Disclaimer- I don't own FullMetal Alchemist
Don't expect such quick and frequent updates much longer, I only have this story planned out for a few more chapters, then..nothing....so yeah.
Chapter 4
The Answer is Always Simple
-SNAP-
Another wall of flame tore through a seemingly deserted stretch of a sandy street in an Ishbalan slum. The red and orange of the flames burnt everything in their path, leaving the buildings smoking and the street free of any debris that might have littered it moments before.
A small cry of pain, the thudding of feet retreating from their hiding places in the crevices and side alleys...
-SNAP-
Cries of pain as the retreating dark skinned men were engulfed in flames. The smell of burnt flesh and hair permeated the air like a perfume and the shouts of agony slowly began to quiet, leaving only the sound of the desert winds sighing through the mostly destroyed and deserted town and of course the sounds of gunfire and explosions in the distance that served as the only music on this blood drenched battlefield.
A group of soldiers in dirty and bloodstained uniforms stand in the center of the now deserted street. All of them hold guns in their hands, all but one. The one standing at the head of their formation. A black haired, gray eyed man with white gloves on his hands, the right one of which has a strange red circle inscribed on it. It's this hand that the man raises when he hears the rushing footsteps and angered shout from the small, dark alley to the group's left.
-SNAP-
Screams fill the air once again as the smell of burnt flesh which has become all to familiar invades the senses of the soldiers in blue once again.
Several more men run from their hiding places to attack the group of soldiers. Gunshots ring through the street, making it impossible to hear the snap as the oxygen in the air begins to change and then explode in a bright display of flames. The attackers fall, their skin burnt and smoking and their breaths little more than wheezes. One is still conscious despite the pain of his molten flesh and it's this one that recognizes what the man with black hair is now that he stands over him, his gloved right hand raised slightly and to his side.
"An.. alchemist...b-but I tho-thought that alchemy was a skill t-to be used for the p-p-eople," he manages to stutter out through his sharp breaths.
The black haired man doesn't respond, simply rubs his fingers together. A small spark is created by the friction-
-SNAP-
and then everything is burning.....
The man lowers his hand to his side where it clenches into a tight fist, his head lowers just a bit as he stares at the ground in front of him. His gray eyes that had once been so full of life, hope and strength are now lined with bruises from lack of sleep and there's now a darker look there, the look of a man who believes himself to be a murderer and nothing more.
"Lets go," he orders, his head rising once again as he once again begin trekking through the street.
What he doesn't notice, this now battle hardened soldier, is that the men in the group following him, don't think of him as a murderer or senseless killer. They think of him as their hero, without him looking out for them many more would have died. He watched out for the men he was in charge of, helping them when they needed, saving many of them from a gruesome death and it was something none of them would ever forget.
"Your eyes have a different look in them now Roy."
"Do they? So do yours. They're the eyes of a killer."
"..Yeah."
"Hughes, why are you fighting?"
"Simple. I don't want to die. The answer is always simple Roy."
Several soldiers were gathered around a small fire, drinking coffee or snacking on some small meal. They all wore the looks of people who didn't want to be in this situation, surrounded by death and destruction, but knew they had no choice. There was one man who didn't seem to care either way, a State Alchemist with dark hair that was pulled into a ponytail and a mug of coffee in his hands.
"Why did it turn out this way," Roy asked aloud, examining the inscribed glove he was holding in his hands.
"Why? Because that is the job of a State Alchemist," the man in the ponytail replied casually sipping the coffee in his hand as if he were sitting in a comfortable coffee shop instead of a war ravaged city.
"But why are soldiers who should be protecting citizens, murdering them," a young blonde woman asked, her face reflecting the horrors she had seen.
"Because that was the task assigned to us," the same ponytailed man answered. "Am I wrong," he asked when he saw the way the woman frowned and Roy, a few seats away from her shook his head.
"So are you saying we should accept this brutality," Roy questioned, his gray eyes narrowed as he stared at the glove he was turning over in his hands.
"You can't accept it as your job?" The man responded before looking to another soldier. "You?"
The soldier he was looking at chuckled, but it was an empty sound, hollow. "If we could, we wouldn't be talking about this kind of thing, would we?"
"True I suppose, but...The young lady there," the man said, pointing to the blonde woman who looked up in slight surprise. "I'm doing this unwillingly. That is what your face is telling me, am I right?"
