Oh yeah, baby! I'm on a roll!! I haven't posted this many chapters in such quick succession since at least the summer, if not last year.
Thank you to everyone who reads and reviews this story and keeps me writing!
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"So, Colonel. How's the inspection going?" Hakuro was all smiles as he strode up to the quartet walking around Sector 4.
"Very well, Sir, thank you for asking." Roy and his team saluted.
"Well, I could've guessed as much," Hakuro grinned. "I mean, you are in Sector 4, Colonel! Ha ha ha!" The man's laughing set Roy's teeth on edge.
"Quite right, Sir," Roy laughed back.
Hakuro couldn't have picked a worse time to check up on them. Sector 4 was the safest sector, with the least criminal activity and the least automobile traffic. Inspecting Sector 4 was an exercise for new soldiers in training. Not long-serving, high-ranking veterans of a war. This was just not a good place to be caught. It had 'ulterior motive' written all over it. Which is exactly what Hakuro was thinking.
"Colonel, I'm still curious as to why you're conducting your own inspection. Don't you trust your other officers?" The question was voiced congenially, in a tone a friend might use to ask why Roy was still single. Roy just plain didn't have an answer to Hakuro's question. Thankfully, Hawkeye did.
"We're looking for a stolen car, Sir. It was taken from a crime scene a few years back. Second Lieutenant Havoc and I were both present at the scene and we've been meaning to attempt its recovery ever since. Colonel Mustang has finally indulged us, since there's been less paperwork for us recently."
Roy wanted to kiss her. It was brilliant! Except-
"Why didn't you tell me this, Colonel?"
For a split-second, Roy was frozen, but then his mind shifted back into gears. He smiled ruefully, shaking his head and giving a shrug of his shoulders.
"The car was deemed irretrievable long ago. I didn't want anyone to think I was letting subordinates go running nilly-willy around the city on wild goose chases!"
"Ha ha ha, and that's exactly what they're doing! And you're helping them! Ha ha ha! Don't worry though, I'll keep your little secret! Your reputation is safe with me!"
'Ha ha ha,' Roy thought sarcastically as he cackled along with the insanely cackling General. 'My reputation is your pistol target. You'll keep it safe after you've shot it to pieces.'
Hakuro had always been intimidated by his young subordinate. He didn't want Roy taking his place. It was really that simple.
"Well, then. I'll leave you to your little search. See you at the office. Ha ha ha." Hakuro left, stepping into his chauffered car still laughing his fake laugh that said, 'You're not off the hook yet, Mustang.'
"Thank you, Sir." Mustang, Hawkeye, Havoc and Fuery watched as Hakuro's car drove away and then breathed out a huge sigh of relief.
"Riza Hawkeye, you are the most brilliant, beautiful woman I've ever known," Roy gushed. Riza tried to supress her slightly scandalized smile while Jean and Kain laughed quietly.
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"Ed, hey. Wake up." Breda shook the sleeping child's shoulder. Ed scrunched up his face and curled into a ball.
"Hey, the colonel called. I have orders to drop you off at his house."
"Mmf."
"I'm not Mustang and I'm not Havoc. I'm not carrying you. Now let's go."
Breda couldn't tell whether Ed said "Aww," or "Mrgh."
"Up!"
Ed staggered upright with a scowl and a reddish complexion from having his face pressed against the cough for so long. He followed Breda and Falman like a zombie out of HQ and onto the sidewalk. Falman walked from there to the dorms while Breda and Edward climbed into a military car and headed to Roy's place.
"Ed..." Breda began slowly, half-way through the drive.
"Yeah?" Ed mumbled blearily.
"I... I want to apologize."
Ed turned his head, his expression purely sleep and nothing else.
"For twisting your ear and yelling at you..." He sounded like he'd meant to say more, but he added nothing to the sentence.
"You don't have to be."
Breda frowned. He waited for Ed to finish his thought, but the blond remained silent.
"Shouldn't I be?"
"Maybe for overreacting a little."
"Not for man-handling you and hurting you?"
"I can take it."
"I'm sure you can. But why would you want to?"
"I'm not saying I want to. I'm saying it doesn't kill me... every once in a while."
"I still don't understand."
"Well, I'm not going to explain it to you."
"Even if I twist your ear again?" Breda's tone remained mild and disinterested, just as Ed's was.
"I'd be angry if you did, especially while you're supposed to be driving."
