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Roy looked down to see Fullmetal nudging his hand with his head. Smiling, he started to scratch under the small tabby's chin, and it really looked like the little guy was enjoying it for a few seconds, but then Fullmetal jumped back an hissed.
Nudging him again, Fullmetal turned around and started forward into the living room, only to pause after a few seconds to look back.
Roy sighed and stood, pushing his chair back and groaning as he stretched. There were a few loud crack!s that made him cringe. "Fine, fine, just wait one second."
After he finished the exercise, he turned to follow the cat.
Upon entering the living room, Roy gasped a little.
"Fullmetal! You knocked over Elicia's Scrabble set! Maes is going to have my head for this, I need to clean up..." Elicia's precious Scrabble box, that Maes had - God knows how - specially rigged for her favor and forced Roy to keep until her birthday, was scattered all across the living room rug, completely scrambled, pardon the pun.
Fullmetal hissed yet again, narrowing his golden eyes to slits, and sat on the floor next to the biggest pile of wooden letters. The feline stared determinedly at his owner until the intelligent gaze boring into Roy's back finally persuaded him to turn around.
Satisfied with his work, Fullmetal stood up again, looking around and picking some of the letters apart. Batting most of them aside, he finally caught sight of the one he wanted. Walking over to Roy, concentrated on pushing it over along the floor.
"'I'? What do you want me to do with an 'I'?"
Fullmetal looked impatient and just turned around, looking for more letters to give to Roy.
Roy sighed and looked away, thinking. He had sat down at some point, so he just crossed his legs and leaned his head on one hand.
The little gift-kitty (Shoved rather unceremoniously into his arms by a stoic Hawkete, who then stated, 'Frankly, sir, you need someone to take care of you.' He later found out that she's found him pawing at the door to Roy's office, puzzled as to how he'd gotten there.) really did remind him of Edward so much that his heart ached for the kid a little every time he looked at it. He had named it 'Fullmetal' in Ed's honor, though what honor one gained from having a cat named after them was lost on Roy.
One Edward Elric had mysteriously disappeared on his first mission after regaining his brother's body - for he hadn't gotten his limbs back, oh no - while investigating a group of scientists who were dabbling in chimerical and soul transmutation. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, seeing as they had an official declaration from the old Fuhrer that legalized all actions so long as they didn't harm the surrounding populace, but there had been a rumor circulating that they were transferring human souls into animals' bodies. Of course, this was just a rumor, but as soon as Ed heard it, he immediately set off to completely obliterate the rumor. Well, either that, or the scientists.
Subconciously putting together the pieces Fullmetal was progressively dropping into his hands, Roy just thought that if he had waited a little bit longer, sent someone else on the mission, just waited until Ed was fully recovered, that Edward would still be here.
Roy couldn't say that he wasn't surprised at how Alphonse has reacted to the news.. The still-hospitalized and adjusting boy had had to have been held back by three people to keep him from throttling the sole living scientist that remained from the group that had murdered Ed, he was so furious. Immediately afterwards, he calmed down and said it had been for the best that he hadn't hurt the man, because obviously Ed wasn't dead yet, and just wait until I get out of here, I'll find him!
Still, Roy supposed he couldn't really blame Al. It had taken Hughes stealing his gloves and digging up a mountainous pile of blackmail to keep him from torching the scientist, protocol or no protocol. Even then, Riza had still threatened to shoot the Fuhrer if the man didn't cooperate.
The scientist had said nothing and committed suicide on his third day of captivity.
His remains no longer...remained. Alphonse apparently still had some residual anger over the topic.
Suddenly, something wet dragging over his hand knocked Roy out of his revere, and he glanced down in surprise.
Fullmetal was sitting next to him, positively grinning, and most likely would have looked more than slightly demonic if Roy had been looking at him.
What Roy was actually looking was the letters he had pieced together in the order Fullmetal had delivered them.
His mouth had unwittingly dropped open (he could just see himself now, the epitome of composture), and he blinked a few times to make sure what he was seeing was real.
'INDIGO CITY SIX EIGHT TWO THREE JENSON BLVD COLONEL BASTARD'
After staring like an idiot for a few more moments, all Mustand could bring himself to say was, "I'm...not a Colonel anymore."
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A/N: Ed isn't missing any limbs because that's not actually his body, you can probably tell it was his soul being transferred. But then how does he remember anything, if his brain wasn-PLOTHOLEALERT. Yes, that means that a cat-for-brains Ed's body is running around somewhere causing havoc.