"..Yes. Killing is not enjoyable after all," she replied.
"Really, interesting," he mused. "Do you mean to tell me, Ms Sniper, that when you defeat an enemy you don't think "Yes, alright I did it!" and then have pride in the fact that you did? Is there not a moment where you feel a sense of achievement in your work?"
"That's enough," Roy interrupted, standing and staring challengingly down at the man who looked over at him as if he was nothing more than a fly on the wall.
"You are the ones I can't understand. You're trying to find justice in a battlefield. How naïve. Is it heretical to kill with alchemy? Is it better to kill with a gun? Killing is killing anyway you look at it. Was it that you came here prepared to kill one or two, but can't bare killing thousands? When you put on that uniform you should have been prepared to take lives or you shouldn't have put it on in the first place. If you can't stand death and are only going to take pity on yourself and play the victim, then you shouldn't have joined the military. Let me give a little word of advice," the man said quietly a strange glint in his eyes as if he were enjoying every second of this conversation as the faces around him turned down in horror and shock. "Don't avert your eyes from death. Look forward. Look at the people you are killing in the eyes and don't forget them, they won't forget you."
"The answer is always simple Roy..."
"You saw it," Roy questioned skeptically after several seconds of a rather tense silence in which Kate just stared at him with curious golden eyes to try and gauge his reaction to her statement.
"Yes," Kate answered evenly, all signs of the hesitance and nervousness that were gnawing at her, hidden beneath a mask of confidence.
"Care to elaborate?"
Kate lifted a brow at him and smirked. "You're a smart man Lieutenant Colonel Mustang, you noticed the gloves and the way my attitude and posture changed without them, don't tell me you haven't already figured it out," she challenged cockily.
The tense atmosphere faded and Roy returned her smirk. "By coming into direct contact with someone you're able to see...What exactly do you see?"
"It varies really," she replied truthfully with a shrug of a shoulder. "I've never seen a person's future, only their pasts or portions of them and it can range from meaningless images to..." Kate trailed off and fidgeted uncomfortably. "To things much more horrible, things that have given me nightmares for months on end. I wear the gloves because I can't exactly control when I'll see something or who I'll be touching. There have been times I've been able to will myself to see things, certain parts of people's pasts, but this only seems to work with people I'm close to. My brothers, my mom and dad, but I only did that a few times and it was because I felt it necessary, or I wanted to know where my brothers had stashed my books they liked to steal."
"What about the man that grabbed you, what did you see then?"
"Mostly just a bunch of blurry images, the only clear one was of a young woman, whether she was dead or alive though, I don't know and whether that man had anything to do with the state she was in, I also don't know," she answered, she was curious about why he hadn't asked her about what she had seen when she had shaken his hand. It made her wonder why he wasn't asking her, he had to be curious after what she had said to him.
"Have dinner with me," Roy asked suddenly.
Startled by the abrupt question, Kate looked up at the black haired man in front of her and blinked. "Uh, what?"
"Have dinner with me," he repeated.
"Why," Kate asked, sounding a bit more curt than she had meant to, she was just caught off guard by the rather random and unexpected question.
Roy smiled charmingly at her and her brow arched suspiciously. "I got you fired, it's the least I could do."
With her brow still raised, Kate studied Roy curiously, wondering just what he was up to because she highly doubted that he was asking her to dinner to repay her for getting her fired. "Alright. When?"
"Right now."
"Now," she asked incredulously.
"Yes, now. Is that a problem?"
"Are you serious? I stink of booze and cigarette smoke, I'm sweaty and dirty and I'm in clothes that are saturated with all of the above," she replied. "I'm not going anywhere without a shower and a change of clothes."
"Then I'll walk you home and wait for you while you get ready," Roy offered, smiling a very alluring and self-assured smile at her.
Kate stared at him for a few seconds, thinking that he had to be joking. Why go through so much trouble when they could schedule the dinner for another night? When it became obvious that he was quite serious and that he was going to lay on the charm until she agreed, she rolled her eyes and sighed, turning away from him with a shake of her head and walking towards her apartment.
"You coming or not," she called over her shoulder when there was no sound or movement from behind her.
She smirked when he laughed at her and playfully glared at him as he caught up to her, his hands in his pockets and an arrogant look on his face.
