'God, Mustang, why do you have so much stuff,' Edward said. His arms were full of two boxes teetering above his head. He grunted as he dropped them into the living room after bringing them from upstairs. Placing his hands on his lower back, he stretched and his spine made some worrying crunching sounds.

'Most people do not have three shirts and one sock in all to their name, Edward,' Roy said, taping shut a different box and labelling it Kitchen. 'It may be new to you, but people often have possessions that they hold dear.'

'Sir, you had three copies of the same alchemy book in two different rooms,' Alphonse said, carrying two boxes in each hand from the kitchen and on his way out the door onto the side of the road where Riza had the moving van. 'And you had twelve single socks piled on top of your washing machine. It seems like you could use some tips from Ed and me, actually.' He was out the door before Roy could think of a comeback.

Roy just huffed a laugh and shook his head, taping up another box. They were moving to central today. It would have been an exciting affair for any other household but because the only reason they were moving was due to the Fuhrer's attempt to split their forces, the event was somewhat soured by apprehension for what was awaiting them in central. Roy felt uneasy and jumpy as they reached the final stages of packing everything up and moving it to the van.

Seeing his home emptied of his belongings added a strange sort of melancholy which at once reminded him of his first time entering the house years prior, and motivated him to take on this next step with courage. He had been a different man entirely back then, hating himself and the world enough to have whiskey be the first thing in his kitchen cupboards and sheets be the last thing in his bedroom. Now, with Riza at his side and two strong boys under his name (in the legal sense, Roy reminded himself; this was all for bureaucracy and nothing more) his world had become full and purposeful in great strides faster than he had felt ready for. Luckily, with these ties in place it meant that wherever Roy went, Riza and the boys were allowed to come with him and accommodations were provided to account for the expectation of a family. It was a deep relief when Roy had realised that the Fuhrer could take all his allies and scatter them far away, but he couldn't take these ones. When his world was being encroached upon by a force beyond his reckoning and the crushing weight of a country run by a monster with rot in its veins, he would still be allowed to fall asleep next to Riza, to run errands with Alphonse, to argue over the kitchen table with Edward.

When he closed the door for the final time, leaving the key under the mat for the real-estate agent, there was a sense of finality that settled over Roy. The unknown was laid out in front of him and although he didn't have a roadmap, he knew he had Riza and his boys to find the way with him.

… his boys?

The drive to central was surprisingly quieter because Roy was reeling from the shock of that sentiment too fast to engage with Edward's goading. Edward fell asleep, Riza turned on the radio, and Roy was just staring straight out the windscreen paying no attention to the passing scenery.

The car ride on the way back from the incident with Scar was similarly quiet: fraught with tension. Roy was measuring his breathing to try and wrangle his heart rate into something more manageable. Seeing Edward and Alphonse, in pieces strewn across the paving and inches away from a gruesome death at the hands of a man hell-bent on revenge enough to kill children over it had been enough to send Roy's mind spinning with adrenaline.

The fact that both boys had in fact survived that encounter was a miracle at the hands of Riza's quick thinking and luck.

When they got back into the house, Roy had calmed down a little, but the box that Alphonse had to be carried in reminded Roy how close they were to not getting there at all.

Black Hayate trotted into the living room to join them, his tail dropping from a cheerful wag to a sombre droop when no one was excited to see him.

'Edward, sit on the couch,' he ordered, and saw that Edward was already halfway there, using his one arm to lean on the furniture as if letting go would have him falling to the ground.

Major Armstrong had accompanied them in his own car to help them move alphonse into the house. He put him down gently in front of the fireplace, and then with a salute, left the house.

Roy collapsed into the armchair. He had taken off his sodden coat at the door and now peeled off his wet ignition gloves, the memory of his failed rescue attempt still burning fiercely in his chest with shame. Riza came to stand beside him, until he moved his arm off the armrest for her to perch next to him.

It was silent in the house. Even the grandfather clock that ticked in the corner of the room was somehow muted and smothered by the heaviness that coated everything. The kitchen which was normally a hub of light and chatter was a pit of darkness beyond the door. The fireplace was cold, and the only light in the room at all came in a weak glow from the clouds outside, painting everything a grey colour that clung like cobwebs.

