Author's Notes: We all know how much I love parental!Royed, so luckily I get a lot of prompts for them. I started on this last night when my computer suddenly died and I lost it halfway through, so I took a break and wrote it again today. It feels much better.
Disclaimer: Nope, not a cent of this is mine.
Who Gives a Shit?
Coughing against his arm, Roy examined what little he could of the area. The collapsed building around him didn't leave him much room to see, but it was enough for him to know that they were trapped. There was almost no light, the slabs of broken concrete sealing them in and hiding them from the sun. Somehow, a backup generator must have still been running, but just barely, as a single dull light bulb flickered, dangling precariously on a wire. He could use flame alchemy to produce a small flame of light, but that would only manage to suck up the small amount of oxygen they had left.
At least the other person behind him wasn't using up a lot of oxygen. If any.
Breathing through his nose to calm himself down, Roy peered back at the small red-coated figure lying prone on the ground. When he had first come to, he'd thought he was alone, until he'd stood up and bumped into the soft form. Another careful nudge hit metal and confirmed his fears.
His immediate thought was to scratch some sort of transmutation circle into the concrete, one of his old days of schooling. He had to get them out of here. Who knew what kind of injuries the boy had sustained? But Roy wasn't completely familiar with stone or metal alchemy. At least nothing so sophisticated that it would repair the building to brand new leaving them safe and untouched inside. If he messed up in the slightest, he might only manage to make things much worse for them.
Roy was an incredible, powerful, and talented alchemist – but he was much better at destroying than creating in the end.
Since realizing his defeat, he had done his best to ignore the still figure behind him. Every time his eyes roamed over to that area, he would jerk them away. He spent the time searching for any weak spot in the fallen rubble, banging on a pipe in Morse code, and flicking at the lightbulb whenever it went out. When he got frustrated, a fire would rage inside of him. It took a huge amount of strength not to just blast his way out, but he knew that there were so many ways the explosion could turn back on him. And so he waited.
Eventually though, he knew that he could not ignore the severity of the situation. Turning his attention back to the prone body, Roy dragged himself over there and crouched down. When he pressed two fingers on his neck, he found a steady pulse, if not a little slow. Holding a hand in front of the boy's mouth, a shallow puff of air brushed against his palm. So he was alive at least, although unconscious.
Roy gently rolled the boy onto his back and frowned as his head flopped to the side. It was sometimes hard for him to remember that this State Alchemist was just a child. He got himself into so much shit. It reminded Roy of his own time at the Academy, when he would throw himself into the middle of the fight to protect someone that he didn't even know. That had literally got him into shit, stuck with latrine duty for a week while sporting a shiner. This little asshole was no different. He acted like he had to fight the world and he had the alchemy talent to do so.
But looking at him now, Roy didn't see the extraordinary and impossible Fullmetal Alchemist. All he could see was a boy. Roy blinked in surprise. He hadn't seen Edward look so young since he and Riza had shown up on their doorstep and found a half of a broken, little boy in a wheelchair and his armored-bound brother. It was…startling, perhaps even more so than the blood that matted his golden hair and caked his face.
Roy licked at his dirty sleeve and began to wipe the blood off of Edward's face. It wasn't much, but it got the worst of it off. At least he didn't look entirely like he was dead. Slowly, he moved Edward's head and pushed his hair aside so that he could assess the wound. The lighting was too poor, so he could only make out a jagged cut. A quick glance around helped him fight a rock with some blood on it, probably the source of the injury and Edward's unconsciousness.
Edward groaned suddenly, almost making Roy drop his head. He mumbled something under his breath, but his eyes were still shut. Maybe he was coming to, but most likely, he was still out of it. At least he was talking, even if it was gibberish. Roy went completely tense though when Edward reached out and grabbed at his sleeve. A part of him wanted to peel the kid's fingers off of him, but another part, perhaps stronger and more volatile, felt the urge to pull the boy closer to him. That was a confusing though.
Roy would never confess to being good with kids, although Riza insisted that he was, but Edward wasn't a kid, not really. He was a State Alchemist and more importantly one of Roy's subordinates. He wasn't supposed to care about his subordinates in such a way, not when he had to give them commands that could lead them directly into danger.
(Of course, he had never been good at not caring about the people serving under him. His heart still managed to leap whenever Riza smiled at him. He should have known that taking some temperamental boy under his wing would only cause him grief.)
"Don't you die on me," Roy grumbled as he looked down on Edward. "I don't want to deal with the paperwork."
