"Colonel Mustang!"
"Just Roy is fine, Alphonse," Roy replied with a tired smile, leaving his tinted sunglasses on as he entered the Elric home.
"Sir, are you still-"
"No, my sight has been restored." Roy lifted the glasses enough to be hit with a violently bright blurry image, finding it safer to his eyes that they gradually adjust to vision again. "They're still healing." He paused, glancing down at the again-healthy Alphonse in front of him. "As is Edward, I hope?"
Al cast his eyes down, turning his gaze to the living room. "He's… still here." Al led him into the room where Edward was seated, as usual, in the recliner, appearing as if he were only lost in daydreaming and not dead to the world.
"Edward?" Roy spoke, though he knew the blond wouldn't hear him. "Did you try to use the stone on him, Alphonse?"
"I did, sir. It restored Jean's mobility and your sight, but it didn't affect Ed at all." Al's youthful voice sounded heartbroken and aged with regret more than it should ever have been.
"Dammit." Roy walked over to Ed, watching him carefully as he simply stared ahead, doing nothing but breathing and the occasional twitch of his arm. "How often do you take him outside?"
"Take him-outside?!" Al's eyes widened. "We can't. We've tried moving him around inside already. He fights us all the time."
"Really, he does?" Roy frowned, deciding to make his own assessment. He reached forward, grasping Ed's hands and lifting them up. He was rewarded with widening eyes that searched uselessly about. "Right here, Fullmetal. Stand with me." Roy gave a gentle upward tug.
"He doesn't respond to-" Al gasped as Ed leaned his body forward and pushed with his legs, trying to stand but lacking the energy and falling into his metaphorical cage again. Neither man missed the sound of frustration that escaped his lips. "But how?!"
"Come on Ed, one more time," Roy encouraged, ignoring Al's words. He pulled again, this time pulling up as Ed put as much force into his withered legs as he could muster. Finally upright, Ed's eyes widened in amazement and a grin of triumph appeared on his face, lasting only moments before exhaustion took him and he collapsed against Roy who caught him easily, holding his weak frame upright as Ed managed a small smile.
"But-he never responded to us before!" Al protested, sounding incredibly hurt. "How did you-"
"Well, how did you try to get him up?"
"The same way you did!" Al paused, frowning as the memory returned to him. "No, I think we went under his arms and tried to lift him up. He fell forward and we didn't catch him in time… and he's fought us ever since." Al put a hand to his head, sighing raggedly. "This is all my fault, if he hadn't tried to restore me, if I didn't fail him when he finally did…"
"No, Alphonse." Roy's strong voice had gained a softness to it, silencing the younger Elric. "We can't control the past, only what we do with our future. Please, don't dwell on what happened. It won't do Edward any good. Right Ed?" Roy bent Ed's head back gently to gaze into golden eyes, breath catching when he saw the raw thrill and adoration in them. He'd-he'd never seen that before, and he suddenly couldn't remember a time he found those eyes more beautiful, unfocused or not.
He hid his emotion from Alphonse and he hoped himself as well, gently standing Ed in front of the chair once more. He took Ed's hands in his own once more, smiling sadly as Ed sat again, with Roy's help, much earlier than he'd hoped.
"It seems he just needs a little more encouragement," Roy noted, a softness touching his heart that he hadn't felt since...well, since the last time Ed succumbed to one of his short jokes and tried to murder his superior. "I trust you can continue where I left off, and try to build up his muscles again?"
"Of course!" Al answered, bite to his words as he left his insulted reaction unchecked. "I'm here for him. Winry and I both are."
"I would never think otherwise." Roy squinted at the blazing sun outside, dreading the front door already. He had always loved this beautiful weather, too. "I'd best be on my way. It was nice to visit you both."
"Yeah." Al smiled sadly. "I'm sure brother would agree-"
"Alphonse?"
"Did you hear that?"
"More?" A faint, raspy voice drifted over to them, and both scrambled to find Ed turning his head slowly, tiredly. "More please?"