'Are you boys alright?' Roy said, eventually.

There was a long silence that followed, and that itself was enough of an answer. Edward kicked off his boots and flopped sideways into the couch, curling up with his one arm wrapped around his chest. He still had Riza's jacket around his shoulders.

'Brother, would you have really let him kill you?'

Edward sighed deeply, his eyes falling shut as he breathed out. 'I don't know,' he rasped. 'I was just… trying to find a way out.'

Nobody wanted Edward to elaborate on what that meant.

Riza stood and went into the boys bedroom, coming back with arms full of the two duvets from the beds. She handed one to Roy, and then shook the other one out and placed it over Edward. He was watching her every move, and in the darkness his golden eyes seemed to shine with an intensity that hinted at his soul behind them was still burning. Roy recognised that fire, and he felt something tight around his heart unfurl with the knowledge that Edward was still burning. He was still burning.

After she had distributed the blankets, Riza started up the stairs.

Alphonse was quick to stop her. 'Wait, Riza, wait where are you going?' he said, and Roy could hear the panic in the boy's voice as he asked.

Riza paused on the step, giving a small smile to Alphonse. 'I'm getting a roll-out mat for the floor. I think it would be fine if we all stayed here for the night.'

She didn't take long, and she got to work in the silence setting up a makeshift bed on the floor. She gestured for the covers Roy was still holding, and he handed them over, getting down on the floor to help her arrange the cushions from the chairs into a bed arrangement for them both. Except, it was a twin sized roll mat.

Roy could feel a bone-deep tiredness begin to settle over him. And he looked up to see Edward's eyes closed again, his mouth open slightly, asleep. He took off his uniform jacket and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, and worked to take off his military boots. Riza took off her guns and holsters from under her arm and slipped out of her trousers, getting under the covers in the shorts she wore under her uniform, leaving her clothing in a neat pile next to her head. Roy joined her, and felt for a moment a little awkward at sharing such a small space, before Riza guided his arm under her neck and she pressed her back against his stomach. It was comfortable, and warm, and Roy had to try his best not to wrap his arm around her and pull her in and bury his nose in the back of her neck.

'Will you be alright, Alphonse?' Riza asked, and Roy could feel the vibration of her voice against his chest.

'I'll be okay,' he said, sparing her a glance over the side of the wooden box. 'I'll keep an eye on brother, you two just get some sleep.'

'Wake us if you need anything, Alphonse. Please,' Riza urged, 'anything at all. Wake us.'

'You need rest, you all do.' Alphonse said, whispering as a sigh came from Edward. 'Today has been tough on you all, and I can handle a few hours to watch him.'

Roy tensed his jaw only to stop it from falling open: here was this young boy, sitting in a crate of his own shattered body, and he was urging them to sleep because they'd had it rough. If he wasn't so exhausted already, his heart would have bled for Alphonse there. He was so strong, enough to stand at the edge of a silent and lonely night after a near murder of his only brother and welcome it.

'Anything,' Riza said again, and she lay her head on Roy's arm. 'Wake us.'

'I will.'

Roy didn't sleep anyway. Between the proximity to Riza, the events of the day on loop in his mind's eye, and the periodic whimper from Edward on the couch and subsequent 'Easy, Ed, you're okay,' from Alphonse, Roy couldn't get himself to relax an inch.

The sun rose quietly, slowly, and without fanfare, and yet Roy celebrated the end of the night anyway.

Just after dawn, Roy heard Edward get up off the couch and lie down next to Alphonse's crate, and when he risked a peak over Riza's shoulder, he saw Edward curled up against it, with his forehead pressed against the wood and the covers cocooned around his body.

They had stayed like that until they collectively gave up the facade of sleep and Roy got up to bring everyone a coffee. There was a silence that was itself exhausting as much as it was exhaustion-fuelled. Every time Roy blinked his eyes burned, and the backs of his eyelids showed him automail strewn across rain-wet paving.

