Title: Neither Do You
Author: Thoughts of a Shadow
Rating: K +
Warnings: I don't think any. This was another English assignment.
You look around at the station and you recognize the familiar clock, and the familiar ticket booth, the familiar conductor and the familiar people all standing around doing the things they should be doing and you smile. This is how it's supposed to be at Eastern Command. Calm and peaceful and quiet, because they bring balance to your hectic life. .
Al scares you with the way he quietly walks up until he's just behind your back. (It worries you that a fourteen year old in a seven-foot suit of armor can move that quietly) but he's reminded you of something and you realize now isn't the time to think about sneaky little brothers or familiar sights.
"Colonel Mustang is waiting for you to turn in the report," he says, and you nod because you know he's right.
"Yeah", you say, "he's probably sitting there behind his desk with that expression on his face that's just asking for me to lay one on it," so Al gives you that look and you feel guilty for a minute before you realize that he called you short on your last visit and then you don't feel quite so bad. Al leads the way out onto the city streets and you can hear the small tattered suitcase shaking inside of the hollow armor every time he moves.
"Hey Al, do you want me to carry the suitcase?"
It's a stupid gesture, since he can carry a car with ease in that unfeeling body you've trapped him in, but you can't help but want to do something for him. He smiles.
"No, Brother, I got it," he says, and you nod because you've had this conversation before, and there's really nothing else to be said.
You reach the streets and Al halts right on the edge of the curb, raising a hand out over it to signal a taxi. You spend the time looking around at all of the people that you perhaps don't know by name but must have seen a couple of times. There's the owner of that little café down the street, and the lady who always helps you check books out of the library you don't need a fancy pocket watch to get into. The lady who works at the flower shop a few blocks away walks past, as does the man who always goes on a jog past the dorms at five in the morning. You hope to see more familiar people, because recently you've seen so many people you don't know that it's gotten lonely and you want to be back somewhere that you know someone. But then Al pats your shoulder and you look over to see that a bright yellow car is parked next to you, and it's time to leave.
Thunder crashes overhead and you look up just in time to catch a few raindrops in between the thick blonde bangs curving around your face. It always seems to be raining in Eastern Command-another familiar thing. You scramble into the car and wait for Al to squeeze in before telling the cabbie "Eastern Command, please," and "No, I'm not joking." Honestly, how hard is it to believe that a fifteen year old could work for the military?
More familiar buildings pass by, and you can remember the building you transmutated on accident a few years ago, and the little candy shop Al had said he wanted to go in once he got his body back, and the coffee shop where you'd seen Mustang making out with some girl. (You shuddered while crossing that street.) You remember the alley way where you inadvertently revealed the killer of Winry's parents to her, and the alley where you'd first seen a dead body and the alley…
The alley where Nina was.
You've tried very hard to forget that alley, the one with blood stains still embedded in the stone and the one where a little girl died. You've tried very hard to forget that little girl who laughed and talked and jumped and squealed and made you smile for the first time in years. You've tried very hard to forget that little girl with the brown hair and braids, the little girl with the big blue eyes and the chubby smile. The little girl that saved you.
You shouldn't have remembered her.
(You don't have the right to.)
But then the car stops, and you're in front of the Headquarters and Al is gently shaking your shoulder.
"Brother, we're here," he says, and you nod without pointing out that it would be hard to miss the large white building even with the downpour mutilating the sight of the military offices. You pay the cabbie and thank him and then climb out after your younger brother, ready to face the Colonel and all of his crew. Al is smart enough to pull the bright red hood up over your golden braid and you thank him with a nod before shouldering your way into the Command building. You don't really need to flash your badge-the coat and armor are identification enough. People skitter out of your way and you trudge down the boring green halls with their boring white floors and their boring brown doors.
This building has always bored you past exhaustion, and Al has often had to keep you from falling asleep on your feet when you come in late at night to give a last minute report before crashing at the Hughes's place. (That man was always very nice to you, and you can't wait to see Elysia again, despite the fact that she reminds you a little too much of Nina, and oh; you've thought of her again…) Laughs are already ghosting around your ears, and you're still two halls away from the office. Must be something good tonight, you think before you reach the door and you shove it open.
There's Breada and Fallman and Fuery and Havoc and Hawkeye and Hayate, all in their normal spots doing their normal things while talking about normal stuff.
"Chief! You're back!" Havoc shouts, and then Breada is up too and they're all shaking your hand or giving you a high five or smiling. (You think you saw Hawkeye sneak a grin, but you must be really tired, because Hawkeye never smiles.) Hayate growls at your feet and you bend down to pat the black dog once, twice, on the head before turning away and motioning towards the Colonel's office.
"Yeah, he's in there," Breada says and you nod before charging forward, leaving Al to talk with Mustang's team.
"Brother, don't you think you should say you're coming in first?" Al asks, but then you literally kick open the door and he turns away with an exasperated sigh as you storm into the office.
And there's Mustang, sitting behind his desk with that stupid grin and that stupid posture and those stupid gloves are still on his hands and you can't wait to get out of this stupid office, but you still have to give that stupid report.
"Ah, Fullmetal. I seem to have forgotten that you were gone…you're so easy to miss with your size and all…" He says, and you know he expects a flaming retort complete with screaming and broken objects, but tonight you're just too tired to deal with it and you don't really feel like shouting right now, so you smile forcedly and nod along with it. Mustang looks worried, and you plaster a look of fierce annoyance on your face and hope that it will convince him enough to stop him from asking too many questions.
"Did you find anything?" He asks, and the serious concern in his eyes assures you in the fact that he doesn't really give a damn, because if he did, he would have given you more time to research your tip. But tonight, you're just too tired to give into his little mind games and you shake your head.
"Another dead end," you say, and you hang your head so that your sopping bangs swing in front of defeated golden eyes. You can feel Mustang staring at you, but anything he is about to say is drowned out by the loud laughs coming from the next room and oh, how you wish they wouldn't. They aren't supposed to laugh, these dogs of the military. They aren't supposed, you aren't supposed to, Mustang isn't supposed to, but you know he probably hasn't, so at least he's playing the part right. You smile thinly at him and completely blow off the discomfort and concern that comes as a reaction.
"Dismissed?" You ask, and he looks shocked, because you just used protocol and you've never used protocol, not since you were twelve, and why are you acting like this? But the Colonel looks you over one last time and he nods.
"I'll collect your written report in the morning. Dismissed, Fullmetal," he says and you wave a hand before ghosting out the door, quite unlike your entrance. And then Al is there and you're talking to him because yes, you were dismissed without a fight and no, you didn't kill him silently. Al gives you a look, as much as an unmoving helmet can give a look and you ignore it, because you just don't have the patience to. Mustang's team, the soldiers who don't really know they're military dogs, call out goodbyes and you wave a careless hand over your shoulder before the door closes. That's when mismatched flesh and automail slump and you're done pretending. Al knows this, because he doesn't speak for the rest of the night.
And neither do you.