I owe SUPERTHANKS to Sesshomaru'sSaphireMaiden for helping me figure out how to finish this fight scene! The Envy Al part of this was almost entirely her idea! Without her, you'd all have to wait another week for me to write this up, so say thank you and go read her stories, k?
Disclaimer-that-I-keep-forgetting-about: I don't own FullMetal Alchemist or Edward, or Al or Roy or Riza, or Envy or Lust or Gluttony or Greed or Havoc or Falman or Fuery or Breda, but I do own Roy's plumber, and the guy in the alleyway (see last chapter). Oh! I own the invisible extras too.
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He couldn't concentrate on anything beside his leg. Envy was about to snap his hip off.
"Now where shall I use this first?" Envy cackled. Ed let go of the wall to punch Envy. He almost slid down the wall and Envy pressed his leg harder. Ed screamed hoarsely. the jagged shout was similar to the tearing he was feeling in his hip and upper leg. He heard a familiar clank and then "Brother!" Al didn't waste any time barreling into Envy and in a display of agility that was unusual of anyone in so much armor, sent Lust flying against a wall as well. Ed sank to the ground and waited for a moment before trying to stand. His leg held fine but his hip and inner thigh felt stretched and painful. Standing, he punched Gluttony in the face to keep him from joining the fray. Al was singlehandedly holding off both Lust and Envy. When Ed transmuted an arm blade and stabbed Lust with it though, the green-haired homonculus resorted to dirty tactics.
"Alphonse. Be polite to your mother!" Al froze. He couldn't help crying out when Ed punched Envy so hard his neck made a cracking sound.
"I'm sorry Al. But you can't let him get to you." Al watched in utter horror as Ed punched Winry, Sheska, Hughes, Nina Tucker and finally, Roy Mustang.
"Bad idea! I've wanted to do this a lot lately!" Ed smashed Envy's face in and kicked him. It hurt like hell, but despite his own words to Al, Envy was getting to him. Or Roy was. Why had he just disappeared without telling Ed where he was going or when he'd be back? How could he? Didn't he know... Envy screamed. It sounded like a cat dying. An angry frustrated scream as Ed put all his energy into smashing the homonculus around.
"Brother!" Al's voice was shaky. Ed kicked Envy to send him flying before turning to see Lust with he spears sticking into Al's throat.
"You know I could-...erase him quite easily, FullMetal. Come two steps closer and stand still. We're going to take you both back to Central. Ed's brows knit together for a moment and then he stepped forward carefully.
"That's it. Now hold still and it won't hurt." she murmured reassuringly.
"Brother!" Al's plea was confused. He didn't want Ed to just stand there, but if he moved, Al might be erased. Ed shared a panicked look with his brother when he heard Envy come up behind him. Ed frantically formed a plan in his mind. It was going to hurt like hell to kick out that far and who knew what Envy would do to him, but that didn't matter. His little brother did.
Kicking out, he sent Al flying, his head coming off in the process. Envy smacked him in the small of his back with his wooden bat, paralyzing him temporarily in pain. Lust was running toward Al so Ed launched himself at her. Envy saw Al pull his chalk out and went past Lust struggling with Ed to stop him. Al bashed him around and pissed him off. Envy jumped back away from a punch and bounced off the brick wall behind him to go diving into Al. Al went nuts, jumping around and bending over, crunching Envy like a coffee bean. Ed saw, but Lust and Gluttony missed it until they heard Al start yelling "Out! GET OUT OF ME! YUCK!"
"Good job, Envy. Now bring him under control." Lust praised him. Envy was, in fact, upside down sustaining numerous head injuries, but Lust didn't know that. Al continued to hop around wildly. Lust was distracted by what she thought was Envy goofing off and Ed was distracted by his chance to get in some good hits while she wasn't paying attention. Because of this, he wasn't paying attention to Gluttony, who finally decided to make himself useful to his siblings and bite Ed's automail arm off at the elbow. Ed fell back against the wall in shock. Gluttony swallowed and went for his leg. Ed wasn't quick enough to get away and Gluttony slammed his jaws down on Ed's automail leg.
