silvers-edge: Roy is indeed a very slow person about his feelings, but at least he thoroughly takes his time to make sure that he absolutely does want Ed to be his forever XD
Batsutousai: Ed on a shooting range would be a recipe for laughs and Roy having successive heart attacks... wait, why am I resisting?
moonstone: Grand's home would never be the same again if Ed got turned loose in the place. I have no doubts whatsoever that Ed would be able to find the gas lines and reroute them to the bathroom or something.
tsuki1613: Ed would love to take shooting lessons from you, and wonders how much you charge.
Ohsnap13: Roy's family is quite the wild one. One of these days I'll get around to writing the story of Daphne and his dad, I'm sure you'd get a laugh out of that one.
Hrethra: That should be a bumper sticker.
egyptian1995: Oh Ed with a gun would be a perfectly safe thing, I assure you. He'd not frighten anyone at all by causing a flying gun to go zooming past their heads.
FullMetalCrayon: Eeep! Hang in there for me. No dying from waits! Ed lies, dying sucks XD
Aysu: Yes, Ed does very much want to help Roy. As far as he's concerned, Roy's all he has, and he must protect that.
Kimba: You can only imagine how she treats door-to-door salesmen.
GhostMajor: We need to get you a Hazel of your very own. Then everyone else will stop looking at you weird... and instead start trying to cuddle and steal your pet.
Anemone: Oh Paradox will be finished, just when I have a moment to get around to doing it. The last installment is quite lengthy. And I just love writing Elysia XD she's so much fun to write when she's with Maes because the two of them are just hopelessly well... hopeless together.
Sapphire Nympth: I agree, the fluffy monsters did attack that chapter. And then they cuddled with it.
black-klepon: Yes, yes Daphne does. That woman is not one to be messed with. And yay! Cake! I shall eat it for you while hoping you can eat properly again by now.
GreedxEd: Nah, I have other more fun plans for Grand.
Denmark-CyanideDiamond-Alois: I'm glad you didn't fall off your bed, I hear that hurts. And Maes would be impossibly fun if he were to find out about Ed. The teasing would never end.
secret25: Yeah, these two are quite the pair. And I was so excited to be able to finally write Daphne like that. She's a fearsome woman indeed, to have been able to raise Roy.
Koneko: Gawd, you sadist XD And yes! I am skipping right over the whole next year, just watch me hehehe and mmm, Roy in underwear.
gali-o: Oh no, your calendar is right, I'm just trying to manipulate time to my advantage it seems. And sequel huh... I've thought about it actually, but I'm not too sure about whether or not to go through with it.
RaiineDays: I think Roy and Ed would be exceedingly happy just to be able to cuddle, nothing more. They're both saps like that, deep down.
Christina E. Lupin: I'm glad to hear you might finally be able to post some more, and that reading has helped. As for Roy's... issues... for there are many, he'll come around eventually.
cynder81: Oddly I'm now imagining Grand trying to pay a visit to Daphne... they're both quite savvy with rifles. I wonder who'd win.
Zemyx: ...I want to see Roy and Ed go head-to-head in a food eating contest now.
SanitysOverrated: Ed should be allowed to learn every method possible to protect Roy... shame on Roy for not seeing this.
blame-my-ADD: Agh, I can't tell you that XD
Fullthrottle13: I can't aim a gun to save my life, actually. I've tried before and I -totally- miss the cans. I only hope Edward has better luck.
Eli: Oh god save us, you're back? Flee! Wait... you brought me sugary treats? Yay!
Soaha: Ed is among the dead, forever he is capable of holding both grudges, and desires to learn how to shoot guns. Roy doesn't stand a chance.
Apparently I have no idea what year it is. Oh well! All that matters is that I am now completely better again!
The doctor tried telling me I had allergies... insert how much sarcasm you think I had at -that- announcement. Funny how antibiotics cleared up my "allergies". See, this is why I'm not in the habit of going to doctors. Allergies my ass, shove your Claritin up... aaaall up in there.
Anyway, I have been plagued by freaky ass dreams lately. Anyone who's into that dream analysis stuff want to have a go? Wednesday night I dreamt that I was a jet-flying flying dolphin. Thursday I was being chased by cannibals in a restaurant. And this past evening I dreamt my car was half-horse and I was taking it camping, except every time I left the forest I was in a McDonalds parking lot.
I think the contents of Arizona water need to be examined.
Now I do think I'll go get food though, I'm starving. For... chicken _ yes, chicken.
I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Chapter Thirty-Six
Their trip through the town had been relatively short lived, but fun. Short lived considering their need to be at the train station early so as to not risk missing the departure; and fun considering Edward got to watch Roy be harassed by townspeople who had grown up knowing the Colonel as a chubby baby who wore green onesies.
