Roy Mustang was more than a little annoyed to be sitting outside the doctor's office for a reason unknown to him. Hawkeye had merely pointed to it on the calendar and levelled her gun at him. It wasn't his fault that he hadn't known about it. He wasn't even sure what the appointment/meeting was for.
Lieutenant Bogosian was a middle aged doctor, he looked kind enough, but as far as Mustang was aware the man wasn't his normal practitioner. Roy noted, grumpy for having to be here, that the man had a very large nose.
"Welcome Colonel!" the doctor greeted brightly.
Roy tried not to look too smug at the use of his brand new rank. It did feel good though to finally have been awarded it.
"Lieutenant," Roy replied politely.
"I assume you know why you're here?"
Roy was silent and there was an awkward pause.
"Okay, why don't you come in and sit down, it'll be more comfortable to talk there."
Roy felt like this was going to be a bad talk, probably about the early onset of some sort of health problem. With dread, Roy followed the Lieutenant into his office. They sat.
"I understand that Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, is considered under your guardianship, or at least that you handle the guardianship which the military has of the boy."
Roy was a little taken aback. He hadn't expected to be called in to talk about Fullmetal.
"Well, I know the boy is a genius, but he is also still pretty young, and as I'm aware has been orphaned since he was ten," the doctor continued.
"Yes," Roy said slowly, still not sure exactly where this conversation was going.
"Well, I conducted his annual check up and I believe that a large change needs to be made to his diet."
"Well, he's been known to hate milk," Roy joked.
His smile fell though as he took in the doctor's rather serious manner.
"It is a lot more serious than that, he has a weak immune system right now because of deficiencies. To be honest, I think that he lives off of sweets and junk food. I don't even want to talk to his dentist."
"And you want me to do something about this?" Roy asked incredulously.
The doctor frowned, "well, you are his legal guardian."
Roy couldn't believe this. He was being talked to like he was doing bad parenting. He wasn't a parent and most definitely not of Fullmetal.
"This can turn into a matter of life and death, Edward already struggles with plenty of medical problems from the strain of his automail. He needs a much healthier diet than even a regular boy his age if he's going to maintain his lifestyle. I spoke with him about it, but he's thirteen and honestly, despite his genius, a bit uneducated in this. He needs an adult he trusts to help him make good eating choices."
Roy stared. He hadn't really known about the issues that the automail caused because he'd just never thought about it. But Roy was not the person to make Edward eat healthy, Roy barely managed his own health.
"I know it's a lot, but Edward will have another check up in a month and if he isn't improved, I'll have to remove him from active duty and make the suggestion that he be considered unfit for military service."
That made the problem a lot more dire. Roy needed to have a serious conversation with his subordinate.
"You need to eat healthier Edward!" Roy shouted, frustrated with how this was all going.
"Don't tell me what I can or can't do!" Edward shouted back.
"I think Ed should be able to do whatever he wants, he's a state alchemist," Havoc said, a pack of cigarettes in his hand.
"Yeah! What he said!" Edward replied.
"2nd Lieutenant Havoc, do you want to spend the next month down in the basement with Lt. Col. Downing?" Roy threatened, ready to ring his subordinate's neck.
Downing was known to hold his fellow officemates hostage with long, unending stories regarding his household activities. He'd one time spent an hour describing an exciting evening with his cat.
"No, no sir, not at all," Havoc immediately backtracked, "You should definitely eat healthy and live healthy, Edward."
He looked down at the cigarettes in his hand and quickly hid them behind his back. A piercing glare from Hawkeye sent him scampering from the room.
"I'm not doing anything you say Colonel Bastard, you already control enough of my life!"
That was it, Roy couldn't do this the easy way.
"You have one month to improve your health Edward or you'll be booted from the military! You're not going to be able to get Al's or your body back!"
The office became dead silent.
"And I don't have time for you acting like a child. Pull yourself together and figure it out."
The silence continued and Roy refused to feel guilty, he turned on his heel and stormed into his office. Sitting down at his desk he began angrily signing papers.
He expected that he would be left alone for the rest of the day while Edward figured something out. What he wasn't anticipating was a quiet knock on his door.
Roy called out 'enter' and the door opened. Fullmetal had transformed from the blustering, angry figure Roy was so familiar with into a meek, quiet boy. It reminded him of the boy he'd found in Resembol.
"Can I help you, Fullmetal?"
"Co-could I have the report, the doctor gave you."
Roy let out a soft 'hnn' and started to sort through his papers to find it. He held it out to Fullmetal.
The boy grasped it, not looking Roy in the eyes. As he turned to leave, Roy felt compelled to say something.
"If you need help, Edward, you can always ask for it."
Fullmetal's head snapped up and he stared at Roy. It was quiet, Roy went back to his paperwork and Edward left the room.
Roy wasn't expecting Falman to step in and to offer the Elric brothers a place to stay and his tutelage on health matters. The man was a walking, talking encyclopedia and a dedicated worker. Once he'd decided to do something he usually doggedly stuck to it.
It was irritating to see that Edward was much more polite to Falman than he ever was to Roy. It had been a week and so far it seemed to be going well.
"Falman, can I see you in my office?"
"Yes, sir," Falman saluted, the oldest member of their office was still extraordinarily stiff and formal.
Most everyone sent them quizzical looks, but Roy ignored them. When they were both inside, Roy sat down in his chair.
Falman was standing at attention. Roy let out a tiny sigh, if only Fullmetal were this courteous and concerned about military bearing.
"At ease, I just want to have a discussion about Fullmetal's stay with you at your apartment."
"Yes sir."
"You can sit down Falman."
Falman sat down.
"Is Fullmetal giving you a hard time at all?"
"No sir, he is a pleasure to have around."
Roy eyed his subordinate for any sarcasm, he couldn't think of one instance when the eldest Elric had been anything close to being a pleasure, but the man seemed to be genuine.
"What about his physical health?"
"Quite well, I believe sir, I requested his documents and am taking the correct steps to educate him and provide adequate nutrition. My cousin is a children's doctor and nutritionist and shared some very good books with me on the impact of nutrition on growth. Adolescents require a greater quantity of calories, vitamins and-"
"So he's doing better, Falman?" Roy cut the man off before he started one of his 'lectures'.
"These things take time, but I believe that over the next month he will improve enough to pass whatever test the doctor gives. I've offered for him to stay with me for the next three weeks."
Roy gave a nod of his head.
"You will be reimbursed for that, Warrant Officer."
"Oh, no, sir, I couldn't, I'm very glad to help!" Falman replied, flushing as he raised his hands up to show refusal.
"That will be all. You're dismissed."
Falman stood up, saluted, and then left the room.
At the end of the day, Roy decided to skip out just a couple minutes early. Hawkeye had been distracted by an upcoming friendly sharpshooter contest which she'd been kindly asked to participate in and he figured he could slip by her.
Opening his office door he saw Falman, Havoc, Breda and the Elric brothers in a group, they were laughing loudly. Breda mussed up Edward's hair and the boy ducked down, a bright smile on his face.
Roy paused, watching the scene. It was pleasant.
Falman said something about needing to return before the traffic got worse. They said their goodbyes, Havoc placing an apple in Edward's hand and saying the age old adage of "an apple a day.." as a joke.
As they stepped out, Roy couldn't help but feel pleased with the small family his office made.
"Going somewhere?"
Roy jumped, heart rate spiking at the sudden voice in his ear. It was Hawkeye.
"Umm! No! Of course not! I'm-"
"I was thinking we could walk. The weather is quite nice and we can take a bus the rest of the way."
Roy calmed down and looked at Hawkeye. She gave a slight smile and stepped past him.