Another one-shot posted by yours truly. Sorry I haven't been on much but I have been extremely swamped with homework. I'm actually supposed to be writing an essay right now thats due for Tuesday but, well you can see how well that's working out. I got 2 thousand words in a one-shot, zero in the essay. I'm really bad for procrastinating. Anyway, saw this picture on Deviantart and in my mind it kinda got warped and so this one-shot was born. Hope y'all enjoy and Review :D
Chapter 1
Roy Mustang stared in shock at the sight before him. His sixteen year old subordinate was in the hospital, yet again, but under different circumstances then usual. As a general rule one could assume Edward Elric would end up in the hospital due to some criminal trying to kill him, or doing something stupid, but never from a car accident.
Mustang walked over, taking in the sight. He wore the mint green hospital garb and his hair was loose on the pillow fanning out behind him in such a way that it was almost feminine. He had a white bandage was wrapped around his forehead due to a rather nasty gash. His automail arm seemed to have survived intact but no one could really tell if it would be in working order until Edward awoke. His left arm had a white bandage wrapped around it and an IV needle was in the back of his hand. Twelve small, neat stitches were situated just under the alchemists left eye and a bandage resided over the bridge of his nose. His mouth was slightly open and a tube ran across his face into his nose giving him fresh oxygen. A few cords ran down the front of his shirt that connected to a heart monitor ensuring Mustang the boy was alive, his too pale skin not doing anything to assure him of that fact. The doctors assured him that he would be fine, but Mustang had a hard time believing that.
After seeing the twisted metal that they had pulled the young alchemist out of it was hard to believe anyone could survive that. The car had been completely trashed, and the other had barely had a scratch, having only hit with a glancing blow.
The dark haired colonel's attention was drawn away by the heart monitor speeding up, slightly at first, before increasing drastically. He tore his gaze from the beeping machine to the boy in front of him and saw him panting heavily in his sleep, a worried frown on his face. Mustang was about to reach over to try and wake him up when he breathed in deeply in a sharp gasp and his golden eyes cracked open.
He frowned in confusion and blinked several times to try and clear the fog from his vision but to little avail. His gaze drifted lazily over his surroundings until he found Mustang standing there beside him.
"You..." he murmured.
Mustang nodded, "How do you feel?" he asked.
"Like shit..." the blond tried sitting up slowly but got about halfway up before a sharp pain in his middle made itself known and he shot up, curling in around himself, arms wrapped around as a small cry escaped him.
'Right," Mustang thought, 'Broken ribs too.' "You might not want to do that. You have a few broken ribs."
"Can tell..." he strained out, "Dammit...Couldn't have mentioned that earlier?
"Here, let me help," Mustang placed a hand on Edwards back, the other one his shoulder, gently pressing him back, "Lay down," he said.
Edward allowed himself to be slowly lowered back onto the pillows and was relieved to be able to breathe a little easier.
"You really should try and get some sleep. It'll do you more good then not sleeping will." Mustang told him.
"Yeah..." Edward looked at Mustang, "What happened? Last I remember I was driving back home. What happened?"
"Another driver hit you and you spun off the road. You rolled several times before crashing into a tree." Mustang told him, "It's New Years, FullMetal, you should know better then to be driving late at night."
"Wasn't thinking I guess..." Edward muttered, "The other driver, is he alright?"
"He's fine. It's you who was nearly killed, not him."
"And you? What happened to you?"
Mustangs hand rose to the bandage on his forehead, "It's nothing, just a scratch." he said.
"So...It was you who found me?" Edward asked slowly.
"Yeah. You were already unconscious though."
"Well...I guess I owe you a thanks. You saved my life." Edward said with a weak smile.
Mustang returned the smile with a grim one on his own, "I guess so..."
The two were then silent for a moment before Edwards eyes drifted closed, the boy finally succumbing to exhaustion. Mustang was about to stand up to leave when the door opened and a familiar blonde woman walked in.
"Colonel," she acknowledged, "How is he?"
"He was awake a few minutes ago. He's pretty banged up though, broken ribs, stitches, cuts, bruises. That's just what I can tell. They aren't sure if there's any internal bleeding at this point but he hasn't been coughing up blood so it should be alright." he sighed, "I certainly hope he's going to be alright..."
"Colonel? Is something wrong?"
"I taught him to drive you know. And I don't even know how many times I drilled it in his head to never drive drunk. 'Even if you've had only one drink and you feel perfectly fine you should call someone for a ride.' Thats what I told him..."
"Colonel?"
"I don't deserve his gratitude..."
"But sir, if you hadn't been there...If you hadn't gotten there so quickly, he may have died."
"If I listened to my own advice he wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. You see, Lieutenant, if it hadn't been me that risked his life to begin with, I needn't have had to save it."
"You were drinking?"
"Yeah..." he looked at the boy in front of him, "it should be me lying there, not him..."
"Does anyone else know?"
"No..." the colonel looked at his female subordinate, "Are you thinking about turning me in, Lieutenant?"
"I think you should tell Edward, find out what he thinks." Hawkeye replied.
"He'll kill me!"
"And maybe he won't." there was a moment of silence between the two military officers before Hawkeye spoke again, "you know he needs to know, he deserves to know. You can't treat him like a child, Mustang. You also know that if you don't tell him, he'll seek out the answers himself, and when he finds out it was you then he will kill you." there was no humor in her voice when she uttered the final sentence. It was a fact.
