Well, I'm back! And I'm making some changes to the story in a couple of the later chapters, so I just thought I'd warn you that one or two might go up on Monday instead. Other than that... Here's Chapter 3!
Warning: There are discussions of experimentation for male pregnancy. No actual mpreg, though. If there is any of that, it will occur very far down the line here. We're no where near the point of an actual mpreg for this story. Just the experimentation and discussion of it. ^_^
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or put an alert on this story! I'm glad you're enjoying! I'll be trying to respond to the reviews today, and then I'll get some more typed up on this story. As much as possible so as to avoid a delay in future posting. ^_^
As always, constructive criticism is not only welcome, but cherished! Enjoy!
Chapter 3
Ed had never seen the point of being nice to people you don't like for no reason. Wasn't it just better to avoid them and therefore avoid the temptation to punch their face in? However, others obviously did not share this view.
The mayor looked at Mustang for the first time with disdain in his eyes despite the contrasting broad smile he was pasting onto his face. Then he saw Ed slip in after Mustang, and something like surprise stopped him, washing the disdain away in a flood of surprise. After that, he stared at Ed for so long that Ed finally shifted nervously, holding back an urge to hide behind his commanding officer.
Mustang also seemed to not like the Mayor's scrutiny of Ed. He stepped back and over, partially shielding Ed with his body from the other man's view. Looking up, Ed saw Mustang's lips thinned into the hard line that was reserved for when Mustang was really angry or annoyed at something. Not even Ed had ever managed in all the years he'd worked under Mustang to make him get this look more than once or twice before. This man had managed it in less than five minutes.
Ed looked back at the chubby mayor and wondered if he had missed something.
The door shut behind Ed, its click nearly as slow and soft as the movement on its tight hinges had been. The sound seemed to startle the mayor from a hard stare now directed at Mustang. He blinked for a moment before plastering a friendly smile on his face. He stepped forward and offered a hand to Mustang.
Mustang took it after another long moment of heated silence in which Ed wondered once again if he had missed something.
"I'm Oliver Cranning, the mayor of Tramston," he said, his voice low-pitched and smooth as velvet. He glanced over at Ed again, and Ed got the feeling of steak at a particularly fine restaurant.
He scowled back at the mayor until Cranning looked over at Mustang again.
"For now, I am Roy Masterson and this is Ed. We're from the army. We'll be posing as newlyweds to find out about your serial killer alchemist," Mustang told the man, his voice so low that Ed doubted anyone listening outside the room could hear. Cranning did, however, and he stiffened in surprise, his eyes flying between them nervously as Mustang continued, "What can you tell us about this case?"
Cranning swallowed hard and shrugged, apparently doing his best to appear nonchalant. He turned and made his way over to the lit fireplace to sit on a settee that looked as though it would barely fit two people. He waved at the chair in front of him casually.
"Have a seat? We might as well be comfortable."
Mustang followed him over and sat in the chair across from Cranning. Cranning looked over hopefully at Ed, but Ed moved to lean against the wall beside Mustang. He noticed Cranning's disappointed look and suppressed the shudder that brought up.
"He's an alchemist," Cranning finally said. "He slips his victims something in their drink or food, and then, within days we think, they're dead. He always seems to go for male couples that have recently come to town and have a large disparity in their age. It's the younger of the pair that he kills. The last victim was a 19 year old man who had just arrived here with his 36 year old husband."
"How does the poison work? And why does it have to be an alchemist doing all this?"
Ed moved forward as he spoke, but still found he couldn't bring himself to go near the odious man.
"Didn't you read the file before coming here?" The man sounded torn between derision and amusement.
Ed glared at him, wondering briefly if it counted as human transmutation to turn the pig into an actual pig.
"We prefer to hear all the details from you again," Roy said. "The personal touch cannot be underestimated, and it is sadly lacking in military reports."
Cranning sighed and leaned back in his seat.
"Whatever he gives them is somehow related to a change that occurs in their body. Apparently, they feel very tired, somewhat moody, and a bit sick just before he returns to activate whatever it is in person with alchemy. When we find the bodies, only traces of the chemical are present, which is more than what was noticeable before; traces of a alchemical circle, but not any symbols from inside it; and their insides… are… changed."
"Changed how?"
Ed leaned forward again, finally engrossed enough to forget being repulsed by the man, though his body remembered it enough to not actively move any closer.
Grinning, Cranning leaned forward as well, his eyes narrowing into the expression of a pleased predator. His fat face and piggy eyes somehow made the expression even more sinister than it should have been.
"Into women's."
Ed blinked and leaned back, looking over at Mustang. The man's lips were nearly nonexistent now, but his eyes were wide with surprise that mirrored Ed's own. This hadn't been in the file. Ed hadn't just missed it in his quick perusal of the case's information.
"What do you mean, 'women's insides'? And why wasn't this in the case file sent to the military?"
Ed had rarely heard that tone of voice, a harsh one which rolled gravely and nearly oozed danger, from Mustang. In fact, not since they had taken down the homunculi two years before. He looked back at Cranning, annoyed to see that the man was too stupid to realize what that tone meant.
Cranning frowned, glaring at Mustang for a moment before leaning back in his seat.
