Roy scratched his head as he examined the broken furnace. This is the third time it stopped working since he had it repaired. A few months ago, Gracia had called him during work about hearing an explosion and finding smoke coming from the furnace...a furnace that was only a few years old and had been routinely maintained. Roy narrowed his eyes. He had a good idea of how the explosion came about, but he didn't want to admit it. Rather he didn't want to accept it, because he didn't know how to solve the issue.
"Hey Roy?" Rin called. Speaking of which… Roy turned and smiled to see the little boy run up to him.
Roy knelt down to eye level with him. "What have you got there?" he asked as Rin held his hands up to show him a silver pocket watch.
"I found this on the coffee table," he said, "It's yours right? Why's the amestrian flag symbol on the front? Why do you always have it with you?"
"Because it's my state alchemist license," Roy said as he took the watch from Rin and held it out, "Every state alchemist has a silver pocket watch as a form of identification. It also amplifies my alchemic capabilities."
Rin looked confused. "But I thought you were a colonel," he said.
"I am a colonel, but I am also a state alchemist," he explained, "It's like being a specialist with in the military. Some soldiers are snipers, others specialize in reconnaissance and code breaking. My specialization is with alchemy, more specifically with flame alchemy."
Rin nodded before scrunching his brow in confusion. "What is alchemy, anyways? You keep talking about it and have a few books with it on the label but you never told us what it is," he asked.
Roy looked surprised. How could they not know about alchemy?! Then he had to remind himself that they were from another plain of existence that was a lot different from his own. It was very possible that because demons and supernatural powers exist there, alchemy doesn't. That would certainly explain why Shiro had called him a devil when he had first seen his flame alchemy….
"Alchemy is a science that exists in this world. It stands on the principle or deconstructing and reconstructing energy and matter into a new form," he explained, "There are many different disciplines within it like how physicists or biologist specialize in a particular field of study. My field is based in the creation of controlled blasts of fire."
"Really? Thats awesome! Can I see it? Please?" Rin said eyes lighting up with excitement. Roy was tempted to say no, considering they were inside, but looking down to see the admiration and enthusiasm in his gaze, made it near impossible to say no. Roy thought for a moment. Maybe something small….
An idea came to mind and he got up to walk over to a cabinet. He got out a scented candle he'd been planning on throwing away and set it on the table. "Now watch closely," he said, pulling on one of his ignition gloves. He focused on the candle and snapping his fingers. Sparks flew out before a small plume erupted from the wick, before settling.
Rin was in awe. "Woah! Coool!" he gushed, "How did you do that?"
Roy grinned smugly. "It's because of these gloves, you see," he said, showing him his gloved hand, "All alchemy requires a circle array like this, but different ones are used for different things. This array allows me to focus and condense the oxygen in the air around a target, and the glove is made of a specific material that produces a spark when I snap my fingers, allowing me to project fire onto a target."
"Thats amazing!" Rin's eyes shined with interest. "Can I learn to do alchemy like that?" he asked.
Roy thought for a second. He supposed it would be alright for him and his brother to dabble in some basic alchemy. It could go along with their chemistry coursework. "I suppose so," he said causing the boy to whoop with delight, "I could probably find you some books on basic arrays. Then later you can decide on a discipline for yourself," he said stroking his his chin.
"I already know what I want!" Rin exclaimed, causing Roy to look at him in surprise, "I want to do that fire alchemy stuff like you!"
"No!" Roy stated firmly, narrowing his eyes at the boy, "Flame alchemy is too dangerous. You'll hurt yourself and others or worse!"
Rin looked upset and hurt at that. "I won't!" he said, "I'll be really careful! I promise! Please will you teach me?"
"I said no, Rin!" he said, "You don't have enough self discipline to even think about trying."
"But-"
"My decision is final," Roy said getting up and walking away. Rin glared at him as he did so. He could do it! He knew he could! He'd just have to figure out a way how.
…..
Roy sighed as he held the torn glove in his hand. The seam of the ignition glove had come undone up the side. He furrowed his brow. He didn't know how to fix it with alchemy, as he didn't know what what entierly it made of. Thank goodness he had spares. He'd have to get it tailored later, or just get rid of it. He set it down on the counter. He'd have to call his taylor later. For now he more important things to do, namely, finding an alchemy teacher for rin and yukio.
He considered the idea of them getting a teacher a while ago. They both seemed interested in the subject, even if rin didn't understand the consequences. He found Yukio flipping through one of his books of arrays a while ago. It would help them learn about life too. Plus, in some ways it could be both a way of expressing themselves and a means of self defense if they were taught properly.
"Roy?" he heard Yukio call, "I need your help with my chemistry."
