Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist and all of its characters belongs to Hiromu Arakawa

Rated: T for violence and coarse language

Timeline: Brotherhood-verse

Summary: Drabble #1 - When Roy receives an anonymous call stating that they have his youngest subordinate, he knew the day wasn't going to be as peaceful as he wanted it to be.

They were being held at gunpoint, their hands above their heads.

There were three men; three enemies, who had managed to catch them all in a bind like this.

Two of the men were grasping onto a snarling kid who continuously shouted profanities, attempting to escape. They each had a firm clutch on one of the boy's arms as he kicked out his legs repeatedly, trying to break out of the painful grip. The men, however, didn't loosen their holds, and found enjoyment in watching the kid struggle.

The leader of the three stood in front of his comrades with his back to them, holding the pistol currently aiming at a raven-haired man and his trusted lieutenant. His dark brown hair and clothing were ruffled and dirty, and his green eyes had a glint in them that spoke of malicious satisfaction. He steadied the gun right on the colonel's heart while retaining a keen eye on the woman soldier.

Roy glared at this disgusting man, hating to admit that he was useless in the current situation.

A couple hours before, Roy had gotten an anonymous call in his office that started this whole fiasco. The gruff voice over the phone stated that if Roy didn't come to a certain location, he would kill off his youngest subordinate, and to prove that the call wasn't fake, Roy got to hear the pained grunts of Ed getting punched and kicked around like a rag doll.

It was then that Roy got the sudden urge to set the building on fire.

He called out to his team, quickly organizing a rescue unit so he could get to Ed as soon as possible. A few moments later, Alphonse came running into the office, frantically asking where his brother had went.

Roy let him come along, knowing the bond those two brothers had. It was rare to see them without each other.

Once they arrived at the abandoned warehouse, Roy addressed everyone on his team to stay behind so he could scout the area first. He called for Hawkeye to come with him; he needed someone to watch his back after all.

The moment he and Hawkeye stepped in the room Fullmetal was in, they had a gun shoved in their faces. They barely had time to react, and it was too late to try anything now unless they wanted a bullet lodged in their chests.

Roy was demanded to take off his gloves while Hawkeye had to drop her weapon, everything coming full circle.

Hands in the air, both Roy and Riza glared at the three men, wondering why this "meeting" had been called upon. Roy was pissed at the leader's ploy of abusing his youngest subordinate in order to get in contact with him.

Looking over at Edward, Roy could see that the kid was missing his signature red coat and black jacket, leaving his automail to reflect off of the little amount of light there was left in the room. The kid's flesh arm was covered in bruises and his face was caked in blood, but he still held that flame of determination in his eyes, causing Roy to feel a pinch of pride.

Roy was snapped out of his thoughts and turned back to the leader when he heard that same gruff voice call his name.

"So, Roy Mustang, it seems we finally get to meet," the leader spoke with authority in his deep voice.

"Unfortunately," Roy spit out disgustingly.

The leader just glared at him, but regained his sinister smile when he addressed his comrades. "Can you shut him up back there, please? I'm trying to have a conversation."

Ed flared in anger, struggling once more to get out of his captors' hold. "You bastard, you better let us go or I'll-!" Ed was cut off when he received a sudden punch to the left side of his face, causing his body to propel to the right.

Watching this, Roy quickly stepped forward and shouted, "Don't you dare touch him!" he snarled.

The leader motioned to his gun, silently telling Mustang what would happen if he took another step. He chuckled to himself as he watched the display. "What's wrong, Mustang? Don't tell me you actually care about the kid. We all know you just used him to further your own goals."

Not wanting to give the bastard a reaction, Roy just ignored the question and got straight to the point. "Why the hell did you want me to come here?"

Shrugging at his question being avoided, the leader replied with another. "What I want to know is why you brought someone with you when the instructions were to come alone," he spoke, gesturing to Hawkeye who had been silently listening. She shot the leader a fierce scowl, wishing she had her gun in her hands at the moment.

"Do you really think he's that dumb? You must not be that smart if you think he'd come here without backup-" Ed started again with a sarcastic tongue, just to be punched in the stomach by the guy holding his flesh arm. His body crumpled inwards as he sucked in lumps of air.

As much as Ed's mordant remarks reassured Roy that the kid was alright, he wordlessly wished Ed would be quiet and not get himself hurt for once.

"No, you're right, Fullmetal," the leader spoke, "I knew he wouldn't come alone, but I wasn't expecting this. You're the Hawk's Eye, aren't you? The lieutenant that's always seen with Mustang?" When he received nothing but a threatening look, he smirked and continued, "All three of you are pretty famous here in Amestris, and I could earn a good bit of money if I were to shoot you all right here and drag you to the Drachmans."

"So that's what this is all about? Money? You kidnapped a child," Hawkeye spoke for the first time, infuriated by this man's actions.

"I did, but he's also part of the prize, so I couldn't just skip an amazing opportunity to capture him as well. I'm surprised I even did. Who knew that the annoying brat would cave in when mentioning his brother."

