The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Summary: Edward is a little tin soldier without a leg. What person would ever like a broken toy? Ignored by the other soldiers he adventures around the playroom to find a windup robot toy named Alphonse. He learns that not everyone who is incomplete is really broken.
Note: This story was inspired by a picture someone made on tumblr of Edward as a tin soldier. I liked it so much that I had to make a prompt based after the story the Steadfast Tin Soldier. It is such a cute little story but of course I changed it a bit to make it a little more adventurous and happy.
Plot: Edward is a little toy tin soldier who was made incomplete without a leg. He is given with the other soldiers in the bunch as a present to Selim Bradley for christmas. Usually being cast aside by the other soldiers and their child because he is thought of being incomplete, Edward is used to being alone. When Selim is playing with the other soldiers and Edward is forgotten on the floor he goes exploring the other toys that Selim has. Many of them mock him for having to hobble around as a broken toy, but he manages to find a old wind up robot toy that caught his attention. It has run out of juice and Edward struggles to wind it back up. Startling awake, the robot thanks Edward for saving him and introduces himself as Alphonse. Al never gets to explore to talk to the other toys in the room when not being played with because he always runs out of juice and shuts down after his is unwound. Together Edward and Alphonse explore and hang around together whenever Selim isn't playing. Edward always tries to wind him up whenever he can because he is the only person who doesn't care if he isn't full.
The other soldiers don't like it that Edward is missing formation and leaving the box that they are in. Roy Mustang, another soldier, warns him about the dangers of intermingling where he doesn't belong. He already knows that many of the toys in the playroom don't like the idea of Edward being broken and he doesn't want him making anymore trouble for himself. Edward however ignores him and continues to go out.
One day when Edward and Alphonse are out exploring they come up upon a new toy that was added to the lot, a paper ballerina. Edward is completely taken by her and watches her but never makes himself known. Many of the other toys are taking a liking to her beauty but she tries her best to get away from them. Edward continues to try and see her whenever he can and Alphonse always teases him that he likes her. Edward retorts dumbly not wanting to admit it, "Why would anyone like a broken toy?".
The Ballerina is very peculiar to him as she doesn't act like any of the other dolls he sees in the play room. The Ballerina, when she thinks people aren't watching, gathers up stray parts in her sash and tinkers. He watches as she actually fixes an old smashed wind up mouse toy one night and is absolutely amazed. No toy ever helped out a broken one before.
One evening when all of the toys are out Edward is busy trying to wind Alphonse back up. He hears a commotion and looks up to see a Goblin toy named Kimblee pushing the Ballerina around. It is obvious that the Ballerina doesn't like him and tries to get away from him but he grabs her. Not knowing what else to do Edward tackles the goblin away from the Ballerina and they wrestle a bit. Edward eventually pins the goblin with his bayonet and tells him to stay away from her. The goblin knowing he was defeated, doesn't fight but warns the soldier that he shouldn't try hanging out where he doesn't belong and that no matter what he does the ballerina would be his.
Edward quickly takes the ballerina back to where he knows her little workshop is and asks if she is okay. She introduces herself as Winry and says that she had seen him around. Edward assumes that she meant in formation but she meant that she saw him help the robot toy and also watching her from behind the tinkertoys. How else did he know where her little workshop was and take her there instead of her cardboard castle? Edward question her on why she helped that broken mouse toy and she doesn't really give him a straight answer but instead asks him if he would like a leg. He doesn't really know how to answer because no one really ever helped him before. At first he wanted to deny it because he didn't feel it was right. No one helps him. But after a bit of bickering and persistence from Winry, she starts to make him a leg. She took measurements of his leg but it would still take a long time for her to actually make it.
Edward continues to leave the formation and Mustang gets rather annoyed. Wanting to tell Alphonse that he can't continue to pull Edward away he follows Edward and realises that he wasn't just seeing Alphonse but Winry as well. Mustang knows how many people want winry, especially the goblin and he drags Edward away. He removes the newly made leg from him in hopes that the goblin doesn't see it and know that Edward is seeing her still then locks him in his space in the tin soldier box. He just wants to keep Edward away from the other toys so that he doesn't get himself in trouble with the wrong people. He feels bad for doing it but he felt like it was the only thing he could do.
After missing for a few days, Winry gets worried for Edward and finds Alphonse. She winds him up and he comes back to life. He is confused that it wasn't Edward who got him and instantly becomes worried. He and Winry sneak over to where the soldiers are kept on the table. During their rounds/marching they free Edward and they escape across the table and window ledge. Winry wants him to stay away from the rest of the soldiers and live with Alphonse and her but Edward argues with her. He knows that Mustang is right and even says that a broken soldiers like him shouldn't be around them anymore. He turns to just go back to the other soldiers but stops when Kimblee stands in his way. The Goblin saw Winry helping him and wanted to finally put a top to it and claim what was his. Edward stumbles backwards as Kimblee charges and tries to lift his small tin gun but with one quick bat, he is knocked out the open window and into the street below. Alphonse tries to protect Winry as well but he is knocked off of the window ledge and shatters to the floor amongst the other toys. Kimblee captures Winry and manages to gain control over the entire play room as he corruptedly controls most of the tin soldiers and other toy ruffians.
