Rian Martin sat, sulking on the couch with his arms crossed and staring at a fixed point on the far wall. He looked completely normal, if particularly petulant. "I'm FINE," he said, still staring pointedly at the wall.

"He's not fine," Russell Tringham said.

"I'm fine."

Edward Elric looked between them, and then rubbed the bridge of his nose. They had been arguing when he had returned to his office, raised voices evident even through the closed door. Rian had dropped off his end of the argument mid-sentence, refusing to even look at Edward when he came through the door. That was unusual, but Edward was tired. He'd just gotten back from East City; and it had been a working assignment. He was met at the train station by Lieutenant Havoc, who said one of the very few things guaranteed to make Edward's stomach clench into a tiny ball of frantic worry.

You're needed at the office, there's something wrong with Rian.

But Rian was sitting right there, on the couch. His arms were crossed, he was slouching, with a scowl as deep as only a teenager could accomplish and refusing to meet anyone's eyes. Instead his gaze was focused intently at that far wall, as if through the strength of his glare he could burn a hole directly through to the other side. "I was only gone a week," Edward murmured.

Russell was giving him a Look. It was never good news when the Intelligence department was meddling in his affairs; even Alphonse wasn't an exception to that. Edward was going to have to lay down some ground rules with the soldiers in his command, and number one on that list was going to be Don't fuck around with the Intelligence department.

"I told you, I'm fine, I'm totally fine and everyone is kicking up a fuss about nothing!" Rian said, his gaze never deviating from the wall, but his nose twitching oddly. Edward frowned, and looked at Russell. The other alchemist raised a finger, silently indicating that Edward should watch. Russell produced some fine powder from a pocket on his uniform. With that cupped in his hand, he blew the powder suddenly in Rian's direction. The response was immediate - a strong sneeze.

When Rian sneezed, two black, pointed ears emerged from his hair.

Rian knew that they had emerged because he flattened them almost instantly, and they were nearly lost amid his dark hair. He put his hands on the couch between his legs and shifted his stare to the coffee table set between the two couches, his bangs shadowing his eyes. "I'm fine," he repeated sullenly.

They were there and gone so quickly that Edward almost believed he had hallucinated it; but when he looked closer he could see the outline of the large, tufted ears in Rian's dark hair. They were most certainly real. "Ears," Edward said weakly, unable to focus on anything else.

"A tail, too," Russel said. "He wouldn't let me have someone check him out, so I have to assume he's more or less intact. But if the brass catches wind of ... this," he gestured his hand at all of Rian. "He'd probably be incarcerated as a failed alchemy experiment or something. So he has to be on his best behavior." The last two words were clearly emphasized in Rian's direction. Rian made a noise in his throat that sounded like the start of a growl.

"What happened?" Edward asked, both elbows on his desk now and staring at them both. Rian knew that he was under intense scrutiny, the hunch of his shoulders made it look like he was trying to hide in his jacket. "I was only gone a WEEK."

"Would you like to tell him, or should I?" Russell asked. Edward glanced to Russell, he had settled back into the single armchair directly opposite Edward's desk, his legs crossed.

Rian snarled wordlessly, the noise escaping his lips far more animal than Edward was comfortable with hearing. "Wasn't paying attention," he muttered after a long moment. "Walked onto an active transmutation circle when I went looking for an old blowhard two towns over."

"And you got your bits scrambled with a cat," Edward said.

Rian scratched his face with his hand - which, fortunately, was a hand and not a paw. However, his nails came to little points tha Edward could see from his desk, and when he looked closer Edward could also see a faint sheen of dark hair - fur - on the back of his hands that disappeared up under the sleeves of his jacket. Edward rubbed his face and let out a long sigh, and then lifted his hand to look square at Russell.

He and Russell Tringham had never really gotten along. Supposedly they were friends, or at least Alphonse seemed to think that they were. They did work together well, but Russell had never seemed to lose that arrogance that made Edward want to kick his ass to Drachma. He wasn't a better alchemist than Edward, or even a better military officer, but he was damn good at what he did in the Intelligence department, and what was worse was that he knew it. Because of that, the next words pained Edward quite a bit to say. "So what do we do now?"

Russell sat forward. "Well, for starters you two need to get on it and see if there's a way to undo ... this." He gestured at Rian again, who was still very faintly growling at him. "I can keep the brass off your backs for a while, they don't have any idea. But you have got to keep an eye on him."

