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Full Metal Alchemist: Stories of Central

Edward: 14

Alphonse: 13

"Talking"

Thought

One shot #3: Fire

Groaning, Ed hunched his shoulders as he stared resignedly at Central Command, muttering how his commanding officer was the biggest bastard in the world. Colonel Mustang was transferred to Central Command for a few weeks with his team because he had work to do in Central for the Fuhrer. Mustang didn't tell Ed this before he left for his next mission, so when he returned, on time for once, it was to an empty office. So after much asking around, he and Al found out that Mustang was in Central and Al made Ed take the next train to Central to meet up with him.

Next to Ed, Al sighed mentally. His brother and Colonel were always arguing and were in this constant war to piss the other off more. To be frank, it was getting quite annoying and Al was getting sick of having to restrain his brother from killing the Colonel, or anyone for that matter, for calling him short.

"Standing out here won't make this go any faster, brother." Al said.

Ed ran his flesh hand over his wet face to get the water out of his eyes. He looked up at the gray sky, rain splattering onto his face. He closed his eyes and let the rain run down his face.

"Brother, you really shouldn't be out in the rain this much. You could get sick." Al said in a parenting way.

"I like the rain. It's refreshing." Ed replied, opening his gold defying eyes.

Al shifted on his feet. "How is your automail?"

Ed rolled his right shoulder. "Stiff, sore, but that is normal with automail in the rain." He pulled out his silver pocket watch and checked the time. "I'm going to be late soon."

If he could have, Al would have sent his brother a really annoyed look. "Brother, the sooner you meet the Colonel, the sooner you can leave and we can follow the lead we got."

"Right you are, Al!" Ed stood up straight and put his watch back in his pocket. "If that bastard doesn't give me another mission. He always gets in the way of our leads."

"Stop stalling." Al scolded.

Ed sighed and entered the military grounds. He ran across the grounds with Al following him. He jumped into a big puddle nearby, splashing Al's legs and soaking himself even more. Despite being a state alchemist, he still had his kid spirit at times. When he was younger, he loved playing in the rain and still made a point of jumping in puddles when he could.

Al smiled the best a suit of armor could. He always enjoyed the moments when his brother acted like a kid. They didn't happen a lot anymore. Ever since mom died, Ed has taken up all the roles of an adult and rarely acted his age anymore. It saddened Al to see his brother acted older than he is. He blames himself because if it wasn't for the fact that he was stuck in a suit of armor, his brother wouldn't have to be in the military. If Ed knew these thoughts, he knew he would be in for a huge rant.

Ed stopped jumping in the puddles and turned to look at Al with eyes that made him look older than he is. They shined with more pain, intelligence, wisdom, and tiredness that didn't belong in a teenager's eyes. "What's wrong, Al? Come on, you're the one who wants me out of the rain." He said with an easy, fake smile that he perfected since his mom died.

"Coming brother." Al replied, running to catch up with his brother. When they were younger, Al knew when his brother's smiles were fake, but after years of Ed working on it, he could no longer tell the difference between the fake and real ones.

Inside, Ed shook his head like a dog. "I wonder where the Colonel would be stationed here."

"Ed? Al?"

The brothers looked around to see Major Hughes walking towards them. His hazel eyes were full of laughter and happiness, but with a deeply hidden pain from the Ishval Civil War. He smiled gently at them. "What are you doing here?"

Ed's earlier happiness from playing in the puddles faded and his eyes narrowed. "Why am I here? Why am I here?" He shouted, earning strange looks from the other officers around, but he ignored them. "Because my bastard of a commanding officer didn't tell me he was transferring here for a few f***ing weeks before I left for my damn mission and when I returned it was to a f***ing empty office! Then I had to waste my precious time figuring out where he and his team went so I could give him the damn report he always badgers me for! SO WHERE THE F***ING HELL IS HE?"

Hughes paused and stared in shock at Ed, while Al sighed at his brother's language. The other officers stared at Ed shocked. No kid should have that kind of language.

"You shouldn't swear, Ed." Hughes cleaned his glasses off with the hem of his shirt.

Ed glared at Hughes. "Where is Mustang?"

Hughes sighed. Ed ignored everyone when they were saying something he didn't care about. It was all about what he needed. "My office."

