Almost Like A Tornado

Roy's life had always been pretty normal, trying to climb up the military ladder to become Fuhrer, his friends helping to push him up the ranks. He slowly gathered a group of loyal, trustworthy soldiers such as his first lieutenant Hawkeye and his old friend Hughes.

That is, until he came along into Roy's life, and ever since he had Roy's life had been stirred up beyond what he thought possible. When Roy had been sent to check out the local 'promising' alchemist from the rural Resembool he had never expected such a young kid to be the alchemist, let alone for it to be a kid who could survive such an awful rebound and then attach a human soul to armour.

He also never expected it to be such hard work having the kid, Edward, under his command. Wherever he went he left his 'trail of destruction', as it had been called by second lieutenants Breda and Havoc. Roy was given more paperwork than ever and he was already drowning in it before that runt turned up.

Though there were perks to having such a prodigy around, such as the fact that Roy could lump him with any assignment he was too lazy to give to anyone else and there was the humour of having someone around that practically exploded every time his height was mentioned.

Then there was the way Ed was in general, he was so passionate about his brother and friends, which was something Roy truly admired about him. Ed wouldn't let anything hurt them, which Roy could relate to since he felt that way about his team. They were like his family.

There was a lot Roy admired about Ed, his determination to fix the wrongs of his past. Something Roy could never do, all those death in the Ishbalan war had taken their toll on the flame alchemist but he would never let it show and Ed rarely let the price he paid affect him.

Neither of them wanted their pasts to hold them back or keep them down, they were both determined to move on with their lives. Roy wanted to help Ed complete his goal and he started to realise that he wanted more and more to see the teenager smile.

Ed had the most amazing smile Roy had ever seen, it was so bright that it would sometimes completely distract Roy from his work but he very rarely had it directed at him, as it was normally directed at Al or that automail mechanic of his from Resembool.

The more time the Colonel spent protecting Fullmetal the more he wanted to see that smile. The more he wanted the explosive teen in his office, to take the weight off his shoulders so he didn't feel the need to handle everything on his own and trust the people who care deeply about him.

He had, at first, refused to believe these feeling Ed had awoken in him. There was no-way he was going to admit them or take any notice of them. Roy Mustang was a ladies' man, who did not have any kind of romantic feeling for a certain unpredictable, slightly psychotic, teenage, male subordinate!

The more Ed was around the harder Roy found it to keep these feelings at bay. Before long he found himself staring at the teen in the cafeteria, almost constantly thinking of him when he was away on a mission and would do anything to keep Ed in his office for longer than was needed by needlessly insulting the teen's height.

Roy had started to realise his reactions to Ed were noticed by his team. Hawkeye had started to give him strange looks after Ed left his office -usually in a huff after a row about his height- and she and Havoc would preoccupy him with even more paperwork when Ed was gone. While Fury and Breda distracted him in the cafeteria at lunch or Falman would make up some excuse as to why he needed Roy's help with some files.

None of it really helped though, they tried but Roy always found his thoughts wandering back to the blond alchemist. He really tried to keep himself under control but decided that no matter how many times he told himself that Ed was male, still a teenager and a subordinate, he just couldn't get rid of these feelings he had for the alchemist.

On those few occasions when Ed spoke to him, without them arguing, it wasn't like a subordinate addressing his superior or a child talking with an adult. It felt like something deeper between them, like they could understand each other where no-one else could. Ed was truly unique and Roy knew he would never meet anyone quite like him ever again in his life.

Then one day Roy had been sulking around in his office complaining about Ed's absence to himself when his phone rang. He walked over to the object that dared to interfere with his moping. A scowl crept across his face and he prepared his gloved fingers, readying himself for Hughes' annoying voice through the receiver, only to be surprised when he was informed that there was a doctor on the phone trying to reach him at the request of a Mr. Alphonse Elric.

Roy's face fell fast as he was informed of the state alchemist's injuries and current condition. He could feel the panic slowly taking over as his hand began to shake, nearly causing him to drop the phone. Roy quickly regained his composure and remembered that he was meant to be a Colonel and his subordinate had been injured, it was his job to check on his team members and take physical injuries seriously.

He guessed that Al must have been worried about his brother and thought the best thing to do was to get the Colonel involved for some help. The younger brother was clearly smart enough to know that Mustang would be pissed if Ed had ended up in hospital and not bothered to even inform his superior officer about any of it.

There was still that panic and worry eating at him as he informed Hawkeye that they would be visiting Edward in hospital. He filled her in on the teenager's condition and that he wanted her to sit with Al and help calm the younger brother down. But he knew it would be a struggle to keep his own feelings from surfacing; there was no way he could let Ed find out about these inappropriate feelings especially at a time like this.