"Couldn't resist me, could you," he stated smugly.
"Actually, I just felt really bad. Mr Hughes did say your luck with the ladies wasn't very good and I couldn't very well leave you standing on the sidewalk all by yourself on a Friday night now could I? Besides, I haven't had a chance to see much of the city and a little girl like me shouldn't wander around by herself, now should she?"
"I said dinner not that I'd take you an a tour," Roy grumbled, scratching at the side of his head distractedly.
"You'll find I can be quite manipulative when I want to be, so don't count that out just yet. And you owe me, you got me fired, remember? Now what'll I do," she sighed dramatically, her shoulders drooping. "I have two brothers to support and feed, an apartment to pay for, and school too..I might have to drop out of school and go back home. I'm sure that I can find a job there, maybe I can-"
"Alright, I'll take you on a tour of the town, jeez," he sighed, running a hand through his hair and casting a small glare at Kate, who winked and smirked.
"I know, just couldn't resist me, could you," she teased. "Bet you wish you'd kept that chivalrous side of yours to yourself, eh? Come on, my apartment's in here," she said, gesturing to the building to their right. "I'm warning you now, my place is very small and it's also a bit of a mess," she told him as they walked into the building, stopping for a moment so that Kate could check her mailbox.
"I don't mind, you should see my place," Roy chuckled earnestly.
"Can I ask you something," Kate asked seriously, shifting her things so that she could unlock her door.
Glancing at what he could see of her face, Roy frowned, the look in her slightly narrowed eyes told him that despite her cheery demeanor a moment ago what she had seen when she touched him was still very much on her mind. He wasn't sure how much she had seen of his time in Ishbal, but he knew that didn't matter. There were no good memories for him in that time, he still had nightmares of his time there, still saw the faces of the dead and could smell the burnt and decaying flesh of the people he had killed. If it still haunted him, a soldier who should be accustomed to death, he had no doubt that the innocent looking girl in front of him was probably shaken very badly by the sight of so much death and destruction, he wondered just what she thought of him for what he had done. She had said he was a hero, but he didn't think so and he somehow didn't think she believed it either.
"Go ahead," Roy finally answered.
"You're probably wondering just how much I saw," she began, glancing at him to see how he would react, when he didn't do anything, she continued, "To be honest it wasn't much, just bits and pieces of things and lots of dead bodies since that seems to be what sticks out most in your mind. If you hated doing what you did so much, why are you still in the military? Why do you continue to serve the people who made you kill thousands of people unwillingly?"
Setting her things down on the table before daring to look up at Roy, Kate was surprised to see a small smile on the man's face.
"Because I joined the military to help people and that's precisely what I intend to do."
"How?"
"By making my way to the top."
"And just how far are you willing to go to get there," Kate asked, thoroughly intrigued by the man in front of her.
"Simple. Whatever it takes," Roy answered, the smile still in place.
She nodded her head a few times then smiled, shaking her head with a chuckle. "You're one interesting man Roy Mustang, I'll give you that. Anyways, have a seat," she said waving her hand at a chair on the other side of the table. "I've got some mail I'd like to read before taking a shower, hope you don't mind."
"Not at all, take your time. I've got all night."
Kate rolled her eyes as Roy made himself comfortable in one of the four chairs at the table, she took a seat as well, opening a letter and pulling out the contents with a smile that faded as she read.
"Something wrong," Roy asked when she put the letter down with a sigh.
She shook her head. "No, not really. My brothers seem to have found themselves someone willing to teach them alchemy, so they're leaving for Dublith, well I guess they've already left seeing as how this is dated three days ago. I had plans to go back for the next weekend, I haven't seen them in two months, but it seems there's no point since they won't be there. I'm just a little disappointed is all, but happy for them at the same time. Ed has a lot of skill with alchemy, Al isn't too bad either, he's more detail oriented than Ed is. It doesn't say how long they'll be gone, just that they probably won't have time to write very often."
"Your brothers mean a lot to you, don't they?"
"It's that obvious, huh?"
"Well you did almost fall out of a train trying to get that necklace from one of them and then started crying like a baby once you had it," Roy replied with a hint of playful sarcasm.