At some point during the night, Edward had pulled the hair tie from his braid, and his hair was loose around his shoulders in such a rare sight that Roy had to try not to stare. That was, until Edward pulled his hair over one shoulder and began attempting to braid it with his only hand. It was difficult for him, and he gave up with a curse and a fierce rub at his eyes.

'Edward, may I?' Riza said, coming down from the arm chair to sit beside him. He didn't give any confirmation aside from a slight shift to face away from her. That seemed like enough. She ran her fingers through his hair, gently working out any knots. She angled Edward's head down so she could separate and plait his hair more easily. Roy could tell she was taking her time, each pass of the plait she pulled her fingers through the separated parts again and again, and then finally tied it with the hair tie she slipped off of Edward's wrist: he had fallen asleep under her ministrations. With one hand on the back of his head, another on his shoulder, she lowered him back to lie in her lap. There, she let him sleep, carding her fingers through his fringe whenever he'd stir.

And so went the next few months, turning into a year and further as the stakes of their knowledge grew and became deadlier. The boys would disappear and come back one day battered and broken and always with another horrifying message. Roy and Riza, for their part, were using their time to hold as much as their could in their court, but with each passing day they felt closed in, cut off, and it was all they could do to to get through coded conversations and barely concealed threats from above without letting fear paralyse them.

Hughes was murdered, and Roy had crumbled and crumpled and crumbled. He felt suffocated with it, and even as Riza held him all night long, he felt that darkness creep closer and closer until he had nothing left. This, and other moments when these evils seemed so much bigger than the two of them and their boys, seemed insurmountable. But Hughes' death reminded them that they couldn't let that stop them.

On one rare night of peace, Roy and Riza were enjoying a quiet night in the living room, Roy had lit the fire a few hours prior and it had cooled a bit since then. The crackling and bursting of the logs and the heavy rain outside were the only things to break the silence as the pair read in companionship. In the bookshelves and the long shadows in the room danced in the crackling light of the fire, and the two of them leant into the glow of a small lamp.

Then came a knock on the door. It was well past 10PM, and so when Roy stood to answer it, he was wary of who would be visiting so late. The anxiety that had become a constant thrum in his chest spiked at the fear of who could be at their door, any number of monsters lurking throughout this country and keeping tabs on him and Riza through shadows and whispers.

'The boys?' Riza said, twisting to look over the back of the couch at the door.

'Probably,' Roy said, considering the likelihood of that suggestion. It was the most probable answer, but probability hadn't been something to rely on in the last few years. He clutched the ignition glove in his trouser pocket.

Roy opened the door, and was greeted by the hulking form of Alphonse in the doorway. He was hunched slightly, his hands behind his back.

'Hi, Sir,' Alphonse said, though it was somewhat drowned out by the sound of the rain hitting his armour. 'May I come in? I've got Ed with me.'

It was only then that Roy spotted a shock of a red hood peaking over Alphonse's shoulder.

Roy stepped aside quickly, and Alphonse strode in. Riza had stood when she overheard the exchange at the door.

'Come, Alphonse, put Edward down on the couch so he can warm up near the fire. Roy, would you go get some towels to lay under him?'

Roy quickly grabbed some towels from the bathroom so that Alphonse didn't have to hold Edward for much longer, and laid them out over the upholstery. The two adults helped Alphonse lower Edward onto the couch.

'What happened?' Riza asked, keeping her voice low. She knelt next to the couch and removed the hood from Edward's head, probing gently for any head wounds. She found none, and her ministrations prompted Edward to stir and wake. In the low light, his golden eyes seemed to glow as they met hers.

'Hi Riza,' he said, rasping slightly. A forceful shiver ran up his body and he seized for a moment before relaxing back into the couch.

'We should get him out of that coat,' Roy said, joining at Riza's side after putting another log in the fire.

''S fine,' Edward said, 'I can do it.' Riza made a sound of disapproval as Edward pushed himself up into a sitting position and tried to shrug off his coat.

