"So... this is it, huh?"
The basement of the old house was nothing short of disgusting. Empty boxes, thick metal cages, and scattered papers littered the floor of the large room before them, and each member of the team wrinkled their noses in disgust at the foul smell radiating from the snarling beasts. Though not nearly as boisterous as the chimeras at Tucker's residence had been, Edward still found it difficult to focus on anything besides their anguished cries, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes at the screeching.
"This place is a fucking mess! It's going to take a lifetime and a half just to sort everything out!" As if to prove his point, Mustang stooped low and plucked a bloodied sheet of paper from the floor, sighing in agitation when he discovered the writing on it to be unsalvageable. He angrily kicked an empty beer can across the room and placed a hand to the bridge of his nose, rubbing slowly. "Alright... We'd better get to work."
With an indignant noise of protest from one Jean Havoc, the Colonel reached for a rat carcass, stripped of its meat, lying on the floor and threw it into a nearby trash bin. Wordlessly, he grabbed the bin and another one like it and thrust it in front of the other military personnel.
"This bin," he gestured to the one on his right, "will be for papers, cardboard, glass, etcetera. And this one," waving a hand to the trash can on his left, "will be for anything dead. Any questions?" When no response was received, he turned on his heel and began to shuffle through the files on top of the large desk on the outer wall of the room, sorting them into three piles: scrap, useful, and to-be-determined. Before long, Hawkeye found herself on the opposite side of the room as the Colonel, using a notepad to document everything she saw, and soon the other men began to help out in whatever way they could.
Vato Falman assisted the Colonel with the plethora of messy sheets and manila envelopes thrown around the room, and both Breda and Havoc got to work inspecting the vials of liquid they had discovered in the far corner, documenting them as a possible injection of some sort. The young sergeant made his way from one corner of the room to another, snapping as many photographs as he could of the scene, not missing an inch of the room's surface area in his endeavor. Various chalk circles colored the walls, some having been simply drawn and hastily erased, but most with more intricate detail lacing their outer edges. Fuery made sure to take plenty of photographs of these.
Noticing the stark and unusual silence settling around his team, Mustang suspiciously glanced up from his work, wondering what the hot-headed teenager was doing to render him so speechless. When he finally located the boy, Edward was seated, cross-legged on the floor, in front of one of the many cages in the room. His auto mail arm was raised to rest its hand component on the metal bar, and he was tapping his forefinger against the steel, resulting in a faint chink-ing sound. Mustang sighed. Why couldn't Edward stay away from danger and sort paperwork like the rest of them?
"Fullmetal, stay away from those cages. We'll deal with them after we've sorted out the doctor's research, and I don't want you teasing them." The Colonel demanded in a stern voice, watching with focused eyes as the boy stayed on the floor, ignoring the order. It wasn't defiance, Mustang knew, or he would have received some choice words from the blonde instead of the haunting silence which insued.
"Fullmetal?" Edward jerked as though he was hearing the Colonel speak for the first time and slowly glanced up at his superior, causing a startled gasp to break from Mustang's lips.
It was as though he was being shoved through a wormhole, back through time, by the look of sadness in the teenager's eyes. He could only remember a few instances were Edward had actually cried in front of him, or, as he should say, simply not bothered with hiding his tears from the man. Both with Nina's death, and his encounter with that psychotic serial killer early on in his military career, Edward had broken down, his sadness far too immense for his frail body to contain it any longer.
It was times like this, staring into the Fullmetal Alchemist's sorrowful eyes, that Mustang was reminded of just how frail the boy truly was. He wasn't some military machine, made to kill. He wasn't a vengeful, blood-thirsty animal... Edward was a fifteen year old boy who had been hardened by his struggles, and couldn't seem to escape the shroud of darkness which loomed over him.
"Edward, what-" The boy whipped his head back around, not allowing Mustang to see the tear fall from his eye as he hastily wiped it away.
"How could anyone do this? They're in so much pain..." His voice was broken, strained by the crushing sorrow of the sight before him: a dead chimera; stomach so unbelievably shrunken in that it was impossible for anyone to doubt how it had died.. It had the body of a wolf, with the face and coloring of a leopard... and Edward felt for the poor beast.
