Author's Notes: So I wrote half of this a while ago, but then got distracted by a few other things...like normal. I finally sat down to finish it tonight. I'm not exactly happy with it, but now that it's written, I'm done. I am pleased about writing from Falman's POV, which I haven't done since the last scene of my first Royai daemon AU fic, "rummaging in our souls". His daemon is secretly one of my favorites.
the beast howls in my veins
part two: roar
It's always kind of funny to see his Ayn standing next to Shula, if only because she's so tiny compared to the lion. Not that she acts like it, of course. As for as Ayn is concerned, she's as large and fierce as Shula, even if she is only a tabby cat. Falman never corrects her because he knows all he'll get is a flick of her tail in his face and a sharp glare. And so he doesn't say anything or even blink when Ayn plants herself in front of Shula, back arched and hair raised, hissing like she's the most terrifying animal in the world.
Like they're not the ones being held at gunpoint, Breda isn't bleeding from a bullet graze, and Mustang isn't being held hostage with a gun to his temple.
No, Ayn doesn't care about that. She will not be tame. She is as wild as Shula and Wojciech in this moment.
Shula, for her part, is tensely quiet, her golden eyes locked onto Mustang, standing completely still except for her tail slowly swishing side to side. Falman thinks it's the most dangerous he's ever seen her. Shula has such a large presence, not just concerning her physical size, and a melodious voice, but it's easy to forget how terrifying she can be when she makes bad jokes and takes naps everywhere in the office. Now though, she looks ready to maul the man holding her human, daemon taboos be damned.
Hawkeye is just as tense at Falman's side and looks about as dangerous as well. She has a gun trained on the man holding a gun to Mustang's head, but she doesn't have a clear enough shot. Falman doesn't have her or Havoc's shooting skills, but he knows that at least. He knows because she would've shot the man already if she did have a decent angle. Wojciech is the only one that isn't still. He prowls side to side, teeth bared, his growl a low rumble. For once, he's not the only wolf. The man's wolf daemon is almost all black and has a vicious gleam to her. Falman knows that this will only end in blood.
"Lower your weapons!" the hostage taker demands.
"Fuck that," Havoc grounds out from Falman's other side. His Hiroko snorts, shaking her head like the man is an idiot. He has to be one if he thinks that he and his three comrades are going to get out of this unscathed.
Hawkeye doesn't say a word. Wojciech practically sneers. The only word Falman can think of is terrifying.
Shula is all quiet. She doesn't blink or look away from Mustang.
One of the man's cohorts waves his gun around. "We have your leader captive! I don't think you have a choice."
"I can't believe you let yourself get caught," Wojciech harrumphs, like they aren't in the middle of a stand off.
Mustang, bleeding from a head wound, manages to crack a smile, his eyes flickering away from Shula to Wojciech for just a moment. "We all have our bad days."
When Wojciech takes a step closer towards them, the man's black wolf daemon steps forward and snaps furiously, his jaws too close to Ayn for Falman's comfort. It takes everything in Falman to not drop his gun and lean down to scoop Ayn into his arms. She would've resented him for at least a week if he did that. Ayn knows how to hold grudges and she's not above doing it to her own human if she deems it necessary.
"Let him go," Shula says in a cool voice, speaking for the first time since they entered the building, "or else."
"Or else what?" the hostage taker's wolf daemon barks, laughing callously. She has a huskier voice than Shula, closer to Wojciech's. Falman wonders briefly if it's a wolf daemon thing. He'll have to look that up later.
Wojciech's gaze turns to Shula, like he's questioning her about what he should do, but the lioness daemon isn't looking at him. All her focus is still on Mustang. Under normal circumstances, Shula probably would've let a smirk cut at her face. It's what Mustang would do, after all. Most daemons can't express themselves so easily, but canine, feline, and primate daemons have special talents in that area. Falman has come to recognize his team's daemons body language for what they mean. Shula's non-reaction warns him that something bad is brewing in her mind.
Get back here, Falman tells Ayn, not wanting her to be smack dab in the middle of what feels like is going to be a fight between a bunch of very large daemons.
Ayn irritably flicks her tail in response and ignores him. Stubborn, little cat. How did he manage to get her?
There's no warning to the sudden attack. To be honest, Falman was fully expecting Shula to leap onto the wolf daemon. Instead, there's a flash of grey and Wojciech leaps onto Mustang and his captor, knocking the both of them to the ground. The taboo of a daemon touching another human is enough to startle the crook into not reacting and the two men go tumbling to the ground. Before the enemy's wolf daemon can jump in, Shula is on her, biting into the wolf's neck hard enough to make her howl in response.
Falman doesn't have the chance to see the end results. The rest of them turn into a predictable mess. One criminal starts shooting recklessly, nearly hitting Ayn and giving Falman a heart attack, but Havoc caps him in the knee and then tackles him to the ground. Hiroko is in front of Ayn in a flash, barking viciously at the man's cougar daemon, though she's bigger than her. When the two of them start to wrestle in a vicious match, Ayn bites at the cougar's heels and tail, just enough to distract her so that Hiroko can get the upperhand.
One man is already down and unresponsive, his daemon no longer in sight. Falman vaguely recalls a gunshot from his left and realizes that Hawkeye must've shot him. Something shiny shimmers in the air. Dust - the leftovers of a daemon after they are dispersed when their human dies. Falman swallows. A tiny bit of horror settles in his gut, but he doesn't have the time to process it. Little is known about Dust, his mind thinks dizzily. He ignores the thought. No time. That's Ayn in his head, reminding him of the present.
