The static in his head overwhelmed everything. His throat was raw and burning, as though he'd gargled nails. His chest was heavy, as though there was an elephant sitting on him. He was just a disembodied torso, floating on a wave of heat in the ocean. The water supported him, and he floated on his back and stared up at a totally black sky.
Above the static, he could hear soft crying.
"Big brother..."
But the voice receded behind the static. Water lapped at his cheeks, raindrops he couldn't see landed on his face, and he frowned, squirming.
He could feel small hands grabbing his flesh arm, and he looked down into the water and panicked, terrified it'd be those tiny black hands of truth pulling him through the gate again...
But as he thrashed, the hands receded, and he was back to floating on a sea of black water and staring up at the dark sky. He frowned, suddenly aware of the dull aching in all of his limbs.
He stifled a moan- his arms and legs felt as though they were full of pins and needles.
There was that voice again, pushing the static aside.
"Please open your eyes!"
He groaned and turned away, trying to push the voice away and gather the static back up. It wasn't pleasant, but it was something to dull the throbbing in his head...
"I'm scared!"
There was so much fear in that voice, he froze for a moment, before he was letting go of the static in his hands and swallowing, taking a deep breath and fighting through the pain, hurrying to get to that voice... Someone needed his help.
He opened his eyes and gasped, breaking out in a fit of coughing that left his eyes watering and already sore chest burning.
"Big brother!"
Elicia was still clinging to him, and he struggled to sit up to he could cough up a mouthful of black ashes from his mouth.
Slowly, recollection came trickling back to him.
Babysitting. The fire. The bathtub, the crawl space- the darkness all around them. They were still in his little dirt igloo, and the house was probably still burning. It was still hot. Or was it? He didn't know, he was dizzy.
"Elicia-" he was surprised by how raspy his voice sounded. "Are you alright?"
Elicia nodded, though she was still crying and sniffling, her teary eyes wide. "I thought you died! I thought I was stuck in this cave and I was gonna die too!"
Ed had no idea what to say to that, so he simply pulled the girl into a hug. It's what Mustang would've done for him.
Elicia dissolved into small, hiccuping sobs.
His soot covered hand came up to rub small circles on her back.
"I know, Elicia, It's been a bad night. I know." he soothed. "But you've been really brave- your dad would be proud..."
"Really?" Elicia looked up at him with watery eyes. She was close enough that he could see the tracks of soot-free skin from her tears.
"Yeah, really. We're almost home free. We just have to wait until the fire gets put out- then our dads will come get us..."
"Mustang is your daddy?" Elicia asked, looking surprised.
Maybe he was delirious from the exhaustion. Yeah. That was it. "Yeah. He is. And he's looking for me. Bastard." he couldn't help but smile at the last word, though he could feel the static starting to creep into his head again. He pushed it back.
"Elicia- can you help me sit up?"
Small hands- Elicia's hands, not the tiny black hands of the gate that showed him heaven and hell, eternity and nothing- Elicia, dammit- helped him sit up. The action left him more than a little winded, and he tried to calm his trembling and sweating. His chest burned- every breath was like sandpaper in his lungs. He tried to ignore the wave of nausea that washed over him. But clearly something wasn't right with his body- he was too exhausted to even consider tunneling out of this mess with his alchemy.
Even if the energy it took to perform the transmutation didn't leave him unconscious, he doubted he'd be able to make a stable tunnel with his head throbbing the way it was. That would be ironic- surviving the fire only to die buried in his own tunnel.
No, it was best to just sit and wait here.
Elicia had her sooty fingers in her mouth and was chewing on them- she was nervous.
"Come here, Elicia. Sit on my lap for a little while." he could at least distract the girl.
"It's dark here. I don't like it." Elicia did as he said, climbing into his lap. Ed swallowed down a groan of pain as she jostled his sore body. His legs hurt, but mostly his back was on fire... Still, she didn't need to know that.
"Yeah. It is dark. But if you just close your eyes, then it's not so bad, because its your dark." he was too tired to make sense now.
But Elicia closed her eyes anyways. Her fingers had fallen out of her mouth, and she rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes.