The past hour or so was a fond memory resting in the back of Edward's mind as he waited on a station bench with Roy. The two of them were entirely alone, save the ticket seller who was in a small covered kiosk several yards away. It didn't appear as if many people from this town would be joining them to Central, and according to Roy, that was typical. It was just that the trains were required to stop in places with populations over a certain amount.
"I know you like to keep anyone from finding out that you have a mother," Edward wondered aloud as he lay back on the bench with his head almost touching Roy's thigh, "but how does that work with her coming into town and such? And with these people knowing you grew up here."
Roy was watching several pigeons root around near the train tracks, and frowned just a bit at the question. "There's this strange thing about small towns, Ed, that had you lived even a few more years you would have understood. Seeing as how you grew up in Risembool. Small towns have a strange way of keeping to themselves about their own." His attention shifted as the pigeons took flight, and he looked down to the ghost. "I know one day something might slip, might happen, and she does as well. Nothing is ever perfect, or will stay so forever, we're both prepared for the day when the world might know… but we're enjoying what time we have in peace."
"I'd be glad for a day when neither of you needed to worry about it." Edward murmured as he stared up at the clear sky.
Roy found his attention drifting again, this time towards the far side of the railroad tracks where the trees were rustling gently in a breeze he knew the ghost could not feel. "Me too… maybe one day."
"Maybe one day when you're fuhrer, and the political games aren't so widespread and dangerous." Edward mused. "Seems to me you have a lot more to worry about when you're at the bottom fighting your way to the top. At least at the top, you have the high ground over the most opponents."
"Until then, all of us know what to do. And even when that day does come, I won't let down my guard." Roy promised gravely, hand clenching unconsciously. "I can't right the wrongs of this country if I'm dead."
"Being dead isn't so bad," Edward offered with a small smile, "but I agree. It'd be difficult to be fuhrer if no one could see you, only see the results of your actions."
Roy flicked a searching look over to the ghost, but had just as soon looked away without giving voice to his thoughts. Without asking if Edward was speaking from personal experiences. He knew that whatever the answer, that Edward would only focus on how he could be seen, even if only by one person. And Roy was smiling to himself as he looked at the train tracks.
However long later, neither were sure, the train did arrive to the station and they boarded it without preamble. Roy led them to a private cabin, securely shutting the door just as the train began to pull away from the platform, and they settled in to wait out the trip back to Central with a deck of cards and Edward being taught how to play poker.
As it turned out, Roy was beginning to suspect that Edward was far too much a genius for it to be fair on any level, as the ghost quickly began to get the hang of the card game.
"Finally!" Roy groaned as the announcement crackled over the intercom system that the train would be pulling into the station at Central within a few minutes. "Another five minutes and I'd have lost my shirt."
Edward laughed as he handed Roy his cards so the man could put the deck away, "I wasn't aware we were playing for clothing." And with a coy smile leaned towards the man as if to impart a dire secret, "I already won your shirt last night."
Roy regarded the ghost through a humored smile he was having difficulty trying to stifle, "would you like my pants then?"
Edward gazed up into the teasing dark eyes, barely aware that Roy was trying to fluster him against the unfamiliar steadiness that had consumed him at the offer. Shifting a bit straighter, but closer to Roy, he rested one hand on the other side of the man's legs as he leaned in just a bit closer, his eyes never releasing Roy's. "Is that all that's on offer?"
Roy's mouth slipped slightly open, stunned to silence by the question before realization that he was slowly coloring incited embarrassment into overdrive, thus causing self-preservation to kick in as he fought to regain himself before Edward noticed. "Greedy ghost." He managed to get out, though he wasn't too certain of how his voice had managed as he slipped quickly to the side to get to his feet as Edward was forced to move away.
Edward shifted to look up at him, not yet rising from the seat himself, his head tilted slightly in confusion at Roy's sudden jitters. As Roy moved to grab the suitcase, however, he forced himself up as his confusion morphed into a different sort as his attention darted between Roy's uncertain looking figure and his strangely firm reflection on his own words.
"Train's stopped." Roy announced as he slung his suitcase over his shoulder, gripping it loosely by the handle as he looked down at Edward. "Ready to go home?"
Edward nodded silently, subdued, and floated up off the bench to follow Roy; noticing that as soon as they had disembarked the train that Roy seemed entirely normal once again. He wished he could say the same for himself as he tried to understand just what it was that Roy had thought he wanted… what it was that he had wanted.
But all of that was pushed to the back of his mind as their walk home drew closer to an end as they rounded the corner of the housing block. Seeing the familiar gate only houses more away caused Edward to remember something that made him look up at Roy hesitatingly.
