It's short, and fluffy, but I like it and I hope you do too!
Work tended to pile up around the office. Especially when one spent most of their time chasing after wayward subordinates and making sure they were doing alright in the hospital.
Needless to say, he spent the fist three hours at work absolutely buried, and though Hawkeye didn't comment, he could see her gun sitting on the table, so he diligently plowed through as much as he reasonably could.
It was almost 11am when his desk phone rang.
"Mustang here."
"This is Colonel Mustang?" a female voice on the other end didn't sound amused.
"Yes, this is he. Who is this?"
"This is nurse Kim. I wanted to let you know Edward has lost his fingerpainting privledges."
Roy blinked. "I... wait, what? He was finger-painting?"
"Key word being was, Colonel. He made some very complicated- and quite frankly- dangerous- transmutation circles. So he's now lost that privledge.
"Oh. What'd he paint."
"We don't know. But it looks to be military-grade transmutation circles. And he was explaining the principles of alchemy to the other children, who, quite frankly, can hardly write their own names and tie their shoes. So he isn't allowed to fingerpaint anymore, and he sulked all through group therapy because of it. And Now I have a bunch of dangerous transmutation circles I don't know how to safely dispose of."
Roy's lips twitched, and he couldn't hide a smirk as he swallowed down the urge to giggle. Military grade transmutation circles? Clearly, he was dealing with a new breed of ignorance here.
"If you don't know alchemy, how do you know the transmutation circles are dangerous?" Roy asked, deciding to be pedantic.
"I don't, but I'm treating them like they are! And I expect you to speak to the boy and... dispose of them... properly when you visit him." nurse Kim didn't sound amused in the slightest- she sounded pissed.
Roy blinked. He was filling out death reports and trying to figure out which families to call to pick up their dead children, and this woman was pissed because Ed was finger painting?
"Is that all you called about?" Roy asked seriously. He had much more important shit to deal with right now.
"Yes." nurse Kim said icily.
"Great. Then I'll see you later." Roy slammed the phone back down on the receiver. "Unfortunately." he added, almost as an afterthought.
He paused, thinking o how bizarre that interaction had been, before he burst out laughing- a deep, amused chuckle that startled everyone out of their work. But they'd been eavesdropping anyways.
"She finally did it boys. Hawkeye pushed him too hard, Boss has cracked." Havoc stage-whispered.
"What was that about, Sir?" Hawkeye didn't sound amused.
Roy grinned at her. "Fullmetal has apparently lost his finger painting privilege at the hospital. The staff can't understand the transmutation circles and they're frightened. So... che..." Roy had to stifle another laugh as he spoke, face breaking into a grin "so I expect you all to keep any finger-paint out of his reach when he gets back, because god forbid he gets his hands on fingerpaint. He'll kill us all!" Mustang said sarcastically, before he was bursting into another fit of laughter.
"He got in trouble for fingerpainting?" Fury looked surprised.
"That's stupid! Let the kid paint! This is just like in art class, when I got detention for eating all the paste! They just can't understand art!" Breda slammed a fist on the desk.
The others were all agreeing, and Hawkeye fired off her gun to silence everyone. "That's enough goofing off. Bakc to work."
Everyone dutifully obeyed, though they were still snickering.
When lunch rolled around, Roy went over to the hospital to visit. He strode right by the nurse's station despite the glares Nurse Kim was sending him, instead finding Ed's room and knocking on the door, whih was half-shut.
Ed was on his bed with his alchemy textbooks in hand, and he blinked. "Come in?"
He sat up straighter when Mustang walked into the room, setting the book to the side.
Roy was going to crack a joke about the kid causing trouble wherever he went, but Ed spoke first, and the kid's question caught him off guard. "Do you have any food?"
Roy blinked. "No. Haven't they been feeding you here?"
Ed shrugged. "Yeah..." he looked at his feet. "But it's not much. Picture an elementary school lunch type thing. And I slept through dinner last night, nd they gave us lunch, but I'm still starving..."
"Did you ask for more?" Roy asked.
Ed shook his head. "No. Didn't want to risk pissing that nurse off anymore than she already was. She was giving me mean loks already..."
"Because of the finger-painting?"
Ed blinked, nodding. "Yeah. She called you, didn't she, she said she was going to..." Ed looked away- he was avoiding his eyes, like he was a kid getting a note sent home from school.
Roy smirked. "So what'd you paint, kid?"
"I painted the circle I use to move dirt around. And one for shaping wood. And your ircle, the flame alchemy one..."
Roy blinked. "I'd prefer you didn't paint that. It's kind of important."
"Yeah, I know! I didn't explain it to anyone or anything- I was gonna give it to you." Ed said simply. "But she took them all, so... yeah. My morning has kinda sucked, to be honest."
"Did anything else happen?" Roy asked quietly.
Ed sighed. "No. And that's the problem. Nothing happened. I haven't seen the psychologist, they said I would this morning..." Ed flopped back on the bed, looking frustrated.
"Well, you aren't a kid, and that nurse can kick rocks as far as I'm concerned. Keep your head down and stay under the radar- I'll go talk to them and see what's going on with the food and the psychologist."
"Thanks." Ed looked appreciative.
Roy turned, heading back towards the nurses station, where Nurse Kim was looking for him, looking unamused. She led him into a small office ad shut the door behind them, taking a seat at her desk and fixing Mustang with a glare that was supposed to be intimidating. It jsut made her look like a moody bitch.
