"Sir?" Riza knocked on the door as she opened it, a pile of papers in her arms. She closed her eyes when she saw him, resting on his desk, his eyes closed and surrounded by papers. "Sir…Colonel Mustang!" She sighed and walked to him when he didn't respond. There was a loud bang that shot him up as she dropped the pile in front of him.

"Sleeping? Lieutenant don't be silly," he said quickly, only to receive another sigh from her.

"The Fullmetal Alchemist has returned from his mission," she said with closed eyes. He raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Well, send him in." She nodded and disappeared, only to be replaced by a small blonde haired boy, his hands in his pockets. "It's been a while Fullmetal, I assume you have something for me?" Roy held out his hand, and the boy put a piece of paper in it before collapsing back onto the couch.

There was an awkward silence as the Colonel read over the paper. Finally he leaned back in his chair and looked over at the kid out of the corner of his eyes.

"Well, you've certainly racked up quite the bill." Ed smirked and crossed his arms as he leaned back even more. Roy looked at him for a bit, and then glanced over it again. "Clothing, food, accommodations," he flipped the page. "Repairs…cat food?"

"We uh, adopted a cat for a bit," Ed replied, rubbing the back of his head. Roy sighed and placed the paper down on his desk.

"I didn't send you on a vacation Ed, and as you can see I'm very busy." He gestured to the piles of paperwork on his desk. "Now, you've been there for over two months, do you have something to report to me?"

"Yeah, yeah," Ed muttered, rolling his eyes. "Everything's just peachy in Lior. They have some rebuilding to do, but other then that there are no problems. If you don't count the low class criminals."

"Well, that explains the repairs then," Roy said with a sigh. Ed grinned.

"Yup!"

"Look Ed, the money we give you is not for leisure sp—"

"Sir, you have a visitor," Riza interrupted with a smile, and before Roy could open his mouth to complain, a black haired, green eyed girl came running in.

"Papa!" she exclaimed, running passed a shocked Ed and into Roy's arms.

"Hey there kiddo," he said with a smile.

"Papa?" Ed exclaimed. "What the hell have you been doing while I was away?!"

"Keep it down Ed," he replied, holding the girl in his lap now. "She isn't supposed to be here." Ella looked up at him as Ed blinked.

"I'm sorry Papa, I got bored…"

"It's alright for today Ella, don't worry. However, you can't just stroll in here when you get bored. Understand?" She nodded. He smiled at her and ruffled her hair, causing Ed's jaw to drop. Ella blinked and looked over at Ed, then sunk more into Roy. "Ella, this is Edward Elric."

"It's nice to meet you, uh…Ella," Ed said, snapping out of his daze. Ella nodded slowly, still staying as close to Roy as possible.

"Ella, I want you to go to Riza alright? I'll be home later." She pouted but nodded and jumped off his lap, skipping out the door. There was silence in the office, then,

"What the hell was that?! Where'd she come from?! Is that the result of some really old girlfrie--"

"I told you to keep your voice down, Fullmetal," Roy interrupted as he stood and went to the window, his hands laced behind his back. "Truth is, she isn't even supposed to be alive." Ed's shocked expression faded into a serious frown.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know much about her background, but the information I got was that she was causing trouble down in the labs. Why she was there, or what she was doing, I'm not sure…but in any case, I was ordered to kill her. As you can see, I failed to do that."

"Wait a minute, you disobeyed an order?" Roy sighed and closed his eyes.

"Get serious Ed. There is obviously something wrong."

"Yeah, yeah. Like, why the hell a girl like her was in a place like this." Roy looked at him through the reflection of the window.

"And why she was kept secret. What could the Higher Ups be thi--" he turned when the door opened.

"Sir," Riza said, her hand on the doorknob. "The flowers were just dropped off." He nodded, and she closed the door quietly. Roy looked at Ed.

"Ella's at home," he said, after seeing the confused look on the young Alchemist's face.

"Right…" Ed stood and stretched. "Well, we'll figure out what's going on. Anything else?"

"Perhaps," he said, returning to his desk and sitting down in his chair.

"What's that mean?"

"Go get some rest Ed," he replied, picking up a few papers from the piles. "We'll talk later." Ed stared at him for a bit, opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself and nodded instead, seeing the Colonel was already hard at work. He left the office quietly and yawned. Guess the old man can have a heart, he thought with his hands behind his head. Ah well, I could use a break anyway. He grinned, and went to go meet his brother.

"Sorry that took so long Al," he said with a grin, coming down the stairs.

"That's alright brother," the boy replied with a smile, standing. "What did he say?"

"Not much, but he did give us a break." Al's face lit up.

"That's great!"

"Yeah," he blinked when a drop of water fell on his face, then another. "Come on, lets hurry."

"Right." They ran to the shelter of an awning as the rain began to fall harder.

Roy glanced out the window at the steady sound of raindrops.

"…" he sighed. "I hate the rain."