The car ride to the hospital dragged on and seemed to take so much longer than it should have, Roy had considered walking but then the car came to a stop and he practically leapt out of the car. Hawkeye followed slowly at her own pace. She was worried about the young boy but she knew he would be fine and didn't display any irrational panic like her Colonel, after all Ed had been through much worse before.

Roy pushed past doctors and other patients. He walked as fast as he could without actually running until he reached the reception desk. Then the Flame Alchemist nearly crashed into the desk as he stopped, completely ignoring the queue of mumbling patients and people to his left. Eventually he shot them all a 'don't fuck with me' glare and they fell silent, so he demanded to be taken to his subordinate, Edward Elric, straight away. The receptionist had seemed to panic slightly and told him the information he wanted as Hawkeye strolled over to the chaotic scene.

Riza apologised for her Colonel, but he didn't even notice. All he could hear was the sound of his frantic heartbeat and his footsteps pounding in time with it. He kept picturing Ed all battered and broken in his head and couldn't shake the horrific images away. Ed had been sent to catch a rouge alchemist, a pretty simple and common mission, and he had already done this a few times.

Only this time something must have gone wrong, from how the doctor had described his injuries it sounded like Ed had been surprised by the alchemist. Anger flooded into Roy's body at the thought of someone even touching Ed in such a way that would cause him harm or distress. The sudden burst of rage very nearly made him turn round, chase down the bastard that put Ed in this place and burn him piece by piece so he suffered in agony.

The doctor had told him that the teenager was unconscious and had been since Al brought him in. Ed had three broken ribs, a stab wound on his left arm, his automail arm and leg were both damaged and in need of some repair and a few scratches on his head. Also the doctors had been keeping a constant observation on him for when he woke up –apparently they had been warned about his hatred of being in hospitals and weren't giving him a chance to sneak off.

Roy turned a corner and saw Alphonse sitting outside Ed's room's door with his head in his hands. All his previous anger and resentment drained away at the site of the trembling younger brother. There was a tap at his shoulder and he turned to see Hawkeye walk past him and over to the living suit of armour. She put her hand on his shoulder as a sign of comfort and spoke to him in soft tones trying to help calm his sobs.

He walked around the two crouched on the floor and gave Al a pat on the head but didn't look at him; he didn't want Al to see all the emotions on his face that were threatening to show. Roy waited until he had composed himself and had the face of a Colonel concerned for his subordinate and removed his hand from Al's head and went through the doors to see the condition Ed was in.

His heart had dropped the second the doors opened. His stomach churned and twisted at the sight of the beaten and broken Ed lying in the hospital bed. The usually blond, almost gold, hair was matted with dirt and blood. A bandage was wrapped all the way down the alchemists flesh arm and had a slight pinkish tint to it; clearly the wound was still bleeding a bit. Ed's automail arm was wrapped up and in a sling to keep it out of the way and there was a drip attached to his arm.

Tons of different emotions attacked Roy all at once. He felt anger at the alchemist who hurt Ed, sadness that Ed was put through this pain because of him and for Al seeing his brother this injured, blinding rage and the urge to kill for revenge and shock that this had happened to such a talented and skilled alchemist like Ed.

The site had shocked Roy so much he had nearly missed the doctor that was sitting in the corner. It wasn't until the doctor was halfway through a sentence that the Colonel noticed he was being spoken to, and even then he couldn't draw his eyes away from the teenager. Instead he just stared at Ed, barely listening to what the doctor told him. He did hear the fact that Ed could be unconscious for days...

It had been 4 days since Ed went into hospital and he was still unconscious. Mustang had gone to visit him every day, each time he felt his heart ache that bit more at the site of the sleeping teenager. Al had filled him in on what he thought had happened with the alchemist –Roy had sent Armstrong with some backup to track down the still missing alchemist, even though he wanted to personally fry the guy, he also wanted to be in central when Ed finally woke up- and spent the time at the hospital comforting the younger Elric and listening to Alphonse talk about all the trouble Ed would get into even as a kid.

But just after a week had gone by, while Roy was at work deciding on whether or not he could get away with burning his tower of paper work, he got a call from Ed's doctor informing him that Ed had woken up a while ago and was well enough for visitors. Roy would have gone straight over, if it hadn't been for the fact that he had already been leaving work early all that week to visit the hospitalised teen. It wasn't like he was scared of his lieutenant, but he wasn't partial to being shot near a very sensitive area. So he waited until the end of his work day to leave.

On his way to the hospital Roy passed a flower stall and saw a bunch of beautiful wild flowers. He remembered Al saying that Ed used to love this one particular field in Resembool and that the elder brother had loved the flowers that grew there, from Al's description these looked like the flowers. Quickly buying them, Roy reasoned that it was normal for a person to buy flowers for someone when visiting them in hospital and smiled softly as he headed for the hospital.