"Thanks." Ed said and started off down the hall with Al.

Sighing, Hughes put his glasses back on and followed them.

"Mr. Hughes, why is the colonel here?" Al asked curiously.

"Someone is setting houses on fire."

Ed scoffed. "That hardly seems like something you need Colonel Sparky for."

"Sparky?" Hughes laughed. "You better hope Roy never hears that name." He stifled his laughs and became serious. "No, Roy was called out because there is a trace of alchemy in these fires."

"Is someone using Flame Alchemy on them?" Ed asked, interest peaked.

"That's what we thought it might be, but it isn't possible." Hughes explained.

Ed stopped walking and turned to look at Hughes confused. "Why?"

"Flame Alchemy was created by Berthold Hawkeye….."

Ed stared at Hughes. "Hawkeye's dad?"

Hughes nodded his head. "Yeah, he created it and Roy got the secrets to it after he died. Only Roy and Hawkeye know the secrets to Flame Alchemy."

Ed nodded his head and started walking backwards so he could keep his eyes on Hughes. "If it isn't Flame Alchemy, then what is it?" Being a scientist Ed had a natural sense of curiosity and needed to know everything about everything.

"We're not entirely sure yet." Hughes replied.

"Well, you don't have to worry about a fire tonight, not with this storm going on." Ed replied, shaking his arm to make water fly everywhere to prove his point of a storm going on.

Hughes frowned and shook his head. "No, that's what wrong with this fire. It can last through the water."

Ed carefully hid his surprise and wore a blank look. "Really? Is this why you think he is using alchemy?"

Hughes nodded his head.

"Even Flame Alchemy can't last through water." Ed frowned.

Hughes reached out and grabbed Ed's arm to pull him to the side so he wouldn't run into a passing-by officer.

Ed didn't notice Hughes pulling him to the side. "I have never heard of any alchemy like that."

Al smacked his helmet. Now his brother was interested in this case because of the alchemy, which meant he was going to want to stick around Central to work on the case, which meant their lead on the Philosopher stone would be put on hold again. Whenever his brother got curious about something, he forgets about everything else.

"You've got brother curious." Al told Hughes as Ed fell into thought.

"Then I did my job." Hughes sighed.

"What do you mean?" Al demanded.

Hughes looked back at Al sadly. "Roy asked me to get Ed curious about this case so he would join us on it without a fight because we need his vast amount of alchemical knowledge and skill to help with this."

Al sighed. "So the Colonel was too lazy to want to argue with brother today?"

"That seems about right." Hughes replied with a grin.

Which is how Al found himself outside in the rain with his brother, Mustang and his crew, Hughes and his crew, and various other officers with a burning house in front of them.

"How exactly do you put this fire out?" Ed yelled over the storm.

"We haven't found a way yet. For now, the fire puts itself out when the building is completely destroyed." Hughes explained loudly.

Ed nodded his head and looked back at the building. His golden eyes narrowed in thought and he took a few steps closer to the building. The hairs on the back of his neck were sticking up, despite the rain. He could almost feel the alchemy in the air from the fire.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Al asked worriedly.

Ed ignored his brother and stared deeply into the fire. This fire was made by alchemy, but according to Hughes, it wasn't Flame Alchemy.

Black, lifeless eyes.

Ed reeled back a little when he saw the eyes in the fire. Why were there eyes in the fire? Ed didn't know the answer, but he was going to figure it out.

Reckless, he knew it was, but you can't get anywhere in life without a little daring.

"FULLMETAL, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" He heard Mustang yell behind him before he jumped into the flaming house.

Al stared at the spot where his brother jumped into the house. He wanted to follow his brother, but knew it wasn't safe for him to get his brother out of the house. He could burn his brother badly because metal conducts heat.

Automail.

If he had a body, Al knew he would hyperventilating right about now. His brother has two automail limbs and he just jumped into a burning building. He could get severely burned.

"That kid is insane." Havoc growled, looking ready to jump into the fire himself to pull the kid he considered a little brother out of the fire.

"Stay where you are, Second Lieutenant." Mustang snapped at him. He looked beyond pissed right now, so no one moved from where they were standing. Mustang looked back at the building, glaring at it, as he thought about what to do.