Roy took a moment to check Alphonse too, finding no damage to his armour apart from a few deep gashes and some easily fixable scrapes. He was relieved. One of them was alright, at least.

The red coat was dumped on the floor. Edward's automail was in bad shape, the front plate missing and it was wrapped in some sort of cloth to keep the wiring and mechanics inside its casing.

'Edward, are you hurt?' Roy asked.

Edward shook his head. 'Not really, not more than usual I don't think. I just ran out of steam for a second there I think,' he looked at Alphonse, 'sorry, Al, if I scared you.'

'What happened?' Roy said, beginning to get a headache at the lack of clarity the boys were bringing. 'Edward, have you broken your arm again?'

'No,' Edward said, lifting his arm to show that it still worked, albeit jolty. 'It's fine.'

'We met some interesting people,' Alphonse said.

'Okay, and? You two seem to have your own gravitational field for 'interesting' people,' Roy prodded.

'These ones were from Xing,' Edward said. 'And they were annoying as all hell, assassins or something, they really didn't pull any punches.' He placed a hand on his stomach and groaned, flopping back onto the couch. 'I'm getting too old for all this fighting,' he moaned.

'Edward, you're sixteen,' Roy pointed out. 'You're not old, you just don't take care of yourself enough to recover properly from "all these fights". I'm surprised you even got it this far considering the damage you've taken all this time,' and suddenly, Roy remembered those first nights: many children don't make it to adulthood.

'I may not be ancient like you,' Edward said, 'but yeah you're probably right. Man, I'm so tired…' He closed his eyes and sighed. 'We'll go down to Winry tomorrow, I just needed to check you guys are keeping up. We're heading north next, to Briggs. What are your next moves?'

'We're staying here, we have an idea that one of the military's labs has some sort of hideout for these freaks, the homunculi. We're doing a raid with Havoc tomorrow.' Riza said. She had sat back on her heels now that Edward seemed to be okay.

'I'll go with you, then,' Alphonse said, 'Brother can go and get his arm fixed and meet us back here, but I'd like to be there… just in case.'

'Al…' Edward warned. 'I don't like splitting up like that, things are getting dicey.'

'Don't worry so much, Ed. It'll give you grey hairs,' Alphonse said. 'It'll be fine.'

Edward hummed uncertainly, but gave no further argument. Then, he turned to Roy. 'You still have a bed for us? I'm exhausted.'

Roy could only assume his confusion was plastered all over his face; he gave no effort to hide it. 'Yes, Edward, you have a bed here. This is where you live.' Why did Edward ask that? Surely he hadn't expected Roy and Riza to have forgotten that Edward and Alphonse also lived here just because they were gone for a while. How many beds had Edward and Alphonse tried to return to only to find them gone…?

'If you think Roy and I have nothing better to do than re-arrange furniture here then you'll be sorely mistaken. Go to bed, Edward. We'll see you in the morning.'

The next day, Edward got home from Rush Valley and found that the raid on the lab had in fact gone horribly. Roy was not in the best state of mind, but he heard Edward enter the house, probably finding the living room empty, and when he called, Alphonse replied from where they were. Edward took the stairs two at a time and burst into Roy and Riza's room. From Roy's perspective on his bed, Edward might have for a moment looked scared, but the burning pain that was pulsing from his torso may have distorted that in his mind.

'What happened?' Edward said, stepping up to the bed. 'You bastard, what did you do?! What happened?!'

'Roy was stabbed by that Lust thing, but he cauterised it himself. It's a patch job at best, but we're trying to figure out if it will hold,' Riza said.

Roy was understanding just what a bad idea this whole thing had been. Having seen the fear in Riza's face, not at all subtle or unreadable now but open, despairing without pretense as she had assumed the worst, had put the pain of his injury out of his mind for a while. It was back now, and lashing out viciously up his side, his back, across his stomach, choking him. He had been trying to make it seem better than it was, trying to swallow the cries it tried to coax from him, but he was tired now, and he shoved the sleeve of his jacked into his mouth.

'What do we need to do?' Edward asked, and damn the kid sounded unsure. He so rarely sounded unsure.

