Chapter 4: Chaos
Part 1 of 2
The Maslenitsa festival, performed the last week of February, was one of the few holidays held quite religiously by Central. Despite the reforms of the military, and the industrial progress, it was one holiday held over from old Amestrian history, when the Slavic peoples believed in the trees and the sky as being their benefactors. A time when they thanked, and believed in, the sun god Volos.
Paganism had of course long since been replaced by monotheistic religions and Amestrian culture now represented a mix of peoples, but the festival was a holdover from their most ancient traditions and was celebrated by all.
In rural Resembool it had been the most important celebration of the year and Ed and Al's mother had always made bliny, they had always gone to the largest farm, twelve miles away, where the huge family there hosted the festivities, and they'd always participated in the local snowball fight. It had been huge, and the Elric brothers would never forget it.
It didn't compare to Central City's celebrations. The main square and several streets leading to it were closed off for the entire week. Stalls, booths, street performers, carolers, food vendors, and more filled the sidewalks while the rest of the space was filled with people.
Recently promoted Lieutenant-Colonel Maes Hughes had insisted that they all go, the entirety of Lt. Col. Mustang's office was forced to spend that Friday, the fifth day of celebrations, at the festival. Hughes claimed that it was a necessary experience for his eight month old.
Edward had grumbled about it, refusing to go until Alphonse had heard and practically begged to go.
So that was how they all ended up in the mix of the crowds, barely able to see each other.
Hughes had Elicia in a carrier strapped to the front of him, Gracia was talking with Riza Hawkeye and the rest of the team had already dispersed, excited to enjoy the festivities. The only two still grumbling were Roy and Ed.
"Come on Roy, you're being a big ol' party pooper, and look, you're spreading it. Ed caught the grumpiness."
Roy shot a scathing glare toward his friend and resisted the urge to grab a nearby plate of bliny and shove it into the man's face.
Maes just had a big goofy grin on his face, an undercurrent of evil that only Roy could see just lingering beneath the surface.
"This is stupid Lt. Col., I could be doing something useful with my day off, I'm too old for this."
Roy and Maes both got evil grins and exchanged damning looks.
"Hehe, I mean, it's not like this festival is for kids or anything," Maes said.
"Yeah, and it's not like you're a little kid of anything," Roy added.
"I AM NOT LITTLE! IT'S NOT LIKE I'M SO SMALL YOU COULDN'T SEE ME WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS!"
Edward was screaming, flapping his arms and looking every bit like the scrawny thirteen year old he had just become. However, his flailing was a bad idea with the huge crowd, and he smacked his hand into a little girl's plate of bliny, sending the food to the ground.
Edward froze and looked over as the girl started to cry. Edward started to try to calm her down, promising to buy her some more bliny or whatever she wanted so long as she stopped crying.
"You even act like a small child, Edward," Roy said, smirking as he watched the boy tense up.
But Edward didn't respond, still trying to appease the little girl.
Roy watched in amusement as Edward led the little girl to a nearby bliny stand and started buying her way more than the little girl had lost.
"Edward really is a good kid," Maes said, watching Edward get the little girl to laugh happily, her tears gone.
Roy gave a small nod, eyeing Maes warily. He didn't want to hear any of the man's constant family man suggestions. He was saved by Gracia and Riza approaching.
Riza however did something unexpected, she went over to Hughes and started to take Elicia, before then bringing her over to Roy. Roy was watching in suspicion, Riza didn't like children, never had.
"Are you sure you two will be alright?" Gracia asked in concern.
Two? Roy blinked in confusion. What was going on?
"Roy and I will be completely able to take Elicia for an hour or so. You two enjoy the festival."
Roy's face went blank and he stared in shock. Gracia swooped in to help Riza clip the carrier into place and then place the baby inside.
Riza cast him an ice cold look as he opened his mouth to protest.
Maes also looked shocked, but with delight. Gracia was extremely grateful and smiled widely, profusely expressing her gratitude. Edward had just returned from buying the little girl practically the entire stand and was looking on in confusion.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Roy and I are taking care of Elicia for a little while," Riza answered.