Falman begins trying very fervently to convince the last criminal to put down her gun, but it proves difficult. She's erratic and scared, but worse, she's loyal to a fault to the leader of her group. Her daemon, a large boar, huffs and shakes his head as he stands in front of her protectively. "I don't want to shoot you," Falman says, even though the gun is a bit shaky in his hands.
"But he will!" his Ayn warns coldly. Will he? Falman blinks. He's never shot an actual person before.
Her gun clicks as she stares at him with wide-eyed terror. He feels a brush of strength from Ayn, but it doesn't feel like anything. Can he really pull the trigger?
A sudden roar, one of the loudest things Falman has ever heard in his life, erupts into the room, cutting through the tension like a chainsaw. It's bold and wild, something from fiction more than real life. There's no way that any daemon could be that loud. The roar itself is enough to make the woman scream and drop her gun, letting it bounce right off the back of her boar daemon, who itself staggers down and holds the side of its head to the floor, like it can drown out the sound with the concrete. Hiroko flattens her ears and steps off of the cougar daemon, who shudders and lies limp on the floor, mewling weakly. Breda's Sumati, a normally bluff pitbull daemon, whimpers at his side. A shiver runs through Ayn, difficult as she may be, and she slinks back to his side.
Shula pads into the middle of the room, her brown eyes glaring at everyone in turn. The man's wolf daemon lies on the ground still, breathing shallowly in a puddle of blood. For the most part, Shula still looks as pristine as she usually does, but there's a bit of red on her snout as she licks at her sharp teeth. No one on the team, probably besides Mustang and Hawkeye, has heard Shula actually roar, but Falman figures that's a good thing. The sound of her roar about made Falman run out the door. That roar said one thing: death to anyone that ignores me.
It is easily one of the most terrifying things Falman has ever experienced in his life. Even Havoc, who acts like he can't be thrown off by anything, looks shaken, sweaty and unsure.
The only ones in the room that don't seem thrown for a loop are Wojciech and Hawkeye. The First Lieutenant's lips are pressed into a thin line as she helps Mustang stand on his feet, one of his arms around her shoulder. Her gaze is locked onto the lion as she walks through the ground. All of the team knows about the Colonel and First Lieutenant's...weird relationship when it comes to their daemons. Shula isn't above laying her head on Hawkeye's lap when Mustang is late on his paperwork or feels upset and Wojciech will rub his head against Mustang's stomach whenever he seems unsure or does something particularly kind. So it makes sense to Falman that Hawkeye would be focused on Shula, who's cold demeanor after letting out a horrific roar is concerning.
Wojciech, on the other hand, spits out a gnarled gun, useless after being worked over by the wolf, and then steps away from the hostage taker. Havoc glances about and then rushes over there to make sure the man is still under guard, despite the fact that he's probably useless with his daemon being mauled so terribly. Shula is so worked up that she doesn't even notice Wojciech's presence at first until the wolf lightly presses into her.
"Get these assholes in cuffs," Shula snarls. That Falman can make sense of. Like Mustang, she can get particularly vicious when she's irritated, but it was that coldness that threw him off earlier. He pictures Mustang doing that same thing, but with his ignition gloves, and it makes him want to shudder. Cold anger is a scary thing. It's not in him to be like that, but he can see it in Mustang and Shula. Strange since he's the Flame Alchemist.
As Falman is busy arresting the woman who he nearly shot earlier, he can't help but overhear the conversation between the wolf and lion daemon. He really isn't trying to eavesdrop, but he's the only one in hearing range, besides the woman who is too stunned to fight back. Even her daemon, though much larger than his, seems cowed by Ayn into behaving.
"You scared them," Wojciech says, his golden eyes carefully assessing the other daemon.
Shula huffs. "Weak-minded individuals. Since when has taking a hostage ever worked?"
"I'm not talking about them and you know it," Wojciech snaps. He's never been afraid to be confrontational with anyone, not even Shula, who is larger than him. Falman has only seen a handful of daemons larger than Wojciech, but none bigger than Mustang's Shula so far. He's heard of people having bear daemons, but those are probably further up North where size matters. In the city, Havoc's German Shepherd Hiroko is considered large. Shula and Wojciech are almost comical in their size.
After contemplating his words, Shula glances to the side where Hawkeye is looking over Mustang's head wound. "Do you think they'll be mad?"
"They can get over it," Wojciech replies in a much gentler tone than Falman expected.
Falman realizes that Wojciech is not talking about Mustang and Hawkeye. He's talking about them - the team and their daemons. Breda is already gone, Fuery having guided him out of the building to meet with the paramedics. But Falman can recall Sumati's skittish movements around Shula as they left the room. Fuery's Ada, a most willful otter, slipped through Fuery's legs and kept bumping into him, like she was asking to be picked up. Falman's Ayn doesn't like being carried, but even she brushed against his legs a few times, needing physical reassurance. Hiroko is the most resilient, but she shoots wary glances towards the lion and wolf daemons before returning her attention to their captives.
"I'm not like her," Ayn says out of nowhere. Falman glances down at her curiously. She tilts her head up at him and then pushes it against his leg once more. The action feels more shameful than content. "I'm not...wild."
"She's a lion," Falman points out.
"I know, but…" If cats could frown, Falman is sure that Ayn would've been wearing one. "I forget sometimes."
"Forget what?"
Ayn sighs. "That Shula can kill if she truly wants to. It doesn't matter. I forget that."
Falman looks over and considers the weak grin on Mustang's face as he tries to tell Hawkeye that he's fine. Those men are truly lucky that only one of them died. The circumstances could've been much different. It might not have been storming like mad outside. Mustang could have been wearing his ignition gloves. They could've snagged Hawkeye instead. Any of those things could have made the situation much more lethal.
Sometimes Falman forgets that same thing about the Colonel as well.