Ed coughed when he entered the building. There was too much smoke in here. He waved the smoke away and began looking around for the eyes he saw. He wasn't too worried about the fire, not with how soaked he is, but he couldn't stay in here long. The fire was cutting off his oxygen supply and would start burning him as soon as all the water on him evaporated from the heat.

Ed moved around the house, covering his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his coat on his flesh arm. He would not use his automail arm in this heat.

Squeak.

Ed looked down at the floorboard he stepped on just before the stairs. It was a loose board. Shrugging, he began walking up the stairs, carefully so he wouldn't fall through them. The structure to the building was already going down.

"Where are those stupid eyes?" Ed said annoyed. He started coughing violently again. Those stupid eyes were going to get him killed. Why did he let his curiosity get perked over a pair of eyes? It was probably just a trick of the eyes.

Squeak.

Ed froze when he heard the sound of someone walking around on a loose floorboard. He turned around on the stairs and looked down them to see a boy who looked a few years older than him at the bottom. His eyes were black, cold, and lifeless. They were the eyes he saw that made him enter the house. The boy had long black hair tied in a ponytail. He was wearing a military uniform, but Ed knew for a fact that he wasn't part of the Amestrian military. He may not wear the military uniform, but he looked at comrades uniforms enough times to know the difference between the Amestrian uniform and an enemy's military uniform.

"Who are you?" Ed asked carefully, coughing violently as he spoke from the smoke he inhaled.

The teenager crossed his wrists in front of him to show transmutation circles carved into the back of his hands.

Ed noticed that one of them looked like the one on Mustang's glove with a few alterations, but the other one was an array used to mess with time.

"You're the Fullmetal Alchemist!" The teenager said with a sneer.

"I thought you were from Drachma. That's what the uniform is saying anywhere." Ed said confused, but didn't let his guard down for one minute.

"I am. You're even known there." The teenager snarled.

Ed looked around the house for something to transmute. He couldn't transmute his arm without burning himself even more than what his arm was already doing to his shoulder. There was nothing to transmute though. The house was going down; everything was on fire and destroyed.

"Why did you set this house on fire?"

"Your military is weak."

Ed snarled at him and jumped off the stairs. He swore to himself when his coat caught fire. He whipped it off and threw it on the ground. Out of the corner of his eye Ed saw a transmutation array on the ground. "You're manipulating the fire in here so it doesn't hurt you so you can move around freely in here. You also used that time array so that the fire would put itself out after the building was completely destroyed. And that array on the ground is used to keep the fire going no matter what so water can't put it out. What I don't get is why?"

"And you never will." The teenager whispered.

"We'll see." Screwing the pain he was going to put himself in, Ed clapped his hands and slammed his flesh hand onto his automail arm. He hissed in pain from the hot metal, but otherwise ignored it. The outer plate of his automail formed into a sharp blade.

The teenager sneered at him.

"The house is going down." Al said frantically.

"Damn it." Mustang swore. He sent Al a reassuring smile before jumping into the burning house.

"COLONEL!" Hawkeye yelled after him.

"You are all insane." Hughes said with a tone of worry and horror.

Al frantically kept switching which leg carried all the armor's weight as he watched the house.

"FULLMETAL!" Mustang yelled, one arm over his eyes to give himself some shade to see ahead. He squinted ahead to see two bodies lying on the ground. "Fullmetal?"

Mustang lowered his arm and stared at the bodies. He ran over to them. The first one was a Drachma teenager, lying in a pool of his own blood. Fire rolled over his body, burning him to a crisp. Mustang noticed the transmutation circles that were on the kid's hands before a beam from the house structure fell and blocked the teenager from Mustang. He turned away from the teenager and looked at Ed, whose clothes were on fire.

"Fullmetal!" Mustang kneeled next to the kid. He whipped his military jacket off and threw it over Ed. He patted it down in each spot where he was on fire. Each spot was red with blisters and the clothes around the spots were singed. Most of the layers of his skin looked burned away. "Elric? You're alive, right?" He carefully turned Ed onto his back, wincing when he touched Ed's automail. Ed's front didn't look much better. His face and chest were covered in burns. "Fullmetal?"

Mustang hit Ed against the chest, causing Ed to cough, which made Mustang sigh in relief. "What the hell were you thinking, kid?"

Ed groaned and cracked his eyes opened. "M-mus…t-tang?" He asked in a raspy voice.

