Notes: Thank you for the reviews: Super Saiyan Angel, AnimexoverCartoons, XxForest-DragonxX and chara-the-fire-lover! I love you! :)

Sleeping beauties

"So Fullmetal care to tell me, where were you for nearly four hours? I said two. Can you count? Or do you know the time?" Edward watched the angry colonel wearily. He didn't feel enough energy in himself to argue with him. Instead, he turned on his heel and silently went into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. "Fullmetal, I'm talking to you, or are your ears too small to hear my words?"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THAT EVEN THE SOUND WAVES CAN'T HIT HIM?" screamed Ed from the bathroom as tried to get off those horrible clothes.

"Don't think you escaped. You will answer me. Fullmetal, you must act according to my orders. Do you understand?" Edward pretended not to hear him. He just wanted to sleep. Immediately. That bastard, what was his problem? He did nothing wrong, only he was lost a bit. It wasn't his fault, that these houses were so damned similar. And that also wasn't his fault that Black Hayate fell in love and it was hell to drag him back. They could have arrived much sooner if it wasn't for that incident. Of course he wasn't lost his mind to tell that the Colonel Bastard. He would only humor him. He nearly heard him said cynically "What's the problem Fullmetal? Are you too small to handle a little dog?" No way. So he hoped that the colonel just let it drop. His praises seemed to be answered because the man stopped shouting, so he could peacefully washed himself and went to sleep.

"What's the matter Hawkeye?" Roy watched his subordinate suspiciously. Something was off around her.
"Nothing, sir" she answered quickly and then it hit him: she was smiling. Only for a moment, but it was more than enough. It was scarier than anything she did before.
"Then what was with that smile?"

"Sorry sir, but you looked like as if you really were his father" At that Roy became speechless and nearly fainted. It was horrible. Was he really sounded like that? No way, he would never…

"You were just like a worrying parent, my friend"

"Hughes! You shouldn't be here. If the murderer sees you, it will ruin the mission"

"Don't worry, Roy. I looked around before I came in. Nobody was watching. Everything is quiet. If he saw Ed, than he isn't interested enough to watch him go home"

"I knew it won't happen for the first time"

"Sure you did" Hughes grinned maniacally. "By the way you haven't seen these new pictures from my precious Elicia. She is like an angel, don't you think?"

"Sir, I'm really tired, I withdraw for today" Hawkeye was fleeing like she was in a mortal danger, and for the first time, Roy could have questioned her loyalty. He turned toward Hughes clearly annoyed.

"Yes she is. That's why you should go home to her. Good night Maes."

"You are right! I'm going now; Gracia must be waiting for my arrival. You should also find a woman and…" Roy raised his right hand threateningly and Hughes got the message and he also left quickly. Roy sighed tiredly and than followed Hawkeye to their room. He hoped she doesn't snore.

Edward woke up gasping and sweating in the middle of the night, not for the first time in his life, and surely not for the last time. He lay down back to the bed and tried to catch his breath. This time he got a new nightmare. In addition to the dismantled Nina, now he saw the four boys, torn apart, as well. He listened to the silence for some time and tried to clear his mind from the image of blood and body parts. After he couldn't calm down for some time, which felt like hours he sat up sighing, and got up to go to the kitchen. Eating something always calmed down his nerves. The other option was to talk to Al, but now it couldn't be carry out, because his little brother was very far away from him. But the good thing was that he couldn't stop him to sneak out to the kitchen. There he turned on the light, sat down to the table, took an apple and started to nibble it. At the same time he was staring out the window without really seeing anything. It was a really dark night; it was similar to his mood. This damn mission, he absolutely hated it. Sure the boys were older than Nina, but they were far too young to die. And Al was far too young to lose his body. If only he could do something. Anything. He would have done anything to save those boys, to get Al's body back and ensure him a normal life. But he was so powerless, so terribly weak and so fatally stupid. He came back to his senses from his musings, when he heard some movements from his "parents" room. Surely they don't… He blushed just at the thought, but then the door opened and a very tired looking Mustang came out. His hair was disheveled, his eyes were baggy, dark circles were under them and his face looked peaky. He blindly tottered to the tap and filled a glass with water. Then he staggered to the table and flopped down into a chair next to him, and just after that recognized Ed. He blinked stupidly at him for a moment before groaned hoarsely "What are you doing up Fullmetal at the middle of the night? Short stuff like you needs a lot of sleep to grow some"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT HE ONLY NEEDS A MATCHBOX FOR A BED?" Mustang stared at him taken aback than seemingly woke up.

