Chapter One
Confusion and Coffee
Kadge Rose-Feather
"Where are we going?" I ask the man as he pulls me up cement stairs and into a large brick building.
"My apartment." He grumbles after a while, refusing to look at me.
We arrive at a door, which the man opens, flinging me none-too-gently inside.
There is a tinny clicking noise as he fumbles with something at the door.
He drags a hand across his face, sighing again at the sight of me.
"Go get some clothes on." He tells me, walking off to another room.
Apartment...
I follow along behind the man.
"I don't know where clothes are. What's your name?"
After some hesitation, he tells me to refer to him as 'Mustang'.
He begins moving around the kitchen with shaky hands, preparing something.
"Mustang, what are you doing?" I ask, watching everything with a vivid fascination that he tries his best to just ignore.
The man still doesn't meet my eyes, keeping his answer's short and to the point.
"Making coffee."
"Coffee... Mustang, what's coffee?"
The whistling of the kettle startles me for a second.
"It's a drink." He mumbles darkly, still avoiding my gaze.
"Can I have some coffee?" I ask excitedly, clinging to the man's waist. He pushes me off of him in hurry.
"No!"
I frown.
"But I want some!" I whine, trying to wrap myself around him again. He keeps me at bay, frowning with equal intensity, his fiercely dark eyes staring directly at me now.
"Just because you want something, doesn't mean you're necessarily going to get it."
I pull on the material of his pants, frowning sulkily up at him. I drop my voice down into a husky moan.
"Why won't you let me have coffee?"
He stiffens slightly at my tone of voice, walking out of the room without picking up his coffee and without answering me.
I take the opportunity to try the strange drink, although upon the first hot and darkly bitter sip, I drop the cup as if it were poisoning me.
It smashes on the floor, showering dark coffee and porcelain everywhere. I smile brightly, picking up another coffee cup and throwing it against the wall.
The smashing noise that it makes excites me to no end, and I jump up and down on the pale tiled floor.
Unfortunately, I'm not very mindful of where the cup originally containing coffee smashed and I slip and fall onto broken porcelain shards, moaning miserably.
Mustang rushes into the room, throwing the clothes he'd been holding behind him onto the carpet and cursing out loud.
"Ed, what did you do?!" He screams at me, staring at the blood that has poured from my body. I pull myself up, frowning at the coffee cup fragments embedded in my skin.
"I don't like coffee…" I murmur as Mustang pulls me up, dragging me away to his bathroom.
He turns two silver knobs, and the white tub starts to fill up with water. I gleam at the shining transparent liquid excitedly. It looks much nicer than dirty old coffee.
"Ow!" I scream out as Mustang unexpectedly pulls a sharp shard of porcelain from my skin. He shows it to me calmly, before trying to pull out another one. I don't like the pain pulling them out causes, so I wriggle away from him and try to run away.
But this time, Mustang's prepared and he holds onto my arm with a vice-like grip, making me whimper.
"Hold still." He tells me calmly, but I shake my head and kick at him.
"No, I don't want to!" I scream, biting down on one of Mustang's fingers. He frees my arm with a loud curse, but only to hit me across the head harshly enough to bring me crashing to the floor again.
The embedded shards sting unbearably.
"I told you, to hold still." Mustang mutters through clenched teeth, pulling out as many pieces of porcelain as he can get to.
I begin to cry pathetically.
Mustang ignores me until he's pulled all of the coffee cup fragments out, and then he pulls me up gently, leading me to the bathtub and settling me into it.
He doesn't say sorry, but guilt, regret and sorrow are etched all over his face.
"Don't move." Mustang tells me sharply, locking the door on the way out. I'm guessing he's going to clean up the mess I made in the kitchen.
I trace patterns on my skin, smiling to myself and revelling in the warmth of the water.
In boxers and a large white shirt that doesn't fit me properly, I jump up and down on Mustang's bed and laugh.
The man gets dressed with a close eye on me, though he turns his back on me once he's stripped off his boxers.
I giggle at his embarrassment and launch myself onto his back.
Mustang stumbles forward a few steps, pushing me hastily off.
"W-what do you think you're doing?!" He shouts, quickly pulling on some new boxers.
I laugh and try to pull them down from the back.
"Homunculus, stop it!" Though his voice sounds firm, his face is heated and red.
I laugh again, running around him in circles.
He grabs a fistful of my long hair, pulling me to a painful halt.
