Edward, much to his disappointment and frustration, was bedridden for the next three days. This (though he was loathe to admit it,) was as much to do with his own flat refusal of another growth enhancement (this had been in the form of a rather amusing scene involving flying bedpans and many sulky looks) but was mostly to do with what Edward considered fascist doctor's orders. Much to his dismay, he had been prevented from visiting the rabbits almost immediately after expressing a wish to do so, and even though the arguments about their un-sterile living conditions and the effects that could have on his still healing wound were cogent, they left Edward rather annoyed at the world as a whole.
Therefore, bored and grumpy, Edward passed the days thinking of anything he could do to prevent himself from becoming moody and irritable, and was failing miserably, even by his own standards. More than once, he'd forced people out of the hospital ward for small things like disturbing him while he read avian history or forgetting to not give him milk with his meals. His leg still hurt him severely, and there was little to take his attention away from this fact in the sterile ward, no matter how much he begged Gracia to provide him with something interesting or useful to do.
These factors, however, were only a part of why Edward was so dispirited. The main part, the greatest part stemmed from frustration on two sources. Winry hadn't come to visit him since she had angrily stormed out of the wing, and Mustang had barely left his side with each successive visit becoming at the same time both calmer and more uncomfortable. Edward couldn't help but feel that the man was hiding something and this left him trying to puzzle out what for hours on end.
The captain of the Shiroi Tenshi no Shi was at his bedside now, sitting in near silence, only the occasional ruffle of his feathers or shifting of material giving away he was even there. Mustang was looking over reports, giving angry sighs or noises of assent every so often. Edward frowned, glancing over at him, but said nothing. With a vague, half-hearted gesture, Mustang indicated that Edward shouldn't concern himself, so he turned away, his frown turning into a scowl. Someone, Edward noted, had placed a flower by his bedside, a large, droopy thing which smelt pleasing but didn't look particularly nice. Its hanging petals were blue, with faint lilac tips, and much like a hibiscus, its style and stamen were a dull orange. Edward sighed, and decided to initiate conversation with the man next to him. "Roy?" he asked, referring to the man in the way he had asked to be called, "What's that flower called?" He felt the man stir next to him.
Mustang followed his gaze for a moment and sighed. "In a language that you would understand," he said, "It's called the Child of the Moon. It usually only blooms at night, but recent genetic streams we developed have been able to stay in flower for a few days." Mustang gave a dry snort of amusement. "It's not much to look at, so Gracia must have chosen it for its fragrance." Edward nodded and they fell silent again. The flower sat there looking gloomily about the world.
Edward opened his mouth for a moment, then let it fall shut with a click. Mustang sighed softly to his left and attracted Edward's attention again. He didn't look, but he tensed when Mustang rested his hand on his shoulder in an attempt to get him to look over. The hand, much to Edward's dismay, didn't move. A battle of wills had begun and Edward felt his patience wearing thin. It wasn't long until he gave an impertinent snort and glared at the man. "What?" He demanded expectantly. The man was smiling softly, the expression suiting him so much more than a smirk. He replied to Edward's look with a patient tip of his eyebrows.
Not for the first tie, Edward felt a strange sort of closeness to the man. "Edward," Mustang said with an almost awkward tone. This alone caught Edward's attention more than the hand did before. '...Cheer up, would you?"
The lame statement caused Edward to glare. "Don't tell me what to do, Mustang." He said. The man winced and strangely, Edward suddenly wished to take the statement back, realising he hadn't said it in a long while. Since Edward and the man had come to be on almost-friendly terms, Edward hadn't really sniped at him at all. Part of Edward was highly annoyed at the man for making him feel guilty, the rest was just apologetic. Once again, Edward was reminded of his own recent uselessness and had taken it out on Mustang. The man deserved it, to be sure, but it wasn't fair on Edward's part. The man gave him another one of those soft, sad smiles.
"You're not fun to tease when you're depressed." The avian said almost matter-of-factly. "You don't react the way you usually do and I'm left not entertained in the least." Edward frowned and turned his head to one side, trying to ignore the man as best he could when they were in such close contact. Mustang chuckled at his antics. "Edward, if you cheer up, I will take you to the rabbits when I get back."
Edward turned. "Where are you going?" he demanded.
This caused the man to laugh outright. Edward thought suddenly that it stripped years off the man, and that the twenty-nine year old could suddenly be no more than a day over 21. "It wouldn't be as much fun if I told you." He managed to gasp out between residual chuckles. The man removed his hand and turned back to what he was doing, but there was a new light in his eyes as if Edward had taken a large weight off his shoulders.