"Shut the hell up! Leave my brother out of this, you sick bastard!" Ed shouted, kicking his legs and once more trying to escape after hearing the man's true plans.

By the minute, Roy learned that he began to loathe this man more and more each time he spoke. All Roy wanted to do was scorch the man alive for starting all of this and dragging his other subordinates into it.

It was clear to anyone that the leader was getting frustrated with Ed's yelling. Roy could see bruises on all of the men, knowing that Fullmetal did not go down so easily without a fight.

The leader, still keeping a close eye on Roy and Riza, walked over to Ed and grabbed the front of his shirt, "Don't you ever stop talking, you annoying brat? I should shoot you in the goddamn face for all the shit you've pulled."

Ed just looked up at the man and spit blood in his face, "Try it then."

Suddenly, Ed was struck in the face with the pistol, causing the cut on his forehead to start bleeding. He snarled and head bumped the leader under the chin, causing the man to step back. The two guys holding Ed grew shocked, and now it was his chance.

Ed kicked out his automail leg and hit the ankle of the man to his left. He ripped his flesh arm free when the grip on it loosened, and swiftly swung to his right to hit the other man straight in the face.

However, the two men recovered quickly and one grabbed Ed's braid, causing him to yelp and get pulled backwards. The other punched him in the abdomen and grabbed his arms, holding them behind his back. Ed was shoved to the ground on his stomach, but never ceased his struggling. "Get your damn hands off me!"

Roy growled to himself, wanting to burn these bastards' hands for touching Ed. His eyes widened when he saw where the pistol was now pointed at. "Fullmetal!"

The leader watched all of this with murderous intent, having enough of the child's antics. He aimed his gun at Ed, who was scowling up at him. "You're more trouble than you're worth, dog."

He rested his finger on the trigger and pulled it down.

BANG!

It seemed like time had frozen. Roy stood there shocked, his hazy mind trying to figure out what happened. He saw smoke rising in the air to his right, and slowly turned his head.

There, he saw Hawkeye holding two pistols, smoke coming out of one of the barrels. The gun she originally had was still on the ground, meaning that the guns she had now were previously concealed.

Roy couldn't thank this amazing woman enough.

The leader screamed as he dropped his pistol, his right hand being shot. He grabbed onto it, trying to stop the bleeding, but the pain wouldn't go away.

Hawkeye trained her guns on all of them, giving them warning glares in case they tried to move for the weapon their leader had just released.

Roy briskly grabbed his gloves and slipped them on, snapping his fingers to burn each of the men's arms that were holding onto Ed. "Hawkeye, get our reinforcements."

She nodded and ran out the door, leaving Roy to watch the men. He glared at the leader, sending another small flame to burn his hands. "That's what you get for laying your hands on my subordinate," he said, a cold chill to his voice.

Ed slowly sat up, coughing as he wiped the blood from his mouth. He crawled backwards away from the men, not having the strength to get up, and grunted as he moved.

The three men were on the ground, helpless as they held onto their burnt wounds. Roy picked up the leader's pistol and aimed it at them, just for good measure.

When Hawkeye returned, she brought in the rest of Mustang's unit to start arresting the kidnappers. Roy sighed in relief, glad that this nightmare was over, and turned to look for Ed.

Once he saw the boy's state, he quickly ran over. "Fullmetal! Are you alright?" he asked, crouching in front of him and grabbing onto his shoulders.

Roy felt that same sense of pride when Ed looked up at him and grinned. "Those bastards didn't know what they had coming to them."

Roy smirked. "That's right. Who did they think they were messing with? We don't go down so easily."

Ed chuckled and grabbed onto Roy's jacket. "I'm surprised you lasted that long. I thought old age would've made you tired."

"Hey! I'm not that old!"

Ed laughed, and Roy realized how much he wished the kid could laugh like that all the time instead of worrying about getting injured or kidnapped.

Putting an arm around Ed's waist, Roy helped the kid stand up, steadying him so he wouldn't fall. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

Ed nodded and struggled to get up, but appreciated Mustang's help no less. He looked over at his superior and asked, "Colonel? Al's safe, right?"

Roy gave Ed a reassuring smile. "Yeah, he's just outside. You'll get to see him when we're out there."

He didn't receive an answer, but knew the boy was relieved to hear his brother was okay.

They began to walk, silently taking slow steps to get outside with a few soft apologies and pained grunts here and there.

Right before they reached the main door, Roy heard Ed's voice speak softly, "Hey, colonel... thanks.. for showing up."

Roy just smirked, subconsciously holding onto Ed just a little tighter, not ever wanting to let the boy go again. "Don't mention it, shrimp."

"Hey!"

Author's Note: My submission for day 2 of Parental!Royed Week: Protect or Sacrifice :'D

This story will mostly contain headcanons of mine that I have for these two dorks, and while I'm not sure how often I'm going to be updating this, I'll try my best!

I love parental!royed so much and I think it's a really important platonic relationship in the show.

I'm so happy I was motivated enough to finish this. Thanks for reading!

-Sofia