"Remember how you said it's our house?"
Roy had to give himself a bit of a shake, so focused he'd been on pulling himself back together after Edward had succeeded in flustering him, and he looked over at Edward uncomprehendingly. "Sorry, what?"
"You said it's our house?" Edward repeated with a frown.
Roy gave the spirit an odd look. "Of course. I'd put your name on the deed if I could."
Edward felt a leap of warmth at the unexpected admission, and he couldn't hold back the overjoyed smile that broke onto his face. He'd always known he'd had a permanent home here with Roy, but it had never been put that way.
"Why do you ask?" Roy pressed, even as he was unable to help smiling at Edward's clear happiness.
"Because…" Edward trailed off as he passed through the fence to the yard and waited for Roy to mess with the gate, "I'm sure then that you must remember that it's your house when it's a mess."
Roy closed the gate behind him with a short bark of a laugh and a sending of a glare over to the now grinning ghost. "You won't think like that when Hazel starts getting into your stuff and strewing it everywhere."
"He would never!" Edward declared with conviction, and bounded his way up the lawn to pass through the unopened front door.
Roy followed at a more sedate pace, and upon reaching the door let the key rest in front of the lock a moment as he lowered his head with a sigh and a close of his eyes that had nothing to do with the mess he knew awaited him inside. At least… not that mess.
In all his years of fooling around and handing out and being handed flirtations, nothing had ever phased him. Nothing had ever gotten to him. And then, when Edward had entered his life, it had been normal for him to try and fluster the ghost, fun. Even if Edward told him his flirtations were horrid… he'd enjoyed the accusations.
Then six little words brought it all crashing down, and suddenly, for the first time in his life… Edward had gotten to him. And maybe it was the unexpectedness of it, and maybe it was those eyes and how calm and pure they'd been in making such a question he wasn't even entirely sure that Edward understood.
But it had shaken him.
Opening his eyes again, Roy sucked in a deep breath and fitted the key into the lock. He needed to forget about how rattled he'd been and find some way to turn this all back on Edward and get the embarrassment he'd been hoping for out of the ghost. At least now he knew Edward was capable of giving back as good as he got… he wouldn't be caught off guard again.
Ghosts really were tricky, clever things. Even more so, it turns out, when they live with you.
He let himself inside.
"There you are!" Edward rolled his eyes as he watched Roy close the door behind him. "I thought you'd tried to make a run for it."
Roy turned, giving his companion a reproachful look. "I thought about it, but our house will never get clean again if I leave it to you. I have no choice." And he reached for the light switch, the ethereal light emanating from Edward not being enough to fully see by.
As the light flicked on, they both turned to look.
"Look, Roy!" Edward exclaimed in devilish delight as he dove through the air to fall back first onto the white powder covered floor. "Flour angel!" And he began eagerly flailing his arms and legs back and forth through the thick dusting of flour that appeared to be covering most of the entryway.
Roy's laugh was somewhat pained, but he was laughing even so as he crossed over to carefully step through the flour and avoid Edward's flailing limbs. "You're not helping." He chastised through a smile.
"Glad you agree." Edward grinned up at him in a moment of pause, before eagerly going back to making his flour angel.
Roy's laughter renewed as he waved a hand in front of his face against the floury cloud that was rising from Edward's antics. "I guess I'm saving the flour for last…" And he continued on to the living room where he proceeded to groan loud enough that Edward cackled.
Edward wasn't quite sure what had happened to the living room, but by the time Roy finally made a reappearance, he'd managed to make a second flour angel as well as draw a rather large recreation of the flamel his teacher had bore, a flamel that he had been meant to carry as well.
Things had changed since then… but he'd managed to remember clearly what it had looked like.
"You've not drawn that one before." Roy spoke, stooping down next to the silvery apparition who was now on his knees contemplating the remaining flour to play around in. "What is it?"
"Something my teacher had tattooed on her chest." Edward answered distractedly.
Roy spluttered nonsensically as he jumped to his feet. "Edward!"
"What?" Edward griped, before realizing what exactly Roy was thinking, and laughed. "Roy! Not like that, you idiot. I was a kid!"
"You'll be the death of me one day, I swear." Roy muttered tiredly and stepped around the floury mural. "Try to keep all the flour from spreading out any more."
"Yes, mother." Edward chortled and began to draw an alchemy circle.
Roy left him to it, and ventured into the kitchen where he was met with the true disaster that had befallen it and its contents.
Not only was the bag of flour missing, but the bread bag had been ripped into and partially eaten slices were everywhere. The kitchen drawers were open, most of their contents scattered to the floor. There was a strange, sticky orange residue spread along one of the countertops. The salt shaker had been upended, and three of four dining room chairs were on their sides.
