So, I'm having some issues with the app and the online version of FanFiction, so I sincerely hope that this chapter turns out to look like it does here in the document manager.
Am I the only one who's unable to view stats and gets a funny-looking, unresponsive menu to the left? It also happens when I try to manage my stories, but at least it works once I press the horizontal options menu on top of the page.
Anyway, if everything is all right, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and thank you for sticking with me and this story so far.
And I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Chapter twenty
"Hello? Teacher?" Alphonse asked into the phone. They were at East HQ and Alphonse was on the phone while Hughes was given the task of giving a child-friendly explanation of what Tucker had been up to to Nina. Al didn't really know what Tucker had said, but Ed had been clinging onto Dad while Dad's hands were bleeding and Riza suspected that his right wrist was sprained as well. Dad had told him what Tucker had been planning and Al was absolutely horrified. Him and Nina had become very close friends during these last few days. He was just glad that Ed hadn't trusted Tucker.
So now Alphonse was standing here, trying to find a good solution to their problem: keeping Nina out of an orphanage. And so Al had thought about Teacher and Sig, and what she had told him about her failed transmutation to bring back her child. Al had stayed true to his word and hadn't said anything to anyone about it, but right now, it would be so great if Teacher and Sig would consider taking Nina in.
"Alphonse? What is it?" Teacher asked.
"It's hard to explain, Teacher, but you know what you told me when we were there? Well, there's this girl, Nina. She's four. Her … her father was going to make her into a ch-chimera just so that he could pass his assessment. He already used his wife two years ago to create a talking chimera. Nina doesn't have any other family to go to."
"You want us to adopt her?" Teacher's voice was both soft, surprised and as always, strict.
"I know it's a lot to ask, but she's really sweet. I couldn't think of anyone else and I don't want her to go to an orphanage. She still loves her father and she needs someone who doesn't have to care about twenty others at the same time. Would you please just consider it? I-I already know how great you and Sig are with children and it would be better if she went to someone who knew about what alchemy can do. Please, I don't know what to do otherwise."
"Alphonse, you know how much you're asking of us, right?"
"I do, I'm sorry, it's just that I've been playing with her for the last five days and I care a lot about her and if she went to you then we could keep in touch with her. And I know that you and Sig would be great to her. What Tucker was about to do to her … it reminds me of what happened to Brother. She needs a parent just as much as he does, we can't just put her in an orphanage."
"I don't know, Alphonse."
"Teacher, I know you may feel like you failed your child, but maybe Nina would be a way to make things right? She was wronged by alchemy, you are the only one I know that can actually make her see how alchemy should be used because you have the proper respect. Dad is already too busy with Ed, he can't take in another one."
"Al, give me a few minutes, okay?"
"Of course."
Al stood there, waiting for at least five minutes.
"Okay, Al, we'll come to meet her. I'm not saying that we're taking her in, but we'll meet her. Where are you staying right now?"
"We're at East HQ. Thank you, Teacher."
"I'll see you in a few days. Goodbye, Alphonse."
"Goodbye, Teacher."
Al hung up the phone, knowing that Nina would be in good hands. Teacher and Sig were going to take her in, he just knew it.
Then he realised that he had forgotten to tell them about Alexander.
Ed was walking next to Daddy, his hand in his. They were laughing, although Ed couldn't remember about what. It was still great though. Then the sunny street they were walking on turned dark and the pavement underneath them was cracked and full of grass. Ed didn't like this, it didn't feel right. He looked up at Daddy to tell him that they should turn around, but Daddy was crackling with red energy and then he was looking like the old Ed. Ed screamed and moved to run away, but a gloved hand was still gripping his right one. "You're not going anywhere, Crybaby."
Ed screamed again. "DADDY! DADDY! HELP!"
The old Ed just picked him up and carried him on his shoulder. Ed was crying, screaming, trying to get someone to help. "Ah, shut up, will you? I'm just taking you to your Daddy, you know."
"No! You're bad and I know it! Let me go! PLEASE!"
The old Ed just laughed. Suddenly they were walking through the front doors of Tucker's house and Ed was carried into the dining room. The old Ed dumped him into a chair, but despite Ed's struggles, he managed to tie his wrists to the chair. Then suddenly Ed was sitting there in only his boxers. He was terrified, panicking.
Then he saw Tucker lying there on the floor, bleeding, but somehow getting to his feet and walking towards Ed.
"See, I told you I'd take you to Daddy," the old Ed said, grinning.
"HE'S NOT MY DADDY! MY DADDY IS ISN'T A MONSTER!"
"Oh? But he's just like me, I told you so," Tucker said.
"HE ISN'T!"
Then suddenly Ed felt a pair of hands on his shoulders and Ed turned his head, looking up at Lillian and Grant. "Oh, come on now, my son, you know he is a monster. You shouldn't lie, Edward. Liars are bad boys and bad boys need to be punished," Lillian said, pulling out a needle.
Ed shrieked, struggling against his ropes, but unable to get away. There was some crackling and the old Ed turned into the Roy-thing again and strode forwards, placing a cold hand on his shoulder. So cold that it hurt. "I'm a monster, Ed, and you know it." Then he pushed Ed forwards and Ed could feel the needle being pushed into his back and the hurting that came from the contents being injected into his body.
And Ed was screaming and screaming and screaming.
"EDWARD!"
Ed opened his eyes. Daddy was looking at him, the lamp on the nightstand was on. Ed was sitting, as was Daddy. Ed sniffed. "Daddy?" he said, choking on his tears.
