When You Meant Well

Disclaimer: Characters and setting are the property of Hiromu Arakawa. I'm just borrowing them for a bit of non-profit angst.

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Prozacfairy


"Colonel, Edward-sir," Lieutenant Maria Ross greeted the pair as she saluted smartly.

Edward giggled. Maria smiled warmly and hugged the boy. 'So today it was going to be the child,' she thought with a sigh. Colonel Mustang's prompting had returned some of Edward's past, but the lies the twelve-year-old version of Edward was told or told himself weren't as sustainable as the ones the six-year-old had believed. Mustang had cracked the barrier in Edward's mind that protected him from the truth and it wasn't just his twelve-year-old memories that slipped through. When the lies fell apart, when the memories that slipped past his defenses were too much, Edward retreated back into early childhood. The Colonel was doing his best to stabilize Edward's twelve-year-old persona, that of the young boy who'd trustingly come to Central to become a State Alchemist. To Maria's eyes the Colonel didn't seem so interested in seeing Edward regain the rest of his past.

Maria took in Edward's disheveled appearance. "Running late again, Colonel" She asked disapprovingly.

"It's morning, how am I supposed to tell how old he is until I've made coffee?" Roy said defensively.

Maria rolled her eyes. She straightened Ed's clothes briskly then spun him around and removed the messy ponytail holding back a tangled of long golden hair and started combing the mass out so that she could put it in Ed's customary plait.

Edward yelped as her small comb caught in a particularly dense tangle. "Sorry Edward," Maria said.

Roy set a file on the bench beside them. "If he's feeling up to it," he told Maria in a low voice.

She nodded. Even with only his twelve-year-old self's memories Ed was one of the top Alchemists in the country. They'd learned that the guardians he and Al had fought during the incident at Lab Five hadn't been a case of someone else coming up with the same idea, it had been Shou Tucker recreating what Ed had done to bond Al's soul. It had taken Tucker a year's research and one of the imperfect Philosopher's Stones to amplify his power before he managed to replicate what Edward had accomplished.

Roy turned to Ed. "Maes will be picking you up for lunch."

"Can I play with Elysia?" Edward asked.

"You can count on it," Roy replied. "If the library's boring today, tell Lieutenant Ross and she'll find something else for you to do." Because sometimes reading an Alchemy text would wake up Edward's memories and sometimes it wouldn't. At eleven or twelve Edward had to be dragged out of libraries and reminded to eat; at six Edward's attention span was limited, he needed to get outside and burn off excess energy after an hour or two of studying or he tended to find ways to amuse himself that sent the library staff into apoplectic fits.

"Sure, I'll tell her," Ed said then impulsively hugged Roy.

Just six months earlier such a show of affection would have left Roy frozen in horror, but now he returned the gesture naturally. "I'll see you tonight," he said.

"Unless Lieutenant Riza shoots you for goofing off," Edward replied as he tried to keep a straight face. "So you be good, okay?"

"The two of you are conspiring against me aren't you?" Roy asked with mock seriousness. Ed gave him a patently innocent look. "You're supposed to be on my side remember?"

"Lt. Riza has a doggy," Ed explained unrepentantly.

"You're a brat, you know that don't you?"

"Yep, see you."

Lieutenant Ross escorted Edward into the library and got him settled. A half-hour later she noticed the signs of an incipient awakening. She quietly removed the forgotten book from Ed's hands and waited.

After a few moments the glazed look left Edward's eyes. He looked around the library to place himself then came the part Maria hated. "Where's Al?" he asked.

Al was always Ed's first thought upon 'waking up' and Maria hated that her orders were to lie to him, to try to convince him that he was still studying for the State Alchemist's exam, that Al was safe in Resembool waiting for Ed to come home with a cure for him. Her orders ensured that there was no chance that Ed would ever be able to properly grieve and move on. If the Colonel had his way Edward would stay forever twelve, old enough to be used, but young enough to be easily pliable; sheltered enough to do what he was told without much question.

"Don't you remember?" Maria prompted. She was supposed to add something about Resembool. Maria hesitated. The lies didn't help Edward. "Do you remember going to Corpus?"


Author's Notes: Yeah, Maria's interpretation of Mustang's motives ispretty harsh. Roy will get his chance to respond in the next chapter.

When I started this story it was pretty much a short, unrepentant angst-fest because that's what I was in the mood to write and that sort of mooddidn't fit well with the other two on-going stories I'm working on. But I've been getting more attached to it, discarded the original ending and am thinking about expanding the storyline, only problem is there are two paths I could go down and I'm a bit undecided. I don't normally ask for a reader's poll but I need something to break the deadlock.

Anyways, since I started this story I've caught up with the episodes being shown on Cartoon Network (I'm at episode 32 now) and it occurred me that I've left Edward very, very susceptible to manipulation and it would be all but impossible for the Sins not to know about that, what with Sloth and all. So I'm moving toward a situation where they try to take advantage of the situation and Roy ends up doing something – well – drastic to get Ed back.

I've got two options on what that would be. In one Roy ends up taking Edward and disserting. The appeal of this scenario is that it keeps the story focused on the personal relationships and it opens up possibilities for a Roy/Riza storyline. The thing I don't like about it is Roy would have to basically give up his plan to become Fuhrer for Ed's sake. The other option involves Roy abandoning his plan for a coup in favor of a rebellion. This scenario would bring a lot more politics into the story, which can be fun. The down side is convincing myself that Eastern Command is sufficiently in Roy's camp that the vast majority of the Military personnel stationed there would be willing to secede on his command.

Regardless, updates are likely to be a bit slower now, since I don't have the whole thing written out anymore (so I guess that means there's a third option: Stick with my original unhappily ever after where the Sins don't play any roll in the story).