Help

o.o

Winry ran into the Central office. The message she had received from The 2nd Lieutenant sounded rushed and urgent, and she had used the word 'emergency' and 'Edward,' and she thought to have heard the word, 'automail.' She rushed in, knowing that these three words in combination could NOT be good.

Earlier, in the hallways of Central, Roy rushed around to try to find a person to help him with the young boy that was sleeping in his office. Thinking over this thought, he realized that it should never be said aloud, as it would probably lead to him going to jail. Spotting the office that he was looking for, the golden plate had a name etched into it, "Maes Hughes."

Knowing that Maes was what Mustang called, "An idiot obsessed with the child that spewed all over his paperwork the first time he had met her and the wife who created the devil child," he knew that he would have no problem with the child who had appeared in Edward's apartment, him being an investigator for the military was just a handy side fact.

Opening the door without even thinking of knocking, he was met with the sight of Hughes sleeping heavily atop his desk. He groaned, yelling sharply, "MAES!"

Hughes lifted his head quickly, but upon seeing his best friend yelling at him, instead of a superior, (even though Mustang was his superior), he lay his head back down on the surface where it had been before and attempted at going back to sleep.

"No way! Get up, you lazy piece of shit!"

Keeping his head on the table with his eyes closed, he mumbled, "I see that you're in a fantastic mood today, Roy."

"Get up!" Roy screamed at the Lt. Colonel, "I need your help!"

Hughes slowly and lazily lifted his head, "What kind of help?"

"The kind that only an idiot like you could manage," Roy lowered his voice, "Now get up!"

"Fine, fine," He mumbled. He slowly pushed himself off the table and approached Roy. "But before I go, you need to tell me what the hell is going on."

Roy explained to him how he went to Edward's apartment after he had been late to his office for a report that he was supposed to give, at this point, Maes interrupted, asking why Roy hadn't spent the night at Edward's. Roy promptly smacked his friend and continued his story by telling him that he had found the young boy, who had the striking resemblance to Edward Elric, and brought him back to Central, where he lay in his office. Leaving no detail out, the story took him about thirty minutes, where, by the end of it, Maes was leaning back in his chair. After hearing it, he remained silent, possibly drinking in the impossible sounding story.

Eventually, after Maes had questioned Roy further, leaving the two distressed, Roy stood up.

"Now, after having story time, and playing 20 Questions, would you please help me?"

"Hmm… I don't know," Maes smirked, dodging an open hand heading for his face.

"Come on." Roy quickly walked from the office, hearing footsteps behind him that soon synchronized with his own.

------

When they reached Roy's office, the young boy was still sleeping, and Hawkeye had disappeared from the room. Hughes eyes strayed to the boy sleeping soundly on the couch.

"Is that him?" Hughes inquired.

Roy lazily took a seat behind his desk. "No, Maes, I like to drag random children into my office for naps."

"Well, you don't seem to mind dragging Edward—"

"Shut up," Roy groaned, but then smirked, "Besides, I don't drag Edward anywhere…"

Hughes smiled, "So, how do you know if it's him?"

"Well, I don't actually know." He glanced at the alleged-Edward, "But, he does look a lot like him,"

"Well, that doesn't mean anything, I mean, for all you know, he could be a lost sibling, or even completely unrelated. He could have seen Edward's door or window or something open and though that it was a warm place to live and slept."

"But what about Edward's being missing," Roy asked, "And the automail limbs?"

"Well, Edward, being spontaneous," Hughes answered, "May have decided to leave his house for a quick walk or something, leaving his door unlocked, and upon returning, when he found that his door was locked and shut, and he had no way of getting in, may have found an alternate living situation."

"But, surely," Roy assured his friend, "he would have called." He wasn't sure if he was assuring Hughes or not, though, rather than himself. He almost felt hurt, "Called me."

"Well, that much is unknown. Do you have any pictures of the young Elric?"

"Well," Roy went on, "I am having his automail mechanic bring them in, and also to take the automail off and possible exchange it for a smaller set."

"Won't that be painful for him?"

"Well, I am trying to think of one thing at a time, and it's usually best to leave the profession to the professionals. Miss Rockbell happens to be just that."

"Does his brother know?"

"Oh…" Roy thought, "I haven't actually spoken to the youngest Elric since he has gotten his body back, but I believe he lives in the same apartment complex as Edward."

"Well, we need to see if the same thing has happened to him, whether it was Edward being an idiot with alchemy…" he thought about that, "…again, or if it was something that involved both of them. If we have two of them, it might help us to learn more about it."

