A/N: I know I said this wouldn't be up til next Friday, but I felt bad for leaving it on a cliffhanger and I finished it early and you guys have been so awesome… Please excuse any mistakes, it's pretty late and I'm pretty tired. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
To Colonel Roy Mustang, The Flame Alchemist,
Your request for temporary transfer to the West City Investigations Department, Search Division has been denied. Colonel Judson Barrows has been assigned to the missing person case of Edward Elric, The Fullmetal Alchemist. Your assistance is not required at this time. Colonel Barrows has extensive knowledge of the area and many years of qualified experience. The West City Investigation office will keep in contact with your team as details come to light.
Respectfully,
Brigadier General Allen Hasling
West City Command
Colonel Mustang,
Your letter requesting an appeal of the decision of denying your temporary transfer, has been reviewed. Central Command does not see it as necessary at this time to override the decisions made by the West City officials in regards to this matter…
With a snap, the letter was burning before Roy had finished reading it. Brightly glowing cinders fluttered about his office before dying out on the carpet.
Hughes had been trying to contact Mustang all day, but things kept getting in his way. Then, when he finally got a call out to Roy's office, the Colonel wasn't there. Apparently, he had stepped out to try and follow up on a vague lead that he had. Maes had found himself swamped at work with a sudden influx of paperwork and he was scrambling to find time to check on Roy. There had been brief words with Hawkeye the other day, enough to know that the Colonel wasn't doing as well as he would like them to believe.
Because it had taken Roy four days to realize that something was very wrong. Four days to realize that Edward wasn't just ignoring him or being stubborn. Then it took another five days for Mustang to convince the higher ups that the Fullmetal Alchemist wasn't just out of touch or taking his time returning calls. Nine days total. Nine days before Edward was officially reported as missing. Now, it had been two weeks since Edward had contacted Roy to let him know that he had arrived safely to his destination and 'don't worry' he was feeling 'fine.' Two weeks without a single word or even a hint of what had happened to the boy and his brother. And that's what really caused alarm. Even if Edward was being stubborn, surely Al would have called to let them know that they were both all right. But there had been no call. There was just silence.
Through multiple correspondences, Mustang and his team eventually pieced together that Edward had arrived in the town of Tareswell. He had checked into the small town's inn and then he had left with his brother and nobody could tell for sure if they had ever returned to the room. Nobody could even give a direction that the two may have traveled in.
Roy was pretty sure he was stuck in some kind of nightmare. Every lead he thought he had, never worked out. If he could just go there himself, he could take care of this, he needed to take care of this… but nobody was listening and people were giving him pitying looks in the hallway and Hawkeye was suggesting he go home to get some rest because he hadn't properly slept in over a week and he couldn't remember the last thing he even ate, but he remembered throwing it up because there were knots in his stomach, knots and damned barbed wire squeezing his gut all the time and he couldn't stand this anymore, not for one more damn second…
"I'm here."
Hughes. Speaking breathlessly as if he had just run a great distance. "I'm sorry," Maes continued. "I couldn't get away sooner."
"Hawkeye called you," Roy said dully.
"She didn't have to. I heard your request to take your team to be part of a search party was denied again."
"News travels fast." Mustang turned away from Maes, who was leaning in too close, it made the room seem so much smaller. Everything seemed to be crowding in on Roy. It was suffocating.
"I'm taking you home."
"I'm not going home. I'm staying here. I have leads to follow up on."
"You don't have leads. You have wild guesses. Come on." Maes reached out and tugged at the Colonel's jacket sleeve. Mustang jerked away from the contact violently.
"Damnit Hughes, I'm not leaving!"
Maes was unfazed by the outburst, but it still worried him deeply. With a grim expression, Hughes leaned down and grabbed Roy's shoulders firmly.
"Roy, have you seen yourself? Nobody is going to approve you to go anywhere. You look like shit."
It was true. His uniform was crumpled, his hair was in disarray and he was too pale with large circles under his eyes. Mustang felt as though all of his muscles gave out at once as he leaned back in his chair, away from Maes' hold on him.
"When was the last time you slept?" Hughes turned and opened the bottom drawer of the desk, checking the whiskey bottle that resided there. It was still full.
"Yesterday morning. Tuesday."
"Yeah? On Tuesday?" Hughes shut the drawer with a snap.
"Yes. Tuesday."
"Today is Friday, Roy. Tuesday was days ago." Maes straightened up and set his hands on his hips sternly.
"I meant Thursday."
"You're done for the day, Roy. Your staff has agreed that you need to go home. Slowly killing yourself is not going to help you find Edward."
At the mention of Ed's name, something indescribable came over Mustang's expression. For the first time, in a long time, Roy looked truly lost. Hughes slowly knelt in front of his friend as the weight on the Colonel's shoulders took its toll.
