A little bit of action and a little bit of Ed/Roy parental bonding.
Please review! :)
Ed woke up to find sunlight making it's way through the large windows of the Rockbell residence.
He yawned, swinging his legs over the side of the couch. His automail leg made a loud -thunk- as it hit the wood floor and he winced. He always forgot to be careful with it when he was groggy.
Still, he stretched, arching his back like a cat and yawning again before getting to his feet, brushing his blonde locks away from his face and stumbling into the kitchen.
"Morning, Ed." Roy nodded to the boy from where he sat with a cup of coffee.
"Mornin'." Ed muttered, eyes still half-lidded.
Roy blinked surprised by the lack of a snappy comeback. then again, it was still early- the kid wasn't exactly all there yet.
Hawkeye swooped over, setting a brown roll, hunk of cheese, and an apple in front of the boy. "Eat up." Hayate was being taken care of by team Mustang back at the dorms, but still, she couldn't break the habit of feeding someone in the morning.
Ed's eyes widened form a moment before he was messily tearing into the bread, a hunk of fluffy white roll disappearing into his mouth, followed by a good portion of the hunk of cheese... The kid was ravenous, as ever.
"So. Any plans for today?" Roy asked as covertly as ever, expression betraying nothing out of the ordinary as he sipped at his coffee.
"Eh?" Ed spoke around a mouthful of food, scratching at the back of his head, contemplating. "Nah- might go to the river, wade around a bit. But other than that, I'm laying low."
"What about your father?" Riza asked, pouring herself a mug of coffee.
Ed's fork clattered to the plate noisily, and he looked up at Riza, eyes burning. "What about him?"
"You don't plan on spending time with him?"
"No. Why should I!?" Ed demanded, glaring.
"I was just asking, Ed. No need to get worked up." Riza said, taking a calm sip from her own mug.
"But on that topic- let's talk about what you said last night, Fullmetal." Roy said calmly, leaning forward.
Ed's eyebrows creased. "What, about my old man being a deadbeat, or an asshole?" he asked dryly.
Roy frowned slightly, leaning forward. "You said I'd been a better father to you than Hohenheim had."
"So?" Ed was back to eating again, mouth full of bread. "'S not exactly hard. Bastard left for ten years, gave us nothing- you got Al and I into the military an' all- more help than that asshole ever gave us."
Roy blinked, surprised. "So... you really meant it."
"Yeah." Ed paused for a moment, eyes narrowing in the silence that followed, before he looked up. "But don't be getting any funny ideas! Just because you're better than my Dad doesn't mean anything's different. My father's a piece of shit- and you're a piece of shit too. But you don't smell as bad."
Riza choked on her coffee, sputtering out what appeared to be laughter, and smoke appeared to be exiting Roy's ears as he scowled at in analogy.
"I'm still your superior officer, Fullmetal!"
Ed rolled his eyes. "Here we go with the god complex again-"
"I could have you court-martialed, Edward!"
"Yeah, and you could also use your fancy alchemy gloves to make us some toast, but I don't see that happening either!"
A vein began to throb in Roy's temple as his teeth seemed to sharpen. "Show some respect for once! If not for me, for alchemy!"
"Or what? You'll burn off my eyebrows?" Ed asked sarcastically. "Seriously, Mustang, you don't scare me. you need to get over yourself-"
"Pipsqueak!"
"WHO'RE YOU CALLIN' A PIPSQUEAK SO SMALL HE COULD DROWN IN A RAIN DROP!?" Ed exploded, flailing angrily as smoke poured from his ears, as well.
"Boys!" the sharp tone of Riza's voice made both Alchemists freeze and cringe- each expected to have a gun pointed at them.
Instead, however, Riza looked over at them, eyes bright for a moment as she surveyed the scene before her.
Finally finding the right words, she spoke. "Edward- show some respect to your father. Colonel- be nicer to your son." she gave them a grin before ducking into the hallway, chuckling quietly as the kitchen exploded into protests by both males behind her.
Not long after Roy and Ed had finished hurling insults at one another, Alfonse raced into the kitchen, looking upset.
"Brother- father- he's gone!"
Ed looked up from where his hand was wearing his cheek. "If I'd a known that bastard was gonna leave that soon, I'd have beaten his ass yesterday."
"But brother- we have to go find him! He couldn't have gotten far..."
Edward grit his teeth, before slamming his metal fist on the table, causing the floor to shake.
"When are you gonna get it, Al!? He doesn't care about us! He never did!"