"... Edward, you shouldn't be here. Why don't you help Falman with the paperwork, and I'll take over this job?" Mustang knelt down and placed a calming hand on his subordinate's shoulders, feeling them tense with grief and confusion at the world. Edward quickly, but politely, shrugged the touch away.
"I can't. I promised you that I would help you find the human chimera, and that's what I plan to do. I never said I would do your goddamn paperwork." He then stood from the floor and began moving the boxes he found into one of the corners of the room, effectively clearing out their workspace and leaving his objective with no place left to hide.
Edward huffed a sigh, swiveling his head from side to side and allowed his eyes and ears to do all the work for him, using them to pick up anything out of the ordinary. The ruffling of papers across the floor, the pained yowls of alchemically combined animals, the soft footsteps of the rest of the team on the concrete, and the patter of mice scurrying around the room... nothing to suggest a human chimera was or ever had been in the laboratory.
The blonde alchemist continued his search in frustration. Mustang had long ago returned to the filing process with Falman and spared a glance at his grumbling subordinate who, at that moment, had lifted up the corner of fabric which was draped over a lab table to look behind it... and found exactly what, and who, he had been looking for.
The area beneath the table was darkly shadowed, and this allowed for the figure to stand out all the more, his pale pink flesh sharply contrasting against the shrouded darkness around him. Edward supposed the boy couldn't have been older than ten. His azure irises gleamed eerily in the dim lighting and soft, midnight ears poked out from beneath his sandy mess of hair, twitching every so often as they were greeted with a new sound. A shaggy tail lie limply across the floor, wrapping itself lightly around his form, appearing the very same midnight color as his ears. If Edward had to guess, he'd venture to say the child had been combined with a canine of sorts... the realization of which caused red flags to arise in Edward's mind, but he quickly brushed them aside as he took in the boy's terrified expression.
"Hey there. I've been looking all over for you!" Roy's eyes immediately sharpened upon hearing this and heavy footfalls grew louder as they neared Edward's kneeling form but, before the Colonel could speak, the blonde thrust out his left arm in warning.
"Don't." Edward breathed, his golden eyes flashing dangerously in the dim lighting.
"Is it really him? The human chimera?" Roy asked breathlessly, feeling his heart pounding loudly in his ears as his breath became quick and labored. The remainder of Mustang's team lined up tentatively behind their commanding officer, looking on the scene in apprehension. Slowly, the blonde nodded before returning his eyes to the trembling child pressed up against the far wall.
"Hey there, buddy. You don't have to be afraid anymore, okay? I'm going to get you out of this nasty place. You'd like that, wouldn't you?" If the chimera boy had any interest in leaving the lab with Edward, it was easily masked by his bared teeth and low growl which were unmistakably directed at the alchemist. Edward glanced up at his colleagues before easing himself slowly behind the curtain of fabric. Mustang made a move to stop him.
"Don't you dare." Edward hissed. "I'll be fine... he won't hurt me."
"How do you know that, Fullmetal? He could be hostile!" The younger alchemist huffed and blew his bangs out of his face.
"He's just a little kid, Bastard. He'll be more comfortable with someone close to his age, like me, as opposed to some creepy old soldier." The Colonel back off easily after that, knowing in his heart that his subordinate was, as usual, dead on. The teenager once again moved to slip beneath the table, a gesture which only caused the low growls to increase in volume. Heedless of the impending threat of receiving a pair of fangs somewhere unwanted, Edward continued in his efforts to move himself nearer to the creature.
Once he found he was near enough to carry a quiet conversation with the boy whilst being out of reach of those impressive canines, Edward seated himself quietly and arranged his body to a more comfortable position, sitting cross-legged facing the chimera.
"What's your name?" The blue eyes followed his every move, blinking only when necessary as though he was afraid that the alchemist would take advantage of his eighth-of-a-second blindness. The sandy haired boy made no move to speak, and Edward briefly wondered if he even could.