'We don't know,' Riza said. 'It's a deep burn, all the way through. The scar tissue will likely cause damage later, but I think all we can do is manage it the best we can. We need to wrap it to try and stop infection setting in, but we got home just before you Edward. There are bandages in the bathroom, go get them. Alphonse, go and boil a kettle and then let it cool down. We'll need to clean it before we wrap it.'

The boys left, and Roy was left looking into her eyes, deep and endless and concerned.

'You stupid boy,' she said to him softly, and her hand came down on his hair- damp with sweat and covered in ash- and she started pulling her fingers through it. He would have loved to pull the sleeve from between his teeth and be offended, but that risked too much else tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop it. He was getting dizzy now, and he didn't want to let it ruin everything. 'You stupid, stupid boy. Edward! The aspirin too, please!' she called. 'Try and rest, Roy. I know it hurts but try and rest.' He hadn't realised his other hand had been sneaking towards his wound until she had grabbed his hand and held it away.

He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back.

The boys came back and Roy passed out sometime after that.

When he came back around, it was to the low mumbling conversation drifting quietly around him.

'We can't stay here, it's dangerous to be sitting still for so long,' that was Edward's voice, and anxiety had made the words sharp, like a hiss more than anything.

'Brother, we can't just leave, not when he's still down. We should wait…' Alphonse said, and a sinking feeling came over Roy as he realised that they were talking about him.

'I know there are pressing things for you to be doing, Edward, but I agree with Alphonse. Right now, we have strength in numbers and if things get too close I'm confident we could handle them together. Splitting up so soon…. I'm not so sure.' Riza was close to Roy, and as he forced his eyes open, there she was sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. She was still holding his hand. His whole body was sort of floating, and he was afraid to move in case it triggered a rush of pain all over again.

In his musings he hadn't noticed the lull in the conversation, and he looked up to see all three of them looking at him, and it made him rather intensely uncomfortable.

'How do you feel, Roy?' Riza said.

'Fine, I feel fine,' he said, and he tried to sit up. There was a big hand on his chest then that pushed him back down.

'The morphine must be working,' Alphonse said, 'but you're still hurt. Please don't move around too much, Roy. It might make it worse.'

'When did you give me morphine?' He asked, allowing himself to be guided back to the pillows.

'About two hours ago, Roy. You were in a lot of pain and Alphonse ran out to get some from the chemist. You don't remember?'

'No I… I don't. The last thing I remember was Edward coming home. How long have I been sleeping?'

'You passed out about six hours ago, it's nearly dawn now. Scared the hell out of us when you just collapsed. That wound is bad, Mustang. Are you sure you're feeling okay?' Edward said, and he came to stand on the other side of the bed. He had a deep frown on his face as he looked at Roy's stomach, covered in bandages. Roy noticed that Edward had his arms crossed, but he was squeezing himself hard enough for his automail to creak, and his flesh fingers to be white with pressure.

It seemed disproportionate for the situation, and Roy's mind was like treacle muddling through a reaction like that from someone who regularly put themselves directly in harm's way and no doubt had an incredible amount of stress to work through every day.

Alphonse, too, seemed riddled with anxiety, hunched in a chair a little big away from the bed and wringing his hands.

Then, slowly, Roy pieced it together. When the Elrics had been smaller, their mother had wasted away on a bed until there was nothing left of her. He knew from anecdotes about how their teacher, plagued by a disability so harrowing to have sheets covered in blood, would have meant the boys watched her body deteriorate from her bedside too. Here, again, was someone who… who they live with in the same position. They were living it again.

'I'm not going to die,' was the first thing that Roy could think to say. 'That's the rule, we don't die, remember?'

'No one said you were dying, asshole,' Edward snapped. After a moment, his arms came down from that tense posture, and he flexed his fingers. 'But if you're so hellbent on following that rule, hurry up and get better. We need to move.'

