I know that not all schools end Winter Break on the same day and I do realize that not all of us are in high school, but for those of us who are and whose break has just ended, well, this chapter is dedicated to you. XD.
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"Sir, may I come in?" Riza waited as her commanding officer got up and walked over to hte door, opening it for her.
"You could've just said 'come in'," she suggested. Roy just shook his head. He stood aside while she entered, glancing around in the dim light of his room. She flicked on the light and turned to face him as he shut the door, wincing at the bright light.
"Are you OK?"
Roy smiled hopelessly at her, his eyes red and damp.
"Sir...it is Alphonse. It's not surprising that Ed reacted so strongly. He's having his life pulled out from under his feet."
Roy swallowed before trying to speak. "I hoped I was a bigger part of his life."
"Bigger than what," Riza paused for a moment, "Roy?"
Roy blinked when she used his first name, but hid any other reaction to it. He just shrugged at Riza's question. He sat on the edge of his bed and she came and sat down next to him.
"I know it hurts," she began, before Roy cut her off.
"No, don't say that, Riza. I know you've never had anything even close to a child of your own. I know that about you. I know your parents never let you keep a pet. You've never had one until recently."
Riza stiffened. Roy had sworn never to bring up her past in front of anyone after the war and after a while, Roy had stopped bringing it up altogether. Roy's words felt like a betrayal to the sharpshooter and she put herself on edge, waiting to defend herself against him.
"You've never had something small and helpless cry to you for help while you don't even have to consider whether or not you'll help it. I'll always help Ed when he turns to me for help, I already know that. But when he refuses my help and says things like, 'I want to die,' or, 'I wish I was dead,' ...well, I feel like I'm being abandoned, disrespected and unappreciated all at the same time."
"Edward is far from helpless, Sir, and while I am well aware that you have become quite attached to him, I think you're reading too much into his behavior. He's only a child, he doesn't understand what those words really mean."
"And we do?" Roy asked darkly before Hawkeye could continue.
"Better than he does, Sir. I believe that each time we said them, we understood them just a little bit better. Each time we said them, "she added softly, "we meant them just a little bit more." She was closer now, Roy realized. Her breath was warming his ear.
"His anger isn't directed at you, Colonel. He's just being thoughtless, when he should save those words for his father and brother."
"He's in so much pain, I don't want him to be," Roy cried into her shoulder. Riza opened her mouth to say, "I know," but refrained. She didn't know. That much about Roy and Ed's relationship, she knew.
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"Look, we've gotta do something about him. Mustang just ran off and left him down here with us, so," Breda continued, before Jean could cut him off, "that means Roy can't handle him and we need to do something."
"Let me fill you in on some FullMetal trivia here," Jean said with a bit of sarcasm in his voice. " 'If the colonel can't handle him, only Alphonse can,' OK? Ed-wise, we're in waay over our heads."
"Well neither Mustang nor Alphonse are 'handling' him right now, which I think means that we should do something!!" Breda hissed rapidly.
"Why can't we leave him alone?" Jean objected. "He's gone phsycho. And we should expect that he would, what with Hohenheim taking Al and Ed and Al fighting and everything else."
"When you say phsycho, do you think he's dangerous?"
"When provoked," Jean replied.
"So, should we restrain him?"
"Do you have a death wish?!"
"We should do something!"
"Why?"
"Just-just- Ed's a crazy kid, he's not normal! He should be depressed and crying his eyes out, not trying to kill his surrogate father!"
"In all fairness, Roy did slap Ed first. As for crying... I have no idea. I think he's just pissed."
"Just pissed?" Breda looked at Jean incredulously. "His brother just abandoned him without a second thought! Wouldn't you cry, especially at that age?"
Jean stared blankly at Breda for a moment, thinking.
"Yeah," he answered.
"See?"
"Ed probably would cry if the colonel managed to get his arms around him."
"But the colonel is upstairs freaking out, soo..." Breda stared at Jean.
"So you think I should go out there and do it?" Jean yipped.
"That's exactly what I think."
"Well you're nuts if you think I'm-"
"I'll introduce you to one of my sisters," Breda offered in a convincing-tone. Jean bit his lip. Breda's four older sisters were all red-headed firecrackers anyone would want to date, ranging from stick-thin to round and plump, each independantly wealthy from their own professional exploits. It seemed a little odd, but Heymans was actually the spoiled baby of the family. Well, food-wise anyway. Sometimes being doted on by four older sisters doesn't really come under the "being spoiled" category. But they did dote on him, especially as a baby. It was the reason he'd always been fat.
"You want me to do this that badly?" Jean smiled at his friend.
"I think it's the right thing to do."
--
"Ed?" Jean crept toward the boy cautiously. He sighed, resigning himself to his task. "Ed, I'm about to do something you won't like, but I'm asking you to please not actually injure me, OK?"