Ed turned, his red coat flying out behind him as he turned and ran out the door, automail leg clanging on the wooden porch before he was sprinting off.
"B-but he came back." Al said, voice quiet and trembling, before he fell into a chair. "That means he must care about us. Right?"
Hawkeye stepped into the room, hands covered in flower from where she'd been helping Winry bake the day's bread.
"It'd be hard not to care about you boys, Al."
"B-but if cares... Then why does he keep leaving us?" Al's voice sounded suspiciously close to breaking.
He was met with only silence, because no one knew the answer.
Lunch went by in near total silence, and as dinner approached, there was a significant lack of blonde hair and golden eyes in the house.
"Sir." Riza stepped into the room, a red apron tied over her military uniform ith a light dusting of flower, a strand of normally immaculate blonde hair falling in her face.
"Perhaps you should go fetch Edward. The boy's already missed lunch- with how short he is, it wouldn't be good for him to miss dinner too." she smiled slightly at her own short joke.
Mustang smirked slightly, standing. "Yeah. Good idea." the legs of his chair scraped against the floor as he stood, heading out onto the porch.
He sighed, running a hand through his jet black hair. If he were a pissed off, vertically challenged alchemist with daddy issues, where would he go to brood?
...might go to the river, wade around a bit...
Roy smirked slightly as Ed's words came back to him.
Of course, the kid would go there. Not like there was anywhere else to go in this tiny country village.
He could see the river in the distance- he raised a gloved hand to shield his eyes from the sun, before he found the right direction and started walking.
He found Ed lying along the banks of the river approximately half an hour later. His characteristic red coat hung on the branches of a small bush, and he was shirtless, worn blue jeans.
He laid, hands folded resting behind his head, as the wind knocked his loose bangs from his face.
Roy smirked. "I thought I'd find you here."
"Yeah, well, you found me." Ed said, disinterested. The boy seemed more interested in watching the river.
Roy saw why. The river was close to overflowing. The additional water from the melting snow, as well as the torrential rains that spring brought, the river thundered past at a massive pace.
"It's going to happen again." Ed said calmly.
"Hmm?" Roy asked, raising his eyebrows.
"The river." Ed spoke as though it was obvious. "We're not even two weeks into the rainy season. If this keeps up, the river will overflow or break some of the damns downstream and flood the village. It's happened before- once, before I was born. A lot of people died that day. And it nearly happened again, when I was 9-"
Ed paused, frowning reminiscently. "But an alchemist passing through saw the trouble. She solidified the am, saved us all."
Ed sighed. "And now it's gonna happen again, if someone doesn't do something." he sat up, looking at the water with disinterest.
The river was nearly twenty feet wide and who knew how deep, and Ed sighed.
"And since I'm this town's homegrown alchemist, the task falls to me. I've just been tryin' to think of the best way to do it."
Roy nodded, dark eyes interested. "And what have you come up with?"
"Creating a dam. Just like teacher did all those years ago. But it's very difficult to transmute something directly into running water, since it's constantly moving. It required total precision. In order to do that- I'm going to have to use a transmutation circle."
Roy raised his eyebrows. "You? Using a transmutation circle?"
"Yeah. I don't normally do it, but in this case, it's needed."
Ed stepped forward, falling to his knees in the dirt at the very edge of the river bank.
He pulled his glove off and started to sketch in the loose dirt on the edge, sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.
Roy watched the boy, arms crossed, as he watched the boy work with silent admiration. Edward certainly was gifted, and he had a giving heart...
"Woah!" Ed shouted, followed by a splash.
Roy gaped, reaching out even though his gloved hand grasped thin air. The bank Ed had been kneeling on had completely given way, leaving Ed o be swept into the raging river...
"Edward!"
"H-help!" Ed choked out around a mouthful of water.
The boy was already ten feet away from him- Roy looked down, inhaling sharply, eyes widening. He was the flame alchemist- his alchemy, his trained skill- was useless when he was wet.
The river was gushing at an insane pace- throwing Ed around like a ragdoll. In the split second he'd spent thinking, Ed had been thrown into a large rock- he watched the boy go limp, partially submerged, before the river continued tossing his small body around like a ragdoll.
No time left to think. With Ed either unconscious or too disoriented to use alchemy, something primal took over- before he knew what he was doing, Roy was sprinting down the bank, getting as close to the boy's floating form before flinging himself into the water.
For a horrible, brief moment, he was completely submerged- he watched the bubbles leaving his mouth rise and mingle with the raging foam of water above him, before he broke the surface, coughing and gasping.