"Huh?" he said none too intelligently. "You will wake up Hawkeye. Try to be a little bit more mindful" than both of them fall into silence. Neither of them wants to wake up the lieutenant and draw her attention to himself. They listened carefully, but no sound came from the bedroom. After some very long minutes Ed stood up. "Fine, I go back to sleep, good night Colonel Bastard" and he started to the bedroom.

"Edward, have you got a nightmare?" Ed froze in mid-step at the hardly heard question. The Colonel sounded somehow strange. His voice missed the usual smugness. He turned back to his direction and softly asked:

"And you?" he didn't get an answer, and frankly he didn't wait for one, so continued his walk to his bedroom and carefully closed the door. After all he really didn't want to wake up Hawkeye, and absolutely wasn't curious about the tired and irritated lieutenant.

Roy watched as Fullmetal retreated. The boy looked exhausted and somewhat distressed. First he was really surprised that he found the brat in the kitchen at the middle of the night. He always thought that kids liked to sleep until noon. But the boy looked more aware than himself. And he didn't answer to his question. So the great Fullmetal has nightmares, he smirked at the thoughts, that he could tease him with this new information. But then he sighed. No he couldn't because he also didn't answer and the boy knew it for sure, that he also woke up, because some stupid dream. And unfortunately it wasn't some sweet and wet dream, which he wouldn't mind. Luckily the horrors of Ishbal haunted him more and more rarely. But when the images came, he couldn't sleep again that night for sure. Sighed again and drank the water. He overcame the urge to go and buy some very strong alcohol and got rid of the images that way. No he had a mission and he was in a flat with his subordinates. He couldn't be reckless. And Hawkeye would kill him anyway. He stared at the brat's door for sometime and something really bothered him. The boy seemed so calm about this. He didn't even hear him came out or made any noise, although he was a light sleeper. So it was surely wasn't a rare occasion. But considering the circumstances, the past of the Elrics it was hardly surprising that sometimes he had nightmares. Perhaps he saw that night. Roy shivered. He really didn't want to see that. He didn't know what really had happened, when the two boys had tried to retrieve their mother, but it couldn't have been a beauty sight. He had seen the boy afterward, without limbs hardly living. And Fullmetal also had watched as his little brother's body disappeared. For a big brother to last his sibling this way, it had to feel really awful. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. He needed to go to bed, or he would be useless at the morning. Although if he kept tossing than he would only wake up Hawkeye. So what should he do? He stood up, carefully walked to Fullmetal' door and eavesdropped for a minute, but didn't hear a thing. Maybe Fullmetal has already fallen back to sleep? No he didn't think so. After a nightmare, people usually can't go back to sleep that easily. So he whispered through the door "Fullmetal?" Silence, then a tired "Yeah?"

"Are you sleeping?"

"I'm trying to, but I can't if you keep pestering me." Fullmetal's voice was very irritated.

"You must! Remember, tomorrow the mission will continue. We must act like a real family and try to get attention on you."

"I know. Now, let me be" it seemed that the brat's patience really came to an end. He was nearly shouting.

"Fine, I just wanted to remind you about the severity of our situation."

"Piss off" it was hardly articulated, so Roy finally decided, that Fullmetal was now really tired and it was time to let him be.

"Fine, but I warned you." He didn't get an answer, so he opened his own door. Hawkeye was deadly quiet, and he was really thankful for that. He lay down and closed his eyes. Now he pushed the images out of his mind, with some Fullmetal teasing, he conceivably could go back to sleep.

Riza remained silent during the whole display. His superior could really be an asshole if he wanted to. For example he just refused to eat the dinner, which she had made with great efforts. He didn't even try it out! And Fullmetal also could be an irritating brat if he braced himself up to the task. Of course they were terribly wrong when they assumed, that she was sleeping. There was no way that she could sleep peacefully through that ruckus. Maybe she should have pulled out her gun and warned those idiots. But after eavesdropping on them, she couldn't help but smiled a bit. They were just plain stupid. And dauntingly similar. Both of them had a lot of problems and some of those were not as different as they thought. They were just too slow to find out the truth. But she will have a great time until their brains will start working. And there was something else that amused her exceedingly. She would have bet her life on that they won't be able to get up tomorrow. But they didn't have to worry. She had some really good trick for misbehaving dogs. She smiled again. This mission will be really interesting.

I'm not sure when can I update next time, because I have 5 exams next week and from now on I MUST learn. But I will try. At worst see you next weekend with some shopping and acting as a child (and not only Edward…:)) and of course Ed will get into some trouble. Until then please tell me what you think about the story.