"He seems to be trying to create a fully functional womb inside a male body. It doesn't entirely work, though. In a few, the birth canal tried to attach to…" The man finally blanched as he realized what he was saying and he looked away. He gave a couple coughs before continuing. "Well, the wrong parts instead of something that might make sense, like the…" He waved a couple times at his backside. Ed thought he'd have preferred the other to have just said it. "And the parts that change to create the womb either don't leave enough of the original parts for the person to survive or they only half form the womb. They usually die of internal bleeding then."
Ed's thoughts flashed to his teacher, but moved on quickly to the horrifying realization of what Cranning was saying. He gasped and stared at the man as it finally began to dawn on him why he and Mustang had been chosen for this mission.
"They're trying to make a chimera of the genders!"
Beside him, he heard a sharp intake of breath as Mustang shifted, which was as close to a gasp that the man was likely to make with Cranning in the room.
Cranning nodded. "And a perfect one at that. They always seem to leave the male organs alone."
"I wouldn't call that perfect," Ed grumbled.
He swallowed, his mind spinning with the possibilities this could create for himself and Al. He looked over at Mustang who was staring back at him with an unreadable expression in his dark eyes.
"What leads do you have?"
Mustang's eyes didn't waver from his as he spoke, and Ed thought he might have actually seen a warning in them.
"Well, a witness said it was a young man. But that was all they could tell us."
Ed looked back at Cranning, his eyes narrowing in disbelief. "This is a small town. Didn't they recognize who it was? Or notice that it was someone new?"
Cranning shrugged, looking a bit nervous finally under both Ed and Mustang's intense stares. "The man had been too busy trying to find a toilet to notice much else."
"Still," Mustang said, the frown clear in his voice even though Ed didn't look over to see it, "it wouldn't hurt to discreetly question him again. What was his name and where can we find him?"
"The graveyard. He died the night before last. Stabbed."
Ed started in surprise and wondered how anyone could have been so incompetent. Mustang would never have let that happen on his watch.
There was a faint growl from beside him and Ed turned to see Mustang's frown had become as deep as he'd ever seen. The man truly did not suffer fools any better than Ed.
"Anything else," Mustang snapped more than asked.
Cranning paled, finally realizing the danger he was in.
"They all stayed in your inn, but that's not saying much. It's the only inn we've got here. And they all died within a fortnight to a month of arriving."
Mustang stood and gave Cranning a cold hard look that left no one uncertain that his next words were an order. "I want a full, complete, report on this by the morning. You will also have the victim's husbands brought back in tomorrow for re-questioning. I want to hear what they have to say for myself."
Cranning stood as well and nodded. "O-o-of course."
Mustang motioned toward the door for Ed to precede him, before looking back at Cranning again. "And you will give us your… blessing for our own new life here, correct?"
Again, Cranning nodded.
Ed started for the door, relieved when Mustang fell in directly behind him. For once, he was glad he had decided to obey. He disliked the idea of having Cranning behind him, but at least this way Cranning wasn't directly behind him. Mustang was in between them.
Opening the door, Ed slipped out into the hallway. Mustang followed him, almost immediately wrapping an arm about his waist for the benefit of those sitting in the lounge at the other end of the hall. Ed stifled his instinctive scowl at the feel of the warm weight settled about him. He'd lost the constant need to blush this morning when he had woken up sprawled over an indignant Mustang.
"Welcome to Tramston! My secretary will have all the paperwork ready for you at her desk. I'll be looking forward to seeing you around!"
Cranning looked at Ed as he said the last, his eyes giving his words a meaning Ed did not particularly like. Then the mayor glanced back up at Mustang, a small measure of fear finally showing at the fierce, cold expression on Mustang's face. He ducked back into his office quickly, and Ed let Mustang pull him away as another small shudder worked its way quickly through him.
The man watched as the town's newest members stopped for a moment to glance in the bookshop's window on their way back from the mayor's. The younger of the pair seemed almost too young to be there. The boy was obviously fighting the impulse to go in as his husband stood nearby, just as obviously fighting a smile at his husband's antics. It was a losing battle.
The whole scene made the boy seem even younger. He looked at most fourteen or fifteen, not the eighteen that was their town's minimum for incoming married couples even though the age of consent was sixteen here as well as everywhere else in Amestris.
This was a nice little couple, the man thought, a small smile growing on his face. They would be perfect for his experiments.
The younger was feisty and wayward while the older was calm with a protective air about him that the man rarely saw in this type of couple. They both very obviously trusted and cared for each other.
An argument broke out between the two as the older man stepped forward to pull the other away from the window. The man couldn't hear what it was about, but that didn't matter. It was clear that this couple was just as comfortable fighting as anything. More so, even. It might actually be a form of foreplay to them, he thought. They shared a true bond. And the pout that the younger had held no true anger, just as the older's smirk held nothing but fond amusement.
It was so disheartening, devastating even, to see his experiments fail over and over again, but maybe this time they wouldn't.
Yes. This would be the perfect pair for his plans. With these two, he would finally find success!
The man pushed off the wall he was leaning against and hurried down the street to find his own lover, anxious to put his plan into motion.