"Oww! Mustang, what the hell?" I mutter, frowning distastefully at him.
Mustang lets go of my hair and flings me up onto the bed roughly, cheeks still bright red.
"Don't come near me, homunculus." He growls angrily, pulling on pyjama pants in a hurry.
I pout sulkily, rolling over onto my back and looking up at the older man.
"You called me 'Ed' earlier." I tell him sadly, rolling over again onto my belly. "Why are you calling me 'homunculus' now?"
His face stays completely blank, though he turns to a childish tactic.
"Why does it matter to you, homunculus?"
I frown, jumping up and kicking Mustang in the back. He stumbles a little, furrowing his brow.
"You can't-" He starts to chastise me, but I cut him off.
"Because I don't like it! I want to be called Ed, you patronising bastard!"
Mustang raises an eyebrow in surprise, stepping toward me with some strange mix of hope and apprehension shining in his eyes.
"Calm down, then. Stop being so damn violent and maybe I will!" He snaps.
I giggle, a smile spreading across my face.
"You will? Ed, Ed, Ed, Ed!" I chant, jumping up and down on the king mattress. Mustang sighs, fingers clenching the bridge of his nose.
"That's not calming down…" He whispers irately, but I barely notice.
For some reason, being referred to as Ed makes me unbearably happy.
"Stop jumping on my bed, now." Mustang commands coldly. I smile at him, jumping onto his bare chest like a child, taking him off guard.
He puts me under the covers, where I settle, before sealing the door by drawing something on it.
I don't understand, and I'm about to question Mustang about it, but sleep starts to steal me away, fatigue washing over me in waves.
When Mustang climbs under the covers, muttering something about only having one bed in the house and not trusting me to sleep on the couch, I curl up close to his chest and abandon myself to slumber.
I wake up in a car, with plain clothes and a strange hat on my head.
Drowsily, I pull myself up and stare at the man and woman who are in the front.
"Who are you?" I ask, rubbing my eyes.
The man in the passenger seat turns slowly to me and I recognise him as Mustang.
"Stay lying down." He tells me shortly, turning back around to face the front.
I frown, looking over at the driver, who happens to be Hawkeye.
"What's going on?" I ask, voice rising.
Mustang shushes me calmly, telling me to lie down again.
"We can't let anyone see you. I have to go into work and write a report on… What happened with Alphonse. Higher-ups will be suspicious if I don't. You can't come in, but Riza is going to wait with you. Okay?"
I nod resignedly, lying back down in the back seat lazily.
Hawkeye watches Mustang longingly as he leaves.
I laugh at her, climbing forwards into the front seat.
"You're supposed to stay in the back." She tells me, though there's no force behind it.
I smirk, pulling the corners of her lips upwards. Riza pushes me off roughly, holding my hand away from her. I pout.
"Can't we go and do something?" I ask, kicking my legs in irritation. Her face a mask of apathy, she tells me to be quiet.
I sigh dramatically, and we wait together until Mustang gets back.
"Goodbye, Lieutenant." Mustang addresses Hawkeye, as Mustang will be staying home 'sick' to keep an eye on me, while she'll keep up with work.
"Goodbye, sir."
The look on her face says that she'd do anything for this man…
I rock back and forth as the car moves, sick of sitting still.
"Mustang, can we go do something? I don't want to go back to your cruddy apartment…"
Mustang frowns.
"What would you suggest we do… Ed?"
I cluck my tongue once, looking out the window.
"I'm not sure… I don't really know anything, anymore…"
Anymore, Ed?
Mustang keeps his gaze away from me, though his eyes seem to glisten more than usual.
"Well we can't go out anywhere that anyone would recognise your face, so we have very limited options." He states impassively.
I'm a little surprised that he'd even want to at all. Desperately, I try to think of a place we could go, something we could do. But before I can even say anything, Mustang seems to come to a decision, and it sets resolutely on his face.
Sorry it's so short and that I don't update regularly...
Also, it's not specific enough, but Mustang was going to drink coffee about lunchtime, not before going to bed... xD There's just time-skips, you know? Hopefully you do.
I changed a few things and edited the introduction, so it'd probably be a smart idea to go back and re-read that...
Thanks so much for reading! I hope it wasn't too terrible. But, if you did keep reading, it can't of been that bad, eh? ;)
Please tell me any thoughts, feelings or ideas you have on this story. Should I continue or not? Love, like or hate?