Not to mention that it would be such a waste. So many people, in and out of the military, were astounded by Edward's feats. A State Alchemist at a mere twelve years of age was unheard of, not to mention that garnered him the rank of Major in the military. His potential was astounding. Already at thirteen, his accomplishments reflected such a bright light on the man that had found him and brought him into the program. Even when he threw a fit and complained like the teenage kid that he was, he always brought good results and did his job, which helped Roy in return.
Such a waste of potential…for hope too. For the good of the future. Roy could not exactly say when he'd started to examine the missions he was given more carefully, picking out the ones that he knew might help the Elric brothers on their quest to gain their bodies back in some way. One second, he had been considering Edward's potential to help him in his goals and the next he was trying to figure out how to help Edward with his own goals. Missions that he would've tossed Edward's way before suddenly didn't seem good enough or appropriate and he used every excuse in the book to reason why he gave them some mission out of the ordinary.
If something were to happen now, if Edward were to be seriously injured because of some ridiculous mistake, Roy didn't know if he'd be able to forgive himself. He was starting to not be able to envision a future without this boy in it. He thought of Edward's bursts of rage and Alphonse's attempts to calm him down. He looked forward to Edward's straightforwardness, even if it meant breaking a few rules, and Alphonse's earnest and good nature. There were never any games with the two of them. They were who they were and Roy wanted – no, needed – that if he was going to make it to the top.
Not only that, but looking at Edward now, Roy saw a boy that lost his parents at too young of an age. He fought constantly because it was the only way he knew how to survive. He couldn't give up. He had to fight away the grief when his father up and left, the loneliness and defeat when his mother died, the fear and horror when Alphonse's body and his own leg and arm were taken from him, the pain during his automail surgery and rehabilitation, the struggles of being a child in the military… Edward's life was a fight.
And if anyone could understand that, it was Roy. After all, he had lost both of his parents around the same age that Edward had lost his. He understood the gaping hole that losing a parent could cause in one's soul. His own memories of his parents were foggy and distant at best. It was a struggle to recall them after so long. Roy knew what it was like to be alone. He was lucky to have had his Aunt Chris find him in the orphanage and taken him in, just as Edward was lucky to have had Pinako. Both of them were lucky to have found alchemy teachers and were surrounded by people that loved and supported them. Where would Edward be without his brother and Winry? Where would Roy be without Riza?
Where would either of them be without each other?
Would Edward have eventually found his way into the military? Would he have found the inspiration to fight back and search for the Philosopher's Stone? Would Roy have learned to see beyond the scope of his own goals? Would he have realized that he was capable of giving a damn about someone else's life, dreams, and hopes?
Oh, he'd deny it if anyone were to bring it up, of course, but honestly, he had come to realize that this kid and his brother meant a lot to him. When Edward came back to give his report, Roy was lean back in a slight hint of relief, even if Edward was a little more bruised than usual and Alphonse spotted a few new scratches on his metal form. Seeing Edward like this now, unconscious and bleeding, grasping pitifully at Roy's sleeve, brought all those fears and thoughts rushing to the forefront and it kind of pissed him off.
How dare this pipsqueak make Roy care about him? He wasn't Edward's father. He was his commanding officer. Roy wasn't supposed to sit here in worry over his subordinate. He wasn't supposed to want to hold onto him like Edward was a child. He wasn't supposed to panic and feel the strange urge to hope that things would be okay.
"I swear, Fullmetal, the second you're better, I'm sending you on the farthest mission away." Roy shook his head. He'd send the kid all the way to the West. That would put miles in between the two of them – and then he'd probably spend at least an hour every day wondering how the Elrics were handling and knowing that there was little he could do to help if they did need anything. "How do you manage to be a frustrating little shit even when you're unconscious? That's a talent in itself."
Edward had to be okay though. He had to be. He had to stay alive to fulfill his goals. He had to stay alive to get his and Alphonse's bodies back. Roy was not going to let him die in this stupid hole. He was going to get Edward out even if it meant clawing through the concrete rubble with his bare fingers. Giving up was not in either of their natures. Alchemists didn't give up. They just found a way around the problem. They created solutions.
After gently prying Edward off of him and lying him back on the ground, Roy stood and pushed his sleeves up. Everything be damned, he was not going to lie around and wait for rescue while Edward could potentially bleed to death or die from any other internal injuries. He cared too much to do that and realizing that irritated him to hell and back. It was just enough irritation though to spike Roy's fire again and get his mind back on track. They were getting out of here. Edward would be fine. Roy would make sure of that.
