It was crystal clear in his mind's eye, like a photograph captured and frozen in time.
Glass shards suspended in the air, glittering gold and silver in the early evening sun.
Mustang, swallowed by fur and rage, and far more animal than human, falling through space, a breath away from plummeting to the earth.
Mustang's eyes, yellow and afraid.
"Colonel!"
Alphonse's scream brought him back to the present. Ed clambered off the floor, running to Al's side. "What is he doing?!"
"I don't know!" Alphonse was already climbing over the windowsill, the remaining glass crunching under his gauntlets.
Ed didn't wait to watch him make a jump that would have shattered his own bones. He turned and ran out of the bedroom, almost tumbling down the stairs before flying out the back door.
He wasn't sure what had possessed him to check on Mustang instead of sleeping like Al had suggested, but maybe if he'd done what he was supposed to, Mustang would still be sleeping peacefully and wouldn't have jumped out the window.
He replayed the conversation in his head over and over again. What went wrong? Why didn't he remember? What was physically wrong with him was obvious, but what else was wrong with him?
All of his questions would have to wait though, because if they didn't find Mustang, they wouldn't matter.
He saw Al first, the sun glaring off of his dented armor as he crouched underneath a thick hedge of roses in the far corner of Mustang's yard. Ed's flesh leg almost buckled in relief at the sight. So he hadn't left the property.
"Colonel, you have to come out of there," Al said, voice pitched low and patient, but Ed knew his baby brother better than he knew himself. He could hear the anxiety strung through his voice like pearls on a necklace.
He didn't spare Ed a glance when he arrived, head half-buried in the bushes. Ed leaned down to take a look for himself.
A sound, almost a growl, rattled from the darkest corner.
"Mustang?" It was difficult to see anything in the shadows and thorned branches, but the burning yellow eyes staring back at him were distinct enough.
Those were not Mustang's eyes.
They weren't dealing with the Colonel anymore.
This didn't make any sense. The only other human chimera Ed had come into contact with was stuck with a painful, twisted body at all times. What was it that triggered the animal? Why was he human one moment and the next this? How was Mustang able to change between forms?
And what would make him change back?
"Colonel, get out here," he snapped, pushing as much bravado as he knew how into the command. "Or I'll come in there and drag you out."
Leaves shuffled, a few white petals falling loose beside Ed's head, but Mustang didn't come out.
He swallowed. "Fine. I'm coming in after you."
"Brother . . ."
Ed shrugged off his black jacket. "No choice, Al. If he runs off and someone sees him, we're screwed."
"What if he . . . attacks you?"
"He won't."
Ed wished he sounded more convincing.
Under normal circumstances, he would have transmuted the thorny mess out of his way, but he didn't want to risk the Colonel bolting, so without another word, Ed dropped to his belly and slid beneath the first few branches.
He lost sight of Mustang almost immediately, dragging himself around a barbed stem to avoid having his skin scraped off like peeled paint.
The earthy smell of loam and sweet roses were not enough to disguise the very animal scent permeating the hedge. Curved spines clawed at his clothes and hair, squeaking across his automail hand as he pushed the brambles away. A thorn scraped his hip, another his shoulder. He hissed, but kept pushing forward until he reached where he thought Mustang was.
But in the twisted limbs and dotted sunlight, he couldn't make out dark fur or yellow eyes.
With a low curse, Ed turned—
-and almost ran into a dark shoulder.
Ed swallowed back an undignified squeak.
"Hey . . ."
Mustang didn't react. Ed was at a terrible angle. the Colonel was curled away from him, chest heaving up and down, his breathing whistled and labored. Now that Ed was closer, he could see blood smeared and beaded against fur, either from previous wounds torn open or new ones from the glass during his last stunt.
"Mustang, you can't stay here. We have to go back inside."
"No."
The voice was deep and mangled, laced with pain and muffled by teeth, nothing that Ed would have ever associated with Roy Mustang.
Just a few weeks ago, things were normal. Mustang was just a cocky, self-absorbed idiot, making short jokes at Ed's expense before pulling him aside with his next mission and orders to be careful.
Why was this happening?
"You can't just stay out here under the bushes," he said, hoping to appeal to reason. "Let's go inside. You've gotta be starving. We'll make some dinner . . ."
Mustang whined, low and aching and inhuman.
Ed hated that sound.
A little girl's voice, trilling, whining.
"Ed . . .ward."
A little girl, a chimera, body broken and spattered on an alley wall.
"I told you to stop making that sound," Ed snarled, voice sharpened to an edge. "Get out before I drag you out!"
Mustang turned, and Ed was reminded of just how big he was. His head was easily the size of a bear's, and the way his lips curled showed off a glistening row of teeth that could probably make quick work of Ed's spine."Leave."
"Not on your life, old man," Ed bit back, swallowing the tremor in his voice. "We're going inside, and you're coming with us. Hughes will be here in a couple of hours, and if he finds out you left, he's going to kill me."
Mustang's pointed ears swiveled forward, the fur on his neck rising.