Roy struggles to live amongst the other soldiers as they follow Kimblee's orders. He wants to figure out how to stop him but after hearing what happened to Edward he knows that he has to go find him. One evening he sneaks off to try and find Alphonse. He looks to where the robot usually was but he isn't there. Eventually he stumbles upon the broken pieces of Alphonse and in desperation starts to put him back together. Over a few nights Roy manages to rebuild him and they go out to find Edward.
Edward, meanwhile, is stuck outside of the house. He stumbles around needing to try and find a way back in but he has trouble on the ice and doesn't make it far. Two homeless boys stumble upon him and pick him up. They start to play with him and take him far away from the house he knew. Edward is devastated but is actually amazed that the kids want to play with him. They put him in a little toy boat and sail him around the little streams in the gutter. Unfortunately they start to bicker on who get to play with him and forget that he is sailing down a stream. The boat ends up hitting the curb and breaking and he falls down into the sewer grate but not before dropping his rifle. Without his rifle as a crutch he is stuck down there and unable to get out.
A rat named Greed comes upon him as he is trying to get out. He taunts him that his owners had forgotten him as he had never seen a toy down in the sewers before but Edward yells at him, not wanting to hear it. Amazed that the toy had such a mouth he offers the soldier a deal. He will take him back to his house if he would be willing to rid the house of its traps so that he could live there as well as sneak him some food. With no other option and desperate to return home, Edward agrees. The rat lets him climb up on his back and journeys up the sewer and onto the street. Unfortunately Edward is lost and he doesn't know where the house is. They quickly lose their way.
Meanwhile, alphonse and Roy journey out on their own and try to find Edward. From rumors of a local crow they heard where he was taken and run down as fast as their little legs could take them, Alphonse having to be wound up more than once. They see the boat crash and find Edward's bayonet next to it. Unfortunately they don't know where they had gone from there. They return to the house and ask the crow for help. With reluctance, the crow flies around with Roy on its back and tries to find Edward. It spots them down in an alley and lands scaring the rat. Greed thinks that the crow is going to kill him and tries to fight/run but Roy spots Edward and they catch each other's attention.
They quickly return to the house, get Alphonse and make their way into the playroom. They split up and Roy goes to the tin soldier box and sets a toy letter block on the lid to trap the few soldiers who are sleeping on their off shift in there. Alphonse and Edward make their way over to the mantle over the fireplace where the goblin lives. Winry is up there and Edward struggles to scale the shelves. Alphonse helps boost him up but unfortunately they are noticed by the few soldiers left on guard and are attacked. Alphonse holds them off with his larger body as Edward continues to climb. Kimblee sees him and instead of waiting for him to climb all the way up, he bounds down to him on a lower ledge and they start fighting. They manage to move onto an unsteady tower of jenga blocks and after a bad step it collapses down in front of the hearth. Some of the blocks rebound off of the fire and catch alite, scattering across the stone around them. Edward tries to stand up after his fall but he could feel himself heat up. With that much fire around him he slowly starts to melt. The goblin however is made out of better material and after recovering, starts for him. He taunts him with quote:"Farewell, farewell, O warrior brave,Nobody can from Death thee save." Edward scrambles and crawls for his rifle. Seeing his struggle Alphonse tries to help him but he is quickly running out of power. Kimblee charges Edward and just a he reaches him, Edward brings his bayonette around and the goblin runs right onto it. He pushes him off and the goblin falls into the fire to be consumed by flame.
Edward is left in the heat and his colors start to melt off. Winry wants to help him however she is paper and couldn't go near. Other toys too wary to enter the ring of fire Edward was trapped in watch as the paint on his arm and face starts to fade away. He is too weak to get up and leave but he still tries to crawl his way out of the fire, unfortunately he is unable to. When Edward loses consciousness after his arm starts to melt away, Roy finally returns from battle so see him there. He exclaims why no one is trying to help him but getting no answer he jumps into the middle of the scattered flame despite being made of the same material. He quickly picks the melting soldier up in his arms and drags him to safety ignoring the fact that his own paint starts to melt from him.
Edward's arm had started to melt and was distorted. Patches of color that melted off of his body left silver undertone. Winry scolds all of the other toys for their ignorance and announces that Edward saved them from Kimblee's reign. They realise what they had done and all start to pitch in to help. They quickly find some paint and try to fix Edward up. Some of the more sturdy toys return Edward slowly to heat so that they could reshape his arm under Winry's guidance and others pain his colors back on. Edward wakes up to be fixed up (though still missing his leg) and everyone rejoices. Life returns to normal except now all of the toys try to help those that are broken.