"Just be still for a little while, Elicia. Maybe when you wake up, your dad will be here."
"Mmmhmmm." Elicia nodded eagerly at the idea, though her eyes were still closed.
Ed listened in the darkness until her breathing evened out and she was asleep, before he coughed as quietly as he possibly could, wincing at the pain it caused.
This was odd. Sitting in the darkness, calmly. He wasn't one to sit and wait for help. But he was in no state to do anything to get himself out, and he trusted his family would be here for them soon.
In the back of his mind, the normal Edward- irrational, impatient, scared, having to do it all alone- shouted. Do something! Get out of here! They won't come for you You have to do it yourself, nobody is gonna come save you! Get up! Fight! Don't give up!
He wasn't giving up. He wasn't. But he'd realized- at some point, when he'd woken up in his room to find Roy asleep in a chair beside his bed at the Colonel's house- that he was no longer alone. He didn't have to do this on his own. He wasn't strong enough to save himself right now- but he didn't have to be. Because they would.
Roy Mustang hated rubble. He hated it. Despised going through charred beams- normally even seeing the remains of a house fire or arson scene was enough to set him into a week of sleepless nights, with ashes he couldn't wash off his hands no matter how hard he scrubbed and the smell of burnt hair that never left his nose.
But tonight- well, he went through wreckage like a fish in the sea, not caring how it stained him, dirtied him- Ed was in there somewhere. He had no time to be afraid.
If Ed had been on the first floor, he'd have most likely been able to get out of the home. Which meant that since he gotten out- they'd most likely been trapped somewhere on the second floor.
Roy forced himself to breathe- he ignored the smell of burnt wood and fabric, simply realizing that he was breathing and appreciating that, even though at the moment it didn't feel like it- he WAS in fact breathing, and so that hammering of his heart in his chest and feeling of not being able to breathe was his head lying to him. He had no time for this. Ed needed him.
He closed his eyes and envisioned the floor plan of the Hughes' home in his mind. He'd rarely been upstairs, but he'd helped Hughes move a bed up there when they'd moved in, so he knew the rough layout of the bedrooms and the one bathroom upstairs.
Ed had probably been in Elicia's bedroom, putting her to bed.
Roy moved through the wreckage, which was over his knees at some points, and stood below where Elicia's bedroom would've been- had been- two hours before. Something caught his eye, and he knelt down, sifting through the burned wood and tiles, pulling out a partially burned piece of cardboard. It was half charred beyond recognition, but on the unburned part, Roy could make out half of a 'Chutes and Ladders' game boards.
Roy's heart started to beat faster, if that was possible. He cast the gameboard aside, continuing to dig through the rubble. But there was nothing- no burnt hair, no burnt flesh...
Even if they'd been burned, Ed's automail probably would have remained- or at leas thte metal would have melted. But there was nothing. They had been in this bedroom, but they'd fled- probably when they'd realized there was a fire.
You couldn't make it downstairs, it was an inferno. The second floor was being burnt... where did you go?
Roy strode to where he'd seen the hallway. There weren't many options- a small closet, Hughes and Gracia's room, an office... Or the bathroom.
Roy scanned the rubble critically. It was up to his knees at most points- the burnt metal skeleton of springs that had once been the couch laid twisted at one point, but towards where the bathroom had been, the wreckage was higher, nearly piled up to his waist...
Did you hide in there? Turn on the water and try to buy yourself some time?
He was scaling the pile of wreckage now, pawing through it carefully until he stood on top of it. Over most of it, he caught a hint of white- a clawfooted bathtub? It'd fallen down from the second floor.
And there was water in it.
Roy tripped on something and stumbled, nearly falling. He looked behind him, brushing aside the pieces of burnt wood and plaster to see what looked to be hardened dirt... that was covered in transmutation marks. There was a hole in the floor- or what remained of it, anyways. And from beneath it, the crawl space, there was a small dome of dirt projecting upward- like someone had made a little cave to try and keep the rubble and heat off of themselves.
"Ed! Can you hear me!?" He was filled with strength he didn't know he had, picking up a heavy beam of wood and casting it aside. Hughes and Alphonse had heard him, and they raced over as well to help.