Edward's eyes went wide and he dashed over to Hughes. Babies were not on his list of things he could deal with. The traumatizing act of helping birth Elicia had been enough to last him a lifetime when it came to babies.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Roy cried, staring helplessly down at the little blonde haired baby that could barely be seen from how many layers she'd been dressed in.
"With the Hughes," Edward answered.
"I order you to stay, Fullmetal!" Roy yelled as Maes, Gracia, and Edward started to walk off.
At the least Fullmetal was going to have to suffer through this with him.
"Can't! I'm not working!" Edward called, turning around to smile devilishly and wave.
"FULLMETAL!" Roy roared.
The three disappeared into the crowd.
"Quit whining Lt. Col.," Riza said, eyeing him without pity.
Roy's shoulders slumped and he accepted his fate.
Gracia and Maes meanwhile were walking like a romantic couple, which if Ed thought about it that was exactly what they were, but all he could think about was how ridiculous it was and stupid. Love was so gross. He trailed behind, sort of hoping he could lose them, but every so often either Gracia or Maes would make a comment and ask him to come over.
Eventually Edward forgot about being annoyed and started to enjoy himself. It kind of felt like walking around with his mom, except his dad was there and not making his mom sad. It was a bit of like what he'd dreamed about as a really little kid, when he was five and hoped his father would return so momma would stop crying at night.
"Have you ever tried baumkuchen Edward?" Gracia asked, heading over to a stall that was selling the dessert.
Edward hurried over, the prospect of the sweet exciting him.
"We had it all the time growing up, it was quite common," Gracia continued, handing over a few cenz and in exchange getting two slices.
She handed one to Edward who stared in shock and surprise at her. She just smiled in return and Edward's grin returned in full force. Maes ruffled his hair, and for one moment Edward felt like a kid.
"Big Brother!"
Al came running over, people scattering out of the way of the giant metal man. He was obviously brimming with excitement.
"You'll never guess what I saw!" Alphonse said, practically jumping up and down.
"What was that?" Gracia asked, smiling and showing interest.
"They were huge and-and amazing and-I can't describe it and-!"
"Do you wanna show me Alphonse?" Gracia asked, laughing a little at Alphonse's uncontained excitement.
Alphonse rapidly nodded his head and Gracia grabbed his hand. The two headed off, Alphonse almost dragging Gracia behind him. She turned her head and waved at her husband and Edward with a smile on her face.
"I haven't seen Al that excited about something since the last set of kittens he found each had one spot on their head," Edward said, absentmindedly eating the cake.
Maes laughed, "Well, I guess he is only twelve."
Edward blinked, thinking about that, his eyes falling to the cake and his entire demeanor becoming somber.
"Yeah," he said quietly.
Maes watched as the boy threw the cake away and started walking. He followed, a little confused as to what had happened. He caught up to Ed and placed a hand on his shoulder. The boy had seated himself on a fountain, the one in the middle of the plaza.
"Don't like cake?" Maes asked.
The festivities roared around them, the center place of what was going on.
"I do," Edward responded listlessly.
He was staring down at his gloved hands, his outfit for once normal since it was a bit conspicuous going out in public with the red jacket. Maes sat down next to him.
"Why'd you throw it out?"
"Because Al can't eat it, he can't even enjoy his childhood, because of me. And I just keep enjoy everything when I should be the one suffering his fate."
Maes was silent. He wouldn't pretend to understand the life of the Elrics, and he knew pointing out the logic, like that Edward was only a child himself, and that the two boys had suffered for their joint mistakes, wouldn't help much.
"Al would want you to enjoy it, so at the least you can tell him about it after you two get your bodies back. He'd be sad to see you not enjoying yourself."
Ed gave a tiny nod, head hanging. Maes hated to see the guilt the boy carried with him, it reminded him of Ishval, and the boy was too young to be holding that weight. He put an arm around Edward's shoulders and gave a small squeeze. They sat there for a few minutes, and Maes was glad to see that Ed had perked up a tiny bit, leaning into Maes and instead of staring at his lap, looking at the events going on around them.