"I love my pet…" Roy began to chant as he threw himself into cleaning the disaster, "I love my pet, I love my pet."
It was a several hour mission to get the house cleaned again. After the kitchen, the laundry room, and after the laundry room, the general downstairs area, which meant that Edward was forced to give up his flour angels and other creations to the wielded vacuum.
After the vacuum had been set away, it gave Roy time to pause.
It had been something of a slight bother to him, a prickling in the back of his mind as he cleaned, that as of yet, he'd not happened upon the culprit. So far, Hazel was nowhere to be found.
"Must be upstairs." Roy could have groaned as he looked up the staircase, as if it led to some forbidding, dangerous warzone. Yet let no one say he was never a soldier, for he began to mount the stairs in determination.
Edward made his way up the stairs as well… via the handrail. "I thought we closed all the doors up here before we left."
"Yes." Roy agreed, but there was a note of reservation in his voice.
Edward, who made it up the handrail faster than Roy made it up the stairs, had jumped down onto the second floor landing and taken a quick look around before he uttered an ominous "oh".
"What is that suppo–" Roy stopped speaking, and at first, thinking, as he saw what exactly 'oh' referred to. And then he uttered a simple, but all-around appropriate, "shit."
For there at one end of the hallway, was an open door, and beyond that open door were not only clothes that belonged in a closet, but scattered among them glinting flashes of light and colors that most certainly did not belong in his closet. Or on his floor. Or anywhere that anyone else could see them, for that matter.
"Edward, go back downstairs." Roy uttered weakly.
Edward snorted and trotted forward. "What? No. I want to see you catch Hazel. It's priceless and hilarious and absolutely blackmail worthy."
Roy was frozen for only moments before making a fruitless lunge for the ghost. It did no good, his hand passed right through Edward's arm, and Edward didn't even realize such was the ghost's outward focus. "Edward…!"
But Edward had ended up in the middle of it all, looking around with curious puzzlement at the mess. One part of the mess in particular. "Roy… did you buy more toys for Hazel? I don't recognize this." He said as he grabbed one such toy up and brandished it at the man.
Roy wasn't sure at this point that embarrassment was an option. Indeed, it was far from his mind as he began to laugh, helplessly.
Edward looked from the overcome man to the toy in his hand, and back again as his confusion only grew. "Roy?"
Roy burst out into fresh laughter, moisture beginning to gather at the corners of his eyes as he looked at what Edward was holding. "Ed… that's not Hazel's toy."
Edward blinked, looking back to the toy with a frown. "But then –"
"It's not Hazel's toy." Roy clarified through his unending laughter, and wiped at his eyes.
"But it –" Edward stopped abruptly, and feeling very much like a deer-in-the-headlights, looked slowly back around at what he was holding… before flinging it away from him with a frantic squeal of alarm. "Why do you – why did you – why do – YEUCH – Roy!"
Roy laughed even harder as Edward fled like quicksilver through the nearest wall, and stumbling further into his room his eyes landed on Hazel, who looked quite perplexed and uncertain as to why he was in this state and not angry. "Good –" he gave another burst of laughter before trying to fight it back, "good one, Hazel. But you're still in for it as soon as I can breathe!"
And he began to pick up the mess as he worked on stifling his laughter.
It wasn't too long before Edward heard Roy trampling his way down the stairs, apparently done picking up those… those… objects, and as the man came within hearing range he pouted his way. "I can't believe you let me pick that up, what's wrong with you."
Roy grinned, settling himself down on the sofa next to his companion. "You just seemed so eager, I thought you might know what it was."
He was promptly smacked with a sofa throw pillow.
"My mistake."
Edward huffed and curled himself around the pillow as if it were a protective force field from the things up in Roy's room. "Can't even imagine how you would have used that thing…" he muttered.
Roy lifted an eyebrow as he smirked evilly, "I'd show you, but –"
"Don't you dare!"
The panicked outburst was enough to send Roy into fresh fits of laughter, which caused Edward in turn to resume pouting as he glared at the man every so often. But eventually, when Roy managed to calm himself, he got up from the sofa with a smile to the ghost.
"I'm going to go make myself some dinner. Don't worry about the bedroom, I made sure it's all clean for your sanity." And he walked away with a flash of a grin as Edward began to mutter darkly under his breath. "At least you didn't walk in on me using it!" He called over his shoulder.
Edward's head whipped around so he could stick his tongue out at the man's retreating back. "I wouldn't even want to walk in on you naked!" He retorted back, feeling rather pleased with his rejoinder as he settled himself back firmly into the sofa.