"Where the hell is he?" Roy asked in a near whisper. Maes was soon clasping Mustang's elbows, carefully, carefully keeping him from falling apart.
"I don't know. I'm so sorry, I don't know... I'm sorry I was so late getting here, Roy."
In a haze, Mustang soon found his feet carrying him out of his office, feeling the weight of Maes' arm around his shoulders, guiding him to the exit. The Colonel was distantly aware of his subordinates looking his way, trying to hide their concern. However, the Colonel had enough clarity to realize that something was wrong with the room and he stopped abruptly before his feet could reach the door.
"Where's Havoc?" Mustang asked, nearly twisting out of Hughes' grip. Roy's eyes looked wild as they darted over to the empty chair.
"Sent home." Riza provided quietly from somewhere to his left. The room seemed to be clouding over. Everything started to blur together as Mustang's head pounded in protest of the sudden movement. "Lieutenant Havoc is unwell." Hawkeye. She always knew how to sound professional and levelheaded when the world was falling apart.
Truthfully, Edward's disappearance was wearing on them all, but it had hit Havoc a bit harder. He had become close to the Elric brothers, particularly Edward, who he had helped to care for when the boy was sick. Jean hadn't slept right in a week and when he walked in late that morning, Hawkeye had instructed him to go right back home. He had looked dead on his feet and it was obvious that he wouldn't be of any use to anyone. Unlike the Colonel, he didn't fight the dismissal, to be honest all he wanted to do was go back to bed and sleep, maybe when he woke up he would realize that he had been dreaming this whole time and the Elric brothers were just fine. The next time he saw them, Ed would laugh at him for worrying so much.
Roy stared at Havoc's seat and felt despair pull at his gut. His team was growing smaller and smaller by the day. And now here he was, giving up, not able to function, not able to do anything anymore. Useless. Useless.
Damn it all.
"Let's go," Hughes murmured behind him as he pressed his hand into his back. Without another word, Mustang walked out the door, too exhausted to fight anymore.
Roy hadn't been home in days. Instead he had been sleeping on his couch in his office or not at all. So when Hughes asked him if he had any food in his house, Mustang had laughed in his face and Maes was sure that his friend was losing it.
Sleep became the priority; food would have to come later. Roy changed out of his uniform, which had been, quite frankly, beginning to smell terrible. With very little coaxing, Mustang collapsed into bed and shut his eyes. He needed to sleep. He was sick with the need for it. He could feel the exhaustion muddling his thoughts, harboring his decisions, fraying his nerves, but still his mind stumbled on. Guilt and panic and worry… As his heart pounded too hard in his chest, Roy wondered if he could die from this feeling.
"I shouldn't have let him go." Mustang's voice was muffled by the pillow, but Hughes heard every word as the Colonel continued on, fighting back sleep the entire time. "He was… he was acting like he did before. I knew he was upset and I still let him go."
Hughes shifted. He was sitting on the bed next to Roy, propped up against the headboard, settled in for a long day of watching and guarding. Maes only ever sat this close when he was really scared for Roy. As if his proximity could help keep Mustang from breaking apart.
"What do you think happened?" Hughes asked quietly. Mustang was supposed to be going to sleep, but Maes couldn't help it. He hadn't had any opportunity to speak with Roy in days. Mustang turned his head, glancing up at Maes, studying his friend's features. He had circles under his eyes too, clearly the man hadn't been sleeping well either, but he would suffer in silence until he was sure that Roy was all right. Because Maes put others first. That's just the way he was. It was because of Maes that Roy could allow himself to be selfish. Selfish and weak.
"Who knows?" Roy shut his eyes, feeling the exhaustion burning there. "He got captured, he overdosed, he got lost, he ran away, he got himself killed…"
"Al is with him." Maes cut him off before the Colonel could get too far in this line of thinking. "How many of those options are really possible when he has Al with him?"
"It means something happened to Al too. There are groups who hate the State out there. One of them could have taken them both."
"There has been no ransom demanded, no terrorist group has come forward to claim responsibility. He went to Tareswell, right? He wasn't far enough West to run into problems with Creta, though, if he was going to have problems, it would be with that country. We have more and more disputes with them every day. But, for now, everything has been mostly quiet on that end. I don't think they have been captured and I don't see how they would get lost for this long." Hughes took a deep breath. "Edward wouldn't just run away. Not when he has Alphonse with him."
"Sam Barringer killed himself."
"What?" Maes asked in disbelief, startled by the shift in topic.
"He took strychnine and committed suicide. Fullmetal told me. So what the hell was the point? What was the damn point of any of it?"
"Wait, are you sure? Why would he… that's not a pleasant way to go. Maybe it was an accident."
