Author's Note: Here is chapter 7 guys! I am already working on chapter eight! So be sure to check for that one soon! =) Hope you enjoy it! Thanks again for reading!

Early morning sunlight crept its way through the leafy roof above Roy's head. He opened his eyes groggily; they currently being only black slits. His ebony hair was tousled and messy from constant movement from restless uncomfortable sleep on the hard ground. Glancing over at Riza, he saw that she was still comfortably asleep; he rolled his eyes, annoyed at how comfortable she looked. Roy peered up at the sky, seeing that it was still fairly early, and cursed himself for not being able to sleep just a little bit longer.

He rummaged around the backpack Hawkeye brought with them that carried their supplies. Eventually, he found one of their last loaves of bread, and ripping it in half, he ate it slowly and gingerly; wanting to conserve what little food they had left. While eating his meager bites of bread, Roy continued to grope around the inside of the bag in search of one of the canteens. Finding one, he realized it was empty, and continued to grab blindly for the other that he knew was still in it. He finished the bread and promptly found the second canteen; luckily this one was still half full. He drank only what was necessary for him at the moment; saving the rest for when his subordinate woke from her seemingly peaceful slumber.

Now that Roy had finished his makeshift breakfast, he was fidgety. He was ready to get up and keep moving; but he still had the "issue" of waiting for Hawkeye to wake up. Sighing, he took a deep calming breath; waiting as patiently as he possibly could for her to wake up.

After waiting for what he guessed to be around half an hour, Roy's patience wore thin and he finally prodded at Hawkeye with one gloved finger. When she didn't show even the slightest sign of stirring from sleep, he gently grabbed her shoulder and lightly shook her. Unfortunately, this was the absolute wrong approach for the dark-haired man to do, because, before he knew it, Riza had him pinned to the ground with a gun in his face.

"WOAH WOAH WOAH! Riza! It's me! It's me! Roy!" he repeated frantically.

It took a few moments before she loosened her grip on him and lowered her gun, "sorry sir," she began slowly, as if she was still trying to get a grasp on the situation, "you just startled me. I'm never woken up like that. My instincts just kicked in. I apologize."

Letting out a sigh of relief he relaxed and responded, "It's okay Riza, you just scared the crap out of me. I thought you were gonna really shoot me for a second!" he finished chuckling.

"No sir, I would never shoot you." she smiled back weakly.

"Do you mind getting off of me now?" he smirked.

"Oh! I'm so sorry sir!" she gasped as a light red tinted her usually pale face.

"No worries lieutenant" he said as he sat back up still grinning at her.

"It won't happen again sir."

"Oh I know it won't happen again. You want to know why lieutenant?"

"Why?" she asked tentatively.

"Because I will most definitely not be waking you up that way ever again!" he laughed.

"Very good sir." she answered as she joined in on the laughter.

After a few carefree and joyful moments of laughing in unison, they quieted down as Roy motioned towards the backpack and its contents strewn across the ground, "I left some bread and water for you. But, unfortunately that's the last of our supplies," he grimaced, "so we'll need to keep a good look for any nearby water sources."

"Thank you. I shall hurry up and eat so we can do that, and also continue our search for Edward." she responded, bowing her head slightly before she dug into her small meal.

Edward. They still hadn't found him.

Once being reminded of Edward, Roy's stomach did it's usual churn of worry and angst. They still didn't have much of a lead as to where he was, and this concerned Roy to no end. What if he was hurt? Or lying on the ground starving? (Roy was in fact aware of Ed's enormous eating habits) Endless possibilities of what could have gone wrong spun about his mind, and running his hand through his hair he tried to calm the vicious and unwanted thoughts.

"Sir? Are you okay?"

Getting out of his head, Roy snapped back to reality hearing one of his titles and Hawkeye's familiar voice, "yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired still is all." he provided weakly.

"Maybe next time you should take advantage of the opportunity to gain more rest while I'm still asleep."

"It's hard for me to fall back asleep after I have already woken up."

"Ahh. Well I suppose I can't help you there."