Excitement built up in Roy's heart at the thought of seeing Edward back to his usual self, but he was also nervous and the feeling had started to settle in his stomach. He had told himself that he would tell Ed about his feelings once the state alchemist was better, since he felt sick with regret at the thought of losing Ed and never letting the teen know his feelings. However he was starting to regret this decision, it had been a long time since he had told someone that he was in love with them and knew it would be impossible to get away from the fear of rejection or disgust.

Standing outside the white door Roy took a few deep breaths to calm himself, cursing about being so nervous over something so stupid, and tried to think of a way he could get Ed alone to talk without making the teen think he was going to be yelled at. Roy's train of thought, however, was interrupted by the sound of Al talking and he sounded pretty excited and happy.

He listen to Al explain to Ed how the Colonel had come by everyday to check on him and about how he had kept the living armour company. Alphonse then went on to explain about how caring the Flame Alchemist was, demanding to be updated instantly about Ed's treatment and condition and if there were any changes. The Colonel chuckled to himself about how happy this all made the younger Elric, and hoped it made the elder Elric happy as well.

Again, his thoughts were interrupted but this time it was by the sound of Ed scoffing at Al. The next thing Roy knew, he was listening to Ed ramble on about how it was only because the 'bastard of a Colonel' felt guilty about sending him on the stupid mission and that it had better be made up to him since it was that jerks fault he was stuck in hospital. He went on to moan about how much he hated the Colonel. Then the rambling was cut short as Al yelled at his brother to stop being rude and that he should probably call Winry and get his automail fixed.

Roy stumbled away from the door; his eyes were wide with shock. He knew that Ed wasn't fond of him, but did the younger alchemist really think that he was like that? He never thought Ed had hated him like that, and the realisation made his chest ache so bad he felt like someone had stabbed him.

The flowers he had been holding fell to the floor as he clenched his shirt in his fist. Quickly, the ache spread to his legs and he struggled to keep himself standing, but he talked himself into walking away. He had trouble trying to pull his usual calm facade back; Ed's words having really shaken him. His temporary calm mask was slipping away fast, so he got out as quick as he could, desperate to get home and distance himself from this with a bottle of whiskey.

Back at the hospital, Ed left Alphonse in his room chatting away to his doctor. He was desperate to get out of that tiny room, though his automail leg was damaged and he was having trouble walking around on it normally. A sigh of relief escaped him when he saw that there were no guards around to make sure he couldn't escape, not that he could really get anywhere fast with his automail leg in this condition. Ed was about to head down the corridor when he noticed a bunch of flowers on the floor.

He picked them up out of curiosity and closed his eyes. A nostalgic scent filled him. Memories of his favourite field back at Resembool and him as a kid playing amongst the flowers there filled his mind. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked at the flowers; they were the same as the ones he used to play in. A smile appeared as he saw the card on it was addressed to him. Someone had actually brought him his favourite flowers. Ed wasn't so girly that he would go spazzy over a bunch of flowers, but there was something about these that made him feel really happy.

A strange determination took over Ed; he had to find out who gave him these flowers. It was one of the nicest thing to have happened lately and he wanted to know who it was that cared enough to give him a reminder of his childhood. However his smile turned into a frown as he noticed that the card hadn't been signed. He looked to see if there was anyone around who might know, but the hallway was already deserted.

He looked back at the colourful flowers taking in their scent once more. Ed had to find out who gave him such a wonderful present. Thoughts of potential suspects ran through his mind but the only person he could think of was Al, but then why would Al bring him flowers just to leave them on the floor outside? Then the door behind him opened and said brother poked his head out. Al's helmet turned and looked at the flowers in his brother's hands as he asked his brother who had sent them. Ed told his brother that it wasn't signed and ranted on about how annoying it was not being able to figure it out.

Then Al informed him that it could have been Colonel Mustang and explained that he had told the older alchemist about the field back at their hometown, Resembool. Completely ignoring the fact that his brother had told someone about one of his precious childhood memories, Ed let the thought that Roy had sent him flowers sink in. This caused guilt to creep in because of what he had previously said about the Colonel. Why would the flame alchemist care about him? Or buy him his favourite flowers?

Ed didn't know the answer but he was sure as hell going to find out.

~To Be Continued~

A/N: Wow! I actually finished a story! Been crazy busy with college assignments so I've not had much time to write.
But anyway enough of my personal crap, what did you guys think of the story? Should there be a chapter 2? Review and let me know what you think! :)
FallenAngelChuzlet x