First of all, a big thank you to everyone for your feedback, faves and follows I appreciate all the encouragement. As usual, many thanks to my fiancee and my beta, aionwatha.
/
Roy made a point of opening the file again, even though he'd read through it at least four times prior to this meeting. The first time was the worst, this file liberally sprinkled with Hughes's handwriting, reports signed off in cheerful script and the beginnings of a recommendation letter. His eye skimmed over words, typed and written, drifting up to the corner of the profile, where there was a picture of the soldier sitting across from him. Intelligent blue-green eyes in dark-skinned face, chocolate curls cropped short.
She hadn't taken her eyes off of him since he'd come into the room.
"Lieutenant Vincenza Maxwell."
She snapped to attention, hand coming up in quick salute. "Sir."
"I understand you've been working Investigations since you completed Academy."
"Yes, Sir. I began my post under General Hughes and continue to serve under Colonel Stark."
Mustang closed the file, folding his hands on top of it so that he could give her his full attention. "You come highly recommended, especially from General Hughes, whose word I trust even now. I have a special assignment for you. It will be different from anything you've done thus far, requiring your time and attention. The truth is that I'm very short on people that I can trust for this task, but I trust General Hughes and the things that he's said about you."
"I'm flattered, Sir. What can I do?"
"I'm asking you to take responsibility over the care of a very important State Alchemist. His name is Alphonse Elric."
/
A very intense game of Go Fish was interrupted by a brisk knock at the door. Vinny sighed and excused herself from the little rolling table, laying her cards down and warning her partner not to cheat just for the fun of it. On the way to the door, she straightened her uniform and squared her shoulders. On the other side stood General Mustang. Someone else was behind him, but she couldn't see the other person clearly. She hoped it wasn't a doctor this time. Today was actually a good day.
"Sir, good morning," Vinny greeted with a salute.
"Good morning, Lieutenant. Is Alphonse awake?"
"He is, Sir. We've been playing cards since he finished breakfast." Her brow furrowed, and she dared to ask, "Is something wrong?"
"I hope not."
She didn't find the answer very reassuring. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw Al's gaze turned to the window. Vinny slipped through the crack she'd made in the door, closing it behind her. General Mustang waved his companion closer, and the man pushed back the hood of the coat he was wearing. Blonde hair framed a painfully tired face, and bright gold eyes, like a blade reflecting the sun, were looking at her with such intense scrutiny that she squared her shoulders.
"What I'm about to say to you is subject to strict confidentiality and your discretion. This man," Roy broke off to indicate the blonde, "says that he is Edward Elric, Alphonse's brother." That earned him a glare, but the one calling himself Edward said nothing.
Vinny's eyes widened, then narrowed suspiciously. "I thought he was dead, Sir."
"So did I. But I've been presented with some conflicting evidence and an agreement to visit his brother was part of our discussion. That is why we need the confidentiality, until we can sort this out."
"And my discretion?"
"If Alphonse has any doubt or this man acts to cause harm, you have my orders to shoot him down. I would prefer that Alphonse not see a visage of his brother killed in front of him twice, so please keep it non-fatal until I can intervene. I will wait outside."
No reaction from the blonde. If he was bothered at the prospect of being shot in front of Al, it didn't show. His eyes were so hard and his lips set in a firm line. He made an imposing presence, even though Vinny stood over him by almost a head. That disparity in their height didn't seem to impress him; in fact, he looked at her like an obstacle to be overcome. She decided Mustang was giving her permission to be that obstacle, and she intended to make sure he didn't cause Al any harm.
"Of course, Sir." She held her hand out to Edward. "Lieutenant Maxwell." He took it, and the grip felt odd to her, too firm. She resisted the urge to shake out her hand when he let go of it, instead turning to open the door again. Vinny found it was the last thing that she wanted to do, afraid that it would shake the careful balance of Al's daily survival in the stark white room where he was kept away from the things he loved most. She didn't believe that the dead could come back to life, and why Mustang was allowing this to happen was beyond her. It was the first time in years that she had ever questioned the General's actions.
"Al?"
His gaze returned to her immediately, and he offered her a guilty smile for his attention wandering. She braced herself for the worst.
"You have a visitor."
/
The sight was physically painful, like a kick in the gut, a bittersweet sensation of victory and failure. Before him, Alphonse was whole in body, broad shouldered like their father and his face shaped like their mother's, but with masculine lines in his jaw and brow. His dark amber eyes were alert, but hollow, and shadows lay under them from lack of restful sleep. The worst part was looking at Al's hands. They were strong and capable, but restrained, cuffs locked around his wrists and tethered to the steel rails of the bed he was sitting on. Ed assumed he had just enough give to function, but not put his hands together. Anger boiled quietly beneath his calm assessment of the situation. He had to keep reminding himself of the alternatives, most of them worse by far.
In his dreams, in calm moments, he often thought about what he would do if he got the chance to see his brother again. Most of them involved a loud reunion with a crushing hug so that he could try to feel all of Al against him without a trace of cold steel. Everything was different, like nothing he could have imagined. Now he hesitated, even when Al gave him his full attention. Every part of him was braced as he took steps towards the bed, his shoulders tight and ready to take the brunt of whatever reaction Al had.
"Brother?"
The incredulous whisper made Ed's chest hurt, but he kept going until he was within arm's reach of the bed, heart racing. "Hey, Al." It took every ounce of will he had not to touch him, and even more than that to keep his voice steady.
Al looked him up and down, narrowing his eyes at Ed suspiciously. Despite being presumed crazy, the way he focused on his elder sibling showed a great deal of his faculties were intact, and he was employing all of them to try and decipher this puzzle given human form standing before him. He only averted his gaze once, somewhere behind Ed, and then returned to him.