After that, they both remained silent until Breda pulled up next to the curb in front of Mustang's house.
"Thanks."
"Anytime."
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"Roy? Helloo? Anybody home?" Ed searched the kitchen, upstairs and the laundry room. Roy wasn't home, so Ed went upstairs, flopped on his bed, and went to sleep.
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"Colonel, you called Second Lieutenant Breda almost an hour ago. Aren't you going home yet?" Hawkeye quizzed Mustang.
"Ed is fine. He can be alo-" Roy looked up and chewed on nothing with a wry expression on his face.
"Oh, the irony," Fuery said to himself. After Roy being so overprotective and implying that Ed was unstable, he'd almost gone and said Ed was fine on his own. Mustang sighed heavily.
"You're right, Lieutenant. I should get going now. You're on duty for another forty minutes and then you should head home as well."
"Good night, Sir."
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"Ed?" Roy climbed the stairs, looking for his little tenant. He headed straight to Ed's room from the landing and walked in on Ed sleeping. The blond had both hands curled into the bedspead, breathing quietly. Roy stared at Ed, sadness masking his handsome face.
"Edward," he sighed, exasperation embedded in his tones. "I just don't know."
He walked into the room, unaware of what he was doing.
"I know it's right to let you stay here and to watch over you," he said, sitting down with his back to the wall, next to Ed's headboard, "but what if letting you become attached to me is the thing that's preventing you from trying to give your father a second chance?"
Ed opened his eyes, in between consciousness and unconsciousness.
"I already told you that I don't think you should forgive your father if you don't want to, but what if you do want to forgive him and I'm getting in your way? If I was in your position, I think I would want to talk to my father. Ask him questions about... What if you're aching inside to ask about your mother and your childhood and the town you grew up in? What if you're afraid to ask and then I send him to jail and you never get the chance?" Roy was silent for a few moments and Ed continued to stay very, very still.
"Hakuro's getting really suspicious. This whole thing is about to get blown out of the water... If the General finds out I'm looking for 'Hohenheim Elric' he'll start looking, too. And if he finds out that Hohenheim is your real father, he'll say that the state needs to renounce my adoption of you. To readopt you, I'd have to prove to a jury that Hohenheim is an unfit guardian and then I'll have to adopt you for real, which means paperwork, background checks and month-long waiting periods during which you and possibly even Alphonse will be in the hands of the State's Children's Welfare Department. War veterans like me are usually viewed with suspicion when it comes to children and adoption and things because we've... we've been through hell and we've seen such horrible things... Which doesn't mean a lot as long as I check out as mentally healthy, but it won't make things any smoother."
Roy's words filled Ed with trepidation and the blond silently bit his lip. Roy waited a minute or two before speaking again. The time passed indiscernably as Ed lay there, uncertainty crawling over him. He waited for Roy to start talking again, struggling with the urge to crawl out of bed and ask Roy why he was saying all this. But he didn't, afraid that Roy would resort to shushing and reassuring him instead of saying what he was thinking.
"The homonculi... I have a feeling I'm overlooking them, underestimating them somehow. In the overall scheme of things, I mean. I can't ignore them because I- I'm so afraid they'll hurt you, Ed. But what are their motives? Why do they obey Hohenheim? If I lock him away, what will they do? Try to rescue him? Or disappear? Or continue as they have? I don't know enough about them. In any respect. I really... Sometimes when I have time to daydream or before I go to sleep at night now, I wonder if I'll be able to protect you from them. I feel like I'm walking the edge of a knifeblade. If I slip, you could die. And... If you did, it would be post-war life all over again... I wonder if I shouldn't let other people take care of you, you're so deep in. I can't stand this feeling of being the only thing in between you and disaster."
Ed's eyes were brimming, both from the love Roy was expression and also from anger that Roy thought he couldn't take care of himself. Roy looked at his pocket-watch and Ed heard the dark man's stomach grumble slightly. Roy sighed again and got up, walking out of the room and down the stairs into the kitchen.
At exactly 9:13 PM, Edward Elric, eyes still brimming with tears, packed his suitcase, climbed out Roy Mustang's second-story window and took off into the night.
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BWAHAHAHA, EVIL CLIFFIE!!
Yeah, sorry about that. But it seemed like such a perfect place to end the story that I even made the chapter shorter than usual... (WAY shorter, I know! Forgive me!)
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Chapter Question: Did Ed sneaking out of Roy's house make sense? If not, why not?
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