"I suppose not."

A few moments of silence passed as Hawkeye finished her food and drank the rest of the water before she asked Roy one more time, "are you sure you're okay?"

Panic flashed across Roy's face for a split second before he quickly and firmly placed a solid mask back upon his face, "Positive."

She nodded. "Are you ready to go then?"

"Yes, grab the things and let's move."

"Sir."

Edward stood atop a small hill and examined his surroundings. His face bore a grimace, and his eyebrows were dangerously close to making him wear a scowl instead.

"Damn it." he swore to himself.

The golden-eyed teen had absolutely no idea where he was; and on top of that Ed had found evidence of most likely two people that had slept near here recently. He could only assume that it was Mustang and one of his men, or maybe even Lieutenant Hawkeye. And when Ed had looked at the obviously previously occupied earth, he guessed that they hadn't left it long ago; it was recent. If he was this close to them, then he had to be super cautious now.

"At least I have the upper-hand of knowing where they are..." Ed thought to himself.

Dragging himself out of what seemed like constant thoughts of Roy Mustang, Ed realized he was gaining no useful information by standing on the hill, so he began to head down the side he didn't come up on. While trotting down the slope, Edward noticed a small stream, and he immediately bounded towards it; thankful to finally re-hydrate himself.

Taking his white gloves off and barely stuffing them into his vibrant red pocket, he knelt down and thrust his hands into the cool stream. He began to gulp down the handfuls of refreshing water, and instantly Ed felt a bit more re-energized. When he finally satisfied his much neglected thirst, the blonde plopped down right beside the stream. And releasing a content sigh, he took his relaxation further and decided to lie down. Shutting his golden eyes, Edward sprawled out in the lush grass and soaked up the sun's rays.

A random, subtle, out of the ordinary sound however pierced Ed's ears and interrupted the peaceful calm. He jolted up from where he lay and instinctively a flash of blue light lit Ed's face as he transmuted his automail limb into a deadly blade. His adrenaline pumped rapidly as he strained his vision upwards the forest where the sound first originated.

His body tensed further as he yelled threateningly towards the trees; "I know you're there! Whoever you are, you better come out now! Or I'll come in there and get you myself you bastard!" he snarled.

He waited for a response; but got nothing. Doubtful thoughts flashed through his racing mind that maybe he was wrong, and no one was really there. Maybe he was simply more tired then he had assessed earlier. And just when Ed was about to transmute his arm back to normal, he heard the sound again; body tensing back up, in preparation for a fight, Ed ran towards the trees to see who the hell was making that noise.

Rubber boots pounded the ground as he sprinted towards the forest, Ed wore a ferociously angered face; lips curled back in a snarl, eyebrows were pushed closely together, and eyes ablaze with rage. Seeing the slightest form of movement, he yelled attackingly with the voice of a fierce warrior, and leapt into the air, blade raised high above his head ready to strike its target.

Alarm and panic flashed through Roy's black eyes upon seeing Ed approaching him and Hawkeye. Edward was always the one to act first and ask questions later, but Roy was surprised he would even consider it to he a good idea to run into a supposed fight blindly. As Edward got closer and closer to his and Hawkeye's position, he began to rapidly rack his brain for the best option to deal with the small oncoming blonde threat. But seeing Ed leap into the air, blade brandished above his head, and hearing him yell in attack mode, Roy knew it was too late and he now only had one option.

Roy jumped out of his shadowy hiding spot, arms stretched out in front of his body in order to signal for Ed to stop his oncoming assault, "Edward! STOP!" he ordered in his best colonel voice.

He watched as a shocked expression crossed the teen's young face as he swiftly lowered his steel weapon and landed clumsily on his mismatched feet. They stared at each other; never losing eye contact. Roy watched Ed continue to pant; trying to regain his normal breathing. He barely even noticed Hawkeye join his side because he was too wrapped up at the sight of Ed; they had finally found him.

Roy examined Ed's still heaving structure, unable to remove his black gaze from the opposite golden one. He appeared to be in good condition, (considering the current circumstances) maybe a bit tired, and underfed, but still good; nothing that completely alarmed Roy.

