silence, with the bubbling of a vat in the background being the only reprieve of it. Even after 8 years, the family still hadn't gotten over her death. Faotemaru may have moved on in mind, but in spirit, he was still hung up with his family.
"Yes, ever since Eve." Katherine remembered Shu's eyes when he pushed her into Faote's lab. He was crying. The first time he had ever seen the android cry, or display any sort of emotion, really. That day had been burned into both of their minds, and it shown no signs of healing, ever. And if that weren't enough, even their father didn't have the strength to console them.
After that event, when Faotemaru came back to the lab, they cried in unison, hugging one another with their tears and screaming reverberating off the very walls of the lab, lasting for hours, in sorrow for their lost family member, Halsey, the 999 Android squadron, and all of the residents of False Heaven. They were in a better place, now. ... except Halsey and Eve. They were gone. Forever. Not even their spirits exist anymore, in any afterlife.
"... So, still looking for that book, right? I'll let you know when I find it." Katherine forced her face to beam back up to it's usual chipper mood, and began to prance off in the direction of everyone's rooms. And then left Shu alone again.
"We're all still crying, even if we refuse to show it, father. And I know you are too." Shu murmured to himself, before taking another look at his desk. "The fact that your book isn't here is proof of that. You've taken it with you for this trip, haven't you? To show her what you've been working on these past years..." Shu ran through his thoughts unknowningly, as if talking to Faote as if he was actually there. "But I want to learn what you did, father. I want to understand alchemy, without the epoch circle, so maybe I can understand the kind of love that you had for Eve, because you're the one that's the most hurt of us all..."
Another tear streamed down the android's face, a product of his organic parts. "But not understanding these emotions that I've felt since that day... they hurt me too."