"Edward didn't think so. I don't think so either."
Hughes sighed deeply. "Just sleep, Roy. It's going to be all right," Maes finally said. There was a long moment of silence that was broken by the Colonel's voice.
"You… don't know that," Mustang mumbled, sounding far away. Before Maes could think of a proper retort, he realized that the Colonel's breathing had evened out and he had finally dropped off to sleep. Now that he was alone with his thoughts, Hughes grimaced, feeling a powerlessness grip at his heart. Edward had to be all right. He just has to be.
When Roy next awoke, it was dark and he was alone. Still half asleep, he struggled to find the lamp. Once the light was turned on, Mustang blearily glanced around the room.
"Maes?" He rasped, his voice scratchy from sleep and dehydration. Mustang sat up, but his head was throbbing and he collapsed back into his pillows with a groan. With one hand pressing hard into his forehead, he reached out to turn the lamp back off. Through his fingers his eyes caught sight of that ugly lamp, with the skull and flame design that Ed had transmuted for him months ago. Roy hadn't bothered changing it back, or getting a new lamp after Edward had "fixed" it. Now, as it caught his eye, all he could do was stare at it. Something dark and ugly unfurled in his chest and he felt like he was going to choke on it. Without hesitation, Mustang reached over and shoved the lamp off the bedside table. It hit the ground with a thump and the bulb shattered, casting the room again into darkness. With the light gone, the pounding in his head diminished and Roy felt the pressure in his chest ease.
There were a few moments of blissful silence before Maes entered the room to investigate the noise. Roy grumbled and covered his eyes as he turned on the overhead light. Hughes sighed when he saw the lamp on the floor.
"All right." Maes muttered, it wasn't a question but just an acknowledgment of the situation. Roy didn't say anything, instead he pushed his palms hard into his eyes.
"What are you doing Roy?" Hughes asked quietly as he sat carefully on the edge of the bed. Mustang didn't answer, but he let his hands fall away from his face and he stared at the light in his ceiling, even though it sent a stabbing pain through his skull.
"I know you're not giving up on him." Hughes was studying his own hands. Mustang thought he looked particularly tired in that moment. Putting others first was always exhausting.
"No," Roy answered quickly, but his voice sounded so much weaker than he meant it to. "Never."
"Then you need to take a shower and eat something."
Roy looked confused, sensing a change in Maes' demeanor.
"Sergeant Fuery just called. I was just coming back up from talking to him."
Mustang slowly sat up, apprehension taking hold.
"Your office just received report that Ed and Al were both seen five days ago near the town of Howlseye."
"Are they all right? Are they- is he hurt?" Roy was pushing away blankets, fighting to free his feet. Hughes stood up to get out of his way.
"There wasn't any more information given." Maes said quietly. "They said they would send another report when they know more."
Roy froze, his eyes darting around as he took in the information or, rather, the lack of information.
"I hate the western offices," Mustang finally bit out.
"They're not fond of you either, apparently." Hughes actually smiled at that, but it was tinged with that consistent underlying sadness.
"I'm going to Howlseye." Roy stared at Maes with a renewed determination, prepared for an argument with Hughes about his health.
"Of course you are." Maes said with that sad grin on his face. "But shower first and then we will find something to eat. You should always look presentable when you go against the orders of your superiors."
Before long, Hughes and Mustang were walking to the train station. It was dark and cold. The sky had been threatening to snow for a few days now. For the sake of easier traveling, Hughes hoped it would hold off a little longer. The two of them didn't speak as they stood on the platform, waiting for the last late train that would head out west. Roy would need to switch trains at some point to take a different track to Howlseye, but he hoped the duration of the trip wouldn't be more than a few hours.
"I can come help you as soon as I can sneak away for a few days," Hughes said, his voice nearly lost in the sound of the approaching train.
Roy nodded, but all of his attention was already elsewhere; Maes guessed his mind was already in Howleye, making plans.
As the train pulled into the station, Hughes clasped his hand around Mustang's elbow.
"Take care of yourself. You won't be of any use to him if you run yourself into the ground."
"Yes, fine." Mustang was flustered over Hughes' concern. Honestly, he wasn't completely inept; he had slept and he had eaten now, he could take care of himself for a few days.
"Roy…" Maes started and Mustang gave him an exasperated look. Hughes smiled and finally released the Colonel's arm. "Find Ed, bring him back."
"I will," Mustang promised.
To be continued…
A/N: Better or worse than before? Hopefully better than the last chapter's ending. OK I am hoping to have the next chapter up on Friday. Really this time, no more early chapters or we aren't going to be able to get through this at a decent pace. We will catch up to what I have written and then you guys will be waiting for months again. Thank you to everyone for reading and a special thank you to my reviewers, you guys make my unbelievably happy.