"He hasn't spoken in… oh, Ed." Al ran over to him, giving him a warm, brotherly hug.
Which Ed reacted to, and none too well.
Ed gasped out, froze, and then tried to squirm around. He flailed his arms, hitting Alphonse square in the ribs with his elbow; he cried out in half-word gasps as Al tried to still his fighting brother by grabbing his arms and keeping them down.
Roy could see the problem. Al just didn't understand how to communicate with the boy. "Alphonse!" Roy used his commanding tone that he usually saved for subordinates; "Please step aside."
Looking like a beaten dog, Al backed off, leaving a panting and collapsed Ed, face contorted in fear and despair.
"Fullmetal, how many times have I told you to play nice?" Roy stepped forward, pressing on Ed's chest harder and harder until Ed's breath hitched and he swung his arm wildly, barely able to lift it all the way before it fell back to his lap. He calmed when Roy released the pressure, blind eyes searching frantically.
"You're not having any more luck than I was," Al said jealously, crossing his arms as he was once again ignored.
"Well, you liked this, at least." Roy lifted Ed's hands up again, but found that even with his help, Ed hadn't the energy left to stand. He stared at the misery on Ed's face and shook his head. "No, I'm not taking that from you. You're smiling again, dammit."
"Sorry," Ed mumbled, almost too low to be heard.
"No, don't be." Roy reached down, taking Ed's head gently in his hands and slowly rotating it from side to side in a 'no' motion.
Ed's first and natural reaction was to cringe and try to yank his head free, but devoid of the energy to fight, he simply sat there, eyes blank as they searched. Roy waited and shook Ed's head gently again, once more, and was rewarded with a gasp and a revelation.
"No." Ed's breath hitched again, and his eyes looked-they looked up, as if he knew someone was in front of him and teaching him to communicate this simple word. "No."
"That's right, Ed," Roy said with a ragged, but joyful, sigh. "That's no." Roy released Ed's head, and surprising both men, Ed began slowly nodding.
"Yes." He repeated the actions, yes and no until his head finally fell forward with a suddenness that frightened Al and Roy-until one final word escaped Ed. "Tired…"
Roy laughed and took Ed by the shoulders, easing him against the back of the chair. "Sleep, Edward. You've earned it."
Al could see Roy's face light up as Ed drifted off to sleep with a small smile. It lifted his spirits and burned at him at the same time.
He'd been trying to take care of his brother, elicit a response for months-and Roy Mustang, the Colonel that Ed clashed with at every encounter, earned so much more from Ed in the span of an hour. Was he wrong to feel cheated? To feel inadequate? To feel… jealous.
"I'm a horrible brother," Al whispered, turning from the room. "I can't even save Ed, after he gave everything for me…"
The entire ordeal was terrifying and exhausting.
But liberating and exhilarating.
Because I finally felt someone not just reacting to me, but interacting with me.
I don't know who was there, if it was the same person who had been caring for me. I suspected that it was someone different, because they didn't try to restrain me when I fought back out of fear.
He helped me to stand. He held me against him, like a small child. And then he moved my head to see my reaction.
I can't describe the feeling that came over me, that he cared enough to work with me, even though I can give nothing back in return. I couldn't keep the emotion inside, but it didn't threaten to spill out as tears; rather as a happy giggle, which never made it out because I was too shocked and too exhausted.
And then he taught me no and yes. The motions were easy to understand, but that he taught me at the same time he wanted to say no-at least, that was my assumption-
Someone had been able to communicate with me.
If only for a moment, I grasped reality and knew what was going on, despite my lack of senses. I understood.
I repeated the motion like a trained dog, too overwhelmed with the small victory to stop, until I finally lost control of my strained, untrained muscles and slumped, too tired to move any longer.
I felt myself pushed back in my cage, which seemed a bit larger than before.
And I think I had a smile on my face as I disappeared to dream.