"AAAUGH!" Ed toppled over, lacking the support of two legs. Al turned to see his older brother go down with Lust standing over him. The Elrics were not going to win this fight, he realized. He needed to get his brother out of here. Ed clapped his hands and scared the two homonculi standing over him back with transmutated horns slamming up under them like six unicorns ramming their heads through a ceiling. Al took the chance. Unlatching his front plate, he dumped a swirly-eyed Envy onto the ground and rushed to replace him with Ed.
"Whoa! What are you doing, Al?"
"Face it. We need to get out of here. We can't win this." Ed's silence said he disagreed, but after Al had replaced his front bodyplate, Ed told him "If you say so." The little blond actually fell asleep as Al sprinted away from the bashed, confused homonculi, easily outrunning their belated pursuit.
For the most part, Ed rode inside Al's stomach on their trip back to Risembool, climbing out awkwardly to eat and use the bathroom. At least they only had to buy one train ticket.
Winry screamed when she was Al coming up the road all alone. Ed wasn't with him. Slamming down the stairs past Pinako, who was very irritated as she'd almost had a heart attack from Winry's scream, Winry met Al in front of the porch.
"Hello Winry!"
"AL! What happened? Where's Ed! I knew he'd get killed one of these days! I knew it!" She slid to the ground and Al froze for a moment.
"Uh! Wait Winry! Don't cry-whoa!" Ed slid out onto the ground and sat against Al's leg.
"Didja miss me, Winry?" he grinned. The blond girl looked up.
"EDWARD!"
"Relax. Sheesh." Al could tell Ed was enjoying this.
"I just had to let Al carry me because...um." Ed looked sheepish. He held up his right stump of an automail arm and gestured to his empty pant-leg. Winry gasped.
"What did you DO to my automail!" she screamed
"Well, uh. I got in a fight. But I'm OK!"
"You'd better be!"
"C'mon, let's go inside, OK?" Al picked up his older brother and followed a fuming Winry inside ti greet a smirking Pinako.
"More money for us, eh Ed?"
"Hmp."
Al settled Ed on the couch where Pinako and Winry could examine him. They decided it would be much easier to make both limbs from scratch than to try to repair the damage. As Pinako hooked up a spare leg for Ed, she started to speak in a serious tone.
"I don't want to scare you, and I have no idea what you've been doing lately, but about two days ago a military hound came looking for you here."
"What?!" Ed and Al both jumped.
"Who was it? What rank?" Ed quizzed.
"The same man who came here almost five years ago. Colonel Roy Mustang." Ed bit his lip.
"He said to call him at the local inn if you showed up."
"Brother...Maybe he's sorry." Al knew Ed was mad that Roy had just up and left. He was guessing it reminded Ed of Hohenheim.
"Like hell he is." Ed made up his mind. He wasn't going to just let Roy come over and make some excuses and expect Ed not to be angry anymore. No. Roy Mustang was going to know just how much Ed didn't trust him right now.
"Well should I call him?" Pinako asked.
"No. I'm not here." Ed snapped. Pinako nodded. She was glad she didn't have to invite some military dog into her house just to keep Ed out of trouble. Of course, he was probably in trouble already.
The next day while Ed was napping on the couch and Al had taken Den for a walk, there was a knock on the door. Winry and Pinako were in the back room and it took several more knocks to stir Ed and wake him up enough to answer the door.
"Hell-" Ed slammed it shut. Roy jumped.
"Ed! Let me in!"
"Go away! Better yet, go to hell, Mustang!" Roy slammed the door open, sending Ed toppling backward on his awkward spare leg.
"Ed! Why did you slam the door in my face?"
"Go away! How'd you even know I was here?"
"I was watching. I didn't really think Mrs. Rockbell would call me if you showed up."
"Y-You shouldn't have-!"
"Why are you angry at me? What did I do?" Ed only glared at Roy until Winry and Pinako came out to see what was going on. Pinako looked irritated and Winry looked suspicious and hostile.
"Ah. Hello Mrs. Rockbell, Ms. Rockbell. Sorry to barge in, but I was having a little trouble communicating with Edward here." He glanced at Ed.
"Edward. Did you invite him in?" Winry growled.
"No, I didn't. You might say I did the opposite." Ed glared at Roy again.