Edward frowned and added this to his list of things to work out. It only occurred to him later that he had enjoyed himself in the man's presence, and that the man's aim in this session had been to simply cheer him up. Making sure that no one was around, Edward broke into a small, almost fond grin. He wouldn't admit, even to himself that he had gained a liking of the bastard over his time on the ship.
"Ed's going to hate you for this."
Scowling at the shrugging shoulders in front of him, Maes Hughes, loving father and husband tried to convince his best friend that what he had in mind really wasn't as smart as he thought it was. The avian in front of him, double checked the safety on the gun at his waist.
"I mean, really hate you." Maes continued, "Rip out your small intestine and hand you from the ceiling style hate, Roy." He hoped that would be enough. There was only so far his brand of sensible humour could convince the man, and then he would have to step on the man seriously. He didn't want to do that.
Mustang muttered something distractedly that might have been a form of affirmant, before reaching into the drawer beside him and extracting two small night-vision contact lenses.
"You guys are finally getting on somewhat decently!" Hughes told him. "You seemed to not want to go through with the plan." The man flinched, and then went back to almost physically ignoring him. Hughes sighed, he didn't want to have to whip out the photos to get the man to see his way, but it looked like it was a desperate situation. Mustang was putting the contacts in.
"It's a different plan." Mustang said after a moment in which Hughes had silently debated whether the photo of Elysia with a bird or Elysia playing with dough would have been a better persuasion method. Hughes was snapped out of his internal musings by the man and looked up to see Roy in the process of hiding small knives among his feathers. "For what I want to do, you are indeed right. Edward will want to kill me." The man sighed. "He will have every right to do so as well."
Hughes frowned, deciding that even Elysia wasn't a good enough deterrent in this situation. He wondered if Roy's baby pictures would come in handy, but then thought against it. As much as he wanted to keep the man sane, Hughes liked being alive. "Tell you what," He said, "If you're going out to do something stupid, then I'm coming too." Maybe the immediate threat of having to put up with his best friend on an extended basis would deter the man. Roy turned.
Hughes knew that expression. No such luck. With a sigh he continued, "Only a fool would go into a plan alone, Roy. There's no way I would let my bet friend become a fool." Even not knowing what the avian's plan was, Hughes knew he couldn't do it alone.
Roy gave Hughes a weak smile. "What would I do without you?" He asked the man, and then returned to seriousness. "Still, you haven't really done your job, have you? Somehow, having escaped your notice, I have become foolish. Please don't follow me this time."
Hughes sighed. "I'm tempted to check if you have a fever." He grinned slightly, then let the expression fade. Though he wouldn't admit it, he was worried for the man. Hughes knew for a fact that Roy couldn't say he was a fool unless the man believed it so. Time to bring out the really big guns. "I'm doing this for my protection too, Roy." He said, "Gracia would kill me if she found out I'd let you run off and betray your county without at least one friendly face by your side." Because suddenly Hughes knew that was exactly what Roy planned to do. He would have told Edward in any other case.
"I'm not betraying my country." Roy reasoned, rifling through a stack of files. "I'm letting Edward's country spread its wings and fly free." Mustang turned to face him. "I can't rule in his place any more."
Hughes chuckled. "In other words, you're letting him go." This was worse than he thought.
Mustang nodded and Hughes grinned, coming to stand next to him, putting both hands on his shoulders. "See, this is why we're best friends, you moron." The man flinched under Hughes' hard stare. "You, when you get like this aren't sensible in the least, and I'm just fool enough to follow you." Hughes smiled then. "Fool enough to follow you to the end."
He let go of the man's shoulders then, searching through the armoury for a charged weapon. Mustang overcame his momentary shock. "Idiot." He said, but the insult was fond. "I need you to stay here to guide him. I need to do as much as I can for him before he decides what the future has in store." Hughes sighed and rolled his eyes. His best friend was using backwards logic again, he was hiding something.
"You know, logically, the best way to do that would be staying by his side until he's learnt everything he needs." Hughes told him.
"Logic has a habit of being flawed." Roy replied. He smiled and shook his head. "My mere presence is probably going to sway his decisions if we look at this logically. For better or for worse, that shouldn't happen." Roy sighed quietly. "I can't do anything more for him directly. Now I must secure him with more valuable allies than I. Those that will refuse to coddle him, or attempt to potentially break him, should they see fit. Those who will teach him the consequences of rash behaviour and actions. Those that will let him fly free, let him run the risk of falling, other than strive to overprotect him as we have done."
"You're planning an exchange with the Earth forces?" Hughes demanded; making the logic leap that only those that had been around the man for years could. "The two upper hostages for Mars and two captured avians." He glared. "You and I know that two humans won't be enough for that."
