Chapter Eighteen

South Bound Trip

February 10th

9:30 am

Colonel Mustang's Office

Mustang had been drafting the mission request for Fullmetal's trip to Liore when a more urgent mission came across his desk. Mentally, he cursed. Then he actually read through it and cursed aloud. After he had regained his composure which as usual took only a moment, he called Edward into his office.

Not wanting to see the disappointment in the boy's face, Mustang chose to announce the change in plan while staring out of his window. "I know we discussed Liore being a priority, however the Brass just sent this across my desk. They are requesting you specifically, and I cannot use your paternity leave to get you out of it, not between your recent missions and your intent to visit Liore."

"Fine, I'll take care of this, and then do Liore next." Ed said with a huff as he flipped through the report. The file was thin, but as he read through it it became obvious that the issue was lack of information rather than it was a simple case. This could take a week or two itself. With a sigh he added. "Actually, probably will need a week back here before heading out to Liore. I don't want to back to back cases with Yuery teething, unless Liore has become dire."

"There is some speculation that there is unnatural alchemy involved here." Mustang said in an attempt to improve the situation. Both knew that was what was going on, and that the chances of it helping Ed was not good.

Ed nodded, then realized Mustang wasn't looking at him so couldn't know that he nodded. "Well, it will help, or it won't. Either way I need to take care of it right? We dogs don't get a choice." Mustang bristled, expecting further insults and attacks, but Ed simply added. "May I go now? I still have another two reports to finish typing before I can call that assignment complete. When we get back from the South, I think perhaps I should start back into the library, sir. I also need to compile something for the assessment, so I don't have to worry about its last minute."

"Of course, Fullmetal, dismissed." Mustang said before sitting back down to complete his paperwork. Ed saluted him halfheartedly and returned to the front office to finish the last of his paperwork. It was frustrating that this side mission was going to get in his way, and Ed wanted to be angry at Mustang over it, but recognized that it wasn't his fault… that wouldn't stop him from blaming Mustang if asked though because he may not feel that way, but it wouldn't help either of them if anyone figured out that Ed didn't hate Mustang as much as he claimed he did.

1:00pm

Mustang's office

Ed had considered going home for his nap, but this may be his last chance for a nap for a while, and he wasn't going to risk Yuery waking on the way home and missing his chance. Naps are too important to him to risk it. With this in mind he crashed on Mustang's couch as usual, with Yuery sleeping in a playpen next to him. Ed had also decided to give Yuery the chance to get used to napping in the pen so Mustang could work through naptime. This was in direct contradiction to Mustang's master plan, not that was aware of said plan (though he suspected).

Mustang arrived back in the office a few minutes after Ed fell asleep and sat at his desk. It had become such a routine that at first, he didn't notice the change in the baby's sleeping location. Though after his moment of panic that he would forever deny when he glanced up and didn't see the baby, he wondered how he had missed the playpen wedged between the bookshelf and the couch.

Mustang found himself glancing up more than usual as the boys napped, so it wasn't surprising that he noticed Yuery staring at him before the baby had a chance to make a sound. A glance at the clock revealed the baby hadn't been asleep long, but when he picked the boy up it was apparent, he had no intention of going back to sleep. Faking a put-upon sigh, Mustang scooped up the boy and sat at his desk again, pushing his paperwork aside.

"Well, then Yu. What shall we do while your dad sleeps then?" Mustang asked the baby in a low voice to avoid waking Edward. "I know, let me just leave him a message and we can go for a bit of a walk, shall we?" Mustang jotted down a quick note stating he took the baby for a walk so Ed could sleep and proceeded out of the office. He ignored Hawkeye's glare, and the men's' groans as he said, "Taking a walk, I'll be back." Before he walked through into the hallway.

It was an hour later that Ed emerged from the office, woken by the silence, with Mustang's note in hand to ask where they had gone. Since he hadn't given a destination, Ed then went in search of them with the instruction to have Mustang take the boy home if he returned before Ed found them. Ed started in the most logical places to look, primarily the cafeteria, then library, then secretary pool, but Mustang wasn't in any of them.

Ed growled in frustration since he was starting to get hungry, and anxious about where they could have disappeared to, and tried to think of where else to look. He muttered to himself. "Think, if I was a smarmy work avoiding jerk, where would I take the random baby I stole from his completely unsuspecting father?"