His answer was more laughter.
The rest of the night passed by similarly. With much laughter, and the eventual caving of Roy's resolve to Hazel's overly large apologetic eyes – which inspired laughter from Edward's end; and they spent the remaining hour before they went to bed quietly talking about their weekend trip as Hazel continued to cuddle against Roy fawningly.
Eventually, though, they did go to bed, and Edward could only smirk as Hazel curled up on the other half of Roy's pillow.
"I think he really missed you this time."
Roy yawned as he shifted about under the covers and blinked up at the dark ceiling. "I've never taken so many weekend trips as I did before I met you. Maybe one day he'll get used to it."
"Maybe one day we can take him with us." Edward smiled as he too settled in.
The comment went unanswered, but Edward didn't mind, and as Roy drifted off to sleep he closed his own eyes. Not to sleep, never to sleep, but merely content just to be there as he waited for the next day to come. A passage of time that didn't seem near so long since he'd come to live here.
And as dawn broke, it was to more laughter, as Edward watched Hazel harass Roy into wakefulness.
A few minutes later saw Roy finally, sluggishly, making his way to the shower as Hazel rushed in after the man in determination not to be left behind. It left Edward alone, though, and the ghost shook his head with a smile as he made his way downstairs to see what he could do about breakfast for the man.
Unfortunately there was not much he could do without flour to bake with, nor bread to make toast with, so Roy would be forced to endure eggs not on toast. Something the man was able to manage admirably, along with an apple that he cut half the peel off of to pass up to Hazel's eagerly grasping paws.
Apple peel, as it turned out, was quite messy to clean up when a squirrel had been nibbling on it. Pieces of red peel with bits of flesh still attached were dusted all along the left shoulder of Roy's uniform jacket, causing him to have to bend backwards over the sink and hit himself repeatedly until Edward declared the last bits gone.
Then they were out the door, making their way along yet another new route to Headquarters.
"How long do you think it will take for me to have seen the whole city?" Edward asked, face tossed back to enjoy the sunshine he couldn't feel and hands stretched high as if to grab it.
Roy hummed thoughtfully to himself a moment before, "maybe one weekend I'll just borrow a car and we can drive up and down all the streets."
"Or you could pull out your motorcycle?" Edward proposed with an interested gleam as he looked Roy's way.
"I'm not willing to risk you riding on it behind me and causing me to perhaps fall through." Roy's look was apologetic, "I don't really know how much solid material has to be between us, and I don't really fancy a road burn on my ass."
"That would make it hard for you to get dates." Edward sympathized, deadpan.
Roy grunted agreement, but the proposition still hadn't fully left his mind… in fact, it got him thinking. But he wasn't about to fill Edward in on the path his mind was taking, it was something that if he was able to manage it, he'd like to surprise Edward with it.
"I don't know…" Edward mused after they'd gone a block more down their route, "I kinda like this. Just walking around with you. I think I see more that way."
Roy glanced over at him, smiling faintly at the sentiment, and as he looked away, he didn't find himself disagreeing that he enjoyed it too. Seeing the city alone didn't seem nearly as much fun a thought as seeing it with Edward did. And in knowing that this was what the rest of his life was going to be like, this private little world he shared with Edward, he didn't find himself unhappy.
"I think I see more too."
And they continued to walk along, since having to fall silent as this route turned out to be one more heavily populated with those walking to work. At least, Edward might have spoken, but it wasn't nearly as much fun when all he'd be able to get out of Roy were grunts. But at least they were close to arriving at their destination, then nothing would be able to save Roy from his chatter.
Roy wasn't feeling the absence of conversation quite so hard… but he figured he had Edward's antics to blame for that. The ghost was most definitely over his culture shock regarding crowds. He wasn't sure exactly when it had happened, but considering that Edward had spent a good part of his time on this sidewalk pranking the other pedestrians? He figured that Edward was in the clear for that particular psychological setback.
The most recent event had been the ghost causing several parking meters to malfunction and spew out coins against cars, pavement, sidewalk, and eagerly frantic people alike as they scrambled to collect on the good fortune.
Roy hadn't the heart nor opportunity to tell Ed that he probably would cause several cars to now be towed, and as the din faded in the background as they moved on, figured that Edward had probably concluded that and done it anyway. He was a ghost, after all.
"Am I breaking laws, Colonel?" Edward laughed.
Roy rolled his eyes, sending a pointed look at the ghost. A look that quickly blanked in masked shock as he abruptly stopped in his tracks, staring past Edward at the yellow coffeehouse door that had just swung shut behind a departing patron.
"Roy?" Edward frowned, and quickly looked behind him before looking back at the man. "What're you – Roy!"