Deciding he had waited long enough, Roy finally broke the silence, "Edward? Are you okay?"

Roy watched as the fiery blonde appeared to consider whether he should respond to his question or not. However, he waited patiently, after all, he was more than content knowing that he had Ed in his sights again; knowing he was safe.

After a few more silent seconds, Edward finally responded; "yeah. I'm alright you bastard." he answered smugly.

"Good to know you're still your usual joyful self Fullmetal." Roy commented; bordering dangerously close to teasing.

He continued to watch Ed's reactions after he spoke; noticing he seemed a little awkward and stiff; which was quite unusual for the typically overly confident young man. He inched a little closer, seeing that Edward looked rather lost in his thoughts.

Raising one gloved hand, and placing it on Ed's shoulder he said, "Ed, are you sure you're alright? You seem a bit...taken off guard."

Golden eyes pierced black ones as Ed looked up and glared at Roy. "Why the hell didn't you come out of the trees when I first started to yell? You scared the crap out of me! I thought the same people that took Al might have been following me! I could have hurt you two!" he finished angrily.

Roy was a bit taken back; he hadn't thought of it that way. He didn't think Ed would have been actually concerned about people following him; especially ones that were trying to hurt him.

"I'm sorry Edward, I didn't think of it that way. It was a bad decision on my behalf; I sincerely apologize."

"Whatever..." he mumbled.

Clearing the situation, Roy looked to Riza, "we still have half a loaf of bread right?"

"Yes, we do."

"Get it for Fullmetal?"

"Of course." she replied as she pulled the pack off of her back and searched for the bread.

Walking over to the two men, she handed the semi-stale loaf to Roy.

"Ed?" Roy said.

"What now?" he asked annoyed.

"Are you hungry?"

"I might be..." the blonde answered defiantly.

"Well here's some bread, but first, how about transmuting your automail back into a hand instead of a blade?"

He watched Ed roll his eyes at the request, the familiar blue light appeared as he clapped his hands together and transmuted his hand back to normal, before snatching the bread from his gloves hands. He couldn't help but smirk as Ed began to eagerly bite off huge chunks of the bread and scarf it down. Clearly, the teen hadn't been eating enough, or at all. Within seconds, there was no more evidence that the bread had even existed, and he heard Edward let out a completely satisfied sigh.

"Thanks Hawkeye," he began, "I'm sure it was your idea to bring supplies." he told her sweetly as he turned back to Roy and sneered.

She couldn't help but let a little smile spread across her face at Ed's comment, and it was Roy's turn to roll his eyes at Fullmetal's childish ways.

"Well now that your fed, is there any information you found out about Al?" Roy cut straight to the chase.

"Hell if I know! I was hoping you idiots would forget about me and try to find Alphonse instead. But no, here we are, I was wrong. I couldn't find out crap at that stupid town, so I kept moving, trying to find anything to lead me to Al. But obviously I haven't found anything. What about you Mustang? Did you find anything out? Oh wait, you didn't! Want to know why? Cause you freaking decided to follow me instead! By all means! Just forget about my little brother! Who, might I add, is in far worse condition than I am in at the moment!" he finished his rant angrily.

"Look, Ed, I'm sor-"

"Just shut it. It's too late now; you made your decision. Now that you're here you might as well be useful." Ed spat.

"Then where do you suggest we go major?" Roy asked slightly annoyed.

"Well I was trying to find Central, but I have no freaking clue where we are."

"We should be getting close to Central," the dark haired man looked over to Riza for confirmation, she nodded, "yes, so I say we head there now. If we travel fast enough I think we can make it there by dark."

"Fine." Edward answered stubbornly.

"Well then let's go Fullmetal. Unless you had something else you needed to do?"

Roy watched Ed give him another glare before he said, "Bastard," and then he started to walk away.

Looking back at Hawkeye once more, she gave him a sympathetic look, and they too followed Edward on their way towards Central Command.