Meg55443 chapter 24 . 9h ago
Aww, when Ed said he associated Mustang's smell with safety! That was sweet, i wish he would let Mustang help more tho. He's getting there, i hope!
Ding ding ding! We have a winner! Ed's still hesitant to ask for help, but he let Mustang into his subconscious. ed's used Mustang's coat for a blanket twice now- once on the train and once in the office- and he's slowly realizing that even at his worst moments, he can count on Mustang. He's still being stubborn, but in this chapter, he does ask for a small amount of help, though it's not from Mustang... yet. He's getting there. And learning that since the Cretan incident, he responds a little differently to emergency situation. Enjoy!
The only downside of cigarettes was- he could only have one on him at a time, to smoke on his morning walk to work. They were too easily crushed to hide away in his boot.
Ed resolved to enjoy his one cigarette of the morning anyways, though, promising himself that after he put in a day's work he'd have another back at the dorms.
He stopped in front of the train station, tucking the cigarette between his lips and flicking a flame to life on his lighter, about to light it and enjoy, when a scream split the air.
Ed looked over to see a woman frantically yelling- her child, a little girl- had jumped onto the train tracks in pursuit of a dropped toy, and the train was barreling into the station.
His lighter fell out of his hand, the cigarette dropping from his lips, and he was moving, moving before he was fully aware of what he was doing, only aware of the fact he had to move before he was out of time...
The train already trying to stop on the tracks, but it was still going fast enough to kill the kid. It was only twenty meters away- he had a few seconds to act before both he and the kid were dead. He jumped down onto the tracks anyways.
His mind was total, utter silence as he grabbed a hold of the kid- she couldn't have been more than five, really- and pulled her down in the middle of the train tracks, forcing her to lay down on her belly as he did the same.
Second later the train was over top of them- Ed could feel the air rushing by, the screaming metal of the breaking wheels a mere six inches away on the rail to his right, metal cars moving at a velocity that could easily kill him if he even raised his head six inches buzzing overhead.
But none of that mattered. He had to keep the girl calm and laying still- if she was too frantic and tried to get up or run out between the wheels of the train car whizzing by on either side, she'd be dead.
The mother's screaming had been drowned out by the roar of the train motor and the very tracks beneath them were vibrating- metal screamed overhead but he didn't mind it, ignored it, because he had seen this type of hell before and the only way to survive was to keep your wits about you.
"KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!" He shouted above the roar of the train above them.
The child let out a frantic wail, and Ed turned to see the girl laying still and trembling, crying.
He snaked a hand over to the kid, placing it firmly on her back so he knew she wouldn't try to bolt and get caught in the shrieking mass of metal overhead. "IT"S GONNA BE ALRIGHT!"
The train was slowing down around them- the grating of metal on metal was less high-pitched, less shrill.
He watched the locked train wheels slow down enough that they probably could've rolled out between them, but was unwilling to take the chance with such a behemoth of metal still moving above them. The moving train wheels could easily cut them right in half.
It wasn't until the train wheels stopped moving and spitting sparks completely and the train above them was stationary that Ed deemed it safe enough to pick his head up three inches and look at the little girl.
She was still wide-eyed and trembling.
"It's alright. We can move now." Ed promised, reaching over and taking her hand.
He rolled out between the stationary train wheels, pulling the girl out behind him.
They both blinked at the harsh morning sunlight, the girl stumbling, and Ed wordlessly picked her up, settling her on his hip.
The girl was crying, now, her fright cementing as she realized what'd just actually happened.
Ed climbed back onto the cement train platform to find bedlam- the mother was screaming, men were holding her back and looking down at the train is mixes of shock and horror.
Something flashed off to his right- Ed blinked, but found himself brushing off the man with the camera as a quick annoyance. He had to get the girl back to her mother.
"My baby, my baby was down there!"
"That soldier helped her duck under the train, if she stays still they'll be fine!"
"Please stay put, ma'am, we don't know what we're going to find down there!"