"Are you mad at me?"
Ed blinked, startled. "Mad?" he echoed in disbelief. Had he not been the one to vanish? Wasn't he ultimately the reason that Al had ended up here in the first place? If anyone should have been angry, it should have been Al. "Why would I be?"
"I knew it was wrong," Al admitted with a shrug, still talking in hushed tones, as if he were afraid raising his voice would dispel the image of Ed before him.
Like a ghost.
"I knew trying to bring Mom back was wrong, and I still tried," Ed managed to point out, fighting past the lump in his throat. He had to rest a hand on the rail, leaning on it more than he would have liked. "If we don't push the limits of what we read and what we're told, then we're not really alchemists."
"Why are you here? You should be in Risembool, at rest."
Ed smiled at Al through everything that hurt. "That wasn't me, Al. Listen, I know you don't remember what happened after we tried to bring Mom back, but you read the files, right? You did all your research and you know about the homunculi, don't you?"
Al nodded, still staring at Ed like an array he didn't recognize.
"One of them can take on any shape. Its name is Envy, and it used my face, my 'death', to hurt you. I've been gone since the day you woke up in your own body again. I took a trip really far away, but I've come back. No more resting."
Al's hand came up to touch Ed, and the sudden clink of the restraints stopped the action before he could make contact. He made a desperate noise, starting to fight the hold of the cuffs.
"Al! Hey!" Ed closed the distance instantly; taking hold of his brother's thrashing hands, holding them as firmly as he could, though the resistance against his failing prosthetic shot pain through his right side. He ignored it, leaning in close. "Shhh! Al, it's all right. I'm right here. Don't fight."
Underneath his fingers, he could see the friction burns on Al's wrists peeking out where the cuffs had strained to hold him. It wasn't the first time he had tried to get away, to run from this nightmare. Ed clenched his teeth together, taking a few deep breaths through his nose while he pressed Al's head against his chest. His heart thudded in his ears, and if it was that loud to him, maybe it was loud enough to get through to Al. The younger blonde's hands finally stilled, and he lay against Ed like a dead weight.
"Does this mean we can go home now?" he asked in a whisper.
Ed was thankful Al wasn't looking at his face. He wouldn't be able see how tears stung his eyes, threatened to get down his face. He stubbornly refused to let them, swallowing past the lump in his throat with a great deal of difficulty. "Not yet, Al. There's still a lot I've gotta do to get you out of here."
"I don't want to be here anymore. I'm sorry for what I did. I just want to go home."
"I know," Ed murmured. How many times had he said that very same thing to himself? Watching people die, trapped in a place he didn't know and didn't understand. He'd lain awake for hours at a time, whether it was in the back of a medic truck or in the tiny bedroom in Munich, with the mantra running through his head. It was only safe to feel like a lost little boy in the deepest recesses of his mind. Al slumped into his arms, his voice echoing the one in Ed's mind, breaking his heart all over again. He began to think he wouldn't find all the pieces anymore. "But I promise I'm coming back for you. Once upon a time, I told you I would get your body back too, and I kept that promise. It's been shit for you since then, but I'll make it up to you. I'll get you out of here, no matter what. Just wait for me again, okay?"
Al nodded weakly, but something about the expression Ed glimpsed told him that he expected to wake up after this and find himself alone. Freeing first his left arm, he shrugged out of that sleeve, then used that hand to hold Al, while he worked the coat off his right shoulder. The groan of the motor in his arm made Al jump, and Ed met the uncertain gaze with a sheepish smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Sorry, gotta fix this too. Got a lot of things to fix." He caught his coat before it could fall to the floor, easing it around Al's shoulders, draping him in the warmth and scent of the reliable garment. "I'll leave this here with you so you know it's not a dream, that I'm really here and doing what I can. I'll come back for you." It was painful to pull back from Al, but he knew he was being watched, knew he wouldn't be able to do much more.
With the absence of Ed's embrace, Al reached up as far as he could to tug the coat tighter around his taller frame, hunching into it and giving the appearance of being smaller, lost. "I'll be waiting, brother."
"I know you will." Ed reached out to stroke Al's hair, but made himself pull back before he could lose his resolve to leave. He nodded to the lieutenant, who had watched him the entire time, her hand resting on the hilt of her service pistol. It reminded him of Kimblee the night before, and he wondered how long it would take for him not to inspire that reaction in the people around him. He set his shoulders and walked resolutely towards the door. Ed paused to stare at it for a moment, tilting his head. He patted his vest, finding a stub of a pencil in one pocket and pulling it free. He began to draw a circle on the door, the components becoming an array. If a homunculus crossed the threshold, it would get quite the nasty surprise. "Al, if you see this array react, start calling for help, and you," he said, once more looking at Maxwell, "you start firing and you get my brother the hell out of here."
She stared back at him with suspicious blue-green eyes, and he didn't back down. Finally, she nodded once.
"I'm coming back for you," Ed reminded Al as he reached for the handle.
"I believe you," he replied, the hints of a dark smile on Al's face as he looked at his brother against the backdrop of the array he had drawn. It was like an alchemic dream catcher. If a nightmare tried to take him, it would be caught, leaving him safe until his real brother could come for him.
Ed didn't say another word until he was back outside with Mustang. "You make sure they know," he growled, "I left my jacket with him so that he has something of mine that's real. No one is to try and take it from him. If I find out someone has, and trust me I will, there will be some serious consequences." He inhaled slowly, turning his gaze upward, ready for the next battle. "Now, I believe I've got a lot of paperwork ahead of me."