'Fine with me,' Roy said, and began to sit up again. He didn't want to be in this bed anymore, sulking and feeling sorry for himself when there were bigger things that were more important happening outside of his door. The looks that the boys were giving him may have also contributed to his drive to be anywhere but here: he couldn't stand seeing any more fear in those eyes. This time, no one stopped him, but Riza placed a steadying hand on his shoulder as he maneuvered himself into an upright position. He felt his skin pulling tight over his abdomen, but the pain that should have halted in his tracks and had him seeing spots before was just a dull ache. 'What the hell did you give me?' He said, placing a hand on where the bandages were packed thick, not feeling anything.

'It was the strongest I could get with Edward's pocket watch,' Alphonse admitted. 'I wasn't sure if it would work…'

'It worked all right,' Roy said. 'How much do we have left?'

'Only one sheet, I think about 8 more tablets.'

'That'll have to be enough, then. Let's move,' Roy said, standing with some help from Riza.

'I want to go by the Hughes',' Edward said and Roy's heart plummeted. 'He was looking into the laboratory, I want to know what he knew.'

Roy couldn't speak, he couldn't even look at Edward. His chest burned, anew, the shallow healing he'd managed to patch himself with enough to stand again torn right off. Maes' absence where Roy had held him so close to his chest like a gaping hole and he had to sit again, trying to scrub the hurt out of his mind as a needle pushed his way into his throat.

'What… what's wrong?' Edward said, barely above a whisper.

'The Lieutenant Colonel- Maes died, Edward,' Riza said. 'While you were in Rush Valley, he was murdered trying to get some information to Roy.' She stopped, and she placed her hand on the back of Roy's neck.

'Wh- what?' Edward stammered, and Roy heard Alphonse get to his feet, the chair he had been sitting on screeching across the floor. 'He's… gone?' Edward's voice cracked in the middle, and he didn't say anything more. Over the rushing in Roy's own ears, he turned to look at Edward, tried to convey without risking opening his mouth how sorry he was. He met Edward's eyes, and caught the exact moment it sunk in. Edward stumbled back, hitting the wall and sank to the floor.

Edward took a sharp, shaking breath in, and Roy could see in slow motion his own hurt explode inside of Edward as the boy took his head in his hands and screamed.

'No…' Alphonse wailed when Edward had pushed his fist between his teeth, his eyes far, far away. 'It's because of us, it's our fault again!' And Roy, who couldn't take his eyes off Edward, saw him flinch so hard he broke the skin on his hand, and the blood dribbled down to stain his sleeve.

Ah, Roy thought as the ache in his chest became something acidic and sharp, one more person has left them behind.

Riza's hand on his neck anchored him, kept him from spiralling too far, and kept him focussed on Edward. Roy wanted to pull him away from that wall and hold him tight to ease the shaking and hush away his sobs, but he wasn't brave enough to cross that line. He wasn't someone who could be that for Edward, and he saw that confirmed when Alphonse dropped to his knees next to Edward pulled his fist from his mouth. Roy was useless, again.

They waited until the boys had packed that new hurt away somewhere they couldn't see it, until Roy could breathe again and Edward wiped the blood from his hand and mouth, and then they were moving. They had to keep moving, Roy figured as the edges of pain started to resurface from his wound, because if they didn't, they'd drown.

By the end of that day, Roy had finished all of the morphine pills and his wound was making it difficult to stand, or think straight.

Edward had thrown him into the backseat of that car and Roy was convinced that if he hadn't already torn open that wound from this whole encounter, that had definitely done it. Not even the adrenaline of facing such monsters was enough to keep the pain away, and it hurt. He couldn't leave them, though, he couldn't just let them fight those things on their own- they were just kids. When he looked at them, he saw all those nights of crying or screaming awake from nightmares, all those days learning and dreaming and smiling that he had spent with them as they've grown. But they were still kids.

But they were right. He was useless while he was injured like this. God, he hated being useless. Riza handed Edward her gun, and he knew she was just as scared for them as he was. She couldn't let them go, so she was giving them her protection. He couldn't even do that. As he had watched Edward and Alphonse run back into those woods full of danger, he saw the gun tucked into the belt of Edward's trousers, and for the first time in his life he prayed to whatever was out there that it would be enough to bring them home to him.