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Chapter 10
A new place
Edward didn't know whether it was routine or whether Mustang and Hawkeye had talked about it when he was out of the car to get his things from the dorm, but Hawkeye stopped the car at a Xingese restaurant without a word and Mustang got out and came back with two bags filled with food. He handed the smaller one to his lieutenant and she thanked him and rested it on the passenger seat before starting to drive again.
"I hope you like Xingese food," Mustang said after a while, obviously realising that maybe he should have asked that before. Edward nodded. Even if he did like almost every food in the world anyway, he couldn't care less right now. Food was just something needed to stay alive, nothing more.
Mustang nodded and let Ed be. The colonel seemed to be too deep in thought himself to thrive for a real conversation. Or maybe he had just realised that it was futile to try and make Ed talk right now. The young alchemist was nervous; he fiddled with the hem of his red coat, thinking about what had happened and what would be transpiring soon.
Mustang had gotten him out of the dorm. And he would now be staying with the colonel.
Maybe it would be just for the night and tomorrow the colonel would seek out another solution, or maybe it would be for quite a while. He didn't know and he couldn't decide which option he'd prefer. There had been a time when he would have jumped out of the moving car immediately to avoid staying with Mustang longer than it took him to kick his office door open and give a report. But during that time, he still had Al with him and a goal in mind.
He forced the thoughts of Al away. Not now. He needed to get stronger again before facing those memories. Though he wasn't even sure he wanted that. Being a numb vegetable would be so much easier.
He glanced at the colonel from the corner of his eye. Mustang was looking out of the window, elbow propped against the car door and his chin resting on his hand. The other hand held the bag with food feebly on his lap. He looked relaxed, but if he truly was, then he would be sitting in a more comfortable position. The way he was seated now made every bump in the road cause him to nearly hit his head on the windowpane.
The car slowed and eventually stopped, interrupting Ed's analysis of the colonel. Mustang thanked Hawkeye and they bid each other good bye before exiting the car. Ed managed a "bye 'n' thanks" for Hawkeye and followed after him. He noticed it had finally stopped raining as they rounded the car. The colonel opened the trunk and Ed grabbed his suitcase. Nervously, he followed Mustang to the apartment complex. The older man opened the front door and led him to the upper floor. Finally, they stopped in front of one of the doors. Ed took a deep breath to calm himself while Mustang tried to find the right key from the bunch in his hand, without dropping his briefcase and the food he still held. After a moment, he managed to unlock the door.
"Well, here we are. Welcome to my humble home," Mustang said with a shrug and pushed the door open. Ed went in but stopped after just a few steps. He tried not to think like an escape route was blocked when Mustang shut the door behind him.
"You can keep your boots on if they're not too dirty, I don't care, just get comfortable," the colonel informed as he placed the food on the small table next to the door. Ed watched as he pulled off his own boots and shrugged out of his coat and uniform jacket. Some part of him that he hadn't felt in a very long time protested loudly at the thought of taking his platform boots off. Should he allow Colonel Bastard Roy Mustang to see how tall...short...he really was? He inwardly snorted. What a needless thought that was. Mustang would tease him anyway, so what difference would it make? But lately, the colonel had acted rather nice, so maybe he would be polite? He finally decided to take off his boots and then he looked around.
Mustang had vanished somewhere, most likely his bedroom. The room Edward was currently standing in was a living room. It held a couch with a coffee table next to it, a desk and a small filing cabinet in the corner. The walls were lined with bookcases and there was a small fireplace. That was pretty much it.
Ed wasn't sure what to think of it. He had guessed that the colonel owned a rather fancy place, but this was quite plain. It was still homey somehow, though. Maybe a better word would be simple instead of plain.
Mustang came out of one of the doors to Ed's left and surprised the younger alchemist just as much as the apartment had. He was wearing a pair of casual black pants and a white button down shirt instead of the dark blue army pants and the light blue uniform dress shirt.
"Sit down somewhere," he said invitingly, gesturing towards the kitchen area to Ed's right side. It was divided from the living room by a counter and held a stove, a sink, some cabinets and a small table with two chairs. Ed did as he was told and took a seat in one of the chairs.