Mustang smirked, and Hughes could feel the scheming element of the man coming to the surface. "If course it won't." He turned towards the doorway and started to stroll almost leisurely towards it. "I already know that." He spoke over his shoulder, "Besides, we haven't had the prisoners nearly long enough for the Earth to be desperate for them back."
"Then why even bother?" Maes frowned, confused. He was getting a very bad feeling about the direction in which this conversation was heading.
"Because that's not all I have to offer." Roy replied calmly. "The other girl won't work. We already know this because Earth hasn't budged from its initial bargaining position even when we've placed her in the deal. However, if we exchange an avian to replace the one we 'stole'..."
Hughes noticed the bitterness that crept into that last statement but chose to ignore it for the time being. "Who would that avian be?" he asked, "Who would you have exchanged for peace without loosing Edward's belief and trust in your services?" It seemed more foolish than anything the man had ever heard before.
"Why Hughes." Mustang said with long-suffering patience. "That avian would be me."
"...That yell sounded like Hughes." Edward said; looking in the direction it had come from with slight confusion.
Alphonse sighed and took the momentary distraction as an opportunity to force-feed his older brother milk. He decided that he wouldn't tell his brother the level of vulgarity of that word. Edward would most certainly start to use it if he knew that.
----
"I've said it three times now and I'll say it again. Of all of your bad ideas, and I'm talking the truly bad ones, the ones that had the potential to bring you to a rather disgusting, raspberry jam coloured end, by far mustang, this is the worst one you've ever had." The voice Winry was vaguely aware of puncturing her fogged mind was strangely familiar. "Note here, that I am including the time that you asked Lisa to be your casual sex partner."
There was a strange sort of snort, and then the yelling continued in words that her communicator couldn't translate for her. Interested slightly, she let her mind clear so she could focus on the two angels who had just stepped into the prison in which she was being held. She watched with a dark sort of curiosity as both the black haired, dark winged creatures made their way down the corridor, decked out in what looked like espionage gear. She realised they were approaching the cell across from here and wondered what they could want with Ling this time.
One of the angels, she suddenly realised, was the one that Edward answered to. At first she had wondered how he had won Edward's obedience and loyalty, but now seeing him in the dim gloom, he lost his sense of youth and humanity (She wasn't sure if she could use that word, but it was the only one that fitted.) and he had turned into a cold and regal creature. His black features were highlighted by the gloom, his white skin appearing to shimmer as what little light there was highlighted it. He was contradictory even unto himself and Winry knew at once why Edward was intrigued with these people. Mustang, Edward had called him, the man who had cost Winry the confidence she had had in her best friend. The name was familiar to her for another reason, beyond the fact that Edward had only paid her minimal attention while he was around, bot for the moment she couldn't place it. The other one, following behind, appeared to be pleading almost desperately. Winry couldn't remember his name at the present point in time.
"Have you thought for a moment about how this will affect the crew?" The one who's name Winry couldn't remember spoke. He seemed panicked about something. "Think how it will affect Edward! He's only just starting to really trust you." Winry's ears perked up at the mention of Ed's name. She suddenly found herself paying full attention, as much as she didn't want to.
"He's a big boy." Mustang replied with a tone of non-committal. "He can take care of himself. No, he must. I can't rule in his stead anymore. He is a prince and he has to live with that fact." Winry ignored her confusion at what Edward had been referred to for a moment to listen to the conversation further.
"I don't understand why not!" The first angel snapped. "You've been doing a fine job of t up until now. What's changed between today and yesterday to make you like this? Only the other day you were telling me that the boy has barely made one decision where you haven't at least had some sort of hand."
Mustang smiled, and Winry noted that it brought a sort of sadness into the angel. "I was wrong, Hughes." He replied, "By my amended count he's made three."
Mustang turned to the lock in front of Ling's cell and turned his attention solely onto it. He didn't even glance over at Winry, though he called for Ling in a slightly annoyed tone. He probably didn't even realise that she overheard him saying, "And all three have been to do with the girl. The first choice was to tell her to get out, when she would have died had she stayed and tended to the human machinery as she was supposed to." He raised his hand to 'Hughes', "Before you say anything, it was all over his thoughts when he returned from the mission. I couldn't help but try to find out what was making him so pale. Secondly, he endangered his own life for her. The most important person we have put himself at risk for a common human. Doesn't that tell you something?"
Hughes opened his mouth to speak, but was again cut off by Mustang. "Finally, ever since she's been on the ship, he's continually insisting on seeing her. It's only been because of the fast thinking of the crew that she didn't know about the summons. It would seem that now she's on the ship, he wants to be with her more than anyone else."
The other angel stared for a moment, and then must have come to a conclusion. "So, according to your reasoning, he loves her."
"You were right. You are the only person who can read me that well."