"You feeling like some more cake? But you're paying this time Mr. State Alchemist, I know just how much you guys get in your budget and you can afford to-"
Shots rang out, the sounds of an automatic rifle and immediately there were screams. Maes abruptly stood, grabbing Edward and dragging him toward cover. Edward wrenched out of his grasp and started to run toward the source of the shooting.
"Edward!" Maes cried, dashing after the boy.
There were multiple people collapsed on the ground, blood could be seen. It was a man standing there, he had a military issued rifle in hand and was firing into the crowd. Edward started to charge, anger taking over common sense.
The man swung in his direction, rifle raised. Edward was too far away, but the man was too close for him to have time to transmute. Edward was scared for a moment, but then something crashed into him, the sound of the gun firing coming a moment later.
Edward hit the ground hard, the man with the rifle was approaching, gun raised still. Edward looked over to see the source of his miraculous rescue. Maes Hughes was on top of him, a pained expression on his face.
Edward glanced up at the approaching shooter and back to Maes, Ed's arm was trapped and he started to desperately try to wriggle free. But it wouldn't be soon enough. The shooter aimed at Edward and the boy's eyes went wide with fear.
A shot went off. Edward was trembling slightly, terrified. But the shooter collapsed. Ed looked over and saw that a small pistol was pointed in the direction of the shooter, the hand holding it Maes Hughes'.
"Major?" Ed said.
Maes looked over to Ed and smiled.
"Are you hurt Edward?"
Ed shook his head no.
"Everything's okay now," Maes reassured.
He started to get up when Edward saw the red on the man's grey shirt.
"Major," he said, "you're hurt!"
Maes looked down and tried to take a step. His knees started to buckle and Edward in a second was there, holding the man up.
"Heh, guess I wasn't quite fast enough," Maes said, a tight smile on his face as he looked over to Ed.
"We need to get you to a hospital!" Ed cried.
Why had the man sacrificed himself like that for Ed? He'd almost died, could die, all to keep Edward safe.
People were swarming around them, running away or in some direction. Screams could be heard, and the peaceful crowd of earlier had been replaced with a dangerous panicked mob.
"At least the shooter got taken out," Maes said through gritted teeth.
A moment later more shots were heard, but a lot more distant.
"Gracia, Elicia," Maes said in anguish.
"Don't worry, Alphonse will keep Gracia safe, and Colonel Bastard has Hawkeye with him to take care of Elicia. You can't help them Major, not hurt."
Even as he said it though, Edward desperately hoped it was true.
Upon hearing shots, Riza Hawkeye had a gun in her hand in mere seconds, eyes already scanning for danger. Roy was serious too of course, grabbing his gloves from out of his pocket. Little Elicia meanwhile was wide awake and curious, totally nonplussed by the quickly panicking crowd.
"Follow me sir," Riza commanded, pushing her way through the people, her gun held down and slightly up her sleeve so it couldn't be seen well.
Roy nodded, trusting implicitly in his right hand man, one arm wrapped protectively around the child strapped in his arms and the other wearing one of his ignition gloves.
They managed to make it into an off-shoot alleyway that was empty. Roy watched the crowd of people bustling past and felt his stomach tense with worry. Just a trampling crowd was going to create casualties, and that wasn't accounting for the shooter (or shooters).
Riza started to quickly scale the wall, using the fire escape. She was probably going to try to get a sight on the shooters. Roy meanwhile waited tensely. He looked down at the little bundle strapped to him. He needed to keep this kid alive.
A few minutes later Riza climbed down.
"We've got shooters at the start of all the streets, I assume based on what I could hear and see, and I think one in the central plaza. The crowds are being herded and kept in the area."
Roy was silent, thinking. He exchanged a look with Riza.
They were both worried, all of his people were out there and possibly unarmed.
"Well, this isn't ideal," Roy said.
Riza gave a nod of her head, agreeing with him.
TBC...