"We're right here!" Ed shouted over the commotion.
The woman's frantic expression broke when she saw Ed holding her daughter- the girl had rings of brown curls framing her face and her pink dress was dirty, but not soiled beyond repair.
"Mama!"
"Oh my Felicia! My baby!" the woman started sobbing in earnest, now, rushing over and plucking the girl from his arms as they both cried.
"Say- you look awfully young to be a soldier, kid." one of the men in a bowler hat said, picking his briefcase back up. "That was some stunt you pulled back there. What's your name, anyways?"
"Edward. Edward Elric. I work right here in Central, actually..." he was combing the dirt from his ponytail, straightening out his blue uniform jacket, which had been dirtied in the commotion as well.
Just then, the clock stated chiming nine in the morning. Ed cursed. "Crap. The Colonel is gonna kill me for being late." he muttered, taking off at a jog.
He was already three quarters of the way to the office when he realized he'd completely abandoned his morning cigarette and lighter. But surprisingly, he didn't feel the nagging craving for it, he wasn't twitchy with need.
"Huh. That's strange. Must be the adrenaline." he muttered to himself. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Cigarettes gave him a rush and distracted him, focused his mind. But high-intensity situations, like the one he'd just dove headlong into. It made snese, though. Whenever there was loud noises or a commotion of some sort, his mind screamed at him to fight. Whenever it was just a mundane, everyday action, like a book falling to the floor or something breaking- he had nothing to fight, nowhere to put the chemical bravery flowing through his veins.
But when disaster struck and action was needed- well, he felt perfectly at home in the chaos. He'd be lying if he'd said that diving beneath that train hadn't shaken him a little, but he'd steeled his nerves, knowing that if he gave into the panic both he and the kid would die.
Maybe I don't need cigarettes. Maybe I need to work out more or something. he thought as he climbed the stairs to HQ, ducking into the office.
Hawkeye looked up at him and frowned when he walked in. "You're late, Edward."
"Yeah, I got distracted." Ed admitted.
"The Colonel is waiting for you."
"Right." Ed strode across the room and startled everyone when he kicked the door open- something he hadn't done in days- and strode into Mustang's office like he owned the place. "Alright you Bastard. What do you want?" he managed a small, unironic smirk.
Mustang looked up, slightly surprised at the sudden display of... normalcy... from Ed.
"Fullmetal. You're twenty minutes late to work."
"Yeah yeah yeah, I got distracted." Ed waved him off.
Roy frowned- the kid's uniform was dirty in some places and wrinkled, his hair was slightly messy- but he chose not to comment on it. Ed was here and acting himself- the most like himself he'd been in days, actually, and Roy didn't want to sabotage it.
"Right. You seem to be more yourself compared to yesterday. You're feeling better?"
"Hell yeah I am. I'm ready for anything." Ed flashed him a cocky grin, and Roy paused. How long had it been since he'd seen the kid act this cocky- this... himself?
"Right. Well, you know the drill, empty your pockets."
Ed dropped his watch onto the desktop, and a handful of paperclips, as well as a button. "That's all I got, you nosy bastard."
"Right. Well, get to work, then." Roy ordered, discretely watching the kid as he gathered his things and went off to his desk.
He was left cautiously optimistic- Fullmetal seemed to be having a good day today- hopefully it'd last.
Ed was a paperwork machine. Except for the occasional paper he didn't know how to fill out, he was on top of everything. He managed to starve off his nicotine craving until two in the afternoon, ducking into the bathroom and slapping a patch on his arm, hiding it beneath his long sleeve, before he was heading back to his desk.
He couldn't help but feel slightly guilty at himself. He was beginning to resent himself for being so dependent on nicotine- he hated depending on anything other than himself.
Maybe if I keep this up I can cut back. Quit cigarettes altogether, just use the nicotine patches occasionally- eventually, maybe I won't have to use anything at all. It was slightly daunting, thinking about not having a cigarette whenever his surroundings got to much, but maybe, if he kept working at it- and worked out instead of smoking- then maybe it wouldn't seem like such a herculean task someday.