"Edward, it was just a nightmare." Then he kissed his forehead and hugged him tightly as Ed began sobbing.
"I-it was that th-thing from Dublith and Lillian and Grant and Tucker! They t-tied me up and said you were a m-monster! But I told them you're not and Lillian called me a b-bad boy and she pulled out a n-needle! A-and the thing made itself look like y-you and it said you are a monster and pu-pushed my head down and then Lillian stuck the needle into my ba-ack!" Ed wailed. Daddy had said that it helped to talk about nightmares, and he was right, but what Tucker had said had frightened Ed. He hadn't had a nightmare that vivid for days now.
Daddy just held him, his hands so warm and safe and so unlike the Roy-thing's. The support bandage on his right wrist was digging slightly into his back. "It's alright, Ed, it's alright. No one is ever going to do that to you again. Not as long as I'm here. You're safe. You're safe."
Ed kept sobbing until his fright was gone in the warm hug. He knew that Daddy wasn't a monster. He just wasn't. Daddy was a nice man that was haunted by the bad things that he had been ordered to do.
"Do you think you can sleep again?"
"No." Ed looked at Daddy's undershirt. It was covered in tears and snot. "You need to wash that." Ed sniffed, noticing that he had some snot that had been smeared across his cheek.
Daddy looked down at it and took a clean corner and dried Ed's face before he threw it off and hugged him again. "Right, is that better?"
"Mhm."
Ed just clung to Daddy. Clung to his safety and warmth. Clung to his smell. It smelled like always being protected. To be cared for. It smelled like his Daddy and it was the one thing that the Roy-thing couldn't replicate.
Ed didn't know how long he sat there before Daddy spoke again. "How about we make you some cocoa?"
Ed lit up, nodding into his chest.
Roy slid off the bed, figuring that it wasn't exactly a good idea to let go of Ed judging by his reaction to his nightmare, he just walked downstairs with him in only his pyjama bottoms. They hadn't been able to take Nina in till the Curtises arrived because of Alexander's habit of jumping on Ed which left the boy extremely nervous. Al had therefore volunteered to join Nina where she was staying at the hotel with Hughes. Hughes' superdad powers seemed to do the trick for Nina thankfully, so she wasn't a sobbing mess although she was thoroughly distraught. This left the house feeling a bit empty, seeing as how it suddenly didn't feel right with the lack of clanking.
Roy looked at the clock on the kitchen wall; it said a quarter past one. He sighed inwardly. He was honestly still amazed at the fact that Ed was still hanging around his neck, hugging him. It can't be easy, having a father that has killed thousands of people. Yet Ed still loved him. He actually wanted to take his name. Roy was honoured, yet he was afraid that it might mark the boy in a way.
"Ed? Are you still sure that you want to take my name?"
"Yes, Daddy. And I already made you call the Führer to have it changed, and there's no way that I'm taking it back."
"But still, Ed … You know that there are people that won't like you because of that name?"
"I don't care. I am your son and I want everyone to know that. I belong to you, Daddy, and that's important to me."
Roy really couldn't figure out his boy, but, oh, how he loved him. He hugged him as tightly as he dared, kissing his cheek. To have someone as pure and as innocent as Ed wanting to take his name, it meant the world to him. That all of this could happen in just three weeks still left Roy kind of breathless, but he wouldn't have it any other way.
Roy made the cocoa, Ed clinging to him the whole time, complicating the task, but not hindering it entirely from being performed. It was an odd thing, having this cuddly little boy hanging around his neck as he made cocoa in the middle of the night. It wasn't exactly what he was used to. He wasn't really that tired either. The fright that Ed had given him as he wouldn't wake up from his nightmare and was repeatedly screaming didn't exactly calm Roy down. And Ed had been screaming for him as if his life depended on it. Those shrieks still had Roy on full alert. It had been about two weeks since the last time Ed had been screaming in his sleep. What Tucker had said obviously affected Ed quite badly, although, judging from his dream, not in the way Roy had expected. He had been punished for protecting Roy, instead of Roy being the bad guy.
Roy poured some of the contents of the pot into two mugs and carried them over to the kitchen table and sat down, Ed still clinging to his neck. His wrist hurt, but it wasn't that bad. He'd had worse.
Roy wasn't really a big cocoa drinker, and he certainly wouldn't make it just for himself, but he couldn't deny that the sweet beverage tasted good. He could of course start drinking his long before Ed could, he was used to drinking about five cups of coffee each day. Ed, on the other hand, would probably scald himself, so he was sitting there, puffing into his mug in order to cool it down.
"Daddy? Why do you stay in the military?"
Roy put down his mug and sighed. He had expected the question to come at some point or other, and he had decided to answer it truthfully. Ed was his son and deserved an answer.
"Because at the end of the Ishbalan war of Extermination, I made myself a promise. I am going to become the Führer of this country and change it. I will give the power back to the parliament and make this country a democracy and I will return their holy land to the remaining Ishbalans." What Roy couldn't tell Ed was his plans to put the people that were praised as war heroes to trial as war criminals. He wasn't going to give Ed any more nightmares. He just couldn't do that to him. He knew that the day that Ed found out, he would be furious with him, but Roy would take it when the time came. He just wasn't going to let his son live in fear of losing his Daddy for years, maybe decades.
He just couldn't help but feel cruel though.
"I see, Daddy. That's good. You see, a monster wouldn't think like that. You are a good man, just like I told you." Ed said and hugged him tightly. "The best Daddy I'll ever have."
Roy squeezed his arms around him and kissed the top of his head. "Thank you, Ed, you and Al are the best sons in the world."
