I decided to go almost entirely English with this one, so while there may be an occasional niisan or neechan (older brother/older sister) there shouldn't be too much more Japanese.
Enjoy.
"You had that freaky subordinate of yours follow me around all through that mission in Silvric didn't you?"
"Of course. Since you weren't going with Alphonse I knew you'd need someone of at least average height to help you reach the windows in order to sneak into places."
"I didn't actually go into the place, and WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THAT THEY NEED A TRAMPOLINE JUST TO GET UP ON THE SIDEWALK?"
"You, actually. But I was thinking more of a spring board than a trampoline. You'd probably have a hard time getting up on the trampoline."
"WHO ARE YOU-"
"Edward, shut up."
"Why should I-!"
"Fullmetal, be quite."
Edward Elric snapped his mouth shut violently and viciously suppressed the urge to start shouting again. In the short time he had been with General Harrier, about a year, he had learned three very definite things about her:
1) She had a thing for her subordinate, Donovan, who was probably a former spy, or assassin, or something. He was absolutely silent when he moved and he had a way of looking at someone and instantly scaring coherent thought out of them (Ed had experienced this first hand when he had 'accidentally' knocked the glass of milk General Harrier had handed to him all over Donovan's paperwork). Donovan was always sent after Ed to "make sure you don't get into trouble", but Ed believed that it was mainly to make him miserable.
2) Never, ever, ever, mess with her cat. Besides the fact that the thing had claws three inches long (I kid you not!) and happily tore people to shreds at ever opportunity (except the General of course) Harrier loved her cat and was very protective of it. Once, when Havoc had tossed his smoking cigarette onto the cat and burned her fur, Harrier had strung him upside down from the roof of HQ, naked except for a pair of underwear with yellow and pink hearts on them, for an entire day. He looked like a red tomato from the sunburn for the next eight days. No one had ever seen him smoke in Harrier's office again.
3) The more angry or serious she was the more polite and formal she got. Ed was always Edward or Elric, Al was Alphonse, and Mustang was Roy, as soon as she started using titles, or adding Mr. or Ms. to those not in the military, you knew something was up. Using 'be quite' over 'shut up' was definitely a bad sign.
"What is it?" Edward asked quietly, the earlier anger at his commanding officer forgotten.
Seemingly ignoring him General Harrier spun of her heel and marched back towards the bigger group of party goers. Edward followed at what he thought as a safe distance, looking around to see what had disturbed her.
Winry, Al, and Sheska were on a picnic blanket playing Winry's weird Luck of the Die/Poker creation with single-minded enthusiasm. Gracia stood in front of Hawkeye and Armstrong, who were both sitting on a park bench, talking. Fury, Breda, and Havoc stood over by the piñata. Well, Breda and Havoc were standing and Fury was kind of listing to the side being supported by them both. Ed decided he'd have to ask about that later.
Looking around he expected to find Alicia happily chewing on a piece of candy or something similar, but she was no where to be seen. Neither was Mustang but Ed wasn't really surprised over that, he had expected his oddly behaving former commander to have snuck out early.
"Where's Alicia?" Ed mumbled under his breath, already beginning to get worried.
"And where's General Mustang?" replied Harrier.
"Oh, he probably left for home already."
"I didn't see him leave and his coat's still on the table."
Ed blinked and stared at the blue military jacket resting on the table. It had to be Mustang's since it sported the General's insignia on it and Harrier was still wearing her jacket. But why would Mustang leave without his coat? Simple, he wouldn't. So why wasn't he here? And where was he? Where was Alicia?
They had just reached the rest of the group when Harrier called out, "Ms. Hughes, have you seen Ms. Alicia or General Mustang?"
"They both went over to the cooler to get some ice. Alicia accidentally hit Mr. Fury with the piñata bat."
So that's what's with Fury, thought Edward as he turned to look out at the cooler.
Neither Mustang nor Alicia stood next to it.
Suddenly Ed realized that something was off. Maybe it was the lack of birds singing or that the forest was so dark you could see into it, but he was suddenly running. Running as fast as he could towards the abandoned cooler. Something made him run past it and into the woods, ignoring the cooler as if it wasn't there.
He froze inside the edge of the forest, only unconsciously noting that the others did the same behind him. The scene before him had all his attention.
The small clearing was covered in broken branches. Torn leaves were scattered all over the ground along with the two ribbons that had tied Alicia's hair up and one of her shoes. Roy's pocket-watch lay face up beside a massive mossy rock.
What scared Ed the most was when he reached down for the watch and picked it up his fingertips came away tipped with blood and a blackish stain of the stuff soaked into the ground at his feet.
Review and Return
And Reviewing is a good thing. Credit goes to Anutheal who kept me from abandoning this story.
I will finish it! If only so that I can torture Roy! Well, and maybe a few other people too...
03/27/063:46