"I'm not some dumbass little kid who needs to be babysat-" Rian snapped at Russell, only to be cut off mid-rant.

"You pissed in my boots," Russell said in a very low, and very threatening voice.

"Yeah, I would have done that anyway because you. Are. A. Prick." Rian retorted.

"What do we do if it can't be undone?" Edward asked very quietly.

There was a long silence, then Russell stood up. "I know you'll be able to fix this," Russell said. "You're a damn fine alchemist, I don't think that there's anything you couldn't take apart again." The words came out tersely, like he did not want to say them in the first place. They might not like each other at all, but there was a certain level or respect between the two men. "At any rate, he's you're problem now."

These words stung most of all. "Thank you, Russell."

"See, now, it doesn't hurt to say that," Russell said cheerfully. "I'll check back with you within the week, I hope. We've got the old man in custody, maybe we can get a transmutation circle out of him before they move forward with the charges."

Edward rubbed his temple and nodded. He was staring at the blotter on his desk, which was currently clear of paperwork. Russell didn't say anything else, and after another moment he heard the office door click shut as Russell let himself out. Edward lifted his head from his hand slowly and looked at Rian.

Rian had one ear swiveled back toward the door, the other was still flat against his skull. When he caught Edward looking at him the other one flattened and he suddenly found the coffee table the most interesting thing in the room again. Edward could almost imagine the tail swishing behind him, but it appeared to be contained... somewhere. "Rian."

He didn't look up. "Look, I know I'm fuckin' stupid, okay? I don't need to hear it from you too, the great-and-mighty-never-fucks-things-up-alchemist."

That would have been funny under other circumstances. "If you even talked to Al for five minutes you'd know that's not true," Edward sighed. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

"You keep saying that, and I really don't think that you are."

There was another growl in Rian's throat. "I'm FINE."

He wasn't. Edward knew he wasn't just by the tone of his voice and the way he refused to look at Edward. He was upset, he was scared, and very possibly ashamed. He was on edge in a way that Edward had really never seen before, but then again he had never been accidentally transmuted into a very functional hybrid chimera, either. The best thing to do right now was try to get Rian to focus on something, which Edward was willing to bet Russell didn't even bother trying to do.

"What's changed?" Edward asked.

Rian took a deep breath, and then sighed. "I have a tail - it's up the back of my coat before you even ask. I have ears on top of my head now, that, fuck, like to move on their own. I can barely control them. I've got-" he held up his hand. "Nails that are really sharp and I keep cutting myself on them, some whisker you can barely see, thank fuck, fur in the weirdest places, I can hear so much more, I can smell-" here he paused, and a look of horror crossed his face. For the first time since he had entered the room Rian looked him in the eye. "Are you aroused right now?"

"Well, I am near you-"

"You sick fuck!"

"- not because you've turned into a cat, Rian! It's been over a week since I've seen you and you've been on my mind the entire ride home." Edward's temper was beginning to rise, he'd worn through the reserves of patience he'd managed to build up and was going to start in on the anger any moment now. Which, logically, wasn't going to help anyone and he needed to keep telling himself that because Rian was angry and scared and needed Edward to keep his cool.

They glared at each other for a moment more, and then Rian closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, I, just-" he gestured both hands in the air and Edward knew exactly what he meant.

"Can't say I blame you. When did this happen?"

Rian looked away. One ear had perked up, he had obviously heard something beyond Edward's scope because he glanced at the door and frowned, before looking back to Edward. "Two days ago."

Two days, and no one had thought to call him. He was only in East City, not on the other side of the world. It almost made him ill to think of the fact that he'd had dinner with his brother and his family last night as if nothing at all was wrong. "Rian..."

"I'm fine," he murmured, his ears settling back down into his hair. Edward sighed deeply again, he had the feeling that those two words would be repeated often over the next few days.

"So did you really piss in Russell's boots?"

"Yeah." Rian hesitated, and then looked up at him. Edward could see clearly the young man that he had fallen for, and it did not matter that there were ears and fur and a (yet to be seen) tail. It was just Rian before him. "Am I in trouble for that?"

Edward rested his chin in his hand and smiled. "What do you think?"

Very cautiously, Rian smiled back.