"Not literally," Ed corrected hastily. "You know Hughes. He wouldn't hurt me."
Mustang did not look like he knew Hughes, his yellow eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he offered no further argument. Instead, he started crawling, shuffling away from Ed.
Not a chance.
Ed grabbed Mustang's leg.
Mustang turned and sank his teeth into Ed's shoulder.
XxXxX
It was only a warning bite, like one a mother would give her young when they played too rough.
Just a warning.
Insignificant.
Normal.
What wasn't normal was having his jaws wrapped around the crook of Ed's neck.
Alphonse's shout sounded too far away, muffled almost beyond recognition. Ed cried out, trying to yank himself away, but the boy was locked securely in place. Roy's teeth were trapped between automail and flesh.
He was biting Ed.
He was biting Ed.
Roy dropped him and scrambled back, thorns tangling his fur.
Ed stared with wide eyes, his automail hand clamped around his shoulder.
Roy wanted to apologize, to plead, but there was no taking that back.
A clap, and the leafy canopy overhead disappeared to reveal burning soul-fire eyes.
"Leave him alone!"
Panic whipped his heart into a frenzy and muddled his mind. His chest ached, his breath catching as the suit of armor came for him.
Run.
He had to get back to the lab. It was too dangerous here for his pups.
Kids.
"Colonel, don't do it!"
Roy had already launched himself at the fence, claws raking through cedar planks as he scrambled from the yard.
He had made it to the top when a huge hand locked around his leg, pulling hard. Wood peeled under Roy's claws and he snarled, kicking to dislodge Al's hold, but the pup didn't yield and Roy fell hard back to the earth. Alphonse said something, but Roy was past making sense of speech.
Roy twisted around, trying to break free, but only ended up on the ground with his teeth wedged into the joints of a metal boot and his leg still suspended in the air by Al's grip.
He just had to leave. Why wouldn't they understand?
If he didn't leave, they would hurt his pups.
The thought was intolerable.
A heavy weight settled on his side. He released Alphonse, turning to rip it off when something metallic clamped around his jaws.
XxXxX
"Stop it!"
To Ed's surprise—and relief—Mustang listened, pausing in his thrashing to glare at Ed, yellow eyes burning with enough rage to set someone on fire.
There, in the sudden stillness, the yellow seemed to darken, fur shortening, the muzzle seeming to shrink just a bit under his automail hand.
He got an idea.
Ed shifted his guard to put his weight on his flesh arm and automail leg, his other leg hooked behind Mustang to keep him from weaseling out of his grasp. "Can you understand me?"
No answer, but Ed wasn't sure if it was because Mustang was too far gone or because Ed still had his jaw clamped shut. Ed wasn't willing to release him though and risk . . . well, he could still feel teeth in his shoulder.
But that was something to process later.
Yeah, one day he'd get therapy.
"You have to calm down."
Mustang's lips curled under Ed's hand, so Ed gave his whole face a small shake.
"Calm. Down." Ed hissed. "Just breathe, you oversized fleabag." He wasn't cut out for this kind of thing. Usually people were telling him to calm down. To be on this end of the suggestion was off-putting. What if Mustang decided to ignore his advice and tear his arm off instead?
And there was no doubt in Ed's mind that Mustang could do it, too.
"Are you breathing?" he demanded.
Mustang made a growling sound that wasn't convincing. Ed would give him the benefit of the doubt though, because his flesh arm was shaking so hard he might collapse if he didn't let go soon.
It happened too slowly, but he changed again.
The fur receded, the bones shifted, muscle reshaping accordingly beneath his skin. His ears settled back into place shaped as they should be, the muzzle shrank until there was nothing left to grip, pale skin replacing black fur.
And his eyes . . . no longer yellow, but that cool familiar black.
Ed wasn't sure where the sudden urge to cry came from, but he swallowed it back.
If Mustang could control the transformations, he would be okay, right?
If Mustang could control it, this wasn't a big deal. It was like living with mononucleosis or severe allergies. Sure, he might have to take some time off work occasionally, but this was manageable. This didn't change who Mustang was.
Right?
Mustang's eyes found him, glittering with maybe fever and probably exhaustion. "Ed?"
The voice was rough, but it was Mustang's. Not that terrible whine or deep growl, it was just Mustang.
"Yeah?"
"Can you . . . get off?"
Ed hastily pushed himself off of his superior.
"Are you okay?"
Mustang looked at him, his face lined with pain and sweat. "Yeah . . ."
"Not convincing."
Something small, almost a smile, twisted his lip for a second before it faded. "I have to . . ."
"Not now," Al said firmly.
Mustang frowned and rolled himself to his side. His face contorted like the movement pained him to no small degree. "You don't understand . . ."
With no preamble, Alphonse gently wrapped his large gauntlets around the older man's shoulders and under his knees and lifted. It was a small comfort to have Mustang "contained," so he couldn't . . . well, Ed wasn't too keen on getting bit by his superior officer again.
Mustang made a snarling sound, shoulders hunching, teeth growing. He turned as if to escape, but Al held tight.
