DISCLAIMER: I don't own FMA or ANY of its characters ):
To Raise A Child
Fullmetal Alchemist
Chapter Two
White.
As far as I could see, all was white.
There was no sound, save the sound of my footsteps, and there was nothing in the room.
The floor was white, the walls were white, and no matter how long I walked there was no end to the
room.
Only minutes before I was face to face with violent purple winds, and now...white.
"What happened...?"
I asked to noone.
I wasn't expecting an answer, but got one anyway...
"You screwed up, Roy."
That voice...
I turned around, and sure enough...as I thought...Maes stood behind me.
A grim look on his face.
Tears sprung to my charcoal eyes, and when I moved forward in a motion to hug my old friend,
Maes moved backward. Away from me.
I was naturally taken aback.
"Maes..."
"Roy you have to listen to me, you don't have much time."
The dark haired man warned.
I waited.
"I'm going to tell you right now, the transmutation was a mild sucess, and those boys are lucky to have survived your stupidity."
I opened my mouth in a motion to speak, but Maes cut me off.
"They are alive, but not how you remember them. One is older than the other, in a five year difference, and they don't remember much. The last thing either can remember is their mother."
A tear escaped, and I did nothing to stop it.
"Now, what is going to happen next will change your life. These boys are young and quite vulnerble. You will have to raise them."
I gasped, like someone had kicked me hard in the chest, and I suddenly found it very hard to hold myself up.
"It will not be easy. I'm telling you now Roy. To gain is to lose, and there will come a time where you will have no say in what happens with the boys. It will be hard on you all, and you will feel like you can't do it, and you're going to break. But you have to be strong.
If not for you, then for Edward."
I looked up.
"Edward? What about Alphonse? Maes, I don't understand."
Maes just smiled sadly.
"Go Roy. They need you now, and I've told you all I can."
I shook my head in protest, and tried to call out to Maes, but he disappeared, as did the ground beneath me, and all went black...
He opened his eyes, and found himself drenched in sweat. It took him a little while to figure out where he was, and what had just happened with
Maes and...the boys!
Roy shot up from his laying position, and looked frantically around the room.
Glass and rubble littered the room, the boards that had been transmuted onto the windows and doors were in splinters.
He pushed himself up and immediatley caught sight of two boys.
One was about 10 years old, maybe 11 and he wore clothes that were way too big for him. He stood up on his tip toes and looked to be trying
to pry off the wood from one of he boarded windows.
The other looked to be about 6 and he had a large red coat wrapped around him. He sat with the 10 year old, cozied in his arms.
It took Roy a minute to adjust his thoughts.
"One is older than the other, in a five year difference, and they don't remember anything. Not their mother, not you, not the hell they so bravely walked through. Nothing."
"Edward..?"
The older blonde stopped prying at the window, and stumbled away from the window in surprise.
"What?"
The child asked, utterly lost as to what was going on.
Roy was standing now, and found himself unable to move.
"How do you know my name?"
The boy asked, he seemed to be trembling, and Roy only realized then how cold it really was in the room.
Some of the windows were wide open, and the snow from outside had found its way in.
The smaller boy sneezed, and 'Edward' held him tighter, immedatley worried.
His gaze was still on Roy.
"Who are you?"
He asked.
"Why do you have us here. What do you want?"
He was looking back at Roy now.
"How long have you boys been here?"
He asked, ignoring the tiny Edward's questions.
How was he supposed to answer them? They didn't know him anymore, and if he was going to
raise these boys like Maes had told him he would have to, then he had to gain their trust and
not look like a freak.
Thankfully, what Roy had asked seemed to have taken away the thought of Edwards questions,
because he shrugged, and sat down.
"I don't know. When I woke up, you and my brother were sleeping and it was dark. Then the sun came up again, and it went away a little while ago."
My brother.
It relieved Roy in the absolute slightest to know that at least Edward had some recollection of his past.
Roy thought over what Edward had just said.
It was dark...the sun came up...and went away..
An entire day.
He had been knocked out for an entire day.
This was going to, no doubt, cause huge problems with the military.
The Fuhrer just didn't go up and missing for a day. He couldn't.
He also couldn't just take the Philosophers Stone, and disappear with it, along with one of the greatest Alchemists in the military...But this would be a problem for later.
A car passed by outside, sending the lights streaming into the building, and just for a quick second Roy caught a glimpse of the boys, and the shape they were in.
Edward was shaking mildly, his hair was wet and matted, and he sat almost ontop of Alphonse, directly under a window. The snow from outside had found its way onto his hair and shoulders, his lips were blue, and aside from the coat he was completley naked, and was shaking terribly, teeth chattering.
Roy took a step forward, and looked at Edward for a breif moment before forcing himself to a hault.
"Hey."
He called over to Alphonse.
"Can you tell me your name?"
Al said nothing, and Edward shook his head.
"I tried that already..I can't tell if he's okay or not.."
Roy looked over to Edward, who was looking over at Alphonse.
"You spoke to him? What did he say?"
"He didn't say anything. I don't think he can. Everytime he opened his mouth, his teeth would chatter, and then he'd go quiet again."
Alarmed, Roy didn't think about anything, all he knew was that he had to get these boys warm, or pneumonia would surely set in...If it haden't already.
He walked over to Alphonse, and stopped in front of him.
"Come on little one, I'm taking you someplace warm."
He bent down to look at the boy in the eyes.
Instead of the smile he was hoping to find, he found nothing. His bronze orbs were empty.
But as soon as Roy made the motion to pick him up, Alphonse pushed himself further up against Edward.
Roy caught on.
"Don't worry. Edward is coming too."
"Where are we going?"
Edward asked, once Alphonse was safely in Roys arms.
"We're going home, Edward. We're going home..."
A/N Isn't Alphonse the cutest thing alive! I could scoop him up and eat him ^^ I really liked what I did with the Roy and Maes encounter :) It was different and I decided to try it! Any comments? If you do... . You all gets cookies :D