He didn't feel like eating. His stomach was used to his normal, or rather abnormal, eating pattern by now and he was feeling way too uncomfortable. He watched Mustang unpack the food and curled up in himself a little. The colonel seemed much too... well uncolonel-like standing in a kitchen without his uniform, and commenting on how happy he was about the food still being warm. Edward didn't know how he was supposed to act around this person. It felt like he was with a stranger and that frightened him more than he'd like to admit.
Mustang seemed to catch on Ed being uncomfortable, because he fell silent and simply dished out the food. This didn't make it any better though. Ed would have preferred to hear his voice, even if he once again didn't pay any mind to what words were spoken. Just the familiar sound that assured him that this was still the same colonel was important.
Edward poked at his food as he tried to convince himself that there was no reason to feel like this, and that a change of clothes didn't make a different person out of Mustang. He didn't need another problem on his list, another thing that caused chaos and fear in him because he didn't know how to handle it. After a while, he gave up. He was so used to it; it was really simple for him by now to shut down thinking. And going numb really did the trick, because now he managed to mechanically eat the food in front of him. The fact that this reminded him of his time in Risembool only pulled him deeper to the core of his own little empty world.
Sometime later, his brain seemed to deem Mustang's instructions about where the bathroom was and that he would have to make do with the couch today important enough to be heard. The colonel handed him a blanket and a fluffy cushion.
"Don't worry, the couch is comfortable. I fall asleep on it pretty often and I always sleep fine," he said, as if Ed cared. The Fullmetal Alchemist simply nodded.
"Okay... you don't need to go to sleep right now. If you want you can read one of my books or something. I'll go take a shower, and then I'll be in my room. Call if you need something."
Ed nodded again. Mustang didn't seem very happy about his charge's current state, but then apparently decided that at the moment he couldn't do a thing about it and so he gave a nod of his own and turned to leave the room.
"Good night, Fullmetal. I'll wake you up for work tomorrow," he said before closing the door.
Edward sat on the couch for a while, just waiting for time to go by like he usually did when he was sitting on his bed in Risembool. The boy looked out of the window and dimly realised that here killing time was even easier, because watching the busy streets of Central was far more distracting than the quiet fields of his hometown. He blinked and frowned.
Why was he killing time at the moment? He wasn't in Risembool, meaning that kind of pain couldn't harm him right now. And he wasn't in the dorms, either. This place was just an apartment, a place that was new to him and not tainted with memories, because it didn't resemble all the places he had stayed at with Al. It meant he could...relax.
Edward went and got his suitcase from where it still stood by the door. He was still hesitant, but fished out his sleepwear nonetheless. During the last few weeks he had been sleeping in whatever he was wearing when Mustang dropped him off at the dorms, but now, he was awake and willing to change. The distant sound of water running ceased. Ed gathered his toothbrush, and then waited. After half an hour he came to the conclusion that the bathroom must have two doors, one of them leading to Mustang's bedroom. Just to be sure, he knocked but when no-one answered, he went in. The room did have two doors indeed. It was still warm, and there was still some fog on the mirror, but Ed didn't mind. He hadn't dared to really look into a mirror for quite some time now. Quickly, he got ready for bed.
Careful not to leave any evidence that he had been there, he left the bathroom, switched off all the lights and sauntered to the couch. The blanket Mustang had given him was thick and soft and perfect to wrap around himself like a cocoon. He lay down and snuggled into the pillow. Letting his eyes trace the outlines of the furniture in the dim light the night sky outside of the window provided, he felt his eyelids starting to droop. For once though, he didn't mind.
Even with his eyes closed he could still be sure that he was neither in the dorms nor in Risembool and that he wouldn't wake up to loneliness and hurt again, because the blanket didn't smell like Granny Pinako's laundry detergent or like the cheap one they used in the dorms and there was the faint scent of leather from the couch. So he breathed in deeply and smiled a little before sleep took over him.
Edward awoke to someone tapping his shoulder in a really obnoxious manner and a rather sleepy voice talking to him.
"Come ooon, wake up! It's hard enough to drag myself out of bed in the morning, I don't have the energy to motivate you, too!"