"I'll call him." Roy pushed himself out of the chair and walked down the hallway to the set of phones that were for military members only, picking one up off of it's receiver and dialing in the phone number for Alphonse Elric.

"Hello?" The young boy's voice came from the receiver.

"Alphonse Elric?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"Well, Alphonse, this is Colonel Roy Mustan--"

"Is something wrong with Ed?"

"Well, if you would let me finish, I need you to come down to the HQ and help me."

"With what?"

"Well, let's just say that you aren't completely unrelated."

"Er— okay. Goodbye, Colonel."

"Goodbye, Alphonse."

He placed the phone back on its receiver calmly, regaining his sanity and turning on his heels to head back down the hallway.

He reentered his office to see that the young boy was sitting up and talking to Maes. When he entered, he heard that the conversation was only just starting.

"Alright, I'm only here to help, and I'm sure you'd want to know what's going on, right, young man?"

The boy nodded shyly.

"And so you can help me I need you to tell me your name."

He whispered low and no one could hear him.

"Now come on, young man, I know you can be rowdy. Just speak up for me."

"Well, sir, my name is Edward. Edward Elric."

Roy flashed a smirk at Hughes that clearly read, "Hah-I-knew-it."

"Alright, now, I need you to tell me everything you remember from right before I began talking to you, okay. I need you to tell me so I can help you remember anything you might have forgotten."

"Well, that guy," he pointed at Roy, and Roy kind of twitched at the 'that guy,' "He showed up at the bed I was in and I told him some stuff and he brought me here and I fell asleep 'cause I was real tired."

"Okay," Hughes was writing these notes down on a pad of paper, "And what did you talk about?"
"Well, I told him that I didn't know where I was, or what was with this automail." He looked up at Hughes, "You see, I have this friend, sir, that has a gram'ma who makes automail for a living and that's why I know."

"That's very good," He smiled, "And can you tell me your friend's name?"

"Well, they're Winry and her gram'ma is Pinako."

"Good, very good." Hughes mumbled, writing something down, "What do you remember from before you woke up to Mustang?"

"I just remember wakin' up in the middle of the night in this room and I didn't know where I was and my leg was gone and my arm was gone," he started sniffling and his eyes welled up with tears, "And my clothes were really big and I didn't know what was wrong!"

Hughes smiled and hugged the boy, "It's alright son."

"So, now, can we keep going?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, now—"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence when the sound of a red box of tools hitting the ground in front of Roy Mustang's office interrupted him, followed by a woman's shriek, "EDWARD! What happened?"

Three heads turned slowly from where they were originally to the girl standing the doorway in a cream colored tank top and a black skirt. Winry had a look on her face as though she had seen a ghost, and perhaps, she had.

Alright, before you complain, I would like you to know that I know that Mustang was transferred to Central after the –sniff sniff- death of Maes Hughes, but it was vital that they were in the same building to make the story work. I also know that the conversations all put together would last less than three hours, but time is relative anyway, so shut up. I also, for all intensive purposes, have made Alphonse normal, because that's fun anyway. Now, another fun thing I will do on this Christmas Eve morning ( 2AM) is update Hagane no OneShotness or perhaps Sinister. Why? Because I'm in that jolly Christmas mood. Now, to accompany that Christmas mood, I will answer the 8 reviews that I received.

Aemi-Kaishima – Gash! Aemi, reading my fics? What a surprise. Yes, Roy, please don't talk to strangers, because they might be fangirls, and I'm your girl, so don't be flirtin' or I'll beat 'choo up!

Serina Kat – Maes never died, don't be silly.

Wolf00rakuen – My sons (Edward and Alphonse) are adorable. All the time. The end.

Kara – Get on IM! Gah! Well, your MPREG is gangsta, thought I'd just tell you that. Sorry, but Aru won't be all wittle, it would make it hard do that with the storyline I'm doing… so… yeah.

Fobroks21 – No, the bunnies haven't gotten me… yet. Yes, we all love Hughes, so he must be included.

Tokyokitty15 – Thanks!

Fma-fan158 – Well, looks like your hopes came true.

Penguin person with long name – Yeah, I've never been much of a speller, even with the wonder of spell check. Oh well. Everyone loves lil Edward… except for maybe Roy, who enjoys the advantages of having the older Elric to… play with, if you catch my drift. If not, then don't listen to me.

I love you all, and by the way, I had thought of putting in Hughes before you all told me. I thought I'd tell you that little tidbit. Same thing with Aru.

Ok.

I promise I'm done.

Really.

Really really.

REALLY

Kthanx,

Chojikai