Roy didn't heed the call as he pelted headlong through the throngs of pedestrians, vaguely he knew that Edward was following him, so he only moved faster, knowing the ghost could easily keep up. And timing it so just as his quarry was about to pass by an alley, Roy closed the remaining distance with one last spurt of speed.
His hand closed hard around thick brown woolen coat, and he yanked its wearer not to a halt, but into the alley whereupon he whirled the individual around and slammed him up against the filthy wall with one hand tightly fisted in loose white shirt, and the other firmly pressed against throat.
"You bastard," Roy growled in anger that had only been building since he'd seen this man leave the coffee shop, and voice rising into an angry yell plunged on, "how could you!"
"Roy!" Edward dove to stand on the ground, his eyes wide in alarm at the scene the man was causing, "what's gotten into yo–" he trailed off as he finally lit eyes upon the man Roy had pinned, "-ou." And for an interminably long second, all he could do was stare in open-mouthed shock before a single, quiet syllable fell from his lips. "Dad?"
Hohenheim didn't even struggle against the confining holds against him, threatening to choke him, he merely stood there as the back of his head buzzed slightly from being knocked against the brick wall behind it. "I remember you…" he said slowly, still bringing the memory up as he stared in unshakable calm at the man before him.
"Do you remember your sons?" Roy flared up, yanking Hohenheim away from the wall harshly in order to drag him further down the alley where they'd not attract so much attention, and he lost no time in sending the man flying into the next suitable wall with a solid right hook to the jaw.
"Roy!" Edward was at his side in an instant, eyes wide as he tried to grasp everything that was happening. That his father was here and alive. And he could barely take his eyes from the man who was now picking himself up off the dirty alley floor.
"Maybe that punch cleared up your memory!" Roy snarled, slamming the ghost's father into the nearest wall and keeping a firm stranglehold on him.
"My…" Hohenheim tried again against the restricted air he was being allowed. "Edward… and Alphonse."
"Yes, Edward!" Roy agreed heatedly. "Alphonse too. How dare you abandon them! Abandon him! Alphonse believes you're dead, and Edward is dead, and you're strolling around Central getting coffee! I just don't understand how you could abandon Edward for coffee!"
Edward watched with widened eyes, caught in some sort of petrified state as Roy finished raging with a slam of his fist against the wall only bare millimeters from Hohenheim's head.
Hohenheim felt the hand around his throat relax somewhat in Mustang's release of anger against the wall, but he didn't try and escape. "I remember you now, Roy Mustang." He began quietly, his golden-brown eyes studying his captor calmly, though pain flickered in their depths. "I didn't abandon them for coffee, I didn't abandon them at all."
Roy's growl was almost animalistic as he raised his eyes to glare maliciously at the man.
"I left because I had no other choice." Hohenheim continued, a steely-cold sadness of regret beginning to creep into his voice. "You think I would willingly leave my sons? I never meant to be gone so long! I thought I could fix this before it got so far!"
Edward shifted an unconscious step back under the sudden outbreak of emotion that fractured that collected demeanor he always remembered his father having, a small noise of confusion pulling from his lips.
"What the hell could be so important for you to fix that it broke apart your family!" Roy demanded now, not backing down in the least. Not realizing just how truly angry he was at Edward's father for leaving the boys. For leaving Edward. "How could anyone leave Edward…" he whispered, not even really realizing that he had as his hand clenched around Hohenheim's throat unconsciously.
Edward wasn't the only one who's attention suddenly darted to Roy at those words, but his was the most searching as he felt something inside him soften.
Hohenheim, for his part, let the wall behind him take most of his weight as he closed his eyes with a slow sigh. "Do you think I haven't asked myself before if I am doing the right thing? Especially when I heard that my wife and son had died? I've wanted to go back… so many times…"
"Why didn't you?" Edward suddenly burst out, looking frantic and hurt and far too vulnerable as his hands clenched at his sides. "All I – all Alphonse ever really wanted was a father! We just wanted you to come home!" And he deflated where he stood, every line in his body miserable as he whispered softly, "just to come home."
Roy felt his anger fracture within him as those words sent a raw pain through him, and abruptly he released Hohenheim, half-turning from him as he shook his head in consuming disappointment. "Just tell me what's so important – more important than your family. I want to understand…" and he sent a hard sideways look at Hohenheim through the black hair that had fallen out of neatness during his tirade. "I want to understand what could be more important than Edward… so I can remove it from existence."
Hohenheim had finished straightening his clothing, and adjusted his glasses before wiping at his clotting, but still bleeding nose with one gloved hand. He studied the man before him with the calm he was beginning to regain again, this strange man he'd once met long ago. Before the last war. He was a different man now, that much was easy to see. But one of the differences was puzzling him. "You really care about Edward, don't you."
