Edward bolted forward in the bed, launching the blankets off of himself and nearly past the foot of the bed, only one corner hanging on to the mattress while the rest fell haphazardly to the floor. He panted heavily, in and out, in and out, staring wildly around the bed but not seeing anything. He continued to do so until his senses returned somewhat, which took more time than it probably should have.

He breathed deeply a few more times, trying to get a grasp on his surroundings. Right. He was in the room with the dark hardwood floor and light blue walls. The guest bedroom. He should have called it his room by now, he had lived in it for over three years at this point. The room that had been given to him by Mustang. The room certainly looked like Roy's guest bedroom. Plain but stylish, with grey accented curtains and furniture, a full size bed against one wall. Edward shuddered to think about what had been done on that bed before he moved in, when Mustang entertained for his more … rambunctious crowd on the holidays.

The blinds were pulled tight and only allowed a thin trickle of light through a crack near the bottom. It could've been any time of day with the evidence given, but he knew that he hadn't woken up in the middle of the night now. His skin was clammy and cold, as he was still wearing the boxers from before. Thinking about that, he realized that he had no idea how much time had actually passed since then.

Going by the track record for these incidents, it could've been anywhere between a few hours or a few days. He didn't particularly care which it was at the moment.

He became aware of an emptiness at his side. The cold there had more to do with a sudden lack of warmth than the cool air in the house. Something was missing… Isaac. Isaac had been there before, he remembered, and he had left recently, judging by the cold he was getting from the heat pulling away from his side. He hoped that the boy hadn't been there to see what must've been a thrashing night terror. Day terror. He rolled his eyes at himself. Same difference.

Edward had no trouble getting out of bed this time. He leapt up, the covers being thrown back already, and went to search for Isaac. No matter how much determination filled him, however, he still shivered as his feet hit the hard floor. Seriously, no place should be this cold in the dead of summer.

He trudged to the door and threw it open, somehow managing to thrust the inward-opening door into his own foot.

Several choice words muttered severely into a bitten fist later, and Edward was on his way down the stairs, looking for any sign of a small child. He knew exactly where Isaac would've gone, but was hoping that he might pick a different, and easier to reach, place this time. His left leg never worked right anymore and the universe clearly had something against his right one.

But, no matter how hard he tried to come to some other conclusion, it was clear that the toddler was in the same place he was every time he needed to be found.

The nook.

The Mustang house used to belong to a rich nobleman before Roy bought it seven years ago with a military promotion. The house was built under the direct order of the nobleman, who was very suspicious about enemies that might want to steal his wealth. He was so paranoid that he had the entire house outfitted with countless secret passages, hiding places and hidden vaults. Edward happened to know that Roy had bought the house for this very reason, and took advantage of a few of the vaults himself. He had a theory that Roy really just wanted to fool around with the passages, which he was obviously utilizing at parties. The man Roy bought the place from, the last time he heard, was now living in a remote location to the south, hiding away in a one-roomed bunker eating nothing and drinking only pineapple juice he squeezed himself with his feet. There were some real nuts in Amestris.

One of the secret passages was hidden in the long staircase that connected the building's two sizable floors. Although this was no ordinary under-the stairs closet, no. Of course it couldn't be that easy. No, the nook was on the side of the stair structure at the top, about fifteen feet from the wide, glossy hardwood. How Isaac had found it, let alone get up there, let alone do so every time without being seen, Edward had no idea. He just knew that it was a real pain to get up there to get him.

He glanced around a few more corners before he gave up. There was never really any doubt to begin with. As quietly as he could, he pulled the bookcase ladder out from the library, around the corner to the wall that made the staircase. The ladder slid soundlessly on well-maintained wheels, and fit up against the wall with not so much as a thud. He took a moment to be satisfied with his work. Practice made perfect.

Tackling the climbing part of it was an entirely different matter. His left leg prosthetic didn't bend very well – actually, it didn't bend at all – and his right was still injured from two hazardous ventures down the cursed stairs. Slowly, he managed to rise upon the ladder, lifting his left leg onto the next rung and then raising his entire body up to equal height, repeat. Five cycles, nine, ten. It soon became methodic in its rhythm and easier to bear with its repetition. Before long, he'd reached the top.

There, in the wall was a small handhold, big enough for three fingers and no more, thus being nearly invisible from the floor. If one looked closely enough at the wall itself, a faint outline could be seen there, about a two-by-three foot rectangle that could easily be mistaken for an old painting placement taken down. The craftsmanship that went into the hiding place was nearly flawless.

Edward hesitated a moment before pulling the hatch open. He hadn't considered what it might've been for Isaac to see him… in that state. It could be that he didn't want to see Edward at all.

He nearly blanched at a sudden thought. What if he'd scared Isaac? The kid was still only small. Small like Ni…n… And Al-

Something snapped in his head. There was a moment of quiet, numbing absence of any thought in his head, before the pain. Splitting pain that filled his every cell and ripped him of any remaining coherence of mind. It was gone it was all gone. Gone gone gone gone gone. It was only that word. It meant nothing to him in that moment, but it resonated deep within his skull, crying out with some long lost importance. Gone gone gone. Gone from him, gone forever.

No more. A new pain shot through his head, shocking him out of whatever sort of trance that had been. He sputtered and looked around rabidly, searching for any detail that could reveal where he was or what he was doing.

Right. The ladder.

Surprisingly, he hadn't fallen off the ladder completely. His false leg in all of its unbending glory had gotten wedged firmly in the ladder as fell, catching him and forcing him to hang upside down fifteen feet in the air. Not a desirable position, but preferable to having his brains splattered onto the floor below him.

A shifting sound overhead drew his attention. He strained his neck to see directly above. Isaac was looking down at him from the nook's entrance, his face a mingled look of confusion and curiosity.

Relief filled Edward to see the child. He breathed out a sigh, celebrating the moment. If Isaac was scared or didn't want to see him, he would've hid somewhere else and most certainly wouldn't have opened the hatch.

He smiled largely at the boy.

"Well I guess I lost the element of surprise, didn't I? And here I thought I could sneak up on you for once!" he laughed. Isaac's face lit up, smile instantly morphing all of his small features into delighted relief. The boy had been scared for him.

"Ed!" Isaac shouted down to him in joy, and made to climb out of the hole.

Edward hung loosely from his precarious state on the ladder. His leg would clearly need some serious persuading before it could be removed from the rung in which it was wedged. Hopefully Isaac wouldn't see that-

Crack. The sound was loud and sharp, and rung out through the hall, stopping Isaac dead in his tracks and changing both of their expressions from drunken happiness to pure lethal shock. Edward hesitated only a moment before his limbs began moving automatically, arm raised to protect his head and flesh leg braced against the ladder.

Half a heartbeat later and the ladder was falling, bringing Edward's body closer and closer to the hard floor below.

He was still in his underwear.

-philos