~~FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST~~
Rating: T
Title: Equivalent Exchange Ch. 6,
Author(s): ObsidianSilversmith
Date Written: 15 January 2011 ((edited 23 January 2011))
Date Published: 15 January 2011 ((reposted 23 January 2011))
Theme and/or Summary: Ed breaks the one law he'd thought he'd never break again.
Character(s) and/or Pairing(s):
Word Count: 658! ((It was 207 on it's own!))
Dedication: Myself, because I deserve one.
AN:/: I HAVE EDITED EVERY CHAPTER AND COMBINED FOUR OF THE SHORTER ONES INTO TWO LONGER ONES. PLEASE REREAD. SOMETHINGS ARE DIFFERENT. KK, sorry for the all-caps. They're attention grabbers when you need them.
"You're okay Edward, you're okay."
The warmth of Mustang's arm around his shoulders chased away the remaining dregs of panic fear from Ed's mind. Now all that remained was the foreboding feeling of the calm in the middle of the storm, like only paper shut out the winds howling for carnage. No, it wasn't the paper…it was this place. The place where he'd grown stronger. It was these people…the people who taught him to trust again…
And he couldn't even protect them. Not from himself. Not from the bastard he'd become. And what sucked the most was that a part of him wanted to stand in the middle of the tempest and laugh while his whole world crashed about his ears. He was the man who hunted him.
The door's lock clicked in place behind them. Ed could see him through the window pane behind Roy's desk, but the torch kept him far away.
"I shouldn't have come back. I never should have come back!" Ed's scream shattered the window and the picture frames scattered across the office before he stumbled to his knees. The shattered shards of his life shone from the glass tiling the floor around him. A hidden corner of him wanted to transmute them back to whole, as if doing so would sew him together again as well.
He could have, if he gave in to the harsh realities trying to take him for their own. The promises of never-ending calm sang like a siren's song from the storm-the storm he called when he'd entered Central.
The storm offered a home to a boy who hadn't known one in a long time. It offered a balm of nothingness, the inability to feel anything.
"Roy…I don't wanna go back there…please don't make me go back…"
Roy sand to his knees before the younger man. "Shh."
Ed-ready sinking into a place no one else could go-buried his face in Roy's shoulder and sobbed.
Confused as what to do, Roy just held the sobbing Ed closer. The strength in his coiled arms anchored Ed to the real world. The ungloved hand petting Ed's hair made him feel awkward, like a child in a man's body.
"You don't have to go anywhere Ed. You're home now."
When Mustang tightened his arms to hold him closer, awareness coursed through Ed. Maybe he still had a home here…
Havoc and Hawkeye slipped to where Roy to use them when his memories threatened to consume all in his path. For Ed to need them had been unperceivable had they not seen it themselves.
"No."
Ed's wavering voice startled them. The blond kept his head buried against Roy's chest and his arms around his neck. There he clung as he fought wave after wave of nausea.
"Ed, you need to rest."
Ed snorted weakly. He hadn't needed to rest in four years. Nor did he have to eat or drink. There was a lot his body didn't require anymore. "Believe me, they won't work." Ed clung tighter to Roy as the stormy sky let loose another screech. It was hard to believe that someone who was no longer human could still be downright terrified of storms. At least now there was a reason.
"Care to explain the 'no longer human' bit?"
'Shit, had I spoken aloud?' "Nothing Colonel Bastard."
Ed cringed away from Roy. He hadn't meant to speak aloud.
Roy tightened his arms around him again to keep him close. "Ed, you're safe with me."
Ed stiffened, glad that only he and Roy could hear the current conversations.
The wind blew out the torch that Mustang had made. Ed's panic set in anew. "But you aren't."
Unable to live with himself if anything happened, Ed did what only he could do. He sifted out of Central, into the center of the storm. Maybe the laws of equivalent exchange would work for once. Most likely not, but he had to try.