"He's in there! I can see the transmutation marks! ED! Ed, are you there!" They'd nearly uncovered the top of the dome, now, and Roy looked around. "I need some chalk."
"ED! Ed, can you hear me!?"
"Elicia! Daddy's here!"
"Brother! Are you in there!?"
"They're here big brother!" Elicia shook him, and Ed grunted, gasping in pain, before he looked up. He could hear the muffled voices of Roy, Hughes, and his brother outside.
He allowed himself a small smile.
"We're here!" he tried to call, but his voice was hoarse and weak.
Elicia looked at him with concern.
"Go over and yell. They'll get through soon."
"DADDY! DADDY I'M HERE!"
"Daddy! Daddy I'm here!"
Hughes legs gave out from under him, and he fell to his knees in the rubble, hearing the small voice. "Elicia! We're coming to get you, Daddy is, I promise..."
Roy hurriedly finished sketching the freehand array on top of the dome with chalk. He was no geological alchemist, but he'd studied it vaguely years ago... He slammed his hands on the array, and in a flash of blue light, the hardened dirt crumbled to dust, giving a view of the small cave within... And a small, soot covered Elicia.
"Daddy!"
Roy reached in and grabbed the girl beneath the arms, pulling her out and handing her over to a waiting Hughes, who smothered her in kisses.
"Ed? Are you in there?"
Ed had managed to get to his feet- the dome he'd created wasn't very big, and he had to walk hunched over, but he made it to the hole in the wall and looked up at Roy expectantly. The only part of the boy's face that wasn't covered in soot was his golden eyes, and even they were dull with exhaustion. Still, Ed cracked a small smile at the sight of him, his white teeth looking unnaturally bright in contrast with his sooty skin. "Took you long enough, Bastard." he said hoarsely.
Roy offered his hand and the boy gratefully took it, and Roy pulled him up from the hole onto solid ground.
Ed stumbled for a moment once he was out, but regained his balance, though Roy regarded him with concern.
"And then big brother made us get in the tub, an' he broke the toilet, and the tub fell through the floor and made a big splash!" Elicia was regaling Hughes, who'd handed her off to Gracia and was wiping his eyes.
"Are you alright, brother?" Al asked, soulfire eyes gazing at Ed carefully.
"Yeah Al, I'm-" Ed paused, doubling over as a hacking cough shook his frame. He spat a mouthful of black soot onto the ground and wheezed for a second, before straightening up and giving his brother a shaky smile "Fine."
"We're going to the hospital." Roy said, no room in his voice for argument.
"No!" Ed protested hoarsely.
"You can hardly stand." Roy said, onyx eyes looking at the boy critically.
"I can hardly stand for this bullshit any longer, you mean." Ed said, wiping his chapped lips. "Do you guys have any water? I'm thirsty."
"No, but we'll get you some- at the hospital." Roy said firmly.
"I'm fine!" Ed protested.
"Then walk to the car." Roy pointed.
"Okay, fine you grumpy bastard..."
Ed took two steps before his legs gave out.
"Brother!"
"Ed!"
Roy said nothing, simply catching the boy as he fell and nodding. "That's what I thought. How 'fine' are you again?"
"I don't wanna stay at the hospital!" Ed's voice bordered on whining, proof of just how tired the boy was. He looked up at Roy desperately "I want to go home!".
"I didn't say we'd stay, Ed." Roy said, expression softening. "But we at least need to get you looked at. Then we can go home."
"We should probably go as well, with Elicia." Mrs. Hughes pointed out.
Ed realized, for the first time, that the Hughes were here.
"Oh shit."
Everyone paused.
"Hughes- I, uh... I'm really sorry about the house. I mean, it burned down, but I didn't burn it down, but you guys left me babysitting for one night and your house burned down... I'm sorry." Ed lowered his eyes as though he were ashamed.
Hughes burst out laughing.
Ed looked up, surprised at the outburst, and Hughes stepped over, placing one hand on a seated Ed's shoulder while the other was wrapped around Gracia and Elicia.
"Ed- I don't give a damn about the house. Everything that's important to me is right here."