"You and I are going to have a long talk later, Fullmetal." Mustang snarled. He wrapped his burnt jacket around Ed and picked him up bridal style, hiding his wince of pain from the hot automail.

"S-solved…c-case." Ed muttered.

Mustang glared down at Ed. "Don't waste your strength with talking."

Mustang looked around the house. How were they supposed to get out? He heard a creak above him and looked up to see another beam falling. He jumped to the side, kneeled down, and covered Ed's body. Hissing in pain from pressing Ed's automail to his body, Mustang looked back to see the beam on the ground.

"M-mus…tang?"

"Didn't I tell you to be quiet?" Mustang growled, still looking around the house.

Ed pushed away from Mustang and tumbled to the floor. "I'm burning you."

Mustang grabbed Ed's flesh arm. "That doesn't matter right now. I'm getting you out of here."

"Not possible for you to get out with me." Ed muttered weakly.

"Fullmetal, when have we ever not done the impossible?" Mustang asked.

Ed grunted. He pushed himself up, wincing in pain from his burned leg.

Mustang stood up and threw his jacket back over Ed's shoulder. "You're too stubborn for your own good." He threw an arm over Ed's shoulder, ignoring the hot metal, to help keep the boy steady.

"Do you know where a window is?" Ed asked.

"I can't see anything in this fire." Mustang growled.

Ed glanced at the stairs. "Let's go up."

Mustang stared at Ed like he was crazy for suggesting such a thing, but it was Ed. His crazy plans almost always worked. "Be careful, Fullmetal. The stairs aren't stable."

Ed stumbled walking up the stairs, but Mustang caught him before he could hit the floor. He pulled him up and guided Ed up the rest of the stairs. Before they could reached the top, the staircase shook, causing Mustang to grab the railing in shock, burning his hand. He swore and shook his hand in pain. The two hurried up the rest of the stairs.

At the top, Mustang led Ed to the nearest bedroom. In the bedroom, they made it passed the fire and to the window, where they jumped out. Mustang, from his years of military training, landed on one knee, while Ed, who was injured, landed on his knees, hissing in pain. Mustang didn't give Ed the chance to recuperate from the jump. He grabbed the young alchemist's arm, making him be half-walking and half-dragged across the backyard yawn, away from the collapsing house.

"Mustang, let go." Ed hissed in pain. Mustang was holding his burned arm.

Mustang ignored his subordinate and continued dragging them until they were a safe distance from the house. They turned around to watch the house fall to the ground. It continued to burn until the house was all ashes.

Ed hissed in pain from the rain hitting all his burns, but decided to ignore that. "What happened to the people who own this house? Did they escape it?"

"The parents and their youngest child did. The oldest wasn't home." Mustang explained. "Who was that on the ground inside? The Drachma kid?"

"The person who set the house on fire. He used three different transmutations to make the fire, to make it so you can't put it out, and so that it will put itself out after the house is ashes." Ed explained through clenched teeth.

"And you killed him?" Mustang said shocked.

Ed glared at Mustang. "No, I'm not a murderer. I did hit him with my blade, but there was a moment in there where there was an explosion of fire. It knocked us both out. Did the fire kill him?"

"He was still alive when I came in, but he was on fire and a beam fell on him, so I think that would kill him." Mustang replied. He pulled Ed's arm. "Come on. We need to get back to the front so no one worries."

Almost subconsciously, Ed tightened the military jacket around himself to block out the cold rain so it wouldn't hit his burns anymore.

"Brother!"

"Colonel!"

Riza nodded at the colonel when she saw he was alright, then turned to Ed. She brought the end of her gun down onto Ed's head. "Don't do something that stupid again, sir."

Ed groaned and collapsed to his knees, rubbing his head. "First it's wrenches and now it's guns."

"It's what you get for being an idiot, brother!" Al screamed.

"I solved the stupid case." Ed muttered.

"And for that, you get to write the report for this." Mustang said cheerfully at the thought of less paperwork for him.

Ed groaned.

Riza sighed and decided to take pity on him. "Sir, let's get you to a hospital."

"NOT A HOSPITAL!" Ed yelled as he was dragged to a car by Riza.

Al laughed and followed the two.

A/N: I really don't know what the point of this one was.