Winry started for a moment, then growled. They were blind! And so very wrong about the whole situation. Edward would do those things for anyone he cared about; one only had to look at what he did for Nina Tucker to see that! She glared at the regal angel and decided to have her input. "Is that what you really think about Edward?" She demanded, "Because if that's the case then I think all that black must be dulling your vision." Both angels spun to look at her. "I may hate him right now, but I've never heard such nonsense reasoning about his character. You're right, Edward does love me, but only as one could love a sister, no matter how much I wish for it to be something more than that." Her voice was rising in pitch but she didn't care. "I know that he can't love me more than that. I know it can't happen and I've resigned myself to this fact."
The angel turned and looked at her critically for a moment. It was the first time he had even regarded her presence with anything more than total disdain. "Is that so, human? Would you care to enlighten me as to how you've come to this conclusion?" She winced at the coldness in his voice, but returned the look he gave her with one of equal hatred. She reminded herself that these people had killed humans, annihilated them even, without breaking a sweat or turning the other way. The angel smirked at her, cold and dark. "Perhaps it is because of your seemingly magical ability to hide technology and weapons on your person even when you have been strip searched twice?" he held out his hand to her and she handed over the communicator, refusing to feel guilty in the presence of these creatures.
She kept her gaze focused calmly on the creatures in front of her. "If he loved me in the way you think he does, would he have betrayed me?" She demanded, "He would have never left home in the first place, and even if he did, he would have come home with me the first chance he had. He never would have abandoned me or put my life in danger like he did." The fact he had still gave her great sadness.
Mustang regarded her for a moment, as if she was nothing more than a silly girl who had gotten caught in the crossfire. He turned away. "You think so, human? Edward has a great responsibility tying him here, one that al avians, including himself, recognise as with a greater importance than emotion."
Winry frowned. "You can say that things are more important than family and emotion all you want, but I guarantee you that Edward won't believe them." She replied quietly, unsure as to why she felt the need to explain this. "And if you don't get that, I don't know why he considers you so highly as to tell you all the secrets he kept hidden from me for years."
The angel flinched so slightly that Winry thought she had imagined it. The other one was looking between them like it was some sort of tennis volley. "Even if Edward has placed me in the position you think he has, human," Mustang said over his shoulder, "I have to do this for him. I can't stay here, you wouldn't understand."
Winry sighed and sat back in her cot. It was obvious that nothing would convince this man, and she wasn't entirely sure why she was trying. She was defending Edward, but Edward had betrayed her. She thought it was to prevent this man from forcing Edward to experience what she had gone through. "When you get caught," She said after a moment, "Ed will come to get you, come Hell or high water. He'll follow you, just to keep you free and he will support you until the end. He'll do all this just to keep you free and close to him, if that is your wish. And then, maybe you'll understand what I mean when I say Edward values love and family more than anything else you can think of."
"You may know him, human," Mustang snapped, "But you know nothing of me, nor of Edward's relationships with the people on board this vessel." With a slight shake of his head, he continued, "And you hate my kind, just as I hate yours. What do you possibly have to gain from this?"
Winry smiled mournfully. "Nothing." She said, "I will probably never see my family again, because in the eyes of humans I'm just a worthless lower class scum who was stupid enough to get herself caught. But Edward has become a lot more than that, even if it's in a way that I don't like." she couldn't think how best to explain it to the man. "Edward's found a place here that's made him truly happy for the first time... probably ever."
"And? He has all that without me here."
"You don't understand." She replied, "Edward lets you touch him. Edward doesn't let anyone touch him, but he's let you. That's enough to prove to me that he needs you, probably as much as you need him."
She could see the puzzlement that lined the man's eyes as he opened Ling's cell and awoke the boy inside. Handcuffing the upperclassman with a special kind of electro-motive force restraint, he turned to her one last time, slight respect in his eyes. "We'll see what happens when this is over, human. We'll see who he runs to."
She smiled at him slightly, even as he had already turned away to gather Ran from her cell.
.
A/n: Not a long author's note today because I'm about five minutes away from needing to go to uni. (I don't want to have to explain to my Japanese lecturer why I'm late for his class again; he's threatened to make me do it in Japanese this time. "Sumenasai, sensei, watashi wa... anno, watashi wa communications no benkyou shimasu?") Yeah, I don't know how to say "I was writing fan fiction" yet. I should ask about that.
Anyway. The name of the ship got a mention this chapter, did you catch it?
I've really got to get going, I just wanted to say a few things:
I got a new job.
This means I have money for more anime.
So expect some fan fiction from other series' from me as soon as I know enough about Gankotsuou and Kyo Kara Maoh to actually write on them.
Leave a little review? -Shakes her tin can imploringly- (P.S. WOW. Over 30 pages of reviews! You guys are so good to me!)