"Tell you what, how about I take Ed here out for lunch and send him home in an hour or so, alright?" Roy knew he wasn't welcome and was trying to get Ed alone.
"No way." Ed told him. "You just go back to Central and do whatever you want and just forget about me, OK?" Ed snarled. He suddenly realized he'd given away more than he'd intended.
"Is that it? You think I abandoned you?" Ed stayed silent.
"It is, isn't it?" Ed started to walk away but Roy jumped forward and grabbed his wrist.
"Answer me!" Ed whirled on him.
"Why should I! You don't care!" Ed cursed himself again, letting something like that slip through.
"Yes I do! You're just denying it because-because-...I have no idea!"
"Let go and leave me alone!"
"For God's sake I was hunting homonculi you dunce! I ran off because I had to and then I came here because I knew they'd attacked you! Maybe it was a lucky guess but I don't know because here you are, just like I guessed!" Roy shouted.
"So you knew they were going to come after me and you just sat back and let them? You didn't warn me? I hope you had fun with that." Ed spat, wrenching his wrist away from the Colonel.
"It was too late! Two of them were already tailing you when you left Central! I caught Envy sneaking around HQ and managed to find out where you were and what they were planning to do. When they didn't bring you back to Central, I knew you'd escaped so I came here on a whim that your automail had been ruined again and that's what I was doing!"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ed's voice was quiet but filled with venom.
"I didn't want you tagging along while I was sneaking around. It was just a tip anyway. I didn't know if there really was a homonculus, alright? Oh and by the way, before you say I'm inconsiderate, you should know you drove Hawkeye bonkers while you were at her place." Roy added smugly.
Winry and Pinako were gaping, confused and astounded.
"Yeah I know I did." Ed was subdued now. The two Rockbell women gaped a little more.
"So tell me, am I forgiven?" Roy's voice was equally soft. Ed let out a heavy sigh.
"Fine. But don't do that again, got it?"
"Don't run off." Roy sighed. "Got it." He stepped up close to Ed who looked up at him. They'd forgotten about Winry and Pinako, who's jaws were now hanging wide open. Roy ruffled Ed's hair and Ed closed his eyes briefly in consent. Ed's eyes snapped back open suddenly and he started to blush furiously as he glared at Roy.
"I can't believe you made me do that in front of them!" he snapped. Roy laughed.
"Is that your girlfriend?"
"NO!" Ed and Winry yelled at the same time. Roy winced.
"If you wouldn't mind, Colonel, would you like to explain to me exactly what was going on before a wild home-whatever chase happened?" Pinako asked gruffly.
"Oh right. Ed?" Roy looked at his charge. Ed shuffled his feet and shook his head. Roy shrugged.
"Alright then. I don't want to be too blunt here, but the easiest way I can think of to describe our situation is this:" he took a breath. "Because Edward is so young, I am pretending to be his adoptive parent. Just to keep the military higher-ups from making any more fuss over his age than they already have." Winry's eyes were like dinner plates.
"Hmm...I see. So you've been looking after him?"
"Yes. He and Alphonse were staying at my house...until-" Ed glared at Roy and shuffled away from him. Roy turned and scooped him up, holding him like a baby with one arm and gently ruffling his bangs with the other hand.
"R-Roy-!" Ed closed his eyes as Roy's hand tussled the top of his head. He sighed. Roy was having a bad effect on his reputation as a scary kid.
"Until Ed destroyed it. But hopefully the repairs will be done in another three weeks or so." Ed squirmed slightly and opened guilty eyes. Roy smiled gently. Winry, not always the sharpest tool in the shed, pointed, gaping, at Ed and yelled "How did you get him to do that?" Meaning "How do you get him to cooperate?" Which Roy understood. Ed blushed.
"Well he doesn't really have a choice, now does he?" Roy grinned.
"But! But that's Ed!"
"Winry, shut up!" Ed twisted his neck to look over Roy's arm. Pinako grinned in spite of herself. Winry had a point that Ed usually didn't cooperate with being touched, but it looked like Roy had the magic touch. Ed's eyes widened when Roy nuzzled the side of his head with his nose.