Ed's head swiveled toward Jean as the second lieutenant lunged at him. Ed put all four limbs straight out and Jean's stomach almost collided with Ed's feet. He pushed Ed's feet to the side and Ed rolled involuntarily onto his side, yelling. Jean couldn't really hug Ed while the boy was on his side, on the floor, up against a wall flailing, so he settled for pinning Ed's left arm, the one previously flailing in the air, to the floor.
"Get off me right now you idiot!"
"No can do, sorry." Jean dragged Ed away from the wall by one arm and one leg. Ed reached over, scrabbling at Jean's hand with his automail.
"Ow!" Jean withdrew the hand and gave Ed a little kick. "That hurt!"
"That's what you get for messing with me when I tell you not to, you jerk!"
"Well I'm just trying to give you a hug!"
"Maybe I don't want a damn hug!"
"Maybe that's just too bad!" Jean plopped down on the floor near Ed and crossed his legs. He reached out and grabbed Ed's wrists, pulling the younger blond toward his lap.
"NO!" Ed kicked his legs insanely.
"Yes!" Jean pulled Ed's arms into the air above his head and tried to lift Ed enough to get the boy into his lap. He couldn't quite get it right until Breda suddenly scurried from the kitchen, picked up Ed's legs, and propelled the boy backward. Ed shrieked and Jean yelled as he was knocked onto his back by the force of Breda's "assistance". Ed ended up on his back on top of Jean, so the man wrapped his arms arouond Ed's body, pinning the alchemist's arms to his torso. Ed began kicking, aiming for Jean's shins and after a minute or two, the second lieutenant managed to wrap his legs over both of Ed's pinning the alchemist's legs to the floor.
"Now I've got you." Jean smiled as Ed lay still for a moment, panting. "Now. I think crying will help you deal with this. I know you probably don't want to, but you have to regain at least a little self-control until the Colonel calms down and we can plan our next move."
"Crying is not a way of demonstrating self-control," Ed growled, "and I am controlling myself!"
"How is that?" Breda wanted to know.
"I was just sitting and minding my own business until the two of you came and started harassing me!"
"Yeah, 'cause you were worn out from a catfight with your brother and an argument with Mustang."
"Get off." Ed rolled around in Jean's grip, looking more upset than angry now.
"Cooperate."
"No! I don't want to cuddle or be hugged or be talked to! I wish you would all just leave me alone! Don't you get it? If Al's not here, if Al doesn't want me to be happy, then I shouldn't be, no matter what! Alphonse is always so nice and good and polite and he never makes anyone angry like I do and he can forgive! He can forgive Hohenheim and give him another chance, and he wants me to forgive our father, too and he's just abandoning me because I won't. And I know I should try to be a better person like my brother but what has Hohenheim ever done for me? Sure, he 'made' me, but not without my mother and besides, it wasn't like that ever helped anyone." Ed was crying by now, alright, but he was thrashing and yelling and sobbing so violently that Jean was too intimidated to do anything but hold on tight to the convulsing boy.
"Let go! Let go let go let go!" Ed cried frantically, writhing against Jean's vice-like grip on his body. Breda could see how scared of Edward Jean was becoming and ran for help.
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Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Colonel, please come out. None of us can handle FullMetal and he's crying and Havoc's too scared to let go of him!"
Roy jerked his head away from Riza's warm shoulder to listen to the end of Breda's message and then jumped up to open the door.
"Why is he crying?"
"Because Jean and I thought that must have been what he really wanted to do, so then I made Jean go and hug Ed and he started yelling and fighting and now he's crying but he's still being so violent Havoc doens't know how to handle him."
Roy growled something about 'idiot subordinates' under his breath before tromping down the stairs to a painful sight. Ed and Jean were exactly as Breda had left them.
Roy pried Jean's arms apart, releasing Ed who barely noticed Roy was there, and continued thrashing wildly until he rolled onto the floor between Jean's side and Roy's feet. He grabbed Havoc's shirt and buried his face in it, crying extremely loudly.
Roy finally got Ed's attention by clapping his hands together at Ed's ear. The blond jumped a bit and looked up. Roy picked Ed up, cradling him in his arms, and asked the boy, "Why are you crying?"
It seemed like a slightly daft question, but after hearing Ed recount his earlier rant about how much more polite and good and forgiving Alphonse was, Roy was glad he'd asked. He walked quickly over to the couch and dropped Ed onto his back on it, grabbing the front of Ed's shirt with both hands to be a little threatening.
"Now you listen up, alright? You and your brother are a kiwi and a pear, you understand me? There is now way to compare kiwis and pears."
"But everyone does!"
"No, they don't. They get a first impression, that's all. And besides! What they think doesn't matter anyway. The point is that Alphonse acts the same around everyone and you are very kind to a few people, and very rude to others. You each reach your balance a different way. No one says you have to forgive your father. No one except Alphonse. But you know what? You have a perfectly good reason to not want to see your father. So if you don't want to, you don't have to. What you do have to do is come to an understanding with your brother so that the two of you don't have to fight over this, OK?"
"But..." Ed sniffled and looked away from Roy. "But I want him in jail. I think he's dangerous and so do you!"
