HEIR TO THE FLAME

CHAPTER 26: Fullmetal Vs.Flame, Heir to the Flame Style

3 years later...

Roy looked at the puppy in the box again, a mischevious gleam in his eyes.

Maybe this little puppy could be used to his advantage... He examined it one more time, then managed to lure Fuery out into the side of the street by getting Junior to swipe his glasses and toss them near the box. Junior trotted back inside, his mission completed, and Roy waited for the walking animal shelter called Fuery to take pity on the shivering animal and bring it inside.

An unearthly scream echoed through Eastern Headquarters and Roy sighed. He should have remembered that Breda was terrified of dogs. How could you be afraid of dogs anyway? Now... now all he had to do was wait for all the pieces to fall into place. Ed could be seen wandering the halls trying to avoid Roy at all costs, though Roy was perfectly aware that he was there: The suspicious meowing noise made sure of that, that and the clank as Al's armor body thudded down the corridors. Roy sighed once again; if Ed was going to avoid him he could at least do it quietly... Junior picked up Belcini and looked up at him, asking where his mother was, and Roy suggested that he look in the break room.

Junior peeked into the breakroom just down the hall and saw that his mother was reading a book. Everyone had free time today, everyone except Roy who had put off his paperwork until the last minute. He was busy, but Junior pouted anyway. Who would play with him tonight now? He would be up half the night trying to finish the rest of the work, stupid daddy.

She closed the book as Fuery stepped in behind him, ruffling Junior's hair as he passed, depositing the puppy on the floor. "It was so cold and lonely... I just couldn't leave it!" he said. Riza looked the pup up and down, and Junior sat on the floor next to the puppy to pet and cuddle with it. Junior wasn't inclined to talk too much nowadays, though Riza had no idea why; he was usually very animated and talkative. His eyes seemed to light up, however, once he had gotten his hands on the pup, with his cat Belcini still stretched out luxuriously on his neck.

First Havoc took the dog. "I like dogs," he said.

"Really?" Fuery beamed, relieved that the pup had found an owner so quickly.

"Sure, I heard in the far East they raise them as a delicacy, especially these plump ones..." Junior wailed pitifully from the floor and Riza snatched the puppy back. "Maybe we should try to find him a better owner..."

Roy groaned inwardly as Ed dumped himself on the couch, he had a lot of work to do after all, and he had to listen to the midget's new heroisms. Perfect. It wasn't like he hadn't heard it all already from detectives, imprisoned mine officials, and the military police discovering just what the heck had happened at Xenotime. Cleaning up after Edward Elric was just one big mess after the other, like cleaning up after his son when he had been a baby.

After annoying Ed and disclosing absolutely nothing about Tim Marcoh, he put his head on his desk. What did he do to deserve all this paperwork, honestly? He was too handsome for this sort of job!

Riza would have hit him for that one, hit him and laughed. She was having strange moods, and he could only guess why. After complaining about all her hair in the bathroom that morning, she had given him a strange look, stalked away, and promptly fallen asleep. He just didn't get it.

After swinging by the mess hall to see what kind of slop they were giving away to eat that day and not liking the looks of it, he dropped by the break room. Even he needed a break from mountain loads of work, even if he had, he grudgingly admitted, brought it on himself. He stopped in the doorway and saw the puppy in Fuery's hands, and his mind worked quickly. Nobody had taken the pup yet? Why wasn't... Grrr...

He stomped over to Fuery and plucked the dog out of his hands.

"Dog, huh?

"I love dogs!"

"REALLY?" Fuery asked, by this time desperate to give the dog an owner.

"Of course!" he cried, his head swinging back to Fuery to stare him in the eye glinting evilly.

"Dogs embody loyalty, they follow their master's commands above all else! Be a jerk to them and they never complain, and they never once beg for a paycheck! Yes, Fuery, they are the great servants of man! Hahahahahahaha!"

Fuery stared at him like he was crazy and Junior took the pup from Roy's hands, cradling it against his chest protectively. "Bad Daddy!" he said.

"Well, you're awfully manic today Chief; I thought that Fullmetal's challenge would worry you some," Havoc said with a grin, chucking his cigarette pack out the window before he felt the urge to smoke them. Roy closed his eyes and smiled. "Of course not, and besides, the Fuhrer would never allow it!"

Half an hour later, Roy found himself outside in the parade grounds in the 'blue corner', with Maes posing in front of a gigantic photo of his daughter. Roy rubbed his temples; why exactly was Maes his friend again...?

Fullmetal had hissed something to him about a cat, but more clearly something about Marcoh. Roy guessed he would oblige eventually, but he did like to see the kid irritated. Riza sighed and decided that the best course of action would be to stand just a little farther back than everyone else; it was always dangerous to be close when Roy fought with his flames.

Maes screamed for the fight to begin and bolted straight for the doors of HQ, leaving Ed stunned and open to Roy's first shot. Roy couldn't say that he had a lot of support from the other soldiers, but the support that counted was the support from his subordinates, friends, and most importantly, Riza and Junior.