"Well you don't, now do you?" He said, placing his face directly above Ed's. Ed squirmed a bit before closing his eyes and shaking his head 'no'. How embarrassing but...he didn't mind. Well, not really.
"Now, where do you want him?" Pinako laughed at Roy.
"Kehkehkeh. You can put him down wherever you like." Roy gently deposited his golden-eyed charge on the couch. Ed rubbed one eye with his left hand, as much to clear his vision as to hide behind his hand. Maybe he did like to be held, but that didn't mean he wasn't embarrassed.
"So, where's Alphonse?" Roy looked around. Ed hopped up.
"C'mon." he went to the door. Roy followed him.
"We'll be back!" Ed yelled to Winry and Pinako who were heading back to their work tables.
Ed practically ran the whole way as he and Roy scouted the town for Al. When Roy didn't hurry and keep up, Ed grabbed his hand and pulled him along. Roy smiled at how tightly Ed was squeezing his hand.
They found Al at the swimming hole around dusk.
"Hey! There you are Al!" Ed pulled Roy down to the bank.
"Brother-MUSTANG?" he stood up quickly. "Is everything alright?" He looked at Ed's hand firmly gripping Roy's.
"Yes, Alphonse. I have some explaining to do to you as well." Roy sat down on the bank and Al and Ed followed suit. Roy was a little less rushed this time, adding details and time frames to his explanation, but Ed started dozing off within minutes. When Roy started glancing distractedly at the dozing-off boy who was beginning to lean on him, Al peered around the man to see his brother.
"Ahahaha..." he sighed and then spoke in a much softer, more serious tone. than the had before.
"I think he's really starting to get attached to you, Colonel."
"You can call me Roy if you want to. He already does." Al nodded.
"I know but...it's not that I think there's anything wrong with him looking up to you, but I don't think I want to give up on our real father just yet."
"Are you saying he really sees me that way?" Roy raised his eyebrows.
"I'm not positive, but I think so. I think that's why he took it so hard when you just up and left just like our father did. I et the feeling sometimes Brother feels like he has to hate our father for doing that, but that maybe he still hopes that he'll redeem himself somehow. But I don't think he ever could. Not in Ed's eyes."
"I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you sure you're not hurt that Ed hates your father as much as he does?"
"You're right. I know he left us, but I still want to believe the best of him, at least give him a chance and get to know him. The truth is though, Ed really doesn't and I've had to accept that. But,...Listen. One of the things I miss the most about having a real body is being able to feel someone else's' touch, to feel safe when someone wraps their arms around you. Even when someone actually does that now, all I feel is that my movements are restricted. But my brother...What I mean to say is that if I'm going to have to accept the fact that Ed would rather have you for a father than our original dad, then I want to make sure he's happy. Since he can still feel when someone hugs him, I want him to be hugged and loved as much as possible." Al rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry. I'm babbling, aren't I?"
"No. I see what you're saying. I promise I'll try my best. You know he let me pick him up back at the house in front of both of the Rockbells?"
"Really? He didn't fight or scream or anything?"
"Just some blushing...Plus telling Winry to shut up when she started making fun of him."
"I'm glad then. If he'll let you hold him, let you protect him when you can, then I can accept his choice. ...Whoops. It's pretty dark now, isn't it? We should get Ed to bed." he laughed. Roy grinned.
"Alright then." He shuffled around a bit to get his arms around the sleeping boy and heft him up. Ed started to wake up as Roy stood, awkwardly trying to get his balance.
"Nnn?" Ed lifted his head.
"It's okay, go back to sleep."
"What's going on?" Ed mumbled.
"I'm carrying you back to the house." Ed looked around at the surroundings and then locked eyes with Al, blushing.
"You should go back to sleep, Brother." Al told him. Ed looked up at Roy, who smiled and cuddled him, shifting his arms in a not-quite-rocking motion. Ed wriggled for a moment, then hid his face in Roy's jacket. In moments, the boy became heavier. Roy and Al walked home in companionable silence. For the moment, they had something in common. Taking care of the little blond genius, boy, prodigy, alchemist. After all, that took guts.
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Next chapter will finally have some romance!! Can you guess who the lucky couple will be?
Reviews o kudasai! (Reviews, please!)