"Well?" Roy asked.
Nurse Kim shot him a look and brought out three sheets of paper- one with a brown transmuatation circle, another green, and in bright, fire-engine red, clear as day, was Roy's own flame alchemy circle.
"What do they do?" she asked seriously. "Was he planning on killing us?"
Roy shook his head. "No. He wasn't planning anything- he was jsut painting." Roy marveled at the perfect circles- hard to believe the kid could do it freehand, but he was a prodigy, afterall.
"This one moves earth. Dirt. Just manipulation, so he could make columns or a hill. This one reshapes wood. And this... this one's the circle I always use." Roy looked at the flame alchemy circle- Ed had replicated it perfectly. There was something shiny- the kid had managed to put a couple pinches of glitter into it.
"And what does your circle do?" Nurse Kim asked dryly.
Roy blinked. "It manipulates oxygen. Useful for controlling flame."
Nurse Kim's eyes widened. "So he could've started a fire with it."
Roy scoffed. "No. The circle doesn't make fie, you still need a spark or a lighter. He could make a breeze by manipulating the gas atoms in the air- that's about it. And he wasn't planning on doing anything with it- he was making it for me."
"You can't be sure of that, though." Nure Kim said seriously.
"Yes, I can. I am the only one who knows how to perform flame alchemy. And Ed know enough not to play with alchemy he doesn't fully understand." Roy said simply.
"Hmm." Nurse Kim sniffed. "I can trust you'll dispose of these?" Nurse Kim handed him the drawings.
"Of course." Roy said cooly. He wasn't going to waste pefectly good transmutation skills, but she didn't need to know that.
"You realize the unique danger he presents to our unit, don't you?" Nurse Kim said seriously.
Roy blinked. "No, I don't." he said dryily. "Do enlighten me."
Nurse Kim sighed. "We have a few alchemists upstairs in our unit for the criminally insane. I've een what they can do to a person when they decide to become violent."
"Yes, so have I. Luckily for you, the kid isn't violent."
"The psychiatrist hasn't determined that yet." Nurse Kim said icily.
"Yeah, about that- why the hell hasn't he? Ed said he was supposed to see the psychiatrist this morning but didn't. It worried him." Roy said idly.
Nurse Kim looked away, clenching her teeth. "Staffing issues." she said simply.
Roy had a feeling she was lying o him, but he didn't push it.
"Right. And Ed asked me if I had any food when I came in. Said even after breakfast and lunch he was still hungry."
Nurse Kim frowned. "Are you accusing me of depriving a child? All our meals are approved by a nutritionist, this is beyond petty..."
"Ah, of course. How ridiculous of me." Roy said simply. "Mind asking them if Ed's getting enough to eat, then? Since I forgot- your pediatric unit is only designed for people without automail. Edward is half metal, and his appetite is legendary in the military. What was it you told me yesterday? If my alchemist hurts your staff, you'll hold me accountable? Well the same runs true for you, Nurse Kim-" Roy gave her a charming smile as she clenched her jaw at him.
"You hurt my alchemist, I'll be holding you accountable. Afterall, he's just a child." Roy smirked- he was being an absolute ass and he knew it, gathering up the finger-painting and turning ducking out of the room and leaving he office. He could feel nurse Kim staring holes in his back.
He headed back to Ed's room. That meeting had sucked up half an hour of time.
"Hey- I talked to Nurse Kim, we sorted out a few of the issues. I'll make sure it's settled when I come back tonight. You've lost your finger-painting privledges." he smirked, holding up the offending articles. "But I think you'll survive just fine without them."
"Yeah." Ed smiled slightly. "It's not just me she picks on- that girl, the one form the basement- they got into a screaming match because she was trying to tell her she couldn't see... what she sees." Ed said, dancing around the words. She can see dead people.
Roy frowned. "Keep an eye on it and keep your head down. I have to go- I'll be back after work. And I'll bring you food incase they haven't sorted out the food issue by then. What do you want?"
Ed blinked. "A couple burgers would be great."
"You got it. See you later, kid."
"See you. Thanks for sorting this whole mess out."
Roy waved to the kid an was gone.
"Sir- you have work to do."
"I know, I will in a minute, Lieutenant." Roy was currently fighting with a roll of scotch tape. The tape was winning.
Hawkeye rolled her eyes. "May I assist you, Sir?"
"Yeah. I need four pieces." Roy untangled himself from the mess of tape, pulling a piece of paper off his desk and taking the offered tape, carefully hanging the drawing on his desk.
"Is that... is that one of the transmutation circles Ed got in trouble for painting today?" Hawkeye asked, blinking at the realization.
"Yeah. Hard to believe the kid did it all from memory, sometimes I forget how bright he is." Roy admitted, smiling at the paper. "He didn't miss a stroke. He even drw the little salamander in the emblem. And look- he even put glitter in it, see?"
Hawkeye blinked. "It's nice." she agreed. She noticed the other two finger painting still sitting on Roy's desk. "What are you going to do with those" she asked.
Roy blinked. "I'm not sure yet. Why do you ask?"
"It would be a shame to let good artwork go to waste..."
"You can hang them on your desk if you want."
Hawkeye nodded, and Roy watched her quietly tape one of Ed's circles onto the side of her desk as well, carefully placing the other in her top drawer.
They quietly went about their work for the day.
A little Papa-Roy and Mama Hawk for your soul! did you like it? Please review!