All this did was serve to make him angry over having to search for them. With a flip of his hair he stormed around the command center looking in every office before storming out into the city. The staff of East HQ was made aware by three o'clock that the strangeness was over and clearly Fullmetal was back to normal. This had not been Mustang's intent, but it would serve both him and Edward well. Fullmetal had been a little too quiet lately, and it would have been brought to Central's attention sooner or later.

By the time Edward finally tracked his boss and son down, he was in a very foul mood. He was hungry, tired, and it was threatening to rain. Mustang had walked the baby all around command before walking down to the café and get a coffee, then was making his way back when Ed caught up to them. Wordlessly Ed held out his arms for the child, who in turn practically dived into his father's arms.

Still saying nothing, Ed turned and headed toward his apartment. With a sigh, Mustang headed back to the office. He didn't want to further anger the teen and risk losing the coveted job of babysitter, so he would wait and apologize after work… with food. Food always worked to smooth over any offense when it came to Edward.

February 12th

9:00 am

Mustang's Office

As it turned out, thanks largely to the note, Ed had not actually been angry with Mustang and had still been willing to leave Yuery in his care. The train was scheduled to leave at 9:15 so Ed had left Yuery and the cat at Mustang's at seven just as Roy was starting to wonder if Ed was planning on taking the baby after all.

Havoc picked Roy up for work as usual around 8:30 and they arrived at 9 after stopping for something to eat. As soon as they walked in, Hawkeye looked pointedly at the baby, then the playpen sitting next to Ed's desk, then the stack of paperwork waiting for Roy's attention. He took the hint and placed the happily babbling baby down to begin working. There was always later to find a way to use the distraction. It wouldn't work if he used up all of Hawkeye's goodwill in the first day after all.

Central Bound Train

Edward and Alphonse had gotten to the station and the train without issue, before Ed once again removed the thin file from one of his coat pockets and thumbed through it. He wanted this done with as quickly as possible so he could move on to the Liore case. Part of him wanted to go straight there, but he knew that wasn't going to happen. The fact that he had to travel all the way to Central to switch trains to go South was not improving his mood either. Al was busy flipping through his food journal, and it was early enough in the day that their car had been relatively empty when they boarded so there weren't a lot of people to watch either. Al turned another page as he casually asked. "Have you asked for leave to visit home yet?"

"Stop nagging me Al, yes I did, but I have a couple of cases I need to clear up before that." Ed said, doing his best to keep both the irritation and the whine out of his voice. "It's not my fault this case popped up out of nowhere."

"I agree, it's not your fault this case came up. It is your fault you haven't talked to Winry yet." Al said calmly. "It's been three almost four months since you got back Edward. You should have arranged a visit right away."

"Shut up Al. I'm trying okay?!" Ed said before closing the door firmly behind him. He didn't slam random doors. Random door was not alchemically enhanced to avoid breaking when slammed. Now he found himself standing between two cars with no real plan aside from getting away from his brother's nagging.

The wind was very cold out on the platform, and really, he wasn't going to be able to avoid Al for the next two weeks. Plus, he wasn't a child anymore, and needed to act like the adult he was, so he went back into the car and sat back down. Al looked at him pointedly, but Ed just picked up his book without acknowledging his brother.

Central Train Station

1:00pm

Ed was surprised to see Hughes waiting at the station for them. Apparently, he had learned from an exceptionally reliable source that the boys had a three-hour layover and decided to invite them over to eat. As they were still not actually speaking to each other, it was going to be an awfully long wait, so they agreed.

Ed, Al, and Maes sat in an outdoor table as waited to order. Maes pulled out the latest batch of photographs of his two-year-old daughter, Elicia, to make Ed and Al admire. Ed, in a move that surprised the other two, countered with an equally thick stack of photos of his six-month-old son. The waitress managed to interrupt before a full-blown war of the doting could begin, though the photos themselves remained on the table to indicate the conversation would soon continue.

Al sighed heavily, knowing full well that his brother had brought along a stack of photos only because he had learned of the three-hour layover, and had assumed Hughes would arrive to see them. As Ed showed off the sixth photo of Yuery lying flat on his back while chewing on a finger he said. "I made Mustang promise to take photos of him while I'm gone so I know what I miss. I'll be sure to send you copies if you would like."

"Oh, maybe I'll phone Roy and ask him to send me copies directly! He is almost as cute as my Elicia! You are a very lucky man Edward."

"I agree." Ed said with a smile and Al sighed again.