"Well, sometimes, you have to negotiate. Maybe we should wait and see whether he really deserves to be in jail or not."
"But the homonculi!"
"I know. I know it's hard to see what Al sees or why he would want to give Hohenheim a second chance, but you just have to try, OK? Putting Hohenheim in jail isn't more important than getting back on good terms with Al, right?"
Ed shook his head.
"That's what I thought. So first things first. Now settle down and get some sleep. We'll talk about how to find Al so you two can talk this out," Roy referred to his crew as "we". He then shifted so that he was sitting on the couch with Ed's head in his lap and then put his jacket over the young alchemist, covering him completely. Ed curled up under the heavy coat and listened to the conversation around him. He let the adults talk for a while, pretending to sleep as it became obvious that there were three options, none of which the whole team could agree on. Breda and Falman were all for waiting for Hohenheim to come for Ed because they thought Al wouldn't be able to stay away from Ed for very long, so Hohenheim would show up sooner or later.
Fuery, Riza and Breda thought that faking an injury to Edward and getting him admitted to the hospital would get the homonculi's attention, as they were no doubt spying on Ed, and they would alert Hohenheim.
Jean, Roy and Falman were in favor of doing a systematic search of Central to find Hohenheim, "the good old fashioned way," as Havoc put it.
Once the conversation had degraded to repetitive arguing in favor of one solution or another, Ed stuck his head out from under Roy's coat. Roy immediately stroked his golden head, shushed him, and tried to pull the coat back over his head, but Ed sat up a bit more, refusing to be covered.
"You can use me as bait," he said. Roy frowned and yanked the coat over him to shut him up.
"Roy!"
"You'll just get angry at him again. We'll search for him." The tone Roy used told everyone in the room that he was about to pull rank on all of them and organize a search.
"Why don't I get a say?" Ed asked, honestly curious as to why he was being excluded from the decision.
"Because you always pick the fast-and-easy solution that's bound to go wrong one way or another," Roy said off-handedly, revealing possibly more than he had meant to about his thoughts on Edward's judgment. Ed wriggled out from under the coat again, sitting up to glare at Roy right in the man's face. The colonel simply gazed back, showing no trepidation whatsoever about his words. After a moment, Ed's glare faltered and he sat down up against Roy's side, pouting slightly in defeat because he knew Roy had hit the mark perfectly. But really, who could blame him?! He wanted his little brother back.
"Have you found anything yet?" Ed groaned, rolling around on the office couch. Roy glanced at him, then back to Breda. All he had come for was a report from a recent city inspection which he knew Breda had obtained for him as requested. But Ed was so obsessed with finding Alphonse that Roy couldn't leave his office to go to the bathroom without being questioned by Edward.
"No, Ed. Nothing's come up yet."
Currently, Riza, Fuery, and Jean were out doing a "city inspection" on their own, searching each of Central's 54 sectors systematically before moving on to the next. So far, they had searched up to Sector 3. Ed had begged to go, using Jean's presence to try to guilt Roy by saying that the nicotine-addicted second lieutenant would make sure that he was safe and keep him out of trouble. He added that if they found Al, his presence would help to persuade the younger boy to leave Hohenheim. But Roy had said no. First of all, because it looked suspicious. Why would a high-ranking State Alchemist be accompanying a group of soldiers already looking suspicious on a simple city inspection? Especially when he rarely stayed in Central long enough to turn in a report, although ever since his "adoption" he'd been seen more frequently- but on the whole, it was too suspicious. And General Hakuro was already quite suspicious of Roy's assignment for his subordinates, and had made it clear that he would be keeping an eye on the trio.
Second of all, Roy didn't trust Ed to stick to the systematic search. Ed was too impatient and too smart to do that. He would try to reason out Hohenheim's location. Ed had already informed Roy that Hohenheim would not be living by the harbor, because he was allergic to seafood. However, Ed refused to give it much more thought than that. Even though Roy knew Ed could probably ferret his father out fairly accurately, convincing Ed to do so from inside the safety of Roy's office had been a no-go. Ed always resorted to begging and badgering Roy to let him join the search instead of focusing on using his brain.
Roy had even supplied Ed with a large map of Central, but he'd only crossed out a few neighborhoods so far. And yet, Roy still didn't trust himself to take Ed out into the city to search because he just... He had a bad feeling. He didn't want to trust Ed until this storm had calmed. Especially if the boy refused to even try to help in the office.
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Before you even ask, no, I do not have ANY idea whatsoever how many sectors Central has. 54 was a COMPLETELY random number I plucked out of thin air.
If any of you do know how many sectors there are, please leave a review and I'll fix it! But I've never seen the number in the manga and I doubt it would have been mentioned in the anime. But I could be wrong.
No that that's over, thank you for reading and please leave a review! If it helps, leave it in this form:
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(Yes, Potions for Foxes, I'm copying your idea. But it makes reviewing so much easier!! XD I'm lazy)