With his head feeling clearer than it had been in days, he figured out what to do with the thick stack of unfamiliar documents he had on the corner of his desk. He grabbed them and took a short walk to Hughes office- he was too prideful to ask Mustang for help, but Hughes was the same rank as he was- he'd probably know what to do with this stuff.
"Ed! Good to see you!" Hughes grinned as Ed strode into his office, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "How are you? I heard you were having a rough one a bit ago, but we were swamped in our audit. I'm sorry I didn't stop by."
"No need to apologize. I got a mess here." he admitted, dumping the stack of documents on Hughes desk. "And I have no idea how to fill these out. I was hoping you'd have some idea?
Hughes was looking through the documents, frowning. "These are pretty complicated. I don't blame you for not knowing how to fill them out, they're a Lieutenant Colonel's paygrade."
"Yeah, well those idiots promoted me, so now I have to deal with this shit too."
"Congratulations!" Hughes looked up and saw Ed's rank pins and grinned. "I don't know whether to be proud of you or concerned that a fourteen year old has managed to reach the same rank as me." he admitted. "You and Al should come by to celebrate sometime."
"Sometime, maybe." Ed agreed. "Right now I'm just trying to figure out all these new reports."
"Well, it's not that hard. This here is your department code, and this here is just asking for the invoice and report number they're referencing. It's an abbreviated reference system, so while it looks daunting and hard to fill out, once you have it memorized it's a piece fo cake."
Hughes spent the next half hour guiding him through his stack of documents, and Ed was grateful.
"That's everything I know how to teach you, buddy. These three forms here are divisional- I have no clue how to fill them out, since we don't have anything like them in investigations." he admitted. "You should ask Roy to help you with those."
"Right." Ed wasn't looking forward to having to ask Mustang for help with those. He was still hesitant to speak to the man, after he'd sent Hawkeye to his dorm room to spy on him , and while the man was still being annoyingly overbearing and searching his pockets everyday. He'd put those off for as long as possible before he asked him.
"Ed- are you doing alright?" Hughes asked. "I ended up reading quite a few reports from the higher ups about what happened on your last mission out at the Cretan Boarder. It didn't sound good."
Ed sighed. "Everyone keeps asking me that."
"It's because they care about you, Ed. They want to help you however they can. There's no shame in asking for help, you know." Hughes admitted. "It's just like asking for help with paperwork. Nobody would mind at all. In fact,t hey'd be glad you asked rather than potentially doing it wrong and messing it up worse."
"...I think I'm doing alright on my own, though." Ed said hesitantly. Occasionally he liked smoking, and he had trouble sleeping- but he wasn't doing too bad. Not really.
"And that's fine too. Just know my door is always open if you need anything, Ed. Or even if you just want to talk."
"I'll keep that in mind, thanks." Ed stood, gathering his documents and looking towards the door.
"Don't be a stranger, kid. Even if you don't feel like talking, I got plenty of ways to kill the time. I just got new pictures of Elicia developed!"
"That does sound tempting, but I gotta get back to my office. Thanks, Hughes!"
"No problem, Ed." Hughes smiled as the kid left, though he frowned. Ed seemed to much older now- but he was still just fourteen. He knew better than to force the kid to talk, but it was hard- he'd read the reports and knew more than he let on about what Ed had seen at the Cretan Boarder. Ed looked fine today- but he was concerned that behind closed doors, Ed wasn't as okay as he seemed.
What did you think? What was your favorite part? Personally- I believe it's how Ed responds to stress. When a loud noise happens and he has nowhere to direct his adrenaline, he struggles to deal with it. But when a crisis happens and he has somewhere to put his energy- like saving someone- he's brave, reckless, and a force of nature to watch. Just another side effect from what he's been through, and another puzzle piece that makes Ed a BAMF. He's trying to learn how to manage it, though, and maybe soon he'll be able to ask Mustang for help.