"Coming," he called as he headed upstairs. A few moments passed in silence before Rin peeked around the corner. He checked to make sure the coast was clear before he ran over to the counter and pulled out a sheet of paper. He grabbed a chair and climbed up to the counter. He examined the glove on the counter before pulling out a pen and paper. He copied down the design on the back of the glove carefully before smiling and hoping down. If Roy wasn't going to teach him because he thought he wasn't ready, then he'd just have to prove that he was. He searched the cabinets until he found a lighter. He then ran off to find a place to practice.
…
Roy sat in his room at his desk as he made call after call trying to connect to a good alchemist teacher. He'd been acting under the cover that he was looking for a teacher for the son of the friend in the military. He'd called number after number, but no luck. They were all either taken, or weren't that great. He wasn't about to ask another state alchemist though because many of the ones he knew were either specialists or he didn't think would make good teachers. Plus, again, he still didn't know how he would explain these boys when there was no official documentation of their adoption under file.
Roy sighed and looked over to Yukio who was lying stomach down on his bed, happily kicking his feet as he studied. "How are you doing over there?" Roy asked. Yukio looked up and smiled, giving him a thumbs up. Roy sighed and smiled. "At least one of us is getting something figured out…" he sighed. Roy glanced over to the newspaper to the left of him. His brow furrowed as he noticed on the cover there was a picture of a woman performing alchemy. He pulled the article over to him and began reading.
"Izumi Curtis, huh?" Roy said stroking his chin. He then went to pick up the phone.
…
Rin set the paper out before him. Next to it he set down a glass bowl with an old newspaper inside. He then placed on hand on the transposed circle as he held the lighter in the other. He hoped he was doing this right. He focused his eyes on the paper in the bowl, staring at it as hard as he could. He then flicked open the lighter and snapped the flint and steel together.
Sparks flew and Rin's eyes widened as the paper erupted into blue flames. A wide smile crossed his face and his eyes sparkled. "I did it...I really did it!" he whispered in delight.
…
The line rang for a few moments before someone picked up. "Hello," a deep, monitone voice answered, "This is the Happy Meats Butcher Shop. What can I do for you?"
"Hello, yes," Roy said, "May I please speak to Izumi Curtis?"
"...Who is this?" the voice asked, "Why do you want to speak to my wife?"
"My name is Roy Mustang," he explained, "I was wondering if I could possibly speak to her about if she was willing to take on an apprentice in alchemy."
"...Alright," the man said, still in monotone, "One moment."
Roy waited a few second before someone got on the line. "Hello?" a higher female voice said, "Who is this. What do you want?"
Roy smiled. "Good afternoon ma'am," he said, "My name is Roy Mustang and I-"
"Wait a minute...as in Colonel Roy Mustang?" the woman asked.
"Why yes," he said, "I was wondering if you-"
"Not interested," she stated simply.
Roy frowned. "You didn't even hear what I was going to-" he started but was once again cut off.
"I don't need to hear what you were going to say!" she snapped at him, causing Roy to flinch, "I'm not doing any kind of favors for military dogs like you!" With that she hung up.
Roy frowned at the phone. "Well I guess I wouldn't want her around the boys anyways if that's how she treats authority figures. I can't imagine how she'd be when the roles are reversed," he thought. He leaned back in his chair. There has to be something he could do… He closed his eyes and took a deep breath…and smelled smoke on the air.
Roy shot up, eyes wide. A fire? How?! Then a thought struck him. The house was too quiet. "Yukio?" he asked, "do you know where your brother is?"
Yukio looked up, eyes suddenly wide with worry. He shook his head no. Roy's heart nearly stopped. "Shit!" He breathed, standing up. He grabbed yukio by the wrist and pulled him off the bed. The two ran out into the hall and saw smoke coming from Rin and Yukio's room.
"Yukio," Roy commanded, "I need you to run down stairs and get a pot of water, now!"
"O-ok!" the scared little boy squeaked before running down the stairs.
Roy then burst into the twin's room. His eyes widened as he saw the pillar of blue fire in front of where Rin was sitting. The fire looked ready to overturn the bowl and creep onto the carpet. Images of burning Ishvalan children flashed through Roy's mind. "RIN!" he cried, moving to pull the boy to safety. Rin turned to look at Roy in surprise.
"Wait, Roy-" He didn't have a chance to speak as he was dragged away from the flames and out into the hall. Just then, Yukio came running upstairs with a pot of water. Roy grabbed it from him and doused the flames. His heart still raced as he stared at the smouldering remains.
Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief. "It's ok, you two…" he said, relaxing his shoulders, "You're safe now. You're all-" It was then that he noticed a strange peice of paper on the floor. It had some sort of symbol on it. His eyes widened as he reailzed it was the same symbol as what was on the back of his gloves!
Roy's fists began to shake as Rin tried to creep away. "RIN…." Roy growled, causing a shiver to run down the boy's spine. Before he could move another muscle, Roy grabbed him roughly by the arm and pulled him into the room. He looked upon the man in terror as pure fury had engraved itself upon Roy's face as he glowered down at him.
He shoved the sopping piece of parchment in Rin's face. "What the hell is THIS?" he demanded quietly.
Rin swallowed. "I-I don't kn-" he began but was cut off as Roy squeezed his arm.
"DON'T LIE TO ME!" he raged. Yukio flinched in the background.
"Ok! Its the transmutation circle from your gloves!" Rin admitted, squeezing his eyes shut, "I-I copied it from the one you left on the counter!"
"Why?!" Roy demanded shaking his arm, "Why the hell would you pull a stunt like this?! I told you it was too dangerous!"
"I-I"
"WELL?!"
"Stop Roy! You're hurting his arm!" Yukio suddenly piped up. Roy's eyes widened as he realized what he was doing. He suddenly dropped Rin's arm as if it had burned him.
He panted as he stared down at the boy who was practically shaking. It looked like he was about to cry. Part of Roy felt bad, but a larger part was still mad. What the hell had been going through the boy's head?!
"I-I just wanted to prove I could do it…" Rin mumbled, "I wanted to see if I could make fire like you…"
"But I told you not too!" Roy argued. "What is wrong with you?! Everytime I tell you to do something, you ignore me, even if it's for you're own good," he snapped, "Did you even stop to think about what could have happened?! You could have hurt yourself! You could have gotten Yukio hurt! Heck, you could have burned this whole place down and killed us all!"
"But I had it under control!" Rin shouted, starting to cry.
"No you didn't!" Roy retorted, "Another five seconds and the floor would have caught on fire! And then where would you be? Fire isn't a toy, damn it! You could have really hurt yourself!"
"I know but-"
"No you don't!" Roy cut him off, "If you did you wouldn't have done it! And you obviously still don't know, otherwise you wouldn't be trying to argue with me!" "And because of that, I have no choice but to punish you," Roy said with a sigh. Rin's eyes widened in fear. "You will stay in this room for the rest of the evening and think about what you've done," he stated.
"But-"
"No buts!" Roy said tearing up the piece of paper with the transmutation circle on it. he then began to walk towards the door. Yukio looked like he would protest on his brother's behalf, but stopped himself.
"Roy, I-"
"I don't want to hear any noise from up here during that time. This is not playtime. You can either study or contemplate. Nothing else," he said, not looking at Rin.
"I'm sorry!" Rin cried, tears streaming down his face.
Roy stopped at the door frame. The was a pause as Rin continued to sniffle. "I'll be back up with dinner in a few hours. Then we'll see if you can leave your room or not," Roy said. He then closed the door behind him.
It made his heart ache to say those things to him. But he had to learn somehow. He had been so scared when he had seen Rin in front of those blue flames. He never wanted to see the boy get that close to getting hurt like that again.
…
A few hours later, Roy was feeling even more terrible. The image of Rin's terrified face wouldn't get out of his mind. He glanced up the stairs where the door to the twins room was. It had be silent for a while. Roy looked down in guilt. It was his fault really, he should have been keeping better track of him and not have left that glove out. What was he thinking?! Leaving that out was like leaving out a loaded gun!
And thinking back on it...the boy did have some promise. Most kids his age with his lack of understanding of alchemy wouldn't have been able to activate the circle in the first place! And he had managed to use the technique to control his own flame powers...Maybe...just maybe him learning flame alchemy someday would be a good thing.
Roy glanced up again at the door to Rin and Yukio's room. "You know he's been really well behaved these past few hours," Roy noted, grabbing Yukio's attention from his coloring book, "Maybe we should let him out early…do you think he's learned his lesson?"
Yukio blinked in surprise before smiling at him and nodding. Roy smiled back as he got up. "Come on," he said, "Let's let Rin know his punishment is over."
Both marched upstairs to the boys' room. When they opened the door, they expected to find the boy still moping on his bed. However, shock and fear covered their faces when they saw that the window was open with a sheet rope hanging out of them and that Rin was gone.
BUM BUM BUUUUM. hey guys! Sorry For leaving you on a clifhanger. Still, i hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next one is going to be a lot of fun to write. Until then, I'd just like to say thank you for reading and reviewing my story! Feel free to leave me any suggestions and have a nice day"