Roy whipped around in a sudden regaining of his anger, "of course I do!"
Hohenheim smiled then, kindly. "Then we will talk. But not here… someplace where we can sit down. I'm not as young as I used to be."
Roy glared. "You can sit right there."
"Roy." Edward appeased, sounding emotionally worn.
Roy withheld a sigh, but relented. "I warn you, Hohenheim, you try anything funny and Edward's dad or not, I swear to you that I'll light you on fire. Actually, I should do that anyway, but for now, just cooperate."
"If you wish to light me on fire later, I'll give you a fair chance at it." Hohenheim agreed placidly, and began to walk with measured strides around the man to head out of the alley. "This way, Colonel. There are some tables nearby."
Roy followed without a word, his expression hard as he stared at the back of Hohenheim's head. They were nearly out of the alley when a soft sound that cut through him like a knife caused him to quickly look down at his side.
Edward's arms were wrapped around him, his body shaking slightly as he tried to pull himself together. Not from tears, he couldn't cry, but from every emotion and memory that seeing his father again was bringing back to the surface. He hadn't realized just how badly he'd wanted to see his father again. As a child he'd only known anger, but he knew now… he knew he'd only been trying to protect himself behind his anger.
He'd been trying to protect himself from the hurt, because he had wanted his father to come home. For him… and for Alphonse. He had wanted so badly to know that it wasn't his fault his father had gone. That his father still loved him…
He'd only wanted to know his father still loved him.
"Oh, Edward…" Roy murmured, reaching out to the ghost.
Edward glanced up at Roy through a silver fringe of hair, giving him a painfully sad smile as he fitted his hand as best he could against Roy's. "At least… it sounds like he didn't leave because of me."
Roy's eye twitched, and before Edward could even blink, he'd lunged forward to smack Hohenheim across the back of the head. "How dare you make your sons think that!"
Hohenheim had whirled around with a sharp noise of protest, and rubbing at the back of his head looked oddly at Roy. But shaking his head, he left the matter lie as he frowned at Roy thoughtfully before motioning to a table that sat outside one of the many cafes lining the street. "Sit, I'll answer your questions."
Roy looked around, about to protest that there were far too many people about for the types of questions and yelling he was about to engage in, when he blinked, a feeling of uncertainty creeping onto him as he realized they were somehow down a street he hadn't remembered turning on. One far less busy, and almost unsettling in its quietness. "How did –"
"Sit." Hohenheim insisted, taking a seat himself as he looked up at the Colonel. "Please."
Roy sat heavily, still looking around disconcertedly. He'd never seen this street before, and he was strongly familiar with this area of Central. "Where are we?"
Hohenheim folded his hands atop the table as he considered the man. "Central. I just took the liberty of picking a different type of alley."
Edward was regarding his father uncertainly as he sat in the air next to Roy, staying close to the side of the man. "Don't let him throw you off."
Roy could have rolled his eyes, but instead he fixed a hard look on the ghost's father. "What is more important than your family." He demanded with icy resolve.
Hohenheim opened the satchel at his side, setting on the table a paper-wrapped croissant and a bottle of water. "I had to leave because of my family." And quickly he held up a hand to try and diffuse the explosion he could see about to happen from Roy's end. "Let me finish."
Roy didn't, his anger only emboldened by how that little remark had affected Edward who looked as if he'd been wounded. "You stay because of family. Especially for your family! You have no idea what you've done to your sons, what you're still doing to them!"
Hohenheim finished breaking the croissant in half, before laying both halves down as he fixed Roy with a world-weary expression. "You don't understand, let me explain."
"Explain." Roy commanded, eyes narrowed.
"I had no choice, it was to protect them all." Hohenheim began, voice somewhat distant as he recalled the night he'd been forced to come to that very decision. "Trisha… the boys, I didn't want them to find out what I had done. What I was. So I left to try and find a way to set everything right again, to make things safe for the family I never thought I'd be privileged enough to have. To protect them."
"Was Edward protected when he gave his life for Alphonse, because you weren't there to be the father they needed?" Roy slammed his fist against the table, causing the bottle of water atop it to crash onto its side.
"I didn't know she'd get sick," Hohenheim hadn't flinched at the show of anger, but his tone was subdued. "I didn't know any of it… by the time I heard what had happened my wife was dead, and so was my son."
"And what about Alphonse?" Roy growled, "you'd just abandon him still? Can't you see what your absence has done to your family?"
