-Mirror-

A/N: Inspired by various Mirror/Ed fics, but mostly by Songfic Misstress' drabble, "Mirror."

Parental!Roy/Ed

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"Fullmetal! What do you think you're doing?" Colonel Mustang demanded, rushing in to grab his subordinate's hands. He nearly slipped on the shards of silver that littered the sinks and floor.

Edward tried to shrug off the older man and continue his wanton destruction of the reflective glass. "Leave me alone!" he cried as he struggled against the older man's strong grip.

"Calm down," Mustang tightened his hold on the flailing youth, ignoring the sharp pains caused by strikes from the artificial limbs where they hit him in the teen's attempt to escape the restraining arms.

"Let me go! Leave me alone!" Edward wailed, still trying to free himself.

Mustang held the boy more securely and dragged him to his office, passing a bewildered Lieutenant Hawkeye on the way to the inner office, and threw him down onto the couch unceremoniously. He returned to the door, poking his head out for a moment. "Hawkeye, I need you to send someone to clean up the broken glass in the men's room down the hall."

"Sir?" the fair-haired woman looked up from her place at her desk, where she was currently looking over the day's work load.

"I need to take care of Fullmetal," he nodded to his loyal subordinate before ducking back into his office. He turned and glowered at the seething teenager, who was sitting with arms crossed petulantly. "He's been acting childishly."

"I'm not a child," the prodigy growled.

"Well, you certainly could have fooled me. I didn't realize adults went around randomly destroying government property," Mustang shot back as he closed the door.

"Spare me the sarcasm."

The raven-haired man sighed, moving swiftly to his desk and pulling out the bottom drawer. "Now, we need to do something about the damage you've done."

Edward knit his brow. "I thought you sent Hawkeye to clean it up."

"I meant your hand. You're bleeding all over my couch," the older man countered as he pulled out a first aid kit and brought it over to the couch, placing it between him and the youth as he sat down. He popped the box open and pulled out a pair of fine tweezers.

The blond teen glanced down at his hand and shrugged. "I've dealt with worse."

"I'm aware," Roy reached over and circled the thin wrist with his fingers, closing his fist more tightly when the teen tried to pull away. "Calm down, we need to take care of this so you don't end up with an infection."

"I never asked you to butt into my life like this," Edward spat.

Roy looked at Edward evenly. "Well, too bad. I'm here, and you're just going to have to deal with it. Now, quit being a baby and let me help you." His face softened into a gentle smile. "I know you're not a child, but you're not an adult quite yet, either, no matter how hard you try to be."

The younger alchemist brooded for a moment, as his commanding officer carefully cleaned his hand, using the tweezers to pull small slivers of glass from the abused flesh.

"Edward, really, you're going to have to pay for those mirrors," Roy gently chided the blond teenager. "Why did you feel the need to destroy all the mirrors anyway?"He poured a small amount of peroxide over the broken skin, recoiling slightly in sympathy as Edward turned his head away, wincing slightly at the sting as the peroxide bubbled in the small cuts on his hand.

"I have my reasons."

"It's going to come out of your funds, you know," the Flame Alchemist stated matter-of-factly.

"I know," Edward responded, his voice devoid of emotion.

After making sure all the shards were removed, Mustang tenderly blotted the pale bloody foam from Ed's knuckles. When he was satisfied with his work, he picked up the vial of antibiotic ointment and applied a liberal dose to each laceration. "I know you know, but do you care? Your laughter throughout the episode spoke volumes about your current state of mind."

The Fullmetal Alchemist could only glower at the older man.

The colonel ignored the murderous glance and continued. "I'm surprised. I wouldn't have expected you to let me help with this."

Edward huffed, "Yeah, well... Don't get too full of yourself, you stuck up bastard. I'm only here because I don't have the manual dexterity with my auto-mail to take care of this myself."

"I see, so you're not here because you want to be. And, you wouldn't be here at all if you hadn't shattered all that glass." Roy watched as Edward closed his eyes and took a few deeps breaths. "You want to talk about it?" he offered, wary of the teen's volatile temper.

The blond sighed heavily, watching as his commanding officer began wrapping his doctored hand. "The last time I saw him was a couple months ago, at my mother's grave. How could he just show up out of nowhere like that? He only stayed for a day before leaving again."

"Who, Ed?" Mustang inquired with a whisper. He had a sneaking suspicion who the youngster was talking about, but didn't want to push too hard. He knew that doing so might make the boy shut down.

"Hohenheim. I haven't spoken with my father since the day he left us again. I'm sixteen now, and I'm surprised I turned out as well as I have..."

Roy chuckled. "As well as you have, huh? From where I stand, you're nothing but a temperamental teenager who was forced to grow up too quickly," Roy stated as he wrapped the wounded hand with tape to keep the medicine and gauze on.

"That's too tight, dammit!" the blond jerked his hand away, glaring at the older man.

The dark-haired man carefully took the smaller hand back, loosening the tape. "Sorry." He resumed wrapping the childlike hand. "So, Ed, will you tell me now why you broke all the mirrors?"

Ed turned away again, his face glowing with a mix of anger, embarrassment and sorrow. "I hate mirrors. I see my father in them."