Looking down at the locket that was dangling from her neck Kate smiled. "They're the only family I have left now really and I plan on taking the best care of them that I can, whatever it takes. It's been hard though, I left only two weeks after our mom passed and I've been really worried about them, they would sit by her grave for hours on end and the looks on their faces were so sad..." Kate chuckled, wiping at her eyes as she quickly stood up. "Sorry, I'm being depressing. I'll go and get ready, I won't be long."
Watching her as she walked to the bathroom, Roy couldn't help but notice that her eyes were full of sadness and loneliness. It was obvious to him that she had never bothered to mourn her mother's death, instead she had focused only on her brothers and their well being. "You know," he called after her, making her pause to look back at him. "It's all right to grieve, you're allowed to. You don't always have to be the big sister and never show weakness, you're not a super hero."
Staring blankly at him for a moment, Kate didn't know what to say. She barely knew the man that was sitting at her table, but somehow she felt she could trust him and that he was a truly good person. "Thanks," she said before going into her bathroom and shutting the door behind her.
When she walked out of the bathroom a half hour later, she was dressed in a pair of black slacks, a black and silver long sleeved, low cut top, and black gloves. Her hair was left down and she had put on a little bit of make up, and of course her locket glittered from where it rested on her chest.
"Sorry for making you wait," she said apologetically, making her way to the table to slide her feet into her black heels and grab her coat from the back of the chair where she usually left it. It was a simple black peacoat with large buttons and a very soft inner lining. "What?" she asked, when she thought he looked somewhat disappointed.
"It's nothing, sorry," he replied dismissively, waving a hand in the air for good measure, but the slightly disappointed look didn't fade.
"I don't believe you, what's wrong," she asked, feeling like she might have done something to offend him somehow. She may have only known him for a matter of hours, but there was something about him that drew her to him.
"It's just... you looked really good in that skirt."
Kate deadpanned and she had to resist a very strong urge to smack him upside the head. "Lets go," she said instead, turning away from him to walk to the door.
"You asked," he shrugged.
"Yeah, I didn't think I'd get some kind of perverted answer, now get out of my apartment," Kate ordered, gesturing at the door.
"No need to be so mean, it was a compliment you know."
"You think that was a compliment, you've gotta be kidding me," she grumbled in annoyance.
"You have nice legs, is that better?"
"Why did I agree to go to dinner with you again," Kate asked.
"Simple really. Because you couldn't resist my charm and alluring personality," he answered, smiling widely at her, his eyes sparkling mischievously. "Are you done babbling yet, I'm hungry."
"Is it too late to say I have to wash my hair so I can't go?"
"Yup, especially since you already washed your hair."
"Damn," she mumbled, locking her door only to turn around and see that Roy was holding an arm out for her to take. "So you're a pervert and a gentlemen," she said wryly.
"I am not pervert, there is nothing wrong with appreciating a woman's looks," he replied. "I think you're attractive, what's perverted about that?"
"The fact that you chose to tell me so by commenting on the fact that I wasn't wearing a short skirt and looking so disappointed over it."
"I was being honest."
"You were being a pervert," Kate retorted.
"What, like you haven't thought about what I'd look like without a shirt on."
"I haven't actually, I've known you for what, three hours?" Kate replied, chastising herself when she looked over at him only to notice that he did seem to be nicely toned underneath his uniform, especially if his arm was any indication about the muscle tone in the rest of his body.
"But you're thinking about it now," he said with a sly smirk.
"I was not," Kate protested knowing full well that she was blushing and cursing herself for being so gullible.
"Nice image, isn't it?"
"How full of yourself are you?"
"Very."
"I noticed."
"You too."
Kate snorted. "So I think I'm kind of pretty, sue me."
"Not just kind of," Roy said.
Unable to help it, Kate blushed and looked away from the gray eyes that were watching her. She wasn't used to such flattery and it made her feel awkward. "Shut up and feed the girl you got fired already," she mumbled lamely.
Thank you- .Sonata, Kairi0403, XxXLIFEafterDEATHXxX, Miyuki Meiru and HeeHeeHee01 for reveiwing the last chapter, all I have to offer you this time is my thanks though, no brownies..sorry..I ate them all.
If it seems like this is moving too quickly, I promise you it's only because Roy's a womanizer. Well sort of, but it won't be like this long, romance takes time and I don't intended to rush Roy and Kate along.
Please review!