He pulled his blanket tighter around himself, not willing to let the best sleep he had had in what felt like ages go. There was an exasperated sigh and the tapping stopped. He thought he had won, but:
"MAJOR ELRIC, AT ATTENTION!"
The boy yelped, jumped and fell off the couch. Colonel Roy Mustang barking in his professional military voice at the top of his lungs could do that to you. Edward stared at the man, bright red in the face. What the hell was he doing he-...oh, yes, he was in Mustang's apartment. Blushing even harder, he slowly got off the floor. Mustang yawned innocently and marched over to the kitchenette.
"Get ready, Hawkeye might not lecture you for being late, but she'll definitely lecture me," he grumbled as he opened the coffee machine.
Still not completely over his shock about how Mustang could yell like that without being fully awake himself, Ed grabbed his things and rushed over to the bathroom. At the door, he stopped, looking back to Mustang. The colonel lazily waved a hand, "Go ahead, take a shower, whatever, just be ready at quarter to eight. Or better some time before, if you want breakfast." Ed nodded and went in the bathroom, leaving Mustang to glare at his coffee machine, for it obviously worked too slowly for the sleepy colonel.
When Ed exited the bathroom, fully dressed and still damp hair in the usual braid, the colonel was watching the scrambled eggs cook, a cup of coffee in his left hand, a spatula in his right. With breakfast it was the same like with dinner. Even though the scent of coffee and eggs made his stomach react somehow, Ed didn't want to get used to food in the morning again. He didn't know how long the colonel would keep him here, so he didn't want to change his pattern just yet. That's why he decided not to intrude and sat on the couch, intending to just wait there until they left for work. Mustang looked up from the eggs and over to Ed, smirking a little.
"Since when have you been so shy, Fullmetal?" the still sleepy colonel teased but instantly dropped his smirk and realised his mistake. They both knew very well when Edward had become shy and much more importantly, why. Ed sat still, clenching his hands to fists and Mustang bit his lip, all traces of sleep vanishing from his face. There was silence for a while. The colonel took the eggs off the stove and grabbed two plates.
"Breakfast?" he asked, his voice uncharacteristically soft. Ed knew Mustang was sorry and he was aware he wouldn't have managed a better apology himself, so he nodded and shuffled over to the kitchen table, accepting it. Mustang put a plate with eggs in front of him, and then added the toast that had just popped out of the toaster.
"Coffee?" he offered and Ed shook his head.
"Milk?" That actually got a glare out of the boy.
"Orange juice?" Ed thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. Mustang got a glass and filled it with juice, then put it next to Ed's plate.
"Bon appetite," the colonel murmured and they started eating. Ed didn't really want to, but he finished his whole plate nonetheless. His stomach didn't seem to care about his "don't get used to breakfast "attitude. And he had to admit, only to himself of course, that the eggs tasted quite good.
When they finished, Mustang mechanically did the dishes. The years at military academy had probably drilled the fact that kitchen duty was necessary into his head very well. When finished, the colonel put on his uniform jacket and attached the skirt things to his pants. He grabbed his briefcase and keys and waved for Ed to follow. Edward had nothing to grab besides some cash for lunchtime. He stuffed it into his jacket and the two left the apartment.
A middle aged woman exited the apartment next door, crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at Mustang.
"Sorry 'bout the yelling, but I had to wake him for work," Roy apologised with a sheepish smile and pointed his thump at Ed. Once again Ed felt himself blush. The woman saw the blushing boy standing next to the colonel awkwardly, and smiled.
"Just don't do it again," she said with a friendly shrug.
"Sure, ma'am, this was the first and the last time," Mustang assured her with a quick and polite bow. She giggled and went back into her apartment.
His breakfast felt like a stone in Edward's stomach. The first and the last time. So he wouldn't be staying with the colonel longer than necessary after all. It was an emergency solution that he had been allowed to stay for the night and today he would be brought somewhere else. He wanted to bring his breakfast back up, but forced himself to walk after the colonel instead, staring at the man's heels for he couldn't bring himself to lift his head.
Edward cursed himself for being so weak that one peaceful night of sleep and breakfast with some kind of company was enough to make him want to stay with Mustang.