Mustang sighed, "very well, Lieutenant," he began to stand, "tell him for me when he wakes up again."
"Oh no, he needs to hear it from you. So you just sit back down, and stay put until he wakes up and is lucid enough to understand what is being said. If I find out you left before he understood the situation then you will be very sorry, understand?
The colonel swallowed nervously and nodded, sitting back down in the chair. This seemed to assure the lieutenant and she left the room, leaving behind a similar scene as she had entered.
Mustang rested his head in his hands, "I might as well go turn myself in right now," he muttered. He felt sick, and didn't know if it was from all the alcohol, the fact that he had nearly killed his youngest subordinate, the fact he had to tell said subordinate he nearly killed him, or a combination of all three.
He waited a few more hours before his stomach began to turn very violently and he stood up to head to the small bathroom and bent over the toilet and was sick. When he finished and flushed the contents away and washed his hands he found that he felt a little better, but not much so it was a combination of all three.
"You sick or somethin' Colonel?" the weak voice asked and Mustang looked over to see two golden eyes staring at him lethargically.
"Or something," Mustang answered with a sigh, walking over to the young alchemist, "FullMetal, you know that driver I mentioned, the one that spun you off the road?"
"Yeah?"
"He was drunk...And...He was me..." Mustang told him.
"What?" Edward forced himself to sit up, "you mean you-? You're the reason that I-!" he began to shake, looking down at the hospital sheets. "holy shit..." he murmured, placing one shaky hand over one eye, and he was silent.
"FullMetal? Are you alright? Do I need to get a doctor?" Mustang asked but Edward just waved him off.
"It's fine, just...It's a lot to take in right now..." let out a shaky breath, "does anyone else know about this?"
"You, me, and Hawkeye."
"So you didn't turn yourself in." it was a statement, not a question and Mustang felt his blood run cold. Did the boy think him a coward for not turning himself in?
"That's good."
What?
"What was that, FullMetal?"
"I said good. I don't want you to turn yourself in."
"So...You aren't upset?" Mustang was starting to think the boy had a concussion or something with the way he was acting.
"Don't get me wrong, I think you are an idiot and a hypocrite, telling me even if I have one weak drink I should find a different way to get home but not following your same advice, but...Well, you're also my commanding officer and the only one I can really trust so..." he growled in sudden frustration, "I just don't want to see you get kicked out of the military over nothing. I'm fine so it worked out, kay?"
Mustang smiled grimly, "thanks kid, now just make sure you get better alright? Otherwise Hawkeye will have both our heads."
Edward nodded but made no move to lie down, instead he brought his other hand up so his head was resting in both hands. He stayed in that position for a few minutes and Mustang was about to leave the younger alchemist to his thoughts when the heart monitor sped up.
"FullMetal, are you alright?" he asked, placing a hand on the boys shoulder, feeling the violent tremors beneath his hand.
"Oh god, it was so cold...So scared..."
"FullMetal?"
"No, nonononono, not the tree! I'm gonna hit the tree, I'm gonna die!" he was regaining the memories of the crash it seemed, and it was beginning to scare even the colonel.
"FullMetal, it's over, you aren't dead, calm down!" Mustang said, although his own voice had an edge of panic to it.
"I'm dead! I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead!" he let loose a soft cry before going limp in the older mans arms. Mustang lay him back down, relief flooding through him when the racing of the boys heart and his own both slowed down to normal.
Mustang remained there until dawn, sometimes sleeping, other times watching, just to ensure that the blond haired alchemist wasn't going to die on him.
In the morning Hawkeye returned with Hughes, Al, in the flesh for nearly a month and whom had been in the hospital in another ward when Edward had come in, Havoc and a nurse who told them all they couldn't be exciting the patient, nor were they allowed to wake him up, they were to wait until he awoke.
She left a few minutes later after taking a look at Edwards vitals and the others began talking to the colonel, asking him all sorts of questions about how Edward was doing. It was nearly an hour later before the blond finally awoke.
"Brother!"
"Ed!"
"He's awake."
"Hey there, Chief, gave us all quite a scare there!"
"Are you feeling alright?"
Edward blinked slowly as everyone began talking all at once before giving them a weak smirk, "I'm fine, takes more then some black ice spinning me into a tree to take me down."
"Black ice, eh? Gotta watch out for that, Chief."
"Brother, you need to be more careful!"
"At least Roy was nearby and was able to find you, you look to be in pretty rough shape as it is though."
Only Hawkeye and Mustang remained silent. The others stayed for a couple more hours before the nurses finally shooed them out for being loud and disturbing the other patients. Mustang was the last to leave.
"You know it wasn't black ice, FullMetal, I told you last night that I-"
"What are you talking about, Colonel? I specifically remember hitting a patch of ice on the road." Edward replied, "you know as well as I do that if you aren't careful driving at night in the winter you can end up spinning out, you told me that yourself."
Mustang smiled gratefully, "of course. Black ice, next time be more careful, FullMetal." he said as he left.
"You too Colonel." Edward called back, "and see about convincing them to let me out today will ya?"
"Will do...Shrimp..."
"Why you-!"
Et, fini! so, what did y'all think? I like parental storyies between Roy and Ed so I tried to portray that. Any questions, comments, suggestions, requests, are all welcome. As are any suggestions as to parental fics that you've read that you think I might enjoy. please review and have a good day :D