There was a storm brewing in the skies on the third day of October and Roy couldn't help but chuckle humorlessly at the irony of it all. It felt like that night all those years ago, when he ventured into Resembool and confronted a broken child who had lost his mother and nearly his little brother. Again Roy was searching for the same broken child, only now it was in the seedy bars of Central.
The Lt. Colonel was soaked to the bone by the time he reached the bar in the darkest corners of the city. Inside he reached up to remove his heavy black overcoat but stopped when he caught sight of a certain blonde alchemist. Edward was slouched over the bar counter, half a glass of dry whiskey in his hand. Water dripped from Edward's bangs and signature red coat, creating a small pool beneath the worn stool he sat upon. The teenage boy's position was one Roy was far too familiar with and the twenty-nine year old alchemist could almost feel Edward's cold automail fingers wrap around his heart.
Roy walked briskly to the counter, nose scrunched slightly at the musty aroma in the air. The smell did nothing to make the bar seem any more inviting. It was almost as if the bar had made a deal with the weather to create the most depressing atmosphere possible. All the more reason to get him out of here. The dark haired man thought as he crossed the old, creaky floorboards.
"I knew someone would come to get me eventually…" Edward gave a dry laugh and brought the glass to his lips. "But I didn't think it'd be you, Mustang."
"Really now?" Roy drawled and stared down at Edward, his expression carefully schooled into indifference. "I would think I'd be the first one to come to mind." Sharp onyx eyes carefully took note of the emotions that expressed themselves on Edward's face as well as the flush to his cheeks. "How many drinks have you had, Fullmetal?"
Edward knocked back his drink with a slight cringe and licked his lower lip. "Not enough."
The same eyes followed Edward's tongue as it traced his pouty lower lip with much more interest than was appropriate for a number of reasons. His wandering thoughts were abruptly brought back to the matter at hand when Edward ordered another class of whiskey. Roy shook his head, both at Edward and at himself. Unbelievable.
Roy placed his hand over Edward's cup to prevent the underage boy from poisoning himself further. "I think you've had enough, Fullmetal." He said lowly and met Edward's glare with an even stare. Much to the Flame Alchemist's surprise, however, Edward was surprisingly quick to look away and gave some sort of muttered reply.
The moment Edward pushed himself off the stool Roy's arms shot forward to catch the alchemist, who predictably lost his footing and stumbled into the older man. Roy sighed under his breath and waited patiently for Edward to regain some sort of balance. As he stared down at the drunken mass of flesh and metal in his arms, Roy found himself in slight awe at the fact that Edward was so light despite his metal limps.
Once Edward had gathered his bearings enough to walk without threatening to send them both to the floor, Roy led the young man across the same old, creaky floorboards and out into the pouring rain. Edward flinched at the sudden barrage of cold water and flipped his hood up while Roy tightened his hold on the boy. They hurried along the muddy streets as quickly as they could, with Roy having to stop every so often to keep Edward from falling into a puddle of grime.
In hindsight, Roy thought perhaps he should have driven his car down the potholed road but fear of his car being vandalized by unruly pedestrians had won out over reason. By the time they reached his car, Edward was pale and shaking from the cold. Roy quickly ushered him into the passenger side and promptly slammed the door shut once he was sure Edward was secure. The moment Roy was inside the vehicle and started the ignition, he turned on the heater to warm his passenger up.
Edward was oddly silent for most of the ride and Roy had to resist the urge to glance at the boy every few minutes to make sure he was still breathing. It wasn't until Roy was forced slow due to the inability to see the road that he stole a look at the blonde. The boy's hood was still up and had his forehead pressed against the window as he stared lifelessly out at the storm. Again Roy felt those metal fingers constrict his heart at the lost expression on Edward's face, but just as he opened his mouth to say something, Edward beat him to the punch.
"Why did you come to get me?" Edward asked quietly without moving from his position. However, Roy caught his gold eyes staring at him through the mirror's reflection. "There's nothing for you to gain from this."
Under normal circumstances, Roy would have gotten angry at such a superficial statement but rather Edward's tone made him pause. While Roy couldn't pinpoint the emotion exactly, he would almost say that Edward sounded resigned. He wanted to say the reason behind it was simply because of the date yet he couldn't quite believe it. There was something underlying Edward's words that he couldn't decipher.
The Lt. Colonel returned his gaze to the front and continued to navigate the roads of Central by memory has he considered his answer. Why wouldn't I come for him? In the back of his mind, he wondered if the boy was expecting a shallow answer such as, "You're a very valuable asset to the State, Fullmetal, of course I'd take the responsibility of bringing you back." The Flame Alchemist frowned slightly as he made a slow left turn.
"Today's the third." Roy answered at length as they neared the small house that Edward stayed in with his brother. He felt more than heard Edward shift to look at him but refused to take his eyes off the darkened building in front of them, even after he had parked and turned the car off.
Roy heard Edward move again and the dark haired alchemist finally looked over at his much younger passenger. There was a light, a glimmer of something deep within those liquid gold eyes and Roy was fascinated by it. It was the same expression Edward had worn the day that Roy had first met him.
Unable to hold Edward's gaze, Roy looked away and opened the car door. Edward still had that look in his eyes when Roy helped him out of the car. Despite his sudden brooding, Roy did not hesitate to wrap a strong arm around Edward's waist again to keep the sobering, yet still quite drunk if his stumbling was taken into account, teenager upright. By the time they were under the overhang of the roof, a task that had required a considerable amount of patience on Roy's part, both alchemists were once more drenched and Edward had began to shiver again.
The door was unlocked when Roy turned the brass knob. The inside of the house wasn't any less dark or cold as the weather outside and Roy found himself wondering why an alchemist of Edward's rank would want to live in such a dreary place. He must be some sort of masochist. Roy thought as he led Edward into what he guessed was the young alchemist's bedroom.
It hadn't been hard to find the necessities to situate Edward and it wasn't the first time Roy was thankful for Edward's unusual need for tidiness. In a matter of minutes he had Edward dry and clothed with a thick wool blanket over his bed. The only thing stopping the Flame Alchemist from leaving was the small, human hand that gripped his sleeve.
There was something heart retching in watching the boy struggle to keep himself together. Roy gave a resigned sigh. He unbuttoned his coat and laid the heavy fabric over the back of the desk chair before he sat down on the edge of Edward's bed. The hand that had removed itself momentarily from his sleeve returned, clutching tighter at the fabric as if the boy was afraid of rejection.
Without a second thought to his actions, Roy wrapped his other arm around Edward and drew him close. Predictably, Edward tensed before he succumbed to his grief and threw his arms around Roy in the same manner a child would to his mother. Roy continued to cradle Edward long after the boy's body ceased to tremble and his breathing evened out.
As Edward slumbered peacefully in his arms, Roy thought back to that fateful night in October.