Ed clambered to his feet. "Calm down, Mustang!" he ordered, fully aware that yelling at someone to calm down rarely elicited the desired outcome but not sure what else to do.
Or maybe Mustang, even like this, was a lot more reasonable than Ed gave him credit for, because he stopped his struggling.
"You're bleeding again," Al admonished softly. "We'll clean it up."
"You boys need . . . to leave," Mustang said, and Ed wasn't sure, but he thought he saw the man shaking.
"Fat chance," Ed snapped.
"I'm . . . It's an order."
"I don't listen to you with a full uniform on. What makes you think I'm going to listen to you now that you're wearing half a set of pajamas?"
Having been on the receiving end many times, Ed could say with confidence that Mustang's glare was subpar. "Think I won't court martial you?"
"I'm sure the idea sounds appealing until you have to fill out the paperwork."
Mustang sagged against Al's chest plate—a position much more comfortable than it looked, Ed knew. "You don't understand."
"I bet it would do wonders for my grasp of the situation if you would explain."
"Brother," Al said with a wary glance over the fence. "We should go inside."
Al had a point. There was no telling who might be listening in on their conversation. Ed wasn't one for paranoia, but he was starting to see its benefits these days. "Right." He could chew the idiot out at the kitchen table. Besides, Hughes would be there in an hour and Mustang still didn't have a bag packed.
Mustang didn't say anything else as they trudged inside. Ed checked over the fence as subtly as he could for any signs of being watched, but Al would have spotted anything of concern faster than Ed could. He did have a bit of a height advantage by a few inches.
Once inside, Al set Mustang at the kitchen table. The older man leaned forward, putting his head in the crook of his elbow, legs pressed together like he was trying to be as small as possible.
It didn't look right on him.
"Hey . . . you okay?" Ed asked, already anticipating some insipid response.
"Fine," Mustang croaked.
Alphonse brought the medical kit, and to Ed's surprise, Mustang didn't put up a fight as they wrapped his forearms in bandages. The glass had carved deep rivulets in his skin, and the bullet hole in his side was torn open. His face also sported a few narrow scratches from the rose bushes, but he didn't let them touch those.
"Where's Hughes?" he asked.
Did he remember Hughes being in his kitchen, or had he just assumed he would be there? "He's trying to find a safe place for you to be."
Mustang scowled. "I can't be he—"
"I know, 'you can't be here!'" Ed snapped. "But you've yet to actually explain why!"
Mustang's eyes glinted yellow. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself with."
Ed spat a word his mother would have made him eat soap over. "We're already involved! Just what do you think you're protecting us from?!"
The Colonel tore his eyes away, shoulders shaking, but Ed wasn't sure if it was pain or rage or both.
"Hughes is going to tell us everything."
The smile cutting Mustang's face was cold, mocking. "He doesn't know the half of it."
"Then tell us!"
Bang!
Mustang was on his feet, lips peeled back, teeth just a little too long, nails that were more like claws cutting hard lines into the table while rage cut even sharper lines in his face.
"Shut up."
Ed glared at Mustang, even as cold fear settled in his gut.
This wasn't Mustang. Mustang would tease him, berate him, and chew him out six ways to Sunday. He would give him latrine duty, yank his privileges, and make what he knew to be empty threats.
But in these past couple of years, Ed had never actually felt threatened by Mustang.
Then again . . . Mustang had never yelled at him, not like this.
Mustang glared back, his eyes bright with fury.
Ed's shoulder ached in warning. It had seen exactly what those claws could do.
For a long beat, no one moved.
Then Mustang deflated, the proportions of his face settling into familiarity, the anger flizzling out, but he didn't look Ed in the eye.
And it didn't take the edge off of Ed's fear.
"I'm sorry."
Ed spat his new favorite word, and it came out far shakier than he would have liked.
Without another word, Ed left the room. They had packing to do, and it was hard to hide the way his automail fingers rattled together by stuffing them in his pockets.
He needed space. He needed to breathe.
Besides, two panic attacks in the same week would do his psyche no favors.
HEY GUYS LONG TIME NO SEE :DDD
What's it been, five months since this fic last updated? Seriously, I've had this chapter done for months, I have no excuse.
Well, I do have three little excuses. First, moved my parents from their hometown to mine (Lord have mercy xD); second, got a supporting role in my first musical since lockdowns (just closed, had the Best Time); and third, I have accepted a little bundle of joy into my life. That's right folks, I am the proud parent of a now 30 lb sheepadoodle puppy. Her name is Millie and we are in training to do therapy work c: You can catch a pic of her on my Tumblr with the #personal tag.
So a little busy, been a little quieter on everything as I deal with all that and work is absolutely killing me this year, but hey, can't forsake my hobbies, am I right? xD I have a decent track record of finishing my multi chaps, so though it might be a bit between updates (Lord willing not another five months :'D) I do plan to finish my fics :)
A long apology xD Anyways, please drop a comment/review if you have the time, and I'll see you next chapter C:
God Bless,
-RainFlame