Ed ran for it as quickly as his little legs could take him away from Roy's flames and hopped over the guardrail and into the audience. Roy smirked and scanned the crowd lazily. "Well, I guess I can't torch you all..." he shrugged and half-turned. "This is hard, he's such a small target!" A blue faced Fullmetal popped his head out of the audience, screaming, "Who are you calling small?"

"If the opponant is of choleric temper, seek to irritate and never fall for an enemy's taunts," he said, echoing one of the many battle mantras of his father, as he snapped his fingers. The audience was blown into the air along with Ed and he eventually crashed back into the ground as Roy was regretting making his explosion so large. He thought he saw the sillouhette of Ed in the dust and raised his hand up again. "Want more- ah!" He turned away from the Ed-Dummy just in time to avoid being impaled by Fullmetal's automail blade, but it took out the circle on his glove all the same.

"Damn!" he cursed, holding his hand and spinning around to face Fullmetal again.

"Without those gloves you can't make flames anymore! That's advantage Elric! HA!" he cried triumphantly, pressing his hands to the ground and transmuting a giant cannon.Roy smirked again and drew his other hand out of his pocket, revealing another glove with the circle sewn into it. Ed screamed and Roy snapped, blowing the cannon into oblivion.

Once Ed hit the ground yet again, Roy stood over him, fingers poised.

"All war is deception. Think your enemyhas a weaknessand it becomes his strength."

"Just finish it!" Ed groaned, gritting his teeth.

"You don't have to ask," he said, but he gasped as images of the Ishbal War floated through his mind, becoming painfully, horribly real. "Ross!" he hissed, and the next thing he knew there was a blade almost touching his throat, his own fingers still poised in snapping position.

"Now now, that's quite enough. A wonderful display by two skilled alchemists," Fuhrer Bradley said, clapping his hands together softly. Roy mumbled that he was honored by the praise, though he didn't really mean it, and Ed growled not to stop them. "We're not finished yet!" he argued.

"That's true," the Fuhrer said, "But if I allowed you to continue it would be much harder for just the two of you to clean up." Roy was resigned to his fate, he knew this had been coming.

He yawned and sat down heavily on a rock, his hands still on the shovel. Riza watched them both, Roy's uniform top folded in her arms with Junior at her side, still stroking the small pup's head and cuddling with it. Ed stopped in his transmuting for a second and looked over at Roy.

"Why did you stop? If you had the chance, you should have finished it."

Roy looked over his shoulder at Ed, an unreadable expression on his face, and looked back at his shovel. "This goes back more years than I care to admit, but there was something called the Ishbal Rebellion. I saw my share... of truly terrible things..." he wasn't willing to go into detail, Ed saw, since his shoulders had hunched slightly.

"Marcoh, the deserter... he was the smartest one among us, I still think so, even today."

"You mean he's still alive!" Ed asked hopefully, and Roy nodded at Ed over his shoulder.

"Colonel... you still didn't tell me... why you hesitated. Never mind. You don't have to say."

Roy stood up and yawned widely again, stretching his cramped muscles and walking over to Riza, ruffling Junior's hair fondly, and retrieved his uniform, pulling it on but not buttoning it up. They retreated back to HQ and Maes wasted no time in clapping his hand on Roy's back. "Yo, Mustang! How was the fight?"

"How do you think it was, Maes? It was perfect!" Roy hissed, turning on him irritably. Maes held up his hands defensively. "Hey hey, I was just asking, no need to tear my head off. Did you... that... remember...? Ah." Roy nodded curtly to Maes's unfinished question and Maes nodded knowing, leaving Riza in the dark. She figured that if Roy wanted to tell her, he would tell her on his own time, and resigned herself to watching Junior like a hawk as he constantly weaved and zigzagged between Fuery, Falman, and Havoc. Fuery took the pup from him for a few minutes and walked into the break room again, stroking the pup forlornly. "I suppose I'll have to put him out again..."

"If you have no other candidates..." Riza said, putting her hands on her hips. "I suppose I can take him, Fuery." The pup squirmed out of his grasp and ran to the wall yipping, lifting his leg ominously, and Junior's face scrunched up.

"He's using the potty!"

"Guess he's just relieved to have an owner, hahah..." Fuery said as Riza whipped out her pistol and fired into the wall. The others in the room sweatdropped, their mouths hanging open, as the dust cleared to reveal a paralyzed pup.

"Now you won't be doing that again, will you, pup? See, you've got a strict mommy now; the bathroom's over here, got it, Black Hayate?"

Jean and Maes siddled over to Roy. "How do you live with her?" They hissed, and Roy didn't give them a response and Junior happily clung to his leg.

Sometimes even he didn't know how he lived with Riza Hawkeye.

If you couldn't tell, this is the AU Heir to the Flame version of Fullmetal Vs.Flame. For everyone, I'm sorry that I killed the older Black Hayate off, but he had to go in order to let the new Buraha in, and I thought the best way to go would be to save Junior. I'M SORRY, BLACK HAYATE!

I might be slower to update now, as I've just become SUPER SICK, and it hurts just to be touched... Ow.

-T A