"Well, I'm Edward. Edward Elric." He continued on, smiling in spite of himself, wanting nothing more than for the boy to smile back at him, to make him feel less alone than he was. The growling stopped and the teeth were concealed behind his tensed lips once again, but his face lost none of its hostility. Edward tried again:
"How long have you been here?" Again, no response from the boy. The hesitance was still there, though his eyes now held a somewhat interested glow. The alchemist sighed.
"How about I tell you a little bit about myself?" A curt nod, and a small smile in response from Edward at the motion. "Well, like I said before: my name is Edward Elric. I have a younger brother named Alphonse, who I care about more than anything in the world. He's my little brother... I'd do anything for him." Another soft, bittersweet smile.
"Anyhow, my mom died when I was young, and my bastard father left us before I was really old enough to know him... But he was a horrible man. In fact, before he left, he made me just like you." At this piece of information, the midnight ears perked up and the cobalt eyes became as large as saucers.
"L... like...m...m... me?" At the whispered stammers, Edward's face broke into a wide grin and he gave a victorious laugh in spite of himself, being sure to keep his voice low enough so that Mustang and the others wouldn't be able to hear their conversation.
"So you can talk! That's great!" The boys ears flattened themselves against the mop of hair instantly, his posture becoming guarded once more. Edward smirked sadly.
"I suppose you thought you were alone, huh? Thought you'd never be able to live a normal life after this; that you'd be outcasted as a freak because you aren't human?" His tone turned somber and he offered the chimera a small smile before reaching up and peeling away the ear coverings he always wore to hide himself from the world. The boy stared as Edward revealed his true form to the first person since before his mother passed and, after a short while, the shock on his features grew to acceptance, wonder, and (finally) overwhelming joy.
"Well, what they know won't hurt them... will it?" The dazzling smile Edward received in response, earned the young chimera one in return. After a moment, the alchemist covered himself up and shuffled calmly over to where the boy was still curled in on himself, offering a comforting hand to the brunette.
"Come on, let's get out of here." The dog-boy cross wrapped his tail tighter around himself and began trembling in fear once again.
"... The... mil.. military.." Edward sighed, dropping the outstretched hand and seating himself comfortably again.
"It's alright. They're friends of mine." He quickly fished out the silver pocket watch from his pants and carefully showed it to the chimera. "See, I'm like you, but I'm also like them..." The blonde alchemist stuffed the item away and looked at the boy before him with an icy, but determined glare, indicating that he meant every word which left his mouth.
"I won't allow them to take you away or harm you in any way. I take care of my family. And, right now... you, Al, and I are family. I won't let anything happen to you." The azure eyes began to water at being considered a part of the young alchemist's family, small though it may be. The tawny head nodded slowly, black ears flopping around with the motion.
".. Okay.." Sensing the boy's hesitance, Edward gently cupped a hand beneath the younger's jaw, moving slowly so as not to startle him.
"Do you trust me?" Their eyes met, and suddenly the tears were overflowing the brunette's eyes, leaking down the planes of his cheeks and dropping onto the alchemist's hands. He nuzzled his cheek into the older boy's palm, hiccuping softly.
"You... you're li... like me. I trust you... brother." Keeping the left hand on his jaw, Edward lifted up his auto mail to gently brush the bangs from the boy's face, placing a gentle kiss on his forehead. His protective instincts were kicking in, damn that Hohenheim! Edward silently vowed to himself that he would be there for this boy... the way no one ever had been there for him. The way he had always needed someone to be there for him...
"Good. But, listen, they don't know that I'm not exactly human so, if we can keep this on the down-low, I'd really appreciate it." His smile was instantly returned, and the jet black tail gave an overjoyed flutter against the concrete.
"Sure!" Edward once again held his hand out for the child but, this time, the brunette instantly grasped it, holding onto the blonde as though he were too afraid to let go.
"Alright, let's get outta here." He began to crawl out from their hiding place when a gentle utterance brought him back to his companion.
"Sam.." Edward's head swiveled so suddenly, it was almost comical to watch.
"What?" A soft blush rose across the chimera's cheeks, and he lowered his eyes to the ground, before speaking a bit louder than before.
"My name... it's Sam."