"Edward!" his voice was swallowed up by the sounds of rushing water, before he, too, was tossed into a formation of rocks.
Roy winced, kicking out his feet and paddling his arms. He was by no means a gifted swimmer, but he was proficient.
"Ed!"
The under tow pulled him under the river- he gasped, getting a mouth full of water, before he was being thrown head-over heel, surfacing just in time to grab another breath and righten himself.
His right knee was scraped against a sharp under water rock, and he winced, letting out a shout of pain- his breath was swallow up, though, when he got caught of a shock of blonde hair ten feet ahead of him.
He was paddling- for once, the current helped him, as he struggled to pull himself towards the boy. He felt nauseous, gasping when he saw Ed was floating face-down. He grabbed him by the back of the cloak- Ed was completely limp- when Roy pulled him up, his eyes were rolled back in his head.
He was slammed into another rock, losing his old on the boy and losing his breath in a gasp.
Still, a moment later he was forcing himself forward, seizing Ed beneath the shoulders. He wasn't going to lose hold of the boy again.
The crazy velocity of the river slowed as they entered a bend of the river, and Roy gasped- there.
A large bush hanging over the river- he reached up- snatching a hold of the branch, and stopping their journey through the tumultuous river.
"Edward- can you hear me? Ed!" Ed was a ragdoll in his arms.
Ed was limp in his arms. Roy struggled, one arm hooked beneath Ed's own, the other using the branch as a make-shift rope to drag them out of the hellish current, onto the bank.
He allowed him two seconds to gasp, regaining his breath, before trembling, exhausted muscles were dragging him onto his knees and he was focusing on the boy next to him.
"E-ed?"
The boy's eyes were rolled back in his head. Roy blinked, placing a hand- he'd lost one of his gloves somewhere in the river- over the boy's mouth to find no air escaping it.
The kid wasn't breathing.
He'd forgotten what he was doing- his vision was blurry with unshed tears.
"C'mon, kid- Ed. Wake up." Edward was perfectly still beside him, eyes staring up at nothing. "Edward!" he could hardly believe that sound was coming from him, but instinct took over, now.
Interlacing the fingers of his left hand with his right, he was using the heel of his right hand to pump the boy's chest. Compression- that's what they did for soldiers weren't breathing in the field.
One, two, three, four- tears dripped down his face until he reached thirty.
He leaned down, tipping ed's head back and plugging the boy's nose, covering his mouth with his own. One, two breaths...
Who knew how long the kid had been face-down in that water before Roy could get to him.
"Breathe, godammit, breathe!" Roy was pumping the boy's chest again, his own chest heaving with exertion and emotion.
"You're too young to die! You get back here, brat..."
He reached out, about to place his mouth over Ed's again and continue breathing for the boy, when Ed choked and sputtered.
Roy recoiled, eyes wide, and turned the boy onto his side- Ed vomited up a mouthful of water, gurgling and heaving again...
When he was sure he was done vomiting, ed fell back, boneless, taking in so e ragged breaths.
Roy blinked, stunned. Breathing. The kid was breathing on his own-
"D-dad?" Ed asked, looking groggily with half-lidded eyes.
Roy was so glad Ed was breathing again, he didn't even think twice about answering to the kid.
"Yeah, I'm here. Take a deep breath, Ed-"
Ed obeyed, grunting and grabbing his chest, wincing.
"Does it hurt?" Roy asked, concerned.
"Y-yeah..." Ed said, shuddering as his he laid back. It was a miracle the kid was even breathing on his own- Roy would've been stupid to consider Ed fit to walk.
"Alright. "Easy- just focus on breathing, alright, Ed?" he gather the half-metal teen in his arms, one arm beneath the boy's legs, one arm beneath the boy's back as he shakily stood on his own weak legs.
He was tired and banged up as well- but he was better off than Edward. That was what motivated him to step forward, one sloshing boot in front of the other.
Edward's metal limbs dangled limply, spilling water occasionally. it made the small boy that much heavier, and Roy's heart gave a painful tug- the heavy automail must've weighed Ed down- it was probably why the boy had been dragged underneath the river water in the first place.
Roy grimaced. Ed didn't really know where he was- this was Edward's town, but chances were if he kept heading upriver he'd find a bridge, and find his way back to the Rockbell's place.
Ed groaned. "Y-you can't carry me. A-automail's... heavy..."
"I can and I will." Roy said, the authority back in his voice. "You just keep breathing, Edward- I'll get us back home."
"T-thanks... Dad."
Please review. Did you think everyone was in character? What was your favorite/ least favorite part?