"I didn't know!" Hohenheim shot back, before visibly forcing himself to calm as he stiffly righted his bottle of water. "If I went back to him… the things I've done since I left have attracted a lot of the wrong attention, as careful as I was. I'd just be putting him in danger. It's safer if I stay away from him until I've fixed the damage I've caused."
Roy stewed unhappily, his glove tightly stretched over a clenched fist. "You did cause it." He accused in a dangerous voice. "You left those damn books lying on your desk."
"Books?" Hohenheim frowned now, swallowing the bit of croissant he'd eaten. "Which books?
"The ones with the instructions for human transmutation, you irresponsible bastard!" Roy flared up.
"Edward… human transmu–" Hohenheim faltered off before fixing Roy with a stern look. "What happened? How did Edward die?"
Roy sat back in stunned silence. The man really didn't know? He only knew that his wife and son were dead, but not how? "He and his brother tried to bring their mother back to life. The Gate went after them and Edward sacrificed himself to save Al."
Hohenheim let out a heavy breath, his complexion having turned almost white. "Was there anything there afterwards? Anything?"
"Yeah, my blood." Edward huffed, still not seeming quite recovered.
Roy stared the man down, "you mean besides Alphonse? No, that's all that's left."
Hohenheim shook his head, almost glaring at the man. "I mean anything else. What happened to the transmutation ingredients? Was there anything there."
"You mean, did they succeed?" Roy pressed, and was suddenly unsure if he could get more disgusted than he was at the man's seeming unconcern that Edward was dead. "No. Of course not."
Hohenheim slowly shook his head, "you misunderstand me. Of course they succeeded, else the Gate wouldn't have come after them. Human transmutations do work, but what they bring back isn't human." And he speared Roy with a thoughtful look. "A lot like that Fuhrer of yours."
Roy was severely unbalanced by that and he spent a moment gaping before spluttering out, "what?"
"What does he mean, it worked?" Edward burst out. "Our mom wasn't there when we went back to see Alphonse!"
"I wonder… Alphonse was probably too distraught to notice. I wonder if it survived." Hohenheim's eyes narrowed in deep thought as he frowned at the croissant he was now picking apart. "I wonder if what they brought back was anything even close to being considered a something."
"What are you fucking talking about!" Roy snapped, not liking this one-sided conversation that Hohenheim seemed to be having with himself. "What do you mean it worked, and what does it have to do with the Fuhrer?"
Hohenheim looked back up sharply. "Edward and Alphonse did succeed, they're my sons, alchemy is in their blood in a way you could never imagine. But when a human transmutation happens, there is always a result. The results that manage to survive are homunculi. Nearly immortal, and quite destructive. Your Fuhrer is one such creature."
"You're trying to –"
"Roy." Edward cut across quickly, though he didn't raise his voice to do so. "I reacted to the Fuhrer, remember?"
Roy fell silent, eyes shadowed in thought. Yes. He did remember. How could he forget? He'd been so concerned for Edward that it had taken all his resolve not to chase after him when the ghost had fled in pain.
"Mustang?"
Roy looked up, eyes hard as they tried to come to terms with this… something he found was probably infinitely easier since meeting Edward. Edward rather defied the laws of what he'd thought the world was capable of. "Are they connected to the Gate then?"
Hohenheim nodded simply. "They are from the Gate."
"And he's practically immortal, the Fuhrer?"
"Yes." Hohenheim agreed, after a moment adding, "if he were to die enough successive human deaths, and not have a chance to replenish his life source, he would die as well. Or, if you can find his remains, the ones from the human he'd once been, those would weaken him enough that he could be killed."
Edward laughed weakly, causing Roy to startle. "Good thing you'll have me for that fight, Roy. I think you'll need the otherworldly assistance."
Roy decided he'd speak to Edward about that later. For now he fixed Hohenheim with a sharp stare. "What, exactly, are you up to that's so dangerous you couldn't stay with your family. That you can't go back to Alphonse. He wants to move away from that house, you know."
"It relates in part to the homunculi." Hohenheim revealed easily enough, his golden-brown eyes glimmering in thought as he considered the Colonel across from him. "How do you know so much about my family."
Roy didn't react, save for a humorless laugh. "Edward's letters trying to reach you reached me instead. I went to go help him if I could, but before I could leave he was already dead. Not too long ago I went to visit Alphonse, and pay some respects to Edward."
"Still…" Hohenheim frowned, sitting back in his seat as he stared hard at the man. "You care about Edward, the majority of the time you've yelled at me, you've mentioned him. I thought it was strange but… I've spent a lot of time around souls, Roy Mustang. Yours is exceptionally strong, but without your anger flaring around I know now what seemed off about you before, different than when we'd last seen each other… Edward is there with you, isn't he."